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It is the middle of Sunday afternoon, and he has not yet finished his shift at the barbershop. “I took a break for the love of the game,” Mr. Adeshina said. Mr. Adeshina became an Arsenal fan in the late 1990s, when Nigerian cable channels first began broadcasting the Premier League. If anything, though, Mr. Adeshina says his connection to the team is even deeper now. “He’s Yoruba, I’m Yoruba,” Mr. Adeshina said, in a tone rather softer than that with which he celebrated his idol’s first-half goal against Spurs.

Persons: Mayowa, “, Mr, Adeshina, Germain, Nwankwo Kanu Organizations: Arsenal, Real, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur, Spurs Locations: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Nigeria, London

☆ At P.S.G., a Coach’s Vision Collides With a Star’s Power
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ultimately, a single wrong answer cost Rafael Benítez his job, the one he had coveted for most of his working life. Perhaps Benítez was trying to be clever. Ronaldo was certainly one of the best players in the world, he responded. “It would be like asking my daughter if she prefers my wife or me,” he said, by way of explanation. Barely four months later, Benítez was out at Real Madrid.

Persons: Rafael Benítez, Benítez, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, ” Organizations: Real, Real Madrid Locations: Real Madrid

☆ Watching People Watch a Game. With 100,000 Friends.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-25 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

With the lights adjusted and the cameras rolling, the production team gives Joe Smith his cue. In five seconds, he will be broadcasting live to a couple thousand people. Mr. Smith’s mind, though, is elsewhere. “Slate is definitely the best way to build a roof,” he mutters to his co-host, Jay Mottershead, as the countdown hits three. “All these years on, they haven’t topped it.”And with that, they are on air.

Persons: Joe Smith, mutters, Jay Mottershead, Mottershead Organizations: Manchester United, F.C, Copenhagen Locations: Danish

☆ The Premier League Needs a Commissioner
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Pete Rozelle’s immediate reaction could not accurately be described as unbridled enthusiasm. He had, for the last three years, been the general manager of the Los Angeles Rams. They wanted to put him in charge of the whole league. It was an offer, in Rozelle’s mind, that he had to refuse. “You’ve got to be kidding,” he told them, according to Michael MacCambridge’s magisterial history of the league, “America’s Game.” “That is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard.”

Persons: Pete Rozelle’s, Mara, Jack, Dan Reeves, Paul Brown, “ You’ve, ”, Michael MacCambridge’s Organizations: Los Angeles Rams, Giants, Rams, Rozelle Locations: Kenilworth, Miami, Wellington, Cleveland

☆ Swedish Soccer Prioritized Fans Over Finances. Now, Business Is Booming.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-19 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The warning sounded over and over, first in Swedish and then in English. But in the stands, as a thick cloud of smoke wreathed and coiled in the floodlights, nobody moved. The fans were going to make the game happen by sheer force of will. The top two teams in the Allsvenskan, Sweden’s elite league, had gone into the final day of the season separated by just three points. It has not happened in England since 1989, and Italy has not produced such a denouement in more than half a century.

Organizations: Allsvenskan, Elfsborg Locations: Malmo, England, Italy

☆ Xabi Alonso Isn’t Coming to Save Your Team. Not Yet.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Xabi Alonso has always done things at his own speed. As he contemplated the idea of becoming a coach, he saw no reason to change. He did not start out on the second phase of his career with a five-year or a 10-year plan in mind. “But I had not really mapped anything out.”There were plenty of people who were more than happy to do it for him. Everything about Alonso seemed to indicate not only that he would go into management when his playing days drew to a close, but almost that he should.

Persons: Xabi Alonso, “, ”, Alonso Organizations: Champions League, Liverpool, Real, Madrid, Bayern Munich Locations: Europe, Real Madrid, Spain

☆ Megan Rapinoe, Emma Hayes and a Women’s Soccer Crossroads
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Emma Hayes first met Megan Rapinoe before she was Megan Rapinoe. Or, rather, just as she was becoming Megan Rapinoe. Rapinoe was not even a professional soccer player back then, not quite. In 2008, she had been appointed head coach and director of soccer operations of the Chicago Red Stars, one of the inaugural franchises in the start-up league Women’s Professional Soccer. The Red Stars drafted Rapinoe second overall ahead of the league’s first season.

