Futbol

[Vrede too]

Sun, 11/27

... GO:

11:00 AM EST
Canada 0-1-0 > Croatia 0-0-1
Canada 1, Croatia 4! Croatia effed Canada, opps.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/croatia-cro ... ld-cup-win

... "I want to thank Canada's coach for the motivation," Kramaric said shortly after scoring two goals in Croatia's 4-1 rout over Canada on Sunday, sending the North American team crashing out of the World Cup.

"We demonstrated who f---ed whom," he added....

4 Canada 0 Can't advance, O Really is inconsolable.

"After four scoreless matches in its men's World Cup history, the fifth time proved the charm as Canada finally scored its first goal"

I don't think expectations were high.

5:00 AM EST
Cameroon 0-1-0 > Serbia 0-1-0
3-3. Lotta scoring, I was rooting for Cameroon . Both now have 1 point.

GO:

1:00 AM EST
Switzerland 1-0-0 > Brazil 1-0-0

GO FUTBOL:

8:00 AM EST
South Korea 0-0-1 vs Ghana 0-1-0

2:00 PM EST
Portugal 1-0-0 vs Uruguay 0-0-1

[Vrede too]

GO FUTBOL:

8:00 AM EST
South Korea 0-0-1 vs Ghana 0-1-0

Exciting game. South Korea 2 vs Ghana 3.
South Korea has just 1 point, Ghana 3.

[Vrede too]

5:00 AM EST
Cameroon 0-1-0 > Serbia 0-1-0
3-3. Lotta scoring, I was rooting for Cameroon . Both now have 1 point.

GO:

1:00 AM EST
Switzerland 1-0-0 > Brazil 1-0-0

Switzerland 0, Brazil 1, not a surprise.

Group G
1 Brazil 6, advances.
2 Switzerland 3, tie or win vs Serbia on Friday and it advances.
3 Cameroon 1, must beat Brazil on Friday and get help.
4 Serbia 1, must beat Switzerland on Friday and get help.

[Vrede too]

GO FUTBOL:

8:00 AM EST
South Korea 0-0-1 vs Ghana 0-1-0

2:00 PM EST
Portugal 1-0-0 vs Uruguay 0-0-1

Exciting game. South Korea 2 vs Ghana 3.
South Korea has just 1 point, Ghana 3.

Portugal 2, Uruguay 0

Group H
1 Portugal 6, advances.
2 Ghana 3, advances with a win or a tie vs Uruguay on Friday. Go Africa!
3 South Korea 1, needs to beat Portugal on Friday and get help.
4 Uruguay 1, needs to beat Ghana on Friday and get help.

[GoCubsGo]

Stretch may have competition.

[Vrede too]

Tue, 11/29

Group A
1 Netherlands 4
2 Ecuador 4
3 Senegal 3
4 Qatar 0

10:00 AM EST
Ecuador 1-0-1 vs Senegal 1-1-0. Go futbol.
Assuming that Netherlands beats Qatar, Ecuador needs a win or a tie, Senegal needs a win.
Go Netherlands 1-0-1 > Qatar 0-2-0
Qatar is already eliminated . Netherlands advances with a win or a tie, may not even need that.

Group B
1 England 4
2 Iran 3
3 USA 2
4 Wales 1

2:00 PM EST
Iran 1-1-0 vs USA 0-0-2
Mixed feelings. I'm not jingoistic. I hate Iran's govt, but honor the people that have been resisting it for months, and dying in the hundreds. Go futbol.
Iran is in if it wins, will need help if it ties. USA is only in if it wins.
Go Wales 0-1-1 > England 1-0-1
Wales needs to win and even then may need help. England advances with a win or a tie, may advance with a loss.

[Vrede too]

Stretch may have competition.

Cool! I'll bet the quality even impressed the videographer.

[O Really]

Mixed feelings. I'm not jingoistic. I hate Iran's govt, but honor the people that have been resisting it for months, and dying in the hundreds.

Neda Iranpour is an Iran-born TV anchor on CBS8. She had a piece featuring her mother, discussing Iranian life "before." Hearing her story and seeing her pics vs. now is tragic.

https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local ... d7ce1663a4

[Vrede too]

Neda Iranpour is an Iran-born TV anchor on CBS8. She had a piece featuring her mother, discussing Iranian life "before." Hearing her story and seeing her pics vs. now is tragic.

https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local ... d7ce1663a4

"free Iran" was debatable. It's a shame that the Shah was such an asshole. The reaction to him was worse.

We could also compare democratic Iran to after the CIA reinstalled the Shah in 1954.

[O Really]

Neda Iranpour is an Iran-born TV anchor on CBS8. She had a piece featuring her mother, discussing Iranian life "before." Hearing her story and seeing her pics vs. now is tragic.

https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local ... d7ce1663a4

"free Iran" was debatable. It's a shame that the Shah was such an asshole. The reaction to him was worse.

We could also compare democratic Iran to after the CIA reinstalled the Shah in 1954.

