2014 HAPPY NEW YEAR
2013 was the year of the Selfie “a type of self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone” A punk fan of Mansfield Town takes pictures of his heroes walking around the pitch with the trophy as his team gain promotion to the Football League – Blue Square Premier – The Football Conference – Mansfield Town v Wrexham
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It was the year photographers fought back against people thieving their work and publishing it. One email contained “I will be looking out for u at the stadium – I suggest that u don’t go there in a media capacity, because ur camera will will get smashed!” after I enquired as to where one facebook user had sourced an image from. We saw some shocks – Wigan Athletic defeating Manchester City in the FA Cup Final
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Meeting up with some old friends in Turkey
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And saying goodbye to some old ones – especially David Beckham playing for Paris St-Germain.
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2013 saw a long and very hard trip to Brazil for the FIFA Confederations Cup. At least we now know what to expect for the forthcoming World Cup.
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Brazil won the tournament – But I left it 6 months before going through my month’s shoot with a fine tooth comb…
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Suarez tumbled in front of me and I got this :
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And after doing lots of games involving Uruguay, West Bromwich Albion signed Uruguay captain Diego Lugano
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On 10th February 2013, I got a picture that at the time meant nothing…
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An emotional Fergie won the title yet again..
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The Moyes – Manchester United – Everton story gained momentum when in Miami during pre-season, Marouane Fellaini of Everton walked off the pitch chatting to manager Roberto Martinez – before joining Manchester United.
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Manchester Untied kept providing the most published news stories when they decorated their stadium for Remembrance Sunday.
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The UEFA Champions League was probably the most exciting and rewarding competition to cover. Traveling to Holland, Belgium, Turkey, France, Germany, Spain and Italy to name a few, this image in the semi-final of the Real Madrid v Borussia Dortmund game was one of my favourites when goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller of Borussia Dortmund held on to the ball with Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid trying to get it off him following the first goal.
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2013 saw me get some goals. Goals don’t necessarily make nice pictures but Robin Van Persie’s first half effort at Swansea saw the new 2013-2014 Premier League season off to a new start!
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And England qualified for the FIFA World Cup with Gerrard scoring to secure the trip to South America this coming summer.
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A new tournament – the UEFA Champions League Youth League – saw me going back to my roots and doing more postcard stadium images – this one at Greenock Morton in Scotland where Celtic Youth played FC Barcelona Youth. Yet again, modern football crushing my soul with Barcelona on this occasion annoyingly deciding to wear an all black away kit.
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Our partner clubs had their ups and downs – Wolves getting relegated to League One – leaving WBA to battle it out with Aston Villa to determine the best club in the Midlands.
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Emotion and dejection provided the most poignant image with Bayern Munich destroying FC Barcelona in the other semi final of the UEFA Champions League.
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Ronaldo losing out to Borussia Dortmund in the other semi-final.
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But despite the funny moments of 2013…
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The sports images that made the news pages – Rooney having his hair transplant…
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For all the expensive long lenses that we have to carry around, up until December, my picture of the year was taken on a wide angle lens in Turkey during the UEFA Europa League – Round of 32. The Fenerbache v BATE Borisov match in the Sukru Saracoglu stadium was played behind closed doors due to Fenerbahce being handed a ban due to objects thrown from the stands in an earlier European game. Thousand of fans gathered outside the stadium and fired in red flares during the second half which resulted in the game being suspended for a short period.
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But then in December, I got the green lazer pen light picture involving Franck Ribery.
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Football Photographer Blog by Matthew Ashton 