“When you are called out by your head coach for the ‘ridiculous’ number of goals the team has conceded so far this season, the ideal response is not to let in another four in the next game. Arne Slot did not mince his words when talking about his Liverpool side’s defensive record this season ahead of the Champions League tie against Dutch visitors PSV on Wednesday. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“In an era where football fans implore their club to spend big money on new players, it’s notable that very few of the most expensive footballers in history have been an unqualified success at their new club. Eleven players have been transferred for £100million or more, and there are more flops than clear positives. Antoine Griezmann’s 2017 move from Atletico Madrid to Barcelona (£105.9m) fell flat, and the experience of his direct replacement Joao Felix (£112.9m), arriving at Atletico from Benfica, was entirely underwhelming too. Philippe Coutinho’s £142m move from Liverpool to Barcelona was a clear failure — they ended up loaning him to Aston Villa, where he was a belated replacement for Jack Grealish, whose £100m move to Manchester City produced trophies, but far from Grealish’s best football. …”
NY Times/The Athletic- Michael Cox
“… A special shoutout to those fans who bought tickets during early lotteries without knowing the teams involved. Good luck to them as they find out what fixtures they have tickets for. The match schedule, including kick-off times and venues, will be revealed the day after the draw, Saturday, December 6, FIFA confirmed. Here’s what you can expect from the 2026 World Cup draw. …”
NY Times/The Athletic (Video)
NY Times/The Athletic: World Cup draw: What are the possible groups? Which teams are in which pots? How tough can they be?
“Declan Rice took the captain’s armband after Bukayo Saka was substituted, charged down a loose ball and seconds later Arsenal were ahead through Noni Madueke in the 69th minute. Gabriel Martinelli then made it 3-1 seven minutes later, with Bayern Munich cut apart by a through ball and the substitute doing the rest. Winning, it seems, is becoming a habit for Mikel Arteta’s side. Arsenal struck first through a set piece (naturally), when Saka’s first assist of the season — a menacing corner — was glanced into the net by Jurrien Timber in the 22nd minute. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
YouTube: Arsenal vs. Bayern: Extended Highlights | UCL League Phase MD 5
“Liverpool fell to a shock 4-1 loss to PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday night to make it three defeats in a row. After a handball by Virgil van Dijk, Ivan Perisic scored a sixth-minute penalty to put PSV Eindhoven ahead. But the hosts levelled in the 16th minute after Cody Gakpo dribbled down the left before cutting inside on his right foot. His shot was saved, but the ball fell to Dominik Szoboszlai, who fired home to level the game. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“Tottenham may have put in a more positive display against PSG than against Arsenal on Sunday, but they came away from Paris defeated in an eight-goal thriller despite twice taking the lead. Richarlison headed in during the first half after a great team move from Spurs before an incredible strike from Vitinha just before half-time drew the hosts level. Randal Kolo Muani, playing against his parent club, put Spurs back in front before Vitinha again drew the teams level with another lovely finish. Two poor goals to concede followed, though, as the early promise from Spurs evaporated. Kolo Muani made it 4-3 before Vitinha completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot after a handball. PSG then had Lucas Hernandez sent off in stoppage time. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“As television money has transformed the landscape of European football in the 21st century, the challenge has fallen on big clubs in smaller markets to innovate, or face being left behind. Ajax, the most successful club in the Netherlands, have proven that invention does not require abandoning tradition. In fact, their history has provided the blueprint for continued success. In the early 1970s, legendary coach Rinus Michels built Ajax into the best club team in Europe. In 1973, they became just the second team to win three successive European Cups, with Michels’ totaalvoetbal philosophy executed by players reared at the club’s academy. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“Andres Iniesta’s first night at Barcelona’s renowned La Masia youth academy was one of the worst of his life. Aged just 12, and having spent his whole upbringing until then surrounded by family in his small village of Fuentealbilla (population 2,400, in the southern Spanish province of Albacete), he was now alone, hundreds of miles from home. He was fulfilling a dream, but the experience left a mark on him. Iniesta says the ‘traumatic’ change ‘took its toll’ and he believes it may have played a role in the depression he would later suffer at the peak of his career, even if ‘things returned to normal’. …”
NY Times/The Athletic (Video)
“It is 30 years since Liverpool smashed the British transfer record to sign Stan Collymore, a brilliant, brutally effective centre-forward with the build of a cruiserweight boxer and skills that, on his day, made him almost unplayable. He was the match-winner on his debut against Sheffield Wednesday, conjuring an eye-catching goal out of nothing, and scored another beauty against reigning champions Blackburn Rovers a month later, but, behind the scenes, cracks soon appeared. From an early stage, he felt out of place at Anfield, cold-shouldered in the dressing room and an awkward fit in a team whose commitment to pass-and-move football was at odds with the strengths he had showcased at Nottingham Forest. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
