SOCCER: An American initiation

We must thank above all Mexican and Argentine soccer experts for answering Hank Greely's questions, but he is still puzzled, and we hope the experts will again contribute to the education of the "North American" novices. Future history books will record that Latin Americans taught soccer to the gringos. Hank says: "Thanks to all for their patient explanations. It seems odd to me that, in one of my hypotheticals, the US and Korea could be tied for points and tied for goal differential, but the US might go, even though Korea beat it, if the US scored more total goals (probably by beating up on Poland more than Korea did).

I think these tie-breakers mean that France not only has to beat Denmark to advance, but must beat them by at least two goals. If France beat Denmark by one goal, both teams would have four points (one win, one tie, one loss), both would have a zero goal differential, and Denmark (with a 2-1 win and a 1-1 tie) would have two more total goals than France (which has no goals thus far). Assuming Senegal beats Uruguay, Denmark could play knowing that all it had to do to advance was lose by 1. Odd. Of course, I have learned from the tournament thus far never to assume anything.

By the way, I was surprised that no one commented on my complaint that there should be another center ref. Why does soccer play with only one ref and, I think as a result, so many bad calls?"

Ronald Hilton - 6/8/02