Musing of the Moment: World Cup Final from a Spurs Perspective

from The Athletic

Spain dominated the match and held Argentina to zero shots on goal. Heck, Argentina only mounted a mere three shots to Spain's twenty, eleven of which were on target. 

Spain had plenty of chances, and the Spaniards were the clearly superior squad. 

For how much footballing talent that country has, I'm surprised this win is only their second World Cup. 

From a Tottenham Hotspur supporter's perspective, I love that Pedro Porro made the cross that Williams headed to Ferran Torres for the winning goal. Porro made himself a mainstay of the team after not starting the first game (if I remember correctly). 

He sent some perfectly weighted passes Yamal's way on a number of occasions. He worked well with the right winger to pose a serious offensive threat. 

I was surprised that Romero got pulled out of the squad. I know he was on a yellow card, but he's probably one of the best center backs in world football. 

Sensei came in at the 101 minute. 

I love that President Adolf was booed by the crowd: "Trump Booed by World Cup Final Crowd, Takes Part in Trophy Presentation." 

Regardless, it appears Tottenham made a good decision on signing Porro to a long-term contract. 

COYS. 

Music Friday: "Wonderwall"

I'm posting in regret of England's terrible loss to Argentina in the World Cup. 

Random Notes from a Crank

In anticipation of the Argentina vs. England World Cup match, here's the Encyclopedia Brittanica entry on the Falklands War. 

For Father's Day I got this away England kit. Mrs. Nasty got it from OkayJersey, which has great prices. 

I'm thinking about getting the Tottenham away kit for this upcoming season, and I like last season's home kit for Roma. 

The BBC has a good article about the failure of self-checkout machines: "'It Hasn't Delivered': The Spectacular Failure of Self-Checkout Technology." 

I hate those things. 

I'd rather just interact with a human. Plus, there's a great deal of discussion about how businesses are losing all kinds of money because of theft, among other issues. 

However, will businesses persist with self-checkout lanes because of the sunk-cost fallacy? 

Random Notes from a Crank

The USMNT got bounced from the World Cup. I listened to the first half on my phone as I was walking the dogs, but I watched the second half. 

The team looked good at the start of the second half, but then Belgium's third goal happened because of a diabolical mistake by the US goalkeeper. What a terrible way to end what has been a good World Cup. 

President Adolf's intervention to persuade FIFA to rescind Balogun's red card was ridiculous. Whatever that guys touches turns to shit. 

Moscow Don provides a reverse-Midas touch. 

Joe Heller depicts it well. 

GoComics.com

I don't know how well covered this topic has been, but the white supremacists marching in D.C. was disgusting. 

Sara Pequeno's opinion piece from USA Today is good read on it: "White Supremacists in DC? White House Claims That's Democracy." 

These are the same people who bitched about wearing masks during the pandemic. 

Now they wear masks like ICE agents to hide their identities. 

Random Notes from a Crank

from GoComics.com

Bill Bramhall is spot on with this political cartoon.

I"m glad President Adolf's stupid fair is a lowly attended event. 

The Democrats need to take over the House and flip the Senate. 

Never in my life did I expect someone like the current president being in office during the 250th anniversary of the United States.

I've been avidly watching the World Cup. I'm disappointed that the Netherlands got bounced out because I really like that squad. The same goes for Senegal. 

The USMNT will face a team against which the US might not be favored. Monday should be interesting, especially with Balogun unable to play because of wrong-headed red card. 

It should have been a yellow. 

If I'm a betting man, I might put money down on Mexico beating England at the Azteca. 

I'd like to see England win it all though. 

Musing of the Moment: The World Cup Groups

The World Cup is closing in. 

I checked out USA Today's article, "World Cup 2026 Groups: All 48 Teams in the Tournament," to see which, by my reckoning are the easiest and hardest groups. 

And I did the math based on FIFA rankings of the squads that was published by USA Today. 

I added up the rankings of each group. For purposes of this exercise, the lower the number of the combined rankings means that the group is a difficult one. The higher numbers mean it's an easier group for best squad in that group. 

