LDOG

We get a retry against Croatia and France. This time with a keeper and something resembling a defense lol

Racial/socioeconomic/colonial oppression often strengthens bonds between countries that have those experiences in common. Especially if it has happened in relatively recent times. With some exceptions it's common to see arabs support each other, likewise latin americans.

Very similar in concept to our 2nd goal vs England in 1998. Well done.

The insults I shouted today to Pezzella and Tagliafico. I don't think I have ever lashed at someone like this Thankfully only one friend was witness to my shameful behavior. PS. The ref is a piece of shit.

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

[hide] Knockout Stage December 3rd - December 18th, 2022 8 Nations, The Winners of each Quarterfinals will qualify for the Semifinals. Quarterfinals Date & Time (GMT +3) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 9th 2022, h. 18:00 Croatia 0 2 Brazil December 9th 2022, h. 22:00 Netherlands 0 1 Argentina December 10th 2022, h. 18:00 Morocco 0 3 Portugal December 10th 2022, h. 22:00 England 1 2 France [/hide]

-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.

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.

W of course.

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...

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.

[hide] Knockout Stage December 3rd - December 18th, 2022 16 Nations, The Winners of each Round of 16-Matches will qualify for the Quarterfinals. Round of 16 - From Group E to H Date & Time (GMT +3) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 5th 2022, h. 18:00 Japan 2 2 Croatia December 5th 2022, h. 22:00 Brazil 3 0 South Korea December 6th 2022, h. 18:00 Morocco 0 1 Spain December 6th 2022, h. 22:00 Portugal 2 0 Switzerland [/hide]

[hide] Knockout Stage December 3rd - December 18th, 2022 16 Nations, The Winners of each Round of 16-Matches will qualify for the Quarterfinals. Round of 16 - From Group A to D Date & Time (GMT +3) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 3rd 2022, h. 18:00 Netherlands 1 1 United States December 3rd 2022, h. 22:00 Argentina 3 1 Australia December 4th 2022, h. 18:00 France 4 0 Poland December 4th 2022, h. 22:00 England 1 0 Senegal [/hide]

Costa Rica has better Center backs than Serbia.

Yeeeees Vlahovic

Brazil has a bye to Quarterfinals...

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

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

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