Qatar World Cup 2022

Hi,

Croatia showed how well they can play, and did what they had to do to contain Japan. Sadly, the Penalty Shootout was the lowest moment for this WC. Very disappointing end, but you have to bury your penalties, and Japan appeared to be afraid to take them.

Brazil ... the samba was all over the place. They danced S. Korea from here to ... heaven knows where. If Brazil can open up this game going forward, I think that they will be a force. But can they get by tougher defenses?

Morocco ... such an incredible victory. One of the things that we all hope to see happen ... and it makes the best movie ever.

Portugal ... who needs that other guy? Left overs that have lost the taste! If I were him, I would retire ... I doubt he needs the money!

Now comes the real thing ... the next 4 games!!! Here are my no-choices. I imagine Brazil/Argentina/Portugal and France would be the heavy favorites, but this WC is showing us something else. 

Cro-Brazil ... If Brazil plays like they did against SK ... I'm not sure that Croatia can compete evenly.

Ned - Arg ... That coach is finding all the right moves ... but stopping Messi might take more than playing against an American team that lacked the smarts to play the better teams around the world! I don't want this to go to a Penalty Shootout, but it has the makings of it. I think it might depend on who scores first, and it's hard to not bet on Messi on this one! And he deserves it! A better game might be for Messi to provide two or three assists as he is a very good passer.

Mor - Por ... Really difficult to figure out, but Portugal doesn't play the Spanish game and Morocco might have tough issues preventing them from scoring ... but that stone wall sure stopped Spain from coming near it!

Eng- France .. the war of roses all over again. Will Mbappe do better than Kane ... I think so ... unless the English can unleash the long balls and runs for scores. France might not be a good team coming from behind, but if anyone can do it, I bet they can!

Hi,

Perception and Data are two opposite sides. Data, can become an issue as it adds up information that is not likely to get picked up clearly by your brain ... sometimes, it is simply too much!

Perception is another story, and this is where the far out greats in many sports work ... time is slower for them and they are ready sooner, and this allows them to make adjustments faster ... which is what we see.

To give you an idea of how much "you can see" and "catch", when I was at UCSB, they had an archery team, and one of the folks that came and goofed off with them, was a very old (guessing 75) man ... who had a very acute touch and several kudos for this and that. I saw him do this several times, and he would place himself by the bull's eye, and tell the girls to shoot ... and he would catch each arrow on one of his hands each and every time. THAT IS NOT DATA. That is perception on a level that we can not even conceive, let alone explain, and while I would not say that Pele, Messi, Maradona, Jordan, Brady and many others that are almost "supernatural" work on "data" as much as they do on watching and their brains being able to pick up bits and pieces, which they likely will not use ... why? When they do what they do, drive, pass, shoot, throw, kick ... it is a matter of instinct co-ordination between what you "saw" and the message to your feet or hands ... and you adjusted to get the result. 

You can now see how this really makes a difference for all the body contortions you got to see a Jordan do to get to the basket ... that stuff is instinctive and there is no "data".

The penalty thing, is only different in that the studies around it are strictly mechanical, and sometimes it is not mechanical at all ... and if it isn't, the chance of stopping that kick ... probably less than 10% in my book.

A lot can be done with soccer, and team sports ... the coordination with the folks forward or backwards would be the one thing that would gain the most right away ... and again, this is not a mental thing, but something that you have to communicate with your folks and then go to work, because from a certain millisecond on there is "no book" on how to do it, just how you respond to what you see. The more/better you see it, the better your response is. And this is important for the penalty takers, but I tend to think that too many of those folks are being shown too many things that are totally impossible for you and I to ruminate and disseminate some kind of favorable reaction from it ... I got one ... stand in place and spit at the guy that is gonna stop and go and stop and kick. If you don't move, I bet he misses!