some great names on there. Another shout out for Rafael Gordillo - one of my favourites growing up with his socks rolled down.
I'm wondering in which team I'd place Torbjorn Nilsson potentially now, having not previously included him as one of 100 favourites, but feeling that he seems like exactly the kind of player who would be a favourite of mine probably. Maybe having seen this video now https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/best-striker-at-their-prime.2092145/page-18#post-39903506 although I'd already posted this one myself .... it's enough to include him within 100 names, although I don't think it's necessary to specifically suggest someone else to be removed from my list. It's difficult to mix in players we find out about retrospectively I think, but obviously I've put in the likes of Hidegkuti and Wilkes as established favourites, without seeing a huge amount of them (one full game of Hidegkuti plus a few highlight clips, plus various highlights of Wilkes basically), based on what I have seen and the historical narrative about them. I don't really even know how likley it'd be Nilsson would get slotted in ahead of Shevchenko in team 1, but I suspect with a level playing field (bearing in mind one was a Nottingham Forest player when I was young, and the other I didn't know about) I would retrospectively think of him as more of a favourite than Davenport. With Davenport being a Forest player, and with the nostalgia factor (and trying to account for how much the players were favourites of mine in real time too) then maybe team 3 is more realistic with Rep going into team 4 but I'm not really sure. I was already pretty unsure of my striker choice for team 4 and for example whether Osgood would really be more a personal favourite than Paolo Rossi, to name another possibility. Likewise I don't feel clearly that McAllister is absolutely more a favourite than a Rivera to name an old-time legend, or a Mark Draper to name someone from my childhood (he was my favourite Notts County player I suppose, although the right winger Rob Matthews was another one). I remember there are some good pieces of play by Draper on here, despite Forest winning 4-0! 24.8.91 Notts County v Nottingham Forest (Div 1) - YouTube He did put in the free-kick for the winning goal in this game vs Forest though to be fair 12.02.94 Notts County v Nottingham Forest (Div 1) - YouTube I've noticed that despite this being a Roy Keane video there are a good number of contributions by Nigel Clough here that help show why IMO he often helped the team as a whole be entertaining to watch (and that would be a big contributing reason for him being in my 100 named players before too): Roy Keane vs Manchester United | 1992 League Cup Final | All Touches & Actions - YouTube Gordillo is getting mentioned a few times I notice (considering I had him as left back in team 1 as above myself too) - maybe not surprising since he was almost a left winger in some ways even when playing left back (and on other occasions did play as left winger), and while everyone will have their own preferences when it comes to what they find entertaining his style of play does seem like it'd be widely appreciated in that respect I think.
As always, don't look (only) at the words but at the actions. Some of the progressives of the 1960s and 1970s, when elected into power, committed large scale eugenic experiments. Some of the progressives also voted for the World Cup in Russia and Qatar. Another thing I saw today in my timeline, when it comes to organizing stuff (actions, not words): Environmentalists tried to stop the Dutch GP from coming to Zandvoort for years.They said that the event would endanger Zandvoort's dune reserve & counter its effort to fight climate change.Here's a short thread on how event organizers made sure that wouldn't happen 👇 pic.twitter.com/ubqoc4zYdM— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) September 6, 2021 6. Here's another thing I thought was interesting...Race officials closed public roads into Zandvoort, requiring attendees to take public transportation or bikes to the race.The result? About 98% of attendees came via bike or train, with just 2% coming via personal vehicle.— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) September 6, 2021 If the world wants, they can still take the World Cup away from Qatar (without kidding: because of the high population density, basically two times as high as the #3 European country, the environment is a real-existing challenge but luckily somewhat improving the last decade)
I would like to think that I look at the actions first, and at the words second. In football, for example, I have long shaped my opinions first and foremost on the basis of what I see on the pitch. The general problem that I see, is that the political culture war continues tilting towards the right; republicans, even when they do not win, still essentially get all they want. This unique advantage allows conservatives to do crazy things; crazy things like Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. The progressives, cannot actually get away with electing crazy presidents who end up destroying relatively functional economies. When progressives fail to win the democracy game; they actually really are defeated, and a lot of the progress that had been made gets immediately canceled by the likes of Reagan, Bush, or Trump. Conservatives never really not win; even when they do not win, they technically still win, because they still get a lot of the exclusionary policies that they wanted in the first place. The political spectrum gets pushed further and further towards the right, decade after decade; in simpler terms, a progressive when we live in a far right end of the spectrum, is not really a progressive, but rather merely a less extreme right winger than the Trumps and Johnsons of the modern world. In the United States, for example, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal was the most 'socialist' policy, and it was arguably the most successful policy in the history of the United States, getting millions out of poverty; of course, it was the conservatives who ruthlessly used the "socialism is evil" card to cancel most of the progress that had been made. Progressives, while obviously extremely flawed, are clearly the lesser evil. This is especially true, in my opinion, in a world where climate change is set to kill billions in the next 70 years. Conservatives do not think that climate change is a real problem, just like conservatives also do not think that Covid is a real problem; this is the literal definition of a death cult. Conservatives will celebrate their free choice to die from a preventable disease, because in their perception of the world; genocidal stupidity as their cause of death is preferable to ever admitting that they are wrong. Trump Vaccine = Socialism / Evil. Trump Economy = Free Market Capitalism / Good. George Orwell's 1984 is currently being re-written in real life.
