end result for quarterfinals per region: 6 EU (france, norway, england,spain,belgium and suisse) 1 SA (argentina) 1 AFR (morocco)

oh my god switzerland has actually won a penalty shootout it's a miracle

if israel and the united states are allow to play under their flag at various sporting events including IOC events, i see no reason to still ban russia. russia IS a genocidal invading nation but they are not worse than israel or the US so either ban them all or allow them all

turned out legit hilarious. came from a pub and one of the owners told me quickly what happened: had egyptian and argentinian supporters fraternizing at first but the longer the game went on, the worse the ambiance got. by the end of the game it was 'pure racism' and shouting at each other

oh my god i think there's actually trouble somewhere in the neighborhood thanks to this match. i first heard a single siren cops do here when they arrive to minor trouble (like a drunken fight) and then i heard someone shout in broken english "YOU CHEAT YOU CHEAT" brb im going to be nosy

completely correct chances of actually winning has most of em (belgium, morroco, swiss/colombia) on b tier, couple on a tier like spain but then you have france and it's like 2026 pogacar tier genuinely nobody comes close and this is probably the biggest skill gap in many WC generations

argentine/messi favoritism is gen so ingrained into football we barely even talk about it anymore as a scandal, more as a matter of fact. just like different technologies have entered (touchline, var etc)into our default, argentinia by 'happenstance' always profiting by referee intervention = same

but yeah egypt were never allowed to win this game. i've literally seen an argentinian slap an egyptian player in the face, not even a foul given let alone a var check but they used the var to disallow a counter goal on a minor fault like 20 passes before it will never change as long as messi plays

people talk ab choosing ronaldo or messi. the actual good third choice is wanting both of em gone sadly argentina will always be favoured by the ref in literally every single game they play, no matter the tournament, so it's very difficult to get rid of the little prick

filip joos is in love with hassan

oh my god bruh hahahaha

lmao another call has been made for messi

i heard screams from the depths of hell from my egyptian neighbour so i think they scored again

the most typical US thing about this whole situation were the almost endless op-eds of resist libs vomiting up different tripe ways in excusing corruption which they normally protest, as long as that corruption was draped in an american flag and the opponent of that corruption isn't american

"what nation in the same situation wouldn't have done the same thing?" zero, actually, at least in modern football. previously there has been ZERO open interference from a head of state to alter a decision. there have been many disgracefully wrong red cards and very angry press but never corruption

reaching max QF's previous worldcups would not be considered a success but it is in 2026. i think at this point most people, while they obv want to win against spain, wouldn't mind being knocked out THAT much think it's more so playing with the same passion as against the US, everything else is a +

ramses debruyne top 5 in his first breakaway at his first TDF oh the visions i'm seeing it's so glorious and fantastical

mads pedersen with an hommage to de lie by almost ripping his frame in twain

sadly both vacek is peak career level and lidl trek have total control so i don't think anyone else is going to win. either from an attack or sprint

that being said, vacek is possessed by the ghost of idk the combination of peak vacek and peak thibau nys when they were a duo for a short amount of time in races

ramses debruyne is so good, i'm so proud man

i saw someone say on discord ab/upcoming QF's "the army of belgium, subdivision of flanders but tous ensemble" & something in me had to hold back furiously to not type smugly "i don't think calling it anything close to 'army of flanders' is productive seeing our mutual history" 😬

you'd think this would be a respons about the iran conflict or the russian invasion of ukraine. no no, this was a reply to a canadian laughing at the fact that the US lost 4-1 i must admit; we might need to stop hurting their fragile fragile egos, who knows what country they'll bomb next to cope

the epstein citizens on twt are so butthurt they got HANDLED by a nation which as an entire country only has 3x the population of the city of los angeles they're bringing up world war 2 😭😭😭😭 "you were only able to resist the nazi's for 19 days" like oh my, cheating losers really grasping at straws

even on bsky we get the "we never cared for it this is not important in the US" coping after nonstop showing they cared for weeks yes yes hmm, very impressive

rudy garcia is a weird coach but one thing he does better than any other coach we've had is not listen to pressure from scrubs (like me) and press to "put the 'best' players on the field" no matter what, like de bruyne, doku etc he looks at a team and says fuck it, i know what will work best

