“With the cupboards bare, bills to pay and another relegation looming, Scunthorpe United fans were holding out for a hero. Then David Hilton arrived. The Nottingham-born businessman bought the club from the deeply unpopular Peter Swann in late January, clearing a six-figure tax bill and pledging to take Scunthorpe back to the English Football League. …”
The Athletic
“On Monday last week, four days before transfer deadline day, Eric Garcia entered Xavi’s offices at Barcelona’s Joan Gamper training ground and told the manager he wanted to leave the club. Garcia had received an offer to go on loan to Girona, with the promise of more regular game time. Xavi tried to talk him out of it, insisting the defender was part of his rotation plans, that he was a valuable asset to the team. …”
The Athletic
W – João Félix
“Anti-clogs. Blackouts. Mixed soleplates. Customised conversions. To the uninitiated, that will sound like gobbledygook. To the modern-day professional footballer, it’s the language of the dressing room and the tools of their trade. We are talking about football boots, in case you were wondering, and Jon Tootle’s garage — now converted into a workshop — is full of them. A garish pink pair on the workbench — Nike Air Zoom Mercurial Vapor, for those of you who know your ‘cleats’ — belong to one of last season’s leading Premier League goalscorers. …”
The Athletic
“Liverpool’s win against Aston Villa resembled an Anfield performance from 2019-20. That season, Liverpool won 18 of their 19 home league games en route to lifting the Premier League trophy. They were wins characterised by four trademarks: three of those being fast starts with them usually ahead by half-time, set-piece goals (because many opponents defended deep to limit open-play opportunities) and Mohamed Salah scoring in front of the Kop. All three happened in Sunday’s win. …”
The Athletic (Video)
“In the vast theatre of human endeavours, where the pursuit of meaning often reveals itself in the most unexpected of places, we find ourselves drawn to the sacred cathedral of football. In this timeless ritual, where passion transcends reason, and the spirit of camaraderie meets the cruelty of fate, a tapestry of narratives unfurls. Picture, if you will, the canvas of a stadium – a canvas that bore witness to a spectacle of Shakespearean proportions. It was a game that encapsulated the very essence of existence–the agony and the ecstasy. …”
Breaking the Lines
YouTube: Tactical Analysis : Arsenal 3-1 Manchester United | Arsenal A Cut Above
“In East Berlin on Sunday, the Stadion Alte Forsterei hosted one of the Bundesliga’s most complicated fixtures. Union Berlin against RB Leipzig ended in a 3-0 win for the visitors. In itself, that was remarkable. It was Union’s first defeat in 24 matches at home and the culmination of a game full of wonderful goals, bad fouls and high drama. All of which was secondary to the main issue. …”
The Athletic (Video)
“Football has become the establishment. Thirty years since the publication of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, the gentrification of professional football in England is no longer confined to the executive suites. Where once the middle-class enthusiast—like Hornby—was an exotic presence, now the entire culture of the game is awash with the instincts of the bien pensants. Whatever demotic power football had in the 1970s and 80s has completely dissipated. Like Glastonbury Festival or the Labour Party, Premier League football has mostly decoupled from the affiliations, tastes, and preferences of the everyman. …”
Football Paradise
“You might look at Manchester City, the treble winners sitting top of the table with the only 100 per cent record as they try to win their fourth Premier League title in a row, and think, ‘What could possibly stop them?’ Maybe the answer is: Manchester City. That’s because there are plenty of City fans who worry that the squad is weaker after the comings and goings of the transfer window. …”
The Athletic
“The last thing UEFA wanted to talk about at the annual launch of its club competitions this week was the only thing everyone else has been talking about. So, you could argue it was a case of mission accomplished for European football’s governing body in Monaco, as nobody — not with a microphone, anyway — said ‘Luis Rubiales’. But it would equally be true to say that the fate of the Spanish FA chief was the first topic of every conversation. …”
The Athletic
“Arsenal’s meetings with Manchester United always tend to deliver drama and this latest instalment in one of the Premier League’s longest-running rivalries did not disappoint. Some fine goals, a late controversy involving the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) and Declan Rice’s stoppage-time winner… it all added up to another memorable encounter. …”
The Athletic
“Harry Kane became the most expensive player in Bayern Munich’s history, when he moved from Tottenham Hotspur in the summer of 2023. Although the move wasn’t a great surprise by the time it was finally completed it had survived meddling executives, prankster journalists and a dramatic late crisis. Charlie Eccleshare explains, Craig Silcock illustrates.”
