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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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The Three Caballeros Ride Again Review!: And Ladies (Ride of the Three Caballeros)

Saludos Amigos! I’m back with yet another comics review! And we’re back on The Ride of the Three Cablleros! Thanks again to WeirdKev27 for commissioning this retrospective. It’s going to get pricey and I greatly appreciate it. PREVIOUSLY ON RIDE OF THE THREE CABLLEROS

In short.. a bunch of short segments of varying quality, a very thirsty Donald hitting on ladies, the first appearance of Panchito and some very good music. A fun time was had by all. Along with a LOT OF drugs by the Disney Animators. The film wasn’t a huge success, but out of the 6 package films, it was a fan faviorite alongside the Mr. Toad and Ichabod movie, and thus was rereleased quite a bit, as well as being one of the first of this era to end up on VHS due to it’s cult popularity. As for Panchito and Jose they’d get plenty of success overseas, with both getting solo series in their respective home countries, Jose himself having just resumed having comics again this year, and being rightfully massive characters. But despite being a hit with fans across the world.. in the US... they were pretty much shoved in the Disney Vault for a few decades. Jose would show up on the Wonderful World of Disney, in it’s various forms, three times after the Three Caballeros while Panchito just vanished aside from reuses of the Three Caballeros footage. Their careers in the US just sorta vanished for a few decades. But as suddenly as they vanished, our boys returned triumphantly. Naturally being the most used out of the duo, Jose would show up for the first time in decades during Mickey Mouseworks, a show full of new late 90′s produced Mickey Mouse shorts, all but two of which would end up being recycled for the much more popular and well loved House of Mouse, which would feature the triumphant return of the Cabs to animation after so long away. We’ll get to that next time, as just a year before the Cabs had already reunited in the pages of Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories in one of Don Rosa’s best loved tales. The Ride of The Three Caballeros was something Don Rosa had wanted to do since he got the job writing Duck Comics in the first place. As he explained in the back of the complete library edition named after this tale, Uncle Keno isn’t the biggest fan of the Donald Theatrical shorts. Having experienced the Carl Barks comics first, and having built his career around them later, he just wasn’t a fan of the goofier, angrier, less nuanced theatrical short Donald, often feeling like he was an entirely different character from the one he loved. And.. honestly he’s not wrong. Both were built for entirely different kinds of comedy: While both did slapstick, Slapstick, along with standard comedy shenanigans, was the main weapon in Shorts Donald’s comedic arsenal. Barksian Donald, while not immune to slapstick, was more like a well built sitcom character: Multi layered, sympathetic when he needs to be, but still having tons of faults to be exploited for laughs and to play off other characters. As a result while I like Donald in the shorts I do prefer Barks version of him, and the shorts Barks did are usually the best of both worlds, combining Donald’s everyman schtick with his slapstick schtick. Of course later cartoons would pick one or the other or combine both, but I do get his point and at the time he wrote this story the only cartoon show starring Donald was.. Quack Pack.. which I can only imagine his reaction to seeing that train wreck.

But as you can probably guess there was one exception and it was The Three Caballeros. Don genuinely enjoys the beautiful music and the wonderful chemistry the three have. So after a trip to Mexico gave him the perfect setting and the fire in his belly to finally do it, he finally wrote the story. And since they weren’t Barksian characters and hadn’t had any other apperances in decade, Don also took a dive into their comics. Since Jose was more of a fancifial freeloader in his comics, Don decided to ignore this characterization and go with his own based on the film: A latin playboy and lounge singer. And i’m okay with him doing that, as unlike say with Marvel and DC when they destroy a character, Disney characters are both more fluid continuity wise and his is still rooted in a version of the character, and he’s fully accepting and apologetic that some fans hate him for this. Also for some damn reason they redesigned Jose at some point in his Brazil to look like this:

This is far from the dumbest comic book costume change i’ve seen, but it’s certainly one of the most lame, as his original outfit is dapper, stylish and fits the Brazilian version of him well. And it’s not like you CAN’T update the classic Disney characters with modern appearances. Quack Pack, which has somehow come up twice in this review, did so great with Donald and Daisy, giving them new clothes and a haircut in Daisy’s case but both still look great. Same with Goofy for Goof Troop who just wore a dad sweater and bow tie, which puts him in the small but significant club of “Bow Tie Wearing Characters who have defined my life” with Opus the Penguin and the 11th Doctor. You can update a classic character’s’s appearance without coming off like...

Which given Jose’s outfit there is horrifyingly similar, says something. Anyways, Rosa had more use for Panchito’s stories, which had him as a cowboy protecting small towns with the help of his trusty steed Senor Martinez. Rosa loved both aspects and thus used them here, with Martinez getting a makeover to fit Rosa’s style better. Rosa is also the one to popularize Panchito’s last name, having found it on a scrap of research, not realizing the character’s last name was not at all widespread and thus giving him a canon one that has stuck to this day, and sighing in relief when he finally got conformation from another fan this name was indeed something Disney had used after loosing his research scrap. So with the two boys characters set, a plot set up and a whole sequence planned we’ll talk about on the way “The Three Caballeros Ride Again!” was born. How good is it? Well join me under the cut and i’ll tell you.

We open in Mexico, specifically near the Barranca Del Cobre, aka The “Copper Canyon” of the Sierra Madre, a natural land formation simlar to the Grand Canyon that Don Rosa saw during his trip and thought would make a great setting. While larger than the Grand Canyon, Rosa figures in his notes it simply isn’t as popular because it’s more isolated than the Grand Canyon and that, combined with it having trees inside distracting from it’s rugged beauty, makes it much harder to build a tourist industry around. The four are headed to El Divisadero, because this comic is determined to kill me with it’s difficult to spell names apparently, where Huey, Dewey or Louie spouts off for no particular reason about the currently being built Chihuahua El Pacifico Railway. Seriously the boys might as well be the security guard from Wayne’s World in this comic, their role for most of their brief page time is just to set up stuff for later. I mean i’m fine with setting up your setting but there are better ways than just spouting off tons of exposition apropos of nothing.

Donald has driven the boys here for a Woodchuck Jamboree. I did actually look into Jamborees, as before this it only had ever come up in one of my favorite movies of all time, Moonrise Kingdom, and mentioned occasionally in the Ducktales Reboot. Jamboree was first used for a worldwide scouting Jamboree but has gone on to mean a huge gathering of scouts, with the Boy Scouts of America having one every four years, so odds are it’s just a big yearly or quarter yearly thing for the woodchucks. Still it would be nice to see a big gathering like this in the series, especially since several of our cast are involved in them, including the possible power trio of Huey, Violet and Boyd, and Della and Launchpad could easily be slotted into the plot as seen in this season’s premiere.. as could Dewey and Louie if they really want to since according to Frank their members.. they just aren’t nearly as invested as their brother, and thus don’t do Woodchuck stuff unless he drags them into it, as seen with “Day of the Only Child” in the series itself. It does make sense: Dewey doesn’t have the survival instinct or patience for camping, and Louie hates effort, the out doors, and doing things for anything but profit. Scouting is all of that. So the boys have driven all this way for the Mexican Jamboree, as they’ve been carefully raising their tarantula Tara, and the Tarantula Breeding Badge is only given out in Mexico, which is plausible: Different branches of a worldwide organization would have different awards and what not in different countries. And Tarantula’s are also native to mexico so that makes sense.. and I want you to apricate that I’m afraid of spiders, not cartoony ones, for instance, this is adorable.

Galvantula4Life. But real life ones or realistic looking ones? Yeah no fuck that. So I had to go to the Wikipedia entry and see several horrifying looking sizeable spiders for this one tiny fact. Your welcome. Tara ends up on Donald’s face with the boys assuming Donald is sad to see her go instead of you know FUCKING TERRIFIED A GIANT SPIDER IS ON HIS FACE. This gag does not work.. but probably because as I said i’m afraid of spiders and this is my nightmare, you little sociopaths.

The boys however worry about what Donald will do for the weekend as they prepare to board the bus to the Jamboree... why it’s meeting in an out of the way town like this I have no idea, but i’d guess plot convince. They realize he has no friends, which Donald shrugs off, and they REALLY shouldn’t say to his face, but ruminate on it once he leaves to do whatever after vaguely talking about friends he had in the past.

I like this scene even though it annoys me a bit: Ilike it because it does set up how Donald really DOSEN’T have any friends in the comics. It’s part of WHY Rosa was drawn to the Cabs: Their one of the few equal relationships donald’s ever had, people who treat him as a partner, in both sense probably, a friend, a true amigo. As the boys point out Scrooge is a monster to him in the comics, paying him 30 cents an hour which I actually put into an inflation calculator to get an accurate read on how little that was by 2020 standards.. and it’s 3 dollars an hour. Hence why I call him a monster, why that bit hasn’t aged well, and why Rosa REALLY, REALLY should’ve retired it. It dosen’t help reading that knowing Disney largely treated Rosa the same way is cringe inducing at best, if not for any fault of his own. It being cringe inducing for an employer horribly mistreating and underpaying his employees though is his fault, he’s a grown ass man, even in the 90′s this had to be a problem, be better.

And yes i’m being hard on Don Rosa but just like with the comics thing, I simply expect better from the man given just how much respect I have for the guy. His art is gorgeous, his research is immaculate, his knowledge of old films is wonderful and his love for them so infectious i’m tempted to seek the ones he’s mentioned in notes out. He’s a truly wonderful guy and one of my faviorite comic writers.. but I have to treat him fairly like I do ANY of my idols. Just to prove that, I love Grant Morrison, especially his run on New X-Men, but a lot of it hasn’t aged well including some of the language and the entire subplot with Emma manipulating Scott into having an affair when he wasn’t in the best mental place and she knew that and was acting as his therapist, and treating that as a regular affair REALLY doesn’t play well nor should it have. I love Al Ewing, with all my heart and soul, but his run on Ultimates, while having some great worldbuilding and a spectacular cast, ultimately wasn’t very good after the first arc. Not terrible but not good. John Aliison, of Scary Go Round and Giant Days fame, while impressive has had plenty of stories I just didn’t like for various reasons and will probably get into some day and some parts of his stories haven’t aged well. It’s the hard but necessary part of being a critic: You have to be objective and see all the parts of a creator’s creation, not just the ones you like and call them out when they screw up. To me being a fan isn’t about just blindly loving something, it’s about knowing WHY you love it and being willing to call out faults while still thoroughly enjoying the work. There’s a fine line between being blindly loyal to someone, which has created Zach Snyder's awful cult of personality that I hate so much, and being an overly critical shithead and I hope I’m straddling that line.

Back on the scene after that filibuster they point out Gladstone, who himself is a monster to me for how he doesn’t lift a finger to help his nephews or cousin, and constnatly flaunts his luck to Donald, and is a bit more than teasing especially since he tried to, you know, steal your house once boys. That’s canon.. that’s a barks story so it’s canon here. You.. You remember that right? He tried to steal your house. And we will be getting to that one next month, just you wait. Finally the Daisy part that annoys me slightly. The boys being sexist.. was sadly the style at the time this story is set, the 1950′s, and thus plays better for me than it does in Ducktales, as their just little boys and don’t know better. Them assuming Girlfriends aren’t like having friends, while accurate though does bother me a bit, but only because the way this story treats Donald’s relationship is PRETTTTTYYYY bad and this sets that up. But we’ll get to that. Thankfully this foreshadowing of terrors to come is quickly forgotten as we get a GENUINELY great two panels of Donald lamenting his lack of friends. It just works really well, selling his loneliness and how isolated he truly feels without any, which while I have friends I can relate to as I only really hang out with on regularly.

This is what I was talking about. While I will point out Rosa’s flaws.. their truly outweighed but his artistic mastery. In just three panels he really has a truly emotional and heartrending scene, and just that one close up among them is all we need to get the true depths of Donald’s loneliness. I can be hard on the guy, but it’s because he’s one of the best there is, best there was, and best there ever will be and thus I hold him to a high standard. But with that we transition to...

Or rather first his boss at the hotel, whose pissed his headliner has skipped out on him again to woo a lady, and while he plans to fire the guy, only isn’t throttling him because he figures one of his “Senorita’s” boyfriends will do that for him. And while I do like Jose as a playboy i’m not really fond of him trying to have sex with someone in a relationship, as it puts both him and the person he’s having an affair with in a really bad light. It does fit the character, I just don’t have to like it. As for this particular Senorita, it turns out her boyfriend is a notorious Bandito and is thankfully out of town. So yes, Jose is essentially acting out Come A Little Bit Closer by Jay and the Americans.

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Naturally just like the song, said Bad Man returns, Alfonso “Gold Hat” Bedoya, a machete wielding baddie who while understandably pissed about another man making time with his girlfriend, is less understandably about to murder Jose. Though unlike the song, Alfonso’s Lady, rather than help Jose, encourages her boyfriend to murder him and clearly has a fetish for cheating on her boyfriend with various men and watching as he kills him which.. Jesus. This is why while I don’t LIKE the idea of Jose hitting on women in a relationship it does work here, as he’s still not nearly as bad as either of these two, so it evens out. Jose escapes with his umbrella but crashes.. right into the back of Donald’s car. Rosa, Alfonso’s lady, encourages him to murder both of them for funsies, and being a brutal thug, Alfonso obliges and shoots at the car. And since, to quote the duck himself, Donald doesn’t like being killed “Even a little”, he books it out of there.

Alfonso doesn’t peruse them though. He’s on the trail of a treasure hunter who has a map to the lost town of Tayopa, which contains untold silver, but before he can do that he has important buisness to get to.

I fucking love that gag and that Rosa snuck more adult gags in there knowing plenty of Duck Fans, such as myself, are grown men, women and others who can handle this sort of thing, while still slippnig it past the kids.

Donald, once the fear’s worn off a bit, starts to wonder WHY he’s running when he’s not the one who pissed off the guy, and ignores Jose’s good point about the fact Alfonso really dosen’t seem like a guy who sees nuance.. until Donald sees a wanted poster for Alphonoso and keeps driving. He eventually gets far enough away to feel safe.. and confront the guy who got him into this mess.

Now kiss. While sadly, they do not, we do get a lovely warm reunion between old pals. Rosa keeps their past vauge as, correctly, he pointed out in his authors notes that the Cabs movie really had no plot, accurate, so instead just vaguely alluded to Donald having known the two in his pre-daisy and boys past and likely had similar adventures to the movie, but adapted more for Rosa’s barksian universe. Jose explains he often finds himself cash poor and thus hits the road to drum up some money, and Mexico is a great place for that as it has plenty of tourist money.

Though as Jose talks about their past we get the most uncomfortable running gag of the story.

While Donald’s paranoia here is played for laughs.. it just.. isn’t all that funny that Donald’s relationship with Daisy in the Rosa canon is apparently sooooo deeply unhealthy that just HEARING about him having a romantic past before him, as Rosa confirmed this was pre-daisy in his notes, causes Donald to panic and worry she actually somehow heard this. It just isn’t funny.. it speaks of MASSIVE relationship issues and some form of domestic abuse on Rosa!Daisy’s part. It’s stuff like this why there’s only a handful of Donsy relationships I like: Her treating him like shit is reduced to a punchline, instead of being used for character growth. It’s also why I’m deeply dreading covering “Legend of the Three Cablleros” at the end of this retrospective. I just don’t like when Disney media treats Daisy expecting too much of Donald or being hyper jealous of him as hilarious and while I take this more as the story not ageing well rather than barks fault, as since then Domestic Abuse against Males has become a more widely known and talked about issue, it still doesn’t’t make it plesant. It just makes this not entirely his fault. Just like it’s not Stan Lee’s fault this panel is both deeply hilarious and uses a now kinda racist term.

I named an entire youtube channel after that.. we all have our regrets. I also bring it up since currently Harry’s become terrifying villain Kindred... and thus the current big bad of an entire Spider-Man run and the being hopefully bringing one more day into the light and hopefully leading to it’s undoing.. once had a goofy mustache he genuinely referred to a “Fu Manchu Face Fuzz” that for all we know he regrew under the mask.

Donald fondly remembers the old days of being a badass adventuring team and decides, screw it, let’s go show that Gold Hatted Paloka whose boss.. but being Donald ends up driving them into The Copper Canyon instead. Our heroes end up lost in the canyon and , fitting for Donald get shot at. I can only imagine his thoughts right now.

Their mysterious attacker threatens them.. before revealing himself to be Panchito, whose glad to see his friends having mistook them for Alfonso. Turns out HE’S the mysterious treasure hunter Alfonoso was after, to no one’s surprise. We get another deeply unfunny “Daisy’s only a thousand miles away gag” as the boys reminisce and get introduced to Panchito’s horse, Senior Martniez. He also tells the boy about his map.. but how he’s hit a snag as the lost town where the silver, from a silver mine.. is now buried under pounds of volcanic rock, a volcano having erupted. This is artistic license as Don Rosa admits there aren’t any known volcano’s in Mexico, but that they also still haven’t found that missing town, so this was his explanation. All is not lost as Donald’s globetrotting with Scrooge meant he knows his history.. and thus spots an old mission which, at the time, were used by preists as cover for secret mines. Donald naturally bungles his way in and we get the much better running gag of the Cabs thinking Donald did something amazing when he really just wondered into slapstick. They end up down the shaft, with Jose deciding Donald can’t do all the work, and finding a secret entrance under a sanctum sanctorum.. a religious thing I have no idea what it ii s but is clearly where Dr. Strange got the name. Regardless they find some old kegs filled with pure silver. As Panchito puts it:

And he did ideed. In a nice moment that shows off his character, Panchito has no hesitation for sharing the wealth: He wouldn’t of got this far without his friends, and he wont get the Silver cashed in without their help. He also fires off his guns in celebration.. forgetting their in a cave, a gag I genuinely like.

After some off screen loading and hoisting, the boys are slowly on their way out of the canyon, with Donald’s Car and Senor Martinez pulling the cart with the silver together. With some downtime the three talk about what they’ll spend the money on.

About what you’d expect. A big beautiful music venue

For Jose, and a nice ranch to retire at for Panchito. Both despite being wondering souls would love a simple place to call home, in their own personal styles. While they are BIG goals, their also likeable and understandable ones: Jose just wants to stop having to do all these tours and carouse and party and perform at home. Be his own boss, and live his own dreams instead of working for whoever will put up for him. Panchito just wants to retire from being a wondering hero to a peaceful life of farming, an honest reward he well earned. And Donald?

