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61
Please Read Before Posting / Ousmane Dembélé finally shines
« on: March 18, 2018, 07:09:15 PM »
Five men slammed on the brakes simultaneously. Together they had been running towards Lionel Messi and together they turned and ran away from him again, as if he had flicked a switch, as if he had some kind of control over them. Which, in a way, he did. The moment that led to the second goal on a night which ended with the Camp Nou roaring their team into the quarter-finals, was an encapsulation of the power that ultimately took them there.

Messi twice sent shots through the legs of Thibaut Courtois and into the net, in the third minute and the 64th, but it was the assist for the second that effectively ended this and there was something in that image, in the way it came in the 19th minute, that may even have said as much as him scoring.
Messi saw Cesc Fàbregas lose control. Seizing upon the Chris Clark Authentic Jersey ball, suddenly he was away. Andreas Christensen hurtled towards him, but too late. Next came César Azpilicueta, but Messi escaped to his left. And then came the switch. As he scuttled forward, five Chelsea players ran towards him, in unison. His pass turned them in unison, collectively removed them from Jaromir Jagr Youth jersey the game. They had not made it to him and they did not make it to Ousmane Dembélé either, who controlled and thumped into the top corner, away from Courtois. At 2-0 it was http://www.steelersnflofficialonline.com/Authentic-Joe-Greene-Jersey good as over.
It was Dembélé’s first goal for Barcelona and it was hugely significant. http://www.raidersfootballofficialonline.com/Nike-Tyrell-Adams-Jersey.html Injured attempting a backheel on his first start, he had been out for four months; when he returned, more than 100 days later, another injury added four more weeks to the wait. Dembélé is Barcelona’s second-most expensive player, and the pressure duly built, along with concerns about his ability to adapt and even his diet, but he had played with the reserves in the Super Copa de Catalunya, impressed in Málaga and now, at last, he was ready.
Selected, too. Ernesto Valverde had talked about his “unique qualities” while Sergio Busquets insisted “he looks better with every day and we believe in him”, yet his inclusion was a surprise. Dembélé had played 71 minutes against Juventus in September but not since; 19 minutes in here he had been involved in the first and scored the second. Messi embraced him.
There was support then; even more significant, perhaps, was the support for André Gomes, the midfielder who had referred to a kind of “hell” and admitted that the pressure weighs upon him, and the murmuring from this stadium had affected him. When he appeared in the second half there was a huge roar and the supporters chanted his name.
Ultimately, though, it always seems to come down to that guy, and within two minutes they were chanting Messi’s name again, when he dashed into the area and hit the ball under Courtois for a second time to make it 3-0. That was the 602nd goal of his career, his 100th in this competition. None of them had arrived as fast as his first here, the strike that started it all.
Messi had missed out at the weekend because of the birth of his third son, Ciro. “He looks well to me; he’s ready,” Valverde had said, rightly. They had barely packed away the pre-match banner declaring, in English, “God save the king”, when Luis Suárez’s neat flick found him and he steered the ball between Courtois’s legs at the near post. He had been back for 127 seconds and the goal was dedicated to Womens Stephone Anthony Jersey Ciro.
Chelsea had not yet touched the ball. They grew into it, of course, and this was not always easy for Barcelona. Yet Messi was, well, Messi. Much was made of the fact that he had not scored against Chelsea before the first leg; now he has three. cheap nfl jerseys wholesale jerseys cheap jerseys china wholesale jerseys wholesale jerseys

62
Please Read Before Posting / André Gomes may feature against
« on: March 15, 2018, 08:34:54 PM »
Ernesto Valverde is considering including André Gomes against Chelsea despite the midfielder publicly admitting he is not enjoying playing football and is struggling with the pressure at the club.

The Barcelona manager described Gomes, 24, as “brave” for speaking out and the midfielder Sergio Busquets said the squad would help their team-mate after the former Valencia player gave an interview to Panenka magazine in which he described his “hell” at Barcelona. “Andre has lots of qualities; let’s see if tomorrow is the day that he shows that,” Valverde said.

I don’t feel good on the pitch,” the Portuguese said in the interview, which was conducted at the end of February and published on Monday. “I am not enjoying what I am doing. The first six months were pretty good but then things changed. Maybe it’s not the right word to use but it has turnedinto a kind of hell because I have started to feel more pressure. With [some] pressure I feel fine but withthe pressure [I put] on myself I don’t. The feeling that I have during games is bad.
“On more than one occasion I didn’t want to leave my house Adam Jones Jersey because [of the way] people look at you,” he added. “You have a fear of going on the street out of embarrassment. I close myself off. I don’t talk to anybody. Thinking too much has hurt me. I think about the bad things and what I have to do. My team-mates help me a lot but things don’t work out the way they want them to work out. In training, I am generally relaxed although there can be days when I feel a little low on confidence and it’s noticeable.”
During http://www.officialmlbgiantshop.com/authentic-43-dave-dravecky-jersey.html the recent visit of Atlético Madrid Valverde could be seen swearing about the murmuring that went around the stadium when Gomes had the ball. The player’s revelations put that footage into context and occupied much of the buildup to the second leg against Chelsea. Asked if Gomes was ready to play, Valverde replied: “If the coach believes so, yes.” Gomes’s inclusion may depend on a straight choice between him and Paulinho and could also be dependent on the Francisco Liriano Womens Jersey fitness of Andrés Iniesta, who was able to train after a week out with a hamstring strain.
“Players and coaches are [generally] http://www.footballdolphinsofficials.com/WOMENS_YOUTH_CAMERON_WAKE_JERSEY.html careful not to show any insecurity or weakness and André has done so, which is brave, but it is not new and he is not the only one – it has happened to us all in one way or another and we have to find ways of confronting that and carrying on,” Valverde added. “This is not something I have not come across Josh Donaldson Womens Jersey before in my career, as a player or a coach.”
Busquets said: “We knew something of André’s situation but it’s a very personal thing. We have tried to help him, advise him, be at his side but he is the one that takes it home. The background noise at the Camp Nou should be positive now. I think http://www.footballsteelersonline.com/Ben-Roethlisberger-Jersey he’s ready. It’s an extra pressure he puts on himself but I am sure he’s prepared and we will help him from the inside, and the fans will help him from the outside. What we all want Womens Jack Crawford Jersey is what’s best for the club.” cheap nfl jerseys cheap nfl jerseys wholesale nfl jerseys wholesale nfl jerseys wholesale jerseys cheap jerseys from china wholesale jerseys

63
Please Read Before Posting / Banega outshines Fellaini
« on: March 14, 2018, 11:46:23 PM »
Sometimes you get what you deserve in sport. With an hour gone on an angsty night at Old Trafford, with Manchester United fumbling vaguely in front of the Sevilla defence like a man struggling in the wee hours for his door key, José Mourinho decided, what the hell, and brought on Paul Pogba for Marouane Fellaini.