YouTube
Federal prosecutors had said that the Argentine sport marketing firm Full Play Group paid bribes for the rights to multiple World Cup qualifiers, exhibition matches and tournaments. A judge acquitted the firm on Friday.
“Less than six months after a federal jury convicted a former Fox employee and an Argentine sports marketing company of participating in a scheme to pay bribes in exchange for lucrative soccer broadcasting contracts, a judge in Brooklyn vacated the convictions on Friday. In a 55-page ruling, the judge, Pamela K. Chen, concluded that the federal wire fraud statute under which the defendants had been convicted did not apply to their actions. …”
NY Times
Robert Lewandowski (centre right) celebrates with Ferran Torres after his match-winning penalty.
“Robert Lewandowski’s late penalty earned Barcelona a hard-fought 2-1 La Liga win at Osasuna on Sunday evening. Lewandowski converted from the spot in the 85th minute after Alejandro Catena grabbed the Poland forward’s right arm inside the penalty area. The defender was shown a red card for the last man-foul, before Lewandowski scored with a tidy finish to the goalkeeper’s left. …”
Guardian
“For those longing to hear the melody of the Champions League anthem again, fear not. European football’s top club competition is back for one last season in its current guise. The group-stage draw was made on Thursday and there are some mouthwatering games in store when it all kicks off in just over two weeks. …”
The Athletic
“A 20-minute walk west from Luton train station takes you to one of the most peculiar stadiums in England. As you approach the four streets Kenilworth Road occupies, in what seems to be a quiet, residential area, it is remarkable that you find a football stand located in between a row of terraced houses. The location is unlike any other and feels like a secluded area that is separated from the rest of Luton. …”
The Athletic
“Last summer, reports suggested that Liverpool wanted to sign Ryan Gravenberch from Ajax, along with several other big clubs. Ultimately, the young Dutchman chose Bayern Munich, and Liverpool didn’t sign a midfielder until a panic loan deal for Arthur Melo on deadline day, which worked about as well as you would expect. …”
The Analyst
“Manchester United’s official Twitter account kicked off its feed on Monday morning with a quietly coy assessment of the week to come, described through a haze of robotic corporate optimism as “an intriguing seven days”. May you live in intriguing times. Although perhaps not, for the sake of everyone engaged in following this great creaking, wheezing ghost ship through the entropy of the late Glazer age, as intriguing as this. …”
Guardian
La’eeb, the mascot of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Qatar…
“The moral and legal compromises FIFA and the Qatari government made to hold the 2022 World Cup in the Doha metropolitan area range from tolerating the host country’s ban on homosexuality to deadly abuses of migrant laborers at stadium construction sites. According to documents submitted to the record of a lawsuit in federal court late this afternoon, the road to the first Middle Eastern World Cup also began with a series of straightforward bribes. …”
Table
“The Europa League winners played host to a recently promoted side in La Liga this weekend. As expected, the clash of identities was clear. Sevilla’s swashbuckling style under Jose Luis Mendilibar has been a breath of fresh air: direct, uncomplicated and intense. But as they fell to a third-consecutive defeat to open the new campaign, flinging 50 crosses into the penalty area along the way, they were made to look like the flailing underdogs by the side that could well be coming for their top-seven spot. …”
