Nothing against Brazil but love an underdog win.

What do you guys think in terms of strategy Japan need to have to win this game?

Watched this Japanese movie - Perfect days. The movie felt so deeply touching. The context of the movie goes something like this: Hirayama feels content with his life as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Outside his structured routine, he cherishes music on cassette tapes, reads books and takes photos. Through unexpected encounters, he reflects on finding beauty in the world.

The movie makes us feel how in our own lives whatever work we do, in simple sense we can find contentment. It doesn't have to be flashy but yeah there are many worlds within this world. There are moments of sorrow, happiness, stillness, just a joy in playing an old cassette and observing the world in front of us.

And yet moving on living imperfectly in an imperfect world with calmness and joy.

A beautiful cinema!

Just casually was watching this since it was on Netflix and the runtime of this makes me wonder should I really call this a movie or rather a tv show episodes clubbed and presented as movie?

How can someone say sit in movie hall for 4hrs? Thats ridiculous! There should be a restriction on runtime of movies or else if someone feels a tv series is worth a movie - just club it and make it a movie of 4 hrs and release. Seriously, so frustrating

In an Indian sports related subreddit I was trying to have a discussion with meritdharis about why doesn't our football team qualify for FIFA and why is it they give such horrible performances in the qualifiers, where countries similar in size of states like Goa qualify and we never.

In my opinion the rampant corruption in our football federation is the main factor. Politics/Corruption/Regionalism/Casteism/Favouritism many factors like these might be the main reason for us not able to produce 15 men of international calibre in a country of billions.

There were some blame game arguments just like how they like to spit venom on reservation. Things like no infrastructure. Really? there are poorest of countries which have qualified. What point am making is, many don't like to acknowledge that corruption and politics are the major factors for failure in football and olympics.

BELOW SOME RECENT HISTORY OF THE QUALIFIERS PERFORMANCE:

India's path to the 2026 FIFA World Cup ended in the AFC Second Round. They were drawn in Group A with:

• Qatar
• Kuwait
• Afghanistan

Only the top two teams in the group advanced to the next round.

India's six matches

Match	Result
Kuwait vs India	✅ India won 1–0
India vs Qatar	🤝 Drew 0–0
India vs Afghanistan	❌ Lost 1–2
Afghanistan vs India	🤝 Drew 0–0
India vs Kuwait	🤝 Drew 0–0
Qatar vs India	❌ Lost 1–2

Final standings

• Qatar – 16 points
• Kuwait – 7 points
• India – 5 points
• Afghanistan – 5 points

Why India failed to qualify

1. Poor results against Afghanistan

This was the biggest reason.

India needed to beat Afghanistan—or at least not lose at home. Instead:

• Lost 2–1 at home.
• Drew 0–0 away.

That's only 1 point from 6 against the weakest team in the group.

2. Too few goals

Across six matches, India scored only 3 goals.

You rarely qualify for a World Cup group stage scoring that little.

3. Couldn't beat Kuwait at home

India had already beaten Kuwait away in the opening match.

If India had won the home match as well, qualification would have been much more likely. Instead, it ended 0–0.

4. The controversial Qatar goal

The final match against Qatar ended 2–1, but Qatar's equalizing goal was highly controversial. Many believed the ball had gone out of play before it was crossed back into the box, yet the goal stood because there was no VAR in that stage of qualifying. That decision generated widespread debate, but even if India had drawn that game, their earlier dropped points against Afghanistan had already put them in a difficult position.

The bigger picture

The qualification campaign exposed some long-term issues:

• Lack of a reliable goal scorer.
• Difficulty creating chances against organized defenses.
• Limited squad depth compared with stronger Asian nations.
• Inconsistent performances against lower-ranked opponents.

Was qualification realistic?

With the expanded 48-team World Cup, Asia had 8 direct qualification spots plus 1 intercontinental playoff spot, making qualification easier than in previous editions.

However, India first had to finish in the top two of its group. On paper, that was achievable because Kuwait and Afghanistan were of a comparable level. The decisive failure was not against Qatar—it was dropping crucial points against Afghanistan and Kuwait. Those results ultimately cost India a place in the next qualifying round.

If you can't win against lower ranked teams - yeah forget all this infrastructure, game interest nonsense. Those 15 players and the head coach all of them are unqualified rather incompetent to do that job.

That is a clear system failure.