Rob Edwards watched his Wolves side slide to defeat against Crystal Palace
“There were reasons why Rob Edwards could take encouragement from his first game in charge of Wolverhampton Wanderers. His team showed more intensity, more purpose, more commitment to defend and more organisation than they displayed in the final weeks of Vitor Pereira’s time in charge. Yet those positives also helped make the defeat in Edwards’ first game as head coach the most demoralising of Wolves’ season. Edwards has put right several wrongs in just a few days, yet he still saw his side beaten comfortably by Crystal Palace. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
Duncan Ferguson scores a trademark header against Bolton
“… First, some house rules; we’ve left out those where players who went on to score four or five goals, so Andrew Cole (Manchester United v Ipswich Town, 1995), Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City at Wolverhampton Wanderers, 2022) and Luis Suarez (Liverpool v Norwich City, 2013), we apologise. Why don’t they count here? It just doesn’t feel right calling them hat-tricks, does it? It’s a quad-trick or a cinq-trick (that actually sounds quite nice), not a hat-trick. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“The next men’s FIFA World Cup is now 200 days away and 42 nations — including its co-hosts the United States, Canada and Mexico — have secured their places in the expanded 48-team competition. Seventy-five per cent of matches will be played in the U.S. across 11 cities. Mexico will host the opening matchday in Mexico City and Guadalajara, but the involvement of both it and Canada, in terms of venues anyway, will cease after the round of 16, with all games from the quarter-finals onwards to be played in the States, including the final at MetLife Stadium in the state of New Jersey, a few miles west of New York City. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“Liverpool’s season goes from bad to worse. A wretched 3-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest, who were entrenched in the relegation zone ahead of kick-off, dealt a further blow to Arne Slot’s hopes of salvaging his Premier League title defence and left him facing yet more awkward questions about how to arrest the club’s slide. We dissect the major talking points. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“Manchester City missed an opportunity to put pressure on Arsenal in the title race, falling to a 2-1 defeat to Newcastle United at St James’ Park. The result leaves Pep Guardiola’s team in third, a point behind Chelsea, and potentially seven points behind Arsenal, should Mikel Arteta’s side beat Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. The game was decided in a dramatic seven second-half minutes. Both sides had missed an abundance of chances before Newcastle opened the scoring in the 64th minute. A smart interchange in midfield between Bruno Guimaraes and Harvey Barnes ended with the latter shooting low and hard past goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. The lead only lasted five minutes, however, as Newcastle struggled to clear from a corner and Ruben Dias equalised, his shot squirming between the legs of Fabian Schar. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
YouTube: Newcastle United v. Manchester City | PREMIER LEAGUE HIGHLIGHTS
“… On Saturday, the Camp Nou will once again host a game, two and a half years after it was shut for a €1.5billion (£1.3bn; $1.8bn) redevelopment. It has felt like an eternity for Barca fans — and many neutrals besides — with the team mostly playing across the city at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys on Montjuic. Barca’s game against Athletic Club and the celebrations around it will be historic — just like that first match against a Warsaw XI on September 24, 1957. As The Athletic discovered, much has changed since then, but there are also parallels with the circumstances around the Camp Nou’s reopening this weekend. Why did Barcelona play against a team from Warsaw, Poland? Some believe it was an act of protest; with Spain under the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, Catalans were referred to as ‘polacos’ (Polish) in a derogatory way by the rest of Spain. But that was not the reason. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
Eulogio Martinez, on the floor, scores Barcelona’s opening goal
“The scene was a school in west London, the weather was overcast and, for what felt like the first day of a new term, the mood was horribly tense. It was the Premier League’s official launch event for the 2015-16 Premier League season. Eddie Howe led a contingent from Bournemouth, all of them wide-eyed with excitement on the eve of their first top-flight campaign. The Swansea City lot were happy to be there, too. The delegation from reigning champions Chelsea? Not so much. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“One of the common moans about English football is that everything feels homogenous these days. Teams play the same style of football. Stadiums are identikit bowls. Clubs play in away kits that don’t particularly feel like their colours. So among clubs becoming increasingly indistinguishable from one another, one small element of Premier League football is a complete free-for-all: the commentary used on the highlights packages for clubs’ respective YouTube channels. Here, there is absolutely no consensus whatsoever about the right thing to do. Should you use a standard feed of ‘neutral’ television commentary? Should you use a dedicated club commentator? Should you use the club’s dedicated radio commentary and overlay it on the pictures? Should you use local BBC radio commentary? …”
