Final Group Stage Match Viewing Guide

Who says you have to choose one match or the other?

After 11 days of absolutely no overlap in any of the matches, we now may be faced with some hard choices about what to watch.  That's because the final matches for each group are played simultaneously.  Why?  If matches are not at the same time, teams playing later may know exactly what result would allow both to advance.   But surely pride, etc., etc., would keep teams from doing this.  Except maybe not; I give you Germany and Austria in 1982.

 In some cases the choices won't be too difficult but not always.  And, of course, there's always the Michael B dual screen technology approach, demonstrated in the photo at left.  If that's not an option, we offer our opinion on each group stage finale below.


Group A: Uruguay-Russia Monday at 10 am on Fox

Caceres (right): How the cool players wear their shorts

Pretty straightforward.  Russia and Uruguay play for first and second in the group while Egypt and Saudi Arabia play for bragging rights to the Gulf of Aqaba.  Russia have the better goal differential so a win or a draw will give them first.  Since the Group A opponents in the first round of the knockout stage will likely be Spain and Portugal, not necessarily a big deal what the order is here.

And what is up with Martin Caceres and his pants? He played the whole second half with the left leg of his shorts tucked up to the upper thigh.


Group B: Iran-Portugal Monday at 2 pm on Fox

Iran gave Spain fits while playing what looked like a 6-3-1; they are still alive despite the 0-1 loss. Iran would advance with a win and possibly with a high scoring draw if Spain lose to Morocco.  Portugal only need a draw but didn't exactly overwhelm Morocco.   Spain do need to get at least a draw against Morocco (who cannot advance) to be sure of advancing but we're going to guess that the Iran-Portugal affair will offer the more compelling viewing.


Group C: Denmark-France Tuesday at 10 am on Fox

France are in after the 1-0 win over Peru, a side that we are sorry to say will not be advancing.  They played attractive football but after two 0-1 losses, they are eliminated.  Denmark need a draw to be sure of advancing.  Australia could nick the second spot with a win over Peru and a Danish loss and some tiebreaking luck.  Almost tempted to say watch Peru take on Australia just to see them play one more time but Denmark-France is probably more relevant to the tournament.


Who do you think looks more like Peru manager Ricardo Gareca (right) - Steven Tyler (left) or Iggy Pop (below)?

Group D: Nigeria-Argentina Tuesday at 2 pm on Fox

Really tough in this group because Croatia are already in but any of the other three could grab the second spot.  Argentina were looking totally out of it after the 0-3 loss to Croatia until Nigeria put a 2-0 hurting on Iceland.  (There has been no shortage of quality goals but Ahmed Musa's first touch and subsequent finish for Nigeria gets our nod for the YouTubeableMoment.)  Nigeria definitely advance with a win and possibly with a draw depending on the Iceland Croatia result.  Argentina must win and hope that Iceland doesn't win (or that the Argentine margin of victory is at least one goal more than Iceland's).  Iceland's requirements are basically the same - win and hope that Argentina lose or that its margin of victory is the same or better than Argentina's.  Got it?  Okay repeat it back to me.  At 538, they're saying that Argentina has a 54% chance of winning while Croatia is at 58%.  Potential wildcard: will Croatia, knowing they are advancing, rest key players?  Ah hell, figure out a way to watch them both.


Group E:  Serbia-Brazil Wednesday at 2 pm on Fox

Not as convoluted as Group D though there are multiple scenarios here too.  But the group is really Brazil's and Switzerland's to lose.  Serbia went from the driver's seat to needing some help after Switzerland rallied from 0-1 to snatch a 2-1 win.  Brazil took its sweet time but eventually vanquished Costa Rica 2-0.  Serbia could still advance but must beat Brazil, or get a draw in combination with a Swiss loss to Costa Rica (who are out) with tiebreaker stuff going their way too.  Brazil and Switzerland are in with wins or draws.  That looks highly likely, at least according to 538, so we'll go with the Serbia-Brazil match as both have something to play for.

