I was actually planning to write a much more extensive piece this time, but other activities have caught up again, so you’ll have to fend for yourself with only the match cards to help you.
To be honest, I’m under pressure to rationalize this blog.
As I’ve said before, it takes about 8 to 10 hours a week to put this together, and after almost 15 years it’s starting to take its toll.
Since I started writing in 2011, I have had two children, Non-League Day (NLD) has really taken off and now I have podcasts and programs to produce for Actonians at.
The match cards are fun to make and keep me up to date with everything, but the previews get a bit tricky, especially for Premier League matches that a lot of other people are covering. Not only that, but tickets are almost never available to non-members or cost a small fortune if they are.
| Corinthians on the attack on Gotham |
When this blog started, I created a ‘Top 10’ of games to watch throughout the week, rather than a daily recap – maybe I’ll come back to that.
I’ve been thinking about providing a list of recommendations consisting solely of lower league and women’s matches, which might otherwise fly under the radar.
Some have suggested that I put up some sort of paywall or start a subscription service, but that would increase the pressure to deliver and I didn’t go into this to make money, purely to promote football in this great city.
Or maybe I won’t do anything radical at all and just keep posting the race cards with some personal stuff about what I’ve been up to.
Anyway, TLFG has become a huge part of my life, giving me some great experiences, so it will continue to exist in some form.
Anyway, what have I been up to this past week?
On Wednesday I went to Brentford for the semi-finals of the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup.
Brazilian club Corinthians started as underdogs when they took on American side Gotham FC, but defended tenaciously and picked out a late winner, much to the delight of their great fans who put on a great show despite the lunchtime kick-off.
One of the highlights of the experience, which was also mentioned by other commentators, was the presence of a number of groups of primary school children who ended up among the Corinthians ultras.
There is great footage of them jumping up and down with the hundreds of black and white clad South American fans and then shouting with joy when their captain Gabi Zanotti came to celebrate with them at the end.
The GTech is a great location for these types of games: it’s the right size, modern and easily accessible by public transport. All in all, I had a great time.
Finally, Corinthians played Arsenal in the final at the Emirates on Sunday and took them all the way to extra time before losing 3-2.
The Gunners earned a whopping $2.3 million (£1.7 million) from their win, while Corinthians took home $1 million (£730,000).
To put this into context, the winners of the Women’s Champions League will receive €500,000 (£430,000).
The build-up to Non-League Day (NLD) will continue next week with a major gathering at Premier League headquarters on Wednesday.
As part of this year’s NLD, the Essex Senior League have announced a groundhop around a number of their matches – with the matches set up so that virtually everyone is a local derby, it should be a large part of the country celebrating the day.
I think that’s about it from me, but before I go, thank you very much Nicholas N by Illinois, USA for donating to TLFG’s coffee drinking fund – it is greatly appreciated.
Have a nice week!
THE WEEK IS OVER
The Premier League tops the list this week, but we also have some big games in the EFL Cup, EFL, National League and Women’s Super League.
All in all, there are over 100 games to choose from in the M25 over the next seven days, so there’s no reason to get bored.
As always, make sure you contact the clubs before traveling in case a match has been cancelled or the venue or kick-off time has changed – this is very possible for some of the lower non-league clubs and development fixtures. Also please let me know if anything is wrong or missing.
Details of all this week’s matches can be found on the following match cards. If you’ve never used them before, keep in mind that if there is more than one match on a specific site, you can only see individual match pins if you zoom in all the way. If you don’t, the Pins will become invisible to each other and you might miss them. To avoid this, you can also scroll through the list of games in the drop-down menu at the top of the map page to make sure you get all the information. The matches are listed from top to bottom in order of date, so that Monday’s matches (yellow pin) appear first and Sunday’s (orange pin) appear last. Games are also ranked by status, so the higher the division, the higher on the list they appear on each day.
Even if you are not familiar with the English league structure, I indicate the level at which an individual league is in the national ‘pyramid’, with the Premier League at the top (level 1) and various minor leagues at the bottom (level 10). Normally a top level game will see an audience of somewhere between 20,000 and 60,000 people. These numbers will gradually decrease as you move up the leagues, until you reach levels 8-10, where attendances of 150 or less are most common.
MIDWEEK MATCH CARD
Monday matches – yellow pin
Tuesday program – green pin
Wednesday luminaires – turquoise pin
Thursday program – purple pin
Friday fixtures – black pin
WEEKEND MATCH CARD
Saturday program – blue pin
Sunday matches – orange pin
Do you have questions about a visit to London? Don’t hesitate to ask questions, whether they are football questions or more general travel/tourism questions. I don’t charge for this advice like some other sites, so don’t hold back!
Did this blog help? Donate to TLFG’s coffee drinking fund here
#TLFG #February