The chaos of Argentina vs Morocco; Canada, New Zealand and a brief history of spying in sport

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Welcome to Thursday — however wait a minute, there’s a VAR verify going down to see if Wednesday remains to be occurring. That’s been the excessive drama on the Olympics… Additionally developing:

👓  Spygate 3.0? A brand new controversy

🔄 Two large Arsenal transfers (and a brand new package)

👬 Locker-room dynamics defined

Olympic-Sized Chaos 

What occurred in Argentina vs Morocco?

Boy oh boy, the Olympics haven’t waited to ship drama. The ending of Wednesday’s match between Argentina and Morocco was totally/gloriously/embarrassingly chaotic (delete relying in your private feeling).

Briefly, the group was on the pitch, a aim was controversially dominated out, and a two-hour delay ensued — fortunately, The Athletic had Ali Rampling to clarify.

Pre-match, Argentina’s anthem was booed — after final week’s Copa America win, Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez live-streamed his team-mates chanting a music with derogatory references to France internationals of African descent. Morocco have a number of French-born gamers of their squad.

Till stoppage time, this had been a reasonably regular match — not less than so far as Argentina video games go. However with quarter-hour of stoppage time ordered, and Morocco main 2-1, Argentina appeared to attain a late, late equaliser within the 106th minute, with Cristian Medina heading in after successive photographs hit the bar.

Improbably, this was solely the beginning of the drama.

Why was the sport stopped?

Because the Argentinians celebrated, cups and bottles had been thrown at them, flares had been set off, whereas a number of Morocco followers ran onto the pitch and had been chased by stewards. Gamers swiftly left the pitch with riot police close by.

The sport appeared to have ended at 4.10pm BST/11.10am ET, with the official Olympics match weblog stating the sport had ended. The massive display screen stated it had been suspended.

Nevertheless, 90 minutes later, information broke that Argentina’s equaliser had been dominated out for an offside (see beneath). Gamers returned to the pitch shortly after 6pm BST/1pm ET. Three minutes of added time had been performed in an empty stadium earlier than the ultimate whistle was blown, almost two hours after many thought the match was over.

On the decision-making course of, FIFA referred The Athletic to Paris 2024, which stated the sport “was suspended as a result of a pitch invasion by a small variety of spectators… Paris 2024 is working with the related stakeholders to know the causes and establish applicable actions”.

What was the response? 

Confusion — adopted by anger or reduction, relying in your persuasion. Argentina head coach Javier Mascherano could possibly be heard shouting “circus” from the touchline, saying he was by no means informed a couple of VAR evaluation — he insisted the match was suspended due to safety.

“The referee by no means got here, he by no means gave us a proof,” he stated. “What occurred on the pitch was scandalous. It’s not an area event, it’s the Olympic Video games.”

Lionel Messi, watching on, posted “Insolito” on his Instagram account — translating to “unbelievable”. It actually was that.

Information Spherical-Up 

Michael Olise makes it 2-0! 💥 💥

Lacazette turns supplier this time because the Bayern Munich new boy curls house France’s second. They’re nicely on their manner at #Paris2024 of their opener v USA.#BBCOlympics pic.twitter.com/dyprovlKZt

— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) July 24, 2024

What a strike by Michael Olise! 💥

France double their lead and the house followers are loving it. #ParisOlympics

📺 USA & Peacock pic.twitter.com/QsimLuDvPg

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 24, 2024

Spying: A Historical past 

(Getty Photographs; design by Eamonn Dalton)

Canada, New Zealand, what’s occurring?

You thought we had been achieved on Olympic drama? Suppose once more! The previous few days have been dominated by a spying scandal involving the Canadian girls’s soccer group — which re-erupted on Wednesday.

One other controversy — one other helpful explainer, courtesy of Mark Puleo and Meg Linehan.

Canada are reigning gold medallists however, on Tuesday, forward of their opening sport in opposition to New Zealand, a drone was seen over their opponent’s coaching session.

On-site legislation enforcement traced the drone, and located its controller held within the arms of (duh, duh, duh) Joseph Lombardi, who labored as an “unaccredited analyst” with the Canadian girls’s group.

The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) apologised, nevertheless it subsequently got here to mild that one other coaching session had been recorded on July 19 — this was severe.

Lombardi and Jasmine Mander, an assistant coach who oversees Lombardi, had been despatched house from the Olympics, whereas head coach Bev Priestman voluntarily stepped apart from teaching immediately’s sport, citing her “dedication to integrity”.

She was unable to explicitly state whether or not she knew concerning the drone. FIFA stated it will examine all doubtlessly concerned events.

Has this occurred earlier than?

Sure! I spent a while writing about this on Wednesday afternoon — spying is sort of as outdated because the offside rule.

Right here’s a potted historical past of sporting espionage, that includes interns in bushes, package males within the roof, and even references to the New England Patriots and Michigan Soccer. Take pleasure in.

🎙 The ladies’s Olympic event begins immediately — get the Full Time podcast after each U.S. match and the publication the following day

Arsenal’s Africa-Themed Equipment 

What’s the story behind their away package?

Arsenal drew 1-1 with Bournemouth in Los Angeles final night time — and also you might need observed their new away package.

Primarily black, with purple and inexperienced particulars to imitate the Pan-African flag, the strip is meant to spotlight Arsenal’s reference to Black tradition.

The Athletic’s Dan Barnes explains right here why Arsenal have a singular historical past — from the black heroes who’ve performed at Highbury and the Emirates, to the Black communities in London which have gravitated in the direction of supporting the membership.

Created by Black-founded menswear model Labrum, and produced by Adidas, its producers boast it was “designed by an immigrant”, with black-and-white zigzag panels additionally meant to symbolize emigration from African nations within the Twenties and the artwork that got here with them.

“Speaking to Arsenal and Adidas, they’ve each all the time pioneered Black tradition, Black historical past,” says designer Foday Dumbuya. “We thought it’s a relationship and collaboration that was sure to occur.”

Locker-Room Dynamics

How will Mbappe slot in at Actual Madrid?

As European champions, Actual Madrid are arguably the perfect membership facet on the earth — and this summer season, presumably the world’s greatest participant arrives on the Bernabeu.

Kylian Mbappe shall be strolling right into a dressing room which already options the star energy of Vinicius Jr, Jude Bellingham, and Luka Modric. The 25-year-old, who was king of Paris, now has new environment.

Madrid might have excellent gamers — and The Athletic has lined their ways intimately right here and in video type (see above) — however even excellent gamers solely win as many video games as Madrid do if they’re a tight-knit group prepared to battle for one another.

That is how their dressing room operates, from car-pooling, to player-led barbecues, to the affect of head coach Carlo Ancelotti’s son Davide. Mario Cortegana stories on how Mbappe will settle in.

Catch A Match

Olympics, girls’s soccer: Canada vs New Zealand (11am ET / 4pm BST) — Peacock / Eurosport; This needs to be a tasty one (see above).

Olympics, girls’s soccer: United States vs Zambia (3pm ET / 8pm BST) — USA Community / Eurosport; This shall be Emma Hayes’ first aggressive match in command of the USWNT — right here’s our preview of the problem she’s dealing with.

(High photograph: Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Photographs)