You’re right, I am a quiz wizard - I’m also Balkan myself and old enough (48) to have lived thru that war and all kinds of other messes in this region, reading & analyzing long before “blogs” even existed...
Sure the Albanians are pissed - they have every right to be. As do the Serbs, Bosnians, Croats, North Macedonians…

Fuck the Serbs. We both know they find the double headed eagle offensive because either they dislike the reminder of their genocidal past or they are still a bunch of nationalist, racist, fascist pricks who deserve the whole world to look at them with contempt. Again, fuck the Serbs.

Nah. The Rockets have actually won titles. Mexico has never even made it to a final. They’re just the latest hipster hot thing of the moment because of that douche wagon Trump. 

The way he reaches up to Benatia in supplication, right after collapsing.... It’s like a Baroque painting....

THANK YOU. Came here to respond the same. Our two national teams might not be as good as Brazil vs Argentina, but the hatred is absolutely there. Even a momentary googling of fan behavior at Azteca would make this perfectly clear. Bags of urine, protective barriers, closed coliseum sections, requiring extra f-ing…

I was with you until this nonsense:

Argentina vs Iceland and Germany vs Mexico were approximately equal levels of talent disparity.

Russia just curb stomped their Saudi opponents by a score of 5-0 in a beating even uglier in real life than it looks on paper.

“Croatian fans love to set things on fire!”

First, peppers do add what you might call traditional flavors and aromas to food that are different from pepper to pepper. Two seranos added to a dish will add a different flavor than one habenero even though it may have the same level of heat.

This is essentially what the SPL does, breaking the teams apart towards the end of the season so that the top teams can play each other for hardware and places in Europe and the bottom teams can fight each other to see who doesn’t get relegated.

For me, the difference between good analysis (Zach Lowe) and bad analysis (Skip Bayless) is both an understanding of variance and also an ability to point to the proper influencing tactics.

“The Warriors switched on these plays and threw off the shooters’ rhythm based on xyz strategy” doesn’t explain it all, but it…

The Rockies thing was a rotation of four piggyback pairs, but the problem with it was that none of the eight guys were good to start with.

Steven Stamkos apparently remembers every goal he has scored.

This is just like when I recall how many pieces of bread everyone at the table has already had when I’m taking the last one for myself.

Agreed. I thought we, the actual commentariat did this shit a few days ago, but now we have been usurped by interlopers from Twitter? No. This is why we need the second amendment. I feel like a victim of civil terrorism.

I don’t know how I can say this as a Liverpool fan without sounding like a salty homer, but fuck it. I’m gonna go for it.

In the draft, a player who got out of a rape charge with the “I couldn’t have raped her, I was too high at the time” defense (and the board was stacked in his favor0, was suspended all of last season for credit card fraud and tested positive for drugs at the goddamn combine, was drafted but a proven all-pro can’t get…

Deadspin:
Thanks for a tiny bit of Rockies coverage, but you missed the story from the night before. Jenny Cavnar became the first woman to call play-by-play for an MLB TV broadcast. Just a heads up, because I never would have seen that story if it weren’t in my market.

Yeah. Also Lance is like the no. 1 QB recruit in the country, so even if Mox is good it’s realistic to think Lance was better and Kilmer, having no need for Mox except as a backup, was happy to crap on him just for being different as a power trip. Just because Mox turns out good and they win the state championship…