AsensioWillemsen

It's definitely the slowest and least interesting team sport on the current roster for me. Although it would be Baseball once they ever include it again. Never really understood what makes that interesting apart from the entourage. But I don't feel like any team sport should be cut from the current program.

I agree on that one. There are clear reasons to cut Boxing, Weightlifting, (GR) Wrestling, Rhythmic, MP as well as Equestrian. For Field Hockey the only reason would be that it is less popular than other team sports, except for a small part of the world. Which would be a pretty poor reason. However, they will not go to cutting Boxing nor Equestrian unless they absolutely need to. The other four are in bigger danger and could be spots where they need to make room for quota. I feel that adding a team sport, which eats quota like no tomorrow, should not be counteracted by removing individual sports quota, however.

I can understand if Boxing or Weightlifting would be cut. Even MP I can understand why they would, but if they do, it's the end for MP as a whole. Cutting them for team sports doesn't seem too great for me. Cricket would really just be for the Indian market. Baseball has been tried over and over and it is... well... not great for the games. I'd rather try Cricket over having Baseball though. Don't see them cutting Rugby Sevens btw, that seems highly unlikely to me. Even here I feel like there are quite some people who follow the Sevens tourney above everything else. If they need to cut a team sport, it would be Field Hockey, but the western European countries dominating that (GB, Germany) sure won't like that. I feel for cutting sports there must be a pretty clear reason.

Norway not going out today. I don't see them winning against Japan or Spain though.

Also Track Cycling coming up in four days at the WC in Glasgow. Still doing fine. The hard week for me will be the bridge gap between the cycling WC and the athletics WC.

Italy is definitely the third strongest country in Europe right now. And tbh France look pretty lackluster behind Marchand and Grousset, but they could be worth 6 medals in Paris nonetheless.

What does he need to achieve for a Q here? He didn't seem to be on top form in the TDF naturally, so that might be tough.

Speaking of van der Poel, will he try qualifying for MTB again? And what's the plan to manage this? Or is there no actual (known) plan right now?

There will be more chances for Spain to get into the Olympics, faring well on the next WC will do, but tough luck to blow it like that.

And then there is Keirin, Show Jumping which are lotteries by itself, as well as Sailing in which rarely is delivered at Olympics, pregnant van Dijk, Bol who is second best behind McLaughlin as long as she participates at the hurdles. And men's field hockey.. well, yeah. Don't see that one happening either. Obviously there are some solid chances missing here as well, mainly the already mentioned road race and Puck Pieterse come to mind.

1-1 will do. Still some stamina issues. We looked strong until the equalizer, but without many big chances. Hope we can take P1, although I think only Spain would be an immediate exit in our half. Which is fine, but I rather have a SF rather than a QF vs Spain.

Volpi!!! Really happy with that one.

Australia will take the continental quota at the next WC. And if they don't, I doubt they will be able to threaten for any other qualifying spot, because then they fared worse than New Zealand at the next WC.

Throwback to Phelps, Cseh and Le Clos really.

Tbh hope some other countries can challenge the Aussies as well as the States, although they have not really delivered so far, at least on the individuals.

Dutch TV just call it quits before the final race for some interviews concerning the womens Tour de France. Well..

Another penalty, another re-take, another goal. Well.

A penalty. I'm getting the feeling I have seen that before.

Zambia was semi-interesting at the Olympics, but this game they look totally useless.

The problem to me is moreso that it is really dependent on the draw next time around. Draw early and you are in a messy situation. Still able to get out of it though, 3rd place will be enough. What also is a problem to me is the proximity of the Europeans and the next worlds, but the difference to the smaller nations makes that it should be fine. If edge out a surprise and fails to make the finals, then five teams is on the cards. But seems very unlikely. The latter is more important to me though, if qualifies now I'm pretty positive will take on of the spots for grabs later on.

So much for our government. Another year of status quo with all the issues going strong. Not that Spain is faring much better, sadly.

Georgia should have beaten Israel as they dominated that match, and that's all there is. Ukraine played fine and this is well-deserved.

Surprised they don't finish at Champs Elysees.

Definitely. Any team that's in now has an outside chance of medaling. Would be great if they could take it that far, but for that they at least need to qualify.

They already shorten the races more and more. The longest stage at, what, 200 km? Pretty bland. Also, the Belgian meltdown yesterday was just great. I completely don't mind van Aert but yesterday was childlike and there is no reason one of the potential winners should work for a stage win, definitely at this moment in the race. Although I would rather see Pogacar win anyway.