Originally posted by Unregistered
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A World Cup Thread
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It's Art
Soccer is the beautiful game. The beautiful game is also the world game. Around the globe, soccer provides hundreds of millions of children with many of their earliest experiences of beauty.
With the World Cup about to open in Russia, it’s worth acknowledging this. What is everyone so excited about? Another dumb game? Certainly. The possibility of national glory? Sure. Absurd theatrics, repulsive sums of money, a stupendous capacity for distraction? All that, and more. But also — and I’m an art critic, so I defend my right to say this — a hankering after beauty. A profound and terrible yearning for an excruciating, off-the-couch-and-on-your-knees moment of sheer aesthetic bliss.
Examples? Try Cristiano Ronaldo’s levitating bicycle kick goal for Real Madrid against Juventus. Or Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s ridiculous first goal for the Los Angeles Galaxy — the one that looped over the goalkeeper’s head and swerved into the net from just inside halfway. Better yet, Gareth Bale’s stupendous bicycle kick goal for Real Madrid in the Champions League final.
Anyone — even non-soccer fans — can admire the beauty of such moments. Each World Cup offers up a few more. And because the audience is so vast, these beautiful feats imprint themselves into a global memory bank. You remember where you were when you saw them. (The most recent World Cup, in 2014, boasted Robin van Persie’s flying header, James Rodriguez’s volley off his chest, and Tim Cahill’s gorgeous cross-goal volley.)
Still, true soccer fans know these rare, electrifying moments are but a small component of the game’s overall aesthetic appeal. As with anything deeply and satisfyingly artistic, it can take years to appreciate these other parts. Formations, tactics, match management, the choreographed ebb and flow of specific games, the particular style of certain teams, the temperaments of players — these are among the ingredients that make the beautiful game not just beautiful but artistic.
Art is about specificity. There is no point talking about it in the abstract. It’s the same with soccer. You have to watch a specific game unfold to grasp its unique aesthetic. And just as with art, you need to know a little about how that particular game intersects with the sport’s wider romance.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/enter...=.aa39000e5506
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Originally posted by Unregistered View PostAnd, we're off.
Nothing artistic in Russia's 5-0 clobbering of Saudi, though.
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Originally posted by Unregistered View PostIt will be one of their two only wins. Putin probably slipped FIFA a bonus payment to make sure they had an easy first match. Наслаждайтесь им, пока у вас есть его товарищ
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Originally posted by Unregistered View PostI don't speak French or whatever, but Google translate tells me that means, "Enjoy it while you have his friend." I still don't understand it.
different poster
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Originally posted by Unregistered View PostRussia needs to enjoy their few victories while they have them. They won't last, although I wouldn't put bribery of refs past Vlad either. They doped half their Olympic team, even their Para olympians. Who the fuk does that?
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Hey, coaches!
Just a list of stars playing in the WC:
Ronaldo 6ft 1, 84kg
Messi 5ft 6, 68kg
Stirling. 5ft 6, 69kg
Hazard 5ft 7, 74kg
Neymar 5ft 9, 68kg
Isco 5ft 10, 75kg
Griezman 5ft 8, 70kg
Salah 5ft 9, 71kg
Average height 5ft 8.5
Average weight 72kg
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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-41549709
"Based on research by the CIES, which excludes seven countries (none of whom qualified), only two of the 10 shortest teams - Spain and France - will qualify for Russia 2018.
The height of footballers does not necessarily reflect the national trend. Dutch men are the tallest in world, but their football team is currently one of the shortest in Europe.
So it's certainly true that in the run-up to the World Cup, some of the tallest teams in Europe were in form this year.
But it's difficult to say whether these teams were successful because of their stature".
But face it, the Germans are beasts.
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Originally posted by Unregistered View PostJust a list of stars playing in the WC:
Ronaldo 6ft 1, 84kg
Messi 5ft 6, 68kg
Stirling. 5ft 6, 69kg
Hazard 5ft 7, 74kg
Neymar 5ft 9, 68kg
Isco 5ft 10, 75kg
Griezman 5ft 8, 70kg
Salah 5ft 9, 71kg
Average height 5ft 8.5
Average weight 72kg
And this is important how?
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