heywoodu

Belarus' minister of foreign affairs (who was seen as potential successor of Lukashenko one day) has, to quote the official announcements, 'suddenly died'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Makei Presumably he said something wrong or something, who knows, that tends to be bad for your health in the Russian sphere of influence. Maybe he stood too close to a window, you never know.

Cycling is basically always two here, one 'commentator' and one (usually) former cyclist. Since cycling is often quite a long broadcast, that often results in a large part being kind of a conversation between the two, my favourite duo on Eurosport does that perfectly - they were a bit awkward when they started out some years ago, without knowing one another, while nowadays during the broadcasts you can just hear that they have become close friends (often making fun at one another, talking about life and so on) Formula 1 has two commentators here since this year, after one guy doing it for 30 years or so but the channel that got the rights from this year didn't hire him. That's about it, in terms of two-commentator-sports here Sometimes some sports have a second commentator if one is available or for some special event or so, but usually not.

Because often that is how it is When it's something decisive, sure, but sometimes it's more like a big favourite finally scoring a goal against an underdog...instead of some big reaction, it's more like "finally..."

Some athletes just generally come across as absolute assholes, both on and off the field of play. Neymar is one such example.

A good commentator knows when nothing is happening for a bit And they do have emotion, but they generally talk about what's happening, whereas those "gooooooool" screamers mostly come across as if they missed the goal and have no idea what happened, so they'll just keep yelling until the replay

Two commentators? Huh, never heard that with football. Basically just with cycling that's common here I think. And I'm also not a fan of the commentators you yell and scream just for the heck of it

I have no idea why, personally I enjoy it much more when someone who is not the supposed superstar is decisive I feel like NOS has been talking about "this is the World Cup where Messi will have to do it!" for five consecutive World Cups now. Luckily Richarlison has pushed Neymar aside at least

How are commentators in your countries? NOS is always heavily Messi-focused, as shown by the commentator's blinding orgasm when Messi scored this decent but definitely not miraculous goal

Starting to wonder if the referee maybe left his yellow card in the dressing room

Just now I noticed Mbappe was asking for a card even before he stopped rolling. It was luckily out of fashion for a while, but seems to be making a very annoying comeback. Referees really need to start giving cards to players who ask for them.

How on earth is that not immediately red Edit: ok, maybe a bitless obvious, but at the very least worth a good VAR check

Wait what?

That one Saudi player who is actually unhappy that they're so close to home right now

Well that's one Rolls Royce fewer.

Maybe the Saudis can act as if it was actually a goal

But the simple fact of being touched doesn't mean it's a foul. It was not even hard defending..

Oh come on, now this Saudi #8 jumps on a Polish guy and then falls down as if thay Polish guy elbowed him in the face. This is getting ridiculous, and Sampaio is letting himself get manipulated right into it.

And everybody hates that Maradona goal as far as I know, or at least sees it as one of the clearest examples ever of a goal that should not have been allowed This just wasn't a penalty, at all. They happened to touch, slightly, and Al-Neymar went down as if his leg had been smashed in three pieces. The Saudi team plays more than excellent today, but this isn't how they should get even.

Justice!

Hahahaha, this referee has been promised a Rolls Royce as well? The local amateur theater is better.

For the dumbest thing: protesting. If I were a coach, I'd immediately substitute a player who gets yellow for that. It's so insanely useless and utterly dumb, players like that only hurt the team.

Oof, Cash very much escapes a second yellow card.

This new graphic they have for multiple substitutions at the same time is a rare good addition to the graphic package

We have the sports sections of the regular newspapers and as far as I know that's basically it (depending on the newspaper they can be big enough, but still)