January 30, 2013
Sofiane Feghouli, Algeria
“Didier Drogba scored his first goal of the African Nations’ Cup to ensure Ivory Coast go into the quarterfinals on an unbeaten run in the competition. Their opponents in that match, Nigeria, and their place in the group was already decided but they surged back anyways from 2-0 down to draw level with Algeria. The group’s bottom-feeders left with their respect intact. Although Algeria failed to record a single win in the competition, similar to their 2010 World Cup, the much-talked about Sofiane Feghouli made his impact on the competition with a goal through a penalty and assist for Hilal Soudini. But Algeria’s disappointment was compounded with Tunisia’s exit which means that no North African team will play the quarter-finals of the 2013 ANC.” ESPN
Mali’s Seydou Keita hails ‘priceless hope’ brought to crisis-torn land
“For Mali, this is becoming a habit: win the first group game narrowly, lose to Ghana, do just enough in the third match to get through and set up a quarter-final against the hosts. What they did in Libreville a year ago, when they beat Gabon on penalties, they will have to do again on Saturday as they face a newly enthused South Africa in Durban.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson (Video)
Tiny Cape Verde is Africa Cup of Nations’ Cinderella story
“When Cape Verde coach Lucio Antunes entered the press conference room in Port Elizabeth on Sunday, he found his team had gotten there before him. They were lined up on the dais behind the desk, bouncing up and down in glee as a African Football Confederation official sat sheepishly in the foreground, aware he had formalities to complete but unwilling to interrupt the jubilation. Defender Gege, wearing his shirt back to front, leapt on a chair and carried on dancing. Antunes, at 46 and a little too old for that sort of thing, initially looked a little uncomfortable but then, after some awkward shuffling, draped himself in the flag and began directing the celebrations. Usually, he directs planes.” SI – Jonathan Wilson
Salomon Kalou, Ivory Coast eye missing Africa Cup of Nations title
“he Africa Cup of Nations has always been one of my favorite international tournaments, and for the first time it’s possible for fans in the U.S. to watch every game live easily and legally, thanks to ESPN3 picking up the rights. One of the biggest storylines is whether a remarkable generation of Ivory Coast players — Didier Drogba, Yaya and Kolo Touré, Salomon Kalou, Gervinho and others — can finally get over the hump and win the tournament after falling short in each of the past four occasions.” SI
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 30, 2013
“You have to feel sympathy for Schalke fans this week. As they gathered around televisions to watch the Champions League second-round draw in December, they would have been content with a meeting against Galatasaray. There was the problematic trip ‘to hell’ to overcome, of course, but over two legs and looking at the two lineups, Schalke would have been confident of progression. But in the same week that Lewis Holtby’s transfer to Tottenham was brought forward, robbing Schalke of their inspirational attacking midfielder, Galatasaray completed one of the most remarkable double swoops in recent footballing history.” ESPN – Michael Cox (Video)
Galatasaray 2-1 Besiktas: Gala comfortably win the derby – now for Sneijder and Drogba
“Galatasaray outplayed Besiktas across the pitch – and were rarely troubled even after Felipe Melo’s red card. Fatih Terim was without right-back Emmanuel Eboue and left-sided midfielder Nordin Amrabat because of the Africa Cup of Nations, so played Sabri Sarioglu and Emre Colak. Johan Elmander started rather than Burak Yilmaz, and Wesley Sneijder was only on the bench. Samat Aybaba was forced to cope without striker Hugo Almeidia, which meant Filip Holosko was pushed upfront to play as a lone centre-forward, and Roberto Hilbert was moved forward to play on the right of midfield, perhaps to deal with Albert Riera. Mehmet Akgun made a rare appearance at right-back, while Gokhan Suzen came in at left-back.” Zonal Marking
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 28, 2013
“Mirko Vučinić showed up to the first day of soccer season this summer with a mustache. It was a thin one, and it made him look like a character out of an Italian neorealist homage to the dignity of the working class—handsome and proud, and heroic because ultimately he is up against forces that are far too great for him to succeed. Vučinić is the starting striker for Juventus, Italy’s Serie A defending champion. To date, though, he may be most famous for dropping his shorts, placing them on his head, and running around the pitch in his underwear after he scored a goal in an international match against Switzerland in 2010. You likely wouldn’t see that in an Italian neorealist film. But that’s all right, because Vučinić isn’t Italian. He’s Montenegrin, and Montenegro has a story of its own.” The Paris Review – 1
Offsides, Part 2
“Like Savićević, the Croatian Zlatko Kranjčar, fifty-six, had been a successful, offensive-minded player in his day, and one who understood the importance of international soccer. Nearing the end of his career in 1990 at the age of thirty-four, Kranjčar captained Croatia’s first national game of its post-Yugoslavia era. As a coach he led the Croatian national team into the 2006 World Cup. He had experience, and a lot of it. When Savićević hired him in 2010 as Montenegro’s new manager, it was Kranjcar’s eighteenth year of coaching and his twentieth job.” The Paris Review – 2
