Getting Your Teams

The Most Important Week

In about 12 hours the registration for BISERGS will be closed and we will know exactly who will be competing for the title of BISERGS 2018. The winner also gets an amazing prize which I will announce soon, but here's a hint: it isn't a shirt this time. Your BISERGS fate will be decided on the playing field this summer, but which national teams control your BISERGS destiny will be determined in the next week.  On Saturday, June 2nd, the draft order draw will take place in Abu Dhabi.  Sometime in the next week, you'll need to compete your team preferences.  I'll send all of you a link via email.  These need to be completed by Saturday, June 9th.  The next day the BISERGS draft will begin and soon you will know which four teams you'll be cheering for throughout the summer. These three events are explained in the FAQ, if you want more details.

Picking Your Teams

If you don't follow soccer, you may be struggling to decide how to rank your teams.  For people that want to make there decisions based on the best data available, one option is to use the FIFA World Rankings.  These rankings are based on teams performances over the past four years.  Another option is to look at the betting odds.  I'm not encouraging you to take up gambling, but this website may be a pretty good way to measure the likelihood that all of the teams will win.  Just looking at numbers may not move you.  Do you want to choose a team that looks good on the field?  Then check out the way this English website ranked each team's kit.  

Draft decision room (2006 BISERGS)

If you are helping kids choose teams, or if you are still stumped yourself, I recommend is printing out this PDF with all the flags of the world cup.  Cut each flag out and shuffle them until the end up in the order you want.  One final suggestion is to check out these team nick-names.  Intimidating the opposition with a scary name is one key to success.  Who would you take? The Pharaohs,  The Super Eagles, The Blue Samurai, The Coffee Growers?  Some names are much better than others and I'm not sure how accurate the English translations are, but I'll definitely be consulting this document when I make my picks.

The Form

Screenshot of BISERGS draft preference form.

On Saturday, I'll email all of you a link to a form where you will put your teams in order by dragging and dropping them into the right place.  It may be helpful to have your order already written down before you get started because you need to have all 32 teams in order.  The deadline for completing the form is Saturday, June 9th.  If you don't get your form completed by Saturday, you're draft picks will be made for you randomly by Microsoft Excel.

The Draft

On June 10th, the draft will begin sometime in the afternoon or early evening Abu Dhabi time, when I have some time after work.  I'll create a page on this website where you can watch the draft unfold in real time.  That way you can get on Amazon and order all of the needed gear for your four teams before the World Cup starts on the 14th. 

Club vs Country

Ronaldo for Portugal (above)
and Real Madrid (below)

Last weekend Real Madrid beat Liverpool 3 -1 to win the Champions League.  This is the most important trophy in  Club Football, but it is very different from the World Cup.  Real Madrid is obviously from Spain and Liverpool is from England, but the players on their squads come from all over the globe.  Cristiano Ronaldo, perhaps the world's most famous footballer, plays for Real Madrid but is Portuguese.  Gareth Bale, who scored a stunning bicycle kick goal in the final, won't be at the World Cup because his Welsh team didn't qualify.  Liverpool's amazing attacking trio of Salah (Egypt), Firmino (Brazil) and Mane (Senegal) are all looking to score even more goals in the World Cup this summer, but none of them will represent England where they are based.  Thankfully for Germany, they won't need Loris Karius to play goalkeeper for them after he made two of the biggest mistakes in Champions League finals history last Saturday.

Since the world's richest and most famous soccer clubs are all based in Europe, the best players in the world all tend to earn their huge paychecks in Europe no matter what their nationality.  That makes for some interesting matchups in the World Cup, when club teammates who know each other very well line up on different sides of the pitch.  The Champions League was won after an injury caused by a dirty foul by Sergio Ramos forced Mohamed Salah to leave after just 30 minutes.  Ramos may think twice about using the same tactics for Spain when he faces his Real teammate and Portuguese captain Cristiano Ronaldo on June 15th.  Look for other interesting match ups between famous club teammates during the tournament.  But not every player in the World Cup is based in Europe.  This tournament is often an opportunity for exciting young players to shine and catch the attention of big European clubs.  Many African, Latin American and Asian stars were discovered in the World Cup.  James Rodriguez electrified the 2014 edition with six goals for Colombia and quickly found himself playing for Real Madrid.  Look for the next global superstar to step into the spotlight in Russia this summer.

