The Beautiful Pool

They’re the second best team in the world, and there’s no higher praise than that.

Kevin Keegan¹

ENG can take some comfort from that Kevin Keegan quote, I guess. The English will probably blame the EU or something, but ESP were clearly superior, IMHO.

And isn’t this guy² amazing? Just turned 17.

And just like that, it’s over. It feels like we were just starting to get to know each other, but it’s time to say good-bye. I hope you had at least a little bit of fun, and that you will come back³ for the World Cup in 2026.

Here are the final top rankings.

And the winners are….

Richard H was also tied for first at the end of the Group stage, but can’t claim two prizes, so his share was redistributed to the others.

I will send the winnings by e-transfer soon (trust me).

Click HERE for the all the final standings

Newbies vs. Grizzled Veterans

Hey look at this! The Grizzled Vets surged to finish 2.4 points ahead of the Newbies. The Vets also snagged 60% of the prize money, so maybe they knew what they were doing all along. Since all of you are now Vets, your chances of winning something in the next pool are looking better and better.

The Beautiful Pool Hall of Fame

-30-

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Keegan ↩︎
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamine_Yamal ↩︎
3. And bring at least two Newbies each. ↩︎

The thing about football – the important thing about football – is that it is not just about football.

Terry Pratchett

The UEFA mega-brains have decided that this year’s Euro Cup is to be a rematch of the English versus the Spanish Armada. So I made a picture of English coach Gareth Southgate giving his own Tilbury speech while the battle rages behind him¹. You’re welcome.

Not a lot has changed in the leader board, but Ozgur T’s hopes of winning are fading. There is a 4-way tie for first place, and 3 of those correctly picked ENG and ESP as the finalists. Alas, Ozgur T did not, so there is no way that he can be the winner.

As usual, the full standings are available by clicking on the link below:

SEMI FINAL RESULTS

We need to say goodbye to a few more participants who can’t improve on their score as they didn’t pick either ESP or ENG in the final. Heidi VW, Dario P1, Ken K, Sara+Milton and Sayaka T are officially done. It was great while it lasted. See you next time, I hope.

The Newbies and Vets, are almost tied again 57.7 to 57.3. Who cares, right?

The final update will come out after the final and I’ll calculate the winnings. Enjoy the game².

1. Actually, a suit of armour would be an improvement on the dweebish dad-shirts he wears to the matches. I am no fashionista (that’s for sure) but, come on, he needs to sharpen up. ↩︎
2. There is no way ENG can win, IMHO, unless they succeed in boring ESP into a false sense of security and then sneaking in an amazing goal at the last second (like they did to poor NED). ↩︎

By 1546, Carlos I of Spain dominated almost all of the territories in the region of the Netherlands, but in the mid-1560’s, the Dutch began a revolt that become known as the Eighty Years war. It wasn’t until 1648 that the matter was settled with the formation of the Dutch Republic¹.

Ozgur T, who remains in first place, thinks there will be a NED v ESP rematch in Berlin next Sunday. He might be right. He has a pretty good record.

There are other possibilities for the final:

• FRA v ENG: a replay of the Battle of Agincourt², to settle it once and for all.
• ESP v ENG: Francis Drake may not be so lucky in the English Channel and this time the Spanish Armada might prevail³,
• FRA v NED: I didn’t know it⁴, but France and the Dutch Republic were at war from 1672 to 1678⁵. Both sides incurred deaths and casualties in excess of 100,000. Let’s hope any rematch is settled amicably.

Here are the pool leaders at the end of the quarter finals:

Ozgur T shouldn’t feel too smug about his lead. There are still 21 points to be awarded, and his 3 point lead could disappear in a heartbeat. Check out the complete standings at the link below to see how close you are to knocking him from the top spot.

QUARTER FINAL RESULTS

It is all over⁶ at the bottom of the pool. Glenn C accumulated 39 points, but his picks for the semi-finals (GER and ROU) have both been eliminated so he can’t improve his score. He is hereby awarded the Merci prize, and we thank him for playing. I will refund his $20 entry fee at the end of the tournament.

There are a few others who can’t pick up any more points. I wish I could give them more but rules are rules; so it’s goodbye to Andrew B, Austin M, Letizia C, and Sadhana V. I hope they will be good sports and stick around to the end to contgratulate the winner.

The Newbies are coming in with an average score of 55.2, and the Vets have 54.3. That doesn’t seem statistically significant⁷, but it should encourage anyone who was afraid to sign-up because they didn’t know enough about fútbol: Everyone, Newbies and Vets, are in the same boat.

