Sure, they absolutely planned to be the inferior team to Germany in front of their home crowd because ...
No remotely knowledgeable fan who watched that game can come to the conclusion that the Netherlands are far superior to all other teams. They had home advantage at the European championships and still were the worse team in the final.
I didn't watch that game in particular but stats suggest it was a completely even game:
2) Cheering for any country that can get their first medal. San Marino, Burkina, Bosnia maybe.
3) ARG: Ginobili, Delpo, Milinkovic. Sounds lame to pick nationals but I don't think I feel strong enough emotional connection to pick foreign athletes or people from before I started watching OG.
Kate Walsh and Helen Richardson are officially married (they even use the double surname now) and won together the women's field hockey gold medal for GB in Rio...
I know more from that sport, both gay and straight (seems like a small sport huh?).
Also in volleyball. From past Brazilian teams to be precise.
World Championships + World League with top priority, just to remove the possibility of the reigning title holders missing out. Then continental spots. And then the final tournament, where the most spots are awarded at once, and which is organized logically compared to the unrelated groups / home-away match nonsense from handball, field hockey and volleyball...
And in the end, each team has four (!) pathways of qualification, so any failure is really and only up to them...
Priority qualification of world league champion USA in women's created many problems which culminated with both Greece and Italy missing out. That was a glaring mistake. IMO a world champion should be good enough to qualify with any system, if they aren't a fluke.
I picked hockey system over water polo because it made sure the 11 best teams (+south africa) will be at the games. Not the case with Water polo.
I believe Covid will, sadly, favor the performance of wealthy countries' athletes who are more or less living a normal life already with training and competition. So, I expect less countries winning medals.
Posted
I just hope we'll be in the medal table, even with a single bronze.
Link to post
Share on other sites