World Cup Basics Part 2

Germany lifting the trophy in 2014

The World Cup kicks off on June 14th at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow with a match between Russia and Saudi Arabia.  One month and one day later, at the same stadium, the championship match will be played and one very happy national team will lift the trophy.  Much more importantly one of you will also be named the BISERGS for 2018 on the same day.  Before that happens 64 games will be played in 12 different stadiums across Russia. 

The Groups

Diego Maradona picks
a country out of the bowl

Last year on December 1st, the 32 nations were divided into 8 groups of 4 in what is called the 'draw'.  It is a complicated system, but basically it is designed to get a lot of media attention and let old World Cup heroes wear tuxedos and pull pieces of paper out of pretty glass bowls.  If you really want to understand how it all worked, check out the video in this link.  In theory, the process creates balanced groups and keeps the strongest teams separated until the later rounds of the tournament, but there are always some groups that seem very weak with few strong teams and others that are much more difficult.  The hardest group always gets the label 'group of death.' Most consider Group A to be the easiest this summer while Group F is this year's group of death.  *Pro tip:  The most successful BISERGSers keep these groups in mind when making decisions about team preferences for the draft.  A mediocre team in a weak group can score a lot of BISERGS points while a stronger team in the group of death may leave the tournament without scoring any points for their BISERGS owners.

The Group Phase

From June 14th to June 28th, the World Cup essentially consists of eight different mini-leagues, where each team plays one match against every other teams in their groups.  Group standings are kept with teams getting three points for a victory, one point for a draw and zero points if they lose.  At the end of the group phase the top two teams in each group qualify for the knockout round and the bottom two teams go home.  If two or more teams end the group phase tied with the same number of points, there are various tiebreakers that reward teams for having greater margins of victory and scoring more goals.

The Knockout Phase

In the knockout phase, the 16 remaining teams get paired off.  The group winners play against the second place finisher from a different group in the round of 16.  The winners advances and the losers goes home leaving eight teams that will compete in the quarter-finals.  If the score is tied at the end of the 90 minute match, 30 minutes of additional time are played to determine the winner.  If the score is tied after the extra time, then the winner is determined by a penalty shootout.  The knockout phase has four rounds with the final round being the championship match.  There is a third place game for the losers of the two semifinal matches, but it is rarely worth watching as both teams are demoralized from missing their chances at glory and the effort the teams put in is understandably very low.

BISERGS Scoring

After the draft on June 10th, you will know which four teams will lead you to BISERGS glory.  Every time one of your teams plays, you will be able to earn BISERGS points.  In the Group Phase and the round of 16, if your team wins you get three points, if your team draws you get one point and if your team loses you don't score any points.  You will also be given 1/2 a point for every goal your teams score but you will lose 1/4 point for goals your teams allow.  As the tournament continues to the quarter-finals, everything is worth 1.5 times the group phase.  The semi-final is worth double points and the championship match is worth triple points, meaning the World Cup winner scores 12 points for their owners plus 1 1/2 points for every goal scored.  The third place match is valued at the same level as the group phase.  There are special scoring rules for games that are decided by penalty kicks, but you can read about those on this website's FAQ page.  It is possible to win the BISERGS even if one of your teams doesn't win the World Cup.  Getting all four teams out of the group phase and into the knockout phase is a huge advantage that is hard for other BISERGSers to overcome, but with the championship match worth triple points, it really helps to pick the winner.

World Cup Basics Part 1

OK, you signed up for the BISERGS, but are wondering what the World Cup is all about and how the BISERGS works.  For the next couple of weeks I'll be posting some information that will get you up to speed and help you enjoy this summer's event even more.