American tweet of today, with 19k retweets and 52k likes, mentioning the actual facts (although it is not entirely the same as what you describe): THIS is what happens when women are free to make their own informed decisions about their reproductive health. pic.twitter.com/iDbSaVnFLy— 🍺🥂🍸 𝓜𝓪𝔂𝓸𝓻 𝓸𝓯 𝓕𝓾𝓷𝓴𝔂𝓽𝓸𝔀𝓷 🍻🍷🍹 (@MayorFunkytown) September 7, 2021 So in a nutshell, I sincerely think the Memphis situation is a relative exception. Meanwhile also happening in coalition land behind the navelgazing dikes, tulips and windmills: ‘Intractable political differences’ in the US: I think Trump was sent by God and Obama runs a secret pedophile gang. You don’t think this. ‘Intractable political differences’ in the Netherlands: We both support a 4th term for Rutte but I hope he prioritizes cutting CO2 faster— Ben Coates (@bencoates1) September 3, 2021
Most things have costs and benefits, including contraception. I think most of us guys prefer it when the lady pays the cost by taking the pill, which has some weird effects on her body. Rather than us having to wear a piece of plastic that kills the fun somewhat, imo.... I do not know if any of this is applicable to an immigrant that isn’t integrated into or invested into a society who can escape away from the costs and consequences of their actions. Who was that German player whose father was in the occupying American army? I forget his name, I think he scored in a final against Platini’s Juventus. Did he know his father?
* There are a lot of players that are great to watch, but one iconic player that I keep returning to is Roberto Baggio; spectacular on the ball, but at the same time more or less minimalistic on the ball; his ball control and ability to change direction when at full speed, is nothing short of magical to watch. Is there another player quite as extraordinarily elegant as Baggio on the ball? Is there another player who could combine elegance, efficiency, minimalistic simplicity, and magic, the way prime Baggio could? Diego Maradona could, but I don't think Maradona has the elegance factor of Baggio; for all of Maradona's magical ball control, it never looks as impressive as when Baggio does the same thing. This is completely subjective of course, but it still is an opinion that appears to become stronger with the passing of the years, as I become older and more cynical; Baggio really was a unique technical genius, among geniuses.
Favorite players are the recovery midfielders. Who think like me that N'Golo Kante is the spiritual ingame son from Claude Makelele, who is the spiritual ingame son from Patrick Viera ?
I think at this point (or before this point probably) modern players that I would be likely slotting in to a top 100 favourites (or a narrower grouping potentially - obviously it's difficult to nominate an order and the middle section would be undefined probably in effect but I could potentially think now Mac Allister is more a favourite than McAllister was for example even!) might be Alexis Mac Allister and John Stones (at the time I wrote this speculative post about Murillo and Szoboszlai I suppose in effect Stones and Mac Allister would have been closer to consideration for that anyway) https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/interesting-best-xi.325564/page-63#post-41765737 Stones for considering for that type of selection of XIs (or more specifically favourite XIs) sooner or later anyway, but potentially within an overall 100 favourites, and Mac Allister probably well inside a 100 favourites as well as being an option for favourite XIs or that kind of custom XI selection I was doing on the other thread (4-3-3 probably does suit him best too, although I already had a stack of options in that area the way I was doing it). I think for both of them it's the combination of liking/appreciating their gameplay and liking/appreciating their characters too. As for (old eras) older players that could now (or could already when I posted before probably) be entering a selection of 100 I might make, I think for example Roger Piantoni and the Hungarian winger/forward Jozsef Toth could be slightly under the radar choices that could qualify (Piantoni less under the radar, and with a bit more available footage to see overall too of course, being a more regular international).
Favorite active players Antoine Griezmann Luka Modric Rodri Mac Allister Lionel Messi - Favorite retired players Johan Cruyff Franz Beckenbauer Michel Platini Nandor Hidegkuti Michael Laudrup Ronaldinho Matthias Sindelar(political choice) Gerd Muller Diego Maradona