"Free" is always relative, but clearly life was better for the average person - and certainly average female - than since 1979.
I lived in Greece while the military junta ruled https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_junta
Dissent was dealt with harshly, of course, and there were certainly abuses. But if you weren't involved with the government and just went on with your regular life, it was pretty much a regular life. Were the people "free" during that regime? Most would agree "no" but were their lives ruled to the extent most Americans think happens in a dictatorship or that is in fact happening in Islamic countries? Nope. Jobs were done, school and church was attended, crops were raised, tavernas were full, Santa Claus rode in a parade, and the tourist industry trucked on.

[O Really]

Has nothing to do with futbol, except that it was an article about the games, but when did it become acceptable for a team name to be considered plural. Here's the headline:
"Why are England taking the knee at World Cup 2022?"

Why are England? You could say "why are English players..."
Just because a noun is collective doesn't mean it's plural. "The team" refers to a bunch of individuals, but it's still singular. You say "the team IS good this year. You don't say "the team ARE good." And yet, I see it regularly in sports articles.

[Vrede too]

Has nothing to do with futbol, except that it was an article about the games, but when did it become acceptable for a team name to be considered plural. Here's the headline:
"Why are England taking the knee at World Cup 2022?"

Why are England? You could say "why are English players..."
Just because a noun is collective doesn't mean it's plural. "The team" refers to a bunch of individuals, but it's still singular. You say "the team IS good this year. You don't say "the team ARE good." And yet, I see it regularly in sports articles.

I waver on which to use sometimes. You are grammatically correct, but headlines are necessarily shortened. Here's the original article:
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/soccer/ ... iknyg9mern
The team name is "The Three Lions" so one would ask 'why are The Three Lions...?' even though it's the same team being talked about.
Still, the article does say, "England have been taking the knee..." rather than 'has', and uses "are" throughout. Maybe it's a distinction based on whether one is referring to the team's players or the team as an institution?

[Vrede too]

Tue, 11/29

Group A
1 Netherlands 4
2 Ecuador 4
3 Senegal 3
4 Qatar 0

10:00 AM EST
Ecuador 1-0-1 vs Senegal 1-1-0. Go futbol.
Assuming that Netherlands beats Qatar, Ecuador needs a win or a tie, Senegal needs a win.
Go Netherlands 1-0-1 > Qatar 0-2-0
Qatar is already eliminated . Netherlands advances with a win or a tie, may not even need that.

Ecuador 1, Senegal 2
Netherlands 2, Qatar 0

Group A
1 Netherlands 7, undefeated!
2 Senegal 6, Africa represent
3 Ecuador 4
4 Qatar 0, just 1 goal scored, -6 goal differential

The Fans Screamed for Qatar. Their Passion Hid a Secret.



... Through word-of-mouth, young Lebanese fans were offered an extraordinary deal: free flights, accommodations, match tickets and food, plus a small stipend, to bring some ultras culture to Qatar’s World Cup games. The fans arrived in mid-October to rehearse their choreographed actions and to practice their newly written chants.

And to learn Qatar’s national anthem.

... But it wasn’t just Lebanese fans who joined the effort: The group of roughly 1,500 fans also included Egyptians, Algerians and a few Syrians. Money, the ultras fan said, was not the sole motivating factor.

“It is our duty to support an Arab country,” he said. “We share the same language. We share the same culture. We are fingers on the same hand. We want to show the world something special. You will see something special.” ...

Rent-a-fans. On the bright side Qatar doesn't have to support them anymore.

This is the side of the World Cup that Qatar would prefer you ignore

FIFA and the oil company named Qatar suck.

Good Op-ed, it's about more than just Beckham, Qatar and gays. He's a metaphor for a broken planet, including AGW, etc.

I helped David Beckham become a gay icon – now, hypocrisy is everywhere
I was deputy editor of Attitude magazine when Beckham bleached his hair and sat for our photographer

Another metaphor:

What on earth is Morgan Freeman doing in Qatar?

... And so it will grind on for the next few weeks. Stars such as Harry Kane will not wear the “wrong sort” of armband after Fifa sanction threats, fans will be neglected, journalists bullied and the only things the world will get to know about Qatar and Qataris is that they hate gays, they regard the migrant workers who built their huge stadia and gaudy hotels as expendable sub-humans, the place is utterly corrupt, it’s totally unsuited to hosting international sporting events, it’s virtually uninhabitable without universal air-conditioning, and they’ve got zero taste.

So far, this World Cup has been a veritable feast of own goals – Fifa, Beckham, Freeman, Gary Neville, sponsors such as Budweiser, Coca-Cola and McDonalds and, of course, Qatar itself.

They’d have been much better off spending the $200bn the World Cup cost on some nice ads for the tourist board, and allowing the world to carry on in blissful ignorance of this relatively obscure mini-state. It’s beyond doubt the most costly PR disaster in human history. It’s united the world in awe at such a feat, which is something, I suppose.

[GoCubsGo]

Whoa.

That was intense.

[Vrede too]

Whoa.

That was intense.

Helluvan Irani attack, especially at the end.