Old Trafford roared itself out of its slumbers as Mourinho’s most http://www.officialdiamondbackshop.com/authentic-26-shelby-miller-jersey.html compelling midfield presence made a belated entrance. And yet half an hour later Manchester United http://www.officialbaseballgiants.com/Joe_Panik_Jersey had exited the Champions League without having at any stage made any obvious attempts to stay in it.
They did so in limp fashion, outmanoeuvred by a wonderful midfield stylist in Éver Banega, who played United off their own pitch while barely seeming to break a sweat.
There will be blame-shifting, even the pretence that United were simply unlucky, with nothing in their gameplan that requires any major revision. But this was a depressingly craven defeat for the three-time champions of Europe, a team that have had £300m spent on them in the last two seasons, and who lined up in a must-win game with an invention-free flat midfield pegged out around the spoiling qualities of Fellaini and Nemanja Matic.
All tactical preferences aside, it is hard not to conclude that this United team are better than that; they have more invention, more drive, more joy in their football than they were allowed to show over 180 guileless minutes. It should be a source of embarrassment that they looked so laboured, cocooned within the manager’s enduring defensive rage against the fifth best team in Spain.
It is hard to determine these days exactly what drives Mourinho’s manic caution, that strangely compelling desire to pre-throttle his own team, insisting only on victories that involve stifling defence. There is a theory Mourinho has backed himself into a tactical corner, so profound is his enduring dislike of the Barcelona-centred school that he insists the game be played the other way.
For Mourinho nothing has ever quite matched his defining victory in this competition eight years ago, a game at Camp Nou in which his Internazionale team overcame Pep Guardiola’s peak Barcelona playing the opposite of-possession football, kicking the ball away, defending in a deep double-bolt, bending the basic notion of what football can be to Mourinho’s annihilating will.
This, though, was Sevilla at home, the kind of occasion this grand old club likes Kelly Hrudey Jersey to suck the sweetness from. No matter what stage of the season there is a simple formal beauty to the sight of United’s red shirts lining up under the harsh flat white lights of that craning corrugated roof.
And yet for most of the opening hour it was the visitors who played with guile and drive and who possessed in Banega the most impressive midfield presence on the pitch. Time and again, as United fought and leapt, Banega could be seen tiptoeing through the trees, a genuinely high-calibre ball-player, capped 59 times by Womens Sonny Gray Jersey Argentina and startlingly calm in the middle of that midfield forest.
There is a point to this. Banega is also exactly what United do not have, an element beyond the strangulating Mourinho blueprint, trusted to purr about the pitch seeking the right place to deploy his velvet-pawed touch. Banega might not sprint or leap well at set pieces. But here he ran the game by stealth, an ambling brain in bright orange boots, funnelling possession into difficult areas and digging his fingernails into the back of United’s midfield.
 
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64
Please Read Before Posting / Valencia all but back in Champions
« on: March 14, 2018, 06:25:36 PM »
They’re all talking about that long run in the dressing room,” Gabriel Paulista said. It had been 14 years, after all. On Saturday afternoon, Valencia beat Sevilla 2-0 at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, the first time they had won there since May 2004, back when Pep Guardiola was a midfielder, not a manager, Lionel Messi had not played a senior game and Sergio Ramos was just Authentic Michael Jordan Jersey starting out, a 19-year-old dreaming of Claudio Caniggia. Of the 30 footballers who took to the field that day, he and Dani Alves are the only ones still going and now have 52 titles between them. Then, they had one. Sevilla, the record-holding, five-times Uefa Cup/Europa League winners, had never even won the trophy once. And as for Valencia: well, they were the best team in Spain.

Things have changed, all right. One thing that didn’t was the result. Back then, goals from Vicente Rodríguez and Rubén Baraja gave Valencia victory; better still, victory carried them to the league title, for the second time in three years under Rafa Benítez. Ten days later, they won the Uefa Cup, too. This time, 14 years and no Valencia victories later, two goals from Rodrigo Moreno secured a win that also carried Valencia back to the Champions League, all but guaranteeing Womens P. A. Parenteau Jersey them at least fourth place as it lifted them 11 points, plus head-to-head http://www.authenticbaltimoreoriolesshop.com/Mark-Trumbo-Jersey goal difference clear of their opponents in fifth.

“Until we’re mathematically there, we can’t say so but this is a big victory, and it puts us in a position we would have all signed up for, so we’re tremendously happy,” said Marcelino García Toral, the Valencia manager. When it was suggested to Rodrigo that it would take a “disaster” for them not to make it, he replied: “Football is made up of disasters.” But it’s virtually done. Valencia have to lose at least four times to miss out Womens Tony Romo Jersey when they have only lost six in La Liga all season. A few weeks ago, Marcelino insisted: “We’re not doing all this work to finish fifth or sixth.” No, they were doing all this work to finish in the top four. Now, they almost certainly will.
“We have to celebrate this,” Gabriel said.
It is only a little more than two years since Valencia were in the Champions League, so a return may not seem like a watershed but that’s how it felt and there was something in the celebrations at full time that spoke to that sensation. Their last night in the competition was Gary Neville’s first at the club, a limp exit against Lyon, and they finished that season closer to relegation than Europe; for much of last season, they threat was the same. Two consecutive 12th-placed Jeremy Lane Youth jersey finishes represented their worst campaigns for 27 years and since that defeat they have changed presidents, brought in more than a dozen players, shipped out more than 30 of them and had five managers.
But then this summer everything changed. Anil Murthy took over as president, Mateu Alemany became the director general and Marcelino was hired as coach. During pre-season in the US this summer, he was unhappy about how dry the pitch was; 10 minutes later, the local fire department was hosing it down. For staff, who have kept photos, it was symbolic of the seriousness and the attention to detail, as well as the determination. http://www.officialastroshop.com/Jr_Richard_Jersey It was also just the start. The diet was changed, the style, too. Captain Dani Parejo admitted the players were going “hungry”. He meant it literally but it was also felt metaphorically: the talent was there and Marcelino recovered footballers whose level had dropped and brought in others with something to prove. He even got a goal out of winter arrival Francis Coquelin. Marcelino also got rid of those likely to get in the way; the clean up began.
Now, they’re virtually back in the Champions League.
In the end, when it came down to it, when it came to fourth against fifth for a Champions League place, Valencia at Sevilla 10 weeks from the end, three touches were pretty much all it took to get them there. In http://www.teamusahockeyjerseys.com/Adidas-Patrick-Kane-Jersey a game in which Sevilla hit the bar, had a penalty shout turned down and drew a superb save from Neto, when they had more of the ball, more shots and more chances, Geoffrey Kondogbia’s wonderful 40-yard pass came out of the blue. Long, diagonal and over the defence, it found Rodrigo, who controlled superbly and slotted in the first. They were all set. Kondogbia, described by one paper as “brutal, unstoppable, immense, a total footballer”, then burst through two challenges to provide the second in the second half, again finished off by Rodrigo.
 