The Athletic (Video)
“If you wanted some kind of positive take, it was probably this: by treating Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Bochum and a fourth point from two matches like a minor catastrophe, Borussia Dortmund proved that they are making up some ground on Bayern Munich, in terms of attitude and aspiration at least. BVB’s actual football, however, was once again so lacking in structure that talk of a meaningful title challenge feels ridiculous right now. …”
The Athletic
“Chelsea have been Brighton’s biggest fans in recent years. With the London club gaining the services of Moises Caicedo, Robert Sanchez, Marc Cucurella and Graham Potter – they have paid the seaside club £225 million in the process. But with this massive amount of money invested – just how are Brighton using the cash? Written by Andy Naylor and illustrated by Marco Bevilacqua”
YouTube
“Lucas Chevalier is at the forefront of the next generation of French goalkeepers — a generation emerging at just the right time. Some context: 36-year-old Hugo Lloris, the former French national team captain, announced his international retirement after last year’s World Cup and is still expected to leave Tottenham Hotspur this summer. …”
The Athletic (Video)
“Newcastle and Liverpool served up a typically thrilling game at St James’ Park on Sunday afternoon, with Jurgen Klopp’s team — down to 10 men for much of the match — somehow turning defeat into victory and extending their unbeaten league run against Newcastle to 14 games. Here, our writers break down the key moments of the match as it unfolded. …”
The Athletic (Video)
The Athletic: Anthony Gordon was terrorising Liverpool – taking him off cost Eddie Howe dearly (Video)
Guardian: Núñez, Liverpool’s king of chaos, proves a fitting master of the mayhem – Jonathan Wilson
BBC – Newcastle 1-2 Liverpool: ‘Agent of chaos’ Darwin Nunez turns Reds saviour
“It may always look like the same sport to the naked eye, but football is constantly evolving. No, we don’t mean the shape of the ball, or the goal for that matter. Tactical trends come and go as coaches and managers seek the marginal gains that can transform a poor team into a good one, or a great team into the best. One of the most significant shifts this century has related to goalkeepers. Once, they were arguably seen as little more than the person who attempts to keep the ball out of the net and then hoofs it up the other end, as far away from danger as possible. …”
The Analyst
“… Brighton came sixth despite losing 5-1 at home to Everton. There may still be a stigma to a heavy loss, but it is perhaps not the indicator of fundamental flaws it once was. Still, it was intriguing to hear Sir Alex Ferguson say that Aston Villa had played “fantastic football” in their 5-1 defeat at Newcastle on the opening weekend of the season – even if there was immediate apparent vindication as they beat Everton 4-0 in their next game. …”
Guardian – Jonathan Wilson
“We tasked the Opta supercomputer with simulating the 2023-24 Bundesliga season 10,000 times to see how it believed the campaign may pan out. Across those results, 11 of the 18 Bundesliga teams won the league title at least once – but it won’t surprise anyone to hear that record champions Bayern Munich won it in over half of those simulations. Mainz and Stuttgart fans can dream. Yes, you both won the Bundesliga once across our 10,000 pre-season simulations. …”
The Analyst
Roma’s Andrea Belotti celebrates after scoring the first of two goals against Salernitana.