NY Times/The Athletic (Video)
“The Premier League returns this week after the final international break of the calendar year. At the top, Arsenal are four points clear but have suffered further injuries, including to key defender Gabriel, before the north London derby against Tottenham on Sunday. Second-placed Manchester City visit Newcastle on Saturday evening, with Eddie Howe’s home side as close to rock-bottom Wolves in points terms as they are to Pep Guardiola’s team. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“The excitement of Jamaica potentially qualifying for just their second World Cup was palpable on the gridlocked streets of Kingston three hours before kick-off. Fans in a variety of yellow shirts, with flicks of green, creating a joyous kaleidoscope of expectation. Wafting through the air was the smell of the jerk chicken and curry goat being cooked outside the city’s National Stadium, while inside dancehall blasted over the speakers. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“You might walk past the International Dispute Resolution Centre (IDRC) in central London a hundred times without noticing it. Dwarfed by nearby St Paul’s Cathedral, the smart office building where arbitration rooms can be hired by the day for up to £5,000 ($6,580) seems unassuming. But the IDRC has emerged as a key battleground for some of English football’s most compelling contests over the last 12 months. It is where Manchester City faced the Premier League’s 115 charges at the back end of last year — the result is still to be confirmed — and where Burnley have sought compensation of up to £60million from Everton in what could yet be a landmark case. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
Mexico after winning the CONCACAF Nations League final in March 2025
“The 2026 World Cup, which is taking place in the United States, Canada and Mexico, begins on June 11 next year. It will be the 23rd edition of the tournament and the first with 48 countries competing. Qualification around the globe is nearing completion and 42 teams have secured their place at the world’s biggest sporting event. The final six places will be determined by the results of the European and inter-confederation play-offs, both of which take place in March. The draw for those play-off games takes place on Thursday, November 20. Which countries have secured their spot in North America next summer? How many places are awarded to each continental confederation? …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“Curacao is a Caribbean island that’s home to around only 185,000 people, and it felt like half of them spilt onto the pitch in celebration at reaching their first-ever World Cup on a dramatic night in Jamaica. They are now the smallest nation ever to qualify for a World Cup, breaking a record previously set by Iceland in 2018. Two planes carrying Curacao’s most passionate supporters, or as captain Leandro Bacuna termed it, their “ultras”, were chartered to make sure the players would have some backing for their decisive qualifying match on Tuesday night at Jamaica’s National Stadium in Kingston. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“Could a club from Africa be playing in La Liga next season? AD Ceuta — from the autonomous Spanish city of the same name, which is surrounded on the landward side by Morocco and located on the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea — are the only club located on the African continent who play professional football in Europe. As recently as 2022, Ceuta were playing in Spain’s semi-professional regional fourth tier. Public funding and shrewd management have helped them win three promotions in five years to the second division. Now, they are one step away from La Liga. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
W – AD Ceuta FC
NY Times/The Athletic: A Spanish Team Endures on a Toehold in Africa (April 2023)
Muley El Mehdi mosque in Ceuta
“‘We’re returning home,’ read a Barcelona statement on Monday afternoon. After 909 days away, Barca will play again at the Camp Nou when they host Athletic Club in La Liga on Saturday. The Catalans have not played at their iconic home ground since they started a €1.5billion (£1.3bn; $1.8bn) refurbishment project more than two years ago. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
Ireland’s players celebrate their dramatic 3-2 win in Hungary on Sunday
“… Troy Parrott’s puffy red eyes and trembling voice captured the elated disbelief of an entire nation. He had just completed a stunning hat-trick in the Republic of Ireland’s 3-2 victory away to Hungary on Sunday night, sealing it with a stoppage-time strike that tore the runners-up’s play-off place in Europe’s Group F away from opponents who needed only a draw to secure it. The sight of Parrott buried beneath an ecstatic mountain of team-mates and coaching staff on the Budapest turf was utterly unthinkable a week ago. After the ignominy of a 2-1 away defeat against Armenia in September — a team ranked 105th in the world then and beaten 9-1 by Portugal yesterday — Ireland needed a sequence of results few believed possible to keep their World Cup hopes alive. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
