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Summer of Soccer Previews: Slovenia in Euro 2024

ballsofsteelandfury

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Back in the olden times, pre-COVID, I took advantage of BMW’s European Delivery program and flew to Munich to pick up my M car and drive it through Central Europe. I went south to Austria and then southeast through Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia again, and then back to Germany to fly home. My car arrived by boat a month later.

I have chosen to utilize these Euro 2024 previews posts as part travelogue, part footy preview, and part story time. First up: Slovenia!

That picture shows a Russian chapel that was built during World War I by Russian soldiers. It has a fascinating history and it is in the middle of the Slovenian Alps on a road that still has cobblestone corners as it was built over 100 years ago.

Yes, there are Slovenian Alps!

But let me backtrack. I spent a night in Kranjska Gora, a gorgeous little town at the foot of the mountains. A little east of Kranjska Gora is the town of Bled, which is famous for many things but mainly:

  1. It has a castle on top and a chapel on an island in the middle of the lake that you can row to (yes, I did!) and

2 – It is the birthplace of LA Kings Superstar and Stanley Cup Championship hero Anže Kopitar!

Yes, his picture was all over town. He has not forgotten his home town and he still returns and runs events for the community.

I absolutely fell in love with that place and, subsequently, Slovenia. It is unbelievably beautiful and the people were super nice and friendly.

What does all this mean for Slovenia’s chances at Euro 2024?

Well, they’re in a group with Denmark, Serbia, and England and only the top two in the group are assured of moving on to the Knockout Stage. Then, it’s the two best third place teams.

I think they finish third and then it will be up to luck whether they get in the next stage.

It won’t matter, though, because just the fact that they qualified is a big feat. It’s a tiny country but they are, arguably, doing the best out of all the former Yugoslavian states. Plus, their unis are pretty cool:

Yes, those are the Alps on the jersey.

I traveled south and ended up in the easternmost section of the Italian Alps. Then, I crossed into Croatia before returning to Slovenia further east.

But that’s a story for another time…

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[…] referenced this in the Slovenian soccer post the other day (I swear, it came up organically) but I highly recommend the following books if you […]

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litre_cola

Slovenia is in the top 5 countries that I have ever visited. I was only there for 4 days but could have stayed months. Ljuby town is one of the best for nightlife, and affordability! Bled is super cool, I wish that I could have explored more.

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Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I’m sure I brought this up many moons ago, but my time in Slovenia mainly consisted of staying in a hotel at Lake Bled and having lots of sex with an American girl I’d picked up in Rome. Oh, and we did some drinkin’ too. It was a good time.

I met an *actual* Slovenian girl on the train to Budapest, but we just played some cards and she introduced me to her Hungarian friends, who were pretty cool and served me goulash at their Soviet bloc apartment.

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BrettFavresColonoscopy

I may or may not be sitting in a bar killing time before therapy, and how does any dude in his 20s think mansplaining Marx and Hegel to a young lass is going to get him laid?

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BallsofLacrosseAndMapleSyrup

How do you like these apples?

Last edited 1 year ago by BallsofLacrosseAndMapleSyrup
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Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

You should swoop in and Good Will Hunting him.

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BrettFavresColonoscopy

She’s 10-15 years too young for me and oh yeah I’d prefer not too be castrated by my wife

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Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Yeah but it would be funny.

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Horatio Cornblower

On the other hand it would be a hell of a therapy session.

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rockingdog

Justice Alito announces his support for a woman’s right to choose *looks back at letter* flags.

LoL

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rockingdog

He’s staunchly pro-wife.

LOL

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King Hippo

He really is Eric Cartman with a JD. Screw you guys, I do what I WANT!!

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rockingdog

lol 🇺🇸

IMG_1562.jpeg
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BrettFavresColonoscopy

Lady BFC and I loved our brief stop in Slovenia and can’t wait to go back.

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Horatio Cornblower

I’m not racist BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT…

I’m not a fan of MLB deciding that Negro League stats now count as MLB stats. Just more proof that Rob Manfred hates baseball. You can say, and be absolutely right, that excluding qualified Black players from MLB was baseball’s original sin, but you can’t make the Negro Leagues be the same as MLB 77 years after integration and be taken seriously, or make up for the previous 50 years of “whoopsie, I did a racism.”

Josh Gibson was by all accounts a phenomenal baseball player and he was robbed of a chance to prove how great he was by racists, (that brain tumor didn’t help any), but he didn’t hit .372 in the Major Leagues, and no amount of Rob Manfred’s “this’ll be good for business, though” bullshit will change that.

