The Way U Talk About Ball (P)
The Way U Talk About Ball (P)
A short one today, I can't lie my heart just isn't in it! (not because of, you know)
Kick Off
What a weird week huh? From the giddy highs of the Champions League and Tuchel's sacking (feel bad for the man, feel great about the memes) to the very strange Premier League-less weekend.
We could debate until we're blue in the face about the merits of cancelling the football. Personally I think it was an absolutely absurd decision, especially given the continuation of rugby and cricket and horse racing. Friday perhaps yes, we live in a monarchy, whether you like it or not, mad shit was always going to happen on the death of the Queen but in the modern day this extended period of mourning, for me, seems excessive. There are so many ways one can choose to be respectful and to grieve and that's the crux of it for me, it should be a choice. I don't think anyone should be forced into it and of course I don't think anyone should be pilloried for pointing the many reasons not to mourn. These cancellations left me feeling disappointed, angry and frustrated.
I was especially annoyed that the opening weekend of the WSL was called off. After the summer women's football has had the momentum needed to continue and while I don't think this will cause too much damage in the long run (seasons tickets have already been sold, TV packages are already in place and plenty of promotion was being done) it's still a kick in the teeth to a game that's had to overcome so many obstacles over the years. (FWIW I'm not sure I feel especially worried about women's teams not being able to play in the stadia of their equivalent men's team due to rearranged fixtures, most of the women's games will have been scheduled in the best possible time to use the stadium and it's one fixture, most likely rearranged for a week day)
Anyway, on to the football proper. Let's start with a very quick whizz around the Champions and Europa Leagues.
The biggest shock of the fixtures was probably Dinamo Zagreb beating Chelsea. Yes, Napoli beating Liverpool so comprehensively was also big news but Napoli are good, they're top of Serie A right now and Liverpool are having a wobble. Chelsea on the other hand should have, on paper, easily beaten Zagreb.
Another surprising result was Shakthar Donetsk dispatching with RB Leipzig 1-4. A game which lead to Domenico Taddesco being relieved of his position the next morning (mere moments before the thunder stealing sacking of Tuchel).
Celtic gave a fantastic account of themselves against Real Madrid and the scoreline (0-3) didn't really reflect the run of the play. Ajax, Bayern, PSG, Sporting and Man City got off to predictably good starts and in 'teams I'm interested in' news, Dortmund and Barcelona won convincingly while Milan were held to a draw by Salzburg.
On Thursday Arsenal of course put us through the wringer by conceding a sloppy equalising goal but managed to run out the eventual winners despite the Queen dying at half time meaning they played the first half under a Queen and the second under a King.
The United game (and West Ham in the conference) went ahead despite the news and it was just extremely peculiar. The commentary was somber and weird, the coverage limited (no half time analysis during the United game, although apparently there was during West Ham?) and it just felt completely surreal. It was no real surprise that Real Sociedad won (despite a goal from Ronaldo which was deliciously chalked off due to offside).
To Friday then and the cancellation of all league football across England. This left us with Serie A, Ligue 1, the Bundesliga and La Liga. Sure, other leagues are available but those are the ones I watch.
On Friday I started with Lens v Troyes in Ligue 1 but it was quite dull so I switched to Girona v Real Valladolid in La Liga. Girona man. They are a hot team.
And look at their Twitter header!
Newly promoted this season they're currently sitting 8th and beat Valladolid 2-1, despite a screamer of a goal from Monchu to equalise. The winner was in fact scored by long term Saint Oriel Romeu who signed on deadline day, his first goal for the club.
On Saturday I stuck with La Liga and took in Rayo Vallecano v Valencia during which I promptly fell asleep to wake up and discover that Dortmund were being beaten by RB Leipzig. This was bad on many levels! Firstly, I don't like it when Dortmund lose, secondly I don't like it when they lose to their crappy (though handsome) former manager and lastly I cannot stand to lose to RB bloody Leipzig.
I then popped over to the Bundesliga for the second half of Bayern v Stuttgart. Can't work out how this was being shown when La Liga TV had a big notice that they couldn't show the Espanyol Sevilla game due to the 3pm blackout and BT couldn't show the start of Inter Torino.
Sticking with the Bundesliga for a moment a massive congratulations to both Union Berlin and SC Freiburg who are first and second respectively at the end of the weekend’s games. Union have been doing brilliantly and it’s lovely to see them getting some success. Same for Freiburg. Long may it continue!
I did watch a fair bit of other football but I want to concentrate on two games in particular.
Firstly, Cadiz v Barcelona. Barcelona won the game 0-4 however there was a lengthy interruption right at the end, when Barça were comfortable at 0-2, when a member of the crowd was taken ill. This is something I've seen and hear happen numerous times in England but I'm fairly sure this is the first time I've heard of it in Europe. I really don't have a view on what's causing it as it could be so many things.
Anyway, it was the Cadiz players who were alerted first and their goalkeeper, Conan, sprinted across the pitch in such a heroic fashion to throw medical supplies up into the crowd and then waited anxiously to see what was happening.
There was a lot of standing around, no-one really sure what was happening, until the game was eventually officially paused and the teams went to the dressing rooms. When they returned to play the final few minutes Barcelona scored two more goals and call me a woolly old bleeding heart but they were winning anyway and it just felt a bit unseemly, to use a favourite word of Jonathan Pearce.
The final game to talk about is Juventus v Salernitana. Firstly, Salernitana’s away jerseys are gorgeous, I really love the stripe colours.
However the main thing about the game was the last five minutes. Salernitana looked on the brink of an historic win against Juve then the Old Lady was awarded a penalty. Bonucci missed but managed to bundle in the rebound making it 2-2.
And then chaos ensued.
Milik equalised. He ran to the corner flag and tore his shirt off. Had he forgotten he was already on a yellow? Or didn’t he care? Suffice to say he got another yellow for his celebration and was sent packing.
The game restarted.
VAR suddenly realised that maybe the goal had been offside and then it all kicked off, as shown below
The goal was chalked off and I can’t lie, it was very very funny. A real tonic for a miserable Sunday evening.
And there we have it. A brief whizz around a Prem-less Europe. This weekend we’ve got a majority (seven so far) of Premier League games going ahead and from what I can gather at this point all the WSL games. I’ll be at Meadow Park for Arsenal v Brighton, I just hope it doesn’t rain…
Thirst Trap
Here at TWUTAB we stan a short king. Especially one who’s not actually that short (he’s 5’10”! It’s not that wee!) so this week the Thirst Trap is the formidable Lisandro Martínez. He’s a great player, he really is, and he’s cute and has a lovely smile and I just think, to quote Marge Simpson, he’s neat.
Full Time
This tweet made me absolutely roar. I must’ve watched it a hundred times.
The Diary of a CEO podcast with Chris Kamara is really moving. He’s incredibly honest and it’s a tough but worthwhile listen.
Diego Costa has completed his move to Wolves and as someone who hated him with a fiery passion during his time at Chelsea I couldn’t be more excited to have him back. I really hope he fucks things up.
Interesting stuff here about what Premier League clubs did when their games got cancelled.
That’s all for this week. Yes it’s a short one but I didn't think I was going to get anything out so at least it’s here!
Hope everyone has a nice week and I’ll be back next Monday ☺️
If you really like the newsletter, please feel free to buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/emilyoram, or donate via my Tip Jar on Twitter
If your bag is Footballer Instagram content and even more regular thirst traps, follow the newsletter’s Instagram on thewayutalkaboutball
And finally, if you want more real-time football nonsense and frankly all sorts of other nonsense, and you don’t already, follow me on Twitter @_emilyoram.