Football – Hawkinsport

Llantwit Major F.C Football Manager 22 Challenge Shirt Giveaway – The Extraordinary Welsh 2nd Division Club

LLANTWIT Major F.C are giving away a free football shirt to anyone who can qualify for the Champions League, whilst using the team in the popular video game Football Manager 22.

The game replicates real life football tournaments, and to qualify for the Champions League, a Welsh team would have to win the Cymru Premier division.

This would ensure qualification to the early play-off rounds before the Champions League group-stage.

In order to complete the challenge, a player must get past the play-off rounds and into the group-stage.

The challenge has already been completed by one Twitter user called Laurence, with the club announcing they will award anyone else who completes the challenge with a shirt before 14^th January.

Another Twitter user was also given a shirt after Tweeting proof of winning the Champions League with Llantwit Major FC in last year’s edition of the game.

“Someone who has thousands of followers and is a well-known content creator started following us and made a tweet a few weeks later talking about our social media.” Said board member Ben Dudley.

“As a small club, we have to do things differently to get noticed”

However, this doesn’t tell the full story of Llantwit Major F.C.

The team based in South Glamorgan currently play in the JD Cymru South, the 2^nd division of Welsh football, where they currently sit in 2^nd place.

They are only two points behind the leaders, Jonathan Jones’ Pontypridd Town.

Under manager Karl Lewis, who is still in charge after five years at the club, they rose from the amateur ranks, to win the Division three title in 16/17, and then the Welsh Football League Division Two title in the 17/18 season.

They had gone from lower leagues to winning the third tier of Welsh football and back-to-back promotions with a strong core of local players.

“We’ve worked to a policy of getting players who are already familiar with each other.”

“A lot of the squad have been friends their whole lives and are all from the local area.

“You can see in the clubhouse and on the field, people don’t just want to win for themselves, they want to win for their mates.”

After the success, some players have moved on to represent Welsh Premier sides.

Striker Adam Roscrow moved to Wimbledon AFC in the English League One and club legend, Sam Snaith, also came close to a big move to Newport County before the Covid 19 pandemic struck.

Other players have stayed, with goalkeeper Jack Lansdowne currently playing his 14_^th season at the club.

The team known as “the Windmill Army” currently play at the Prince Moomin’s Palace, after a girlfriend of one of the players won a raffle costing £20 to rename the stadium.

They were anticipating a club record attendance against Undy Athletic on 27^th December, with hundreds of school pupils were invited until the game was postponed due to Covid restrictions.

Euro 2020 Final: How do England Win?

England have incredibly reached their first major tournament final since 1966 and are one step away from breaking a massive barrier for English football.

Before the tournament opinions on England’s chances were split, and even after their first two group games there were massive questions about the creativity of the side and team selection.

Fast forward three weeks and social media is flooded with “It’s coming home”, men with bleach blonde hair and Atomic Kitten are confessing their love for Gareth Southgate.

Meanwhile, Italy have extended an incredible unbeaten run to 33 matches which is the longest unbeaten run in their history.

Roberto Mancini’s men are more dynamic than Italy teams of the past, but still have a rock solid defence and can still play a trademark long pass to open defences.

Home advantage could prove vital

So how do England win their first major tournament in 55 years?

Raheem Sterling

There is no other place to start. Raheem Sterling has arguably been the player of the tournament and England need him in this fixture.

He has been the creative spark in the majority of England’s play.

He has been central to everything England have done and it would be hard to think where England would be without him.

Three weeks ago, he wouldn’t have been the first player on the team sheet for many England fans before the tournament.

Sterling finished the season with 10 league goals, which isn’t bad but he won the league with Man City and wasn’t as prolific as in previous seasons.

Phil Foden also played less minutes than him in the same side and scored 9 goals.

Jack Grealish had also caught the eye at Aston Villa, often controlling games by himself and taking on the creative workload for the whole side.

There were big calls from fans online, calling for Sterling to be dropped and to start Grealish.

