I love this episode.
Defend the referee or defend AZ Alkmaar keeper Esteban?
In case you missed it, things got pretty heated at the Amsterdam ArenA last night. In the 37th minute, when Ajax were up 1-nil in the Dutch Cup, an Ajax fan ran on to the pitch and attacked AZ Alkmaar goalkeeper Esteban. The Costa Rican keeper, seeing the threat of a 19-year-old hooligan coming his way, retaliated. And man did he retaliate. Esteban got two brutal kicks in on the hooligan before Ajax security held him down. The ref then decided to give Esteban a red card for the violence. AZ were furious and the match was abandoned because AZ Alkmaar manager Gert Jan Verbeek ordered his team to walk off the pitch.
To a degree, I can understand both arguments being made. The referee, who was far from where the incident occurred, probably saw a young Ajax fan already on the ground getting kicked by a professional athlete mercilessly, which is violent conduct. On the other hand, Esteban had every right to defend himself. After all, the fan (now banned for life from the stadium, by the way) could have been running with a knife. Esteban took no chances and dealt with the situation himself. Do you think the referee was in the right with his decision to send Esteban off or were the keeper’s actions justified?
Unquantifiable Genius: Neymar as Messi
By Eric Beard
“Pelé doesn’t know sh*t.”
That was Sid Lowe’s response to James Richardson’s teasing statement on The Guardian’s Football Weekly Podcast. Richardson, of course, was referencing Pelé’s opinion that Neymar is better than Lionel Messi. With Pelé getting up there in age, Sid might be on to something. But that’s neither here nor there. The fact is that Neymar couldn’t do sh*t to stop Barcelona from winning the Club World Cup.
Player comparisons are far too often full of intangibles that draw upon the weak base of power that language possesses. Language is expected to casually unveil a dramatic truth when poetically expressed. However, according to Pep Guardiola, “there are no adjectives” to describe Messi. Language is sh*t next to Messi.Words are sh*t, next to a 24-year-old from Rosario. He is “extraordinary” in dozens of matches every year, and yet his brilliance is invariably unique from one match to another. But if you describe dribbling nine players and chipping the keeper with the same superlative as a hat-trick at the Bernabeu, you need not fear the wrath of Señor Guardiola.
Rather, Pep should understand the deficiencies of human linguistics. But this is not about Messi. It’s not about Neymar, either. The question we’re faced with is the power of an individual, even a phenomenon. Before we go any further, let’s recognize that “phenomenon” is a word football fans can comprehend and associate with Neymar and Messi. But let’s also recognize that it’s a word that doesn’t mean sh*t in defining Neymar or Messi. The subjectivity of definition is clouded by the illusion, the false formation of a collective consciousness. If this were the case, if we could adequately identify the essence of brilliance of another through millions of opinions, then we would not be left speechless listening to Messi being described as a “wonderful salmon [rising] out of the stream.”
The Best of Football Writing in 2011
Compiled by Eric Beard
Let’s go with a classic scenario. What if you spent the last 12 months fighting for your life on an island after a shipwreck? How would you acclimate back into society? Well, you would probably want to catch up on what you missed. If you’re a fan of football and love reading about the game, then you would want to read the best pieces from 2011. That’s the idea behind “The Best of Football Writing in 2011” list. We were all figuratively shipwrecked for a few weeks this year. Whether it was work, a personal issue, an addition to your family, or a horrible set of final examinations, life left us isolated from football. But not to worry, now you can catch up.
Compiling a list of everything you’ve enjoyed in a year is an arduously joyful experience. If there’s anything to say about joys and woes of independent football writing, it’s that the feelings (as well as the content) come and go. You don’t set a blog post up on your bookshelf when you’re done reading. No, it goes back into the infinite abyss of the internet. But a year is a long time, and we’re proud to share The Best of Football Writing in 2011 from fellow bloggers and writers alongside The Best of AFR in 2011. Intelligence on the web is plentiful, and even though internet writing inherently places a date next to every piece, we hoped to handpick articles that are relatively timeless in their nature. For the sake of simplicity, the Best of Football Writing in 2011 (from outside the confines of AFR) is featured first, followed by AFR’s Best of 2011. Without further ado, let’s review. And here’s to 2012…
