Into the Cincoverse - The Cinco de Mayo EU Thread and Wikibox Repository

[Mayukh]

List of Fifa World Cups and their Winners.

Year	Hosts	Winners
1916	France	France
1920	Cancelled	N/A
1924	Britain	Britain
1928	Argentina	Argentina
1932	Italy	Austria
1936	Germany	Hungary
1940	Brazil	Brazil
1944	Sweden	Sweden
1948	USA	Mexico
1952	Hungary	Hungary
1956	Cancelled	N/A
1960	Mexico	Mexico
1964	Britain	Britain
1968	Australia	Mexico
1972	Spain	Italy
1976	Nederlands	Nederlands
1980	Colombia	Britain
1984	Russia	Argentina
1988	Argentina	Argentina
1992	Italy	Italy
1996	Japan	Mexico
2000	Germany	Germany
2004	Brazil	Brazil
2008	USA	USA
2012	China	Spain
2016	France	Germany
2020	Mexico	Mexico
2024	Britain	Britain

Nothing to do. Thought I make this.

 

[KingSweden24]

5. Brazil (2004) - Brazil's second and most recent World Cup champion stands on its own two feet as probably the best South American side of all time, beating out 1960s Britain - but only narrowly - thanks in large part to its remarkable run of quality with no losses and only three draws in competitive matches between a 1-0 defeat to France in a November 2000 friendly to a loss in April 2005 in Buenos Aires, a time of considerably more professionalization and global talent than forty years before. In the middle, Brazil absolutely destroyed everything in its path, arguably being for a stretch of the 2000s what Argentina was to the 1980s, Hungary was to the 1950s, aforementioned Britain was to the 1960s, and Germany was to the 2010s. Brazil ran off with the 2002 Copa America, won the 2003 Confederations Cup in dominating fashion on home soil capped off by a 1-0 win over a very talented Spain, and then played "jogo bonito" - the beautiful game - as it put years of reputation of squandering great talent to bed in marching through a group that included a decent USA. Brazil could score at will, as evidenced in its 4-1 boatracing of George Weah's Liberia in the round of 16, or it could switch on a dime to clinical defense, as shown in its 1-0 tactical chess-match semifinal against a great France. The squad had an absurd level of talent to pick from, blessed with the feet of not only late-career Ronaldo but Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Kaka, powering the team to 18 goals scored against six allowed, which is perhaps their only demerit. The early 2000s renaissance in South American football proved itself to have lasting power as the only team that had any claim to similar greatness was Hernan Crespo's Argentina, with the striker putting on a Maradona-esque show in collecting both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot, and Brazil's come-from-behind victory at the Maracana to win 2-1 in added time, an identical scoreline to their 1940 triumph over Mexico, suggests something closer to approximating fate for the long wait between titles.
4. Hungary (1952) - The Magic Magyars, from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s, were simply the best team in history at that point and indeed up to that point. While the 1956 World Cup was cancelled, denying them a chance to repeat, they essentially met every other challenge put in front of them, led by a ferocious attacking front of Ferenc Puskas, Sandor Kocsis, and Zoltan Czibor. This group won two of the Central European championships (a precursor to the combined Euros of present day) at a time when Central Europe was regarded as the sports' hotbed, became the first side to defeat Britain at home, took gold at two straight Olympics (1950 in Rome and 1954 in Buenos Aires), and crowned their achievement with their victory on home soil in 1952, showing off their style of play that would influence Dutch Total Football twenty years later in demolishing a good Germany in the group stages, beating a talented Brazil in the quarterfinal, and then clinically taking down excellent Russia and Italy sides on their way to their second World Cup trophy. The "Golden Team" of Hungary remains a benchmark of consistency, talent and tactical finesse led by some of the most important footballers of their time, and it is only the shift in quality of talent development that bumps Hungary a bare click behind our top three, who achieved their own level of greatness in a time when doing so is much more difficult - indeed, an argument could be made that nobody has yet topped Hungary.
3. Germany (2016) - Here comes another group that defined an era of football and won almost everything in their path, with the exception of a Confederations Cup challenge. Between 2012 and 2018, Germany could claim to be challenging Hungary of the 1950s for the best run in football history, putting together not one but two winning streaks of 25 matches, and while one of their dropped results was at the 2015 Confederations Cup to France, Germany avenged itself in proper fashion in putting together an absolutely absurd result at the 2016 World Cup on French soil, not allowing a single goal until the Final while racking up 19 goals, a goal differential of +18 that was and is a World Cup record and challenging Mexico '68 as the best defensive organization in the game. This group bookended their World Cup trophy with two European titles, becoming the first back-to-back Euro winner and thus winning three straight major titles. Scoring at will with players like Thomas Muller and Julian Draxler and with the lockdown defense of goalkeeper Manuel Neuer or players such as Toni Kroos and Mats Hummels, Germany showed with their relentless Gegenpresse style of play what modern tactical brilliance and top-to-bottom quality looks like, and only a relatively easy path to the final until their semifinal drubbing of a very talented host France and shootout result against Italy keeps them lower on this list.
2. Mexico (1996) - It is rare that a team is hailed as among the greatest ever the second it steps off the field with its trophy, but Mexico's campaign ahead of and at Japan 1996 makes a credible argument in that favor. In a tournament in which favorites fell rapidly and early to leave behind a shockingly open field, Mexico nonetheless faced a murderer's row ahead of it, having to defeat in the knockout rounds a Netherlands that was anchored by players of then-dominant Ajax FC, then defending world champion Italy, then a young Brazil regarded as tournament favorites featuring the Ronaldo-Rivaldo duo in its first competitive form, and finally take on Colombia, which had finished second in its group but turned into one of the hottest teams in the tournament through the knockout rounds. Mexico did all this while playing with a mix of flair and discipline after a campaign in which it became the first side in the 32-team era, then in its second World Cup, to win every qualifying match (and by an average score of two goals) and oozing confidence and talent top-to-bottom, anchored by acrobatic and colorful goalkeeper Jorge Campos and defenders Pavel Pardo and Claudio Suarez in the back and a terrifying pack of versatile scorers playing something approximating "Total Football" between Cuauhtemoc Blanco, the "Three Louies" in Luis Hernandez, Luis Garcia, Luis Roberto Alves, and even substitutes like the ageless Carlos Hermosillo or a young Jared Borgetti in his debut; it speaks to the talent on offing for El Tri that such names were on the bench, rather than first choice. Mexico's penalty kick victory over Colombia at Tokyo Olympic Stadium remains one of the most memorable finals in memory and Mexico set the record for most World Cup victories with this triumph, a record that with its win last year it has extended and does not seem likely to relinquish for some time.
1. Italy (1992) - The only debate around the 1996 Mexico side when it won was whether the side that had triumphed four years earlier, and indeed Mexico had to beat on its way to victory in Japan, was as good or better, and with thirty years to look back on it, they remain 1A and 1B in our book, absolutely spoiling football fans in the 1990s with the two best World Cup champions essentially back to back. Italy's achievement on home soil in 1992 (the first 32-team tournament) is the stuff of legends, winning every game behind the brilliance of Roberto Baggio, Salvatore Schillaci and other stars of those great Milan, Torino and Napoli sides of that era. Dispatching tenacious Denmark and Uruguay in their group stage, Italy then defeated, in order, the defending two-time CONAFA champion and incumbent Bronze medalist (USA), the defending European champion that was regarded as the pre-tournament favorite (Britain), the shocking crowd-pleaser who would win the European championship two years later (Sweden), and finally the defending two-time World Cup and two-time Copa America title holders, led by arguably the greatest player in the history of the sport (Argentina). The 1-1 final with penalty kicks in Rome remains the most-matched sporting event in history up until the 2016 World Cup final (also featuring Italy) despite a huge amount of population growth and interest in the game since then; Italy was simply unstoppable at home in a clash of titans as she denied Argentina and Diego Maradona a third consecutive World Cup despite that Argentina side being arguably the most talented squad of its era yet. Between its dominating play and the nature of its opposition, Italy stands head and shoulders above all other comers with the exception of 1996 Mexico, and even then, we have to give these legends their due in first

 

[KingSweden24]

The Race for Ontario is the Race for Canada

- August 14, 2023

Last Wednesday, Ontario's two-term Premier, Sandra Pupatello, did what many have been expecting for months and called elections for September 20, thus starting a roughly forty-day campaign which her ruling Liberals have been preparing to run for over three years. Her government's case for reelection is very strong - having been reelected with a reduced majority in fall of 2019 in the teeth of a recession, Pupatello's ministry has now presided over forty straight months of job growth (likely to be forty-one when Ontarians head to the polls), unemployment having decreased from 10.3% at its peak in May 2020 to 5.7% today, and a province in which new business are popping up alongside new housing developments almost by the day. Pupatello's approach has emphasized cautious fiscal conservatism without tilting into the cycle of repetitive austerity and social welfare cuts for which governments in Ontario once became infamous and leaned more on deregulation and tax incentives than tax cuts and populist spending; her administration also has the considerable fame of, having passed the first comprehensive gay-rights bill in Canadian history with the Ontario Human Rights Ordinance in December 2019 after making it a key campaign plank, watching a Conservative federal government be defeated in part over its attempts to block it, and similar laws were passed in British Columbia, the Territories and, now, all of Canada.