Persons: Emma Hayes, Megan Rapinoe, Rapinoe, Hayes Organizations: Chicago Red Stars, Women’s Professional Soccer, University of Portland, Red Stars Locations: California, Chicago, Lake Michigan

☆ Is Fluminense the Team of the Future?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Everything that has followed and everything that might yet — the glory and the acclaim, the opportunity and the revolution — has unspooled from a simple text. What is not entirely clear, though, is precisely which message was the one that counted. One night in April last year, the soccer coach Fernando Diniz sent a message to Mario Bittencourt, the president of Fluminense, one of the traditional giants of Brazilian soccer. Fluminense had just fired its coach. Diniz had both played for and managed the team already, and he had fond memories of his time working with Bittencourt, a 45-year-old lawyer.

Persons: Fernando Diniz, Mario Bittencourt, Diniz, ” Organizations: Fluminense

☆ At Barcelona, Timing Is Everything
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As he rose through the ranks at Barcelona, Gerard Deulofeu seemed to have everything. Luis Enrique, his manager, regarded him as his “standout.” He was fast-tracked into the senior side at the age of just 17. Deulofeu, though, never quite made it at Barcelona, not really. He felt Luis Enrique, previously such an ardent advocate, did not “trust” him now that he was in charge of the senior team. Deulofeu played six times for Barcelona, and was sold.

Persons: Gerard Deulofeu, Barcelona’s, Deulofeu, Luis Enrique, ”, Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suárez, Cesc Fàbregas, Alexis Sánchez, Pedro, Andrés Iniesta Organizations: Barcelona, Everton, Sevilla Locations: Barcelona

All of a sudden, after a single summer, the pink jersey is everywhere. Tor Southard was better placed than most, but even he was caught unaware. As Adidas’s senior director for soccer in North America, he had been receiving emails from colleagues for nearly a year asking if the company’s biggest star, Lionel Messi, would be joining Inter Miami, also a client of Adidas. As far as he knew, it was just a rumor. Like the rest of the planet, Southard learned it was true only on June 7, the day Messi announced his intentions in a rare interview with two Spanish news outlets.

Persons: Tor Southard, Adidas’s, Lionel Messi, Messi Organizations: Inter Miami, Adidas Locations: Buenos Aires, Bangkok, England, Southeast Asia, North America

☆ When Saying Nothing Is Saying Something
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

By the end of last week, England’s Football Association doubtless felt that it had done the best it could, that after hours and hours of talks, it had settled on what might best be described as the least worst option. Last Friday night, England’s men’s team was playing an exhibition match against Australia. Most expected that the game would take note of the violence crackling across Israel and Gaza, commemorate the victims and acknowledge the suffering. They had weighed the risk that a minute’s silence, soccer’s traditional manifestation of grief, might be interrupted, but they determined that having it was the appropriate thing to do. The most difficult decision, though, was to do with the Wembley Arch, the soaring steel beam that rises above the stadium.

Persons: England’s Organizations: England’s Football Association, Australia, Wembley Locations: Israel, Gaza

As the players idled by the chain-link fence at the side of the field, taking great gulps of air and water and conducting an immediate autopsy of the game that had just finished, they focused their attention on three outstanding bones of contention. The first considered whether a penalty that had not been awarded absolutely should have been, as an aggrieved plaintiff was claiming. The second investigated if a particularly egregious foul was premeditated (yes) and/or warranted (also yes). Each player had to dig into wallets or pockets to find five pounds — just over $6 — to pay their share for the use of the field. As they strolled stiffly to the parking lot, the squabbling gave way to discussion of plans for the rest of the evening, and for next week.

Persons: stiffly

☆ Selling Saudi Soccer, One Like at a Time
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

There has always been a discrepancy between live soccer’s value as content and the number of people who actually watch it. Even the most mouthwatering Premier League games attract only a couple of million viewers in Britain, and roughly the same number in the United States. It seems unlikely that Saudi Arabia is ignorant of that. The country’s approach has been sufficiently considered that it is reasonable to assume it has been factored into its plans. Quite what that means for the future of the sport itself — of all sports, in fact — is not clear.

