Football adventures with James Rendall

A blog by tm4tj in Football

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Travel with James on his Football journeys across the world

Entries in this blog

Circus Monza

Click to view slideshow. I am sure when you hear the name Monza in sporting chat, unless you are a Formula One guru, you’ll switch off! The town just slightly north of Milan is synonymous with the race car scene, so fire up the guitar solo from Fleetwood Mac’s, The Chain, but while Monza might be the home to the Italian Grand Prix, there is also a football team too, and they might just be on the cusp of the clubs grandest days! AC Monza are the football option in the town that have been up to t

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tm4tj
November 20, 20196 yr

Manchester, not by the sea!

I have rarely ventured to the famous parthenons of World football, although I have gradually ticked a number of them off, albeit on a tortoise timescale. Occasional big gigs have been drip fed onto my stadia CV over a forty plus year passage of time! The Azteca in Mexico City and Racing Club’s Il Cilindro in Avellaneda run the Centenario in Montevideo close as my favourite, but It took the first ever Kazakh club side to play in England to get me eager to head to Old Trafford to notch up only my

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tm4tj
November 26, 20196 yr

Mountain High in Bolzano

I guess the Austro-Hungrian and Ottoman Empires both helped the displacement of people throughout the Eastern side of Europe in particular with Bosnia, Macedonia, Romania to name just three who have significant ethnic populations. I had certainly experienced morsels of such in Trieste, with its dual language status for Slovenian and Italian, but in Italy’s most Easterly outpost, it still felt distinctly Italian, with their language and the cuisine the dominant partner, albeit in a more Austrian

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tm4tj
February 4, 20206 yr

I, Como

I have had the pleasure of bringing more than a dozen towns, cities and regions of Italy to life for Football Weekends and only once from Serie A when newly promoted SPAL rumbled into the top flight. My world is more the characterful under card of Serie B, C and D, and writing a piece about Como has been high on my “must do list” for a long time, as it was on the banks of this beautiful lake where my love for Italy started way back in July 1982! I was on holiday with my parents in Como the night

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tm4tj
February 11, 20206 yr

My mate Fabian

This is a piece that has been penned with a view to publication in Scottish football periodical Nutmeg No.16 in the summer about my friend Fabian Yantorno. The mere mention of the word Uruguay in a footballing context might still send shivers down the spine of Scotland fans of a certain age. The scars following the clash between the two nations at the World Cup in 1986 in Mexico live long in the memory, as well as with those immortal words of the late, great Hugh McIlvanney “These Uruguayans a

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tm4tj
March 6, 20206 yr

Followers

Across The Pond - Toronto Stadium

Scotty · December 1, 2025Dec 1

On 11/29/2025 at 10:19 AM, Council Juice said:
Having attending the 4-1 loss to NYRB there a couple of years back at the start of that season, one area they need to improve is the South stand supporters section and that big open window facing the ungodly cold wind from the lake. Sitting in the East stand and just dying. 😄 Put up a wind breaker for goodness sakes! 😭🥶
Otherwise BMO is a proper no frills football stadium. Hopefully the Whitecaps can move to something similar in the near future.
My seasons are in "U-Sector" section 113 of that very same south stand. Its a toss-up to where I have been colder. BMO Field on the two MLS Cup Finals held there - in November (2016 and 2017) at around -15 or at the Caledonian Stadium in the deepest midwinter with the wind coming in off the Firth.
Its a different kind of cold in each stadium, but when its cold, both can be bloody cold. In Canada it's a dry "holy s***" kind of cold because the negative number can be double digits whereas, as we all know, the Scottish cold might only be -1 or -2 but its that damp, get in your bones kind of cold.
I'll cover the renovations in the one of the next entries in the blog since you are interested, as well as future posts about my volunteer interview, the ridiculous MLS fixture list for next year due to the world cup, and the proposals for league adjustments in 2027. Lots to come :)
Across The Pond - Toronto Stadium

Council Juice · November 29, 2025Nov 29

Having attending the 4-1 loss to NYRB there a couple of years back at the start of that season, one area they need to improve is the South stand supporters section and that big open window facing the ungodly cold wind from the lake. Sitting in the East stand and just dying. 😄
Put up a wind breaker for goodness sakes! 😭🥶
Otherwise BMO is a proper no frills football stadium. Hopefully the Whitecaps can move to something similar in the near future.
Across The Pond: Perseverance

Scotty · November 16, 2025Nov 16

When things are running smoothly it works quite well, you just load up an audiobook or a couple of episodes of the Wyness Shuffle and off you go. Its when things go pear-shaped with Toronto traffic that it gets annoying and that unfortunately is not increasingly rare.
I prefer to drive to be honest, especially if I have the (not so) little one and dont fancy spending $20 for a beer you can buy for $3 in the shop. I have a sweet spot that doesn't get too busy and its about a 15 minute walk to the stadium. FIFA however will likely be monetising all the parking areas within 5km of the stadium so thats not an option for the world cup.
1
Across The Pond: Perseverance

Gringo · November 15, 2025Nov 15

8 hours ago, Robert said:
Wow, makes my trip to the Sarens PSG Stadium a real dawdle!
And mine (when I go, which is rare these days....and set to get increasingly rare sadly)
Across The Pond: Perseverance

Robert · November 14, 2025Nov 14

Wow, makes my trip to the Sarens PSG Stadium a real dawdle!

Football adventures with James Rendall

Entries

Comment

Views

About this blog

Entries in this blog

Circus Monza

Manchester, not by the sea!

Mountain High in Bolzano

I, Como

My mate Fabian

Blog Comments

Across The Pond - Toronto Stadium

Across The Pond - Toronto Stadium

Across The Pond: Perseverance

Across The Pond: Perseverance

Across The Pond: Perseverance

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