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Redshirt

Celebrate them. Convince a team to change their name to a Negro League team name (one not racist-y and yes, I’m looking at you Indianapolis), but you can’t equal the stats. The pitching may not have been up to MLB standards.

A running back may rush for 300 yards this weekend in the UFL. That doesn’t mean that record should overshadow the NFL record of 296.

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Horatio Cornblower

I think the Negro League team names should be retired, as kind of an acknowledgment to the League and why it had to exist.

That said, if MLB ever expands to Cuba and there’s a motion on the floor to name the team The Cuban Giants I would probably second that.

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Horatio Cornblower

Doing some research and HR has some questions about the “Atlanta Black Crackers”

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BrettFavresColonoscopy

I don’t know, I think the Crawfords and Grays are sweet names, and “Chicago American Giants” is way better than White Stockings.

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Horatio Cornblower

Now that I think about it, the Royals coming out in 1969, after the A’s left for Oakland, (which is working out great for everyone), is a pretty clear tribute/rip-off to the Kansas City Monarchs.

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BrettFavresColonoscopy

The pitching was up to standards. The record keeping was not.

The Negro Leagues were an incredible source of talent and excluding black players was a shameful (and collusion-y) stain on baseball’s history. But the stats aren’t apples to apples mainly because of the way the leagues were operated. Read The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa Bell for a glimpse at how awesome the stars were and how spotty the bookkeeping was. And then read Our Team to see how often it was trotted out that the talent couldn’t match up despite barnstorming evidence to the contrary.

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Horatio Cornblower

I mean, Josh Gibson supposedly having hit 800+ home runs while officially having 238 is a pretty wide discrepancy.

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BrettFavresColonoscopy

Honestly, if you have specific questions around this topic, the guys at Seamheads are super knowledgeable and responsive to random questions emailed to them…..

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Horatio Cornblower

Don’t send me down another baseball records rabbit hole; baseball-reference.com and I already have a very unhealthy relationship.

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King Hippo

Watching A Very Swarthy Final (Zooropa NIT), between Olympiakos (Greece) and Fiorentina (Italy). Match being played in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Every time they show this clutch of Greek supporters, there is a dude in an East Carolina Pirates t-shirt. Small world.

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King Hippo

that fat fuck who owns Olympiakos (and Forest) is gonna have a stroke when they VAR away this winning goal

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Horatio Cornblower

The Gang Shaves Their Backs

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Redshirt

Well, turns out when you throw five weeks of bullshit at 12 jurors and give them a detailed list of instructions they have to memorize, of course they would get confused.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOXsi682OgA&pp=ygUnaG9tZXIgc2ltcHNvbiBjb3VsZCB5b3UgcmVwZWF0IHRoZSBwYXJ0

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King Hippo

The most important thing is confirmation they are engaged. Nobody is basically refusing to deliberate (my main worry). They’ll get there. Just being careful, as they should.

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Horatio Cornblower

All juries have questions. Asking to have evidence read back to them, even when they know it means it’s going to take longer, is a good thing.

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Redshirt

I’m more surprised about NY State not allowing jury instructions to be written down for the jury to read.

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Brick Meathook

In Brick’s travelogue news:

Fucking BWI airport. Slightly lower fares into the DC area, but it doesn’t have a Delta club, where everything is free. You really only have to tip the bartenders. I pay a lot for this privilege so it isn’t really free, but still.

I’m aware that this is a very first-world problem, but that’s why I don’t live in the third-world.

Here’s a thirty fucking dollar glass of house Chardonnay. This thing should have changed my life but it didn’t:

https://ibb.co/h7WBcxS

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King Hippo

agreed, it should have at least sucked you off for $30. Cray-cray

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Brick Meathook

They said I could get a blowjob with the wine but the dude was a big burly baggage handler so I said “Thank you for the offer, but no thank you.” I asked if they had any young hot big-titted stewardesses and they just laughed at me. “For thirty bucks? Keep dreaming, cheapskate. That’s only comes with triple-digit wines.”

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King Hippo

another reason to miss PanAm amirite??

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Horatio Cornblower

“Excuse me, stewardess, I ordered the Nancy Reagan-level service?”

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BrettFavresColonoscopy

BWI is….not great

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King Hippo

I bet in the second episode, there is fucking. Pretty cool driving tour though, totes jelly.

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2Pack

Slovenia is a wonderful country. And Bled is simply enchanting. Ljubljana is one of the coolest places on the planet to have dinner on a summer evening. It’s a hikers through point magnet that has such a young and vibrant atmosphere.
Thanks for the review Buddy. I hope they do well.

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ballsofsteelandfury

I figured you, of all people, would have experience there. I’m glad it was as great for you as it was for me!

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