Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
The 2019-2020 Football Thread
- Thread starter Lord Blackadder
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
How old? When they were title contenders? Is it in B&W?
It was 2014 in color. Chelsea scored a 6-0 win.
As an historian, I (am supposed to) find myself in agreement with you.
However, sometimes, the past seeps or leaches into the present, haunting it in unexpected ways.
For American viewers, there is a nice high-quality version of the 2002 World Cup match between the USA and Germany on YouTube.
Possibly the USMNT's high-water mark in our lifetime. And yes, Germany were lucky...that was a damned handball.
Possibly the USMNT's high-water mark in our lifetime. And yes, Germany were lucky...that was a damned handball.
Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs) have belatedly (but quite correctly) rowed back on - that is, reversed - their appalling decision not to pay their non-playing staff during the Covid-19 crisis, something Liverpool had already done.
Credit to their fans who were (rightly) outraged, and had made this abundantly clear, especially as the club had posted profits.
Credit to their fans who were (rightly) outraged, and had made this abundantly clear, especially as the club had posted profits.
Last edited:
I am suspicious of football owners as a class, so I am not going to be too free in singing the praises of FSG. However, while the decision to furlough staff was wrong, when fans condemned it the club took the criticisms seriously and changed course. Most clubs are less responsible to their fans. All things considered, FSG has so far had a reasonably good track record being receptive / responsive to fan feedback.
Agreed, both with your post and with your lack of trust in football owners as a class.
Personally, I thought the decision (especially those in the PL) to furlough non-playing staff for the duration of the Covid-19 outbreak, utterly outrageous, morally rotten, egregiously greedy, and quite simply, shameless.
However, re FSG, credit where it is due, for accepting that their initial decision required complete reversal, (even if vigorously prompted to do so) and, if that is rather late, well, better late than never.
Fans want to see club ownership act as stewards of a community asset - whereas the Premier league has become an arena where clubs (especially at the top of the pile) see themselves as global corporations. It doesn't take a genius to see the massive chasm between the two perspectives...
Unfortunately, their new owners are almost certainly worse than their current one - just in different ways...and with oil prices plummeting, they might not be as willing to spend as fans hope, at least in the short term.
I’m not sure they could be worse than the current one. He’s the sort of guy you’d like to hear a lot less about.
They do, but, as @Lord Blackadder points out, the new owners would seem to be even worse, which is most unfortunate.
Agreed.
Read about them; are that Mike Ashley is awful; it is simply that he looks likely to be replaced by something even worse.
Mike Ashley was a terrible owner in many ways. And a terrible person, if stories about his alleged behavior are true. But there may come a day - not terribly far in the future - when the same fans that cheered his exit live to regret the new regime.
Very possibly. I lived in Newcastle during the Keegan years. They still see themselves as top four, but their PL reality has more often been bottom four.
I think it’s harder for a Northern club to attract top foreign talent these days. The Manchester clubs and Liverpool have an advantage in they offer the chance for silverware.
So unless they are willing to invest big, things will still co to us to be difficult.
I watched the 1966 World Cup final this week (the ball was so dead back then!), and I've gotten my hands on the '70 and '78 finals for future viewing. I've also been watching old matches from my hard drive on Saturday and Sunday mornings - it feels normal to watch football on the weekends.
Today it't the Merseyside Derby from October 2015.
Today it't the Merseyside Derby from October 2015.
What a great match. Especially those three players from West Ham!
My favourite game is when England play Brazil in 1970 I believe. Booby Moore did a fantastic job on Pele that day. His tackling was sublime. We could do with someone of his stature in the current side.
Historical football matches are not for everyone, but for those who want to understand how the game evolved I highly recommend watching them. They are so different as to be nearly unrecognizable, and yet the same essence that draws us to the sport remains obvious.
So true. Funny thing is when watching those old games is how you are reminded of certain players you had completely forgotten about.
What about the 1974 world cup final? Where the Dutch - possibly one of the best teams ever - were defeated by what was then West Germany.
Or, the 1954 World Cup, when the Hungarians (also probably the best team in the world at the time), were defeated by what was then West Germany, making their first appearance - almost an attempt at redemption - in an international football competition since the Second World War (for they had been banned from entering the competition of 1950); the German commentary from the final comprises the 'soundtrack' to the powerful, final scene of the compelling movie The Marriage of Maria Braun.
Re other viewing, I didn't like Argentina in 1978, and I still don't like them.
Actually, I have long thought that the best matches in any world cup competition are very rarely to be found in the finals, - which are often, dour, defensive matches, something of an anti-climax from a football perspective, unless one is already emotionally engaged with one of the teams; rather, instead, the best matches are frequently the semi-finals, or quarter finals.
However, the differences in tactics and how the game has evolved and is played between now an then is always something that is interesting to watch.
The Italians kind of ruined everything. OK, I kid. But only just - football was born as a chaotic back-and-forth melee; the development of what we might term "modern tactics" led eventually to the realization that the best way to win tournaments was to not lose rather than try to win. Which is why we got Italia '90 and why most tournament finals are a snooze-fest until someone makes a mistake.
If you watch older matches though (like the '66 final) you'll see the opposite...players attacking from minute 1 to the end of the match...even when winning.