The Least Messi Penalty Kick is Still a Miss

Day 3 is now over. We are 1/8 through the World Cup, and it's been a stark contrast for the two best players in the World. Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal tied yesterday off of his hattrick. Today, Lionel Messi's Argentina were held to a 1-1 draw with Iceland, thanks in part to Hannes Halldorsson saving Messi's pk attempt. In other matches, Australia played bravely against France but fell 2-1 with a goal that just barely crossed the line. Denmark notched 3 points with a 1:0 win over Peru. The last match ended with Croatia taking a 2:0 cushion into their next match with Argentina.

France 2:1 Australia

Antoine Griezmann (1,pk) 58' 1-0

Mile Jedinak (1,pk) 62' 1-1

Paul Pogba (1) 81' 2-1

	Result	Points	Score France	Points	Score Australia	Points	Total
Artifex	France	5	3	0	1	2	7
Fortuitous	Australia	0	0	0	7	0	0
Historicus	France	5	2	2	1	3	10
IoannesNix	France	5	3	0	1	2	7
Musicus	France	5	2	2	0	0	7
Praeceptor	France	5	3	0	0	0	5
Scriptor	France	5	3	0	0	0	5

Argentina 1:1 Iceland

Sergio Kun Aguero (1) 19' 1-0

Alfred Finnbogason (1) 23' 1-1

	Result	Points	Score Argentina	Points	Score Iceland	Points	Total
Artifex	Argentina	0	3	0	1	2	2
Fortuitous	Argentina	0	2	0	1	2	2
Historicus	Argentina	0	2	0	1	2	2
IoannesNix	Argentina	0	3	0	0	0	0
Musicus	Argentina	0	2	0	1	2	2
Praeceptor	Draw	5	0	0	0	0	5
Scriptor	Argentina	0	2	0	1	2	2

   

Peru 0:1 Denmark

Yussuf Yurary Poulsen (1) 59' 0-1

	Result	Points	Score Peru	Points	Score Denmark	Points	Total
Artifex	Peru	0	1	0	0	0	0
Fortuitous	Draw	0	6	0	6	0	0
Historicus	Peru	0	1	0	0	0	0
IoannesNix	Peru	0	2	0	1	2	2
Musicus	Denmark	5	0	2	1	3	10
Praeceptor	Draw	0	1	0	1	2	2
Scriptor	Draw	0	1	0	1	2	2

Croatia 2:0 Nigeria

Oghenekaro Etebo (og) 32' 1-0

Luka Modric (1,pk) 71' 2-0

	Result	Points	Score Croatia	Points	Score Nigeria	Points	Total
Artifex	Croatia	5	2	2	1	0	7
Fortuitous	Draw	0	7	0	7	0	0
Historicus	Nigeria	0	0	0	1	0	0
IoannesNix	Nigeria	0	1	0	3	0	0
Musicus	Nigeria	0	0	0	1	0	0
Praeceptor	Nigeria	0	1	0	2	0	0
Scriptor	Draw	0	1	0	1	0	0

   

Scriptor is paired with Australia, and IoannesNix is paired with Nigeria. Both nations failed to earn any points and have donated 0 to the players' causes. Onto the scores!

  

	Standings	Points	Oracle
1	Musicus	26	11
2	Scriptor	26	6
3	Praeceptor	24	4
4	IoannesNix	21	6
5	Artifex	21	6
6	Historicus	20	9
7	Fortuitous	9	4

Today's Disciplinary Official is sad Messi after missing a penalty kick. He's not awarding any cards, or warnings because, he just can't even right now. He missed a pk. Kicked it right at the dang keeper. He's under so much pressure now. Somebody point him to the nearest Lego store. I mean....

Rest Well, my Crias

The Grand Salmon Alpaca

Don't Pay Your Taxes and You, Too, Could Wind Up Scoring A Hattrick at the World Cup

Ronaldo began the day finding out he was guilty of Tax Evasion. He received a 2 year suspended jail sentence, and a heavy fine. He ended the day by scoring 3 goals to bring Portugal a much needed draw with Spain.

The other story of the day was late drama. Goals in the 89th and 90th minutes resulted in 1-0 victories for the first two matches. Ronaldo's equalizer came in the 88th minute of his match. These games are close, and waiting to the end seems to be the way to go. Onto the scores!

