LDOG

Biden will win easily and then he will lose to Trump. This is very predictable.

Some other interesting details: -1st group D (England maybe?) Would play 2nd of the death group in 1/16. - There is potentially a Croatia-Serbia match up. - Turkey gets two games in Baku, which is the best they could hope for.

Sorry, a little correction: if Romania wins this play-off, they will go to group C and yes, one of the small nations will go to group F.

No, it will be Hungary, Iceland, Bulgaria or Romania.

UAE will qualify their naturalized judoka eventually. It was stupid to blow one of their few medal chances like that though.

Brazil got the best possible draw both women and men the men will probably still fail to qualify.

[hide] Preliminary RoundNovember 30th - December 6th, 2019 24 Nations, 4 Groups, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Nations from each Group will qualify for the Main Round Group A Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 November 30th 2019, h. 15:00 Serbia 5 Angola November 30th 2019, h. 18:00 Netherlands 6 Slovenia November 30th 2019, h. 20:30 Norway 20 Cuba December 2nd 2019, h. 12:30 Cuba 10 Serbia December 2nd 2019, h. 15:00 Angola 8 Netherlands December 2nd 2019, h. 20:30 Slovenia 6 Norway December 3rd 2019, h. 15:00 Netherlands 15 Cuba December 3rd 2019, h. 18:00 Slovenia 3 Angola December 3rd 2019, h. 20:30 Norway 11 Serbia December 5th 2019, h. 15:00 Cuba 8 Slovenia December 5th 2019, h. 18:00 Serbia 3 Netherlands December 5th 2019, h. 20:30 Norway 7 Angola December 6th 2019, h. 15:00 Serbia 2 Slovenia December 6th 2019, h. 18:00 Angola 6 Cuba December 6th 2019, h. 20:30 Netherlands 5 Norway Group B Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 November 30th 2019, h. 15:00 Germany 1 Brazil November 30th 2019, h. 18:00 France 12 South Korea November 30th 2019, h. 20:30 Denmark 25 Australia December 1st 2019, h. 15:00 Brazil 6 France December 1st 2019, h. 18:00 Australia 23 Germany December 1st 2019, h. 20:30 South Korea 3 Denmark December 3rd 2019, h. 15:00 South Korea 2 Brazil December 3rd 2019, h. 19:00 France 33 Australia December 3rd 2019, h. 20:30 Denmark 3 Germany December 4th 2019, h. 15:00 Australia 22 South Korea December 4th 2019, h. 19:00 Germany 8 France December 4th 2019, h. 20:30 Denmark 2 Brazil December 6th 2019, h. 15:00 Brazil 26 Australia December 6th 2019, h. 19:00 Germany 2 South Korea December 6th 2019, h. 20:30 France 2 Denmark Group C Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 November 30th 2019, h. 15:00 Montenegro 12 Senegal November 30th 2019, h. 18:00 Romania 5 Spain November 30th 2019, h. 18:00 Hungary 18 Kazakhstan December 1st 2019, h. 15:00 Kazakhstan 15 Montenegro December 1st 2019, h. 18:00 Spain 2 Hungary December 1st 2019, h. 18:00 Senegal 21 Romania December 3rd 2019, h. 15:00 Hungary 4 Montenegro December 3rd 2019, h. 15:00 Spain 18 Senegal December 3rd 2019, h. 19:00 Romania 15 Kazakhstan December 4th 2019, h. 15:00 Montenegro 7 Romania December 4th 2019, h. 15:00 Kazakhstan 10 Spain December 4th 2019, h. 19:00 Hungary 18 Senegal December 6th 2019, h. 15:00 Senegal 3 Kazakhstan December 6th 2019, h. 15:00 Montenegro 1 Spain December 6th 2019, h. 19:00 Romania 2 Hungary Group D Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 November 30th 2019, h. 15:00 Japan 6 Argentina November 30th 2019, h. 18:00 Russia 10 China November 30th 2019, h. 20:30 Sweden 18 D.R. Congo December 2nd 2019, h. 15:00 Argentina 11 Russia December 2nd 2019, h. 18:00 D.R. Congo 10 Japan December 2nd 2019, h. 20:30 China 6 Sweden December 3rd 2019, h. 14:30 Russia 20 D.R. Congo December 3rd 2019, h. 17:00 China 3 Argentina December 3rd 2019, h. 19:30 Sweden 5 Japan December 5th 2019, h. 15:00 D.R. Congo 11 China December 5th 2019, h. 18:00 Japan 10 Russia December 5th 2019, h. 20:30 Sweden 13 Argentina December 6th 2019, h. 15:00 Japan 3 China December 6th 2019, h. 18:00 Argentina 10 D.R. Congo December 6th 2019, h. 20:30 Russia 3 Sweden [/hide]