I actually feel bad that TUR didn’t make the semi-finals, and not just because I picked them to advance. The NED v TUR game was genuinely exciting, compared to the other games I’ve watched⁸. Hopefully the semis will be gripping.

Look for another update after the semi finals.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighty_Years%27_War ↩︎
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt ↩︎
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Armada ↩︎
4. There are a lot of things I don’t know, TBH. ↩︎
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Dutch_War ↩︎
6. Except for the crying, as the saying goes. ↩︎
7. If someone wants to do a statistical analysis I’ll happily share the data. I can’t be bothered. ↩︎
8. Especially compared to ENG v SUI which was dull, dull, and dull. ↩︎

Ladies and gentlemen we have a new leader.

Newbie, Ozgur T racked up a perfect score in the Round of 16, picking up 24 points, and is sitting pretty in the top spot. Kudos to Veteran Sayaka T too, who also correctly picked every Round of 16 winner, moving from the lower circles of Hell solidly to the middle of the pack with 49 points.

Here’s the current lay of the land:

It’s also a different story in the lower circles. I am no longer low man on the totem pole. Now it’s Heidi VW and Glenn C, with Andrew B avoiding ignomy by a hair. It’s looking pretty grim for my immediate family; likely that one of us will get their entry fee refunded.

As before, the rest of you are stuck in the middle, and time is running out for you to break away. Click the link below to see the complete standings.

ROUND OF 16 RESULTS

There seems to be no significant difference between the performance of Newbies and Vets with average scores of 47.7 and 48.1.

Don’t look away, there’s still lots of drama to come. POR and ENG are not looking particularly strong, and there are three other countries¹ still in the running which none of you have picked to take the cup. If one of these dark horses goes all the way, then it could be Slaughter on 10th Avenue.

Look for another update after the quarter finals.

1. SUI, NED and TUR. ↩︎

“In football, everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team.”

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

Decisive action has been taken. The person responsible for the errors in the Group Stage scoring calculations has been “dealt with”¹. Rigorous new procedures have been established² to make sure that we don’t make the same mistake again³.

Sadly, we lost a couple of participants who didn’t submit picks for the remaining games. I want to thank Pete F and Asim A for coming this far, and truly hope that they come back for the Beautiful Pool (2026 USMexCan World Cup Edition). Really, please come back and spread the word.

With the preliminaries out of the way, we now head into the rough and tumble. The Round of 16 is already underway, and you may already be regretting your choices, but for the record, here are all of your picks for the remaining games:

Elimination Round Picks

By far, ESP is the most popular choice to go all the way, with GER a distant second. Some of you still cling to the notion that a rematch of the GER v ENG 1966 World Cup is in the works. We shall see.

Puh-lee-zzz, check to make sure that your picks have been recorded correctly; especially those of you who sent in pictures rather than the spreadsheet. Speak now or forever hold your peace.

Barring any unexpected/unforseen/unplanned developments, the next update will be at the end of the Round of 16. See you then.

1. Just between us, he wasn’t very good at his job and nobody liked him. Good riddance, I say. ↩︎
2. But you should still double and triple check everything. We are only human, after all. ↩︎
3. Any further scoring mistakes will be very different. ↩︎

This is my worst nightmare. Even worse than coming in last in my own pool¹.

I made a mistake² when calculating the results at the end of the Group Stage. Those of you who picked Austria to make it through didn’t get any points, even though they came first. When I fixed it, I found that there was actually a four way tie for first place. Here are the revised leaders:

Here is a link to a revised table showing that corrected scores.

CORRECTED GROUP STAGE RESULTS

My apoligies to poor Letizia for getting her hopes up. I guess this is like having a goal disqualified after VAR review. The 175 loonies will be divided evenly among the 4 leaders.

I will send out a table with everyone’s picks for the remaining games as soon as possible, but it may be late tomorrow, or even Monday. It’s a long weekend, and the staff at Beautiful Pool HQ is slacking off.

1. Even worst than dreaming that I’m back at university and have to write an exam after skipping classes all semester, which is still something that wakes me up periodically. ↩︎
2. In my master spreadsheet, I used the abbreviation AUS, instead of AUT, for Austria as the Group D winner. ↩︎

If you need a reminder to submit your picks for the Elimination Round (and beyond), this is it.

I have most of them, but some of you are cutting it close. The deadline is noon, Toronto time, on Saturday 29 June 2024.

You have been warned.

All hail newbie, Letizia C, as the winner of the Group Stage of the Beautiful Pool (Euro 2024 Edition). Letizia has won the right to claim 25% of the pool (less $20)¹, which means that 175 loonies will be coming her way at the end of the tournament². Congrats Letizia.

