Queens Park Rangers U18 · FA Youth Cup · Defender · #0 · Wales · 17 yrs
Four hours before kickoff, red and white smoke billowed up from the tailgaters on the street and around the railing of the elevated expressway. Canadian fans were at another level for their day playing on and hosting the big stage.
One of football’s great arenas roared as El Tri eased past South Africa, offering fans a fleeting escape from the tensions gripping the capitalThe walk to Estadio Ciudad de México – most fans know it as the Azteca – on Thursday did a pretty good job of laying out the two sides of Mexico as the World Cup kicked off.Flanked by volunteers and channeled towards the stadium by steel barriers, the lucky few to have scored a ticket to the tournament’s opener between Mexico and South Africa chanted, waved the country’s tricolor flag and cracked beers in the middle of the street. The path was flanked with performers, the sound of traditional banda music providing a festive atmosphere. Continue reading...
⚽️ Infantino tells fans to ‘chill’ in response to Fifa’s critics⚽️ Match centre | Player guide | Bracketology | Mail JohnBTL chat is thus far dominated by Gianni Infantino’s ritual pre-tournament torching of his own dignity. SonOfThe Desert offers this:“Infantino is just absolutely wretched, isn’t he? An absolute nothing of a man, sucking up to tyrants because he thinks it makes him look strong. ”But you know what’s really annoying me? All those heads of national associations who could have unified around a candidate - anyone - to oppose Infantino and try and rescue Fifa from humiliation. Couldn’t be bothered though, could they? Might’ve had to do some actual work that way.New York has honored two footballing greats by temporarily renaming streets after Thierry Henry and Pelé ahead of the World Cup kickoff …Crowds gathered at West 50th Street and 6th Avenue in downtown Manhattan to mark the unveiling of “Thierry Henry Way” by city officials, according to FOX Sports. Continue reading...
Charity worker’s unsparing book explains how the game created support networks and ‘beautiful friendships’The Bishopton Ladies goalkeeper and Street Soccer charity coordinator Sarah Rhind is emphatic about how integral football has been to her survival. “I can wholeheartedly say that without it I wouldn’t be in the position that I’m in now – if I was even lucky enough to still be here,” she says. “There’s been different times in my life where football showed up and was really a platform that saved me.”The 42-year-old is speaking in Glasgow after the publication of her autobiography, Scars Under The Jersey. The book details Rhind’s battle with heroin addiction, which took her into the darkest places, her recovery and the role football played in it, with Rhind going on to earn promotion to the Scottish top flight with Hamilton Academical in 2021. Continue reading...
A growing divide between fans and team, coupled with economic hardship and war, has dampened the moodAbbas Kiarostami, the late Iranian director, made a film called Life, and Nothing More …, set during the 1990 World Cup in Italy. The film tells the story of a father and son who, during the tournament, travel to an earthquake-stricken village that had served as the location for Kiarostami’s earlier films. The son, eager to watch Argentina play Brazil, finds a villager who, despite having lost several family members, is busy adjusting a television antenna to watch the game between the two South American football giants.Kiarostami later wrote about this scene: “This sequence is directly drawn from a similar experience during my trip to the earthquake‑stricken region in the early days after the disaster. [The man] had his left arm in a cast, was shirtless, and with his right hand was striking one stone against another at the base of the antenna to secure it. I saw that after that event, what mattered there was life – and then football.” Continue reading...
