Arbusers

Everyone remembers Gigi Buffon at the age of 45 as Parma's goalkeeper; there are many similar stories ("an old goalkeeper is like an old whisky - the older the better"), I remember also David Seaman as a goalkeeper at the age of 40, David James at 42 at Bournemouth, Neville Southall at 42 at Torquay (but at Everton was his best career of course), Tim Howard at 41 at USL's Memphis (of course I can't forget his remarkable 100-yard goal for Everton vs Wanderers and yes, at Everton was his best career of course), Brad Friedel at 40+ at HotSpurs; also, in my opinion, Memo Ochoa is currently producing good games in South America and the Mexico team, and so forth.
But a few hours earlier today the amazing news was that 49 y.o. Georgi Petkov appeared today as a goalkeeper in the domestic Bulgarian First League match at Slavia Sofia vs Lokomotiv'1929.
Who would be the next G'keeper, overcoming the so-called age factor?

arb12 wrote: ↑

Sat May 10, 2025 8:52 pm

Everyone remembers Gigi Buffon at the age of 45 as Parma's goalkeeper; there are many similar stories ("an old goalkeeper is like an old whisky - the older the better"), I remember also David Seaman as a goalkeeper at the age of 40, David James at 42 at Bournemouth, Neville Southall at 42 at Torquay (but at Everton was his best career of course), Tim Howard at 41 at USL's Memphis (of course I can't forget his remarkable 100-yard goal for Everton vs Wanderers and yes, at Everton was his best career of course), Brad Friedel at 40+ at HotSpurs; also, in my opinion, Memo Ochoa is currently producing good games in South America and the Mexico team, and so forth.
But a few hours earlier today the amazing news was that 49 y.o. Georgi Petkov appeared today as a goalkeeper in the domestic Bulgarian First League match at Slavia Sofia vs Lokomotiv'1929.
Who would be the next G'keeper, overcoming the so-called age factor?

Petkov is a legend in Bulgaria. Another example to add to the list is Brad Guzan currently Atlanta United's GK

Wondering why you keep talking about these infants, when Kazuyoshi Miura, also known as "King Kazu", is still a professional player at the age of 57. Last year he was playing in Oliveirence of La Liga 2 of Portugal and for sure this is a professional category, now is playing in 4th devision of Japan.

There is no contest...in my city (and not only here) this man is a myth

Do you remember the Epoch of the Golden Master-Tacticians like Fabio Capello, Marcello Lippi, Giovanni Trapattoni, Arrigo Sacchi, Carlo Mazzone, and so on, and so forth, let me mention also Vujadin Boškov, although he is not Italian, but Sampdoria's playing style, i.e. the team core including Pagliuca + Vierchowod + Katanec + Lombardo + the Atomic Duo of {Vialli + Mancini}, etc. was simply La Dolce Vita...

Now we are witnessing the last breaths of the old glorious Italian tactical Geniuses (they still exist!!!), I fear that these unique individual approaches {some hard decisions + improvisations when necessary} are no longer present in the new generation that received their coaching license in Coverciano, because they rely on easy and practical things rather than difficult decisions, that way the new "Italian-style" new Coaches don't distinguish from endless galaxy of today's coaches over the Globe, who practice almost the same coaching limited portfolio of several kinds of main Tactics, as well as they are easily deciphered in tactical terms, they even prefer the same type of simplifying approaches from the players' end, instead of creativity on the pitch. This is precisely the difference between that brilliant Milan of Arrigo Sacchi, Marco Van Basten, Carlo Ancelotti, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard, which will always be remembered, and most of today's impersonal playing teams, practicing almost the same easily deciphered approaches like on conveyor belt...

Apart from the most famous Italian masters of the past, Mr. Valeriy Lobanovskyi also had the same ingenious level of creative Mind, remember that glorious Dynamo Kyiv that won those EURO Cups, as well as the 1988 USSR that reached the UEFA EURO 1988 final vs the unstoppable Netherlands of Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard under Rinus Michels, but those USSR Soccer team was presented by 10 Ukrainians on the pitch, led by Ukrainian Coach Lobanovskyi...

Again, now we are witnessing the last breaths of the old glorious Italian tactical Geniuses, but... contemporary players are very, very different in terms of creativity, therefore the Coaching software (Mind) is severely limited by the hardware available on the pitch:

(1) Carlo Ancelotti (he overperformed his teacher Sacchi, but the tactical discipline and the creativity, spotted to some extent in Real Madrid players are... as you seen last season); he ever temporarily led Everton to the top of the point table, but the players didn't believe in Ancelotti and the team soon return to the mediocrity. Let's see Carlo Ancelotti's adventure as a manager of Brasil, as announced a few hours ago...

Let me recall:

arb12 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 14, 2023 12:46 pm

...
Also, when I have enough free time, I'm about to start modelling some working hypotheses about Brasil under Carlo Ancelotti's future governance...

(2) Gian Piero Gasperini (Atalanta) vs Claudio Ranieri (AS Roma) right now;
Both of Ranieri's career miracles:
- The English Premier League title with the absolute underdog Leicester;
- Plus the unique non-beating streak of AS Roma: unbeaten from December 2024 when AS Roma was very close to the bottom fishes in the points table, now struggling for the leading places.
Having in mind Atalanta is leading 2:1 at the moment of the 80th minute, has anyone calculated the probability of AS Roma's loss at the N-th or M-th consecutive game?

I'm watching closely the decisions of Ancelotti, Ranieri & Gasperini and wondering what IF they have coached now more talented players, such as Zidane, Maradona, Careca, Kaniggia, Baggio, Shevchenko, etc?

Lobanovskyi's projection up to 2012 at least, was Oleg Blokhin.

I remember him as a player at the epic World Cup of 1986, and of course the European Cup final of 86 against Atletico Madrid when Kyiv won the match 3–0 thanks to goals by Zavarov, Blokhin and Yevtushenko. That was one of the biggest upsets of the history of European cups. I remember the stadium being packed with Spanish spectators with absolutely no Soviet funs, and yet...

When a Handicapper is passionate and immersed in the fierce live market, a little humor is a necessity to relax their Brain for a moment.
Sanfrecce Hiroshima vs Avispa Fukuoka right now for the YBC Cup, extra time ended, and penalties are in progress, I think this is the match of the month in Japan.
I watch the video signal and do my live calculations, but I spotted on one of my screens that a famous English Soft announced minutes ago: 91 minutes added time to the 1stHalf of the Extra Time (a few seconds later they fixed that - 1 minute).
Thank you Trent for the joke, all the Modelers needed a little joke to relax, and thanks for the weird odds all the odds compilers posted, y'all made my day.