Eric Brandt 🇺🇸
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Despite the corruption, and maybe even because of it, this really may be the best World Cup ever. FIFA naturally would like us to credit president Gianni Infantino, but he did not create the conditions for this expanded tournament’s success — namely, that most of the teams are actually good. World Cups used to be lopsided affairs with the talent concentrated in about half a dozen countries. In years past, a 48-nation tournament would have resulted in a surfeit of god-awful soccer. This year, we have been treated to a bonanza: tons of goals, intensely fought matches, unbelievable swings of fortune. The best game so far might have been England against Mexico, a storm-wracked contest played near the clouds at the famed Estadio Azteca, an Olympian 7,220 feet above sea level. Honorable mentions go to Egypt and tiny Cabo Verde (population 530,000) pushing Argentina to the limit in the knockout rounds, forcing the defending champion to score three increasingly frantic goals in each match to put them away. “This World Cup has simply been stunning, a compilation of moments that form a dizzying mosaic,” writes Ryu Spaeth. “I am thinking of Egypt’s Mohamed Salah taking a penalty so cheeky and deceptive that the goalkeeper appeared to collapse in despair; of Kylian Mbappé skipping across the box so quickly that he seemed to be teleporting; and of Lionel Messi’s astonishing first touch in his goal against Cabo Verde, in which he cradled the ball gently to sleep before firing it into the roof of the net.” Spaeth writes about how in this year’s World Cup, the overall level of play has risen to vertiginous heights: nymag.visitlink.me/tGx45-














@ATRightMovies “I’m coming to London” scene from Guy Ritchie’s Snatch was brilliant with the great late Dennis Farina with his insults & dialogue with full explicit language that made this movie grade level better. Guy Ritchie’s characters are always . . . characters

Guy Ritchie’s Snatch is his Reservoir Dogs with great characters who are always . . . characters. This was the first of Guy’s movies I saw and had zero expectations, he’s now my favorite director as I love his style, swag and signature as you know his films within s few minutes of watching.










