The Egypt disallowed goal, Rodri handball vs Belgium and the Embolo yellow card for diving are the ultimate test to see if someone actually understands the football rules correctly.
Argentina was losing 0-2 to Egypt…
79 minutes gone.
And I made the stupid mistake of asking Claude one question at halftime: "Has Argentina ever come back from 0-2 in a World Cup?"
The answer: never. Not once in history.
I showed my best friend Alan. He looked at me and said, "Don't show me that. I don't want to read that."
Now let me rewind…
Three days ago Alan called me. He had 4 World Cup tickets. Then he sold them. Then he said, "Let's go anyway." No tickets in hand. Just go.
So we loaded the car at 11pm and drove from Toronto to Atlanta. 20 hours one way. Two supportive wives at home with the kids saying "go, we've got them."
We could have flown. We drove on purpose. The tension, the turns behind the wheel, fighting the tiredness at 3am – THAT is what memories are made of. You don't get that on a 2 hour flight.
Somewhere in the dark a deer jumped onto the highway. Alan was driving my Tesla on Full Self-Drive and it braked before he ever saw it. He turned to me: "I would have smashed right into that deer." With G-d's help, we kept driving.
We refreshed FIFA and StubHub for 16 hours straight. Finally bought two tickets right on the corner, close enough to almost touch Messi, for $2,000 each.
Here is what I want you to actually hear:
Being able to drop everything and say YES to a last-minute trip with one of your best friends is not luck. It is the byproduct of working hard and designing a life that lets you go. That is Point A to Point B. That is what we work for.
But the real lesson came at minute 79.
0-2. Devastated. I actually asked myself, "Am I the bad luck? Did I drive 40 hours round trip just to watch my team lose the first time I ever see them in person?"
Then the first goal went in. My reaction was immediate: "The game is ALIVE. The game is alive."
One goal. That's all it took to believe. Then a second. Then a third… in about 12 minutes. Argentina 3, Egypt 2. The first 0-2 comeback in their history, and I was standing on the corner where all three goals happened.
Two things I'm taking home:
The Egyptian fans next to us started chanting "Messi, Messi" to mock us while they were WINNING. The game wasn't over. Never celebrate the win before the final whistle, because what you throw up in the air comes back down on you.
And our players never put their heads down. No selfishness. They played as a team and won as a team. The game is at least 90 minutes. You don't stop until the very end.
My ears are still ringing. Over 100 decibels for two hours. We stayed in that stadium an hour after the final whistle and none of us wanted to leave.
If you're 0-2 in your career right now, undervalued, drained, dreading Monday… listen to me:
The game is alive.
Trust the process. Don't put your head down. Score one goal and watch what you start to believe.
Dear @mehdirhasan
This lying double-mouthed dishonest aide called Daniel Bwala that you publicly exposed his hypocrisy to the world a few months ago, now claims Al Jazeera “apologised” to him over your interview with him.
Please is this claim true?
And if true, what exactly did Al Jazeera apologise to him for?
Dear Nigerians,
Pls retweet until @mehdirhasan sees this and publicly responds to clear the air.
If you want to know how crazy this is, imagine it was Portugal at this stage, and then they assigned an Argentine referee, you’ll see 500 conspiracy theories
Ahead of the World Cup quarter-finals, we have revisited our rankings of the top players at this summer's tournament.
This is informed by our player ratings model, which provides an objective assessment of each player’s contribution in a match.
🔗 https://t.co/OCx9rFTn22