Here’s who she beat out to be able to sit atop that pile of loonies:

If you enjoy watching others suffer, spare a moment for the 5 folks at the bottom of the heap. Pete F joined me at the nadir of the rankings, and believe me this is not a happy place to be. We at the bottom may be slow starters, but there are only 11 points separating us from Letizia, and there are 57 points up for grabs in the Knockout Round and beyond. So it will be easy for us to come from behind and win this thing. Hope springs eternal, and all that.

If you don’t see your name above, you are in the middle of the pack and still very much in the running. To see the complete standings please click the link below to download the results. There is a legend below the table explaining the bold, normal and strikethrough text.

Finally, some of you have asked whether you are Newbies or Grizzled Veterans. This puzzles me as I thought you would remember whether you had taken part in the Beautiful Pool before. Apparently this isn’t as big a deal for you as I thought. The Newbies are now edging ever so slightly ahead, with an average score of 29, compared to 28.4 for the Vets. It’s not a good look for the Vets, but it seems that Jim T referred some highly skilled participants from his 2022 Qatar World Cup Pool.

Really finally…. One of the terrific but frustrating aspects of tournaments when all the teams are highly skilled, is the unpredictability of the outcome. Based on your collective picks, SVK, HUN, SCO, AUS, ROU, SVN, ALB, and GEO should have been eliminated . And yet most were not; only HUN, SCO and ALB. More than that, rather than being eliminated AUS and ROU came in at the top of their groups.

Really really finally, please get your picks for the remaining games in to me ASAP. The entry forms were linked in the previous update, but here they are again:

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask or reply in the comments. We are here to help.

1. Consistent with previous years, Nobody can win more than one prize, so if Letizia comes first or second in the final pool, the Group Stage prize will be redirected to the five six of you currently tied for second. ↩︎
2. Or the equivalent value in Interac e-transfer at the sole discretion of Beautiful Pool management. ↩︎

I will send the results from the Group Stage shortly, but I want you to read this first…..

Now that the Group Stage is complete, you need to make your picks for the remaining games. I have pre-populated the form with the teams that made it to the Knockout Round so you just need to pick from the drop down menus¹. This is the method that I much prefer, but if for some reason you can’t do this you can print the PDF version, write-in your picks, scan the page and email it to me.

You need to make sure that I get your picks BEFORE the first game of the Knockout Stage: SUI v ITA at 12 noon (Toronto time) on 29 June.

Make sure to include your name and email in the entry form and rename the file to include your name.

If you are still reading this, you have gone too far. Go back and click on the link to download one of the entry sheets and send it to me.

PS: I also updated the Rules and Regulations page so the latest entry forms are available there too. If you have any issues, just let me know or add a comment.

It’s a dumb game, and this is a dumb pool, and that’s why I’m in last place.

Here are the leaders after every team had completed 2 games (i.e. on 22 June). For first place, it’s nice to see the names of a couple of old timers battling it out with two newbies. Who will prevail? It is a mystery, but it will all be resolved later this week. Stay tuned.

Last place is also very much in flux, but right now the dubious honour goes to me. That too will change¹.

If you don’t see your name above, then follow the link below for a summary of results so far². Have a look to see how you are doing, but don’t despair, a lot is riding on each country’s final group stage game. Only ESP, POR and GER are assured of making it to the next phase. (Those of you with keen eye will notice that I reorganized the results a bit. The 3rd place teams are now in columns adjacent to the 1st and 2nd in each Group.)

Link to GROUP STAGE – 2 Game Interim Results

There’s no clear evidence that the Grizzled Veterans are bringing significant wisdom to their picks this time. The average Newbie score is 29.4 and the average Vet is marginally better at 29.8³.

Look for another update at the end of the Group stage. At that time I will also upload the entry sheet for the rest of the games.

1. I hope. ↩︎
2. The best possible score at this point is 44, and each participant’s current score is shown beside their name. These scores are tentative and they will change, either up or down, depending on the results of the final Group Stage games. ↩︎
3. Although it must be said that the Veterans would be doing quite a bit better if my dismal picks could be excluded. Sorry about that Vets. ↩︎

Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes, and at the end, the Germans win.

GARY LINEKER

This is important. I have spent countless hours compiling your entries¹, and here’s what it all boils down to:

This chart shows the number of times each country was chosen (by you) to make it to the Knockout Round². Only 16 teams can make it through, so if you, collectively, know what you are doing it’s going to be good-bye to SVK, HUN, SCO, AUT, ROU, SVN, ALB, and GEO. Personally, and based on the tiny bit of research I did, I think HUN will do better than this. But, really, you shouldn’t listen to me.

