LDOG

Huh people still watch auto racing in 2021?

It should have been 2 teams and not 3 advancing from the first stage. If you wanted to have same amount of games then maybe make the teams coming from the same group play again instead of carrying the result. Another alternative with this same format I propose could have been making the round 2 groups composed of 4 teams all from different round 1 groups (eg. One group with: E1+F2+G1+H2). This way both the main round and the president cup become more exciting.

Diplomatic boycott? what is this? Grow some balls and do a real full boycott if you care that much about human rights. Typical duplicity of anglophone international relations.

You add a bunch more non olympic sports + hockey/rugby (absent here) + larger water sports presence + more serious competition in things like Cycling and the result is Colombia probably below Argentina again in Santiago (which won't mean our sport is great, far from it...).

Bronze 1-3 Final 2-4 World junior champions for the second time

Fifa finally dismissed the protest yesterday, DR Congo is through. 4th official incompetence blamed instead.

Semis (1) 0-0 (3) 2-4

We'll have a mildly surprising semifinal in the men's junior WC with v Looks like France will be combining two great junior generations for 2024 (the other being the silver juniors from 2013, players who are around 28/29 now). The other will be between the host and Unfortunately, the women's junior WC was postponed (and probably will be cancelled) because of covid. Our team is so unfortunate, again affected by pandemic circumstances just before a tournament (they were already flying to south africa when the announcement was made).

I said it's a balance between titles and individual performance, not that x title is decisive. In 2011 Messi won UCL scoring a million goals in the year, of course he was going to win it over Suárez. Same for Cristiano in 2016. Anyway, it's not a problem that you think Lewandowski should have won. The problem is that you said Messi shouldn't be even top 5

1) it's often a balance between individual stats and team achievements to decide the winner I believe. Jorginho won the 2 most important trophies but he wasn't the most pivotal player in either team, especially not in Chelsea who has way more important players. 2) Winning Bundesliga is good, but Bayern wins every year literally. Copa del Rey is not amazing but winning the Copa America for Argentina in Brazil is. 3) The 8 goals from Bayern were in 2020 so it's not relevant. Messi scored both of Barcelona's goals against PSG, what else can he do if that team doesn't defend and had no one other than him producing in attack? 4) About the start of this season: the voting closed in October so I don't believe that it's a very important factor. Plus, unlike Lewandowski, he didn't do preseason and has travelled 3 times to south america in 3 months. His scoring+assist stats from January to July are huge. 5) Yes, the scoring stats of Lewandowski are crazy and far away from the rest this year but (something that everyone always forgets) Messi is NOT a striker, he's a playmaker. His scoring stats should be better compared to players like Bernardo Silva, Griezmann, Muller, Neymar, not to Lewandowski lol. Thing is, Messi has scored so many goals in his career that everyone forgets about this when comparing him to others and judges him with a completely different bar.

Arguments?

Slovakia will play exotic teams... in the classification rounds

Where do you even get news about 13 year old argentinian gymnasts?

So, Argentina won the gold in the K1-1000 men and that kid qualifies for Santiago 2023 meaning we can have two competitors in that event?

My very personal predictions: Europe Path A: Ukraine. Austria is garbage, Scotland is vastly overrated with their average premier league players, Wales is very limited and who knows if Bale will even play. Ukraine on their day play really good football and also are surprisingly very good visitors. Path B: Doubt Russia or Poland will qualify (they play poorly). Sweden/Czech is a 51/49 in my view. I'm backing the swedes since they play at home. Path C: Italy and Portugal will win their semis easily. Hosting the final is a huge factor, so I'm betting Portugal despite the coach. That being said... I want Italy to win SO BAD just so there won't be the slightest chance of Ronaldo winning a WC before retiring. Intercontinental: AFC-CONMEBOL: Unless it's Japan that gets involved the Conmebol team will beat whoever. CONCACAF-OFC: If it's Panama I think New Zealand has a solid chance. Any other opponent (MEX, USA, CAN) and they lose. Would not write Jamaica out yet, they have good new english players, but they have to make too much ground after their slow start.

Intercontinental play-off draw AFC v CONMEBOL CONCACAF v OFC

Biggest winners of this draw: Wales, Poland Biggest losers: Everyone in path C, but especially Italy.

European Play-off draw Path A v v (winner plays final at home) Path B v (winner plays final at home) v Path C v v (winner plays final at home)

Why does underground heating matter for an indoor arena?

Egypt shouldn't worry as USA later in the day took a 17-0 from Spain to replace them in the history books

I suppose I could some random watch party from the past but I'll just go with this one cuz it was the most popular here: Volleyball at Tokyo, legend and Seoul medalist Hugo Conte is part of the tv broadcast team and watches Argentina win a medal after 33 years (his son is part of the current team)...

I don't know if she is more important or not than an abstract entity like a country but she is (or should be) more important for IOC, which is the relevant aspect for our discussion here.

The only one in world sport that could make a difference putting out a public statement is IOC. If China sees there's any risk of a serious boycott or threat on their games they will let her go quickly.

When is this draw taking place? I read one person saying it's on friday but I thought official date was in december?