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65
Please Read Before Posting / David Silva’s double puts dominant
« on: March 13, 2018, 08:30:34 PM »
It promises to be an enjoyable five-day break in the sun for Manchester City’s A.J. Green Jersey players, who boarded their flight to Abu Dhabi last night enjoying the view from the top of the Premier League, 16 points clear of Manchester United once again, and safe in the knowledge they can wrap up the title against their neighbours on 7 April http://www.anaheimducksofficialonline.com/Adidas-Nick-Ritchie-Jersey if they win at Everton the weekend before.

Manchester City must feel like they are within touching distance of that crown after David Silva delivered another midfield masterclass on an evening when Pep Guardiola’s side cantered to their 26th league win of the season to leave Stoke mired in relegation trouble. Returning to the team after being allowed compassionate leave to spend time with his wife in Spain, where the couple’s prematurely born son continues to receive medical attention, Silva scored two splendid goals and was a joy to watch throughout.

Raheem Sterling set up the first and Gabriel Jesus, who started up front in place of the injured Sergio Agüero, created the second as a cold night in Stoke presented few problems for a City side who will be guaranteed a warm welcome in more ways than one when they touch Peyton Barber Jersey down in the Middle East.
With eight matches remaining, City have already accumulated more points than they did in the whole of last season and this was another of those occasions when the opposition were only allowed fleeting glimpses of the ball. The visitors were dominant from the outset and although Paul Lambert took consolation from the fact Stoke “never capitulated” in the way they in October, when City put seven past them at the Etihad, the truth is the margin of victory could easily have been much wider.
City were more forgiving than normal in front of goal, with Sterling guilty of squandering a couple of excellent second-half chances against a Stoke side who showed plenty of endeavour but offered little in the way of an attacking threat in a game that always felt like an exercise in damage limitation.
“We are very close now,” said Guardiola, looking http://www.lionsshopnfl.com/Authentic-Ricky-Wagner-Jersey a picture of relaxation as he reflected on City’s commanding position. “We have 81 points, which is a lot. I understand it is important to Authentic Alex Gordon Jersey our fans to win it against United but the target is the next game at Everton. After that, if we play http://www.officialauthenticbroncos.com/YOUTH+JAKE+BUTT+JERSEY like today, sooner or later we will be champions.”
Guardiola was full of praise for Silva, who made it sound as though stepping on to the pitch is a form of escape for him at the moment when it comes to his personal life. “When I play football I forget about everything else,” he said. “My private life is very hard for me but my son is fighting and getting better.”
Silva’s opening goal, with only 10 minutes gone, was beautifully constructed and showed Guardiola’s team at their elegant best. Sterling played a pass infield to Fernandinho that the winger got back via a terrific reverse ball from Jesus. With space to run into on the right flank, Sterling scampered forward and delivered a cross that was so perfectly weighted that Silva, arriving into the penalty area Terence Newman Youth jersey between Kurt Zouma and Moritz Bauer, did not have to break his stride. Expertly opening up his body and letting the ball run across him, the midfielder coolly dispatched a left-foot shot beyond Jack Butland.
Stoke were pinned in for long periods, yet they could easily have equalised in the 21st minute when Badou Ndiaye, running on to Xherdan Shaqiri’s cut-back, swept a low shot that took a slight deflection off Fernandinho to take the ball the wrong side of the post. wholesale nfl jerseys wholesale nfl jerseys cheap jerseys free shipping wholesale jerseys wholesale jerseys from china cheap jerseys from china wholesale nfl jerseys

66
Please Read Before Posting / Mkhitaryan puts seal on Arsenal revival
« on: March 13, 2018, 12:01:16 AM »
It was the game between the games that matter for Arsenal and for long spells there was a stuffed Sunday lunch feeling to it all. But it turned into something palatable for Arsène Wenger – a comfortable Emirates Stadium win decorated by second‑ half flickers from the January signings Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre‑Emerick Aubameyang.

