Jarkko Savolainen

"Si miro hacia atrás me veo viejo, pero si echo la vista hacia adelante me veo muy joven."

[Jarkko Savolainen @puntteri]

@HarriLaine Hieno tuo 2014-kausi! Hyviäkin pelaajia on monta. Sitten ihan kaikkia ei kyllä muista, vaikka kuinka yrittää. https://t.co/kMX2BgG1sC

[Jarkko Savolainen @puntteri]

@Aligarciaherrer Sorry about the supposed opinion of Finland. It was just another shameful vomit from a few Vox-type ministers, not the official stand. They will be kicked out when next election time comes.

[Jarkko Savolainen @puntteri]

@BrendyBoyle Where will they play the home games?

[Jarkko Savolainen @puntteri]

– Kommentoidaan viikon päästä, kun tiedetään mitä todellisuudessa on tapahtunut, joukkueenjohtaja sanoo puhelimessa.

[Declan Hill @declan_hill]

This is the end.

The proposed plan to sell off a section of FIFA to a group of investors led by Donald Trump’s son-in-law is the end of the credibility of Gianni Infantino’s FIFA.

How can we take such an organization seriously?

Remember the Folarin Balogun red card scandal where Donald Trump phoned up Gianni to get the one game suspension overturned. How does that decision seem to you, now you know there was a proposed ten-billion-dollars deal between the two men?

More at: https://t.co/oxVy5PBBSF

[Jarkko Savolainen @puntteri]

Palikkatesti maassaolon ehdoksi? Entäs jos sattuukin pitämään puutarhanhoidosta? https://t.co/ZkTc6IfvcB

[Jarkko Savolainen @puntteri]

Brassit teki mm-finaalista hyvän koosteen.

[Madrid Sports @MadridSports_]

Los brasileños han podido hacer el mejor resumen posible de la final del Mundial 😭

[Jarkko Savolainen @puntteri]

Rottakooste.

[Ma Wukong 马悟空 @Ma_WuKong]

🇦🇷 Alguien ha hecho un resumen de 13 minutos con todas las acciones sucias de los argentinos en la final.

Vídeo de jugar al fútbol no hay, eso sí. https://t.co/g8ReZ2cWCO

[Jarkko Savolainen @puntteri]

@jessesaarine Tässä tulee olemaan arvossaan myös "picardía." ATK:n selitys:
Eteläamerikkalaisessa jalkapallossa picardía nähdään usein osana hyvää pelinlukua ja kilpailullisuutta. Suomessa vastaavia ilmauksia voisivat olla pelisilmä, pelikokemus, pelin juonikkuus tai terve viekkaus

[Adam Crafton @AdamCrafton_]

If you’d like a paragraph to encapsulate the servile Infantino and his latest debasing performance before Trump in Trump Tower (where fifa pay rent for office space), here it is.

[Jarkko Savolainen @puntteri]

@oloflundh Ordförande Lahti ger bara sken av att vara pragmatisk och talar om pengar på gräsrotsnivå och "helhetsbilden", men det vore en stor besvikelse om det här blir slutresultatet. Förhoppningsvis lyssnar de fortfarande på grannarna i den här frågan.

[Jarkko Savolainen @puntteri]

Kaikkien aikojen analyytikko teki havainnon.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Trump: I know about sports and I know about a little bit about soccer, but I watched Messi and he was well guarded… And all of a sudden he's standing on the right. Do you understand what I'm talking about? I just noticed it. Nobody talked about it. I just noticed it

[Jarkko Savolainen @puntteri]

Kiviä taskuun.

[BowTiedMara @BowTiedMara]

The English cried that Argentina played rough.

Cuti Romero on a typical Sunday playing with his wife and son:

[David Garcia @IJaSport]

Watching Spain yesterday made me truly miss the time that I spent in Spain.

