OlympicsFan

You realize where this meeting took place? Do you think it's a coincidence that 3 national records were broken in the same race? I would say on a track like Zürich those times would have been 0,5 s slower. I still don't see any of them, except for Sprunger, winning a medal at the european championships. My guess is that 3 out of the following 4 countries will win the medals: GB, France, Switzerland, Poland

Didn't he miss a penalty later on? In fact him getting a red card might have been better for you, because then he wouldn't have taken a penalty and his replacement might have scored and you therefore might have advanced to the next round.

Exactly, i didn't say under what circumstances it should have been a penalty. The rule is stupid and should be different and then it would have been a red card.

I would say (i know in reality there is always a chance ... ): Water polo m/w 0 % Rugby m/w 0 % Softball/baseball 0 % Basketball w 0 % Hockey m/w > 90 % Football w > 70 % Handball m, football m ≈ 50 % Basketball m*, handball w, volleyball m/w ≈ 25 % Realistic case: Hockey m/w, football w, handball m, basketball m *We shouldn't forget that by the start of next season Germany might have the 2nd most NBA players of all european nations, tied with Spain and only behind France.

Why?

Yes, if you stop a safe goal, you should get a red card. I am glad that Denmark didn't profit from a flaw in the rules.

Yes, i know, so ... ?

1) How was Modric's penalty a good one? Just because he made it? It was right in the middle and Schmeichel almost safed it with his feet. In my opinion only the penalty of Kjaer and maybe that of Rakitic were great. 2) How is it idiotic to nearly stop halfway? If you do it right, you are dramatically increasing your chances to score a goal. If a goalkeeper doesn't move into one corner before you shoot and your shot goes in one corner, then he has no chance to safe it. By hesitating, you might force the goalkeeper to move into one corner earlier then he normally would, because he can't predict when you will hit the ball (which wouldn't be the case if you wouldn't hesitate), so you will have more time to pick one corner, because you are still further away from the ball then you would normally be -> more time to pick a corner = better precision.

Yes, so? Just because i would have done the same, it doesn't make it right.

I think i would have taken the penalty. If they win, it doesn't matter whether he took the penalty or not. If they lose and he made his penalty, then at least he can say that he somewhat made up for his missed penalty and won't always have to ask himself whether he should have taken it. In 3 out of 4 possible outcomes taking the penalty would be the better decision in my opinion, so i think it would be better to take it. You could also see it this way: Why did Modric take the penalty? The reason probably is that he is their best penalty-taker, so if he can get the missed penalty out of his head, he would increase their chances to advance by taking one of the penalties, so it's somewhat his duty to do it, but of course only he himself can tell whether he is able to get the missed penalty out of his head or not.

I am very glad that Croatia won, the foul that lead to the penalty should have resulted in a red card, i am glad that the danish player wasn't rewarded.

Apparently this was the 10th time that Spain played against a host at the world cup or european championships and they lost every time. At the 1934 world cup they lost against Italy, at the 1950 world cup they lost against Brazil and at the 2002 world cup they lost against South Korea. Another interesting stat: Vladimir Granat who was subbed in at halftime didn't complete a single pass in the 75 minutes he played ...

The world cup continues to be a disappointment in my opinion. None of the big teams has played at their best so far. I still think that having longer seasons every year for the big teams doesn't help the level at world cups or european championships. This result is another proof that tiki taka is done, i think more physical teams will dominate football in the future. For the sake of football i hope that Russia won't come near the title, i would prefer less destructive teams like France, Belgium or even England to win it.

Apparently it does. There a multiple reasons why previous outcomes of penalty shootouts might be a predictor concerning the outcome of current penalty shootouts.

England in a world cup final would be shocking indeed, then us germans couldn't make fun of english football for at least 4 years ... Has England won every world cup final they played? Has any of those teams (except for England and Sweden) ever made a world cup final (senior level)? This would look a lot like that last european championships, where the big teams (France, Germany, Spain, Italy) battled it out in one half and in the end Portugal, who were in the other half won the cup. This time my favorites would be Croatia and England (since Colombia without James is only half as good).

Own goals included? If yes, then i would say own goal ... From an historic perspective, Ramos or Iniesta would be the players most deserving of scoring that 100th goal for Spain.

With every game i see, France becomes an even bigger favorite for me, hard to see them not winning it. Would a France vs. Belgium final be possible? At the moment this would be my favorite final, finally a new finalist and probably a very heated atmosphere too.

What? Be a bit patriotic please , i would give a lot to see Germany back in the tournament again, but that won't happen. A world cup is only once every 4 years, you have to enjoy it. In addition to that i don't see how Russia instead of Spain advancing would make games more exciting. You think a) Russia vs. Uruguay would be a more interesting match than Spain vs. Uruguay b) Russia has more to hurt Uruguay than Spain has?

For me this looked more than fishy by Pique. I think i have never seen such a stupid penalty before. His hands were already down again and then he put one of them up again, almost as if he wanted to be hit.

Better than Portugal vs. Spain?

Brazil vs. Germany in 2014?

They have great depth, but people shouldn't act as if France is heads and shoulders above every other team. Tolisso doesn't even play for Bayern and Pavard plays for Stuttgart + he isn't even a right back. In my opinion France has too many similar midfielders (only box-to-box players) and noone like Kroos, Modric or someone else who can control a game.

Perfect results for me, although i am surprised that France had to fight so much (based on the scoreline, i couldn't watch anything today). Mbappe probably was a lock to win best young player before the tournament started and now there can't be anyone who doesn't agree about that. Golden boot should be between Kane and Lukaku.

Warholm continues to improve, but this still might not be enough to win a medal in 2019 or 2020, given the recent improvements of Samba, Benjamin and McMaster, although i think it's very likely that at least one of them will get caught in the next couple of years.

Who is they?