Persons: Ronaldo Organizations: Premier League Locations: Britain, United States, Saudi Arabia

☆ For Spain, a World Cup Title Built on Talent, Not Harmony
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To win a World Cup, everything usually has to be perfect. The manager and the players have to exist in harmony. The squad has to be in delicate balance: between talent and tenacity, youth and experience, self-belief and self-control. Spain, in the year preceding this year’s Women’s World Cup, had none of those things. In its circumstances, it seemed simply not possible for it to become world champion.

Persons: Jorge Vilda Locations: Spain, Spanish

☆ Wanted: Female Athletes. Multiple Vacancies.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-19 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Brooke Walker spent that first night watching as much Australian rules football as she could. She did the same the next night, and the night after that. Walker had not grown up playing what is, depending on whom you ask, Australia’s most popular sport. As a child, she had played touch, the minimal-contact version, and rugby league. “Even when I was 14 or 15, I wouldn’t ever have seen it,” she said.

Persons: Brooke Walker, Walker, ”, “, — Organizations: league, Australian Football, — Carlton Locations: New Zealand, Australia, Melbourne

☆ For Spain and England, a Swift Rise Is Also a Warning
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Not long after he had taken up his post as president of the Spanish soccer federation, Luis Rubiales called a meeting with the organization’s head of women’s soccer, Rafael Del Amo. Like his boss, Del Amo was new to his role, but Rubiales wanted to gauge his first impressions. He wanted to know what the Spanish women’s team needed in order to succeed. Spain, Del Amo told Rubiales, needed “everything.”That conversation took place in May 2018. On Sunday, for the first time, Spain will take the field in a Women’s World Cup final, separated from the sport’s ultimate glory only by another debutante on the grandest stage in women’s soccer, England.

Persons: Luis Rubiales, Rafael Del Amo, Del Amo, Rubiales Organizations: Spanish Locations: Spanish, Spain, soccer, England, Nigeria, Jamaica, Morocco, South Africa, Colombia, Australia

☆ England Ends Australia’s Run and Reaches World Cup Final
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It all, in that moment, felt destined, as if there was someone, somewhere, writing a script. Only one thing had been missing from Australia’s World Cup. The last three weeks had been filled with exhilarating highs, exquisite tension, intoxicating hope. The country had fallen, head over heels, for the Matildas, grown unapologetically invested in their story, been captivated not just by their success, but their spirit. All that remained was for Sam Kerr to fulfill her promise.

Persons: unapologetically, Sam Kerr, Cathy Freeman, Kerr, Mary Earps Organizations: Australia Locations: Australia

☆ Australia’s Matildas Unite a Nation and Crack the Code Wars
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Inside the vast sweep of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, almost nobody was paying attention to what was happening on the field. Those fans who remained in their seats were staring up at the big screens, absorbed by a game a thousand miles away. The live sporting event playing out in front of them could not compete with the appeal of the Matildas. Over the course of the last three weeks, Australia has fallen — and fallen hard — for its women’s soccer team. Images of Matildas players beam out from billboards and television screens and the front pages of every newspaper.

Organizations: Melbourne Cricket, Australian Football League, Carlton, France, soccer Locations: Melbourne, Brisbane, Australia

☆ Spain Gets Last Word, and Reaches First World Cup Final
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The players streamed from the substitutes’ bench and onto the field, the coaching staff not too far behind them, swarming around the teammates who had rescued their dream. At last, celebrating together, they could release all of the stress and strain of the last couple of days, the last three weeks of this World Cup, the last year or more. This time, though, it was not Sweden celebrating, but Spain. They had barely had the chance to relish the sensation of relief before it was extinguished, cruelly and instantly. It will be Spain, then, that takes its place in a maiden World Cup final — against either Australia or England — in Sydney on Sunday, thanks to a 2-1 victory in the mist and drizzle of Auckland.

Persons: Rebecka Locations: Sweden, Spain, Australia, England, Sydney, Auckland

☆ For Sweden, the Right Way to Play Is the One That Wins
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He would have a bite to eat, and then retire to his room at Auckland’s palatial Cordis Hotel to listen to some music. He also wanted to make further inroads into “Resonance,” the German sociologist Hartmut Rosa’s examination of how we interact with the world. He does have a World Cup semifinal to coach on Tuesday, after all. He has, after all, been here before: This is his fourth major tournament in charge of his homeland, and it is the fourth time he has made the semifinals. Sweden finished third in the 2019 World Cup, won the silver medal in the 2020 Olympics, and then reached the last four at last summer’s European Championship.

