LDOG

Let's see if Croatia can resist these 30 minutes. Clearly they have given up on scoring and are too tired.

1 minute ago, heywoodu said:

But how are you going to compare the performances in different groups? Netherlands getting 7 points against Ecuador, Senegal and Qatar would mean the Netherlands is ranked better - basically due to an extremely lucky draw - than say Japan getting 6 points but against Germany and Spain, even though for all intents and purposes Japan's performance is significantly better?

-with 48 teams and 12 groups the quality teams would be much more evenly distributed in different groups.  

-Japan should have improved their world ranking during the previous 4 years in order to get an easier draw.   

-we should avoid seeding weak teams like Qatar in the highest pots. Everyone, even host teams, should be seeded according to their world ranking.

Personally I would do it this way:  

-12 groups of 4 teams each.  

-1st, 2nd and the best 8 3rd placed teams advance to a round of 32.  

-after the group phase all 32 teams that advance are ranked by their performance in group stage (like in the recent men's volleyball WCh) this creates an incentive for every team to do their best every match. 

-but you don't make the KO brackets just from that: you separate the teams into 4 pots and conduct another draw before the knockout stage. This is important in order to make sure you won't see teams trying to "pick" opponents by getting a specific result in their last group game. 

Knockout stage draw format:

Pot 1: Top 8 performing group winners. 

Pot 2: 4 remaining group winners + top 4 performing group runners up.  

Pot 3: 8 remaining runner up teams.

Pot 4: the 8 3rd placed teams. 

Teams from pot 1 can only draw teams from pot 4 in this draw. Teams from pot 2 only draw teams from pot 3. 

You also make sure all pot 1 teams are drawn into different Quarterfinal brackets (which is basically what we're doing in the current world cup format with the top 8 seeded teams before the tournament).

Convoluted? Yes. But this is the fairest thing they can do I think.

 best chance of a gold (or rather, medal of any kind) is clearly in rowing men's lightweight double sculls.

It could be 12 groups of 4 teams, it's not decided yet.

Just now, hckošice said:

wow, yes, that sounds pretty weird indeed I noticed many times during the anthems ARG players starting to sing the anthem after a sort of short intro is played, but did not know there so many versions/possibilities to chose from

Yeah intro has no lyrics.  

Sometimes they jump straight to the end from the intro and athletes make a face like saying "oh shit I have to sing" because they thought it was only the intro.

39 minutes ago, rafalgorka said:

Which one has more chances for gold, in your opinion? Men’s Team or Women’s ?

W of course. 

43 minutes ago, hckošice said:

Isn´t the same for everyone, I mean officially the Slovak anthem also has 4 stanzas, 99% of slovaks never heard I guess, but only the first 2 are used (Including for sports) ... sometimes only the first one though..., but sometimes also simply the Slovenian ...

The full anthem is played here in every ceremony so it's the other way around, 99% of people know the entire thing.   

The short versions in sport are the unusual event for us. And it's weird because when the music starts we don't know what to sing inmediately because some sports decide to play the intro, some the end, some play a weird combination of both with fast tempo...

15 minutes ago, hckošice said:

 

But I remember once I heard somewhere the longest anthem +1:40 min

Our anthem is almost 4 minutes long.  

At sport events only either the intro or the last stanza is played. 

We don't have 5.

Basically just the hockey teams and the BMX freestyle guy can even dream of a medal of any kind (and none are main favorites). Maybe the rugby team if they have good week, it's a bit of a random sport.

Most remembered, good question...  

1. Winning the gold in football and basketball the same day in Athens ending a 52 year gold medal drought. Undisputed number one in my view, it's remembered almost every year on TV and social media.

2. Defeating USA in the same tournament mentioned above.   

3. Del Potro's crazy run to the final in 2016 while he had virtually no world ranking.  

4. The volleyball medals in 88 and last year. For a week it became the most popular sport. 

5. The 1932 marathon win of Juan Carlos Zabala was very popular at the time. Even biopics were made about him. 

Australia is the luckiest team on earth.   

Our coach wasted 45 minutes with a useless player like Gomez, thankfully he realized his mistake not too late. 

Costa Rica has better Center backs than Serbia.

Yeeeees Vlahovic

Brazil has a bye to Quarterfinals...

1 hour ago, De_Gambassi said:

Mexico is the single most under-archiver country in the history of the World Cup. How a single-sport 130m relative rich country has only reached the quarter finals two times (both on home soil) is beyond belief.

 

The country should be a second Brazil.

Didn't they just won 3 golds in taekwondo? All the kicking talent got transfered there.

1 minute ago, hckošice said:

There must be some mistakes in the official game scoreboards, It writes that Lewandowski was playing tonight

Lol you can't seriously piss on the man today, nobody gave him a single pass.

37 minutes ago, Laraja said:

Now  has a good reason to win the match against

 

No, they are 100% playing for a draw. They probably bet that  will not beat  so a draw would be enough for 1st. 

On 4/1/2022 at 2:25 PM, LDOG said:

I already know one thing: Qatar will be the last place with 0 points and at least -7 GD 

 and I think I was generous with the -7

1 minute ago, ChandlerMne said:

Are you sure?

Yes, that Group from 1998 would be an example if Italy had beaten Chile.

2 minutes ago, ChandlerMne said:

Thanks man! 

One can be eliminated with 6 points, but also can pass with 3.

 

 

 

 

 

With 2 as well.

Perfect prediction ruined in the last second.