zequist

No, fake free throws aren't allowed, but neither are lane violations or goaltending. You are correct in guessing that the referee will not award the free throw, but the more important part of the question that has to be answered is, what is the correct next play for the referee to declare in this scenario? (Or to put it more simply, who gets the ball and where?)

Okay, here's a basketball question (don't think we've had one for that sport yet!): Late in a game, a player is fouled and awarded two free throws. He makes his first free throw. On his second free throw attempt, he goes through his regular throwing motion but holds onto the ball instead of releasing it. Not expecting the attempt to be a fake, players from the other team jump into the lane prematurely. The shooter then puts up his free throw attempt for real, but one of the opposing players who is already standing in the lane jumps up and swats it away. What is the correct call in this situation?

And may Liverpool spend the profits as wisely as Tottenham spent their profits from Bale!

For me it's a bit awkward listening to Ruud, just because he's constantly saying "we/us/our" whenever the subject of the Dutch team comes up. "We did this," "We didn't do that," "Here's what our manager is going to say at halftime"...I understand that he's not a professional broadcaster and wasn't brought into the studio to be objective, but American viewers are used to the talking heads in the studios showing at least a veneer of detachment from the proceedings, and even the other former internationals like Ballack and Gilberto Silva have usually managed to keep their discussions of their own national teams on a third-party "Germany/Brazil/they/them" level in front of the camera.

I think that most American businessmen who'd consider investing in a soccer team right now would look at MLS first, unless it was a proven global brand club like ManU or Juventus that came on the market. I'm not saying that from a fan's POV, but from a businessman's POV, because the structure of MLS is a club owner's wet dream compared to the free-spending jungles of the EPL or La Liga. MLS is a salary-capped, cost-controlled league where every club has a chance to be competitive in the league if it builds a good roster, and where nearly all the clubs are debt-free, profitable, and playing in new stadiums (and don't underestimate the value of the latter - buying a club that comes with a modern, up-to-date stadium alreay in place is far more attractive than the prospect of having to shell out tens or hundreds of millions more dollars on top of your original purchase price to get a new stadium built that's up to modern standards). It wasn't that long ago that an average MLS club could be bought for around $25 million US - now the valuations are closer to $100 million US, probably more for a club like Seattle or LA, and that price is probably only going to keep going up in the foreseeable future.

Alright, last guess then. The pitch got stuck in the umpire's mask or equipment. If that's not it, then I am officially stumped. And there's no better way to learn it!

Then the runner on third base stole home.

When the batter swung the bat, it either hit the catcher or hit the catcher's glove. The umpire ruled catcher's interference on the pitch, which automatically sends the batter to first base, and since the bases were loaded it advanced the rest of the runners and forced home the winning run. A good guess, but a batter can't be awarded first base for a hit-by-pitch if he actually swung at the pitch that hit him. In the case of the scenario presented by Steve, rule 6.05 (f) would be in effect: "A batter is out when he attempts to hit a third strike and the ball touches him."

Neymar is out for the rest of the tournament with a broken back. Some people were saying earlier in the tournament that he was carrying Brazil on his back in this World Cup - well, we're sure going to find out if that's true. If they can beat Germany without him and without Thiago Silva, there should be no questioning their championship worthiness after that.

Outside the league, MLS clubs participate in the respective US and Canadian domestic cup competitions, and in the CONCACAF Champions League. The CCL has been around since 1962 and used to be a straight knockout tournament called the Champions Cup - they renamed and revamped it in 2008 so that it now resembles the European CL with group stages and all that. As you might expect it's been historically dominated by Mexican clubs who've won it 30 times; next most succesful is Costa RIca with 6 winners. DC United and LA Galaxy each won it once under the old format, but Salt Lake is the only US club (in fact, the only non-Mexican club) to make the finals since the 2008 revamp. The US gets four CCL berths - one to the domestic cup winner and three based on MLS performance. Canada only gets one berth for their domestic cup winner (the Canadian MLS clubs can't qualify through league play, not even if one of them were to win the league outright). MLS has made some big mistakes over the years in their efforts to attract the Latino market. Among those were two clubs in Florida in the 1990s that both failed due to poor attendance. Apologies in advance to any Florida fans who might be reading this, but Floridians in general don't have a great reputation elsewhere in the US for being die-hard supporters of their teams; a lot of the clubs down there struggle with their attendance even in the most popular sports like American football. MLS is a much stronger league with a higher standard of play than it was 15 years ago when the original Miami and Tampa clubs shut down, but I still question the viability of any soccer club in that state as long as the clubs are still more dependent on gate revenue than they are on TV revenue.

