Really interesting thread by Karim Zidan on twitter:
https://twitter.com/ZidanSports/status/1010257201770913792

Basically, Egypt's training camp is based in Chechnya, home of horrible dictator Ramzan Kadyrov, and Kadyrov is obsessed with using Mo Salah as a propaganda tool. He is the most popular Muslim athlete in the world, after all, and Kadyrov has used that + the general support for Egypt against Russia to legitimate his rule and launder human rights abuses (he has a long history of doing this with MMA as well, for the record)

Well, turns out Salah is sick of being treated as a zoo animal for a murderous strongman, and is now thinking about quitting the national team

definitely should've been a penalty for berg

BUT toivonen should've been cautioned if not sent off for kicking two separate players in the face while they were on the ground, one of whom had to come off injured, so I think it balances out

also the messi/argentina thing isn't as straightforward as either side is making it out to be

on the one hand, jorge sampaoli massively tinkered with the lineup at a bad time, the argentine midfield got completely bossed, and none of their center backs other than otamendi could pass out of the back, so it's definitely true that service was not good. the team as a whole was disjointed.

on the other hand, messi spent half the game walking around rather than pressing (which the rest of argentina were doing), routinely ran directly up to other players to receive the ball rather than actually working to draw the defense out of position, and generally had terrible body language/failed to communicate as a captain. when caballero made that howler, it was a diff argentinian player (meza or perez? not sure) who went to console him, and who ran back to the center circle and tried to restart play on a positive note. messi spent the whole time sulking.

I've maintained for years that messi is clearly better than ronaldo, and it's not even a debate, so it pains me to admit this, but there's no way you'd ever see ronaldo that disengaged in the performance of his international team, particularly when given the armband. in fact, look at the earlier portugal games (such as the relatively ugly affair vs morocco) and you'll see someone trying his ass off and shouting orders/encouragement to his team

if I were playing the country that made my family into refugees I'd prolly be that savage too

hard approve

wo mackey was in one of those pugs

I miss mackey

isn't the freeze time longer in eu? or am I high

the one guy who prolly has the least blame for the continued demolition of weeb team

Because I a) enjoy making predictions that I can be held to and b) want to reignite this thread, here's who I'm taking to get out of each group

bold = 1st place, italics = 2nd place

Group A
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Egypt
Uruguay

Group B
Portugal
Spain
Morocco
Iran

(but I could easily see morocco making it out)

Group C
France
Australia
Peru
Denmark

(peru and denmark are very close)

Group D
Argentina
Iceland
Croatia
Nigeria

(nigeria has a chance too, I think iceland will disappoint all its fanboys tho)

Group E
Brazil
Switzerland
Costa Rica
Serbia

Group F
Germany
Mexico
Sweden
South Korea

Group G
Belgium
Panama
Tunisia
England

Group H
Poland
Senegal
Colombia
Japan

(possibly the closest group, I could easily see poland breaking into the top of the group as well)

OOOH NICE POOTIS PICK

IT IS FUCKING DEAD

fuck jonathan gonzalez 8]

and if any moron tries to argue that iguodala and chris paul being out "cancel each other out" ima hit you with the chopper

I honestly feel so bad for CP3, he might be the least lucky player of all time

he's already ridiculously underrated in this ringz-obsessed bball world

the real question is which old players had the skill and mindset to adapt, not who would be the least shitty if u lifted their exact form from 2010 or whatever

like a guy like reptile was so fucking good that with a few months he might be good again, but if he tried to play the same as before he wouldn't be

literally reads like it was written by ben "5'3"" shapiro himself

are we sure he doesn't play tf2

what way would that be

my curiosity has been piqued