In my view the previous format was way more exciting but we reached a point where the top players didn't give a shit anymore. With this format and the increased $$$ prizes, only Zverev and Medvedev among the top players pulled out for non injury reasons. In my opinion the top priority should always be to ensure the top athletes participate. If we have to adopt a worse format to achieve it, then it's a needed sacrifice.

I can't speak for other countries but here no one that was part of the last dictatorship holds any political position of any kind or has any political relevance. In part because of time (the last military government ended 35 years ago, so most people are dead), in part because the military (as a whole) lost all respect from the people after their last government due to their criminal actions (kidnapping, torture, executions) and also their terrible management of the economy. Nowadays, the military are not a political actor anymore and any attempt of a coup would be met with strong rejection from the public, which was not the case 40/50 years ago. I reckon in some other countries it's different (eg. in Chile Pinochet and the military had decent support even years after they left, in Brazil they have some people like Bolsonaro who more or less reivindicates the military dictatorship).

This is not correct. Military governments had largely the support of the church. The military didn't exactly opress the church, quite the contrary, the military were very catholic and had deep conections with church's top hierarchy. In fact, being an atheist back those days inmediately made you a suspect to them. There was, however, a minority branch inside the church of priests that were left leaning/dedicated to social justice and were arrested/kidnapped/executed during that rule. The pope during those times was kind of in the middle, he wasn't part of the top hierarchy that supported the military and was clearly right-leaning, but wasn't either part of the leftist branch. The catholic church in south america is heavily right-wing still to this day. The pope is kinda an exception to be honest, and even then, he became more leftist after being elected (to the surprise of many catholics here).

This guy wants us to believe he's some apolitical nihilist but he's so obviously a closet conservative

Why is Spain using Feliciano López when they have Bautista-Agut and Carreño? Are both injured or they just want to make it harder for Nadal

FIH says "participation was approved by all NOCs", so I suppose yes.

Play off B is the most difficult to predict, I can see any team qualifying. On paper BIH and SVK have better players but are very inconsistent. Both Ireland teams will play for 0-0 and penalties.

Iceland is not currently much better either. I predict Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia and Kosovo will qualify.

4 groups of 4 teams (16 total) and problem solved. If you don't want to play one more series then just do straight knockouts.

He had an account here: @EPHECTO only posted once though. He died a few days before Rodrigo Huk if I recall correctly.

Mexican economy is stronger but I think levels of poverty are quite similar, maybe in Mexico it's still a bit higher. Anyway, sounds like such a random reference to make when you are talking about Iran or China.

Did Henrique Mkhitaryaninho play?

The path D place is nonsense. They should award 2 places for path A instead.

Iran will easily qualify, believe me, I've watched these teams too much. Australia can't do anything to them unless they allow it.

Germany is not qualified. They need 1 point.

Yes, Netherlands ranking doesn't make much sense and seems unfair. But I was just comparing african teams.

It's the most important cup, it has to count. Algeria was around top 15 after 2014 world cup. Senegal has 2nd place in Afcon and I think 17th place in world cup (they made 4pts, it's not like they went and lost 3 games). Algeria has 1st in africa and failed to qualify for world cup. It's logical that Senegal is higher when looking at the average performance.

I think drawing Brazil or Slovenia would be worse honestly. Anyway, Canada has no excuse to not win this time.