And yet Ontarians seem to be in a restive mood; an electorate that did not hold Pupatello responsible for a poor economy that developed during her tenure (though of course across Canada and indeed North America) four years ago seems disinclined to at least fully credit her for the remarkable turnaround since then. Part of the problem is that many voters, either due to age or being immigrants, genuinely do not remember the Ontario of twenty or, even worse, thirty years ago. Crime, especially property crime, has risen steadily since 2019, but remains only about a quarter of the 1997 peak. Nonetheless, Canada’s famously right-wing media has made hay of this with Liberals in charge in Toronto and the social democratic CCF in Kingston, and polling shows that for the first time since 2001, crime and violence are the top two concerns for voters in Ontario. For voters too young to remember the blood-soaked 90s in which provincial police and federal law enforcement battled paramilitary forces turned gun-running and drug-dealing gangs, tangible quality of life issues thus seem unprecedented even if older voters may consider them quaint. Similarly are more recent concerns around high costs, both in housing and in university tuition, both of which are partly blamed on an influx of American, Texan and Mexican workers and students after the Free Association Agreement and Canada’s entry into NAFTA in 2019. While Pupatello has little control over this, for obvious reasons, she was a strong advocate of free association, and voters have not forgotten now that there have been years to see its perceived effects. (These same voters probably do not credit free association with Canada’s booming economy)

This has all been a drag on Pupatello’s polling, which suggests a three-way race between her Liberals and the opposition CCF and Tories, with the anti-American, anti-immigration, alter-globalization and protectionist Canadian Action Party building up a concerningly large following in 4th. For that reason, all three major parties and the insurgent minor outfits like CAP or the Greens are viewing Ontario as a dress rehearsal for the federal election a year later.

The CCF in particular is hopeful of a good result in a province where it has a reliable floor of seats federally but also a pretty firm ceiling, as evidenced three years ago when it was Mark Holland’s Liberals who rode the anti-Tory wave in Ontario. With Holland neck-and-neck with Prime Minister Peter Julian as Canada’s preferred next Prime Minister, hopes are high on the left that they can break through in Ontario provincially, relying on their new leader Wayne Gates to make the push. A mustachioed healthcare activist, Gates has put forward a more muscular program based around the unpopular closures of several Ontario hospitals and economic revival in several stagnant regions; since taking over in January of 2022, the CCF has surged from its traditional mid-10s in polling to second place behind the Liberals.

Of course, Canada operates a first-past-the-post system, and the CCF and Liberals polling even could result in a split result that sees the Tories, despite placing third in popular vote, win enough seats to have a minority government or at least strongly influence a Liberal one. The Tory leader, Christine Elliott, is the widow of former Premier James Flaherty, who became synonymous with austerity during his time in office in the early 2000s but who nonetheless is credited by many Tories for taking the “harsh medicine” required to solve Ontario’s perceived issues with chronic budget deficits, high unemployment and low productivity. Elliott has proposed a much milder version of her late husband’s approach, but her campaign - narrowly behind Gates - will depend in part about to what extent voters dissatisfied with Pupatello are willing to overlook how unpopular Flaherty and the brief, disastrous 2011-15 government under the combative Frank Klees were.

This, combined with the real possibility that CAP siphons off voters otherwise inclined to boost CCF or the Tories in marginal seats, should give Pupatello some confidence ahead of next month’s vote; observers expect her to at least return with a workable minority government. But the results will be closely watched, not just due to what it will say about the crucial province that includes half of Canada’s population, but also because of what it may suggest about the road to a majority that Julian, Holland and federal Tory leader Kevin O’Leary will need to chart through Ontario, particularly the Toronto suburbs and the half-dozen small but crucial metropolitan areas outside of that immediate region, to form government.

 

[KingSweden24]

(August 24, 2023)

There is a week to go now before the first whistle of the Thursday night kickoff games for both collegiate and Championship rugby, and in the PRA it will see defending champion Cleveland Rams face off against promoted club Pittsburgh Steelers, back in the top level after three campaigns out. The thirty-two week, thirty-match campaign begins there with the traditional three-week holiday break in late December and early January, as sixteen sides contest the Doritos Cup and a chance for playoff positioning - or simply an attempt to stay out of the drop zone. The next campaign of the PRA Championship is almost here, and in power rankings format we preview the season ahead.

9. Oilers Los Angeles - Owen Farrell returning to Los Angeles is obviously a huge boon for Oilers, as the England captain is on any given day one of the best players in the world. That Oilers failed to pick up much else in the offseason, including getting outbid for Jack Edwards by Metropolitan, was not a positive, and a team that hovered near the drop zone for most of Fall Season last year must prove that it still belongs in an echelon above. Farrell's return is the first step in that process.
10. Boston Redskins - Getting an outstanding player like international George Ford could make for another opportunity by Boston to make a run for silverware glory, though Ford will not solve the ills of other issues with their dependency on roster players well past their prime, especially among the locks. Still, Ford and young Canadian scrum-half Jevon Holland should inject some new life into this roster as the transition to a new generation in Boston begins
11. San Francisco 49ers - Injuries have, hopefully, healed, and the 49ers can thus make a run for some kind of silverware glory. However, after their remarkably 2020-21 Doritos Cup-winning campaign, they now have to contend with a number of other clubs having improved dramatically in the interim, leaving them well outside of what we would consider the upper echelons of the PRA, unless proven otherwise.
12. Pittsburgh Steelers - The Steelers open their campaign up against archrival Rams as a welcome back to the Championship. Having won the 2nd Division with an historic points and scoring record, Steelers are confident - especially with the additions of players such as Kenneth Browne or French international Baptiste Couilloud - that they can make a play for the top half of the table and perhaps even a Play-Off spot. Time will tell - Pittsburgh have not placed in the Top Six since 2010-11.
13. Green Bay RC - The Packers were unenthused at the decision of Canada's Jack Edwards to decamp for Metropolitan, leaving a massive hole at inside center. The roster is revamped with several excellent 2nd Division signings and loan players, but needing time to gel in the unforgiving Championship is the bane of many a club in the drop zone, especially during the crucial points accumulation of the Fall Season
14. Minneapolis Vikings - Vikings are back in the PRA after two campaigns out thanks to landing in one of two automatic promotion spots at the end of last year. They are a good club, certainly, but will need to prove they belong up in the Championship after yo-yoing between the two levels over the last decade, never spending more than three campaigns in either.
15. Kansas City Chiefs - Chiefs were lucky not to fall into the drop zone last season and got rid of their biggest clubhouse headache in foisting off George Ford onto Boston. That being said, while that may be a better move from a personalities standpoint, its hard to say exactly how else Chiefs improved over the summer, and August exhibition tests have not been kind. Play-In positions by May seems, unless there is something we don't know about, the likeliest future.
16. Chargers RC - Chargers survived Milwaukee Maroons in the final Play-In game, but only barely, and the departure of Kenneth Browne to newly-promoted Steelers leaves the cupboard around fly-half Justin Herbert even more bare. As the only remaining club from last year's drop zone and with clear roster attrition, San Diego will have to prove they have what it takes to keep their stretch of eighteen straight Championship seasons going into nineteen.

 

[KingSweden24]

1. Philadelphia Eagles - That's right - the reigning US Open Cup holders and runners-up for both the Championship Final and the Doritos Cup nab our top spot thanks to the best combo of previous performance, lack of roster attrition and comparison to their peers. Eagles supporters will surely be wanting to "do a Cleveland" and avenge their Final defeat (at home ground, no less) and chance to earn a double with a run to the Halas Cup the following season. This is an merely an educated guess, but considering the depth and balance of talent at this club, you'd be silly not to think Eagles have the early advantage heading into this season
2. Cleveland Rams - This is the second time in as many years that we are handicapping the reigning Championship titleists, and that nearly backfired last season with Eskimos' Doritos Cup journey. Rams have earned their place near the top of the heap and will likely continue to prove why when they face Pittsburgh on August 31st to open the season; that being said, Nick Chubb's history of injury concerns opens the question of Rams in attack, and while Johnny Sexton seems ageless, the Ireland captain did just play a full summer schedule for his country while turning 38. This is an experienced team that has earned two trophies in as many seasons and thrilled on their Final run last spring, but they are in the second position purely as a courtesy to what they have achieved.
3. Metropolitan Rugby Club of New York - On paper, Metropolitan is the most talented club in the league, having only become more so with the addition of young Canadian phenom Jack Edwards to go with France's Antoine Dupont and Texas' Malcolm Brown in the back. "On paper" is how Metropolitan has been described for decades, now (2019 not withstanding), and despite oozing with big names, the roster sheet needs to show actual development, cohesion and ability to work together before they get ranked higher than 3rd, which may be generous as it is.
4. Chicago Bears - Bears hovered around the top three or four spots all season long last campaign and Vic Fangio's outfit did well this offseason to add young talent to what is already one of the younger rosters in the PRA. How far can they go? As far as Scottish and Bears captain Jamie Ritchie can take them, which honestly could likely be to silverware.
5. New York Titans - Titans have, on the field at least, looked better than their more expensive rivals in Manhattan, even if one-and-done playoff appearances the last two years, each time to the eventual Finals champion, have created the impression of a squad that isn't built for May. Nonetheless, Julian Montoya and Chase Young remain two of the best players in the sport and the Titans window remains open, and they've brought in excellent international talent like Wales' Liam Williams or Ireland's James Ryan to fill out an otherwise domestic-heavy side
6. Detroit Panthers - Were Panthers for real as the surging force that nearly pipped a playoff spot from hated rivals Cleveland, or did we get the real Detroit in their messy, midtable sag in the Fall Season? Mitch Peterson burst onto the scene as the second-best scorer in the Championship last year and the club reloaded with the addition of Italian international Luca Morisi at inside center to support him out of the backfield. As of now, we think it's likelier than not that Panthers go to the Play-Off for the first time in eight years, where as Rams proved last season, anything is possible.
7. Eskimos RFC - No disrespect meant to what Eskimos have accomplished the past two seasons, joining the list of clubs that have earned all three trophies available in domestic rugby competition and following up their unprecedented Finals championship in 2022 with a Doritos Cup as the earner of the best regular season record the next year. But this club has been decimated by signings over the offseason, both by PRA rivals - Cardinals nabbing Damon Arnette comes to mind - and foreign clubs. Eskimos has done well to restock the cupboard with loans and signings from the lower two divisions, but as a small-market club they will always struggle to keep up financially with the powerhouses in bigger metropolitan areas. That being said, Eskimos did nearly return to a second straight Finals and their record the last two years speaks for itself - they belong in the hunt until proven otherwise.
8. Chicago Cardinals - Is this the year? A close call last season and the emergence of steady captain Charles Taylor suggests it may well be. Cardinals still haven't seemed to solve all of their problems in the ruck over the summer, choosing to focus more on the quality of defensive talent among their backs, so how often they are able to win scrums consistently may continue to be a problem, but the upside for the South Side is very high, even with their crosstown rivals looking like they are again on the upswing.

