Monzanator

Me watching football dates back to the Dutch trio in AC Milan and while they haven't won anything in XXI century they were at least legit contenders in mid 2000s to mid 2010s. QF at the last World Cup was a bit of a false down, they had the easiest group on paper (always a factor when the host is a non-football powerhouse) plus overrated USA in R16. They pushed Argentina close but just can't take them seriously for winning any tournament in this generation. The van Persie/Robben/Sneijder generation had way more quality and finishing skills IMO.

Poland gets a very fortunate draw after Matty Cash scores for 1-1. Same old problem for the current Dutch generation. They create a gazillion of chances and can't finish them off. The fact Depay is joined-top scorer in NT is almost laughable. Without another poor man's van Basten, van Nistelrooy of even Huntelaar they ain't gonna win anything.

Half-time in Rotterdam. Pays Bas hit the post twice and leads 1-0 anyway. Total domination so far.

Pegula beat Krejcikova yesterday and Sabalenka received a walkover from Vondrousova who got injured during practice. Amanda Anisimova takes revenge for the Wimbledon final and beats Iga Świątek 6-4 6-3! Final QF still remaining.

Last time Poland beat France in men's basketball was 1985 EuroBasket group phase (97-94)

beat 3-0 as expected. We only go to 20 pts in one set.

No surprise last night as beat for the 13th time in a row. My sister & her husband attended the game. Also present were some Polish football NT players since we play Finland in World Cup quals on the weekend in nearby Chorzów.

For the record the Jamaicans who switched to Turkey (Roje Stona & Rajindra Campbell) won't be competing at these Champs. Favour Ofili who switched from Nigeria is also out.

@copravolleyWell, he was a complete underdog so that was his way to handle the situation IMO. Still managed better than Wimbledon where he was supposed to be a dark horse and faceplanted right out of the gate.

Women's singles QF: Aryna Sabalenka (1) vs Marketa Vondrousova Jessica Pegula (4) vs Barbora Krejcikova Karolina Muchova (11) vs Naomi Osaka (23) Amanda Anisimova (8) vs Iga Świątek (2)

Barbora Krejcikova saves 8 MP and takes out Taylor Townsend 1-6 7-6(13) 6-3.

Poland beats Belgium 3-2. Another unconvincing performance but Italy should put the hammer down in QF.

First set Belgium. Poland led 16-12 and lost 25-27.

Even Polish media are quiet on upset medal chances. We hardly impressed at these champs and stand no chance vs Italy if we beat Belgium. I mean Germany blew like 3 MP when they had ball in the air to spike it. So as a reward they got trounced by Italy in R16.

Team squad. Sobera (PV) & Kardasz (SP) + one race walker qualified from rankings but our fed assumed they have no chance for a Top 8 result so they won't make the trip Nikola Horowska made the LJ list from last place (would have been out if USA won the wild card in DL final). 100 - Ewa Swoboda 400 - Natalia Bukowiecka, Justyna Święty-Ersetic & Maksymilian Szwed 800 - Anna Wielgosz, Angelika Sarna, Margarita Koczanowa & Patryk Sieradzki, Maciej Wyderka, Filip Ostrowski 1500 - Weronika Lizakowska, Klaudia Kazimierska & Filip Rak Marathon - Aleksandra Brzezińska Izabela Paszkiewicz & Mateusz Kaczor 3000SC - Alicja Konieczek, Kinga Królik 100H - Pia Skrzyszowska 110H - Jakub Szymański, Damian Czykier 400H - Anna Gryc HJ - Maria Żodzik & Mateusz Kołodziejski PV - Piotr Lisek LJ - Anna Matuszewicz, Nikola Horowska SP - Konrad Bukowiecki DT - Daria Zabawska HT - Anita Włodarczyk, Katarzyna Furmanek, Ewa Różańska & Paweł Fajdek, Marcin Wrotyński JT - Maria Andrejczyk, Małgorzata Maślak-Glugla & Cyprian Mrzygłód, Dawid Wegner, Marcin Krukowski 7-bój - Adrianna Sułek-Schubert RW20 - Katarzyna Zdziebło & Maher Ben Hlima RW35 - Katarzyna Zdziebło, Agnieszka Ellward & Maher Ben Hlima Sztafeta 4 x 100 - women (Ewa Swoboda, Magdalena Niemczyk, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, Magdalena Stefanowicz, Aleksandra Piotrowska, Marlena Granaszewska) & men (Oliwer Wdowik, Dominik Kopeć, Łukasz Żak, Adam Łukomski, Jakub Lempach, Adrian Brzeziński) Sztafeta 4 x 400 - women (Natalia Bukowiecka, Justyna Święty-Ersetic, Aleksandra Formella, Alicja Wrona-Kutrzepa, Anastazja Kuś, Weronika Bartnowska) & mixed (Natalia Bukowiecka, Justyna Święty-Ersetic, Aleksandra Formella, Alicja Wrona-Kutrzepa, Anastazja Kuś, Weronika Bartnowska & Maksymilian Szwed, Kajetan Duszyński, Marcin Karolewski, Daniel Sołtysiak)

in semi-finals and playing for 17th place. Well, some of these junior champs don't quite match the seniors

Gender equality is a myth. The overall athletes quota is what matters the most. In SOG they literally removed the most exciting women's event in sailing to create a mixed event in the same class (470). Sailing is another sport on the chopping block IMO, many events but it's basically one athlete per event which balloons the quota (unlike swimming or gymnastics). Worst nightmare for IOC and the discipline itself.

Winter sports are 'narrow' by design. The same nations tend to do well in every winter sport over & over again (some exceptions like South Korea & Pays Bas in speed skating/short track). Women doing nordic combined hasn't looked well since its inception, competitive gaps are huge and there's no way to fix this overnight. Besides, how many failed cc skiers take up NC just to boost their chances in the inferior rivalry? Story as old as the sport itself. IOC might want to turn WOG into X Games but they are destined to fail in their diversity chase. Most of Asia, Africa & South America will always be a footnote in Winter Games.

Cadillac makes their 2026 line-up official. @mrv86

Outside of Svitolina none of these post-maternity comebacks have been successful even though Bencic looks to be doing okay-ish. Clijsters was a disappointement but everyone expected that tbh, Wozniacki was worse and Kvitova managed to set a new low.

Very much a huge upset. Anyone ranked inside Top 30 has no business losing to Zarazua on a hard court. Elsewhere Krejcikova took Montreal champion Mboko to school losing only 5 games and Petra Kvitova ended her career winning one game vs Diane Parry. Sorry but Kvitova's comeback was a complete disaster, she literally won ONE match this season and should have retired at Wimbledon unless she had sponsor obligations to play USO.

lost a set vs but still won 3-1

Yeah, it's a coin toss who's fallen off worse in the last several months, Medvedev or Tsitsipas?

Peak WTA meltdowns on Day 1 already. Danilovic blows 7 MP (including 40-0 on her own serve) while Tauson blows a 5-1 lead in the deciding set

Well, I realize Ecuador teams play at altitude which might be a problem but it's not like the best club teams are basically 60% of national team anymore? I think that used to be the case in 80s or 90s where some of these teams from lesser nations went deep in Libertadores? Like Sporting Cristal into the final or Olimpia Asuncion? Btw, I see River Plate barely won on penalties against another Asuncion team. Of course more Brazilian players leave for Europe these days as well. But overall the QF are usual suspects, four teams from Argentina, three from Brazil and LDU Quito. Maybe Colombian teams are struggling more than before? I recall America de Cali used to make a few finals but always lost one way or another.