But I definitely agree with Icelandic people that they deserve to be proud if they don't even field full time professional athletes and can still beat pros.
I think you are wrong about them here. They field only professional athletes and they have very good facilities for all the sports. It is just a question of finding enough row talent in a country that small. Iceland has population of under 400k while Brazil has over 2M registered football players. Much bigger pool to chose from and it is very important metric in my opinion. Really? I don't remember exactly how many but I was pretty sure the World Cup team for Iceland had some part timers, butcher or sailor or dockworker or something. Maybe I'm wrong. But we don't disagree about the facilities, which is what I think is important. They have very many stadiums and pitches and free facilities -- so every person can play easily with his mates after work. That's more important than anything else. Working facilities per capita. My state as 2 million people but only 1 regulation pitch the entire land. You can have 100000 talented kids but if they can't even play on a proper pitch, or even go to school properly (my island also has 50% literacy rate) then those 100000 talents become 10 who can choose to develop their skills and go to proper school while earning enough to not have to work on their farm. Meanwhile in Iceland and Netherlands where I know they offer citizenship to immigrants, they now don't even need to look locally as much. Ask our neighbours Singapore whose national team is full of people who weren't born there  Anyway. Can argue till the cows come home, I'd still bet any day on a kid born in Iceland than in India to be a good athlete. Talent is not as important as hard work and technique (which can be taught!). |
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^^ Country population for me is always not such a good measure of talent pool -- but the resources divided by the people. One football pitch for 11 people is better than 1 pitch for 110, let's put it that way. But I definitely agree with Icelandic people that they deserve to be proud if they don't even field full time professional athletes and can still beat pros. Sort of like Malaysian football in the 1970s. We didn't have a single professional or even semi-professional, so most of the national team actually played as volunteers and yet we still beat the crap out of better countries with better funding... ironically since the country professionalized and invested in more training and coaches, it's gone downhill. There are of course problems of corruption and a system that doesn't reward talent (the way we treat athletes is shocking until today, if you want an example, see how AFCON countries are treating their athletes) but anyway, I love to support teams from the Balkans too -- we say "small like a bird's eye chilli" (but hotter than the big chillies). No bets for me today, I lost all interest after a tame defeat for my pick in AO semi. Good luck to you guys |
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Agree with Trofo, 0-0 was at least 10/1 on both games with superboost even it was 14/1 I saw for Egypt. At least even watching in the first half I should have thought to take it. igehhh was right though, Egypt keeper kept his team in the game, there WERE quality shots coming in from outside the box but overall, those were just pot shots and as a team, neither side could fashion good chances.
Salah was probably let down a lot by poor finishing or decision making from the strike force, he may not look good playing but he generally took every ball well on that pitch.
Hate to say this guys but last night I watched Conmebol (Brazil) and just the first half alone reminded me again what fast, attacking, purposeful, determined football looked like. I think even Ecuador playing in Afcon, if they showed half of what they did last night, would win every game (although probably the ref would red card 4 or 5 of them by half time). I'm a huge Afcon supporter honestly but for some reason this edition just insisted to show us the worst that they were possible.
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Didn't watch Nadal but I read he was well worth his victory. Scary as hell for my Tsitsi, that even if he overcomes the Russian now, he still has to find a way to not get overpowered by Nadal!
Anyway, not a bad tennis match to watch this ongoing semi... I still think Tsitsi could have made it easier for himself in the first set, but least he's won this one as easy as you can expect. Medvedev serve, what a weapon.
But the crowd, wow, I totally didn't expect them to get behind Tsitsi. I know Medvedev is a bit of a whiner but...
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Sheesh Ecudor Brazil. Now I was just about to add on my bets on Brazil to win and keep a clean sheet since all the favourites earlier won, giving me a great acca at over 10/1 -- Alisson just survived a red card after VAR downgraded it to yellow, but by 20th minute, both teams already were playing with 10 men!
Only 0-1 at 25th minute, but man, after the sterile AFCON games, these Conmebol ties are rowdy and nice to watch ha ha!
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Bengals @ Chiefs No, Under 21-15 Bengals
49ers @ Rams No, Under 23-15 Rams
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Was never available to me in either of my PayPal accounts (one in EU and one in Asia) and despite knowing it wasn't actual BTC, I still thought it would be cool as another option.
