copravolley

Unfortunately, our best striker- Mathilde Fantin, was injured today. Without her we don't have much of a chance against Hungary and France Hopefully, it's nothing serious. As for Slovakia it's still a very young team. Years go by, but these girls are still so young
I don't know if there's anyone over 30 there? The Slovak goalkeeper also played bad today.

Yes, PP is the most pro-European party there currently is. Before Radev stepped down as President and joined the running, PP was leading the polls after the big protests last December, as they were seen as the only real alternative to the corrupt status quo. 
 
After Radev joined, PP lost around 10-15% of the votes, as those people were never true PP voters, but more anti GERB / DPS ones, so they gladly jumped ship to Radev. 
 
The thing which led to the downfall of PP was that they thought they could rule with a strong European policy on the budget and wanted to reform many sectors, which people of course were against, because they wouldn't be able to leech off the system anymore. Plus they started ruling in the worst possible time, as it coincided with 2 major crises, the second year of Covid and the start of the Ukraine war. 
 
There are many reasons why PP unfortunately lost support, but it is hard to explain it for non-Bulgarians. 

GERB actually aren't pro-Russian. They have always been pro-EU and Europe oriented and joining Shengen and the Eurozone happened in part because of them, though with a huge delay. They however have very well used the pro-EU stance to hide the rampant stealing of public funds and corruption surrounding their 10+ year ruling, which is the main reason people protested against them so many times. A bit Orban-esq they have also pretty much filled all institutions with their people, so it's hard to clean their mess.
 
Radev on the other hand has always been a pro-Russian proxy, though unlike Orban he is much more calculated with his words and actions. He is taking the "diplomatic" and "national" approach, though if you listen to his comments they are clearly favouring Russia. 
 
Even though this guy was President for many years, that position is without much power here, so he hasn't had the chance to do much trouble. But he did manage to plant his seeds in many people's heads, as he always blamed whichever party was ruling for all the troubles in the country and many believe he is our new "saviour". 
 
Compared to Hungary, the situation here is much more complex, as there isn't anyone as popular are Magyar and there are several strong parties, which always get practically the same number of votes.
 
Radev is surely winning, though the hopes are for the sane people to do damage control. But the truth is there aren't any many good choices, so it's going to be a lose-lose situation. 
 
I don't expect a coalition to be formed, but it will depend on the number of parties passing the 4% threshold. So yeah, we are once again hitting the never-ending elections cycle, which the country has spun into since 2021. 
 
 

China was not at the Olympics. You played Japan.
 
Taking any conculsions after 1 match is too early and premature. Norway is definitely by any mean not a punching bag, They are a team relegated from the Top division. Nobody is going to blown them. In the opposite China yes, they were piss poor today, totally harmless, this is not China from the pre and Beijing era, any naturalized player is not in the team anymore, only local girls who had issues even with normal skating and puck control, Was quite embarassing to watch this, but kudos to China they decided to go this harder way and reform their team with local players.
 
Italy is still the number one favorite for promotion, 3 points against Norway are the first and very important step. Your main games will still be Hungary and France as scripted.

For me, the best time is 8 years - long enough to do something good, but not too long + one party should never have a constitutional majority to change various electoral sistem, media, etc. to suit itself.

Reasonably Pro Russian party ahead in the polls there. 

Congrats to  

One gone. Slovakia next please

Domani Sinner-Alcaraz a Monte Carlo per numero 1 e Pogacar-van der Poel alla Parigi-Roubaix. Purtroppo Longo Borgini non gareggerà domani. Il livello generale del ciclismo femminile nel Italia non è stato entusiasmante ultimamente e, senza Longo Borgini, manca qualche emozione. Cavalli si è ritirata, Balsamo non si sta sviluppando, Realini è sparita... È un vero peccato. Anche la mancanza di un gruppo di WWT nel circuito femminile ha il suo peso: le cose andavano meglio fino al 2022, quando c'era Valcar. Purtroppo stiamo investendo troppo poco nel ciclismo professionistico maschile e donne, e questi sono i risultati  

Even Sauron would be better than Salvini

Orban had one big plus- he built modern football stadiums in Hun and several modern swimming pools in Budapest. Maybe we should hire him as our sports minister and infrastructure

Orban is gone!

This is Tisza's only chance, because without a constitutional majority, Orbán would return for several years. Hopefully, Tisza wins that majority.

Seems like a supermajority for Magyar

Its a good oportunity to that happen, 16 years is "too much" for any president/ first minister in a democracy.

She also lost sometimes in the World Cup last year- nothing special, but the return of Rus has made the competition even tougher and Raffaeli will have a hard time to winning more medals - it seems that her best time for Olympic gold was in 2024... Unfortunately, Raffaeli's peak was probably in 2022 at the World Championships.

I think that France will be weaker now after Paris 2024. This is already happening with women... They're only the 6th or 7th most popular team sport – I think only Marseille has a good water polo club here.

Canada beat France in the group stage and then lost to Ukraine today  Ukraine played at the 1996 Olympics, but was very weak later+ its base was in Mariupol, which they lost to Russia. I wonder where they train now?

Canada beat France in the group stage and then lost to Ukraine today  Ukraine played at the 1996 Olympics, but was very weak later+ its base was in Mariupol, which they lost to Russia. I wonder where they train now?

Italy for sure followed by distance with France and Hungary. Any other outcome would be surprising,
 
China is a mystery currently, but I would be surprised if they end by playing the promotion rather than relegation with us and Norway

Italy won against Greece today for the first time in an official match in 2-3 years? 

Italy won against Greece today for the first time in an official match in 2-3 years? 

This probably will be the worst Junior World Championships for us in the 21st century? 4 medals aren't so bad, but no gold? Women's foil, in particular, was a disappointment- 0 medals and 13th place in the team event, while Moldova is second? Italian fencing needs to open up to the world- the USA is getting to work coaches from various countries and we're stewed in our own juices...

In realtà pare che sia Mosaner che Costantini abbiano dato la disponibilità alla federazione.