When I was 22, I didn’t know what to do with my life. I had just finished college, and a friend of mine invited me and encouraged me to go to Spain to start coaching, get my UEFA B, UEFA A, and eventually try to get my UEFA Pro. I had to figure out ways to get there, and even when I arrived, I couldn’t get to the place where I originally needed to go. Long story short, the first year I was there, I lived in Mallorca, where I was mainly playing.

I was playing in the lower regional leagues, but nonetheless, it was taken very, very seriously. I got to experience the playing culture. What it was like to be in a Spanish locker room, to be in Spanish training, and to be in a competitive atmosphere where you could sense how important football was. It wasn’t only the results, but how you got the results, and the camaraderie around the team. That was something I hadn’t experienced at all growing up playing football in the United States. I genuinely remember many of those training sessions and games more than almost any football experience I had in the US.

When that finished, I moved down south to Granada. There I got to experience not only what it was like to be in a youth coaching environment, but the culture around it too. I worked with kids as a football coach, but I was also an English teacher in schools. I got to see what the kids were like, and how different their relationship with football was.

I don’t mean for this to sound disparaging of US football culture. It was just different. The kids were cheekier. Watching Lamine Yamal, Cubarsí and players like that, I can bring to mind the types of kids I worked with. Kids who knew they didn’t need to be bigger or faster. They just needed to be better, cheekier, and more capable than the kids they were playing against.

I can also bring to mind the style and culture of football training that was inculcated from a very young age. I can see those municipal fields in some small town in the south of Spain at night, with the floodlights on but not quite bright enough. I can see the type of training those kids did for so many years, where the ball was the most important thing, and keeping the ball with your teammates, keeping the ball with your friends, was above all the most important, most vital, and most fun thing to do.

I can hear what it sounds like when a ball is moving and doesn’t stop moving in training.

Watching Spain against France yesterday, all of those images from the seven years that I spent there came back. And I don’t mean this as some argument that everyone should just copy Spain. That’s not the point. Every footballing nation has its culture, but that culture isn’t only created by football. It comes from the culture of the country, the people, and how kids live.

Kids walking home with a ball at their feet. Kids actually walking home from school. Concrete football pitches and futsal courts in almost every town. Kids playing whenever they have the chance.

Now I’m in Colorado, and when my own kids want to play, I try to find a small field where the ball stays in play and they can just play. I would have to drive 25 minutes to get to one. All of that eventually becomes part of the culture and how kids experience the sport.

It was amazing how watching one professional game, one World Cup game, instantly brought me back to everything I witnessed, experienced and felt.

I loved it.

And I hope everybody gets the chance to experience something of the sort, where the visceral feeling that comes from watching a game or playing a game can immediately take you back to another place and another time.

[Juez Central @Juezcentral]

Hace 10 años, Luis De La Fuente fue profesor de Lionel Scaloni en el curso de entrenador de la Federación Española. Allí, se convirtieron en grandes amigos, pues ambos comparten el principio de la importancia de gestionar al futbolista y al grupo, más allá de la táctica.

Ninguno de los 2 ha dirigido a un Club de primera división. Pero el domingo, se enfrentarán en una final de un Mundial dirigiendo a España y Argentina. Espectacular, amigos 👏🏻

[Jarkko Savolainen @puntteri]

Jep!

[Edwin van der Sar @vdsar1970]

That's how you take a penalty! Pick your corner and approach the ball with confidence before slotting in the side net! #fifa #worldcup

[Jarkko Savolainen @puntteri]

Respect!

[Riqueza Con Propósito @RiqProposito]

Tras la derrota de Noruega ante Inglaterra,
la Federación Inglesa tuiteó este clip.

[RS Archer @archer_rs]

People are often critical of Victoria Beckham but to see this outpouring of emotion here from her as England scores a goal shows her deep connection with both football and the team.

[Jarkko Savolainen @puntteri]

@SPSundelin Mua ärsyttää makaaja oli se miten päin tahansa.

[Harrison Lee @HarrisonCLee]

Thierry and Zlatan saying they wouldn't have become soccer players because of the costs of the American youth system, then seeing Lalas say it's a great system because it makes a lot of money for some people really sums it all up nicely