Gareth Southgate kept faith in Sterling who has caused problems for opponents by cutting in with darting runs and creating chances, or scoring tap-ins with good attacking movement.

Against Denmark it is his attacking movement that caused Simon Kjaer to slide the ball into his own net and deep into extra time showed he still had the legs to keep playing.

He is bound to play a key roll against Italy, with pace to burn against a strong but ageing back line.

The Italian Centre-backs

Italy’s Veteran Centre-back Giorgio Chiellini

Italy are famously known for having a rock solid defence and have been throughout history.

Conceding to Austria in the round of 16 saw the end of a clean sheet streak lasting 1,168 minutes of football, which was a new world record for an international team.

They have conceded a goal in both games since then, against Belgium and Spain.

Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini have been such an effective partnership over the years for both Juventus and Italy but there is a weakness.

With age the pair are only getting slower and despite their brilliance, this can be exploited.

Morata’s goal for Spain highlighted this against Italy, when he ran at the defence.

The full-backs aren’t the fastest either, with the exception of Emerson who often doesn’t start.

Chances to exploit this will be few and far between because Italy’s defence often plays in a low block, but with an abundance of pacey wingers and especially Sterling’s runs inside it is possible for England to take advantage.

Team Spirit

It is very difficult to be able to quantify this, but it is clear to see the squad has gelled much better than in previous tournaments under Gareth Southgate.

There are players from a mixture of clubs who have bonded well, despite competing fiercely against each other in the league.

Previous generations of England players, like Gerrard, Lampard, and Ferdinand have been outspoken about the lack of chemistry they had for England.

In contrast, the current back line often consists of Kyle Walker and John Stones of Manchester City, with Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw of Manchester United.

Despite playing for rival clubs they couldn’t be better as a unit.

They have conceded one goal for the whole tournament and that was a direct freekick, setting a new record for most consecutive games in a Euros tournament without conceding a goal (5).

The team chemistry has been captured in vlogs like this one on England’s Youtube channel:

Adaptability

Throughout the tournament the team has shown the flexibility to be able to play a back four or a back three with wing-backs.

The pace of Walker and Shaw allows for support going forward or cover for the centre-backs in defence.

Southgate normally opts to match the opponent’s formation at the back so will probably play a back four against Italy.

They have also shown adaptability in terms of substitutes, with Jack Grealish playing a major role in the two goals against Germany after coming on with 20 minutes left.

Against Denmark, Grealish was substituted off in extra time so Southgate could change the formation to a back five to see out the rest of the match when 2-1 up.

In a final, this quality could prove the decider if England are to win, as there are few squads in international football who have such depth in quality and versatility.

Marcus Rashford: Feeding Britain’s Children –

RASHFORD’S recent good work was covered by the BBC in the documentary that aired in December.

His background is covered well and clearly contributed to his recent actions that has benefited children across the country.

It gave us an insight into the sort of people he is helping as mothers and school children spoke to Rashford on camera.

They were left in a situation without the food because during the Covid 19 pandemic and Rashford took it on himself to do something about it.

His background is covered well and clearly contributed to his recent actions that has benefited children across the country.

It gave us an insight into the sort of people he is helping as mothers and school children spoke to Rashford on camera.

The interviews had an authentic feel, taking place in the schools, parks and homes where the families who benefitted live.

It covers the stories of struggling to make ends meet and struggling to afford feeding their children and other life struggles that are in the background.

Whenever referring to social media the graphics have a basic feel and highlight the cruel nature of some people online.

We also get first hand glimpses inside the meetings that matter, where Rashford makes big decisions on the next steps to make the government do more for hungry children.

Most of all, it sums up the pressures Rashford faces on and off the pitch.

The way the documentary uses clips from football matches, authentic material filmed first- hand and the graphics to display social media interaction clearly makes it feel like all mediums are covered.

By the end we see the full affect of Rashford’s actions and how his good will has spread amongst thousands of people in the UK.