This is easily one of my faviorite moment’s of Rosa’s, one that really cuts to comic donald’s character: Sure he can be lazy, a trickster, hot tempered, and overconfident.. it’s why we love him.. but at the end of the day he genuinely loves those boys and their his first prority and I can see why the reboot took that trait and made it his defining one. They may annoy and frustrate them and he may pull a switch on them, 50′s after all.. but he loves his boys and knows they’ll do great one day and despite his spendthrift ways when given big money.. their all he can think about. Sure Donald probably has his own personal dreams, but instead of going big and retiring he’d probably just take only a small sliver of that money to open a humble hot dog stand or something, so he could have something of his own to provide them, while still giving most of the money to their college. Scrooge is who we all want to be.. Donald is who we are at our core: Flawed people who just want to do our best. It’s why I love the guy so much. The boys rest in the small town of El Divisadero, which like the town we started in is a real place, though both are much smaller, even as of 2000 when Rosa made his visit, so he had to embelish slightly. THey stop at a local watering hole only to find Alphonso. While Jose is naturally worried, Gold Hat has moved on to Panchito and wants to know why he’s here. However Donald thinking quickly says he’s part of their nightclub act, and we get a rousing version of the three cablleros, which when reading this I synched up to the song. I won’t put it here, as it’s too big for tumblr and it really works more as a whole, but needless to say, it’s the highlight of the comic. While Rosa did have doubts about putting a musical number in a comic, and it’s often trickey, he makes it work with the energy, vibrance and number of gags, that compensate for the music not being there. There’s tons of great gags, from Donald getting thrown out window, to the stone faced crowd who only cheers when Alphonso ends the number by whacking the three with one of their own guitars. Alphonso quickly realizes what’s goin on, finds the silver, and then hyjacks the train. The boys take off after him in the car, as Donald triumphantly states “The Three Cablleros Ride Again!”. The three head after Alphonzo, who finds them when trying to release the other cars to increase speed, and then shoots at them. It seems hopeless... until donald gets launched into the air, into a cactus then back into Alphonzo knocking his guns out in a great bit of slapstick. The Conductor, likely not knowing about the others or not carring, detaches the cars though, so our heroes and villian are now sent rocketing through the world’s most dangerous railway. Which, as you’d probably already figured out, is very real and what inspirited rosa to use this setting and thus indeed wind through dangerous mountainsides and over thin cliffs like a real life Donkey Kong Country level. Eduardo still has his machete though and easily beats Jose’s umbrella, but some more Donald slapstick and him apologizing to daisy about the senioritis as he wishes her goodbye seriously GET SOME COUPLE’S COUNSELING IF THAT EXISTS IN THE 50′S. It puls his sombrero down over his head, and with jose’s umbrella top landing on it, carries him off where he ends up in a lazy asshole sheirff’s jail for a gag. The boys however continue going back.. and the railway is unfinished at this time in history and while they save the silver, their fucked. But Donald has a plan, running to the back of the cars to get his car, and while it has trouble starting, Panchito throws some chilie’s in the tank to get it moving again. The boys find the silver.. but when one barrel spills they find out it’s not actual liquid silver.. but quicksilver, which was used for silver refinment. So while i’ts shiny, and toxic so of course Jose sticks his hand in before knowing what it is, it’s worthless. Probably. The boys.. all have a nice laugh over it. I love this moment. Sure the boys lost their dreams.. but like Scrooge, the three belivie theirs always another rainbow. What matters is the journey they had and the reunion that restored their friendship. Donald also muses the boys are smart enough to get their own scholarships anyway, so it’s no big loss.. but he does have to get back to Disvadero as the jamboree ends tonight and Jose agrees as he now needs a job again. The owner balks, understandably since Jose missed a performance to get laid and then disappeared overnight.. but the Hotel Owner is visiting so as long as he can provide a big act he’s good, and while Jose is worried as he already gave them his best, the boys naturally pitch in to be the cablleros once more. After all

So we close on Huey, Dewey and Louie returning, still worrying about donald, when they find him on stage. We then end on a truly heartwarming and great last few panels.

Final Thoughts: What else can I say? This story is beautifully drawn, as usual for Rosa, well paced, fun and really fleshes the Cabs out from the movie. It has a warm, fun adventurous tone and it’s nice to see Donald in the lead since Rosa usually did Scrooge stories and thus Donald was the justifiably surly sidekick instead of the main man> here he’s in the spotlight and gets to show just what he’s made of, while still being the hilarious mess we all know and love. The story honors the original film well, while forging it’s own path and is beautifully built into history. My only real complaints are the nephews being annoying, Alphonso’s somewhat overwrought accent, and of course the daisy gags.. but it’s all HEAVILY outweighed by one of Rosa’s finest hours and easy enough to ignore. Check this out if you can. It’s a classic for a reason.

If you liked this review, you can commission your own by messaging me on here or at my discord technicolormuk#655 for five dollars a comic story or animation episode. Whenever the ride resumes next, we’ll coming on down to the house of mouse to see the boys return to the screen. In the meantime keep an eye on this space for regular Ducktales reviews every Monday, including once this run ends as I intend to start playing catchup, loud house reviews whenever, my tom retrospective that’s returning soon, and my retrospective on the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, with chapter 2 of that also coming soon. Until then, there’s always another rainbow.

#the three caballeros #jose carioca #panchito pistoles #donald duck #don rosa #ride of the three caballeros #the three caballeros ride again #huey duck #dewey duck #louie duck #daisy duck #mexico #comics #reviews #elmo keep

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tsohl · 4 years ago

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A bit of fun...

An Interview from village magazine. 2005

A model life

Monaghan-born Caitriona Balfe was recruited shaking a charity box outside a Dublin shopping centre. Now she is Ireland's most successful international model. Based in New York and the darling of some of the world's top designers, she talks to Ailbhe Jordan

It’s just after five on a Tuesday evening in Soho. Streams of harassed-looking people scurry in both directions along Spring Street, seeking escape from the mayhem of midweek Manhattan in the form of the nearest taxi or subway station.

Nobody but me seems to notice a tall, thin young woman leaning against the wall of a grey building. We have never met in person and a curtain of long, tousled brown hair obscures her face as she flicks through a notebook, but it’s definitely her.

Since Derek Daniels of Assets Modelling agency spotted her six years ago collecting money for charity outside the Swan Shopping Centre in Rathmines, Caitriona Balfe has quietly strutted her way to the upper echelons of the fashion industry.

Nineteen years old and intent on becoming an actress at the time, Balfe modelled part-time in Dublin for a year until a visiting scout from Ford Modelling agency asked her to work for them in Paris. She decided to take a year out from her drama course at the Dublin Institute of Technology to pursue the opportunity.

In her six years as a model, Balfe has strutted down the catwalk for every big name from Gucci to Marc Jacobs. Vogue are big fans too; the fashion bible has put her on the cover of its US, French, German, Spanish and Italian editions.

After Paris, Balfe moved to Milan, where she became the darling of Dolce & Gabanna, who still hire her to work exclusively at their spring and autumn shows. Three years ago, she moved to New York to work for US based Elite Modelling agency. One of her first castings was for Cuban-American designer Narciso Rodriguez, who was so impressed, he made her his muse.

Balfe is, without a doubt, the most successful international model Ireland has produced.

On this evening she looks up and smiles, revealing a heart-shaped face, with sharp, pixie-like features and bright blue eyes. Wearing not a scrap of makeup, she looks younger than her 26 years. Her complexion is pale, clear and spattered with light brown freckles.

She is around 5ft 10”, but seems smaller because of her narrow, thin frame. Dressed in a loose, taupe-colored top, skinny blue jeans that are not as tight as they should be and red flats, she personifies that casual glamour look to which all the downtown hipsters aspire.

She suggests we go to Balthazar, a French Bistro beloved of New York models and celebrities.

As we walk, she assumes a posture so elegant and so straight it looks as though she is leaning backwards slightly.

Balfe’s family comes from Tyvadet, a small town in Co Monaghan. Her accent is neutral from years of living abroad, but every now and then, the Monaghan dialect peeps through – when she says “cool”, for instance, which she says a lot.

Weekend reservations at Balthazar are nearly impossible to make if one is not famous and has not booked at least a couple of weeks in advance.

“Go on ahead,” she says, holding the door open. The hostess directs us to a small table at the window. Balfe glides into her booth without pushing the table out first. “I’m going to have some cake,” she says, lowering her voice.“I got my wisdom teeth out on Friday, so I’ve basically been eating soup all weekend,” she adds quickly, touching her jaws with both hands.

“I was supposed to go to LA today, but I cancelled that because my face was still a bit swollen.”

Conversations between any two people renting in New York City inevitably turn to apartments and – more importantly – locations. Balfe lives in Greenpoint, a trendy Polish neighbourhood in Brooklyn. “I was about three years in the city but I love Brooklyn,” she says.

“It’s just really cute. It’s kind of European, like most of the streets are all mom and pop stores, there’s not one McDonalds. They’ve got all cute little vegetable stores, there’s a meat market and a fish market.”

She pauses to take a sip of coffee.

“We’ve got the ground floor of a building. Its got like a back garden and a basement, which is really cool. My boyfriend has his studio in the basement.”

The boyfriend she refers to is Dave Milone, a guitarist with the band Radio4, who are releasing a new album in New York this week.

“I’ve been with him for three years, he’s from New Jersey,” she says rolling her eyes as New Yorkers often do at the mention of their neighbouring and, in their opinion, less cosmopolitan state.

“It’s a bit of a cliché, I know, a model and a rocker. It’s good though.”

At 26, Balfe has said she considers herself to be one of the “grannies” of the modeling industry.

“Of my five really close friends whom I started with, there’s only one whose still modeling,” she says.

“The rest have gone off to college or have real jobs. I still feel like I’m at college,” she says, stirring her coffee and putting the spoon down on the saucer with a loud clink.

“When I see some of these younger girls who are starting at 17 or so, it’s like being at school, you know. You’ve a bunch of girls who are like, teenagers and of course everyone’s like: ‘is she doing better than me?’ and all that. I was a little bit older when I started, I was 19 and I never really experienced that. I mean, you’re always going to come across a bitch but there’s nothing you can really do about that. I’m getting older now and it does feel weird when you come across someone who tries to intimidate you in that really high school way. It’s like: ‘why am I feeling insecure because of this?’ And it’s funny, because it’s all based on weight, it’s like: ‘you put on a few pounds,’ or something stupid.”

At this point the desserts arrive.

“I feel like the girls are getting very skinny again,” she says, following the movement of the plate with her eyes as the waitress places it in front of her.

“When I started it was like, a lot of the Brazilian girls were around, it was all about being voluptuous and I think in the last couple of seasons there’s been a lot of really, really skinny girls again. I mean, you can tell when somebody doesn’t eat, you can tell by the big rings under their eyes or when they’re kind of quiet, they’re whole personality is kind of...” she slouches down and drops her tongue out in a display of lifelessness.

She picks up her spoon and digs it into the cake, then turns the plate around and spears the scoop of vanilla ice-cream that is perched on top.

“I’ve always been thin, you know?” she says, while her mouth is full.

“My aunts and uncles will be like, ‘oh do you eat?’ but I’ve always been lucky that I can. I eat more than Dave. I go through very, very sporadic, once-in-a-blue-moon fits of going running and stuff, but I’m so lazy. When shows are coming up I just do some exercises at home and maybe not have so much chocolate cake the week before. A few more salads, that kind of thing.”

Next week, Balfe expects to be working in LA for a couple of days, from where she will fly to Miami for a photo shoot, before returning to New York on Sunday to do a shoot for Spanish Vogue.

“It sounds glamorous, it’s not though, it really isn’t,” she says, holding another spoonful of cake up to her lips.

“I am moving towards retirement now – from this,” she continues. “Every year I’m asked and I’m like, ‘oh another year or two.’ But, if I’m still doing this at the end of the next two years, somebody shoot me, please. I mean, it’s really good and it allows me to live a good life. I’m building a house in Monaghan, I can do stuff like that. I can set myself up for the future and stuff. But being an actress was the thing that I always wanted to do. Before I ever started modelling.”

Balfe has not yet found her perfect role, but played a convincing seductress in 2002 when she modelled for lingerie company Victoria’s Secret during their catwalk show, an annual TV spectacle that that has propelled models like Gisele Bundchen and Heidi Klum to international fame.

“Oh God, my poor Da,” she groans, cradling her head in her hands.

“I think it was the Sun or the Mirror back home had this headline: ‘Garda’s daughter goes und-y-cover.’ I wondered what I was doing in there, this pasty little Irish girl amongst all these Brazilian goddesses. I’d gotten a spray tan and they put full body make-up on me but I was 10 times whiter than anyone there. It took very little clothes and quite a lot of champagne to get through that one.”

She shakes her head, smiling at the memory. “Its funny you know? Normally when I’m out, I don’t really dress up. It’s amazing how people will absolutely not even notice you until they hear the word ‘model,’ and then they’re like: ‘Oh.’ And I’m like: ‘what?’ Two seconds ago, I was nothing, you know?”

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soccerdrawings · 5 years ago

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What You Know About Us Youth Soccer Tournaments 10 And What You Don't Know About Us Youth Soccer Tournaments 10 | Us Youth Soccer Tournaments 10

The United States’ Matt Besler squats on the angle afterwards accident 2-1 adjoin Trinidad and Tobago during a 2018 Apple Cup condoning soccer match, October 10, 2017. (AP / Rebecca Blackwell)

Second day complete at 10 US Youth Soccer Far West .. | us youth soccer tournaments 2018 A accumulation of adolescent soccer players loaded into two vans on a brilliant abatement day in 2018, and fabricated their way from their auberge to a adjacent sports circuitous in Ontario, California. The affairs to acceptable the 36 abeyant stars were in place: a bivouac for agents and volunteers; tents for coaches, scouts, and club representatives; and appointed sections for medical agents and ancestors members. On the sidelines, a camera was accessible to almanac the exhibition game, area the players would attempt to accretion the absorption of scouts. There was alike a airship accomplished for them to airing beneath as they stepped assimilate the pitch. Ad Action This adventure was appear in affiliation with Type Investigations, area Isma’il Kushkush is an Ida B. Wells Fellow.The players were mostly US-born Latinos in their backward teens, and they traveled—all costs paid—from about a dozen US states. They began to amplitude and balmy up: jogging, casual to anniversary other, and demography shots on goal. Back they were done, Rafa Calderon, a agents affiliate with Alianza de Futbol, the accumulation acclimation the five-day soccer showcase, alleged them together. “This is your time, adore it!” he told them. “You are actuality because you accord here. You becoming it.” The players stepped off the field. Then, forth with their opponents from the adolescence development academy Absolute So Cal, they absolved in alongside curve beneath the balloons aback to the centermost of the field, area they befuddled easily with the referees and kicked off the match.Among those watching were assembly from 13 clubs in the Liga MX, Mexico’s able soccer league, and two from the Mexican Football Federation (FMF), the sport’s administering anatomy in Mexico. “Within the aboriginal day, I’ve already articular three players are absolutely interesting,” said José Luis Real, the sports development and adolescence academy administrator of the Mexican soccer club Toluca and a aloft Mexican civic aggregation coach. “As of yesterday, I could accept appointed a flight aback home and advised my job done.” Related Article Mexican clubs and alike the Mexican men’s civic aggregation accept commonly recruited players acknowledgment by Alianza de Futbol, a San Francisco Bay Area–based alignment committed to the development of Hispanic abecedarian soccer. They accommodate Edwin Lara, a US-born amateur who played for Mexico’s under-17 Mexican civic aggregation (before afterwards authoritative a allegiance about-face to the US team), and Jonathan Gonzalez, accession Mexican-American amateur who was recruited by the Liga MX club Monterrey and played for the US men’s U-15 team.US Soccer Hall of Famer Hugo Pérez watched the players attentively from the sidelines. He was impressed. There players “have acceptable qualities and abeyant to comedy at a college level,” Pérez told me. “Alianza is the best alignment in the country for allowance all the soccer communities, abnormally the Latinos.” Current Issue Subscribe today and Save up to $129.And for the added time in the civic showcase’s six-year history, the US Soccer Federation—known artlessly as US Soccer, the country’s official administering body—sent scouts, according to Alianza. “The history was that there’s been actual little communication. I would alarm already or alert a year aloof to admonish them that we’re out here,” said Brad Rothenberg, an Alianza de Futbol cofounder. US Soccer had beatific scouts to some of Alianza’s bounded attack events, said Rothenberg. But rarely beatific anyone in an official accommodation to the covering showcase. “There’s never been a absolute concerted interest,” he said.US Soccer disputes Alianza’s assuming that it has been blank the organization, and says they accept beatific cadre to assorted contest over the years. “The history was that there’s been actual little communication. I would alarm already or alert a year aloof to admonish them that we’re out here,” said Brad Rothenberg, an Alianza de Futbol cofounder. US Soccer had beatific scouts to some of Alianza’s bounded attack events, said Rothenberg. But until aftermost year it had never beatific anyone in an official accommodation to the covering showcase. “There’s never been a absolute concerted interest,” he said. If you like this article, amuse accord today to advice armamentarium The Nation’s work.Rothenberg—the son of Alan Rothenberg, who headed US Soccer in the 1990s—told me that US Soccer has abandoned Hispanic players, coaches, and scouts for years, creating a assortment botheration that’s accustomed in the accomplished echelons of the sport. A 2014 abstraction of USMNT players by announcer Roger Bennett and University of Chicago economics abettor Greg Kaplan showed that US men’s civic aggregation (USMNT) players from the antecedent two decades were added acceptable to appear from higher-income, white families than top American basketball and football players during the aforementioned period. The abstraction was never published, admitting Bennett discussed some of the allegation on a podcast. The 2019 USMNT Gold Cup agenda of 23 players included four Latino and seven atramentous players, authoritative the agenda about half-minority, admitting the 1994 Apple Cup agenda of 22 players included bristles Latino and alone two atramentous players, according to abstracts provided by US Soccer. While, on the surface, this signals an improvement, aloft aptitude pools from which USMNT recruits abide disproportionately white back it comes to acquaintance talent. Data acquired by The Nation and Type Investigations from Alianza de Futbol shows that for the 2018 division alone 7 percent of players in Aloft Alliance Soccer are US-born Latinos and 11 percent are US-born atramentous players. There is a college allotment of all-embracing players of blush in the MLS, but they aren’t acceptable to comedy on the USMNT. In 2017, about 38 percent of the league’s players were acceptable to comedy for the USMNT, according to ESPN FC. “It’s an accomplished exercise of convalescent but not accepting any better,” said Paul Gardner, a columnist at Soccer America. “One of the affidavit is that we are not application the abounding repertoire of aptitude that’s accessible to us.” I interviewed added than two dozen bodies affiliated with soccer in the United States, including aloft US Soccer officials, aloft USMNT players, Mexican civic aggregation coaches, US adolescence club coaches and staff, boyish players, and sports writers. About anybody agreed: A big allotment of the acumen the USMNT doesn’t account from “the abounding repertoire of talent,” abnormally top atramentous and Latino players, is that American soccer scouts, coaches, and admiral carelessness adolescence clubs and leagues that are not affiliated with US Soccer. Instead, USMNT recruiters focus their efforts on absolute development academies and pay-to-play adolescence soccer clubs and leagues, which are added acceptable to accept white, higher-income players. Related Article

