Sports & This'n'That

Photo by Portuguese Gravity on Unsplash With the dazzling Portuguese football icon Cristiano Ronaldo and his great rival the pint-sized Argentinean great Lionel Messi now in the twilight of their glittering careers attention is now shifting to a number of ascendant young guns who are catching the eye with their mesmerizing displays. Indeed, this roll call of up and coming football stars includes, the greatly feared Norwegian marksman, Erling Haaland, the breathtakingly exciting Brazilian forward, Vinicius Junior and the Gallic superstar, Kylian Mbappe among others. That being said though, it should be noted that ‘CR7’ and Messi leave behind such gigantic shoes to fill, as both living legends were so amazingly consistent for over a decade, which is fantastically brilliant. Nevertheless, the meteoric rise of the likes of Haaland and Mbappe among others, speaks volumes about their self-assuredness, which is rare for players so young. So, although the jury is still out on whether ...

Photo by Rhett Lewis on Unsplash With the Football World Cup in Qatar being just around the corner, African fans are eagerly looking forward to the global feast of football with mounting excitement. Indeed, many African fans are bullish that at least a few of our World Cup-bound teams possess the mettle to progress very far in the unfailingly exciting football championship. At this point, it should be noted that our five world cup representatives this year are: Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, Tunisia and Morocco. It should also be recollected that no African team in history has progressed beyond the quarterfinal stage of the world cup, which is really a crying shame. Indeed, with gigantic numbers of Africa’s most glittering football gems leaving the continent every year to join the premier football clubs in the world, one would expect that African teams would have been able to advance to the semifinal stage of the world cup a few times by now. Frustratingly though, as alluded to e...

Photo by Alessio Patron on Unsplash With the perennially pulsating English Premier League (EPL) now in full swing, Arsenal fans must be mightily pleased at the sublime manner in which the Gunners have been playing since the outset of the season. Indeed, right from the get-go, the Gunners have been firing on all cylinders and they have picked up seven wins while just registering one defeat thus far this season. It is also crucial to note that the Gunners’ highly touted new Brazilian signing, Gabriel Jesus has been seemingly unstoppable in the Arsenal attack as the ex-Manchester City striker has firmly established himself as a thorn in the side of EPL defences. However, despite Arsenal’s sterling form, the Gunners are set to face a difficult test this weekend when they go up against struggling Liverpool in a potentially mouthwatering EPL clash on Sunday. It should be remembered that although Liverpool are presently going through a rocky patch, they remain a star-studded side tha...

Despite making an infuriatingly lackluster start to the new season, Manchester United have not only brilliantly rebounded but they have impeccably collected a maximum of twelve points from their last four English Premier League (EPL) clashes. Photo by Nat Callaghan on Unsplash Tomorrow though, the Red Devils will face arguably their toughest test of the season thus far when they go toe-to-toe with age-old rivals Manchester City, who under Pep Guardiola, have transformed themselves into a devastatingly effective force to be reckoned with. Ahead of the famous Manchester derby tomorrow, Manchester City are sitting comfortably in 2 nd place on the table while Manchester United are in fifth place, which is a pretty staggering improvement from being bottom of the league standings following uncharacteristically woeful losses to Brighton and Brentford in their opening two games of the season. It is expected that Manchester City will seek to typically dominate possession and exert immense p...

With the football world cup in Qatar looming large on the horizon it is a matter of great concern that England presently find themselves in an alarming slump. Indeed, compared to the glorious highs which the team has ascended to in recent years, England’s form in the ongoing UEFA Nations League has been nothing short of catastrophic. Following an enormously concerning run of six winless games in the UEFA Nations League’s group phase England has been relegated to the second tier of the European football competition. Disturbingly, the three lions ended the group phase without picking up even a single victory. Naturally, England’s alarmingly shoddy form has prompted the country’s perpetually vocal sports media to call for the three lions’ gaffer Gareth Southgate to change tactics so as to ensure that the team returns to winning ways. It is hoped then that if Southgate changes his tactical approach, successful results will consequently follow. Having said that though it cannot ...

Photo by Zoë Reeve on Unsplash The moment all tennis fans have been dreading has unfortunately arrived: the Swiss maestro Roger Federer has announced that he will retire after this weekend’s Laver Cup. A sporting icon who commanded such high levels of respect from his peers and immense adoration from his millions of fans, Federer, was for huge chunks of his unforgettable career, unmatched in terms of his prodigious talent which saw him claim a record haul of a whopping 20 grand slam trophies. Admittedly, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, who were the Swiss master’s most formidable rivals throughout his career, have won more grand slam titles than he has.                                                                                    ...

Image: Wikimedia Commons. Serena Williams US Open 2013 After more than two decades of unrivalled supremacy in global women’s tennis the icon widely regarded as, the greatest of all time (GOAT), Serena Williams, has called it quits to the dismay of millions of tennis fans. Despite having taken a hiatus from women’s tennis for around the last year and a half, Serena Williams displayed few signs of rust at the US Open as she treated the crowds to her unique and extensive repertoire of exceptional skills which when mingled with her famously steely resolve made her such an intimidating opponent to go up against. With the partisan home crowds at Flushing Meadows in New York willing her on, Serena Williams drove them into raptures when she fended off the challenge posed by the tournament’s second seed Annet Kontaveit to eventually win their second round contest in the tournament’s opening week. In the immediate aftermath of that pleasing triumph, there was a palpable feeling in the air ...