Last week, The Guardian published its annual “Next Generation” list, featuring 60 of the best young talents born in 2001. Accordingly, these players are only 17, and we all certainly realize the foolish nature of tagging a teenager for predestined greatness (unless they move like Kylian Mbappé).
Beginning with the 1998-99 season, FC Barcelona made the switch from Kappa to Nike, and the Swoosh has been adorning the Blaugrana shirts ever since. Accordingly, 2018 marks 20 years of partnership between the Catalan club and the American corporation, and to celebrate the occasion, Nike is releasing a shirt which incorporates design elements from every Nike Barca home jersey ever released.
During the 2016-17 Bundesliga season, Thiago Alcântara led all players with a pass success rate of 90.2 percent. During an injury plagued 2017-18 campaign, that number climbed to 91.8. Seven matches into the new season, he again sits at a success rate of 91.8. This is all to say that Thiago is an absolute monster when it comes to his passing technique and on-the-ball quality.
Valencia opened Sunday’s LaLiga match against Barcelona at the Mestalla in complete control. Two minutes in, Ezequiel Garay gave the hosts the lead after Thomas Vermaelen failed to deal with a corner and the ball somehow eluded Luis Suarez, Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba on its way to Garay.
Over the next 20 minutes, Michy Batshuayi forced Marc-Andre ter Stegen into a fine save and Geoffrey Kondogbia whistled an effort past the upright. Barcelona had offered little of its own in the final third, but that all changed spectacularly in the 23rd minute.
Pep Guardiola frequently says he considers himself “a great thief” as everything that he does he’s seen it somewhere and took it for himself and his teams. Well Pep, if that’s the case bud, keep going because it’s working pretty darn good.