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Footy: The Doggies won the 2016 Premiership!! Soccer: From Ronaldo to Ronaldinho to Messi and seemingly back to another Ronaldo. Full circle!
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The 2018 season is the second time in a decade that, when the vibe of Australian Rules Football has wandered into a defensive vogue, West Coast has stepped in, based their play on pace and superior ball use, won the premiership and restored equilibrium.
I meant to write this one the day Germany were eliminated, but real life called. Today Mesut Ozil has published a long piece of writing on his Twitter account about no longer being emotionally able to play for Germany.
There is something not quite right about France’s World Cup win.
Four matches into Germany 2006, Brazil had won 11 consecutive World Cup matches, had reached the previous three World Cup finals, and won two.
Is France a Latin country? Sort of. Their language is. Their culture is 50-50. They are Latin enough for me to christen this most difficult quarter of the draw ‘The Latin Quarter’. Yes, yes, I’ll get my coat.
There is a saying in South America particularly used in Peru: “We played like never before and lost like always.”
It is human nature to lament the passing of time, to feel more centred in the experiences of our formative years rather than what is going on in the world when we are older.
Martin Flanagan’s essay about the 1970 Carlton-Collingwood grand final, simply titled ‘1970′, is the best piece I’ve ever read about football.
Brett Deledio, formerly of Richmond and now with the GWS Giants, was naturally upset that he left Richmond and they won the premiership that same year.
Two seasons after looking like an utterly unstoppable force and one after scoring the goal that saved the 2016 premiership, Jake Stringer appears to be finished at the Western Bulldogs. I first remember Stringer in the infamous last game of 2014, which the Bulldogs lost to a novice GWS by a goal scored with 16 […]
The Herald Sun ‘Premiers’ poster, featuring a cartoon representation of the winning team’s emblem, is a long tradition of grand final day. Drawn by cartoonist William Ellis Green (WEG) for 54 years, they were taken over in 2009 by political cartoonist Mark Knight, following WEG’s passing.
As nonsensical and downright aggressive and intolerant as all footy discussion has become these days, how can anyone watch Jobe Watson walk off the field in tears against Sydney and not feel overwhelming sadness?
Nick Riewoldt is retiring, but he may well have wanted to play on and couldn’t. It happens here and there in footy, where the brain is stronger than the late-30s body, but was that the case with Riewoldt?
Dictators and their supporters are humourless. Subduing a population and keeping the boot on the throat is no laughing matter.
Paul Roos at the Sydney Swans famously had a ‘no dickheads’ policy during his halcyon years of 2005-06. Roos meditated, maintained his pristine brown hair over eight years of coaching, and was once seen to be whistling right before a quarter-time address with the Swans five goals down. They won.
This is a teachable moment. It can educate us about life, about ploughing full-speed down incorrect avenues, about being organic versus the inability to buy the intangible.
The rushed behind. Footy’s get out of jail ticket. Or not. What was Callum Mills to do, facing away from goal and Liam Picken maybe there, maybe not?
It was once all so simple. The old VFL clubs had worked out 12 or so guernsey designs involving various combinations of blue, red, white and black. Horizontal dark and white stripes versus vertical dark and white stripes solved all problems.
The Chicago Cubs have won the Major League Baseball championship for the first time since 1908. That’s 108 years!
In my opinion you can be both. You just can’t play for both, legally or spiritually.
The end of Germany
Not sure if you’re still around to read this, but I rate Wenger until about mid-2008. The examples you’ve cited – Cesc, Henry, Overmars and Ljungberg – all come before then. In fact the latter three are ancient examples.
I wrote this about Arsenal in April 2016. Post-2008 I don’t rate them.
Ozil I’m not as certain about, but he’s not tough. He’s not a player who stands up when the chips are down. He’s skilled and ‘world class’ but he can’t take you to the top. That’s my opinion.
Regards
The end of Germany
I agree with both points.The Bundesliga does bring good youth to the fore, and the fact the clubs are not generally PLCs and it feels like there’s a better connection between the fans and the clubs than in England.
Then, I agree too that Bayern are like PSG, there are only maybe three big games for them each year and it can’t sharpen competitive instincts very much.
The end of Germany
“The end of Germany” is figurative, the end of the cycle of those guys. I reckon the old team from 2010 is getting on in years. Muller’s gonna have to pick up his game, he’s only semi-relevant at the moment. Kroos is still in good nick.
Ozil was always symbolic of that team for many reasons, for his skill, his roots represented a (I guess false) racial harmony and integration, his lack of punch and winning drive mirroring Germany often failing to get it done. Him not being a part of things now feels significant in those senses.
Best regards
The end of Germany
Thank you! They probably won’t, although to be picky, in that book I quoted the author regarded 2002 as something of a fluke helped by an easy draw.
