From afar, it would feel as though Man City have lost a lot, but in the reality they've not lost anything if we are being factual because their squad depth doesn't seem to have falter a bit and they would still dominate if given the slightest of chance to do just that, that's why there wasn't any struggle with those players who've decided to leave, they were allowed for somewhat way less than you'd have expected them to command as a transfer fee, but the players have literally won it all, and perhaps their level competitiveness and hunger would have dropped, understandably, at least even Guardiola complained of it after the world cup break, and led to him benching host of stars and mentioned they were allowed to leave if they wanted to.

Knowing the choices I went for, I don’t think I have an advantage, especially choosing Haaland to score or assist, Arsenal not to score and Man City to win regular time, these are fine margins and we all Man City no longer cares about scoring 100 of goals, they’ll settle to grind out just one, and for their backline no to concede, I like my fantasy world 😬

If the game doesn't end goalless then, I'm pretty sure it will be Over for the goals, going with QPR was an easy decision for me, and I didn't even check the odds, maybe this time, I'll edge my by going for Watford to win and Under 1.5 goals, because Watford aren't going to keep a clean sheet if they manage to win the game, QPR are the second team with the highest most conceded goals in the league last season. but Watford have lost the two highest goal scorers they had last season in Joao Pedro and Ismaila Sarr, so it's should be a struggle today, I reckon.

No way that's gonna happen, I mean a 1-0 Watford win, it's going to be a barren draw, quote me on this 

On the penalties question, You actually missed one Over/Under question, if both options goes Over then it's only right that you get one point, but if a question goes over and the other goes under, it's only right that you miss both, because the problem is that there is no way they can actually which one of the Over/Under you answered and the one you omitted hopefully it won't be needed in this case, and I just get the win without stressing you into penalties 

Parity restored, Damn! You survive until tomorrow, at least before I get your ass whopped for real...

And Oops there is a mistake on your final submission for the penalties questions, you didn't answer all the questions, and It would be a real shame if that had to be the deciding factor here, and I also noticed there are a lot people that made the same mistake.

It's supposed to be 8 questions, most people answered just 7 or maybe less and it's going to quite hard tricky to even grade them, I hope it doesn't have to come to that.

Nah! He went about it wrong and his interpretation of the rules isn't correct either, but you also completely misinterpreted him, he was talking about goal difference, here In a scenario where his opponent submitted very late and by then about 9 of his opponents questions were invalid, so he was awarded a 3-0 win, but I guess the questions he got correctly were much more than, so he wanted the opponent only questions that counted should be valid against his owns answers, which would have earned him a 7-1 or 6-0 differential, If that helps you understand better.


@mv1986 I get your drift and you do have a point from an angle, but since we've never had an opposing scenario, we just would never know what the decision would have been, but what would you have clamored for if all the answers you submitted were wrong and the said opponent only valid question was correct, would you have agreed he should be awarded the win (@cryptofrka and @Trofo, what would have been the decision in that case, because I don't think we've been there before, and it's just a matter of time, if we keep having late submissions before we have one), and this has actually been discussed a couple of times already, there isn't a fair measure that favors everyone, I lost or drew a match a few rounds ago, when I could say the asked question should have been void and I would have been right but others too would have a point as to why the question should remain valid, but to be honest, any decision made about cases like this as it negatively affects one person, it positively affects the other.

If they have to count all your correct answers result because an opponent who submitted late have one valid question, and give you the entire points difference, then they would always need wait in subsequent scenarios, like when you had all questions wrong and let's say the opponent submitted late and none of his answers were valid, then such situation should be declared a draw ?

My final opinion on the situation is that, there's no common ground that would favor every participant, hence the need why both Trofo and Cryptofrka always had to make decision on certain instances, but these calls are never easy one to call, and I don't remember them calling one to directly favor either of them, so I believe it is very unfair to say those words questioning their integrity about a decision, they had to skip participating in the first round, solely because of opinions such as this.

