OlympicsFan

Really strange to see ireland suddenly turning into an athletics powerhouse ...

Very sad that the german team threw away a silver medal in the 4 x 400 m womens relay by not using Scheppan. Congrats to China for gold in mens discus throw!

If 3:32 will be enough to win gold in womens 4 x 400 m relay, the german coaches should be fired. With Scheppan and Schwab this relay could go at least 3:32.

You mean like at the world indoors this year?

Very happy for Riecke, not easy to jump a PB under those conditions, hopefully she will continue to improve and go even further at the U20 euros next year. Also very happy for Zeney. Both south african 400 m hurdles world champions from last year have made an amazing progression. Given the current situation in south africa, i am delighted to see a white athlete doing great for them. Tomorrow could bring two golds for Germany, both relays are (clear) favorites. Sadly the womens relay doesn't have Prepens in it, with her instead of Dönicke they should have gone 0,2 - 0,3 faster, which still wouldnt have been enough to break their own world record of course.

It's great to see how happy those girls are during the victory ceremony (100 m). I know that some people want to get rid of this format and there are certainly problems, but i would find it really sad if officials would take such a great opportunity away from those kids. Let's face it, most of them will never do anything at senior level, so this is a once in a lifetime chance for them.

We are heading for a Williams vs. Ostapenko final, which also would be the most exciting final with the players that are left. Ostapenko and Kasatkina will face in one semifinal, while Bertens and Williams will face in the the other. Kerber is a perfect match-up for Kasatkina, hard to see Kasatkina not routining her.

So ... ? He also faced a much weaker field. I think if Zverev would have been born 10 years earlier, he would have had a career like Berdych at best. Maybe he will become world number 1 (depending on how soon Federer and Nadal will retire), but he won't win a slam.

5-time olympic champion Hans Günter Winkler has died at the age of 91.

Williams and Ostapenko are the favorites, but i would prefer to see Bencic winning it.

Why?

Quiet interesting ... When the Netherlands failed to qualify, german fans made fun of the dutch fans/team, then Germany failed to make it out of the group and the dutch/brazilian people made fun of them. We have to believe that Belgium eliminating Brazil was karma, the same would be true for Belgium winning the world cup (concerning the dutch fans). Belgium seems to be on a mission to revenge german "enemies". It's destiny for Belgium to win it, there is no way around it.

Sadly i couldn't watch any of the games, so the following opinion will only be based on highlights: France vs. Uruguay: Expected winner, although both goals were rather out of nowhere. Apparently Mbappe learned the wrong things from Neymar, but unlike him he has still enough time to grow-up. Belgium vs. Brazil: Surprising winner, apparently the absence of Casemiro hurt Brazil more than most people thought. I am happy that Clownmar is out, but on the other hand Brazil clearly got screwed by not getting a penalty when Kompany fouled Jesus. Absolutely shocking "mistake" by the referee/VAR. England vs. Sweden: Another goal after a set piece for England, nothing new. Sweden didn't look as aggressive in defense as in previous games, maybe they were tired or the absence of Lustig hurt them. Croatia vs. Russia: After the group stage noone would have thought that Croatia would need 2 penalty shootouts to beat Russia and Denmark, but those games showed that they clearly have a problem with breaking down defensive teams. On the one hand i am sad that the host is out, on the other hand i am happy that Russia is out. Their first penalty was absolutely shocking, possibly the worst penalty since Zaza's penalty against Germany. Surprisingly overall the matches were less close than in the previous round. In the round of last 16 only one game was won by more than 1 goal, in the quarterfinal 2 games were won by more than 1 goal. Still no team played brilliantly at this world cup so far, most goals are scored by coincidence, after set-pieces or after goalkeeper mistakes. Most games are very close but not on a very high level in my opinion. Predictions: France vs. Belgium is at least 60/40 for France in my opinion. The french defense is just much better and they have better alternatives on the bench. For me they are still the clear favorite to win this tournament and this game might very well be something like an early final (although the same has been said at 2016 european championships and then Portugal won the title). Croatia vs. England: I think England is the favorite in this match (croatian players will surely be exhausted), although i hope that England won't make it, but i don't really see Croatia beating them. I never would have thought that one of those teams would make the final, but both had an incredibly easy draw (although probably not as easy as the draw for Germany in 2002). I think it would only be "fair" if either France or Belgium would win the title, they just had a much more difficult path to the final. As long as neither England nor Croatia win their first world cup here i will be fine. Personally i would prefer to see Belgium winning it, since France just has too many annoying players and the french team is bound to get even better in the next couple of years, so they will get enough chances in the future to win some big titles, while a chance like that might not present itself again for Belgium.

Zverev at slams ... I think i saw someone predicting some weeks ago that no player born in the 1990s will ever become world number 1 and i am starting to believe it. Zverev or Shapovalov could do it of course, but i think in the long run Kuhn, Auger-Aliassime and maybe even Molleker will turn out as better talents (at least comparing to Zverev). Kerber and Görges are still in, but i think at least one of them will go out in the next round. Bencic is one of the worst possible opponents for Kerber (alongside Svitolina and Muguruza) and Görges can basically lose to anyone.

