In Spain, the changing room was deemed a high-risk Covid-19 transmission spot. And so they have been shutThere was a little over an hour until kick-off against Atlético Madrid on Wednesday evening and they hadn’t reached the ground yet, but Huesca’s players were already stretched and changed. One after another they came down the stairs or out the lift and into the foyer at a small hotel in the town centre. Outside, the bus had pulled up in front of the park, engine running. They strolled past the disinfected rug, the hand gel dispensers and out into the sunshine, climbing on board in full kit and trainers. When they got to Alcoraz, most went straight on the pitch. They weren’t...
The game now is a homogenised, unceasing, geographically non-specific substance in which fans are not required and TV has total controlGradually, then suddenly. This is how history tends to work, a process in which most of the time things don’t happen, or almost happen, or seem like they probably won’t happen – right up until the moment they suddenly do.Football has always seemed like an industry in search of its final form. The last 25 years have brought such fevered textural change it has been tempting to marvel at the clanking pistons, the gusts of steam, the unceasing revolutions. Related: How Covid returned English football's resources debate to centre stage Continue reading...
In a debut lasting less than 23 minutes, Atlético’s new signing won and lost a penalty, hit the post and scored two goalsThere was a smattering of applause from the 60 or 70 people sitting in the shade of the stand and then someone started shouting: “Uruguayo! Uruguayo!” Luis Suárez’s number had been up a while, forced to wait a couple more minutes for his Atlético Madrid debut, but now his time had come. He stood pitchside with Thomas Partey and Marcos Llorente watching Diego Costa walk his way. Briefly they embraced and then he set off towards the sunshine, greeting João Félix as he went. It was 5.31pm on the first day of Atlético’s season and their new signing...
Inter’s 4-3 comeback win against Fiorentina on Saturday was as wild as any we have seen in recent yearsIt was the second weekend of the season, but it felt more like the first. There had been too many protagonists missing from Serie A’s opening round, too many of the most fascinating storylines left on hold. Inter, Atalanta and Spezia were granted special dispensation to delay their starts to this campaign after concluding the previous one in mid-August.How could the show really get started without last season’s runners-up and top scorers, plus a club making its Serie A debut? Not to mention Benevento, Lazio and Udinese – the opponents they were scheduled to play in opening fixtures, which will be caught...
Since 2016-17, Hoffenheim have taken more points from Bayern than any other team. On Sunday, Sebastian Hoeness did it againRarely a day goes by on which the name isn’t in the sports pages, or is writing itself large over news reaction and discussion shows on television. “I don’t believe at all that the name opens doors,” said Sebastian Hoeness, the new head coach of Hoffenheim, in an interview with Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung last week. “Decision makers at this level [just] evaluate your work and something like that doesn’t influence them in one way or another.”The nephew of Uli and Dieter’s son, the 38-year-old boss made his home debut in charge of the Sinsheim side on Sunday and couldn’t have wished for a...