“Arsene Wenger had a lot to get off his chest in the autumn of 2015. His Arsenal side were in danger of exiting the Champions League at the group stages and their 2-1 loss away to Dinamo Zagreb had become an acute source of irritation. Not because Arsenal had stumbled against their weakest opponents, but because the Croatian side had triumphed with a player — Arijan Ademi — who had returned a positive drugs test after playing the full 90 minutes. Ademi would eventually be given a four-year suspension (later reduced to two on appeal) after traces of the banned steroid stanozolol were found in a routine urine sample, but Wenger bristled at Zagreb facing no disciplinary sanctions from UEFA, European football’s governing body. ‘That means you basically accept doping,’ he said. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
NY Times/The Athletic – Mykhailo Mudryk’s doping charge explained: Can Chelsea sack him if found guilty and could he appeal?
Daily Archives: June 21, 2025
Off-target shots: How the rise of the ‘good miss’ is aiding talent ID in football
“Off-target shots are football’s missed opportunity, in more ways than one. As the analytics revolution began to sweep through the sport in the early 2010s, shots on goal quickly became a key area of interest, with the aim of identifying the game’s most ruthless finishers firmly in mind. Some years after expected goals (xG) came expected goals on target (xGOT) — a metric that estimates the quality of on-target shots, taking into account factors such as the angle from which the shot was taken from, and its placement within the goal frame, to give an indication of how likely the subsequent effort was likely to find its way in. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
Winning fosters USMNT belief at a time when fans need a team they can trust
“The U.S. men’s national team is just a few weeks removed from the bitterness of two friendly defeats, the second of which was particularly ugly. Not nearly enough time has passed to have forgotten completely the feeling those results wrought on the group. That made it easier for Mauricio Pochettino to deliver his postgame message after the U.S. gutted out a not-so-perfect 1-0 win over Saudi Arabiaon Thursday night to secure a spot in the Concacaf Gold Cup quarterfinals. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
Donald Trump stunt proves FIFA is happy to play politics when it suits
“Timothy Weah sounded like someone who felt he had been ambushed. ‘It was all a surprise to me, honestly,’ the United States national-team player told reporters of his trip to the White House, where he was part of a delegation from his Italian club Juventus standing awkwardly in the Oval Office as President Donald Trump answered media questions about a possible U.S. attack on Iran and riffed about transgender women in sport. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
