SAFC Blog - Page 146 of 621 - Sunderland AFC Blog

From Manchester United to Chapecoense: tragedies felt by the whole world of football

November 30, 2016November 29, 2016 by Colin Randall

Monsieur Salut writes: on reflection, I regretted that publication of a piece of levity prepared for Salut! Sunderland – Shaun Best on his groundhopping visit to the Stadium of Light – should coincide with the terrible news that a plane carrying 81 people, including players and officials of the Brazilian top-flight side ACF, or Associação Chapecoense de Futebol, had crashed in Colombia. Only six people survived. The human impact of any fatal air crash in enormous; the impact of this disaster on football, and not just in South America, is devastating.

The echoes of Manchester United, Munich and 1958 are inescapable. Shaun, the writer of the groundhopping piece, is a Man Utd supporter. As at Munich, great or greatly promising players, officials and accompanying journalists are among the victims. There are players who survived – just three according to the last report I saw – and there is, as in Munich, the story of at least one pulled alive from wreckage but dying soon afterwards.

As a further tribute to all those who perished, and to Chapecoense, a side with much of the the romantic appeal of the Busby Babes, I reproduce a piece I wrote for ESPN FC ahead of a Sunderland game against Man Utd three years ago ….

Club of 92: Manchester rambler acclaims Pickford, Defoe, Victor and the SoL

November 29, 2016 by Colin Randall

NB: what follows is a light-hearted read on what is otherwise a grim day for football. Salut! Sunderland declares its sympathy for all those killed in or bereaved by the Colombian air crash, whose victims include players and officials of the Brazilian top flight club ACF, or Associação Chapecoense de Futebol. As a Manchester Utd supporter, our guest writer will be well aware of his own club’s association with aviation disaster.

There are train spotters, bird twitchers and philatelists. And then there’s the Club of 72, whose members collect football stadiums, not to dismantle and take home but to visit. As Shaun Best – already familiar with the 72 Football League grounds – prepared to tick Sunderland off his to-do list, he was wondering who would be the manager by the time got there. We were winless and seemingly broken beyond repair. Then a funny thing happened: we won a game. Let Shaun take up the story of his newest collector’s item, the Stadium of Light …

Sixer’s sub’s soapbox: Liverpool just too good

November 27, 2016November 27, 2016 by Colin Randall

I think the last match I got to was the same fixture in February, when we came back from 2-0 down to get a draw, thanks to Jermain Defoe and the now disgraced Adam Johnson. Johnson had come on as sub for Jan Kirchoff, another of the eight who were on the team sheet in February but missing from it this time around.

Moyes on the Boys v Liverpool: close, but no cigar at Anfield

November 26, 2016 by Colin Randall

John McCormick writes…..

I was there, and might give you my opinion later. First, though, here’s what the manager thought.

Or, at least, here’s what the manager decided to share with Colin, and maybe one or two others:

Sixer’s Sevens: Liverpool 2-0 Sunderland. Honourable defeat

November 26, 2016 by Colin Randall

Jake: a logical result, makes Leicester at home rather important

Monsieur Salut writes: Pete Sixsmith gave this one a miss so I am the the stand-in for his usual seven-word verdict on a game in which we looked just about able to avoid defeat for 75 minutes. It took a clever piece of play by Divock Origi to break our strong resistance led by John O’Shea and Lamine Kone and we might even have snatched a lead against the run of the play with earlier chances that fell to Pienaar and Watmore. Ndong’s late foul that gave Liverpool a second from the penalty spot looked needless but probably didn’t change an outcome that by then seemed inevitable. No dishonour, then, but we were not able to bridge the quality gap …

Bob Cass RIP: snooker with the Lads on eve of Leeds final

November 25, 2016November 24, 2016 by Colin Randall

Monsieur Salut writes: Norman Giller, at Facebook, kindly gave permission for Salut! Sunderland to reproduce these words, from the Football Writers’ Association (FWA) website, marking the sad passing of a man whose name was and is synonimous with the reporting of football in the North East. I met Bob Cass only once, on the pitch at Roker Park when SAFC held an open day for the media after reaching the 1992 FA Cup Final (I had spomehow persuaded someone at the Telegraph to let me cover it). But until other forms of media began to replace print, it was impossible to have grown up the NE and like football without being aware of Bob and his work …

Young Hayley spots Sunderland’s Dunfermline connection and interviews Allan ‘Magic’ Johnston

November 24, 2016November 24, 2016 by Colin Randall

Monsieur Salut writes: in a sign of age, I imposed ‘Hayley Mulls’ on our charming young writer Hayley Penman as the generic title for her occasional offerings here. And how welcome those contributions are. With gentle paternal guidance from our old friend John Penman, Hayley – just 12 on November 14 – came up with the idea of interviewing two men associated with the clubs that matter to her, Sunderland and Dunfermline. One day, we (or she) will come up with ideas for a better collective title for her articles than Hayley Mulls – and one day David Moyes, who admittedly has had more pressing matters on his plate, may add the missing responses to her questions …

Liverpool Who are you?: ‘5-0 to us, but SAFC making survival possible’

November 24, 2016November 23, 2016 by Colin Randall

Gareth Roberts, left, with Eric Meijer, who achieved cult status among Liverpool fans despite being at Anfield for only a short time

Gareth Roberts*, editor of the ‘leading independent voice on Liverpool FC’, The Anfield Wrap, comes up with a scoreline prediction none of us will thank him for. But he also answers our questions with an informed and informative manner, defending Jurgen Klopp in his spats with the media, acclaiming the two Jordans, doubting Mignolet’s Anfield future and, naturally, going for Liverpool to win the title …

Salut! Sunderland: from garden leave to here – what we’re about

November 23, 2016November 23, 2016 by Colin Randall

Art of Football captures a magical moment

See these (above) and other Art of Football prints by clicking anywhere on this caption

Monsieur Salut writes: Salut! Sunderland is used to having its brains picked by others. I usually duck the questions, trying to farm them out instead to our star writer Pete Sixsmith or the deputy editor, Malcolm Dawson, both of whom see many more games, or associate editor John McCormick.

I lowered my guard when The Betting Runner Blog popped up with an interview request. This is the result (and I sincerely hope to be shouted down and flattened by a stampede of under-40 readers). So, in case you ever wondered what makes Salut! Sunderland tick, assuming it does, and how we went from nothing to 3.2m reader visits, read on ..

The Liverpool Guess the Score: a real test of SAFC’s mini-revival

November 26, 2016November 22, 2016 by Colin Randall

Thanks to Jermain Defoe, Victor Anichebe, Jordan Pickford and our temporary Guess the Score sponsors Art of Football – see their outstanding range of SAFC items at http://art-of-football.com/collections/sunderland and navigate from there for non-Sunderland art – we have a very satisfied winner.

Phil Davison, a Mackem exiled in Mexico, plumped for a 3-0 home win mainly because so many scorelines had been taken by other entrants. Watching the opening stages on Saturday, live out west, he wondered whether he might have taken leave of his senses, as Hull dominated the game and had the better chances.