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 28, 2013
“The 2013 AFCON is neither the first nor last international football tournament to have an, ahem, ‘disappointing’ opening round of group matches. But that has usually been down to teams’ fear of losing their first game, something which the laws of football say you must not do. In South Africa, even when the attitude wasn’t fearful, the football was mostly dreadful. The second round had to be better. Didn’t it?” twohundredpercent
Tiny Cape Verde is Africa Cup of Nations’ Cinderella story
“When Cape Verde coach Lucio Antunes entered the press conference room in Port Elizabeth on Sunday, he found his team had gotten there before him. They were lined up on the dais behind the desk, bouncing up and down in glee as a African Football Confederation official sat sheepishly in the foreground, aware he had formalities to complete but unwilling to interrupt the jubilation.” SI – Jonathan Wilson
Jonathan Wilson
Salomon Kalou, Ivory Coast eye missing Africa Cup of Nations title
“The Africa Cup of Nations has always been one of my favorite international tournaments, and for the first time it’s possible for fans in the U.S. to watch every game live easily and legally, thanks to ESPN3 picking up the rights. One of the biggest storylines is whether a remarkable generation of Ivory Coast players — Didier Drogba, Yaya and Kolo Touré, Salomon Kalou, Gervinho and others — can finally get over the hump and win the tournament after falling short in each of the past four occasions.” SI
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 26, 2013
“‘Spend some f****** money!’ Arsenal fans chanted as their team lost again last Sunday at Chelsea. The cry echoed around the world on Twitter. Its target, Arsenal’s manager Arsène Wenger, had heard the argument before. Wenger, now 63, arrived at Arsenal in 1996 and led the club for eight glorious seasons. He has since led them for eight inglorious ones. Arsenal have won no trophies since 2005, and now stand a miserable sixth in the Premier League. The Frenchman is becoming a figure of derision. Many fans complain that Wenger refuses to buy the expensive players who could compete with Chelsea, Manchester United, or Barcelona, even though Arsenal have £153.6m in cash, an unheard-of sum for a football club. (Management firm Deloitte estimated last year that Premier League clubs had cumulative debts of £2.4bn.) Supporters are urging him to buy before the winter ‘transfer window’ closes on Thursday. He stands accused of practising football’s version of austerity – at a club that looks a model of financial good health.” FT – Simon Kuper
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 26, 2013
” Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez walked into the room at 1:01 p.m., looked up at the hundred-strong pack of journalists, the TV cameras pointing his way, and positioned himself behind the microphone. Then he made an announcement: ‘I am,’ he said, ‘going to break my own rule.’ The story was about to become the story. And as it unraveled, there was a brief glimpse of power and politics; the entente cordial was broken, and a battle began.” SI
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 26, 2013
“Zambia goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene netted a late penalty after Nigeria missed one against him in the first half to rescue the defending champions from defeat at the Africa Cup of Nations on Friday. The 1-1 draw at the Mbombela Stadium between the two heavyweights in Group C leaves both teams perilously placed without a win but still with a chance to grab a quarter-final place early next week.” Four Four Two
Dropping Drogba pays off on dark day for the continent
“Drastic changes have yielded dramatic results in the tournament so far and the Ivory Coast were the latest team to benefit from that. Sabrui Lamouchi took a massive gamble when he decided to drop the talismanic Didier Drogba to the bench and replace him with Lacina Troare, but his team now sit on the cusp of the quarterfinals as a result.” ESPN
Highlights: Zambia 1-1 Nigeria
ESPN – Highlights: Zambia 1-1 Nigeria (Video)
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 23, 2013
“Blimey. They could have warned us Mark Bright was a British Eurosport analyst for the ‘AFCON 2013’. With the first group games being largely turgid, Bright had a lot of gaps in the action to fill. He chose to do so with ‘y’know,’ – an ironic nervous tic when discussing tournament nerves. He rattled them off at ten-to-the-dozen at first, eventually settling down to produce 178 during the 90 minutes plus stoppage time, although this was only 12 higher than Danny Mills, who also began with sentences which mostly were y’knows, before settling down to about two-per-minute. And if you think the football must have been bad for me to be able to count them, you’re right.” twohundredpercent
South Africa’s decline apparent as African Cup of Nations begins
