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Featured Articles
Greatest Champions League Runs
When Zidane’s men won the 2016 Champions’ League over Atletico Madrid, they did so on the back of criticism. Criticism? After winning the Champions’ League? Couldn’t it just be that after 2014, most neutrals were rooting for the smaller Madrid club? Probably. After all, watching Real Madrid defeat Atletico on penalties was like watching Goliath vanquish David yet again. Not exactly faith affirming. What made it seem truly unfair though was how impressive Atletico’s run to the final was – at least, compared to Real Madrid’s. Simeone’s men had to defeat Enrique’s all conquering Barcelona in the quarter finals and had to see off Guardiola’s Bayern Munich in the semis. Real Madrid faced Wolfsburg and the least impressive Manchester City team in years. Winning the Champions’ League is a fantastic achievement no matter what run a winner takes. But there can be nothing more exhilarating and let’s face it brag-worthy, than winning a trophy after beating the best teams. This is a tribute to the teams with the most impressive Champions’ League runs.
‘I Got *Trolls*, In Different Area Codes’
Here we are with another edition of Trolls of the Week. We can consider this the sequel to the Ludicrous edition, posted a few weeks back.
Soundtrack to this is from Ludacris featuring Nate Dogg (RIP). The hit single, Area Codes.
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Remember the Name : Emanuel Mammana
The Albiceleste have qualified for the world cup by the skin of their teeth fueled by the heroics of Lionel Messi. The Argentina domestic league is still churning out decent players but it seems that world class midfielders and defenders have dried up coming out from the country which gave us the likes of Passarella, Batista, Redondo, Ayala, Sorin, Cambiasso etc. In fact, after the retirement of Ayala and Walter Samuel, Argentina has not produced another world class defender. Good players like Otamendi, Musacchio, Rojo etc are playing in top teams in top leagues, but they are not in the same class of players like Passarella and Ayala. So today we are going to take a look at a bright young player who can very well be a star in the centre of defense, both in the famous blue white jersey and for a top European heavyweight. Emanuel Mammana is the name.
This six feet 21 year old ball playing CB started his career in River Plate before moving to Lyon and then to St. Zenit Saint Petersburg. He was a star in the U-17 WC at UAE in 2013, where he showed skills and temperament beyond his age . He was called up by Alejandro Sabella in the sparring squad with first team before 2014 WC and debuted in a friendly against Slovenia. He again featured in U-20 WC in 2015 where Argentina crashed out in group stages but Mammana was the stand out performer again, the lone man holding the sorry Albiceleste defense. Next year he moved to Lyon and in 2017 he moved to Zenit despite interests from Liverpool, Everton ,Chelsea and Spurs.
Mammana is an elegant ball playing CB adept at reading the game and closing out dangers. He is decent aerially and is a very good dribbler who is never afraid to bring out the ball. He has decent pace too which have seen him being deployed occasionally as right back for River Plate. Stylistically he is similar to John Stones from England. Just like Stones is honing his skills under Pep Guardiola and have embarked upon the path to become an elite CB, similarly Mammana needs the impetus and nurturing to take the next leap. He is less error prone than Stones was at this age, though it can be argued that Stones was playing for Everton in the heat of Premier League, but still Mammana almost never loses his concentration and rarely perform mistimed tackles and interceptions. Sky is the limit for him and if he continues his trajectory, remains injury free and keeps on improving, soon he will be playing for one of the European heavyweights and who knows, after Ayala, Argentina will find another world class centre back marshalling their defense.
By Arindam Chakraborty
Fun Fact x Trivia
Football coaches and their teams would always seek to exploit anything that might give them an advantage over opponents. The sizes of football pitches is one of such things that can come into play. Regulations state that a pitch must be 90-120 metres long x 45-90 metres wide. As expected, this flexibility of range is ripe for manipulation.
Graeme Souness, the hard-nosed former Liverpool captain, turned hard-nosed manager, and currently a hard-nosed pundit, smelled an opportunity to gain an advantage over an opposition team in a 1987-88 European Cup tie. Souness was managing Rangers of Scotland and they were 1-0 down from the first leg of their tie against Soviet champions, Dynamo Kyiv.
Fantasy Football Update – GOGTOF Edition
Hello everyone. This is our lastest edition rounding up the various leagues we have running in the Premier Fantasy League of Extraordinary Fans (PFLEF) forum.
In a unique twist, we would be having the January and February updates all in the one article. Hence the tag-line, GOGTOF (Get One, Get The Other Free). Aren’t you guys so lucky?
Let’s proceed.
Fan Challenge: How Well Do You Know Your Team? [VIDEO]
Two Fans exchange questions and answers about their teams. Watch below to see how they fare!
Edited by
EeJay Enekwa
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Brazil 1970: The Pinnacle of the Magic Rectangle
In today’s football,formation and tactics reign supreme.Though formation is just a number,since there are roles and inter roles assigned to various players within the match, which makes the notion of stating certain numbers in a formation moot,yet it provides a basis to the general structure of the team and general roles of the players,however vogue they might be.Today we are going to discuss the quintessential Latin American formation known as the magic rectangle or the magic square or the box system and can be stated as the 4-2-2-2 formation in modern terms.Its quite different from the traditional 4-4-2 and even more different from the 4-4-2 diamond formation. This is a formation immortalized by the dominant Brazil National side of the 60’s and 70’s and none more than the Brazil 1970, considered by many to be the best National Side ever.
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Roll Safe presents Troll Safe
I guess many of you are familiar with one of the most recognisable memes on the interweb. Yes, that one in which that guy is smiling smugly while displaying seemingly deep levels of knowledge.
He is Roll Safe a.k.a. R.S as seen in Hood Documentary (a British web series). Roll Safe is a character portrayed by a comedian/actor named Kayode Ewumi.
R.S is here to give us some smart analysis and comments about the entries on this edition of ‘Trolls of the Week’. Let’s proceed.