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29 July 2006
Sat, 29 Jul 2006 11:51:00 GMTBrilliant Orange
David Winner
A look into the synthesis of Dutch culture, football, and design. A few months ago one of the guys at work mentioned it, and when I saw it again mentioned here there was no stopping me telling the friendly librarians to send it my way. Centered around the freestyle, elegant, beautiful style of Netherlands football from the glory days, Winer looks at how that philosophy merges with the rest of the Dutch world. Lots of talk about Soccer and Design, two good hooks for me.
Pieter Jansz Saenredam (59), post renaissance dutch painter. Wow, find Interior of the Church of St Bavo in Haarlem and take a look at it..
Hollandse Velden (62), Hans Van der Meer on photography:
Football is a game of space So why should you leave the space out? Every Monday in the newspapers you see the same stupid, boring close-ups taken from behind the goals with long telephoto lenses which distort the space. Those pictures show you football situations but you have no idea what they mean. Two players fight for the ball. So what? Where on the pitch are they? IN the 1950s, we had different pictures, more interesting photographs of the crowd, wide-angle pictures of the game. The close-ups tell you so little. When the sports photography archives are opened in a hundred years, there will be a whole part of the history of the game missing because all the interesting little things around the pitch were simply not photographed. 64
You can’t rationalize it. It’s like driving a car. That is also about being part of a system larger then you… the car becomes you. You can only drive it when you don’t know the rules any more, when you forget everything they taught you. Every time you turn a corner, you don’t get out of the car to measure the curves and then get back into the car. You do everything blind because of the system, the road and the other cars, which are part of the system too… And that’s the moment when you are ‘in form’ in both senses. It feels good and there’s this whole hectic feeling of extension into the world this is being “informed.” Lars Spuybroek (architect), 71
We played with anything as long as it was round – rolled up papers tied with string, anything. Some people’s parents had money and could get hold of a proper ball, but mostly it was tennis balls. You develop great technique like that. The ground was hard, so you didn’t want to fall because it hurt; so you have good balance. And the game was very quick because the hard ground makes the game quicker. No one ever told us how to play. It was all natural. Arnold Muhren, 119
I’ve always wanted to con kids into playing soccer with a tennis ball, I kick them around my house and play keep away with the dogs using only my feet, and it’s good fun. But something about having fields and goals makes it hard to use tennis balls, and I’ve never even played soccer in the street. Goddamn privilege.
Brazil, sadly, is no longer swinging and flaming. I see defenders boot the ball away shamelessly. Holland must never play like that. If we did, people would murder me, and they would be right to do so. Guus Hiddink, 149
Holland v. Italy, Argentia ‘78: Arie Haan 163 (Whenever a specific goal came under discussion, I checked for it on youtube or google video, and it would be there.)
I think it is very Dutch to look for a simple solution. And the biggest thrill in our work is to find an even simpler solution. That is what we like. In the end the most satisifying solution is the one where you have cleared everything away and there is no solution at all any more but, at the same time, the problem has been solved. That’s the nicest way of doing it. Benthem, 237-8
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17 July 2006
Mon, 17 Jul 2006 21:00:00 GMT Zidane headbutt outrage: new video evidencevia Kjell Olsen2031 days agoau revoir zizou
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21 June 2006
Wed, 21 Jun 2006 23:46:00 GMTCambiasso
I really want this to post up on my wall. Also a fascinating post on design and architecture and football, but that sort of thing just flies right over my head.
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17 June 2006
Sat, 17 Jun 2006 11:42:21 GMTGHA 2 CZE 0
Ghana just scored their second. It looked sharp. I’m hoping the US can win later just to bring things right down to the wire, it’s always more fun that way.
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05 June 2006
Mon, 05 Jun 2006 19:19:00 GMTWorld Cup 06
So chatter chatter balk balk, I’m sure we’ll all be hearing enough about the world cup in the coming weeks. Not that I won’t listen to every bit of it that I can.
But I’m already a little worried that all this soccer might just be too much. I just scheduled the (fake) tivo we’ve got to record 3 games a day thursday-tuesday (It can only search a week in advance). Thursday they’re rerunning the US’ three games in the knockout round last cup, and friday this years’ games begin. I don’t know if the poor machine down there will be able to handle all this, although I deleted everything else off it (take that, american idol) and I’m hoping it works.
Televised soccer game: 2 hours. Times 64 (48 in the group stage and 16 thereafter) = 120 hours, which I’m pretty sure won’t fit. So that means that I’ll have to burn my way through about 20 of the first round games before we hit the second, which just sounds intimidating.
With all the hype that all 64 games will be on tv, I have a hard time conceiving of not watching them all. Nobody recommends binge drinking, but hopefully I’ll avoid that morosely giddy feeling that the world cup wasn’t all it should have been because I had to slam it down my throat so hard. And lets just hope that maybe american tv will wise up to this soccer thing and put on more then the odd game per weekend for me.
