Best of Football Writing Last Week: Birth of the Dribble, Bad Maths & Bodyguards
[ 1 ] PARADISE LOST AND FOUND
Srijandeep Das for The Field
Although these are not particularly happy times for Brazil — Olympic gold aside — they remain synonymous with beautiful, flamboyant football. It is a reputation built on generations of Brazilian footballers who had the capacity to thrill crowds with their ability on the ball. Yet how did this style evolve? Why did Brazilian football go down this road as opposed to the styles that other countries developed? Here are some answers.
Memorable Quote: “Brazil will win the first of the five trophies, and it will be against Sweden, poetically, managed by an Englishman from Yorkshire, George Sidney Raynor.”
[ 2 ] HOW ONE MAN’S BAD MATH HELPED RUIN DECADES OF ENGLISH SOCCER
Joe Sykes and Neil Paine for FiveThirtyEight
FiveThirtyEight is the brainchild of American statistician Nate Silver who came to prominence in 2008 when he managed to successfully call the result of 49 out of the 50 states in the US election thanks to his modelling of polls’ results. It is a site that predominantly focuses on politics and statistics so to see an article on football was quite surprising but, at the same time, fulfilling.
Memorable Quote: “If a team tries to play football and keeps it down to not more than three passes, it will have a much higher chance of winning matches. Passing for the sake of passing can be disastrous.”
[ 3 ] HIS BODYGUARD LOOKED LIKE HE WANTED TO KILL ME
Stuart James For The Guardian
These are happy days for Bristol Rovers. After a long period of decline, two successive promotions have seen them rise to League One and there could be even more joy as the side led by the promising young manager Darrell Clarke looks likely to be heavily involved in the promotion race this year as well. Watching over this is Wael al-Qadi, a Jordanian businessman who has been running the club for the past eight months and seems to have a genuine love for the game.
Memorable Quote: “Footage emerged that day of Qadi being carried on the shoulders of Rovers fans, singing “The Gas are going up.””
ON ANOTHER NOTE…
For the past few months I have been working and researching a story that is very close to my heart. It does not deal with football but rather with a Maltese woman — Henrietta Chevalier — who lived in Rome during World War II and risked her life in order to ensure the safety of a number of escaped Prisoners of War. It is a relatively long read (6000 words which typically mean a read of 35 minutes) but I’m pretty sure that you will enjoy it.
And, if you do, it would be greatly appreciated if you could share it so that others get to read it.
