At 8/4/16 03:55 PM, Tony-DarkGrave wrote: Hope Solo talked shit about Zika and th Third Worlders got all butthurt about it.

Maybe she'll feel better if she goes back home and beats the living shit out of another one of her relatives with no consequences whasoever because american sports sweetheart. Like that rapist kid who got 6 months because he swims well.

Switched streams to NBC's coverage of football. So many sponsorships, so many advertisements, oh my god. That and "Portugal upset Argentina today by 2-0". "Portugal upset Argentina". That's cute and really shows how little NBC pays attention to and understands even the most basic form of the greatest show on earth: international level football.

Considering the mutual disrespect between the IOC and FIFA that leads to the IOC having the first few football matches before the opening ceremony even happens and FIFA not considering the Olympic Games an official competition (meaning that a professional player has no practical reason to desire the Olympics - all it means is more fatigue and risk of injury for no reward right at the opening of the winter-seasoned championships), all of the Olympic squads are pretty much composed of dregs, and this is on top of it being an u23 competition.

Thankfully, Portugal has a functioning B-team system, where the major clubs are more open to allowing the Olympic manager to help himself to those players. 12 of the 19 players on the Portuguese squad are from B squads, and both Portuguese goals were scored by players from FCPorto B. 6 others are players that are seen as expendable by their clubs (third or fourth choices for their respective positions), and the Olympics are a chance to show them off to potential buyers. One of them is even a free agent.

Nations without a functioning B-team system have a harder time of putting together an Olympic squad. Until just weeks before the Games, Argentina wasn't sure as to whether or not it would even show up due to the sheer number of clubs giving the Argentinian Olympic manager an outright "no" regarding the use of their players for the Games. Germany has a B-team system and still drew with Mexico, who aren't using a single player from clubs outside of Mexico. New Zealand was so uninterested in even competing that the OFC representatives are the Fiji Islands - makes you wonder exactly how hard the Kiwis were trying during qualifiers.

Olympic football is going to be about as fun as listening to the grass grow.

At 8/4/16 08:35 PM, C-Hawk wrote: Switched streams to NBC's coverage of football. So many sponsorships, so many advertisements, oh my god. That and "Portugal upset Argentina today by 2-0". "Portugal upset Argentina".

In absolute fairness, Argentina is considered much better than Portugal, which until Euro 2016, has a history of fading when things got tough in major competition.

That's cute and really shows how little NBC pays attention to and understands even the most basic form of the greatest show on earth: international level football.

That's largely because outside of the English and maybe Spanish leagues, Americans aren't really that invested in international soccer. (I'm in no mood for arguing about whether to call it football or soccer) outside of maybe a star player or team. It doesn't help that the U.S. men's team isn't in it, which pretty much means that we don't care. Now the women's team on the other hand, we'll watch them, and go back to ignoring them once they win the Gold.

Out of all of the American sports leagues, MLS is a distant fifth. The popularity is there, but it's largely concentrated in the West Coast and scattershot everywhere else. (There are no teams in the South outside of Texas and Florida for example.)

At 8/4/16 09:17 PM, orangebomb wrote:

At 8/4/16 08:35 PM, C-Hawk wrote: Switched streams to NBC's coverage of football. So many sponsorships, so many advertisements, oh my god. That and "Portugal upset Argentina today by 2-0". "Portugal upset Argentina".

In absolute fairness, Argentina is considered much better than Portugal, which until Euro 2016, has a history of fading when things got tough in major competition.

The point i was making is that it should be a simple part of the job of any responsible journalist/reporter to look up which youth teams (u-20s) have been dominating the international football scene, and for more than a few tournaments now, Portugal has been elbowing around with nations that tend to be considered monsters, while Argentina hasn't been seen in a major youth final for almost a decade.

Besides the not-recent change in "quality of manufacturing" between the two nations, there's also the just as easily looked up Argentinian preparation for the Olympics, which, as i said earlier, almost didn't happen.

Betting on Argentina against Portugal in these Olympics would've been throwing money away, and it's pretty embarrassing for someone working for a major media network and with all of its resources at their disposal to be unaware of that.

At 8/3/16 06:28 PM, C-Hawk wrote: The most i've seen out of US fans is the very generic "Defense!" and "Let's go, [insert team name which is either an animal or may or may not be offensive to an entire race]!".

Yeah, that's the most I've seen/heard, too. That and the infamous "Hey batter batter batter batter, you swing batter" in that Ferris Bueller movie.
Funny thing is I only noticed the difference when I saw a broadcast of the german basketball Bundesliga, where the away fans where waving banners and jumping and shouting, just like during any regular football match. And I thought "wow, I've never seen anything like that during NBA basketball".

It's golf and tennis season, though... but you couldn't force me to watch that shit if you were a small puppet on a tricycle with lipstick on his cheeks.

I'm not interested in golf and only mildly interested in tennis. I sometimes watch tennis highlights, but can't be bothered to watch a full match.

