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Flashback: Jon Stewart's Prophetic 1997 Interview With George Carlin

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austin_blue7/07/2018 11:59:00 pm PDT

On another topic, the World Cup.

Belgium vs. France.

This would have been a great final. Lukaku, Hazard, and de Bruyne are the best offensive trio left in the competition, better than Griezmann, Mbappe and and Pogba for France. The crucial player is N’golo Kante, the defensive midfielder of France. When Leicester won the Premier League in 2016, the word was that water covered 2/3 of the planet and Kante covered the rest. He went to Chelsea the next year and they won the Premier League. He’s the best defensive midfielder on the planet.

If Belgium can take Kante out of the game, they’ll win. But he’s a brilliant player in space.

England vs. Croatia.

Dog bless Croatia for knocking the Russians out on PK’s! That was a brutal game, 120 minutes long, physical as hell, and it just drained everyone on the pitch. Luka Modric may be the fastest and most creative attacking midfielder left in the competition. Love him. But he’s the heart and soul of a team that without him is any other team that is out of this competition. In addition, their Goalie tweaked his hammy today which may or not be a thing (after all, he stopped a PK today while another shot was wide).

I always expect England to self-implode. They have done it so consistently over the past decades that it’s almost a given. And yet, this year…

But Gareth Southgate, their manager, has them actually believing in themselves. They are a very young team compared to those of the past.

They have been brilliant on set pieces. That means that he has coached them really, really hard and they have bought into the system. The vast majority of their goals in regulation have been from Penalty Kicks or set pieces, mainly corners. Their Center Fullbacks, defensive players who only come forward for corner kicks, have three goals, which is almost unheard for an English side.

So, predictions.

N’golo Kante steps up his game and disrupts the speed of the Belgium offensive breakaways. The speed of Mbappe is too much for the Belgium defense. France wins 2-1

England attacks an exhausted Croatian team early and overwhelms them, leading 2-0 at the half and winning 4-1.