It's becoming quite obvious now. Holland didn't have the heart of a champion to change the keeper for penalties, and look what happened.

Now this is ridiculous Charlie(they had no more changes left or the tall guy would back in lol). Nobody had any heart or anything special here. Or they all had and neutralized each other. The keeper proved not good enough and his fellow players didnt help. It was almost obvious. Both teams neutralized each other at normal game time. None faced adversity. No test under pressure of any emotional level for anyone. The Dutch players failed at penalties. Their keeper proved indeed inferior to the other keeper last time. You could see it in his reaction to penalties that he was very poor at them. The speakers also said he had failed 16 out of last 16 or something. Everything was against him.

But you still fail to see what i mean and its a shame. Not all games have the effect i describe. In fact most dont. Most wins and losses are dull and trivial. Yet it would be possible now to see the heart of a champion here. HOW? If the keeper that touched the ball in the last penalty had saved it. The negative streak would be over and suddenly he would feel better needing one more miracle. It was down to 1% anyway at 3-1or whatever. So the guy that all thought couldnt catch anything with his team down 2 in net difference could suddenly create an epic recovery. Catch the first and then catch the second (without any room for error left) and equalize things and then after they kept shooting penalties even took his own chance to shoot one and scored the winner after having recovered a 3rd one 5 penalties later!

It has happened in 2009 greek cup that ended 4-4 and the penatlies went 15-14 and nobody knew how it would end and the keeper did it by first saving one and then scoring the next himself. The same keeper that helped Greece win 2004 Euro championship. You typically need a good keeper for a team to go places. He is indeed the heart and soul of the team often if the team is not a very strong striking team or if it plays equal strength tough opponents..

Last time Netherlands was into a hole going into penalties after being expected to win in regular time. The keeper change made a difference. He was much better at penalties than this one. If you cant see and admit to that i dont know what to say.

No heroes in this semifinal. It could go either way. Nobody impressed me.

Yes, you rant. Yes, you rant all the time. I enjoy it. I encourage it in more ways than one.

Eurotrash, the Italian wine bottle I toss into the dumpster, or a pejorative term to needle someone into improving their critical thinking skills.


You still don't get it do you. You either refuse to understand, are blind and too self-centered and bias, and/or are incapable of a simple straightforward task. It would be an interesting one to do - a simple synopsis of European History from circa 700 to the present day. Take a steady aim at a bulls eye. Don't use your usual shotgun thinking techniques, which lead you into oodles of trouble, silliness, and unproductive offshoots. Focus. Be calm. Be steady. Be drinking a few beers, while studying and constructing the synopsis, to balance your mind. You tend to wander about like a coyote looking for dinner. Stimulating all those biases.

See if you can do it. I don't think you can but I could be wrong. Your mind is too restless and cluttered with trash. Euro-trash to be exact. See if you can expunged that trash from your mind and take that long, hard honest look in the mirror of objective history. See if it is as trashy as I have been saying it is.

So its the epitome of Eurotrash, The Germans, against Argentina, a once menace to most of South America, to itself and, unsuccessfully, to the British. An intercontinental war is looming for the Final (and also for third place).

Consolation Prize for Third

Sat, Jul 12, 2014

ESPN, ESPN3

‎2‎:‎00‎:‎00‎ ‎PM MT

Match 63

Brazil vs Netherlands


FINAL

Sun, Jul 13, 2014

Match 64

Germany Vs Argentina

ABC, ESPN3

‎1‎:‎00‎:‎00‎ ‎PM MT

__________________________

Will Brazil save Face?

Will the German Empire once again be singing "Deutschland Uber Alles"

Third-place play-off was even more of an exercise in futility than discussing football with Masque.

Were you discussing football with me? I thought the issue was whether on occasion in a game a team can show character under adversity instead of resigning to its mediocrity or lack of strong skill or bad luck.