“On June 24, 1995, South Africa won the rugby World Cup, a triumph detailed by the film Invictus. That was a remarkable triumph, and there is no decrying the symbolism of Nelson Mandela, wearing a Springboks shirt, delivering the Webb Ellis Cup to Francois Pienaar, black president and white captain united in achievement. This was the glorious moment at which the dream of the rainbow nation seemed achievable.” SI – Jonathan Wilson
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 23, 2013
“Sunday night’s meeting between Roma and Inter was an underwhelming match. Despite being the most enticing fixture on paper of the Serie A weekend, the match drifted away after an exciting first 20 minutes, and ended as a scrappy 1-1 draw. However, the pattern of the game was interesting — it was played at a relatively slow tempo, interrupted by the occasional burst of sudden, end-to-end attacking. As both sides attempted to bypass the opposition defence quickly after half-time, the linesmen played as crucial a role as some of the players — there were 11 second-half offsides.” ESPN – Michael Cox
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 21, 2013
“Barcelona lost but no one said it; 24 hours later Real Madrid won, and brilliantly too, but still no one said it. Not this time. This time there was no Game On, no sign of the patented Crapping-yourself-ometer, no heebie-jeebies, no We’re Coming For You, and not one headline declaring: Hay Liga. Translation: There is [a] league. Perhaps because everyone agreed that there isn’t. There was a ‘We’re Back!’ but back where? “The league hasn’t got closer in the slightest: there isn’t enough garlic in the whole of Spain for Barcelona to feel Real Madrid’s breath on the back of their necks,’ wrote David Gistau, speaking for pretty much everyone. Because here’s the bottom line: the gap is still 15 points.” Guardian
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 21, 2013
“Chelsea took charge with a commanding start to the game, then held on in the second half. Rafael Benitez was without Victor Moses and Jon Obi Mikel because of the Africa Cup of Nations, and David Luiz was injured. This meant Ramires and Frank Lampard was the only possible midfield duo, with three creators ahead. Fernando Torres surprisingly started upfront, rather than Demba Ba. Arsene Wenger was without wide forwards Gervinho, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lukas Podolski, as well as Mikel Arteta, so he started with the same XI that beat Swansea in the FA Cup in midweek. The game was all about the tempo of passing – Chelsea moved the ball quicker in the first half and dominated, then this suddenly dropped after half-time, allowing Arsenal back into the game.” Zonal Marking
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 19, 2013
“Ah, Ivory Coast. As we approach kick-off in another Africa Cup of Nations, all we can say for sure is that it would be as foolish to back against Didier Drogba & Co as it would be cavalier to count on them. For the fifth time in a row the Elephants go into the tournament as one of the heaviest favourites, but this time no one will be surprised if they flop in timid or traumatic fashion. Bad luck and bad attitudes have been foremost among the factors that have led to seemingly the most gifted generation of Ivorian players losing the 2006 and 2012 Nations Cup finals on penalties and getting dumped out of the two tournaments between by opponents who turned out to be sharper and more balanced (Egypt in the 2008 semi-finals and Algeria in the 2010 quarter-finals).” Guardian
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 19, 2013
“Whether it was a sign of maturity or resignation, it was good to hear so little moaning from Premier League clubs about losing African international players to Africa’s Cup of Nations, especially given the decision to move the biennial tournament away from World Cup finals’ years by holding tournaments in 2012 and 2013. But Premier League clubs have accepted their temporary depletion of playing resource with relatively good grace, with the minor kerfuffle over Tottenham’s Emanuel Adebayor down to the player’s selection uncertainties – the Togolese striker being dropped for criticism of the team’s management before being re-instated at the behest of their football federation chief.” twohundredpercent
African Cup of Nations Preview: Group D
“Group D: Ivory Coast, Algeria, Tunisia, Togo. This looks the most difficult group having been labelled the `Group of Death` by most football pundits. Ivory Coast, Algeria and Tunisia are all powerful football nations in Africa. Togo can’t be taken for granted either, they can boast of some talented footballers who can win games individually such as Adebayor. This is also a very tricky group and very difficult to predict, but I will be brave to make my prediction. I see Ivory Coast and Tunisia advancing from this group. Tunisia play as a team and most of their players play together in the local league. Ivory Coast have some of the best players in World football and will likely put in a strong showing again.” Think Football
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 19, 2013
“The domestic football league of the old USSR was a vast, vibrant, and powerful competition, containing as it did clubs such as the Moscow giants Dynamo, Spartak, CSKA – and occasionally Torpedo – as well as influential teams from the republics, like the Dynamos of Kiev, Tbilisi, and Minsk. Evidently, the league would have been exceptionally strong and closely contested – it was so strong, in fact, that it rose to second place in UEFA’s league rankings.” World Soccer
