The nobility of Crystal Palace and the struggle for the Derby
Crystal Palace Football Club have acted nobly with future FA Cup rivals Hartlepool United.
A modest club from the fourth division made it to the 1/16 finals, having defeated opponents of a higher rank.
On February 5, a team from a port city in the northeast of the country will play in London, but its financial situation is not strong enough to fully pay for the trip of its fans to the capital.
In addition, the broadcaster did not want to show this match live, which could bring the teams at least a small advertising income.
Understanding how important the support of the fans is for Graham Lee's charges, the owners offered to cover part of the cost of this trip.
Fans will now only have to pay £12.50 for a seat on the official bus for the 420km journey.
“This gesture restores faith in the football family and we are all looking forward to the match, which will be a very special occasion for the thousands of Hartlepool fans heading south.
Thanks again to all the Crystal Palace staff,” Hartlepool said in a statement on its website.
Meanwhile, another football club from Foggy Albion, Derby County, was on the verge of extinction.
The team, which was recently led by former England striker Wayne Rooney, is looking for a new owner, but things are not moving in this direction because Middlesbrough and Wycombe Wanderers have filed lawsuits alleging financial irregularities.
The leadership of the Championship (EFL) asked to resolve all disagreements with the plaintiffs by February 1 and provide information on who will finance the club until the end of the season.
The local newspaper The Derby Telegraph launched a campaign to save the club, founded in 1884.
She urged fans to stand up for the team, because owners, managers and players come and go, but fans stay forever.
Augsburg drummers and Goshev's piano playing
The agronomists of the German Augsburg have come up with an unusual way to support the team even during matches without spectators: they play on garbage cans.
According to Match TV, it all started with one of the club's employees who came to the games with a basket and tapped the rhythm with its lid.
Both TV people and the club itself drew attention to it - at the end of 2021, the whole team signed on its tank.
And then his colleagues joined the instigator, who began to use sticks.
Now every match of "Augsburg" gets the original soundtrack.
But the goalkeeper of "Orenburg" Yevgeny Goshev is happy to play the piano for his teammates, and even managed to find an instrument at the training camp in Turkey.
Interestingly, Eugene is self-taught.
He never studied at a music school, and picks up melodies by ear.
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Publication from FC "Orenburg" (@fcorenburg)
Chips with taste of football victories
The joke about football fields where you can grow potatoes has come true.
Lay's has released a limited-edition potato chip made from ground-grown NFL stadiums.
The soil from each football arena was collected, carefully ground and mixed with the soil in the potato fields in Texas, with each NFL team assigned its own plot.
Then potatoes were grown on them, made into chips and packaged in bags with the indication of the corresponding club.
The “victory-flavored” snacks, as they are called in the commercial, will not be available for free sale - they will be raffled off among American fans on social networks.
Love paradoxes of Vonn and Rodman
One of the most titled skiers in history, Lindsey Vonn, has written an autobiography.
At a recent presentation of the book, she admitted that she experienced big problems in her personal life during her sports career.
According to the girl, she never knew how to defend her point of view, did not like to argue and make scenes.
The athlete always agreed with her partner and sacrificed herself, if only she was loved, and she used sports to compensate for failures in her personal life.
“My family had their own problems that they coped with, and I was on the road.
The only thing that has always stayed with me, no matter what, is skiing.
For me it was a kind of escape, and I splashed out all my emotions in the races.
They were my outlet,” said the Vancouver Olympic champion.
Recalling her relationship with renowned golfer Tiger Woods, Vonn lamented the difficulty of maintaining love in front of the world.
She stressed that, despite the breakup, she and her ex-boyfriend remained friends, and she was very worried when he got into a serious car accident.
“It was a difficult time for Tiger and I am glad that he was able to return,” explained the two-time world champion.
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Posted by LINDSEY • VONN (@lindseyvonn)
Outrageous basketball player Dennis Rodman also recently shared his revelations about his personal life.
At one of the events, the five-time NBA champion was asked what it was like dating Madonna, and he replied that they had an amazing relationship - but he could not stand her music.
“She would sit next to her and start dancing… well, in the bedroom… Turn on her music… Complete crap.
I couldn't stand her music.
When she put it on, I left the house, ”said 60-year-old Rodman.
Nepomniachtchi praised the film "World Champion"
Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi shared his impressions of the film World Champion, which tells about the historical 1978 match for the chess crown between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi.
The picture was released on the big screens on December 30 last year and in three weeks collected more than $ 4 million at the box office.
The grandmaster, who recently lost his match for the world title to Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, admitted that his joyful anticipation of the premiere of the biopic was interspersed with anxiety, primarily due to possible historical distortions, which, in his opinion, were allowed in another film about sports - "Upward movement".
“Of course, a feature film does not imply a literally accurate retelling of historical events, but you probably shouldn’t get involved in juggling destinies, characters and events,” the chess player wrote on his Instagram.
He stated that in Alexei Sidorov's film there were "rare and insignificant chess blunders" that amused him, but on the whole the film was a success.
“There is a protagonist and an antagonist, there is a love line hanging in a plot vacuum and a full-fledged dramatic one, there is a nerve, there is a narrative integrity.
There is an undoubted hit in the images of the main characters.
There is both overcoming and a way out of a seemingly hopeless situation…,” added Nepomniachtchi.
At the same time, it seemed to him unsuccessful the distribution of screen time between the main characters and the fact that they are depicted without halftones: "there is ours and not ours."
“Khabensky has only a few episodes and a couple of dozen sentences at his disposal, but even being hobbled like a horse, he makes you empathize with Korchnoi, whom the director portrays as almost an operetta villain.
This image is only diluted with dialogue at cockfights, when the characters, shouting over the crowd, give the viewer one of the most powerful scenes in the entire film, ”said the recent contender for the chess crown.
The athlete is sure that without a clash of two positions, two truths, the film cannot be convincing and genuine drama.
“As a result, the tape is sometimes perceived as a panegyric to Anatoly Evgenievich, and not a story about one of the most intense matches in history,” he concluded.