Gennaro Gattuso gestures during the defeat by Norway
“Welcome to The Briefing, where The Athletic discusses three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s football. In this edition, focused on the World Cup qualifiers, Portugal hammered Armenia without Cristiano Ronaldo, Troy Parrott delivered a moment that will live long in the memory of every football fan from the Republic of Ireland, and Gennaro Gattuso’s Italy were beaten by Norway, who completed a perfect qualification campaign. Here’s what happened in the world of football over the international break. …”
NY Times/The Athletic (Video)
“The Defiant, with its cover inspired by a Republican Spanish Civil War-era poster, details the ‘history of football against fascism’. It comes out to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Mussolini’s ‘March on Rome’, when Mussolini came to power in Italy, leading the world’s first fascist government (see ‘100 years since Mussolini’s March on Rome’). From the start, Mussolini both used and faced opposition from football, and that’s where the book begins, looking at players who refused to give the fascist salute before matches in the new Serie A football league founded by Mussolini in 1929. Author Chris Lee points out that the rise of fascism in the 1930s coincided with sporting events becoming truly international during the decade. Both the World Cup and Olympics were held in countries with fascist governments, in Italy in 1934, and Berlin in 1936, respectively. …” Socialist Party
The Defiant – a history of football against fascism
When Friday Comes: Football revolution in the Middle East and the road to the Qatar World Cup
Va-Va-Voom: The Modern History of French Football
“… On the other side of Europe, the former republic of Yugoslavia found itself in the midst of the war that went on to claim an estimated 140,000 lives. In his excellently researched book, Chris Etchingham examines the role football had in stoking national tensions, but also how it has worked as a tool of reconciliation since the end of the conflict. The collapse of Yugoslavia can be traced to the death of Josip Tito in 1980, an event that occurred during a match between two of the country’s biggest clubs; Hajduk Split of Croatia and Red Star Belgrade of Serbia. When he was informed of what had happened, the referee abandoned the game in the first half as many of those in the stands broke down in tears. …” Johnnie Lowery
Emancipation for Goalposts: Football’s Role in the Fall of Yugoslavia
Remarkable Football Grounds
European Football Maps
Forza Sankt Pauli: FC St. Pauli: Supporting a radical football club in a polarised political age
“Since 1930, the World Cup has become a truly global obsession. It is the most watched sporting event on the planet, and 211 teams competed to make it into the 2022 tournament. From its inception, it has also been a vehicle for far more than soccer. A tool for self-mythologizing and influence-peddling, The World Cup has played a crucial role in nation-building, and continues to, as countries negotiate their positions in a globalized world. The Power and the Glory is a comprehensive history of the matches and goals, the tales of scandal and triumph, the haggling and skulduggery of the bidding process, and the political and cultural tides behind every tournament. …” bbgb Books
The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup
“Seven months from now, thousands of miles from Wembley, England will start their 2026 World Cup finals challenge. Their qualification campaign so far has been perfect — six games, six wins — and their two remaining group matches are now effectively dead rubbers. England host Serbia on Thursday before playing Albania away on Sunday. When the final whistle goes in Tirana, England will not play another competitive game until the big kick-off. Just two home friendlies in March and then likely two more pre-tournament in Florida in early June. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“The men’s World Cup is bigger than ever. Next summer’s tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada will feature 48 nations, up from the previous 32-team format. Last month, Cape Verde — whose 525,000 inhabitants make it the second-smallest country by population ever to qualify — joined Jordan and Uzbekistan as first-time participants. Despite the expanded tournament doubling the number of participating nations from the U.S.-held edition in 1994, seven (eight if Nigeria fail to qualify) of the 10 most populous nations have not qualified. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“This article is part of a wider series in partnership with Football Manager 26, which looks at the strengths and weaknesses of famous historical and contemporary tactics. Part one: The 4-2-3-1, Part two: The 4-4-2 and Part three: The 4-3-3. Cast your eye over any amateur game of football in England, from the rabble of ball-watching children at primary school level, to the mudbaths and brawls of Sunday League, and you’ll likely find two teams — however well-organised — lining up with four players across their defence. It’s the subconscious default of English football, firmly established since the 4-4-2 emerged as a dominant shape in the 1960s, a simple formation that is well-suited to the direct and physical nature of the domestic game. But it’s not the case everywhere in Europe; in Italy, especially, young defenders are often brought up as central centre-backs and wide defenders in a back three or five. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“Arne Slot led Liverpool to a league title in his first season in charge with a defined plan and a team that had a clear identity. After a summer of change involving significant turnover of the squad, the current version of Liverpool, who have lost seven of their last 10 games, could not look and feel more different. Following the 2-2 draw against Arsenal in October 2024, Slot complimented the job their coach Mikel Arteta had done during his time at the club in his post-match press conference: ‘They always play 4-3-3, but the way they position themselves, they can do — I think he said it once himself — 40 different setups.’ …”
