And to close the circle to football again, I was wondering the other day why of all people YOU didn’t post to the “What does a Spanish accent in German sound like?” thread. I posted an interview with Xabi Alonso in German, was I on the right track that his is a typical Spanish accent in German?
And thanks for your kind words. 
That thread escaped my attention, thanks for pointing it out. I will look for it tomorrow. Now I am busy.
Do women statistically miss the whole-goal more often than men, in penalty kicks? ISTM usually when a man misses, it’s because the keeper saved the shot, but in significant number of PKs thus far, the women in this World Cup have missed entirely wide of the goal.
I couldn’t say, but plenty of men shot the ball over the net in Qatar 2022, unwisely going for the top corners. Having played soccer for many years, nerves seems a poor excuse. Neither penalty kicks nor shootouts are all that rare. Twelve yards is really close. I favour blasting the ball within a foot from either post and a few feet off the ground. Hard to stop even if the right direction is guessed.
But on consideration, I think male goalies possibly do physically stop a higher percentage. But I couldn’t prove it, and it may not be true.
No clue on percentages, but men miss the entire goal plenty. I’m sure men can place the ball better, all things being equal, but male keepers will cover more of the goal. If you’re trying to pick the corner you need to place the ball closer to the post and/or strike it harder → smaller margins of error. Not sure which weighs higher on the conversion rate.
Hard to answer without drifting into stereo type but guys typically hit the ball harder and so, while male keepers do cover more of the goal, the girls think they need to shoot closer to the uprights, making it a higher chance of going wide.
Two penalty options the girls rarely try are the full power blast into top of net above the diving keeper and the chip over the keeper ala “Paneka”. So with less options the goalkeeper has better chances of going the right way and so the shot needs to be wider and higher risk. Also I think the girls are a bit easier to predict. Good penalty takers can shoot either way with either foot.
You know what’s bugging me right now (11:30 pm)?
OK, I’ll tell you. I like to watch the Word Cup games delayed (on Telemundo via Peacock streaming) to avoid having to get up/stay up for 1:00 am and 3:00 am starts.
But once the knock-out games begin you have an unavoidable spoiler in the program’s time-elapsed bar on the Peacock user-interface. The game is already over so of course the program length of a replay is more or less the actual total running time of the broadcast.
That means that at-a-glance you can tell whether the game goes to extra time or not. A replay with a result in full-time is about 1 hour 45 minutes (they edit out most of halftime) but if it goes to extra-time it’s about 2 hours and 45 minutes. It’s quite obvious which one it’s gonna be right from the start.
I’ve tried ignoring it but it comes up anytime you stop or go back which I do a lot. So after the first couple days of knockouts I finally decided I will have to watch live which is why I’m up right now.
Grrrrrrr… damn first-world problems!
After having watched the first half of the Jamaica-Colombia game, I may retract my support. Their play is just downright ugly, dirty and destructive.
ETA: as I write this, Colombia deservedly scored. 1-0.
The player getting…friendly…with Paul Gascoigne, who later became a Hollywood ‘actor’, was Vinnie Jones. I believe they were playing for Newcastle and Wimbledon respectively at the time. There is a (in)famous photo of Vinnie grabbing Paul’s crown jewels, Vinnie with a rather determined look on his face and Paul looking, well let’s just say he was a bit surprised.
Ah thanks, yes of course, Vinnie Jones. I remember well the famous photo and Gascoigne’s look on his face.
ETA: here it is (of course you can buy it autographed at ebay)
The quarterfinals are all set:
Spain v Netherlands
Japan v Sweden
Australia vs France
England vs Colombia
On recent form I’d say Spain and France final is most likely. I’m tipping Colombia to take out England.
Can France survive the Cauldron with 50k fans?
Japan have impressed me the most at this tournament. They took Spain to pieces, highly impressive.
At this World Cup of upsets, it was almost a surprise that heavily favored France did, in fact, crush Morocco. I can’t see Colombia making it any further, but honestly all the other teams could win it all and it wouldn’t be a shock
I watched Japan in their first two games in group play. I thought at that point that they were the most impressive team, and my feelings haven’t changed. Right now, I would bet on them to win it all.
FWIW, here are the current odds on DraftKings to win the WWC:
England +275
Spain +300
Japan +450
France +500
Australia +850
Sweden +1100
Netherlands +1100
Colombia +2800
I just put 10 bucks on Japan to win it all. Yeah, I’m a high roller.
With these odds, if I would gamble (which I never do anyway), I would put my money on the Netherlands. I think they are stronger than the bookies think.
I think England might win. But I would prefer to see Japan or Colombia, which have shown more heart. Of course, the Netherlands or Matildas or anyone else might do so.
I’m bad at reading betting lines but this means Draft Kings thinks England and Spain are likelier to go all the way than Japan?
That sounds kind of generous to England considering they may miss Lauren James the rest of the tournament.
Yes. I believe +275 means if you bet $100 on England, you get paid $275 if England wins. You’d make more betting on Colombia if they win, but that is because it is seen as far less likely.
These odds are sometimes skewed by the likelihood of betting. Who is betting? People like to bet on their home team or favourite. And the English like to gamble on soccers.
And even when they still were eleven, they didn’t look good against Nigeria. Japan and France were much more impressive in this tournament so far.