The Run of Play is a blog about
the wonder and terror of soccer.
We left the window open during a match in October 2007 and a strange wind blew into the room.
Now we walk the forgotten byways of football with a lonely tread, searching for the beautiful, the bewildering, the haunting, and the absurd.
What do you mean “kind of?”
Yeah, I know you were fishing for that one. At least now the home fans will (hopefully) cheer for us in the final.
Despise the bastard. looks like the devil, has an awful attitude but is sadly, a fairly awesome player. If I was in his position I’d be kissing people on the pitch, not shouting at them!
a couple tear tattoos wouldn’t be out of place on a mug like that
Actually, I inexplicably like him – I’m oddly fond of orc-ish yet fantastic south americans. I think it’s his oddly hunched gait that makes him look like a cackling Mephistopholes – his sheer fantastic-ness doesn’t hurt his case either, although I think most of my admiration for him is because he reminds me oddly of Mascherano.
Incidentally, if that tattoo is actually just his name and not a tribute to a son/former cellmate my admiration for him has doubled.
“I’m oddly fond of orc-ish yet fantastic south americans. I think it’s his oddly hunched gait that makes him look like a cackling Mephistopholes”
I love this turn of phrase, and would like Alves so much more as a player if he brought his “A+ GAME” every game, but that, combined with the countenance that fits so congruously with it, makes me not like him either. I wanted Brazil to win, but I wanted Kaka, Robinho, Pato, or MAICON be the one to make it happen.
I feel like he’s half the player of Mascherano / Maicon — and I don’t know why, but those are the two comparisons that I most easily reach for as well.
MAICON, by the way, is one of my favorite players in the world right now. The way he applies grace to a traditionally strength based position, and uses his strength in attack where most people would expect grace…absolutely incredible. There is not a Left or Right back in the world better than he.
The man (Alves) does look like a demon that escaped from the fiery abyss, and acts like one on the pitch. As Wayne said, a conniving, manipulative but unfortunately occasionally brilliant player that finds himself playing for trophy winning sides.
Maicon’s attitude is much more commendable.
Huh, Michael Jackson’s just died – will Alves claim his soul?
He was much easier to like when he was a plucky underdog at Sevilla–perhaps because their kits during his breakthrough season (white homes with magenta/black accents and neon orange aways, if memory serves) were so ugly they nearly made him look human.
I just don’t understand why he’s not starting in that squad. And if I had to pick a Brazilian to hate, it’d be Robinho. He’s everything I hate in a striker: weak, whiny, moping, and incredulous.**
Love Fabiano and Kaka. However, Fab looked toothless today.
** moping and incredulous are expected for a striker these days, but it’s the combo that incurs my wrath.
I love Dani Alves! He’s like the Tazmanian Devil playing football. Always playing football as if he’s in the park with his mates, just having fun. I also love his ‘that was guapa’ excerpt on Sky’s Revista de la Liga. Cracks me up every time.
Seems I’m in the minority here though.
Dani Alves collects your two pieces of gold before boarding the fairy to cross the river styx.
He’s like Roberto Carlos but younger, a scowl instead of a smile, and pure evil.
But you have to admit that the neck gaiter was a brilliant fashion choice.
Yeah, I said this before, but Brazil in the cold are about a thousand percent more Hogwarts than you’d ever expect.
I pity him – his tremendous anger for the ball, visible every free kick, suggests that no level of success (which he craves existentially to the point of cheating or not, with total equanimity) will ever satisfy the vicious demons that torment him.
The man has is own name tattooed on his chest. I don’t know how a person like this CAN be liked.
And now it’s Slytherin v. Hufflepuff in the final!
And wouldn’t you know it – we used up our entire supply of Felix Felicis two days ago.
Of course I hate him. Was I the only one that watched him play against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge?
Brian, do you REALLY think that was called for?
No, I was not referring to the ad hominem against Dani Alves, but rather the semicolon in the title.
it’s less that he has his own name tattooed on his chest, because that’s for his son. start with the fact that he’s one of those guys waxing himself significant enough to keep his own legacy going through semantic nepotism.
Hey, hey, what’s with this anti-semi-colon nonsense?
After the Barcelona – Chelsea CL semi-finals, some Chelsea fans I know were banging on and on about Dani Alves being a diving, cheating so-and-so, which I thought a bit rich from people supporting the likes of Drogba, Anelka and Malouda on a weekly basis. So I feel rather compelled to defend the lad at present, strangely enough.
He still is using the sandwedge.
Alves is the misshapen child of a banshee and a demon – but his free kicks and use of the neck-gaiter are redeeming qualities.
The semicolon, however, is the bastard offspring of a three-way involving the period, the comma, and Lucifer himself.
Robbert, that does sound a bit rich to me. However, the reason I couldn’t stand him after that game was because he was so wasteful with possession. His “crosses” were always destined for the crowd.
Being a Liverpool fan, I don’t have much sympathy for the Chelsea riff-raff anyhow.