Chijanofuji

I'm in as always.

OK, I'll play.

Beautiful! But that banzuke only has 2 Sekiwake and 3 Komusubi and not 4 of both, right?

Thanks! I overlooked that one in my quick sweep across the banzuke in the sumo database because of all the sanyaku rikishi listed at HD Sekiwake and HD Komusubi! But, in combination with there also only being only one Yokozuna and one Ozeki on the banzuke it must be a unique banzuke, right?

First time ever having both 4 Sekiwake and 4 Komusubi on a banzuke? I believe it is. Can someone double-check?

No African teams participated in any world cup until 1970. And aptly that first African team to participate also happened to be...... Morocco!

No, I definitely won't forget to play Sending my line-up to you now.

Neither have I and I've been watching Ozumo since 1995. Apparently this is only the 5th time it happened. The last time was Itai in July, 1991: Rikishi 1 > Sum (total) Date Rank Record Katsuragawa 1942.01 M17e 0-15 0 Kiyosegawa 1963.11 M11w 0-15 0 Sadanoumi 1988.03 M10w 0-15 0 Itai 1991.07 M14e 0-15 0 Terutsuyoshi 2022.11 M16e 0-15 0

I would also like to play, so count me in! Unfortunately it does not look like I will be able to also take on refijoji duties due to a busy work schedule during the World Cup.

Day 1 daily entries cannot be accessed on the Bench Sumo site at the moment (about 60 minutes before the deadline) http://benchsumo.sumogames.de/DailyEntry.aspx?D=1 defaults to http://benchsumo.sumogames.de/DailyEntry.aspx?D=5 with the error message "Bench Sumo entries for day 5 are now closed!" Manually going to day 1 does not work... Kind regards from the Netherlands, Chijanofuji

We haven't heard anything new on this for 48 hours now... My assumption is that that must surely mean that Shibatayama oyakata indeed spoke out to the media without first consulting with others within the Kyokai to see if the Yokozuna had obtained permission (from his Oyakata or others) and without checking in which capacity Hakuho was there. If so, I feel that Shibatayama needs to resign as NSK press secretary...

A big thank to all of you (rijicho, refioji's and players) from me as well! As usual you have helped make this a very enjoyable experience during this Euro 2020/21 tournament! Hope to see you again next year during the FIFA World Cup 2022! I'm psyched up already!!! Ouch, there's that maniacal looking emoji again!

Agreed Italy and Belgium were the 2 best teams. Too bad they met too early in the tournament.

So I forgot to add Italy's winning penalty shootout v Spain in this tournament to these statistics... When that result is added Italy "only" lost 6 of of 10 previous penalty shootouts, giving them a 40% success rate (now after the final 45.45%) , while England had a 25% success rate (now 22.22%). In retrospect It does seem to have been statistically significant...

So I see everyone's excites by today's final (in the real Euro 2020) and finals (of the games played in this forum)! Here are some stats you may want to consider (or not).... aka "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the UEFA Euro 2020 Final - played in 2021 - (But Were Afraid to Ask)" Italy v England Total matches played against each other: 27 First ever match: a friendly played in Rome on the 13th of May 1933 - Italy v England: 1-1 Last match before this final: a friendly played at Wembley Stadium (also the location for this match) on 2018 the 27th of March 2018 - England v Italy: 1-1 Number of wins by Italy: 10 Number of wins by England: 8 Number of draws: 9 This millennium (since the 1st of January 2000) the two countries have played each other 7 times. Italy won 3 times (you could say 4), England won 1 of these matches, and 3 ended in a draw after 90 minutes (one of them, played in 2012, is further explained below). Italy and England have met 4 times at big tournaments. Those matches were: 1st - In the group stage (group B) of the UEFA Euro 1980 finals tournament (which were held in Italy): played at Stadio Comunale in Turin on the 15th of June 1980: Italy-England: 1-0 2nd - In the match for 3rd and 4th place of the FIFA World Cup 1990 (also held in Italy): played at Stadio Comunale in Bari on the 7th of July 1990: Italy-England: 2-1 3rd - In the Quarter-finals of the UEFA Euro 2012 finals tournament (held in the Ukraine): played at the Olympic stadium in Kiev on the 24th of June 2012: England v Italy: 0-0 after 90 minutes, also 0-0 after overtime, Italy won 4-2 on penalties. Watch that penalty series here: https://youtu.be/cYUl2dp9bOQ 4th - In the group stage (group D) of the FIFA World Cup 2014 (held in Brazil): played at the Arena da Amazonia in Manaus: England v Italy: 1-2 - The referee for that match was my fellow countryman Björn Kuipers, who will also be the referee in tonight's match! Here (click the link) are all the matches of: England v Italy So far Italy have played in 9 big final matches, of which they have won 5 - 4 times World Champion (1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006), 1 time European Champion (1968) So far England have played in 1 final match, of which they have won 1 (you know - 1966) The bookies favor England (the match is played at Wembley Stadium after all) But... England and Italy have played each other 6 times at Wembley Stadium (both the old - demolished 2002/2003 and new Wembley - opened 2007). England won 1 of those 6 matches (6th of June 1977, a qualification match for the FIFA 1978 finals), Italy won 2 of them, 3 ended in a draw. But... England have never lost a match (after 90 minutes) of a total of 16 that were played on home soil during a big tournament (1966 FIFA World Cup + UEFA Euro 1996 + UEFA Euro 2020). They did draw one of those matches and lost it on penalties (heart-wrenching loss of England vs Germany at the Semifinals of Euro 1996 - the current England coach Gareth Southgate missed the crucial penalty! - Watch that penalty series here: https://youtu.be/3EiE7eLWI_M) My prediction (as if that matters - just to be clear - at the start I predicted a final between France and Spain!): 0-0 after the 1st half 1-1 after 90 minutes England win 2-1 in extra time. Let's just hope it will be a good match and that it won't be decided on penalty kicks (which are exciting to watch, yes, but are in my opinion not a very fair way of deciding the outcome of a crucial match)! If it does: England have lost 6 out of 8 times when matches were decided on penalties during big tournaments. Italy have lost 6 out of 9 times, so neither have been very lucky in that department...