 

[KingSweden24]

The 2023 Northern Territory statehood referendum was a public poll held in Northern Territory, Australia, regarding whether or not the territory should become the 8th state of the Commonwealth of Australia. It was the second such referendum to be held, after a narrowly failed vote in October 1996. "Yes" won by nearly a hundred thousand votes and over a twenty point margin over "No;" as a result, the Northern Territory will join Australia as a full state, to be named "Northern Australia," on January 1, 2024.

Statehood had long been thought of as being favorable to Northern Territory, which has both Australia's largest Aboriginal population, is home to its vast uranium reserves which form an increasingly important component of Australia's export-driven economy and mining sector, and has as its capital the city of Darwin, which is the fastest-growing city in Australia and an increasingly critical gateway to the East Indies and Asia. However, its sparse population - only 478,145 at the 2021 Australian census - meant that full statehood would yield a situation where Northern Australia having 12 Senators would mean it would have as much voting influence as populous states such as New South Wales and Victoria with only a fraction of the total population. The 1996 referendum, approved by a Country Liberal government in Northern Territory and by the right-wing National Party government of Prime Minister Paul Hogan in St. George, would have granted the proposed new state three Senators and five Members of Parliament, and was thus opposed by all three major opposition parties - Australian Labor (ALP), Liberal, and Greens. This opposition campaign, in traditionally swingy Northern Territory, helped narrowly defeat the statehood proposal, in part by making it a proxy for public dissatisfaction with the Hogan government's intervention in the Bornean Conflict earlier in the year and the refugee crisis in the Timor Sea that fell disproportionately on the Northern Territory.

However, subsequent efforts to hold further referenda were stymied by a lack of interest in immediately revisiting the issue during the federal Labor government of 2001-08, and territorial Labor governments did not press the issue either, often unable to muster a full majority of the party to support statehood. The return of the Nationals to power in both St. George and Darwin in 2012 brought a new tension, however, as despite Chief Minister Terry Mills' support of statehood and holding a referendum as early as 2014 for "full and proper statehood," he was blocked by the federal government of Prime Minister Bob Katter, who opposed Northern Australian statehood unless Northern Queensland was also granted statehood simultaneously, a positioned vehemently opposed by the opposition. The election of Labor governments both federally and territorially in 2020, and statehood for Northern Territory being a manifesto position for the government of Jim Chalmers, set up a vote, promised by Chalmers to be held no later than September 1, 2023. The referendum was, eventually, set for 28 August 2023, as a constitutional revision in which Northern Australia would join the Commonwealth as a full state with full political rights, including the customary 12 Senators and 5 MPs to which it is entitled as a state.

In a reversal from 1996, Labor strongly supported statehood in the referendum while National opposed; the Liberals and Greens in early August decided, after a vote by members, to support "Yes." Arguments on the "Yes" side revolved largely around fairness, principles of self-governance and ending the "second-class" status of Northern Territorials; "No" argued that it was a ploy by Labor to expand their representation in both Houses of Parliament via Labor-supporting (at the federal level, at least) Northern Territory, and some arguments also leaned on the Territory's heavily Aboriginal and immigrant populations as a reason to vote against. The decisive victory was largely viewed as a major victory for the Chalmers government in its fourth year ahead of elections due in spring of 2024 and raised questions within National about the wisdom of opposing statehood for a region that up to the early 2000s had generally supported the party, particularly in the Darwin/Palmerston area.

 

[KingSweden24]

The 1999 Blayais nuclear power plant flood was a severe nuclear power plant accident that occurred on December 27, 1999 in Gironde, France. Due to an extratropical storm, seawater levels overwhelmed insufficiently-constructed walls at the Blayais Nuclear Power Plant and flooded two of its three then-active reactors (one reactor was closed for repairs), causing a meltdown when the diesel backup generators were also flooded that forced the evacuation of nearly 50,000 people in the immediate vicinity and threatened the evacuation of the nearby city of Bordeaux, a mere 55 kilometers away (and for which the power plant provided electricity, thus plunging the city into a blackout). Radioactive material was released into the air, and it was regarded as a Level 4 incident on the nuclear accident scale developed after the 1984 Clanton, Alabama reactor fire (out of 7 potential levels). The French government was roundly criticized for its handling of the crisis, especially leaving evacuees stranded on buses on the shores of the Garonne for three days without food so that local officials and gendarmes could participate in celebrations for the New Millennium.

While the Blayais flood was not attributed to any deaths and the power plant was operational again by 2003, the incident nonetheless led to a major evaluation of the flood and earthquake risks of nuclear power plants throughout the world and led to new safety precautions being instituted; it would also be cited in pushes to cancel the construction of or close existing plants throughout Europe in the 2000s and 2010s, especially as the Electric Revolution took hold. It also had a negative impact on Bordeaux, which saw a further decrease in its industrial and agricultural output over fears of the nearby plant, compounded by the lengthy French economic crisis of the mid-2000s.

 

[KingSweden24]

The 2012 Canadian federal election was held on November 21, 2012 to elect the Parliament of Canada. The incumbent Co-operative Commonwealth Federation government, led by Paul Dewar as a majority, was defeated and a minority government under the center-right Conservative Party led by John Baird was formed on December 9th with confidence and supply from the right-wing populist Reform Party.

The CCF had, in 2008, won a majority government led by Jack Layton, Prime Minister since 2004 and having added seats in every election since becoming leader two years previously. Despite not being one of the traditional parties of government in Canada, the CCF formed the first single-party majority government in Canada since 1964 thanks to the strongest economy in decades and booming growth in North America, along with Layton's deep personal popularity, and set about - without needing confidence from the centrist Liberals - to fully implement an ambitious social democratic agenda. The CCF was, by summer of 2011, beset by a slowing economy as the global economy (in particular in North America) slumped into recession and then shocked by the sudden death of Layton from inoperable cancer. The outpouring of grief across Canada bolstered the CCF's political standing temporarily, until the election of Foreign Minister Paul Dewar as Layton's permanent replacement in an extraordinary leadership review in December 2011, narrowly defeating Layton acolyte Brian Topp by a narrow margin and presiding over a mourning party as the recession worsened into the first half of 2012. With elections due no later than December 1, Dewar elected to drag out the election as close as possible to the final eligible date, in order to give the economy as much time to recover as possible and to have "closer to a year" as Prime Minister to enjoy some incumbency advantages.

The Tories, meanwhile, had tapped "the reluctant man" John Baird, a chief ally and protege of former Prime Minister Mike Harris as their leader in early 2010 after Harris himself interceded to persuade Baird to run for the job, and at the time of Layton's death the Tories enjoyed their first consistent polling leads in over five years, which they would regain by the spring of 2012 after Dewar's brief bump faded. The centrist Liberals, for their part - having been reduced to a historically poor 8 seats in 2008 - went with Ken Dryden, a former hockey goalie and star candidate from a traditionally Liberal Toronto-area seat, setting up the first election with three Ontarians at the head of the ticket since 1993. Reform, meanwhile, nominated Saskatchewan's David Anderson, a social conservative but economic moderate, as their standard-bearer who focused on rebuilding the caucus in targeted areas.

While the economy improved slowly in the second half of 2012, unemployment remained stubbornly high and wage growth persistently low, blamed by Baird and the Tories on the ambitious "Common Program for Canada" passed by the Layton government after 2008 that had raised taxes and created new, consolidated benefit programs (while also gradually reducing Canada's chronically high deficit and public debt levels). Dewar, while well liked by Canadians, struggled to match Layton's famous energy, while Dryden produced little meaningful opposition. The CCF fell narrowly behind the Tories in polls shortly before the writ was dropped in early October and never regained it, though it would outperform expectations and held on to 84 seats when it had been expected to perhaps fall as low as 70. With a sunny, moderate and disciplined campaign, Baird's Tories won the most seats at 88, and thanks to Reform's small surge in the West (mostly at Tory expense) had just barely enough to form government. Unlike the period 1993-04, in which the Tories and Reform formed formal coalitions with one another and both parties blamed the other for the failure of said coalitions, Baird elected to govern alone after securing a six-point confidence agreement with Reform leader Anderson that had been tentatively worked out by the two leaders before the election via backchannels. Baird would subsequently form a government on December 9, 2012, until his surprise resignation in late 2015 after only three years on the job.

The election was noteworthy as well, however, for the entry into Parliament of the Canadian Action Party, an anti-globalization, populist party that had failed to win any seats in the 2000s but gained a record 7 ridings in 2012, presaging the budding growth of populist politics throughout the rest of the decade.