“… His team had not even played that badly, losing 2-0 away to an Inter team who ended last season in a Champions League final. The Nerazzurri were superior throughout, yet the result was not settled until Lautaro Martínez bagged his second goal in the 75th minute. If Monza had reacted more sharply to Yann Sommer wafting a cross into the middle of his area just after half-time, it could have been a different story. …”
Guardian
“Monaco winning their first two matches of the season is not a total surprise. But their performances in the 4-2 victory against Clermont on the opening weekend and their 3-0 win against Strasbourg on Sunday suggest their reboot is coming together apace, especially given that other putative European contenders have stumbled out of the blocks. …”
Guardian
“The map page has a location-map of 2023-24 Serie A, along with 3 charts. The location-map features each club’s home kit [2023-24]. The map also shows the 20 Regions of Italy. And the map also shows the 11 largest cities in Italy (2020 metropolitan-area figures) {Metropolitan cities of Italy}. The cities’ population figures can be seen at the top of the location-map. Also, the map shows the locations of both the 3 promoted clubs and the 3 relegated clubs from 2022…Promoted to Serie A for 2023-24: Cagliari, Frosinone, Genoa; relegated to Serie B for 2023-24: Spezia, Cremonese, Sampdoria. …”
billsportsmaps
W – 2023–24 Serie A
“In February 2022, less than a month into Richard Arnold’s tenure as Manchester United chief executive, he addressed an all-staff meeting from the club’s Old Trafford stadium. The executive showed a video celebrating United’s on-pitch goals and success from years gone by before urging staff to stand on the ‘shoulders of the giants of this club and continue their legacy’. …”
The Athletic
Guardian: Manchester United’s lack of moral leadership on Greenwood is depressing
“As AC Milan’s bus wound through Bologna, passing the porticos and red and orange buildings, the colour of the fat and tomato of the ragu that make this city world famous, Christian Pulisic prepared for his upcoming debut in Serie A. When the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara’s iconic brick tower came into view, the American could have been forgiven for thinking it was one of the fortresses that make the region of Emilia Romagna feel like one of those far off lands in Game of Thrones. …”
The Athletic
“Outside a stadium in Riyadh stands Abdullah in a white thob, his team’s flag in his hands, a grin on his face. ‘We will be one day like England,’ he says. ‘We will have the big stars.’ He is talking about the latest news from the rampant Saudi Pro League: Neymar, who still holds the record as the most expensive footballer ever, has signed for Al Hilal from Paris Saint-Germain. Regardless of which team they support, Saudis are revelling in the kingdom’s new role in global football. …”
The Athletic
Fans attempt to get their shots of Xavi.
“It’s back: La Liga, home of the beautiful game. Land of Iago Aspas, Pedri and Antoine Griezmann, of Jude Bellingham too. Of Isinho, Iker Muniain, Gerard Moreno, and Darderismo. Of Papu Gómez, the man who says ‘a dribble opens a new world’ and follows the referee, because there’s no one better positioned, see? Of Youssef En-Nesyri’s leap, the outside of Luka Modric’s boot and Isco’s dancing feet. Feel the quality, the intelligence, the touch, the technique, the fantasy, the … Oh. That. Yep, that’s back too. Bigger than ever before. One hundred and sixteen minutes of pure Bordalásball. …”
Guardian
The Athletic
“It was a bright, clammy afternoon in August, and the clocks were striking one hundred and thirteen. Midway through the second half at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, with the score 1-1, Chelsea engaged in a spell of concerted forward thrust, and with Liverpool adjusting to a double substitution, Trent Alexander-Arnold pressed the damper pedal for a moment. …”
Guardian
“In September 2019, Inter Miami owners Jorge Mas and David Beckham met with Lionel Messi’s father in Barcelona. This was before Messi’s move to PSG. The seed was sewn. Four years later the relationship between Miami and Messi had flourished. This is the story of massive global commercial deals, future security and how Messi plans to change the MLS for good. Written by Paul Tenorio, illustrated by Craig Silcock.”
YouTube
Luton Town’s home, Kenilworth Road, is not your usual Premier League stadium.
