If you’ve visited in the past, um, 2 weeks you’ve probably noticed the lack of updates. Sadly, I’ve found that working and applying to graduate school has left me little time to work on my blog. I do intend to get it going again as soon as I finish my grad school applications, so look for updates beginning in January.
The ability to overplay the impotance of pre-season results against prestigious foreign opponents is apparently universal. In the past few years, several famous European teams have come to the US to play some pre-season friendlies and some promising results have led some overly optimistic fans to claim parity among MLS and the Premier League or Spain’s La Liga.
This past summer’s MLS All Star game saw the local players beat Chelsea’s petrodollar-fueled team 1-0. Players celebrated as if they had won the World Cup (indeed, Houston’s Dwayne DeRosario said it was “his World Cup.” I guess that’s what happens when you’re Canadian).
Last week, as I trolled the Spanish newspaper websites looking for interesting soccer material, I couldn’t get past all the stories about Barcelona’s miraculous victory over the Sixers. Yes, you read that right. The Philadelphia 76ers lost to Barcelona’s basketball team (they are affiliated with FC Barcelona of Ronaldinho fame). Reports from Spain were as celebratory as those from the US lauding the MLS All Stars’ victory over Chelski.
But are such celebrations merited? Is MLS on a par with the Premier League? Is Barcelona ready to conquer the NBA? Hardly. Barcelona went on to lose its next game in the Spanish league to Gran Canaria and players on the MLS All Star team returned to their club teams with barely a sniff from European clubs interested in acquiring their services.
Pre-season games are meaningless and don’t serve to judge a team or league’s development. This is as true in soccer as it is in basketball. But it sure was fun watching Allen Iverson cry after losing to a team from Spain.
Como se dice “this sucks?”
Crack has some interesting connotations.
Illicit drug …
Joey Barton’s exposed rear end (well, let’s keep it clean and show his not quite as bad half) …
Crack just doesn’t sound like a good thing.
Except in Spain. There, the term “el crack” is used to refer to particularly talented players. And yes, it’s used just like that. Here’s an example:
Atletico Madrid manager Javier Aguirre recently boasted of his new Argentine signing Sergio Aguero: “AGUERO ES UN CRACK Y HARÃ HISTORIA EN ESTE CLUB” (“Aguero is a crack and he will make history at this club”).
Ronaldinho is the player I have most often seen referred to as a “crack” and since the term is a good thing (at least in Spain), he most definitely is!
Despite much searching, I
From AP: BBC correspondent Damian Kahya, right, fights for the ball against president Evo Morales during a friendly in La Paz, Bolivia on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2006. One day after his government published a list of Bolivia’s ‘most hostile’ media outlets, president Evo Morales challenged the South American nation’s international press corps to a friendly soccer match. (AP Photo/Dado Galdieri)
No word on who won.
Up until 1928, soccer players didn’t even wear numbers on their jerseys. (The quaint phrase “taking a player’s name” that signifies a referee showing a yellow card to a player probably arose from this time of players without numbers.) Numbers were first used on the backs of jerseys in two games played on August 25, one between Arsenal and The Wednesday (since renamed Sheffield Wednesday), the other between Chelsea and Swansea Town.
Since that day, the numbering of players has gone through several stages. The longest stage was that in which numbers were given to the 11 starters on any given day. During this period, numbers were allocated based on position. Depending on the formation the team played, the numbers were passed out, with smaller numbers going to defenders and the largest numbers going to attackers, with midfielders in the middle (naturally enough).
According to Wikipedia’s article on squad numbers:
The typical numbering given above comes from the days when the 2-3-5 formation was used. With the convention of numbering from the back forwards and from right to left across each line the numbering is:
1. Goalkeeeper 2. Right full back (right back) 3. Left full back (left back) 4. Right half back (right half) 5. Centre half back (centre half) 6. Left half back (left half) 7. Outside right (right winger) 8. Inside right 9. Centre Forward 10. Inside left 11. Outside left (left winger)
Early evolutions of formations involved moving specific positions, e.g. moving the centre half back to become a defender rather than a half back. Their numbers went with them, hence central defenders wearing number 5. You can still see the effects of this system in operation. For example, in friendly and championship qualifying matches England, when playing the 4-4-2 formation, general number their players (using the standard right to left system of listing football teams) 4 defenders – 2,5,6,3; 4 midfielders – 7,4,8,11; 2 forwards – 9,10.
Ajax, with their traditional3-4-3 formation, use another unique numbering system:
The most recent stage of numbering has been that of “squad numbers.” Although the practice of giving numbers to each individual player on a team regardless of whether he was playing on any given day was first instituted in the 1954 World Cup, it did not take hold until much more recently. Indeed, the Premier League did not mandate squad numbers until the 1993-94 season.
Despite the fact that any player can, in theory, take any number players have generally stuck to tradition in selecting numbers that have historically corresponded to their positions. Thus, goalkeepers are most often #1, burly center backs numbers 5 or 6, creative midfielders #10, and traditional center forward types #9.
Thus, some recent examples of anomalous numbers have stood out. Khalid Bhoularouz (aka “The Cannibal”) moved to Chelsea over the summer and took #9, which looks a bit odd when he lines up in the back. Similarly, former Chelsea sulker, now Arsenal defender William Gallas looks a bit strange playing defense with #10.
But Gallas and Bhoularouz are simply using variations on traditional numbers. Some players have refused to be boxed in by traditional soccer numbers.
For further reading on the subject of numbers in soccer, I recommend The Guardian’s The Knowledge page, which has been running a series on it.
Two Afghans walk in a dust storm near a football goal post in the capital, Kabul.
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