25th HWCI NCAA Basketball Pool March 2019 Our Silver Anniversary!

2nd HWCI FIFA Women's World Cup Soccer Pool May 2019 Can USA repeat?

3rd HWCI UEFA EURO Soccer Pool May 2020 No host nation, Europe hosts!

7th HWCI FIFA Men's World Cup Soccer Pool November 2022 World Cup in the winter!

Sunday, July 22, 2018 
Issue #9.2.5 "Efficiency Beats Effort" (After Final)
[  |  |  | Mini-Updates | Dailies ]

2018 World Cup Champion	2018 Winningest Region
FRA - France (Les Bleus) Fédération Française de Football	UEFA - Europe Union of European Football Associations
#7 | C1 | Group C Winners | 6-0-1 | 14 GF-6 GA 3rd Finals ('98, '06) 2nd Championship C1: Beat Australia 2-1 C3: Beat Peru 1-0 C5: Tied Denmark 0-0 R16: Beat 2D-Argentina 4-3 QF: Beat 1A-Uruguay 2-0 SF: Beat 1G-Belgium 1-0 F: Beat 1D-Croatia 4-2	UEFA | 10 Teams | 13 Wins | 13-9 Qualified: 2A-RUS, 1B-ESP, 2B-POR, 1C-FRA, 2C-DEN, 1D-CRO, 2E-SUI, 1F-SWE, 1G-BEL, 2G-ENG R16: 50-FRA, 51-RUS, 52-CRO, 54-BEL, 55-SWE, 56-ENG QF: 57-FRA, 58-BEL, 59-CRO, 60-ENG SF: 61-FRA, 62-CRO F: 64-FRA

CROATIA HUSTLES BUT FRANCE IS ON TARGET FOR 2ND TITLE
Sacre Les Blues, Sokkerbix, and Krispy Kremer join Walleye and BigRedSquare in winner circle

BERLIN, DEUTSCHLAND  (smt) -- D1-Croatia started off strong and had most of the possession but C1-France finished when needed in winning their 2nd World Cup title, 4-2.  France was so efficient that at halftime they had 2 goals on just one shot on goal.  The hero from the semifinal, Mario Mandzukic, accidentally headed the ball off a FRA set piece into his own goal to give the French an early lead.  Croatia would equalize on Ivan Perisic's goal but before halftime Perisic would be called for a handball in the box and Antoine Griezmann buried the PK as France headed into halftime with a 2-1 lead.  VAR played its final review on that PK with its ~10th pro-PK overturn of the ref (there were about 4 PKs taken away from the ref).  Like in the ARG match, FRA struck often and quickly, with two great strikes 6 minutes apart for an insurmountable 3-goal lead, though FRA GK Hugo Lloris would try to help with a horrible misplay allowing Mandzukic to capitalize to the cut the lead to two with 21 minutes left.  CRO ran out of gas and didn't have many chances after that.  While CRO outshot FRA 15-8, only 3 were on target while 6 of 8 FRA shots were on target.  CRO played nearly 3 times as many opportunities into the attacking third but FRA were deadly on their limited chances.  The second-youngest team in the tournament can now be thinking about EURO 2020 and a repeat in 2022.

All four who picked FRA to win it all managed to climb to the top of the standings.  Walleye wins the pool with 124 points with BigRedSquare taking 2nd (121).  Sacre Les Blues (115) and Sokkerbix (109) moved up to take 3rd and 4th places.  With the total goals just two to start, it didn't seem like Krispy Kremer (71st, 78) had a chance in the Bonus since he needed the total to be 8 or more.  But with 21 minutes to spare, six goals were scored in the final that sent heartbreak to Flying Elvi (8th, 105) and Bigblue2 (7th, 106).  Only Fernando B has won money before and this is his 3rd WC win (total: $215).

   SIDES 'N KICKS:  VAR corrected a mistaken identity 21-PER 81' and helped award two yellow cards (10-SRB YC+ 90'+8, 35-POR YC+ 83')... 72 of 169 goals (42.6%) have been off set-pieces... 33 of 169 goals have been headed in, most since '02 (35)... CRO coach Zlatko Dalic has only been on the job for 9 months (8-3-3)... CRO has scored in their last 11 WC matches ('06 vJPN)... CRO has allowed 6 of their 9 goals off set pieces... CRO, ranked 20th, is the worst team to make the final ('98 FRA #18)... FRA, ESP, and DEN are the only teams to not lose in regulation/extra time while 6 teams failed to pick up a win... FRA and BEL each finished with 6 wins while ENG, EGY, and PAN each had 3 losses... Lyle Lanley (24th, 96), The Mighty Zlatans (41st, 90), and Bobby Cee Racer (55th, 84) all got the total goals exactly... Larzby finished last with 68 pts... three teams managed to score two stoppage time goals in the same match (1-RUS, 25-BRA, 43-KOR)... 7 teams were shut out twice... there were six teams who came back to win after allowing the first goal... only 4 red cards were issued and teams managed to score twice while short-handed... 29 PKs were awarded (about 10 due to VAR)... Harry Kane (ENG) won the Golden Boot with 6 goals while CRO's Luka Modric won the Golden Ball Award and BEL's Thibaut Courtois won the Golden Glove Award...