US Youth Soccer National League kick off 10-10 .. | us youth soccer tournaments 2018 Scouts scouring the United States for aptitude accept a difficult job: They are bound in number, and assignment in a continent-sized country. According to US Soccer, there are 90 part-time scouts broadcast throughout the US alive with boys. They address to three full-time scouts. Neil Buethe, US Soccer’s arch communications officer, wrote in an e-mail that one of the full-time scouts was a built-in Spanish apostle of Argentine descent, and 20 of the 90 part-time scouts batten Spanish, admitting he couldn’t say how abounding were Latino. “We about accept at atomic one Spanish-speaking advance in anniversary of the aloft markets,” said Buethe. He added that there were three part-time Spanish-speaking scouts anniversary in southern California, Texas, New York/New Jersey, and Florida. Buethe did not breach bottomward the ethnicities of the on-the-ground scouts further. Critics assert this is not abundant to ability aloft the accustomed networks of wealthier teams and leagues. By not hiring abundant scouts from immigrant and boyhood communities, they say, US Soccer admiral accept bootless to acquisition and advance added aptitude from banal communities of color. “My activity about the approaching affairs of the United States in apple soccer is that it care to be bigger than anybody,” said Gardner, who has accounting on the carelessness of Latino aptitude in American soccer for added than 30 years. In accession to banking assets and a ample population, he explained, the United States has millions of adolescence who comedy soccer, abnormally in immigrant communities of color. “The alone country that comes abutting to us is Brazil…and the Brazilians accept managed to appear up with some array of soccer that allows a abode for everybody,” he said. In October 2017, back the men’s civic team, ranked 28 in the world, absent to Trinidad and Tobago, ranked 99, American soccer admirers were crushed. For the aboriginal time back 1986, the United States had bootless to authorize for the Apple Cup—and all they bare was a draw. One advertisement dubbed the bout “the affliction accident in the history of US men’s soccer.” Get absolute agenda admission to the best absolute account and analysis.“In added countries, back that happens, it’s apple-pie house,” Pérez said. After the accident to Trinidad and Tobago, US Soccer admiral Sunil Gulati absitively he would not run for reelection. But in the aboriginal contested US Soccer presidential acclamation in about two decades, US Soccer associates adopted Carlos Cordeiro, a aloft Goldman Sachs controlling and Gulati’s carnality president. US Soccer admiral say they accept abiding affairs in place. Buethe wrote in an e-mail that they’re “increasing the cardinal of scouts in our Aptitude Identification Department, award added touchpoints at the grassroots levels with adolescence clubs, restructuring our apprenticeship authorization pathway, alive added carefully with our Affiliate Organizations.” Still abounding critics abhorrence that US Soccer hasn’t reformed. The USMNT U23 bootless to authorize for two afterwards Olympic Games, in 2012 and 2016. Afterwards a accident to Mexico in this year’s Gold Cup final, and with the United States cohosting the 2026 Apple Cup with Mexico and Canada, the calls to transform how American soccer is managed accept developed louder. Then, on October 15, the US absent 2-0 to Canada, the aboriginal time Canada had defeated the USMNT in 34 years. “Failing to authorize for the Apple Cup is a evidence rather than the botheration itself,” said aloft USMNT midfielder Kyle Martino, now an NBC Sports analyst who ran adjoin Cordeiro. “The abortion is the byproduct of a top-down strategy; it’s trickle-down soccer.” Contrary to those that abolish the bold as un-American, soccer isn’t a contempo import. Banal English, Scottish, and Irish immigrants brought the bold to New England in the 1880s, and a acknowledged able alliance operated amid 1921 and 1932. The United States alike accomplished third in the countdown Apple Cup in 1930. The Great Depression and Apple War II, however, put a arrest to the game’s growth, and it about abolished in this country alfresco of urban, ethnic, and immigrant communities. There was a abrupt awakening afterwards the 1950 Apple Cup, back the US civic aggregation abashed anybody by assault the favorite, England, in the aboriginal round. At this time, like in abundant of the blow of the world, bodies from all socioeconomic backgrounds mostly played soccer informally, Gregory Reck, co-author of American Soccer: History, Culture, Class, explained to me. This, he said, began to change in the backward 1950s and 1960s with the acceleration of bookish soccer and in the 1970s with the admeasurement of big-ticket adolescence soccer programs. This is back the bold became abundantly a middle- and aloof action amid white Americans. “So the appearance that soccer is ‘recent’ is due to the actuality that it is contempo for the socioeconomic chic that occupies the aggregate of the soccer mural today,” Reck said. It additionally explains how best players fabricated it to the USMNT. “The civic teams were recruited through the development pipeline: pay-to-play adolescence soccer, university soccer, and again pro and civic team,” Reck said. “It bound admission to those players advancing from families with banking and cultural capital.” Add to this that coaches from Northern Europe, abnormally England and Scotland, accept had a amazing admission on soccer in the United States. Traditionally, English soccer focused beneath on the abstruse skills, creativity, and artistic comedy associated with Latin American soccer and added on concrete strength. For decades, England-trained coaches bedeviled the ranks of American adolescence soccer, with a afterwards arrival of coaches from Germany and the Netherlands. Because Latin American players, coaches, and agents played a altered appearance of game, the US soccer enactment never invested in developing these individuals, explained Mike Woitalla, the controlling administrator of Soccer America: “They about had a antipathy for it.” As armchair of US Soccer’s now abeyant Assortment Task Force from 2008 until 2015, Doug Andreassen saw accession problem: Soccer officials, decidedly those with accompaniment adolescence associations, bootless to alike admit that annihilation was wrong. “They anticipation if the Latinos capital to play, if the kids that were from Nigeria capital to play, they could play. Well, that was far from the case,” he said. The disability to accede the barriers faced by abounding adolescent players of color, according to Andreassen, applies to abounding at the accomplished levels of US Soccer: “I’m not abiding anybody in US Soccer accustomed there was a botheration either. That’s not to say their intentions were not good, but the intentions and compassionate the affair are two altered things.” Related Article One hurdle, Andreassen said, is access. By the 1960s, USMNT players about came from university soccer powerhouses like Saint Louis University and, later, the University of Virginia. Added recently, best players either climbed the ladder of USMNT adolescence teams or were recruited from Aloft Alliance Soccer or a adopted league. According to US Soccer, currently 90 percent of its adolescence civic teams appear from the US Soccer Development Academy, a alliance composed of adolescence academies and clubs from assorted organizations. And about 70–80 percent of those players appear from the MLS academies. Best of the blow are based internationally. Back asked about the demographic breakdown of macho US Soccer–affiliated adolescence clubs, US Soccer didn’t accept an answer. “For the best part, our associates do not clue demographics, and we do not accept that information,” wrote Buethe.

Group winners decided at the 10 US Youth Soccer Southern .. | us youth soccer tournaments 2018 The families of youths who comedy for aggressive soccer clubs, explained Andreassen, pay fees that can ambit as aerial as $5,000 to $17,000 per season. At IMG Academy, whose alumni accommodate aloft USMNT amateur Landon Donovan, it can amount about $80,000 a year if you’re boarding. According to the Census Bureau, the average domiciliary assets for Hispanics in 2018 was $51,450, able-bodied beneath the all-embracing average of $63,179 and the $70,642 average for whites. That aforementioned year, the Sports and Fitness Industry Association appear that alone 28 percent of families complex in soccer had incomes beneath $50,000. Added than a third of soccer families had domiciliary incomes aloft $100,000. There accept been some remedies; for example, best MLS development academies are free, which has acceptable led to advance in Latino and atramentous amateur representation in USMNT adolescence teams. Still, the cardinal of kids in these academies is limited. “They still alone represent a baby allotment of adjustment options for the huge cardinal of adolescence players,” said Rothenberg. “At the everyman age groups, atramentous and Latino kids are not actuality developed for aristocratic competition.” According to US Soccer’s media kit, there are 3.7 actor kids arena soccer today in these registered leagues. But Andreassen estimates that there are an added 10 to 14 actor kids arena in detached leagues, generally denigrated as “pirate leagues.” (US Soccer could not allege to the accurateness of Andreassen’s estimate. Buethe said US Soccer scouts accept contacts in detached leagues, and that anyone can accelerate videos to scouts through email.) These ambit from teams run by a bounded YMCA to the abundant immigrant leagues. “There are accomplished sections of our country that accept leagues that are aloof Latino,” Andreassen said. One problem, he said, is that US Soccer abundantly works through volunteers and underpaid staff. Alike Andreassen’s old position as armchair of the Assortment Task Force was unpaid. He said that afore the Assortment Task Force was put on what now appears to be a abiding hiatus, he told US Soccer administering to “take this out of the easily of volunteers” and appoint a abiding assortment administrator like added aloft sports organizations. In an e-mail, Buethe said that US Soccer assassin Tonya Wallach as its “first Arch Aptitude & Admittance Administrator in August 2017 to advance our Assortment & Admittance efforts.” Despite again requests, US Soccer did not accomplish Wallach accessible for an interview. When asked about the Assortment Task Force, Buethe said the aboriginal Task Force, which Andreassen headed, had “met its cardinal goal.” He additionally acicular to a new assortment and admittance alive accumulation that is allotment of the Adolescence Soccer Task Force. “They are answerable with advising and implementing applied means to accommodate added opportunities for admittance and to animate added assortment amid players, coaches, referees, and administrators,” he explained. USWNT Yet of the 60 bodies on the Adolescence Soccer Task Force, alone two are Hispanic, including US Soccer admiral Cordeiro, and neither of them appear from soccer backgrounds, according to Woitalla. Buethe said US Soccer “acknowledged that we should accept included added Latinos as allotment of the Adolescence Task Force alive groups,” abacus that they are “actively alive to add added individuals to adjust the situation.” “It is absolutely beauteous that this happened,” Woitalla said. “It additionally shows me how abandoned the administering is.” Another affair is the abridgement of abundant Latino US Soccer–licensed coaches with the cultural adequacy and abilities to recruit accomplished players of color. US Soccer did not accept an acknowledgment about the backgrounds of accountant coaches. “There is a beam for Latino coaches,” Woitalla said. One obstacle, he explained, is that the appropriate licenses to drillmaster higher-level teams or civic teams are cher and can booty a connected time to get. Right now, aloft USMNT brilliant Tab Ramos is the alone Latino drillmaster for a USMNT adolescence team. A agnate botheration exists in the MLS. A abstraction by Alianza de Futbol acquired by The Nation begin that for the 2018 season, 19 of the 23 MLS teams had a white arch coach, with aloof four teams headed by Latino coaches. Attractive added broadly at the abstruse staffs, the account is alike added stark: According to Alianza’s analysis, there were alone three US-born Latino and three US-born atramentous abstruse agents associates in the absolute league. That’s beneath than 5 percent of all MLS abstruse staff, which includes abettor coaches, trainers, and added apprenticeship staff. Pérez said he believes that there are not abundant decision-makers in US Soccer who are “prepared and equipped” to ability out to Latinos. Scouts, Pérez argues, should be accustomed with the communities they ambition and their issues of concern. For abounding Latinos, that ability be citizenship and address status, as the cases of Lizandro Claros Saravia and his brother Diego illustrate. Promising boyish players from Germantown, Maryland, the Claros Saravia brothers came to the United States from El Salvador as undocumented children. One of Lizandro’s aloft coaches at Bethesda Soccer Club, a top adolescence club, declared him as “one of the best in the country.” In 2017 Lizandro won a soccer scholarship to comedy and appear Louisburg College in North Carolina. But Lizandro and Diego accustomed in the country in 2009—two years too backward to authorize for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals affairs (DACA), the Obama-era clearing action that would’ve accustomed them to accept assignment permits and deferments from deportation. Lizandro was originally accustomed a break of abatement in 2013, but it lasted alone a year, and consecutive applications were denied. Admitting Clearing and Customs Enforcement (ICE) knew he and his brother were in the country illegally, they were advised low-priority by the Obama administering because of their apple-pie records. Back Lizandro abreast the authorities that he was abrogation for North Carolina during a accustomed analysis in, ICE bedfast both Lizandro and Diego. Bristles canicule later, they were deported. It is belief like these that accomplish abounding families with undocumented associates afraid to accept their accouchement in academic soccer programs. Aloft US Soccer admiral Alan Rothenberg said, “When bodies ask me, ‘When will the US win the Apple Cup?’ I acquaint them, ‘When we accept absolute clearing reform.’” Pérez understands immediate the challenges that young, accomplished players from immigrant communities face. He migrated to the United States from El Salvador with his ancestors back he was 11, and got his alpha in the aboriginal 1980s arena in the North American Soccer League, the now asleep able soccer alliance that predated Aloft Alliance Soccer. He went on to comedy for the USMNT, and alternate in the 1984 Olympics and 1994 Apple Cup. Pérez was a abstruse adviser and advance for US Soccer from 2008 to 2015, and he accomplished US men’s adolescence teams from 2012 to 2014. More on Soccer During his tenure, Pérez said he presented a plan to US Soccer that approved to move abroad from what he declared as a “tentative style” to a added advancing appearance of play. He capital US Soccer to accompany in adolescent players from alfresco of the academy arrangement and recruit accomplished players from immigrant leagues. To do this, every ages for three years, he accustomed chargeless training centers to advance talent.

Competition Detail | US Youth Soccer - us youth soccer tournaments 2018 | us youth soccer tournaments 2018 Pérez said that back he met with players and coaches from detached leagues, “People would say, ‘Wow, we’re animated you came because for years cipher has come.’” While acquainted that there are not abundant scouts, Pérez said that US Soccer has a albatross to attending alfresco of affiliated leagues. He additionally said his assignment as a advance was added by the actuality that he batten Spanish and was accustomed with Latino culture. It helped him affluence the concerns, acknowledgment questions, and actuate the parents of abeyant players to accede a approaching in American soccer. Among the able players Pérez apparent was Jonathan Gonzalez of Santa Rosa, California. A bounded drillmaster recommended Gonzalez, and Pérez arrive the adolescent amateur to one of his training sessions. “His IQ of soccer was avant-garde for his age, actual technical, accomplished character, has accomplished manners, actual coachable, could comedy altered positions,” Pérez said. Gonzalez was built-in in the United States to Mexican immigrants. Back he was 14, his achievement at Alianza de Futbol’s advertise in 2013 landed him offers to accompany the adolescence teams of 13 Liga MX teams. He would additionally alpha for a cardinal of USMNT’s adolescence teams accomplished by Pérez. In 2014, however, Pérez’s assignment apprenticeship the US U-15 aggregation came to an end. Speaking for the aboriginal time about on the topic, he said he was told added than already not to allege Spanish to Latino players, and that his connected use of Spanish on the acreage may accept contributed to him actuality let go. “I did it a brace of times back I saw coaches from the adverse aggregation so they wouldn’t accept me,” he explained. “I acquainted I had the advantage if the added aggregation didn’t accept the admonition I was giving.” Pérez said the adjustment came from the top of US Soccer. Two sources, who asked not to be called out of abhorrence retaliation, accustomed that Pérez batten to them at the time about the appeal from US Soccer admiral to not allege Spanish with players during matches or training. Pérez said he abandoned the requests and that no one explained to him why there was an argument added than, “This was a US civic team.” In fact, he said he had heard aloft drillmaster Jürgen Klinsmann allege German to German-born American players during a chief USMNT training session. He said he never fabricated an official complaint because he didn’t anticipate US Soccer “would change their stance.” “Of aggregate that happened, that was the saddest thing…. It fabricated me feel unappreciated.” In an e-mailed response, Buethe denied that Pérez’s acceptance of Spanish contributed to his termination: “There were added factors that contributed to the decision,” abacus later, “This was a collaborative accommodation aural US Soccer.” He declared that there is no action adjoin speaking Spanish or any added language, writing, “at times, Adolescence Civic Aggregation and alike chief Civic Aggregation coaches, will allege to players in added languages one-on-one, but the key is authoritative abiding that coaches are accepting letters beyond to all their players in the best able and able manner.” In 2017, back neither the USMNT U-20 nor the chief aggregation arrive Gonzalez to their camps, alike admitting he was arena professionally, he acquainted snubbed. “US Soccer was not demography me seriously,” he told me. A year later, he fabricated the about-face and played for Mexico, utilizing the FIFA aphorism that allows a dual-national amateur to change allegiance aloof once. “Here we are sitting on all this aptitude and not application it,” Gardner said, abacus absolute language. “That’s worse than a scandal; it’s an outrage.” Some soccer analysts in America accept appropriate attractive into the adventures of countries like France and Germany. Both civic teams rebuilt their squads afterwards episodes of abortion by restructuring their aloof and adolescence programs to ability adolescent aptitude in banal and immigrant areas. The after-effects accept been resoundingly successful, with Germany acceptable the Apple Cup in 2014, and France in 2018. “This should accept been done 20 years ago,” Gardner said in frustration. In the meantime, added US-born Latino players are award their way to added countries. Adrian Gonzalez and Miguel Angel Avalos—two of the best able players who alternate in Alianza de Futbol’s advertise in 2018—have been recruited by Mexican civic adolescence teams. In September 2019, Pérez accustomed a position as a advance for Mexico’s adolescence teams. Pérez insisted that he holds no grudges against US Soccer, but said it charge do a bigger job at extensive out to underserved communities of color. The USMNT, Pérez said, can’t delay for the abutting stars from immigrant communities to aloof pop up: “US Soccer needs to go to them.”

Schedules: 10 Regional Championships - National .. | us youth soccer tournaments 2018 UPDATE: The allotment has been adapted to reflect added comments from US Soccer and to actual an error; in accession to 2018, US Soccer beatific a advance to the Alianza advertise in 2013, according to Alianza. What You Know About Us Youth Soccer Tournaments 10 And What You Don't Know About Us Youth Soccer Tournaments 10 | Us Youth Soccer Tournaments 10 - us youth soccer tournaments 2018 | Allowed for you to our weblog, in this time I'm going to explain to you with regards to keyword. And now, this can be a initial photograph:

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hereidinathoreauwrites · 7 years ago

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Fiona Felicity Frizzle (or: Frizzle, the younger)

Magic School Bus Rides Again one-shot drabble: the adventures of Fiona Felicity Frizzle (travels through science and time with the new teacher)

No one ever could keep me tied down. Not that anyone had ever really tried.

If there was one thing the Frizzle family was, we were proud of our eccentricity and desire to learn. We were also special. Mom used to say we all had a little touch of magic. Nothing world-shaking or time-altering but just a sparkle that let us be extraordinary. And my sister and I seemed to have more than just your average sparkle.

Of the two of us, Val had always been the golden child. She excelled in both school and the extraordinary specialties of our name. She was smart, curious, charming, and talented, even among our family. That’s why no one raised any stink when she was gifted the keys at the tender age of 16. She was ready for them; everyone could see it.

And while I wasn’t far behind her in most things, in this, she indisputably won.

I never wanted to follow in Valerie’s footsteps. No one even expected it of me. We were free to pursue whatever we wished. She was just the perfect embodiment of a Frizzle. Everyone in our extended family looked up to her and I was just Frizzle: the younger.

All the same though, when Val was handed those keys, it awoke a deep hunger in me. Hunger for the kind of adventure only having the keys could provide. But the keys were out of reach. So I’d just have to find adventure on my own.

With that spirit, one day I just grabbed up my knapsack and took off. What can I say? I was 16, it was 1993 and I had waited long enough. The world was my oyster and I intended to know everything about it that I could. Keys or no keys, I wasn’t going to let my education suffer. Maybe I should have apologized for taking Dad’s Time-Winder but the thing was just collecting dust. Wasn’t it better if it was in use?

