thiago_simoes

Poor Panama... I'll write it again: we need a new system. My suggestion is: Europe: 14 quotas North America: 2 quotas South America: 4 quotas Africa: 4 quotas Asia: 4 quotas Oceania: 1 quota Host nation: 1 quota World Cup qualifying tournament (a kind of test event): 2 quotas (2 teams from Europe, 2 from South America, 1 from North America, 1 from Asia, 1 from Africa, 1 from Oceania)

From October 25 to November 3.

While we're here, any chance we'll have a prediction contest for Artistic Gymnastics Worlds this year?

I actually like this system and, as someone said, it makes for a nice consolation prize. Not everyone gets the goal difference right... For example, I predicted ENG-PAN as a +7 win for England, and now I can't even remember why I had such high hopes.

Qualified nations in men's artistic gymnastics are

Sad outcome. I was hoping for Germany to win, but Sweden had a chance to win and they made me believe they could do it... Really sad, especially after seeing the Swedish woman crying (probably out of happiness) when the match was tied.

Man, this is really sad.

Sweden!

Mexico is the best team in my opinion and I hope they win the World Cup now. Or maybe Senegal, who knows? One can dream.

But YOG qualification is based on preliminaries, and I don't think Argentina has a guaranteed quota in trampoline. I might be wrong, though. EDIT: I was wrong. Argentina has to choose whether to send a boy or a girl, so Mexico will lose one quota.

Here.

If I got everything right, European nations qualified in women's artistic gymnastics are

qualified in men's trampoline, qualified in women's trampoline.

Tunisia!

Poor guys. Two goals in 15 minutes. It will be nearly impossible to recover.

Not only on the field. This has been a historical problem in Brazil (Romário, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho) and it's almost infuriating to see how influential they are. I teach English in a federal institute (basically a high school and a university in one single place). I asked my class of sophomore students to create a video in English about someone who they admire, and one group came up with a video of Ronaldinho Gaucho. In the end of their presentation, they showed a picture of Ronaldinho making a gesture with his hands that can be seen as a vagina, and one of the students then showed a picture of himself reproducing the gesture. I graded them zero (grades in Brazil go from 0 to 10). I don't care how hard they worked to improve their English if their behavior as human beings needs a lot of improvement. The thing is those kind of footballers are seen as role models, and young men often fail to see how offensive some of them are.

I understand @heywoodu. I can't force myself to, even though I'm Brazilian.

Neymar is an idiot. I am sorry he represents my country. Now the commentator on Brazilian TV is saying Neymar is a good boy and trying to capitalize on all this fake drama and fake crying. Yuck.

Even the Brazilian coach is good at diving.

This match is disgusting on so many levels. This late goal only puts salt to the wound.

Neymar is not the solution for this team. He is this team's main problem.

So how come they didn't qualify for the World Cup?

Before the World Cup began: Brazilian hype. During (and after the World Cup): Brazilian hyperinflation.

Yes, I know, but sometimes when we discuss about it, it looks like earning Olympic gold is a walk in the park while earning the World Cup title is something next to impossible. Well, Olympic gold is pretty hard to get (Germany as a unified nation has never won it), and I know that the World Cup title is even harder, but we're still talking about two hard titles to earn. On a scale from 1 to 10, it's a level 7 title and the World Cup title is a solid 10, but both are huge achievements, in my opinion.

I, for one, was hopeful (or delusional) enough to seriously believe Argentina could challenge for the title. The first half of the match was very even, but the second half was a disaster. This could easily have been the new 7x1, and I feel bad for Argentina because I kind of like Messi (he seems very level headed and humble, opposed to CR, the buffoon, and Neymar, the stupid). They can still beat Nigeria, but things are not looking good.