The Belgians are looking to move into second place as the Italians have won the group. Will they make it?
Reader Interactions
13Comments
Comments are closed.
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
People are complicated. Love is not.
The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.
We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.
We are aware of all internet traditions.
Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?
Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker
They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.
The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.
Celebrate the fucking wins.
“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”
Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard
This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.
All hail the time of the bunny!
Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.
There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.
Come on, man.
Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!
Let me file that under fuck it.
When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.
A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals
Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.
I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.
Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.
Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.
Runt
So far, Belgium looks like the Great White Hype. Dynamite on paper, but they just haven’t playedwell together. Watching de Bruyne put one perfect serve after another into the box without any of his teammates getting anything out of it is downright depressing. The Irish would score from opportunities like that.
ThresherK
The very accented commentator mentioned how Belgium and also Man U are called the Red Devils. Odd how the nicknames aren’t a thing in other countries as they are in the USA.
@Runt: Isn’t Belgium continually the team that’s going to “put it all together two years from now”>
Runt
@ThresherK: They’re the Friedman Unit of international football.
ThresherK
@Runt: *We interrupt this post for a Belgium goal*.
ThresherK
@Runt: I was going to say, switching sports, I don’t know much about Belgium’s development, coaching and recruiting.
So I’ll mention Andy Reid, hired to coach the Philadelphia Eagles, who not only did a bad job of winning games and being competitive, but has traded and drafted poorly, while getting rid of good players while overpaying for talent who very few teams were competing for at said prices. And this has had an effect on morale. (It’s almost the bizarro world version of any success enjoyed by Moneyball type managers, and in a sport with a salary cap.)
That’s more of a Friedman Unit in coaching to me: Going in and doing something unneeded and unpromising out of sheer ego and then having it go to ruin, and the only thing to pretend is that it will turn around given enough time.
Runt
@ThresherK: Glad to see they take my criticism on board.
Amir Khalid
Belgium 2-0 Republic of Ireland. I think that’s the to two places in group E decided.
ETA: Belgium 3-0 Republic of Ireland. This match is over.
Wyrm1
The first goal was ridiculous. If you want to ignore the foul in the box, fine. But rather than allowing the Belgians a counter based on kicking a guy in the shoulder, stop play for the potential head injury.
Runt
The individual qualities of the Belgian plagers have never been in doubt, and it turns out that is enough to trounce Ireland. But I’m still not convinced by their teamwork. You see a lot of frustration when players fail to predict what the man with the ball wants them to do. But at least they show they can be deadly on the counterattack.
SRW1
@Runt:
The individual quality and therefore the potential is there, but the whole thing does not gel sufficiently. I think the bottleneck is the Belgian coach.
MobiusKlein
I’m heading off to Iceland, and they’re in the euro cup now.
Any tips on how to sound smart about their team?
humboldtblue
@MobiusKlein:
Here’s a nice primer you can study on the flight over.
humboldtblue
@ThresherK: But we only do that with our international teams, all other athletic teams from pee-wee through the pros have nicknames.
@ThresherK:
Also, I’m not sure what point you were trying to make with Andy Reid as head coach of the Iggles, but he was the most successful coach in franchise history and led the birds to four consecutive NFC championship games and one Super Bowl and went to the playoffs for 10 consecutive seasons with five division titles mixed in including four straight in the early aughts..