Mkhitaryan played in Aubameyang to make it 2-0 and, after Petr Cech had saved a penalty from the pantomime villain, Troy Deeney, Aubameyang teed up Mkhitaryan to Jalin Marshall Authentic Jersey finish for 3-0.
Arsenal’s focus has shifted from the Premier League to the Europa League, which has come to represent their only route into the Champions League next season and they are back here on Thursday night for the second leg of the last-16 tie against Milan in which they are 2-0 up from the first leg.
Wenger’s team selection had reflected his changing priorities. He http://www.shopjaguarsnfljerseys.com/Tj-Yeldon-Jersey rested Laurent Koscielny, who he said had a slight calf problem, and Aaron Ramsey, while Jack Wilshere and Calum Chambers were used as second‑half substitutes. The latter replaced Shkodran Mustafi – the scorer of the opening goal – who limped off with a groin problem, which will be assessed on Monday.
The game had been framed, to some extent, by Deeney’s headline-grabbing comment from last October, when he questioned the cojones of the Arsenal players after Watford’s victory against them at Vicarage Road. He was the one that failed to measure up on this occasion. Deeney put his head down and blasted the penalty only for Cech to stick out a hand and beat the ball http://www.canucksofficialauthenticshop.com/Igor_Larionov_Jersey_Adidas away. Schadenfreude barely covered it.
It helped Cech to his 200th Premier League clean sheet – a milestone he has waited some time to bring up. The 199th had come in the 1-0 home win over Newcastle United on 16 December. It had been the longest run of his career – 11 games – without a clean sheet. The 35-year-old was at fault for both concessions in the 2-1 defeat at Brighton last Sunday, which had followed Arsenal’s defeats against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final and the league.
“It’s quite fortunate the penalty save was against Deeney,” Wenger said with a smile, before he considered whether Deeney’s comments had served to motivate his players. “All these things come in always a little bit. How much I don’t know but, of course, it plays a part. Cech’s situation shows Bobby Orr Authentic Jersey how football is. In one week he went from hell to heaven.”
It is debatable whether the Arsenal support have ascended to such a peak after this win and the Emirates was once again pockmarked by empty seats – a sign of the dissatisfaction at the club’s direction under Wenger. The manager said that the stay-aways were “understandable” after the “nightmare week” they had endured with the City defeats and the one against Brighton and he was unsurprisingly keen to dismiss it as a blip.
“We have some work to do but overall we are in a good http://www.officialfootballtitansprostore.com/Nate-Palmer-Jersey way,” Wenger said. “This gets us out a little bit of that negative spiral we were in. There’s a lot of negativity. It’s like the rain in England – it’s easy to get. I focus on my job. I’ve shown in 22 years I can do that.”
Mustafi gave Arsenal an early lead when he eased into a seam between Adrian Mariappa and José Holebas to head home Mesut Özil’s free-kick, while Watford were indebted Phil Simms Jersey to Orestis Karnezis for first-half one-on-one saves from Aubameyang and Özil. Aubameyang also stretched for a Sead Kolasinac cross but could not quite get there. cheap jerseys from china cheap nfl jerseys wholesale nfl jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys china wholesale nfl jerseys

67
Please Read Before Posting / arts a huge lesson for Tottenham
« on: March 12, 2018, 06:44:03 PM »
Mauricio Pochettino says Juventus are “specialists” in football’s dark arts as he described how they put pressure on the referee at half-time in Wednesday’s Champions League last-16 second leg at Wembley.

The Tottenham Hotspur manager, who watched his team lose 2-1 for a 4-3 aggregate exit, said he saw Giuseppe Marotta in the tunnel during the interval and that the Juventus chief executive had complained to the Polish official, Szymon Marciniak.
Marotta and the rest of the Juventus party were incensed at Marciniak’s decision to ignore a stonewall penalty for Douglas Costa in the 17th minute, following a challenge from Jan Vertonghen. It is understood there were angry scenes and Marotta was not the only Juventus executive to confront Marciniak. Pochettino’s assistant, Jesús Pérez, described how Marotta had left “three minutes before Authentic Leonard Floyd Jersey half-time” to put himself in the way of the players, staff and officials. Before the teams emerged for the second half TV footage showed that four Juventus players continued the protest to Marciniak.
Pochettino, who mentioned that http://www.panthersfootballprostore.com/chris-scott-jersey-for-sale-c-29.html he saw the Juventus owner, Andrea Agnelli, in the tunnel, said it was “two games against this type of club – one on Andre Burakovsky Jersey the pitch; one outside it”. He felt his team had more than held their own in footballing terms but they were second best on the other side. Pochettino did not criticise Juventus for their efforts to gain an edge; rather, he said they had given Tottenham “a massive lesson in how to behave”.
“We saw how the sporting director [meaning Marotta] put pressure on the referee at half-time,” Pochettino said. “He was in the corridor. They were complaining about the penalty. Maybe we need to learn how we put pressure on the referee. In this type of game every http://www.officialbrewersprostore.com/Wily_Peralta_Jersey minimal detail can help you to win.”
Pochettino was asked whether the Juventus defender, Andrea Barzagli, should have been sent off for stamping on Heung-min Son in the 33rd minute. “We complained,” Pochettino said. “We put pressure on the referee but it was easy for the referee to manage us because we were very nice people, trying to help to play a game. In this situation, with experience, you have more possibilities to achieve all that you want. That is another game. It’s not only the game playing football.”
Pochettino felt that the second half – which his team had started 1-0 up – featured “many fouls that weren’t fouls”. He said Juventus had increased the tempo by starting “the game with the ball moving, players inside the box on goal-kicks – in the Premier League, this doesn’t happen.”
He added: “Juventus are specialists because they have the habit to win and the habit to put pressure on the referee. It’s a club with a culture to try to do everything to help the team. It’s the small details and I believe those details can help us to achieve what we want.” cheap nfl jerseys cheap jerseys wholesale jerseys wholesale jerseys

68
Please Read Before Posting / Even in the era of super-clubs
« on: March 11, 2018, 08:59:28 PM »
First impressions tend to linger. For example, I’ve always liked Paul http://www.officialflamesauthentic.com/Oliver_Kylington_Jersey Merson as a pundit despite the fact he might not be the most knowledgable or the most coherent and may sometimes http://www.anaheimducksofficialonline.com/Adidas-John-Gibson-Jersey appear not to have realised he’s on television at all, to have just found himself talking for a really long time with smartly dressed people about Arsène Wenger while, for reasons that escape him, sitting in a brightly lit room behind a cardboard desk.

The moment I first realised I was going along with pretty much whatever Merse said was the aftermath of Michael Owen’s goal against Argentina at France 98. Never mind the finish or the way the pre-injury Owen is able to move his feet at a strange, scurrying triple-speed, operating within his own distinct bubble of time and space.
The best bit of that goal is the way the TV feed cuts to the touchline just as Owen runs off to celebrate, capturing Merson out on the pitch jumping up and down, turning to the rest of the England bench with a huge gaping grin on his face yelling: “What a farkin’ goal!”
The other subs are all out there looking generically pleased. Further along Glenn Hoddle is already doing the classic temple-tapping think-about-it gesture. Only Merse looks completely lost in the moment, utterly consumed by the spectacle of a goal that arguably gave him greater joy than it did Owen himself.
As a pundit Merson’s range of response is essentially the same, variations on this scale, with the same ability to identify and communicate a basic joy in his sport. He was right too. For all the Kenny Wiggins Jersey white noise about dashed hopes and geopolitical rivalries, all that really remains now of that painstakingly constructed moment is the thrill, the indivisible truth of what a farkin’ goal.
The reason for going on about this at such length here is my own slightly unusual experience over the last six days spent watching six of the top 12 richest football clubs in the world, and by extension ever, play in the flesh.
In a frustrating twist it turns out I don’t have anything profound, or indeed particularly interesting to share about this experience, as regular readers will no doubt already be aware. But one thing has stood out from City and Chelsea, PSG and Real to the gripping end notes of Spurs and Juventus on Wednesday night.
Everybody knows there is a loss of scale around these institutions now. Our super-clubs have become features of the corporate landscape, no longer human-shaped, hard to grasp in outline. At this level of football even the word “player” can seem like a hangover from some more frivolous age. Probably it should be replaced now with something more apt, like human sport unit or elite level ball-tactic cog.
And yet whatever we throw at it, no matter how we blind it with greed or dilute its competitive edges, football retains its power, remains an utterly addictive, engaging, consoling source of human interest. Again this comes back to that basic pleasure principle.
The game does work best, indeed only really works at all, Authentic Melker Karlsson Jersey when we get a sense of play and of joy. Not that this is news in itself. We know this about the best footballers, just as again the really striking thing about Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo on Tuesday night was the sense of pleasure.
 
