Michael vs Michael. 🎯 What a great game.

[jstar]

Today is the F1 in Imola, Italy. The track is very well known because of the deadly crash of Ayrton Senna.

This Formula 1 has been rather suspenseful this year. The Red Bull is not the best car anymore, so world champion Max Verstappen has huge problems in keeping up with the McLarens. And in that team the perceived ’number 2’ has shown he’s in fact the better driver.

Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton, is doing poorly. The expectations were very high when he switched teams but it has been rather disappointing. Mercedes is doing okay and could be the third dog in the end.

In the qualifying session, Piastri beat Verstappen and Russell to the pole position. It was very close with a difference of only three-hundredths of a second between him and Verstappen.

 

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As you might remember, the Indonesian team, under the direction of minister and president of the football association, Erick Thohir, decided to charm Indo players abroad and get them to play for the national team. In an inventive way, the citizenship issue of these players was solved.

So now Kluivert, the Dutch coach who replaced the previous Korean coach, had the team play with ten (yes really, 10 !) football players who were born Dutch.

It must be said these players are not really from top teams in their current leagues. And the guys did not have a chance to play for the Dutch national team. So everybody happy. Except perhaps the Indonesian professional football players?

The most famous foreign football player with Indonesian roots, after Van Persie, must be Simon Tahamata.

The former Ajax player will start working as Head of Scouting at the national team of Indonesia.

Tahamata was a candidate for a role within the technical staff or youth academy of Ajax, but to the disappointment of the 67-year-old former international, a concrete offer was never made. While he was waiting in the Netherlands for a signal from Amsterdam, the Indonesian Football Association knocked on his door. Tahamata didn't have to think long about that.

He will be responsible for mapping talent within Indonesia and beyond, with a special focus on players of Indonesian origin who are active in Europe, especially the Netherlands. So I guess the Indonesian team will even become ‘more Dutch’.

All this fits within the ambitious plans of the Indonesian federation to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

 

[jstar]

PSG and Inter will face each other at 9pm local time on Saturday evening in the Allianz Arena in Munich for the UEFA Champions League final. The Parisians can take their first CL trophy, for the Milanese club it could be the fourth final victory.

Although the final will be played in Munich, in Paris they are getting ready to avoid riots like the one after the semi-final against Arsenal. No less than 5,400 police officers will be deployed on Saturday evening. Mainly around the Parc Des Princes and around the Champs-Élysées.

The CL is quite profitable; For PSG it’s already €115.000.000 and €113.000.000 for Inter. And that could amount to 140 million euros for winning the Champions League tomorrow. That’s about fifty million more than the winner Real Madrid last year. Even semi-finalists this season Arsenal (96.85 million) and FC Barcelona (96.47 million) earned a lot more after their exit than Real Madrid a year ago.

 

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The ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) announced Indonesia as host and the country’s largest bank, Bank Mandiri, as title partner for the upcoming edition of Southeast Asia’s premier international youth tournament, now titled the ASEAN U-23 Mandiri Cup™ 2025.

That’s a mouthful. The fifth edition of the biennial tournament, which is -according to themselves- a showcase for ASEAN’s rising stars, will be played at venues in West Java from 15 to 29 July and will feature teams from 10 AFF member countries – Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and back-to-back defending champions Vietnam.

The matches in the opening round group phase will be played at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta and Patriot Stadium in Bekasi. Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, the regular home ground for Indonesia’s senior national team, will be the venue for both semi-finals, the third-place play-off and the final. As expected, no JIS.

 

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Algeria’s Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif must undergo genetic sex screening in order to participate in upcoming events, the sport’s governing body said, as it introduced mandatory sex testing for all boxers in its competitions.

World Boxing announced the new policy on Friday and specifically mentioned Algeria’s Khelif, who won the women’s welterweight gold at the Paris Olympics last year and prompted a gender-eligibility row.

Under the new policy, all athletes above the age of 18 who want to participate in a World Boxing-owned or sanctioned competition will need to undergo a PCR, or polymerase chain reaction genetic test, to determine what sex they were at birth and their eligibility to compete.

 

[jstar]

Quite an achievement of the Briton Simon Yates in the Giro, the tour of Italy.

In 2018 he lost the Giro on the exact same location, today Simon Yates most probably got the final victory at the Colle delle Finestre.

The Briton probably had the best day of his career and left both Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz behind on the monstrous climb.

Without accidents in the final stage tomorrow, he wins the Giro d'Italia and the pink jersey.

