On a related note, Jamelle Bouie wrote a good article on how Republicans will now defend any transgression.

How much do you think federal judges make? Do you somehow think $200,000 in debt to someone who makes $160,000/year is chump change? You don’t sound like someone who knows a lot about how anything works.

Good effort by England (except you, John Stones). Losing to Croatia is no shame. Although I agree with Billy’s analysis that England seemed a bit hesitant in the second half.

I think it was one of Messi’s pets that Dybala murdered.

Damn. Nice.

Milquetoast club career? Did 2015 not happen? He (and maybe the refs) was also almost single-handedly responsible for the 6-1 remontada against PSG in 2017.

No one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition!

No one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Might not look like much at first glance? That would be the goal of the tournament except for Kroos’ stoppage time strike. It’s outrageous in every way, each touch sublime and the powerful finish with his off-foot. 

I feel the same way. He always looks good to me — fast, good finisher. But he has the misfortune of being a #9 on teams with Lukaku and Kane ahead of him. Maybe the teams don’t want to run a two striker setup or Rashford is not great playing on the wing.

Agreed. Mo Salah, too.

He did it once in 50 tries for Portugal. If you want to say that’s doing it when it counts, I guess that’s something.

That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a total howler.

You mean because he hiked up his shorts for no apparent reason?

Well, Iniesta and Silva are a combined 442 years old, so I wouldn’t call that bone-headed. Taking Costa off was arguably not great, considering he was single-handedly destroying Portugal’s defense.

Nice to see that our bribery game is still world class.

In Maradona’s defense, it’s hard to stay in shape when you’re snorting Scarface-style mounds of cocaine.

I agree that RM has the best roster top to bottom, but isn’t the answer to their success more obvious? They just don’t care that much about the league and certainly not at all about the Copa del Rey, and so they focus all their energy on the CL.  

“but his work rate on defense is well beyond his Argentinian rival” — well, that’s because Messi literally does almost nothing on defense. Ronaldo also loafs a lot, making Benzema do the tracking back. Ronaldo has some great attributes, but I wouldn’t call his defensive work rate one of them.

This is an appropriate recap to a pretty terrible final.

I would have thought the Rockets would have to have played a perfect fourth quarter to win, but they had enough cushion to win despite Gerald Green putting up three or four of the worst shots I’ve ever seen. With two future hall of famers on the court with him.