oldtype

All the injured players back for South Korea. Not surprising, I'd drag myself out there hopped up on painkillers if I had to.

Because these people are under a ridiculous amount of pressure and hitting it over makes you look 1000x more stupid than getting it saved. ' Not everyone has balls of titanium like Shearer did.

I am content with this World Cup. Anything that happens from now is a bonus. Flip, take your gentlemanly 2-1 win and best of luck for the rest of the tournament. I'm good.

Beautiful. Cannot have imagined a better way for this game to end.

I CANT SPELL THE CROATIAN GOALIE’S NAME BUT GET THE FUCK IN

Penalties

Terribly disappointing shot from the Modric lookalike

Croatia has to score from one of those crosses eventually

I, for one, would love it if they lost on pens.

Yes

Can’t believe he didn’t shoot that. Straight up bottled it.

We co-hosted because politicians in both countries decided they couldn’t handle the domestic political fallout if they lost the bid to the other. That’s how much we like each other.

Elitist

Guarantees some form of riot in two separate countries. Brazil, and whoever loses the QF.

If Japan win our match goes from “eh, I hope we don’t embarrass ourselves” to the biggest must-win in the history of Korean football. Would be chuffed if I were you. Pressure will kill us.

Half the forum celebrating this like it’s a Newcastle goal come on. Am I nothing to you.

Fuck right off

Oh come on, you’re not losing. As long as we give a good account of ourselves and these Croatians wake up and score some goals, I’m happy.

Ali is probably on that tier as well. Was only thinking about team sports. Remains to be seen if Messi and Ronaldo stand the test of time in the public conscience. If someone told me when I was a kid that fat Ronaldo wouldn’t even be the most famous footballer named Ronaldo in twenty years, I wouldn’t have believed them. Those two are on another tier in terms of achievements, obviously, but there’s also a lot of recency bias.

When I first started watching football in the early 90s, I learned his name before I knew the name of any active non-Korean footballer. Nobody I knew had ever seen him play, but nobody ever doubted that he was the best ever. When I was playing PES all day in high school, I remember him being on the “Classic Brazil” team and being so comically overpowered even relative to the best of that era (Ronaldo/Ronaldinho etc.), but we were all okay with it because… well, he’s Pele. Of course he is. To this day, young Korean men who dominate their Sunday leagues still call themselves the “neighborhood Pele.” I’m sure that’s the case in many other countries as well. It is the lot of all athletes to have their legacies diminished as the generations pass. It’s simply absurd that Pele’s semi-mythical status as the greatest of all time has largely persisted in the popular conscience a half Century after his prime, when the vast majority of humanity has never even seen him play. Michael Jordan is probably the only athlete who can even come close in terms of global cultural influence, but he is of a much more recent vintage. Who knows how much we’ll be talking about MJ in 2050. An objectively better footballer will exist some day, (maybe he already does), but it’s hard to imagine anyone ever having a larger legacy.

Dubai is basically Las Vegas with no gambling and difficult to access booze. Abu Dhabi has a much more “lived in” feel to it and at least feel like a real city. Some good good too if you know where to look.

47 qualify and then six teams play for the final spot. It’s going to be fun.

Shearer celebrating a South Korea goal. This content was custom built for me.

It is oddly liberating to be paired against the one team I can’t even vaguely envision us beating. If we had England or something I’d be like “eh… they’re better but maybe…” the hope would be agonizing.

Yes, clearly we are headed towards a USA v. England finals.