matchup and the club enters Monday with an 11-12-6 away

International football badly needed a good World Cup. The jury is yet to deliver a verdict with the knockout rounds still to come, but all indications are that this will not be a good World Cup. Indeed, it is on track to be a great World Cup. Two weeks to the day that the opening match of the tournament between Brazil and Croatia came to a close, the curtain came down on the group stages and what a sensational show it was. We are now already through three quarters of the tournament, but rather than be sad that much of it is over, we should be grateful with what we witnessed. It was a group stage that gave us more special moments than the three previous World Cups combined. A group stage of surprises, where tactically versatile and organized sides shocked the so-called super powers of the game. A group stage that saw the renaissance of 3-5-2, used so well by surprise teams like Netherlands, Costa Rica and Mexico. A group stage of counterattackers, comebacks and headers, trends that the Netherlands used in their demolition of Spain back on Day 2. Their superb pressing and clinical finishing gave us a glimpse of what was to come in Brazil, but not before that look and pass by Daley Blind just before the half-time break. The ball landed on top of the supremely intelligent head of Robin van Persie and his magnificent header over Iker Casillas changed everything. It became the group stage of headers with 27 more following van Persies, but none of them beating it. It became the group stage of comebacks. Spain, massacred by the Dutch 5-1 in the third game of the tournament, was already the second team, after Croatia a day earlier, to lose a game they led. A small, exclusive group of only four from 2010 would grow quickly as Uruguay, Japan, Ecuador, Algeria and Australia joined them in the first week. During their second group games Germany, Ghana, Portugal and USA all managed to not win games against each other that they led in. Even Uruguay, Greece and Algeria had comebacks of their own, all qualifying despite losing their opening World Cup match. Only Spain did that in 2010. It became the group stage of counterattacks, once again ignited by the Dutch over Spain as they scored their last three goals with a combined 29 seconds in possession, and never more highlighted than when Switzerland broke away in the final seconds to score a dramatic, crucial winner over Ecuador. It became the group stage of creative, left-footed masters who glided across the field into space left open by a transition. The group stage of substitute goals, 24 in total, highlighted by Miroslav Klose joining the great Ronaldo on 15 World Cup goals and James Rodriguez dancing his way through the Japanese defence for one of the goals of the tournament. In the end, though, it was the group stage of goals as an incredible 136 went in (there was a total of 145 scored in South Africa). It was no surprise that a wind of caution blew around the stadiums as the third group games took place but before they started the goals per game ratio stood at a wonderful 2.96. It ends the group stage at a beautifully high 2.83. There are still 16 games to go, of course, but no World Cup since 1970 has come close to that average. It wasnt just about the amount of goals, however. Many of the worlds stars were the ones scoring and we already have three world class stars on four goals each through three games. My 23 man squad of the group stages GK – Guillermo Ochoa (Mexico), Keylor Navas (Costa Rica), Vincent Enyeama (Nigeria) D – Serge Aurier (Ivory Coast), Cristian Gamboa (Costa Rica), Kostas Manolas (Greece), Rafa Marquez (Mexico), Mario Yepes (Colombia), Raphael Varene (France), Giancarlo Gonzalez (Costa Rica), Daley Blind (Netherlands). M – Jose Vazquez (Mexico), Hector Herrera (Mexico), Blaise Matuidi (France), Charles Aranguiz (Chile), Toni Kroos (Germany), James Rodriguez (Colombia) F – Neymar (Brazil), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Karim Benzema (France), Thomas Muller (Germany), Arjen Robben (Netherlands), Robin Van Persie (Netherlands) Group Winners – Brazil, Netherlands, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Argentina, Germany & Belgium. For the third time in the last four World Cups, three teams that were not seeded won groups. For the second successive World Cup, the only seed that didnt progress through to the next stage was the previous winners (Spain 2014, Italy 2010). Since the World Cup went to 32 teams in 1998, over the last four World Cups, nine group winners have lost in the next round (average of more than two per World Cup) and there hasnt been a World Cup in that time when all group winners