Your “Syndicate
Hangover” is proudly presented by “Heineken 0.0”
All of the calories
and none of the intoxication!
This dog don’t bite ;
)
Day 9: Recap
Record—
Spread: 9-17
Straight up: 15-8-3
Hot
Girl Standings
Country
|
Tally
|
Games Played
|
Brazil
|
20
|
2
|
Iceland
|
19
|
2
|
Russia
|
19
|
2
|
Spain
|
19
|
2
|
Argentina
|
17
|
2
|
Iran
|
16
|
2
|
Egypt
|
15
|
2
|
Nigeria
|
15
|
2
|
Croatia
|
15
|
2
|
Mexico
|
14
|
1
|
Denmark
|
14
|
2
|
Australia
|
14
|
2
|
Morocco
|
13
|
2
|
Portugal
|
12
|
2
|
Switzerland
|
12
|
2
|
Serbia
|
12
|
2
|
Costa Rica
|
12
|
2
|
Peru
|
10
|
2
|
Poland
|
9
|
1
|
South Korea
|
9
|
1
|
Uruguay
|
9
|
2
|
Senegal
|
8
|
1
|
Columbia
|
8
|
1
|
France
|
8
|
2
|
Tunisia
|
7
|
1
|
Saudi Arabia
|
7
|
2
|
Panama
|
6
|
1
|
Japan
|
6
|
1
|
Belgium
|
6
|
1
|
Sweden
|
5
|
1
|
Germany
|
4
|
1
|
England
|
3
|
1
|
Hit all the lines perfectly today, brothers. Fine picks if I
may say so. Firmly in the black, your friendly bookie can now afford some
boutique schawg packs for all No worries. I’ll get egg on my face soon enough.
For now we’ll celebrate like Swiss Albanians. Fantastic day of football!
Gentlemen, that's what they call an "Albanian Eagle". I'm legitimately scared of Switzerland now.
S.S.S.
Tactical Breakdown
Last night we covered overrated teams either in the midst of
a meltdown or on the cusp of one. The French, Argentines, and Danes feature
systems that are too confused and aren’t clicking. I cautioned about their
“shite status” way back in the Primer Posts, though I urged everyone (including
myself) to give their talent a good look. I’ll now aver that that they should
probably all be abandoned. Don’t expect much more from them. Not even the
French.
Tonight it’s all
about the “Hot Picks”; squads that have a working strategy and are clicking at
just the right time. These are the teams to back.
Your friendly bookie always liked this year’s Swiss side.
I’ve publically professed my fear of facing them in the Round of 16. Likewise, I
proclaimed this Brazilian Selection to be the best since 2002. I also picked
the Nigerian Eagles to soar over the wildly overrated Icelandic Collective.
Let’s talk about good teams who will keep rolling deeper
into the tournament.
Lineup—Switzerland—PROJECTED
(4-2-3-1) (6/3/18)
Harris Seferovic
|
Xerdhan
Shaqiri Breel Embolo
|
Granit Xhaka
|
Blerim Dzemalli Valon Behrami
|
R. Rodriguez
N. Elvedi F. Schär S.
Lichtsteiner
|
Yann Sommer
|
Lineup—Switzerland—Match
One (4-2-3-1) (6/17/18)
Harris Seferovic
|
Blerim Dzemaili
|
Xerdhan Shaqiri Steven Zuber
|
Granit Xhaka Valon Behrami
|
R. Rodriguez
M. Akanji F. Schär S.
Lichtsteiner
|
Yann Sommer
|
Lineup—Switzerland—Match
Two (4-2-3-1) (6/22/18)
Harris Seferovic
|
Blerim Dzemaili
|
Xerdhan Shaqiri Steven Zuber
|
Granit Xhaka Valon Behrami
|
R. Rodriguez
M. Akanji F. Schär S.
Lichtsteiner
|
Yann Sommer
|
The Alpine Goat Herders are for real this time. Swiss
engineering…with a Serbian coach and a bunch of Albanian players ; )
Petkovic knows what he’s doing. Moving Dzemaili directly
behind Seferovic does slow the attack down a bit but it puts a lot of shots on
targer. Zuber, Shaqiri, Xhaka, and Behrami crash in to capitalize on the
rebounds. He’s assembled a cadre of speedy snipers to grab vital second-chance
goals. They also move quickly and pass sharply, tiring out opposing defenders
with long spells of possession.
