WORLD CUP: Russia 2018 Commentary Thread

[Sar1n]

Most shouted Korean name by fans: Ho Lee Fook.

[DaVinci]

Out in the first round. I predicted that already with the match Ger:Mex. Not much fun this time to watching the German team. Thus the result goes alright.

[Halie Satanus]

What the.... just happened!

The Germans out...

The Germans.

Out.

[Basil II the B.S]

Germany comes up just short in Russia. Where have I heard that before?

Win

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2018/06/...otball-robots/
Humans beat machines once again.

It seems “200,000 models: harnessing recent developments in 'machine learning,'” which generated “1,000,000 possible evolutions [sic] of the tournament to gauge the probability of each team progressing through the rounds” were not quite prepared for the brilliance of Son Heung-min.

UBS Global Wealth Management, who had Germany favourites to win with a spuriously precise 24 per cent chance of victory, may also feel somewhat red in the face.
What was it Mark Haefele, chief investment officer, said again? Oh, here it is:

No matter whether they are analyzing global markets or soccer tournaments, people tend to be biased towards local favorites. The same quantitative discipline that the Chief Investment Office applies to investments has proven useful in successfully looking beyond a home bias in portfolios and sports events.

[Cope]

What the.... just happened!

The Germans out...

The Germans.

Out.

Wasn't expecting that.

[lolIsuck]

Win

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2018/06/...otball-robots/
Humans beat machines once again.

It seems “200,000 models: harnessing recent developments in 'machine learning,'” which generated “1,000,000 possible evolutions [sic] of the tournament to gauge the probability of each team progressing through the rounds” were not quite prepared for the brilliance of Son Heung-min.

UBS Global Wealth Management, who had Germany favourites to win with a spuriously precise 24 per cent chance of victory, may also feel somewhat red in the face.
What was it Mark Haefele, chief investment officer, said again? Oh, here it is:
No matter whether they are analyzing global markets or soccer tournaments, people tend to be biased towards local favorites. The same quantitative discipline that the Chief Investment Office applies to investments has proven useful in successfully looking beyond a home bias in portfolios and sports events.

A tap-in into an empty goal is considered brilliance it seems. This is entirely a German screw-up, they even gave the assist to the 1-0 and Neuer just buggered off towards the midfield to allow Son to score the simplest of goals.

[Basil II the B.S]

German elimination isn't really in the overtime of the last game. They lost and deservedly so against Mexico. They won against Sweden because the latter decided to commit suicide. That was hedged out when Germany committed suicide in the last minutes of the last game, but they were out anyway with a 0-0. They underperformed for the whole tournament and went out. It's not even that rare, since it's the 4th out of the last 5 tournaments the defending champions are eliminated in the groups.

Also, 4 years ago, I predicted Germany would struggle without Klose opening games. I like Werner but he's clearly not ready yet.

[Knight of Heaven]

Hum Werner is best playing with someone else up front. imo.

On another news, William made an amazing game playing for the team against Serbia. Neymar just tries but mostly for himself.

[lolIsuck]

On another news, William made an amazing game playing for the team against Serbia.

Must have had an incredible second half than because he was pretty awful from what I've seen in the first half.

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

German elimination isn't really in the overtime of the last game. They lost and deservedly so against Mexico. They won against Sweden because the latter decided to commit suicide. That was hedged out when Germany committed suicide in the last minutes of the last game, but they were out anyway with a 0-0. They underperformed for the whole tournament and went out. It's not even that rare, since it's the 4th out of the last 5 tournaments the defending champions are eliminated in the groups.

Also, 4 years ago, I predicted Germany would struggle without Klose opening games. I like Werner but he's clearly not ready yet.

Indeed. It's really sad that I have zero interest for their game now. Maybe it's time for Low to move on? I don't think he'll change his style and I'm really disappointing cause I really liked him and the ''machine'' he made all these yrs
I think Klose was not the best striker of his time, but it was surely in the top 5. An excellent and efficient scorer.

Must have had an incredible second half than because he was pretty awful from what I've seen in the first half.

I'm of the same opinion.

[PikeStance]

The most dangerous team to play is a team playing for pride.

More interesting matchups.
Brazil looked strong while Mexico came crashing down to Earth.
Sweden redeems itself while Switzerland learned a hard lesson.

[Cope]

I would agree Argentina has not looked at all like a cohesive unit. I wouldn't say France have played great either. There were times when they didn't look like they were of the same mind on the field, though better than Argentina. I suspect France will win, but it will be a struggle.