 

[KingSweden24]

Pupatello Has Her Government Deal - But Stormclouds Loom

With the announcement yesterday of that the Liberals will form a third consecutive government - the first party to do so since the Tory heyday of the Big Blue Machine - one would think that Grits in Queen's Park are excited, but they are quite clearly anything but. This sitting of the Ontario Legislative Assembly will see not just a minority government but the weakest possibly in Ontario history, as Liberals enter with 60 seats and are dependent on a coalition with Mike Schreiner's Greens and confidence from Wayne Gates' Cooperative Commonwealth Federation to reach a majority. It isn't much better for the opposition, of course; Christine Elliot's Tories fell well below expectations even on 55 seats and now face an emboldened, and increasingly right-wing, Canadian Action Party nipping at their heels.

The issue that Pupatello will face, however, is not one purely of numbers - Gates may be an aggressive, strident populist compared to his co-partisan in Prime Minister Peter Julian but he's not going to do anything to cause the Tories to take the reigns at Queen's Park - but also of experience and what it says of the current moment in Ontarian and generally Canadian politics. Pupatello has been Liberal leader since 2012, the second-longest serving person in that position with the exception of her immediate predecessor Gerard Kennedy, who held the title for 16 years himself. In nearly thirty years, the party has had only two leaders, stifling innovation within the party ranks and it looks to be an issue that could only get worse, what with many experienced Liberal Cabinet members having left office via retirement or defeat, including Finance Minister Kevin Flynn, Energy Minister Chris Bentley, Housing Minister Chris Edwards and Natural Resources Minister Bill Mauro. Who, exactly, is "Lady Sandy" grooming to be her successor, if anyone? Having just watched the Liberals shed thirty seats to have a minority government dependent on Greens and Coffers, is she even Premier by the time of the next election? History would suggest "no," but Pupatello ran in 2012 as a repudiation of the Kennedy years despite their good relations during his two majorities and it is well known that she sees the modern Liberal Party as having successfully become the party of choice for centrists, whom she believes to be the dominant force in Ontario politics.

If that is the case, then 2023 marks the great rejection of Pupatello's views on politics. Capable but cold managerial technocracy with a blend of countercyclical spending and tax remediation does not seem to have inspired the Ontarian voters who just gave the Greens 8 seats in Queen's Park and the Cappers 13. The former can be chalked up in part to Gates being a remarkably poor fit for inner-city, wealthy progressive voters who were looking for an alternative to Pupatello and found in Schreiner a Green who doesn't terrify them; indeed, Schreiner's straightforward campaign on exiting the federal cap-and-trade program to impose a simple carbon tax in Ontario and pour subsidies into solar and wind installation sounds less like the utopian West Coast environmentalism to which Canadians are used to and rather seems like lifting a technocratic and soft-liberal page straight from the Brian Sandoval administration south of the border, hardly anybody's idea of a traditional "green" government.

But the latter suggests something darker at play. Under leader Derek Sloan and federal leader Randy Hillier, CAP has shifted from its grab-bag of anti-Americanism and opposition to trade deals to simply being a repository for everybody's angriest, rejectionist policy views. CAP augurs an Ontario where anger over declining industries in eastern, northern and southwestern Ontario are augmented by rage over immigrants from both North America and overseas snapping up property and university slots, and also where Pupatello's well-meaning gay-rights initiative OHRO are soundly rejected by a large swath of the population and engenders backlash nearly four years later. The success of CAP in traditional rural Tory ridings (and more than a few old CCF strongholds) portends a shift to the right by the Tories much like in the 1990s to meet the challenges posed by Reform and the public anger over Quebecois independence, and whether the dull, moderate "Blue Sandy" in Christine Elliott can meet that moment remains to be seen; 2023 suggests that it won't.

And so Pupatello has some strange years ahead. Out of a caucus of 60, only 41 MLAs have experience in the previous Legislature, less than half of her previous majority thus returned, and only 12 of them have served since before 2011, including Pupatello herself. Two Cabinet ministries, including Energy beyond the obvious Environmental portfolio, will go to Greens, in government for the first time in any Canadian province. In the policy document released yesterday on the 28th to announce the coalition government, the first item on Pupatello's list was agreeing to the imposition of a carbon tax to replace carbon trading, a platform that will surely meet with some backlash amongst Ontarian drivers despite record electric vehicle sales this year. As this strange Red-Green coalition advances, however, they will be looking over their shoulders at an emboldened far-right, a frustrated center-right, and a center-left that as it is forced to move on from Gates' failure to advance the CCF to government for the first time in Ontario starts to wonder what this may portend for the federal government's prospects next year...

 

[KingSweden24]

With the kickoff of the wild card games tonight, our quick rundown on the playoff field:

Yankees v. Rainiers - Heart or Head?

The Yankees were the best team in baseball ahead of the All-Star Break before slumping into a late-summer swoon that left them on 97 wins and the fourth seed in the American League, and their reward is the feisty Seattle Rainiers at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night. From a pure talent level, the Yankees are clearly the better team and could well have pipped the Orioles to an AL East title; but the Rainiers finally got the Seals monkey off their back and have nothing but upside to play for, and have excelled in these situations in the past two years in dispatching the White Sox and Indians in road wild card games. Will New York be the next victim?

Phillies v. Cubs - Talent Galore

The Cubs are exactly where they want to be, in the playoffs with a chance to sneak into the NLCS, if they can get past Philadelphia first. Both of these teams had similar seasons, the clear second-best outfit in their division but hanging in tight to make sure they qualified, and Chicago especially dazzled with not one but two sweeps of the Braves in September against a team regarded as the best in baseball at the end of the year. Damian Perreira has a good case for NL MVP and Philadelphia's bullpen oozes with talent; the Cubs batters against that pitching staff will be appointment viewing.

Dodgers - Glory Restored?

Brooklyn fans can rejoice in the Giants narrowly failing to beat the Cubs to the final Wild Card spot over the weekend thanks to defeats at Pittsburgh after five straight seasons of 100-win clubs. For the Dodgers, who won 100 games and the first seed in the National League playoffs, this will be a crucial test to see if they can restore some balance in the NL East and prove that they belong on baseball's biggest stage again after the sharp decline from the 2011-14 dynasty and several bad September and October chokes since then.

Orioles - A Complete Team?

Baltimore has dazzled all year and looked often like the best team in baseball - certainly best in the weaker AL, as their top seed would imply - but questions abound about the quality of the pitching and whether a banged-up club has enough juice for all of October. The O's, if nothing else, have a young group that has nothing but upside, but after nabbing 100 wins and their first division title in nine years, a trip to the Fall Classic is regarded as the only result that will not end in disappointment for this group.

Braves - Window Closing?

The narrative in Milwaukee all season, even after adding major free-agency signings, is that this may be the last window for the talented group that has kept the Braves in the playoffs for years and won the 2017 World Series. One wonders if that thought will start to go to their heads, especially after a rough second half of September dropped the Braves from pace to 106 wins to merely 100, and the Dodgers took tiebreakers for the top seed. On the other hand, they would avoid either of the hot Phillies or Cubs in the NLDS this way, and the Diamondbacks, quality or not, don't match up well with Milwaukee. But there is certainly hope of more than merely another NLCS exit at Pabst Park.

Zephyrs - A New Dynasty?

Colorado looks absolutely stacked between Matt Hutton, Rudy Rivera, and Leung Fan-chung and after dethroning mighty San Francisco for its first playoff appearance since 2018 and a second seed, the Z's should be favored against the Twins starting Thursday evening. While we still think Baltimore or New York are the teams to beat this fall, don't sleep on a Zephyrs run to the World Series eight years after their Cinderella story ended in heartbreak at the hands of Pittsburgh.

 

[KingSweden24]

A Stark Choice for the Confederate States

Michael Robbins is a fairly typical Georgia voter, especially in rural Coffee County - a devout Baptist, works in agriculture-related machinery repair, divorced with four children, and is warm and personable at the counter of a diner in his hometown of Douglas, where he has lived his entire life. Robbins is also precisely the kind of voter whom the two main candidates for the Presidential election on November 7th are hoping to sway - instinctually conservative and gettable by the right message, but suspicious of "politicians and their ilk," as he phrases it over a cup of black coffee and a plate of grits.

Just two weeks out from the polls, the 2023 Confederate election looks to be a coin flip - it shouldn't be. Over the last six years, President Doug Jones' United Center - a vaguely centrist, big-tent outfit with a strong center-left tradition - has governed prudently, cautiously and successfully. Economic growth in the Confederacy has been stronger than anywhere else on the North American continent; GDP per capita has increased almost 50% in five of the CSA's eleven states by official estimates. The country is experiencing a manufacturing renaissance, especially in light metals, electronics and increasingly machine goods. In cities like Richmond, Charlotte and Atlanta, cranes and construction crews are everywhere; the tourist industry in sunny Florida has never been stronger. The country's agricultural output has broken records of exports and their value. By any straightforward measure, United Center should be running away with the election, and its candidate - outgoing Mississippi Governor James "Jim" Hood - be considered the strong favorite.

But such measures are not straightforward, and Hood is in a close-run fight with the candidate of right-wing Christian Appeal, Al Mohler, a Baptist pastor with no previous electoral or government experience. Christian Appeal is aided by the decision of far-right National Renewal not to run a Presidential candidate, and Mohler has narrowly tied or trailed Hood in several polls, closing strong in the final month on a platform of stark social conservatism and vague, populist promises of patronage.

What explains the disconnect? Part is the increasing irrelevancy of the traditional center-right Citizens Party, which has never recovered from being associated with the devastation of Hurricane Kimberly in 2005 and the subsequent socioeconomic fallout; for the first time since its foundation in 1991, Citizens will not field a Presidential candidate, party leaders anticipate that it may have as few as ten Congressmen after the fall elections, less than the Black-interest Rainbow Coalition. Many former Citizens voters have already been absorbed into United Center, but that only tells half the story.

