“Goalkeepers, to quote the great Brian Glanville, are different, and this is a theory which expands far beyond the mere otherness of their stock in trade. To define the goalkeeper as the sort of person who may – thanks, John Burridge, thanks a lot – may hang a metaphorical “You don’t have to be mad to work here but it helps” sign in the netting of their goal covers only one aspect of the lot of their job. Goalkeepers are the only people on the pitch who spend most of their match standing around doing very little apart from shouting and treading down imaginary divots in the grass and they are, of course, the only ones that are legally allowed to use their hands, but we are not concerning ourselves with such trifling matters here. Goalkeepers dress differently, and they have done since an amendment to the laws of the game in 1909 made them wear shirts that were either red or royal blue, with green being added as a third option three years later.” twohundredpercent
Author Archives: 1960s: Days of Rage
St Pat’s ’98 and the False Dawn Of Irish Football
“Paul Lambert and Henrik Larsson were in no mood to hang around. After Celtic’s 73rd home game in Europe, they shook a few hands and immediately hurried off the pitch. It was a result that verged on the humiliating: a 0-0 stalemate, just the 12th draw in those 73 games that included 53 wins, against a team they hadn’t given a second thought to swatting aside. The 56,000 home crowd had mostly dispersed as a group of players — most of whom they’d never heard of — sprinted to salute the pocket of 1,500 delirious away fans tucked into a corner of Celtic Park. It was just the second time their team had avoided defeat in an 11-game European history.” In Bed With Maradona
FC Barcelona, Lionel Messi, and La Masia featured on “60 Minutes”

“FC Barcelona were featured in a story in tonight’s episode of the the news magazine television show 60 Minutes. The piece talked about Barcelona’s La Masia (youth training/academy system) and how the club has developed the majority of its first team. It’s a bit unusual for large clubs as most have to rely on buying players from other teams in addition to developing them through an academy. The feature also focused on Lionel Messi with several highlights of goals scored and stating he’s currently the best player in the world. Two of the other players featured in the piece are Cesc Fabregas and Gerard Pique.” The 90th Minute Soccer Blog (Video)
Congrats to Messi, but Ballon d’Or isn’t sound for soccer
“On Monday, at what convention dictates we describe as a glitzy ceremony in Zurich, Lionel Messi won the Ballon d’Or for the fourth year in a row. Which was the right decision. Or the wrong decision. Or just a decision, based on the votes of international coaches, international captains and journalists from around the world, that really doesn’t matter at all, that sums up football’s silly obsession with celebrity. Actually, scrap that last line: that makes it sound as though the award has no significance. It does: it’s a deeply insidious phenomenon that is antithetical both to good football and to the sound running of the game.” <a href=”http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20130107/lionel-messi-ballon-dor/#ixzz2HJzaBkyx
Freiburg’s Spinning Top and the Brain Behind It
“A year ago this month Freiburg were staring relegation right in the face. They were bottom of the table going into the break, conceded the most goals in the league, lost their most important player and looked sure to go down. Then came Christian Streich, who against the odds turned it all around. Only five teams had a better second half of the season than Freiburg last year as they clawed their way back up the table to finish 12th. This year the man who has coached at Freiburg for almost 20 years built on his great work and in a complete 180 has his team sitting in a European spot at the end of the Hinrunde.” Bundesliga Fanatic
What are the most annoying clichés in modern football?
“No broadcaster worth his salt would compare a beaten footballer to a sick parrot these days, but the game remains as clichéd as ever. The funny old game with players who could turn on sixpences is gone, but a new breed of football clichés is emerging. Games are no longer comprised of two halves; they now have turning points. These are particularly useful for beaten managers and presenters of TV highlights shows. The biggest turning points of all are those refereeing decisions that prevent turning points – the penalties not given and the corner kicks that should have been goal kicks. These are much sought-after luxuries for frustrated managers who want to deflect attention away from their players.” Guardian
Tactical Analysis: How is the 4-2-3-1 formation used by City and Chelsea flawed?