“Within a few days of Luton Town’s promotion to the Premier League in May, the construction crews were moving in and the scaffolding was going up at its stadium, Kenilworth Road. The club’s first home game in English soccer’s top flight since its money-spinning, supercharged rebrand into the richest, most popular league in the world was not quite three months away. There was an alarming amount of work to do, and not nearly enough time to do it. …”
NY Times
“There is a profound force that has shaped German soccer for decades. Even before economic factors elevated Bayern to a position of unhealthy dominance over German soccer, they had ‘Bayern-dusel’ – Bayern-luck. Again and again things would go their way just when they needed them to, a sense that manifested most obviously in the number of last-minute winners they always seemed to score. …”
Guardian – Jonathan Wilson
“On a December evening in 2010, Andy Gray was in a studio, possibly somewhere in London, discussing Manchester City’s recent defeat against Everton at home. It was brought to Gray’s notice that Lionel Messi had, as was usual then, turned on the magic for Barcelona. His response is now part of football folklore. It is a genius statement – irreverent, filled with equal amounts of comic intent and pure English hubris. …”
Football Paradise
“The Premier League is back tonight, promising thrills, spills and all manner of footballing chaos. Our team of writers at The Athletic have gone to great effort to make some sensible predictions and season previews for 2023-24. But for those who want their football forecasts to talk about xVibes more than xGOT, this week has brought a return of our Bad Prediction Amnesty. …”
The Athletic (Video)
“If you think you’re excited about the start of the new Premier League season, you should speak to an Aston Villa fan. They’re about ready to pop. All of them. Well, almost all of them. In a survey conducted by The Athletic this week (before the developments on Thursday and Friday which brought the transfers of Moises Caicedo and Harry Kane closer to being completed), we asked how supporters of each of the 20 teams are feeling about the new season. Ninety-nine per cent of Villa respondents said ‘optimistic’, making them the most positive bunch in the division. …”
The Athletic (Video)
“From the curtains of rain at his unveiling to the flawless top-corner winner in the final minute of his debut off the bench and the video-game soccer on display in his first start in flamingo pink, Lionel Messi’s beginnings in Miami have seemed providential, almost biblical. Messi is not, of course, the first aging superstar to put himself out to pasture on the gentle greens of US soccer. Pelé set the precedent, and many will follow once Messi has gone. But to choose America now? In this economy? With Saudi Arabia’s gushing riches within reach, and the lure of nostalgia calling him back to Barcelona? Surely that says a lot. …”
Guardian
“On the opening weekend last season, Liverpool went to Fulham and, after twice falling behind, drew 2-2. Coming a week after the Community Shield win over Manchester City, the positive impression of Darwin Núñez seemed to be confirmed but the broader feeling was of doubt. Liverpool just didn’t look at it. They didn’t overwhelm Fulham physically as they had so many teams previously. Fabinho looked off the pace. …”
Guardian
Le Havre
“The 2022–23 Ligue 1, also known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, was the 85th season of the Ligue 1, France’s premier football competition. It began on 5 August 2022 and concluded on 3 June 2023. As the 2022 FIFA World Cup began on 20 November, the last round before the break was held on 12–13 November. The league subsequently resumed on 27 December. … Paris Saint-Germain were the defending champions, and they won a record-breaking eleventh title with one match to spare, following a 1–1 draw against Strasbourg on 27 May. …”
W – Ligue 1
“The new Premier League season has begun, with reigning champions Manchester City beating Vincent Kompany’s Burnley 3-0 at Turf Moor— and top-flight games are about to become longer. The game at Turf Moor had five minutes added on at half-time and six minutes added on after the second half. Additional time played at the end of each half will increase under a new directive for 2023-24, and the expectation is that 100-minute matches will become the norm this season. …”
The Athletic
Ettifaq’s supporters light flares in the stands during the Saudi Pro League football match between Al-Nassr and Al-Ettifaq at the Prince Mohammed Bin Fahd Stadium in Dammam on May 27, 2023.
