thiago_simoes

She did well not to perform the Produnova anymore (she had huge mistakes in execution) and she also did well to keep her double twisting tsukahara (also a very hard vault, and she performs it well). Her average score (14.150) was pretty good and she can even increase it for the World Championships if she improves her execution.

India got a gold medal on vault and Twitter in India has gone crazy, apparently.

Now we know what happens when we mix crazy fans with expansionist capitalism. Football is war.

I thought Croatia was a joke before the World Cup (Croatia lost 2-0 to Brazil last month), but a mix of talent and luck led them to semifinals. Now anything can happen. As I wrote before, I will not cheer/root for any team (I jinx every team I root for), but I have to say it would be nice to have a final between Belgium and Croatia so a new world champion can emerge. Most people I know in Brazil are rooting for Belgium.

[hide] Knockout Round June 30th - July 15th, 2018 16 Nations, Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Third Place Match and Final Semifinals Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 10th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) France 1 2 Belgium July 11th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Croatia 0 2 England [/hide]

Only European teams will play, so I hope they have a nice cup. And the concept of cheering for your "neighbors" may not really make sense in Europe because most countries there were colonizers, not colonized. In South America it's easy to see (even around here) people cheering for other countries of the continent because we share (mostly) the same language (even Portuguese and Spanish are mutually inteligible) and, roughly, a similar history. Also, I'm not aware or major ethnic conflicts in South American, opposed to what happened in part of Europe. Maybe this only makes sense to South Americans, I don't know. It's hard to tell people to understand part of a history they never lived.

Congratulations to Belgium. Really nice match. I'm relieved this is over and now we can focus on really important things around here. For the rest of the world Europe, have a nice cup and may the best woman team win.

We have suffered a coup d'etat, one politician ten times worse than Trump wants to be the next president and the former president is in jail so he cannot run for again (he was arrested without evidence). Brazil is a mess. We should not even consider cheering for the national team at this point. I'm not exactly happy, but I'm somewhat relieved Brazil will not win, so Brazilians will not be blinded by this World Cup histeria anymore.

Another 7 x 1 on its way. I can't wait for the memes. Hahaha.

Nah. I won't cheer for Brazil because I want the team to lose, but I will not cheer for any of the European teams, though.

We all have our opinions about Neymar, but Brazil is a pretty decent team without him. In the French team, on the other hand, it looks like every player go for a dive whenever they are touched. This really pisses me off and reminds me why I hate football.

French players have been learning a lot with Neymar. It's hard to watch.

I can't believe this happened to one of the best (if not the best) goalkeeper of the tournament. Now it is going to be really hard to recover, unless they pull a Belgium here.

1) The problem with Argentina, in my opinion, is not Messi. He's a great player and he has proven his worth time and time again, although he's a bit unlucky in World Cups. Argentina needs a better coach and better tactics. Messi could very well be the only person preventing the team from completely falling apart outside of the field. I see Portugal, on the other hand, totally dependent on Ronaldo, pretty much like Brazil depended on Neymar in 2014. 2) This is simplistic and even a little bit naive. It's pretty much like saying England is not a football nation because players have not achieved anything relevant in over 50 years. This makes no sense when you consider attendance, national clubs and leagues, the attention football gets from local media in Portugal etc.

[hide] Knockout Round June 30th - July 15th, 2018 16 Nations, Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Third Place Match and Final Quarterfinals Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 6th 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+3) Uruguay 2 2 France July 6th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Brazil 2 1 Belgium July 7th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+4) Sweden 1 0 England July 7th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Russia 0 2 Croatia [/hide]

I can't believe it. England...

What a boring match. This bottom half has all sorts of boring teams, and it's almost infuriating that two of them will reach semi-finals (and one of them the finals... God forbid the title).

Not a fan of the ranking system myself, but I undestand this situation a bit differently: probably this goes on to show how unpredictable football can be. I mean, who would have thought that Russia could beat Spain? As for the ranking itself, it's idiot to have a ranking system and let it have zero effect on the World Cup qualifiers. Teams ranked 9 and 17 did not qualify, while teams ranked 61 and 67 did.

In the quarter-finals we'll have on the top half teams ranked 2, 3, 7 and 14, and on the bottom half we have, so far, teams ranked 20, 24, 70, and we'll have either 12 or 16. Best case scenario is that we'll have a final between teams ranked 2 and 12, worst case scenario is that we'll have a final between teams 14 and 70.

Unfortunate (for Japan) goal in the end, but I'm happy with the match. I wanted the winner to be a team not from Europe or the Americas, but now that this will not happen, I will cheer for Uruguay. Not that I think they can beat France, but this World Cup has been so weird that anything could happen.

I know we are supposed to write in English here, but I can't resist: がんばって!これはとても面白いです!

Japan

I don't know much about Spanish players, but all I know is that Brazil is insane. I was supposed to receive income tax refund and somehow I got screwed and instead I had to pay tens of thousands of reais in taxes. It's sick and revolting, and I'll have to hire a lawyer to fight against this absurd. Neymar was supposed to pay millions of reais in taxes, evaded payment and the federal government will probably forgive his millionaire debt if the team wins the World Cup. Absolutely disgusting. I can't cheer for a country that screws honest people and at the same time turns a blind eye to millionaires.

Few people in Brazil can. Mostly those brainwashed by media, but anyone with passing interest or no interest at all in football hates him just as much. His actions outside the field are also questionable. He's a notorious tax evader and this has become a sort of ongoing joke combined with his theatrical performances.