“The 4-2-3-1 seems to be the general formation of choice for a lot of Europe’s top sides, including several Premier League clubs, most notably Chelsea and Manchester City. Neither club has reached their potential this season with several factors behind this, but, the use of the 4-2-3-1 can be scrutinized as one such factor. The 4-2-3-1 was according to this graphic by Whoscored.com one of the most used formations last year…” Think Football
Revival of Videoton bodes well for Hungary
“Twenty-six long years have passed since Hungary last participated in a major footballing tournament. It was the World Cup of 1986 in Mexico and even though confidence was high, the Magyars crashed out in the group stage after disappointing results to France and their bitter foes, the Soviet Union.” World Soccer
After the Curtain Had Fatten
“The domestic football league of the old USSR was a vast, vibrant, and powerful competition, containing as it did clubs such as the Moscow giants Dynamo, Spartak, CSKA – and occasionally Torpedo – as well as influential teams from the republics, like the Dynamos of Kiev, Tbilisi, and Minsk. Evidently, the league would have been exceptionally strong and closely contested – it was so strong, in fact, that it rose to second place in UEFA’s league rankings.” In Bed With Maradona
The Luis Suarez Show Puts Mansfield Town In The Shade
“Life isn’t fair and cheats often prosper. How unpalatable such statements are doesn’t alter how true they are, and it may be especially galling for the supporters of Mansfield Town that the valiant efforts of their team this afternoon will be overshadowed by a predictable row over the handled goal that eventually won a tumultuous FA Cup Third Round match for Liverpool this afternoon. Having conceded an early goal to debutant Daniel Sturridge, it might have been easy for the Blue Square Bet Premier side to have buckled and folded all together, but they kept their calm and put in a performance that is worthy of greater praise than it is likely to receive. Indeed, had their goal come ten minutes earlier, there is every chance that we would be talking about a replay and asking the question of how Liverpool had managed to fail to beat a non-league side club in the FA Cup.” twohundredpercent
Is FIFA Facing a Player Revolt Against Racism?

Kevin-Prince Boateng
“FIFA, you have a problem. The player walk-off led by AC Milan’s Ghana midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng last week to protest racist abuse during a friendly match against a lower-tier Italian club could mark the beginning of a player revolt against the ineffective anti-racism efforts by soccer‘s international administrators. Until now, players have been required, under threat of cards and suspensions, to take no action in response to racist abuse from the crowd, but instead to leave it the issue to the referee and match officials.” Keeping Score
Attitude, Heroes and Silencing the Loud Minority – 2013: The Year To End Homophobia In Football
“… There are no openly gay professional footballers in the English game at present, and there has not been one for a very long time. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that gay footballers have no ‘heroes’ to inspire them – it just means they have to look a bit closer. We are midway through the 2012/2013 football season and the fight to eradicate homophobia from the game has recently taken a few steps forward. Manchester United goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard wrote on his Betfair blog that he feels football fans are ‘stuck in a time of intolerance’ when it comes to the game’s supposedly ultimate taboo, and must work to align themselves with the more liberal and tolerant world around them. Coming from such a high-profile player, this simple statement is in itself a notable development – it’s not that Lindegaard’s fellow players disagree, it’s that they don’t say anything at all.” In Bed With Maradona
French hero Thuram working to battle racism in soccer and society
“Five years ago, to illustrate the development of mankind, scientists at the Musée de L’Homme in Paris chose three human skulls: the fossil of a generic Cro-Magnon; the cranium of philosopher René Descartes; and a facsimile of the strikingly active and wide-ranging brain of Lilian Thuram, the Guadeloupe-born defender and longtime captain of the French national soccer team.” SI
Complete midfielder?
“Tottenham were expected to miss Luka Modric this season but the performances of Mousa Dembele have ensured that Andre Villas-Boas’ team are flying high in third place in the Premier League. Adam Bate looks at the statistics and wonders whether the Belgian is the complete midfielder.” skySPORTS
Alex Song struggling to fit into the Barcelona jigsaw
“After enjoying a great season with Arsenal, Alex Song left London to join Barcelona, but as off yet the player is still trying to fit in at Camp Nou. New Barcelona manager Tito Vilanova paid £15 million to aquire the services of the defensive midfielder, in a move that surprise many of the clubs fans and many in the Premier League. Where was Song going to fit in, with a midfield that already consists of Anders Iniesta, Xavi, Cesc Fabregas, Thiago, and one of the bests holding midfielders in world football, Sergio Busquets? The answer is still to be found with the Cameroonian international unable to hold down a starting spot, and making many of his 17 appearances from the bench.” Think Football
Lewis Holtby – Germany’s Most Versatile Footballer
“Tottenham Hotspur supporters should be brimming with excitement after it was announced that Schalke’s Lewis Holtby will join the club at the end of the summer. In Holtby, Spurs will get a tremendously versatile and engaged player. His fitness and workrate along with his technical qualities and creativity have allowed him to play a multitude of roles and positions successfully so far in his young career. It’s rare for a young player to be as well equipped and adaptable at such a young age but it speaks to the maturity and quality of the player and the potential ceiling he can reach in his career.” Bundesliga Fanatic
Match-fixing scandal in South Africa overshadows Africa Cup of Nations

