In this rarefied age of footballing athleticism, those players who can both find and exploit space are, ultimately, the ones who will reach the moon …
2014 = 1978? Football through the lens of teleology
Preface: This is a provisional piece of work. I appreciate the comparative lack of depth in any of the case studies, due to a lack of detailed knowledge (I have no archives, nor am I old enough to have seen Holland in 1974, yet alone Hungary of 1954). With time, I aspire to complete this piece to a standard whereby …
A match that makes history – and will continue to make it
As Brazil suffers footballing humiliation against Germany on its own soil, the question to be asked now is: just quite how significant could this football match turn out to be for a nation whose very identity has henceforth been rooted in the beautiful game? …
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Holland wreak destruction on beautiful monster they helped to create
With a virtuoso display of finishing in Salvador, the Dutch chastened a Spanish side indelibly influenced by their own footballing past – and by their current manager …
Reflections on the career, to date, of Xavi Hernandez
For all that world football lauds, and rightly so, the astounding twin talents of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, neither of those two quite justify the epithet “changed football” in the same way as Xavi Hernandez, Barcelona and Spain’s favourite eldest son …