Argentina have one of best forward lines on paper, but as you suggest, they desperately need to improve their organization. If Pogba and Kante are able to control the midfield (as Modrić and Rakitić did a week ago) then the task of containing Griezmann et al is going to be extremely difficult. The French have a physically dominate side and are more than capable of devastating Argentina on the counter attack. For that reason I think the Argentinians ought to try playing more directly rather than going for the "tiki taka" approach that they attempted in the group. Getting the ball to Messi, Aguero, and/or Higuain quickly could cause France's defence some real problems. It's a difficult game to call, but based on what I've seen so far, I'd say a 3-1 win for France.

[Basil II the B.S]

Yellow cards have been invented by the white man for the systematic oppression of black people. Proof: FIFA have always been mostly white men.

[Pinarius]

It's not even that rare, since it's the 4th out of the last 5 tournaments the defending champions are eliminated in the groups.

Now I'm really curious how the champion of this world cup will perform in four years.

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Let's see how the Lions will perform today.

[Ludicus]

The names just sound very silly to foreigners; for example, it's very hard for German-speakers to take someone called "Kaka" seriously (because it's a kids' word for human faeces, derived from Latin, incidentally).

Incidentally, you just can't resist.
The nickname of the best world player (before Messi and Ronaldo) is Kaká.His younger brother could not pronounce his name Ricardo.So he began calling him Kaká, and the name stuck for the rest of his life. And, also incidentally, the kid's word name for human faeces is caca or cáca, not Kaká.

Kaká belongs to white ethnicity. Why can't we take him seriously?



On a side note, we don't have any prejudice against ethnic sounding names, for example the German name FODA Franco Foda - Wikipedia or even Sandro Foda - Wikipedia
And pay attention, those are real names, not nicknames. foda : English » Portuguese | PONS

Thinking about it, look how German last names can be quite hilarious when you look at them literally.
For example, German football Schweinsteiger's last name could literally translate to pig-climber, but more likely it means pig-overseer, like on a farm. In Manchester his regrettable nickname was Schweini (piggy).
The surname of the former national team captain Phillip Lahm means lame, feeble or slow.
The surname of the German composer (see below) Carl Bratfisch means "Fried-Fish". Is it ridiculous? how can that be?
It's German, it's white, it's glorious!




To sum up, a man's name or nickname doesn't matter all that much, so it's not difficult for us to take seriously Helmut Kohl. How Helmut Kohl turned satire on its head | The Independent
-----
Let's move on.
The Germans still have a very strong team capable of playing very good football. It was a bad day, it happens.
Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, the Belgium team and Croatia are my favorites. And who knows, England?
Portugal disappointed me deeply.Uruguay won three games in a row,scored five goals,has conceded none (5-0), and it's just not only Suarez and Cavani, two of the best strikers in world football.
But, who knows? the unpredictable nature of football is exciting.

[Basil II the B.S]

It'd be nice to see Uruguay winning it tbh.

[PikeStance]

Incidentally, you just can't resist.
The nickname of the best world player (before Messi and Ronaldo) is Kaká.His younger brother could not pronounce his name Ricardo.So he began calling him Kaká, and the name stuck for the rest of his life. And, also incidentally, the kid's word name for human faeces is caca or cáca, not Kaká.

Kaká belongs to white ethnicity. Why can't we take him seriously?



On a side note, we don't have any prejudice against ethnic sounding names, for example the German name FODA Franco Foda - Wikipedia or even Sandro Foda - Wikipedia
And pay attention, those are real names, not nicknames. foda : English » Portuguese | PONS

Thinking about it, look how German last names can be quite hilarious when you look at them literally.
For example, German football Schweinsteiger's last name could literally translate to pig-climber, but more likely it means pig-overseer, like on a farm. In Manchester his regrettable nickname was Schweini (piggy).
The surname of the former national team captain Phillip Lahm means lame, feeble or slow.
The surname of the German composer (see below) Carl Bratfisch means "Fried-Fish". Is it ridiculous? how can that be?
It's German, it's white, it's glorious!




To sum up, a man's name or nickname doesn't matter all that much, so it's not difficult for us to take seriously Helmut Kohl. How Helmut Kohl turned satire on its head | The Independent
-----
Let's move on.
The Germans still have a very strong team capable of playing very good football. It was a bad day, it happens.
Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, the Belgium team and Croatia are my favorites. And who knows, England?
Portugal disappointed me deeply.Uruguay won three games in a row,scored five goals,has conceded none (5-0), and it's just not only Suarez and Cavani, two of the best strikers in world football.
But, who knows? the unpredictable nature of football is exciting.

This post is kaka or is it caca?
anyway, back to football.

I was really cheering for Senegal to score to send Japan packing. it reminded me when Norway played the same way in a Euro match and they got sent home thanks to 3 goals scored in the closing minutes of a deciding match.

[Pinarius]

Let's see how the Lions will perform today.

Those lions?

[Sar1n]

Poland: Bet you won't advance from the group.

Japan: Eh, walk in the park...