As many have already said, "soon" can mean anything in crypto speak (I shall not mention ETF yardsticks) but if you want to clutch at straws, they already missed out their 2020 roadmap to have a digital wallet by 2021 BUT in May did say they would start it off with 3rd party crypto w/ds so, just wait I guess. Or sell for USD and just buy your own BTC.
Just this month said it was looking at stablecoins (blockchain-based), so we know they're keen to not let hope spring uneternally.
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^^^ Yeah, I'm pretty big on Wenger as a technical force of nature for good but I honestly can't see how a more frequent WC makes the world a better place. Certainly when the rich wigs think it helps refugees stay away from Europe, then you know they're too far removed from reality to ever make things right.
But back on the football, all I need is for Saudi to get a win and I'm happy for today. Scoreless draw at HT but otherwise it's a night for the favourites.
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If you were a manager or a teammate, what would you do to Bailly after that penalty? Have a look if you didn't see it, it was a no-look jump attempt - in a knockout shootout.
I would have challenged him even if he scored, he missed though - and Ivory Coast lost the game.
I had a quick look at the games yesterday, the quality of football presented is really bad. I won't watch anything until the final.
Remember when Ballotelli tried a no look backheel when he was at City and what happened to him after that? Benched. He just needs to be benched, and that's it, nothing more. Even if he would have pulled it off, you simply don't do that at any level of football. There's actually to me not such a fine line between showmanship and foolishness as some players like to think. There's simply no argument on how that kind of attempt could ever gain anything for your team other than to show you disrespect a lesser opponent -- and he's forced his team to pay the price for that. Anyway, I'm not going to throw more scorn on this tourney. The actions of a few always seem to take the spotlight. I watched Egypt players as closely as possible yesterday and well... they barely deserved to go through as the underdogs. I only question that they saved their best for extra time, clearly. And still had to go to penalties. |
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I actually gave up watching after seeing the first half lead, does look like in came close in the end, still worth the tip I'd say Trofo. But French newspapers also note the significance of the win, labelling their own team "Les Bracquers" which means "The Robbers" haha. So this Iceland people. They know how to sports, don't they? Part-timers getting good runs at international football (though that's of course waned) and now also showing they're as good with their hands! |
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I'm totally with Trofo here. It bugs me a great deal when a player whines a lot about things not going their way (so you guys already know whom I dislike, not that it stops me from admiring their qualities). I can't help it and I think it stems from my own time playing sports -- the whiners just take all the fun out of the contest. But the other part of mentality -- the one that allows you to get into the zone. That's what I was really hoping for Tsitsi to get after his past disappointments. And I felt like I caught a glimpse of it against Sinner. Hoping it shows up in the semis. But because I'm cynical, I already hedged on Medvedev so whomever wins, I will make money from this AO, and about time too! ~
That's a really interesting image, particularly for someone like me who likes digging into the data. Thanks for sharing. It's interesting how the last few years 2017-18 onwards have really seen a lot of newcomers break through. We were aware that the Federer/Nadal/Djokovic era was ending on the men's side, and we can see that a bit here. This is maybe a little counterintuitive from 2020 onwards, where the tour has been hampered by the pandemic, so you'd maybe think it's harder for new players to break through in slams as they just haven't gained the experience of going deep in a big tournament. But of course the last women's US Open really showed that it's possible. Indeed, for the men's it looked like a really lonely club for a long stretch of years, but now that the greats are bowing out (and with some grace, I've to say, looking at the way Nadal is powering through), we'll see even more fresh blood in the next couple of years. I don't follow the sport enough to really know if we'll get another handful of mega-athletes in the same era, but I think you're right about the women's side of things: they could be seeing a resurgence that would come closer to rivalling the men's for fan focus anyway. |
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^^^^^Well, that's a lot of confirmations, and I do feel like it's going to be a couple more years at least before I revisit this and ask to add a pile of confirmations on top of these.
@Wind_FURY Playing Devil's Advocate, I would say the cashie holders are happy if the rate they can mine still exceeds the deteriorating rate of fiat value of their coin. Lots more to milk, and empty blocks, life is "easier" for a cashie miner maybe?
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Just to update here, Senegal won their 2nd match, so I got my second freebet today. It was for Blackjack again and instead of putting all 0.2mbtc on 1 hand, I decided to split it on main hand and on dealer bust.
If you remember, my first freebet hand was a 12, hit and got 9, so I won 0.4 (freebet returned in live casino).