Anyway, olympics are about to start. Too bad we will be treated to endless swimming events during the first week (feels like YEARS). How many events can they possibly have? 100m free style, 100m butterfly, 100m backstrocke, 100m breaststroke. And of course we need all this with different lengths as well (50m, 200m, 400m, 1500m) and relay, too (again, different lengths). I'd much rather watch some more track & field... or some Basketball. But only the finals will be broadcasted here. WTF?!

At 8/4/16 09:35 PM, C-Hawk wrote:

At 8/4/16 09:17 PM, orangebomb wrote:

At 8/4/16 08:35 PM, C-Hawk wrote: Switched streams to NBC's coverage of football. So many sponsorships, so many advertisements, oh my god. That and "Portugal upset Argentina today by 2-0". "Portugal upset Argentina".

In absolute fairness, Argentina is considered much better than Portugal, which until Euro 2016, has a history of fading when things got tough in major competition.

The point i was making is that it should be a simple part of the job of any responsible journalist/reporter to look up which youth teams (u-20s) have been dominating the international football scene, and for more than a few tournaments now, Portugal has been elbowing around with nations that tend to be considered monsters, while Argentina hasn't been seen in a major youth final for almost a decade.

Yes, reporters/journalists always make the mistake of only comparing the names of the teams. And then they see "Oh, Argentina has won the world cup 2 times, and the Copa America 14 times and they are first in the FIFA ranking. So they MUST be the favorite team, right?"

You are right, Portugal has a very successful U20 team. But hardly anyone knows about that.

At 8/5/16 02:52 AM, Haggard wrote: Funny thing is I only noticed the difference when I saw a broadcast of the german basketball Bundesliga, where the away fans where waving banners and jumping and shouting, just like during any regular football match. And I thought "wow, I've never seen anything like that during NBA basketball".

Something like the Superdragons crashing a FCPorto youth basketball game right after Porto (A-football) had won a home game. "Dragon Force" is our u13 youth incubator. Pretty sure that if this shit was attempted in the US they'd be arrested for, y'know, pyrotechnics, flag poles, discriminatory chants inciting violence against the South, etc.

Guy recording: "Dude, we're not even in the playoffs yet, what the hell is going on?"

A-level roller hockey game for comparison.

Related comparison of ice hockey fans.

At 8/5/16 02:56 AM, Haggard wrote: Yes, reporters/journalists always make the mistake of only comparing the names of the teams. And then they see "Oh, Argentina has won the world cup 2 times, and the Copa America 14 times and they are first in the FIFA ranking. So they MUST be the favorite team, right?"

Even there, there's an easy mistake to make: that the 10-nation South-American youth tournaments are somehow worth the same as the 55-nation European youth tournaments, or the Toulon invitational. Be real: name three South-American teams that scare you. Besides the two obvious ones, what have you got? Meanwhile, the dynamic in Europe is inverted, with (aside from micronations) there being difficulty for you to name a nation that doesn't make your anus pucker up, which was proven in this last Euro by Iceland and Hungary. And there are 55 of them.

1000 US spies and military personnel for security

A whole bunch of killings are happening and the village is not secured

Locals are clogging up the beach before the games start to ruin it for tourists.

Protesting has begun in front of the opening ceremony.

At 8/5/16 02:52 PM, C-Hawk wrote: Related comparison of ice hockey fans.

Great video. This is exactly what I was experiencing. Also, what's up with the national anthem before EVERY MATCH? This shit must get annoying really quickly. I know I am annoyed by the us anthem before every match in NBA2K, lol.

Even there, there's an easy mistake to make: that the 10-nation South-American youth tournaments are somehow worth the same as the 55-nation European youth tournaments, or the Toulon invitational. Be real: name three South-American teams that scare you. Besides the two obvious ones, what have you got? Meanwhile, the dynamic in Europe is inverted, with (aside from micronations) there being difficulty for you to name a nation that doesn't make your anus pucker up, which was proven in this last Euro by Iceland and Hungary. And there are 55 of them.

Just like in Handball, the EC is much harder to win than the WC, it seems. You have so many great teams, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Netherlands and also teams like Poland, Portugal, Belgium, Croatia and Switzerland who are on the rise and might even reach the semi finals (or maybe even win a title, just like Portugal) in the following years.

Across the ocean you have Chile, USA, Mexico, Brazil and Uruguay and that's it.

At 8/5/16 06:20 PM, supergandhi64 wrote: are the brazillians living in crippling poverty invited to the games by any chance

Of course they are.

Nothing like seeing athletes walking in on their nation's presentation parade, crying, emotional... recording it on their phones and tablets... #classy
But i do like the idea with the seeds. Also i've just noticed that the alphabetical order in which they're being presented depends on the host language's nation, not any one centralized nation: China is right before Cyprus (Chipre in Portuguese). Every Olympiad, each nation shoulders different nations, depending on the language of the host.

At 8/5/16 06:20 PM, supergandhi64 wrote: are the brazillians living in crippling poverty invited to the games by any chance

They pretty much built a wall around a highway that enters Rio when you leave the airport to cover up the slums around it, apparently because the noise of the cars bothered the tenants, who don't have access to basic sewage.

