OlympicsFan

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.

If you are England in a penalty shootout you have to use some innovative strategies ...

Out of the last 7 penalty shootout at world cups the team that started only won once.

My money is clearly on England.

So far at this world cup no country that starts with an E has won a penalty shootout, so England is screwed ... Edit: No country starting with an E ever won a penalty shootout at a world cup. Time for England to write history?

Colombia has to win it in extra time if they want to advance.

Wasn't it scored in the 93rd/94th minute?

Very good buy by them, although i don't think he will get much playing time ahead of Pique/Umtiti.

Just wanted to make clear that Japan isn't any better when it comes to gamesmanship. If that opinion of yours was just based on personal preferences i have no problem with that.

I would be very surprised if Mina wouldn't end up at a top club after this tournament. In today's game set pieces become more and more important and he is a deadly weapon when it comes to that. Apparently he only had 3 shots on goal in this tournament and all of them were in ... I hope that Colombia wins, i want to see what they can do with James back.

You mean the japanese team that didn't even try to win it's last group game to secure the first spot?

So what do these two teams have in common? Edit: Didn't Russia basically destroy Egypt (=Tunisia) and Saudi-Arabia (=Panama) the same way Belgium destroyed Panama and Tunisia?

Solely based on the results here i would say: One less spot for CONCACAF (Panama), one less spot for asia (Saudi-Arabia) and one less spot for africa (Egypt) and in return 2 more spots for europe (Netherlands, Italy) and one more spot for south america (Chile).

How can they be meaningless if they determine which team will be group heads? If there would be now ranking, how would you prevent groups like Spain-Germany-Brazil-France from happening? Out of the 16 top ranked teams 13 advanced, while only 3 out of the bottom 16 ranked teams advanced, coincidence? Was it also a coincidence that at the last two world cups each time 3 out of the top 7 teams in world ranking made the semifinal?

I am not happy at all with this result, as a german of course i rather support Switzerland and in my opinion Switzerland has more interesting players. We will probably have one out of England/Sweden and one out of Russia/Croatia in the semifinal, this will be the first time since 2002 with two no-names in the semifinal. In 2002 Brazil won the world cup, so maybe it's a good sign for them.

You forgot how to quote? goalkeepers: Yes CBs: No, not even close full backs: Yes Kante and Casemiro/Fernandinho are close, them being the best in the world in that position doesn't mean much as many teams don't value such a type of player Paulinho and Matuidi are both shit, Pogba and Coutinho are completely different players Mbappe has been better than both Neymar and William, Griezmann has been about on the same level Jesus has been complete shit so far, certainly not better than Giroud To sum it up: France has better CBs and Mbappe + Griezmann have both been better than all brazilian attackers (maybe except for Coutinho, but that would still give France the advantage). In addition to that France has clearly more depth, even without Coman, Lacazette, Martial, Rabiot.

Willian was the best brazilian player for me. In my opinion France got more individual quality than Brazil, they are still the favorites, but of course Spain also had more individual quality than Brazil and still played like shit.

Neymar is beyond embarrassing, as a brazilian fan i would feel ashamed. I hope that Brazil will be eliminated in the next round by Belgium.