So my curious tinkering may have set the thing off and I ended up spending quite a long time on ancient Lesbos Island helping a wonderful young woman write some very beautiful poetry. In return, she let me study her father’s books on medicine and biology. It all worked out in the end. After a while, I was able to un-tinker what I had tinkered and the Time-Winder shot me forward to the year 2016. Deciding I should maybe leave exploring time for later, I instead set off to explore space.

After a few hitch-hikes and a brief stint as a stand-up comedian in Lithuania, my lucky break got me all the way to a place I’d always wanted to go — the steppes of Mongolia in the Altai Mountains. So in a way, it was lucky my plane crashed there. I met a fascinating young girl who taught me about how her culture has hunted with golden eagles for generations. I nearly got frostbite cantering after her on her hunt. In return, I taught her everything I knew about medicine and human biology. When I was ready, I left her family to join a caravan heading east.

From Mongolia came a rather trying time in Japan, where I struggled to master calligraphy and the lost art of the sword. After that, I crossed the Pacific in a one-woman kayak and nearly drowned just off the coast of Guam. A passing freighter offered me a ride and I happily bounced from Guam to Hawai’i to the Gulf of California.

Sometime later, I found myself wandering through the Brazilian jungle and somehow ended up being adopted by a family of golden lion tamarin monkeys. I think they wanted my necklace but didn’t know how to ask. They were a lot of fun, especially when they tried to comb my hair for me. I learned a lot about climbing from them. When I left, one of them followed me. Before long, she was sitting on my shoulder, comfortably jumping from adventure to adventure with me. I called her Goldie.

Goldie made my adventures more interesting by far. She was curious and sneaky, often getting her fingers into things people didn’t want them in. One time, I’d had to pry her away from a bakery in Germany after she’d discovered banana crème filling. I don’t think we’re welcome in that bakery anymore…

She’d also once pilfered the Hope Diamond. I don’t think anyone noticed though; I had recently perfected my espionage skills in study with the KGB and CIA (independently, of course) and those transferred rather well to breaking into the Smithsonian to restore the jewel.

Goldie eventually learned though that some times were better than others for sticking her fingers into things. It took a few years (and a lot of stern reprimands and banana crème pastries) but I eventually taught her.

If there was one thing I never did, it was settle down. There was just too much to see and learn. I had barely cracked into world languages, let alone the dead ones! My pack was always home to half a dozen books or so that I swapped out as I finished them. Reading a chapter or two of a classic before falling asleep at night was the best way to finish off a day of adventure. And long flights between new adventures were perfect for picking up phrases in other languages.

Goldie and I traversed the world, never once looking back in our endless thirst for knowledge and adventure.

At some point while rocketing down the Alps on stolen skis, I realized I had turned 33 somewhere in my wanderlust.

And for some reason, that made me more homesick than anything else. I debated going home but never made a move to. For one, I had effectively vanished for twenty-three years when I’d used the Time-Winder the first time. I’d be the wrong age if I went home. Val would be nearly twice my age now. It just seemed wrong. And I hadn’t even told my parents when I left.

I didn’t belong at home.

After that, I stopped counting my numerical age. I measured my life in adventures and I had more of those than I had years on this Earth. Besides, it was harder to keep track of one’s age when one was leaping through time constantly.

Despite the inherent danger I’d found in using the Time-Winder, it was irresistible to have that power and not use it. What was an adventure without a little risk after all?

And use it I did.

It was finicky but functional. I couldn’t choose the destination precisely but it always seemed to take Goldie and me where we needed to go.

1567 was an incredible year. Yes, I may have romanced both the captain’s wife and the captain himself aboard a trading vessel and then accidentally won a sword duel to become captain of a passing pirate schooner but life was so dull without conflict. So I may have picked those fights deliberately. Elizabeth was an incredible woman though…she didn’t even care that I was a woman.

Shame the pirates learned I was a woman as well and chased me halfway across the Caribbean before I managed to slip into Costa Rica and vanish.

Nikola Tesla was a surprising ally in my quest to explore time. He was fascinated by my Time-Winder, even though I’m not sure he completely understood what it was. I spent many months at his side, studying engineering, chemistry, and electricity alongside him. Leaving was difficult but I had to. Edison was getting suspicious and I wasn’t looking to end up in any history books.

I picked up guitar somewhere between Han dynasty China and 1980’s New York, which surprisingly opened up more doors for me than my newly-cultivated ability to speak 14 different languages (2 of which were dead languages!) fluently. Seems throughout most of history, people have had more use for music performers than they have for reliable translators. Goldie and I played our way across America and Russia during two different centuries on the pennies cast by passersby and the tips of the tipsy.

Splashing along the tide lines with Rachel Carson was a truly illuminating experience. Was there nothing that woman didn’t know about the ocean? She was an incredible friend and companion to me in the 1950s when I’d stopped to study the early days of space exploration and the rise of the environmental movement. And who better to apprentice myself to than Rachel herself? We took a great many tidepool specimens back to her study and spent many weeks identifying each one and making small sketches. I even offered my critiques on some of her writings.

But when she mentioned Val, I knew it was time to leave her. Coming so close to my sister while she was chasing her own adventure was jarring and it brought back feelings I hadn’t realized I’d buried so long ago.

I could pretend all I wanted but what I knew I craved, I couldn’t have. Without the keys, I was imprisoned in this life of wandering. The most I could hope for was a surface look at whatever phenomenon or historical event caught my eye. I was doomed to see everything through unbreakable glass.

But still, it was all I had. Val had inherited the keys. That left me with whatever I could take and whatever I could explore on my own. So I got even more daring.

Maybe Alcatraz was a step too far though...

Goldie and I were sailing down the Colorado River on a raft I’d constructed on my own sometime in 1842 when my real adventure finally began.

As I struggled to both man the tiller and the sail (Goldie scouting ahead from our mast), an anachronistic ringing sound came from my pack.

Strange…I wouldn’t have thought my phone would work in a time before it was invented…

Risking letting go of the tiller, I dug into the pocket and pulled out the ringing device. Wow, cell reception was surprisingly strong out here.

I answered the phone with one hand. “Hello? What’s up?” The sail rope slackened and I leaned on it to rig my sail back up.

“Hello Fi!” It had been years since I’d heard that voice.

“Val!” Goldie shrieked, drawing my attention back to the river. “Can you hold on one second?” I tucked the phone between my teeth so I could hold the sail with one hand and adjust the rudder with the other. Goldie and I shot down the river, dodging nimbly between the rapids. The rope burned into my hands and I smiled around the phone in my mouth. This was just as incredible as I had imagined!

We burst out into some steady water a few seconds later and I finally released my grip on the sail.

“Sorry about that, rapids.” I continued, holding the phone to my ear again. “What can I do you for, Val?”

“I’ve got a proposition for you, dearest sister of mine.”

“Oh yeah? What?”

“How do you feel about teaching?”

“Teaching…?”

“Yes. You’d have to give up your lonely quest to explore all of time though. How does 2017 sound?”

“Does this mean…!”

“Yes Fiona. The keys are being passed. It’s your turn to inherit the Bus.”

I didn’t wait a second. Barely giving Goldie time to jump onto my shoulder, I scooped up my bag and tinkered the Time-Winder one last time.

At last, I was stepping right through that glass door.

#Fiona frizzle #fanfiction #drabble #magic school bus #magic school bus rides again #adventure #humor #short story #prequel #fiona is bi #this is my headcannon #kate mckinnon #ms frizzle #history #time travel #i'm not saying kate has to be gay in everything #but its cool if she is

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footballghana · 4 years ago

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FEATURE: Bellerin out, Partey in? Arsenal facing £35m transfer conundrum

The summer transfer window is usually a turbulent time at Arsenal.

For years now fans have grown used to seeing some of their favourites move on in the hope of earning success elsewhere, while on the other hand top targets have slipped through their fingers due to the financial clout of rival bidders.

But so far the summer of 2020 has been relatively smooth sailing at Arsenal. The Gunners wanted to bring Willian in from Chelsea and they got him, landing the experienced attacker on a free transfer.

They also wanted to sign Gabriel Magalhaes from Lille and - once again - they got him, seeing off strong rival interest from the likes of Napoli and Everton to land the centre-back who the club’s scouting team had advised the hierarchy to sign.

The arrivals of the Brazilian duo have strengthened two key areas at Arsenal and have added to the belief that things are heading in the right direction in north London under Mikel Arteta.

That belief will only strengthen when Dani Ceballos returns for a second successive season-long loan from Real Madrid. Again, there were several other clubs interested in the Spain international, but there was only one place he wanted to go.

So far, Arsenal have navigated what is an incredibly challenging transfer market smoothly, but with five weeks left before the window closes on October 6, things are about to get a lot more difficult.

Arteta has long warned that some tough decisions may need to be made this summer if Arsenal are to put together the type of squad he believes can start reducing the gap between themselves and the top four - and that warning may be about to come to pass.

Having found the money needed to win the race for Gabriel, cash is now extremely limited at the Emirates. And when you are still looking to sign players of the stature of Thomas Partey and Houssem Aouar, that is far from ideal.

Arteta still views bringing in at least one other midfielder as key to his plans, with Partey the priority target. Atletico Madrid are steadfastly refusing to do business, and as such activating the Ghana international’s £44.5 million ($60m) release clause looks like being the only way Arsenal can get their man.

The Gunners, though, just do not have that type of money available right now.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic decimated the finances of football clubs around the world, Arsenal’s reserves were beginning to run dry after three seasons outside of the Champions League. Following Covid-19, things are really challenging for the north London club.

“My job is to assess and understand how much we can stretch that,” said Arteta when discussing Arsenal’s limited transfer kitty ahead of last Saturday’s Community Shield clash with Liverpool. “I have to try to make the right decision with everybody on board.

“We all know what we are trying to achieve. Hopefully we can do it.”

For Arsenal now, however, hitting their remaining targets in this transfer window can only be done by getting players out of the club first - and that is where the difficult decisions need to be made.

The north London club have spent the summer so far trying to get rid of players who are not seen as integral to Arteta’s plans.

Matteo Guendouzu has been offered around Europe, but so far there have been no firm takers. Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis, Sead Kolasinac, Rob Holding, Mesut Ozil and Lucas Torreira are all still in north London despite being available for transfer, although both Sokratis and Torreira are now attracting strong interest from Napoli and Fiorentina respectively.

“The market is slow,” said Arteta when discussing the possibility of some of his squad leaving. “It’s very early stages so we have to wait and see.”

As the Spaniard rightly points out, there is still time for Arsenal to get some of those players out of the door, but even then the money received might not be enough to allow the club to get in the players they really want before October 6.

The Gunners really need at least one significant sale in the coming weeks, but the players who would generate a large enough transfer fee are ones Arteta would rather not lose.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles, for example, has been the subject of interest from Wolves. So far Arsenal have resisted that interest, rejecting at least one offer from the Molineuz outfit for the player who was named Man of the Match against Liverpool at Wembley last weekend.

Whether Wolves return with an increased offer remains to be seen. Arteta has publicly stated he does not want to lose the 23-year-old, who has just earned his first England call-up, but a large offer in the next couple of weeks will give Arsenal a big decision to make.

It is a similar story with Emiliano Martinez. The Argentine stunning form since he replaced the injured Bernd Leno in June has seen him catch the eye of clubs across Europe.

Martinez wants to be a No.1 goalkeeper, and his preference is to do that at Arsenal. But if Leno gets the nod from Arteta when the Premier League returns, then the 27-year-old will look to move on and any offers will certainly test the club's resolve to keep him.

Despite that, the big decisions that Arteta and Arsenal could face over the coming weeks will likely revolve around Hector Bellerin and Alexandre Lacazette.

Both are players that Arteta would ideally like to keep, as - when fully fit - they would make his starting XI.

Bellerin is attracting interest from several clubs, however, including Paris Saint-Germain.

The Spaniard is now 25 and has three years left on his contract. Arteta does not want to lose the right-back, but he has cover in that area with Maitland-Niles and Cedric Soares and knows that Bellerin could attract a large transfer fee in comparison to other players in his squad.

Arsenal value Bellerin at around £35m ($46m), and if PSG come in with an offer close to that, it could be that the club reluctantly agrees to let him go so they can push ahead with their pursuit of Partey, Aouar or both.

That is the type of decision Arsenal now face as they head into the final stages of the transfer window.

Players such as Bellerin and Lacazette, who has under two years left on his deal, have been key figures under Arteta. They would, however, generate the type of transfer fee that would go a long way to helping Arsenal bring in their top remaining targets.

“It's going to be a challenging transfer window,” said managing director Vinai Venkatesham last month. “But we'll continue to work hard to deliver on our objectives to strengthen the squad and Edu and Mikel have a really clear plan around how they'd like to do that.”

That plan was always going to involve some difficult decisions at some point. So far it has been relatively smooth sailing in the market for Arsenal this summer, but the next few weeks might see things get a bit more bumpy.

Source: goal.com

source: https://footballghana.com/

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torentialtribute · 5 years ago

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Joelinton is a relative unknown but Newcastle’s new £40m man has earned Firmino comparisons

Joelinton is Newcastle United signing his new £ 40 million record after being revealed alongside head coach Steve Bruce.

The 22-year-old arrives from Hoffenheim for a six-year deal and takes the legendary No. 9 sweater at St James & Park.

Sportsmail spoke with Joelinton and Bruce this week, and here we assess what the striker could bring to Newcastle and the Premier League …

] Joelinton became Newcastle's record after £ 40m move from Hoffenheim

The Brazilian attacker is the first signing of Steve Bruce & # 39; s leadership time

First of all, how did he perform during his first press conference?

He spoke through an interpreter but was calm and thoughtful, and gave fairly long answers in his native English language. He certainly did not show any nerves and even stated that he wants to be in the Brazilian national team this season. Whether that trust translates to the field, we will have to wait and see.

He was asked if he spoke English and brought back an answer that was much better than our Portuguese, declaring he speaks a little but needs more time to learn.

And I must have the honor of becoming the first South American signature of recent years, not to mention the film Goal !, in which a young Spanish player moves his dream to Newcastle.

In his press conference, he was calm and considered and gave long answers in Portuguese

Does he look physically impressive in the early photos of him in training?

Joelinton is for sure. His thighs are not as wide as those of Salomon Rondon, whose No. 9 shirt he has inherited, but he is long, thick and toned.

As Bruce said: & # 39; He is even bigger when you see it stripped & # 39 ;. Cue laughed, of course, but his meaning was that, on the training field in his set, he looked even more impressive.

A clue to his physicality camera when asked what kind of player he was.

& # 39; I argue a lot on the field and a lot of emotion – lots of running and fighting, & # 39; he said. "I can hold the ball up and bring others into play."

He was compared with fellow countryman Roberto Firmino, who also arrived in England via Hoffenheim.

But Joelinton said: & I think we are different types of players – Firmino is more a number 10 for Liverpool, but I've always been a striker since the youth team. I want to put the comparisons with Bobby on one side, and he follows his path and I have mine. & # 39;

There are comparisons between Joelinton and Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino

So where will he play in Bruce's team?

While he can operate broadly, there is little doubt that Joelinton will be used through the middle as center-forward, most likely with two wingers – or supporting forward – on either side.

So it seems that it goes straight on at the first choice, that much pressure?

Sportsmail spoke with his agent at the press conference this week and he said: & # 39; If we could replicate Joelinton's mental DNA and put it in every player, we would be very successful. & # 39;

His point was that the attacker might be the most mentally strong player. , for his age, he once worked with.

During the subsequent conversation with Joelinton, that was also very clear. There was a real atmosphere of maturity and self-confidence about him.

And that will come in handy if he runs out in front of the TV camera & # 39; s on the opening day against Arsenal.

Joelinton is considered to be very mentally strong and has a real sense of self-confidence

There is a lot of expectation, not least because of the price tag, but also because of the position and the number.

They love their center on Tyneside and they want them to be heroic, just like Rondon was last season. He was a bull of a striker that supporters would like to see again, and comparisons between the two will be drawn quickly if Joelinton doesn't shine.

However, he is aware of the potentially volatile situation that he is running.

& # 39; I am aware of the discontent (among fans) & # 39 ;, he said.

& # 39; I hope to make them happy this season and I am happy that my transfer has brought them some joy. & # 39;

& # 39; Newcastle has ambition, as I have ambition, and we hope to meet them. & # 39;

They love their striker on Tyneside and Newcastle fans want them be heroic

What did supporters make of the signing?

They are enthusiastic. And there is a lot to be excited about based on early reports – he is fast, strong and loves to dribble.

The club needed this party tent because of the unrest among the fans after the departure of Rafa Benitez.

Listen, there are many people who need more than a record purchase to convince them that everything is fine with Mike Ashley & Newcastle, and there is very little chance of attending more than 50,000 people versus Arsenal with a boycott

But there are also many fans who just want money to be invested in the team and, if Joelinton is followed through the door by two or three others, do not underestimate how much that will affect the decision of those who are still debating to stay away from St. James this season.

Although there is dissatisfaction in Newcastle, supporters seem enthusiastic about Joelinton

Bruce could make Joelinton a hit right away, what did he say about him?

Newcastle has been following the player for a year now and they tried to sign him in January, so while this is Bruce & # 39; s first signing and he has sanctioned the movement, the groundwork was already laid by scout Steve Nickson.

Bruce, however, seems genuinely excited by the young South American.

& # 39; He is aware of the No. 9 sweater and what it entails, & he said. "He needs big broad shoulders to deal with it and he has that in abundance.

" He has the potential to be a top class in the middle. I am very happy that he is my first signature.

& I saw him play for Hoffenheim against Man City. He played on the left. At that time he fell slightly outside my price range! But he was excellent that night. & # 39;

Bruce seems genuinely excited by the arrival of Joelinton for a record rate of Hoffenheim

[1945902] Do you finally support it as a success?

There is caution because of his record – seven Bundesliga goals last season – and also because Benitez didn't think he was worth £ 40 million.

But there is also optimism, especially given the insistence of the respected Nickson that he must be signed.

Crucially, he has the physical qualities needed to thrive in the Premier League and there is time for his goals to improve again. Rondon was a hero here and he delivered 11 in the top flight last season, so you don't have to score 20 or more to become a success.

So we will choose a & # 39; yes & # 39; as an answer to the question – and if he turns out to be very good, the magpies can quickly face to fight to keep him in the club.

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#Joelinton is a relative unknown but Newcastle’s new £40m man has earned Firmino comparisons"

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sailorsandseadogs · 5 years ago

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Just When We Thought It Was Boring … (June 3-16, 2019

Sailing Passage from Cabedelo, Brazil to Cayenne, French Guiana

Aided by the strong Guyana Current, at times we were surfing the 3-meter Atlantic waves with record-setting speeds for Seefalke of 8 to 9 knots, smashing our single-day record by more than 60 nautical miles. But as we entered the Doldrums of the ITCZ, we needed to motor sail just to make around 1.5 knots at times. It was the definition of one step forward and two steps back.

In the end, it took us 12 days to make the 1,400 nautical mile trek from Cabedelo to Cayenne.

At times we had perfect sailing with strong wind and heavy current propelling us forward. At other times, we virtually sat still.

