I grew up on American football and never thought I’d be a soccer fan. Now after my D has been playing for 9 years, I really enjoy soccer over all other sports. Viva El Tri !
Plenty of injury time expected in this half… personally I’d like Mexico to equalize and then to see the match decided on PKs, because both teams have seemed equally lackluster so far… almost playing like Spain was yesterday: without any apparent motivation.
Not a big fan of PKs…
OK WAIT BRAZIL JUST SCORED Adios Mexico…
El Tri’s run is over. However, their win over Germany was big both for the team and my wallet 
We will be in Croatia this weekend when their team plays. We plan to find a local bar to watch at and join in the fun!
How exciting, @FallGirl ! Have fun in Croatia!
Speaking of soccer- breaking news -
All 12 Thai soccer boys and their coach have been found alive !
^^^Just saw that. Almost seems miraculous.
Agree @Nrdsb4 And great to see other countries pull together to help in the rescue! Hope they are all going to be okay! Initial reports are saying they were found “alive and well.”
I was only able to catch a few minutes before leaving for work, but the Internet is roasting Neymar for his flop in the match today against Mexico. It must have been a really good one, because the memes are tremendous.
OTOH Neymar had a tremendous NO LOOK back heel pass to Willian, who crosses the ball into the box, where Neymar completes his run and finish for a goal.
Soccer boring? Pee-shaw. =; 
Youtube British pub going crazy when England scored. Its on barstool sports too
And it was 11am on a weekday and only for a goal. Not a win. So much fun for them.
I will be rooting for England tomorrow! And Sweden.
For you conspiracy theorists out there. One “post mortem” to the Russia-Spain match. 
There was a critical no call when the Russian defender collared and dragged down the Spaniard in front of the goal on a corner in the waning minutes of the game.
BTW, that was the second game that Russia has won with the help of a critical no call. Just sayin’ (again). 
Rub of the green (mixing sports metaphors) :((
We were in Berlin for the Germany-Turkey EURO semifinal in 2008. OMG, everyone was nuts. There is a large Turkish community in Berlin and both sides were going wild. Fireworks, honking, etc. all night long. Saw many folks in town all weeks carrying or wearing their nations’ flags. It is serious business for them!
I was watching that “critical no-call” (and its many replays) as it happened. The problem was that the player who most clearly got dragged down really had no play on the ball, and the player who might have had a play on the ball wasn’t so clearly fouled. And anyway, as it turned out getting a penalty kick did not necessarily translate into getting a goal for Spain.
I’ll disagree. When you’re being held and dragged down, I’m not sure how you determine if someone does or doesn’t have a play on the ball unless the player is standing 10-20 yards away outside the box. Try moving around or adjusting to the flight of the ball when someone is holding you and/or dragging you down.
But Russia moves on. Now they can play a game of “chase” with Croatia.
Go Japan. B-)
And they scored again!
Very different second half thus far!
For reference, the FIFA rankings before the WC started:
Japan #61
Belgium #3
The strangest WC continues.
Not so fast!