Well my bracket is in danger of being busted after that GER Loss. I said Japan causes chaos in group stages but they played a great match. Goalie was incredible

ARG needs 2 wins against better teams than Saudi Arabia. Getting any tie against MEX / POL will not be a good result. It would still be possible to advance with 1 tie but they would need help. I didn't predict ARG to get to the QW but not even getting out of the group would be embarrassing.

We will see if they can respond on Saturday vs Mexico.

Ecuador shouldn't an unpopular opinion or a hard team to root for. Just qualifying for this tournament is a major victory for this team considering they were ranked almost at the bottom of their qualifying conference. (CONMEBOL)

They had to face powerhouse teams like Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina on a regular basis. As a USA fan that is fucking frightening when you see our best regular competition is Mexico and Canada. ROFL

I will be rooting for Ecuador to make it out of this group as well. They have a solid chance but really needed more goals vs Qatar in game 1. Every team is expected to beat Qatar and get 3 points but SEN and NED might pour on more goals than just 2 making it hard for Ecuador in a tie situation. However, the sports axiom that a "teams fate is in their own hands" does apply. If Ecuador get 1 win or 2 ties in the next 2 games, they will advance themselves with no outside help.

If they make it out of group stages and into the round of 16 they will be the cinderella team for sure.

In other news, Ecuador fans want beer

Best Goal so far:

Saudi vs Argentina @53

This whole sequence was insane, he is surrounded by 4 defenders and this awesome finish. I know we have 56 matches left to go but it's going to be so difficult to top this goal considering it was the game winner and such an upset.

Wow, that MEX / POL draw really gives a lot of life back to Argentina. Granted they could win both games and still qualify with 6 pts but it would be so much harder if either POL/MEX had 3 pts right now instead of 1.

The whole of group C is really wide open. Going to be fun to watch how it goes.

The upset from Saudi Arabia is out shadowing the tie Tunisia got today against Denmark. That is a huge result for Tunisia.

FUCKING HUGE SAVE FROM OCHOA!

That penalty was total bullshit so that save is justified

Holy shit, I can't imagine a bigger upset happening in this tournament.

There is always a dark horse, maybe Saudi is it this time around. Group C is really insane now. This POL vs MEX match is going to be so important.

NED vs SEN and USA vs WAL were both great games today.
USA let a win get away IMO, getting 3 pts here would have made it easy to advance. Matches vs Iran likely to be pivotal for goal diff.

Solid 1st half for USA. Wales didn't do much we could have had 2 or 3

USA vs Wales @ 2:00 Eastern! GO USA!!

Iran got abused by England earlier today but IMO did score the nicest goal of the match @65

ROFL at Qatar having a full stadium for the 1st half and then all leaving to do something else for the 2nd half after being down 2-0

From group stage and then Round of 16 matches since groups are linked to each other (A&B, C&D, E&F, G&H)

Looking at A&B (ENG and NED to Quarterfinals)
Grp A should end up being NED 1st and SEN 2nd. If that goes any other way it would be a huge shock.
Grp B is much more interesting. No reason ENG doesn't finish 1st unless huge choke. 2nd place is completely up for grabs between USA / IRN / WAL. GO USA!

In round of 16, NED will face that 2nd place team and could be a struggle but should beat any of the 3 to make QF. ENG will coast into QF with a win against SEN.

Looking at C&D (FRA and DEN to Quarterfinals)
Grp C will have ARG in 1st place but 2nd is tighter. POL and MEX are really even and it will be fun to watch. I feel a win for POL but going to predict MEX finish 2nd for some reason.
Grp D will easily be FRA and DEN as both teams are really strong.

In round of 16, ARG will face either DEN or FRA. This will be the best round of 16 match and I predict ARG to lose. Mexico will face the other team FRA/DEN and also lose in this round.

Looking at E&F (ESP and GER to Quarterfinals)
These 2 groups are so complicated and prob some bad predictions incoming. JPN has a history of causing a mess in grp stages but I have to predict ESP and GER make it out of Grp E. They should both be too strong.
Grp F will be easy for BEL to finish 1st. I am going to look stupid and predict CAN to finish 2nd as I just have some strange feeling they are going to upset either MAR/CRO and throw the group into chaos.

In Round of 16, I am going to continue my stupid and predict either GER/ESP to defeat BEL and advance to QW. If CAN does make it here, they will lose to whoever they play in GER/ESP.

Looking at G&H (BRA and POR to Quarterfinals)
I feel this is the weakest overall of the 4 groups for group stage only. In round of 16, these groups will see solid games.
Grp G will solidly be BRA finishing 1st and my predict that SRB will beat out SUI for 2nd.
Grp H should be POR and URU finishing 1 and 2. I don't see KOR or GHA beating these teams.

In round of 16, BRA has a tough match either way against URU or POR and could be a huge upset. SRB will play the other team and I would not be completely shocked to see 2 upset wins in this round of 16.

I will check later for fun to see how it adds up but incase anyone wondered about the tiebreak rules

1. Teams sorted by a ratio of Rounds Won to Rounds Played (Note: For playoffs seeding, rounds won from bye weeks and forfeits are not included in this calculation.) -- Stupid for this to be the #1 way to break a tie in records because of this exact reason. Throwing a match to disrupt the % points won.

2. Head-to-Head Winner (if teams played each other prior in the season) -- The hands down best way to settle a tie in records. If you beat the other team why should there be any other criteria?

3. Quality of Opponent / Strength of Schedule -- Will probably never be used and even worse than #1 as a reason why a tiebreak is used in TF2.

Torts is not wrong. He is just asking for max effort because we lack the skill to compete with skill alone. 3 of our top 5 goal scorers are out for extended periods which no team but the Flyers are dealing with right now.

The young kids who are playing are going hard and doing well considering but are making mistakes from inexperience that are costing us goals. Even the veterans are making stupid mistakes.

In other news, Carter Hart has been incredible so far this season.

I can only recall this happening in Advanced when both of the teams have played every other team in the division and there are no other options because of dead teams. (Neither team qualifies for this in Main this season)

This looks like a scheduling error and they should not have been scheduled to play each other twice in the same regular season. (Ultimately this error could have playoff seeding implications if the right teams win/lose their remaining matches.)

Quake 1 Team Fortress