It was a long passage following a long land layover. We had mundane and even somewhat boring days where the landscape and the routine never changed.

But we were often reminded of one thing—never tempt Neptune by complaining about being bored. He will make you pay!

Monday, 3 June 2019

After sitting in port for three months, we checked out at customs and immigration—an all day procedure—and began final preparations for departure. We had plenty of time on our visas because we had both left the country during our stay in Brazil. However, we had no time left on our ability to keep the boat in Brazil any longer.

So we made the decision—or rather the decision was made for us—to plan a passage straight to French Guiana rather than making some stops along the way at some of the coastal Brazilian islands we wanted to see. This also solidified our decision to skip the Amazon Delta.

Tuesday, 4 June 2019

We made our final big provision run and stocked up on food, water, and supplies. I spent a lot of time securing the cabin, something we hadn’t needed to do for three months. We also did a final round of laundry and said goodbye to the Cabedelo locals who had become our family for three months.

Around 16:00—high tide—we untied the lines and moved to an anchorage just outside the marina. This way, we could depart early the next morning without worrying about the tides and without needing to coordinate with marina staff to release us from the mooring buoys.

We had made plans to spend our final evening with some dear friends aboard SV Redemption. The captain, Des, is a cool sailor and avid surfer from South Africa. He had sailed solo across the Atlantic, but hooked up with a crew in Cabedelo—20-somethings Isabelle, an American from Washington state, and her boyfriend Tory, an Australian. Neither Izzy nor Tory had ever sailed before.

The previous week we had spent some time with them aboard Seefalke, sharing stories of night watches and seasickness, challenging passages, whale sightings, and other tales sailors love to share. Both Izzy and Tory are surfers and seemed to be enjoying learning about sailing from Des.

This evening, our German sailor friends—Ingo and Andrea—also joined us aboard Redemptionfor an evening of drinks and great conversation.

Ingo and Andrea were leaving their boat, Easy One, in Brazil for a few months while they planned to fly back to Germany to work. We were trying to coordinate with Des and his crew to hook up along the way to French Guiana and perhaps caravan sail a bit.

Redemptionis a very cool ship. It’s about the size of Seefalke, and was once used by Des as a charter boat in South Africa.

It was a lovely evening. We said our goodbyes, for now, and exchanged contact information.

Day 1 at sea — Wednesday, 5 June 2019

Departure 07:00

Leaving from anchorage, our departure was smooth and easy as we cruised casually down the river. As we were passing the wind shadow of Cabedelo and entering the Atlantic, I crawled out onto our freshly-repaired bowsprit to unfurl the Genoa.

With waves crashing the bow as I balanced on our new bowsprit boards, I could already feel the uneasiness settle in as my sea legs were more than wobbly. It was inevitable and not surprising to once again feel the pit of my stomach begin to rise.

I was seasick all day as I struggled to regain my sea legs. Maik wasn’t feeling well either. One thing that always surprises me, though I should be accustomed to it by now, is how violent the retching can be. And I always forget about how the force of it makes me lose bladder control. In one day, I went through three pairs of panties.

Maik spent some time in the engine room, which didn’t help his queasiness. Our main fuel tank was overflowing into the engine room, so he was sponging out the extra fuel into a bucket then I would empty the bucket into spare 8-gallon water jugs. We were both covered in diesel and the fumes contributed to our continued seasickness.

The only way to get to our engine room is by removing the cockpit floor and lowering yourself down into the pit. It feels like going down the small porthole of a submarine. The movement of the sea is intensified down below and its HOT. It’s also a very tight squeeze. Any work you do in the engine room requires you to be twisted like a pretzel.

I still refused to take seasickness medicine, but I began to consider it.

Day 2 — Thursday, 6 June 2019

82.7 nautical miles — 17:33 hours at sea

During my early morning shift, around 02:00, I continued with the retching and sacrificed another pair of panties. This time, I reluctantly decided to take some Dramamine, which helps a little with the seasickness, but it makes you very sleepy. It’s important to sleep it off after taking it. It wasn’t easy, but I made it the next two hours through my shift to 04:00 then crashed.

At 06:00, just two hours into my sleep shift, Maik decided to go into the engine room and bail the fuel again. I got up to help, still drowsy and loopy from the Dramamine. When I finally got back to sleep an hour later, Maik switched the sails from port to starboard, and I could only slide off the bed right onto the floor. Ugh!

Later that day, I began feeling better and started reading Adrift, an amazing story of one woman’s miraculous survival at sea.

I felt like I was getting my sea legs back a little. I ate and drank some, although I was feeling a bit dehydrated and my head was pounding. It was still unsafe to cook a real meal, but I ate some fruit, peanut butter crackers, and a little canned tuna.

During the day, I got thrown around the cabin a few times as heavy waves continued to crash us and rock the boat severely at times. However, the sailing was fast, fun, exciting, and relatively speaking, smooth.

As usual, Scout joined me for my first night shift.

Day 3 — Friday, 7 June 2019

232.2 nm — 41:35 hours at sea

We recorded our fastest one-day distance ever at 148.9 nm in 24 hours. We generally sail around 100 nm each day, so this seemed like warp speed for Seefalke.

I had a bad headache all day, I believe caused from the seasick medicine. But the retching had stopped. I finally took some Ibuprofen, which helped with the headache and other ailments, like the broken foot I was still battling.

I rested and read most of the day. I finished Adrift, which I thought I was much better than the movie — and started SeinLanguage, which I’ve read several times. The comedy quips from Jerry Seinfeld is a bit outdated, but still funny and I enjoyed the comic relief! I needed some light reading.

We had been trying to contact Des to see where we might meet with Redemption. He finally sent us a message through our Garmin Satellite and informed us that he lost his crew, but we didn’t know the whole story, yet.

Maik made egg and sausage quesadillas although it was still a bit uncomfortable to cook. The seas had smoothed a bit, and we moved the mainsail back to the port side which was more comfortable for sleeping.

I was finally getting my sea legs back but still feeling dehydrated. I must continue to drink more water, I reminded myself.

During the early night shift we had a little squall. Winds were at 20 knots and we were flying at 9 knots compared with Seefalke’susual 5-6 knot top speeds. It was short lived even though we hit a few more rain patches during the night.

There were more squalls during the early-morning shift, with heavy rain and huge wind gusts. At one point, it got very calm and still and dark all around us, and I felt like we were inside a cone of blackness. I couldn’t see a thing, but I could hear the wind whistling and howling and the waves crashing around me even though it felt like we weren’t moving.

Then the rain stopped. It was still. Black. Eerie.

Day 4 — Saturday, 8 June 2019

396 nm — 65:21 hours at sea

At 164 nm, we beat our 24-hour distance record again. We were flying!

It’s about this point in every voyage when you begin to lose track of the clock and the calendar. We rarely know what day it is or the time.

I wasn’t feeling well during my midnight-04:00 shift and decided to take some Dramamine. But that meant I needed to sleep.

Two hours later, Maik decided to bake homemade bread. Pans and pots were clanking all over and maniac stirring was happening. Ugh!!! I tossed and turned and moaned and complained, but he didn’t get the message.

Without the sleep after the medicine I had a pounding headache. But man, the bread sure was delicious!!

It was a rough and rocky day but I managed to get a deck shower (my first of this passage) and it felt so good to be clean and have clean hair. I still felt queasy all day, but managed to fend off the retching for another day. Even with some uneasiness, we were settling into a good routine, and the sea legs felt stronger.

We heard from Des via our Garmin InReach, and he gave us the details about his crew’s desertion.

Apparently, Izzy and Tory just decided they didn’t want to sail and was disillusioned about the sailing lifestyle so they took off and left Des stranded. I found this so irritating and confusing.

First, Des had delayed his departure several weeks waiting on his crew to arrive. Also, had we known, Des could have departed with us and had some company. This is one of the many reasons we would probably never pick up crew we don’t already know and trust. Izzy and Tory really let Des down and it angered me. Mostly I was confused because they seemed enthusiastic about the adventure.

Day 5 — Sunday, 9 June 2019

561 nm — 89:31 hours at sea

We had now passed the 6,000 mile mark for this entire voyage. It’s strange because we thought it would take us 6,000 miles to get from Stralsund to Gulf Shores, and we are now still about 3,000 miles away. This is why sailors rarely live by schedules. We would miss so much!

Scout, my ever-faithful night-watch companion continued to stay by my side as my night shifts became “our” night shifts. Cap’n Jack prefers to cuddle up next to Maik and sleep soundly while the girls stay on watch.

I can’t remember the last time I slept as hard as I did during my sleep shifts this night. Usually, I either wake up on my own just before my shift or a simple, soft-spoken “Baby, it’s time,” from Maik in the cockpit is enough to wake me. This time, at midnight, Maik had to physically shake me to wake me. And again on my next sleep shift it took both Beagles licking my face and pouncing on my tummy to wake me from the deep sleep.

We spent the morning cooking because it was unusually calm. We wanted to take advantage of the smooth conditions. Maik baked another loaf of fresh bread, and I made a pasta dish, all before 10:30 am. This way, we had good meals already prepared for the day in case conditions got rocky again.

I decided to lay down and read a while and fell once again into a deep slumber. I usually dream heavily, but this time I just crashed and woke up about three hours later without moving a muscle.

I don’t know if my body was just catching up on previous lack of sleep or if we are just simply finally settling into a comfortable sea routine. Maybe it was the smooth seas and cool breeze that just numbed my body and sent me into complete relaxation.

We were about halfway to our destination, and we kept busy the rest of the afternoon with basic boat chores and our regular routine.

Around sunset, we crossed the Equator again and entered the Northern Hemisphere. We crossed it the first time during our Atlantic Crossing. Without much fanfare and with no cameras recording, we popped one of our mini champagne bottles, gave a toast and a sip to Neptune then sipped the rest as we cuddled and kissed, admiring the sunset with the deep blue waves splashing all around us. It was private and sweet and a special moment just for us.

We reminisced about how far we’ve traveled and how different this Equatorial Crossing was from the first one just a few months ago. First, it wasn’t nearly as devastatingly hot! Also, we had been there before although it was still special in its own way.

We also realized that as we were sailing over the Equator, the Amazon River was directly west of us. We were about 300 miles offshore so of course, we couldn’t see it. We know we made the right decision to not sail the Amazon, but still it’s a bummer to be so close to something you want to do so badly and not be able to touch it.

We lamented about it, but only for a moment as we then settled once again into our night watch routine.

Day 6 — Monday, 10 June 2019

703 nm — 113:29 hours at sea

As we entered the Doldrums we began to lose some speed. However, it wasn’t quite as miserable as the last Doldrums experience.

We had a consistent cool breeze and enough wind to make an average of 4.5 knots all day—a considerable improvement from the 1.5 knot speed we traveled the last time through the ITCZ but not nearly as speedy as the 7-8 knots that had propelled us for the past four days.

Today was one of those downright uneventful, mundane days. Maik made more homemade bread and homemade pizza dough. I was so bored I was actually excited about the opportunity to wash the dishes!

Otherwise, I read most of the day and relaxed and wondered why I didn’t enjoy the lack of busyness more. It’s something I don’t get often and should learn to embrace and appreciate.

Maik was worried about the engine overheating so we did a trial 2-hour test and it passed with a steady 78-degree temperature. A big relief. Also, it seems we got the fuel leak under control. The good news is right now we don’t really need the engine, but the better news is it’s not overheating or overflowing diesel.

Scout lounged on the deck almost the entire day. She really loves being at sea and rarely wants to be in the cabin. She loves being in the fresh salt air with her velvety ears flopping in the wind.

It was such a calm evening, I pulled out my laptop during my early night shift and watched some of the TV series I had downloaded, “Friday Night Lights.” It helped pass the time once it became too dark to read. Of course, I religiously make my checks every ten minutes, even though we often go for days without seeing any other ships on these offshore passages. I can’t always pull out my laptop in the cockpit due to heavy saltwater splashes or sudden squalls. But on this night, it was calm and dry.

Day 7 — Tuesday, 11 June 2019

805 nm — 137:27 hours at sea

Sometimes on these long passages, night simply turns into day and day turns into night. It can get very mundane and boring.

I relished a shower and more rest. It was hot today as we made our way through the doldrums. I really wanted to jump in and take a swim but the swells and waves were too big, making that a dangerous proposition. I read an entire book today, Female Intelligence, a goofy romance novel.

Maik and I played Scrabble on the iPad for a little while, but it made Maik queasy so we stopped. Even though I tend to get more seasick than Maik, for some reason I am better able to handle looking at a screen or reading while at sea. These two things make Maik uneasy so he mainly listens to audible books.

Around sunset, we began to pick up some wind and some speed—a clear sign that we had moved north of the doldrums and into the NE Trade Winds. We had a bright orange sunset directly in front of us and the sky and water behind us was pastel pink.

Day 8 — Wednesday, 12 June 2019

917 nm — 161:29 hours at sea

I readanother entire book, this time a true crime piece by my favorite reporter, Edna Buchanan. Conditions were smooth and steady all day—just the way I like it! I mentioned to Maik how I wished we had been able to make a shorter passage after the three-month layoff rather than jumping right into another long passage. But it was out of our control this time. I was feeling ready to reach our destination.

He pointed out that this passage from Cabedelo to French Guiana puts us a third of the way to Alabama from Brazil. It will be our second longest passage to date and not much shorter in terms of distance (about 1,400 nm) than the Atlantic Crossing (just under 1,700 nm).

Day 9 — Thursday, 13 June 2019

1058 nm — 185:28 hours at sea

Maik made a huge breakfast for us—bacon, eggs, and sausage. Yummy! It’s such a treat to actually have a fridge now so we can store meat and enjoy COLD drinks.

We didn’t have much wind today, which meant we slowed a bit and also felt the blazing heat more. We cranked the motor on for a few hours just to give the boat and the air some movement.

We both took late afternoon showers to wash off the layers and puddles of sweat. Once the brilliant orange sun set over the horizon, the evening was nice and cool and breezy.

Day 10 — Friday, 14 June 2019

1,173 nm — 209:30 hours at sea

It never fails. We always pay for it when we complain about being bored at sea. It’s almost as if Neptune hears us and says, “You’re bored? Fine. I’ll give you something to do.”

It was about 22:30, and I was sound asleep. Maik yelled down from the cockpit, “Baby, get up here. I need your help!”

I bolted out of bed and went straight to the cockpit. Maik was already in the stern pulling away the cushions to get to the locker that contains the hydraulic steering system. He told me the rudder wasn’t working. He said he heard a sound that he thought was a motor boat in the distance. It was the hydraulic pump trying to move the piston.

The piston was moving but the rudder wasn’t moving. He could see that the connection had come loose.

Maik said he first thought he had run over a fishing net that had blocked the rudder. He checked to see if anything was in the water—any kind of debris that could have blocked the rudder. When he turned the wheel, the tiller didn’t move at all.

His second thought was that we had lost hydraulic oil in the hydraulic system. Perhaps one of the hoses had come loose. He opened the box to check on that and to switch from hydraulic steering to mechanical steering. There is a bypass valve that allows the oil to move freely when the hydraulic system is not moving it.

Then he saw that the rudder quadrant had come loose from the piston. For some reason, a board was blocking the movement and caused the piston to break loose from the quadrant. It could have been a sudden movement or something that happened over time.

Maik sent me to the stern deck so I could hold the tiller securely in the neutral position so that he could line up the piston to the the connector.

We were swirling around slowly in circles but since conditions were calm and there was hardly any wind, it was not a dangerous situation. We were in 1,000-meter deep waters with no ships in sight. There was plenty of room to maneuver.

Then I moved back to the cockpit to guide the steering wheel into the center position so Maik could attempt to join the two pieces. He was still in the stern cabin, holding back the cushions, flashlight in hand, trying to make the connection.

I transferred back and forth from the stern tiller to the cockpit wheel about four or five times until Maik was able to connect the two parts.

The whole time, dozens of large ants had surfaced from somewhere in the stern and were crawling all over Maik while he worked.

Once all was secure we checked to see if the manual hydraulic steering would work. It was working so we re-engaged the auto pilot. This all took about an hour and 15 minutes in the black of night.

This is how Maik describes the exact same episode, according to his official captain’s logbook entry:

22:30 rudder malfunction. All hands on deck. Genoa down. Piston came loose. Repaired. Rudder ok. 23:45 Genoa up. Ants.

I suppose it’s all about your perspective. :)

Maik told me to go back to sleep for a little while. When he woke me around 01:30 and I took the helm, a bright, full moon with a red ring was casting the most magnificent glow onto the calm water. A few dolphins showed up, but they were just fishing and passing through, not stopping to play.

We won’t be complaining about boredom anymore!

It was another scorching hot day. We were beginning to see signs of life—lots of birds, which usually means we are not far from land.

At one point, I went to the deck to douse myself with a bucket of cool sea water. In the distance, off the bow, I saw a huge pod of dolphins swimming toward us. Then I noticed another pod coming from the south of us from the port side. The dolphins were leaping into the air and showing off their acrobatics. Then I noticed another group of dolphins coming from the starboard side. They were coming from all directions as if they had never seen a ship before and they all needed to congregate at our bow.

We’ve seen many dolphins at sea, but we agreed we had never before seen this many at one time. There were literally hundreds of them.

They stayed with us for a while until we found ourselves inside a seaweed island. The dolphins just disappeared and we slowed to a crawl as we worked our way through the thick debris.

About an hour later, we noticed a squall on the horizon so we battened down the hatches and got ready for a little rain storm. We were so happy to have the cool rain that we both showered on the deck using the fresh rainwater and enjoyed the downpour.

I made a Waffle House-style hash-brown bowl for dinner with eggs and bacon and cheese. It was delicious and very hearty!

As I settled into my early-evening night shift, I finished reading my latest book, Sex on the Moon, about the famous Moon Rock Heist at NASA in the early 2000s. It was an intriguing tale, a true story, recommended to me by my pal, Tom Gallimore.

If you read this blog, you know by now that I love to read while at sea. If you have any good book recommendations, please let me know!

Day 11 — Saturday, 15 June 2019

1,275 nm — 233:27 hours at sea

In sharp contrast to the blistering heat we had experienced the past few days, it was rainy and almost chilly on this day.

What little wind we had was swirling. We had to motor sail most of the day. The sun finally came out and shone brightly around 17:00, giving us about an hour of gorgeous sunshine before time for it to set.

It’s difficult to believe that we are entering our 12th day at sea. It only took us 15 days to cross the entire Atlantic Ocean from Cape Verde to Ihle Fernando de Noranha.

Day 12 — Sunday, 16 June 2019

1,357 nm — 257:20 hours at sea

During the early morning shift, it was so calm and serene. It seemed as if nothing was moving—not the air or the water or even Seefalke. Just still and quiet. It was as if we were frozen in time.

I settled in, cuddled with Scout, and with the help of a small flashlight, I read my latest romance novel, Name Dropping, and enjoyed the relaxing, beautiful stillness.

About 03:30, just 30 minutes before I was to wake Maik, I was doing my 10-minute check and could see a ship on the starboard horizon way in the distance. Just a small little light, proving there was indeed life in the world besides us.

I looked to the port side and the huge glow from the moon revealed a massive storm cell heading right toward us.

