From: Hildegaard Beauregard [ljlife@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 6:52 AM
To: Lee Jerome Life
Subject: Brazil, Turkey; Mexico, Italy

Reporting from World Cup Watch Central.

Turkey needed a 3-goal swing in their favor in
combined results with Costa Rica, and they got twice
that. Brazil and Turkey blasted Costa Rica out with
two 3-goal wins: Brazil 5-2 over Costa Rica, Turkey
3-0 over China.

Brazil seems to have hit a stride and is playing
better on the attack in each match. They have to be
one of the favorites now that France and Argentina are
gone and the way they are playing. And the way Italy
crawled into the elimination stage.

Mexico picked Italy apart for about two thirds of the
match, but Italy got a late goal to salvage a draw and
second place in the group, thanks also to Ecuador
putting away Croatia, 1-0. Mexico was happy with the
single point, since they won the group 3 points clear.

Will old friends meet? As the winner of Group G,
Mexico will face the second-place finisher of Group D,
which includes the U.S. In the tight finish coming up
for that group Friday morning, the U.S. would be happy
to get through in second place, considering all the
difficult possibilities with the Korea v. Portugal
showdown. The winner of that match would win the group
(unless the U.S. beat Poland by at least 3 goals), and
the U.S. needs only a draw with Poland to ensure they
will be the other team to advance. If the U.S. beats
Poland while Korea and Portugal draw, the U.S. will
win the group. So, a match between regional rivals
U.S. and Mexico seems a bit more likely.

Meanwhile, in the first set of games that begin at
11:30 tonight (Pacific Time), it's the fate of Group
H: Japan, Russia, Belgium and Tunisia. Japan plays
Tunisia, arguably the weakest of the group but not
mathematically eliminated. This group ends up being
the tightest race, because the point standings going
into the final matches are:

Japan 4
Russia 3
Belgium 2
Tunisia 1

Japan is in the driver seat: a win also wins the group
and they advance. A winner in the Belgium v. Russia
match could win the group if Japan loses, and Russia
could win the group if Japan and Tunisia draw. For
Japan to fail to advance at all, Tunisia would have to
win by at least 3 goals. Japan looks in good shape.

What's in store for the teams that advance from Group
H? The winner will play Turkey, and the second-place
team has to face -- Brazil.

More riots in Moscow?

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