Today, I got a natural blackjack haha. Which was a shame since the sidebet was returned, total won: 0.35.
0.75mbtc in cash returned AND Senegal are still alive. All I need now is for them to get 1 more win and at least money back =D
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^Sorry Gasty, this isn't the right place to ask -- I'm happy to give my opinions, but this isn't as much a tips thread as it is a value bet thread. You can look in Gambling discussion to discuss specific leagues. Championship thread is here, for example: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5288319.0Anyway, I fancy Egypt as the underdogs, where they are a tad more than 4/1 to win. But since we love an acca, let's paste in that with a Baggies home win in the Championship! Didn't we almost get a win with Saints though? Phew! 200 units at Sportsbet on Egypt and West Brom to WIN @6.49. Other odds: 6.20 https://sportsbet.io/sharebetslip/6cb47232-f2b5-4e82-96c7-3c4050c8388fUnits advantage: 29x2=58 Running advantage after 102 bets: +11463 (+58)
All-time cumulative: +78,811
Running units after 101 bets (13W|88L): +2373 (-100) |
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Hey notblox1 Guess who's keeping an eye on you now
1. Draw - 1:1
2. Bournemouth - 3:0
3. Fulham - 2:0
4. Draw - 1:1
5. Luton - 1:0
6. Middlesbrough - 2:1
7. West Brom - 2:1
8. Preston - 1:0
9. QPR - 2:2
10. Sheffield Utd - 3:1
11. Derby - 1:0
12. Draw - 0:0
Sportsbet username: Sojourner
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Man but Medvedev just made it as hard as possible on himself, didn't he? For a moment 3:4 on final set, thought Aliassime would get the tiebreak and smash his way on but Russian too good, then showed him how to do it. Almost forced another epic late on, but lost his composure already. Tsitsi v Medvedev it is! I can't wait! Anyway, didn't read until recently about Special Ks on-field antics. I mean, I do think there's a reason why some players are friends with others, but surely opponents know Aussies can be quite "cruel" with the support, but I'd love getting the crowd against me for no reason. Moral high ground right? Anyway, first time in 33 GSs that all semifinalists in men's and women's aren't virgins Proper good, huh? Image from Ben Rothenberg Twitter a bit off-topic would not comment on tournament, but do you people work, have children or something, I was awake to follow from second set, since my toddler saw the day-light, and told me we have to read before kindergarten, or we will lose time can't say that I would sleep longer in any case, since I get up early, but it is good to know that some people could afford more sleep  Haha, well it's on topic since it relates to our ability to watch sports. I have a full-time "domestic engineering" job, from or at home or on the road 18 hours a day since 2016 so the pandemic way of life IS my way of life haha. On regular days I am up very early, before 6 am, but chores and cooking and then I have to then commute once or twice throughout the day to send/fetch a kid to school that's unfortunately quite far away, to be home in time to make food and clean etc. So I'm really only free to start work by 830-930 once back home. I've been freelancing all these years so I manage my work in short spouts of hours in between the entire day. I actually post on this forum about 25% from my phone while on bus/train? I never really calculate but I do post 1/2/3 daily from my phone. The past 2 weeks though, we have all been on lockdown and personal situation and when I get precious days like these I stay up late and wake up late;) So no need to wake up too early, as the day becomes so gruelling once everyone is up! |
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Yeesh guys, I'm really not sure I enjoy this more now that I'm following it. I still honestly can't shake the feeling that results are just looking more and more random and less and less because a team's actually pretty good. I thought this was true after following baseball a bit (MLB) and now I'm almost sure of it looking at NFL.
Now, I know people say the same about football anyway, but because it's such a low-scoring game, the difference in team quality almost always is good enough for the edge needed to win.
Sorry if I sound like a whiner. Not at all. Now maybe next season my mission is to actually WATCH a game.
Anyway, good luck to you guys but this is about it for me in terms of betting!
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I did promise to try and follow this a bit but after the Croatia loss (as close/far as Trodo predicted) it slipped off my radar. As it turns out I have a bit of time today so I'm going to follow his pick for this one, AND actually watch the game thanks! Snuck in a pick at 9.14 (with daily price boost on Sportsbet).
BTW you said above Sweden Norway under? But official results show over 45... or am I reading it wrong? Yes, handball semi-virgin here. Nice call on Netherlands handicap, barely made the handicap though!
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