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 17, 2013
“Ghana, a power house in African football, are seen as clear favourites to top this group; whilst Mali and DR Congo also will probably contest the second qualifying slot. Niger can be classified as the underdogs as they don’t have the quality to match the other teams in this group, but in AFCON there is always room for a surprise. The game between Congo and Mali could prove crucial for both sides, who as stated will want to qualify second, behind an experienced and talented Ghana side.” Think Football
“Zambia are the defending champions going into the 2013 AFCON tournament, which will be their 16th appearances in the AFCON. Their unbelievable underdog victory against African footballing fiants Cote D’Ivoire last time round captured the imagination of football fans Worldwide, leaving many fans to wonder how the Zambians can fare in South Africa. On the 27th of April 1993, the Zambia national team were on their way to play Senegal in a World Cup qualifier when the plane crashed and killed all 18 players on board, plus the coach and backroom staff. That team was the best Zambia has ever had and potentially one of the greatest in African history.” Think Football
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 17, 2013
“It is the 24th of April 2000 in Argentina, and the turn of a new millennium has seen the continued upturn in fortunes of Club Atlético Excursionistas, a Primera C side who have racked up ten successive victories under director técnico Néstor Rapa. Sitting pretty at the top of the table, they have a home clash versus Club Comunicaciones at Pampa y Miñones, the 8,000 capacity ground that hides, camouflaged, in the Belgrano neighbourhood of Buenos Aires.” In Bed With Maradona
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 15, 2013
“Sixty-two, it would appear, may just be the magic number. It is starting to feel as if battle lines are being drawn in the ongoing debate over the extent to which ticket prices for matches have spiralled out of all control, and if last Sunday’s match between Arsenal and Manchester City was notable for anything in particular, then perhaps two stories to have followed in its aftermath have proved to be particularly instructive in terms of showing us who will be on whose side as the argument rumbles on. First up is the small matter of the deselection of the referee’s assistant who seemed to summarise the frustration that so many supporters are feeling at the moment over not only the issue of ticket prices, but also concerning the attitudes of the people that have been the chief beneficiaries of the money that has poured into the game over the last couple of decades or so: the players themselves.” twohundredpercent
Revisiting the Price of Football
“There comes a point in every football fan’s life when the “sod it, I’m not going moment” occurs. For some Manchester City fans, contributing £62 to Arsenal’s coffers was a step too far. For me, spending £25 to sit in a rickety away end at Brisbane Road on a cold December afternoon watching Exeter toil against an equally uninspiring Leyton Orient side proved beyond even my levels of tolerance and fanaticism. Despite the game being only a short ride away on the Central Line and no other plans, it was too much. I stayed at home. But this isn’t about Arsenal, or Manchester City, or even Leyton Orient (although if Barry Hearn really wants to attract locals away from West Ham, he might want to consider lowering his prices a little), no matter how much the debate has descended into partisanship. While it’s quite easy to pick examples of equally high prices at Arsenal or, say, Spurs, this obscures the real issue – that ticket prices in general are too high and, especially in an age of austerity, risk pricing out the next generation of fans.” twounfortunates
Ridiculous! Ticket prices are getting out of hand.. but it’s not just an Arsenal problem
“The best thing to happen this week has been the highlighting of ticket prices in football. Make no mistake – it’s not just an Arsenal issue even though this Sunday’s game with Manchester City has put it on the agenda. City returned 912 tickets – priced at £62 – from their allocation of 3,000 for the game at the Emirates. I must admit that I find that remarkable. That City fans are staying away from a crucial game against one of their biggest rivals in a game which has significance in the title race. Football is like a drug. Following your team is expensive but it’s also addictive. The other team not to sell out at the Emirates on a regular basis has been Wigan. Not a major shock as they have a small fan base. Newcastle didn’t either last month. They, like City, have some of the best and most passionate fans in the Premier League. But it was December 29, just after Christmas and three days after another costly trip to Manchester United. It is expensive being a football fan. Ridiculously so. It’s getting out of hand. And most bloggers, tweeters and supporters point to Arsenal as being one of the most expensive.” Mirror
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 15, 2013