The other is that despite improving race relations, known colloquially as Reconciliation, since the Carter Protocol in 1992 and the end of de jure segregation in the mid-1990s thereafter, Black Confederates remain a distinct underclass; they on average make about half as much as white neighbors with similar profiles, and have an unemployment rate triple the national average and a poverty rate more than double, a staggering figure in a fairly poor country. Rainbow, the political movement for peace founded by Jesse Jackson, has been riven by infighting for years following the corruption prosecution of his namesake son, and conservative and progressive Black leaders have largely split, with many conservative Black voters open to voting for Christian Appeal.

This would be an alarming development - for the first time since Christian Appeal's emergence in the mid-1980s, the party has begun to abandon its commitment to Reconciliation. Former President Mike Huckabee, the only member of the party to win the office of chief executive, has suggested that Reconciliation "has been achieved" and "we should focus on other issues now;" those are not comforting words from the man who successfully built connections between white and Black Baptist conservatives across the Confederacy to make his two runs for the Presidency potent machines of religious organizing but also bridge strained communities post-electorally and set up well for the Jones era. Troublingly, many CA candidates have avoided condemning Renewal and its affiliated paramilitaries, many of which are explicitly religious-nationalist in nature and represent the Fellowship terrorist organization that reached such infamy at the turn of the Millennium.

The Confederacy, with its high birthrates and relatively young average age, has a growing population that is increasingly not emigrating abroad (or returns home after leaving) and also has less collective memory of the blood-soaked paramilitary violence of the 1980s and 1990s or the tragedies carried out by the Fellowship, much of which was drawn from paramilitary rank, years later. The peace that has dominated Confederate society and politics for the last twenty years is enduring but fragile, and the increasing unwillingness of CA to defend it for short-term political expediency is cause for concern. Hood's campaign has hit positive notes about economic growth and optimism ahead, but Black turnout is a mounting concern, especially with a push from several major Rainbow figures demanding a pardon or promise thereof for Jackson Jr. from Jones in the next two weeks before they hand over the keys to their political organization. Interesting times are ahead for the Confederate States...

 

[KingSweden24]

The shaky start of the Olympic System, and the focus on making piecemeal expansions to the extant lines finished upon its completion, has led to a notable lack of major capital invest in fully new line operations. The extensions to Redmond, Kirkland, Des Moines, Tukwila, and the Renton Landing were all done to tie existing lines into (or near to) emerging residential and commercial nodes or transportation infrastructure such as the Soundrail S-train system. After the Olmypics, new leadership in both Seattle and Olympia passed new, comprehensive transportation packages - to address intercity, regional and S-train rail rather than the subway, and STS placed focus on the bus network. By the time new bond authority was released to expand the network, a "circulator" streetcar in downtown and then streetcars up Beacon Hill and down Rainier Avenue were the choices instead, operating from the vicinity of the King Street Complex along Jackson Street rather than new rail tunnels for the Subway. The largest initiative, in fact, was to rebuild and expand many stations to integrate them into new developments adjacent, expand retail mezzanines, install modern escalators and other updates.

This changed with the 2015 agreement between STS and King County to develop two new lines starting in Issaquah, a suburb about 27 kilometers east of Seattle and a major, growing jobs and residential node. The first line, with stops on the south side of the I-90 freeway in downtown Issaquah, would then connect to the Eastgate neighborhood of Bellevue and the Sunset Mills redevelopment before splitting in two - Line 14 would then join the Downtown Bellevue line trackage, and Line 15 would continue west, towards Seattle and across the West Seattle Bridge, where it would split from the two current lines using that trackage into a new tunnel under central West Seattle, with stops at the West Seattle Triangle, Alaska Junction, and Juneau Street in a tunnel under California Avenue before extending down to the Washington State Ferries Fauntleroy terminal. Line 15 would thus connect the metropolitan area east-west, allowing one to ride from the last major suburb before the Cascades all the way to ferry services across the Puget Sound.

Controversy followed the choice to build this routing followed almost immediately. It was lost on few that Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley, two lower-income neighborhoods of the central city, were given streetcars that on some portions of the route were made to share the road with personal vehicles, while fully grade-separated Subway services were being sent to affluent areas such as Issaquah or West Seattle. Both Kirkland and Redmond wanted to be the end-point of the Line 14 route as well, to benefit from more frequent service, and downtown Bellevue would thus have a train every two minutes on the center of its trunk route.

STS eventually compromised with every other Line 14 train going to either Kirkland or Redmond rather than one or the other, and reworked their timetables to account for Line 14 opening earlier than Line 15 - on October 30, 2023, the train launched for the first time, with full revenue service beginning on November 3. Line 15 was more complicated - Seattle's frustration over the streetcar controversy made an issue and the tunneling under West Seattle was delayed in an eerie replay of the Olympic Lines, and the utility of extending service all the way to the ferry terminal and the necessary property acquisitions around Lenihan Park were raised. The line is currently expected to open in the spring of 2025, nearly eighteen months after originally planned, at which point riders disembarking from the ferry can ride with a single transfer to downtown Seattle, the airport, or the "secondary" regional downtown at Bellevue, or a host of other destinations.

--

Beyond Lines 14 and 15, it is unclear what exactly is next for STS. A program to refurbish twenty stations by 2030 is in the works, as is a pilot for driverless trains currently underway on the Capitol Hill Circulator (Line 6) that is staunchly opposed by the transit operators union but supported by a number of transit development organizations. The only planned extension is building out Line 12 further into Kirkland from its current Rose Hill terminus, likely to be completed by 2030-31 once final route approval is completed. Extensions further north in Richmond from the Westminster Triangle and further south from Highline College in Des Moines are considered high-priority for study; a brand-new Line 16 running east-west on 85th street as a secondary "cross-city line" has been proposed, but is regarded as a difficult project to approve and construct. Some advocates continue to suggest that investing more in Soundrail regional services that would allow higher frequencies, larger trains and better interconnection outside of King County is the better program to pursue, rather than having the Subway take on some S-train adjacent features; others note that the Seattle Subway, soon with fifteen lines and 138 stations, is a remarkably mature "system" by international standards for a metropolitan area of its size, even without taking into account the Soundrail lines, and that further pedestrianization and bicycle infrastructure in a city considered the national leader in such efforts is more important than further lines that already cover most places where they could reasonably be needed.

 

[KingSweden24]

Inés Arrimadas (born 3 July 1981) is a Spanish lawyer and politician who is currently serving as the Prime Minister of Spain, after her appointment to that position by King Ferdinand VIII of Spain on July 2, 2023. A member of the National Liberal Party (PLN), Arrimadas served as the party's leader in the Commonwealth of Catalonia from 2014 until 2015, when she was elected to the Cortes Generales, and was the Foreign Minister in the government of Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon until his resignation on May 28, 2023, after which she was elected Prime Minister by a vote of the parliamentary group on June 30 and invested by the King two days later.

Born in Asturias, Arrimadas worked professionally after university in Barcelona, and as such is the first National Liberal Prime Minister since Juan Prim to be associated with Catalonia either by birth or residency and the first National Liberal Prime Minister to speak Catalan with any degree of fluency. A member of Liberal Youth, she was first elected to the regional assembly, the Parliament of Catalonia, in the 2011 regional elections after failing to qualify in 2007, and following the resignation of Alicia Sanchez-Camacho in November of 2014, she was elected at the age of only 33 to be the head of the PLN's Catalonian branch. In a province traditionally hostile to the party, Arrimadas led a moribund party organization from the fourth-largest party to the second-largest party in the May 2015 regional elections to become the official opposition to the ruling PSOE-led coalition that had been in charge since 2003. Springboarding off of these efforts, Arrimadas led the PLN to be the largest party in Catalonia at the federal elections of October 2015 by one seat ahead of the PSOE in the left's heartland, and she was elected to the Cortes Generales on the same ballot, rapidly emerging as a rising star within the party organization. In opposition, she held the critic portfolios of Labor, Women's Issues, and finally Foreign Affairs. In the 2018 party leadership elections she declined to run; she was regarded as a favorite of many party members, but was disliked by the more conservative MPs and regional caciques whose support was required to go to a membership vote. She supported Inigo de la Serna in the initial race but endorsed Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, the former Mayor of the City of Madrid and President of the Madrid Region, ahead of the member vote after de la Serna was eliminated.

The PLN won the 2020 federal elections after fifteen years in opposition, defeating the PSOE-led coalition government of Beatriz Corredor. Arrimadas was made Foreign Minister by Prime Minister Ruiz-Gallardon. As Foreign Minister, Arrimadas returned to an Amerophile posture in contrast to the Europhile policy of Josep Borrell and Corredor. The priorities of the Spanish government were re-enforcing ties to the Spanish Caribbean and reinvigorating the broader Hispanidad; Arrimadas also made it a priority to enhance Spanish relations with the United States, which shortly before the successful formation of the Ruiz-Gallardon government elected its first-ever President of Hispanic descent, Brian Sandoval. In her capacity, in addition to spearheading negotiations on trade agreements between the United States and Spain as well as the broader Hispanidad, Arrimadas made a record number of foreign trips during her first year in the job but scrutiny was applied as part of the broader government expenses scandals of 2022 that badly hurt the Ruiz-Gallardon cabinet and saw multiple resignations. Arrimadas' lack of input on domestic policy, however, preserved her personal popularity both with the party membership and the general public as the Ruiz-Gallardon's austerity policies and shift right on social matters damaged it, and the potential of her to be appointed Prime Minister arose in the January 2023 government crisis following the resignation of Finance Minister Luis Garicano and several other Cabinet members and junior ministers; her decision not to resign was seen as preventing the collapse of the government.

