Daily Archives: June 4, 2023

One more, Manchester City. One more

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“… It is as simple as that for Manchester City now: one more match to win, one more trophy to lift. Do that, and they will be treble winners. Their joy at beating Manchester United in the FA Cup final yesterday was there for all to see. Pep Guardiola in tears, the players bouncing up and down arm in arm, physios lifted onto shoulders, turned upside down and spun around. Had this been the last game of their season, it would have meant the world, but with it setting up a shot at history next Saturday in Istanbul, it must mean even more. It feels like their time. …”
The Athletic (Video)
The Athletic – Manchester City 2-1 Manchester United: Analysing FA Cup final’s Gundogan opener, treble talk, ‘keeper comparison’ (Video)
The Athletic – Welcome to Manchester City 3.0: The latest great Guardiola team

Football must finally take a stand against antisemitism

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“Football is rooted in love. As kids, we love the simple joy of the game, and as we grow alongside it we love how it melds with what we love – community, family and friends. Football is who we are. But where there are in-groups there are out-groups, and while as fans our antipathy to everyone who is not ‘us’ mainly constitutes harmless fun … sometimes it doesn’t. The WhatsApp conversations of the Ashburton Army, a prominent Arsenal supporter group, were riddled with antisemitism that included references to Israel, the Holocaust and circumcision. …”
Guardian
The Athletic: Marching with Arsenal’s Ashburton Army as they build Emirates noise (March 2023)

Forget Premier League relegation battles. Welcome to the Bundesliga’s perilous play-off

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“On Thursday night, the Bundesliga’s relegation play-off began. It likely ended, too. Contested between the team finishing 16th in the first division and third in the second, it is a two-legged tie packed into four days of the early summer. This season, it has brought together the 2 Bundesliga’s Hamburger SV, from Germany’s north, and the Bundesliga’s Stuttgart, from its south west. And, as has become semi-tradition, the side from the higher division looks almost certain to retain their place. Stuttgart scored their first goal within a minute of the game beginning. By full time, they had missed a penalty, spurned a whole buffet of good chances, and yet still comfortably won 3-0. …”
The Athletic (Video)

The Murky History of Foosball

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A group of young Parisians playing foosball at a cafe in 1958.
Jan. 2013: “In the best tradition of skulduggery, claim and counterclaim, foosball (or table football), that simple game of bouncing little wooden soccer players back and forth on springy metal bars across something that looks like a mini pool table, has the roots of its conception mired in confusion. Some say that in a sort of spontaneous combustion of ideas, the game erupted in various parts of Europe simultaneously sometime during the 1880s or ’90s as a parlor game. Others say that it was the brainchild of Lucien Rosengart, a dabbler in the inventive and engineering arts who had various patents, including ones for railway parts, bicycle parts, the seat belt and a rocket that allowed artillery shells to be exploded while airborne. …”
Smithsonian

Elland Road – 20 years a political pawn in the chaotic life of Leeds United

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“… They give it to you straight around here and when you get to Elland Road, the home of Leeds United, it has that vibe about it: visitors welcome and might be slaughtered. There’s no cheese club in this corner of English football, no stadium skywalk tour or adjoining sports village. Ninety minutes in the West Stand feels more and more like a dare. It is one of the best stadiums in England, in the sense that you don’t get this any more, not at the top of the game. It is Leeds’ comfort zone and no one else’s. …”
The Athletic