Talking with a fellow redditer in the group brought the below thought:

Will the baamans remove there Janeu because we strongly say these rituals are causing deeper problems of discrimination in the society? Just like how they love to throw there opinion on reservation even when no one of us gives a damn about them.

RESERVATION IS JANEU GIVEN TO US BY BABASAHEB TO PROTECT FROM THESE CASTEIST EVILS.

Generations of humiliation for our people as brought in damages wrt self respect which people are still struggling to build (i.e one of the main reasons for RESERVATION), Social equality is not equal to economic equality. Social equality is still a far dream for even an above poverty line Dalit family. Even Dalit CJIs, politicians, bureaucrats, well to do in the community are not spared from casteism.

And also, the best option is always to ignore talks on reservation with these people when we certainly know it is a one way road. And to be vocal on it where we have our voices heard.

It's our personal choice and we don't have to talk about it.

Batting lineup:

1. Venkatesh Iyer
2. Virat Kohli
3. Devdutt Padikkal
4. Rajat Patidar (c)
5. Krunal Pandya (Based on the situation, if early wickets bring him here or else after David)
6. Jitesh Sharma (wk)
7. Tim David ✈️
8. Romario Shepherd ✈️.
9. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar
10. Rasikh Salam Dar
11. Josh Hazlewood ✈️

Was thinking about our match today. Our team as everything at place, but GT has this home advantage too. So I believe this is going to be a tight game. The major threat I see his the GT opening Gill-Sai duo, Sai plays highly low risk cricket and sometimes this can in a way frustrate the attack if wickets are not going down. We need to take early wickets and also we need to bowl first I believe.

As RCB 12th man what are your views on the below,

1. I think with our opening, not confident to open with Salt if he is back after missing crucial games. Venky seems like a big match player, I feel we should go with backing him. Whom do you think our team should replace today?
2. Who should be the impact player?
3. What if any changes in the strategy our team has to make today?
4. What do you think is GTs strength today and how to counter attack?

ERADAANE SALA KUDA CUP NAMDU!! LETS WIN

This is about an old friendship, we are in our 30's now. So there is this childhood friend I have who is more inclined to hindutva, often has bigoted views about other religions especially islam and christianity. He is a maratha but we are in a different state not in Maharashtra. Since I know him from childhood days, I know he used reservation(says ST) to get into an elite institute for undergraduate study. Now, all done we are in our 30's.

I have started to have some questions deep within like when I think about maintaining the friendship because as we have grown older there are some of his views which I do not like and I feel sometimes is disrespectful:

1. He used ST quota to get into a premier institute. I never dwelled about his personal background but his take on reservations now kind of frustrates me. He says reservation should be removed, how freebies won't help. Yeah, this is coming from someone who used reservation when needed(he was from an upper middle class). Also can someone tell me can maratha be a ST in some other state or is it a fake certificate?

I feel like he his doing a betrayal to our movement once he doesn't need it now probably he wants to align with mainstream hindu narrative with his maratha thing and try to talk with bigotry about our struggles.

2. This is wrt his religious views. I always believe once religious choice, views is there personal spiritual path. We don't have to debate on it, just respect and move on.

But here is the thing, there is another friend in our circle who seems to be embracing christianity may be wrt his family but this guy as a problem. He openly talks ill about him. And also he knows that I am also embracing Buddhism (first in my family to take refuge) but he hasn't yet drawn the courage to speak anything about it in front of me. But in subtle ways he points referring to others, he just cannot understand how people can change religions?

This line hit me hard, I felt if he can talk ill about the other person in front of me. What he could be talking about my choice when I am not around? I felt the friendship bond fading away because of these things.

May be in teen, college days I wasn't so aware of about our struggles. But at this age, I just cannot tolerate or allow him to continue his bigotry. May be he has his opinions but yeah in my opinion those opinions are wrong and of a casteist.

So, I have started to kind of ignore him and feel less interested in the friendship since I feel it is feeling superficial compared to some depth we had some years ago. I don't want to lecture him or something. Since as a close friend one needs to have empathy and know what may hurt a friend. Isn't that the definition of a close friend?

I feel I am not the same person I was many years ago, now feel more aware of social injustices and tolerating threshold as reduced.

In my opinion, I would just try to ignore or just keep the interactions diplomatic. If you were faced with such a situation, how would you think about it?