The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Monday, September 3

Hello, all!

Here’s a picture of Son Heung-min smiling, attached to nothing at all but his own happiness.

Ramble of the Day

I spent a day at the U.S. Open this weekend hopping from court to court and watching some very intense matches (and one that ended less than 20 minutes because one of the players got injured). Something else I did see in between all of the professional tennis players competing against each other: a woman dressed up like a ball girl.

She was fully kitted out in what could pass for a Ralph Lauren outfit for a ball girl at the U.S. Open. I have no idea if she recently bought it or not, but I initially (and thankfully, privately) mistook her for a poor employee that had to wear this outfit for whatever reason. She was one of the two women I saw wearing outfits as if they were ready to play, though the second woman I saw was wearing a dress you might see on a player.

At first, I thought, Why do people go to tennis matches looking like they want to play themselves? I then also went on a tangent in my brain and thought about how dressing for tennis is something that fashion publications have articles about, but then I quickly went back to the actual dressing like you want to play tennis. Then I remembered: It’s not only tennis watchers that go to sporting events dressed like they’re ready to play; football has plenty of those.

After all, I had seen a bunch of these people on the way to Real Madrid’s match against Getafe. I had seen several children dressed in full kits beforehand, and though I nodded my head in disapproval ever so slightly, I cut the children some slack. They’re kids and they’re excited, and they probably forced their parents into buying these expensive clothes, so it’s good that they get some mileage. However, I saw way too many adults sporting the full kit look in Madrid, and I just have to ask: Why?

I get understand buying all of the pieces of a kit. The shirt is obviously very practical, while the shorts also have many uses. The socks, too, have their place, but other than as a costume, the pieces shouldn’t go together and you really should not be wearing that in public.

Just find good ways to style the shirt (or the shorts) for game day. It’s not too hard and can be fun, I promise. GQ even published an article about how to wear one, even though the premise of “don’t be a fan and just pick any jersey” is debatable.

I kind of want to talk to one of these full kit people to ask them about it. I really would like to know.

tl;dr: Stop dressing for sporting events like you want to play in them.

Links of the Day

England have qualified for next year’s Women’s World Cup.

Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr. was bitten by an opponent while playing for the reserve team over the weekend.

Today’s longer read: James Bird writes about and Alan Bond photographs the people who decide to become Sunday league referees for The Guardian