So far the overall level has been rather disappointing indeed. Of course Milak, Kolesnikov and Kesely are only doing as much as they have to. Apart from those 3 i don't see many talents who are likely to become world-class. Of course it doesn't help that talents like Anderson, Large, Gose, Shkurdai or Minakov don't seem to have improved much lately. I think especially in men's IM and women's freestlye sprint/back/fly the situation is worrying from a european point of view. We didn't have many breakout performances so far, i don't really see any on the women's side so far and on the men's side i would say only Daniel, Dean and maybe Burdisso (although for him it has been more of a breakout year, i am not sure whether his 200 fly time was even a PB for him). For me clearly the most positive thing has been to see that Israel suddenly has some great talents, especially in men's freestlye, but also in women's 200 IM. Switzerland also has been surprisingly good. The biggest disappointment so far has been Spain. Men's 200 m free tomorrow should be great. From a german perspective the biggest disappointment has been men's 100 fly and there weren't many positive surprises to be honest. The weakness on the men's side is worrying, the same is true about the non-existent improvements of Gose and Tobehn (the two biggest talents in this age group).

Best results so far in my opinion: On the men's side: 110 m hurdles Hammer throw Javelin throw On the women's side: 3000 m Hammer throw Heptathlon The biggest mystery so far for me has been GB in the sprints. Where are all their talents in the sprints? In many races they don't even have starters ... Germany is absolutely shocking in throwing events, but that clearly is a trend. Personally i prefer for example 3 medals in track events over 8 medals in throwing events, but most german people probably disagree. From a german perspective my highlights so far have been the silver for Marie Scheppan in women's 400 m (fastest time for a german U20 runner in this century for 17 yo Scheppan) and the gold for Leni Wildgrube in the pole vault who improved her PB by 6 cm. We might even see Scheppan at the senior european championships as part of the 4 x 400 m relay.

She is with Jozy Altidore now ... (she could do much better imo, but the same would be true if she would be with Sock)

The spanish girl might be a big talent, but the other two rather not and like i said: I mostly care about track events, so the spanish girl isn't very interesting for me.

I think there are multiple reasons for it: 1) We have the world cup and wimbledon at the same time 2) This is the least important athletics championships for european athletes. In my opinion the U20 world championships later this year will be much more exciting. In my opinion there are no can't miss talents at the european U18 championships this time (no new Ingebrigtsen, Tortu, Duplantis and so on). At the U20 world championships we will have many talents who are already (close to) world class. Especially from a german perspective there don't seem to be many great talents, overall i would say that the following are the most exciting talents: Burgin (men's 800 m), Healy (women's 1500/3000 m), Ogchebie (men's high jump), Mahuchikh (women's high jump), Lillefosse (men's pole vault), Nacheva (women's triple jump), Ivanenko (women's hammer throw), Andreev (men's hammer throw), Kokhan (men's hammer throw) Personally i clearly prefer track events and in my opinion there don't seem to be any talents that could become world class (i know too early to tell), so i am naturally less excited this time than i was in the past. Top talents like Seedo or Arneton are missing as well for some reason. In addition to that i don't like to see russian athletes being allowed to compete. I don't want to be all negative, so i am gonna say that in one way U18 championships are the most spectacular championships, because they are least predictable. Some girl with a 11.60 s PB at 100 m who was only 5th on the entry list can suddenly run 11.40 s and win the gold medal, you don't really get that at senior championships (hopefully). For me as a fan the most important thing is not to see medals but to see athletes performing at their best or even improving their PB and that's what you will see a lot at U18 championships.

I am very surprised that Kvitova is already out (Sharapova flopping is also kinda surprising, Svitolina not so much) ... now my favorites are Muguruza and Williams (my favorite winner would be Keys/Bencic, but of course that won't happen). On the men's side Dimitrov disappointing as usual, Coric, Thiem and M. Zverev as well. A. Zverev with another easy first round win, but we saw at the french open that it doesn't have to mean much, i think this time Dzumhur will be too much for him. Would love to see Federer vs. Kyrgios/Del Potro/Shapovalov in the final. In times where England can win a penalty shootout, Del Potro surely can win another slam. Second round highlights for me: Women: Konta vs. Cibulkova, Barty vs. Bouchard, Pliskova vs. Azarenka, Radwanska vs. Safarova, Makarova vs. Wozniacki Men: Kohlschreiber vs. Muller, Dzumhur vs. Gulbis, Del Potro vs. Lopez, Paire vs. Shapovalov, Schwartzman vs. Vesely Kyrgios vs. Haase could also be fun

How should we know that? You gotta give at least some clue.

First time ever that more than 2 games in the round of last 16 were decided by penalty shootout? Crazy to think that in 2014 5 out of 8 games went into extra time ...

In think this is the first time ever with this format (since 1986) that only one game in the round of last 16 was won by 2 goals or more.

I don't think there is much between Croatia and the other teams (maybe except for Russia).

An english team that can win penalty shootouts ... Sweden must be shitting their pants by now. I think many english fans would have deserved to see their team being eliminated. I am especially sad for Pekerman (my 2nd favorite coach ever), Bacca (i can't imagine how it must feel to be the guy responsible for England to win their first penalty shootout ever) and James (he deserved more). Pekerman already lost a penalty shootout in 2006 against Germany, i hope one day he will be on the winning side in a world cup.