World Cup

I'm glad only because I was tired of Neymar's flops.

 

Great World Cup action today. All my Italian friends picked Croatia. So far . . . so good.

 

The difference between Baseball and Soccer:

There is no crying in Baseball
EVERYONE cries in Soccer!

 

They really stunned Rooosha. Vlad must not be happy.

IRONY: The Russian who got the great tying goal is the same guy who misses the net and loses the game for them.

To me its England vs Belgium with Belgium winning the Cup. If that is the case Belgium got a huge gift from Germany's lousy playing.

I still hate these shoot outs at this level.

 

A Russian named Fernandes . . .

 

Vlad might want to invade Croatia but that didn't work out too well in 1914.

 

So it's an all-European final 4. I wonder what CONCACAF and CONMEBOL think of that!

 

Almost unfair that Belgium plays France in the semis instead of the finals, but that's how the draw works. If they lose, they'll look back to that "subs" game against England, where Januzaj didn't get the memo. England has made the most out of their cupcake draw, and that trend looks to continue against a Croatia team which tires after 80 minutes, and will probably not recover enough to mount a serious challenge in the semis.

 

Ok, I admit, for the vast majority of my life, I never really got into soccer. I stuck with more North American sports, particularly hockey. I come to thinking that if soccer is the most popular sport in the world, then I must be missing something. So being World Cup time, I sat down to watch an Argentina game, wanting to see the great Messi. I liked it. I now get it. I am now a fan!

I set my DVR to record all of the games, yet I am not going to be able to watch all of them. Which games would the diehards out there recommend as games you have to see?

 

I'd suggest watching any of the 'old guard' teams...Brazil, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, et al. Tifoso say Croatia, a dark horse in my mind, was a pick of people he knows; I'd be curious to see how they got so far. The early rounds sure seemed to have more scoring, so that's always entertaining.

 

Japan-Belgium is a must see.

 

Neymar’s plane
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Yikes, maybe delete? I was trying to share a funny video, spaz at tech.

 

Portugal-Spain, which seems like ages ago, was one of the best overall WC games I've seen. The last 10 minutes of Portugal-Iran and Spain-Morocco (played simultaneously) made for some unbelievable drama, as did the 2nd half of Sweden-Mexico and Germany-South Korea (also simultaneously, with four teams vying for 2 spots). France-Argentina was fun to watch, and the 2nd half of Japan-Belgium may be the best half of the tournament. And that's just scratching the surface- so many great moments and drama in this WC - easily the most exciting soccer tournament I've watched in my lifetime.

 

I predict that Belgium-France is going to be quite a frenetic match.

 

Go Croatia!!!!!

 

Croatia the stars of the series!!!!

Amazing!!!

LA is over 2 times their entire country population

 

I was hoping to see England vs France as a renewal, of sorts, in their "1000 year war" which did not end until the 1850s. But Croatia is amazing and clearly the sentimental favorite. Somehow I think the French will prevail.

 

I've been rooting for Croatia since I saw how well they were playing in the group stages. I hope they win!!!

 

IMO France has limped in and not shown much in the tournament. Certainly not a dominating performance.

 

I heard that Croatia was the second-smallest country to make a World Cup final. What was the smallest, Uruguay?

 

Looks like they're taking a page from for FIA playbook...

Even if you're only a casual soccer watcher, you might've noticed a trend emerge during this year's FIFA World Cup. Whether it was reaction shots in the midst of matches or crowd pans during halftime, broadcasters have seemingly established a certain reliance on featuring as many female fans as possible, who often donned their home nation's colors and were captured enjoying the spirit of the game. Now, taking a strong stance against sexism, FIFA has publicly condemned the broadcasters for showcasing too many "hot women" on the small screen when they should've been focusing on players and coaches instead.

"We've done it with individual broadcasters. We've done it with our host broadcast services," FIFA diversity chief Federico Addiechi said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In terms of numbers, Addiechi said FIFA has been monitoring all matches and found over 30 cases of this “hot female fan” reliance, according to The Irish Examiner. He also added that while the organization has yet to take on this problem as a "proactive campaign," they would "take action against things that are wrong" in the meantime. "This is one of the activities we definitely will have in future, it's a normal evolution," he said.

 

They shouldn't play the 3rd place game. Belgium won and England more or less just showed up.

 

Agreed. Never been a meaningful game. As a manager, I would play all the young guys and reserves. They’ve been stuck watching- and are eager to play and perform and get noticed. Instead the same 11 from both sides marched out, fatigued physically and mentally with the disappointment of a huge loss each that ended their dreams just a few days ago. Dumb game

 

Is there video evidence of these alleged "hot" female fans?

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