Craziness Continues

There is a lot to catch up on in World Cup action.  As of this writing, every team has played once, so we have a rare chance to see the BISERGS when everyone has played the same number of games.  As the unexpected results on the field continued today, a very predictable tandem occupy the top two spots.  Gray is number one and three time champion Sharleen is in third.  Dawn is putting in a huge challenge with 12.5 points and Kelley continues her impressive rookie BISERGS with 11.5 points in the first round.  The top four have yet to taste defeat and perhaps most impressive of all is Rick in 5th place despite his number 1 pick Germany's setback.  Now lets get caught up on the five matches that have happened since I last wrote.

Yesterday went just as expected.

Sweden  vs South Korea

These two are in Germany and Mexico's group and after Germany suffered a loss the group was suddenly thrown wide open.  A victory for either of these teams would have put them in a very strong position.  Rather than pressing for the victory, both teams appeared to be playing not to lose.  Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian summed up the match well.  "There are some games so uneventful that their uneventfulness itself becomes heroic."  In the end Sweden won 1 - 0 on a very weakly struck penalty kick.

Belgium vs Panama

In this game Belgium showed their amazing strengths and their biggest potential weakness.  Belgium's second goal included Eden Hazard (best dribbler in the world) dribbling effortlessly around the penalty area with the Panamanians unable to get anywhere near him.  Finally he leaves the ball for Kevin De Bruyne (world's best passer) who quickly drops a perfect pass over the defense into the path of Romalu Lukaku (a guy that looks more like an NBA power forward or NFL middle linebacker than a soccer player) who easily puts it in the net.  At other times, however, it looked like Belgium were bored and not really that interested in playing together in the World Cup.  The final score was 3 - 0 and finally a highly ranked team performing as expected.

England vs Tunisia

My English friends seem to think this proves that England has a chance to win the World Cup this year.  What really happened was that they were a couple of minutes away from a disappointing 1-1 draw when Sir Harry of Kane scored his second of the night in the 91st minute.  African hearts were broken yet again.

Then today the craziness resumed.

Colombia vs Japan

In the 3rd minute a Colombian midfielder decided he wanted to his teams goalie and stopped a Japanese shot with his hands.  He got sent off with a red card and Japan was awarded a penalty which they scored.  Colombia had to play 87 minutes with 10 men against 11.  They did very well with the disadvantage for a while and managed to tie the game at the end of the first half.  In the end Japan scored again and group favorites Colombia joined many other group favorites with a shocking loss.

Poland vs Senegal

I said Colombia were the group favorites, but actually Poland were.  You already know where this is going.  Finally, Africa broke through.  The team with the World Cup's hippest looking coach got some help in the first half when Poland put the ball into their own net.  Then they scored a second before allowing a nicely taken Polish header into the net.  That set up a nervous few minutes at the end, but the Senegalese prevailed.

That makes Group H completely on its head.  It is now very unlikely that both Colombia and Poland will get out of this group, even though they were the heavy favorites to go on.  

This World Cup is great.