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Apparently, Croatia is the team with the highest proportion of goals scored during play (as opposed to scored on free kicks / corners / penalty). Let's hope they'll win!

Before the match the belgian coach said that they hoped to lose to be in the easier half and play all their matches in Moscow, so it was both unsportsman like AND pretentious!

Guys... Gulbis is playing. He qualified for the main draw and won three rounds with as many five setters! The last one against World N°3 Alexander Zverev with a stingy 6-0 in the fifth! We could have had a Gulbis vs Kyrgios, a feat of shot making, raw talent and pure bullshit, but the...

Eating crow with Belgium, eating crow with England and some more with Croatia considering they pass rounds as if they were kidney stones..... if it ends with a Belgium vs England final you can put crows on the list of endangered species...

I am eating crow with Belgium winning over Brazil... I have not seen the match though. Did Belgium suddenly manage to defend brilliantly or did Courtois just made 20 saves?

If Cavani were fit to play, I would have given the edge to Uruguay, but, last I heard, he is not, so I suspect France will go through.

In a match that spanned two days (thanks to the british weather) and that I absolutely did not see, Cilic (last year's finalist who just won the Queen's) somehow lost to Pella in five sets after winning the first two... and we are talking about a 28 years old journeyman who, before this event...

What I have seen of the match against Lacko makes me a little more optimistic about Federer's chances. Lacko offered a much stronger opposition than Lajovic, so we got to see some defending and counter-attacks from Federer as well as a nice array of backhands. The next round could have been...

It's not exactly clear how Sweden will score against England, but, at the same time, when the amazing english armada that felt so great after discarding Panama played against a somewhat competent defense, it resulted in a single goal on a penalty kick, so it's also not exactly clear how they...

You must not have seen the match: she screams louder than Sharapova. It's almost Larcher de Brito level. Almost.

And they won shooting 2nd AND missing first!

It'different 14% of the time...

That long distance missile and that impossible save by the keeper... all that to conceed a goal on the first colombian corner!

It makes me realize we have yet to see a dog fight, an ugly but super intense match with big fouls, fights always on the verge of breaking, red cards, etc. This match has potential in this category!

Of the ones I saw, I think that dubious honor goes to France vs Danemark, because not only was there no goal, there was not even scoring opportunities! (the end of Japan's third was a pure disgrace though). Sweden played a good match tactically, pressing high to disrupt the early construction...

Reverse jinx attempt: if it goes to a shoot out, as customary, Switzerland will lose.

Of course when there is a game full of drama, I miss it... that said, seeing how it ended I am almost glad I did! Google told me that the last time a team that lead 2-0 in an elimination match ended up losing was in 1970... good job Japan :( What happened in these last 30 minutes though? Japan...

It's hard enough to fact check my own posts! :p

He tried to sell that red card hard! To be fair, I am surprised it did not end with a VAR review and a red.

Denmark had a great team in 92. Greece was a bit of a perfect storm though. To paraphrase a french analist: Russia is not like 2002's Greece. The greeks would never have allowed themselves to score more than one goal in a match, even against Saudi Arabia! :p

I feel this serie is often more about the writting/themes/narration and gameplay ideas than the actual execution of those ideas. The taxi mini game is a good example of a great idea, putting unexpected depth and complexity (you need to arrive on time, drive properly, avoid accidents AND be a...

Federer beat Lajovic with extreme ease, but it's difficult to know where Federer is at since the opposition was very tame. He served well and he was very dangerous when he had any kind of ball that was somewhat short on his forehand side. Lajovic did not manage to put the Federer's backhand...

While Fist of the North Star is packed full of nostalgia (somehow this was shown on french TV during the '80s), what makes the Yakuza serie for me is its strong connection with reality. While often over the top or just silly, these games are still packed full of stories of everyday people...

From a game design perspective, I feel one of the main appeal of soccer is that domination is not always converted into score. In basketball, the team that dominates is getting stops and is scoring baskets: the domination is materialized on the score board. In soccer, domination is materialized...

@Razzes I strongly disagree with your analysis of the Spain vs Russia match. First thing first: Spain lead in that match and was unable to defend its lead. Secondly, it is indeed difficult to score a goal against a well organized defense that is well positioned. Russia tried to play in a way...

A lot of these penalty kicks were not good, but still, it's rare to see so many saves! Also, between the Spain-Russia and the Croatia-Danemark, not a single shooter missed outright.

I am not sure if it changed or not, but it used to be that way in the south korean championship.

The russians are doing the right thing. The goal is to win, not to lose with panache.

That's two surprising things about this first day of R16: Not a single VAR usage (though I suspect several sequences were reviewed) and 10 goals! To be fair though, while the Argentina vs France match was very entertaining, it became so because of how poorly both team played. I mean at some...

Portugal can have some regrets on that one, because it was absolutely winnable. They did not get robbed or anything as Uruguay gave a great team effort and turned something like 3 opportunities into two goals! That's some cold blooded realism right there! For my money, Portugal had two problems...

It's not that he's fast, it's that the defenders are slow.

You know it was all fun and games to have 17 subs out of 22 players in that Belgium vs England match, but suddenly their main team will not have played an actual soccer match for the whole tournament before facing Japan or Colombia. They are not extraordinary opponents, but they can play, so I...

The main impact of age is the mental and physiological tear and wear. While he has some back issues that came and went, a small ankle issue years ago and a minor knee surgery, he is by and large in great shape and probably will still be for several years. Stamina, strength and coordination are...

@Brando got almost everything wrong, but, credit to him, he at least attempted some predictions! Here be the table for the round of 16: URUGUAY vs PORTUGAL FRANCE vs ARGENTINA BRAZIL vs MEXICO BELGIUM vs JAPAN SPAIN vs RUSSIA CROATIA vs DANEMARK SWEDEN vs SWITZERLAND COLOMBIA vs ENGLAND

Someone did not get the memo!

Belgium making sure to be ahead in the card count! The game is not unpleasant though. The subs want to shine.

The climax of the absurd was reached in stoppage time when the polsih team wanted to sub a player in (just for the honor / stat line), but since play was not going to ever stop with the japanese defenders meekly passing the ball while the polish players were just standing there, a polish player...

Tonight's match might also be a lot of 'fun' because the two halves of the draw are very unbalanced as far as big name teams are concerned and it's the loser of tonight's match that will end in the supposedly favorable half. The only hope for an actual contest to happen is if Lukaku and Kane...