Chelsea: On Defending, Winning, and Buses
August 10, 2012 § Leave a Comment
First published on SB NATION, 25 May 2012
In the interests of full disclosure, let me begin by saying that I have absolutely no personal experience to support the point I’m about to make. I’ve never tried it, never even really thought about trying it, and so could be completely wrong.
But it strikes me that parking a bus might be quite difficult. Buses are big, unwieldy things, and while perhaps gliding one to a stop into an empty car park wouldn’t pose too much of a problem, as soon as any amount of intricate manoeuvring is required – beep, beep, beep – then it appears to be a task well beyond the ken of most drivers. « Read the rest of this entry »
One By One: Grand Tour
February 14, 2012 § 1 Comment
So the Champions League is back. Are you excited? A bit? Yeah, me too. The football’s decent, though there is the ever-present sense that it’s all a charade, played out to line the pockets of men that are already insensitively rich. Plus, Heineken’s shite. « Read the rest of this entry »
Through Gritted Teeth #43: Mehmet Scholl
October 24, 2011 § Leave a Comment
by Niklas Wildhagen
Growing up in Germany I lived through an era of industrious, hard working, unspectacular ball players. Andi Brehme, Lotthar Matthaus, Klaus Augenthaler, all of them were decent and internationally respected footballers. But nobody seemed to love them, except Germans. Their way of playing football was team-oriented, and if you were looking for the spectacular you simply wouldn’t find it when those players were on the pitch. As Uli Hesse notes in his brilliant book Tor!, the 80s and 90s of German football were successful, but the vigor and the youthful swagger of the 70s when players like Gunter Netzer and Paul Breitner played had gone. « Read the rest of this entry »
Through Gritted Teeth #11: Michael Ballack
May 19, 2011 § 1 Comment
by Mohamed Moallim
There’s no bigger international rivalry than Holland–Germany, that’s my opinion anyway and I like to think it’s true. Countless classics have been served up by these two neighbours throughout the years, and according to (the excellent) Simon Kuper it is “the greatest grudge match in European football”. « Read the rest of this entry »
