Just like my girlfriend’s pregnancy, this post was not planned, but you know what they say – every good trilogy must have a fourth chapter. Or, well, A chapter. I simply had another influx of random thoughts about the Euro tournament, and hey, why should I be the only one to suffer from them? Continue reading
Well, the 1/8 finals (the round of 16? what kind of a lame name is that?) is now behind us and the quarter-finals are looming ahead. After the first fucking boring and horrible not-so-good day of the 1/8 finals we were fully compensated by the two days that followed. And especially by Italy’s marvelous win over the evil Sith empire from Spain. What a revenge for the past two Euros! Continue reading
Ok, so now the group stage is concluded it’s time for the second edition of our “random Euro 2016 thoughts” posts. Personally, I like this Euro tournament. True, I would have liked it more if we had some more goals scored: the average now is only 1.917 goals per match, even way lower than the all-time World Cup low, 2.212 goals per game in Italy 1990. But I like the drama and the small teams and most of the matches are great to watch. Continue reading
I’m actually in the middle of writing a new fantastic NBA-related post, but since now I’m mostly occupied with the Euro and I had some quick random thoughts I wanted to share, I figured – why not have a post about it too. The end of the group matches’ second round looks like a good opportunity to do this. I reckon I may do this a couple more times later in the tournament. Continue reading
In order to properly honor the half-birthday of one of the least celebrated Ballon D’Or winners in the last twenty five years (well, at least in my opinion. I think he was a great player that sadly doesn’t get the respect he deserves in retrospect), I give you… Continue reading
Our first Hall Of Fame inductee from the realm of football is one of my favorite players of all-time, David Beckham. Or simply Becks.
It’s hard to believe it’s already been 2.5 years since Becks hung up his boots, since he was such a permanent presence during all those years that I loved football. Even when it was happening far from the eye, when he played in the US. During his last few seasons he was the last of the Mohicans, the last active players that I truly idolized as a kid. I really hoped his retirement would never come, but I guess no one can beat father time. Fuck you, father time. Continue reading
In case you didn’t hear, and I doubt there’s a football fan who didn’t hear about it, Cristiano Ronaldo scored a brace yesterday in Real Madrid’s Champions League win over Malmö, which brought the total amount of goals he scored for Real Madrid to 323, just like Raul, Real’s legen-wait-for-it-dary all-time leading scorer. Well, now there are two all-time leading scorers, and Cristiano will obviously claim the #1 spot all to himself in a few days. Continue reading
Yes, I’m following in the footsteps of the Harry Potter and the Hunger Games movie franchises. Splitting posts in two is the real thing right now, haven’t you heard?
So… Previously we’ve seen what’s going on with the all-time international appearances record in football. Now it’s time to complete the picture and check what’s going on with its brother from another mother – the all-time international goalscoring record. However, I must warn you – the story with the goalscoring record is much more boring than the whole appearances saga, and you’ll soon understand why. However, if you’re still interested in learning what’s going on there, follow me down the rabbit hole. Or something like that.
Do you guys remember Ibrahima Bakayoko?
I used to play A LOT in Premier Manager 98, and Bakayoko was one of the best players there. He was definitely in the top 10, alongside Maldini and the original Ronaldo.
Check out his stats from that game:
Not sure if Ibrahima Bakayoko or Lionel Messi.
From Wikipedia: “Annus mirabilis is a Latin phrase that means wonderful year, “year of wonders” or “year of miracles”.” This is a term more often used for Isaac Newton’s amazing 1666 year, or Albert Einstein’s astonishing 1905 year. But yeah, we can definitely apply it to football as well. After all, “Football is not a matter of life and death… it’s much more important than that” – Bill Shankley.
Growing up as a sports fan and sports stats fanatic, I couldn’t not notice that there seemed to be these magical cohorts in sports. These wonderful years, in which a disproportional number of great athletes were born. Like the magical 1963 in basketball, a year which gave the world (let’s take a deep breath) – Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Hakeem Olajuwon, Joe Dumars, and those are just the major stars. One can also mention Charles Oakley, Detlef Schrempf and Spud Webb.
It seems un-fucking-believable that all of those players were born in the same year, within 12 months of each other. I mean, one can produce an all-time great team just based on this cohort alone. A starting five of Hakeem, Malone, Sir Charles, Michael and Dumars/Mullin – are you fucking kidding me?! Is there any other year that can compete with that?! Continue reading
Michael's Sports Statistics 