Wednesday 12/27

Franklin Munoz
December 27, 2023

☃️⭐️⚽️ Welcome to Wednesday Crew! Yesterday, soccer fans enjoyed yet another incredible Premier League Boxing Day, where the ball found the back of the net about 20 times!

Giveaway: Wake up and smell the coffee. Just in time for the Holidays, our next giveaway will be a $30 gift card for our favorite coffee brand- Kickoff Coffee. As always, each friend that you refer to subscribe to the newsletter is an entry to our raffle. Best of luck!

Boxing Day Recap

Premier League

Saudi Professional League

History
Unboxing Boxing Day Matches

💌🎁 What’s in the Box? The marquee day of festive fixtures. Boxing Day Premier League football started as a tradition across the UK but has slowly grown rapid among the football community. Boxing Day falls on December 26, the day after Christmas Day, and has been a national holiday in the UK since 1871. Boxing Day was traditionally a holiday from the Victorian era where Christmas gift goes were handed out to staff from their landlords. Since 1957, Christmas Day has been a football-free day. While most other European leagues are enjoying their winter breaks, the English and Scottish leagues are just a few competitions playing matches during the festive period.

In Italy, Boxing Day football was played for the first time during the 2018/19 Series A Season, proving to be a successful experiment where stadiums reported a ~70% capacity, more than any other match day in December 2018.

The Holiday Spirit of Boxing Days. Are games really more jolly or is it a superstition? Well considering that yesterday there were nearly 20 goals scored, we may not be superstitious, but we are a little stitious. The Premier League’s tradition has acquired a mythological reputation over the years. Perhaps playing in freezing cold and giving the people what they want, epic football, will bring some greater reward. Originally, matches on Boxing Day were played against local rivals so that teams and their fans would not have to travel long distances to away games on the day after Christmas. Nonetheless, all top-tier leagues in England hold a full program of football matches on Boxing Days. This year, there were five matches on Boxing Day spanning a nine total hours of game play, so much for a holiday hangover.

Boxing Day of 1963, 66 goals were scored in ten top-flight games. However, hopes of having a modern remake may be far-fetched as the most bountiful Boxing Day in the Premier League ear was 35 goals back in ‘99
Only 30 of the 269 Premier League games to be played on Boxing Day have ended Goalless
Manchester United have the best record of any side on Boxing Day in the Premier League era, winning 22 of the 28 matches, only tasting defeat twice (take that Aston Villa!)
Harry Kane holds the record for the most goals scored on Boxing Day with 10 but this is the first Boxing Day without the lad

Historic Boxing Day Matches

2007 Chelsea v. Aston Villa; who can forget the 4-4 thriller that resulted in 3 red cards.
2008 Manchester City v. Hull; City found the back of the next 5x compared to Hull’s solo goal
2012 Manchester United v. Newcastle: an epic 4-3 game marking a proper send off to Ferguson’s last Boxing Day clash
1992 Manchester United v. Sheffield Wednesday: a 3-3 throw down with Lee Sharpe setting up all three of Man-U’s goals
2021 Manchester City v Leicester City: City’s 6-3 victory is the highest scoring Boxing Day fixture in Premier League history

Quick Bites 🍕

Premier League Team of 2023

As the new year approaches, ESPN looks back the the best players in the Premier League to form the best starting 11. Spoiler Alert: There’s a handful of Manchester City players, which should be no surprise given the treble year

Check Out The Full Team Here

The Athletic: New Ownership For Manchester United

25% ownership stake in Manchester United for $1.3 Billion. That’s the deal that has been reached between the club and Sir Jim Ratcliffe after a long saga. CBS sports give their take on what the new ownership should focus on to turn the ship around.

Read Full Article Here