“So much for the World Cup legacy. As South Africa prepares to host the Africa Cup of Nations, it should have been celebrating the fact that it had the infrastructure to step in as host when civil war forced the tournament to be moved from Libya, showing off once again the infrastructure built for 2010. As it is, the South African Football Association is left dealing with a match-fixing scandal whose tentacles stretch across the world and that has forced its president and four other officials to stand down.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson
Who Wins The 2012 Ballon D’or? Views From Football Pundits
“On the 7th of January 2013, the winner of the 2012 Ballon D’or will be announced. Who will win the award? Will it be Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, the magical Andres Iniesta or Barcelona super star, Lionel Messi? This compilation is the ultimate precursor to the piece; ‘Camera, Lights……..BALLON D’OR 2012’. In this one, football pundits have their say on who wins the Ballon D’or next week.” Foetbal247
Suarez still the main man
“He sat in the back row of the directors’ box, newly acquired club coat signifying that a £12 million transfer had officially been ratified. Liverpool are trying to right their August wrongs, bolstering a depleted department and Daniel Sturridge had duly deemed his new employers a ‘humongous club’. Yet as he watched the man who may be both accomplice and example at Anfield, he got a taste of what life at Liverpool is like. There is a similarity with his time at Chelsea. Having understudied a former Liverpool striker, in Fernando Torres, at Stamford Bridge, he was immediately overshadowed by the current forward, Luis Suarez.” ESPN
Once hopeful, Queens Park Rangers now seem set for relegation
“And with that, the light went out. At the start of the Christmas program it seemed improbable that Queens Park Rangers would survive; three games into it, it seems all but impossible. The gap from QPR to safety is eight points, which is only two more than QPR has managed in 20 games so far, while the brief gleam of hope that emerged after Harry Redknapp had replaced Mark Hughes as manager has now been all but extinguished. So bad are things now that the January transfer window may be less about trying to put together a last-gasp bid for survival than putting contingencies in place for a relegation that seems all but inevitable.” SI
Tactics: little wonder that size doesn’t matter
“A decade or so ago, football was facing a crisis of style. Physicality and pace, it seemed, were taking over. Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson admitted looking at Arsenal’s midfield and realising there was an overwhelming need to add muscle to his ball players. The result was a series of viscerally thrilling encounters that featured bust-ups in the tunnel, pizza being thrown, the hounding of Jose Antonio Reyes and not a whole lot of football.” World Soccer
The Best of Football Writing in 2012

“Before we move forward, let’s take a step back. 2013 will bring new stories, and writers will continue to unveil value in the context of our day-to-day lives. But before we jump ahead, we really should take a step back. The internet is a wonderful place, but our constant consumption of content allows us to forget which stories were truly compelling, creative, well-researched, and told with conviction. For the second year in a row, I have compiled what I consider to be a list of the best writing in football. This year, I called upon some of the game’s most influential voices to reflect on how writing best interpreted, dissected, and brought meaning to the beautiful game. Consider this project to be a sort of anthology. The games will be remembered in history, but our reactions and our stories could have been forgotten. Instead, they’re here.” A Football Report
Blatter Critical of M.L.S. in Interview
“FIFA President Sepp Blatter is many things — we’ll pause this post briefly so you can insert your own description here — but he is apparently not a fan of Major League Soccer. In an interview with Al Jazeera that was broadcast on Saturday, Blatter was critical of both the league and the development of the sport in general in the United States. The comments came as part of a larger discussion about FIFA’s role in developing the game around the world.” NY Times (Video)
Snapshot: Applause For The Brave Amateurs From Germany
“Borussia Mönchengladbach’s first journey into European action earned them the respect of their professional opponents. German sides have throughout the existence of the European Cup Winner’s Cup been involved in a number of memorable matches: Fortuna Düsseldorf’s 4-3 loss to a legendary Barca side in the final of 1979 or Werder Bremen’s win over Arsene Wenger’s AS Monaco are certainly highlights to cherish. The list goes on. The competition itself got off to a bumpy start in the 1960/61 season though. Only ten cup winners chose to participate in the first edition of the competition. Borussia Mönchengladbach were amongst those ten teams, and were lucky enough to go past the first round on a walk over draw. The luck ran out when it came to the quarter-final draws. Bernd Oles’s side had to go up against Scottish cup champions and greats Glasgow Rangers.” Bundesliga Fanatic
Tactical & Statistical Analysis: Why are Premier League teams struggling to defend?