I went below and closed all the hatches as a light sprinkle was quickly transforming into a downpour.

As the storm cell moved closer and crossed over from the side of the boat to the bow, all of a sudden, I had zero visibility. I looked toward where I had seen the little light of the ship and it was gone. Disappeared.

I told myself if was moving away from us and was simply too far away to see now. I’m pretty sure that’s what happened.

The rain began to pound and the wind began to gust. It was short lived, as these offshore squalls generally are, but I woke Maik a little early ... just in case.

When I awoke in the early morning, we had made landfall! We could see the islands of French Guiana in the distance, formations that would guide us for the next eight hours.

The approach was long, slow, and hot! After starting the passage with warp speed, it now felt like we were moving in slow motion. We drifted for several hours waiting on high tide and then motor sailed into the channel that would guide us to the port in Cayenne.

At 15:40, we dropped the anchor and popped our champagne to celebrate our second longest passage ever.

It always feels gratifying to reach our destination, but as Seefalkesettled into her anchorage, I began to feel a bit wobbly and nauseous.

This time ... land sickness.

Maik’s perspective about the passage:

After a passage of exactly 1,400 nautical miles and 273 hours at sea we finally dropped our anchor in the jungle of the Mahury River near Cayenne in French Guyana.

The passage started in the SE Trade Winds of 5-6 Beaufort with seas between 2 and 3 m, quite a challenge after 3 months on land when you first need to grow your sea legs again. But it was fun sailing and the powerful Guyana Current gave an extra boost so we broke one 24h record after the other.

Still dizzy from the speed rush, the Doldrums hit us hard and our speed dropped significantly when we were in the area of 1°S to 1°N.

After we were all shaken tender now it became time to broil in the brutal Equatorial sun.

But the ITCZ is narrow here on the West side of the Atlantic this time of year and the NE Trades brought us back on the racing track.

Just the last 250 miles felt like slow motion. Trapped in a low wind area we had to postpone our ETA repeatedly.

Finally, well timed with rising water we made the challenging approach into Mahury River. ⚓️

Final stats

1,400 nautical miles

12 days

273:21 hours at sea

Arrival time 15:40,Sunday, 16 June, 2019

NOTE: Maik will be updating his online logbook soon and will include information about how well our new solar panels performed, as well as other technical sailing and equipment details.

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latestnews2018-blog · 6 years ago

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Courtois has eyes on Real move after no-show

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/courtois-has-eyes-on-real-move-after-no-show/

Courtois has eyes on Real move after no-show

Chelsea are left in a race to land a new goalkeeper before Thursday’s transfer deadline

London: Thibaut Courtois has attempted to force his Chelsea exit by going absent without leave on the eve of the season.

Chelsea are left in a race to land a new goalkeeper before Thursday’s transfer deadline, with Stoke City’s Jack Butland and Sevilla’s Sergio Rico on their shortlist.

They are expected to bid for Butland and he is rated as the most likely goalkeeper arrival this week, although he is not the only one on the club’s radar.

Having failed to show up at Wembley to watch the Community Shield defeat against Manchester City, Courtois stayed away from training yesterday (Monday) when head coach Maurizio Sarri hoped to talk to him.

The situation has echoes of Diego Costa going on strike to force a move to Atletico Madrid last season, as Courtois waits to find out whether he will be allowed to join Real Madrid.

Real have bid £35 million (Dh166.6 million) and the Belgian’s agent, Christophe Henrotay, last week called on the club to let him go.

Sarri wanted to speak to Courtois face to face, but the 26-year-old has remained in Belgium, where he was honoured by his former club Genk at the weekend.

Courtois, 26, was due to join England centre-back Gary Cahill in the Wembley stands on Sunday, but did not appear and offered no explanation.

He was then meant to join Cahill, Eden Hazard, N’Golo Kante, Michy Batshuayi and Olivier Giroud in a training session at Cobham yesterday, but, again, was absent.

Hazard posted pictures on social media of himself back in London and looking happy. He has assured Chelsea he will continue to give his best for the club, despite missing out on a move to Real. Sarri appeared to open the door for Courtois to leave by insisting he wanted only players who were 100 per cent motivated to play for Chelsea and it now appears the club will have to sell him.

Chelsea can wait until after Thursday’s Premier League deadline to seal the sale of the player who has entered the final year of his contract, because Real have until the end of August to sign players.

But Chelsea must sign a replacement before the Premier League transfer window shuts.

A bid of around £25 million may be enough to land Butland from Championship club Stoke.

Butland wants to move to a Premier League club to enhance his bid to challenge Jordan Pickford as England’s No.1 and a move to Chelsea would do just that.

He has been at Stoke since 2013 and is well known to Chelsea scouts, who watched many of his performances last season while checking on Kurt Zouma’s progress during his spell on loan there.

Rico is also on the list of goalkeepers who former coach Christope Lollichon has recommended to Chelsea and Sevilla are keen on Batshuayi. Everton will not entertain a late bid for Pickford.

While Courtois tries to force Chelsea into a corner over his future, the club are willing to pay Hazard more than £300,000 a week to extend his contract, which has two years to run. The 27-year-old is unlikely to rush into signing it despite accepting he will remain at Stamford Bridge this season.

Chelsea have offered a new £290,000-a-week deal to midfielder Kante, who returned to pre-season training and remains happy at the club.

Willian is another staying this season, despite confirming that Barcelona made a bid to sign him. “I am a Chelsea player,” said Willian. “I have always made it clear that I want to stay here. The only club I know of that made a genuine offer for me was Barcelona. But my head is here and I have the intention of staying as long as the club don’t want to sell me.”

Willian returned late from his summer break, but the Brazilian has no problem with Sarri and is looking forward to working with the former Napoli coach.

“This is a new era, with a new manager and I’ve had a good conversation with him,” said Willian.

“Sarri is a coach who likes to play football; he has a style of playing that is similar to Manchester City. We’ve only just started working with him, but in the first few days we’ve seen he is a coach who likes to play the ball out from the back and likes his teams to play football. He will be very important for us.”

Chelsea play their final friendly of pre-season against Lyon at Stamford Bridge tonight, with French sources claiming they are attempting to sign Nabil Fekir.

Liverpool almost signed Fekir this summer, but reports from France have claimed Chelsea are ready to make a bid for the £60 million-rated player before Thursday.

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tammyheron631-blog · 7 years ago

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wherespaulo · 7 years ago

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Exploring Lisbon, the Algarve and Andalusia

Nov 18-28, 2017

Portugal and the Andalusia region of Spain had always been on my bucket list, so here I was getting away from the US, over the Thanksgiving period as usual, by splitting my time between two nights in Lisbon, three nights in Seville, and four nights in Albufeira. As well as experiencing the different cultures and architecture, I also wanted to get a feel for whether I might like to live there one day. Although I'm in no rush to leave New York, the job that took me there, along with it's social circle, has now gone, and many of the good friends I'd built up over eleven years have now moved away, so I'd had a loose plan for some scouting trips in different parts of southern Europe over the next couple of years.

After a winding, steep uphill climb over narrow cobbled streets towards Sao Jorge Castle in the chill morning, the taxi driver from Lisbon airport finally dropped me just outside the old town wall around 6am in the chill darkness, seemingly refusing, in Portuguese, to take me the last few hundred meters to my small hotel, the Solar Do Castelo. As I entered the old town on foot through the arch of Largo do Chao da Feira, the source of my driver's reluctance became clear – all the old buildings on these narrow, winding street corners, were covered in scrapes and grooves from car bumpers. I tried to minimize the clanking of my wheely bag moving over the cobbles at such a god-awful hour as I struggled to locate my accommodation in the darkness of the old town maze – yet when Google Maps finally came to the rescue I felt a pang of guilt, as though I'd cheated somehow; made it too easy by borrowing a high tech solution from the future in this historical location.

A stroll in the dazzling early morning sunshine around Lisbon's main plaza, the Praca do Comercio, where so much of Portugal's political history evolved, including the assassination of Carlos I in 1908, and the military coop of 1974, was a great way to walk off the fuzzy head from my sleepless overnight flight. This was followed by fleeting visits to the impressive cathedral and Santo Antonio Church, where I visited the crypt of St Anthony birth of 1195. I have to say that although I consider myself non-religious, I do have an eye for appealing architecture, and houses of God do seem to have some of the very best – it never ceases to amaze me how the power of religion throughout history lead to so many of these enormous, quality structures, where money seems to have been no object.

I headed back up the hill towards Sao Jorge Castle and strolled around the medieval ramparts. From Lisbon's pinnacle I had a panoramic view of red tiled Romanesque roofs in every direction and as far as the eye could see. Lisbon, along with much of Portugal, had been rebuilt following the major earthquake of 1755, and I tried to imagine the devastation that must have been evident from this elevated position.

Over the following 48 hours I would discover the beauty of traveling by tram in Lisbon – number 28, a traditional 1930's model for the city tour, and then number 15, a modern version going east to Belem to view Jeronimos Monastery, which survived the earthquake as it sits on sand, Belem Tower, the Monument to the Discoveries, and the Tropical Botanical Garden. I should say that I'm always on the look out for a botanical garden when visiting international cities – the serenity within the urban chaos seems to give me another angle on the place.

My overriding feeling as I left Lisbon behind in my rear view mirror, on my way to the Spanish border and Seville, was of a cosmopolitan city of culture, full of ancient architecture, great restaurants and friendly people with a strange 'Russian sounding' twang, a very different accent to my Brazilian friends – and on top of all that it's very affordable, and has a certain buzz and edge about it that I found very appealing to my creative spirit.

I finally arrived in Seville after a 4.5 hour drive from Lisbon, quickly checked into my accommodation, the Hotel Becquer, and then headed out for dinner. Taberna Colonial looked like a traditional tapas and wine establishment, so I headed in. The place seemed strangely subdued though, and the owner eyed me suspiciously when he heard my accent, seemingly reluctant to serve me – red rags and bulls sprung to mind as I struggled to get an order in. It was only later that I got an inkling of what might have been going on here. It seemed I'd coincidentally arrived in the city center just as thousands of rowdy, and probably slightly inebriated, Liverpool soccer fans had only just left for the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium for an important European Championship game against Sevilla. It seems they had left this owner shell shocked and the sound of my accent probably left him thinking I was a straggler up for some more drunken revelry.

The highlights of Seville for me were the Real Alcazar de Sevilla, or royal palace, the cathedral, the maze of beautiful old cobbled streets lined with laden orange trees and, of course, the world famous flamenco. The absolutely stunning Unesco listed Alcazar in the center of Seville is a magnificent marriage of Christian and Mudejar architecture dating back to the 10th century. As I strolled through its maze of hallowed halls, it was as though I was in a time machine, every room exuding a different period, culture and architectural style, accompanied by their magnificent, ever-present, Islamic-inspired tiling. And as for the gardens – secluded 'rooms' full of blooms and laden orange tree clipped hedges, which could be overlooked from the spectacular Galeria de Grutescos which almost encloses them.

The largest Gothic cathedral in the world (3rd largest cathedral) was constructed of giant blocks of weathered grey/yellow sandstone through the 1400's, on the foundations of the grand mosque from the 1100's, and is located close to the Alcazar. The builders preserved many of the elements of that earlier mosque, including the minaret which was converted into a bell tower known as La Giralda – a brisk hike up the 343ft of elevation via a spiral stone staircase brought me to the top with panoramic views over Seville. After scanning the cavernous space of the central nave, questioning my ability to fully appreciate even a tiny part of this cathedral's grandeur in just a few hours of strolling around, I paused by Christopher Columbus's tomb and felt privileged to stand in the presence of such an eminent fellow explorer – the sheer immenseness, craftsmanship and quality of materials is overpowering and hints at it's iconic importance to the catholic church and Spain all those years ago.

I couldn't leave Seville without experiencing the world famous flamenco, so headed out to an evening show at the Museo Del Baile Flamenco. There was hushed silence in the audience until the suspense was almost imperceptibly broken by the forlorn notes of a lone Spanish guitar emanating from the darkened stage – as the melody slowly built into a crescendo, a female dancer appeared, her beautiful, tight fitting dress, emphasizing her lithe, leggy, athletic body. I became transfixed at the intensity of passion and humor communicated solely by her foot stamps, facial expressions and hand movements, all perfectly attuned to the fast hand clapping and guitar from the sidelines. I was utterly captivated. It was as if she were striving with every ounce of her being to give this intense and complicated story, of love and loss, some kind of tangible shape and meaning. Then a male dancer appeared with moves that told a simpler, more masculine story – of tolling the fields to feed his family, of hard drinking. I was briefly taken back to an earlier stage of my life, to my own flamenco guitar lessons, provided by an accomplished musician who looked the part -- tall, dark and swarve, the word on the street was that he pursued an artists bohemian lifestyle. So it wasn't a complete surprise when I turned up for my scheduled weekly lesson only to find his house completely empty and vacant – he'd clearly done a runner after someones husband, or wife, had discovered his finagling. Well, that was the end of my woefully unlikely flamenco career and, as far as I know, my teacher.

I decided to drive back to Portugal and it's southern Algarve region via a slight detour through Ronda, to see the impressive bridge, Puente Nuevo, built in the 1700's to span the 400 ft chasm located in the middle of this small city. As I took in the breathtaking panorama from the bridge, I felt an urge to experience the spectacle at closer quarters so that I could truly appreciate the magnificence of this engineering feat. But my attempt to hike into the bottom of the chasm was thwarted when the footpath seemingly fizzled out half way down – I'm sure if I'd had more time to explore I would have found a route. But Portugal beckoned, so maybe next time.

When I finally arrived in the southern Algarve, I made a quick visit to the beautiful old town of Tavira before carrying on to pick up my 26 year old son, Alex, from Faro airport, and we then headed on to our hotel, the Aqua Pedra dos Bicos in Albufeira. He'd taken a 2.5 hour flight down from London for a long weekend. Straight away we couldn't help noticing the preponderance of retired boozy Brits in soccer shirts, and sports bars. I was definitely not feeling it for this place -- Albufeira would NOT be a potential place for me to live! Other parts of the Algarve that we drove to felt much more cultural. A drive west along small coastal roads took us to the pretty town of Lagos and then onto the defensive fort near Sagres at the very south west tip of Portugal – as we strolled around the fort perimeter, a little black redstart, dark with it's flicking rust red tail, flitted here and there amongst the cliff side rocks, and reminded me that it's these little sprinklings of magic that elevates an experience from just mediocre to something special and remembered. As the fisherman lined the cliffs edge all around this promontory, I half hoped to see someone catch a largish specimen as I was curious to observe how they could possibly haul it up the 100's of feet of sheer cliff face.

Another drive, inland this time, took us to Silves, with it's beautiful red sandstone castle, and then onto Monchique with it's medieval, derelict convent which was overrun by a local farmer and his chickens.

As we started our drive back to Faro Airport from Monchique we started laughing so hard at the most bizarre spectacle – it was a muster of storks. I should say here that my sense of humor, along with my sense of the bizarre, is perfectly aligned with that of both my sons. Within a half mile stretch of road there must have been fifty families of these strange, prehistoric looking creatures perched on their large, ragged nests, occupying the pinnacle of every single telegraph pole and tree in sight. And strangely enough, just after we'd left the storks behind, and just as it was turning dark, a gigantic domestic pig nonchalantly strolled in front of our path, briefly reminding me of that bizarre scene from the Lobster movie when the two-humped camel wanders through the woodland in the background. I managed to swerve around it just in time, the pig non-the wiser for it's lucky escape, and luckily for us, and the pig, nothing coming the other way on this narrow road. This had been a strange drive indeed, and a feeling of anxiety slowly started to descend on me as the thought that we'd almost wrote off a pig, a car, and possibly ourselves, started to sink in – what if we'd been at that point in the road two seconds earlier?

After dropping Alex off at Faro airport for his return flight to London, I headed back to my hotel in Albufeira for one final night, then drove back to Lisbon airport the following morning for my flight back to New York. As my plane taxied on the runway, I decided Lisbon and Seville were definitely contenders as places to live, and that the wider Andalusia region certainly deserved more scouting out, maybe around Granada and Cardoba, but parts of the Algarve were probably not for me; I'm not really looking to find a bit of England in a foreign land.

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giantsfootball0 · 7 years ago

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There’s never been an NBA draft prospect like Slovenia’s Luka Doncic

8:42 AM ET

Mike SchmitzESPN

HELSINKI, FINLAND — Goran Dragic scrolled through his iPhone smiling ear to ear.

“Let me show you a picture,” Dragic said. “It’s crazy.”

The photo featured Dragic, then a youthful 21-year-old point guard prospect, and nine of his Union Olimpija teammates, hoisting the 2008 Slovenian League championship trophy. At the center of the photo was Sasa Doncic, a 34-year-old veteran forward gripping the stem of the cup as his teammates celebrated around him, confetti flying through the air.

In the foreground of the photo stood Sasa’s nine-year-old son in a green Olimpija jersey, gold medal around his neck, beaming with joy. Surrounded by his local heroes in Ljubljana, Slovenia, a small nation of only 2 million, the young ball boy was captured in a moment of bliss. His name: Luka Doncic.

Over the next four years Doncic would agree to a five-year deal with European basketball power Real Madrid. Under the tutelage of Spanish greats like Sergio Llull, Sergio Rodriguez and Real Madrid head coach Pablo Laso, a 17-year-old Doncic would win Euroleague and ACB Rising Star awards the following season, playing a sizeable role for arguably the 31st best basketball team in the world.

Nine years after that joyous 2008 moment, Doncic now stands 6-8, 228 pounds. He’s one day removed from donning a 2017 Eurobasket gold medal, and arguably the most accomplished 18-year-old European prospect of all time.

He’s also a legitimate candidate to go No. 1 in the 2018 NBA draft, which no European perimeter player has ever done.

Doncic was raised on the hardwood, sweeping Slovenian gym floors at almost every one of his father’s games and sneaking in as many halftime jumpers as he could. The godson of long-time NBA big man Rasho Nesterovic, Doncic had a basketball in his hands since he was seven months old. His father was a talented, creative and well-respected player in Slovenia, and on the court Doncic took after his old man with his crafty style of play and charisma. Well before Doncic even hit puberty, it was clear that he was different. The way he handled the ball, passed with precision and shot with touch and rotation caught the eyes of his coaches and peers.

“Even at that age you could see he had a great feeling for the ball like his dad,” said Dragic, who played 109 official games with Sasa over the course of three seasons, spanning two clubs. “He would always sit under the basket. Every time at halftime when we came out from the locker room he would always be shooting the ball. I always have this memory.”

How will Luka Doncic’s game translate to the NBA? Here’s a first-hand look at the potential star’s strengths and weaknesses.

Here’s our guide to every key date and deadline that will shape roster decisions from now until the postseason.

The former No. 2 overall pick disappointed as a rookie. Is this the year he becomes a star in L.A.?

2 Related

Doncic first began playing organized basketball with his primary school team at Mirana Jarca in Ljubljana around age 7. When his father left Slovenian club Domzale for powerhouse Union Olimpija in 2007, Doncic went with him. Olimpija Basketball School coach, Grega Brezovec, was a longtime friend of Sasa and Doncic’s mother, Mirjam Poterbin, and invited Doncic to practice with the 1999-born generation.