His charity work with Fareshare ended up raising £20 million for the cause, feeding around 3 million families.

This programme did a great job making us feel like we met those families.

Below find the link to BBCiPlayer to watch the full documentary:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000qq41/marcus-rashford-feeding-britains-children

Sir Bobby Charlton Has Been Diagnosed with Dementia

By Luke Hawkins

THE world cup winner was announced to have the disease on Sunday, causing a huge response on social media.

Charlton, 83, made 606 appearances for Manchester United and scored 199 goals, at the time a club record.

Norma Charlton, Bobby’s wife, made the decision that the diagnosis should be made public to raise awareness of the disease.

The news came after his fellow World Cup winner, Nobby Stiles, died of the disease last Friday.

Bobby’s brother, Jack, also died of the disease.

Since there have been many Twitter posts paying tribute to the former United midfielder.

People also voiced their concern on the current rules with headers still being part of the game, even though the balls aren’t as dangerous.

The following article really helps illustrate how the game contributed to the significant amount of cases in England’s famous squad.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-08/dementia-the-deadly-legacy-of-englands-world-cup-triumph/7826618

850,000 people in the UK suffer with dementia and the disease causes memory loss and reduces the ability to learn and solve problems.

520,000 of those cases have been caused by Alzheimer’s disease.

The decision to release the diagnosis is one that was made for the benefit of everyone affected by the disease and there is advice available online:

Alzheimer’s disease

Danny Gabbidon Hopes for Change for the Better in Football

By Luke Hawkins

DANNY Gabbidon believes “Elements of BLM have been positive” but calls on people in high positions to “make the right decisions going forward.”

Former Wales and Cardiff City defender, Danny Gabbidon

The former Wales international gave his views on the affect of BLM and some of the questions it raises for some people.

“Elements of it have been very positive, there’s also been elements of it where certain people don’t want to take the knee,”

Gabbidon has also called for action from figures of authority suggesting that BLM is the start of things and he raised its imperfections.

He also suggested that for any demonstration to have lasting effects, people in positions of power need to put things in place to truly have an impact on racism.

“the people in the high authority positions, they’re the ones who need to make the right decisions,”

He also suggested that social media is currently a source for a lot of the problems black people face.

He called for there to be “more control” over the abuse directed at some players online.

The comments come after a torrid couple of months that have seen abuse directed at multiple high profile football players.

Gabbidon described social media as a “useful tool” but also as “quite poisonous”.

Manchester United attackers Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial were subject to such abuse last month.

Meanwhile, West Brom midfielder Romanie Sawyers received racist messages after West Brom lost to Man City 5-0 in January.

In the Sawyers case, the suspect was arrested for his actions.

The government have also promised to implement new laws against online abuse later this year.

“people are saying ‘Is it having the desired affect? I’m not sure I want to take the knee’.”

“I think if they have to change the gesture it really doesn’t matter.”

“If they change taking the knee to standing tall or what we saw happen at Millwall a few months back where all the players got together,”

“That wouldn’t be a sign of giving into racists by going away from the taking of the knee.”

“To get rid of racism is going to be difficult because we all have different views”

“It’s not about saying black people are better than anyone else, it’s just about being accepted and treated in the same way.”

“You can only hope things like this and what happens after will help to change people’s views”

“there is much more that needs to be done, on a daily basis, players are getting racially abused, after games and before games,”

Gabbidon also commented on the sort of people who can make change going forward.

“social media as amazing a tool it is, it is quite poisonous as well,”

“hopefully, the likes of Facebook and Instagram, the likes of these companies can do a bit more to control it.”

“Things like the BLM movement are things that need to happen to promote change.”

“You need people above that in senior positions who make big decisions to buy into it,”

“we’ve seen what sky have done in the last few months, where they’ve really bought into it,”

“but it’s not about that, the people in the high authority positions, they’re the ones who need to make the right decisions,”

“that’s my worry really, all these different movements and campaigns, how much does it mean? Will it run its course?”