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The Sweeper: Shootout

Posted by on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 9:58 am in Diary | 3

Our occasional roundup of what’s worth reading on the interwebs about the occasionally beautiful game returns. This week: how one man learned to love the penalty shootout; MLS to Detroit?; and the UEFA Cup meets Lisa Simpson.

Pick of the Week

Brian Phillips of the Run of Play, guesting at Sports is a TV Show, sees the drip drip play of just league battle as occasionally inferior to the random, raw truth of the penalty shootout. Brian writes:

Now, I realize that if you were carried to a temple on a mountain and given the power to legislate all of football, you would have to side with justice, would have to love the league season in its massive impartiality. And most of the time, I do love it, or at least regard it with an appreciative terror. But at the moment, encased in prose, I care less about justice than about the prospect of escape. I like Paul Doyle’s argument that when 120 minutes of team play have failed to produce a winner, it makes sense to break the teams down and test their component parts; but my feeling isn’t anywhere near that sagacious. I just want a moment when the context and the act, the event and the meaning of the event, are simultaneously apparent.

shootout

Europe

  • Steve McClaren’s resurrection at FC Twente this year, whom he led to second place in the league and to the Dutch Cup final, might be one of the surprises of the season. The Guardian’s excellent Dutch correspondent,
  • An amazing story about FC Union Berlin fans building their own stadium.

North America


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Tom Dunmore is the founder of Pitch Invasion. Originally from Brighton, England, he's now resident in Chicago. He is also the editor of Stadium Porn and the author of the Historical Dictionary of Soccer. Follow Tom @pitchinvasion on Twitter.
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3 Comments

  1. Glad to see the Sweeper back…TD, always liked your selections.

    Also, looking forward to seeing you and your brothers (and sisters) in arms for the Sh*ttle/Chi-Town game. Good luck up in Qwest, I’m not making the trip as we’re playing Burnley the same day and I worry about being able to make it back in time (or any condition to watch a game). Hope you’ll be sticking around for some Timbers matches, if you’re still making the trip.

    Vamos Chicago!

  2. Thanks Cap Ap. There are a bunch of Section 8ers going as you know, and I think the bus is headed straight back from Qwest to the Burnley game. I’m still hoping to make the trip, but money’s real tight right now, so I’ll have to see how it goes. Have you seen the special scarf we’re making for it?

  3. I have, and I’m already on the list for one. You should really try to make it, though I hear ya on the money thing. That’s one of the other main reasons I’m missing the Chi game.