[Author’s Note: Those of you who follow certain Facebook pages already know that my brother-in-law, Onassis “Oni” Yumul, died on Thursday evening after a long battle with cancer. He is survived by his husband, my then-and-forever brother-in-law Jeff Letourneau; by both of his parents in the Philippines; by his sister, my wife Josephine Diamond, two other Californian sisters and their husbands, and one brother in the Philippines and his wife; by more nieces and nephews and grandnieces and nephews and cousins and aunts and uncles than you could shake a stick at; by an innumerable number of friends and admirers; and by the dog he and Jeff have shared, Otis. I’m finding it hard to write a fitting tribute, but plan to finish it by Sunday or early Monday. What follows is something I like to do at the halfway point in the quadrennial World Cup, and frankly it gives me a break from sadness — so you’re getting it served to you, though you don’t have to consume it.]
Soccer’s World Cup is composed of 64 matches. The 32 national teams are assigned to eight groups of four. In “group play,” each team in each group plays each of the other teams in their group once — a “round robin”; each group thus has six games, for a total of 48 games. The top two teams from each of the eight groups then proceed to a 16-game “knockout” tournament. (The 63rd of the 64 matches is for “third place,” between the losers of the semi-finals.)
The FIFA World Cup (yes, it’s officially “football”) stretches back to 1924; in 1934, it switched from Olympic to non-Olympic even-numbered years. This is, arguably, the most broadly competitive tournament since the move to eight rather than six groups in 1998. The last one with six groups (and the top four third-place competitors joining the knockout rounds) was the 1994 World Cup, played primarily in Los Angeles. That World Cup was first introduced the “three points for a win” rule, which makes the game strategy far more interesting, because the increment between a tie and a win is twice as large as that between a loss and a tie — leading teams (most of the time) to have to play for a win.
The reason that I call this tournament the most broadly competitive is because this is the first one since the expansion to 24 teams where no team has won all of its group matches. Win all three group matches, since 1994, and you get 9 points. Every tournament from 1998 through 2018, at least one team (and generally a few of them) has earned 9 points. This year, the best record — once the tie-breaker for “goal differential” (“goals for” minus “goals against”) is applied — went to England, with 7 points and a goal differential of 7, edging out the Netherlands (with GD of 4) and Morocco (GD of 3.) The only flaw in England’s record is their draw with the United States which — to set aside my objectivity for a moment — is pretty cool. No “9” is a mark of parity; having only three squads get to 7 is a further one.
One thing that we can do, now that we’re between stages, is rank all of the teams in the tournament so far. (And, for the bottom half of them, the number will stick.) So — let’s do it!
As noted, our top three teams are England, the Netherlands, and Morocco. So they’ll lead our list. After Goal Differential (or GD), the next tiebreaker is Goals F (GF), because offense is exciting. (We’ll stop there.)
- England: 7 & GD=7
- Netherlands: 7 & GD=4
- Morocco: 7 & GD=3
- France: 6 & GD=3, GF=6
- Argentina: 6 & GD=3, GF=5
- Portugal: 6 & GD=2, GF=6
- Brazil: 6 & GD=2, GF=3
- Senegal: 6 & GD=1, GF=5
- (tie) Switzerland: 6 & GD=1, GF=4
- (tie) Japan: 6 & GD=1, GF=4
- Australia: 6 & GD=-1
- Croatia: 5 & GD=3
- United States: 5 & GD=1
- Spain: 4 & GD=6
- Germany: 4 & GD=1, GF=6 x
- Ecuador: 4 & GD=1, GF=4 x
- [tie] South Korea: 4 & GD 0, GF 4 * [17]
- [tie] Cameroon: 4 & GD 0, GF 4 x [17]
- (tie) Poland: 4 & GD=0, GF=2 [19]
- (tie) Uruguay: 4 & GD 0, GF=2 x [19]
- Tunisia: 4 & GD=0, GF=1 x
- Mexico: 4 & GD=-1, GF=2 x
- Belgium: 4 & GD=-1, GF=1 x
- Ghana: 3 & GD=-2 , GF=5
- Saudi Arabia: 3 & GD=-2, GF=3
- Iran: 3 & GD=-3, GF=4
- Costa Rica: 3 & GD=-8
- Denmark: 1 & GD=-2
- Serbia: 1 & GD=-3
- Wales: 1 & GD=-5
- Canada: 0 & GD=-5, GF=2
- Qatar: 0 & GD=-6
The top 14 squads ranked by tie-breaking criteria all made it into the knockout round. #15 Germany and #16 Ecuador didn’t make it, while #17 South Korea and #19 Poland did manage their way in, respectively scraping past Uruguay and Mexico. Sucks to be in a tougher group, but that’s literally the luck of the draw!
