Oh, fuck. The bloody nose reminded me of just how much blood can pour outa your nose. I forgot about my oldest kid. The big dude. He went through a year or 2 of these insane nose bleeds as a kid. Maybe 11yrs old? The doctor said it just happens and they outgrow it. He'd be sittin at his desk in class... Splat. All over his desk, book, papers. No warnin. Used to really embarrass him, was a big pain in the neck. Painless, didn't cause any other trouble. Just hadda stuff paper towels up his nose and clean up a mess.
That sucks. Speaking of which, I have heard about (on ESPN radio) and now seen ads on TV, it's a nose bleed stopper. But it is literally a nose tampon. So funny, but when I saw it, I was like damn, I think every family should have a couple of these handy... Fucking nose tampon.
I have been loving the World Cup, some really awesome games all around, some big upsets already, and a chance for the USA to do something amazing. Big game against Bosnia tomorrow night, can't wait!
Yeah man. France looks pretty unstoppable. Crazy. And that pains me to say. We need someone to take those fuckers out. Big game tonight. I hope that we can bring the same intensity, focus and tenacity that we had in those first two games. We need to play smart, posses consistently, create space and then fucking attack. And we CANNOT get caught in transition. I have a feeling that Bosnia is going to come through with a formation with 5 backs, or 5 middies with an extra defensive midfielder to really trap and put pressure on our attacks. That has worked well throughout the tournament and this is how a lot of upsets have happened. Because a team like Bosnia could only posses the ball 30% of the match, but in transition, they can get into a foot race and put is in precarious position. And I think the biggest unknown right now is in our goal. We have two keepers, and Matt Freese won the job fair and squad, but his is the first MLS keeper in World Cup history to have a starting role. And we put Matt Turner in the second half of the Turkey game and he did not perform well. So for the USMNT, they MUST keep Freese out of one on ones and break aways.... If we can do that, I think we have a real shot to advance.
And man, Mexico looked good again last night. I can't tell you enough what a crazy home field advantage Azteca is. The smog, the elevation, the insane crowds. The homophobic chants... Haha. Mexico was doing that every match so far, and FIFA is supposed to fine them, but they don't. Watch closely, as the opponents take a goal kick, the crowd will chant in spanish, the equivilant of a "Gay Slur".... Wild shit.
I saw somewhere that Haaland from Norway said France will probably beat em and go on to win the World Cup. 😲🤣
I don't know how much of him is serious and how much is a 240lb 4th grader just havin the time of his life. Refreshing dude.
If my eyeballs are workin right, Mexico and USA can't play each other til the last game. I can root for Mexico til then. 😎👍
@ibc Yes, and a lot of people were pissed that he said that... BUT. You have to look at the context. He said that right before his team played France, and he already knew that he wasn't starting and that they pulled 8 other starters, so I think because he knew the game didn't matter, he said that with a little gamesmanship... But his fans were not pleased with it, regardless of the context.... But the timing of it was what it was, and France did win, but he didn't play. So he was mostly fucking with them....
What I will say is that your boy Haaland has CRAZY fucking numbers. He has scored two goals in all of his last 20 international matches or some shit, up until yesterday, when he just scored one....
But, I had so much faith in the guy that I placed a parlay bet on him and his team. He had to score one goal, it had to be 2.5+ total goals scored by both team, his team had to win and they had to have a combined 7 corner kicks between both teams... The $5 bet hit and I won $40....
So, he didn't score 2 goals, but he did what I needed him to do. I also laid a similar play on Mexico last night and won that one too. I couldn't touch the France game, because the spread and numbers were so bad. Even an anytime goal for Mbappe didn't produce shit. If you put $10 on him to score, you only won $2... And although he did produce 2 goals, France was so heavily favored there was no fair play at all, anywhere in the numbers for that game.
I want the USA to stick with the goalie from the 1st two games, get Balogun back in there and on the attack, get the speeders out on the wing, and push that ball upfield and get shots on goal, flood the box with support to get those rebounds kicks and headers to finish. Put Freeman in when their legs are tired, let the kid run and gun. Feed Pulisic, keep him involved. Pressure, pressure, pressure.
Haaland is one of my favorite players (not USA) right now lol, dude cracks me up, and is always putting the ball in the net when I watch, super fun to watch him dominate the way he does. I call him "Sunshine", from Remember The Titans 🤣
DR Congo is cool story too, 1st WC goa, 1st WC win, made it to the knock out stage. The place was going bonkers when they put the ball in the net! England is a tough out, but I'm not writing off DR Congo in that game, ANYTHING can happen now.
Holy shit, right after I posted ^^^, DR Congo came out swinging and scored a goal early against England! 👀
Yeah man. Germany was putrid throughout, and I have not been impressed with England at all. It's like most of the top 10 teams have only been ranked that way based on decades of history... We shall see. I want every heavy hitter to lose, so let's go Congo!!! Just keep your Ebola over there, and we are all good!
And, England just squared it up.
Dang, Harry Kane with the winning goal for England, and a pretty amazing goal at that, wow, what a finish. Disapointing for DR Congo, but England fans are stoked lol
Yeah man, his first goal was off a half hearted cross, but in that player's defense that is all he could do because of the high bounce, he one timed it back in WAY high and Kane got his head on it and smacked it with JUST enough force to power it past the keeper. And his second goal with nothing but class. Sucks for Congo, I thought for a moment that they had it.... Oh well.
So France and England are the only western European teams to advance so far....
And to note: Both Mexico and Canada have advanced, leaving the US as the sole host nation that is yet to be determined. I will have to look at the Brackets, but I think if US were to advance all the way to 8, as well as Canada, then we could see them.