• [64 Matches / 13 Ties]

  • Goals: 169 (2.64/match)

    • Own: 12 (4-MARvIRN, 5-AUSvFRA, 8-NGAvCRO, 15-POLvSEN, 17-EGYvRUS, 33-RUSvURU,  42-SUIvCRC, 44-MEXvSWE, 46-TUNvPAN, 51-RUSvESP, 58-BRAvBEL, 64-CROvFRA)

    • Subs (incl. Own): 13 (1-RUS 70', 4-MAR {og} 90'+5, 29-BEL 90', 30-ENG 78', 32-JPN 78', 35-IRN 90'+3, 36-MAR 81', 36-ESP 90'+1, 42-SUI 88', 50-ARG 90'+3, 54-BEL 74', 53-BRA 88', 54-BEL 90'+4, 58-BRA 76')

    • Stoppage: 19 (1-RUS +1, 1-RUS +4, 4-IRN +5 {GW}, 14-ENG +1 {GW}, 23-CRO +1, 25-BRA +1 {GW}, 25-BRA +7, 27-GER +5 {GW}, 28-KOR +3, 29-TUN +3, 34-KSA +5 {GW}, 35-IRN +3 {GT}, 36-ESP +1 {GT}, 42-CRC +3 {GT}, 43-KOR +3 {GW}, 43-KOR +6, 50-ARG +3, 54-BEL +4 {GW}, 56-COL +3 {GT})

    • Extra Time: 3 (59-CRO 101', 59-RUS 115', 62-CRO 109')

  • Scoring First: 45-6-12 (1 Nil-Nil ties [37-DENvFRA]; 26-SRB, 27-SWE, 34-EGY, 46-PAN, 54-JPN, 62-ENG)

  • Lead at Half: 21-4-4 (35 ties; 26-SRB, 27-SWE, 46-PAN, 62-ENG)

  • Shutout: 33 (1-KSA, 2-EGY, 4-MAR, 6-PER, 8-NGA, 10-CRC, 11-GER, 12-KOR, 13-PAN 18-KSA {2}, 19-MAR {2}, 20-IRN, 21-PER {2}, 23-ARG, 24-ISL, 25-CRC {2}, 31-POL, 33-RUS, 37-DEN, 37-FRA, 38-AUS, 41-SRB, 43-GER {2}, 44-MEX, 45-ENG, 47-JPN, 48-SEN, 53-MEX {2}, 55-SUI, 57-URU, 60-SWE, 61-BEL, 63-ENG {2})

  • PK: 22/29 (3-POR, 5-AUS, 5-FRA, 6-per [H], 7-arg [S], 8-CRO, 12-SWE, 14-TUN, 16-JPN, 18-EGY, 22-AUS {2}, 24-isl [H], 28-MEX, 29-BEL, 30-ENG, 30-ENG {2}, 34-ksa [S], 34-KSA {2}, 35-por [S] {2}, 35-IRN, 39-NGA, 40-ISL, 42-crc [XB], 44-SWE {2}, 50-FRA {2}, 51-RUS, 52-cro [S], 56-ENG {3}, 64-FRA {3})

  • PSO: 4 (26/39) [51-ESP:RUS 4.5 (3:4 {GGsGs:GGGG}), 52-DEN:CRO 5.0 (2:3 {sGGss:sGGsG}), 56-COL:ENG 5.0 (3:4 {GGGxs:GGsGG}), 59-RUS:CRO 5.0 (3:4 {sGlGG:GsGGGG})]

  • Red Card (GF/GA): 4 (2/2) [16-COL 3' {R} (1/1), 27-GER 82' {2Y} (1/0), 33-RUS 36' {2Y} (0/1), 55-SUI 90'+4 {R} (0/0)]

  • Multiples: 12 [Cheryshev 2 (1-RUS), Ronaldo 3 (3-POR), Costa 2 (3-ESP), Lukaku 2 (13-BEL), Kane 2 (14-ENG), Musa 2 (24-NGA), Lukaku 2 {2} (29-BEL), Hazard 2 (29-BEL), Stones 2 (30-ENG), Kane 3 {2} (30-ENG), Mbappe 2 (50-FRA), Cavani 2 (49-URU)]

