Recent content by Johnny Novgorod

Messi, pushing 39, scores a hat trick against Algeria and Argentina wins 3-0. Beautiful first match for Arg. Love this game.

Finished Lost Ruins. There's a half-decent game underneath a lot of off-putting choices that make it hard to sell or recommend. It's probably too pervy for most people yet not nearly ribald enough to qualify as an ecchi game. It's presented more or less earnestly as a horror game, like...

Watched a preview screening of Supergirl and I'm not feeling it. Nothing against Milly but playing Rooster Cogburn at 23 with no other clout than "the girl from House of the Dragon" is a tall ask. Instead of a girl going up to a grizzled old washout audiences would recognize as a former badass...

USA vs Paraguay (4-1) was fun even though I was obviously rooting for Paraguay. Brazil vs Morocco should be fun too today. After that I only care about Argentina vs Algeria on Tuesday. Should be an easy clear but wouldn't be surprised if we fumble the first match in the grand tradition of...

It's easy to identify it as uniquely American because the world cup is being primarily hosted in America and coincidentally for the first time in 96 years hydration breaks are suddenly mandatory. To say it's entirely up to FIFA is a bit disingenuous and wilfully ignores every other world cup...

Water breaks kill the momemtum of the game and only exist to add 3 minutes of commercials every 20 minutes. Traditionally it's up to each venue whether to enforce them or not (it's extremely rare), but by mandating that all 104 games have routine water breaks every 20 minutes regardless, FIFA...

S. Korea beats Czech Rep 2-1 in a much more fun game than Mex/S. Africa. SK dominated the whole game, yet Czechs snuck in a header and SK had to score a tie and a win with a couple of fairly crafty goals. Best team won after some dramatic swings, always a good game.

Watched the Among Us cartoon. It's actually pretty good - you get all the good stuff from the game (it's a damn accurate adaptation of a Skeld match) and none of the bother of actually playing it. It's 10 episodes, each 13 minutes long, including intro and credits, and make for a perfectlybreezy...

Mexico beats South Africa 2-0. Weak opening game. Mexico dominated both halves yet kept missing easy strikes. And even though they're leading by 2, the captain goes on to make a criminal foul at the last minute for no reason other than to get carded away from this game, the next and gift SA a...

I'm picking a general kind of disinterest in the world cup this year. At first it felt like an Argentine thing, but even if it were a localized phenomenom, what's it say when Argentina isn't feeling it? Maybe it's cause it's high to replicate the high of 22 - we were dragging a lot of pent up...

@Kyrian007 @Xprimentyl Other than getting money out of it this year do most Americans even care about the FIFA World Cup? Most of the time either the US team can't clear the group stage or doesn't even qualify.

Mexico made it to the quarter finals in 86 (and 70). Can't be a coincidence that it was the two times the country hosted. They've never made it to the semis. From memory 2018 was no different than any other WC since 1994 - stopped at round of 16. Couldn't clear group stage in 2022 but I expect...