Three weeks ago, I wrote a piece about Ipswich. The gist was this: manager Gary O'Neil's prototype comes from his Bournemouth days, built around "closing off…
Three weeks ago, I wrote a piece about Ipswich. The gist was this: manager Gary O'Neil's prototype comes from his Bournemouth days, built around "closing off…
On August 30, Feyenoord played Den Haag. Ayase Ueda scored in his third consecutive match. After the game, he swapped shirts on the pitch with teammate…
Keito Nakamura's move to Lyon was finalized on the night of September 1st, just before the French transfer window closed. A four-year contract, squad number…
Why Daizen Maeda is being run into the ground: working backward from a manager's career I watched the opening matchday Ipswich game half-heartedly, in a "well,…
On July 29th, Cerezo Osaka played a friendly against Dortmund. Before the match, Dortmund presented Shinji Kagawa with a trophy engraved with the number "20,"…
Spain won the final, 1-0. Ferran Torres scored it. He'd come on as a substitute, and so had Nico Williams, who provided the assist. Two players off the bench…
I wrote about tactics last time, so this time it's about the market. Watching the World Cup, I came away feeling that individual Japanese players are now on…
Last time, I wrote an article called Ancelotti's Homework, asking what Japan could have done in response to Ancelotti's tactical change in the second half of…
Football has a rule even a child knows. If you get sent off, you can't play in the next match. The card carries meaning because it deters. That's supposed to…
―― The nine trump cards the protagonist kept hidden --- This is the final installment of the series. Vol.1 covered when tactics were born. Vol.2 covered what…
―― The ghost of 1966, and a faith disguised as data --- At the end of the previous post (vol.1, "A Timeline of Modern Tactical Invention"), I wrote this: the…
A man with 2020s tactical knowledge is reincarnated in London, 1980 --- The protagonist of my novel "EXTRA TIME" drops into London in May 1980 with half a…
After watching the Japan-Brazil World Cup match, I sat stunned for a while. Part of that was simple disappointment at the defeat, and at how it happened:…
When I heard the tournament would expand to 48 teams, my first thought was: this is obviously just watering it down. From 32 to 48 is a jump of 1.5x. The bar…
The group stage of the FIFA World Cup is finally reaching its final matches. There's something that must have caught your attention while watching this…
I recently published the novel EXTRA TIME on Kindle. Now that I've gone to the trouble of finishing it, I want to record the story behind how this work came…
It started with my second son's team My second son is in fourth grade, and he plays for a local soccer team. It's technically a feeder club under a JFL…
Japan came from behind to beat Spain 2-1 in the final group-stage match of the Qatar World Cup. Excitement, surprise, relief. It's a mix of complicated…
Japan beat Germany in their opening game of the 2022 Qatar World Cup. This doesn't happen very often, so I want to write down my honest thoughts while they're…
I watched Amazon Original's All or Nothing: Arsenal all in one sitting on a flight to Europe. All or Nothing: Arsenal The 2021/22 season was a season of change…
I recently watched AC Milan vs Inter, the so-called Milan derby, in Milan, Italy. The venue was San Siro, AC Milan's home ground. For my generation, this place…
Paolo Maldini He was a central figure during AC Milan's golden era in the 1990s, and as a member of the Italian national team he experienced one World Cup…