His brother is in the team of competitor del Toro btw. Also not bad, he finishes 12th.

 

[jstar]

PSG and Inter will face each other at 9pm local time on Saturday evening in the Allianz Arena in Munich for the UEFA Champions League final. The Parisians can take their first CL trophy, for the Milanese club it could be the fourth final victory.

Although the final will be played in Munich, in Paris they are getting ready to avoid riots like the one after the semi-final against Arsenal. No less than 5,400 police officers will be deployed on Saturday evening. Mainly around the Parc Des Princes and around the Champs-Élysées.

The CL is quite profitable; For PSG it’s already €115.000.000 and €113.000.000 for Inter. And that could amount to 140 million euros for winning the Champions League tomorrow. That’s about fifty million more than the winner Real Madrid last year. Even semi-finalists this season Arsenal (96.85 million) and FC Barcelona (96.47 million) earned a lot more after their exit than Real Madrid a year ago.

PSG humiliated Inter and won with 5-0.

The 19-year-old outstanding Désiré Doué scored twice and gave an assist.

For PSG, it is the very first Champions League triumph in club history.

In Paris, in the meanwhile, things were getting completely out of hand.

 

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For the qualification of the World Cup football, Indonesia still has a chance.

It still has to play against China and Japan. Japan will be extremely difficult to beat; they are really superior in this group.


View attachment 4870

View attachment 4871

In a couple of hours the qualifying game between the Indonesian and Chinese national teams will start. Quite a lot at stake.

You should be able to see it live on a TV channel as RCTI, available on DVB-T (free digital OTA).

 

[jstar]

Yep it is on RCTI HD.

Quite an atmosphere in the stadium. President Prabowo also attends.

 

[jstar]

Painful.

 

[jstar]

So now the Indonesian national team has to continue with playing in qualifying groups. Only the number ones in those groups will qualify for the World Cup tournament.

 

[pantaiema]

Indonesian football, the future, social media and corruption.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

In a video clip Anco Jansen, a Dutch player who once played for PSM Makassar, openly criticised Indonesian football. This is the summary of what he said.

• He stated Indonesia is a very poor country, and their football is nothing
• He played in Indonesia during the pandemic and noted that despite being a poor country, everyone had smartphones, and Instagram was very popular
• He also mentioned that when he failed to score, his teammates advised him not to look at social media for two days
• He observed that the facilities for academies and coaches were very limited.
• According to Jansen, naturalised players gained millions of followers and became attractive, but Indonesian football itself was nothing significant.

Some people may not realise that, based on their audience size and view counts of their individual content, some content creators in Indonesia can earn incomes similar to those in developed countries while living in Indonesia. This is a major advantage, as they benefit from earning at a developed-country level of income while living and spending with the much lower costs of living.

A direct citation of what he said during the interview with ESPN

Hina Indonesia Negara Miskin, Ini Deretan Ucapan Kotor Anco Jansen

Di acara podcast tersebut, Anco Jansen mengatakan bahwa Indoneia adalah negara miskin dan orang-orangnya gemar bermain sosial media.

www.suara.com

".. Anco Jansen said that Indonesia is a poor country and its people love to play social media .
"Yes, it's mainly because of social media. I played there during the pandemic. Indonesia is a very poor country, but everyone has a smartphone and Instagram is very popular there," said Anco Jansen".

This appears to be a personal opinion and may be motivated by a desire to get back at critics from his time in the Indonesian football league. However, a simple comparison with various media sources shows that much of what he said is actually true.

This is the full summary of Anco Jensen in Wikipedia

Anco Jansen - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

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Just like with the men, in the Indonesian national team for women they recruit foreigners. In total, the country has already managed to attract eight Dutch players in this way. Isa Warps is one of them.

How did the Indonesian Football Association come to her? It started with a call from Debby Lim, an intermediary for the association who, among other things, is recruiting players for the national team. „She called me asking if my grandmother was Indonesian, but I said my great-grandmother was from Indonesia. She told me that unfortunately it didn't work for me and hung up.”

It was her father with whom Isa checked to be sure. And what turned out? „My grandmother was born in Padang on Sumatra. I called Debby back right away and before I knew it, I was allowed to go to Indonesia to complete the paperwork. It really feels like I won the lottery. This is really an opportunity I wanted to seize with both hands.”

For Warps, it is the first time she has been outside Europe. "The people here are really very friendly and gentle," she says from her hotel room in Jakarta. „All communication is in English, because I don't speak the language. But we are well taken care of, they have arranged everything down to the last detail so that we can complete everything here as well as possible.”