“Deals done, lights up, Saudi Pro League here we go! The world’s second most disruptive sporting competition (after the other Saudi one, in golf) got under way in Jeddah on Friday night where Al-Ahli’s pack of imported stars managed to haul themselves over the line against Al-Hazm, a team of plucky journeymen from the Arabian sticks. A hat-trick for Roberto Firmino decided the game and both he and Riyad Mahrez looked a class above the rest of the players on display. For other big name signings, say Édouard Mendy and Allan Saint-Maximin, the word sketchy sprang to mind. …”
Guardian
“Hooliganism in football is nothing new. But whilst tighter rules, regulations and banning orders are preventing it from appearing in the stadiums alongside the games, it continues away from the matchday audience. More organised, more violent and much more secretive, this is the story of how hooliganism is very much still a part of European football, and many of the best hooligans and ultras are now on the front lines defending their nations. Written by James Montague, illustrated by Alice Devine.”
YouTube
“Barcelona’s La Liga season gets started on Sunday with a trip to Getafe, but as is now quite usual at the club, there is already plenty going on. With just two days to go before their title defence begins, manager Xavi has only 12 first-team players eligible in the competition — and one of them, Ousmane Dembele, is about to join Paris Saint-Germain. …”
The Athletic
“Penalties are always a game of chance, turning 120 minutes into a matter of inches. For the U.S. women’s national team, those inches, or even a single millimeter, mattered the most on Sunday as it bowed out of the World Cup to Sweden at the quarter-final stage with a 5-4 loss in penalties. These penalties were unlike most that we’ve seen from the U.S. Megan Rapinoe missed for the first time in years. Alyssa Naeher stepped up and scored as a surprise sixth selection. Sophia Smith, whose form going into the tournament had been red hot, missed hers as well. Any of those moments could easily have been the biggest takeaway from this shootout were it not for what happened at the very end, as goal-line technology decided the end of the shootout when Naeher couldn’t get a palm on the winning spot kick in time after parrying upward on the initial effort. …”
The Athletic (Video)
The Athletic: USWNT out of World Cup after epic shootout vs. Sweden: Key takeaways, analysis (Video)
The Athletic: USWNT’s historic World Cup exit was decided by millimeters — now comes the fallout
YouTube: USWNT vs. Sweden: WILD Penalty Shootout in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup (7:39), Sweden vs. United States Highlights | 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup | Round of 16 (4:53)
“… The map is a basic location-map, with an inset map of Greater London. Also shown are small labels which point out the three promoted clubs (Burnley, Luton Town, Sheffield United). And there are three charts… The Attendance chart, at top-centre of the map page, shows 4 things for each of the 20 current Premier League clubs…A) 2022-23 finish (with promotions noted). B) 2022-23 average attendance [from home league matches]. C) Stadium capacity [2022-23]. D) Percent-capacity [2022-23]. At the right-hand side of the map page are two more charts. The chart at the top-right shows Seasons-in-1st-Division for the 20 current Premier League clubs. …”
billsportsmaps
W – 2023–24 Premier League
“Not much was known about Ederson when he signed for Manchester City from Benfica in June 2017 for £34.7million ($44.8m). But after watching just a handful of clips of him, it was extremely easy to see how he would fit into Pep Guardiola’s system. His range of passing and ability to pick the right pass was obvious. Lo and behold, six years later, he has been a massive part of City winning all there is to win at club level, enabling Guardiola to implement his style of possession football from the deepest man on the pitch. …”
The Athletic
The Analyst
“With his cap on backwards, Jurgen Klopp strolled across to Trent Alexander-Arnold during Saturday’s open training session at Singapore’s National Stadium and affectionately draped an arm around his shoulders. A brief chat was followed by a warm embrace between the Liverpool manager and his new vice-captain before they went their separate ways. …”
The Athletic (Video)
A car buried by the roof of a house in Diyarbakir
“Eksioglu cannot blank out the noise of lives collapsing around him. He was in his seventh-floor apartment, shared with his fellow assistant coach Gokhan Kagitcioglu, when an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 hit Antakya at 4.17am on 6 February. The tower block buckled, its walls converged. … Survival came down to the most brutal rolling of a dice. For Eksioglu it was “some kind of miracle”. The building was still shuddering when he realised there was now a window to his right. From being boxed in and breathing thick dust, he could feel fresh air and rain. He climbed out and found himself barefoot, freezing, atop a mountain of debris. Dazed and disoriented, he looked around and yelled Kagitcioglu’s name. …”
Guardian
“‘I hope that I will be able to visit Stamford Bridge one last time to say goodbye to all of you in person,’ Roman Abramovich said in a statement on the Chelsea website on March 2, 2022, when he confirmed his intention to sell the Premier League club after 19 years as its owner. Eight days later, any short-to-medium-term hopes of this visit were curtailed when the British government announced sanctions had been placed upon Abramovich following the full Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24. The British government now describe Abramovich as a ‘prominent Russian businessman and pro-Kremlin oligarch’. …”
The Athletic
“The Premier League has grown to become the richest football league in the world, but in doing so it’s created a problem for itself. It’s wealth is the reason the very best players want to come to the Premier League. But it also means clubs in other countries struggle to buy players from the Premier League. Leading to immovable players and squad stagnation. How big is the downside of having all the money in the world? Seb Stafford-Bloor explains, Alice Devine illustrates.”
