Once more unto the breach

by smbrannan

Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered! Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Prepare for battle, and be shattered!

Isaiah 8:9

Here we go. It’s the 5th edition of the Beautiful Pool, and what better way to kick things off than with a quote from Isaiah. I don’t know how things will play out in Germany, but it seems likely that there will be some shattering. At least, I hope so.

There are 38 participants along for the ride, with one doubling up to make 39 entries. That is definitely enough to make things interesting. Most are grizzled veterans, but eighteen of you are new, which is great. We love to welcome new victims make new friends.

I should introduce myself to the newbies. Contrary to what most of you seem to think, I am very ignorant about fútbol/soccer, and sports generally. I don’t have any favourite teams, or follow anything. But I am very willing to jump on the bandwagon if a local team is doing well. I have been irregularly running a pool for the Euro and World Cups since 2010. COVID really messed things up so I missed a few, and then I was going through some things personally1 and didn’t do the most recent WC in Qatar2.

I will send a summary of everyone’s picks shortly (tomorrow). There were a couple of technical issues with 2 entries that I am looking into, and I’m chasing a couple of fee delinquencies. While you are waiting, SCO vs GER is this afternoon at 3 pm (Toronto time) if you want to get in the swing of things.

PS: Everyone who signed up for the pool should be receiving this, but I am going to prune the list to remove anyone who is NOT participating. If you are NOT in the pool, but want me to leave you on the list, just let me know.

  1. By personal things I mean that Heidi and I were having too much fun in NYC. Now we are back in boring Toronto, so here we are.
  2. But 2 time winner Jim T took the reins. I believe many of you were referred by him.