Egypt 0:1 Uruguay

 J.M. Gimenez (1) 89'0-1

	Result	Points	Score Egypt	Points	Score Uruguay	Points	Total
Artifex	Egypt	0	3	0	2	0	0
Fortuitous	Draw	0	3	0	3	0	0
Historicus	Uruguay	5	0	2	2	0	7
IoannesNix	Uruguay	5	2	0	3	0	5
Musicus	Uruguay	5	1	0	2	0	5
Praeceptor	Draw	0	0	2	0	0	2
Scriptor	Uruguay	5	0	2	3	0	7

 Morocco 0:1 Iran

                                         Bouhaddouz (og) 90+5'0-1

	Result	Points	Score Morocco	Points	Score Iran	Points	Total
Artifex	Morocco	0	1	0	0	0	0
Fortuitous	Draw	0	7	0	7	0	0
Historicus	Morocco	0	2	0	0	0	0
IoannesNix	Morocco	0	3	0	1	2	2
Musicus	Morocco	0	1	0	0	0	0
Praeceptor	Draw	0	3	0	3	0	0
Scriptor	Draw	0	2	0	2	0	0

 Portugal 3:3 Spain

Ronaldo (1,pen) 4' 1-0

Diego Costa (1) 24' 1-1

Ronaldo (2) 44' 2-1

Diego Costa (2) 2-2

Nacho (1) 58' 2-3

Ronaldo (3) 88' 3-3

	Result	Points	Score Portugal	Points	Score Spain	Points	Total
Artifex	Spain	0	0	0	2	0	0
Fortuitous	Portugal	0	5	0	0	0	0
Historicus	Spain	0	1	0	2	0	0
IoannesNix	Portugal	0	2	0	1	0	0
Musicus	Spain	0	1	0	2	0	0
Praeceptor	Draw	5	4	0	4	0	5
Scriptor	Draw	5	1	0	1	0	5

 Artifex is paired with Egypt for the World Cup. Their saddening loss at the last minute leaves them with 0 points, and adds nothing to Artifex's total.

Historicus is paired with Portugal, and witnessed the European Champions fight honorably to a draw earning them 1 point. Historicus has also earned a point.

Onto the scores!

Standings	Points	Oracle
Scriptor	17	2
IoannesNix	12	2
Praeceptor	12	2
Historicus	8	2
Fortuitous	7	2
Musicus	7	2
Artifex	5	0

Today's Disciplinary Official is Cristiano Ronaldo celebrating after scoring a goal. He has decided that no one will be disciplined today, because his goals were so amazing, why aren't you all talking about them? He's been practicing two years for this. Go on, take your shirt off! That's not unsportsmanlike behavior anymore!!!!!

Good night,

The Grand Salmon Alpaca

 

When You Play Like Your Life Depends On It

We are 1/64th of the way through the World Cup. Russian Coach Stanislav Chercheshov was winless in his last 7 games coming into the tournament. His side win big with Vladimir Putin on hand, and he celebrates living to see another day.

Russia 5:0 Saudi Arabia

Yuri Gazinsky (1) 12' 1-0

Denis Cheryshev (1) 43' 2-0

Artem Dzyuba (1) 71' 3-0

Denis Cheryshev (2) 90+1' 4-0

Aleksandr Golovin (1) 90+4' 5-0 

Here is an explanation of everyone's points for the day:

	Result	Points	Score Russia	Points	Score Saudi Arabia	Points	Total
Artifex	Russia	5	2	0	1	0	5
Fortuitous	Russia	5	5	2	4	0	7
Historicus	Saudi Arabia	0	0	0	2	0	0
IoannesNix	Russia	5	3	0	1	0	5
Musicus	Draw	0	0	0	0	2	2
Praeceptor	Russia	5	2	0	1	0	5
Scriptor	Russia	5	2	0	1	0	5

And here are the standings after day 1:

 

	Standings	Points	Oracle
1	Fortuitous	7	2
2	Artifex	5	0
3	IoannesNix	5	0
4	Praeceptor	5	0
5	Scriptor	5	0
6	Musicus	2	2
7	Historicus	0	0

Today's Disciplinary Official is the 2018 World Cup mascot Zabivaka the Wolf. He has awarded two yellow cards to the following players:

Musicus: A yellow card for sassing the Grand Salmon Alpaca, as well as waiting until the last minute to complete your bracket. Let's not forget that he also handed in a knockout stage containing penalty kicks without the penalty kick scores. This isn't your first time on the block, so you're getting a growl and flaring of fangs.

Praeceptor: A yellow card for waiting until the last minute to complete your bracket, resulting in some errors that need to be completed. You receive a "humph!", followed by a turn and walk away.

All the best crias,

The Grand Salmon Alpaca

The Kingly Queen of Africa.

After a hard fought tournament we have our winner. Although the shenanigans of a hack threatened to ruin our tournament, and the addition of the completely unrelated Royal Rumble becoming a source of points, we have crowned a winner. At the end of the first round, Scriptor held a 22 point lead over second place. That hot run ended for him, as he could only pick two semifinalists who would both lose in that round. That left the top spot open to the 2nd and 3rd place contestants. Second place Historicus had one semifinalist who made it into the finals. Unfortunately for him, he had Egypt losing the championship. For Artifex, she picked two semifinalists correctly that both lost in the semifinals. However, her random pick of the 23rd entrant was Randy Orton who outlasted all other competitors to win. That 30 points has crowned her as the champion of Africa.

Final Standings

R	Player	Total	Oracle
1	Artifex	104	17
2	Historicus	92	28
3	Scriptor	89	25
4	учитель	84	14
5	Fortuitous	70	14

Congratulations to Historicus for winning the TSzAL Africa Cup of Nations 2017 Golden Oracle for correctly guessing the most scores with 28.