Sunday, July 15, 2018

Croatia vs Denmark

Holy BALLS.  Another match into penalty kicks - this one going to Croatia.

Each team scored once in the first four minutes - more because of crappy defense and keeping than any awesome offensive moves, really.  The keeping got better, but the rest of the game was boring compared to the promise of the first two minutes.  One of the refs was consumed by the earth, and a Croat sub broke his leg trying to rescue the ref, but even that wasn't enough to lift the announcers' ennui:

"Well it looks like a hole - or maybe maw is the better word - has opened up under one of the assistant referees.  I haven't seen such an egregious violation by the earth itself since 1998 in New Zealand... wait, I'm getting word that the referee who is almost lost to a strange mouth in the earth is Assistant Referee Two - Juan Pablo Belatti, from Argentina."

"That's got to be disheartening for the South Americans - first the loss to France yesterday, and now the chthonic forces of darkness consuming one of their countrymen."

They didn't even stop play - that's how bored the whole stadium was.  Ten minutes into first overtime, if I remember correctly.  I didn't see the Croat player's jersey number, and I can't find footage of it (of course), but if you check the subs list from a few days ago with the current subs list we could probably figure it out.

Anway.  Russia meets Croatia next Saturday at the quarterfinals.  My money's tentatively on Croatia - the play's been just weird for both teams, and Russia has the home team advantage, but holy shit, you guys, have you read about Croatia's history?  It's fucked up and weird - Croatian citizens were given pensions bigger than their checks and free health and dental care under Yugoslavian rule in the 60s and 70s, and allowed free no-Visa travel to both Western and Communist countries, but then there was a decade of violence when Yugoslavia broke up and Milosevic came to power.  Shit like that - although I guess any region with a several-thousand-year history will have it's share of fucked up politics.

My point is that maybe Russia's not going to the be scrappy underdogs in their match.  So I'm pulling for Croatia!  Whoever makes it out of Russia v Croatia, though, I doubt has the breadth to make it to the finals.

Okay.  Another exciting day of soccer, all in all.  Tomorrow is Brazil v Mexico, Cthulhu v Hastur, and Belgium v Japan.  Drama expected!

  -Dave 

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