This is even more important. Please click on the link below to download the summary of everyone’s picks. Check your entry carefully to make sure I didn’t bugger it up. First and second place is shown on the left, and the 3rd place finishers are in the 6 columns on the right of the page (A3 means 3rd place in Group A, B3 is 3rd place in Group B, etc, etc.)

Click HERE to see all the entries.

That’s all I have for the moment. I’ll send an update part way through the group stage so you can see how you are doing. I have to go figure out how to watch the games. We cut the cable when we returned to Canada and AFAIK I don’t have access to any service that broadcasts sports³.

1. Not really. ↩︎
2. One of you got creative and picked ESP to finish first and second in Group B, which I hadn’t anticipated. ↩︎
3. Maybe I could come over to your house? ↩︎

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.

This is going to be short and sweet.

If you are receiving this, it means that you have either signed up for the Euro2024 pool, or I have reason to believe that you might.

If you are in the first group: thank you and stand-by. I will send a recap of everyone’s picks once the final tally is in.

If you are in the second group: what are you waiting for????

The deadline is midnight on Thursday and it is approaching very fast. Don’t just stand there, get your picks in to me ASAP.

That is all. You may now return to your usual activities, whatever they may be.

I’m a procrastinator, you’re a procrastinator, but you know who aren’t procrastinators? The 12 lovely people who have submitted their Beautiful Pool picks so far. That’s who.

This is shaping up to be a more intimate version of the pool, but that’s OK. And there is still time for a surge of entries to come in before the midnight 13 June deadline. So get out there and recruit your friends, neighbours, colleagues, wives/husbands, ex-wives/ex-husbands, whoever… just spread the word.

Here’s a hot tip: So far no-one has picked Albania to make it out of the group stage. So take a flyer on an underdog. Who knows, maybe it will give you an edge over everyone else¹.

1. Or maybe everyone else is on the right track, what do I know? Whatever you do, don’t take fútbol/soccer advice from me. I know nothing.

It is nearly time to install some mini-flags on your car to show support for your country. The competition begins on 14 June, which is less than two weeks away.

You can tell that things are getting serious because UEFA has released the offical song for the competition. Here at the Beautiful Pool headquarters, we think it is awful, as usual.

We have been working on more meaninful things, like getting your entry forms ready, and I’m pleased to say that work is done. You can go to the rules and regulations page TODAY and download the form and make your picks. Here is the link:

Beautiful Pool Rules and Regulations

Thanks for coming back to the pool. I haven’t done this since 2018 so I really don’t know how many will come on board. You can help by spreading the word and sharing the link to beautifulpool.org

That’s all for now, talk later.

Now that the first game is less than a month away, it’s time to start working on the Beautiful Pool for Euro 2024. There are many ways to approach it.

For example, you could look to the wisdom of crowds and make your picks based on the bookmakers’ odds. At this point, that would lead you to favour England’s Three Lions (what??? That can’t be right.).

Or you could take a more intuitive approach and select based on the most stylish uniforms, like these:

Euro 2024 kits revealed: Home and away shirts for England, Wales, Scotland, Germany, Spain, Belgium and more | Football News | Sky Sports

Or, you could do some actual research on the performance of each team. The link below to the Guardian would be good place to start:

Euro 2024 power rankings: a look at the 24 teams going to Germany | Euro 2024 | The Guardian

Orrrrr….

You could just choose to believe that this time it will be different for your team¹.

Ya dancer! ‘Mon Scotland

However you want to attack the problem, will be OK with me.

Everything you need to know about the Beautiful Pool (including downloads of the entry forms) is now available here…

Euro 2024 Rules and Regulations

Good luck and please tell your friends,

Stuart

1. A phenomenon that Maple Leafs fans are intimately familiar with.

In the olden days, I used to run pools for the World Cup and the Euro Championship. Then things changed and I didn’t¹. Now, things have changed again and the “Beautiful Pool” will rise from the dead, for the 2024 European Championship.

Get ready! Tell your friends².

And because everything has to have an AI spin these days, here are some pics of Donald Trump scoring the winning goal. Cause he is a winner³.

1. But Dr. Tiessen very ably stepped in during my absence.
2. Definitely! Tell your enemies too; I don’t care so long as they pay the entrance fee. Send me their email addresses, or better yet get them to subscribe to this blog.
3. In his own dark twisted fantasies, that is.