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69
Please Read Before Posting / Arsenal cast off gloom with Europa
« on: March 10, 2018, 12:49:11 AM »
After all the weeks of swimming against the tide, the games when their heads dipped, their bodies felt heavier, Arsenal grasped hold of their Europa League lifebelt and gave themselves a chance of saving their season.

If the latter Wenger years have seen Womens Tre Madden Jersey Arsenal drift from challenging Womens  Jersey for the league, their reinvention as a cup team and ability to conjure one-off performances of the calibre that make http://www.brownsauthenticofficialstore.com/authentic-joe-thomas-jersey.html you wonder why they cannot do this more often, remains intact. They came to Milan and played like a team determined not to take any more punishment. They reminded their critics – and perhaps even themselves – that on their day they can produce a meaningful win.
What a tonic for the pressurised Arsène Wenger, whose capacity to believe his team can dig Authentic Ryan Anderson Jersey their way out of any hole is boundless. The strain had been obvious around the Arsenal squad as they travelled to Milan weighed down by crumpled form and cracked confidence. Somehow the colour returned, happiness began to course through the team and rhythm clicked back. Wenger had urged his team to remember how good they were and his players had the courage to show that – instantly the passes became slicker, the tackles more http://www.panthersshopnfl.com/Authentic-Kelvin-Benjamin-Jersey resilient, the finishes more precise.
In an extraordinary first half the story tilted from negative spiral to positive spin, as Arsenal took a commanding two-goal lead thanks to Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Aaron Ramsey (both brilliantly assisted by Mesut Özil).
Milan’s revival under Gennaro Gattuso has lifted the mood at San Siro enough to inspire a wave of fresh optimism in these parts. A near full stadium crackled with energy. But having surfed a wave of optimism inspired by a 12-game unbeaten run, they looked shellshocked as Arsenal’s character returned. Maybe this kind of opponent was not what they anticipated, as Wenger’s men summoned a performance of commitment and attacking intent.
Milan did start with a flash of vigour, threatening the Arsenal goal twice in the opening couple of minutes. Perhaps the whole affair would have taken a different turn had one of those opportunities been taken. Patrick Cutrone ambled into abundant space on the left but dragged his shot wide. Milan seemed to be targeting Calum Chambers, the stand-in right back playing in place of the injured Héctor Bellerín, and moments later Hakan Calhanoglu burst through, engaging David Ospina in a foot race. There seemed to be some contact but Ospina was fortunate Calhanoglu stayed on his feet and ran the ball out of play. Referee Clément Turpin waved the game on.
Once Arsenal settled, they burst into the positive flow that had drained away during the recent sequence of losses. Wenger asked his beleaguered team to go back to basics, to be pragmatic, to concentrate on their jobs and dig deep. Arsenal responded by knitting neat moves together to provide a platform. The combinations between Özil, Mkhitaryan and the excellent Jack Wilshere were instrumental.
A quarter of an hour into this open, attack-minded tussle, Arsenal conjured the breakthrough. Ever since they signed Mkhitaryan there have been questions about how feasible it was to play with two luxury playmakers. He and Özil linked up delightfully to provide a meaningful answer here. Özil’s chipped pass was executed perfectly, inviting Mkhitaryan to cut back and let fly. The ball ricocheted off Leonardo Bonucci and over Gianluigi Donnarumma. Milan’s sequence of six clean sheets was over and Arsenal’s celebrations were heartfelt.
 
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Please Read Before Posting / Wilfried Zaha could return for Palace at
« on: March 09, 2018, 07:17:17 PM »
Crystal Palace’s hopes of avoiding relegation have been boosted by Wilfried Zaha’s potential return to their squad for Saturday’s game at Chelsea, with the Ivory Coast forward back in training after almost five weeks out with knee ligament damage.

Zaha, who strained the ligaments against Newcastle last month, rejoined his team-mates at Beckenham on Thursday for a light session and will be assessed again before the match at Stamford Bridge. Palace have yet to claim a point without the 25-year-old this season – he suffered a Devon Travis Authentic Jersey similar injury in the opening-day defeat http://www.officialphiladelphiaflyers.com/Adidas-Ivan-Provorov-Jersey by Huddersfield which ruled him out for more than two months – and, if there is no reaction, he should be available.
Roy Hodgson, who hopes to have Mamadou Sakho and Ruben http://www.jaguarsofficialshop.com/authentic-marqise-lee-jersey.html Loftus-Cheek playing a full part in training next week, described Zaha’s recovery as “remarkable” and will be cautious on the forward’s involvement but his presence even among the substitutes would constitute a huge fillip.
“He was able to join in with the team today for the first time, albeit in a modified session, which is enormous progress really,” said the Palace manager. “We have to be careful because it was a serious injury and, under normal circumstances, we wouldn’t have expected him back this week.
“But he’s so far ahead of schedule. I’ve got to make it clear: it is a remarkable recovery and we have to be very careful to make certain that, just Tony Perez Jersey because he can take part in two modified training sessions, he really is coming back as the Wilfried Zaha he was before the injury. But the initial prognosis had been that he would be back towards the end of season, rather than in just six weeks, so I would be delighted if it was possible for him to play any part on Saturday. It’s still early days. What we definitely don’t want to do is push him back that week too early and then miss him at the end of the season.”
Sakho, who has made only one substitute’s appearance since tearing a calf in December and had been suffering discomfort from scar tissue recently, is due to return to the first team on Friday. “He’s not been with us http://www.houstontexans.us.com/WOMENS-CJ-FIEDOROWICZ-JERSEY.html for weeks now … seems like months,” said Hodgson. “It would be unrealistic for him to start the game [at Chelsea]. But if he’s physically fit, medically and mechanically, there’s no reason he couldn’t be involved.” More realistic for the France defender may be the critical game at Huddersfield before the international break.
Loftus-Cheek, the loanee from Chelsea who hurt an ankle in late December and then complained of knee pain having trained with his parent club’s under-23s last week, attended Palace’s defeat by Manchester United on Monday. He has been kept apart from Chelsea’s senior squad given his association with Palace, undertaking his rehabilitation work in the academy building, and is due to train with the development squad at Cobham over the weekend. All being well, he will report back at Palace on Trent Brown Youth jersey Monday.
“My hope is that he will come in on Monday, walk into the treatment room, they will say: ‘How are you feeling, Ruben?’ and he will say: ‘I’m feeling great, what time does training start?’” said Hodgson. “But I’ve had a few disappointments lately so I’ve learned to lower my level of hope and optimism.” wholesale jerseys wholesale jerseys cheap jerseys from china cheap nfl jerseys cheap nfl jerseys cheap nfl jerseys