“Top Premier League teams have seemingly had difficulties defending this season. This weekend alone we saw a goal glut in the Premier League which is great entertainment but less good for the competitiveness of the Premier League on the European stage. Manchester United of old, Chelsea under Mourinho and Benitez’s Liverpool side achieved relative successes mainly as a result of a solid back four and a strong defensive record. With Benitez this was particularly the case in Europe, as well as when the club finished 2nd in the Premier League. Managers now a days seem to put less emphasis on defensive play and spend more time attacking. Manchester United for example have struggled defensively but instead of bringing in a holding player or a defender they purchased Premier League top scorer Robin van Persie.” Think Football
Best of 2012: Zambia’s championship
“In 1993, a plane carrying the Zambian team to a World Cup qualifier in Senegal stopped for refueling in Libreville. Shortly after takeoff, it exploded and crashed into the sea off the Gabonese coast, killing everybody on board. Kalusha Bwalya, the great star of that side, was not on the plane because he played in the Netherlands and was making his own way to Dakar. He helped put together a new side and went on to become president of the Zambian Football Federation.” FOX Soccer – Jonathan Wilson
Forget Terry, Mata is the main man at Chelsea these days
“The determination to make a good first impression under a new manager always galvanises a group of players, and Chelsea’s squad have become well-accustomed to this concept in recent years – forced to adapt to the methods of André Villas-Boas, Roberto Di Matteo and Rafael Benítez in quick succession. Few have started each era as impressively as Juan Mata – he scored on his debut under Villas-Boas, then struck the first goal of the Di Matteo and Benítez eras. With the rotation at centre-back, the inconsistency of the central midfielders and the struggles upfront, Mata has been a key player under all three coaches, and has consistently delivered in the final third.” Life A Pitch – Michael Cox
UEFA Financial Fair Play

“Over the last 20 years European soccer has gone through an exciting but dangerous period of global expansion. When Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV signed the English Premier League to a $115 million television rights deal in 1992, he set the European club sport on a terror of worldwide expansion. The Spanish Empire of the 1700s is the only conquest that rivals the expansion of European soccer.[1] With the additional capital, individual clubs could grow. More potent, though, was the exposure the clubs garnered worldwide through the advent of technology. This exposure turned community institutions into global brands that have been wielded with a capitalist’s fist. The dangerous part is that this expansion has gone unregulated.” Soccer Politics
Rafa Benitez can succeed with Chelsea if the fans give him a shot
” Something very strange happened last week, something so unusual it’s tempting to think it unique: a football manager made a joke. It was proper joke. Not an anecdote, or something contrived and worked on days in advance, but a genuine, spontaneous quip that was genuinely amusing. There is often laughter in press conferences but usually it’s polite or sycophantic depending on your point of view; often, hearing a manager trying to be funny, you’re put in mind of Dr. Johnson’s line about the dog walking on its hind legs: it’s not so much that it’s done well but that it’s done at all. But this was a proper gag. Odder yet, it was cracked by Rafa Benitez.” SI
Top 10 footballing moments of 2012
“It’s been an incredible year for football, both at the club and international level — with that in mind, here are 10 of the most memorable moments of 2012.” ESPN – Michael Cox (Video)
For the Sake Of Playing

“On Saturday, December 29th 2012, two football clubs from Glasgow will take to the pitch at Hampden Park to play the unlikeliest of matches. Glasgow derbies attended by tens, and sometimes hundreds of thousands of spectators around the time of New Year have been a tradition in Scottish football for well over a century, and yet this fixture will not feature a certain world-famous team in green and white hoops. It will be an older, more historic fixture, all but forgotten prior to the extraordinary 2012-13 Division Three season, and shall provide a strange and fascinating insight into how Scottish football might have developed in a parallel universe, where Queen’s Park FC had not held on in the face of changing times and priorities to its cherished amateur status, and had cleaved to its place as the country’s pre-eminent and most innovative football club.” In Bed With Maradona
Tactical Analysis: Michael Carrick, Paul Scholes’ natural successor?
“English football has always prided passion, heart and determination – to the extent where it may even overshadow talent. Rather the grit than the glamour. Amongst this rubble of resolution there is always the glint of a rough diamond that catches the eye. This such diamond was picked up, dusted down and sent for polishing twenty eight years ago. A fourteen-year-old, Salford-born boy was scouted by one of football’s most prestigious clubs – Manchester United. They had welcomed the most iconic ginger-haired player to the world of football. A moment all purists would forever be grateful for. Paul Scholes is possibly the most undervalued treasure of football’s over century-long existence. Ironic to say that, as he has been considered the best central midfielder of his generation, by Pep Guardiola no less. A generation that has seen talents like Alonso and Pirlo grace the game.” Think Football
Thierry Henry: Lonely at the Top
“Normally, nostalgia is evoked by watching a movie, looking at photos or merely by way of conversation. It’s not, however, normal for someone to come back and do exactly the same thing again. That’s how it felt when Thierry Henry returned to Arsenal in the January of 2012 and, against Leeds United in the League Cup, scored in exactly the same way that he had made a trademark.” The Arsenal Column
The 100 best footballers in the world – interactive

