u/Scary_Vehicle9023

Hi all, I am looking to get back into Korean study after an extended break. I am an intermediate level and I want to get in the habit of reading something of interest in Korean for a few minutes a day.

I used to follow the K League and always enjoyed seeing KBO games, plus I keep an eye on Korean Olympians, so I thought regularly reading about sport would help.

Any recommendations on sport columnists or bloggers that write on a fairly regular basis. The level itself doesn't matter too much because I am happy to take my time and only read sections of one article per day, but also if anyone is known for writing in a fairly light and accessible way then that is an added bonus.

Hi all. I've been off and on with serious Korean study for years but never want to give up. Years ago I got Topik level 2 which has since expired. I also did a Sejong Institute online course which was fine. I have tried different methods of study (self-study, group courses, in-person tutoring, media immersion) but have really let it all slide over the past year or two since becoming a parent.

I need to kick-start with proper tutoring again. Ideally I would like to spend a bit of time recapping before pushing myself to take the higher test and getting Topik 3 within the next year if possible.

Aside from the aforementioned Sejong Institute, does anyone have any good recommendations? I am open to bespoke 1-to-1 tuition or specific courses (either individual or group). With the recent popularity of Korean compared to when I first started I find the options a bit overwhelming. Later evenings would suit me well but I also work remotely so I could do during the days whenever work allows.

Hi all. I've been off and on with serious Korean study for years but never want to give up. Years ago I got Topik level 2 which has since expired. I also did a Sejong Institute online course which was fine. I have tried different methods of study (self-study, group courses, in-person tutoring, media immersion) but have really let it all slide over the past year or two since becoming a parent.

I need to kick-start with proper tutoring again. Ideally I would like to spend a bit of time recapping before pushing myself to take the higher test and getting Topik 3 within the next year if possible.

Aside from the aforementioned Sejong Institute, does anyone have any good recommendations? I am open to bespoke 1-to-1 tuition or specific courses (either individual or group). With the recent popularity of Korean compared to when I first started I find the options a bit overwhelming. Later evenings would suit me well but I also work remotely so I could do during the days whenever work allows.

I'd rather we only had either the expanded Club World Cup or the end of year tournament, not both. But if both should exist, then the end of year tournament should be between the winners of the Europa League, Copa Sudamericana, and the other continents equivalents of those tournaments. If a continent doesn't have such a tournament, then that's on them. They can either make one or find another way of nominating a team for it.

It will of course get to 64 teams, but I hope we have at least a bit of a transition until then.

In my opinion the 32 team format was the ideal and the 48 team format has a lot of rightful complaints. One of the big ones was the fact that having 8 out of 12 3rd place teams going through helped to kill the group stage by removing a lot of jeopardy.

I believe that improving the World Cup is a balancing act between trying to find the best format possible, while also not diluting the quality too much. Additionally, you've got to accept the World Cup will never shrink. So the only way to improve on 48 is to expand. I think 56 will be better than 64, because i think it's the smallest possible expansion that earns back the jeopardy.

With a 64 team World Cup you need 16 groups, but with a 56 team World Cup you need 14. Of these 14, you only need the best 4 3rd place teams going through. Because this is a reduction from 2/3 of 3rd place teams down to nearly 1/4, I think this will mean that playing for settling on 3rd place will not be a factor. Every team will need to fight top two, because only the absolute best 3rd llace teams will make it.

One thing to keep in mind is that it is possible to finish in 3rd with as many as 6 points, while you can finish in 2nd with as few as 2 points. I personally would be happy with having 4 good 'wildcard' teams going through if it meant that we get group stage jeopardy back and dilution of quality is kept to a minimum. 64 teams might make for a more exciting format on paper, but by having more 'weaker' teams, we are still straying further from the days of groups of death and shocking group stage exits anyway.

TLDR: 56 gets you the 'feeling' of a 64 team format, without needing 64 teams.

Group C got skipped so that co-hosts were in different brackets, but why USA specifically moved into the later groups? I think it's because even if the USA doesn't progress to a later round than their co-hosts, they would at least be able to claim they were the last host to be knocked out (so long as they didn't finish 3rd in their group) to satisfy egos.

Randomly thought of Sergio Romero, who played 461 career games, with 96 of them being senior internationals for Argentina. So close to a fifth of all his professional games were at international level. That got me looking up and a fifth isn't too absurd a proportion when scaled up to the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. But it got me thinking - who has gained the most international caps as a percentage of their career matches? Anyone with a third? Half?

The men's continental football tournaments of Europe, South America, and Oceania all take place in the Summer Olympics year. Africa is moving to that schedule from 2028, Asia has paused their tournament bidding process to reassess their schedule, so only North America is left.

With the Club World Cup taking place the year before the World Cup, this leaves the summer after the World Cup as the only space in the men's calendar. While it could be used to dedicate attention to the Women's World Cup, I don't believe that's the case.

I think the best ranked X number of teams on a certain date, who didn't qualify for the World Cup, will be automatically put into the 'World Shield'. This will be a back up tournament for big teams that missed out like Italy, Denmark, and the remaining South American teams. The number of teams will fluctuate depending on what is needed to get teams like China and India involved. The winner will earn a place in the inter-continental play-offs for the next World Cup, should they fail to qualify on their own terms.

World Cup format: is this it forever?

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For me, I love having a wide variety of different teams qualify but still, the 32 team tournament is the peak World Cup format. There is too much bloat in this current format personally.

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But it got me thinking, is this the best it can possible be now? Assuming FIFA never shrink it, is there no way of possibly improving it? Every other format change i can think of only runs into even worse problems than it currently has.

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For example, imagine an expansion to 60 teams, with 20 groups of 3, with the group winners and 12 best runners-up going to a last 32. Even though there are more teams, they would play 12 fewer matches in total than the current format. But the fact that the knockout draw would be completely unknown until the end of the groups, with some group winners having to play each other, would be a logistical nightmare.

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Do you have any other ideas? Or do you think any further changes would be only downhill?