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Please Read Before Posting / Tottenham spiralling out of Europe
« on: March 08, 2018, 11:01:31 PM »
For Spurs, it will be of little solace that these are the kind of nights – with the volume turned up, the drama near unremitting and knockout football at its most attractive – that can make the Champions League feel so special.

This could have been one of the great nights for this club and, very nearly, it was. Instead, it became a harrowing reminder they have much to learn at this level and, having thrown it away, they might just have to accept the allegations of naivety that come their way.
Any analysis should take into account that, over two legs, Mauricio Pochettino’s side played some exhilarating attacking football against nine‑times finalists, scored three times against a side that had not conceded a Serie A goal since December and were still ploughing forward in those heart-stopping moments when Harry Kane’s 90th-minute header came off the turf, thudded against the post and was hacked off the goal-line.
Ultimately, though, the night swung on a spell in the second half when Gonzalo Higuaín and Paulo Dybala both scored within three minutes of one another to turn the game upside-down and maroon Spurs 4-3 behind on aggregate. And if there is one thing we know about the Italian champions, with all that rich experience in their backline, it is that they know how to defend a one‑goal lead.
As much as Spurs will be accused of blowing it, Massimiliano Allegri and his players deserve enormous credit given there are statistics to show that only 17% of sides qualify in Champions League knockout ties when they have drawn 2-2 in the home leg. Juve had to do it the hard way, with Son Heung-min scoring first on 39 minutes, and in the process they needed to demonstrate all Womens Xavien Howard Jersey the knowhow that has helped them reach two of the previous three finals. Yet this was not just a victory for their powers of endurance. They had shown from the start that they were willing to attack in numbers and it was a marvellous piece of forward play from Higuaín to put in Dybala for the winning goal. The left-footed finish was not too bad, either.
Spurs could argue that Andrea Barzagli, the defender who made that late goal-line clearance, ought to have been sent off Len Dawson Youth jersey in the first half for bringing down his studs on Son’s http://www.officialnationalshop.com/authentic-11-ryan-zimmerman-jersey.html thigh and then, just for good measure, doing the same again while expertly feigning an apology. Barzagli, two months shy of his 37th birthday, had worked out early on that Son had the beating of him and carried http://www.authentictorontobluejaysshop.com/Roberto-Alomar-Jersey out the assault with the air of a man who was not willing to tolerate younger, quicker opponents showing him up.
Uefa may decide to take disciplinary action. Yet the Spurs inquest should start with themselves because the reality is that, even before the second-half collapse, there were tell-tale signs that the home team had the capability to make life difficult for themselves.
That impression was hardened, for example, when the game was still goalless and Douglas Costa accelerated past Jan Vertonghen into the penalty area before the Spurs player made the mistake of diving in against an opponent he could not catch. It was a clear penalty and bewildering, to say the least, that the various match officials all gave Vertonghen the benefit of the doubt, particularly when the Champions League employs an additional assistant referee behind the perimeter line of the penalty area. These assistants do not appear to do a great amount and, in different circumstances, Juve could conceivably have left Wembley complaining that the relevant one here had a perfect view of the infringement.
 
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72
Please Read Before Posting / Manchester City should worry us all
« on: March 06, 2018, 11:54:31 PM »
There was a moment in the second half of Manchester City’s win against Chelsea – it was probably with about quarter of an hour to go, but perception in a featureless landscape can become difficult – when Aymeric Laporte passed the ball to Ilkay Gündogan near the halfway line. Gündogan rolled it back. Laporte knocked it back again. Gündogan nudged it to Kevin De Bruyne who turned, looked about for a bit, and gave it back. They exchanged a static one-two and then Gündogan rolled it wide to David Silva who controlled it, looked up, waited, yawned, waited some more and then as Cesc Fàbregas wandered up scratching his chin, played it back inside again. The yawning did not actually happen – not on the outside anyway – but the scratching the chin did.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Premier League. It might not be the best league in the world, but it is the most competitive. The great thing about it is that, on any given day, the team at the bottom can beat the team at the top. Nobody ever http://www.officialmontrealcanadiens.com/Adidas-Andreas-Martinsen-Jersey gives up. Everybody fights to the end, even if they are 3-0 or 4-0 down. Right.
There can be no sugarcoating and no excuses. Chelsea are not bottom of the league; they are fifth and likely to remain so. They were only 1-0 down. And they did not fight. There have been times this season when City have blown teams away. This was not one of them: here, they knocked Chelsea over with a weary sigh.
This was as insipid a performance as Chelsea have produced under Antonio Conte. The gap to Tottenham in fourth is five points, but on form it is light years. Speaking of a run of four defeats in their past five league games, four wins in their past 15 games, does not express just how bad Chelsea were, how uninspired, how limp. Other than N’Golo Kanté, suffering illness, dropping out for Danny Drinkwater, this was the same Chelsea lineup who had faced Barcelona and emerged with a creditable draw just 12 days earlier.
Here again was a 3-4-2-1 with Eden Hazard deployed as a false nine, but the coordinated counter‑attacking, the spring forward from 5-4-1 to 3-4-3, that had characterised them in that game was gone. Against Barça, the reasoning seemed to be that the pace and movement offered by a front three of Willian, Pedro and Hazard made it worth the absence of an obvious outlet from the back, somebody to hold the ball up and, apart from a spell in the first half when Chelsea could not get out, it largely worked. Here, it did not.
Perhaps City are just better than Barça. Certainly they never allowed Willian anything like the space Barça did – and if even Willian, so often a perverse barometer of Chelsea’s state of mind in that he seems to play better the worse things are going, has an off day, there really are problems. Conte described City as “unstoppable” and seemed relatively content with a one-goal defeat. “I am not so stupid http://www.officialjetsfootballproshop.com/YOUTH+BRIAN+WINTERS+JERSEY to play against Manchester City open,” he said. But he barely played against them at all.
There were times when City seemed like an experienced matador embarrassed by the state of the bull they were being asked to fight. Long passages of the game were played at walking pace, City left to amuse themselves in the face of such supine opponents with increasingly complex patterns of passing: here a flower, now a boat, and look, Kevin’s done a crane. If their aim Brandon Dubinsky Jersey was to break records they succeeded – a Premier League best of 902 completed passes while Gündogan racked up an individual high of 167 completed passes out of 174 – but the numbers say little about the context.
When Rafa Benítez was criticised for passivity in Newcastle’s 1-0 defeat against City in December, it was at least understandable, a weaker side battening down the hatches Christian Dvorak Authentic Jersey and hoping the storm might pass. This was Chelsea. They are the defending champions. And it was miserable. It was barely football. And if this is the future, the Premier League has a major problem. cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys from china wholesale nfl jerseys

