Wednesday, July 1, 1998                     http://www.HWCI.com/wc98
Issue # 27.2.5 "From A to Z..."

		1998 HWCI WORLD CUP TOURNAMENT POOL
		===================================

	SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, CA (smt)-  This is the first day of rest
in the World Cup as the Quarterfinals will begin on Friday.  In the
meantime, here is the World Cup from A to Z according to 
yours truly (if you have any comments, post it to our message board 
at http://www.hwci.com/forum.htm):

	A:  ARROGANT.  That's USA coach Steve Sampson who said that he 
didn't understand why he should step down after their embarassing loss 
to Iran and bragged that he already had several offers if the USSF 
does let him go.  It's amazing he resigned.
	B:  BATISTUTA.  Gabriel scored the Cup's only hat trick, a 
natural one in fact, and has five goals for Argentia.
	C:  COMEBACKS.  The Cup has been laiden with great 
comebacks.  Mexico rallying twice from 2-0 to tie, Germany's late
surge to tie Yugoslavia 2-2 (after being down 2-0), Norway shocking
Brazil with two late goals, Austria three times scoring in the last
possible minute in each of their matches (twice to tie), and Nigeria
scoring twice to nip Spain.  Then Germany rallied against Mexico.
	D:  DEATH.  The Group of Death was indeed death to top seed 
Spain, who became the first top group seed to not advance to the next 
round since Italy in 1974.
	E:  EUROPE.  European teams still dominate the World Cup.  
Ten of the 15 teams from Europe made it to the Round of 16 and six of 
the 8 in the quarterfinals are from Europe.  Add in South American 
teams, then 13 of 15 were from Europe/SA with all eight 
quarterfinalists calling Europe or South America home.
	F:  FRANCE.  The host nation keeps on winning.
	G:  GOALS.  So far, 149 goals scored (2.66 average), a good 
pace.
	H:  HORENDOUS.  Poor performances from South Korea (beat 5-0
by Holland), Jamaica (beat 5-0 by Argentina), and Bulgaria (beat 6-1
by Spain).
	I:  IRAN.  They took away the respect the USA was looking 
for and beat an old political enemy, to boot.
	J:  JAPAN.  As co-hosts of the 2002 World Cup, they fared
much better than their Korean counterparts, holding soccer powers
Argentina and Croatia to just one goal each while Korea got blasted
by Mexico (3-1) and Argentina (5-0).
	K:  KEEPER.  Jose Luis Chilavert (PAR) provided most of the
goalkeeping highlights with Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (JPN) nearly stopping 
Argentina single-handedly.
	L:  LOSERS.  That's Japan and the USA.
	M:  MEXICO.  The only bright spot for CONCACAF as the seemingly
"Tri-tanic" sailed further than anyone expected, nearly winning their
group.
	N:  NIGERIA.  They shocked Spain en route to the Group of Death
title.
	O:  OWN GOALS.  The Cup started with an own goal that gave 
Brazil a victory and an own goal that prevented Morocco from upseting 
Norway.
	P:  PENALTY KICKS.  Six occured on June 24th alone, including 
the one that Norway got to beat Brazil.  Then on June 30th both matches
were decided via penalty kick(s).
	Q:  QUESTIONABLE.  There have been several questionable red 
cards, penalty kicks awarded on phantom fouls, and goals scored via
the arm that weren't called.
	R:  RED CARDS.  The new crackdown on tackles from behind plus 
pressure to give the benefit to the attacking player has resulted in 
way too many red cards, including three in a match involving RSA-DEN.
	S:  SUDDEN DEATH.  Finally, sudden death overtime is instituded 
and France provides the great drama with the "golden goal".
	T:  TIES.  Chile advanced on all ties as 16 ties occured in
the 48 first round matches (33.3 %).
	U:  UNDERDOG.  Nigeria, Iran, Denmark, Norway, and Paraguay have 
provided us with upsets thus far.
	V:  VIOLENCE.  English hooligans and German thugs will forever 
taint this year's World Cup.
	W:  WEATHER.  There have been thunderstorms and 100 degree
humid days.  Go figure.
	X:  X-TRA TIME.  A lot of goals were scored in this time frame 
that was helped by a new innovation that let everyone know exactly 
(although the referee seemed to be the only one not to know) how
much "extra/injury time" was added on at the end of each half.
	Y:  YELLOW CARDS.  The referees are not hesitant to pull one
of these out, whether it be for tackling, faking an injury, wasting
time, leaving early on a free kick, or a bad call.
	Z:  ZINEDINE ZIDANE.  France's star striker was ejected late 
in their rout of Saudi Arabia, the only blemish so far for the 
host nation.

WC98 legacy so far:  hooligans, cautions, and controversy...
Scott HW
                                            
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Scott M Tamashiro, HWCI Engineering       \\||//\\||//  /o-o\\ \ \ `
WC98 Pool Administrator                    \  /  \  /  (o-o-o)) ) > > >
Email:    scott@hwci.com                    ||    ||    \`o'// / / ,  
Updates:  http://www.HWCI.com/wc98          ||    ||  WORLD CUP   
----------------------------------------------------  POOL 1998