A skinny, happy-go-lucky eight-year old, Doncic was so dominant at his first Olimpija practice that the coaching staff moved him up to the 1996-born group only 16 minutes into the training session. After a full practice with the older kids, Doncic was then bumped up to the Olimpija selection team, where he’d develop over the course of the next few years, regularly competing against players three and four years his senior.

Due to league rules, the 8-year-old Doncic wasn’t allowed to compete at the under-14 level, but he tore through his own age group and played a role off the bench on the under-12 team as well. Eager to spend as much time on the court as possible, Doncic would beg his parents to go practice with the older teams on his off days.

“I often told Luka, ‘Tomorrow you are free — be at home, play with your toys or something, you have to rest,‘” said Jernej Smolnikar, Doncic’s selection team coach from 2007 to 2011. “The next day at 12 his parents would call me saying, ‘Please can Luka come to practice, he’s begging to play.’ His passion to compete was unbelievable.”

“You can’t learn this, what he was doing,” Lojze Sisko said. “No way you can teach some players or somehow give them this knowledge. It’s impossible.” OZAN KOSEOZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images

By age 12 Doncic was well into his ascension to childhood prodigy status, dominating under-12 and under-13 tournaments in Slovenia and all across Europe. Then a 6-2 do-it-all combo guard with remarkable vision and a unique feel for the game, Doncic was a walking triple double who liked to organize the game yet was capable of scoring outbursts any time.

Doncic was more physically gifted and skilled than all of his peers, and many of his elders, but it was his mental makeup, competitive nature and incredible basketball instincts that impressed most at that age. Whether it was an innate characteristic or a product of growing up around the game, the Slovenian sensation was wired differently — joyous and full of life, yet confident with a killer mentality. Quick outlet passes, behind-the-back finds in transition, perfectly timed skip passes over the top of the defense — Doncic had all of the tricks, and the basketball savvy of a seasoned vet.

“He had this from the moment he was born,” said Lojze Sisko, the director of Union Olimpija’s youth program and Doncic’s under-12 coach for his final season before leaving for Spain. “You can’t learn this, what he was doing. No way you can teach some players or somehow give them this knowledge. It’s impossible.

“The most unbelievable thing for me was how he can change his personality. He was always confident on the court. Always had a desire to win. Very focused on the court but when the match finished he was an amazing little boy. He was always smiling, joking with the kids. He had a magnetic personality at that age.”

Doncic was invited by Real Madrid youth sports director Alberto Angulo to compete with the prestigious club in the Minicopa tournament, a junior version of the well-known Spanish competition, Copa Del Rey. Playing with a set of unfamiliar faces, Doncic shined for Real Madrid, scoring 20 points in the final versus rival Barcelona.

After his strong performance the interest between Real Madrid and Doncic heightened, as did the Slovenian’s play when he returned back to Ljubljana. In April of 2012, the 13-year-old Doncic went off for 54 points (39 in the first half), 11 rebounds and 10 assists in the championship game of the under-13 Lido di Roma tournament, where he won MVP honors.

“In this moment I told someone that he reminded me of a young Drazen Petrovic,” said longtime Olimpija basketball chief Srecko Bester. “He was a killer with a baby face. It was so easy for him.”

Doncic’s performance earned him a deal with Real Madrid, which didn’t have many foreigners close to Doncic’s age in the youth program at the time, aside from 1998-born Brazilian center and fellow draft prospect Felipe Dos Anjos. The Doncic family had several suitors all over Europe, but Real Madrid made the most sense given its strong development program, educational infrastructure and rich basketball history.

“It was hard, really hard, especially the first two, three months,” Doncic said. “I didn’t have my parents there. But I was connected with all the other players. I was 13 and I needed it to prepare for all of this now and I want to say thanks to God that I’m here now.”

Doncic started to learn Spanish, adapt to the culture in Madrid and progress quite rapidly as a player. Real Madrid has incredible facilities for youth soccer and basketball prospects, and is arguably the most desirable landing spot for young athletes in all of Europe. Doncic took full advantage of the club’s infrastructure, won MVP of the 2013 Minicopa and began to realize his long-term potential when he started producing against players three and four years older than him, just as he had done in Ljubljana.

“I wanted a ball in my hands so early in my life,” Doncic said. “I don’t know I was 7 months old or so when I first had a ball.” EPA/MAURI RATILAINEN

Practicing with the senior team, Doncic soaked up every bit of information he could from Spanish legends like Llull and Rodriguez. Then he really broke out on during the 2015-16 season.

CSKA Moscow mainstay and former Euroleague defensive player of the year Kyle Hines remembers first seeing a 16-year-old Doncic on the personnel report as the Russian powerhouse prepared for a game against Real Madrid in January 2016.

“I looked at my scouting report and thought to myself, this kid is 16 years old?” Hines said.

With Llull, Real Madrid’s star guard, out due to injury, Doncic was likely to play extended minutes. The CSKA coaching staff wanted to test the teenage Doncic defensively while forcing him to beat them from the perimeter on the other end. Expecting the young Slovenian guard to struggle with the magnitude of playing in a road Euroleague game, CSKA went under every ball screen, defending Doncic “Ricky Rubio style,” as Hines explained.

Doncic made 3 triples in a two-minute, second-quarter stretch, finishing with 12 points and five rebounds in 13 minutes, proving to Hines and CSKA that his thirst for pressure existed even in the Euroleague. The same poise and confidence that characterized him at the youth level carried over to the second-best league in the world, and Doncic posted per-40-minute averages of 13.7 points, 8.0 rebounds and 5.8 assists while shooting 61.8 percent from 2 and 37.3 percent from 3 in 51 ACB and Euroleague games that season.

After spending some of his 2016 summer in Santa Barbara with P3 Sports Science, a data-driven performance company that works with the NBA’s top athletes, Doncic returned to Madrid even more physically mature. The 17-year-old made yet another jump in his physical and skill development, proving early on in the season that he deserved an increased role on an already loaded Real Madrid team.

“It was like the first practice, he came down the lane and dunked it out of nowhere,” said former NBA lottery pick and 2016-17 Real Madrid newcomer, Anthony Randolph, who also played on the Slovenian national team as a naturalized citizen. “I was like, ‘God damn, he’s only 17? It was pretty amazing.'”

Randolph has played with some of the top international prospects in the last decade. Whether it’s Ricky Rubio, Evan Fournier, or Danilo Gallinari, the former LSU standout has seen his share of high-level European talent, but none have accomplished what Doncic has at this age. While Rubio was a childhood sensation and FIBA youth monster characterized by no-look passes and electric transition play, he didn’t have quite the Euroleague or ACB impact of Doncic. Gallinari averaged 14.9 points per game in 11 Euroleague games for Milano in 2007-08, but the majority of that came as a 19-year-old. At 18 Fournier was playing only 14 minutes per game in France Pro A.

“I don’t want to give him a big head, but I think he’s probably one of the best talents that I’ve ever seen, especially at his age,” Randolph said. “It’s unbelievable. Just for his size, the way that he handles the game, the way that he carries himself on and off the court. He’s just so versatile. I mean, the kid can damn near average a triple double when he figures it out.”

Doncic’s production given his age is unprecedented. Playing half the season as a 17-year-old, he was the only player in the Euroleague last season to average at least 15 points, eight rebounds and eight assists per 40 minutes. Although he struggled in the Euroleague final four, Doncic carried a strong season into Eurobasket play, producing like a 10-year veteran for a Slovenian team that shocked all of Europe on its way to a gold medal win over Serbia.

“I don’t want to give him a big head but I think he’s probably one of the best talents that I’ve ever seen, especially at his age,” Anthony Randolph said. OUTJUSSI NUKARI/AFP/Getty Images

In an Istanbul arena loaded with NBA scouts and executives, Doncic scored 27 points on 14 shots in the quarterfinals versus Kristaps Porzingis and Latvia. Two days later the 18-year-old went for 11 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists in an upset win over Spain in the semifinals, shining in virtually every aspect against the likes of Rubio, Marc and Pau Gasol and an extremely talented Spain team. He went down with a sprained ankle injury in the third quarter of the gold medal match, but Doncic’s entire nine-game Eurobasket performance will go down as one of the most impressive runs from a prospect in the event’s history. Playing alongside one of his childhood idols in Dragic, Doncic regularly craved the spotlight, delivering late in games and playing with little worry in crunch time.

“For him it’s natural,” said Igor Kokoskov, Slovenian national team head coach and longtime NBA assistant. “He’s fearless. He loves to compete. He loves to be on the biggest stage.”

“I feel like I want to be the hero of the game, you know?” Doncic said. “Every time I wanted the ball in my hands, from the very beginning. I have missed some important shots before but you need to learn from this. You need to move on. If you have a nice game or a bad game, you will have a thousand more games.”

He’s handled the pressure-cooker that comes along with being a childhood prodigy with tremendous poise to this point, producing at an extremely high level against NBA-caliber talent. Very few “boy wonder” types live up to the usually-lofty expectations. Many fizzle out, peaking too early or falling victim to the hype. As has been the case since those early days with Union Olimpija, Doncic seems to be an exception.

“I’ve seen a lot of players, they get hyped and then they kind of lose control,” said Dragic, who is mentoring the 18-year-old like Steve Nash mentored him 10 years ago in Phoenix. “It gets in their heads. In a few years you don’t even hear from them anymore. I don’t think that’s going to happen with Luka.”

The nine-year-old boy from Dragic’s photo has evolved into Real Madrid’s crown jewel, the pride of Slovenia and one of this year’s top draft prospects. Over nine years after standing with his idols in Ljubljana and watching his father hoist the Slovenian league trophy, Doncic hobbled on one foot and gathered with teammates of his own in Istanbul. Dragic put the understudy on his back and paraded him through the arena, passing the torch to Slovenia’s next star.

Between now and June, Doncic will be compared to the late ex-Yugoslavian legend Drazen Petrovic and touted as arguably the best international prospect ever many times. Scouts will flock to Madrid, exhaust every contact that they have in Spain and Slovenia and study his film dating back to that tiny gym one hour north of Venice. True Luka Doncic mania is just beginning for everyone else, but the journey from Ljubljana to Madrid has prepared him for what lies ahead.

The post There’s never been an NBA draft prospect like Slovenia’s Luka Doncic appeared first on Daily Star Sports.

from https://dailystarsports.com/2017/09/18/theres-never-been-an-nba-draft-prospect-like-slovenias-luka-doncic/ from https://dailystarsports.tumblr.com/post/165477122806

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footballleague0 · 7 years ago

Text

There’s never been an NBA draft prospect like Slovenia’s Luka Doncic

8:42 AM ET

Mike SchmitzESPN

HELSINKI, FINLAND — Goran Dragic scrolled through his iPhone smiling ear to ear.

“Let me show you a picture,” Dragic said. “It’s crazy.”

He’s also a legitimate candidate to go No. 1 in the 2018 NBA draft, which no European perimeter player has ever done.

How will Luka Doncic’s game translate to the NBA? Here’s a first-hand look at the potential star’s strengths and weaknesses.

Here’s our guide to every key date and deadline that will shape roster decisions from now until the postseason.

The former No. 2 overall pick disappointed as a rookie. Is this the year he becomes a star in L.A.?

2 Related

“I often told Luka, ‘Tomorrow you are free — be at home, play with your toys or something, you have to rest,'” said Jernej Smolnikar, Doncic’s selection team coach from 2007 to 2011. “The next day at 12 his parents would call me saying, ‘Please can Luka come to practice, he’s begging to play.’ His passion to compete was unbelievable.”

“You can’t learn this, what he was doing,” Lojze Sisko said. “No way you can teach some players or somehow give them this knowledge. It’s impossible.” OZAN KOSEOZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images

“I wanted a ball in my hands so early in my life,” Doncic said. “I don’t know I was 7 months old or so when I first had a ball.” EPA/MAURI RATILAINEN

Practicing with the senior team, Doncic soaked up every bit of information he could from Spanish legends like Llull and Rodriguez. Then he really broke out on during the 2015-16 season.

“I looked at my scouting report and thought to myself, this kid is 16 years old?” Hines said.

“I don’t want to give him a big head but I think he’s probably one of the best talents that I’ve ever seen, especially at his age,” Anthony Randolph said. OUTJUSSI NUKARI/AFP/Getty Images

“For him it’s natural,” said Igor Kokoskov, Slovenian national team head coach and longtime NBA assistant. “He’s fearless. He loves to compete. He loves to be on the biggest stage.”

The post There’s never been an NBA draft prospect like Slovenia’s Luka Doncic appeared first on Daily Star Sports.

from http://ift.tt/2yk77d9 from http://ift.tt/2xgdejS

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ngop3 · 7 years ago

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I’m going to start with a secret. Actually, you may learn a few secrets in this story, because I feel like I am misunderstood by many people. But let’s start with the first one.

Three months ago, when Barcelona made their incredible comeback against Paris St.-Germain in the Champions League, I was watching every moment from my couch. You might think from reading the newspapers that I was hoping my old club would lose.

But when my brother Neymar scored that beautiful free kick? I jumped up from my couch and was screaming at the television.

“Vamoooooooos!”

And when Sergi Roberto performed a miracle in the 95th minute?

Like every other Barca fan in the world, I was going absolutely crazy. Because the truth is that Barcelona is still in my blood.

Was I disrespected by the board of directors before I left the club last summer? Absolutely. That is simply how I feel, and you can never tell me any different. But you cannot play for a club for eight years, and achieve everything that we did, and not have that club in your heart forever. Managers, players and board members come and go. But Barca will never go away.

Before I went to Juventus, I made a final promise to the board at Barcelona. I said, “You’re going to miss me.”

I didn’t mean as a player. Barca have plenty of incredible players. What I meant was that they were going to miss my spirit. They were going to miss the care I had for the dressing room. They were going to miss the blood I spilled every time I put on the shirt.

When I had to play against Barca in the next round, it was a very weird feeling. Especially in the second leg at the Camp Nou, I felt like I was home again. Right before the match started, I went over to the Barca bench to say hello to my old friends, and they were saying, “Dani, come sit with us! We saved your seat!”

PHOTO BY JOAN VALLS/NURPHOTO/ZUMA PRESS

I was shaking everybody’s hand with my back to the referee. All of a sudden, I heard a whistle. I turned around and the referee had already started the match. I went sprinting back to the field, and I could hear my old manager, Luis Enrique, laughing his ass off.

It’s funny right? But that match was not a joke, especially not to me. People see me and they say, “Dani’s always joking. He’s always smiling. He’s not serious.”

I could hear my old manager, Luis Enrique, laughing his ass off.

Listen, I’ll tell you another secret. Before I go up against the best forwards in the world — Messi, Neymar, Cristiano — I study their strengths and weaknesses like an obsession, and then I plan how I am going to attack. My goal is to show the world that Dani Alves is on the same level. Maybe they will dribble past me once or twice. Sure, O.K. But I will attack them, too. I don’t want to be invisible. I want the stage. Even at 34 years old, after 34 trophies, I still feel I have to prove this every time.

But it goes even deeper than that.

Right before every match, I have same the routine. I stand in front of a mirror for five minutes and I block out everything. Then a movie begins to play in my mind. It is the movie of my life.

In the first scene, I’m 10 years old. I’m sleeping on a concrete bed at my family’s tiny home in Juazeiro, Brazil. The mattress over the bed is as thick as your little finger. The house smells of wet soil, and it is still dark outside. It’s five in the morning, and the sun has not risen, but I have to go help my father on our farm before school.

My brother and I walk out into the field, and our father is already out there working. He’s got a big, heavy tank on his back, and he’s spraying the fruits and plants with chemicals to kill the bacteria.

We’re probably too young to handle the toxins, but we help him anyway. This is just our way to survive. For hours, I compete with my brother to see who can be the hardest worker. Because the one who our father decides has helped him the most gets the rights to our only bicycle.

If I don’t win the bicycle, I have to walk the 12 miles from the farm to my school. The walk back from school is even worse, because the pickup football games in our neighborhood will start without me. So I run the 12 miles back and then just keep running right out onto the pitch.

But if I do win the bicycle? Then I can get the girls. I can pick up one of them on the road and offer them a ride to school. For 12 miles, I’m the man.

So I work my ass off.

I look at my father as I leave for school, and he’s still got the big tank on his back. He’s got a full day in the field ahead of him, and then at night he’s got a little bar that he runs to make extra money. He was a hell of a footballer when he was young, but he didn’t have the money to make it to a bigger city so he could be seen by scouts. He wants to make sure that I have that opportunity, even if it kills him.

The screen fades to black.

Now it’s Sunday, and we’re watching the football matches on our black-and-white TV. There’s steel wool wrapped around the antenna so we can pick up the signal from the city, far away. For us, this is the best day of the week. There’s a lot of joy in our house.

The screen fades to black.

Now my father is driving me to town in his old car so I can try out in front of some scouts. The car is a stick shift, and it only has two gears — slow and slower. I can smell the smoke.

My dad is a hustler. I gotta be a hustler, too.

The screen fades to black.

Now I’m 13, and I’m at this academy for young footballers in a bigger town, away from my family. There are 100 kids packed into a small dormitory. It’s kind of like a prison. The day before I left home, my father went into town and bought me a new football outfit. He doubled my wardrobe, because I only had one outfit to begin with.

After the first day of training, I hang the new kit on the line to dry. The next morning, it’s gone. Somebody has taken it. That’s when I realize that this is not the farm anymore. This is the real world, and the reason they call it the real world is because shit is real out here.

I go back to my room, and I’m starving. We train all day, and there’s not enough food at the camp. Somebody stole my clothes. I miss my family, and I’m definitely not the best player here. Out of 100, I’m maybe 51st in ability. So I make myself a promise.

I tell myself, “You are not going back to the farm until you make your father proud. You might be 51st in ability. But you are going to be No. 1 or 2 in drive. You are going to be a warrior. You are not going back home, no matter what.”

The screen fades to black.

Now I’m 18 years old, and I’m telling one of the only lies I’ve ever told in football.

I’m playing for Bahia in the Brazilian league when a big scout comes up to me and says, “Sevilla are interested in signing you.”

I say, “Sevilla! Amazing.”

The scout says, “Do you know where that is?”

I say, “Of course I know where Sevilla is. Sev-iiiillaaaaa. I love it.”

But I have no f******g idea where Sevilla is. It could be on the moon for all I know. But the way he says the name makes it sound important, so I lie.

A few days later, I start asking around, and I find out that Sevilla plays against Barcelona and Real Madrid. In Portuguese, we have an expression for this kind of moment.

I said to myself, “Agora.”

It’s like, Bang. Now. Let’s go.

The screen fades to black.

Now I’m in Sevilla, and I’m so malnourished that the coaches and other players are looking at me like I must play for the youth team. I am in the middle of the hardest six months of my life. I don’t speak the language. The manager isn’t playing me, and it’s the first time I really think about going home.

But then, for some reason, I think about the new outfit that my father bought me when I was 13. The one that got stolen. I think of him with the tank strapped to his back, spraying chemicals. And I decide that I’m going to stay and learn the language and try to make some friends, so that at least I can go back to Brazil with a new experience to share.

