Word: skills
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...something as subjective and ethereal as a national soccer idiom may be by nature impossible defend in scientific terms, it nonetheless shaped the sensibilities of fans for generations. Whenever the fans of a lowly English outfit such as Bristol Rovers see their players exhibit a flash of uncharacteristic individual skill or imagination, they sing "Brazil, it's just like watching Brazil...
...then there was Brazil. Ah, Brazil, whose poetry on the ball made all the European varieties of the game look prosaic. They emphasized the sort of showoff individual skill and creativity that most European training regimes had knocked out of their youngsters by the time of adolescence, creating a giddy and melodic form of the game (personified by the young Pele) in which players routinely did the unpredictable - shooting from 40 yards out; scoring with their backs to goal via an overhead kick; running over the ball to fake out an opponent; as a matter of course taking defenders...
...Today, however, the cream of the world's players all tend to play their professional soccer in European clubs, where they're expected to conform to the discipline of the local coaching system. Not that individual skill and flair is completely knocked out of Brazilians turning out in England or Spain, simply that it's placed within the frame of a large, more disciplined and organized team effort. The European clubs seek the silky ball handling skills, speed and unpredictability of players who play the Brazilian game - whether from Latin America, Africa or even France or Portugal...
...sorry for him as well as sensible he leaves a void in my [domestic] administration which I cannot fill up. --I must get Martha or yourself to give orders for bottling the cyder in the proper season in March. There is nobody there but Ursula who unites trust & skill to do it. She may take any body she pleases to aid her. I am in hopes if any keys had been delivered to Jupiter that they have been taken care...
...look, brisk comic timing and a brawler's instinct for knowing when to shut up and throw a punch, but that doesn't mean she's ready to tackle Chekhov. "I don't think I can call myself an actress yet," she says. "I just don't think my skill level is that high. I hope that with every job it gets better. But until I'm good, I can say I'm trying to be an actor, but I don't think I've completely made...