Football

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.

I did that same thing a bunch while using Weah on the FIFA game for Playstation.

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.

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample_size_determination

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

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

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

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

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

Whereas -- Tony Galvin.

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

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

HW at the cowboys giants game lol