Not So Pre-Season Friendlies
There's nothing like easing back into the swing of things before the new season gets underway. While they're fewer and farther between these days, there's still some top drawer moments...
Just the other day we were bemoaning the demise of the old school pre-season friendly played at strange non-league grounds with the occasional top-tier European side thrown in for good measure at home.
These days, teams are either playing behind closed doors, or they’re off on some far flung ‘franchise expansion’ tour.
To make it a proper pre-season friendly it needs to be a bit too sunny, the crowd has to be underwhelmed, and the players shouldn’t be trying too hard.
We’ve managed to find a few moments of pre-season madness that do and don’t fit that particular bill.
In Other Soccer News
Transfers:
All global transfers in July so far (BBC)
All global transfers in June (BBC)
The Guardian’s interactive transfer thing.
Fan Reaction of the Day
It’s all a bit too much for these Americans meeting Jack Grealish:
‘Playing it out from the back’ of the Day
Crystal Palace’s Joachim Andersen having a bit of a nightmare against Crawley Town:
It must’ve been Crawley’s high press wot done him:
Brawl of the Day
All seems fairly innocuous between West Brom and Mallorca then Jayson Molumby gets fouled, gets up, and gets his MMA on...
Tackle of the Day
A brilliantly timed challenge by Bolton Wanderers’ George Johnson on Moise Kean in their friendly against Fiorentina:
It’s just 342% more enthusiastic than it should’ve been.
Goal of the Day
Portsmouth’s Ryley Towler with a meandering wander down-field before floating it over the keeper from about 45 yards…
He’ll tell you he does it all the time in training.
Stat(s) of the Day
Nifty little interactive table to see how 6,000 players performed in the top five European leagues over the past seven years [link]
Penalty & Goalkeeper of the Day
Great head fake by Onana…until it wasn’t…
Quote of the Day
“It's difficult to be sharp if you play over 70 games a year. We all saw in the Euros as well in general how tired people were. You could see the level; you could see even in people's faces how tired they were of football.” - Erling Haaland, who will obviously be as fresh as a daisy.
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