LDOG

^must be the Wilfredo León of basketball.

[hide] Preliminary Round November 29th - December 5th, 2018 16 Nations, 4 Groups, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Nations from each Group will qualify for the Main Round Group A Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 November 30th 2018, h. 18:00 Denmark 4 Sweden November 30th 2018, h. 21:00 Serbia 3 Poland December 2nd 2018, h. 15:00 Poland 7 Denmark December 2nd 2018, h. 18:00 Sweden 1 Serbia December 4th 2018, h. 18:00 Sweden 2 Poland December 4th 2018, h. 21:00 Denmark 5 Serbia Group B Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 November 29th 2018, h. 18:00 France 2 Russia November 30th 2018, h. 21:00 Montenegro 4 Slovenia December 2nd 2018, h. 15:00 Slovenia 11 France December 2nd 2018, h. 18:00 Russia 2 Montenegro December 4th 2018, h. 18:00 Russia 9 Slovenia December 4th 2018, h. 21:00 France 3 Montenegro Group C Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 1st 2018, h. 15:00 Hungary 1 Netherlands December 1st 2018, h. 18:00 Spain 6 Croatia December 3rd 2018, h. 18:00 Croatia 2 Hungary December 3rd 2018, h. 21:00 Netherlands 4 Spain December 5th 2018, h. 18:00 Netherlands 5 Croatia December 5th 2018, h. 21:00 Hungary 1 Spain Group D Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 1st 2018, h. 15:00 Norway 7 Germany December 1st 2018, h. 18:00 Romania 2 Czech Republic December 3rd 2018, h. 18:00 Czech Republic 9 Norway December 3rd 2018, h. 21:00 Germany 5 Romania December 5th 2018, h. 18:00 Germany 1 Czech Republic December 5th 2018, h. 21:00 Norway 1 Romania [/hide]

Copa America, Asia and Africa. All three.

Every time you comment here you have a bad day next

Well fought by France, they played toe-to-toe today. It's a pity because this was their best chance to get a point, but I wouldn't rule that out completely against the other two opponents. France is already better than a bunch of other teams that are in this WC, they just didn't have luck with this pool. The team is shaping up nicely for 2024 with the "silver" generation of 2013 junior WCh.

The channel with rights here only shows argentina on tv and they also show other games but for those you have to download their stupid app which I don't have any intention to do so, pirate stream will be arrrrgggh

Wait, there is youtube livestream for this??? I suppose I can't see it because of geoblock.

The world cup has started with a belgian victory over Canada. A little preview... Pool A: for me the most contested pool. I don't know how our team will perform under the new coach, so that's a mystery for me. Good or bad performance wouldn't surprise me. New Zealand is always very hard for Argentina, but don't think they will go far this time. France is the best team from the lower tier and in my opinion they won't leave with 3 losses. Spain has potential to be the surprise of this WC. Pool B: straightforward pool. Australia should be 1st, England 2nd, Ireland 3rd and China 4th. China is the weakest team in the competition. Pool C: two strong teams and two weak teams. India and Belgium will fight for 1st place. Since they host I favor India, also Belgium hasn't been great last few tournaments. On the other hand Canada should beat South Africa for a place in R16. Pool D: another interesting pool but in my opinion not as contested as pool A. Netherlands and Germany are clearly above the asian teams and should fight for 1st place (Netherlands is also my top favorite to win the competition). For 3rd place we will have probably the hardest match to predict in all the pool stage: Malaysia vs Pakistan. Pakistan IMO has better players but their preparation was a disaster and they have changed 2 coaches in the last 3 months.

One of the craziest rumors I'm reading: the final could be moved to UAE and the winner just stays for club WC (!)

And... postponed again

Holland wins the trophy easily with half squad of substitutes. Wraping up a perfect year. In two years things will be very different, many teams that are doing jackshit now will get serious with the olympic carrot. Many teams with young personel will be mature. The dutch have system focused on clubs and not on national team, so they can play pretty much in the same level every year, even if some players retire. Farewell, champions trophy.

