No.10s in football are special and to me, they symbolize the aesthetic beauty of the game. One of the few roles in sports where true superior talent rarely goes unnoticed. Tournaments make these players famous. And time and nostalgia do their bit to make them legendary. To be unique in an already unique role requires something else…
Marcelo Bielsa, El Loco, the Mad Football Scientist. Marcelo Bielsa is one of the most influential men to modern football. Yet very few know him unlike his disciples Pep, Pochettino, Sampaoli and many more. El Loco was a football romantic. Marcelo Bielsa is the type of coach whom you cannot simply judge based on results….
“Our coach is not on holiday, you know.”, Javier Mascherano pointed out to his teammates as the Barcelona manager Tito Vilanova, in light of the team’s dipping form and increasing pressure to win games, had started conducting training sessions from his hospital bed. His job was his life, he used to say. And indeed, it…
Imagine living an entire life being fortunate enough to experience several luxuries, and one day, you come across a peculiar activity where one kicks a ball to move it around the park, to some other people and finally strikes it with great force towards two upright posts of a goal. The most amusing part lay…
Growing up, we’ve always been told that History always celebrates winners, and massacres the ones who failed, for nothing shorter than eternity, ripping their presence in its unforgiving abode to shreds. This thought would’ve certainly eclipsed the mind of a rather unknown twenty six year old dwelling in certain irrelevancies of Italian football taking the…
David Winner once wrote for the Financial Times : “The more one knows about the 78 World Cup in Argentina, the more obvious it becomes, it should’ve never been played”. What happened? Back in 1976, a military coup brought a new administration to power, with Jorge Rafael Videla becoming president in 29th of March 1976….
We recently realized that many are unaware/confused about Pass Maps or interprete them in a completely wrong way. This article hence focuses on how to read a Pass Map, what it tells, and what it doesn’t tell and thus how to effectively use a great mathematical tool to interpret the beautiful game. To begin with,…
Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho. What do these two names remind you of? Maybe you could say a lot of trophies, silverware, titles etc. Sure. But the similarity ends right here. What about the differences? I would say, in simplest way- perfection and beauty vs pragmatism and cynicism. One believes in doing things the beautiful…
