heywoodu

Not bad for an amateur, 3rd tier rugby player

Of course his results so far are more impressive than mine But the way he gave away victory again today...it happens so damn often Honestly I'm starting to remember him more as someone who always gives away victories, "the eternal 2nd place finisher" than the guy who wins a lot of races

You have to understand it as a sign that I wasn't joking when I talked about the famous "curse of the rainbow jersey"

Six 2nd place finishes and six 4th place finishes so far this season

- Every disadvantage has an advantage - If people would drive faster on the highway, they would be home faster and so they wouldn't be standing in traffic jams all the time - If you don't shoot at goal, you can't score - I know more than nothing about volleyball, and that's enough - I'm against everything. Until I make a decision, because then I'm for it - The truth is never exactly as you thought it would be - I'm not religious. In Spain, all 22 players ask God for help before the match, but if it actually worked, every match would end in a draw - Experience is something you have or you don't have - For a bad player, he has a very good technique, but for a good player, he has a very bad technique (talking about Zlatan Ibrahimovic) - Before I make a mistake, I don't make that mistake - I would never be able to work for AS Roma...they have an athletics track around the field and that's the worst thing in the world - If you score one more goal than your opponent, you win the match - If you're not at a certain place, you're either too early or too late - You have to defend in every place of the field. That costs less energy, because then you don't have to run all the way back to make a goal - If everybody does their job, you'll at least get a draw - I've never seen a bag of money score a goal - If you knew anything about football, you'd be in my position right now - Sometimes something has to happen before something happens - I love working as long as I'm doing work I love - One of the 32 participating countries at the World Cup wins the World Cup. The others won't, because they're not there - For starters, there's only one ball, so you need to have possession of that one, but the main thing is: what do you do with that ball? - Football is simple: you're either right on time or you're too late. If you're too late, you should have left earlier - If you see a player sprint, it means he left too late - As long as we are in control of the ball, they can't score - If I asked you to show what you can do, you'd show what you can do. However, you'd also show what you couldn't do, because you're not showing that. - If I wanted you to understand it, I'd have explained it better - The ball is an essential part of the game - If you're playing with a lot of ball possession, you don't have to defend, because there's only one ball - I'm still convinced that the way I do things is the way it should be done, because otherwise I wouldn't be doing it like that - If Italians get one chance, they score two goals

Told you, Sagan and the curse of the rainbow jersey. Although today was Sagan's typical way to lose races like he usually does

I'm guessing RUS, ITA and NED all would not exactly have been ideal opponents It's a shame that Spain just destroyed Canada in two segments of a few minutes (from 3-5 to 7-5 and later when moving up to 10-6)...there was more possible for the Canadians

Canada gives away a 5-3 HT lead against Spain and loses 6-10. Meaning we will very likely play Spain in a direct match for an Olympic ticket... (unless some weird stuff happens with RUS and ITA ending up with a draw)

Haase's coach is now officially suspected of murdering a businessman some weeks ago The guy (Mark de Jong) was arrested when he and Haase came back from their trip to the Americas, but Haase only found out a little later because he was flying business class and his coach was flying economy class.

2004 was as Serbia and Montenegro...I'm surprised Serbia wasn't there in 2008 and 2012

WC is something different than the World Championships which had a shitload of positives already?

The whole "angry Serbs" thing aside, since Kosovo is a nation, recognized by a majority of countries and - the most important - by the IOC, we will obviously count them as nation (although not for this list, given that they will debut) But let's stop this right here before the thread goes in the completely wrong direction Will Serbia debut in some sport in Rio?

As for The Netherlands, we have 1 new sport thanks to our handball ladies

I'm doubting about rugby, because it has been at 4 Olympics, but not in the rugby sevens format... Golf was in the 1900 and 1904 Olympics so technically every country there would be new, but maybe it'd be more interesting if we don't look at rugby and golf indeed.

True, although I wouldn't say that's a nation

Another idea for a list which I thought could be interesting, which got in my mind thanks to a post in the table tennis thread. Apparently, Fiji will be represented in table tennis for the first time in Olympic history, which got me thinking, which other nations will have these kind of "firsts" in the different sports? - Kosovo doesn't count, as it'll be their first Olympics (same thing for South Sudan?) Nation List Algeria - Sailing Angola - Rowing Aruba - Taekwondo Azerbaijan - Canoeing (Slalom) Benin - Fencing Brazil - Badminton, Field hockey, Gymnastics (Trampoline) Cameroon - Volleyball Cape Verde - Taekwondo Chinese Taipei - Equestrian Colombia - Synchronized swimming Cyprus - Gymnastics (Artistic) Dominican Republic - Cycling (Road), Equestrian, Fencing DR Congo - Taekwondo Egypt - Beach volleyball Fiji - Football, Table tennis Ireland - Field hockey Jamaica - Gymnastics (Artistic) Mauritius - Cycling (Mountain bike) Mongolia - Taekwondo Mozambique - Canoeing (Sprint) Netherlands - Handball New Zealand - Gymnastics (Trampoline) Palestine - Equestrian Peru - Gymnastics (Artistic) Philippines - Table tennis Puerto Rico - Table tennis Qatar - Equestrian, Handball Senegal - Canoeing (Slalom) Tonga - Taekwondo Trinidad and Tobago - Rowing, Gymnastics (Artistic) Zimbabwe - Equestrian, Football

No rumours anymore, it's official: one of the greatest football players in history (and without any doubt the best Dutch player ever) has died.

Rumours (but unfortunately they seem to be true) in Dutch media that Johan Cruijff has died at age 68.

Robin Haase's coach has been arrested for involvement in the murder of a Dutch bussinessman To elaborate a little: This bussinessman was abused by Badr Hari (famous K1-fighter/criminal), resulting eventually in a time in prison for Hari if I'm not mistaken. Couple of weeks ago this bussinessman was found stabbed to dead at his home.

Zaripova also loses her 2011 world title

They showed part of Cali 2013? If only I had Totallympics at that time I would have known..

Also, they should have played better, obviously. But there's also the option (which looks more realistic) that 1. they didn't finish their chances and 2. Italy got some "help" (again, just like at the world championships). 1 doesn't exclude 2, but of course 2 also doesn't exclude 1

Wonderful, thanks to Italy getting a draw for free by the referees, we probably have to play Spain in a fight for 1 Olympic ticket...our luck

Thank you referees for helping out Italy (as always...) Obviously our girls should have simply played better, no doubt about that, but come on...FINA can't make it more clear that they really want Italy at the Olympics..

I mostly hope there will be good live streaming available