Month: December 2006

Johann Cruyff. The only footballer I have ever had on my wall. So far. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bduaf7KKw54]

Aesthetically, the most beautiful World Cup Finals. It’s not just the football – although 1970 gave us not only Banks’ save, the near-goal-from-the-halfway-line and history’s greatest dummy. It’s the quality of the light – and it’s the crowd, who resemble the extras in that 1960s Bond film you’ve still to see: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuPIRk6DxUs]

..accompanied, of course, by Zimmerman’s radio commentary. They released it on a 33rpm record afterwards – something I’d love to own – and you can hear the best bit here: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQYA7QYoVhU] This clip really allows you to see what was going on, and to answer the question I’m always asking about “period” football: was it…

In a bad year for rugby and cricket, and after a bad six months for football, it’s worth remembering, if not for too long, that there are “other” sports in which Britain has done just a little better this year. Enjoy this Murray moment: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MtWjdVP-Vc] And this is the best I can do with regard…

It’s a pretty bedraggled scene here at MTMG, but we’re giving the referee looks and willing him to raise the whistle to his lips, so in the meantime, here’s some of that dancing I can’t stand. The Latin Formation FG Ars Nova Hamburg/Verden will need no introduction to the kind of readers we get around…

Half a year of Steve McClaren’s media management make this from the Guardian’s “Fiver” almost overpoweringly nostalgic: BRAZIL 1982 AWARD FOR BEST ATTACKING PERFORMANCE AT A WORLD CUP Sven-Goran Eriksson. When asked a long, disjointed question by the Sun’s Steven Howard, he cut him in half with a scornful: “Do you write as well as…

..from the likes of Les Reed, really, do you? Filed under “asking for it“. (He has my sympathy, as I’ve come in for a bit of this through blogging over the last few years, but I still find this funny. And my money’s staying in my pocket).

This is one of those posts where I take something that’s been hopping around the blogosphere and clumsily adapt it to fit soccer. You can see two undamaged originals here and here. The essential idea is to bring up and discuss “cultural gaps” you are aware of, and explain yourself. Now, if I were to…

A 2006 meme: 1. What did you do in 2006 that you’d never done before? Work in Harley Street. 2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don’t make resolutions, but do have written goals. This has been a difficult year, but I expect to clear…

Here’s an interesting review of a book I’m going to have to buy, Thank God For Football! by Peter Lupson, on the churchly origins of eleven major clubs, Aston Villa, Barnsley, Birmingham City, Bolton Wanderers, Everton,Fulham, Manchester City, Queens Park Rangers, Southampton, Swindon Town and Tottenham Hotspur. One of the most moving stories is that…