Playrface

Former West Ham and Aston Villa striker Marlon Harewood played for Finnish side Haka on loan in 1998, scoring three goals and helping them win the league. The post Marlon Harewood at Haka (1998) appeared first on Playrface.

If you’re not quite in the World Cup spirit yet (perhaps for sociopolitical reasons), how about this collection of 2002 World Cup TV adverts from the UK? I can’t believe it’s been 24 years. I have fond memories of watching this as a pre-teen. They pulled out the classic TV on wheels for the England vs. Brazil match so we could watch it before school started. If you’re British, you’ll recognise a lot of the faces in this and a lot of the silliness that came with World Cup promos. Oh, and the…

Valdes Tita wrote a brilliant piece what Roland-Garros inherited from Central Africa, mainly focused on Yannick Noah and his sole championship win on the clay in Paris, but also looking at the influence that had on future Black French players of African descent: The clay at Roland-Garros remembers a lot. It remembers Cameroon and France in the same body. It remembers Arthur Ashe in Yaoundé in February 1971, and Zacharie running onto the court twelve years later. A winner’s microphone was handed…

I’m back with a look at Group B which includes the second of this World Cup’s three hosts, 2022’s hosts in their first tournament as qualifiers, and two European nations who’ll want to upset them. Canada The manager Jesse Marsch. The former RB Leipzig and Leeds manager has been with Canada since 2024 and has done well for himself, with a 4th place finish in at the 2024 Copa América and 3rd place at the 2025 CONCACAF Nations League Finals. Last World Cup In their first World Cup since 1986,…

I just found out about the match between Cruzeiro and Atletico Mineiro in the Campeonato Mineiro final in March where 23 players got sent off after a brawl broke out. That’s 3 shy of a World Cup squad! The post The brawl in Belo Horizonte appeared first on Playrface.

Mirra Andreeva defeated qualifier Maja Chwalinska 6-3 6-2 to win her first French Open title and her first grand slam overall. It was pretty much plain sailing for the Russian teenager as the Polish qualifier was aiming to equal Radacanu’s record at the US Open when she won it from qualification in 2021. Regardless, it was an incredible run for her and she will hopefully grow from this experience—as will Andreeva heading towards Wimbledon next month. The post Mirra Andreeva is the 2026 French…

The World Cup is days away and in the spirit of the game, I thought I’d put together a series of posts that look at each group and the teams in it. This won’t be an analytical deep dive or a series filled with lore and memories; just a quick overview of the teams, the manager, the players likely to bag goals and a bit of silly humour at the end. Enjoy! Mexico The manager Javier Aguirre. “El Vasco” is back again after managing Mexico at the 2002 and 2010 World Cups. Hopefully there won’t be any…

I usually post about Toomanywires on the sibling site, Distant Arcade. But this post is about basketball so it feels more at home here. In it, he talks about the 1999 NBA Finals between the Spurs and the Knicks and the video games from that summer. What set it off was the current NBA Finals between both teams and an iconic photo of the 1999 Spurs team on the plane with the championship trophy while playing StarCraft together: Apparently, this was a very popular hobby amongst Spurs players. And…

Viktor Axelsen is a former Olympic champion badminton player and I found this video of his “20 best shots ever”. I don’t watch badminton so I’d never heard of him but after watching this, I can’t imagine there being 20 other shots better than these. Sublime technique. The post 20 awesome shots by Viktor Axelsen appeared first on Playrface.

Luis Enrique as a coach of FC Barcelona in 2014 (credit: Lluís from Sabadell (Barcelona), España) CC BY 2.0 Luis Enrique is a Spanish football manager and former player who played for Sporting Gijón, Real Madrid, and Barcelona, and played 62 times for the Spanish national team. As a manager, he has won 3 Champions League titles including this (last?) season’s trophy with PSG. His 191 goals in the UEFA Champions League currently places him in joint 91st place in the all-time goal scorer list.…

With the 2026 FIFA World Cup just days away, I thought I’d post this funny video of Retro FIFA playing as San Marino until he won the World Cup in the official 2010 game on Xbox 360. I posted a video from him a few weeks ago where he did the San Marino challenge on every international FIFA game from 1998-2014 but this was even more miraculous. Sadly, they won’t be at this World Cup but thank god for video games. The post When Retro FIFA played as San Marino until he won the World Cup appeared…

Serena Williams is making her tennis comeback at the 2026 HSBC Championships, 4 years after her retirement at the US Open. The post It’s Serena, bitch! appeared first on Playrface.

Congrats to Crystal Palace who beat Rayo Vallecano 1–0 in the 2026 Europa Conference League final. It’s their first European trophy in only their second season in Europe and after winning the FA Cup last season. The post Crystal Palace are the 2026 Europa Conference League champions appeared first on Playrface.

YouTube kept recommending these The Baseball Bat Bros shorts so I gave them a sub and the first new video was about different bats and racquets and which ones hit the hardest. The post Bats for days appeared first on Playrface.

Kazuyoshi Miura is a Japanese footballer and at 59 years old, he is the oldest professional football player in the world. His career has spanned five decades, 10 World Cups (at the time of writing), and 24 Japanese Prime Ministers. Miura started in Brazil at 15 when he played for Santos and played for another 6 Brazilian clubs before moving back to Japan to play for Verdy Kawasaki. Since 2005, he has been on the books for Yokohama FC via 5 loan spells across the world and played 89 times for…

It's... something! The post Olympique de Marseille unveiled their new crest appeared first on Playrface.

Riders on the storm of adversity. The post Uphill Climb: the story of the first Tour de France Féminin appeared first on Playrface.