Sport

France couldn’t just turn it on and off forever

Yesterday, we dove into the very nature of Spain. How its championship pedigree is still around, but how the frustrating, and at times incomprehensible, frailties that surrounded that glorious era are in their DNA, too. And you’ll see all of them in the same match. They can’t help it. It’s who they are. They can’t […]

Sport

That’s what Paul Pogba is supposed to be

It’s always difficult analyzing or discussing Paul Pogba. I’ve found myself on both sides of it just in the past year or two. How good was he at Juventus? Isn’t it easier to play when Claudio Marchisio is doing some of your running and Andrea Pirlo is there to spread passes to you? Maybe, but […]

Sport

Rüdiger HUNGRY!

I bet, my fellow footyphiles, that we thought we were done with international tournaments including players nibbling on each other, what with Luis Suarez not involved in the European Championships and probably too old for the next World Cup. And Copa America has bigger problems, though I suppose we can’t rule it out.… Read more…

Sport

France gets even scarier with return of Karim Benzema, also more blackmail-y

With club seasons stumbling to their final weekend, and the normal curtain-closer Champions League Final now less than two weeks away, attention and anticipation starts to turn to the postponed European Championships, which are still called “Euro 2020” even though it’s 2021. And also seems to be losing venues. But… Read more…

Sport

Jose Mourinho has broken Tottenham, possibly for good

It’s not a surprise that Jose Mourinho’s tenure at Tottenham Hotspur has gone completely balls up. Anyone who watched the end of his stays at Chelsea (The Sequel) and Manchester United could have told you how this would go. An initial circling of the wagons that yields some promising early results, before giving way… Read […]

Sport

Liverpool, Manchester United draw to leave door open for Manchester City

Perhaps no match felt weirder without fans than the biggest rivalry in English football. Usually the atmosphere for a Liverpool-Man United match can be described as overly passionate, vitriolic, psychotic, poisonous, and/or blood-thirsty. Without the 55,000 baying until their lungs shriveled and filed for retirement,… Read more…