Dragon

60 years ago, Walter Winterbottom, the coach of the England team predicted that an African nation would win the World Cup by the end of the 20th century. Maybe he picked the wrong century...

If only they had changed the name of their country to Canadaiye, they might be world champions...

England-Iran - audience of nearly 8 million in the UK in the middle of the afternoon. USA-Wales - 9 million in the evening

Re - the women. You mean qualify for the semi-finals or qualify for the World Champs?

Well, Uruguay had beaten Brazil in Sao Paolo only 2 months before the WC Final in 1950.

The Statistics people are saying it's the 3rd biggest upset in World Cup history. The two more shocking results are USA 1 England 0 in 1950 and North Korea 1 Italy 0 in 1966.

Yes, it's an old tweet but still funny...

Great rugby tackle by the Iranian defender...

The offside was earlier in the move

And that didn't work...

I just want both teams to lose today.

If this was rugby the goalkeeper would have a red card...

Also remember that Ecuador were fined for using falsified documents to ensure one of their players was allowed to play for them.

No, a penalty! What is the referee doing? Did he not get the memo?

It was offside though, the Ecuador player in the middle was beyond the keeper and only had one defender in front of him...

Last three teams to beat Qatar have been Canada, the Croatian Under 23 team and Linfield FC of Northern Ireland...

Due to its suspension, NPC Russia loses all IPC membership rights subject to its right to appeal. Should any appeal not be upheld, only the General Assembly can lift the suspension. Next General Assembly likely Q4 of 2023.

Updates on GBR in skeleton and bobsleigh In bobsleigh, Brad Hall has got off to a decent start to the season by finishing 2nd in the 2 man event then winning the 4 man race North American Cup races in Whistler . Small fields but the US, Canadians and Swiss were represented by strong crews. In skeleton Jacob Salisbury and Craig Thompson have both had a 3rd and a 6th in the 2 Inter-Continental Cup (2nd tier) races in Norway. Amelia Coltman had 2 6ths in the women's races

https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2022/11/01/4b3598b6-18cd-411e-ac09-16e49965df3a/00-AS-Rules-2022-2025-Confirmed.pdf AS 6.2 Team, Free Combination and Acrobatic Routines: AS 6.2.1 "For Olympic Games, team routines shall consist of eight (8) competitors. The total number of competitors entered by each Federation (unless otherwise specified) may not exceed nine (9) competitors one as reserve. The total number of competitors may include a maximum of two (2) male competitors."

There's also the strong rumour that up to 2 men will be allowed per team in Paris. The FINA rules have been changed to allow this but not yet the Olympic qualification rules. But that could still change

OK, these are the most difficult selections so far Athletics - Women's 200m I won't vote for the GDR runners or Flo-Jo because of the doubts everybody has about their integrity. So that leaves the four earliest winners, the three most recent champions and Szewińska of Poland. I was tempted to vote for Szewińska but in the end I went for Wilma Rudolph who dominated the Rome Olympics. Athletics - Women's 3000m Steeplechase Chemutai because the event was much stronger in 2021 than previous Olympics Swimming - Men's 200m Breaststroke I might be biased here. Usually I go for repeat champions like Kitajima but in this case David Wilkie's performance was so damn good in 1976 I can't ignore it. The Americans dominated men's swimming in Montreal, winning all but one gold medal, and reigning champ John Hencken broke the world record by nearly a second. Unfortunately for him, Wilkie broke the world record by three seconds. It's one of the greatest performances in Olympic swimming. Judo - Women's Half Middleweight Judo - Women's Middleweight And I go back to favouring repeat champions again.