“Football, as Sir Alex Ferguson noted last week, moves in cycles. He was talking about clubs and nations, about how certain places suddenly produce a great generation of players, but it is true as well of formations and styles of play. After the rise of 4–2–3–1 to replace 4–4–2 as the world’s default, the backlash is well and truly under way. As so often, the key lies on the flanks. The history of football tactics is, to a large extent, the search for space and when the centre is crowded it is on the less crowded wings that the key battles are fought.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 15, 2013
“1. Packing the midfield. Soccer formations are easy. You have to have a goalkeeper. That’s obvious. Forget three center-backs; a four-man defense works best. It’s in the balance between midfield attack that some coaches grown confused. The answer is to pick a five-man midfield to ensure possession and a two-man attack to make sure that possession is not wasted. A team playing that formation would win nearly every game. Some might object that this would be because it had 12 players on the field, but that’s the sort of stupid quibble with which small minds react to paradigm-challenging genius.” SI
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 15, 2013
“There was something refreshing about Arsene Wenger’s take on the red card shown to Laurent Koscielny nine minutes into Arsenal’s 2-0 loss to Manchester City on Sunday. For once — and this is a criticism directed at virtually all managers, not Wenger in particular — he didn’t take the easy way out and blame the referee. It would have been simple — justified up to a point, even — to say that the game had effectively been decided by Mike Dean’s decision to send Koscielny off. That the defender committed a foul by hauling Edin Dzeko down is beyond doubt, but there is a question as to whether Koscielny denied him a clear goal-scoring opportunity; Dzeko, after all, did not have control of the ball and would have had to bring it down before Wojciech Szczesny came to clear.” SI – Jonathan Wilson
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 15, 2013
“The Africa cup of nation which is the biggest football tournament in Africa, will kick off in South Africa from January 19th to February 10th 2013, promising to be an incredibly exciting tournament. As always the case at the AFCON, last year was filled with some beautiful football, great goals, drama and passion. Zambia surprisingly emerged as winners of the last edition after defeating favourites Ivory Coast in the final. The last time they reached the final was in 1994, just a year after 18 of their national team members died in a plane crash as they took off from the Gabonese capital Libreville. For Zambian football it was a devastating plane crash. Coincidentally last year final also took place in Gabon.” Think Football
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 15, 2013
“Manchester United dominated the first hour, then hung on in the final stages. Sir Alex Ferguson named Danny Welbeck in his starting XI, with the out-of-form Antonio Valencia on the bench. Jonny Evans was out injured, so Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic played at the back. Brendan Rodgers kept Daniel Sturridge on the bench, preferring Stewart Downing and Raheem Sterling. Liverpool fought back in the second half, but took too long to get going, and United dominated the majority of the game.” Zonal Marking
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 13, 2013
“Liverpool, mind the gap. They just can’t ignore it. After a match that suggested, at differing points, that the distance between them and Manchester United’s was as slender as the half a yard Nemanja Vidic had strayed offside when he touched in the league leaders’ winner or as large as the 61 points that have separated the two clubs over the past 18 months, Brendan Rodgers raised the subject.” ESPN
Van Persie edges striker duel
“Striker Robin van Persie came out on top in the battle of the Premier League’s top scorers as Manchester United emerged from a tricky test with a 2-1 win against arch-rivals Liverpool. The Holland international continued his remarkable scoring spree with a close-range effort in the first half which was doubled after the break by Nemanja Vidic. Liverpool substitute Daniel Sturridge overshadowed team-mate Luis Suarez, who began the day one behind Van Persie on 15 top-flight goals for the season, by marking his league debut for his new club with a second goal in as many matches and had a chance to snatch a point late on, but United held on, if somewhat unconvincingly.” ESPN
Obliging Liverpool leave United’s Michael Carrick to rule the roost
“Perhaps Brendan Rodgers should have been more audacious from the start. There’s no exact science, nobody could say for absolute certain that the outcome would have been different, but then you think back to how timid Liverpool were in the first half and it’s tempting to wonder what might have happened if they had shown even a touch more ambition. It’s true, as Rodgers said, they can be encouraged by those parts of the game when Manchester United suddenly looked a little vulnerable and the crowd was starting to get restless. But sporadic glimpses are not enough.” Guardian
Robin van Persie gives Manchester United superiority over Liverpool
