Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Bark louder, little dog.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Republicans do not trust women.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Second rate reporter says what?

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

You are here: Home / Sports / Germany-Serbia Open Thread

Reader Interactions

41Comments

  3. 3.

    Randinho

    If German coach, Joachim Löw were wearing a tutrtleneck I would be wondering if he were going to dance and where his monkey is.

  6. 6.

    Randinho

    Wow! Klose sent off. Funny about Spanish referees, I went to a game at the Nou Camp Stadium in Barcelona with FC Barcelona against Villarreal. The referee gave 16 yellow cards in that game.

  10. 10.

    Alex S.

    When Serbia plays against Germany, it’s always World-War 1, World-War 2 and the Balkan Wars revisited.

  11. 11.

    Morfydd

    I just asked my coworker exactly what the ramifications were… then realized he was wearing a Klose jersey. Ouch.

    (In Hamburg, where no work is getting done today)

  12. 12.

    DecidedFenceSitter

    Having fun texting with my German-raised friend – I just root for whoever is playing Germany to give her someone to cheer against/rant at about the yellow cards.

    Now I’m all about “Cinderella, cinderella”.

  14. 14.

    wengler

    This ref isn’t being uneven in distribution of cautions. It is up to the players to adjust to him just like pitchers have to adjust to an umpire’s strike zone in baseball.

  15. 15.

    Joe

    @Breezeblock: I doubt it. This will only be a one match suspension so he will be available for the 2nd Round assuming Germany qualify. If he had been ridiculously stupid like the Nigerian the other day then he would get dropped, but I think Low will bring him back in after he serves the suspension.

  17. 17.

    Violet

    Since it seems like all the favorites are tanking in their opening matches, is Germany going to have it’s bad “opening match” in its second match, just to mix things up?

  23. 23.

    Miss Kitka's Comrade Wayne

    Will there be enough yellow left in the world after Don Alberto is done with the day’s work? Jeez.

  25. 25.

    wengler

    English announcers aren’t good arbitrators of what should be a yellow or not. It looks like the ref hasn’t been hesitant to reach to his pocket, but the EPL isn’t exactly a great example for what is and isn’t considered a yellow on the international level.

  28. 28.

    Miss Kitka's Comrade Wayne

    /reaches in pocket and shows yellow card to wengler for calling the Premiership “ee-pee-ell.”

  30. 30.

    Randinho

    @wengler: Derek Rae is Scottish. I might add Mertesacker just fouled someone from behind and Mallenco did not pull out a card.

    Marko Marin is in the game. Will Bosnia now avenge itself against Serbia?

  31. 31.

    wengler

    @Miss Kitka’s Comrade Wayne

    I’m certainly not going to call it the Barclay’s Premier League.

    @Randinho

    Scots and English have the same attitude toward cards. If the leg isn’t dangling off it’s not a red.

    The ref has been far more hesitant in the second half. Maybe someone from the FIFA head office called him at halftime.

  34. 34.

    Miss Kitka's Comrade Wayne

    I suspect Alberto Undiano’s business cards are printed on dayglo yellow cardstock. I also suspect we won’t be seeing much of him in this tournament after today’s fine performance.

  35. 35.

    wengler

    Germany were a little hard done by in that game.

    This group is really open now for the taking.

  36. 36.

    joe from Lowell

    Serbia’s defenders will be able to contain the German attack

    The historical record is not so good.

  37. 37.

    cmorenc

    I’d wager that the referee for the Germany v Serbia game has called his last game in this World Cup. I seriously doubt he’ll be one of the refs selected to call any of the knockout round games. (Completely aside from any conflict rules between referee nationality and whether his country’s national team is still in the running, see next paragraph). Every World Cup referee’s performance in every game gets rigorously analyzed in great detail by a team of expert assessors. He’ll get feedback all right from them.

    OTOH, I’ll wager that the referee for yesterday’s Mexico v France game DOES have a good chance of getting another game further on, depending on his nationality (there are rules about whether you can move on to the knockout rounds as a referee and how far, depending on whether your own country’s national team is still in the competition and in which bracket).

  38. 38.

    Tokyokie

    Germany are going to have a difficult time advancing, as Serbia and Ghana both have wins in hand, and neither’s played Australia yet. Germany’s going to have to beat Ghana without Klose and then hope to get by on goal differential.

  39. 39.

    Dex

    Germany’s game was hindered by a pathetic, overzealous ref. That said, the Germans still managed to minimize the damage even with ten men. Too bad luck didn’t turn their way…

  40. 40.

    handsmile

    Despite their loss today to the Spanish referee, I was actually quite impressed by Germany’s performance. A man down for almost sixty minutes, they managed to boss much of the match with creative offensive forays and impressive midfield control. And it wasn’t as if Serbia chose to collapse into a defensive posture to protect their lead.

    Yet permit me to observe that not content merely to squander his penalty kick, Lukas Poldoski had a wretched game overall…but not nearly as awful as the appropriately-named Holger BADstuder, the German right back. I trust he will enjoy updating his Twitter feeds during the remaining German matches, rising from the bench only to get his teammates a clean towel.

    As to what teams in this group will go through, I suspect Germany’s thrashing of Australia will prove decisive in terms of goal differential.

    While off-this-particular-topic, those savoring French humiliation will relish Paul Hayward’s column on the end of the Domenech era in today’s Guardian Online.

  41. 41.

    Onkel Fritze

    What Löw said: in a game with 9 yellow cards and one yellow-red, you would think it was particularly brutal – but it wasn’t. Players fought hard, but it was a fair game overall.

    That ref just sucked. But the USA didn’t have any better luck today, either.

Comments are closed.