Following the May 28, 2023 regional and local elections in which the PLN had the worst performance by an incumbent party since the introduction of the fixed regional and local elections in 1975 - in which the PLN lost six regional governments and retained only two and lost strongholds including the Madrid Region Assembly which they had held since 1995, the Madrid City Council, which they had held since 1983, and the Region of Valencia, which they had held since 1991 - Ruiz-Gallardon announced shortly after results began trickling in that he would resign as Prime Minister and leader of the PLN effective immediately. Several major PLN figures declined to run and endorsed Arrimadas on the 30th, leading to speculation that Arrimadas had planned for this eventuality and secured support since January, including that of Garicano, who was the first to announce his support. Arrimadas defeated Juan Marin, Francisco Igea and Albert Rivera in the MPs vote with 60.2%, thus securing the three-fifths majority needed under party rules to avoid a vote of the membership. She appointed Garicano Foreign Minister upon her investiture by King Ferdinand on July 2 as her replacement but otherwise retained the Ruiz-Gallardon Cabinet; on November 1, 2023, she dramatically reshuffled her Cabinet and reduced the number of portfolios from twenty to fourteen, the smallest Cabinet since 1925. Since coming to power, Arrimadas has reversed several austerity measures of the Ruiz-Gallardon government, and during the October 2023 Bolivian-Argentine border crisis, her government along with that of Cuba and the United States attempted to act as mediators, favoring the Argentine position.

 

[KingSweden24]

Peter Gordon MacKay (born September 27, 1965) is a Nova Scotian diplomat, lawyer and politician who is the incumbent Prime Minister of Nova Scotia. A member of the Conservative Party, MacKay was the first, and to date only, Nova Scotian to have also served as Chairman of the Atlantic Council (the de facto executive of the supranational Atlantic Union) and previously served as the Foreign Minister of Nova Scotia. Upon the conclusion of his time as head of the Atlantic Council in Saint John, he was elected as head of the Conservative Party upon the resignation of Karla MacFarlane.

MacKay's father Elmer was a judicial figure and Cabinet officer in the provincial government of John Buchanan in the 1980s and was an aide in Buchanan's negotiations with the Canadian government and the Liberal Cabinet of Frank McKenna in New Brunswick to exit Confederation in 1992 following the Quebec independence referendum. MacKay was elected to replace his father from his New Glasgow-based seat in the 1998 Nova Scotia elections, and the Tories won government in 2000 after seven years out of power under John Hamm. MacKay was invited to enter Cabinet in early 2002 as Minister of Economic Development, and was widely praised for his role there in helping Nova Scotia navigate the 2002 financial crisis and early 2000s global recession; despite his efforts, deindustrialization and rural flight continued. MacKay was thought of as a likely successor to Hamm and throughout 2006 was held up as the longtime leader's likeliest replacement; however, he backed Foreign Minister Gerald Keddy to the surprise of many in the Februay 2007 leadership contest and was appointed to replace Keddy at the Foreign Office soon thereafter. As Nova Scotia's chief diplomat, MacKay continued Keddy's policy of building further ties to the United States and was crucial in negotiating the 2008 free trade agreement between the Atlantic Union and the United States and helping advocate, along with Atlantic Council Chair Trevor Holder, the accession of the entire AU to the North American Free Travel Area in 2011, which came into effect on January 31, 2014. Upon the end of Holder's five-year term in 2015, MacKay was voted as Chair of the Atlantic Council even though it had been suspected he was planning to replace Keddy within the next 18 months.

MacKay's Amerophilic foreign policy continued at the Atlantic Council and he was regarded as a more low-key figure than predecessors such as McKenna or Brian Tobin; he was the first Nova Scotian in the role, and was controversial both for decisions that drew the AU further from its position within the Commonwealth and towards the United States, and for decisions perceived as favoring Nova Scotia at the expense of the other three members of the Union. At the end of his five years in Saint John, he returned to practice law in Halifax and was unanimously elected as the new head of the Conservative Party in December 2021, running in a by-election two months later to reclaim his old seat. In the 2023 Nova Scotian elections, MacKay moved the Tories back to their traditional ground of the center and defeated the incumbent center-left government of the Social Democrats' Gary Burrill on a populist campaign manifesto promising tax rebates for poor Nova Scotians, investments in housing, hospitals and renewable energy, a moratorium on school closures and thousands of dollars in road reconstruction.

 

[KingSweden24]

Group A

The hosts opened play at the Deutsches Stadion in Berlin with the Imperial family in attendance over a hapless Romania, whom they defeated 4-0, setting the stage for what would be an absolute boatracing of their group in taking full points on 11 goals for and 0 against. Denmark, despite a 3-0 loss to the hosts in the final match of the group in Hamburg where a massive Danish contingent was present, was able to squeeze out quality results in Leipzig against Romania and defeated fellow Scandinavian rival Finland 3-1 after falling behind at the 5th minute to advance out of the Group Stage for the first time in twenty years.

Group B

Still smarting from their devastating semifinal loss on home soil to Germany in the 2016 World Cup, France entered the tournament with the No.3 world ranking behind Germany and the 2016 runners-up Italy ready to deal out a comeuppance to both of their archrivals, an endeavor made difficult early with a 1-0 loss to Poland in their opening match at Munich off a Robert Lewandowski goal. France recovered in their next two games, however, allowing no goals and putting a cumulative nine points past not only a weak Greece but defeating an otherwise stout Croatian midfield; indeed, the 4-0 annihilation France but upon the Croats in Frankfurt represented the only goals allowed by Croatia in the entire group stage. Despite their early showing against France, however, injuries accumulated in that match and against Croatia saw once-sturdy Poland falter and collapse into the final match, and a scoreless draw between Greece and Croatia in the first match proved decisive as Croatia advanced on goal difference.

Group C

Despite a disappointing early exit in 2016, Great Britain entered the 2018 Euros with endless ambition, thanks to the striking duo of Gareth Bale and Harry Kane and a tough defense anchored in by Andy Robertson, Kyle Walker and Harry Maguire. And indeed, save for a 2-2 draw to a strong and young Spain side in Dresden, Britain looked back on dominant form for most of the group stage, taking clean sheets against the 2016 fourth-place Swedes and Austria. Spain, for its part, also took care of business, defeating both Sweden and Austria 1-0 with both of the decisive goals in each match courtesy of Alvaro Morata. Sweden's second-match win over Austria in Munich in what can charitably be called a very hostile environment secured them third place in the group.

Group D

In a tournament missing traditional powers like Bohemia, Hungary, Netherlands, Portugal and Russia, sides like Serbia (having missed 2010 and 2014) and Iceland (debutants) qualified and were both drawn into a group with defending silver medalist Italy from the 2016 World Cup and No.2 FIFA ranked side. Italy proved why it held said ranking in decisively blasting its way through Group D, taking a 10-0 goal differential - topped only by Germany's 11-0 - and full points as it never once looked threatened by the competition. For the other three teams, it came down to who could scrap out in a fairly even trio, and Serbia surprised to the upside, scoring three goals against Iceland in its opening match and being the one team to play a relatively competitive 2-0 match against Italy. After a dire 0-0 draw between Switzerland and Iceland, Serbia was guaranteed to go ahead with its defeat of Switzerland in Cologne, and it advanced to the quarterfinals of the European Championships for the first time in the history of the national side.

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(Special thanks to @NTF aka Seb for helping and explaining to me in detail how to actually make these kinds of Group Stage wikiboxes!)

 

[KingSweden24]

Takeaways one month in

One month in to the Hockey League's run to the Stanley Cup Finals, we have our first takeaways of the season - and they may surprise you.

Cleveland Barons Stay Hot - The defending Champions have not missed a bit in the first month of play, quietly winning ten of twelve games and leading the Hockey League in scoring. They haven't entered the meat of their schedule yet, but so far, the same group that hoisted Cleveland's first Stanley Cup last spring and partnered with the Rams to end the city's twenty-two year sports drought are looking just as good as they did then, if not better.
Quakers For Real - It would be remiss not to point out, though, that the Barons are not the best team in their own conference. After missing the playoffs five straight seasons, Philadelphia has won their first thirteen games, accumulated full points, and if the playoffs started today would be far and away leaders for the President's Cup. They are the first team since the 1996 Red Wings to open a season with thirteen wins and are closing in on the 2006 Red Wings' record of sixteen straight wins. How are they doing it? By playing tough, defensive hockey and winning on breakaways and steals. That dependence on opportunities rather than scoring power is likely not sustainable, but what a start to the season nonetheless, a run that so far augurs two of the best squads in the history of the modern sport. That being said, there are plenty of cases that urge caution; Montreal opened with eleven straight wins in 2019-20 and won sixteen of seventeen to begin their campaign, and they failed to advance to the Playoff.
Canucks Back? - The Vancouver Canucks of the early 2010s are one of the few groups that can make a reasonable challenge to second place in the Hockey League of the last 30 years behind the Red Wings dynasty of 1995-08. Winning back-to-back Presidents' Trophies and Stanley Cups - the only team to ever do so, considering that the Trophy is generally regarded as a curse - the Canucks blasted their way to consecutive 120 point seasons and in 2011 did not lose a Playoff game until the seven-game classic Finals against Boston. The current group looks eerily reminiscent, already having raced out to 24 points - just one behind the Quakers - and a head and shoulders lead in the West with nobody else even close. This promising start looks balanced enough to carry the day, and at least build a strong points bank ahead of the Playoff.
What's Wrong in Edmonton? - In sharp contrast, last year's first seed (indeed, first seed the last four years) in the West is mired in seventh place and does not look ready to attempt to avenge its heartbreaking loss in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals to Cleveland last spring. Connor McDavid has suffered numerous injuries, and the defense cannot stop anything. The only consolation is that other Playoff teams from the West from last year like Seattle and Los Angeles are similarly struggling early, suggesting a conference-wide shakeup, but Oilers had high ambitions to win the club's first Stanley Cup after coming so close to the silverware. What a hangover.
First to Worst? - What a difference eighteen months make. In late May of 2022, the Totems were hoisting their fourth Stanley Cup since 2007 and fifth in club history, sending Henrik Lundqvist off with one last championship in his remarkable but uneven swansong season. Today, they are in last place in the West, having won a single game and unable to stop anyone after making the Western Semis last year. While Sidney Crosby is still a solid scorer, even he is showing his age, and it may be time to cashier some of the veterans of this decorated squad that is up there with the Red Wings, Canucks and Sabres of the world as 21st century powerhouses and start from scratch.