The World Cup is a Big Deal

First of all, the World Cup is huge.  Four years ago, over 1 billion people watched the final match between Germany and Argentina and 3.2 billion people watched at least one match in the month long tournament.  That is nearly half of our planet's population.  For comparison, 111 million people watched last year's Super Bowl or about about 1/30th the viewership for what we Americans consider to be a very big deal.  Even in countries that don't have a team playing, the World Cup is a huge event.  In some countries, businesses and government offices virtually shut down when a big match is on and if the matches are on the other side of the globe, people stay up all night long to watch teams play in distant time zones.  For football mad countries that managed to qualify for the tournament, the next month will be a huge party that will feature moments of national joy and shared disappointment.

Who is playing this year and how do the teams get chosen?

The soccer world is divided by FIFA into five geographic regions governed by 'confederations'.  For the most part the geography makes sense, but Australia is considered to be part of Asia for some reason.  Anyway, over the last 2 or 3 years, each confederation has held their own competitions to see which countries will represent them in the World Cup.  Some confederations are historically much more successful at the World Cup, so they get more places (Europe gets 14 places), while others are pretty week and get few or even no teams (Oceania won't have a team this time, sorry New Zealand, Fiji and Taveuni fans).  The host nation qualifies automatically, so Russia was the first team in.   Not surprisingly, Brazil were the first team to qualify through their confederation tournament while Peru were the last team to book their place after beating New Zealand in a two leg playoff last November.

The world wide qualifying competition included 871 games featuring 2454 goals.  The competitions led to some shocking absences from this years World Cup and equally surprising inclusions.  In the United States, not qualifying for the first time since 1986 was a huge disappointment but can you imagine how they felt in Italy and Holland?  Italy is the four time champion and has played in every World Cup since 1962 while the Dutch played in the 2010 final and finished third in the 2014 World Cup.  Many experts thought this could be the year the Orange finally lift the cup, instead they will watch on TV like the rest of us.  Chile is another team that was left shocked by missing a trip to Russia.  All of these absences mean the door was opened for some happy surprises in smaller countries.  Tiny Iceland is definitely the feel good story of World Soccer over the past two or three years, starting with their amazing performance at the Euros in France in 2016.  While most national team managers make millions of dollars, the Iceland manager coaches the team as his second job.  His main job is to work as a dentist.  You have to watch this video to get an idea of what a big shock Iceland's success has been for even their own country.  Panama also qualified for the first time ever in dramatic fashion to send the entire nation into ecstasy while simultaneously dooming the Americans to the World Cup sidelines.  Click the links to get yourself ready for some high emotion in the World Cup and the BISERGS.

In the next post, I'll explain the World Cup tournament format, the groups and why that is important for the BISERGS.

Remembering Our Champion

Rodrigo with Greg after 2014 BISERGS

As most of you are aware, my father-in-law and the reigning BISERGS champion, Rodrigo Barrera, passed away in Guatemala earlier this year.  He is tremendously missed by the family that he loved so much and everyone who was privileged enough to have their lives intersect with his over the years.  The BISERGS is much more about connecting to my family than a sporting event, and so a huge piece of the fabric that has made the BISERGS so special every four years will be missing this time.  I know that many of you knew and loved Rodrigo, so this year's BISERGS will be dedicated to the memory of the reigning champion, Rodrigo Barrera.  Every time his beloved 'Tri', the nickname of the Mexican national team, take the field this summer, remember this wonderful man and join the fans in the stadium by chanting "Mexico, Mexico" for a couple of moments.  We miss you Rodrigo!

Songs of the Summer

If you are struggling to get into the full World Cup mindset before the all important BISERGS draft, these songs will definitely help.  Some of you may not have seen a soccer match since the last World Cup, so these highlight packages set to music will get you ready for the fun that awaits.  

Every four years there is an official World Cup song chosen by FIFA and then Coca Cola releases their own song, which is usually better.  This year a few minutes on YouTube has revealed more songs than ever.  Have a listen to these and enjoy the footballing highlights in each of the videos.  Add your favorites to your play list and then vote for your favorite in the poll.  

