Daily Archives: November 29, 2024

Suicidal Tour

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The 1943 Santa Cruz squad. Players marked with a red cross died during the tour.
“The Suicidal Tour (Brazilian Portuguese: Excursão Suicida), also known as the Death Tour (Excursão da Morte), took place when Brazilian professional football club Santa Cruz Futebol Clube toured the North Region of Brazil from 2 January 1943 to 29 April 1943. Over the course of almost four months, they played at least 26 friendly matches in six different cities to raise funds. The tour gained its name due to the misfortunes endured by the club, including a lack of funds, the threat of German attacks, and deaths. Looking to recover from a financial crisis, Recife-based Santa Cruz arranged five matches in Belém, Pará. After those, the team was then invited to extend their tour to Amazonas. …”
Wikipedia

How Arne Slot is proving to be the master of the half-time tactical tweak

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“It’s not like Arne Slot needed to fix Liverpool’s attack at half-time against Real Madrid. But despite his side creating multiple chances in the first half, he was able to tweak a few things in search of an improvement. And since the start of the season, Liverpool have been noticeably raising their level after the break — with the 2-0 victory against Madrid just the latest addition to the list of impressive second halves. This was on show in Slot’s first Premier League game, a 2-0 victory away to Ipswich Town, when during the break he told his players to focus on winning duels and playing balls in behind because of the opponent’s man-to-man approach. That tweak guided Liverpool to victory, and another half-time tweak against Madrid brought Slot’s team closer to reaching the Champions League’s round of 16. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
NY Times/The Athletic: Liverpool 2 Real Madrid 0: Are Slot’s team the best in Europe? And what now for Mbappe? (Video)
NY Times/The Athletic: Kylian Mbappe’s night to forget: That tackle, a missed penalty and attitude questions
NY Times/The Athletic: Liverpool’s Conor Bradley and a tackle for the ages

Champions League projections: All the talking points after matchday five

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“Five games into the new-look Champions League and the 36-team table is finally starting to take shape. Sort of. Strong favourites to progress have emerged, with Arne Slot’s Liverpool sat top of the pile after an impressive 2-0 victory over Real Madrid made it five wins from five. Inter are yet to concede a goal, while Barcelona and Arsenal— with convincing results this week — have increased their chances of qualifying for the knockout stages, via the play-offs or otherwise, to at least 90 per cent. …”
NY Times/The Athletic

How Viktor Gyokeres became Europe’s hottest striker

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“The numbers alone are frightening. Viktor Gyokeres has made 25 appearances for club and country so far in 2024-25. He has scored 33 goals. He was top scorer in the Portuguese top flight for Sporting CP last season with 29 goals (eight more than anyone else). He has already scored 16 in the league this season (again, eight more than anyone else) and only failed to score in six of those 25 games in all competitions. He scored nine for Sweden in the recent Nations League group stages. He has scored 67 goals in 69 matches for Sporting since joining from Coventry City for a bargain £17million ($21.4m). …”
NY Times/The Athletic