Blood and Thunder World Cup Day 1 Review

So, that was exciting. 27 games in the placement groups, lead to the scores in the groups now sitting as below (assuming one point for each win):

BRACKET STRUCTURE COURTESY OF THE WOMENS FLAT TRACK DERBY ASSOCIATION (DAY 1)

GROUP 1 GROUP 2 GROUP 3 GROUP 4 GROUP 5 GROUP 6 GROUP 7 GROUP 8
A NEW ZEALAND 2 FRANCE 2 SWEDEN 2 FINLAND 2 AUSTRALIA 2 ENGLAND 2 CANADA 2 USA 2
B NORWAY 1 SWITZERLAND 0 WEST INDIES 0 SCOTLAND 1 ITALY 0 GERMANY 0 DENMARK 0 PUERTO RICO 0
C SOUTH AFRICA 0 BRAZIL 1 JAPAN 0 COLOMBIA 1 BELGIUM 1 SPAIN 0 ARGENTINA 0 THE NETHERLANDS 0
D WALES 1 PORTUGAL 1 CHILE 1 MEXICO 0 GREECE 1 IRELAND 2
While Derby Central is working hard on a more complete review of the day, we'll try to summarise a bit before we talk about Scotland.

We believe that the structure for the tournament is that the 4th-placed team in any group will drop out after the group rounds, the 3rd position will take the Consolation position with the same number as their group, and the 1st and 2nd positions will enter the Elimination rounds to play for ranking.

So, New Zealand, France, Sweden, Finland, Australia, Ireland, Canada and the USA are all safely through to the Elimination rounds already, as 2pts would already place them all at 1st or 2nd place in their group.

South Africa, Switzerland, Mexico, Italy are probably already "out" after losing both their games, with only a tough game left today, although Switzerland have a chance at winning their game v Brazil and bringing their group to a points-difference call; West Indies and Japan will play to see which of them gets into the Consolation round for their group today, as will Germany & Spain, Denmark & Argentina, Puerto Rico & The Netherlands.

Speaking of Scotland in particular, they played two bouts on Thursday:

After some brilliant play against Mexico, Team Scotland picked up their important first win, displaying good control of the track for the entire 40 minute game. Beautiful jamming from Jenny "Attackbar" Gow, Marshall Lawless and Rogue Runner in particular, with Mexico's jammers overwhelmed by the usual solid play by "Crazylegs" Parry, Ciderella, (Steph) Skinner Alive, "Splat" Kerr, and Grace "Mona" Maclean on the blocking side.

Finland proved a tougher test for Scotland, as they were always going to be. Nevertheless, the scores after the first half were within 15 points of each other, and it looked like Scotland were still within reach of a win. After Finland's Mia, jamming, gave away 3 power jams in a row, it looked even more achievable, despite some very hard blocking from Finland making it hard for any of Scotland's talented jammers to pick up points. However, some excellent performances from Finland's star jammer, SuperMaria, and a little penalty trouble, kept Finland's lead ahead, resulting in a Scotland loss.

With 1 pt in the group, Scotland will enter the Consolation round if they fail to defeat Colombia today at 7pm. Given Finland's performance against the Colombians, however, it seems most likely that Scotland will prevail, gaining the 2nd point in the group to place them into the Elimination round as the 2nd place seed from Group 4. (This makes them very likely to play Australia as their first opponent!).

Outside of Team Scotland, but still involving Scottish Players: Auld Reekie's Lilo & Stitches contributed strongly to Belgium's jamming line up (under the first part of her birth surname, deBuyl), and Sarah McMillan and Chemikill Hazard were big parts of Ireland's lineups. Jen Sykes, who spent some time down in London, still counts as a Scottish skater now she's up in Glasgow again, and she did her usual sterling work as part of the mighty English team, and Crazily Insanne at least got to play against the USA as part of Team Netherlands (although of course, no-one is going to defeat team USA!). Scottish referee Righteous Oxide was also spotted officiating several of the bouts, and Granite City's smacklemore was in evidence commentating (including on the Scotland/Finland game).

Our full score matrix from Day One is below (Flat Track Stats are also tracking scores as usual):

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2014  (40 MINUTE BOUTS)

TRACK 1 (ROLL-LINE TRACK) TRACK 2 (BLOOD & THUNDER TRACK) TRACK 3 (TBD TRACK)
3:00PM NEW ZEALAND (218) VS. NORWAY (59) AUSTRALIA (513) VS ITALY (5) 3:10PM CANADA (290) VS. ARGENTINA (50)
4:20PM SOUTH AFRICA (97) VS. WALES (200) BELGIUM  (174) VS. GREECE (96) 4:30PM USA (505) VS. NETHERLANDS (15)
5:40PM FRANCE (369) VS. SWITZERLAND (27) ENGLAND (272) VS. GERMANY (31) 5:50PM FINLAND (248) VS. COLOMBIA (32)
7:00PM BRAZIL (167) VS. PORTUGAL (144) SPAIN (74) VS. IRELAND (203) 7:10PM SCOTLAND (207) VS. MEXICO (45)
8:20PM SWEDEN (319) VS. WEST INDIES (41) CANADA (301) VS. DENMARK (23) 8:30PM AUSTRALIA (349)VS. BELGIUM (24)
9:40PM JAPAN (53) VS. CHILE (296) USA (637) VS. PUERTO RICO (3) 9:50PM ITALY (82) VS. GREECE (125)
11:00PM FINLAND (126) VS. SCOTLAND (78) NEW ZEALAND (315) VS. SOUTH AFRICA (15) 11:10PM ENGLAND (290) VS. SPAIN (20)
00:20AM(FRI) COLOMBIA (163) VS. MEXICO (75) NORWAY (150) VS. WALES (105) 00:30AM(FRI) GERMANY (129) VS. IRELAND (142)
01:40AM(FRI) FRANCE (315) VS. BRAZIL (14) SWEDEN (459) VS. JAPAN (0) 01:50AM(FRI) SWITZERLAND (132) VS. PORTUGAL (139)