O n May 11 2020, the crypto world experienced the phenomena knows as Bitcoin halving . For those who are still a little looney-toons regarding this phenomena, here's the lowdown . Moral of the story is that, as the Bitcoin supply decreased and it's 21 million market cap slowly approached, it was widely accepted that the low supply and high demand will increase the price of the cryptocurrency back to its previous highs. Basic business right? Wrong! Source: Equity Trust Company BTC prices actually fell and after briefly holding steady, are only just rising above the 10000 USD range. Surprise eh? Well, we are not done yet. Because while the most valuable crypto coin wasn't showing it's expected gains, some other cryptocurrencies shot to outer space. There was no SpaceX rocket nor a Tesla Roadster involved. These "altcoins" bumped up in their market value thanks to the entire underlying system of cryptocurrency: investor speculation. But what exactly are these ...
Now now, we are not here to discover whether Britain's Prince Harry dived in a swimming pool. I'm sure he must have done it. We are here to discuss whether England's fortuitous penalty win over Colombia should have instead led to another roll-your-eyes-it-could-only-happen-to-England loss. Again.
England and Colombia are great teams with a vast abundance of talents. So this game was set to be a cracker. You knew the Colombians were going to play rough. And normally speaking if it was Neymar or Dele Alli who won the penalty, it would have looked like a dive. But Harry goodie-goodie Kane diving. Hmmm.
Truth be told this world cup is one hell of a crazy tournament. Favourites flew home faster than you could say 'World Cup'. Both of the top players in the world missed penalties as well a few underlings in the Denmark-Croatia game. The thrilling matches have been few and far between. Russia is actually in the quarterfinals. VAR is becoming a very annoying resource. And penalties are being handed out faster than people handing out treats during Halloween. In almost every single match the referee, along with his VAR pal, have been raising their hands in the air, blowing whistles, weirdly gesticulating, calling names. In short, doing typical bad things which you tell your kids not do. But referees get paid for this action, and thus smart players, knowing this world cup to be a livid penalties galore, have dived and dived and dived. You think with a little practice some of them could actually compete for the Olympic diving medals. I could go on and on about Neymar. But Harry Kane never seemed like the diving type. And his alleged " foul" looked seriously like a dive.
Maybe he learnt it from Alli. Wouldn't be surprised, they are on the same club and country team.
The fact remains that Harry never had the ball at his feet at that moment. But his foul, if staged was done artfully. Hedging on the referee's and perhaps the entire world's assumption that Colombia was a rough team, he managed to get the opposition player to shove him sideways. But it never really looked like the kind off blatant foul which inevitably leads to a card. To Harry's credit, it didn't look like a blatant dive either, and he managed to do it all in the box, unlike Eden Hazard. Colombian players were enraged, but the referee was resolute. Kane scored.
Football is indeed a funny game. How does one player who gets allegedly knocked into the ground, holding his bruise and hollering like a child to the referee, get up to slide in a penalty, jump, and celebrate with no signs of discomfort? The Magic spray is surely not that strong. Is it? Hmm.
One can only think what would have been running through Rodriguez's mind. Shorn of possibly their best player Colombia failed to impose on a decidedly struggling England team. All the talk about Falcao returning to form was as true as 2 siblings living together without ever once arguing over the size of their respective pieces of chocolate. Cuadrado came close and should have done better, but contrived to blaze over. Yerry Mina scored but it was too little too late as Colombia could only settle for penalties. England actually won the penalties and Gareth Southgate now made sure they stayed in Russia longer than both Messi and Ronaldo. The weird game indeed.
Now England face Sweden, and it is very tough to say who will win. Sweden was also lucky to win, getting a goal after a massive deflection, and after several heart-in-the-mouth chances. Thanks to their loss against Belgium, the English now have a much easier path to the semifinals and possibly the finals. I mean after Sweden, they will only face Russia or Croatia. I think. All the talk about England winning the world cup might actually work. After all, they have Harry Kane.
England and Colombia are great teams with a vast abundance of talents. So this game was set to be a cracker. You knew the Colombians were going to play rough. And normally speaking if it was Neymar or Dele Alli who won the penalty, it would have looked like a dive. But Harry goodie-goodie Kane diving. Hmmm.
Truth be told this world cup is one hell of a crazy tournament. Favourites flew home faster than you could say 'World Cup'. Both of the top players in the world missed penalties as well a few underlings in the Denmark-Croatia game. The thrilling matches have been few and far between. Russia is actually in the quarterfinals. VAR is becoming a very annoying resource. And penalties are being handed out faster than people handing out treats during Halloween. In almost every single match the referee, along with his VAR pal, have been raising their hands in the air, blowing whistles, weirdly gesticulating, calling names. In short, doing typical bad things which you tell your kids not do. But referees get paid for this action, and thus smart players, knowing this world cup to be a livid penalties galore, have dived and dived and dived. You think with a little practice some of them could actually compete for the Olympic diving medals. I could go on and on about Neymar. But Harry Kane never seemed like the diving type. And his alleged " foul" looked seriously like a dive.
Maybe he learnt it from Alli. Wouldn't be surprised, they are on the same club and country team.
The fact remains that Harry never had the ball at his feet at that moment. But his foul, if staged was done artfully. Hedging on the referee's and perhaps the entire world's assumption that Colombia was a rough team, he managed to get the opposition player to shove him sideways. But it never really looked like the kind off blatant foul which inevitably leads to a card. To Harry's credit, it didn't look like a blatant dive either, and he managed to do it all in the box, unlike Eden Hazard. Colombian players were enraged, but the referee was resolute. Kane scored.
Football is indeed a funny game. How does one player who gets allegedly knocked into the ground, holding his bruise and hollering like a child to the referee, get up to slide in a penalty, jump, and celebrate with no signs of discomfort? The Magic spray is surely not that strong. Is it? Hmm.
One can only think what would have been running through Rodriguez's mind. Shorn of possibly their best player Colombia failed to impose on a decidedly struggling England team. All the talk about Falcao returning to form was as true as 2 siblings living together without ever once arguing over the size of their respective pieces of chocolate. Cuadrado came close and should have done better, but contrived to blaze over. Yerry Mina scored but it was too little too late as Colombia could only settle for penalties. England actually won the penalties and Gareth Southgate now made sure they stayed in Russia longer than both Messi and Ronaldo. The weird game indeed.
Now England face Sweden, and it is very tough to say who will win. Sweden was also lucky to win, getting a goal after a massive deflection, and after several heart-in-the-mouth chances. Thanks to their loss against Belgium, the English now have a much easier path to the semifinals and possibly the finals. I mean after Sweden, they will only face Russia or Croatia. I think. All the talk about England winning the world cup might actually work. After all, they have Harry Kane.
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