Today’s open thread. We’re going to try and do this daily for the remainder of the World Cup, just to give you a platform to discuss the games, while allowing the rest of the comment-sections to stay relevant to their respective articles.

Notes & Quotes

Vinicius Jr aims to be as great as Ronaldo

An emotional Vinicius Jr — tears and all — spoke to the press as he said goodbye to Flamengo Tuesday morning. It’s really hard not to love this kid.

“I’m saying goodbye to the club that I love very much,” he said. “I’m going after more dreams in my life.

”All people who love me are always by my side. I managed to realise my dream here in Flamengo.

“To end happy with the fans screaming my name, in the crowded Maracana, I leave here honoured and happy.

”I am saying goodbye to the club that did everything for me to fulfil my dream of playing for Real Madrid.

”I am dreaming of doing the same as Ronaldo and Ronaldinho in Spain. The biggest challenge will be tactical but I can improve and turn into a great player.”

Asensio quotes on Liverpool rumours, De Gea, Spain

As Lucas posted already, Marco Asensio stirred the pot a bit with his quotes yesterday about Liverpool.

“That’s something in the news but I’m very focused in the World Cup.” Asensio said.

”When it ends, we can talk about that kind of thing. I’m very focused here in Russia, on the national team and performing well here.”

When asked about De Gea — a near-daily thing to deal with, for Spanish players — Asensio said: “I see him calm. He couldn’t do much more on the goals [against Morocco],”

”The national team keeper is a very demanding role, but he is more than prepared.

”He is willing and he is calm and I’m sure we’ll see the sort of performances he has previously shown for the remainder of this World Cup.”

And on the challenges and weird twists this team has gone through of late, Asensio urged for more unity.

“We went through a weird situation that nobody expected and that could have affected us a bit. But we talked it through, we had to remain united, a World Cup is only every four years and is very important for us,” said Asensio.

”Every game is a new challenge, it is very difficult to beat any team and that is what we are seeing.”

Assorted