E perioada aia a anului când se trage linie. De goluri și meciuri s-au ocupat alții, asa că dați-mi voie să vă recomand cinci articole care mi-au plăcut cel mai mult anul ăsta.
Brian Phillips se întreabă de ce ne mai uităm la fotbal dacă e plictisitor cea mai mare parte a timplui:
But — and here’s the obvious answer to the “Why are we doing this?” question — those same two qualities, difficulty and fluidity, also mean that soccer is uniquely adapted to produce moments of awesome visual beauty. Variables converge. Players discover solutions to problems it would be impossible to summarize without math.
Apropo de asta, dacă și Spania mai e plictisitoare, atunci echipele care parchează autobuzul în fata ei cum se cheamă că sunt?
When did our attention span shrink? This is football. It’s not a Michael Bay movie. We don’t need explosions every five minutes to keep us watching. International football is an extended technical, tactical and physical battle. Or in England’s case, an extended tactical and physical battle.
Alima Hotakie scrie despre lucrurile care-l fac pe Juergen Klopp un antrenor special:
Part of his success also stems from his ability to convert negatives into positives. Klopp uses a method called reframing or reinterpreting events (at least according to an article in Stern magazine). What that essentially means is that Klopp tries to see the best in everything, whether it’s a win or defeat. His outlook is never negative and he always takes a positive spin.
Jonathan Wilson fluieră în biserică, întrebându-se la finalul sezonul trecut dacă Steven Gerrard mai e bun pentru Liverpool:
It seems almost heretical to say it, but could it be that Gerrard is not the solution but the problem; that, fine player though he is, he has destroyed the balance of the side? When Gerrard has not started this season, Liverpool have won 48% of games played; when he has started, that drops to 9%.
Wright Thompson a încercat sa înțeleagă relația ambivalentă a lui Messi cu țara în care s-a născut:
He is fully Argentine in Barcelona but not completely one in Buenos Aires, since he came to Spain as a child and the contrast between his amazing games with Barça and the not-so-good with his national team also helps this strange vision of the Argentine people. Unlike Maradona, who shows an ultra-typical Argentine personality, Argentine people find it difficult to recognize themselves in this little, shy, introverted, silent boy.
Sursa foto: NS Newsflash