“Italy had wanted to host World Cup 1930, and refused to participate when it was instead awarded to Uruguay. So when Italy were granted the right to host World Cup 1934, Uruguay pulled the same trick and didn’t travel to Europe. Leaving aside the politics of it all, in a way you can’t blame them. This 16-team tournament was contested as a straight knockout competition, meaning Brazil and Argentina made extraordinarily long journeys by sea, only to play a single game in Italy. Uruguay’s victory four years earlier was heavily dependent upon home advantage, but Italy took that home advantage to a completely different level. They replicated Uruguay’s intense training camp in the period leading up to the tournament, but more significantly, this World Cup was blatantly used by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini as propaganda tool, and coach Vittorio Pozzo later claimed that ‘Il Duce’ had personally asked him to select only Fascist Party members for Italy’s squad, although the players claimed they were only really interested in football and had little choice but to ‘support’ the nationalistic cause. …”
NY Times/The Athletic – Michael Cox
The Italian team performing a fascist salute at the 1934 World Cup
How Italy won the 1934 World Cup: A solid defence, the class of Giuseppe Meazza and help from the officials
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“Kevin Day is talking about trophy cabinets and silver allergies. ‘We’ve only got two FA Cup finals to our name,’ the writer, comedian and lifelong Crystal Palace fan says. ‘That’s one of the things about Steve Parish insisting we were founded in 1861 and not 1905 — it just adds another 44 years to the amount of time we haven’t won anything.’ Parish, the Palace chairman, likes his history, and opportunity knocks right now for his club to create some. Palace are one of the four out of this weekend’s FA Cup quarter-finalists who have never won a major trophy — Fulham, Brighton & Hove Albion and Bournemouth are the others — opening the door to the possibility of a first-time winner and a 45th different name being engraved on one of football’s most famous pieces of silverware. …”
“On average, about one in every 30 corners leads to a goal. The success rate tends to go up dramatically, however, when the goalkeeper and their entire defence are standing outside their six-yard box when a corner is taken. That was the remarkable scene during the UEFA Nations League quarter-final in Dortmund on Sunday. Germany’s Jamal Musiala turned the ball into an empty net against an Italy team who acted like they thought the game would stop for them to hold a debrief into where everything had been going wrong for them during the first half. Joshua Kimmich had other ideas and the combination of his brilliant quick-thinking and Musiala’s goal-hanging — allied to a ball boy who was, well, on the ball — led to Germany doubling their 1-0 lead from a highly unusual corner on 36 minutes, and making fools out of Italy in the process. …”
“Football fans love the idea of the clean break, the fresh start, and the new era that is unlike anything that has come before. When Thomas Tuchel got the 
“It was referred to as the darkest period in Mexican football history. Following Mexico’s exit in the group stage at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Mexico lost to the U.S. 2-0 in the semifinals of the Concacaf Nations League in 2023. Before that, El Tri had lost to the Americans in the 2019 Nations League final, and also suffered a defeat in Cincinnati in 2021 during the World Cup qualifiers prior to Qatar. Shortly before the 2022 World Cup, then-Mexico federation president Yon de Luisa fired his entire sporting department in what was viewed as a last-gasp effort to change the national team’s direction prior to the tournament. Yet Mexico crashed out, snapping a streak of seven straight knockout-stage berths, while the U.S. escaped its group. El Tri were no longer the Kings of Concacaf. Instead, they were forced to look up at their most bitter rivals, as the U.S. celebrated an unprecedented run of success against their neighbors to the south. …”