If people saw these games like the olympics where all medals count over time and not just how many times each country has won it all then the small final has value. If they mock all other positions and look at the top only yes its a waste to play it. I think the culture needs to change and have all 3 positions count to a degree and then it would all be ok as played in that 2 finals format. It has to matter if a country has reached many finals or won 3rd place often even if it never won it all. It is certainly better than if it won it only once and nothing else over 20-25 times played say and of course much better than other teams that never won anything in top 3. But people are idiots and look only at the winner when the winner has only value if the opponents made it tough so their efforts must also have a place in history. A culture that values only 1 winner for each thing is a loser culture.

Masque is a big fan of overachievers.

I am a fan of playing a game that respects yourself, the opponent, the process, the opportunity to be there instead of someone else of your people and where you dont give up if things seem bad and try to find it in yourself to recover or at least prove tough to die and eager to improve, always believe in your self and the power of the individual human spirit.

That is a cultural thing though. Its greatest application happens when i manage to behave that way on my own life and prove therefore consistent. I do not always.

What is your position when you face a tough problem you cant solve? Do you give up because you hate your mind to be in a tough spot unable to offer a solution, always needing to be in control or do you take the challenge as an opportunity to march with relentless conviction to the unknown breakthrough idea that solves things after trying harder or investing time to learn new things. Do you want to know always what comes next to be happy or do you have confidence that effort has its own hidden value and often delivers some success?

A human dies but is never defeated.

https://www.youtube.com/v/v8vhLxCc28..._load_policy=3

It is fairly shameful that no one brought up Rocky up until just now. Not Masque's fault that he doesn't realize that it is the Eye of the Tiger, not the Heart of a Champion.

And yet i mentioned both already many posts ago lol.

And one more classic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_old_man_and_the_sea

I feel comfortable enough with our friendship to state that I pay attention to your posts about the human condition almost the exact same amount as I do to my woman when she tells me about her day.

You are both fairly internally consistent, so close attention isn't necessary. If you made a joke about your position and I missed it, I apologize.

Perhaps the difference is in how "champion" is defined. As a noun, it means:

so you are on thin ice if you want to define "heart of a champion" in a non-results-oriented way. However, its origin is:

which seems more akin to what you are getting at.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/de...glish/champion

QED, I think.

And congratulations to Neuer on winning the Golden Glove.

The Eurotrash win!!! Let's all rejoice*! "Deutschland Uber Alles"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGhdX...ctr=1405296068

*Lesson of history.

Cheers to that, where would we be if facing millions of other species and giving up.

I gonna fight even against my own rational self and aim to cure this crazy human physique.

worth watching:

Yes true its often over-glorified bs. Most of them are punk characters too and the fans even worse lol. However sometimes when the stakes are high you get to see them really try hard and then you know its for real, not some made up story. That world cup was actually one of the best ever. Now of course were they playing for their country or for the next contract in some top team? Hostage to money once more...You will understand the motivations for scientific society one day...Freedom is precious. Chasing money with every choice is not freedom. Chasing what you like in balance with what is needed and opening your horizons without destroying others is closer to responsible freedom.

Since Chez is unstrangely absent, "wat?!?"

Heart of the Champion strikes again...

(Courtesy of Showtime's Masters of $ex lol)

"Yvon Durelle's light-heavyweight championship fight against the great Archie Moore on December 10, 1958 at the Forum in Montreal, Quebec, is one of the most memorable fights in boxing history. Listed as a 4-to-1 underdog, the bout made Yvon Durelle a legend in Canada, gaining him near cult status for his performance. In one of the first fights broadcast coast-to-coast on American television, Durelle stunned boxing patrons by knocking the champion down 3 times in the first round. Under boxing rules today (except those of the World Boxing Council), the fight would have been stopped after three knockdowns in one round and Yvon Durelle would have been world champion. Also, he missed an opportunity when, after the first knockdown, he stood over Moore watching for several seconds before returning to his corner. As a result of his delay, the referee had to wait to begin the count, and Moore made it to his feet at the count of nine. Durelle swarmed all over the champion for four more rounds and knocked him to the canvas again in round five but Moore held on and eventually wore Durelle down to retain his world championship with an eleventh round knockout. The fight was the talk of the boxing world and members of the Canadian Press voted it the sporting event of the year."

GOAT example right here...