To just make this whole situation of going back and forth over with, I would suggest an immediate implementation of late entries being null and void all together and not just a couple of questions, especially for division 1 and 2 players, since those divisions are not filled with first time participants.

I just created my first real draft and I'm really glad with a couple of injuries we've seen enough before I fall for traps very early and it's going to be tougher now unlike last year with technically 3 wild cards with the World Cup break, although I've not read the total rules if there are some new implementations or not.

My current draft projects Chelsea to have an awesome season, perhaps ahead of Arsenal and along side Man City, while Liverpool not a very promising one, however, the best part for me is that Guardiola would have a much less chances of playing with my emotions with guessing who or not would start a Man City match, If I can easily go for more suiting alternatives or moreover there are less options to think about to begin with.

I would still pick Fabinho over Lavia, honestly...  Some of the players Liverpool let go were due to leave honestly, but I don't consider Lavia for Fabinho an upgrade to the team by any criteria whatsoever if you ask me. But the relationship between Liverpool and Southampton is just what it is, sometimes get more value than they pay for but other times it's the contrast opposite, so I'd say they are just paying back for the good deals they've from the Saints in the past.

3 out of the 4 African teams that were present at the world cup made it out of their group, at expense of teams likes, Canada, Brazil, Italy, Argentina and Germany who could have predicted a tournament like this ? and the only African team that didn't make it out of their group was Zambia, and they also finished 3rd place in the group, so I really can't stress enough of how proud I am of these teams, it shows even women football is going way beyond just the European and American domination.

Morocco might also be heading for the round of 16 as well because Germany couldn't find a way past South Korea yet, it still 1 goal apiece with less than 60 seconds plus stoppage time left to play in the game so it might just be the end of the road for them as well, however, Morocco would also need to make they keep their own end of the bargain tight too by not allowing any further surprise from Colombia.

EDIT:

It's a 9 minute added time in both games, that's still plenty of time for some twists, but Germany don't have much longer to get an answer, it's now or never for them.

Worrisome, I get it that the attack seemed to working just fine and free flowing at the moment, but does Jurgen Klopp ever prioritizes midfielders, because that's the is an absolute need for that and it would have been in the teams best interest to have deep-lying midfielder and then a conventional CDM with high consistency, if he still plans to make TAA come up the field because he almost Liverpool best play maker in my opinion, so having 2 CDMs when defending will often cover up for his defensive frailties, because to me it's a big ask of to be that creative in the center of the pack and up front while still expecting a world class defensive abilities of him, especially when he's the one that often get caught up in those 2 on 1, or 3 on 2 situation, with VVD nowhere in sight ? I've not been keep tabs with the Liverpool's transfer dealing other the departures to middle east so I might be missing a couple significant details, but with how free flowing the has been scoring and Darwin's form in the preseason, Liverpool are conceding way too many goals, a slight diversion from the native 4-3-3 to 4-2-3-1 or 3-2-4-1 would be a master piece for Liverpool from my view, other than the fact that it could limit Liverpool's threat on their fast-paced counter attacking football, It would do their defensive stance a whole lot of good.

There is a lot of surprises still coming up in the female World Cup, and I believe expanding it to 32 teams now makes a lot of sense because some of the teams that qualified wouldn't have had a chance if we were still was 8 or 4 teams short., I can't believe Jamaica advancing in a group with France and Brazil, and more so they did it by just scoring 1 goal, and conceding none from all 3 matches, crazy and surreal! and We probably should expect the same of the Men's world expanding to 48 teams, the world seems to be catching up real fast with these football powerhouses.


---------------------------------------------

As for Tennis question all it took to get the final result "0-2", was just a matter of the top 4 seeds playing their first, now we have the number 3 and 4 seeds eliminated already

Oh, I didn't think of that to be honest but for quite a lot of ATP tours, the top seeds don't get to play at all until after the deadline, especially for the Grand Slams if I'm not mistaken, they usually play after the deadline, and that was the case in this current Washington Open as well, the first of the top four seeds to play was Hurkacz and the games was scheduled for 20:45 GMT +1, which is at least 3+ hours forum time after the deadline had passed.