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29 May 2006
Mon, 29 May 2006 20:51:31 GMT World Cup KickOffvia Kjell Olsen2080 days ago10 days, 18 hours.
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23 April 2006
Sun, 23 Apr 2006 07:39:00 GMTCougar Classic
We had a soccer tournament yesterday, four 7 man games. I was beat. Man, soccer is fun. As a team we didn’t do great, but coming in without the highest expectations, I wasn’t too disappointed. We tied 2 (and should have won both) and lost 2. We played three teams who will be in our conference next year, and we didn’t lag far behind.
I scored one of our paltry three goals, on a nice assist from the center back. I got it in the open, one on with the goalie a few yards out, as he slid at me I flicked it up at the same time I jumped over him. It rolled real nice right into the back of the net. The only goal we scored in our worst loss, 3-1.
I think with good training there’s hope for next year.
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21 April 2006
Fri, 21 Apr 2006 20:08:00 GMT Iya Traorevia Kjell Olsen2118 days agoFreestyle soccer. This guy is good. About 20, studying in Paris (it looks like), and looking for a club to play with. Juggling doesn’t make a soccer player, but it is plenty cool in and of itself.
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02 April 2006
Sun, 02 Apr 2006 09:59:56 GMT 'American sports are played with the hands. Using your feet is for commies'via Kjell Olsen2138 days agoIf you were soccer, the sport of kings, would you want the adulation of a people who elected Bush and Cheney, not once but twice? You would not.
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01 March 2006
Wed, 01 Mar 2006 20:49:00 GMT Cougar SoccerKjell Olsen2169 days agoMy school is adding a varsity mens team next year, I’ll be there. I regret going to a school without a soccer program a little, but hated the idea of a private school, and also the idea of going all to far away. I heard rumors that Morris was starting a team, and hedged my bets. We start practices after spring break, in just a few weeks.
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25 January 2006
Wed, 25 Jan 2006 16:03:37 GMT Soccer with carsvia Kjell Olsen2205 days agoThe best ever.
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09 December 2005
Fri, 09 Dec 2005 17:50:18 GMT World Cup finals draw in fullvia Kjell Olsen2251 days agoOpens june 9th.
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02 December 2005
Fri, 02 Dec 2005 21:42:38 GMT Football Dribble in LeidsePlein Amsterdamvia Kjell Olsen2258 days agoI’m so impressed there isn’t anything I can say.
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20 June 2005
Mon, 20 Jun 2005 10:22:42 GMT KickReal (LIVE PENALTY SHOOTOUT-CHASE THE BALL INTO THE GOAL WITH YOUR OWN FOOT)via Kjell Olsen2424 days agoWow, camera phone + foot + software lets you play a soccer shootout by mock kicking a ball for the camera! Sweet, I really want a high tech phone to be able to play with stuff like this.
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05 May 2005
Thu, 05 May 2005 07:23:26 GMTMy knee is the size of an elephant
And I have a soccer tournament this weekend, so what do I do? I’m having an MRI wednesday, and then I have an appointment with an Orthopedic specialist the next monday – but the fact that the doctor I saw yesterday couldn’t tell me anything doesn’t help me decide whether or not to use the knee like normal, or lay around the house for two weeks. Tough decision.
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20 March 2005
Sun, 20 Mar 2005 00:10:05 GMTA tip to all you who like to play soccer
You like to play soccer, you maybe even love it. It’s winter, so you don’t get to go out and play as much as you might like – but your time will come. Nonetheless, you get to play so little you might as well go out and play hard for the two or so hours your on the field.
The field you play on is great, it’s made up of the newest, fanciest turf. There are cut up sheets of green plastic, which kind of look like grass, and little bits of rubber settled between the plastic to get a nice and soft floor. You need your cleats so you don’t slip all over, the traction ain’t great.
You put your cleats on and they feel extra small, not quite as comfortable as they’ve been, you had really got them well worn in last year. Oh well, tie up and start running around.
It’s not until theres just maybe a half hour before you get done do you notice how much your heels hurt, and as time goes, you run up and down and round and round your heels really start killing you. Ouch!
By the time the games wrap up, your legs burn and lungs feel like they’ve stretched a few inches, but you can’t even walk off the field before you have to rip off your left cleat (your left foot is a little bigger then your right) and hope you won’t have blisters for the next few weeks. Ouch!
Step into some looser shoes to drive home, and the pain mostly goes away. Your mind is otherwise occupied, and not rubbing or chafing against anything at the moment.
I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t keep your nice blue leather boots directly above the forced air heating element in your front hall for a week. Also, try and keep blisters out of water, that really stings.
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27 June 2004
Sun, 27 Jun 2004 12:28:00 GMTLe Week-End
I won a soccer tournament this weekend, it was good. 3-0-1, we shouldn’t have even tied Moorhead. I do love soccer, I’ve been playing center mid recently at the request of the club trainer. It’s fun, I get the ball a lot more then I ever have on the outside, and I can play a full game easily. Running is too much at outside mid, center it’s nothing.
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Also somewhat recently
