Sasha K

On 9/3/2021 at 6:12 PM, DonRocks said:

Someone will eventually appreciate my humor.

I am working on it.

How about the new (proposed?) FFP rules?

2 UCL titles in 8 years.  Can't say I am unhappy.  It's fascinating to watch how teams are now trying to improve in specific ways that would allow them to beat this side, just as Bayern did years ago to find a solution to an unstoppable Barca side.  But this is tricky: the all also need to worry about Liverpool, and that's whole new bag of tricks.

I am by no means claiming that it will be easy for either PSG or Bayern to get through to the final (tougher for Bayern at the end of the day), but should they do so, it is a shame that Mbape and Davies play on different sides of the field.

The Good Doctor is my favorite sports personality of all time.  That basketball is not a sport I follow nearly as closely as a number of others just adds significance to my statement.  He is basically my hero.  If I had to come up with a distant second, it would probably be Robert Tyre Jones Jr.

using the latest S&P 500 effort/talent/performance/result index, de bruyne and lewandowski are so far ahead of everyone else in europe that i won't even insult your intelligence by attempting to compute the margin

(although van dijk is most likely that very distant third)

what happened at 15:40 ?

Have a hard time believing that miss wasn't staged.

It's been a while since I was able to turn into a neutral observer and simply admire a player regardless of team affiliations.  A couple of Drogba moments come to mind in the past 15 years.

Angry dwarf.

Great performance by Ajax yesterday.  I was impressed by them in the group stage as well as in the home loss to RM, but I didn't see this coming.

This leaves a slightly more open field than in a number of years.  We can begin to speculate after the quarterfinal draw.

Looks like Cavani is injured; PSG not in great shape to face United.

Big selection problem with Bayern.  Muller is suspended, but that's actually not the biggest issue.  Among Javi Martinez, Thiago, James, and Goretzka, it appears that Javi is needed to stop Liverpool's counters but putting him in gives up a valuable resource required for an absolutely essential away goal (or two), and doesn't actually stop Liverpool from scoring - it's a question of when rather than if.

United chances against PSG without Neymar?

If there should be an England Russia semi-final, the English better bring their own water.

Jan 21, 2005 - "Brazil Revive Drug Row after 15 Years" on theguardian.com

2 hours ago, DonRocks said:

This is no different than Olympic teams - athletes age 4-years in-between events. You don't want to break up a winning squad, but Father Time rests undefeated.

There is more to it, apparently.  A 4-year-older France crashed in 2002, but then an 8-year-older France, with many of the same players, made it to the final game.

On 6/27/2018 at 12:51 PM, Tweaked said:

BOOM!  Our first upset.  The defending champions are out.  This is the third WC in a row that the defending champions have failed to get out of the group stage.  (Germany in 2018, Spain in 2014, Italy in 2010). 

What does this tell us?  Should WC-winning teams be put out to pasture and overhauled?  Perhaps winning Confederations Cup with a so-called B team should have been a fat hint to Germany's team management.

Time for conspiracy theory.

It is in the interest of Poland and Columbia to draw this afternoon with lots of goals.  3-3, for example, with Lewandowski and James both earning hat tricks.

Don't see the benefit of either one winning; would the winner realistically hope to advance with a draw in their last game, expecting the loser (who'd be out of the World Cup at that point) to win their last game decisively?

1 hour ago, Tweaked said:

In Group G play this morning, England makes the case for not expanding the World Cup.  This group was always going to be England v Belgium and after playing their tune up matches they meet on June 28.  

You have to love the reaction of Panama fans after their only goal though.

Last time England didn't even qualify while Costa Rica did from the same group.

23 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Mar 4, 2010 - "Germany v Argentina: We Can Lift the World Cup, Says Diego Maradona" on telegraph.co.uk

This is what I had in mind.

https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/soccer-ryan-bailey/maradona-thought-german-striker-ballboy--soccer.html

5 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Well, *I* personally think that, even though I'm not Rudiger's biggest fan at all, I like the thought of using him as a defensive LB (Howedes 2014-style) to counter-balance Kimmich's forward runs and help deal with their defensive transition issues - even if that means playing Ginter or Sule today.

And if you think that's original thought, I have some swampland in Florida to sell you.

Hah, not only did they do this with Howedes in 2014, but also with Boateng in 2010 if I recall correctly.

4 hours ago, Tweaked said:

Wow Group F!  Germany scores at the death to beat Sweden. All teams are alive, no team is safe.  

Some reports say Germany doesn't hold their fate in their own hands, but this is not true: they are through if they win by 2 goals next week, regardless.  They may still finish second in the group through (and probably will).

6 hours ago, Sasha K said:

Hummels is injured.  Is Jogi bone-headed enough to start Rudiger over Sule?

It's halftime.  It is a rare occasion when one must quote one's own post.

1 hour ago, Ericandblueboy said:

I don’t follow Bayern Munich’s b-team.  😀

You and Maradona (back in 2010).

Hummels is injured.  Is Jogi bone-headed enough to start Rudiger over Sule?

Introducing a box-to-box Leon Goretzka will lead to success, while Gundogan may not.  Unfortunately (a) Jogi is too conservative for such a decision, and (b) Kroos and occasionally Ozil will have to perform more defensive duties which is far from certainty.

It is Saturday, and you are Jogi Loew.

Whom do you start?

And if this were an obvious question, I wouldn't be asking.

More evidence.

"An Orchestra's Ecstatic, Once-in-a-Lifetime, Birthday Party" by Zachary Woolfe on nytimes.com