im crying doing all that cheating and backroom lobbying only to get belt to ass from the belgian unction, how can a nation this rich powerful and w so many people be this fucking dogshit

i just saw a braindead american unironically go ab/ this balogun thingie "you think you're in favor of the belgian side? go look up the belgian congo & come back" and i genuinely burst something in my brain i think there is so much wrong with that i can't even begin to start to describe

anyway i'm not staying up to watch that game. god knows what other backroom dealings that lutnick envoy and FIFA have done to give the US many more tiny advantages maybe they talked to the appointed ref as well, who knows? everything is possible now lol, nothing is off the charts

i'm genuinely completely perplexed at how many americans, many who i've known for being very anti trump and corruption, suddenly turn into his biggest lapdog and excuse seeker all bc it might help them win a bit more no wonder facism runs rampant, zero ethical spine from the left to the far right

anyway even if we win (which is not a certainty, aside of this giant scandal we kinda suck a lot), does it matter? what if trump pushes to annul the victory when he has a 2020 dementia moment to FIFA? or what if US just litigates with their endless money until they have what they want?

i hate them all so much man, iran calling them the great satan was and is so so so spot on

trump literally admitted just now in a press conference that he indeed called infantino and FIFA very cool man i love that the US can just do whatever they want wherever they want in whatever subject they want and it's all supported by americans, incl the "anti trump" ones vile vile nation

there is also a remco paradox where he gets clowned on for participating in the TDF and people say he has zero chance in 2026 for anything incl podium but then also he gets clowned on when twice in a row he finishes with what would most call different podium favs (aka bc he didn't win outright)

at a certain point in the last 500 ms i also saw remco look at and fiddle with his gearshifter pretty intensely but maybe he was just looking at his numbers on his screen thingie so who knows today was not fantastic like yesterday but this is also not some sort of disaster not even remotely close

i don't know why everyone is so doomy about remco today, it was almost 4000k vert meters with constant climbing & he came in together with ayuso and lipowitz this is like, expected & there are only 3 stages with more vert meters sometimes you just get nuked by a del toro leadout 😭

van mechelen in the break raaaaaaaah ik ben zo trots aaaaaaaaah

just read ab the timeline ab this blatant american corruption. it includes trump calling fifa and infantino THREE times and a secret meeting ab the suspension of which they refuse to release the dossier and how it was voted 90s action movie cliché corruption i can only imagine the ref we getting

lmao this decision of backroom lobbying by the corrupt US-epstein government to suspend baloguns suspension (yes that is what happened to make this possible) was so out of leftfield the other US players couldn't believe it at first, they thought it was AI 😭 next up: appeals of victory if we win

im so happy this brazil lost what a bunch of perpetual crybabies, peymar in front

that strike from the hips almost static from so far, fucking incredible

haaland is ice fucking cold

aint no way

turns out loads of americans turn from #nevertrump into #wellmaybesometimestrump at the slightest whim. calling someone orange hitler but immediately turning heel online bc he helped influence the sportsball into your favour 😭😭😭 the things i'm reading on bsky dawg

i am kinda worried that they're forcing the issue to not cancel a stage for the opening weekend of the tour bc either it's safe to ride or it isn't. restricting to only necessary staff & asking no visitors for something as wildfires seems completely pointless? fires don't stop bc there's less people

genuinely mad at that news man and not particularly bc i feel bad for our nats team or anything, just the concept of the US empire yet again through power, cheating, corruption and lawyering forcing a issue that hasn't been one before in a thing that they barely care about. just bc they can

the only people who are in favour of the red card suspension annulment are americans who are used, in all sports, of getting a little help from organisers over my lifetime ive seen loads of BS red cards and been angry at the ref but the thought of using clout and might to overturn it is sickening

actual corruption btw

STOP THE COUNT STOP THE COUNT

my vibe (could be wrong obv) is that if remco really had zero climbing legs & had to rely on his classic/rouleur side like last year, he would have been fine until the last climb and then he'd be dropped around the same time mathieu dropped that didn't happen and finished w/ the big boys