  • Zero SOG (Shots): 4 [1-KSA (6), 12-KOR (5), 20-IRN (5), 25-CRC (4)]

  • Goal Line Tech (Award): 1 (1) (5-FRA+ 81')

  • VAR: 20 (5-FRA PK+ 56', 6-PER PK+ 45', 12-SWE PK+ 63', 17-EGY PK+InBox 72', 20-IRN Off+ 62', 22-AUS PK+ 36', 25-BRA PK- 79', 24-ISL PK+ 80', 34-KSA PK+ 45'+2, 35-POR PK+ 50', 35-IRN PK+ 90'+1, 36-ESP Off- 90'+1, 39-NGA PK- 76', 42-CRC Off+ 90'+1, 43-KOR Off- 90'+3, 44-SWE PK- 29', 48-SEN PK- 17', 55-SWE PK- 90'+4, 58-BRA PK- 58', 64-FRA PK+ 34')

  • 63%+ Poss: 13 [4-MARvIRN (63) L, 7-ARGvISL (73) T, 20-ESPvIRN (68) W, 25-BRAvCRC (69) W, 27-GERvSWE (71) W, 35-PORvIRN (68) T, 36-ESPvMAR (68) T, 39-ARGvNGA (65) W, 43-GERvKOR (70) L, 44-MEXvSWE (65) L, 46-TUNvPAN (64) W, 51-ESPvRUS (74) T-L, 55-SUIvSWE (64) L, 59-CROvRUS (64) T-W]

  • 25+ Shots: 5 [7-ARG (26vISL) D, 11-GER (25vMEX) L, 43-GER (26vKOR) L, 51-ESP (25vRUS) D-L, 58-BRA (26vBEL) L]

  • Regions (Teams/R16/QF/SF/F/C): UEFA (14/10/6/4/2/1) 31-18-17, CONMEBOL (5/4/2/-) 11-7-3, AFC (5/1/-) 4-9-3, CAF (5/-) 3-10-2, CONCACAF (3/1/-) 2-7-1, OCEANIA (-)

  • Match Order: RR: 1 | 2-4-3 | 5-7-6-8 | 10-11-9 | 12-13-14 | 16-15-17 | 19-18-20 | 22-23 | 25-24-26 | 29-28-27 | 30-32-31 | 33-34^A-35-36^B | 37-38^C-39-40^D | 43-44^F-41-42^E | 47-48^H-45-46^G | R16: 50-49 | 51-52 | 53-54 | 55-56 | QF: 57-58 | 60-59 | SF: 61 | 62 | 3rd/F: 63 | 64

• Final Standings (W-L-T Pts (GD - GF) [FP])
  1. FRA 6-0-1 19 (8 - 14)

  2. CRO 4-1-2 14 (5 - 14)

  3. BEL 6-1-0 18 (10 - 16)

  4. ENG 3-3-1 10 (4 - 12)

  5.  URU 4-1-0 12 (4 - 7)

  6.  BRA 3-1-1 10 (5 - 8)

  7.  SWE 3-2-0 9 (2 - 6)

  8.  RUS 2-1-2 8 (4 - 11)

   9. COL 2-1-1 7 (4 - 7)
  10. ESP 1-0-3 6 (1 - 7)
  11. DEN 1-0-3 6 (1 - 3)
  12. MEX 2-2-0 6 (-3 - 3)
  13. POR 1-1-2 5 (0 - 6)
  14. SUI 1-1-2 5 (0 - 5)
  15. JPN 1-2-1 4 (-1 - 6)
  16. ARG 1-2-1 4 (-3 - 6)

  17. SEN 1-1-1 4 (0 - 4)

  18. IRN 1-1-1 4  (0  - 2)

  19. KOR 1-2-0 3 (0 - 3)

  20. PER 1-2-0 3 (0 - 2)

  21. NGA 1-2-0 3 (-1 - 3)

  22. GER 1-2-0 3 (-2 - 2) [-4]

  23. SRB 1-2-0 3 (-2 - 2) [-9]

  24. TUN 1-2-0 3 (-3 - 5)

  25. POL 1-2-0 3 (-3 - 2)

  26. KSA 1-2-0 3 (-5 - 2)

  27. MAR 0-2-1 1 (-2 - 2)

  28. ISL 0-2-1 1 (-3 - 2) [-3]

  29. CRC 0-2-1 1 (-3 - 2) [-6]

  30. AUS 0-2-1 1 (-3 - 2) [-7]

  31. EGY 0-3-0 0 (-4 - 2)

  32. PAN 0-3-0 0 (-9 - 2)

---
So quiet in Berlin, rarely a mention of soccer, just days after the WC ...
Scott