“Welcome to the Guardian’s choice of the world’s top 100 footballers. We asked our 11-strong international panel of experts to name their top 30 players in action today and rank them in order of preference. Once the lists were submitted, the players were scored on their ranking by each panellist: a No1 choice allocated 30pts, No2 29pts and so on down to selection No30, given one point. In a four-part series online and in print we will reveal the results. Starting with No100 at the very end, click on the individual player in the interactive below for our writers’ argument for their placing in the 100. And you can read here how we came to ranking the hundred and a blog on the top 10 here.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson
The Renovation Of Videoton
“Twenty-six long years have passed since Hungary last participated in a major footballing tournament. It was the World Cup of 1986 in Mexico and even though confidence was high, the Magyars crashed out in the group stage after disappointing results to France and their bitter foes, the Soviet Union. In 1985 Hungarian football was at the centre stage of European football as a small side named Videoton from Szekesfehervar in Western Hungary shocked the continent to reach the UEFA Cup final after beating English giants Manchester United along the way. A 3-1 aggregate loss to Real Madrid in the final was to be expected, but nonetheless, it took nothing away from the achievement of the players who became the first Hungarian side to reach a major European final since Ferencváros ten years earlier.” In Bed With Maradona
My favorite soccer stories of 2012
“To mark the passing of another eventful year of championships, triumphs and memorable moments, SI.com’s writers are remembering the stories they connected to most across the sports landscape in 2012.” SI
The Bundesliga in 2012 – A Statistical Overview

“The end of the Hinrunde and this past week’s German Cup matches rounded off an action packed and interesting calendar year in German football. Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund were the Bundesliga’s most talked about and dominant teams while Germany made all the headlines in the summer (some good, some bad) with their record breaking run of games and the contentious loss to Italy at the EUROs. Bild.de collected some of the most interesting stats of 2012 in the Bundesliga, ranging from the fastest goal scored, the quickest sending off, the most fouled players and much much more.” Bundesliga Fanatic
Book Review: The Long Way
“A week away from this season’s FA Cup third round, it seems appropriate to look back to A. E. Greb’s account of the 2011-12 competition, published in the Summer as an eBook, a collection of the blog posts which accompanied his ten month peregrinations and which concluded with Chelsea’s win over Liverpool in May (at this point I’ll admit that the result of that particular encounter had escaped me – and this from a boy who could at one point tell you all the showpiece occasion’s goal scorers between 1965 and 1996.)” thetwounfortunates
La Liga review: Malaga bounce back after UEFA ban
“On Sunday evening Real Madrid traveled to Malaga, with their opponents fresh of the news they will be banned from Europe next season for unpaid debts. Around an hour before kick off the baffling news broke that Iker Casillas, the club captain, had been dropped to the bench. This was the first time in ten years the goalkeeper failed to make the starting XI due to a technical decision.. The match got underway with the away side in control, but at half time it was 0-0, due to Ronaldo producing a good save from Willy Caballero, before missing an open goal. The second half was a different story as Malaga took control, and the recently crowned Golden Boy of 2012, Isco gave the home side the lead.” Think Football
World Soccer People of the Year: Herve Renard
“The man behind the most poignant football story of the year was once sacked by Cambridge United and spent several years getting up at three o’clock in the morning to take the rubbish out of buildings. Flamboyant Frenchman Herve Renard, the unlikely leader of the unlikeliest winners, had been a senior coach for only four years when he led a little-known Zambia squad of mainly home-based players to their first African Nations Cup title.” World Soccer
Venezia and Happy Endings?

“As with any city whose economy is reliant on tourism, Venice has a strange relationship with its visitors. The money that these bring is welcome but their presence – especially the noise and chaos they create – isn’t. Given that it once was a seat of power that controlled large parts of Europe, its current status as a piece of antiquity to be gawked at perhaps renders the tourists all the more irritating to the locals. Not all tourists are the same, however. Certainly not those who come with promises of restoring some of the city’s glory even if this comes through a football pitch.” In Bed With Maradona
Corinthians: brilliance in solidity
“Corinthians truly are the sum of their parts but they will need to buy themselves time inside Chelsea’s half to do justice to the nature of their football. Incision, precision and an ability to maintain shape both when attacking and defending are the identity of this side. Players are rotated, the formation is tweaked and yet coach Tite (pictured below) knows his game plan will be adhered to. Sitting pitchside in the October balm of the Joaquim Grava training-compound on the outskirts of São Paulo, Corinthians coach Tite knows what elements his team needs if it is to triumph against Chelsea two months later in Yokohama. In fact, Tite has been clear about this since, well, who knows: perhaps since his team’s July conquest of the Copa Libertadores which settled the identity of South America’s representative to be sent to the Club World Cup. Conceivably, it could even have been as far back as May when Corinthians’ participation was yet uncertain and Didier Drogba and Company conjured up an east-bound ticket from Munich. This is because, beyond the vagaries of micro-tinkering in the face of impending opponents, Corinthians know what they play at, and play it well.”
santapelota
Lionel Messi finishes 2012 with 91st goal
“Lionel Messi concluded his record year with his 91st and final goal of 2012 in Barcelona’s 3-1 win at Valladolid on Saturday, which the team dedicated to ailing coach Tito Vilanova. Messi scored in the 59th minute by dribbling between a defender’s legs before making it 2-0 after Xavi Hernandez had opened the scoring two minutes before halftime. Barcelona’s players wore T-shirts before the game with messages of support for Vilanova, who had throat surgery to remove a second tumor in two years on Thursday.” ESPN
Liverpool demolishes Fulham 4-0
“Liverpool winger Stewart Downing had a rare day to remember at Anfield as his first Premier League goal for the club wrapped up a comfortable victory. Only last week the England international had said he may leave Liverpool next month after manager Brendan Rodgers said he could go. If that was the incentive to put himself in the shop window it worked as he registered his first league assist in setting up Steven Gerrard — after Martin Skrtel’s opener — and capped his performance with a goal of his own before Luis Suarez added an injury-time fourth.” ESPN
The re-invention of Catenaccio: The evolution of defensive tactics

