It’s Friday again, regardless of what your lockdown-addled mind might be telling you so we’re here with another round-up of suggestions for football-related distractions over the weekend.
? WHAT TO WATCH
? If watching re-runs of old games is where we are now, you may as well go with the best. FIFA TV have been taking requests on line and then uploading full length World Cup matches to their YouTube. Why not start with the classic 2002 Final between Germany and Brazil.
?? La Liga club Sevilla have tasked their famed director of football, Monchi with providing 13 daily masterclasses. They’re subtitled and worth a watch if you want to find out what it takes to discover the likes of Sergio Ramos and Jesús Navas and scout talent like Dani Alves and Ivan Rakitić.
Still fighting on to increasing numbers of interested viewers from outside, the Belarusian season continues with Round 6’s set of fixtures kicking off this evening.
Earlier today we took a deeper look at what’s been a surprising campaign that’s seen the big teams struggle and the little guys prosper. You can read that here.
? ICYMI
In case you haven’t updated your app this week, make sure you do so now as we’ve been busy tweaking things behind the scenes – including making some massive changes to the appearance of the player profiles. Check it out!
? SOMETHING TO READ
?? You will have seen countless accounts of what it’s been like to be a professional footballer during these strange times, but we thought this one was interesting. It’s the account of English player, Laurie Bell who’s currently at a lower division club in Sweden where, with the league start postponed the clubs have been in permanent pre-season mode – read it here.
?? And something we’ve spent literally hours getting lost in – The Eredivisie Shirt Festival. In an attempt to find the most beautiful shirt ever worn in the Dutch top flight, all 1,754 different kits from all the clubs who’ve appeared in the league have been uploaded to this site. You can select a shortlist of 3 to submit as your favourites, or like us – you can just enjoy clicking through 64 years of history!
?? SEMI-FINAL TIME IN NICARAGUA
One of the only other leagues we currently have running in the app is the tail end of the Clausura campaign in Nicaragua’s Liga Primera.
We’re now in post-season and the semi-final line up in these play-offs takes place this weekend. Regular season frontrunners, Managua play Walter Ferretti who stunned their quarter-final opponent 5-1 in midweek but before that we have the nation’s biggest derby game as Diriangén host arch-rivals Real Estelí.
? SOMETHING TO LISTEN TO
The Golazzo Italian Football Show have brought out two special episodes looking at the history, growth and integral relationship that the country’s Ultras have built with Serie A and indeed clubs at every level of the Italian game. Parts 1 and 2 can be found in the tweet below.
?? SIOUX FALLS FC
If quarantine life has really got to you, why not fulfil that lifelong dream you’ve had to become a professional footballer? Well, sort of. You can now sign up to be a squad player at virtual club, Sioux Falls FC based in the US state of South Dakota.
The brainchild of designer, Andrew Brynjulson who was getting frustrating with the lack of a team to support in the city decided to start his own. And they’re going to play every team in the Champions League over the next few months – starting with Ajax tomorrow.
You could be selected to play against Barcelona, you could even score the winner against Liverpool! All you have to do is sign up and watch out for the team line-up to be announced via twitter each Saturday.
If you want to follow any of the games mentioned above, click on the relevant link and tap the bell icon to receive all the key match updates.
Or join us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to discuss all the important football going on this weekend!