u/Ok-Impress-2222

Djelomično inspirirano postom sa r/zagreb o Avenue Mallu (nisu mi ovaj post prihvatili ondje), ali puno više mojim vlastitim posjetom u West Gate ovo ljeto.

Par ljudi je na tom postu o Avenue Mallu reklo kako je žalosno što propada i te sve spike.

Ne slažem se. Avenue Mall još se i dobro drži; lokacija naša svagdašnja uvelike ga spašava.

West Gate, s druge strane...

Barem pola trgovina je ne samo zatvoreno, nego i odavno napušteno. Samo određenih nekoliko trgovina radi. A sjećam je kad je izgledao maestralno s hrpetinom... pa svega.

Razlog zašto je do ovoga dospjelo kristalno je jasan. Čija je jebena ideja bil smjestiti šoping centar u pizdi materinoj gdje ni stanovnicima Zagreba ni stanovnicima Zaprešića nije usput?!

Navodno je to trebalo biti u sklopu izgradnje nekog puno većega kompleksa na tom mjestu - ali to svejedno ne mijenja činjenicu da je lokacija koju se odabralo za krasan kurac.

I stoga neću biti nešto osobito iznenađen ako i ovih preostalih šačicu trgovina u West Gateu za nekih 10-15 godina (još sam i puno rekao, zar ne?) ispadne neisplativo zadržavati na životu, i cijela stvar konačno ode pod ključ.

Jako je tužno to što je od West Gatea postalo.

Iz istog tog razloga, za Avenue Mall uopće se ne brinem.

You don't even have to listen obscenely carefully to clearly hear that there's a lot of that monologue going on even after Perry starts singing. Even after "One night I met a poet".

Does anybody have the full version of that monologue? Because I can't find it anywhere on the Internet.

Up until just earlier this decade, it was completely rational and reasonable to see players as young as 34 just straight up retire from professional football altogether.

But now, in the big 2026, things are way different.

It's not just Ronaldo and Messi I speak of. Perišić, Modrić, Džeko, Ramos, Benzema, Lewandowski, Suárez, Di Maria, Aubameyang, Herrera, etc. All of these boys are at least 37 years old, and not a single one of them seems even close to even wishing to retire!

What the hell happened in this short an amount of time?! That caused this, that is.

Because it seems to me that the "reasonable" age for a footballer to retire will move from circa 35 to circa 40. And by "will", I mean already has.

As little as three years ago, the above boys still being active at these ages would be seen as an anomaly of sorts. Nowadays, not anymore.

Something has become... different.

What explanation do you offer?

(The reason I'm saying years instead of seasons is because of the Club World Cup.)

The 2009 team won all 6 possible trophies in that year, and the 2011 one, well... didn't.

What gives?

This got deleted from r/unpopularopinion for, you guessed it, being actually unpopular and not Reddit's idea of unpopular.

Anyway:

People keep saying Croatia are overachievers because, out of context, getting a medal on half of all World Cups you ever played sounds like a massive accomplishment for any country, let alone for one with population less than 4 million.

Except... and I keep saying this a lot, because I clearly have to...

Context matters.

You know how much time passed between two of those medals? 20 years; between 1998 and 2018.

In those 20 years, we've seen teams of Croatia that were much, much better (no, not just more hyped, but actually BETTER) than those from either 2018 or 2022.

For some of those teams of Croatia, all the stars were perfectly aligned for a massive success. Those teams were good enough for true wonders.

...And jack shit was achieved.

Prime example: the team of Croatia at 2008 Euro. That team was good enough that their worst player was Niko Kranjčar. And it showed; both in the qualifiers and in Euro's group stage. That team of Croatia was, without any doubt, good enough to reach the finals. But alas, the devastating QF match against Turkey happened; and we know the rest.

Had that team of Croatia succeeded in reaching at least, like, the semifinals - which, again, they were very much good enough for - that would've been not just an incredible achievement in of itself, but also proof that their performance at the 1998 World Cup was not a fluke.

But even without that one, maybe if they'd left a mark on the 2012 Euro or 2014 World Cup, that would've still been seen as an impressive standout, and proof that Croatia were always someone to look out on.

By 2018, not anymore.

By 2018, players like Eduardo da Silva, Darijo Srna, Niko Kranjčar, Ivica Olić, Danijel Pranjić, the Kovač brothers, Josip Šimunić, Stipe Pletikosa, Nikica Jelavić, Ognjen Vukojević, etc. had retired from Croatia NT - or, rather, they gave up on it.

Them retiring from Croatia NT was a way of saying "Yeah, this was supposed to be one of the most beautiful stories in football history, but it just turned out a big pile of shit".

By 2018, it had stopped mattering whether Croatia would ever achieve another enormous success like the one from the 1998 World Cup. Even the vast majority of Croats had given up on Croatia NT.

(The reason for that last one was not just the on-field failures, but that's a different story.)

(Source: I'm a Croat.)

All the attempts to prove that Croatia's performance at the 1998 World Cup was not a fluke - were failed.

And it was not a fluke! Like, come on! That was a team good enough that Milan Rapaić and Igor Cvitanović didn't even make the cut!

By the 2018 World Cup, the major feeling towards Croatia NT, on anybody's part, was disappointment.

As such, Croatia reaching 2018 WC final is not the impressive feat that many might be tricked into thinking it is.

Not to mention that every single KO stage match in 2018 had to go to overtime and even penalties instead of winning at least one of those matches in regular time like an actually functional team. In other words, each of those victories was achieved barely, by a hair's length. Anxiously. With extra unnecessary frustration.

And there is a special term, in all of sports, for a victory by an anxiously small margin.

Defeat.

So, no, Croatia did not win against Denmark, Russia, and England in 2018 WC. They lost all three of those matches.

Combine that with the loss against France in the final, plus the losses against Japan, Brazil, and Argentina in 2022 WC, and you get a staggering number of seven consecutive KO stage losses on just two consecutive World Cups! Not something I'd call a success.

Not to mention that, even after making those "achievements", the entire football world still knows that all the players from the 2008 team were better than all the players from either the 2018 or 2022 team.

How, if not a disgrace, would you call the fact that Josip Pivarić or Borna Sosa achieved a better international career than did Eduardo da Silva or Ivica Olić?

The best description of Croatia's 2018 and 2022 WC "achievements" would be: too little, too late.

All Croatia did in 2018 was prove that even reaching the World Cup final does not necessarily mean you're anything but shit.

So there.

The reason is simple. The specific role that Rouge serves in the story is that of a femme fatale. Akin to Jessica Rabbit or Catwoman. Someone who is maybe even too good with their, ahem, persuasive ways.

So of course it made perfect sense that her feminine features be more expressed! It just - worked!

But now somebody in Sega made up some bullshit reason why that's suddenly not okay? Just fuck off!

After all, nobody had an issue with Rouge's appearance for 20+ years, but now somebody suddenly does? Give me a fucking break!