LDOG

Did Mbappe, Thuram, etc. receive any kind of punishment for campaigning against a political party or press conferences are exempt from this?

Volleyball Poland men's team will win a medal. A team from the Asian Volleyball Confederation will win a medal (men's or women's). (Note: phrased like this so people don't ask about Turkey) Handball France will defend both titles. Hockey The top scorer of the women's competition will be a dutch player. Great Britain will win a medal (men's or women's). Football Spain will win the women's or men's gold medal (or both). At least one overaged player (born 2000 or before) will receive a red card in the men's tournament. Water Polo The USA women's team will lose a match. Rugby Sevens The women's final will feature Australia and New Zealand. At least one medal match will be decided in extra-time. Tennis At least one player (man or woman) that has never advanced further than the round of 16 at the French Open singles tournament will win a singles medal in Paris 2024. General At least six south american nations will medal. At least two NOCs will win their first olympic medal. Mexico will finish higher than Colombia in the medal table. At least two of these NOCs (which haven't won a medal since Sydney 2000 or before) will medal again in Paris 2024: Barbados, Costa Rica, Guyana, Haiti, Iraq, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Mozambique, Pakistan, Peru, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Tanzania, Tonga, Uruguay, US Virgin Islands, Zambia.

Rocío Sanchez Moccia (Hockey) & Luciano De Cecco (Volleyball)

Sailing seems to have a "safe pick" for gold in almost every event except windsurfing and women's dinghy. The most obvious is in Nacra, the main Italian crew won the last 3 WChs and (almost) every big event in the cycle as well.

[hide] *"Double-the-points" distributed as follow: Each user will have 3 during the Knockout stage. Each user will have to mark their matches with "Double-the-points" with an "*". Knockout Stage July 04th - July 14th, 2024 8 Nations, the Winners of each Quarterfinal will qualify for the Semifinals. Quarterfinals Date & Time (GMT -5) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 4th 2024, h. 20:00, GMT -5 Argentina 2* 0 Ecuador July 5th 2024, h. 20:00, GMT -5 Venezuela 2 1 Canada July 6th 2024, h. 15:00, GMT -7 Colombia 3* 0 Panama July 6th 2024, h. 18:00, GMT -7 Uruguay 1 0 Brazil [/hide]

Overall a weaker squad than we hoped for. Over a dozen underaged players denied by european clubs not to mention the overaged ones.

[hide] *"Double-the-points" distributed as follow: Each user will have 3 during the Knockout stage. Each user will have to mark their matches with "Double-the-points" with an "*". Knockout Stage June 29th - July 14th, 2024 8 Nations, the Winners of each Quarterfinal will qualify for the Semifinals. Quarterfinals Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 5th 2024, h. 18:00 Spain 1 0 Germany July 5th 2024, h. 21:00 Portugal 0 1 France July 6th 2024, h. 18:00 England 2 1 Switzerland July 6th 2024, h. 21:00 Netherlands 3 1 Turkey [/hide]

Watched the entire match, it was so close. My condolences, @hckošice.

Men's Handball.

Squad

Brazil and USA certainly a step below. Slovenia... I don't think they are clutch in big games but with such strong record in VNL I can't write them off. Germany was great in the OQT but winning a medal with such mid team and an ancient star would be asking too much.

The only teams that can realistically win a medal are . Maybe with a lot of luck. I don't think & have enough.

[hide] *"Double-the-points" distributed as follow: Each user will have 3 during the Knockout stage. Each user will have to mark their matches with "Double-the-points" with an "*". Knockout Stage June 29th - July 14th, 2024 16 Nations, the Winners of each Round of 16-matches will qualify for the Quarterfinals. Round of 16 Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 29th 2024, h. 18:00 Switzerland 0 0 Italy June 29th 2024, h. 21:00 Germany 2 1 Denmark June 30th 2024, h. 18:00 England 3 0 Slovakia June 30th 2024, h. 21:00 Spain 4* 0 Georgia July 1st 2024, h. 18:00 France 1 0 Belgium July 1st 2024, h. 21:00 Portugal 3 1 Slovenia July 2nd 2024, h. 18:00 Romania 0 2* Netherlands July 2nd 2024, h. 21:00 Austria 3 2 Turkey [/hide]

Men's Dark horse: Women's Dark horse: Order is just alphabetic, I don't have it very clear in either gender. Disclaimer: "Dark horse" doesn't mean 4th favorite.

0-0 My predictions

What's the excuse for Chivas then?

OUT as expected. Congrats

ugh, so same as usual. I dream of v final but it looks a bit more unlikely now.

Is the knockout bracket fixed or it'll be decided with combined standings like in FQTs?

We don't have more medal chances, mutatis mutandis it's the same chances. And only because we're assuming the football team will be better, which is to be seen. 0 boxers and 1 swimmer yet most things are going well apparently. Ok guys.

qualified.

It was a disastrous qualification cycle. Lowest number of athletes since 1992. But totally expected due to economic circumstances. It's not just that sport is a non priority for the government right now, they're acting that it doesn't exist basically. -Failed to qualify in Basketball for the 1st time since 2000. -Failed in beach Volleyball for the 1st time since 2008. -Failed to qualify in Boxing for the 1st time since 1908 (!).

Calc for olympic quota situation?

If their objective is just advancing, then this game doesn't matter. They need a draw with Romania for that. If they want to top the group, then no Belgium win is ideal.