The schedules are often out as soon as you have questions, I'd guess. As you've pointed this type of question is also tough to navigate and have it's own probability of a potential withdrawal before deadline as we did have a couple of weeks ago, but still it's up to the your team final discretion, It's just me throwing in another suggestion as it was requested of us.

If I was asked to pick a player to go the furthest of the four top seeds, I likely would have gone with Hurkacz given his match I watched against Djokovic in the recent Wimbledon open, it's was top notch and his service game was on some insane rocket speed hit, but I must have forgotten this is completely different surface.

@Cryptofrka and @Trofo, I believe this another good question angle, I mean asking who would go the furthest of the top four seeds, or even 5th to 8th seeds, it sure would bring more varying answers than more stereotypical ones, I guess.

All my few years of playing, even when at the rock bottom, I've never missed a round.

The most I missed was from last season, and it a Friday night football from Serie A, IIRC, but the I got a default pick and I didn't get any point with that, neither would I have If I did enter my prediction manually. And also, I had one nap gone too long for a FPL transfer window, but that didn't cost me anything either.

----------------------

Tempus fugit, I thought I still had a whole month of preparation to make, reality just hit me earlier yesterday that the whole drama is just around the corner, and I had to just put into my note as usual the pools that I'll be joining needed to pay for and their due dates so I don't mess anything up. I guess it's just that tough to be completely organized when you're on the brink of relocating, coupled with the entire new setup and packing of boxes and whatnot huh!.



@Buway, just ignore the last line on my note, alright  

Dembele is only listed because he was part of the squad that travelled for the tour, and he was also listed as being part of the substitutes by Barcelona official twitter handle pretty for the same reason, but if you watch the live game and saw the pregame lineup he wasn't listed amongst the list of substitutes by the club.

Here is a proof of the live match lineup and lists of substitutes for both teams.



Image Credit:
https://twitter.com/kalyboss24/status/1686586628221841408

Dembele didn't make the match day squad, not even on the bench for the match against AC Milan, I guess that pretty much sums it up that his transfer is imminent and is just about a matter of time before the final details are being release, which could be a handful, given the passing of the deal for his 50m euros release clause.

If indeed Dembele was requested for by Enrique, then I have little doubts about PSG not willing to go the extra length to secure his signature.

The Lioness may just seem to have found their rhythm at about the right the time, and a number players from the Super Falcons are pretty banged up, and playing with discomfort or the other, but there is still quite a time for them be in better shape than they were against Ireland.

It should be a great clash indeed and battle of wills, because the Falcons are quite as good in the midfield areas while having two of the most dangerous attackers in Europe too, but England would need to go through a difficult task of dominating the middle of the field if they are break the Falcons, Imo.



My major surprise of the would be the defending champions inability to get all 3 points too, however, that may still not seem to have affect them from getting a better opponent for the round of 16, but if their performance remains below this par, I'm afraid they wouldn't stand a chance to defend the title.

That's gutsy bet! I would say, I understand that USA have lacked the very high standards they usually produce at this stage and have become a victim of their own past high standard, and although a draw would be enough to USA qualify for the next round, but given the fine margin between a draw, and losing a game that'd see them get eliminated. I would back the USA not to take such risk, and get the win in a seemingly easy fashion.

Today's fixture looks like cliché to me, I'm taking the England, USA and Denmark all to win their respective fixtures @ over 2.50 Odds on local sportsbook,
while speaking of the groups standing itself. I think Portugal should be able slow the USA down a bit and you'd expect a rampant Netherlands to take it all out on Vietnam, so there is the chance of Netherlands finishing as group leaders, except if they themselves are not able to wreck havoc at Vietnam's side of the goal net.