Song #1 FIFA's Official Song in Russian with subtitles

Smash by Polina Gagarina y Egor Creed

Song #2 Coca Cola's World Cup Song  

Colors by Jason Derulo

Song #3 Shakira seems to record a song for every World Cup

All of the Pain by Shakira

Song #4 Official Promo (whatever that means)

Highlife by Frank Pierce & Drop Science ft Stephanie Fellas

Song #5 FIFA World Cup Theme Song

Heroes Tonight by Janji ft Johnning

Which of the World Cup Songs is your favorite?

#1 Smash

#2 Colors

#3 All of the Pain

#4 Highlife

#5 Heroes Tonight

Created with SurveyMaker

Look Who's Playing

If you want to see who has signed up to play the BISERGS already, check out the Participants page on this website.  Have a look and see who your competition is and don't pass up the chance to dish out a little trash talk to your rivals in the comments section at the bottom of the page.  If you notice someone missing from the list, make sure they know the BISERGS is here and the deadline for registering is getting nearer.  There are still whole families that haven't gotten around to signing up for the BISERGS yet.  It would be a shame to play without them, so don't let them miss out on the World Cup joy that is coming soon,

BISERGS Fever is Spreading

A recent photo of a BISERGS registration center.  Authorities 

encourage people to register online. Crowds like these

have been blocking traffic in major urban centers.

BISERGS registration has only opened recently, but 26 BISERGSers have already signed up.  Of the registrants, twenty are returning from the 2014 field and six will be playing for the first time.  The geographic spread is extremely impressive once again, with participants signing up from Peru, Spain, Germany, the United Arab Emirates and all across the USA.  Some hardcore BISERGSers have been plotting their strategy for success for the last four years.  There have been reports from concerned spouses and parents of loved ones spending sleepless nights pouring over World Cup qualifying statistics. YouTube has crashed several times in recent weeks most likely due to BISERGSers reviewing game footage of some of the lesser known teams in this summer's tournament in order to gain an advantage.  If you haven't signed up yet, there are still 15 days left, but don't delay.  Follow this link to get yourself registered.  If you've signed up already, please help spread the word to everyone in your family.

Questions? Check out the FAQ

I've created an FAQ page to answer your questions about the way the game works.  Please use the comments section to ask any other questions that you may have or if you're on twitter, tweet out your question or your BISERGS enthusiasm with #BISERGS and I'll answer as soon as possible.  In case you are wondering, at the time of this posting we've got 15 relatives signed up already.

The BISERGS is Back

The four year wait is finally over and it is time for the BISERGS to begin.  BISERGS stands for the Biggest International Soccer Expert Related to Greg Samuelson and you have found the official website for the sixth edition of this illustrious event.  It is my way to share the fun of the World Cup with my family and anyone connected to my family.  Don't let the name fool you, you don't have to be a soccer expert to play the game, you just have to be somehow connected to a relative of mine within 6 or 7 lines on a family tree and have to have been alive when the last World Cup ended four years ago. If that describes you, just click here to sign up and get ready to choose the teams you think will do the best in the World Cup.

For the BISERGS, the most important dates are the registration deadline on May 31st, the draft order draw on June 2nd, the draft order preference deadline on June 9th and the BISERGS draft (when you find out who your four countries are) on June 10th.  So don't delay, sign up today and spread the word to all of your family and loved ones, so we can make this the biggest BISERGS ever.

Here are some World Cup 2018 facts to get you up to speed.  This year the World Cup will be hosted by Russia and the matches will be played in 12 venues across the country.  The opening match will be played on June 14th and the Final will take place on July 15th.  If you live in America, you may not have felt the World Cup buzz like you did four years ago.  That's because this is the first time since 1986 that the US national team failed to qualify for the tournament.  But don't worry!  That is where the BISERGS comes in.  Every BISERGSer will have four adopted countries to keep their interest throughout the tournament with the BISERGS winner being declared at the same time as the World Cup trophy is lifted by the champions.