More world cup sports news

https://www.the-sports.org/table-tennis-2018-women-s-team-world-cup-epr85897.html

are you kidding me? i'd think you'd be all over both of these as a fan, as both have had issues in the past of cheating by participants, much like your favorite NFL team...

all joking aside, the grace and beauty of both far outweighs that of most "mainstream" sports...

of course, since there aren't commentators taking 45 seconds of down time between each 3-4 seconds of action telling you what happened and why, many people are unsure of how to actually watch and figure out on their own what is happening...

It's here!!! Trying to figure out what I'm going to do for the Portugal Spain game tomorrow. Super long lunch, bring ipad, or just leave and put a cardboard cutout of myself at my desk.

cardboard cutout sounds like a good option

maybe it will get more work done too

What have you done with Vic Rattlehead?

holy moly what a bunch of results no one would have guessed...mexico beats germany, iceland ties argentina, switzerland ties brazil, spain ties portugal...been a wild first round...

are three ties really "wild"?

yes, they most definitely are...argentina has the worlds greatest player, he stepped up and took a PK that was saved by a part time goalkeeper who doesnt even play professional soccer...brazil is a perennial favorite playng a swiss team that should have lost by a bunch, and portugal only has one player and he made the spaniards look like schoolboys...

I have lost my mind! I am getting up Sunday morning at 5 to drive into Houston so I can darken the door of an English pub and watch England play Panama at 7 a.m. Who drinks beer at 7 a.m. ?

I don't know much about soccer, just like to watch the World Cup every four years, so question coming from a position of ignorance. How important are the FIFA rankings then? Portugal was ranked 4th prior to the tournament beginning, surely they have more than one player. Although, I know about him from previous World Cups. Switzerland being 6th makes their result with Brazil seem unsurprising. Even if they got away with a pretty obvious push to score their lone goal. Germany losing seems like a big upset to me, especially given they are the defending champions. I watched that match and they seemed stunned the entire second half that none of their shots were going in.

How important are the FIFA rankings then?

World hunger
Spread Of Infectious Disease
International Terrorism
Darts

Hmmm not very

How many games in the first pool of games? How many teams advance from each early pool? How many teams in each pool? (I haven't seen the pools...i don't even know how many total teams are in the World Cup.)

There are eight pools with 4 teams each. The pool play consists of three games where each team plays each other once. Based on a points system and somewhat convoluted tiebreaker system, the top two teams from each pool are determined after the three games. Those 16 teams are advanced to the tournament play where single elimination occurs until there is one team remaining.

england plays at 10, 7:00 was sweden and south korea...but never too early to drink beer during the world cup!

It was really fun to watch Mexico beat Germany. They played a defensive - but not scared - match and were very confident when they went on the offensive.

Thanks.

their counter attack was too much for Germany...it was only a matter of time until one of their breaks lead to a goal...

first round games close out with last 2 games today, and Russia v Egypt starts 2nd round of games today

France, England, Belgium, Sweden, Mexico, Japan, Serbia, Uraguay, Iran, Denmark, Croatia all sitting good with wins so far, so 3 points...
Spain, Portugal, Iceland, Argentina, Brazil, Switzerland all have ties, sitting at 1 point each

How long will this whole thing take? When will it be over (not that i'm wanting it over, just wondering)?

ends July 15...a month long

Cool.

then tour de france kicks off! like the double whammy of awesomeness in one summer!

No mention of Wimbledon in the summer of non-main stream sports (at least American main stream)?

Ok, as a casual viewer of soccer, i have a few questions/observations for you rabid soccer fans:

1) At times, the throw-ins baffle me....possession of the ball seems to me of the utmost importance in soccer, but the risk level taken on some throw-ins (not necessarily near their scoring goal even) is astounding at times, and leads to quick turnovers, when a safer throw-in would not have. Additionally, is there some rule that the throw-in can't go straight to the ground/to someone's foot? They always seem to hit someone in the chest or be put in play for a header.

2) Long goalie goal kicks seem like a dumb strategy. I have almost never seen a big 50 yard goal kick turn into anything good for the team doing the kicking....they seem to normally turn the ball over to the other team. I mean, i get the concept if you're way down and need to hurry up and score, but a lot of these kicks don't fit that situation.