Warps, who was allowed to start as a flank striker in the base during her debut for Indonesia, is competing with her country for a place in the Asian Cup, the equivalent of the European Championships in Asia. She scored and thanks to the 1-0 victory over Kyrgyzstan, it is still participating for qualification. On July 2 they lost against Pakistan and today July 5 there’s another group match against Chinese Taipei. The group winner will participate in next year's tournament in Australia.

 

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Results of the Saturday quarter finals of the World Championship for teams, played in the US:

 

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The Tour de France has started. The 112th edition of the largest cycling race in the world began yesterday in Lille and ends on Sunday 27 July in Paris.

Belgian cyclist Jasper Philipsen sprinted to the yellow jersey in the first stage. He’s as sprinter a bit of an outsider, Italian Milan and Belgian Merlier were considered the strong-holders in the sprints.

 

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As you can see in the picture, the equipment of the cyclists have gone through a real evolution the last decades.

Especially the wheels stand out. At first glance, they have fewer spokes and the spokes themselves are thicker and flatter, these are made from carbon. Now spokes play a vital role in the performance of a wheel. They affect the weight, strength and feel of the wheels, transmit power, and keep the rims round.

Carbon flats are a slowly emerging trend, which is especially interesting for sprinters. There are only five teams in this Tour de France that use it. Per wheel set, those wheels with carbon spokes are 200 grams lighter.

But the weight of the new wheels does not even have that much advantage for the riders in the Tour de France. In competitions, it is forbidden to ride bikes that are lighter than 6.8 kilograms to prevent teams and riders from continuing to look for ways to get a little faster at the expense of safety.

Therefore two more relevant advantages: Due to the flat spokes, the wheels are more aerodynamic and they are especially much more firm. Carbon is light and at the same time ultra-strong material. The flat spokes of that material in the new wheels ensure that a lot of force can be exerted on it without causing even the slightest form of bending.

And that is especially beneficial for sprinters, who approach the finish line with everything they got, standing on the pedals and throwing their steering wheel to the left and right. Their brute power loses less efficiency with the new spokes and the aerodynamics make it a little easier for them to maintain their speed.

Undoubtedly the entire peloton will soon drive with the new wheels. But now it's just a few sprinters who can benefit from them.

 

[jstar]

The Tour de France has started. The 112th edition of the largest cycling race in the world began yesterday in Lille and ends on Sunday 27 July in Paris.

Belgian cyclist Jasper Philipsen sprinted to the yellow jersey in the first stage. He’s as sprinter a bit of an outsider, Italian Milan and Belgian Merlier were considered the strong-holders in the sprints.

View attachment 5018

Jasper Philipsen fell, he has a collarbone fracture and broken rib. From heaven to hell in one day.

 

[jstar]

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Trump… eh Chelsea won the Football World Cup for clubs.

 

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Remarkable news about today’s Tour de France etappe. The management has decided to remove the Col des Saisies, a first category climb at the beginning, from the race stage.

The reason: a virus outbreak in a herd of cattle on the mountain. As a result, the ride is only 95 kilometers long and the start is also an hour later at 2:30 p.m.

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[jstar]

Just like with the men, in the Indonesian national team for women they recruit foreigners. In total, the country has already managed to attract eight Dutch players in this way. Isa Warps is one of them.

Article website Women’s Football News:

Good news for Isabelle Nottet, Isabel Kopp and Pauline van de Pol. Commission XIII of the DPR RI, the Indonesian parliament, has approved the naturalization of the three players.

"After the government's explanation, Commission XIII DPR RI has agreed to the request to grant Indonesian citizenship to five footballers: Mauro Nils Zijlstra, Isabel Corian Kopp, Isabelle Notet, Pauline Jeanette van de Pol and Miliano Jonathans," President Willy Aditya said during the meeting.

The naturalization is intended to strengthen the Indonesian teams in, among other things, the fourth round of the World Cup qualification 2026 (men), the qualification for the Asian Cup and the SEA Games.

The process now continues with a joint meeting of the PSSI, the Minister of Sports and the Minister of Justice with Committee X of the parliament. Upon approval, a vote will follow in the plenary session of the DPR RI. After that, President Prabowo Subianto can issue a presidential decree with which citizenship is officially granted. Only then the players can be officially sworn in as Indonesian citizens.

Kopp will play for HERA United next season. Nottet and Van de Pol have played for Telstar in recent years.