Drmic, Embolo, Fernandes, Zakaria and Gavranovic are on hand
should any of the strikers get leggy. All solid players. Behrami, Xhaka, and
Akanji (NOT Elvedi) play sort of a triplicate sweeper role. Behrami in
particular is having a beast of a tournament. I’ve rarely seen him lose a
challenge. Akanji’s been great too.
A solid defense and a plethora of striking options leaves
loads of room for….you guessed it…the “Magical Elven Dwarf”! I ended last
night’s post with a “bookie’s hunch” about Shaqiri. Just knew he had something
special in tore for us. He’s far from finished.
Lineup—Brazil—PROJECTED
(4-4-2) (6/3/18)
Neymar
Gabriel Jesus
|
Roberto
Firminho Douglas Costa
|
P. Coutinho Paulinho
|
Fillipe Luis Marcelo
|
Thiago Silva Miranda
|
Alisson
|
Lineup—Brazil—Match
One (4-2-3-1) (6/17/18)
Gabriel Jesus
|
Neymar Phillipe Countinho Willian
|
Paulinho Casemiro
|
Marcelo Danilo
|
Thiago Silva Miranda
|
Alisson
|
Lineup—Brazil—Match
Two (4-2-3-1) (6/22/18)
Gabriel Jesus
|
Neymar Phillipe Countinho Willian
|
Paulinho Casemiro
|
Marcelo Fagner
|
Thiago Silva Miranda
|
Alisson
|
This appears to be the system; one that happens to work very
well as today’s offensive onslaught demonstrates. I recall bristling at the
prospect of Jesus starting alone up front and wondering aloud why Casemiro was
chosen to anchor the midfield when the Barça teammates could have handled it
better.
Misplaced skepticism all around. It’s actually a great
engine. Countinho drives the attack with defense-splitting passes. Willian and Neymar
switch often, allowing Paulinho to take advantage of nonplussed markers.
Marcelo comes forward only when Casemiro moves back. Even Marcelo and Fagner
seemed know their assignments today. With disciplined movement and blistering
speed, they all slice through defensive arrangements. Scary as hell!
Though their finishing needs some work and all the attention
paid to Neymar’s flopping counts as an unwelcome distraction, Tite is a sharp
and resourceful coach with a deep kader. His halftime adjustments today were
spot on. Costa on for Willian at the restart gave the Selecao more adroit
touches. It got their Stürm moving. He also served up Neymar beautifully for
that late second goal. Firminho, on in the 68th, engineered the
initial goal with his deft nod down to Jesus.
Much has been made about Neymar’s flopping. Let’s strive to
be fair. Opposing teams do intentionally foul him often, sometimes with cheap
shots. That doesn’t fully excuse some of his theatrics, but to focus on his
turf spills ignores the excellent form he finds himself in. He’s got his
improvisation game going. Hopefully everyone saw that filthy slick trick he
turned off the corner in injury time.
If Neymar’s relieved of the pressure and having fun, it
could spell serious trouble for opposing sides.
Lineup—Nigeria—PROJECTED
(4-3-3) (6/1/18)
Ahmed Musa Kelechi Ihenacho
|
Alex Iwobi
|
Ogenyi Onazi Victor Moses John Obi Mikel
|
Elderson
Echiejile Shehu
Abdullahi
|
Leon Balogun Kenneth Omeruo
|
Ikechukwu Ezwena
|
Lineup—Nigeria—
Match One (4-2-3-1) (6/16/18)
Odion Ighalo
|
Victor Moses John
Obi Mikel Alex Iwobi
|
O. Etebo
W. Ndidi
|
Brian Idowu Shehu Abdullahi
|
Leon Balogun William Trost-Ekong
|
Francis Uzoho
|
Lineup—Nigeria—
Match Two (3-5-2) (6/16/18)
Ahmed Musa Kelechi Ihenacho
|
Brian Idowu Victor Moses
|
W. Ndidi O. Etebo
|
John Obi Mikel
|
Leon Balogun W.
Trost-Ekong Kenneth Omerou
|
Francis Uzoho
|
He listened to me! Okay, obviously Rohr doesn’t read the
Syndicate. Nevertheless, it was sublime to see him deploy the strikers I called
for. A satisfying coincidence for the independent oddsmaker.
