Sportstalk Curation Showcase

Hello and welcome to another addition of the Sportstalk curation showcase where posts from the last week are highlighted. The idea behind this is to
promote quality content letting other Hive users know what is being offered in the Sportstalk tribe. The posts are all live meaning they fall within the 7 day window for curation. No need to vote but if you find something interesting then why not give that author a follow.

'Twas the night before the Ashes

First up to bat this week we have @talesfrmthecrypt who is an avid cricket fan who happens to support England. In this post he looks at the Ashes which got under way in the early hours of this morning. Tales dissects the teams and discusses their strengths. Unfortunately he is an England fan and that is normally ok unless you are discussing the Ashes. The test series is played over 5 matches and somehow looking at the teams it is hard to look beyond Australia to keep the famous urn.

Turning on the television last night I was a little shocked to find England winning the toss and batting first. The conditions were in favor of a seam attack with cloudy overhead conditions and a green wicket. What it @talesfrmthecrypt highlighted was the teams fragile top order and England were rolled over for 147 so he was spot on with that point. I don't think the English have a great bowling unit without Anderson so let us see how good or bad they are tonight. Really happy to have Tales back writing again as his posts are always interesting and are top notch.

SEVEN TEAMS YOU NEVER KNEW WON THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

I really enjoy this when I can find a new user to highlight as promoting them and helping them grow is what this is really about. @milezofplay wrote an article around many teams who are not well known today, but were in times gone by. The wheel turns in sport so the teams we see dominating today could easily do the same thing for whatever reason that may be. Many are due to financial set backs not being able to maintain what they once had. Looking at the time dates most of these teams were dominant in their respective leagues we are only talking 30 or 40 years ago. Things have changed since then with huge investments leaving many of these teams behind. There is definitely a new tier that has formed with what one could call Super Clubs, but as in Barcelona's and Manchester United case doesn't mean they are infallible. Will we be mentioning Barcelona and United as one of these teams in 20 years time that used to be so dominant and now nowhere? Great post and makes one think on what could happen.

@blanchy is back this week talking about his beloved Tottenham and how they are struggling with their current squad and covid. I read somewhere last week about a game that was called off midway through the match as the one team was down to 7 players. The reserve goalkeeper was playing in the central defence and pulled a muscle leaving the referee with no option to abandon the game. They only went onto the pitch with 9 players as that is all they had left due to covid. I don't think the Premiership would do that or would they as that just seems unfair forcing teams to play no matter what. I think this was in La Liga and you would have hoped common sense took over but didn't. The premiership has been lucky up till now with only a few teams being affected and how long can that luck hold out. A football squad of 30 or 40 players per team multiplied by 20 teams is around 800 players which is too many plus the back room staff to not catch this and spread amongst their clubs.

Top 5 Tuesday - Five Free Transfer Deals That Made History

@amirtheawesome is another new user to be highlighted this week which is a good sign we are growing as a tribe. He discusses the free transfers which is basically when a player is out of contract and can negotiate his own deal with the new club. This doesn't happen too often as clubs are a business after all and making money is what they are about. looking at the list of players there are obviously some plum names that stand out and had no idea they were free. I am sure United sold Pogba to Juventus or maybe I am wrong. I just don't understand that clubs get themselves into this position and should sell before this ever happens. Makes one think on how much was lost just by this list alone as how much is Robert Lewandowski worth. I know United used to pinch players from Salford Football Club like Paul Scholes and a few others and they never paid anything.

This is always a fun post to compile and I would like to thank everyone who is active in Sportstalk as you make things happen. The tribe is only as strong as it's community and we are heading in the right direction.