“Attack, Attack, Attack. As the tireless cliché goes: football is an art form – creative and elegant. That’s what we want it to be, anyway. Never have football teams been so heavily criticised if they didn’t exhibit The Beautiful Game in its glorious entirety. It seems passes are being praised more than goals. And as for the appreciation for a solid tackle? – You may just earn yourself a yellow card for applauding it. Football is a changed sport. A more frantic, frenzied game. Complete reverence to forward play, along with, what seems almost like, a disregard to the defensive side. In 2009 only two, of the thirty two teams in the Champions League group stages, managed to keep their average number of shots conceded per game below 10. Disregard.” Think Football
Tactics for Beginners – No. 6
“A new found fluidity. We talked about stretching and squeezing space when in and out of possession, and I can see how the front and back players can do this by pushing up, dropping back, and pulling out wide. But being in the middle, aren’t the midfield limited in how much they can stretch and squeeze space?” Tomkins Times
2012-13 Scottish Premier League
“This post is a continuation of my recent new category, ‘Eng-Map/Attendance/Kit Badges’, which is now called ‘Engl. & Scot. – Map/Attendance/Kit Badges’. I decided to open up the category to include Scottish clubs because in my first post in this category, {which was on the 2012-13 Premier League here}, I mentioned Celtic and Rangers right off the bat (in the third paragraph in the above link). And I don’t have any other category which includes both English and Scottish clubs, so I thought I should have at least one. The essence of this style of map is the depiction of facsimiles of each club’s current home jersey badges, and those badge-facsimiles can be seen at the top of the map page (with the clubs placed in alphabetical order). From Historical Football Kits, ‘Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League 2012 – 2013 [the kits of all 12 Scottish Premier League clubs]‘. billsportsmaps
Sturridge not the answer for Liverpool
“There were gasps of surprise the country over when last week’s Premier League results came in and Aston Villa had won 3-1 at Anfield, but it was just further proof that Liverpool are currently a club in transition. People seemed to assume when Brendan Rodgers came that he was going to turn it around instantly – that just isn’t realistic. He’s got a young team and I think the players and fans need to have maximum patience at the moment – there’s no quick overnight fix. A match against notoriously poor travellers Fulham this weekend, therefore, comes at a very useful time for Brendan & Co.” ESPN
Germany in 2012: Near misses in Europe, domestic brilliance
“It was the year of broken dreams. First, Bayern Munich wrote nine out 10 chapters of their own fairy tale, before running into a horror twist at the very end: losing the Champions League final, in its own stadium, against an ultra-defensive Chelsea, on penalties. A month later, it was Germany’s turn to get it all wrong against Italy in the Euro semifinals. In purely domestic terms, however, German football shone.” SI
Madrid-United the gem of Champions League Round of 16
“A dramatic Champions League Round of 16 draw was made Thursday morning in Nyon, Switzerland, giving football lovers exciting matchups to look forward to in February and March. Part of the drama of drawing the eight pairings now comes from not knowing exactly how the teams will be playing when the games come along in eight weeks’ time: confidence, injuries and general form could all change the picture between now and then. Not to mention the longer-than-usual three weeks between first and second legs. Here is a breakdown …” SI
Zenit St Petersburg take first confused steps away from prejudice
“Let’s imagine that fans of Sunderland (and I use the example purely because that is who I support), tiring of the constant churn of the transfer market, decide that enough is enough and they want their team to do things differently. They get together and hammer out a manifesto which they then post as an open letter to the club hierarchy. Among a number of points about the need for absolute commitment and an abhorrence of cheating, they suggest they would rather the club focused on local players.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson
How 2012’s flops can turn things around in 2013
“From astonishing last-gasp title victories to historic international success stories, 2012 has been a fascinating year of football — but not everyone has enjoyed it. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have taken their performances to another level, but others will be pleased to see the back of this year. Here are 10 players who have underperformed in 2012 — and how they might turn their form around for 2013.” ESPN – Michael Cox
Barcelona 4-1 Atletico: Falcao’s opener wakes up Barca