NY Times/The Athletic
A soccer field in the village of Leirvík.
“Rain dripped down the men’s faces. The wind howled, raking the pitch. A mammoth storm had descended on the Faroe Islands but the players just wiped their faces and kept going, running drill after drill under the misty floodlights. In just a few days, they will play the game of their lives for a chance to etch their tiny archipelago into soccer history. This is the Faroe Islands men’s national soccer team, and it is the biggest underdog story in the qualifying stages of the World Cup. The Faroes have only 55,000 people. The climate is brutal. Most of the players are not full-time professionals and they have never gotten this close. …”
NY Times
“When the second suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest outside the Stade de France, Paul-Henri Baure was standing less than 10 metres away. It was Friday, 13 November 2015 and Baure, then aged 64 and a security officer from Marseille, was working as a steward at a friendly match between France and Germany that would become notorious for reasons nobody could have anticipated. The bomber, he was later told, had backed away from the entrance at Gate H after refusing to be patted down by another steward. Baure had not noticed him. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“The champagne flowed in the home dressing room as the players of Real Bedford celebrated a third consecutive league title under manager Rob Sinclair and promotion at the end of last season. But it was the tall identical twins spraying the bubbly who drew the focus. ‘Wink-le-voss! Wink-le-voss!’ came the chant from the players who had just secured elevation into the seventh tier of English football. The billionaire entrepreneur twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss — who fought a legal battle with Mark Zuckerberg over who actually conceived the idea of Facebook and invested their subsequent $65million (£49.6m) payoff in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin — had been unaware of English football’s unique non-League structure, from the Premier League to regional feeder leagues, when first approached by Bitcoin podcaster Peter McCormack over a potential investment in the club from his hometown of Bedford, around 50 miles north of London. …”
NY Times/The Athletic (Video)
W – History of bitcoin
“Turkish football was already reeling from the betting scandal that implicated hundreds of their match officials last month. Now, it is the turn of the players to be at the centre of the storm, after 1,024 of them were suspended by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) as part of the same investigation. In a statement, the TFF said the players were found to have participated in betting activities and had been referred to its Professional Football Disciplinary Board. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“Just when Liverpool looked to have revived their season, momentum has stalled — with a shudder. A comprehensive 3-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday shredded the optimism generated by victories over Real Madrid and Aston Villa in the previous week and left Arne Slot’s side eight points adrift of Premier League leaders Arsenal. Liverpool’s 18 points is the worst record after 11 games of a league title defence since Leicester City in 2016 and problems are mounting in almost every area of the squad. James Pearce, Simon Hughes, Andy Jones and Gregg Evans assess the 11 most serious issues Slot has to confront as he bids to save his season. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“Before getting into the meat and bones of this, it is important to recognise that while everyone has waited two years for a new Football Manager game, they will all be coming to it from a different perspective. I play on PC with a mouse and keyboard, not a laptop or Mac, and came into Football Manager 26’s advanced access beta after most people. It was released on the evening of Thursday, October 23. I was out playing seven-a-side that night, so had to wait until the Friday evening before getting stuck in. In the meantime, I had seen the overwhelming criticism of the game’s new user interface (UI) and bugs on social media. With some people going as far as refunding their purchases after playing for just a couple of hours, I wondered what I would see when I loaded up the game. I’ve since played 18 hours and, for the most part, have not been swept up by the frustration that seems to have dominated the online discourse over the past week. That is not to say this is the perfect Football Manager game, though. So let’s get into it. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
YouTube: Football Manager 26 Review – Was The Two Year Wait Worth It?