Tue, 11/29

Group B
1 England 4
2 Iran 3
3 USA 2
4 Wales 1

2:00 PM EST
Iran 1-1-0 vs USA 0-0-2
Mixed feelings. I'm not jingoistic. I hate Iran's govt, but honor the people that have been resisting it for months, and dying in the hundreds. Go futbol.
Iran is in if it wins, will need help if it ties. USA is only in if it wins.
Go Wales 0-1-1 > England 1-0-1
Wales needs to win and even then may need help. England advances with a win or a tie, may advance with a loss.

Iran 0, USA 1
Wales 0, England 3

Group B
1 England 7, advances
2 USA 5, advances
3 Iran 3
4 Wales 1

World Cup 2022: Qatar ends World Cup campaign with worst host country performance ever

Qatar became the first World Cup host country to get eliminated after its first two games following a 3-1 loss to Senegal on Friday and clinched the worst performance ever by a host country on Tuesday....

Qatar was a long shot to make it to the knockout rounds entering the tournament, but its elimination after two games is nothing short of a massive disappointment for a country that had been preparing for the World Cup for over a decade. Qatar’s national soccer team infrastructure was built for the tournament and the national team played in events like the North American Gold Cup to get prepped for the World Cup.

Qatar joins South Africa as the only host countries to get knocked out of the World Cup in the group stage. South Africa tied Mexico to open its World Cup but its win over France in the final group match wasn’t enough for it to move on as Mexico advanced via goal difference.

And while South Africa was an easy team to root for 12 years ago, there are undoubtedly millions of people across the globe who are happy that Qatar’s World Cup is ending in the group stage given the myriad controversies that surround this tournament. According to the United States Department of Justice, multiple FIFA officials received bribes to vote for Qatar as the host of the tournament. And after Qatar got the World Cup bid, its poor treatment of thousands of migrant workers who helped construct the stadiums has been a black mark on the tournament along with the country’s porous human rights record.

Bye-bye.

[Vrede too]

Wed, 11/30

Group D
1 France 6
2 Australia 3
3 Denmark 1
4 Tunisia 1

10:00 AM EST
Australia 1-1-0 vs Denmark 0-1-1. Go futbol!
Australia advances with a win or tie.
Denmark needs a win and help.
Go Tunisia 0-1-1 > France 2-0-0
Tunisia needs a win and help.
France has advanced with the top seed, nothing to play for.

Group C
1 Poland 4
2 Argentina 3
3 Saudi Arabia 3
4 Mexico 1

2:00 PM EST
Go Mexico 0-1-1 > Saudi Arabia 1-1-0
Mexico needs a win and help.
Saudi Arabia advances with a win, or a tie and a tiebreaker.
Go Poland 1-0-1 > Argentina 1-1-0
Argentina has won a lot, and I honor Poland's Ukraine solidarity and sacrifice.
Poland advances with a win or tie, with a loss and help.
Argentina advances with a win, or a tie and help.

[O Really]

I don't know anything about team development or eligibility, but do we know why, with no limit on money and willing to rent fans, Qatar couldn't buy any better players? Are the good ones just not willing to play? Or do players have to have some bona fide connection to the country for whom they play. Even then, how hard would it be for a country like Qatar to award citizenship to its players?

[Vrede too]

I don't know anything about team development or eligibility, but do we know why, with no limit on money and willing to rent fans, Qatar couldn't buy any better players? Are the good ones just not willing to play? Or do players have to have some bona fide connection to the country for whom they play. Even then, how hard would it be for a country like Qatar to award citizenship to its players?

I'm sure that citizenship is a requirement. There is so very much money in international futbol and team development takes years. Idk if the Qataris could come up with sufficient incentive for the best of world class players to stoop to becoming Qatari. I'll bet they bought the best that they could.

[O Really]

I don't know anything about team development or eligibility, but do we know why, with no limit on money and willing to rent fans, Qatar couldn't buy any better players? Are the good ones just not willing to play? Or do players have to have some bona fide connection to the country for whom they play. Even then, how hard would it be for a country like Qatar to award citizenship to its players?

I'm sure that citizenship is a requirement. There is so very much money in international futbol and team development takes years. Idk if the Qataris could come up with sufficient incentive for the best of world class players to stoop to becoming Qatari. I'll bet they bought the best that they could.

Yeah, so it looks like the player not only has to be "officially" a citizen, but there's a time requirement (2 years?) So Qatar would have to find some players willing to be Qatari, then keep them living there until the next tournament. But if they had started when the first got awarded the tournament... Naa, probably wouldn't work anyway.

[GoCubsGo]

Yeah, so it looks like the player not only has to be "officially" a citizen, but there's a time requirement (2 years?) So Qatar would have to find some players willing to be Qatari, then keep them living there until the next tournament. But if they had started when the first got awarded the tournament... Naa, probably wouldn't work anyway.

Still a bit surprising as money does not seem to be an obstacle for purchasing players, coaches , trainers, chemists, etc. and as you said, they had the time to put together a good showing.