Tuesday, July 8, 2014

The Final Four





 The World Cup restarts for the semifinal round today with a huge match between Brazil and Germany.  Tomorrow the Netherlands will take on Argentina with the winners advancing to the final on July 13th.  The games are worth double points for the BISERGS and with the final match being worth triple, there is still a chance for four of the top five to win the BISERGS depending on the results.  Gray can't win because he has the same teams remaining as Rodrigo and is currently behind him in the standings.  Doug is definitely a long shot but with negative points being doubled or tripled in the next two matches, there is still a possibility he can win.  16 BISERGSers still have at least one of the four remaining teams.  Rodrigo, Gray and Krista are the only remaining players with 2 teams left and they all share Germany.  There is a lot at stake for bragging rights and positioning in the all important (ok, we all know they are actually meaningless) BISERGS world rankings.  The losers in the semifinals will play one another in the third place match, which is worth the value of a group stage game in the BISERGS and could have an effect on the standings.

Before the tournament started many experts thought a final featuring South American giants Brazil and Argentina was a real possibility.  Germany was also a real favorite before things began, but not many expected the Netherlands to make it this far.  Neymar suffered a horrible injury, so for Brazil to succeed at home will require some other players to step up against Germany.  Messi is the biggest star remaining in the tournament and would love to add a World Cup title to his long list of achievements.

I made a mistake in the calculations of the scores following the quarterfinals.  I had accidentally given Spain the points for the Netherlands victory.  The error has been corrected and the biggest changes at the top are that Gray is currently ahead of Krista in the nephew/niece category and Rodrigo's lead is larger than previously reported.

3 comments:

  1. Welcome back, Greg. We have missed your commentaries! ¡Neymar, nos face mucha falta hoy!

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  2. Believe it or not, Rodrigo and I were both wanting Brazil to win, even though his team was Germany. Solidarity with Latin America. At least Brazil got their gol de honor.

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  3. They say that Holland is the best team never to win the World Cup.

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