279 Photos and videos
What’s the point in calling up Chalobah for Livramento when we already have two other CBs (Quansah, Konsa) who can be non-specialist RB back ups? Seems like a total waste of squad slot, especially with Saka injured enough he can’t play full games. Bowen? Foden? MGW? Palmer?
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Not to mention Spence being two-footed and capable of playing both sides. We had 3 players who can play RB after Reece James already.
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Someone drove past me yesterday bumping ‘Juicy’, so I guess it’s officially summer.
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Jun 12
I spoke with producer Drummond Challis about Hero (1986) - the remarkably cinematic story of the Mexico ‘86 World Cup: narrated by Michael Caine, lensed by a Bond cameraman and starring the “cosmic kite”, Diego Maradona open.substack.com/pub/thegam…
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Jun 12
“We put long lenses on them. That’s why we were one of the only teams to get ‘The Hand of God’. Because we had a captive camera that was on Maradona. Now television followed the ball. That was what they had to do.”
— Drummond Challis, producer
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Jun 12
“I got into the Argentine camp because I had an extremely beautiful assistant. I told her to go to the Argentine dressing room. I said ‘go and knock on the door and ask to speak to Maradona and tell him what we’re trying to do’. And it was Maradona who cleared the way.”
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Jun 11
England as the ‘best defence’? Chat about Cameroon, a mention of Hungary as an outside bet to win the World Cup (neither qualified)? C’mon guys. I know it’s not a core sport for the pod, but you could at least pretend to care @BillSimmons @ringer
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Jun 6
Lucy Blakstad’s Lido (1995), for BBC’s Modern Times, is a large-hearted dip inside the eccentric habits of the bathers at @Brockwell_Lido - and the transformative powers of the pool. Read a deep dive & director interview thegametape.substack.com/p/s…
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Jun 6
Martin Parr shot the stills for the first BBC docu-series Lucy Blakstad worked on: Signs of the Times. You can feel his influence on her compositions in Lido (1995), where one reviewer said “each shot is like a contemporary postcard”
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May 23
World Cup roundup & ICYMI…
• Soccer Meets America, @Roku
• U.S. Against The World, @HBO
• Summer of ‘94, @FOXSoccer
• Soccer’s American Dream, @VICE
• Tetra, @netflix
• El Partido, @cannes
• Le Bus, @netflix
• The Golden Generation, @BBCiPlayer
open.substack.com/pub/thegam…
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Apr 13
Kicking off the ‘World Cup on film’ series with a story from USA ‘94. When the meeting of a drug lord and a Colombian footballer changed the future of sports documentary forever: The Two Escobars (2010)
open.substack.com/pub/thegam…
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Mar 30
The @BFI Southbank’s excellent-looking new season, The Cinematic Life of Boxing, curated by @CJNwonka, opens this week. To tie in, and ding the bell on a new series of ‘Shorts’, here’s a gem of a boxing doc you might not know 🥊
open.substack.com/pub/thegam…
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Mar 11
On the eve of the 2026 #oscars, a look at how the controversy around ‘Hoop Dreams’ revolutionised the Best Documentary category and paved the way for sports docs to win in the 21st century
open.substack.com/pub/thegam…
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Feb 24
Coming soon: Cruyff (2026), dir. Sam Blair and produced by @BoxToBoxFilms in association with Lusus.
Ahead of the premiere in Amsterdam at the end of March, I had a conversation with exec producer Jaap Schneider:
open.substack.com/pub/thegam…
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Feb 6
How Cold War tensions altered the course of modern ice hockey. @gabepolsky’s Red Army (2014) and the ongoing legacy on film of 1980’s Miracle on Ice - in time for the latest edition of the #WinterOlympics 🏒
open.substack.com/pub/thegam…
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Jan 26
Hard to think but it’s now 6 years since Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crashed in Calabasas. He was just getting started on his second act: as a storyteller. Here’s a look at his life on film - and where he might have wanted to go next.
open.substack.com/pub/thegam…
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Jan 18
No AFCON Final for Nigeria this year but well worth revisiting Yemi Bamiro’s excellent doc - Super Eagles ‘96 - about the gold-winning Olympic football team.
open.substack.com/pub/thegam…
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22 Dec 2025
My favourite sports docs of 2025, featuring work by Asif Kapadia, Jake Rogal, Chris Smith, Ragnhild Ekner and Gotham Chopra and starring @kennethdalglish, @flintoff11, @Carl_Lewis, @AROD, @KingJames many more…
open.substack.com/pub/thegam…
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