Brazilian striker Neymar has become a global joke, a somersaulting clown, a diver and a prima donna.
In a sport where being in the vertical should be a distinct advantage, Neymar, sometimes Neymar Junior (full name, Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior), has accumulated a reported 14 minutes in the World Cup competition thus far, writhing about on the deck in horrible pain, before getting lightly to his feet, sprinting off and scoring yet another goal.
Certainly, if Neymar, was an AFL player, he’d be dragged, forced to sit on the pine and think about what he did. In rugby, he’d be stomped mercilessly at the breakdown. In NRL, he’d almost certainly be killed. In soccer, or football at the insistence of my editor, he’s a gun and may one day become the greatest of all time.
SBS commentator, Craig Foster, declared him “a genius”, albeit a flawed one. Mozart was a genius. Michelangelo, too. No doubt. Unless Neymar is scribbling down a piano concerto in A Major or resolving the intrinsic paradox of transcendental bijection in the spacetime continuum before banging the ball into the back of the net, I suspect he comes up short in the genius stakes.
Full column here.
Give that boy Milton a Whopper. 9/9!! Many years since I arsed that.
On the plus side the semi’s in the WCup are 4am gigs this wed/thurs so early risers rather than late nights. Would like to see everyone’s tip on which 2 will make the final. And also interested in what the odds are for guessing that (maths not my strong point – i’m spoiled with good looks).
Give yourself a chocolate mouse Milt🐁
Bit of a bugger going from awful hours for the footy tonawful hours for the TdF, is anybodybothered about the tennis?
sounds better than a chocolate starfish, Tracy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVwdLuZYjH0
Well done Milton. WC final? A possibility is still Croatia-Belgium. I’d like to have put $100 bucks on that at the start.
The poms are going nuts already. I did say I’d back them but they’ll be insufferable if they win. Who saw the effort in a London Ikea?
i have liked england’s chances from the start, should have taken the 17s I suppose.
Still think they are a chance, good team, though they don’t have the best players.
Barracking for England doesn’t come naturally, that’s for sure, but which other country would I support against them, Le Frogs, Non, the Belgians, Frogs with better beer, Croats, their big selling point is that they are not Serbs, no, it will be England for me.
The English will be insufferable, as we can be when we are winning as well, but they won’t be as bad the Kiwis.
Now we know it’s les Frogs. With luck they’ll be all worn out from watching les Tour all night.
someone is going to have to explain the rules of TdF to me. Until now I mainly watch it for the French scenery. How does a cyclist finish mid field consistently and be the leader? What the hell is going on? In other news, is the bot warning gone?
There you go Jack http://inrng.com/2014/07/tour-de-france-time-cut-calculation/
I deliberately avoided this sort of complexity at school. Can someone whack me up an explanation with a few flash cards?
Should have said although that link explains the cut off it also explains (not indirectly) how the times on finish are calculated.
It is quite complicated but there is method in the madness, each team rides differently in the peloton but all are expected to pull their weight at the front.
SKY’s technique is more of a constant as in comparison to a train, rather relentless BMC tends to tack in behind them whereas, Movistar tends to drop back and let others do the work and then pedal to the floor about 20Km’s out which drops their times.
It is extremely tactical and will become more so once the riders get to the mountain stages
That’s a little better but I am still confused. I think I’ll just stick with watching the French countryside.
I was going to ask if you catch the five minute Taste Le Tour, tough gig that
Wraith’s details are showing in the name and email section below this so something is still up, obviously I’ll change to my details before I send
The best part of watching the TDF, Jack.
All rather tedious – except for the mountain stages. Going uphill is tough but coming downhill at some horrendous speed is downright scary to watch..
I just bought myself an electric bike. Going uphill is a breeze!! Great fun.
I thought that was the whole point of having it on the tele myself.
Should be the first one up the Champs (with no short cuts) wins. No start or stop times just follow the route in the hours of your choosing and first in best dressed.
i’d love to see Belgium win the final against the Poms. If not then I would go for the poms against the French.
If they win it they’ll have every right to be insufferable, 52 years of misery but the lowest point had to be the Beckham era.
I think Jack’s correct and the smart money will be on France. The one English bloke I spoke today gave the impression that the Croatian game is a lay down misere. It is that attitude that can quickly knock the wind out of the sails.
“let us in silence pray or reflect upon our responsibilities to all people of Australia and to future generations”. Hear Hear. Keep your delusions to yourself do not impose your fantasy onto others. while we are at it. those with delusional beliefs that an all powerful deity runs the show should NOT be able to discriminate along their delusional belief system. Live long and prosper and May the force be with you.
