Latest news with #Forms
BBC News
07-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'There's no other stopper in world football as gifted'
When Plato theorised about his world of Forms many centuries before Christ, he wasn't to know his weighty philosophical musings would one day be exhumed in an email newsletter to describe a silly little football here I am, hoping my secondary school philosophy teacher will one day read this and know I actually was listening, struggling to think of a better way to describe Liverpool's 1-0 victory over Paris St-Germain. The only way I can is to understand it as a smash-and-grab of such Platonic perfection that it belongs among the great thinker's higher realm of posited all that we see on Earth today is merely an imperfect copy of that which exists in its true form, its perfect form, somewhere beyond the physical. But if he were alive today and signed up to whichever Greek subscription channel broadcasts the Champions League, he will have seen a goalkeeping performance to make him consider tearing up his papyrus pull off such a footballing heist requires magnificence from the man between the sticks - and Alisson duly delivered for his side in the French capital."It was probably the performance of my life," he said after the game, before being hailed as "the best in the world" by Liverpool's late goalscoring hero Harvey Wednesday's evidence, it's impossible to disagree with the youngster. Alisson has only won one Yashin Trophy - the annual award given out since 2019 to the best goalkeeper on the planet - but for my money, there's no other stopper in world football as gifted with both hands and up for the Football Extra newsletterThe latter were rarely used at the Parc des Prince though, this was a performance that needed hands alone - and multiple pairs, ideally. Alisson made nine saves throughout the contest, the most a Liverpool goalkeeper has made in a single game logged by data site Stathead for at least a decade. Those chances were of decent standard too, Les Parisiens' 27 total shots worthy of a combined 1.6 expected goals during 90 minutes of near-complete dominance. Liverpool had just 30% possession and took only two shots - both season-low tallies by a take the conversation to even nerdier heights, we can use Stathead's post-shot expected goals metric to illustrate the quality of PSG's shots on target during the contest. Where xG values the chance at the point of the shot being taken, PSxG shows how likely a shot is to go in after it has been kicked based on where it goes on goal. A powerful shot low to the corner has a high post-shot xG, while a weak shot at the keeper has a low one and a shot off target would return this metric, the stats say Alisson's acrobatics actually prevented 2.3 goals, the most-influential goalkeeping performance of the last decade in which Liverpool have kept a clean sheet, according to Stathead's all the Brazilian keeper's brilliance, the chips still need to fall your way to win a game in the manner Liverpool managed. All supporters, myself included, can find it tough to acknowledge luck's role in victory, as if in doing so it makes the final result less Reds boss Arne Slot had no hesitation pointing out his side were smiled upon by the footballing gods, admitting: "Had we got a draw, we would still have been the lucky ones. They were much the better team today."With the tie poised deliciously ahead of next week's return leg at Anfield, Slot will know that big improvements are needed to keep their course to the quarter-finals now though, Liverpool can savour a famous European victory. On nights like this, when luck and skill collide, even Plato would admit that the shadows on the cave wall aren't bad to look at after all.
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
There's More to This ‘White Lotus' Nude Scene Than Meets the Eye
WELCOME BACK TO The White Lotus, HBO's satirical comedy-drama about wealthy, troubled people hitting the self-destruct button on their personal lives in some of the most beautiful, luxurious locales in the world. Sunday's premiere, "Same Spirits, New Forms" took viewers to a brand new White Lotus resort in Thailand, and introduced this year's cast of vacationers, including the Ratliff family, played by Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sarah Catherine Cook and Sam Nivola. There was a lot going on in the episode, but one of its more memorable moments took place in the hotel room shared by brothers Saxton (Schwarzenegger) and Lochlan (Nivola). The episode establishes pretty early on that Saxton is a hypersexual kind of character, even making inappropriate comments about the "hotness" of his sister, and true to form, it's not long before he is hit by the urge to watch porn and masturbate. Not wanting to do so in front of his younger brother, he heads to the bathroom, completely naked, to jerk it. It makes for some pretty awkward, uncomfortable viewing, particularly in the split second where the brothers make eye contact before Saxton closes the door. In other words, it's pure White Lotus. We've known this moment was coming for a little while now. After attending the premiere on February 11, Arnold Schwarzenegger spilled the beans about his son's performance on Instagram, writing: "What a show! I could claim to be surprised to find out he has a nude scene, but what can I say – the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Don't miss it this Sunday – trust me." "Same Spirits, New Forms" furthers something of a White Lotus tradition: putting full-frontal male nudity front and center in its season premieres. The pilot episode way back in 2021 featured a close-up of Steve Zahn's character's genitals, a creative decision which both illustrated his vulnerability and also set the tone for the show in general. (That inaugural season continued to push the envelope in terms of male nudity and sexuality, with one episode ending on a rarely-shown-on-television scene of rimming between Murray Bartlett and Lukas Gage.) Season 2 opened with a similarly graphic nude scene, this time featuring Theo James as Cameron, who purposefully flusters Aubrey Plaza's Harper by changing into his bathing suit in full open view, with the help of a "ginormous" (James's words) prosthetic penis. It's a perfectly in-character power play, in which Cameron quite literally whips it out, showing Harper and the audience exactly who he is. These phallic displays are baked into the show's DNA. From the very beginning, The White Lotus has been interested in interrogating the nuances of male sexuality and the darker side of homosocial relationships. That's in large part thanks to showrunner Mike White, whose subversive queer sensibility permeates the show and has led to some viral television moments: who could forget Sydney Sweeney's highly-memed speculation as to whether or not her late grandpa was a bottom; Michael Imperioli's cringe-inducing threesome; and of course, the taboo-exploding "uncle/nephew" roleplay between Tom Hollander and Leo Woodall that led to Jennifer Coolidge's fateful sea voyage. Season 3 continues this exploration of modern masculinity: Saxton is intent on pressuring his brother into studying at his own alma mater rather than that of their sister Piper, while Southern patriarch Timothy is beset by financial issues which threaten his sense of self. Outside of the Ratliff family, this year's White Lotus guests include Rich Hatchett (Walton Goggins), a middle-aged man who is feeling some kind of way about his age after being mistaken for the father of his much younger girlfriend Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood). Whether it's Patrick Schwarzenegger's porn-obsessed sleazebag, Theo James's intensely competitive friendship with Will Sharpe, or Murray Bartlett coercing his employee into a cocaine-fueled office hookup, The White Lotus is consistently provocative, which is what we have come to expect from that coveted Sunday night slot on HBO. But it's never provocation for its own sake. Mike White is clearly fascinated by flawed, often-unlikeable men, and loves to holds them up to the light like a kid who has just found some exciting new creepy-crawlies under a rock. "Look at my weird little guys," he seems to be saying. "Watch them slither and squirm." And we do! Every Sunday, at 9 p.m Eastern. You Might Also Like The Best Hair Growth Shampoos for Men to Buy Now 25 Vegetables That Are Surprising Sources of Protein