Here are the combined rankings of each group:

• A: 112
• B: 119
• C: 93
• D: 93
• E: 94
• F: 87
• G: 120
• H: 108
• I: 68
• J: 107
• K: 93
• L: 88

Group I, which includes one of the favorites in France, is a difficult one with Senegal and Norway opposing the Frenchmen. 

Netherlands has its hands full in Group F.

Belgium got an easy draw in Group G just like Canada in Group B even though Switzerland might surprise. 

And England's group is difficult with Croatia and Ghana.  

I'd like to see a country win the World Cup that has never won it before. If I were a betting man, I'd put money either on the Netherlands or Portugal to do that. 

Of the squads out there to win it all, I'd like to see England or Senegal win it. 

Random Notes from a Crank

One of my FB friends shared this article by RawStory the other day that I found interesting. It's written by a neuroscientist: "Link between Religious Fundamentalism and Brain Damage Established by Scientists." 

The gist is that in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that does critical thinking, religious fundamentalist don't have a propensity for "cognitive flexibility and open-mindedness." 

As the author states, "Religious beliefs can be thought of as socially transmitted mental representations that consist of supernatural events and entities assumed to be real. Religious beliefs differ from empirical beliefs, which are based on how the world appears to be and are updated as new evidence accumulates or when new theories with better predictive power emerge." 

They're not open to change: "Fundamentalist groups generally oppose anything that questions or challenges their beliefs or way of life. For this reason, they are often aggressive towards anyone who does not share their specific set of supernatural beliefs, and towards science, as these things are seen as existential threats to their entire worldview."

Religious fundamentalism is one of the things wrong in this world. 

And this all reminds me that I need to reread Mencken's Treatise on the Gods. 

Wales made the World Cup for the first time since 1958. So the group the US is in includes England, Iran, and Wales. 

This fine article from The Onion hits a little close to home since I'm usually geeked up when blue jays and woodpeckers show up: "Area Bird Creeped Out by Bird Watcher.

I need this notebook.  

Random Notes from a Crank

After doing some reading and some research, I'm moving to using avocado oil as my high-smoke-point and relatively flavor-neutral cooking oil. 

Mash the title if you want to know about "9 Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Avocado Oil." 

It's been a rough week for the Premier League. Manchester City got humbled by Lyon in the Champions League, which means there are no EPL teams in the quarterfinals. And on Sunday Manchester United lost to Sevilla. 

Speaking of football, I discovered a Netflix series about the eight national teams that have won the World Cup. The opening episode about Uruguay was fascinating. 

Because I planted pickling cucumbers, I've been making pickles. In addition, I pickled some hard-boiled eggs. A bar I used to frequent during my college days always had pickled eggs on hand, and I was one of those guys who acquired a taste for that odd foodstuff. 

Random Notes from a Crank

A week or so ago a fraternity brother of mine bought the cardboard sign (below) from 1969 for me. I collect Schlitz memorabilia, and I found this piece wonderful. First, a beer company/distributor created a sign for teachers for some reason. Second, I am amused by the unnecessary quotation marks. This is going in my office. 

On July 1 my son and I are going to a Braves-Cardinals baseball game at Busch. My son is going with his travel team, which is the damned Redbirds. I'm a Cubs fan, and I throw up a little in my mouth when I see my son in his Redbirds jersey. For the game we're going to, I purchased a throwback Braves cap. I'm not a Braves fan, but I like the retro cap. 

So I wonder which team Moscow Don is rooting for in the World Cup? My bet is on I Russia. 

I enjoy watching the World Cup. There are certain teams I'll root for. I've always liked Spain. I like Spanish culture, and they usually have a solid team. As I type this though, Ronaldo just tied up the game with Spain. That dude is incredible. 

I'll cheer for Denmark because I'm part Danish. I'll also root for the African countries in the Cup: Egypt, Nigeria, and Senegal. I also like the underdog Latin American countries: Uruguay, Peru, and Costa Rica. France and Mexico's teams interest me too.