“Atletico started the match excellently, but still lost 4-1… Tito Vilanova chose Alexis Sanchez rather than David Villa on the left of his attack, and Adriano started rather than Daniel Alves at right-back. Despite the failure of the 4-4-2 at the Bernabeu, Diego Simeone again selected that system after Atletico’s 6-0 win over Deportivo last week. Miranda replaced Daniel Diaz at the back. Atletico started the game very nicely, staying compact, pushing up and restricting the number of chances Barcelona created – but eventually crumbled.” Zonal Marking
The football tactical trends of 2012
“In 1872, the 11 Queen’s Park players who made up the Scotland national side looked at the England team they were about to face in the first international fixture and decided they had to try something out of the ordinary. England were over a stone a man heavier and given the head-down charging that characterised the early game, that was a significant advantage. What Scotland had to do, it was decided, was to keep the ball away from England, to deny them possession and thus control the game.” Guardian – Jonathan Wilson
La Liga Review: Is the La Liga title race over already?
“After a thrilling weekend of La Liga action the title race may be over, but the chase for the top four, and the relegation battle are amazingly close. The big match of the weekend saw the top 2 face off, as Barcelona hosted Atletico Madrid at the Nou Camp, and despite the away side taking the lead they eventually succumb to a 4-1 defeat. Colombian striker Falcao gave Atletico the lead in the 31st minute, before a terrific strike by Adriano, and a Sergio Busquets goal gave Barcelona a halftime lead.In the second half the inevitable happened, and Lionel Messi netted a double to kill off any chance of a comeback, giving Barcelona a flattering 4-1 win.” Think Football (Video)
Corinthians 1-0 Chelsea: Corinthians disrupt Chelsea’s passing and pinch a scrappy goal
“Corinthians lifted the World Club Cup after a typical 1-0 win. Tite left out his number ten, Douglas, and instead selected Jorge Henrique to play a disciplined role on the right. Rafael Benitez moved David Luiz to centre-back with Branislav Ivanovic going to right-back. Frank Lampard and Ramires started in the middle, and Victor Moses was chosen over than Oscar. Chelsea had their chances – particularly late on – but overall Tite’s strategy was effective, particularly in a negative, spoiling sense.” Zonal Marking
New year brings new goals, perhaps new club for Drogba
” Timing a retirement is hard enough for anybody; for sportspeople, used to the rush of victory and the adulation of the crowd, to the routine of training and a preposterous income, and facing perhaps 60 years of post-playing life, it must seem almost impossibly daunting. In terms purely of narrative, Didier Drogba probably should have gone in May after the Champions League final. It seemed the perfect ending. He had been at the club eight years, and had been striving all that time for European glory. He’d been sent off in the 2008 Champions League final and banned for the ferocity of his protests after Chelsea had lost to Barcelona in the 2009 semifinal. Munich was his redemption. He headed the 88th-minute equaliszr and then rolled in the final penalty.” SI
Identity crisis: America’s dual nationalities face a tricky choice
“Fans of the United States national team have a tradition of eager impatience upon the release of the squad for any game. When the squad was named before their game against Russia last month there was general surprise to see the re-inclusion of Nuremberg’s Timmy Chandler, sparking the latest chapter in a raging debate about football and identity.” World Soccer
Eight Out of Work Managers Revisited
“The serious lack of imagination shown by Football League chairmen continues to fuel the managerial carousel. Almost three years ago, we were bemused by Paul Hart’s arrival at Crystal Palace while the likes of Alan Irvine, Brian Laws and Darren Ferguson played musical chairs. Two and a half years on and it’s Dougie Freedman, Mick McCarthy and Dave Jones making sideways moves, as well as Laws again. The message is – don’t be out of a job for too long or you’ll be viewed as yesterday’s man.” thetwounfortunates
Least Said, Soonest Mended: Brendan Rodgers, The Press & Liverpool’s Transition
“Pride, they say, comes before a fall, and for the Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers there may be no greater fall this season than that which occurred at Anfield yesterday afternoon, as his team was outplayed by Aston Villa to bring to an end the feeling that Liverpool were, perhaps, finally starting to turn a corner this season. The starting point for making this claim hadn’t been particularly strong, though. Single goal wins against Southampton and Udinese were workmanlike rather than spectacular, whilst the late comeback which brought a win at West Ham United last weekend rather overlooked the fact that his team had already turned a one goal lead into a one goal deficit already that afternoon. Sometimes as a manager, the rub of the green will go your way and two goals in four minutes towards the end of last weekend’s trip to London – one of which was an own goal – was proof of this.” twohundredpercent
Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 Hamburg