What a brilliant selection! That’s how you defeat the Thunderclap. Just
ram it down their shark swallowing throats! Mikel deep worked like magic.
Switching Moses on the flank and bringing up Idowu as a decoy. Ingenious! Great
to see Omerou back on the pitch again. His long ball to set up Musa for the
brace was legendary.
Your friendly bookie still doesn’t fully trust Gernt Rohr. I
still recall his poor management of Niger and Burkina Faso. I also think he’ll
have difficulty finding the right placement for Iwobi against Argentina.
Concerns abound, but we should all applaud another African
team for a well-planned, well-executed, and well-earned victory. Have I
mentioned that this squad has a phenomenal 19-year-old keeper? Kudos on your
clean sheet, young man! You rock!
S.S.S.
Half-Assed Culture Minute
We’ve come to glean much valuable information about Iceland
in this tournament. I always knew the country had a surplus of documentary
filmmakers. Fly Icelandic Air sometime. You’ll find the Airbus in-flight
entertainment module flooded with dozens of them. Icelanders probably produce
more documentaries per capita than any other nation on earth. That’s a rectum
derived statistic, but I’ll stand by it. They find themselves interesting. So
do we.
It thus really didn’t
surprise me much to learn that keeper Hans Halldorsson’s real vocation is that
of a documentary filmmaker. It surprised me even less to learn that several
documentary films about their football team have been produced. Intellectual
father of the syndicate Douglas Adams once joked that documentary filmmakers
belonged to the useless third of a planet’s population. The Golgafrinchans
marooned them on earth along with hairdressers, advertising executives and
telephone sanitizers.
I agree that there’s such a thing as “Documentary Overload”
in our present culture. Very prescient of Saint Douglas. However, one simply
cannot refuse documentaries about the World’s most ridiculous country. I
suppose I’ve little choice but to check out the glibly-named “Inside a Volcano”
Weighing
in on VAR
Is
it working?
Yes! Neymar’s penalty call was reversed after it was
revealed that he embellished the fall. The “Eye in the Sky” caught Tyronne Ebuehi’s late challenge
on Finnbogasson. Gentlemen, were well on our way to removing the inherently
frustrating controversies that plague our games and frequently ruin this
tournament. Football will always remain subjective, but we’re catching more of
the blatant crap that too often gets missed. So long as they don’t use VAR
timeouts to cut to commercials, we should be embrace the change.
“Riffs
of the Day”—Day Nine
Reader:
Ronaldo can buy the bitch all the rings in the world, he’s still not engaged.
Probably just got caught cheating again.
Vicey:
(giggling)
And….Zing
11-M!!
Reader:
Those Icelandic Girls know how to bring the thunder.
Vicey:
I’ll bet. Just move there already, 82-M. Go forth and meet your destiny!
Reader:
Need a new Super Eagles trikot.
Vicey:
Heard, 115-M. Get me one of those flaming wallets and we’ll call it a fair
trade.
Reader:
Found your Kraut. Marc Behrenbeck.
Vicey:
Oh good lord. Only the American viewing audience will get this gag. He’s the
quintessential German on-site reporter currently having a “flirt-off” with
Alexei Lalas. Stay tuned. These guys are going to get busy ; )
DAY TEN—PREVIEW
Belgium vs. Tunisia
vs. 
Rolled it up briefly for the ardent bettors, but there’s
nothing more we can do with this line. Kick back and enjoy the show.
THE
LINE: Belgium +2 Goals (BETTING CLOSED)
Mexico vs. South Korea
vs. 
We will roll this one up to see if anyone wants a piece of
the last-minute action. Many syndicate members harbor tender feelings for both
these teams, so it’ll be fun even should you choose to keep the roll in the
pocket.
Fantastic day. Magnificent match.
THE
LINE: Mexico +2 Goals (rolling up soft from Mexico +1)
Deutschland vs. Sweden
vs. 
It’s finally here…and your friendly bookie has indigestion.
The full three points are needed. The Jungs must deliver.
The Hummels injury makes a slight difference, but Rüdiger,
Ginter, or Süle can likely fill in just fine.
We’ll hold the line.
THE
LINE: Deutschland +2 Goals (holding)
GENTLEMEN,
ENTER YOUR WAGERS
