7 3rd-place finishers ended up with 4 points and advanced.
The 8th 3rd-place finisher to advance was Senegal, who had 3 points and a +2 GD.
3 3rd-place finishers had 3 points but failed to advance.
Interestingly, Cape Verde finished with 3 points with 3 draws, which is obviously 0 GD, and placed second in Group H, advancing to R32, where they will play (gulp) Argentina.
With the expanded format, my biggest takeaway is that 9 African teams made the final 32. Let’s see how many make the RO16.
Also, only 3 European teams did not: Turkey, Czechia and Scotland
Glad to hear Canadian coach Jesse Marsch saying Alponso Davies’ hamstring issues might be in the rear-view mirror for now, and will play tomorrow (Sun.) against South Africa, ranked 60th in the world but playing formidably so far.
No confirmation from the coach whether AD will start, come off the bench, or how many minutes he might play.
This will be a tremendous boost for Canada if he can stay healthy and contribute.
Well, I gave up on the England game at half time; couldn’t take any more of that crap so I went to bed. Looks like they got the job done in the end but same old story, stumble through the group stage and bore the pants off anyone daft enough to watch them. Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if DRC ‘embarass’ (I.E. thoroughly merit a victory against) us in the second round. Either that or a heroic backs to wall defeat on penalties to Mexico at an energy-sapping, raucous Azteca in R3. Can you tell I’m grumpy?
And Portugal… you let me down guys. 11/12 in the group winners predictions, but also into the same side of the draw as Spain (potential tasty last 16 clash!) So my predicted SF lineup of Spain, France, Portugal, England (hahaha!) won’t come to pass. Ronaldo reverting to type, unsurprisingly (‘I’m back’? Apparently not).
Jaw protection. He’s playing with a broken jaw.
I genuinely don’t know how much razzle-dazzle you can expect when you’re playing against a team that is performing well in a low block. You simply have to pick at them until you create a mistake and then are able to capitalize on it.
Yeh on reflection I think I was being a little bit harsh, and tiredness didn’t help. But it was boring and I fear DRC will just do the same thing again. If we get through that then a likely opponent in Mexico will surely be far more attacking, playing at home, but I think we might have run out of defenders by then! One right back injured pre-tournament and two more RBs injured during… not sure who will fill in next time, we may have to resort to Jordan Henderson.
100% agree. When you’re rooting for an underdog and they hunker down, it can be kind of exciting to see them stymie a strong team. When you’re rooting for the strong team, though, god it’s boring.
Now all the friendlies are over the World Cup is about to start!
Round of 32
South Africa vs Canada
Brazil vs Japan
Germany vs Paraguay
Netherlands vs Morocco
Côte d’Ivoire vs Norway
France vs Sweden
Mexico vs Ecuador
England vs Congo DR
Belgium vs Senegal
USA vs Bosnia & Herzegovina
Spain vs Austria
Portugal vs Croatia
Switzerland vs Algeria
Australia vs Egypt
Argentina vs Cabo Verde
Colombia vs Ghana
Brazil v Japan and Netherlands v Morocco looking to be the standouts.
According to DraftKings, France is the favorite to win it all, at +300. Argentina is at +430, while Spain and England are both listed at +700. USA is +3000.
Cape Verde is the longest shot in the field, at +150000.
Is that approximately 1500-1 in English?
Yes. American convention is assuming a $100 bet.
A $1 bet would return $1501 if Cape Verde wins the Cup.
Including the $1 I staked, right? That is I would win $1500 or lose $1, net.
That would make it identical to 1500-1 in English odds.
France with a very hard bracket too. Still, I can’t say I really disagree, they’re the only team that consistently looked great.
Absolutely correct on all counts.
Canada is the betting favourite to win today against South Africa. Never thought I’d see Canada a favourite in a World Cup knockout game. It’s not an overwhelming bet though.
Hopefully Posch won’t see any high elbows from, say, Otamendi or…Romero?
It looks like the South Africa team had their Wheaties this morning.