“All season, it feels as if it has been a case of the world waiting for Leicester City to slip up. Modern football is a place in which dreams melt to air; fairytales were for the 70s. And yet every time it appears they may falter, they somehow find an inner resolve that carries them through. Leicester may be the mice that roared – but they are mice with the strongest of backbones. On Sunday Leicester looked as if they had run out of attacking ideas. Sunderland had begun to look as though their vague threat might become something more substantial. Even with Jamie Vardy, thoughts had drifted away from which non-league side he scored against four years ago to doubts about his form.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson
Jamie Vardy and Leicester City climb every hurdle when doubts are raised
April 12, 2016
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Russia’s Leicester City: How FK Rostov are spearheading an unlikely title challenge
April 12, 2016“Rostov-on-Don, a quiet city based in the South-West part of the Russian Federation with a population of just under 1.1 million people. Not a place known by many outside of Russia and within Russia, both the city and the region are most well-known for its agricultural industry which produces one-third of Russia’s vegetable oil from sunflowers. However, in the last few months, this has changed considerably thanks to the efforts of the town’s football club FK Rostov. When analysing Rostov’s history in post-Soviet era Russian football since 1991, their record has been unremarkable.” Outside of the Boot
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Group of death: FIFA officials’ financial secrets exposed in new Wikileaks-style trove
April 12, 2016“Mossack Fonseca, a prominent law firm headquartered in Panama—with offices in 36 other jurisdictions—sprung a leak last year. That leak produced approximately 11.5 million documents revealing over 200,000 entities and 14,000 clients, surfacing relationships that had remained behind a veil of secrecy and attorney-client privilege. The leaked emails and documents reveal a wide spectrum of clientele—from politicians to celebrities, athletes, the ridiculously wealthy and powerful, and corporations—who have been turning to the firm for decades to create offshore shell companies, corporate vehicles that leave virtually no ownership footprint.” Fusion
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Around Europe: Barcelona burnout; Ben Arfa makes his Euro case
April 12, 2016
“There were decisive moments in the title race in England and Germany, as respective leaders Leicester City and Bayern Munich came closer to the finishing line, though a shock result in Spain has opened the door to the pack chasing defending champion Barcelona. A new coach with a familiar name enjoyed a successful start at Lazio, while in France, a new hat trick hero has given national team boss Didier Deschamps a selection dilemma leading into Euro 2016. Here is what caught our eye this week from Around Europe.” SI (Video)
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Can Southampton Become A Force In The Premier League?
April 12, 2016“In a more normal Premier League season, the wider media would probably be spending more time rehashing the same clichés they’ve used for Southampton over the past couple of years. They’re hanging around the top eight having survived another summer of key departures (Morgan Schneiderlin and Nathaniel Clyne) and there’s no real signs of danger as they’re once again above average in controlling shot numbers for and against. Perhaps the quality of attacking football hasn’t quite been to the standard of the previous two seasons but it’s still been satisfactory. Their goal difference is fine enough at +11 and in a year of chaos and turbulence, Southampton are being their steady selves.” Stats Bomb (Video)
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Tactical Analysis: Barcelona 2-1 Atlético | Red card = Atleti pseudo-compactness, Suarez and Messi capitalise
April 12, 2016“In a repeat of the 2013-14 quarter final, Barcelona were pitted against Diego Simeone’s stubborn Atletico side who were riding high in La Liga, 6 points off their opponents on Tuesday night in 2nd place, having just swept aside Real Betis 5-1 at the weekend. Barcelona, on the other hand, came into this fixture on the back of their first defeat in 39 games to none other than their arch rivals Real Madrid at the Camp Nou. Facing the other team in Madrid just a few days later, who on their day have proven just as difficult to beat as Real, ideally wasn’t what they were looking for in terms of a confidence booster. However, considering the absence of key Atleti’s centre-backs Jose Gimenez and Stefan Savic and Barca’s quite phenomenal record against los Rojiblancos (6 consecutive wins), Barca would likely have come into this game, as they do in every other game, believing they could come away with the victory.” Outside of the Boot
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Book Review: When Football Came Home
April 12, 2016
“In June this year, Henry Winter will publish Fifty Years of Hurt , a volume that will use England’s 1966 World Cup victory as a springboard to examine the fortunes of the national XI over the subsequent half century. We’ll have to wait and see as to whether Winter can manage to get through the exercise without spinning a specific narrative – be it about Charles Hughes, too many league fixtures, penalties and the practising thereof, foreign players in English football or the antiquated nature of the FA – but suffice to say, it’s often easy to use vague patterns and trends to shoehorn an argument. As Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski displayed in Why England Lose, later rechristened Soccernomics , England actually punch at about the weight they should do given the raw materials they have to work with and Hartlepool United fans might argue with the use of the word ‘hurt’ to describe a period that has actually come with more than a few high points.” thetwounfortunates, amazon, Guardian – When football came home: England’s rapture against Holland at Euro 96
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For Club or Country?
April 12, 2016“Today in class, we celebrated ‘Jersey and Scarf Day’; many of the students in our Soccer Politics class brought in their favorite piece of soccer memorabilia and shared their story about how it was obtained, as well as the extent of their allegiance to their respective team. The class appeared to be roughly split 50/50 between club teams and national teams. After observing this trend, I recalled back to an r/soccer forum from a few years ago which simply asked its readers: ‘Club or Country?’ Do soccer fans care more about club success or national team glory?” Soccer Politics
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The soundtracks of football’s intriguing history
April 12, 2016“It is 50 years since England’s lone FIFA World Cup win, which coincided with a moment when the nation’s youth were creating a musical soundtrack that swept the planet. Four years later it was the turn of Brazil.” The World Game – Tim Vickery (Video)
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