Tag: sheffield united

Day 700 – Double Overshadow

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It’s Day 700 of South Africa’s “lockdown” (we’re not locked down at all), but upon waking this morning, that landmark (such as it is) was obviously overshadowed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine overnight. It’s an odd thing for them to have done, because they repeatedly assured us that they weren’t going to invade Ukraine, but actually, all along, it seems that they were.
Almost like it wasn’t the full truth that we were getting from Vlad and his team.

Like I say… weird. I mean, who knew?

Some scary scenes this morning in Ukraine, and it’s only going to get uglier once the initial aerial onslaught has been completed and the ground-based operation begins.

Thankfully, this is a case of double overshadow though, as I also woke to the memory of Ben Davies scoring a 92nd minute winner in the crunch game against Blackburn Rovers at Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane last night. After suffering the slings and arrows of a red card and then a penalty against us soon after, it was an unlikely victory, but one that I’m more than happy to take. So some small mercies (well, one) as the sun rises over Cape Town this morning. Although while this one is probably less likely to influence global foreign policy and the potential imminent outbreak of World War 3, it was a pretty amazing evening.

And so the march continues onto Millwall (and Kiev) this weekend.

Day 681 – The sporting weekend

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Not for me. I’m giving it another 24 hours before I go plunging headlong back into 5kms (or ultra marathons, as I like to call them). But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been supporting other sporting endeavours. Last night, for example:

And then my favourite of all the Olympics: the Winter ones. I have watched some cross country skiing, some ski jumping, some freestyle skiing and some curling. I can’t wait for the ice hockey and speed skating.
So much better than the running and jumping stuff.

Tonight: a braai and FA Cup.

Day 635 – What a night!

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Considering how much I watch football, I blog about it very rarely.

This is one of those rare occasions.

We took on Fulham last night. They are top of the table and I didn’t really realise how good they have been until the commentator started throwing stats out left right and centre: Most goals scored of any team in England this season. Most goals scored in the first 15 minutes and most goals scored in the last 15 minutes of games. Most goals scored from set-pieces. Most goals scored by substitutes.
Centre forward Aleksandar Mitrovic is top scorer in any of the 4 English leagues. He’s also a bit whiney and divey, but apparently that’s not an thing they officially record.

Every time something happened in the game, there was a stat to say that Fulham were the best at doing it.

Apart from defending against Iliman Ndiaye:

What a win! And to indicate just how unlikely it was, we started the game at 6-1 against for a win.

Which also made it a nice little earner for believers like myself. Senses well and truly filled.

Sidenote: Powered almost entirely by adrenaline, it was also the latest I have stayed up since before Covid: 00:22 for the purists (although it wasn’t like I managed to get much sleep afterwards, either).

Day 608 – Fleck

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Great win for United last night, but it was tempered by my having to stay up until midnight to watch it, which has left me completely broken today, and also by the concern over midfielder John Fleck, who seemed to have a seizure on the field during the second half.

Thankfully, medical attention was quickly administered, and apparently, he’s conscious in hospital and asking about the result of the game (he’ll never believe it). But it wasn’t a nice thing to see – and we did see a bit, even though they pulled the feed as quickly as they could.

Fleck had Covid in June while on duty with the Scotland team, but has played 18 games for United this season without incident. Fingers crossed for him for a quick and complete recovery.

Day 535 – Surprising screenshots

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Yesterday turned out to be a pretty good day. I pushed myself (on doctor’s orders) to see what I could get done, and I got quite a lot done. Yes, I am suffering a little bit today, but nowhere near as much as I would have expected.

I’m almost – almost – daring to hope that I’ve turned a corner.

I put my watch on for the first time in weeks, mainly just to keep an eye on my heart rate (doctor’s orders again), and well, wow, look at this:

A whole dog walk round the block, sure, but the steps! The steps!
That’s the first time I’ve even come close to that figure since I got this damn thing. I really wasn’t aiming for anything, so it was a huge surprise when I spotted it.

Other points: 72 resting HR is still too high, but that’s why I had the watch on. 150bpm is also still too high, considering I didn’t actually do anything strenuous (yes, you guessed it, doctor’s orders). And the stress level, well that’s always a bit of an outlier on the days that I watch United play.

Although…

Wow. Amazing.

We’ve been waiting to spank someone for about 18 months now, so this was long overdue. And yes, it was “only” Peterborough, but we’ve been drawing to “only” Luton and losing to “only Huddersfield” recently, so this was really great to watch (if a little stressful for at least the first 51 minutes) (see above).

But aside from the result – even better than the result perhaps – this was a cohesive, skillful, positive, enthusiastic, even occasionally awe-inspiring Blades’ performance. Just look at the quality of those goals. JUST LOOK AT THEM!

I’m almost – almost – daring to hope that we’ve turned a corner.