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You are here: Home / Sports / Chile v Spain; Honduras v Switzerland Open Thread

Reader Interactions

32Comments

  1. 1.

    Adam C

    I’m fascinated by the permutations. Three teams have control of their destiny:
    If Chile wins or draws, they’re in.
    If Spain wins, they’re in.
    If Switzerland wins by two or more goals, they’re in.

    And then beyond that – including a real possibility that Honduras sneaks through – everything depends on the result of both games. Everyone has a chance and no-one has a guarantee.

    Edit: the only other guarantee is that if Honduras loses or draws, they’re out.

  2. 2.

    MattR

    To repeat the predictions I posted last night:
    Spain 2, Chile 1
    Honduras 2, Switzerland 1 (perhaps a 2-2 draw)

    If Spain and Chile finish first and second respectively, I will have nailed 14 of the 16 teams to advance (I had Greece instead of S Korea and Italy instead of Paraguay)

  5. 5.

    QDC

    Can I slightly abuse this thread to ask a quick question? Does the US national team have a nickname along the lines of Les Bleus or Bafana Bafana?

  7. 7.

    MattR

    @QDC: I can’t believe I don’t know the answer to that. Though I can tell you that “Sam’s Army” is the group of fans who follow the team.

    @Violet: Depends on the results of Switzerland vs Honduras. If Spain lose and the Swiss get a win or draw then Spain is out. If the Swiss lose as well, there is a three way tie between Spain (+1), Switzerland (0) and Honduras (-3) with goal differential as the first tiebreaker. The simplest scenario is if both Spain and Switzerland lose by 1 then Spain advanves.

  8. 8.

    Ailuridae

    @QDC:

    The Stars and Stripes or The Yanks.

    Most people I watch games with tend to call them Team America though.

  9. 9.

    Adam C

    @Violet:
    If they draw, they get eliminated only if Switzerland wins.

    If they lose, they get eliminated if Switzerland draws or wins.
    Spain also gets eliminated if they lose and Honduras wins and the combined margin of victory is greater than 4 (this is the only chance for Honduras).

    …or equal to 4 but Honduras gets more total goals… tiebreakers are neat…

  10. 10.

    sluggahjells

    Live coverage over at my site, but I think Chile, after having blowing so many chances against Honduras and the Swiss, are going to be knocked out here.

  11. 11.

    MattR

    @Adam C: You missed one scenario. If Spain loses by two and the Swiss lose by one and the Swiss score more goals than the Spanish, then Switzerland will advance. I’d say the odds of that happening are pretty slim, though :)

  13. 13.

    Miss Kitka's Comrade Wayne

    Sorry. I’ve been busy mashing up sardines and making gazpacho. But with their navy blue B kit, Spain are reminding me of Scotland. Surely that will lull the Chilenskis….

    Oh. Ooops. Goal. España.

  15. 15.

    Violet

    Thanks for the explanations. Sounds like Spain has quite the incentive to try to win.

  17. 17.

    MattR

    Chile will be eliminated if they lose by two goals and Switzerland scores a goal in the second half to win their game.

  19. 19.

    MattR

    @Adam C: The Chileans aren’t going out like that. Though they need one more goal to complete the South American sweep of group winners.

  20. 20.

    Cacti

    While I’m a CONMEBOL fan, I’m hoping Spain takes Group H.

    An opening quad featuring Brazil, Spain, and the Netherlands just seems unfair.

  22. 22.

    neil

    Chile is now erupting into the biggest sports-related party ever brought about by losing a game.

  23. 23.

    Adam C

    And I guess the Swiss just couldn’t score the goals necessary to make all those permutations worth anything.

  24. 24.

    MattR

    @Adam C: Heh. It looked like a pretty exciting match to watch but I wasn’t really focused on it though I should have switched in the last fifteen minutes when the other game turned into a scrimmage.

  25. 25.

    Adam C

    Yeah, that passing drill between Spain and Chile was boring to the point of embarrassment.

  27. 27.

    Paula

    All that work in the group stage and Chile has to face Brazil?? Seems unfair. If there’s another blatant handball goal I swear I’m going the full hater, and I really don’t want to.

    I want Spain to step it up so they can wipe the floor w/ Portugal and Ronaldo’s smirk.

    OT but not:

    Did one of the USMNT sleep with Ken Silverstein’s girl or something?

  28. 28.

    John

    Silverstein is totally ridiculous. I particularly like how even when he sort of has a point, he has to take it to ridiculous levels of hyperbole. Thus, for instance, he attacks the US media for raving about the US performance against England as a giant upset. And he’s right, the US getting lucking and managing a draw against a not especially great England team due to a goaltender error was not some kind of David vs. Goliath struggle.

    But then he goes on to say that the whole thing is ridiculous because:

    there is no such thing as an “upset draw.”

    Which is, of course, completely true. New Zealand did nothing remarkable in its game against Italy, and if North Korea had held Brazil scoreless, that would have been just a draw like any other.

  29. 29.

    Paula

    @John:

    Well, I’m having a hard time believing the guy actually watches soccer because he just used the Italian team as an example of good behavior in accepting consequences.

    I mean, good on Lippi and the Azzuri for, uh, having the common sense to NOT behave like the French team, but it’s hardly commendable. If they don’t accept responsibility, they know their countrymen will make it worse; better to be good Catholics and ask for forgiveness.

  31. 31.

    Bill Murray

    @John:

    and if North Korea had held Brazil scoreless, that would have been just a draw like any other.

    well except that Korea DPR scored, so they would have won had they held Brazil scoreless. Not that that is any moe than pedanticism on my part

  32. 32.

    John

    @Bill Murray:

    North Korea scored late, after Brazil had already won the game. I don’t think that would have happened if Brazil had been scoreless at that point.

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