Croatia over Russia in Penalty Shoot-Out.
 

The World Cup 2018 has been extremely exciting at times with all these penalty shoot-outs after 120 minutes of play.

And it is so exciting to see tiny Croatia win over Russia on Russia's home turf.

First time I ever watched more than 2 minutes of a TV soccer match. I watched this one for the last almost 2 hours.

First, it took me 15 minutes to understand which team was Russia and Croatia. The TV scoreboard did not reflect jersey colors, the team names/countries/flag was not clear, the announcers didn't help, and the players names...well - that too. I had closed caption on the live broadcast and the transcriber didn't even attempt to type the the last names.

Second, soccer is an odd sport - counting UP the clock, unlike our football. Not really sure when time runs out or exact time left. odd. I'm shocked that players don't get knocked out or break bones. And...playing 3 hours, being tied after OT period, and coming down to best of 5 short penalty kicks.... a letdown. Poor Russia....not really.... but the fans sure get into it.

I will try to watch the semis and final Worldcup.

I work at the U.S. office of an Italian food company. There are a lot of Italian ex pats and other European ex pats working in my office, and soccer is very popular in Europe. Our office has a large screen TV in the employee dining area. World cup soccer matches have been on the company TV since the FIFA tournament started a few weeks ago, and at times there will be 30 or more employees in the dining area watching a soccer match.

It's now down to France vs. Belgium and Croatia vs. England.