Anyway, I think that the competitiveness of most of this field is awesome. Iran is 13 ranks below the U.S. — but it easily could have won.
I’m sorry for your family’s loss Greg. Cancer sucks.
Thanks for the sentiment. It is not shared by the person posting at 104.34.208.73, whose handiwork appears below, so if you happen to have that IP Address appearing on your site I’d appreciate knowing. The triple parentheses are the anti-Semitic “Jew identifier,” letting me know that this person reads my Facebook page (where I mentioned this marker previously) — as if I care.
Charming, isn’t it?
A tiny but typical fraction of the shit we trash every day.
Dan should also take note that this person, at this IP address, was pretending to be him. (Just as the same IP address pretended to be Voice of OC’s Nick Gerda last week.)
Trash after COPYING it for our own archives, of course.
They are bulging. And proving useful.
Looks like Khan stabbed Kim in the back after
Kim endorsed her re-election expecting quid pro quo. Is that legal?
“Kim, who has largely voted with Khan in the past as well, said she is currently “disappointed,” with the mayor after Khan challenged her appointment to the Orange County Transportation Authority board, but was open to working together in the future.”
https://voiceofoc.org/2022/12/irvine-voters-just-elected-a-democrat-supermajority-but-will-they-work-together/
*It’s great knowing absolutely nothing about World Cup Soccer. Where is Sweden? Hmmm, guess they didn’t qualify. How about Norway? Nope! That left our Danes to end the process quickly. Watching the RESULTS of the Netherland/USA match was enough for us. We are taking the Netherlands against Japan in the final. Hilarious….being able to handicap teams that we have no idea of what we are talking about.
Ron: I spiked your other comment due to your use of an ethnic slur. We’re not in the ethnic slur business. Revise and resubmit it if you wish.
*”The sons of Nippon”…in our mind is not an ethnic slur….that we know of.
If you can find where it is considered so….we would certainly agree with
your assessment…..not meaning any disrespect. Then you can get into the
various iterations of things such as: “The House of the Rising Sun” or who
knows what other comments that in the furthest degree could be considered
offensive. That being from just some “Blockheaded Germans” or “Swedes”
that is. Of course those remarks were on such shows as “Victory at Sea” and other classic historical reports.
Oh, for the love of God….
Happily, if you look that term up on Wikipedia, it will give you a long history of the term as a slur.
*Verily we say: The word Japan is an exonym, and is used by many languages. The Japanese names for Japan are Nippon ( にっぽん) and Nihon ( にほん). … time) “the Son of Heaven of the Land where the Sun rises” (日出處天子).
History · Historical · Nihon and Nippon · Other names
The word Japan is an exonym. In what year did they start considering it a slur?
“Probably when they invaded Manchuria and China in the 1930’s? Before WWII, when the Flying Tigers were defending China….the Japanese called our Pilots:
“Yankee Gangsters”! Is that a racial slur too? Let’s just say, it is not a typical
defaming racial remark as you might suggest.
Yes, I know that Japan’s name for itself is “Nipon.” I also know that the abbreviated version of both that word and of the name used by most of the outside world have been used as ethnic slurs — and that ain’t gonna happen here. There’s a perfectly descriptive eight-letter term a male from China that I’m also not allowing here because of its history as a pejorative slur.
‘Yankee Gangsters” has only been used as a slur within our country by the losing side of the Civil War. The rest of us seem not to care about it, so its presence doesn’t bother me.
I’m a little too old to say “ok boomer” to you, being in “Generation Jones” (which was Gen X before Gen X existed), but I’d be happy to explain why people say it at times like this.
They called us “white devils” and we called them a lot of horrible shit. Who cares, it was WARTIME, and it was 1942, not 2022. You are sounding very juvenile.
There needs to be a succinct word for a blog comment death march that becomes increasingly futile, useless and annoying. Hmm. Verb – winshipping.
Hey, be tolerant. If it weren’t for the ‘Ships how would we have known about Sid Soffer, who served on … what city’s Council was that again?
*Meanwhile, back at the World Cup? Netherlands and France…even though we are pulling for the “Benched Ronaldo” to score the winning goal in the finals.
*Argentina vs France? Au Francie!
Now here’s some true Weekend Open Thread material:
Todd Spitzer’s office has decided not to press murder charges against Tatiana Turner after all, after supposed “new information came to light.”
It would be cynical to suspect that Spitzer always knew that a murder charge — in an exchange that would have been lauded as brave self-defense had a white women driven her way through Black or Latino strangers surrounding and banging on her car — was not going to fly, but that it didn’t have to, given that he had already obtained the political benefit of prosecuting her for murder in this case before dropping it two weeks or so before Christmas.