73
Please Read Before Posting / City victory over tame Chelsea
« on: March 06, 2018, 06:20:38 PM »
For once, it did not really feel necessary to go through all the well-worn superlatives that have accompanied Manchester City on their procession to the title. That is 14 successive home wins now in the Premier League. No team have ever racked up so many passes – 902 – since the league’s inception and Ilkay Gündogan’s total of 174 was another record for the modern era.

Pep Guardiola’s side had won with something to spare and by the time it was all over, with an 18-point gap opening up at the top of the table, it was difficult to remember that it was the players wearing the darker shade of blue who were, in fact, the champions of England.

For City, that http://www.vancouvercanucksofficialonline.com/Adidas-Alex-Burrows-Jersey honour will be theirs in a few weeks – quite possibly when Manchester United visit here on 7 April http://www.49ersshopfootballjersey.com/Trent-Brown-Jersey.html – whereas Chelsea should be embarrassed that those kind of record statistics could happen on their watch. They barely laid a glove on the team that, lest it be forgotten, finished 15 points below them last season and it was startling to see their regression, the ultra-defensive tactics employed by Antonio Conte’s side and, more than anything, the sheer lack of gumption at 1-0 to do anything Eric Kendricks Womens Jersey about it. Chelsea are supposed to be a big club with lofty ambitions, but what does it say for the current team that they were the http://www.authenticsharkshop.com/authentic-62-kevin-labanc-jersey.html patsies on the day one of their rivals produced an unprecedented show of keep-ball?
The only surprise was Guardiola’s men restricted themselves to Bernardo Silva’s goal 33 seconds into the second half and that, for all the intelligent promptings of Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva and the flowering brilliance of Leroy Sané, they did not make it a more emphatic win. The home side played every sort of pass – 508 in the first half alone – but there were not too many of the killer variety. This was actually Womens Trae Waynes Jersey the first time in City’s winning run on their own ground that they have not managed at least two goals, but that seldom felt like an issue when their opponents were so vapid. No team can accumulate the kind of statistics City did here if they were being chased and harried and that, perhaps, was the most alarming aspect for Conte. N’Golo Kanté was missing because of a virus and, without their most combative player, it was startling to see the lack of enthusiasm among Chelsea’s players to make a tackle or raise their voices – anything to show they cared.
Chelsea have now lost four of their past five league games and there was a telling moment late on, just before the amount of stoppage time was announced, when Conte withdrew Eden Hazard to bring on Álvaro Morata, giving the Spaniard all of four minutes to conjure up an equaliser. Hazard walked past his manager without even exchanging a look. Too much can be made of these moments sometimes, but the strained body language was reminiscent of a similar incident involving Hazard and José Mourinho, shortly before the Portuguese was sacked from Stamford Bridge in 2015.
Conte explained afterwards that he had had to be realistic about City’s superior position and adapt his tactics accordingly. He had a point, but could they not have shown a touch more ambition? It was difficult to think of another side that has visited the Etihad Stadium this season and had so little impact, attacking-wise, and Conte’s analysis did not take into account that City, for all their counter-attacking brilliance, can often leave themselves vulnerable because of the sheer nature of Guardiola’s lineup.
City had an attacking midfielder, Oleksandr Zinchenko, at left-back. Kyle Walker is the most forward-thinking right-back in the league and Gündogan, operating as a holding midfielder, is another whose first instincts are Greg Monroe Jersey to go forward. The trick for City’s opponents is getting the balance right between defence and attack. Yet Chelsea rarely ventured to find out why City had kept only two clean sheets in their previous nine home games and, among the blizzard of statistics confirming the home side’s superiority, one in particular jumped Sean Mannion Jersey off the page – Hazard had only 33 touches of the ball, 18 fewer than Thibaut Courtois, the Chelsea goalkeeper.
Chelsea employed the same tactical plan against Barcelona in their Champions League first leg, but it works only if the team defend at their absolute best. Instead, Andreas Christensen’s mistake let in Lionel Messi for Barcelona’s equaliser and, again, the centre-half had to accept a proportion of the blame when City scored the goal that leaves them needing four more wins to confirm the title.
 
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Please Read Before Posting / Harry Kane’s last-gasp penalty earns
« on: March 05, 2018, 08:39:30 PM »
Jürgen Klopp hurtled towards the Kop in celebration of Mohamed Salah’s magnificent 21st league goal of the season. His goalkeeping coach, John Achterberg, performed a forward roll on to the pitch, clipboard still in hand. It was the 91st minute at Anfield and Liverpool had taken a significant step towards Champions League qualification against Tottenham Hotspur. In the 95th, it was taken away.