 

[KingSweden24]

The 2018 UEFA European Championship, for marketing purposes known as Euro '18, was a senior football tournament hosted in Germany from June 15 to July 8, 2018. It was Germany's second time hosting, having held the 1982 edition, which they also won; Germany won tournament with a defeat of Italy 3-1 at the final in Berlin's Deutsches Stadion.

Germany's bid to host was chosen by UEFA on September 1, 2012, controversially only twelve years after it had hosted the 2000 FIFA World Cup on home soil; due to an ongoing economic recession in Europe and the enormous controversy over the then-preceding 2012 FIFA World Cup in China and the conditions of Chinese stadia and other infrastructure as well as corruption allegations, UEFA awarded Germany the hosting rights over bids by Spain and Ireland. Germany selected ten venues for the final tournament, nine of which had been used in the 2000 World Cup and was thus regarded as needing minimal upgrades or investments (Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Dresden, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Gelsenkirchen, and Cologne). Three stadia that were used in 2000 (Konigsberg, Breslau, and Kaiserslautern) were not used, while Leipzig was selected as a venue for group stage matches. The inclusion of both Leipzig and Dresden in the final venue selection, with both cities in Saxony, was later revealed to be part of a broader scheme by the Social Democratic Party-led governments of both Saxony and the German Reichstag to steer Euro-related funds to friendly contractors and labor unions ahead of general elections in fall 2016 in Saxony, and led to the defeat of the SPD both in Saxony and nationally a year later in a massive controversy. No new stadia were built for the tournament, though major upgrades and renovations were carried out at all facilities including adding luxury suites and new concessions concourses, but several transportation projects, including the completion of new airport terminals at Frankfurt and Hamburg, were expedited in addition to the Frankfurt-Stuttgart high speed rail, in anticipation of the tournament. The tournament wound up being the most-attended in UEFA history, and was seen as a major economic boost in Germany from millions of additional visitors and tourists over the course of the summer.

Germany became the first team to win a second consecutive European championship and also three major tournaments (Euro 2014, World Cup 2016, and Euro 2018), and put together arguably one of the most dominant tournament performances in the history of the sport, accumulating 19 goals in six matches while keeping five consecutive clean sheets until the Final. While five players would end on four goals apiece, Germany's Timo Werner won the Golden Boot due to the number of minutes played and his four assists; in total, nine different Germans scored goals. The tournament was notable for the semifinal run of Serbia, traditionally a minnow in European football, where they were defeated in the Bronze Medal match by France. As Germany had already qualified for the 2019 FIFA Confederations Cup by virtue of winning the 2016 World Cup, runners-up Italy were invited to that tournament to represent UEFA.

 

[KingSweden24]

Rugby USA's Self-Made Disaster

November 24, 2023

It would be hard to think of a series of events that more crystallize the state of American rugby than the chain reaction of debacles this past autumn culminating in Wednesday's pre-Thanksgiving disaster in Philadelphia, where for the first time in history the men's rugby team were defeated - albeit narrowly - by Mexico on American soil. That one of North America's minnows would defeat United States not only on home soil but in one of the holy cradles of the sport, the same field where in less than two years the Rugby World Cup Final will be held as a preview for the 2026 Summer Olympics, is a debacle of historic proportions, but perhaps one we should have seen coming.

The dumpster fire that is currently Rugby USA has been years in the making and runs up and down to every echelon of the sport, and insiders at Rugby USA's headquarters in New York compare the situation now to the state of the game in the late 1960s. Rugby had always been considered elitist but even in the more staid social mores of the day, it was a sport for snooty college kids and the Pro Rugby Association was an afterthought once players graduated university. Not only that, but USA's heyday of the 1920s and early 1950s were plainly over as the national team got regularly rocked in test rugby, infamously failing to defeat the Confederacy in seven consecutive attempts that decade and dropping results to then-minnows of the sport such as Texas or West Indies. Generation '47 and the politically-charged triumph at Richmond National in 1971 changed the sensibility of the sport entirely; gold at the 1973 World Cup made rugby stars such as Orenthal Simpson, Calvin Hill, Mercury Morris and Ronnie Johnson household names. In the 1980s, the flamboyant and mercurial Rugby USA president Andrew Fleming transformed the game, getting it on not just CBS but other major networks and then revolutionized the game again by landing it on both SportsNet and Turner Sports, the two cable sports channels of the time. Rugby was now a populist sport; in 1995, it beat baseball for aggregate viewership for the first time at both the college and pro levels.

Former Rugby USA scouting director Mike Novak suggests that Fleming's semi-forced retirement in 2002 was the first chink in the armor. USA won the 1989 and 1993 World Cups and came close to glory in '97; a quarterfinal exit in 2001 caused panic on Fifth Avenue in New York and Fleming fell on the sword, though rumor had it he'd been under the gun for years at that point. USA's three straight finals thereafter, with one win in 2009, papered over a lot of the issues with player development and the increasing reliance on foreign players in the PRA, which was a huge commercial success but meant that internationals, especially Europeans from outside the Home Nations, no longer were at a disadvantage against those with experience in the American or Australian leagues when it came to international test rugby. As such, 2013 remains the last time the United States advanced out of the pool stage at the World Cup; based on Wednesday's travesty, they could become the first World Cup host to fail to place on home soil.

The issue is compounded by a simmering issue in the Rose Bowl Playoff, where three weeks ago the Ivy League and Big East League voted to withdraw from Rugby USA's sponsored level of collegiate play and participate in university rugby with the other twelve Division-1 IAA leagues that have never partaken in the Rose Bowl Playoff. In and of itself, this is not an issue - the automatic playoff slots given to the champions of the Ivy and the Big East have been a source of contention for the other six leagues that partake in the Rose Bowl Playoff - but rather signals a shifting era, in which the draw and money that flows with college rugby may be ebbing, and it makes less sense for storied programs such as Harvard, Yale, Providence or DePaul to keep at it against the likes of Michigan, Washington or Ohio State. This is less a financial disaster and more a sign of the times; rugby is not the draw it once was.

The disaster against Mexico follows a poor showing at the Crystal Crown this summer, and suggests once again that USA is wasting the talents of generational players like Travis Kelce or Saquon Barkley and falling further behind CSA, Texas and Argentina despite vastly more resources. Rugby USA President Randy Fowler is under heavy pressure this weekend, to be sure; his survival after the ugly 2023 that American rugby has had, especially with viewership numbers well down for the PRA, would be further evidence that the leadership of the sport in this country is unserious about digging it out of its hole.

 

[KingSweden24]

It's here - the time when the field for the 2024 FIFA World Cup in Great Britain is set. Every confederation has their participants locked, with some surprises (debutants Newfoundland, in particular) on who made it and some for who didn't (Denmark, Texas, even Colombia). 32 teams will know their group fates on December 8th at the draw at Royal Albert Hall - but for now, we can rank the field based on strength and how we think they'll perform.