7 hours into the Thai cave rescue operation. Midnight our time is when the first boys are expected to be brought out. Fingers crossed and prayers for all involved.
Ok, I’ll say it this week. PIES! They lose someone every week but they just keep winning. Hard month to come however…
Tri, yes had a good run but the Collywobbles are about to strike. tough couple of weeks ahead.
As I noted. But the Colliwobbles are long gone and were always a finals phenomenon.
they have been going well, much the same players, so better coaching and management, or what?
this will be a test, i got called a bot for posting this yesterday and leapt to a suspicion that the Carlton fans had censored me!
Ah well now the permanently outraged #metoo mob has a problem with the running of the bulls festival in Pamploma.
Note to the girls: there are a lot of men, most of them very drunk , testosterone “look at me” levels very high.
Not the best place to be possibly – apart from the very real possibility of being flattened by a very justifiably angry bull.
It’s for the boys…. have a Tupperware, adult toys, or lingerie party at home 😁
Hah. Thee protesteth too much. Just go! You know you want to.
Oh hang on, I see what you’re up to! Trying to discourage the competition eh?
You don’t have to be a feminist to know it’s an ugly tradition Boa, same as bullfighting. In this the 21st century, surely this cruelty must end.
A terrified animal dies for human entertainment for pathetic tryhards.
True Bella. I too feel sorry for the bulls.
It just irritates me when women go on a big protest march because one or two of them got touched up by those machos about 10 years or more ago
It’s a traditional male event. These days most of the stampeding crowd are probably American tourists – ruining the event for everyone anyway.
Easy enough to steer clear of it.
Simple remedy to that – the Running of the Cows…
Nice one Triv!
Jean Baptiste says:
July 7, 2018 at 10:03 pm
“Well Carl, if the medical profession wasn’t so far up itself and at least tried to appeal to the common boofhead couch potato ….”
I say JB, your derisive medico comment reminds me of the one about the chap who was snipped with a pair of blunt scissors? ……… But wait !….. no! …… tell me it wasn’t so me old mate.
Reminds you? What a strange mind you have. Why would it remind you of such a thing?
Oh I say though, you have given me an idea for a World Series sporting medical competition!
Doubles and mixed pairs do you think?
Just a thought Carl, wouldn’t the medical sporting competitions give the gawking masses a whole new playing field for tediously endless after match post mortems?
Now this blunt scissors thing of yours, do tell old chap?
The poms dare to dream. Scroll down for Big Lebowski version:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2018/jul/08/world-cup-2018-news-and-reaction-as-england-set-up-croatia-semi-final-live
Looks like it’s crunch time for the Thai kids. God, I hope it all works. One thing is that kids have less fear……
I’ve heard Neymar hired US Gold Medallist Greg Louganis as his personal trainer. I was expecting him to feign a shoulder injury at some point.
Is ex-ousted PM Tony Abbott starting to make more sense, Mr Insider, or have I had too much Jim Beam? Strewth
He’s certainly got historical revisionism down pat. Really, if we are to believe him now, we have to accept that he basically didn’t know what he was doing as PM. He’s indicting himself as Australia’s worst PM since the worst of all time, Billy McMahon.
Accepted.
The best leaders move with and dictate the times. Abbott has had his years in the desert, fallen off his horse and will one day arise as our new Menzies, our renewed Howard and we Aussies can once again enjoy the salad years that those pragmatic, progressive leaders delivered. Most of us on here were suckled and nurtured on the teat of liberal conservatism. All that early labor delivered was the gratuitous nudity and debauchery of Alvin Purple, Stork, Don’s Party. Once Labor obtained power the arts in Oz was destroyed by easy money. Artists succeed only amongst the benign indifference and parsimony provided by a pragmatic, progressive, liberal conservative govt. oops I digressed! Abbott will become PM again within the next 10 yrs. Bet your house or spouse on it!
Bless you, dear Milton, alas you “knowest not what you say” but by jeez buddy, I will defend with at least $10 your right to say it. Lord no not another Abbott coming! Cheers
you are FN delusional.
Abbott would deliver the coup de grace, no doubt about it. Aint going to happen, but I tell you what, you bet your house or spouse on it.
You kill me sometimes Milton.
If he was in the desert shouldn’t it have been a camel🐪
He’d lost his way, Tracy. And no one likes a pedant, dearest!
well silly me … I’ve got McMahon 3rd
Recency bias I expect