Agreed. He's definitely not a speed merchant (had an initial speed rating of 12 in FM12, I think), but he seemed to be most effective for me when I used him as a deep-lying forward paired with a pacey poacher to draw the defenders' attention and help give him space. He actually netted me 14 goals one year despite being the secondary scoring option, mostly either from well-timed off-ball runs like you said, or from cleaning up rebounds. Ah, good memories!

Except he's Dutch. In fact, whenever I started a new Everton game on FM 2012 he was usually one of the first players I signed - good, young, high-upside attacking mid/playmaker who came at a very affordable price.

US epitaph, from American soccer writer Elliott Almond: "It survived the Group of Death and had a chance, albeit slim, to advance to the quarterfinals. But here’s the bottom line: Gritty as they were … as well coached as they were … the fightin’ Klinsmanns were outplayed by a substantial margin by Ghana, Germany and Belgium (for 90+ minutes). The USMNT simply wasn’t good enough in the midfield. Whether that’s because Michael Bradley played poorly, or because Michael Bradley was playing out of position and played poorly, or because there is only one world class player on the roster — Howard — it doesn’t really matter. What matters now is finding answers in the midfield before the summer of 2018." I fully agree with this assessment. The continual inability to obtain and sustain possession outside of the Portugal game was a real killer.

Incidentally, all eight group stage winners advanced to the quarters. Thought this was supposed to be the World Cup of parity, or something like that?

Of all the games for Lukaku to show up in this WC, it had to be this one. TV commentators were giving Wilmots credit for pissing him off by benching him to start the game. Roberto, take notes if he's back again next year.... Oh well, still proud of the effort at least, but it would've been so nice to tot up another USA QF appearance, and the chances were there. If those Bundesliga-based players like Green and Johnson keep developing, there's some real potential there.

Robben has admitted that he took a dive looking for a penalty...in the first half. Glad Costa Rica held on, but I have to wonder how much they'll have left in the tank for the Dutch after that marathon.

Pretty cheap penalty.

Africa's problem is that none of their countries have been able to establish sustained World Cup success - they get to the second round or the quarterfinal at one World Cup, and then flame out at the next one; there's no consistent run of form. Nigeria (1994, 1998, 2014) and Ghana (2006, 2010) are actually the only African countries that have ever qualified for the knockouts more than once. Cameroon had that Cinderella quarterfinal run in 1990, and do you know what their record is in the five World Cups they've qualified for since? 1 win, 4 draws, and 10 losses! And those three countries (along with Algeria) have been the continent's most successful World Cup sides over the last 32 years (Senegal had that one good quarterfinal run, but they haven't qualified for another World Cup before or since). Contrast that with CONCACAF, which admittedly doesn't have much depth but its top teams come to play at just about every World Cup. Since 1986, Mexico is 7-for-7 in reaching the knockouts, the USA is 4-for-6, and Costa Rica is 2-for-4 (and one of the times they missed was in 2002 when they tied for second in a group that produced TWO semifinalists that year - champs Brazil and Turkey - but got eliminated on goal differential). There was one small bit of progress this year, however - this is actually the first-ever World Cup that's seen Africa put two teams in the second round.

Yep. Actually a cousin of Tobin Rote, the former Green Bay Packers/Detroit Lions quarterback. I never imagined playing as either of them, though.

Continental representation for the second round Europe: 6 (of 13) South America: 5 (of 6) North America: 3 (of 4) Africa: 2 (of 5) Asia: 0 (of 4)

Interesting stat: including the US and Portugal today, the teams who had to play a match in Manaus went 1-5 in their next games and were outscored 12-5, and only two of the eight countries who played in Manaus (USA and Switzerland) made it through the group stage (Italy, England, Croatia, Portugal, Cameroon, and Honduras are the six going home). Honduras/Switzerland yesterday was the last game scheduled for Manaus; it'll be interesting to see how much energy the Swiss bring to the pitch against Argentina.

If Ghana won 2-1 and the US lost 1-0 they'd still be okay, because both teams would have 4 goals for and 4 against, with the US advancing on head-to-head. If the US concedes a second, though, things will start getting dicey.

I saw a news crawl that said he can appeal the monetary fine, but not the suspension. I don't know what the source of that information was, though, so take it for what it's worth until we get more confirmation.

And I had even less to go on since the NASL was in its death throes by the time I started playing schoolyard soccer in the mid 80's. Literally the only player I'd ever heard of at the time was Pele. Which was fine if I was running around trying to score, but most of the time I was the one volunteering to play keeper, and I didn't know the names of any pro keepers.

Suarez has one fan on Twitter...Joey Barton (naturally!) "He's a winner. If that means he occasionally steps over the line between right and wrong, than thats what comes with the territory..." https://twitter.com/Joey7Barton