“BAYER Leverkusen cruised to a victory over Hamburg this afternoon in the final round of 1. Bundesliga fixtures before the winter break. Goals from Stefan Kießling and André Schürrle gave the second-placed home side a deserved 2-0 half-time lead against their visitors, who struggled to get into the game. The away side’s players weren’t helped by the system being deployed by their coach, Thorsten Fink, with Leverkusen’s coaching duo Sascha Lewandowski and Sami Hyypiä playing an extra man in midfield, and getting their players to pressurise the right areas of the pitch.” Defensive Midfielder
Mancini goes back to the future
“This was Roberto Mancini’s 2012 game plan against his 2010 tactics. A comprehensive win for his present against his past showed that while imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, it did not work for Alan Pardew. Before adopting his 4-2-2-2 formation, Mancini became known during his first full season in charge for fielding three defensive midfielders even though, with Yaya Toure in a more advanced role, it was actually only two.” ESPN
Bayern Munich 1 – 1 Borussia Mönchengladbach: Weathering Tropical Storm Bayern
“Bayern ushered in their latest presumptive Bundesliga title with all the fury of a tropical storm, only to have Borussia Mönchengladbach survive with a well-earned 1-1 draw at the Allianz Arena. After Bayern’s 2-0 derby win over Augsburg last weekend, the Bavarians have been all but declared Bundesliga champions (and rightly fully so) for the 2012-2013 campaign, given the 11 point gap between them and Leverkusen, as well as the 14 point gap between them and Dortmund. However, if this final match of the Hinründe was Bayern’s early victory lap, it was uninspiring for Jupp Heynckes’ legendary side. Although Gladbach was “out everything” (shot, possessed, passed, etc.), they played a focused game, mostly limiting Bayern to middling-quality chances on goal. Particularly, Lucien Favre’s Die Fohlen were well-organized and coordinated with their two back lines of four. Gladbach’s got to be happy with their form: two wins and two draws in their last four of the Hinründe.” Bundesliga Fanatic
Liverpool 1 – 3 Aston Villa
“Aston Villa exposed Liverpool’s flaws and the flakiness of their challenge for a top-four place by inflicting the Reds’ worst home defeat for more than three years with a 3-1 win. Christian Benteke scored twice, either side of Andreas Weimann’s well-worked goal, before Steven Gerrard’s late consolation as the hosts’ three-match winning run was ended in surprising fashion. It was the first time Villa had scored more than once in any half of league football this season and extended their own unbeaten run to five matches, with only a second away win in 17 away league games.” ESPN
Messi’s Brilliance Transcends His Numbers

“It was Pep Guardiola, the former manager of Barcelona, who once suggested that Lionel Messi should be observed instead of dissected. He is, after all, widely considered the world’s greatest soccer player, not a biology project. ‘Don’t try to write about him,’ Guardiola said. ‘Don’t try to describe him. Watch him.’ Last Sunday, Messi set an international record by scoring his 86th goal in a calendar year, for both Barcelona and the Argentine national team, delivering an average of one goal every four days, more frequently than a starting pitcher takes the mound, as often as Starbucks opens a new store in China. But Messi is best appreciated, Guardiola admonished, in the virtuosity of the moment, not against the backdrop of history and statistics. Soccer, like figure skating, demands art as much as sport. This is not baseball, where numbers mean so much that they seem to carry a moral weight. Soccer’s beauty is that it surpasses mathematics, or, in Barcelona’s case, conjures a sublime human geometry of triangular passing and movement.” NY Times
A Record 40 Years in the Making – Lionel Messi breaks Gerd Müller’s record
“It was a record most did not expect to be broken in their lifetime yet the history books have been rewritten by a player who just turned 25 this summer. Gerd Müller was 27 when he set a world record that remained untouched for 40 years and 16 minutes into Barcelona’s game against Betis Sevilla this weekend the prodigious Lionel Messi equalled Müller’s record of 85 goals in a calendar year. Almost inevitably and with the sports world holding its collective breath, less than ten minutes later he broke it with the eventual match winner. Somewhere in Munich meanwhile a sixty-seven year old Gerd Müller nodded in approval, knowing that the torch had finally been passed on four decades later.” Bundesliga Fanatic
The Writer & The Economist: An Interview with Soccernomics’ Authors
“Two weeks ago I was given the opportunity to conduct a Skype interview with Simon Kuper (from Paris) and Stefan Szymaski (from Ann Arbor, Michigan). It couldn’t have been a better representation of how global soccer had become – me, being a recent convert and blogger through watching digital TV feeds from England, talking to men located halfway around the world who had grown up watching and writing about it for a living. What ensued was a nearly fifty minute conversation on all the topics covered in their latest edition of Soccernomics: how the partnership works so well between two writers from very different schools of writing, why the Moneyball approach failed at Liverpool, their thoughts on financial fair play, and how match data is transforming the game. They offered me a few insights into what they might include in the next edition of the book, as well as what they’re working on in the immediate future. They even gave me their thoughts on the Robin Van Persie situation at Arsenal and their predictions for the Champions League final and European Championships. In all, it is 7000 words of insight from two of the preeminent authors in soccer journalism today.” Forbes
