El Diego

Feel free to call me crazy, but for a long time I have felt like there has been a noticeable difference in sports injury terminology from Europe vs. North America, with European (often translated) injuries sounding more serious. For example, we may use the term 'pulled muscle' while they would use 'torn muscle' for the same injury. In this case, we may use 'severe ankle sprain' but they use 'ruptured ankle ligament' (I do understand this may still be quick recovery time for a 'severe ankle sprain'). I'm no doctor or anything, but just a feeling I've gotten over the years. Has anyone else

I hope Lille win the title even more now because the hobbling David goal against PSG would go down in complete folklore in Lille history

When he first broke in, I thought he was a goal threat, but I think that's because he scored a few goals for a really bad TFC side. At some point I distinctly remember viewing him more as a defensive midfielder. His pressing is very smart, and I think his conditioning/athleticism caught up to the point where he could be a relentless presser. His evolution has been a joy to watch.

Agree with everything you say, couldn't have put it better myself.

There is a bad memory that Raptors fans have of Lin which was the height of "Linsanity" about ten years ago. Raptors were up 13 in the 4th quarter. but the Knicks came back to win. In retrospect, Linsanity was a really weird phenomenon. His time with the Raps was super meme tbf

Yeah, I think the issue becomes when one only views a player of a certain ethnicity through that lens, and assumes the player can not contain the opposite positive attribute e.g. black players are athletic so they can't be clever, white players work hard so they can't be athletic, etc. Lol he was at the end of his career and barely got any minutes (not that he was expected to). Lin had a solid career with a pretty good peak, certainly better than his (lack of) draft position and opportunity. Not sure what the models would have missed, that he would be ineffective (but winning a ring :P

On the face, sure I read an interesting article about Jeremy Lin a little while ago. They spoke to an GM (Daryl Morey) who said that their models showed him to be a mid first round pick who was super athletic, but that he believed that Lin was unathletic. Morey didn't draft Lin (no one did), and Morey candidly said that the only reason he can think of that he believed Lin was unathletic is because he is Asian. Goes to show just how powerful prejudices are, that a team would pass on a guy (presumably) due to his race, even if they know it makes sense to pick him up. The cream doesn't

Really? He does not have the profile of a CB at all

Of course: Black: strong, powerful, athletic White: great motor, real gym rat, hustles Latin: clever, crafty, technical Asian: shifty, smart, honest EDIT: obviously different historical underpinnings and practical implications for these prejudices, but you see it in every sport

I honestly think it's as simple as: TFC want to start making money, and they want to do that by selling guys rather than winning titles. Last year was their last real go at the title so they said ok Greg, give it a go with the vets and planned on moving towards promoting youngsters as their main goal. So they bring in Armas, an affordable coach who has experience playing young guys and is fine with developing them.

I agree that he wasn't amazing last night, but he had a couple WOW moments which I think is what is exciting people. My comment about him not being a CB was more about his style -- we don't want him nutmegging guys in his own box. Obviously we have to see him more consistently at a pro level (I didn't see him in USL or Denmark, only a little bit for the youth national teams) to see if his skill translates to on field production. Side note: I can see why someone would make a Pogba comparison. Aesthetically, he moves like Pogba.

RIP the Noble Okello to CB discussion, circa 2020 - April 7, 2021

Laryea, Priso, Okello, and Shaffelburg all starting for TFC in the CCL against Leon (and Auro :P).

TFC of course

I checked to see if there was any easily accessible literature on the acclimatization question, and this study is pretty on point. It even used MLS players as a sample (along with NCAA student-athletes): https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1675&context=etd I obviously haven't ready the whole thing (over 300 pages) but I went through the Conclusion part. A relevant portion: "Nonetheless, providing language courses at the club would contribute to the athletes’ performance. As the results have shown, language problems on the field had negative consequence