“Exasperated fans who bought the ‘right to buy’ 2026 World Cup tickets say that FIFA has forced them into an ‘unjust ultimatum’: gamble that opaque ticket prices will be affordable, or cut their losses and concede that they were ‘scammed.’ Over the past year, FIFA and a crypto partner, Modex, sold tens of thousands of ‘Right To Buy’ tokens on their FIFA Collect platform. Each token cost hundreds of dollars and promised buyers the ability to purchase one or two World Cup tickets at a to-be-determined later date, for a to-be-determined price. Eager fans flocked to the platform. Many saw the so-called ‘RTBs’ as a clever way to bypass ticket lotteries or avoid getting gouged by scalpers or FIFA’s ‘variable pricing.’ …”
NY Times/The Athletic
NY Times/The Athletic: FIFA’s next 2026 World Cup cash cow: Exorbitant parking prices
Tottenham fans have been underwhelmed by their team’s style of play this season
“‘Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football,’ wrote Eduardo Galeano, at the age of 55. ‘And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.’ But the great Uruguayan historian, novelist, and sportswriter had more to add. ‘The history of football is a sad voyage from beauty to duty,’ he went on. ‘The technocracy of professional sport has managed to impose a football of lightning speed and brute strength, a football that negates joy, kills fantasy and outlaws daring.’ …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“This was the weekend when Sunderland ended Arsenal’s run of 10 consecutive wins (and eight straight clean sheets) in all competitions and Manchester City made a significant step forward in the Premier League by taking a hammer to Liverpool’s title hopes, while victories for West Ham United and Nottingham Forest left Wolverhampton Wanderers adrift at the bottom of the table. Here we will ask whether the Premier League is now looking like a two-horse race — as opposed to a three-horse race or indeed an Arsenal procession — whether Sunderland can keep defying expectations and gravity and whether Rob Edwards is making a terrible mistake if he leaves promotion-chasing Middlesbrough for doomed-looking Wolves. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“There are two reasons you might encounter the four letters ‘doku’ on the back page of your newspaper. The first is when preceded by the letters ‘Su’. The second is when preceded by the word ‘Jeremy’. Sudoku, for those uninitiated, is the Japanese logic game that suddenly exploded in English-language media two decades ago. Players are given a 9×9 grid, which is also divided into nine squares. Some numbers are already written in. The player must complete the grid by entering the numbers 1-9, but each individual number cannot appear twice in any row, column or square. …”
NY Times/The Athletic – Michael Cox (Video)
“Jeremy Doku was the star as Manchester City beat Liverpool 3-0 at the Etihad, but the win did not come without controversy. Erling Haaland opened the scoring at the end of a great team move, shortly after having a penalty saved, Nico Gonzalez added a deflected second and Doku capped a brilliant individual display with the third. However, Virgil van Dijk had a headed ‘goal’ that would have made it 1-1 late in the first half ruled out when Andy Robertson was controversially adjudged to have been in an offside position and a VAR review did not overturn the initial on-pitch decision. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
YouTube: Manchester City v. Liverpool | PREMIER LEAGUE HIGHLIGHTS
“Illegal streaming of football is on the rise in the UK and most fans want the Saturday 3pm blackout lifted, a new podcast released by The Athletic has revealed. The Underground World of Illegal Streaming — a special episode of The Athletic FC podcast that looks at the culture, crime and crisis associated with illegal streaming — outlines that almost five million people in the UK consumed pirated sports coverage over the past six months. As part of the audio documentary, The Athletic commissioned market research company YouGov Sport to poll the consumption of illegal streams, the devices people use and whether they are concerned about the risk of cybercrime and data theft. We would also like to hear specifically from subscribers to The Athletic on this topic, so have included a survey form at the bottom of this article. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“Since February 2025, part of St. Pauli’s matchday routine has been missing. Das Herz von St. Pauli, a popular fan song, had been played at the Millerntor Stadium for two decades. But no more. Earlier this year, an investigation by the club’s museum revealed that the song’s writer, composer and singer had all been entangled with the Nazi party and the propaganda of Joseph Goebbels. The playing of Das Herz von St. Pauli — the Heart of St. Pauli — was suspended in February, and has not been heard since. For Germany’s foremost left-wing club, it has been a difficult, fractious and sensitive period. That is not unusual. The Germans have a word — Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung — which means ‘coping with the past’, and 80 years after the Second World War ended, the issue of who did what during it and how willingly remains alive, as does the conversation about how those people — and their work — should be judged. