Soccer quotes
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside soccer — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Sven must have neglected to pay tribute to one of those strict Nordic gods. But instead of cursing Eriksson himself, Thor has done a still crueller thing and cursed the England strikers. I can only assume that Eriksson was never informed of this curse, otherwise he might have more than a 17-year-old up his sleeve."
"The combination of an out-of-control tabloid press and a readership that thrills to the destruction of the England head coach is something no other country can offer. Scolari was driven out; Steve McClaren's personal life made the front pages. Neither of them even held the job. Then there was the fake-sheikhing of Sven-Göran Eriksson. That a newspaper should so brilliantly and deliberately destabilise the national head coach in a World Cup year is something no other sporting nation would consider."
"Any parent who tells their kids that they can't attend a school play or go to a soccer match because they have to work is kidding themselves. It's OK to miss a game or two or a performance here and there, but it's not all right to miss the majority of them."
"When I first met him [David Beckham] I didn't know whether to shake his hand or lick his face."
"On Platini's presidential watch... he has to balance all the leagues, all the dreams and needs of hundreds of clubs across his continent."
"We're looking at ideas to remodel Arrowhead Stadium. It's 30 years old and it's not a good American soccer stadium. We're looking at ways to improve Arrowhead-which is oriented for NFL games--for our spectators."
"Fitness has always been one of the top priorities in my life because that's the way I grew up, with soccer being the sport of choice."
"Country was about character. Country's changed because of monsters like Clear Channel who bought up all the stations and sliced them up into formats. Our demographic is now the soccer mom."
"The final true artform in what we're talking about is the goal itself. And for us to try and stop that from happening, we're kind of the anti-art."
"If there is one thing in this planet that has the power to bind people it is soccer."
"In football, hate can be a beautiful thing; sustaining and nourishing, quite unlike other manifestations of an otherwise destructive emotion."
"Globalization really is a concrete, fundamental fact in everybody's lives, and you really see that come to life in soccer stadiums."
"Astonishing times. Who would have imagined that the Crazy Gang would yield a Hollywood film star (Vinny Jones), a British television ever-present (John Fashanu) and now a televised African dance champion?"
"I think that in any argument about right or wrong in football, a reference to Don Revie's Leeds United is the nuclear option. There is, quite simply, nowhere to go after that. There has never been a more horrible football team. The Leeds of the Seventies were found guilty, week in, week out, of crimes against humanity."
"People always remember the second half."
"Peter Weir has just shrugged off an ankle injury"
"Once again it was Gough who stood firm for Scotland in the air"
"I wanted to be a soccer player. I knew that couldn't happen."
"We are more often than not asked, for instance, to regard Israel and Palestine as in a conflict of this kind, a framing that sets each of them on equal footing, and implicitly analogies the political situation to a fist fight, a soccer match, or a domestic quarrel. So if, then, the only two intelligible political positions are "pro-Palestinian" or "pro-Israeli," the presumption is that one's position is determined by a sentiment that wants one side to win over the other."
"England are very light up front. Eriksson's decision not to include Jermaine Defoe can be declared an error of judgment, regardless of Rooney's situation. The Swede should have forgone one of his nine midfield players; much will have to go wrong for Jermaine Jenas to get a game."