The end of Germany
I’m not French, I don’t have to submit to that. They’re certainly a very good enigma though that they can play that shithouse and still score four goals.
Why France's win has left me unsatisfied
My original line was, “Olivier Giroud did not register a single shot on target for the tournament, lol.” The Roar’s editorial style is a bit too serious sometimes.
Why France's win has left me unsatisfied
Thank you for the compliment. I actually thought France in their own way were quite poor in the first half, their only plan seemed to be to have the forwards run forward individually with the ball. Going down 2-1 should have been curtains but for Argentina’s defence being so poor, plus at least France had to show what they could do.
I think we did extremely well to get both the Spain-Portugal game (especially since neither did anything else for the rest of the tournament) and the France-Argentina one. I sceptical about the rest of the tournament since the one half of the draw looks quite low on quality.
I was gonna say of course Messi will be back if only as the support for someone else, but his personality is so mellow that you can never tell. Plus the next WC is November 2022, so add another six months onto the ageing process. I reckon CR7 will be back. But what do I know, I predicted in 2007 that Kaka would be around for 2014 and he vanished almost immediately.
Best regards
A Latin Saturday
No, the way things are going there probably is no one to be afraid of.
The absurd England-Belgium situation
I agree with you about needing to keep momentum going.
The absurd England-Belgium situation
Yeah Croatia is the blueprint. Rest one or two names, play one or two names still, play normal, take your chances.
The absurd England-Belgium situation
France, Argentina, Portugal and Uruguay are all big names but the only one of those four actually playing well is Uruguay.
The absurd England-Belgium situation
Colombia’s defence looks very average though. Don’t reckon they’ll beat either, may not even qualify from group. Beating Senegal not a given.
The absurd England-Belgium situation
Frankly I don’t know what to expect from this game. And that’s after writing an (admittedly tangential) article on it!
The absurd England-Belgium situation
Yep, I thought we would be good for a 1-1 draw last night but listed my tip as 1-0 Den because I’m never sure where Australia will ever get goals from.
Best regards
Morocco and Peru: In praise of futility
There’s something intangible lacking in Argentina, a lot like England during the Lampard-Gerrard days. There are too many forwards and they don’t use the right ones anyway, Dybala should be in for Higuain, etc. They never have good keepers, defence and mids have been lacking for a while.
After a debacle like this they should play the kids, theoretically finish the Messi era, which was never that great post-Riquelme in my opinion. Off-field structure weakens them badly I think. But Argentina are too hero-worshippy and too political to ever perform a bottom-up, roots improvement.
Well I’m a big a know-it-all as the next guy re Argentina, I written heaps on them over the years. I feel sorry for them for some reason.
The trauma and near excellence of Argentina
Best regards
Morocco and Peru: In praise of futility
I did think about how Portugal were like this when I wrote this. That is very ironic.
It won’t be easy for Peru to get back. They got a tad lucky in qualification and besides that it was a real struggle this time, 8 of the 10 teams were in with a shot. But Chile’s old, maybe Colombia’s on their way down, there could be a bit of space opened up. Guerrero probably won’t last another campaign though, they may make them even blunter than now, if that’s possible.
Morocco and Peru: In praise of futility
Yep you’re right. I think the 2026 one will be 80 games or something like that. You still play/win 7 to win the World Cup.
In the circumstances I’m fascinated that little countries like Morocco and Paraguay are in the running to host these huge tournaments.
Russia 2018, the last World Cup
Good point. Better format then would be 16 group winners rather than 32 top 2s.
Drawback of the whole thing is it’s only two guaranteed matches per team instead of three. Doesn’t seem to be enough chance for each country to get into their boys, it would end too quickly for some.
I’m trying to think through the best maths for all this but that would be purely hypothetical exercise and a waste of mental energy.
Best regards
Russia 2018, the last World Cup
Ultimately, if the question of hosting these events (WC, Olympics) was under direct referendum like in Switzerland, who would accept spending all that public money these days?
American populations like Boston have voided hosting the Olympics. Do Russians have that power?
“Stick to football” can be a legitimate argument but this is the first World Cup since all the FIFA stuff went down. Surely worth mentioning in the scheme of things.
Russia 2018, the last World Cup
Players don’t dribble anymore, it’s too low-percentage. Hardly anyone tries to take on their man, which is less exciting.
I think at the 2014 World Cup there were few penetrative players besides Neymar (debatable), Messi (debatable) and Robben. Germany won because they had a few more than the others.
Russia 2018, the last World Cup
Alex Ferguson is a massive outlier but he adapted to changes and reformed his attitude to how success was achieved. Wenger didn’t.
Most coaches only do have the one decade of success before their use-by date (eg Mourinho). In that sense it’s not Wenger’s ‘fault’ as such. I know my judgement is quite harsh on him.
The end of Germany