Rory Smith

Football Correspondent, The Observer. Also: @meninblazers @podcast_libero @bbc5live’s Monday Night Club. Author of Mister and Expected Goals.

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

Do you own more than one screen? If so, we’re doing a watchalong for France-Sweden. I call it “second screening.” Hopefully it will catch on. Join us, it’s a good time

https://t.co/CrHJjQtK6t

[Libero @podcast_libero]

New Libero

Festival over, tournament begins

@JackPittBrooke
@RorySmith
@tariqpanja

https://t.co/G4BVnyYd8B

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

@AuGrowler No it’s obviously not that big a deal. But at the same time it feels slightly unnecessary to me

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

Find it genuinely odd that players at the World Cup are stepping away to do medicals for clubs. Shouldn’t be too much to ask that transfers don’t intrude on what should be football’s uninterrupted pinnacle.

https://t.co/EUmWI520Ke

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

if this goes to extra time, do we get a hydration break after seven and a half minutes of each half

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

@MiguelDelaney @Steve__Clare @anthonyjtracey Pains me to say it but Miguel’s idea about using the CL system is actually the correct answer. Best eight group winners don��t have to play the R32.

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

@Nick_Metcalfe I think it sort of sets the tone, doesn’t it? Because once the knockouts start it goes fast, and also it is by definition good.

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

I went to watch the World Cup from three separate countries without leaving Los Angeles. A Colombian rooftop, a Brazilian mall, a Korean park. A dispatch from a tournament that gives hyphen-America a chance to express itself.

https://t.co/XewH7Yk7xN

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

@elpivoteftbl In my attempt to row back everything I have thought about football for 20 years to see if I can justify a whole new persona, I now think the World Cup is a GOOD way of judging a player's talent. High pressure etc

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

@SamLee I know

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

This isn't quite a defence of Alexi Lalas but I think he is symptomatic of a broader issue, which is that broadcasters have worked out that banter is better for clip-farming than actually trying to talk about football.

https://t.co/HRzKGtdfgq

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

@SrSittingBull @Lowblockparty I agree that most of it is designed as clip-farming. But tbh having done TV stuff, saying anything "deep" in the 90 seconds you have for each segment, immediately after a game, is extremely hard.

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

@DKingTelegraph @photogareth @IanDoyleSport Is it not Ostrava?

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

@Lowblockparty Everyone does it though. Also one of my most controversial views is that very few people actually want in-depth analysis, and also that it is not possible to produce it anyway in the time available to TV broadcasts.

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

Going live with @GeorgeRSimms here imminently to discuss England, Messi and the forthcoming DISGRACE of Kansas City. Come and join us...

https://t.co/hjEUGzd3iz

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

@mrickling @GeorgeRSimms Qualifying is a good point. I'd agree with you on a group of death, but it feels to me like one sort of drama has been traded for another. I don't think this is better. I'm not sure it's vastly worse. My main objection is that it is so long.

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

I'll be talking about whether the World Cup expansion has worked and the ongoing battle to get America a decent football chant here in about ten minutes, if you're at a loose end. With @GeorgeRSimms on Katz's Deli Erling Haaland

https://t.co/hjEUGzd3iz

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

@TomTeodorczuk @richallensf Not anti-anything. Except grifters, which is what the people who are leaping on it to try to stoke a culture war are. Happy to patronise them.

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

Through no fault of his own, the story of @freddiela7 is basically a parable for everything that's wrong with the way our media ecosystem: something genuinely sweet and nice twisted so it can be used in a culture war

https://t.co/wqrpfoGd6e

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

@c_goncalves66 Freddie? I don’t know. I’m inclined to assume he’s real, and is riding a wave that must be quite fun. It’s quite depressing that I might be wrong and it might all be deliberate.

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

@LegallyMomm @richallensf I think our discussion is about whether that is a thing to be ignored and starved of oxygen or whether it’s worth covering and exploring. I get both approaches, but think sunlight is important.

[Rory Smith @RorySmith]

@LegallyMomm @richallensf Oh I don’t think it’s a representative viewpoint at all. It’s clearly a minority thing. But it’s a minority thing that’s being fed to people. My feed is never usually afflicted with the American right. The piece is about how they descend on nice things and twist them.