Sometimes I think that the New Yorker writers let their love of prose get in the way of telling a story. The New Yorker must pay by the word...
I’m convinced Croatia borrowed some PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) from Russia. Grant Wahl pointed out that Croatia has played the equivalent of an extra game (I.e. 90 minutes) in the WC thus far. And they didn’t even look tired compared to England. And they are old. Not possible without PEDs, in my mind.
That's a damning accusation based on absolutely no evidence beyond your opinion on who looked more tired. The Croatia players were just as wiped out as the English players. England lost because their defenders fell asleep on both goals and the Croatian players wanted it more. If you want to know why John Stones has a hard time getting minutes with Man City, this game gives you a glimpse as to why.
Because he's got no stones, right? That was an interesting play - that last goal. After the initial poor cross into the box, Mandzukic actually hung his head in dejection. Then he pulled his head back just as he saw the failed clearance being played back, and made a little break toward goal, while Stones fell asleep for that little crucial moment.
And on the first goal Perisic ran past two ball watching England players, Trippier and Walker, to score. Stones was also involved in the mess that resulted in Perisic putting the ball off the post later in the second half.
Pulled from the BBC website: Doping tests negative World football's governing body announced on Thursday that so far all doping tests conducted before and during the World Cup have yielded negative results. Since January 2018, a total of 2,037 tests have been conducted, Fifa said.On average, every player from the four remaining teams has been tested four times since January, with some of tested up to eight times.
baseless speculation is rampant in here, its what we do! to be honest, I thought the same thing. baseless yes, but how do these guys have that extra gear? not such an odd thought really when doping is rampant in pro sports and the WC host country was denied participation in this past Olympics for exactly this reason. I also thought the ref in that game was crap and I never complain about the ref, but it seemed like he let some ridiculous fouls go.
So, Croatia knocks Russia out of the World Cup and the Russians then reward them by giving them some undetectable performance enhancers?
Did I suggest that? Of course not. I said that the thought occurred to me, perhaps they too were doping. Who said anything about the Russians giving them performance enhancers? And in case you hadn't noticed, doping is pretty common in pro sports, just ask Lance Armstrong or Jose Canseco. We shouldn't be so naïve as to assume that this couldn't happen, despite rigorous testing and enforcement measures.
England have only themselves to blame for losing, it wasn't bad refereeing or juiced opposition. They could have put the game away in the first half, but, were wasteful with their chances, and then they fell asleep defensively to give up the two goals. I think it was before the Sweden game where Swedish players made some comments about the English players being overpaid, cocky, brats. Sweden didn't have the talent to take down England, but, Croatia obviously did.
This wasn't random Russian from the lowest ranked team at the World Cup finding another gear, it was some of the best midfielders in the world, who play for freaking Real Madrid and Barcelona and whatnot. Luka Modric is pretty much the best player in the world at what he does.
Sorry, but I don’t believe people can compete at significantly higher levels than the wirld’s best players without significant cheating. Marion Jones, Lance Armstrong, Roger Clemens, all of Russia...
Croatia won on a late goal in a game that could have easily gone either way. Where are the "significantly higher levels"?
The fact that they continue to run around like crazy when they have already played an equivalent of an extra game in WC 2018.
These are highly conditioned athletes. Playing 120 minutes in some of the other games could have actually helped condition them to play 120 again.
You sound like someone who can’t accept that your preferred team didn’t win and so there must be some nefarious reason for their losing. What pulled Croatia through was their significantly higher levels of will and desire.