both my countries missed, Netherlands and Canada(no surprise there) so I cheer on my Belgian cousins and the team everyone is afraid to play Iceland... with future WC's expanding to 48 teams USA will never miss another WC, and with further expansion planned after that with 6 potential teams from our region even Canada may become a regular entrant...
One of the mysteries of the universe, I suppose, but I love the fan photo. The fans are definitely one of my favorite things about the World Cup. You gotta love the spirit and comaraderie...
I really don't have any favorites so I'm pulling for the underdogs (Iceland is one). I really like teams that play up-tempo, like Costa Rica (who knocked us out in qualifying) and Serbia, and I liked what I saw out of Russia yesterday. I wouldn't mind seeing Belgium break through, either. I'm just tired of seeing the usual suspects (Germany, Brazil, etc.) win. It would be fun if someone else hoisted the Cup. I hate to say it, but I don't think the expansion will guarantee our men's team anything. Our program has been consistently underwhelming and disappointing. The sad fact of the matter is that unlike a lot of countries America's best athletes generally don't play soccer.
IDK, when I first went to Flanders, I thought there was some WWI battlefield in town called Flanders based on all the local gifts for sale at this Belgian Chocolate factory I know. Last time I went here, I made my own fun/entertained myself. but the first time I went, I had never heard of Flanders before, not until some time after the first time I went. https://www.p-j.be/ It's because of this place and maybe this service station somewhere, that now I can't say I haven't been to Belgium, because I have, I went there for 20 minutes a visit en route/in transit. Should have saw the look of disappointment on my face when I first went.
My wife loves the Red Poppies associated Flanders' Fields - she's got 'em growing all over the place...
She'd love that Belgian chocolate factory for sure. 'seems so much more exotic in London, but when you get there.' You could even use UK currency as well as EUROs at it. It actually wasn't the first chocolate factory I've ever been to; in 2001 I went to Hershey Park in Hershey, PA and did that whole tour ride thing. I digress, but that's probably why the UK home nations have teams but the other countries' home nations don't.
mmmmmm Belgian chocolates...and then there's the beer, Westvleteren XII a trapist beer no preservatives smooooth, rated in the top 10 beers in the world, a 6 pack around here (if I can find it) costs about $75
I saw duty free cigarettes and alcohol, chocolate (it was a chocolate factory), those pieces of Belgian merchandise saying Flanders, and a whole lot of Pringles, flavours we don't even get in the UK, like Tomato Ketchup. Flanders. I just Goggled their flag it's this one ^.
When I went to Manhattan in New York City in 2001, one of the first things I noticed was this Welsh Flag on somebody's jumper/hoody. When I was going through the Netherlands, I saw the North Holland/South Holland flags flying like I would see the England flag flying; until I went, I didn't even know there was a South Holland/North Holland etc.
north and south holland, two of twelve provinces...Belgium has ten provinces five Flemish(dutch) and five Walloon(french)..the two sides don't get along well, election results can be dysfunctional...I don't know how bilingual Belgium is so I've no idea if that creates problems on the national team...
No problem on the national team for Belgium, they get along pretty well when it comes to playing football as a team
teammates usually do get along, my question was do they communicate well, are they all bilingual...canada is officially bilingual but in practice not many people are, so coaching a team where some players don't speak both languages can be a problem...
It's not like they need a 20 000 words vocabulary to communicate, most of them have already played for different clubs where they had to learn different languages so they're probably all fluent in English at least anyway
Cool - I went to Hershey Park when I was a kid. About all I remember from the tour was the free chocolate bar at then end.
Glad you brought that up, wyly. I've never had a Trappist beer, but I was just looking at the recipes for a Westvleteren XII clone and I might try brewing that. Now that it's summer I can only make brews that ferment at higher temps and Trappist beers are one of those styles (along with Belgian ales).
Yea I have to strike Argentina out of my podium, they might not even make it out of the first round, and put Croatia instead. I don't think Germany will go very far either, maybe Spain or Portugal. As for Brazil, I'll wait till tomorrow.
That Croatia-Argentina match was so lopsided I don't know what to think. Is Croatia that good or is Argentina that awful? And Messi still hasn't scored. Wow. I'm not impressed with Germany, either, and Spain hasn't lived up to my expectations. As for Portugal, they'll only go as far as Ronaldo can carry them. Brazil and Costa Rica should be a really fun match. We're going to learn a lot about both teams tomorrow...
I saw some stats showing the Russians are the ones running the most per game. I have to agree that they are running a lot, a lot like rabbits on steroids.
LOL - That seems to be a tradition going back to the Soviet era. It's not doing them any good against Uruguay, though. Your boys in Belgium were pretty impressive Saturday. Of all the favorites, they look like the best of the bunch to me right now...
Now that they're down 2-0 to Uruguay and playing a man short they'll get to run around to their heart's content. I was wondering how Russia would look against some real competition and it looks like Cinderella's carriage just turned into a pumpkin...
"Sensational"..."stunning"..."a beauty"...Ricardo Queresma of Portugal may have just scored the most spectacular goal of the tournament (45' vs. Iran) For a right-footed kicker to get a clockwise spin on the ball coming off the outside of his boot and curve it into the net is an incredible trick. That's gonna be on highlight reels all night, if not forever...
