Sports Poets Society

by Jordi Punti Guardiola was born to coach,” said Juan Manuel Lillo, who managed him when he turned out for Dorados de Sinaloa . But Guardiola is far from the only player who learned his trade under Johan Cruyff and later went on to coach a leading team. There are many such examples, some boasting years of experience in the job. The list includes Ronald Koeman , currently in charge of Southampton, Julen Lopetegui (Porto), Albert Ferrer (Cordoba), Michael Laudrup (Lekhwiya, Qatar), Eusebio (Barcelona B) and also Sergi Barjuan and Hristo Stoichkov, although both are currently without a club. In reality these former players are not only keeping alive the legacy bequeathed by Cruyff. Another Dutchman, Louis van Gaal, nourished and maintained a strictly defined house style during his spell at the Barcelona helm, handing Xavi his debut for example. Against this background, Van Gaal’s arrival at Manchester United following his success with the Netherlands at this summer’s World Cup cou...

http://www.fantagazzetta.com/approfondimenti/paris-roubaix-storia-curiosita-statistiche-e-pronostici-185169 La Parigi-Roubaix (fr. Paris-Roubaix) è una corsa in linea maschile di ciclismo su strada, una delle cinque cosiddette classiche monumento, che si svolge nel nord della Francia, in prossimità della frontiera belga, ogni anno la seconda domenica d'aprile. La distanza totale della corsa supera i 250km variando a seconda delle edizioni. Dal 1989 è stata inserita nel calendario della Coppa del Mondo e dal 2005 in quello dell'UCI ProTour. Creata, ideata e fondata nel lontano 1896, fino al 1967 la corsa partiva da Parigi e terminava nel velodromo di Roubaix, comune nel Pas-de-Calais. Dal 1968 ad oggi inizia dalla città di Compiègne (circa 60 km a nord-est dal centro di Parigi), mentre il traguardo è ancora situato a Roubaix. La corsa è l'ultima delle cosiddette classiche del pavé, famosa appunto per i numerosi tratti in pavé, l'elemento caratterizzante di questa corsa...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/soccer-insider/wp/2016/03/28/johan-cruyff-the-american-years/?postshare=7281459197468257&tid=ss_tw By Friso van der Oord and Pieter van Os  March 28 at 4:37 PM    Johan Cruyff (By Tony Quinn) We, the Dutch, don’t usually revere our sport stars. But last Thursday, when the news about Johan Cruyff’s death broke , the country was in collective shock, in complete disbelief. Cruyff was immortal, we thought, despite his recent lung cancer diagnosis. Days of press coverage and tributes since then revealed not only deep adoration for his sheer genius but also strong nostalgia for our own past. Memories of Cruyff led to flashbacks of our own youth, since Cruyff had always been there, on or off the field, as a key figure. Surely, he was a world-class soccer player and coach, who modernized the game of football. More importantly, he helped shape our national identity over the last 50 years, perhaps even more so than the House of ...

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/33qhgy/a_look_at_the_1967_nba_champions/ A New Direction Going into the 1966-67 season the Sixers had made a big coaching change by firing franchise leading scorer Dolph Schayes and replacing him with Alex Hannum. Schayes was a 12 time All-Star while playing for the Syracuse Nationals, but had lost to Boston in the playoffs in both 1965 and 1966 despite a franchise record 55 wins in the latter. Hannum on the other hand was the last coach to beat the Celtics in the playoffs as the coach of the 1958 St. Louis Hawks. The problem was that since ’58 the Celtics had rattled off 8 consecutive championships under Red Auerbach and Bill Russell. The Sixers were in just their 4th year in Philadelphia since moving from Syracuse and had just marginal success. Wilt Chamberlain had made the move with the Philadelphia Warriors to San Fransisco in 1962-63 but made his way back home to Philly mid-way through the 1964-65 season. Wilt joined former All-St...

http://thelab.bleacherreport.com/the-church-of-cruyff/?utm_source=twitter.com Forever Spreading the Football Gospel by David Winner March 8, 2016 “THE HOLY APOSTLES AND DISCIPLES OF OUR SAVIOUR WERE DISPERSED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.” THE CHURCH HISTORY BY EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA Jesus was the inspiration, but it took a small army of evangelists to turn his radical ideas into a big religion. This model—of a towering central figure and a host of followers and interpreters—is still a pretty good way to transform the world. It works in small ways as well as big ones. For example, Sigmund Freud and his students, rivals and successors changed the way we understand the mind. Karl Marx and his readers shaped the 20th century. Surreal modern British comedy wouldn't exist without Spike Milligan and his host of admirers and successors. As in life, so it is in football. There have been lots of brilliant football figures down the years, but none has been as signifi...

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/mar/25/johan-cruyff-father-modern-game-dutch The argumentative, arrogant, dominating and brilliant figure was not only a pioneer of Total Football, he changed the personality of a nation too by David Winner Britain had the Beatles and the Stones. The Netherlands had Johan Cruyff . Their art forms were different but his legacy has been just as important. Cruyff was not merely the key figure in tactical revolutions in the 1960s and 70s that took them from being a football backwater to the world’s most important football nation. He changed the personality of the country, too. In an article to mark Cruyff’s 50th birthday in 1997 the Dutch writer Hubert Smeets argued that Cruyff had done more than anyone to shape the modern Netherlands. Emerging at the same time as the Provos and hippies, he embodied the spirit and ideas of the 1960s as much as John Lennon did. Cruyff clashed with football authorities, inspired, astonished and delighted hi...