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“There are few neater points of the Premier League season than when the 20 clubs are all 10 games in — 100 matches, 200 results, infinite opinions. At that point in 2025-26, there have been 22 penalties, 268 goals, 801 shots on target, 86,473 passes and one 15-year-old. Far too much to explain in its entirety, but plenty of information to boil down into a statistical vignette of the campaign so far. So let’s do precisely that. …”
NY Times/The Athletic (Video)
“There is an unwritten rule among the Barcelona staff members who work closely with Joan Laporta: ‘You can only go to the president when there’s good news to give.’ That has been pretty difficult to follow during the Camp Nou rebuild — a process that started with the partial demolition of the reigning Spanish champions’ iconic stadium in June 2023 and is now already a year behind schedule. But today (Friday), Laporta and Barca finally did have some good news to celebrate, as a partly-refurbished Camp Nou at least partially reopened in the first public event there since construction work began more than two years ago. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“Barcelona came from behind three times against Club Brugge in the Champions League on Wednesday, drawing 3-3 in Belgium in what will surely be one of the games of the season. Sometimes matches take a while to get going, but not this one. Nicolo Tresoldi put the hosts one up after six minutes, only to see Ferran Torres equalise two minutes later. But the home side quickly realised that Barcelona’s defensive line was very much there to be got at, and the excellent Carlos Forbs restored Club Brugge’s lead after 17 minutes thanks to a swift transition. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
YouTube: Club Brugge vs. Barcelona: Extended Highlights
“If Liverpool’s victory over Real Madrid was a statement, Virgil van Dijk was ready to make another one after it. As he stood alongside Amazon Prime presenter Gabby Logan and ex-player pundits Robbie Fowler, Wayne Rooney, Theo Walcott and Daniel Sturridge for a post-match interview, two moments offered an insight into Van Dijk’s psychology and his attitude to the job of captaining Liverpool. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“Welcome to the 11th edition of The Alternative Premier League Table, where each Thursday, Anantaajith Raghuraman analyses the entire division through a specific lens. After looking at goal contributions from new faces for each club last week, this edition’s focus is on expected goals against (xGA). As usual, the article that follows is long but detailed, so please settle down and enjoy it all — or simply search for the side you want to read about. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“It’s one of the moments when you realise the World Cup is coming up faster than you think: when the first kits are unveiled. Adidas has launched its ‘home’ jerseys for the 2026 tournament, and there is a lot to digest. Not only all 22 shirts, but also the colours, the intricate designs, and, well, just whether they work or not. Of course, some of the teams are yet to confirm their qualification. The Athletic will, of course, bring you a further rundown of all the kits when they are released, but for now, our writers have given their verdict — without squabbling too much — on Adidas’ offerings. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“A big night for Liverpool, a chastening one for Real Madrid. A Champions League meeting between two of European football’s big beasts always promised drama and quality in equal measure and this did not disappoint — although most of the latter came from the Premier League champions. Alexis Mac Allister’s second-half header was the difference between the teams but only superb goalkeeping from Thibaut Courtois and some desperate defending spared further damage for the Spanish club, whose introduction of ex-Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold as a late substitute sparked mass booing at Anfield. We analyse the major talking points. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
NY Times/The Athletic – Trent Alexander-Arnold and Liverpool: A reappraisal
YouTube: Liverpool vs. Real Madrid: Extended Highlights | UCL League Phase
The defaced Trent Alexander-Arnold mural
