Soccer, sports and politics (R)

Okay. I hope the drama didn't exit the tournement after group play.

 

I am saying we have yet to see it again world cups or regional championships. We have seen plenty of goals at the death since 2010 and the feat hasn't been repeated. So the anybody would do it, is tough to prove.

 

Ok...I'm all for charts, standings, records and odds. So somebody explain to me why the Greeks won the EUROS a while ago other than parking the bus. Ball is round and don't lie is all I can come up with! You place your bets and takes your chances!

 

After watching the full game, I'm sticking with my claim. Senegal got false confidence in the first half hour by having possession, had a couple of half chances that it failed to score on, got smoked with two counterattack goals in the first half, one of which concluded as the half ended, and then conceded a third goal in the second half. Been there, seen that.

The style of Netherlands/England goals were similar, too, being balls played with precision from out wide against defenses that weren't set. Except for the English 2nd goal, that was different.

 

oh, oh... I know!

they scored more than their opponents in each game and advanced to the next game

oh, and the Portuguese Ronaldo (and Figo and the rest of the original Golden Generation) choked?

 

The Greeks were given a 150-1 chance of winning before the tournament. All of Greece's wins in the knockout stage came in an identical manner a 1–0 win.

Ps...I never get upset when Portugal loses.

 

Yeah, I was concerned that there may be some second half drama here, but the press didn’t let them get organized.

 

once

 

Well now...I hope they got orange slices at half time!

 

In 1930?!
I think back then, half time refreshment was still a cigarette

 

Why wait!

 

While I'd actually like to see the U.S. get dinged over its unwillingness to support workers, it certainly would be ironic if the U.S. were to lose the ability to host the WC over it when Qatar's unwillingness to provide even minimally acceptable living conditions (let alone benefits) to the slaves that toiled to make this WC possible were acceptable to FIFA and the rest of the world.

 

Socrates had a post-sex smoke after this Eder bomb

 

I don't often put on my metaphorical scholar's hat here on BigSoccer, but here it goes.

Sportswashing is a relatively recent idea, borrowed from the concept of greenwashing in which polluters and other damaging entities have products or policies which will actually help the environment. In this case, the companies (and other entities) are knowingly engaged in misdirection about their policies and practices.

It's that last part - the purposefulness of it - that makes evaluating when a country or individual or other entity is engaging in sportswashing. The concept implies that they are actively trying to distract from bad behavior or negative aspects of their regime/career/etc. And in many cases - especially those related to mega sporting events such as the Qatar World Cup - that isn't the case. Rather, Qatar would argue the opposite, that being named host would expose them to far more scrutiny than they would have ever been subject to had they kept a lower profile. They were instead following the path blazed by many other countries of hosting for legitimacy (as in, being seen as legitimate by other global actors). In fact, all kinds of people have been labeling things sportwashing that seem anything but to me - "it started with Nazi Germany in 1936" goes the thinking, but the Nazis were bragging about their regime and what they were up to; they consciously used hosting to show forth their greatness. They weren't trying to "wash" a damned thing.

I can get behind the idea that Qatar (and other regimes) might benefit from an associated softening of opinion on the part of the public during a successfully hosted tournament, but not that this is what they set out to do.

 

That's how I feel about M'bappe. He, CR, and Zlatan belong in their own league -- the Superego League.

 

The 1st round in '02 was a disaster not unlike the rest of it. Rivaldo comes to mind!

 

The greatness of Zidane, in four parts:

France plus Zidane 1998 - World Cup winners.

France minus Zidane 2002 - group stage exit (bottom of group).

France plus Zidane 2006 - World Cup runners up.

France minus Zidane 2010 - group stage exit (bottom of group).

 

For whatever reason, Euros are kinder to underdogs than other international tournaments. Denmark won in 1992 after being a last-minute replacement for Yugoslavia.

 

Sukur!

I see that he follows Fethullah Gulen who "General" Michael Flynn was trying to get extradited back to Turkey to please Erdogan & make some cash.

Looked up why this seditious mf'er Flynn hasn't been tried by the military for his outrageous conduct in retirement, and it's our usual "our elites are untouchable and it would just rile up our partisan divisions in 'Merica again" IOW a license to lie, cheat & steal.

The military can recall retired personnel to try them for alleged crimes under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), even when those acts occur after retirement. But experts say it has done so only a few dozen times since the 19th century.

In this instance, the Pentagon has shown little interest in pursuing such a move, in part because of the shaky legal foundations for such cases, several of which are being challenged in court. It would also draw the Biden administration back into the divisive politics surrounding the 2020 elections, which strained military norms and generated criticism of Pentagon leaders...

...As the Pentagon attempts to return to business as usual, any attempted action against Flynn could thrust it back into a charged debate. Already, the Biden administration is trying to navigate criticism from the right that it is using the military to advance a left-wing social agenda.

Asked about Flynn’s comment, an army spokeswoman said the Army was “not investigating these statements further at this time.”

The Army also has not taken action in response to internal watchdog findings that Flynn potentially violated the emoluments clause by accepting money from Russian and Turkish interests. With few exceptions, U.S. officials, including retired service members, are prohibited from accepting money or gifts from foreign governments. Flynn retired from the Army in 2014.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...fbf05c-c47f-11eb-8c34-f8095f2dc445_story.html