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The Rise and Fall of Soccer (or Football) Clues Last Week

We try to stay abreast of the news when writing puzzles, and that worked in our favor this past week.

Crossword puzzle publishing tends to move at a glacial pace, but not here at the Daily Beast! We're quick with our puzzles, as we proved last week.

Monday's news cycle featured the announcement of a brand-new "Super League" in European soccer, with twelve major teams agreeing, in a surprise announcement, to form a new federation that would play games during the week.

Seemed like a good idea for a puzzle, and the letters worked out nicely, with REAL MADRID (one of the 12 teams) and MANCHESTER (home to Man Utd. and Man City, two of the 12 teams) at 10 letters apiece. So I wrote the puzzle, and up it went on Tuesday morning with the title "Kicking Up A Storm." Let's see you do that, New York Times crossword!

And then Wednesday's news cycle began, and it wasn't good for the fledgling league. As USA Today reported: "Two days after it was announced, the 12-team Super-League is collapsing after several clubs announced they are withdrawing."

Not good for the league's founders, but good for our crossword, since the puzzle ran on the one day when it was relevant! You snooze, you lose, but we were alert at the key moment for this one (like, say, a striker or a goalie).

Were you sad, mad, or glad about the Super-League's breakup? Tweet your football feelings to #beastxword.

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