The end of each decade is usually marked by all kinds of Teams of the Decade and even more arguing about who should and should not be in. There’s no excuse for not getting involved, so I'm (belatedly) doing so as well, even if merely by picking my favourite XI instead of the usual — simply the best one...
You may have noticed. Iran played Cambodia on Thursday and it got ugly real fast, real bad. That left me at a curious crossroads — on the one hand, the game made for a feel-good story since it was opened to female spectators; on the other hand, Cambodia's struggles made for too cheap a punchline for many. So here it goes — my awkwardly timed attempt to write Cambodia a feel-good story of their own making...
Let's say I'd ask you to give me one Asian nation that's currently living through the golden years of its entire history, or at least the modern era. A couple of you would waste no time in shouting "Vietnam" in my face. Some would maybe suggest Tajikistan. Thailand or Syria might get a shout, too. And then there's Taiwan. Tell me honestly: Do you ever think about Taiwan?
That's right, it's official. I'm getting desperate and tweaking the format of these rankings all I can to keep the series alive. This time, it's indeed not performers, but performances, meaning we'll have a double appearance from someone here and there...
Oh, you thought we are done once the group stages are over? You couldn't be more wrong! We are seeing this all the way through, y'all. And so here is my ranking of the best U-23 performers of the AFCON Round of 16 – just scrapped from top20 to top15 due to a smaller pool of players to pick from...
And so we have arrived to the first big crossroads where we say goodbye to a large chunk of our U-23 AFCON talent pool. In total, we are paying farewell to 49 U-23s out of 136. Did someone from the axed teams make it to our last group stage rankings despite the sour exit?
Our rankings of the best 20 young performers in Round 2 of 2019 Africa Cup of Nations have arrived! And contrary to the initially outlined plans, we won't complicate things and won't be doing an update of the Round 1 rankings. Instead, we'll simply consider the Round 2 performances in isolation...
If there’s two things we can safely infer from what kind of articles appear on the internet, and in what numbers, it’s that people absolutely dig any sort of rankings coupled with stuff other people have learnt from stuff. Now, I am arguably not smug enough to assume people would jump at an opportunity to learn what I’ve learnt, but I definitely think I can do my own rankings...
The Japan squad heading to Brazil for Copa América 2019 makes for as peculiar mix as it gets, ranging from recognized veterans poised to say their (probable) goodbyes all the way to largely obscure prospects who just came out of university or play in the second Japanese division. And then there's the stalwart, Takehiro Tomiyasu...
Well, that was exhausting. But here is my not-at-all-sober account of what happened in U-20 World Cup quarter-finals to three Asian and African teams...
Shoot Like Odil 