Yes, it would be very cynical. Wrong? Well, who’s to say? I’m still looking for a straight answer to my “had it been BLM protesters surrounding and banging on a white suburban housewife’s vehicle” scenario — but maybe they’re saving that for the trial.
Personally, I think that the DA should settle for a misdemeanor and be glad he got it.
https://www.ocregister.com/2022/12/12/blm-activist-from-long-beach-no-longer-facing-attempted-murder-for-yorba-linda-collision/
I’d lost touch with Tati – part of that whole Twitter meltdown thing last year plus I lost her number – I’m glad to hear that her situation is improving! I see she’s still being represented by PD Alisha Montoro, who in turn must be doing something right.
Fun excerpt: “Montoro said she still plans to file a motion asking that the case be taken away from Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer and his office. Spitzer complained that Turner was heckling him last spring during a debate for the district attorney’s election. Turner was asked to leave by the moderator. ‘From the start, the handling of Ms. Turner’s case has been politically and personally motivated by Todd Spitzer,’ Montoro said. ‘Mr. Spitzer’s conflict of interest, as shown by his actions and statements, has made it clear that Ms. Turner cannot receive a fair trial if he is in charge.’”
Haha, Tatiana sure did heckle Todd that night, but that was mainly before the debate and during the intermission. She got a seat in the front row and danced around singing (in the traditional taunt tune) “You’re gonna go to jai–il!” (I’m not sure why Tati thought Todd might go to jail, but it was entertaining to watch.) A LOT OF PEOPLE WERE HECKLING TODD and each other, from all sides. Donna and I were there, partly to see the debate (we loved everyone but Todd) and also to help far-right Love Cameron get her Spitzer Recall started – Donna served him with the papers that night.
LOTS OF PEOPLE were heckling Todd, not just Tatiana – far-right Love Cameron made weird little fellatio gestures at him, making sure Donna and I saw it (we were embarrassed.) That’s Love Cameron, to whom Tatiana is the very devil, and later LC called Tati a “dirty monkey,” because of course she did!
(I see that LC, Dan C, and Lenore have now made friends – that should go well! https://theliberaloc.com/2022/12/06/rep-katie-investigating-possible-bribery-charge-in-connection-with-a-trump-pardon/comment-page-1/#comment-283820)
Yeah, a lot of people heckled Todd from all sides, but only Tatiana got singled out by the organizers, and called out by Todd – “This woman here, who thinks this is all so funny, is being charged with ATTEMPTED MURDER!” he stood up and cried out at one point. I realized around that time that, as much as us BLM sympathizers thought Todd was totally overcharging Tati for political reasons, the Trumpy “patriot” side was and remains furious with Todd for charging THEM with anything at all – hell, in their minds, they were simply defending Yorba Linda and the USA from terrorists, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!
So it was nice to hear his spokeswoman Kim Edds, in this article, say ““The conduct engaged in by this defendant and all of the other defendants charged in this case on both sides of the protest was violent and inexcusable. Every American has the right to exercise free speech and peacefully protest, but when that freedom of expression turns violent we as a society must hold people criminally accountable so that others can continue to exercise their right to free speech without fear of violence.” Something like the opposite of Trump’s “good people on both sides” after Charlottesville.
I’m glad Danielle Lindgren and Brian Willis are okay, and I hope Tatiana gets off with a misdemeanor. Some of this blog’s previous coverage of this case:
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2021/04/free-tatiana-turner-is-orange-county-waging-a-war-on-black-lives-matter/
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2021/08/tatianas-prelim-1-brian-willis-with-the-broken-leg-testifies/
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2021/09/tatianas-prelim-2-sheriffs-with-amnesia-update-the-trial-will-proceed-and-benediction/
As to the Triple Axis you mention: Oh the stories I could tell if I could tell when I could tell…
Who (or what) is a Love Cameron?
Start here, with Love Cameron Indicts Todd Spitzer.
Stop when you want, or search for more if you must.
She was also the source for the James Mai revelations that you enjoy so much.
I was gonna say, it doesn’t matter.
This thread is already winshipping.
Winshipping? Egad. Say no more.
Gavin Newsom can foul even the nicest thing by submerging it in political calculation.
https://sfinquirer.com/2022/12/14/newsom-is-being-encouraged-to-replace-feinstein-with-an-indigenous-woman/
I’ve been rooting for Barbara Lee, and he said he’d appoint a black woman.
But meanwhile DiFi is saying today that she WON’T resign – she won’t even say she won’t run for reelection in 2024!