Plenty of Nothing

Hōjō Masako

Anne as the warrior Hōjō Masako in the 2012 taiga drama Taira no Kiyomori.

Quixote Descends into Montesino's Cave

Source.

Galatia

Source.

Gun Carriage, York Redoubt

Source.

The Purple and the Teal

Pacific and Wanderers in 2019. Source.

It's the start of the 2021 Canadian Premier League. The eight clubs are sequestered in Winnipeg where they will play a total of 32 matches in a hotel + bus + stadium bubble like last year's Island Games. They call it "The Kickoff presented by Volkswagen" for brand-washing purposes.

The CPL follows a policy of insisting that member clubs have purpose-built soccer stadiums -- except when they don't. Winnipeg, Hamilton and newest member Ottawa all groundshare with CFL clubs. However, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers won't need the place until August.

Each team will play four opponents twice, and every game will be between an eastern team and a western team. So no Atletico Ottawa, York United or Forge for Halifax until the next phase of the schedule. The plan is that by the end of July the pandemic will have run down enough for the teams to travel to each other's grounds as they did in the before times.

Today's game is Pacific FC versus HFX Wanderers. These two also met in their 2019 and 2020 season openers, so it's now a tradition. Pacific won the 2019 opener 1 - 0, and in 2020 there was a 2 - 2 tie. I can say tie instead of draw because this is North America.

Pacific wear purple and teal. You're supposed to be able to see a Douglas Fir and Vancouver Island in their crest, but all I get is a metronome.

Halifax have played Pacific seven times altogether, with 1 win, 3 ties and 3 losses. Pacific have outscored them 14 to 7. Their last meeting was at the end of the Island Games group stage, when Hart rested his best players and Pacific won 5 - 0.

Both teams include a Polisi brother: Pacific have Matteo and Wanderers have Marcello.

[Pacific 2 - 0 Wanderers. The game was delayed by lightning, and then Stephen Hart was taken to hospital. Assistant coach Mesut Mert managed the team for most of the game.]

Elsewhere:

J2: Albirex Niigata [0 - 0] Mito HollyHock

[Iwaki FC 1 - 5 Mito HollyHock (practice match) (June 27)]

JFL: FC Kariya [1 - 0] Honda Lock (tomorrow)

[This is Kariya's first win of the seaon.]

Cabinteely 1 - 2 UCD (yesterday)

Faroes: B36 0 - 0 Klaksvik (yesterday)

Pohang Steelers vs Gangwon (postponed)

Tohoku Div 1: Dogizaka [0 - 1] Shichigahama

Winterthur 6 - 0 YF Juventus (friendly) (June 22)

Winterthur 2 - 5 Vaduz (friendly)

TPS 1 - 1 EIF (June 22)

TPS are midtable with 2 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses and a 0 goal difference.

Largs Thistle vs Greenock Morton XI (June 23) (postponed due to Covid in the Morton camp)

Glrvan Glenafton [2 - 4] Largs Thistle (friendly)

Johnstone Burgh vs Largs Thistle (Monday) (friendly)

Largs are having difficulty having a preseason.

2020 UEFA Euro: Croatia 3 - 1 Scotland (June 22)

Scotland are out.

The 2021 Copa America has been going on in Brazil. Bolivia is in the South Zone group. Their games are:

June 14    Paraguay 3 - 1 Bolivia

June 18    Chile 1 - 0 Bolivia

June 24    Bolivia 0 - 2 Uruguay

June 28    Bolivia [1 - 4] Argentina

Four Club The Strongest players are on the national squad: José Sagredo (DF), Diego Wayar (MF), Ramiro Vaca (MF) and Jeyson Chura (FW). Bolivar have seven national team members, Always Ready four, Jorge Wilstermann two, Blooming two, Aurora one, and Oriente Petrolero one.

[The Strongest played two preparation games against Nueva Santa Cruz today and won both 2 - 0.]

2021-21 UEFA Champions League preliminary round:

Semi-finals (June 22):

Folgore (San Marino) 0 - 2 Prishtina (Kosovo)

HB 0 - 1 Inter Club d'Escaldes (Andorra)

Final (yesterday): Prishtina 2 - 0 Inter Club d'Escaldes

This is the first season in the epoch of three UEFA leagues: Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League. The Conference starts July 8th, and the new leaner Europa League August 5th.

AFC Champions League

The AFC Champions League East group stage is under way, two months after the West finished up. The matches are being played in Thailand or Uzbekistan. Let's follow the Japanese and South Korean clubs.

Group F

Viettel (Vietnam) [0 - 1] Ulsan Hyundai

Group G

Pohang Steelers 2 - 0 Ratchaburi Mitr Phol (Thailand) (June 22)

Johor Darul Ta'zim (Malaysia) 0 - 1 Nagoya Grampus (June 22)

Nagoya Grampus 3 - 0 Pohang Steelers (June 25)

Group H

Tampines Rovers (Singapore) 0 - 2 Gamba Osaka (June 25)

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 2 - 1 Chiangrai United (Thailand) (June 25)

Group I

Kawasaki Frontale [3 - 2] Daegu FC

Group J

Guangzhou Evergrande 0 - 2 Cerezo Osaka (June 24)

Cerezo Osaka [2 - 1] Kitchee (HK) (tomorrow)

Developments:

The Lowland League schedule is out. Celtic B will groundshare Airdrieonians' stadium and Rangers B will play at Dumbarton's. As East Kilbride are in Morton's League Cup group, let's follow them through the season.

Scottish stadia will be allowed to admit 2000 spectators from July 19th.

UEFA has discarded the away goal rule. From now on it's extra time and penalty kicks.

Mortonalia:

Aidan McAdams has signed with Ayr United. Ayr finished higher than Morton last season, yet they're poaching the entire Greenock Morton organization.

Stefan McCluskey (Morton 2014-16) has signed with Forfar.

Midfielder Mark Russell is back with the club. He played for Morton from 2013 to 2018, followed by stints with Falkirk and Finn Harps.

About the All Japan Business Team Soccer Championship (1948 to 1964):

The J League, launched in 1992, was Japan's first national professional soccer league. It was preceded by the Japan Soccer League (1965 to 1992) which was national but amateur; that is, the teams in the JSL were all soccer departments of major Japanese corporations. So, when asking what preceded the JSL it makes sense to look at the All Japan Business Team Soccer Championship, which ran from 1948 to 1964.

The All Japan Business Team Soccer Championship was an annual knockout tournament sponsored by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. Non-business clubs were not admitted. Originally eight and eventually twenty teams participated.

The winners were:

1948        Yuasa Battery

1949        Sankyo

1950        Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma

1951        Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma

1952        Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma

1953        Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma

1954        Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma

1955        Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma

1956        Toyo Kogyo (later known as Sanfrecce Hiroshima)

1957        Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma

1958        Hitachi Head Office (later known as Kashiwa Reysol)

1959        Furukawa Electric (later known as JEF United Chiba)

1960        Hitachi Head Office

1961        Furukawa Electric

1962        Toyo Kogyo and Furukawa Electric

1963        Nippon Steel Yawata

1964        Nippon Steel Yawata

Source.

Mitsubishi Mizushima

Source.

Airship Mast, St. Hubert

Source.

Agrigentum

Eugene von Guérard, "View of the Temples of Agrigentum" (c. 1885). Source.

Tomoe Gozen

Ukiyo-e of Tomoe Gozen, from Mirror of Beauties Past and Present (1875-76) by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. Source.

Chinese Space Stamps 1958

Source.