River doesn't want to play either. But if they don't play both clubs will be banned for 5 years from international competition. The problem is conmebol and FIFA (Infantino is at the stadium), both are threatening the clubs with punishment if they abandon.

It seems conmebol is forcing Boca to play, even though some players are still suffering pepper gas effects Not even River wants to play in this conditions. But conmebol doesn't care. Sadly, if River wins the match it will be a completely tainted victory.

River-Boca suspended... again. This time due to incidents

Why the quotation marks?

Zverev is the best player of the world.... to the best of 3 sets. If he has to play 5 he's like +40th.

Pity that Croatia has to go down also but Lovren talked too much shit after the last match.

The penalty corner of our team is a tragedy. Even Trinidad and Tobago has better routines than these girls. It's the complete opposite of our men's team, they do few attacks in most matches but score almost every corner they get. These girls have 500 circle entries per match and with luck one ends in a goal.

Canada won. They will be in world cup unless they lose to Hong Kong by a lot of points, which simply won't happen. We will have to wait to 2023 to see a debutant team.

The repechage for the last place in world cup is on. Canada and Germany are playing right now what is esentially a final for the last available place (they defeated Kenya and Hong Kong easily some days ago). YouTube livestream:

[hide] Preliminary Round November 28th - December 9th, 2018 16 Nations, 4 Groups, the 1st Nation from each Group will qualify for the Quarterfinals, the 2nd and the 3rd Nations from each Group will qualify for Quarterfinals Play-Offs Group A Date & Time (GMT +5:30) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 November 29th 2018, h. 17:00 Argentina 1 Spain November 29th 2018, h. 19:00 New Zealand 1 France December 3rd 2018, h. 17:00 Spain 1 France December 3rd 2018, h. 19:00 New Zealand 1 Argentina December 6th 2018, h. 17:00 Spain 2 New Zealand December 6th 2018, h. 19:00 Argentina 2 France Group B Date & Time (GMT +5:30) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 November 30th 2018, h. 17:00 Australia 3 Ireland November 30th 2018, h. 19:00 England 5 China December 4th 2018, h. 17:00 England 1 Australia December 4th 2018, h. 19:00 Ireland 2 China December 7th 2018, h. 17:00 Australia 7 China December 7th 2018, h. 19:00 Ireland 1 England Group C Date & Time (GMT +5:30) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 November 28th 2018, h. 17:00 Belgium 4 Canada November 28th 2018, h. 19:00 India 4 South Africa December 2nd 2018, h. 17:00 Canada 1 South Africa December 2nd 2018, h. 19:00 India 1 Belgium December 8th 2018, h. 17:00 Belgium 6 South Africa December 8th 2018, h. 19:00 Canada 3 India Group D Date & Time (GMT +5:30) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 1st 2018, h. 17:00 Netherlands 5 Malaysia December 1st 2018, h. 19:00 Germany 3 Pakistan December 5th 2018, h. 17:00 Germany 1 Netherlands December 5th 2018, h. 19:00 Malaysia 0 Pakistan December 9th 2018, h. 17:00 Malaysia 3 Germany December 9th 2018, h. 19:00 Netherlands 3 Pakistan [/hide]

With this set up it's easy for me to predict the teams that will go to Tokyo. Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Serbia, Russia, Italy, Netherlands, USA, Dominican Republic, China, Cameroon... and Korea or Thailand.

Netherlands just missed the last world cup not last two. Maybe you mean the euro 16.

The system per se is pretty fair, European fans will likely still complain but this group distribution that is bad for them is due to (in great part) pure luck. Or maybe FIVB planned to make 6 groups because they knew beforehand the ranking distribution would be like this?...

So, it's confirmed.. one of Italy, Poland, Serbia and France won't go to the games.