AsensioWillemsen

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.

The penalty nonsense is ridiculous.

Also, Spain and Israel will be qualified once Portugal loses. They are still 1-0 down at the start of extra time. If that holds up, final quotum will go to Ukraine if they win either against France or Georgia. Otherwise it will go to Georgia.

I don't know with Israel. They seem to have something extra when it really matters. Just in: Another cheap penalty for France.

Erwin van der Looi misses some attacking talent himself. But really, they should have won all three. At least happy that Spain has come on top in Group B, but still a hard match against probably Italy to go. It also didn't impress me all that much against Croatia and Ukraine. Kinda hope will qualify for the Olympics, seems like basically the only chance for Kvaratskhelia to qualify for a major tournament (although the 24 Euro spots nowadays.. you'll never know). However, are really holding their own against better quality teams, so I think they are the favourites if they beat Israel. They wouldn't really be interesting at the Olympics I fear, although it would be justified.

I still couldn't care less. I'm pretty curious which commentator loses drawing straws and has to read into Breaking, while probably still botching it completely, however. And probably I will still watch, I always have a single TV with the NOS feed constantly during the Games anyway. You really need it only 50% of the time though.

Lindhout is a very poor ref, we all know that in the Netherlands. But yeah, the refereeing was crucial in this one, although I do think Italy and France were on par. Here to hope Italy will get far even with these decisions. I'm not sure if the ball was clearly 100% over the line, it seemed pretty close to me. However, providing it wasn't a goal, it should have been a penalty and a red for a hand ball.

What's the procedure in women's football then? GB was around last Olympics after all.

I thought they reached the agreement that the best performing team was allowed to perform under the flag of GB when they qualified. Which should usually be just England. But this is only for the women's tournament, then.

Is this for both the men and women? Or only for the men's tournament?

It's actually pretty rare to constantly produce such a lock-in for the gold in the Swimming Worlds. Although Cseh, Gyurta, Kapas weren't exactly lock-ins for the gold for me. But USA and Australia are the only certainties for gold medals over the years. Even France, GB, Japan or China have some moments where they falter, although usually they go away with one gold minimum. And these countries have a much larger lineup in terms of pure manpower. However, it is without a doubt that Hungary provides one of the weakest lineups in recent history.

Dearly praying for to participate in weightlifting in 2024 in some way, especially because it may be the final time they contest weightlifting at the Olympics and for me are a key nation in the sport.

Guess he won't.

What intrigued me more was getting 189 televoting points with a bland and extremely mediocre song, purely pity voting and diaspora. It had some fun elements, but it was nothing more than 'ok'. With any serious contender they will be on top again.

It springs from Moorish tradition, so it doesn't just 'sound' Arabic. I reckon Albania also had an entry with music that springs from some Islamic tradition, seeing it is a traditional song sung by I think it is just a bit too traditional for European listeners. Wasn't my favourite either. However, it appeals to me that they are different. I just have enough of the generic popsong sung by a good-looking girl (or a not-so-good looking girl in the case of ). Juries seem to be favoring these entries by quite a mile. That, for me, is the actual problem. Sweden won fair and square by current standards.

That was exceptionally boring. Fun for the three guys ahead, sure.

Anouk and IlseDeLange have been the biggest names we have sent in 'recent' years. Trijntje Oosterhuis also had some hits in the 90s/early 00s, although her biggest hits have been mostly with others (Lionel Richie). Her song for the Johan Cruyff ArenA opening was a pretty popular song. Waylon had some moderate hits and was obviously known for his 2014 contribution. Then, Douwe Bob/Jeangu Macrooy/S10 had some radio airplay on the national radio 2/3, but only a single top 40 hit song for Douwe and S10 (none for Jeangu) and they both were collaborations. They weren't exactly newcomers like Duncan/Dion/Mia, but they had little commercial success. The years before Anouk, which really was the Dutch ESC Dark Age, had only two artists with serious commercial success apart from Edsilias return (really since 1998): De Toppers and 3Js. But well, they have commercial success in a niche that.. many would not qualify as very fruitful music. Before Anouk participated, 'serious' artists in The Netherlands had their doubts about participation in ESC. Nowadays, at least that doubt is lifted. However, I still don't see our commercially more attractive musicians contribute (in case of DJs) or sing (in case of the likes of Floor Jansen or Sharon den Adel).

Estonia might be up there if jury likes it. Just scrambled through probably on televoting though, so will not score much there.

For me, the Finnish song is actually good. Not well-sung and 'oddball' sure, but the song is good in the heart. Croatia has some Frank Zappa-ish interestingness, but the vocals don't come off interesting to me, which is a bit of a bust. And it makes it feel 'gimmicky for the gimmick'. But I like it more than our own entry as well as the poorly sung Norwegian, Israelian and Irish entries in the SF.

Croatia is that yearly annoying gimmick why everybody says ESC is a bust. Don't care for it at all, but there were quite a few more problematic entries.

Malta definitely missed out because of the new format (probably edged out by Serbia). The other four.. just not good enough.

Not that I expect to qualify anyway, but group vs England is harsh. At least qualifying will be with Miedema as things stand, so that's... something. But I feel like we have problems with the lesser nations last few years, that doesn't help with this format where only a single team will go through. 4 points vs England is not easy. Spain also not exactly on easy mode, but vs Sweden is doable (but Italy and Switzerland might be tough anyway, although they can surely interfere with Sweden) and then just one match away from a Q.

Meh. Really had my hopes up to see Benfica perform.

This is out of the question after the news from last weekend. It was presented mainly within the speed skating context, where skaters in are in different commercial teams, sometimes with other top athletes from other countries, most notably Nao Kodaira and Bart Swings in the past few years, but the Dutch skating union (KNSB) has decided this is not allowed from 2024 (winter) anymore for top eight athletes (they are not allowed to train in Heerenveen, which is basically paid for by the Dutch olympic committee), so Swings and Martin Liiv are now basically out of their commercial team. These are the most notable ones for the time being as Kodaira retired (and also moved back after a few years) I sense there was more of a malice in the Belgian short track team getting quite serious though, even though not mentioned as the most important point, the Desmets also are forced to break with the Dutch team in similar fashion. And well, this means a commercial move is out of the question now.