Spurs departed with the point their second-half Authentic Linus Ullmark Jersey dominance merited but only because of a contentious penalty, their second of the game, after Virgil van Dijk was adjudged to have kicked Érik Lamela deep into stoppage time. Harry Kane had failed to convert from the spot 10 minutes earlier but made no mistake with his unexpected opportunity to make amends and claimed his 100th Premier League goal. “Big, big balls,” explained his manager, Mauricio Pochettino.
Liverpool were incensed. Jon Moss had initially waved play on but was swayed by the insistence of his assistant, Edward Smart, that Van Dijk kicked Lamela on the back of the knee as one last ball dropped inside the Liverpool area. He did. Klopp claimed Lamela had deliberately backed in, looking for and maximising contact. He did.
Between the 85th and 95th minutes, two disputed penalties sandwiched a fabulous solo goal from Salah. An enthralling contest came to a dramatic and controversial climax and there was no disguising the happier manager on the final whistle. Pochettino punched the air while Liverpool players berated the officials, chants of “Cheat, cheat” rolling from the stands and Klopp raged at what might have been.
A five-point gap in the race for a top-four finish was returned to two with Kane’s spot kick, and controversy overshadowed a stunning contribution from Salah. Victor Wanyama, another Spurs replacement, injected his own touch of quality to cancel out the Egypt international’s early opener. Tottenham remain firmly in the hunt for a Champions League spot.
The game started and ended in a frenzy, of Liverpool’s and Smart’s making respectively. Klopp’s team swarmed forward from the off and did to Spurs what they had done to Manchester United in midweek in making a swift breakthrough. The goal was a personal milestone for Salah and a moment to forget for Eric Dier. In attempting to assist Kieran http://www.officialnetsproshoponline.com/authentic-3-drazen-petrovic-jersey.html Trippier and Davinson Sánchez in clearing up Sadio Mané’s dangerous flick, Dier succeeded only in playing Salah clean through. Quickest to spot the possibility, P. J. Williams Youth jersey Salah burst ahead of Sánchez and convincingly beat Hugo Lloris with a cool strike into the bottom corner.
The finish and the celebration that followed were those of a player who finds the Kop goal as a matter of routine. It was the Egypt international’s 20th Premier League goal of his debut campaign at Liverpool, arriving in his 25th game. No Liverpool player has reached that tally faster in the Premier League era – and they’ve had a few good ones.
Pochettino started with a midfield diamond of Mousa Dembélé at the base, Dier and Dele Alli right and left respectively and Christian Eriksen at the tip. It created and protected little in the first half but their improvement in the second half, when Eriksen shifted left and Alli advanced, was marked.
Liverpool could have established a more comfortable lead by then. The hosts posed the http://www.footballbearsofficialonline.com/William-Perry-Jersey.html greater threat before the break only for a consistently poor final ball to undermine their efforts. At one stage Mané was unable to pick out Roberto Firmino having dispossessed Sánchez on the touchline. In the final seconds of the half Mané repeated the trick, found Salah and burst clear into the area but the return pass from the goalscorer was overhit, to Klopp’s obvious disgust. Firmino also sent a glancing header wide and Lloris saved from the commanding Van Dijk. cheap jerseys cheap nfl jerseys cheap jerseys cheap nfl jerseys

75
Please Read Before Posting / Hope Solo interview
« on: February 12, 2018, 07:26:04 PM »
So, Hope Solo is running for president of the US Soccer Federation. It turns out the record-breaking goalkeeper is also trying to solve a mystery. When she is asked why the federation’s relationship with Soccer United Marketing (SUM) – a for-profit company owned by Major League Soccer that includes MLS commissioner Don Garber as its CEO and Solo’s rival candidate Kathy Carter as its president – is the subject of debate within football circles the World Cup winner is quick to pounce.

“We have to get to the bottom of it,” Solo tells the Guardian in a rare interview from her home in North Carolina. “I have my own opinions about it ... I http://www.officialphiladelphiaflyers.com/Adidas-Dale-Weise-Jersey think it has to do with money.”

So here we are. While the soccer chatterati in at least 32 other countries is discussing the upcoming World Cup, the talk in the US is about a vote this Saturday to elect a new president of US soccer’s governing body. Normally, most people couldn’t care less. But the US men’s failure to qualify for Russia triggered a blame game http://www.footballbengalsofficialshop.com/Nike-Randy-Bullock-Jersey.html and an election campaign that outgoing president Sunil Gulati has described on more than one occasion as “disgusting”.
Last October’s defeat against Trinidad and Tobago is no longer about an Omar Gonzalez own goal. It’s about youth development, the Latino community, top-down governance, the possible demise of MLS side Columbus Crew, and the role of SUM.
SUM is a marketing, media, and sponsorship Womens Travis Benjamin Jersey company created by the owners of MLS in 2002. As crazy http://www.49ersofficialauthenticshop.com/57-eli-harold-super-bowl-jersey.html as it sounds Dave Keon Authentic Jersey now, back then no US media company was interested in acquiring broadcast rights to that year’s World Cup (or for the 2006 tournament). SUM stepped up and years later is a major commercial partner of US Soccer, among others. Garber says the company will have injected $300m into the USSF, between 2002 and 2022, when its current agreement expires.
SUM is a cash cow for soccer in the US. Here’s where it gets tricky. The company’s board members are MLS owners. Its offices are within MLS offices. Its online presence is one page on the MLS website with email addresses on how Ondrej Pavelec Jersey to advertise or partner with “passionate sports fans” and “the #1 soccer network in North America”.
Solo knows all that. She knows a lot about money in US Soccer. She is an advocate for payment parity between the men’s and women’s national teams and is among a group http://www.shopcanadahockeyjersey.com/authentic+duncan+keith+jersey.html of players that filed a wage discrimination complaint against the federation. She says her interest in SUM was piqued over the use of her image in a sponsored promotional video for which she didn’t receive payment.
“I didn’t see a dime of it,” Solo claims. “I started to ask questions and told them I didn’t approve the video to go public before the [2016] Olympics. I started to get emails back that were complete attorney jargon basically saying ‘Hope, this is above your pay grade’. Basically, shut your mouth and play soccer. That is when I knew I was barking up a tree they didn’t want me to bark up. Pretty soon after that is when [USSF] Eric Kendricks Womens Jersey fired me for – quote unquote – saying the word ‘coward’.”
Solo is one of eight candidates vying for the USSF top job, an unpaid position. The new president will be elected by stakeholders that include a mish-mash of state federations, representatives of professional and amateur players, and even fans. In a process so complicated, some candidates say they aren’t yet sure who all the voting delegates actually are.
Gulati, unopposed for 12 years, declined to run in 2018. In a heated campaign, the field is roughly divided into two camps: those representing a status quo and those calling for change. Any type of change. Wait. Where have we heard this story before?
 
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