World Cup Group Stage Second Round PING!
Starting shortly with Russia v Egypt.
I stopped reading here on account of witchcraft.
They should just use a standard/official ball and not change it. They just want to sell more balls.
Well, he has the first part down...
They should have put in more effort into training their refs. Senegal/Poland was an officiating disaster.
Nobody’s complained about deflated balls yet.
Balls continue to be unaffected by opposable thumbs.
I’m sure that’s Germany’s excuse for getting taken to the woodshed by Mexico the other day.
Who gives a crap. It’s soccer.
I watched a Tunisian player today fall on the ground, writhing in pain after some incidental contact with an England player. He stopped, to glance if the referee was watching, then started writhing in pain again.
The fake injury acts should become a competition in their own right.
Open with ten minutes of free kicks, then play this ridiculous “game”.
SO they are making a giant golf ball.
First paragraph is litany of excuses only exceeded by “the sun got in my eyes”. Everybody was playing the game with the same ball so there was no advantage for anybody.
Then there are the bribes designed to influence the games.
The amount varies every year.
Russia beat Egypt tonight in St. Petersburg and all the goals came in the second half.
After it was over, you could hear the roar in the stadium and President Putin made.a surprise phone call.
Russia only needs to beat Uruguay to make to the Round Of 16.
It beat two weak opponents in Group A so now its final opponent is a storied South American team with two World Cups under its belt.’
Will be fascinating to watch how that turns out.
Seems the soccer ball designers need to visit a Titleist golf ball manufacturing/engineering facility and learn how the dimples affect the dynamics of the ball when in flight.
Russia all but qualify for knockout stage with win over Mo Salah’s Egypt
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/19/russia-egypt-world-cup-match-report
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Russia (H) |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 | +7 | 6 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 |  Uruguay |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 3 | |
| 3 |  Egypt |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | −3 | 0 | |
| 4 |  Saudi Arabia |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | −5 | 0 |