Playoff Scenarios
We take at look at what might happen if tonight’s results in the four Pool Deciders go to seeding or otherwise ….
A reminder that in Pool A we have EGYPT V CANADA, in Pool B it’s USA v SCOTLAND, then ENGLAND v HONG KONG in Pool C and FRANCE v MALAYSIA to decide Pool D.
And that the Quarter-Finals are A1vB2, C1vD2, D1vC2 and B1vA2 with a draw (a coin-toss perhaps?) to decide the position of the middle two ties.
1. All to seeding
In the first three days every match was won by the higher seeded team, with fourteen 3-0 wins and six 2-1 victories. Should that happen tonight the quarter-finals would be :
EGYPT v SCOTLAND
ENGLAND v MALAYSIA *
FRANCE v HONG KONG *
USA v CANADA
2. One major upset
Should one of the top two seeds be beaten, that would mean seeds #1 and #2 facing each other in the quarter-finals ! Let’s assume that Scotland beating USA is more likely than Canada beating Egypt (they do have the world number 1,2 and 3 after all). That plus the other results going to seeding would give us :
EGYPT v USA
FRANCE v HONG KONG *
ENGLAND v MALAYSIA *
SCOTLAND v CANADA
3. One ‘minor’ upset
More likely, probably, is one of the 5/6 seeds springing an upset. It’s quite possible that both could do so, but for this we’ll assume that Malaysia upset France, which would see quarters like this :
EGYPT v SCOTLAND
ENGLAND v FRANCE *
MALAYSIA v HONG KONG *
USA v CANADA
Actually, you get the same result if the ‘minor’ upset is Hong Kong beating England. And if Hong Kong and Malaysia both produce upsets we’re back to the same matchups in the middle of the draw as in the first two scenarios.
And if we get one major and AND one minor upset, well it all looks pretty familiar!
Who needs to do what
So in the middle of the draw we have the 3/4/5 and 6 seeds from the C and D Pools, and pretty much any combination of those would give us two intriguing quarter-finals. Producing – or avoiding – an upset isn’t necessarily a life-or-death matter, as each of those four teams probably believe they could beat any of the others.
But in the Pool B decider, the loser knows that they will (almost certainly) be up against Egypt in the quarters, so winning that match becomes vital.
And for the C/D teams, that coin-toss or whatever method is used to decide which half they go in, could be similarly decisive for their prospects of advancing. Better make sure there are witnesses for that one !
4. All four upsets
Don’t rush down to the bookmakers, but should all four of tonight’s Pool Deciders go against the seeding, the Quarter-Finals would look …….. exactly as they would if the seeds had won all of them !
Tell you what … let’s just wait and see what happens tonight !!
