Joined November 2009
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23 Jul 2024
The 2024 version of The Mixer is out now. The most comprehensive account of the Premier League’s on-pitch development over its first 32 years.
Amazon link ⬇️
amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0008708…
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Netherlands 2-2 Japan: good atmosphere, exciting game, unlikely goals (says the xG). A nice moment when Moriyasu stayed behind after his press conference to thank various Dutch coaches for their contribution to Japanese football over the years. Class.
⬇️
nytimes.com/athletic/7361010…
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The respective Japan and Netherlands post-match press conferences exactly as you'd hope for. First it's all, "Coach, please outline your thoughts on today's match". Then it's, "So: you regret those substitutions?"
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my group stage will be spent in (or, well, vaguely close to) Dallas, which has done very well with its fixtures. Japan v Netherlands feels like it could be a knockout stage game, and should be a cracker.
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Jun 14
Brazil v Morocco a much better game before this ludicrous 15-minute "half-time" thing they've brought in to show some adverts, really broke up the momentum
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Jun 13
Weirdly there was quite a similar feature to this on the BBC website about 20 years ago (with FA Cup goals). This was before you could find highlights easily online so you could catch up with “did you see that goal?!” by watching this kind of thing
Jun 12
What sorcery is this my @BBCSport colleagues… you can watch in virtual 3D on the BBC website, this is the Canadian goalies view of the Bosnia goal….
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Jun 12
These days, FIFA lists the USA as finishing 3rd at World Cup 1930. But there was no third-place play-off. For years, they & Yugoslavia were listed as joint-third. So why the revisionism, and can we really consider them to have finished 3rd? ⬇️
nytimes.com/athletic/7347531…
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Jun 11
Three red cards! There were only four red cards in the whole of the last World Cup. One was after full-time so barely counts. Another was for Vincent Aboubakar taking his shirt off after scoring in the 93rd minute and he seemed to love it.
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Jun 11
I really enjoyed this book. As well as a portrait of Messi over the last three years, it's an excellent account of the current state of MLS. x.com/PaulTenorio/status/206…
Jun 2
“He just got up like, ‘Okay, screw it. I’m gonna do it.’”
Messi stood up on a chair.
“Hola,” he said. “Soy Lionel Messi.”
Then, he started to sing.
On book launch day, I wrote for @TheAthleticFC on what I learned reporting The Messi Effect 📕. Out today!
nytimes.com/athletic/7325761…
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Michael Cox retweeted
32 teams to 48 teams fundamentally changes the World Cup. Here are the probable ramifications: more rotation, more defensive play in the first two games, Africa the major beneficiary. And other things. ⬇️
nytimes.com/athletic/7324882…
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Jun 10
fair play, Qatar can treat this as a winter World Cup x.com/Conor0Neill_/status/20…
Jun 10
It took an inordinate amount of time to collect the data and make this graphic, but at least we now have conclusive proof that Sweden is, in fact, colder than Texas
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Jun 10
Niche World Cup fascination: the French & African love of giving the No 16 shirt to a keeper. 8 WCs in a row for France. An 80% success rate for African sides here. Enjoyably, Canada are now also in - thanks to Quebec-born netminders James Pantemis & Maxime Crépeau in 2022/2026.
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Jun 10
No-one else bothers. Only 2 of the other 36 sides at this tournament think a goalkeeper should wear No 16. Continental tournaments? 18 of the 24 No 16s at the Afcon were keepers, but only 5/24 at the last Euros and 1/16 at the last Copa America (Canada, obv).
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consistently the best newspaper preview of a Euros / World Cup 👍
Jun 9
Of the newspaper supplements, this one from the Racing Post is excellent. Out today and would definitely recommend.
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This is the strongest managerial lineup at a World Cup for a long time. And maybe, at a time when club football is all about intensity and physicality as much as strategy, the international game is where coaches can have the bigger impact.
nytimes.com/athletic/7338785…
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predicting the bracket for a World Cup when third-placed teams qualify is, let's be honest, really unsatisfying. There's 495 possible combinations of which groups will provide those 8. You aren't getting that right, and there's so many moving parts that it's basically pointless.
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Your instinct is to then automatically eliminate all the third-placed sides from the round of 32. But hang on, the best third-placed side from Group I is probably better than the winner of Group B. But will that be the fixture? Almost certainly not! It doesn't work at all.
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5 Jun 2018
World Cup dark horses? Italy. Traditionally slow starters but never write them off
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15 Nov 2022
Not much talk about them this time - but as always, they will NOT concede many goals.
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Unbeaten at the World Cup since 2014. Could this be their year?
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This is great and makes a good case that attendance figures are vital. Everything flows from that. Take out Arsenal (huge outlier) the Everton (probably less-than-hoped-for Goodison bounce) and crowds are on the slide. The WSL has wasted a couple of years.
x.com/FloydTweet/status/2060…
May 29
Our. insight report on the commercial future of women's football is now live on @The_Cutback
Never before seen rights values for sponsorship and media rights, and insight from experts from across the women's game.
Free to read.
thecutback.com/p/from-visibl…
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May 10
France, 2018. Probably a bit underappreciated considering how comfortable they were throughout the knockout stage.
nytimes.com/athletic/7263144…
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Argentina, 2022. The most flexible winners in terms of system. Messi the main man. They tended to collapse a bit in the last 20 minutes of matches but Martinez got them through it.
nytimes.com/athletic/7317733…
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