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.
Testing Jack.
Received a complaint from my No 2. Has to get up 4am for France-Belgium, after staying up late for le Tour and Wimbledon; do it again tonight and England-Croatia tomorrow. Poor sausage. But he completely ignores tonight’s State of Origin. Quelle horreur, or whatever les Frogs kess-ke-say.
NSW to go 3-0, Frogs to beat the already-celebrating Poms 2-0, le Tour still touring and the tennis: yawn.
Ignoring cricket until November.
There is a lot of sport on but it is still strange the SOO has almost slipped through the net. I put this down to the fact game 3 is a dead rubber and also the Sunday fixture for game 2 threw everyone out of whack.
Good tipping eh?
World Cup Soccer Roundup, Mr. Insider and we see in the 1st of the Semi-Finals France has beaten Belgium. England and Croatia yet to play in the other SF.
https://tinyurl.com/y8jq4s7n
Both sides had many opportunities to score. Sad for Belgium who had been wonderful throughout the tournament. France into the final. I reckon they’ll win it.
Yes Jack, it makes the Socceroos 1-2 down to France look half respectable.
If Croatia falter, the Poms vs the old enemy will make Brexit look ho hum.
Everyone rescued. Thank god and the team involved.
An absolutely stellar rescue operation and one which will be used as a model for rescues of this type for years to come.
So lovely to have such joy in a world where there seems so much hate.
Just fantastic Dwight. Just shows what humans can do when we decide to cooperate.
On another note I thought Elon Musk’s contribution was grandstanding of the highest order. There’s something not quite right there.
Ok. I think or I hope I have fixed the problem. Have deactivated a troublesome plug-in which other WordPress users have had trouble with. Hope this works. Let me know, folks.
JTI something weird happening with posts. When I leave a reply to a comment, Bassman tells me he received my name & email address & on top of that it appears I’m now wraith with her e-mail address. ??
I have to alter it to Bella each time.
Could you please sort that out for me mate….🙃
I’ve deleted the comment. If you could clear your cache and history on your browser, I think that would fix the problem. What the plug in I’ve deactivated seemed to be doing was throw up other commenter details. As people tried to post, the details triggered bot warnings. Let me know how you get on and if the problem remains or resurfaces.
Done. Another new development I’m experiencing is when I post a comment now it doesn’t appear straight away at all. It used to be up on screen with ‘awaiting moderation’.
No biggie though JTI.
Hope you’re forging ahead with your recovery mate. 💚
I noticed there was a delay in me posting stuff, too. Will look into it.
POTUS Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Mr. Insider.
https://tinyurl.com/y9kankgh
P.S. your BOT problem is back again rejecting posts, Mr Insider
On topic, I admit I’ve missed every game of the WC, but I found some great humour in this item from the ABC. Neymar ‘rolling home’ on the luggage carousel was good but the Mexicans get the prize.
OOps – forgot the link! http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-10/world-cup-neymar-diving-challenge/9962638?section=sport
I got a bot message when I posted, but turned on my VPN and posted OK. I use the Opera browser. The number of posts to the blog has varied from 91 to 121 and back to 91, and is now 123.
New research from the OECD has delivered a damning assessment of the drive for more flexibility in our industrial relations system. It found that such highly flexible systems with little centralised bargaining across sectors and industries delivers lower employment, higher unemployment, and greater wage inequality. Oh dear, well of course many would say the OECD are on the fringe when it comes to “economics”
Apropos of not that, is anyone still experiencing issues with posting? My tech told me everything looked hunky dory last night.
Fine for me, Jack. I’ve switched to MS Edge and prefer it anyway. Thanks!
I had my only 2 comments (both gems) today replied with some brief comment about a bot. will see how this one goes.
Doncha hate that!
that didn’t receive the same response
Hopefully fixed. We’ll see.
Ouch!
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/07/09/famous-one-eyed-matador-scalped-by-bull-in-gory-video.html
One for the bull before they kill him. Good.
The participants know the risks Boa.
Probably didn’t put it well,Bella.
I’m on the bull’s side!
Score: Bull 1 – Matador 0
At least the bull had a win before he (the bull)went to his fate.
Bulls that kill the matador are retired. Instead, the bull’s mother is killed to ‘kill off the gene’. A bull can also win by ‘indulto’, a pardon. If the matador can’t overcome the bull the crowd will wave hankerchiefs, asking the matador to pardon the bull.
No pardon for the ignorant human beings.
“Open the wallet time” for enthusiastic #metoo’ers as SHY launches a go fund me to pay her legal expenses. What tosh.
Meanwhile it is really sad to hear that Geoffrey Rush has become a virtual recluse, not eating, and has withdrawn from an upcoming MTC production.
Sorry, but it’s becoming embarrassing to be female these days
It’s not at all embarrassing to be female these days Boa but it’s gotta be appalling to be male after a has-been d**khead like Leynholm has brought such shame to their gender.