“At the beginning of March, Liverpool were surging under Arne Slot. Less than a fortnight ago, Slot’s first season at Anfield was geared up to be one of the greatest in club history. The Premier League was a procession. A Carabao Cup final awaited. The Champions League was theirs to snaffle up, too, after topping the revamped league stage. Not so now. In the space of six days, Liverpool’s lofty season has tumbled. From looking so imperious during the Dutchman’s first six months at the helm, now Slot’s side are left with just the Premier League to play for — though it would take quite the implosion for that to fall out of their grasp. The Carabao Cup and Champions League are gone. …”
“Arturo Sarukhán, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States between 2007 and 2013, is recalling the earliest conversations that took place over a bid for the United States and Mexico to co-host a men’s soccer World Cup. … Sarukhán’s logic? This would be a World Cup with no need for the construction of white-elephant stadiums. His underlying reason? To make a powerful statement to Mexicans and Americans. The ambition extended further when Canada was invited to join the 2026 ‘United’ bid that in 2018 secured hosting rights for 2026. Seven years on, however, and 15 months out from the tournament’s opening game, Sarukhán is alarmed by the geo-political situation that has gripped North America and its neighbors since Donald Trump began a second term as U.S. president in January. …”
“On Sunday evening, for the first time since 2007 — long before Diego Simeone took charge — Atletico Madrid lost a match having held a two-goal lead. And when a team comes back from 2-0 down to win 4-2 in a match with major significance in the title race, the instinct is to ask precisely what changed in the tactical battle, particularly when two managers with wildly different philosophies, Simeone and Hansi Flick, were involved. …”
“Arsenal’s return to the top table of English football has been a long time coming. Two decades have passed since they last won the Premier League title — few who watched their famed ‘Invincibles’ team of 2003-04 would have predicted that would be the last of Arsene Wenger’s league successes. Yet football, and perhaps English football more than anywhere else, has changed dramatically since those days of Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Robert Pires. Financially, Arsenal have had to deal with the seemingly bottomless wealth of first Chelsea and then Manchester City, two rivals whose various periods of domestic dominance were at least in some part built on the back of Arsenal’s hard work, given they raided Wenger for many of his best players. …”
Israel football team supporter at the 2023 Euros.
“It is a problem dominant football teams are experiencing across the world: with so many opposing sides deploying a low block, meaning they sit deep on their 18-yard line for the majority of the game, how do you find a way to goal? With space behind the defence strangled and the centre of the pitch condensed, plotting a course requires precise combination play. Most teams have to go around the block but that usually means crossing the ball, and statistically those do not translate into goals very often. In light of those convoluted routes, Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has made the executive decision that going over all those bodies is the best policy. …”
“It is a staple of English football. Despite the progression in modern football tactics, it is remarkable how many managers point to a specific part of the game in their pre- and post-match interviews. The second ball. With the influx of overseas coaches over recent decades, it feels like a rite of passage to note the importance of second balls when striving to win a game of Premier League football. Most notably, early in Pep Guardiola’s first season with Manchester City, he recalled how 
“Football’s memory is short, particularly when it comes to national sides. The most successful resemble club teams in that they have a core of players and a clearly defined style of play. There’s always an in-form player around whom a clamour develops, but continuity is just as important, perhaps even more so, in the international game. But next week inevitably represents a new start as Thomas Tuchel picks his first 
“Fifteen of the 16 clubs left in the 
“Watch the video without sound, without context, and you will be forgiven for wondering what exactly is going on. 