When the season begins, the manager instructs everyone, “At Sevilla, our defense does not go past the halfway line. Never.”

I play a few games, kicking the ball around, looking at that line. Just looking at it, like a dog who’s afraid to cross an invisible fence in his yard. Then, one game, for some reason, I just let go. I have to be me.

I say, “Agora.”

And I just go. Attack, attack, attack.

It works like magic. After that, the manager says, “O.K., Dani. New plan. At Sevilla, you attack.”

In just a few seasons, we go from being a relegation club to lifting the UEFA Cup twice.

The screen fades to black.

My phone is ringing. It’s my agent.

“Dani, Barcelona are interested in signing you.”

I do not have to lie this time. I know where Barcelona is.

PHOTO BY DAVID RAMOS/GETTY IMAGES

That is the movie that plays in my head when I stare in the mirror before every match. At the end, before I walk back to the dressing room, I always say the same thing to myself.

Shit, I came from nowhere.

I am here now.

It’s unreal, but I am here.

When I was 18, I moved across the ocean just for the opportunity to play for a club that played against Barcelona. So to have the honor of playing for Barca? It was incredible. I got to be a witness to true genius.

I remember during one training session, Messi was doing things with the ball at his feet that defied logic. Of course, that is what he did every day. Only this time, something was different.

Now, I need to remind you, this was an extremely intense training session. We were not messing around. Messi was dribbling through the defense and finishing like a killer.

And then as he’s running past me, I look down at his cleats, and I’m thinking to myself, Is this a joke?

He comes running past again, and I think, No, it’s impossible.

He comes running past again, and now I’m sure what I’m seeing.

His damn cleats are untied. Both of them.

I mean completely untied. This guy is playing against the best defenders in the world, just floating around the pitch, and he’s acting like it’s a Sunday in the park. That was the moment when I knew that I was never going to play with someone like him ever again in my life.

And then, of course, there’s Pep Guardiola.

PHOTO BY OTTO GREULE JR/GETTY IMAGES

If you turn the word computer backwards, it spells Steve Jobs.

If you turn the word football backwards, it spells Pep.

He is a genius. I’ll say it again. A genius.

Pep would tell you exactly how everything was going to happen in a match before it even happened. For example, the game against Real Madrid in 2010, when we won 5–0? Pep told us before the match, “Today, you’re going to play like the football is a ball of fire. It never stays at your feet. Not even a half second. If you do that, there will be no time for them to pressure us. We will win easily.”

The sensation when we left every one of his prematch talks was like we were already up three-nil. We were so empowered, so prepared, that it felt like we were already winning.

The funniest thing was if we came in at halftime and the game wasn’t going well. Pep would sit down and rub his forehead. You know how he rubs his head? You’ve seen it, right? Like he’s massaging his brain, searching for the genius to come to him.

He would do this right in front of us in the dressing room. Then, like magic, it would come to him.

Bang!

“I’ve got it!”

Then he would jump up and start barking out instructions, drawing maths and figures on the board.

“We will do this, this and this, and then this is how we will score.”

So we would go out, and we would do this, this and this. And that’s how we would score. It was crazy.

Pep was the first coach in my life who showed me how to play without the ball. And he wouldn’t just demand that his players change their game, he would sit us down and show us why we wanted us to change with statistics and video.

PHOTO BY DAVID RAMOS/GETTY IMAGES

Those Barca teams were pretty much unbeatable. We played by memory. We already knew what we were going to do. We didn’t have to think.

That is why, to this day, Barca is in my heart.

That is why, when we beat Barcelona in the Champions League quarterfinals, I walked up to my brother Neymar, and I gave him a hug. He was crying, and a part of me felt like crying, too.

I can imagine people reading this and asking why I am sharing these secrets.

Well, the truth is, I am 34 years old. I don’t know how much longer I will play. Maybe two or three years. And I feel as though people do not understand me, and my full story.

When I came to Juventus this season, it was like I was leaving home again. I did it when I was 13, going to the academy. I did it again at 18, going to Spain. And then I did it again at 33, going to Italy.

When I first arrived at Juve, it was like going to a completely new school. My whole life, I had loved to attack. And now I was coming to a place where they value defending above everything.

Once again, I was the dog in the yard. I was staring at the invisible fence.

Should I go?

But I did not go. At the beginning of the season, I wanted to make sure that the Juve players understood that I respected their philosophy, and their history. Once I made sure that I had their respect, I tried to show them my strengths, too.

One day, I looked at the halfway line, and I said to myself, Should I go?

… Bang. Agora.

Attack, attack, attack. (And, O.K., maybe defend a bit, too, or Buffon will be yelling at me.)

I sometimes think that life is a circle.

See, I cannot get away from these Argentinians.

At Barca, I had Messi.

At Juve, I have Dybala.

Genius follows me everywhere, I swear.

PHOTO BY DANIELE BADOLATO/LAPRESSE/ICON SPORTSWIRE

In training one day, I saw something in Dybala that I had seen before in Messi. It was not just the gift of pure talent. I have seen that many times in my life. It was the gift of pure talent combined with the will to conquer the world.

At Barca, we played by memory.

At Juve, it’s different. It’s our collective mentality that has carried us to the Champions League final. When the whistle blows, we simply find a way to win no matter what. Winning is not just a goal at Juve, it’s like an obsession. There are no excuses.

This Saturday, I have a chance to win my 35th trophy in 34 years on earth. It is a special opportunity for me, and it has nothing to do with proving to the Barcelona board that they made a mistake in letting me go.

I know that they will never admit that.

That’s not the point.

Do you remember what I told you about the moment at the academy in Brazil? When I said to myself that I would never go back to the farm until I made my father proud?

Well, my father is not a very emotional man. I never knew when I had actually made him truly proud. For most of my career, he was back home in Brazil. But in 2015, he was there in Berlin to see me win the Champions League final for the very first time in person. I remember after the trophy celebrations on the field, Barca had a special party for the families of the players. We got to hand over the trophy to the people who had helped us achieve our dreams. I remember when it was my turn I passed the trophy to my father, and we were both holding it, posing for a photo.

And he said something in Portuguese that is actually a dirty word, so I won’t translate it word for word.

But he basically said, “My son is the man now.”

And you know what? He was crying like a baby.

That was the greatest moment of my life.

On Saturday, I will have the chance to play for another Champions League trophy against a very familiar opponent. Like always, I will study Cristiano like an obsession.

Like always, I will go to the mirror before the match and play the same movie in my mind.

The screen will go black, and I will remember these things….

My concrete bed.

The smell of wet soil.

My father with the tank of chemicals on his back.

The 12 mile bike ride to school.

The new outfit.

The empty clothesline.

“Of course I know where Sevilla is.”

Shit, I came from nowhere.

I am here now.

It’s unreal, but I am here.

DANI ALVES

/ CONTRIBUTOR

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flauntpage · 8 years ago

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The Seductive Allure of French Soccer

The first time I experienced French football was as a 10-year-old. Being born in the nineties, I had missed most of the lump-it-long-and-trudge of the English game. The version I was introduced to was graced by European hot shots, who added flair and finesse to the grit and passion of homegrown British footballers. One morning my dad had left Eurosport on after watching cycling or cross-country skiing, or something equally 'yer da', to go and cut the grass. They were showing highlights of the weekend's fixtures from Ligue 1.

I was immediately captivated. There were players with silver boots and spider web tattoos hitting footballs really, really hard at the goal. The frenetic pace the game was being played at was like nothing I had seen before – and I'd seen Mark Viduka bag a hat-trick against Charlton Athletic. I was used to watching Stephen Carr, David Dunn and Lee Carsley, completely unaware that there was an entire footballing universe filled with incredible kits and players with lightning bolts shaved into their heads. There was Sidney Govou – I'd never before been so excited to watch a man run around a football pitch. It didn't matter that he was stationed on the edge of the D, completely peripheral, inconsequential to the action unfolding around him, because he looked incredible doing it. Enthralled by the highlights, I had left my dad exasperated and angry, banging on the window, demanding I unplug the lawnmower from the inside socket. Sorry dad, not today pal. I'd just found out about Olympique Lyonnais, and they had a Brazilian bloke in red Predator Pulses scoring free-kicks from 45 yards. The front lawn would simply have to wait.

READ MORE: Robert Prosinecki and the Improbable Portsmouth Years

After the programme had finished, I was a changed man. No more Match of the Day for me. Shepherd's pie? Forget it, mum – coq au vin, s'il vous plait. I spent hours looking for a player with a white mohican in a blue-ish kit that I'd seen in incredibly low resolution on a video hidden in the extras menu of FIFA 2003. After exhausting my knowledge of dial-up internet forums and search engines, I finally found my man: it was Serbian forward Danijel Ljuboja. With 34 goals in 123 games for Strasbourg, he was neither prolific nor high-profile, but for some reason, in the incredibly limited customisation of FIFA 2003, the creators had decided to give him his very own hairdo. It was one of the most exciting things I had ever seen. I was hooked.

Historically, Ligue 1 has been overlooked as a top European competition. Consistently ranked below England, Spain, Germany and Italy, it is seen as a breeding ground or stepping stone for young exciting players, but not a final destination. The other leagues have all had their time in the sun: the romance of Italy in the nineties; both the Galactico and Messi/Ronaldo eras of Spanish football; England's run of four successive Champions League finalists in the mid noughties; and the all-German final of 2013, followed by Pep Guardiola's arrival in Munich. But the same cannot be said of France.

In spite of this, French teams have consistently performed well in Europe, and never more so than during my pseudo-footballing/pseudo-sexual awakening to Ligue 1. In 2004, Monaco, aided by on-loan Spanish striker Fernando Morientes, found themselves in the Champions League Final against Jose Mourinho's Porto. Monaco encapsulate the essence of French football more than any other side. A principality dripping with riches, there is perhaps no place more desirable to earn a living. Yet the style of play is at odds with the surrounding lifestyle: instead of meandering yachts and mid morning strolls in the sunshine, the club is consistently electrifying, dynamic, exciting.

It's never been easier to watch French football's brightest young stars in action // PA Images

That electricity has come to prominence again this season, with Ligue 1 sides getting more attention than ever before thanks to global social media and a streaming culture that allows us to watch any game unfold, anywhere on earth.

When a Qatari takeover at Paris Saint-Germain saw unrivalled funds pumped into the club, French football gained some leverage in attracting top talent. The takeover coincided with the arrivals of Ezequiel Lavezzi, Thiago Silva, Javier Pastore and Marco Veratti, as well as the totemic figures of David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Awash with riches and talent, PSG developed a monopoly in France, much like the Lyon side that secured seven successive Ligue 1 triumphs and captivated me as a 10-year-old. In Paris there were five consecutive titles, but there were also critics. Players who moved to PSG were seen to be cashing in and taking the easy option, instead of pushing themselves and furthering their careers in a more competitive league.

The nouveau riche Parisians attracted top names to the French capital. But this turned Ligue 1 into a forgone conclusion, and arguably diminished interest from further afield. Already down the pecking order of European leagues, France was now seen as another Scotland: one powerful team, a lot of whipping boys.

But this season has proved entirely different. Thanks to their forethought, extensive scouting networks and focus on young players, Monaco and Nice have gone toe-to-toe with PSG. The title is going right to the wire.

READ MORE: Unpacking the Logic Behind Calling a Footballer 'the New Thierry Henry'

The free-scoring exploits of Monaco have seen them bag more goals than any other top flight team in Europe. They are not only doing the business domestically, but are also pulling up trees in the Champions League. Rarely has any team combined the fearlessness of youth with the composure that this side has shown. Looking back through recent footballing history, it's tempting to compare them with Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United side of the nineties and noughties. They have Thomas Lemar (21), Bernardo Silva (22), Fabinho (23), Benjamin Mendy (22), and Tiemoué Bakayoko (22). But the jewel in the crown is the emerging Kylian Mbappé, who at just 18 possesses a devastating combination of explosive pace, slaloming dribbling and frightening composure. The youngster looks destined to become football's next superstar.

Should Monaco somehow defy the odds and reach the Champions League Final this season, there is a real chance that their success could act as a catalyst to build the profile and attraction of Ligue 1. The last time a French outfit won the competition was its inaugural season: in 1993, a Marseille side containing Marcel Desailly, Rudi Voller and Didier Deschamps overcame one of the greatest AC Milan teams in history, including Van Basten, Maldini and Baresi.

Ligue 1 has always held a special place in my heart, ever since I first laid eyes on Sidney Govou. And for the first time in my life, the tides may be turning in Europe. French football has the chance to stand alongside the superpowers and stake a claim to be included among them.

@TobyDennett for @TheFootballPink

This article was originally published by The Football Pink. You can purchase their latest issue in print or digitally via their website.

The Seductive Allure of French Soccer published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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tinkerbelljayne · 8 years ago

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From the moment I checked into my Santiago hostel, everyone kept telling me I had to make a trip to Valparaiso, a small but colourful coastal city less than two hours away. Everyone bar the hostel owner that is.

“Valparaiso is too dirty for me,” Ivan told me one night over a glass bottle of red wine at the hostel barbecue. “It used to be nice but not anymore.” With Valparaiso being famous for it’s street art, I assumed he just wasn’t a fan of the graffiti, kind of like how it is in Shoreditch; the younger generations adore it’s look, whilst many of the older generations don’t appreciate it.

But two days later, after arriving and checking into my Valparaiso hostel, I discovered exactly what Ivan meant. Before you embark on a walk into the colourful hills of Valparaiso, you first arrive in the Plaza de Armas, and quite frankly, it’s filthy. Whilst the old buildings and barred windows give it a rustic charm, the overflowing rubbish bags, littered floors and packs of stray dogs, do not. Even as I headed up into the hills where my eyes gazed in amazement at all the incredible street art, they kept getting pulled back to the litter all over the ground which was kinda ruining the art for me. Every house and building looked like it had missed bin day for the past three weeks.

Valparaiso is often described as Chile’s very own San Francisco, with it’s drastically steep hills, dock of colourful boats and because it used to have funicular rails, which look like cable cars (although there is only one fully working car remaining in Valparaiso). But as I wandered through the dirty littered streets of Valparaiso, I found myself hoping that San Fran looked nothing like this place. I walked up the curved hills, took in the art, went for a coffee and explored a playground, but nothing was blowing me away.

The second thing I had been told about Valparaiso was that its night life was one of the best in Chile. With only one night in Valparaiso planned in, I wanted to make the most of it. I started by drinking on my hostel balcony around 8pm, and I made zero friends. Great. Then I headed out to the Plaza des Armas at about 10pm which was super quiet, especially for a Saturday night. Next I headed back up to the hills I had been to earlier, this time to scout out a bar or a club, but it was mostly restaurants, mostly quiet and I was mostly bored. I took myself to two different venues for a cocktail, and then ended up strolling around until about 1am. But after everything that happened on my arrival in Chile, I didn’t feel confident being out and about on my own, especially at that hour and so I headed back to my hostel and went to bed.

I woke up in the foulest of moods. I kinda felt like Valparaiso had been a waste of my time. I didn’t like the place. I didn’t see what everyone else had obviously seen, plus I hadn’t met anyone and both my hostel and the night life had been a big disappointment. I decided to stick to my plan to check out that day and I booked myself onto a night-bus that night that would take me to my next Chilean city.

With an afternoon still to kill in this disappointing place, I decided to check out the Valparaiso Street Art Walking Tour, a free tour – also known as a Tour for tips – that offered a two hour walk with a guide, looking at the street art.

And this is when I learnt that sometimes it’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know!

Enter Diego – the tour guide!

Diego, our young, charming, chatty and very passionate tour guide met us in the Plaza des Armas, which I discovered is super quiet on a Sunday. It was as if everyone had left town for the day. Only three others turned up, an American couple and a Brazilian guy, making it a very intimate little tour.

The tour began with Diego walking us to a spot over the road to tell us about the history of graffiti, and how Valparaiso came to have every brick, every door, pretty much every inch of it covered in art. He showed us some of the most beautiful pieces of street art I have ever seen, and in contrast to that he showed us some of the worst and simplest forms of graffiti (which is usually just people signing their street name on someone’s property). He explained how many locals now pay artists to decorate their buildings with huge vivid paintings. And if anyone ever tried to paint over graffiti or art to have a ‘normal’ house, local street artists just see it as a brand new blank canvas to paint over.

He also pointed out that the hills of Valparaiso don’t have any big brands or chains, no Starbucks, no McDonald’s, because the community won’t allow corporate chains into their unique and independent world that is solely run by them – and even though I’ve got a soft spot for McDonald’s and am a big Starbucks whore, I kind of admired them for that.

Throughout the two hour walk Diego took us on a bit of an adventure. He walked us through hidden alleyways, ones a tourist would never be able to find, each one hiding away a quirky piece of art, or even a teeny tiny shop. He showed us shortcuts that cut the hills in half and took us to views that made us gasp. We were taken down an alley that was being completely repainted by a group of artists and at the beginning of the tour we were introduced to a famous artist couple who were up on scaffolding in the middle of creating commissioned street art. And at the end of the tour Diego even took us to a Bakery that sold a variety of over 60 different Empanadas (which was great news for me, because walking makes me super hungry).

Diego basically opened a window for me, a window that allowed me to look closer and see Valparaiso in a completely different light. Okay, so the night life had not been as expected, not that night anyway, but I suddenly found myself not caring, not when I had beautiful art to admire and yummy snacks to eat. No I did not like the litter situation, it made the place look dirty, but it turns out he agrees, so do many of the residents there. Just like us Brits, they blame their litter problem on lazy youths. But in the UK we have the power, the means and the funding to change this. They don’t. And yes, I had to admit, even though I am a dog person, I had been slightly intimidated by the big wild dogs roaming around everywhere, but as a group of happy dogs joined us on the tour, all with their tails wagging and their tongues hanging out, I began to love them. They were so friendly. Diego explained to us that not many locals tend to have pet dogs because they treat all the dogs in Valparaiso as their own; when one animal is sick they all chip in to get it medicine, they all feed them, they all care for them – which explains why all the dogs look so healthy.

By the end of my two hour tour with Diego, my opinion on Valparaiso had completely changed. It had switched from a ‘colourful s***hole’ to ‘cute & quirky, full of love and imagination’.

The Valparaiso Street Art Walking Tour certainly made me realise that sometimes you have to look a little harder and dig a little deeper to see the real beauty of a place. Not everything is perfectly structured, perfectly tiled or perfectly clean. I forgot that flaws can be beautiful. And exploring is fun, but sometimes you have to be shown a place to really understand it.

Considering the tour was tips only, it was a fantastic little tour, I cannot recommend it enough. Had I not bothered with it I would have left Valparaiso that day not understanding it at all. Instead I left understanding that Valparaiso is a place that is all about being free and having imagination. It still wasn’t my favourite place, and I had no desire to stay an extra night, but I certainly appreciated it as great little place and a cool city for backpackers to visit.

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Finding Flaws in Valparaiso From the moment I checked into my Santiago hostel, everyone kept telling me I had to make a trip to Valparaiso, a small but colourful coastal city less than two hours away.

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