Iskaral Pust

Lucky Liverpool to get the early Saturday fixture once again after the international break. It makes for boring, leaden games. It’s gratifying to defeat Dyche-ball but the attack was ineffectual for a long time and Konate could have seen a second yellow. Fun stat I heard (for the conspiracy-minded) but haven’t confirmed: Young today was the first PL opponent to receive a second yellow card against Liverpool since Mane during his Southampton days (2015?).

I don’t want to be too harsh but it is exactly the compulsive gamblers who are prone to being ensnared in corruption and undermine the sport. In the finance industry, addiction problems — especially substance abuse or gambling — are huge red flags that block working in positions of control over money. It’s far too prone to exploitation by bad actors or just desperate decisions. So the punishment has to be harsh as a deterrent. Gambling addicts need to be pushed to speak up early and get help, not feel safe to hide and prolong their behavior until they feel trapped.

Hard to know if the Springbok crossfield kicks were a tactic just for the French (it really worked!), but Borthwick almost has to preemptively select Steward over Smith, costing England a creative variation on their stodgy tactics. France vs SA was an enthralling game when I didn’t have the same personal tension attached. I disagreed with the French kick at goal immediately after the yellow card right before half time. With a dominant lock off the field for SA, it seems like a moment to kick for touch and maul. But it was so back-and-forth: the French looked better able to control possession and territory, and turned that into tries, but then disproportionately conceded tries from specific points of defensive frailty. With more distance from the Ireland loss, it feels like a combo of Leinster and Liverpool losing European finals. The opponent was more successful at game management and imposed their game better. Exciting, explosive attacking play is less successful in a knock-out match against an opponent that is highly capable, resolute and well prepared — defense is often decisive at that stage. Fatigue matters for a small squad late in a tournament — the figures for relative minutes per player in the group stages that went around during the week just confirmed what my eyes told me last Saturday.

Thanks, I’ll add The Spear Cuts Through Water to the list. I read the opening novel of The Craft before but the lawyers-as-wizards set-up didn’t grab me. It felt like a light, soapy legal drama — where the protagonist can find a convenient precedent or loophole to resolve every crisis, as if no-one else has been to law school or has any experience practicing law — dropped into a fantasy setting that would just allow the convenience of a legal system of his own creation. At least The Good Wife around the same time did it with better writing. In my defense for being overly reductive and dismissive, I did say that I’m jaded by repetition.

Against All Gods by Miles Cameron is a Bronze Age historical fiction, the first in a series. It felt so cheesy to me. Perhaps I was too tired to lose myself in it and suspend my disbelief. DNF’d Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie was an immediately absorbing read, despite my tiredness. I think it’s well known around here but it’s a far future interstellar SF and the sole POV is an isolated fragment of a spaceship’s AI. The otherness of the narrator and the slow reveal of the underlying crisis make this very good. I’ll finish this trilogy. Promise Of Blood by Brian McClellan is the start of the Powder Mage fantasy series. Yikes this was cheesy, tropey and centered on a very contrived magic system. I still love fantasy but I find I’m so jaded. I’ve no patience now for stuff like this that I might have enjoyed 20 years ago. These days I need fantasy to be excellent or really fresh. Anything in between won’t hold my attention — they’re all just variations of something I’ve read before. DNF’d Snow Flower And The Secret Fan by Lisa See is a literary fiction about two women friends in 19th century China with a secret correspondence via silk fans. On one hand it’s an interesting view into a different time, place and culture, and it portrays an almost Brokeback forbidden romance. But the story is pretty boring. Perhaps others will appreciate it more. (luckily Ancillary Justice redeemed this poor run of books)

Standing In Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin is a John Rebus police procedural set in Edinburgh. Very good series, with a pragmatic, unloved curmudgeon of a main character. I’ve enjoyed all of these so far. Mutiny by Julian Stockwin is a historical fiction from the peak of the Royal Navy, or perhaps this time the nadir. It covers the fleet mutiny at a time when a French invasion threatened. Historically and politically interesting topic but made for a dull novel here. Ridiculously contrived to allow the main character to suddenly participate in the mutiny while of course still being a loyal patriot who would never betray the service, king or country. I Choose Darkness by Jenny Lawson is a very humorous essay about the author’s memories of childhood Halloweens. Enjoyable and a fun change-up.

Ireland just weren’t at their best. Perhaps some fatigue and strain showing, especially after being worked very hard by NZ’s opening. Ireland had three almost-tries in the second half that might have gone their way another day: the maul attempt held up and two cross-field kicks to O’Mahony and Sheehan. But their general play wasn’t sharp enough. Their execution at lineouts, scrums (conceding penalties needlessly) and rucks cost them turnovers. They didn’t seem fit enough today to support the ruck and re-set their attacking shape through the phases to do their usual devastating fast ruck speed (nor to defend that second try), and I saw very little creative play-making from Sexton to balance his waning physical contribution: his basic kicking and passing was solid but I don’t remember any successful chip kicks (in fact others in green had more penetrating kicks behind) or wrap-arounds or reverse passes. The 11-15 backs showed more threat (Lowe made the skip-over pass to Aki for his try) but the forwards felt just a step slow and stodgy. I was worried before the tournament that our high tempo game and limited forward power off the bench would eventually count against us as fatigue accumulated to slow us down and strong opponents in the later stages could use greater power to slow the game and grind us down. We defeated SA’s attempt but not all that comfortably and we’d be more tired for each successive one. I love the rugby that Ireland (and Leinster) play but it just might not be suited to winning a WC with so many games tightly packed and with the toughest opponents back-loaded.