“Newcastle United have travelled nearly 1,300 miles for a meagre return of three points, two goals and no wins from five Premier League away trips this season. Head coach Eddie Howe was brutally honest after defeat at the London Stadium, where West Ham United recovered from a fourth-minute Jacob Murphy goal to beat Newcastle 3-1. … This week has encapsulated Newcastle of late. A dominant 2-0 victory at home to Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup was followed by a defeat against a West Ham side who had not won at home since late February. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
YouTube: West Ham United v. Newcastle United | PREMIER LEAGUE HIGHLIGHTS
“Barcelona’s time in the wilderness, such as it was, seems to be over. Last season they clinched another Liga title in Spain, their second in three campaigns after three barren years at the start of the decade. They also reached the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in six seasons.While last Sunday’s trip to Real Madrid proved a losing one, Barca had won four successive Clasicos across all competitions. They are a force once more. As they are wont to do in football, Barcelona’s on-pitch struggles dovetailed with off-the-pitch concerns. The tale away from the playing field in recent years has been dizzying, one of soaring costs and debts, of quirks and chicanery unseen elsewhere. It has even given rise to a new entrant into the footballing lexicon: palancas, or ‘levers’. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“During the last 500 years, Mexico City has survived conquest, plague, floods, wars, revolution, earthquakes, and a decade in the global hype machine without ever losing the swagger, style, and chaotic joie de vivre that have drawn generations of artists, thinkers, adventurers and exiles to this dried-up lake-bed in the Mexican altiplano. Check out the best of what the western hemisphere’s greatest city has to offer. …”
Roads and Kingdoms
“Mohamed Salah scored his 250th Liverpool goal to help Arne Slot’s side end a run of four consecutive Premier League defeats by beating Aston Villa at Anfield. Villa started strongly, with Morgan Rogers striking a post and Matty Cash crashing one against the woodwork, but it was Liverpool who took the lead. First, Hugo Ekitike headed in from what turned out to be an offside position, but that was forgotten soon after when Salah pounced on a loose pass from Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez for his landmark goal. Liverpool, who had lost six times in seven games, were trying to avoid losing five league games in a row for the first time since 1953 and the returning Ryan Gravenberch put them 2-0 up after 58 minutes. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
NY Times/The Athletic: Arne Slot found a winning formula by getting the big calls right against Aston Villa
YouTube: Liverpool v. Aston Villa | PREMIER LEAGUE HIGHLIGHTS | 11/1/2025
“In the Premier League, if you are having difficulties in a certain phase of play, the top teams will always punish you. This season, under Thomas Frank, Tottenham Hotspur have been experiencing some issues when progressing the ball up the pitch, leaving them overly dependent on long passes from Pedro Porro and Cristian Romero. Despite a glimpse of positivity in some of Spurs’ recent away trips, Chelsea’s high press smothered them and exploited their ball-progression problems. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
NY Times/The Athletic: Tottenham 0 Chelsea 1 – Can Spurs solve their attacking bluntness? How impressive was Moises Caicedo?
“Amid reports that some of Europe’s major clubs have held discussions about the possibility of introducing a sixth substitute in league matches, it’s worth reflecting on the situation football has accidentally found itself in, with ‘only’ five permitted. This was initially an emergency measure introduced in 2020, when football was forced into a demanding schedule to compensate for the three months lost to the pandemic. Entirely predictably, the temporary change became permanent. …”
NY Times/The Athletic – Michael Cox
“With 100 minutes on the clock, there was still one more opportunity for Liverpool to search for an equaliser in their clash with Brentford last weekend. Alexis Mac Allister received the ball on the left side before opening up his body and whipping in an excellent cross to the far post. Mohamed Salah watched it every step of the way. He even made contact with the ball — but he got his angles all wrong. Rather than attack the cross with an open body shape, Salah decided to contort his frame to make contact with his stronger left foot — sending the ball skyward and somehow keeping it in play from the most unlikely of angles. …”
NY Times/The Athletic (Video)
“A year ago today, Manchester United announced Ruben Amorim as their new head coach on a contract running until summer 2027. Now, after the club’s bumpiest ride for half a century and a 15th-place league finish, things are finally looking like they may be turning a corner. Amorim was not a name United initially considered to replace the sacked Erik ten Hag, but the seeds of his appointment had been sown six months earlier. …”
NY Times/The Athletic (Video)
Scissors Kick 