Persons: Peter Gerhardsson’s, Hartmut Rosa’s, Gerhardsson, Sweden’s Organizations: Sweden Locations: Eden

☆ Australia Outlasts France on Penalties, and a Host Nation Exhales
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-12 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Not from the heights that Australia has reached in its home World Cup, beating France to reach a first semifinal, but from the winding, coiling, nauseating road it took to get there. The game itself was fraught enough, the goal-less stalemate of the score line belying more than two hours in which the balance of power hopped back and forth: France started well, composed and inventive, only for Australia to wrestle control. It was not an evening defined by patterns of play so much as storm surges, and the ability to withstand them. France missed its first kick, with Australia goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold denying Selma Bacha. Ève Périsset, introduced specifically to take a penalty, missed France’s fifth; Arnold, the goalkeeper, stepped up to win it.

Persons: Mackenzie Arnold, Selma Bacha, Solène Durand, —, Steph Catley, Ève Périsset, Arnold, Durand Organizations: Brisbane, Australia Locations: Australia, France

☆ Spain Goes the Distance to Reach Its First Women’s World Cup Semifinal
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

A 19-year-old Spain striker, Paralluelo was a bright prospect in track and field, too, such a gifted runner that she might even have represented her country at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago. Spain’s meeting with the Netherlands on Friday in the quarterfinals of this Women’s World Cup was always likely to be close. Four years ago, that mixture was enough to carry the Netherlands to the World Cup final against the United States. It had finished, most significantly, ahead of the United States. The squad’s confidence was growing sufficiently that forward Lineth Beerensteyn could even afford to take a little swipe at the United States team when she met with reporters before the game.

Persons: Salma Paralluelo, Paralluelo, Andries Jonker’s, Daphne van Domselaar, Vivianne Miedema, everyone, Beerensteyn, “ Organizations: Tokyo Olympics, United States Locations: Spain, Netherlands, United States, South Africa, Sweden

☆ A Tiny Gap Reveals a Yawning One for the U.S. Women’s Team
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

That solace, though, is an illusion, and so too is the idea that the United States was eliminated by a millimeter. There is a certain irony in the fact that it was against Sweden that the United States, so limp and insipid earlier in the tournament, started to show signs of life. There were glimpses, in Melbourne, Australia, of what this team might one day be. The United States was only in position to be knocked out by Sweden because it had failed to beat both the Netherlands and — more troubling — Portugal in the group stage. The United States, the two-time reigning champion and pretournament favorite and great superpower of women’s soccer, won only one game in Australia and New Zealand, and that was against Vietnam.

Persons: Naomi Girma, Lindsey Horan, Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman, Lynn Williams Locations: United States, Sweden, Melbourne, Australia, Netherlands, Portugal, New Zealand, Vietnam, Sydney

☆ Netherlands Holds Off South Africa, Squeezing Into World Cup Quarterfinals
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-06 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Thembi Kgatlana had time to pull off one more trick, to take one more shot, to send one more jolt of electricity through the crowd. She had been running, by that stage, for roughly 100 minutes, mounting what appeared at times to be a fearsome, one-woman campaign to keep South Africa in the Women’s World Cup for as long as possible. The Netherlands had a two-goal lead, and somewhere in the region of 30 seconds to survive. First, she spun and writhed and twisted away from a defender, leaving her sprawled on the turf. This time, it slithered just wide of Daphne van Domselaar’s goal.

Persons: Thembi Kgatlana, Stefanie van der Gragt, Daphne van Domselaar’s Locations: South Africa, Netherlands

☆ At the World Cup, the Field Thins and the Contenders Expand
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Canada, the Olympic champion, will not add a Women’s World Cup to its list of honors this year. Marta, the Brazilian star, will not end her career with the one international trophy that has eluded her. And Germany, somehow, managed to engineer its own exit despite winning its first game by six goals. At the end of two weeks, this World Cup has incontrovertibly delivered on its stated aim — to provide a stage on which women’s soccer’s simmering revolution might burst into life. That unpredictability, that sense of old hierarchies and longstanding orders being overturned on a daily basis, has illuminated the World Cup, of course.

Persons: Marta, — Organizations: Portugal Locations: Canada, Germany, Nigeria, Australia, Colombia, United States, Jamaica, France

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