First Round Wrap Up

Mexico's goal keeper making one of many brilliant saves.

Belgium came from behind to beat Algeria 2-1 on day 6 of the World Cup while Brazil, Mexico, Russia and South Korea finished the day with draws.  The Algeria result was a common theme in the first round.  Usually scoring first is a very good thing, but Algeria joined Croatia, Spain, Japan, Uruguay and Ecuador as teams that couldn't hold their leads and went on to loose a World Cup match that they were leading.  Belgium has an impressive team, with their bench full of big name players that would be the stars of most other teams in the World Cup.  Despite Belgium's vast riches of talent, the Algerians nearly pulled off the upset, but two second half substitutes came on and made the difference.  South Korea and Russia played to a scoreless draw in the last game of the first round and Brazil and Mexico played an exciting match that featured many great chances but ended up without a goal.  That result ensures they will both stay on top of group A, but neither one has secured a place in the next round yet.

With the first round complete, every BISERGSer has now had four teams play.  Removing the results from the Brazil vs. Mexico game (because that was a second round match) it is now possible to take a good look at how everyone stacks up.  Rodrigo ended the first round in first place with 14.5 points.  He has both the Netherlands and Germany who came up with the first rounds biggest wins and Costa Rica who pulled off the biggest upset.  If Ecuador had held off the Swiss comeback, he would be even further into the lead.  Gray finished the round a half a point behind behind thanks to the same Germany, Netherlands combination.  He also was on the other side of the Switzerland win, but saw England go down to Italy.  Ivan, Matt, Greg and Irma/Byron, the next four teams, all shared Brazil's success in the first round.  Ivan and Matt also share Colombia while Greg and Irma/Byron can thank France for high ranking.  The top ten was rounded out by Sharleen, Alison and Rick.  Allie proved that leaving things to chance may not be a bad idea as all four of her teams (Ivory Coast, Belgium, Costa Rica and Croatia) were assigned randomly during the draft.  

In the first round it was the Netherlands (5.25 points), Germany (5 points), Colombia (4.5 points) and France (4.5 points) that produced the most points in the BISERGS scoring system.  Their opponents in the first round, Portugal, Spain, Honduras and Greece, were obviously the worst performers.  Spain and Portugal were first round picks for many this year and if they turn it around, the leader board could look very different by the end of round two.