So far VAR has mostly been adding goals rather than taking them away; well, it would have been adding goals if people could make the effing PK (looking at you Gylfi Sigurdsson).  On Friday a chance finally got taken away.  Neymar made a meal of contact in the box and referee Bjorn Kuipers whistled for the foul.  Fortunately it is automatically checked and the Kuipers was off to the sideline monitor to see for himself that there was indeed no foul.  Nearly 32 matches into the tournament and overall the refereeing and especially the VARing has been quite good.  A few missed American football tackles in the box on Kane and Mitrovic, an occasional foul in the box not called, but overall not bad.


Group F: Mexico-Sweden Wednesday at 10 am on Fox

Well I had already decided on the YouTubeableMoment before Toni Kroos saved Germany's ass with an incredible last second goal to beat Sweden 2-1.  Here's a fan's eye view of the goal.  Everything changed with that goal.  Mexico are not automatically in despite their wins over Korea and Germany.  Sweden and Germany are tied with three points.  If they both win on Wednesday, all three teams will have six points. So the tiebreakers could easily come into play.

Quick aside to fans of Sweden and Mexico.  What word begins with "f" and ends with "ck?" Freekick. 


Group G: England-Belgium Thursday at 2 pm on Fox

Writing before Sunday's matches, I'm going to say that regardless of the England-Panama result Sunday morning, the match to check out on Thursday is England-Belgium.  It's possible both teams will already know they are advancing but it could still be a fun match.  Belgium certainly have had no trouble scoring but Panama and Tunisia weren't necessarily the stoutest of opponents.


Group H: Winner of Sunday's Poland-Colombia match vs whoever their opponent is Thursday at 10 am

Again, writing before Sunday's Group H matches so I don't have the standings heading into the final stage.  The loser of Poland-Colombia is in a world of hurt but surprisingly not necessarily eliminated, unless Japan-Senegal draw. 


Tiebreakers

So what are these tiebreakers we speak of.  Details are here.  Basically it's goal differential, then goals scored.  After that it goes to head-to-head stuff - results, goal differentials and goals scored.  Then it gets into sportsmanship stuff with a point system for cards (-1 for yellow, -3 for red as a result of two yellows, -4 for straight red and -5 for yellow with a straight red).  Not inconceivable it could get that far.  If two teams are tied on points and tied in their head-to-head match, this would come into play.  In the unlikely event things are still tied, next is the amount of dirt Putin has on each country's leader.  Last would be the drawing of lots by FIFA. One of those last two statements is true.


World Cup Vocabulary

Not as good as "diaspora" but an announcer did cite a free kick as having "insufficient guile."  At least the shot was on frame.  Definitely not referring to Kroos.


Quote of the Week

Steve:  Is it just me or is the really the best World Cup ever?
Bob K: Nah, it's just that our lives are getting more boring.


Au Revoir Le Toux

After 10 straight days filled with World Cup matches, I wasn't necessarily chomping at the bit to end down to Talen Energy Stadium to see the Union take on Vancouver.  But think of it this way - if your kid had a soccer match during the World Cup, you would still go knowing full well it would be a step or four below international competition.  Kind of the same thing for the Union.  It's my local team, I'll support it knowing full well it's not the same as World Cup or even any European league.

Turned out to be a most pleasant trip. The Union thoroughly dominated play; at one point they had 15 shots while the Whitecaps hadn't registered any.  The 4-0 final score is flattering to Vancouver.  Frankly, they were awful, giving the ball away with shockingly poor passing.  The Union were slow to take advantage and didn't really put the match away until after 70 minutes but the result was never in doubt.  Don't look now but the Union are now in 6th, at least for the moment.  Two goals from Dockal were helpful.

LeToux acknowledges the fans (USA Today Images)

Aside from the result, at halftime  the Union inducted Sebastien Le Toux as the first member of the Union Ring of Honor.  They played a nice video, reminding us of Seb's incredible work rate and scoring touch and LeToux made a brief speech thanking the fans for how they accepted him.   I was glad I was there to applaud the guy who was the heart of the team while he was here.   As Graham noted, who wouldn't want to have 11 guys like that on your team.




I don't care what Bob says, I think so far it's the best World Cup evah.