But only from what I've heard about him I'd put him up there w/Jordan, Ali, and Thorpe as the greatest athletes of the 20th C.I don't think most people in America have an understanding of the incredible athleticism and fitness required to play football. I mean, fitness-wise, you have to run up and down a HUGE field w/only one break in play and virtually no substitutions for 90 minutes. Amazing. No other sport seems so demanding physically.
― oops (Oops), Thursday, 6 March 2003 19:17 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 6 March 2003 19:19 (twenty-one years ago) link
I have nothing constructive to contribute. I just wanted to say I effing hate football.
Especially when they junk programmes I actually like (i.e. The Bill) in order to infest my television with allegedly 'important' games. Important to WHO? I DON'T CARE!!!!
And David Beckham isn't even very sexy, quite honestly...
― ChristineSH, Thursday, 6 March 2003 20:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
Well, the clubs will still be around if they have half the turnover, but not twice the debt. But more importantly, the'll be a player drain to international sides that have yet to see the downside. Then it'll look even more like an international league of supersquads.
I predict that third and fourth division will come back into vogue. You can meet your idols on the bus.
― Glynn, Thursday, 6 March 2003 20:05 (twenty-one years ago) link
― oops (Oops), Thursday, 6 March 2003 20:15 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 6 March 2003 21:12 (twenty-one years ago) link
― oops (Oops), Thursday, 6 March 2003 21:21 (twenty-one years ago) link
BTW, the correct expression is 'backheeled'.
My favourite goal ever: probably when George Weah (from Liberia, not a major football nation) was playing for Milan. He had come back to defend a corner in the closing minutes of the game. The ball came to him 8 yards from his own line, and over 100 yards from the opposition goal. He ran the length of the field, beating whoever came near him, before making the finish look easy. I've never seen anyone score solo from anything like that kind of starting position.
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 6 March 2003 22:02 (twenty-one years ago) link
I did that same thing a bunch while using Weah on the FIFA game for Playstation.
― oops (Oops), Thursday, 6 March 2003 22:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
I have long imagined that football today was 'technically better' than in the past - that players were fitter, had better diets, better coaching, sports science, more expensive boots, etc.
Then I watched the 1984 UEFA Cup Final and gained the impression that the players in it were more athletic, faster (the play was much faster! relentless!), more skilful (surprising, yet true), and the play more attacking (end to end, constant) and entertaining than today.
Come to think of it, I often don't find footy so entertaining today.
This contrast surprised me, but the impression was consistent.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 4 March 2014 17:48 (ten years ago) link
Its hard to compare fitness/athleticism non? Each set of peers prob cancel out other as far as the viewer is concerned.
i think organisation/defending has improved at a faster rate or with greater focus than individual attacking flair, like perhaps that was an age where a team worked loosely around the talent but mourinho et al have tended to subjugate even the best creative players onto rails and into corridors but then again maybe its all cycles eh
― CSI BONO (darraghmac), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 18:58 (ten years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample_size_determination
― Joyeux animaux de la misère (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 18:59 (ten years ago) link
nice to see the pinefox back though
i've seen plenty of football from the early 80s that looks farcical compared to the modern game - the very best players perhaps shine thru any era
― I never did nothing to no curry (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 19:01 (ten years ago) link
the difference between someone who spends more time than they ought to watching and reading about football and a truly converted fitba devotee is probably watching old matches on the internet for reasons other than the sentimental
i've never been able to tolerate it but from watching highlights, the thing i have noticed when viewing laudrup, boniek, mijatovic compilations is a sort of desultory yet graceful shifting of balance and of velocity, these players just look different to highlight reels of their current counterparts like iniesta or neymar or hazard even messi, the greatest of all of them, who just seem slightly more refined yet more functional by comparison
90s premier league looks like shit though, risibly crude
― Joyeux animaux de la misère (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 5 March 2014 03:19 (ten years ago) link
laudrup suffers only in comparison to messi though
luiz ronaldo has a sort of classical style that reminds me of laudrup as a #9, i'd rather watch ronaldo compilations than ronaldinho or zidane
― Joyeux animaux de la misère (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 5 March 2014 03:25 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, those guys have builtin tolerance in their joints that the current guys dont seem to have, an elastic relaxation that the flair stars of nowadays gird against lest jose or whoever catch some part of their musculature not straining.
Game poorer for it obv, thudd reigneth
― CSI BONO (darraghmac), Wednesday, 5 March 2014 09:14 (ten years ago) link
Compilation footballers of today, idk, vdv isnt bad but yr topboys get samey, boring, its like watching racehorses, the functions are impressive but limited even while the stats outstrip their forebears
― CSI BONO (darraghmac), Wednesday, 5 March 2014 09:17 (ten years ago) link
Whereas -- Tony Galvin.
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 5 March 2014 10:02 (ten years ago) link
I'm very saddened at the passing of Jimmy Armfield.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jan/22/jimmy-armfield-former-england-captain-dies-aged-82
― the pinefox, Monday, 22 January 2018 11:33 (six years ago) link
When Sócrates was transferred to Fiorentina, he said: “I’m not interested in cars, luxury homes, I don’t want to grow old accumulating riches... I’m here to read Gramsci in the original language.”#KeepPoliticsInFootball #MarxistFootballers pic.twitter.com/dBS4O7pHNf— Jon Bounds 🇵🇸 (@bounder) June 8, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 8 June 2021 16:19 (two years ago) link
HW at the cowboys giants game lol
― calstars, Sunday, 12 November 2023 22:43 (five months ago) link