four World Cups, nine group winners have lost in the next ro

Canadas Dominique Maltais won the silver medal in the Olympic womens snowboard cross event in Sochi on Sunday. Its the second Olympic podium for Maltais, a native of Petite-Rivière-Saint-François, Que., who was the bronze medallist at the 2006 Turin Olympics. "In the final I just wanted to go full on," said Maltais. "Today was my day. Im so so happy its done and I made it and I finished on the podium." In 2010, Maltais crashed during her final Olympic training run, failed to advance past the elimination stage and finished in 20th place. "Its a good revenge for Vancouver," said Maltais "I wanted to prove to the world that I could do better than in Vancouver. I wanted to enjoy everything, especially this one as I knew it will be the last one. I never tried so hard as I did for this." Canada now has 14 medals at the Games. Earlier in the day, alpine skier Jan Hudec took bronze in the mens super-G. Eva Samkova, 20, of the Czech Republic won the womens snowboard cross gold in her first Olympic Games. The win marked the Czechs first ever Olympic medal in snowboarding. Chloe Trespeuch of France, also making her Olympic debut, took the bronze. "I just wanted to be confident with myself," said Samkova. "I couldnt imagine this - it was very fortunate for me." Samkova, known for competing with a mustache drawn on her face, chose red, white and blue for Sundays race. "Its a lucky moustache. Today its in national colours." Reigning Olympic champion Maëlle Ricker of Squamish, B.C., crashed in her quarter-final heat and finished 21st. "I was off rhythm today right out of the gate," said Ricker. "Im half proud of my effort and half disappointed and shocked." The 35-year-old snowboard suffered a compounded fracture in her left forearm while training in Aspen, Colo,. and underwent surgery less than three weeks ago. "I just want to say that Im really proud of our Canadian Olympic Committee and Canada Snowboard for everything theyve done to help get me back in the gate today," she said. "Without them this definitely wouldnt be possible and all the support from all Canadians as well - everybody had my back. Im sorry." Medal favourite Lindsey Jacobellis of the U.S. went down in the semifinal and won the small final to finish seventh. Two other snowboarders were also hurt in qualifying crashes. Air Max Shoes From China . Azarenka needed exactly one hour in a 6-1, 6-0 rout of Austrian Yvonne Meusburger to start the night session at Laver Arena. Sharapova had a much easier time earlier in the day with cooler conditions and took full advantage in 6-1, 7-6 (8-6) win over Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, while Radwanska had to rally for a 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Wholesale Nike Shoes . Maria Silvia Bastos Marques, president of the EOM (Municipal Olympic Company), will be leaving her post but will remain as an advisor, a city hall statement said Tuesday. http://www.wholesaleairmaxfromchina.com/ . According to TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun, Brodeurs agent Pat Brisson has spoken to six teams so far regarding the veteran goaltender. Cheap Nike Air Max 2019 . -- Jane Kish stopped all 25 shots she faced as the Weyburn Gold Wings blanked the Sudbury Lady Wolves 3-0 on Friday to advance to the gold-medal game at the Esso Cup. Wholesale Air Max Fast Shipping . According to the CFL Scouting Bureaus January rankings, four of the top five Canadian prospects line-up on the offensive side of the trenches, which is good news for Bombers general manager Kyle Walters. With only one selection in the first two rounds — Walters sent his second-round pick to Saskatchewan in the days ahead of the 2013 trade deadline — the No.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 wennt in (there was a total of 145 scored in South Africa).dddddddddddd 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. Argentina ' ' '