“English football’s most illustrious rivalry produced yet more regrets at Old Trafford but this time they originated from a wildly fluctuating contest only. It must be progress. Brendan Rodgers rued Liverpool’s failure to turn up until the second half and Sir Alex Ferguson Manchester United’s inability to score ‘three or four’ when strolling in the ascendancy. Ferguson, at least, had the consolation of inching closer to title No20 at the expense of his fiercest foe.” Guardian
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 13, 2013
“Barcelona, the unbeaten leaders, ended the first half of the La Liga season with a record 55 out of a possible 57 points when Lionel Messi scored one goal and had a hand in two more in a 3-1 win at Málaga. An 18th victory in 19 games for Tito Vilanova’s side restored their 11-point lead over second-placed Atlético Madrid, who secured a 10th win in 10 home matches this season with a 2-0 success against Real Zaragoza.” Guardian
Barca – 3, Malaga – 1
“Barca continued with their excellent start of the season with a well fought 3-1 victory against Malaga away from home. At the half stage of the season, we now have a huge 55 points out of 57 points. We have won all our away games this season in La Liga. Lionel Messi opened the scoring in the first half, Cesc Fabregas and Thiago completed teh scoreline for Barca. With Villa ruled out due to injury, Tito went with a front three of Messi, Pedro and Iniesta. Xavi, Cesc Fabregas and Busquets made the midfield. Alba, Pique, Mascherano and Alves made up the defense. Pinto, Puyol, Adriano, Song, Thiago, Sanchez and Tello made up the bench.” All About FC Barcelona
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 13, 2013
“Most football fans can recall two German national teams, East and West, participating on the international stage prior to the demolition of the Berlin Wall. But, for a while, a third German national team existed. In modern Germany, Saarland is a small federal state along the border of France and Luxembourg. In the past, the political identity of this state has been the cause of a tug-of-war between France and Germany. After World War II, Saarland came under the administration and jurisdiction of France as the Saar Protectorate. Its highly valuable coal industry was one of the reasons why the French government showed great interest in the area. During this period, Saarland had its independent political identity and its own constitution and between 1950 and 1954, it was accredited by FIFA as a separate footballing nation.” In Bed With Maradona
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Posted by 1960s: Days of Rage
January 11, 2013
“In this book, Wilson tackles the perennial question of why Eastern European football isn’t very competitive with Western European, both at the club and national levels. Some things have changed since its publication in 2006, but, in general, the nations discussed—Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, the Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia—are still in the situation he describes. At 300 pages, it is not an in-depth history of football in any of these countries, not by any means, but it gives the reader an overview of football during the communist era and in the first fifteen years following the collapse of the Soviet Union. As the title suggests, it’s a travelogue. He discusses matches he’s seen and people he’s interviewed as a football journalist and puts them into the greater historical context.” Bundesliga Fanatic
“When Jonathan Wilson entered Partizan stadium in Belgrade, he was frisked so efficiently that the police even took his Lemsip. That didn’t diminish his passion for the former Yugoslavia, an obsession that he blames on cold war spy movies and childhood holidays in Montenegro. Since then, he has huddled in brutalist football grounds from Slovenia to Azerbaijan, Sofia to St Petersburg, watching innumerable matches while working as a correspondent for a now-defunct website and the Financial Times. Behind the Curtain recounts his travels and gives a little footballing history of each country, focusing on prominent clubs or memorable incidents. Wilson obviously retains a particular affinity with the Serbs: he writes an unusually sensitive character sketch of Sinisa Mihajlovic, one of the most reviled men in European football, and even admits a sneaking warmth for the Delije, the hooligans closely associated with Arkan.” Guardian
“It was Christmas Eve and all through the house, nothing was stirring – because everyone had eaten too much barszcz, carp and cake during Wigilia dinner. When the time came to look under the Christmas tree for presents, little Decoy’s eyes lit up, as he saw what Santa Claus had brought. Mikołaj knew that Decoy liked reading books and also liked football, so it was a pleasant surprise to see books about football wrapped up neatly. One of the books received was ‘Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football’ by Jonathan Wilson. Wilson is a football journalist who writes for Sports Illustrated and the UK-based newspapers The Independent and The Guardian. He specialises in writing about football tactics and also football based in ‘Eastern’ Europe – i.e. those countries lying behind the Iron Curtain before 1989/90. His articles analysing tactical nuances on the Guardian website prove particularly popular with readers there.” Polandian
8/26/2012 – Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football – amazon
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