YouTube
“Wolverhampton Wanderers are experiencing a difficult summer. Sporting director Matt Hobbs and frustrated head coach Julen Lopetegui are negotiating the task of refreshing a tired squad while answering a broader challenge from Fosun. Wolves’ owners require a profit in the summer transfer window — a big one. …”
The Athletic
“The way his first coach tells the story, the kid wasn’t even supposed to be on the pitch. It was his older brother’s game. They were a player short. Salvador Aparicio looked over at the stands and saw a small boy playing by himself, in private communion with the ball. When he asked his mother if he could borrow him, she said he didn’t know how to play football. …”
The Athletic (Video)
“In 2019, Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders waxed lyrical to ESPN about the role of Fabinho in the team, describing him as a ‘lighthouse’. ‘Inside the organised chaos that we want, that we like, he is like a lighthouse, he controls it… His timing, his vision, his calmness, it gives another dimension to our midfield play,’ Lijnders said. His arrival from Monaco in 2018 coincided with Liverpool going from a team that challenged for the top four to one that challenged for titles. Along with Alisson, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah, Fabinho helped take Jürgen Klopp’s men to the next level. …”
The Analyst
“The cold calls and text messages started arriving on Jan Van Winckel’s phone a couple of months ago, and they have not stopped. They come at a rate of about 10 a day, he said, a steady stream of hope-you’re-wells and long-time-no-speaks from old acquaintances, archived contacts, friends of friends of friends. The bromides change but the brass tacks are the same. Van Winckel, 49, now works in the United Arab Emirates, but he has spent a good portion of his career in soccer in Saudi Arabia, serving as both a coach and the technical director of the country’s national teams. …”
NY Times
“There is still room for life, still room for sport,” Andriy Shevchenko said. “That is why we are fighting: for the right to have a normal life.”
“There are certain things Andriy Shevchenko cannot talk about. The feeling generated by the wailing of an air-raid siren. The dread instilled by learning just how many missiles had been aimed the previous night at you, your loved ones, your home. The sensation of knowing another swarm of drones is on its way, the only hope that each one can be shot from the sky. Shevchenko does not want to repeat all he has heard from the Ukrainian soldiers posted to the battlefield, that rift that runs through places that were once nearby and familiar but are now alien, part of a terrifying front line. …”
NY Times
“The summer transfer window is hotting up. Every team is spending (or preparing to spend) millions of pounds to try and improve ahead of next season, while managers and coaching across England will have put in hours of work to try and find a way to get even more from the players already at their disposal. Each team has a weakness – yes, even Manchester City – that the staff will need to address this summer, either through recruitment or tactical tweaks on the training ground. Here, we have highlighted an area of the game that each Premier League team could do with improving (that they haven’t already addressed) ahead of next season. Read on to see where your team needs to strengthen. …”
The Analyst
Scissors Kick 