32. Newfoundland - An obvious choice at the back of the list, if only because of how unproven they are. Newfoundland not only made it into CONAFA's final Hex round of qualifiers for the first time, but then rode a four-match winning streak to pip a collapsing Texas to the World Cup on goal difference, landing just a point behind defending champions Mexico. This is a fun team of players who even most serious fans of the game probably wouldn't recognize - Kevin Keane, Michael O'Connell, and several others are not exactly household names even as they dazzled CONAFA observers over the last several months - with nothing but upside to play for, similar to Iceland eight years ago in France. Can they advance into the knockouts? Probably not once they are subjected to firepower from opposing sides, but we said that about Iceland '16, too.
31. Kamerun - Can one of Africa's mainstays make a splash in their first World Cup appearance in twenty years? Kamerun dazzled world football in 2000 in Germany by becoming the first (and, to date, only) African side to advance to a quarterfinal; their hoped-for encore four years later would probably be best not to talk about. Karl Ekambi and Christopher Wooh are talented players who can find the net and have ample experience in the Reichsliga; Kamerun's defense is what will make or break this side, and an advance on away goals against Egypt leaves them with an unpromising future.
30. Vietnam - Making their second-ever appearance - previously placing third in their group in France eight years ago - is Vietnam, who made a creditable campaign in their group. Outside of Nguyen Phuoc Duan, the team lacks much in offensive firepower but made Saigon National Arena a terrible place to play for opponents with a boisterous home crowd and one of the stingiest defenses. Vietnam could easily get three points again in a group, as it was three years ago; it may be by collecting three straight 0-0 or 1-1 draws.
29. Switzerland - Switzerland has the ignonimous distinction of being considered - and not just considered, being - UEFA's weakest link, shuffled off into a separate pot from her European brethren thanks to her current FIFA ranking. A team that scrapped and clawed its way into qualification can never be ruled out, but a national side that placed fourth in group in her last two tournaments after previously failing to qualify in 2004, 2008 or 2012 is not a group one can expect to go very far in the contest, especially if the injury sustained in the final qualifying match with Serbia by Renato Steffen is as serious as it looked.
28. South Africa - South Africa pretenses to a status of "Africa's Team," or at least could do so when it was one of the few African sides that could regularly make the World Cup with consistency. This group doesn't look as strong, with Danny Barron one of the few players of note, and struggles against Algeria and Cabinda in qualifiers warrant questioning quality.
27. Turkey - The Red Moons are back in the World Cup after a twenty-four year absence, the longest interregnum of any non-debutant at Britain '24 after only Norway and only their third World Cup since 1988 and fourth in history, a surprising statistic considering the talent that the Turks have often produced. Xherdan Shaqiri remains the dogged, reliable star up front and Hakan Calhonoglu is an outstanding captain in the midfield who has collected plenty of silverware with Inter Milan. Turkey looked decent, though hardly world-conquering, in qualifiers and expectations for their advancing out of knockouts for the first time in team history will be nonexistent, giving them the opportunity to play loose, fun football on behalf of their loyal and obsessive fans back home that should appeal to neutrals unfamiliar with a raft of talented young up-and-comers from the Superliga; just don't expect to see these high-scoring but defensively porous Red Moons after the group stage.
26. Sweden - The stout Sweden sides of yesteryear look gone, replaced by a group that limped into 2024 having failed to qualify for Euro 2022 on the back of a fourth-place finish in 2016 and quarterfinal exit in 2020. The decline was arrested long enough by Marcus Berg, Emil Forsberg and company to scrape their way into Britain (which is more than rivals Denmark, themselves semifinalists but four years ago, can say), but it seems unlikely to be enough with green youth prospects with little high-level experience as the core of this group.
25. Chile - La Roja returns to the world stage with a young, untested group lacking many of the stars of the early-2010s generation that went to two World Cups. After two straight absences, Chile managed to pip Colombia to the final qualifying spot after the latter's collapse when it seemed like both teams would inadvertently throw away terrific chances to go to Britain. The ageless Alexis Sanchez will enjoy another trip to the World Cup sixteen years after his debut, certainly, and Chile can scrap with the best of opponents with a young, ambitious group of rising South American talent, but this may be a group two or four years earlier from its absolute potential.
24. Venezuela - Having made its World Cup debut four years ago, a country better known for its baseballing dominance surprisingly beat archrivals Colombia to the final qualifying spot in the CONMEBOL and then some, placing ahead of Chile on goal difference thanks to a 4-1 beatdown of Bolivia in the final matchday. With mainstays like Tomas Rincon and Salomon Rondon now in their mid-30s, this could be something of a last hurrah for a group that played well at Mexico '20 for debutants but could, quite credibly, make some noise with a favorable draw.
23. Ecuador - Ecuador were simply outstanding in qualifying, after losing their opening three matches to Brazil, Argentina and Colombia they would not lose another match and managed to arrive at third place behind the two traditional continental powers. Ecuador has advanced out of the group stage once, at Brazil '04, only to be bounced out immediately by France thanks a cruel and controversial goal. This group hopes to make a creditable run in Europe, where South American teams often do less than outstanding in results, to make up for several frustrating outings since. If Enner Valencia remains fit, they could well do it.
22. Iran - Team Melli are known for three things - defense, more defense, and even more defense. They allowed all of two goals in the last round of qualifying, but that was decisive as Japan scored those two goals in twin 1-0 wins to top their group. Iran's player development is regarded as top notch, and for once they have scoring potential in Mehdi Taremi and Sardar Azmoun up top. Will it matter? It's hard to say, but if Iran was ever to escape the group stage, this would likely be the group to do it.
21. Japan - The Samurai Blue are a long ways from the 2012 glory run to the World Cup Final, but topping a group that included Iran, Philippines and increasingly-potent India to get here is no joke. Mercurial youngster Ryuji Yamada may in time be the best player in the history of Japan, already gunning for Keisuke Honda's records, and Britain will be a tremendous showcase for the controversial and brash winger to show what he can do on the world stage. One of Asia's two traditional powerhouses will go as far as he takes them, which could be at least a quarterfinal if stars align.
20. Norway - As opposed to Sweden, Norway is playing essentially with house money. This is Norway's first appearance in a World Cup since 1996 and third all-time; it is a hungry, young group headlined by two of European football's most electric players in Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard, who on behalf of their country have formed a dynamic and lethal strike duo that managed to cruise through their qualifying group and top it. So why are they placed this low? Well, Norway was last seen in an international tournament bombing out in Spain in 2022 with a single point, and they were blessed with arguably the easiest group in qualification. Could they go far? Sure, absolutely; they'll go as far as their magnificent duo of Odegaard and Haaland take them. But there remains much to prove for this raw, young and talented side to show exactly where they belong.
19. Liberia - One of Africa's heavyweights arrives in Britain with the CAF's best qualifying record and the continent's best young superstar in Timothy Weah, son of the legendary George. Weah the Younger is complemented with Oscar Dorley and Charles Phillips, excellent young players who will make feeding Weah the ball their chief mission as Liberia hopes to advance to the knockouts for the third time, and first since 2004.
18. Morocco - Morocco belongs a nudge ahead of Liberia by simple virtue of being the reigning CAF African Cup champions and acquitting themselves well at the Confederations Cup this past summer. The Atlas Lions look ready to make a deep run, especially with the familiarty many of their stars have playing in the Premier League; this will certainly be a group to watch down the stretch if they get a favorable draw and could spring an upset or two.
17. Ireland - The days of Robbie Keane, Shane Long and Steven Davis are long gone, but this is still a good young team with plenty of talent, and this new generation of "Giant-Killers" will want a scalp or two to add to Ireland's infamous trophy case of teams they caught napping - almost a national pastime as far as football goes. Captained by stalwart Shane Duffy, if Ireland gets into knockouts - which it does quite often - then watch out whoever is facing them. A tough road awaits for a green (sorry) side that will want to build substantial experience this spring with friendlies for confidence.

 

[KingSweden24]

16. Korea - The defending Asian champions and traditional powerhouse of Asian football - the first Asian side to reach a semifinal, and to do it twice - Korea has to be confident in its abilities after going undefeated in qualifying to top off its AFC Asian Cup title, even despite its frustrating third-place group finish at the Confederations Cup. This is arguably Korea's most talented side in forty years, which bodes well for when it takes on hosting duties in 2028. The lineup of attacking wealth is absurd - Son Heung-min, Lee Seung-woo, Hwang Ui-jo, John Il-gwan and Hwang Hee-chan are just some of the stars who can punch it in from almost anywhere in the box. The midfield-heavy approach - Korea operates under a unique but successful 3-5-1 schematic - has borne fruit in recent years and excitement is in the air. The Red Tigers could, quite possibly, make some serious noise, and they should be expected to be AFC's representative in the quarterfinals if everything goes as it should.
15. Mexico - Depending on your point of view, the defending World Cup champions are either gratuitously overrated at 15 or insultingly underrated at this spot. Indeed, Mexico's slapdash qualifying campaign left them at risk of being the first defending champion not to qualify for the following tournament since France in 1924, exactly a hundred years ago and under very different circumstances; the atrocious play by Mexico was noticed enough at home that it became a political and PR liability for the government of Prime Minister Jaime Rodriguez. Missing the studs of the golden generation that won the 2020 World Cup on home soil has hurt, but Mexico nonetheless did the work to make it to Britain and did so without staying in fourth as they had for so many weeks and months. This is now undoubtedly Hirving Lozano's team, and he's backed up by talented youngsters like Santiago Gimenez and Sebastian Cordova while veterans like Tecatito or Raul Jimenez spell them. Is Mexico going to defend their title successfully? Unfortunately for everybody who is not 1980s Argentina, probably not, but this side's obituary has been written well too early, even if they are clearly a good step below the talent on offing at home four years ago.
14. Croatia - Ageless Luka Modric has one more bite at the apple in him to take Croatia to the promised land of silverware that they have always desired since their Cinderella semifinal run in Italy '92, and the team certainly has the balanced talent to make a case, especially with support like Mateo Kovacic. This is Modric's team, though, and they will go as far as he takes them, which based on results in recent tournaments could be just about anywhere.
13. Confederate States - The CSA returns to the World Cup stage after a sixteen year absence following their heartbreaking quarterfinal exit against archnemesis USA in 2008, and one of the stars from that run - the remarkably ageless midfielder Chris Paul - is back for a shot at glory. While this CSA is nowhere near the powerhouse that sported the likes of Michael Vick and Allen Iverson in symbiotic strike formation up top, Paul is but a familiar face (who will likely come on as a substitute, as he did in many crucial moments in qualifying) with a very good young core, in particular the sensational Collin Sexton as the striker and the formidable three-man starting midfield of Marlon Humphrey, Aaron Holiday and Jalen Ramsey. While there are some lingering questions about the backfield and the health of longtime goalkeeper Sean Johnson, this is undoubtedly one of the best Confederate teams assembled in some time, with the right foot of Sexton the key that unlocked a deep well of talent that just needed a spark.
12. Australia - Speaking of talented but historically unperforming Anglosphere countries, Australia looks to come back in Chris Wood's last hurrah to advance deep into the tournament in Great Britain. Wood, Massimo Luongo, Mitchell Duke and Brandon Borello have over the course of the last year formed a formidable, well-oiled scoring attack and the dominant goaltending of captain Mathew Ryan in net sets this Kickaroos side apart from previous editions; Wood will have his experience going to a semifinal in China in 2012 to draw upon, too, as Australia looks to match the pinnacle of its sporting achievement in football.
11. Germany - After humiliating group stage exits for a traditional power in both 2020 and 2022, Germany needs to show something to prove that its 2014-18 run of dominance was not just a flash in the pan. This squad is very young, however, dotting in a good half-dozen players who were not even at Euro 2022, though they did play well at the 2021 UEFA U-20 World Cup, winning it. Can this side go the whole way? There will be a lot of talented groups in their way, but Germany should at least expect - no, demand - a push into the quarterfinals as a bare minimum expectation after some very lean years of football for the Reichsmannschaft.