OlympicsFan

Sorry, i completely forgot about it, now its sadly too late. I hope you guys will have a lot of fun (as you always do) and may the best song win ... Maybe i will participate for the first time next year ... This was my early favorite to represent Germany by the way:

Iran is doing great, Mexico is always very good at junior level, so this is an impressive result. I am surprised that Spain won against France and even more surprised that England had to go to penalties to beat Japan, without Sancho, they are clearly weaker. I think Brazil should win this, England is probably the second best team, followed by Spain, Mali and Iran.

Very good result for Germany, although Brazil will absolutely annihilate this team, which of course isnt surprising, considering all the missing players (especially Moukoko).

What a surprising result!

Wow ... the level is absolutely atrocious, especially on the womens side. Where are all the elite gymnasts? None of the top american, chinese, russian girls compete + i think the best british girls are missing (i might be wrong) + no Iordache. In the end at best 10% of the medallists are really top 3 in their event at the moment. Especially in womens beam the level is shockingly bad. Normally even top qualifier Tabea Alt should have struggled to make the final. I dont remember it being that bad 4 years ago. Those world championships are a joke, which is sad, because the canadian crowd and organizers deserved better.

Is it possible for me to represent Australia too? If not, then i would like to switch nationality and represent Australia instead of Germany.

What a shocking result in mens U23 road race. I was absolutely sure that Kämna will win the gold. He must feel devastated now, he threw away a safe gold in the time trial for this ...

Ok, sorry didnt get it, belgium people probably just have a different sense of humor.

And that is because european nations normally dont compete with their best teams + african age cheating. England is really strong this time, its hard to not see them winning the whole thing, probably only France or Brazil can stop them. I got used to never see Germany competing with the best team at junior tournaments, but this time its even more annoying, because i really would have liked to see 12 year old Youssoufa Moukoko play against the best international talents, i think he could have shocked the world, considering his performances at german U17 level. Mbom, Batista-Meier, Früchtl and Evina are also very special talents, overall this age group is the best since the "1996 age group" (Brandt, Dahoud, Tah, Werner) in my opinion.

Groups for FIFA Men's U17 world championships in India, beginning October 6th: Group A: India, USA, Colombia, Ghana Group B: Paraguay, Mali, New Zealand, Turkey Group C: Iran, Costa Rica, Germany, Guinea Group D: North Korea, Brazil, Spain, Niger Group E: Honduras, Japan, France, NEW CALEDONIA Group F: Chile, England, Iraq, Mexico Surprising that Argentina and Nigeria didnt qualify, Italy and Portugal are two other big nations that are missing. In the semifinals we should have: Brazil/Spain vs. England USA/Colombia/Ghana vs. Germany/France Very "weird" draw, the winner of group A doesnt have to face any other group winner until the semifinal, while probably only one out of Germany/France will be able to reach the semifinal (if they win their groups). In my opinion the title should be between England, Brazil, France and maybe Spain, but with all the age cheating in african nations, you never know ... Germany is missing many top players, like Christian Früchtl (second goalkeeper for Bayern München, after Neuer got injured, biggest goalkeeper talent Germany produced in a very long time), Youssoufa Moukoko (only 12 years old, but arguably the best player in the german U17 league), Franck Evina (doenst have the german passport yet), Manuel Mbom (injured, best german defensive midfield talent, described as new Yaya Toure), Oliver Batista-Meier (best german talent in the offensive midfield, but still U16 and DFB basically never nominates younger players ... ). So basically the 5 biggest talents are missing. There are 4 or 5 other talents who should have been nominated (according to most people who follow the german U17 Bundesliga), but werent nominated for one reason or the other, for example Jesaja Herrmann, Marcel Zylla or David Philipp.

I think my comment was pretty clear ...

Just sad that 2 of the last 3 major time trials werent real time trials (Rio and Bergen). Tony Martin is still good enough to medal at real time trials, but his reign is over. Dumoulin will dominate for a couple of years, although he looks really weird on his bike. I hope that Kämna will be good enough by 2020 to take the olympic gold from him.

Germany in.

Interesting that Kämna couldnt even be bothered to compete in the time trial, otherwise he would have completely annihilated this field. Now he basically has to win gold in the road race ...

The top 2 in mens skeet are both only 22 years old, which is very surprising, because normally shotgun events are dominated by older athletes.

I am surprised that Germany won, but not too much. Of course France was missing many good players, but its not as if Germany wasnt missing top players as well (Nowitzki, Kaman, Zipser, Kleber, Pleiß, Zirbes, Mushidi, Wagner). I hope that Germany will loose by less than 15 against Spain.

So you cheer for Russia ... ? As an objective fan i can say that Russia already won enough, so Germany should win.

I dont agree, i think Wieczerzak, Bachmann or Doll winning gold was a bigger surprise, probably even Schmidt winning bronze. The coach is the main reason for this, but i also think that adding many young players was very important, after the team had been basically the same for many years. This really changed things up and brought a whole new dynamic to this team.

Anthony Randolph plays for Slovenia? How did that happen ... ? I also heard something about Slaughter playing for one of those teams ... ? Nice start for Germany, Schröder is clearly the best european point guard and for sure among the 10 best european players currently. With so many missing players (4 NBA players + Zirbes, Pleiß, Mushidi, Wagner) i dont expect more than a 3rd place in this group and a loss in the next round.

Obviously ... i just cant cheer for her, she doesnt amaze me. Russia will always have multiple world class skaters, they have the best depth in the world.

I know, i didnt want to mention it here, because apparently its not confirmed by the russian federation. Their head said that he didnt hear anything about a retirement ...

I just found out that Germany seems to have a pretty young team, which is surprising, considering that Germany never had really good results at junior level on the mens side. Bogachev and Zenger were born in 1997, Krick was born in 1998, Brehme and Weber were born in 1999. Did anyone watch the german matches and could maybe tell me something about those players? Could anyone of them potentially become world class?

Huge blow to russian figure skating. Apparently Yulia Lipnitskaya ended her career. Adelina Sotnikova is injured and will miss the whole season (including the olympics). I am sure that russia will find other medal contenders, but i am absolutely shocked by the news about Lipnitskaya, she has been one of my favorite athletes ever since the 2014 olympics, now i wont have anyone to cheer for at the olympics, without Lipnitskaya and Asada. Here is a video of the legendary performance by Lipnitskaya from Sochi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke0iusvydl8

I really underestimated the canadian team, never heard of Sanchez, Hannah, Smith, Knelson, Zavaros before this week. If Oleksiak and Ruck would have competed in all their best events, Canada would have won the medal table and probably would have come close to 20 medals. Canada has a very good chance of having being the best nation in womens swimming by 2020. Canada could have 2 finallists in most events by then, only "weak" events could be 800/1500 (maybe also 400) free and 200 fly. The depth in womens 100/200 free and 100/200 back is insane. Impossible to see Canada not winning 3 relay medals in 2020 and at least one of them (4x200 free) in gold. The mens side on the other hand ... is just very bad. Is there anyone (besides Acevedo) who might make the final in 2019 or 2020?