@hiraldo
Social science (sports; primarily sokkah), architecture (stadia; primarily sokkah), fashion (kits; primarily sokkah), philosophy (sports analysis; primarily sokkah) and history (sports archiving; primarily sokkah). Little else of interest. Terra Australis
Genuinely can't think of another sport I'm interested in on a base level that just produces...so little outcome I care for, through design or just happenstance.
(Alternatively and more specifically, the Aus GP home podium curse is absolutely karma for ditching Adelaide.)
In which case we go back to TG's initial signing, plus FA back then (with almost no games to worry about in 20/21 and a home tournament further away than in 24/25) not wanting to wait for/coax Joe away from Arsenal as that was winding down much in the manner they eventually did with him at Lyon.
Being so open to extending TG right up until Paris 2024 made it untenable was a damning indictment (along with other NT cases) of James Johnson's football discernment and problem avoidance. These pics from the end of the WC semi in which woeful squad utilisation killed us always stick in my mind.
but the ones who do are worth ten of the ones that'll only read 500 words.
Another year, another case of me lamenting women's Test cricket and all its subtleties not being far more of a regular thing. FU cricket being the worst administered of all global sports. #AUSvIND
Joe’s one downpour exposure away from doing an Ange tribute #IRNvAUS #WAC2026
Somewhat different opposition and game state now but a bit of this with how Fowler nominally at RW is changing the complexion and decreasing clutter from there. And while that's called off for another slight offside, it's also more open to variance of RW/LW switching (Foord there). #IRNvAUS #WAC2026
Top farken save that #IRNvAUS #WAC2026
...and then, along with a plain accident of an opening goal, we have something as immensely scruffy as that instead counting for 2-0. 😅
Football, you're wack (I'm jesting in the above post btw if that's not obvious...or am I?) #IRNvAUS #WAC2026
In calls as tight as that, a finish as sweet as that should be the deciding factor. #IRNvAUS #WAC2026
...about plenty (because both people and SM love complaining) but it usually not leading to legit change from both suits and (younger) fans themselves. The latter by and large couldn't bear to not keep up with the easily-consumable 'buzz', and the former know it. Opium for the fucking masses.
/rant
...in the years since, along with football's blind devotion to hyper-profit engineering. It now heavily rests on the energy of boys and young men across the world desperately trying to prove to each other on SM how smart/witty/savvy they are for validation, with garbage football being complained...
Instead of asking where the fuck the game was going, we could instead keep ourselves amused with Materazzi vs. Zidane memes (and I was guilty myself, while also pondering how perverse it was).
Social media and online omnipresence through black mirrors has just greatly reinforced that trend...
I hated how most of the 2006 WC KO stage was played, and the burnout at the top level in the first half of that decade was having a huge detrimental effect on football generally. But in contrast to the post-1990 WC existential crisis, nobody really gave a shit, or not enough to stop watching.
But I was also here 20 years ago (an era ironically and dubiously seen as some golden age by many ~30yos now). The huge jump in interconnectivity between fans through forums and football websites, plus the already vibrant meme culture, did so much to keep people engaged through dubious football.
It's maddening and brain breaking just how much the drivers of football's current popularity is inane and/or insidious bullshit, mostly perpetuated nowadays through everyone's black mirrors. The sport is more popular than ever, its popularity is more hollow and problematic than ever.
*remembers MV down to 9 at half-time coming back to equalise in 2006 and fully deserving it in one of the all-time worst choke jobs* /potentially going over your head if you're too young
Additionally, when it comes to the merits of importing referees and English football not needing to bother with any of this because it already has its own refs...uh (all three are now PL refs as well)
You have people in prominent positions of the punditry who are essentially recycling Nigel Farage nativist-protectionist talking points about football and you think Ange Postecoglou got a fair shake? Nah, fuck off man.
As for "Australian's ego"...oh boy, so many ways I could go with this.
Refereeing through one's ego *is* a problem in Oz football, as it tends to be elsewhere, but... Well, I'll just leave these few extracts from a 2021 Athletic article detailing Gillett's story: www.nytimes.com/athletic/284...
What makes this even more stupid is that Gillett moved there for post-doctoral research rather than the FA simply importing him. He was a thoroughly qualified and experienced ref (for all my criticism of general Oz officiating, he was about our best) living in England; why shouldn't the FA use him?!
As with Ange in management, a genuinely good ref who's earned where he's got to.
(Addtionally, Gillett went to England primarily to study rather than the FA simply importing him. He was a thoroughly qualified and experienced referee living there, why shouldn't the FA use him?)
Greaves, Waddle, Kane and Bale would be a ridiculous front four.
Survivors Of Gas Station Explosion Mourn Tragic Loss Of Gas
Joey Chestnut/JFK
Joey Chestnut/JFK
ESPNAssignmentDesk @ESPNAssignDesk · 2h Hello, Dane! Please see your DMs for a message from us! Dane Moore @DaneMooreNBA You do not have permission to use it — as I’ve told you numerous times in DMs. Shouldn’t have laid off all those reporters if you wanted locker room content.
This is the correct energy against our media overlords
#RIP Ted Nichols (1928 - 2026), the composer of The Flintstones, Jonny Quest and Scooby-Doo.