advanced. Runners-up – Mexico, Chile, Greece, Uruguay, Switzerland, Nigeria, USA & Algeria. With that stat in mind it is likely that at least one of these teams will beat their opponent. Look for Greece, Uruguay, possibly Mexico, USA and even Chile to continue this streak. After that? In nine of the last 10 World Cups a group runner-up has made it to at least the semi-final stage. That will be the target of one of these teams going forward. Ranking teams eliminated at this World Cup based on performances in Brazil 32. Honduras31. Cameroon30. Japan29. South Korea28. England27. Iran26. Bosnia & Herzegovina25. Russia24. Portugal23. Australia22. Spain21. Croatia20. Ivory Coast19. Italy18. Ghana17. Ecuador Ranking teams left at this World Cup based on their chances of winning the World Cup 16. Switzerland15. Algeria14. USA13. Greece12. Costa Rica11. Nigeria10. Mexico9. Belgium8. Chile7. Uruguay6. Colombia5. France4. Netherlands3. Germany2. Brazil1. 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Kyle Denbrook, a soccer player from Saint Marys University, took the CIS male athlete of the week honour. Stanley, a fourth-year business administration student from Charlottetown, scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Dalhousie on Friday and tallied again in a 1-0 win over Saint Marys on Sunday.(SportsNetwork.com) - The Ottawa Senators will try to record consecutive wins for the first time since early February when they welcome the sliding Nashville Predators for tonights clash at Canadian Tire Centre. Watch the Senators vs. Predators live on TSN starting at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt. The Senators ended a two-game slide by capping a four-game road trip with Saturdays 5-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets. It was only the second win in the last six games for Ottawa, which last posted consecutive victories when it beat St. Louis and Buffalo on Feb. 4 and 6, respectively. Ottawa has made the playoffs in each of the past two seasons and is trying desperately to get into the Eastern Conference postseason picture for 2014. The Sens are currently four points out of a playoff spot in the East. Eric Gryba, Kyle Turris and Mike Hoffman tallied in the second period for Ottawa, which was able to hold on for Saturdays win despite a ferocious attack by the Jets over the closing 20 minutes. Milan Michalek added a goal and two assists for the Senators, who managed a split of their four-game Canadian road swing after dropping the previous two. Ales Hemsky picked up three helpers and Jared Cowen also tallied to back a 46- save effort from Craig Anderson. The Senators goaltender stopped all 22 shots he faced in the third period when the Jets outshot Ottawa by a 22-7 margin. "No lead is safe until the game is over and that was the case tonight," said Ottawa head coach Paul MacLean. "Our goaltender really held the fort for us there at the end." The Senators are playing four of their next five games at home, but the club is just 13-12-5 in Caanadas capital city this season.dddddddddddd Ottawa has won three straight over the Predators and has won four of the last five meetings in this series. Nashville also has dropped four of its past six road games in this matchup and the club enters Monday with an 11-12-6 away record this season. Nashville recently went 1-5-0 on a six-game homestand and lost the final four tests of that residency. The Predators have scored a total of three goals during the current four-game slide and they were shut out 1-0 by Columbus on Saturday. The Predators fired 28 shots at Sergei Bobrovsky on Saturday, but the Blue Jackets netminder turned aside every one. Artem Anisimov tallied the games lone goal with 6:25 left in the third period. Anisimov entered the neutral zone on the rush and dropped a pass back to James Wisniewski. The defenseman quickly pushed the puck back up to Anisimov, who rushed in on net with a power move and backhanded a shot past Nashville netminder Pekka Rinne. Rinne turned aside 35 shots, but received no offensive support as the Predators lost for the seventh time in their last eight contests. "We played strong as a team, we never quit," said Rinne. "Its a good sign, but obviously right now the only thing we care about is getting points." Nashville is kicking off a three-game road trip tonight and will play seven of its next eight tilts away from Music City. The Predators are 10 points out of a postseason spot in the West and could be headed for a second straight season out of the playoffs. Prior to last season, Nashville had made the postseason tournament in three straight and six of the previous seven years. 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