NZ deserved it. They managed the game well and had more energy and speed when needed. That held-up try decided it, although Sexton’s penalty miss didn’t help either. Really disappointing for Ireland to go home at this stage.

Exciting, tense game so far. NZ started much better and were more aggressive in rucks, plus got some attacking success with short chip kicks. Ireland are back in it now but need to shore up their lineout. There was some nervy/slippery ball handling several times, including a terrible pass early on from Keenan that stopped a try for Lowe. It was frustrating to see slow ruck speed and unsupported carriers for a bad patch but hopefully they’ve got their shape back. They’ve shown they can make yards when they switch the ball to the backs. NZ look fitter and fresher so far. I hope Ireland don’t fade.

Argentina demanding some tier 1 respect after my diss upthread. It still seems disproportionate that they’ve reached their third SF. Wales went from a very poor 6N to almost losing to Fiji, then beat Australia and now lost to Argentina. Argentina couldn’t lay a glove on 14-man England (not great themselves, even with 15) and had unimpressive victories over Japan and Samoa. It’s so hard to assess the quality either side brought to this fixture.

Ireland still missing captain James Ryan but otherwise starting a very strong team. Hopefully our wingers are actually fit to play and can let the whole match because improvised wingers cost us defensively late against Scotland. No Cian Healy called into the squad either, so front row depth still a problem. Andrew Porter has done incredibly well to anchor a scrum that has been very competitive despite being outweighed in almost every match.

You can say Ireland. We’re all thinking it.

Outside of P1, this season has had plenty of intrigue and variation as competitors jockeyed. Ferrari, Aston Martin, Mercedes and Alonso have all had their periods of strength and promise, plus moments when the second driver shone brighter (Alonso excepted, of course). Verstappen deserves his championship. They won’t always be by such a distance. Perez puts the lie to claims of an unbeatable rocket ship but the other teams need to catch up on engineering — as Aston Martin has done by liberally copying the RB.

S2 was enjoyable enough and we’re sticking with it. It’s very noticeable that some characters have been deprecated in order to elevate others but non-readers probably wouldn’t notice except asking why “the one” is so ineffectual. I think some of the plot holes are there to allow cool scenes at lower cost, e.g. the beach scene (why could Moraine break the oaths with her attack, how could she channel fire through water over such a distance, and why did Seanchan soldiers suddenly show up to defend an empty beach far from the city?), and the heroes of horn appeared for a minor skirmish that had no bearing on the wider battle. Even if I’m rolling my eyes at Matt making a light saber spear by tying the dagger with a roll of cloth, it’s still an enjoyable fantasy watch.

Now we just look like bullies. Edit: Scotland finally saved some face after I posted that

Really professional by Ireland so far, securing the bonus point by half time. Just please avoid any more injuries. @ljkeane Aside from a couple of sloppy break-away concessions in the opening two WC games, Ireland have been consistently very strong for more than a year at not conceding tries. IIRC we conceded the fewest in the 6N by a fair distance. France only get close on the scoreboard because Ramos can kick penalties from very long distance. Scotland showed well in the 6N but haven’t shown enough threat yet against SA and Ireland to stay in the WC. They need to find some magic in the second half to conjure up a high scoring win.

I’ve decided it’s time to sell my holdings of the TBT ETF (a double short exposure to long-dated US Tsy Bonds). Yields could definitely go higher yet but it would only take some growth anxiety to pull yields back down again. Also the daily reset mechanic of those leveraged ETFs makes it better to sell rather than hold after a period of strong momentum. Otherwise my long term assets are all in stocks and my short term holdings have been all in cash this year.

I’m fairness, those are all actual defenders and senior team players and quite experienced. When you have to put Casemiro and McTominay into the back line plus call up the equivalent of Sepp VanDenBerg, Billy Koumetio and Ki-Jana Hoever from the youth team, then you have a defensive crisis.

I would bet that post-Brexit relationship signaling was also a factor when the bid was being compiled.

That sounds like a tacit admission that he showed clear bias against Liverpool, not just general incompetence. Considering the really bad decisions we’ve experienced from the cadre of Manchester-based referees over the years, I’m pretty shocked PGMOL created this precedent.

So PL referees get additional income from UAE and Sheikh Mansour. But of course that wouldn’t bias them in favor of City, not at all.

The OG is a sickening way to lose that match but the refereeing bias is what caused the outcome. It’s disgusting to watch.

Villa are worth keeping an eye on. Setting aside a reserve match in the LC (against Everton) because it has no information, they’ve been very consistently beating teams who aren’t good, while getting their comeuppance from the only two strong teams they faced: Newcastle and Liverpool. Today was the first time they beat a strong team. it’ll be interesting to see where they can take this, especially with European games as a distraction but also a place for them to build momentum with a new tactical style and new players.

Understood. For a proxy of a simple power ranking, I wouldn’t count Italy or Argentina as being as competitive as the rest of the 6N and QN, although obviously stronger for having regular matchups with tier 1 opponents.

Perhaps my problem is that I abandoned this book too early. I don’t think I read more than 10% of this one either time. (memory is foggy; it’s been a long time)