“One-touch passes are hard. As the great Johan Cruyff once said, ‘Technique is passing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right foot of your team-mate.’ The truth is first-time passes are dying out, with Premier League sides increasingly prioritising controlled possession. Manchester United playmaker Bruno Fernandes, though, has never been one to follow convention. His one-touch, no-look assist in last season’s FA Cup final win against Manchester City would surely have earned Cruyff’s seal of approval. From the edge of the box, Fernandes slid a first-time ball between John Stones and a recovering Kyle Walker, teeing up Kobbie Mainoo for the side-footed finish, as United ran out 2-1 winners, denying City a second successive league-and-cup double. …”
“As Adam Wharton turned and played a perfect through ball to Eddie Nketiah, Thomas Tuchel must have raised an eyebrow. The England head coach watched Crystal Palace from the stands for the second successive match with several players on his radar. But if there was a pass which by itself warranted an England call-up then this was it. Wharton received the ball 10 yards inside Palace’s half, surveyed the surroundings and advanced forward. He spotted Nketiah, who was through a crowd. …”
“Manchester United’s wait for back-to-back Premier League wins this season goes on after Declan Rice’s fine second-half strike earned Arsenal a point at a raucous Old Trafford. This game lacked the quality that was once associated with this fixture, with Bruno Fernandes’ goal shortly before half-time — a precise free kick from 25 yards — the outstanding moment in a poor first half. Arsenal improved after the break and levelled with Rice’s powerful long-range effort, their first goal in 257 minutes of Premier League action. And despite that shortage of quality, the closing stages had plenty of drama as both sides pushed for a win, Fernandes coming closest in the dying seconds. …”
“It has become the soundtrack to Liverpool’s potentially triumphant 2024-25 season. From Merseyside pubs to stadium concourses across the land, and from cramped away ends to the Kop, the Liverbird Upon My Chest refrain has been a consistent companion for Arne Slot’s players as they close in on the Premier League title. Yet this is not a new chant. Quite the opposite. It’s almost as old as 46-year-old Slot. And nobody is more surprised or delighted to see it making a comeback than Phil Aspinall, the fan who came up with it after watching The Green Berets, a 1968 movie starring John Wayne set during the Vietnam War, on TV the night before a match in 1984. …”
“As Arne Slot closes in on the second league title of his career, he may reflect ruefully on how it could easily have been his third. It is five years to the day that AZ’s season was effectively ended by Covid-19 after Slot’s in-form team had beaten ADO Den Haag to draw level on points with Ajax, the team they had beaten the week before, at the top of the Dutch Eredivisie. AZ had the look of champions-in-waiting, Slot having instilled such fearlessness and aggression in their football that their belief was growing with every passing week. What made this fairytale even more incredible was that Slot, in his first season as a top-flight coach, was outsmarting his rivals with a team largely made up of academy graduates. …”
“Wojciech Szczesny returns to the Estadio da Luz on Wednesday — the place where, only five weeks ago, his short Barcelona career must have flashed before his eyes. His first Champions League start of the season, in 
“… Those are the big three iconic Parisian landmarks. On Wednesday night at the Parc des Princes, Luis Enrique’s Paris Saint-Germain showed 
“Mousa Dembele was a players’ player: a rare talent whose quality is 
“Premier League clubs will already be planning who they want to bring in this summer when the transfer market reopens, but making sure they hold on to key players is also a major part of successful squad building. As 
“More than 20 games in the English Football League are underway and a cry of ‘it’s gone’ bellows from Pod J. Panic sets in. Peter Walker dashes in to check what has happened, fearing a camera has gone down in Stevenage’s home game against Huddersfield Town in League One. After a brief exchange, the panic is over. It was a false alarm. A player appeared to have an injury and the match director feared their hamstring had gone as opposed to losing a camera feed. …”
“If Liverpool’s loosely-defined ‘luck’ in the Premier League is a real thing then consider the not-so-compelling narrative in the 
“The 
“The sight of a goalkeeper gathering a simple shot, collapsing to the ground and taking an age to part with the ball is an infuriating one if your team are trailing. If your team are leading, it is a beautiful form of expressive art. The room for such theatrics is set to be squeezed, however, as the International Football Association Board (IFAB) has acted on what it sees as the rising trend of goalkeepers getting away with time-wasting. 
“Jean-Philippe Mateta had his ‘life endangered’ in a challenge from Millwall goalkeeper Liam Roberts that left the Crystal Palace striker with a head injury, his club’s chairman Steve Parish said. Mateta was given oxygen on the pitch following the challenge in Saturday’s FA Cup fifth-round tie, before being taken off on a stretcher from the field of play in a neck brace and being directly taken to an ambulance, with play stopped for over 10 minutes. Millwall’s Roberts was shown a straight red card after the video assistant referee (VAR) recommended on-field referee Michael Oliver to review the decision, after the goalkeeper was initially not punished for the incident. …”
Scissors Kick 