Roger Federer during the Shanghai tournament, October 10, 2019. -
HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP
“We think of ourselves as realists, but in philosophical terms we are pessimists.
Let’s borrow
this quote
from the masterpiece that is season 1 of
True Detective
to kick off our new year in
20 Minutes
sports writing
: if 2020 sucked, don't expect much better from 2021. Here's a non-exhaustive list of things that could be worse next year.
Blame it on the Covid
, we're ready to spend twelve more months deprived of the emotions we cherish most.
With you ?
Pochettino is finally the necessary coach at PSG
The hard blow that we had not seen coming, just before the holidays.
The PSG heavy its trainer Thomas Tuchel and trusts a former of the house, Mauricio Pochettino.
Given his reputation, this asshole is screwed to make the Parisian players run or even worse to get to play the team correctly.
RIP our suspenseful end of the season in Ligue 1, which we were slowly starting to envision between the big 3 Lille-Lyon-Paris, PSG will roll over everyone and finish as usual with 10 points ahead and a Mbappé at 30 pawns.
So that's for sure, we'll probably gain a few beautiful European evenings, let's say at least two, but frankly, who cares?
Thibaut Pinot in good shape just before the Tour de France
Regarding the leader of Groupama-FDJ, we had sworn to no longer believe it.
Too much injustice, too much grief to digest each time.
For 2021, it was Gaudu or nothing.
And then the addiction that comes back without warning.
First a victory in the Tour de Provence, without opposition, then a demonstration on the last stage of Paris-Nice, where even the Slovenian mopeds bow down.
Curtain up to the Critérium, where the plumed Pino that we love takes off with Pogaçar to finish the race on the podium.
Forgotten Start and massive sprints, France cycling has fallen in love with its champion.
However, she knows the disappointment that awaits her, from the first time trial in Mayenne.
No goal in Laval, but a big disappointment for Pinot which gives Roglic and Pogaçar three minutes.
“I have been dragging bronchitis since the start, my legs are gone.
»The story of his life.
Euro and Olympics in empty stadiums
We can get used to it, but we will never get used to it.
It will soon be a year, with a few intermissions, that we play sports in empty stadiums.
And unless the vaccination campaigns accelerate drastically, we are gone for a while.
Until when ?
It's hard to imagine that we won't go until spring like that.
And for the rest, it's more vague, but nothing indicates that the public can be present at the Euro (June 11 - July 11) then at the Tokyo Olympics (July 23 - August 7).
In October, UEFA boss Aleksander Ceferin assured that the public would be present in the 12 stadiums which will host the Euro.
“For the moment, we are planning the Euro exactly as we wanted.
We could do different things.
We are thinking about solutions without fans, or with 30%, 50%, 70%.
"
On the Olympics side?
“How many spectators will there be and under what conditions?
That will depend a lot on future developments in the health situation, ”the IOC boss Thomas Bach did not say in November.
Even if the organization side, we seem rather confident about the presence of spectators, but with very restrictive conditions, including for example the ban on shouting.
Teddy Riner who loses for real
There are things you take for granted in life.
The frangipane pancake on January 1, the heat wave in July, and the baby's first ear infection in November.
Teddy Riner's third Olympic title is somewhere among all these certainties.
It's still not a small defeat against the last Japanese came, the first in 154 fights, against a guy not even selected for the 2020 Olympics, who will make us tremble in the chin?
DEFEAT TEDDY RINER!
Unbeaten since 2010, Teddy Riner fell against Kokoro Kageura in the 3rd round of the Paris Grand Slam 🥋 # lequipeJUDO #ParisJudo pic.twitter.com/B7HevaUBxw
- L'Équipe channel (@lachainelequipe) February 9, 2020
However, we will be less clever in early August in Tokyo when the so-called Kokoro Kageura, finally drafted in 2021, will push our obelisk Riner to sudden death in the quarter-finals.
We will even be at the bottom of the abyss when the French will be declared the loser on a scandalous pinnacle in the land of judo.
Riner does not digest and announces his retirement in the wake, like a Lionel Jospin wounded in his pride in 2002. Farewell Paris, farewell Teddy.
Federer forced to retire
“It would have been easy to retire now, but I want to give myself a chance to still enjoy tennis.
If the last media interventions of the man at the 20 Grand Slams are reassuring, his package at the Australian Open, which he will miss for the first time in his career, is a way of preparing for the worst.
Will we ever see the Swiss on the circuit again, after two knee arthroscopies which obviously did not give the expected results?
As for Roland-Garros, it's definitely over.
Federer will fight to play a last Wimbledon and the Olympics, no doubt, but what interest if not to seek the win?
A return to the Murray would be painful, frankly, and at 39 years, the risk is great to spoil his legend.
Tennis is on the verge of losing its absolute icon, and Nadal will soon follow: night is about to fall for tennis fans.
Sport
PSG: Former club captain and Bielsa fan, is Pochettino really the right solution for Paris?
Sport
Tour de France: Where did the next generation of Pinot, Bardet and the others go?
(spoiler: it does not exist)
PSG
Thibaut Pinot
Teddy Riner
Cycling
Roger Federer
Judo
Tennis
Soccer
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Cycling