It's pretty interesting that a section of that wall is transparent on a section of the highway where they built a school which supposedly is super modern, eh government propaganda bullshit as always. But at least the opening ceremony is pretty cool.

Every time Michel Temer took to the mic, he was booed, and the Refugee team got heavy applause, which is cool. Not so cool was hearing some boos to the Palestinian team.

So far, nothing has exploded and nobody died on camera. Night's young though.

Well, that was a very disappointing opening ceremony. Didn't help that NBC kept going to commercial every two minutes or so.

Members of Lebanese Olympic delegation refuse to ride in bus with Israelis.
“The bus driver opened the door, but this time the head of the Lebanese delegation blocked the aisle and entrance. The organizers wanted to avoid an international and physical incident and sent us away to a different bus.”
I wonder what would've happened if the discriminated were African delegations.

Animalympics is a tradition for me when the Olympics come back. Throwing it out there for Olympics fans who have never seen it. Oddly enough, it's what got me into watching the Olympics.

Nice to see that 'murica has really shitty TV coverage as usual

At 8/6/16 01:11 AM, KillerSkull wrote: Well, that was a very disappointing opening ceremony. Didn't help that NBC kept going to commercial every two minutes or so.

I wanted to watch the opening ceremony but after checking out highlights it looked pretty poor to be honest and i couldn't really be that bothered to stay up until 11:40 PM to start watching it...

I don't know that much about Brazil's history, but it seemed to me like the first hour of the opening ceremony might not have done the country much justice.

I know it was supposed to be more bare bones than previous ceremonies, which is understandable considering the economical tribulations Brazil is in right now, but it felt to like they glanced over the country's history so fast. From what I remember, London and Bejing spent a large part of the opening showing the development of the country and all their scientific and cultural contributions to the world over the centuries, which was really nice to see. I felt like they didn't show off nearly as much in Rio. It seemed as if they skipped about 400 years of history after the agricultural bit and I think it'd be a shame if they left out any major highlights of those centuries.

Anyway, there were some pretty nice scenes in the ceremony though. I liked how the national anthem was just sung with an acoustic guitar and a few violins. Made it very intimate. Having the athletes plant seeds was a charming idea, which hopefully leads to something good for the people there in the future. I think the overall theme of sustaining the forests in Brazil gave off a good message.

So all-in-all I think it was an alright ceremony. It's hard to top Bejing and London anyway.

Oh, you bought a ticket, did you? Fuck you. - CoSport

Also, not all of the fireworks were at Maracanã.

US girl wins the gold in the shooting (air rifle) contest, and libtards throw a shit fit over it.

I hope everyone who threw hate at her get's subjected to a home invasion.

French gymnast snaps leg in front of entire arena.

This one is hard to watch.

Speaking of the Olympics, I had an idea!
What if a lot of Newgrounds animators came together to make the Newgrounds Olympics?
I made a Thread about this here, if you want to contribute, go on over there!

International Paralympic Committee blanket-bans Russia. Russia counters with taking the IPC to the TAS (Sports Arbitration Tribunal).

At 8/6/16 08:40 PM, ZJ wrote: French gymnast snaps leg in front of entire arena.

This one is hard to watch.

Saw that on Facebook and the ending made me fucking cringe.

I can't believe people actually watch this shit, FOR A MONTH STRAIGHT. And can someone fill me in on what's going on, just curious.

Also, there's this new conspiracy going around that on July 25, 12 "terrorists" were caught plotting to make an attack on the olympics, and the 13th one will do it on a date that adds to 13.

At 8/8/16 03:33 AM, Avery wrote: I can't believe people actually watch this shit, FOR A MONTH STRAIGHT. And can someone fill me in on what's going on, just curious.

America is getting all teh medals like always, as are all the other first world countries, The Host country Brazil only has 1, Team Third World has 0, and today is Day 3 of the games so it looks like most of the medals will be going to the developed countries that submitted the most athletes.

At 8/8/16 03:33 AM, Avery wrote: I can't believe people actually watch this shit [...] can someone fill me in on what's going on.

Makes sense.

At 8/8/16 09:29 AM, Tony-DarkGrave wrote: The Host country Brazil only has 1 [medal].

The most embarrassing thing about the performance side for Brazil so far is that they called up Neymar for the male football event (i've mentioned before why this is a bad and controversial thing) and they haven't won a game yet. They probably won't make it out of the group stage.

At 8/9/16 06:47 AM, C-Hawk wrote: The most embarrassing thing about the performance side for Brazil so far is that they called up Neymar for the male football event (i've mentioned before why this is a bad and controversial thing) and they haven't won a game yet. They probably won't make it out of the group stage.

wouldn't know I am not that deep into sports the only things I watch are Super Bowls, The Olympics and the World Cup lol I don't do statistics, rumors and speculation on sports.

LOL at the Russian swimmer who was doping finger wagging at Lilly Kane, only for Kane to get the gold and the World Record cleanly. You don't exactly get the right to finger wag went your country are a bunch of dopers and STILL find a way to lose in an embarrassing fashion.