“Crying and tears may be favored by natural selection because they bring about helping behavior by the spectator. This helping behavior is explained by the assumption that crying and tears ‘imitate’ some of the perceivable characteristics of a baby that has just been born.” — Frans Roes
Neymar had a rough start to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Against Switzerland he was pounded with repeated fouls in an eventual disappointing draw. Against Costa Rica, the Concacaf side frustrated Neymar and his teammates for 90 minutes, Brazil’s star man even attempting an ill-fated flop or two. In the end, thanks in part to Philippe Coutinho, Brazil prevailed and we got to see some sweet Neymar skills in the final minutes.
The United States is not in the 2018 World Cup and Costa Rica just showed the world why. No matter how skilled a team is (or isn’t), it is extremely difficult to beat a Concacaf side like Costa Rica, Panama or Honduras. But a stoppage-time Philippe Coutinho goal vs Costa Rica was just enough to get Brazil a vital three points with a 2-0 win and knock Los Ticos out of the tournament on Friday in Russia.
Croatia has just showed us how to win the World Cup. After demolishing Lionel Messi’s Argentina, the Balkan side lectured the planet on how to play the perfect game.
Croatia’s 3-0 victory over Argentina was one of the tournament’s biggest upsets matched only by Mexico’s 1-0 defeat of world champions Germany.
However, El Tri’s victory was nothing short of miraculous.
World Cup social media was alive and well during the first two matches of the day, but boy did things get cooking once Argentina collpased against Croatia. Here are our favorite tweets from today's action.
Another game, another VAR penalty for the Aussies — giving the Socceroos a point against Christian Eriksen and the Danes.
Really dislike Kasper Schmeichel. 100% of his dad's personality, 70% of the talent.
Watching Lionel Messi vs Croatia was like watching LeBron James against the Golden State Warriors. Even the best players in sports are only as good as their supporting casts — and Messi’s midfield right now is just no good.
LeBron James couldn’t come close to beating the Warriors in the NBA Finals this year because the Cleveland Cavaliers don’t have much going for them aside from James. Sure there’s Kevin Love and JR Smith, but, yeah, it’s Kevin Love and JR Smith.
As the Argentina vs Croatia highlights show, Lionel Messi and company collapsed against an altogether superior opponent on Thursday in Nizhny Novgorod, 3-0. Spearheaded by the influential play of the sublime Luka Modric, Croatia is through to the Round of 16 while Argentina is on the verge of a shock group stage elimination.