I am not keen on Canada. Great story. But they don't have a whole ton of talent on that squad. I am actually surprised they advanced. They screwed up their home field advantage in the last round and had to play in LA because of it... Hopefully, since they advanced, their next match will be on Canadian soil. That would be cool to our Maple loving comrades to the North.
Speaking of Canada! Did you see when their midfielder, Ismaël Koné got his leg snapped against Qatar? Nasty tackle by Qatar dude if I recall, poor dude ended up with a fractured tibia and fibula in his left leg. I saw it live, gruesome!
Damn, I missed that. The only bad one I saw was maybe Algeria? When the dude took a book to the head and was bleeding all over the fucking place.... That sucks. Broken leg. Especially on a poor tackle.
Dude, that Belgium vs Senegal game was insane! Can't believe Belgium came back at the last minute with 2 back to back goals within 3 minutes of each other to tie it, then got the penalty kick right before the end of ET. Wow.
@dawnpatrol321 Yeah man. My son's best friend/girl friend's Dad is from Belgium. He got the surf bug a couple of months ago so I have been teaching him how to surf about once a week. At any rate, we have been discussing the potential for a USA/Belgium matchup, and when Belgium was down 0-2, I texted him like bro, I need a miracle from your boys or this thing isn't going to happen. So, towards the end of the match, I tuned out. My son is out front playing with his buddy, riding bikes. His buddy has a walkie talkie on his hip so his parents can communicate with him "Dinner time" and what not. So, we are all standing outside in our USA Jersey's and I hear the kids dad come through the walkie and say "Belgium just tied the game"... I was like wait, what? Repeat that? Belgium just tied the game. I raced inside and watched the rest of it. I was 100% sure that it was going to PK's. The wife was watching. I mean, what a terrible way to go out for Senegal. That was a penalty. It was borderline when you watch it in real time... But the fact of the matter when you looked closely was: All that striker had to do was stay put, and let the ball pass his outside foot (left) and extend his right boot into the ball. It was a wide open net and the keeper was out of position. It could have deflected off any part of his body and that was a goal. So while the optics were not great, and that is a shit way to lose, it was a penalty. Period. Unfortunate, but that is what happens when you squander a 2 goal lead in the end, and you run out of gas desperation sets in, and you make mistakes. Big mistakes.
I think my fingernails are a lot shorter after USA beat Bosnia with only 10 players for the last half hour.
What a crazy game. Excellent, but crazy for sure. And we needed a win, and we got one, but we also lost our #1 striker, who has been dicing everyone this whole tournament. Not only for the remainder of last night's match, but he has to sit in the Belgium game Monday. That is NOT good. So, that is a total bummer, and that definitely puts us at a disadvantage.
What I will say about the call itself, that was a red card. It was unintentional, but it was a poor maneuver and a dangerous challenge. In slow-mo, it appeared that he broke the guys ankle/foot. That is the definition of a red-card. And what the rules state in international soccer is: Intent doesn't matter. Only the challenge and the result matter. So even though it was an accident, it was a dangerous challenge, which resulted in injury that could have been catastrophic.
So, that was a heartbreaker to see, but it was the right call. I wouldn't have lost my shit if it was only a yellow card, but in these VAR days and stuff, they are calling guys offsides for a toe nail being offsides, and like what we saw in the Belgium game, that was a similar kind of 50/50 ball challenge that resulted in a penalty. And in Senegals case, it ended their tournament. Had the USA game been going differently, a play like that could have lost us the game....
And further more, as a striker going into the box that way, there was no real play on the ball as far as taking that angle. He just lunged his body and feet specifically, off balance, right at the ball/player, so even if he would have gotten all ball, he would have fallen down and not benefited from that play... So I am not sure exactly what he was trying to do there. It's not like he was rushing in to try and get a strike on the ball and get it on frame, he just threw his body weight right into the guys foot. Bad play. Bad decision. Bad challenge. Bad result.
But, hopefully someone in the US stable can step up and fill some pretty big, and pretty wreckless, shoes.
And damn, the entire second half was a damn hockey-style powerplay, that never ends. Those 10 guys stepped up big time. And Freese has a killer game, IMO. Good shit.
And I think the next match that I am really going to get up for, is the Mexico/England game. At Azteca. Mexico has never lost in that stadium. Craziest place on earth... The Mexican fans are going to be amped. They are going to hurl gay slurs at the English keeper on every goal kick. They may get pelted with glass bottles of urine...
At any rate, I hope it's a good match, and if England can ride the wave of a crazy Mexican attack and a crazy crowd for the first 20 minutes, they should be able to calm down, stabilize and have a shot at it. I don't envy any team that has to go there and play Mexico. Gonna be fucking wild.
USA! USA! USA! What a gutsy win, they really played like men out there last night. I personally didn't like the red card, thought that was a little much IMO, yellow would have been fine, but they handled that shit and kept control and put another in the net to finish them off in epic fashion! I really don't like that Balogun has to sit against Belgium, they are no joke, and we need that guy, but there's a lot of talent on the roster and seeing how they handled playing with 10 gives me hope that they'll be fine with 11, someone will step up, LFG!
Yeah, and they didn't really explain this on the broadcast, but apparently, FIFA miss-used the VAR rules. In that case last night, they were not supposed to be able to use slow-motion replay. They were able to take a second look at it in real time, but apparently, in that situation, they weren't supposed to be able to view it slowed down, so in that regard, I would agree that at most, it should have been a yellow.
And the example they are using was when Messi, in the second game I think it was, did the exact same thing, but with intent. He literally took a guys leg out after staring at it. He didn't even get a yellow card....
So based on the rules, that was a poorly issued red card. Hind sight is 20/20 I guess and there isn't anything they can do now, but that sucks.