Soccer Thread 2016-17

[CrescentMoonie]

1. Has Joey Barton ever not been a POS?

2. Lincoln City!

3. Dirty pool by the ref in the Bayern match allowing the equalizer a full minute past the supposed end of extra time.

[Easy Mac]

Since we can't count on death and taxes anymore, I guess the only thing we can still count on is American youth national teams blowing chunks in qualifying tournaments.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by CrescentMoonie

1. Has Joey Barton ever not been a POS

Unfortunately no - he's rather reprehensible ... made worse by the fact that he is a pretty good player and with a better attitude I have no doubt he'd have become a mainstay of the England team, he works hard, tackles well (when he doesn't lose it and go in two footed) and always gives his all ... combined with the fact that he has a good range of passing and makes intelligent runs and in his prime he was true quality ... unfortunately his large streak of lunacy counter balanced all of the positive aspects.

[CrescentMoonie]

There's no way it will happen twice in a weekend, but I'll definitely be rooting for Sutton United against Arsenal.

[Butter]

Sutton - Arsenal was actually pretty entertaining, especially the second half. Shame that Sutton couldn't get a goal just to say they got one.

[ISiddiqui]

Wayne Shaw eating a pie on the bench in the 2nd half is arguably the greatest moment in FA Cup history.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[CrescentMoonie]

Yeah, that's as good a highlight as you'll get in a contest like this one. I want him transferred to Lincoln City until they're out of it just so he can sit on the bench and eat.

[sovereignstar v2]

Next up for Arsenal: Lincoln City. After that, a ladies team perhaps?

[Butter]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Wayne Shaw eating a pie on the bench in the 2nd half is arguably the greatest moment in FA Cup history.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Apparently there are photos of him at the club bar at halftime.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Wayne Shaw eating a pie on the bench in the 2nd half is arguably the greatest moment in FA Cup history.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

{Sarcasm on} Dammit, I was hoping to come here to see people losing their minds about him not taking the game serious enough, how he would never be anything than a backup for a lowly club and how his actions were disrespectful to the sport and the history of the Cup. I am disappointed by the lack of moral outrage. {Sarcasm off}

[ISiddiqui]

Speaking of moral outrage, what about Arsenal having to play on a turf field for a 5th Round FA Cup match?!

[CrescentMoonie]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Speaking of moral outrage, what about Arsenal having to play on a turf field for a 5th Round FA Cup match?!

There are photos of Shaw vacuuming it before the match, so it was all good.

Yep, here's photos of him eating, taking pics in the pub at halftime, and vacuuming before the game.

Apparently he was a Southampton youth league teammate of Alan Shearer. This story keeps getting better. I think I'll have to take over Sutton in an FM game at least once.

[kingfc22]

Looks like the story has turned...

Sutton United v Arsenal: Wayne Shaw resigns amid pie-eating scandal | ProSoccerTalk

[Butter]

Figures it has something to do with gambling.

[ISiddiqui]

Unless he made money off it... c'mon!

I mean if he knew of the bet than whether he ate the pie or not influences the money.

[MIJB#19]

The Man. City - AC Monaco reporter here just said: "What a crazy shit match is this". Although translated from Dutch to English, He actually used the words "crazy shit". Rightfully so.

[sovereignstar v2]

Booooooooooooooooo

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

{Sarcasm on} Dammit, I was hoping to come here to see people losing their minds about him not taking the game serious enough, how he would never be anything than a backup for a lowly club and how his actions were disrespectful to the sport and the history of the Cup. I am disappointed by the lack of moral outrage. {Sarcasm off}

My faith has been restored!

[ISiddiqui]

Whoa... rumors are circulating that Ranieri has been sacked by Leicester!

[AlexB]

Sacking is harsh, I would have tried to find him some upstairs job for as long as he wanted it, but there needed to be a change - players haven't been responding to or playing for him this year.

[sovereignstar v2]

Hope they drop.

[bhlloy]

Wow, we agree on something football related. This is really disgraceful, what is a new manager going to do after the transfer window is closed anyway?

[Critch]

The one recent story that made you think modern football might not be shit after all, and they go and put a twist on it to remind you that modern football is indeed shit.

I hope they go down too.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

Hope they drop.

We would have done if he stayed, he just hasn't been able to get any life into the players all season, particularly the last four months

The tactical setups have been appalling at times, most of the signings he has made have been poor with the exception of Ndidi, Amartey and possibly Gray, inconsistent team selections and substitutions, performances have been poor and results even worse.

Look at his resume over the last few jobs: this is the same - great first season, poor second season where he gets the sack. But the clubs he wors for are generally better off when he leaves than when he started, which is also true here.

As I said, I would have tried to make it look like it was his decision to move upstairs, become an ambassador, whatever, but he couldn't continue as manager if we wanted to stay up. May go down regardless, but we were guaranteed to go down with him.

[AlexB]

Dola, and no, wasn't expecting to repeat last year, or even close. And yes, Pearson was given time when in a much worse league position...

But we were playing really well despite not winning two years ago, teams like Liverpool and Arsenal said after we lost and drew respectively that we were one of the best teams they had played all season... This year we have been atrocious, there are no signs of life, no feeling that the results will soon turn to match the performances - the results are entirely reflective of the performances, and that is the problem.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by AlexB

We would have done if he stayed, he just hasn't been able to get any life into the players all season, particularly the last four months

The tactical setups have been appalling at times, most of the signings he has made have been poor with the exception of Ndidi, Amartey and possibly Gray, inconsistent team selections and substitutions, performances have been poor and results even worse.

Look at his resume over the last few jobs: this is the same - great first season, poor second season where he gets the sack. But the clubs he wors for are generally better off when he leaves than when he started, which is also true here.

As I said, I would have tried to make it look like it was his decision to move upstairs, become an ambassador, whatever, but he couldn't continue as manager if we wanted to stay up. May go down regardless, but we were guaranteed to go down with him.

I respect that you probably know a lot more than I do as a supporter of the club, but man. I hate seeing posts similar to this that don't lay any responsibility at the feet of the players. I don't even mind the firing. I get it. You can't fire all the players so the manager has to go. All that makes sense.

The few times that I saw Leicester this year, I am sure many of those things you mentioned were evident. The one thing that stood out more than anything to me was the lack of accountability on the pitch by any of the players.

It's funny the last two managers to win the EPL title were fired the following season. I would hope the blame for the lackluster performance that led to the firing of Claudio would be spread out at least as evenly as the blame was when Jose got the ax last year. Both were let down by their players as much as their own personal flaws. Maybe the supporters will chant for Claudio's name this weekend.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

I respect that you probably know a lot more than I do as a supporter of the club, but man. I hate seeing posts similar to this that don't lay any responsibility at the feet of the players. I don't even mind the firing. I get it. You can't fire all the players so the manager has to go. All that makes sense.

The few times that I saw Leicester this year, I am sure many of those things you mentioned were evident. The one thing that stood out more than anything to me was the lack of accountability on the pitch by any of the players.

It's funny the last two managers to win the EPL title were fired the following season. I would hope the blame for the lackluster performance that led to the firing of Claudio would be spread out at least as evenly as the blame was when Jose got the ax last year. Both were let down by their players as much as their own personal flaws. Maybe the supporters will chant for Claudio's name this weekend.

The team is exhausted. They're playing more games this year, many of them played every game last year -- some of them every minute. They don't have the depth to play this many games and maintain quality. I'll be shocked if they don't get relegated.

[CrescentMoonie]

Pretty easy to root against Leicester for such a gutless move. Hopefully they go down and stay down for a while.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

I respect that you probably know a lot more than I do as a supporter of the club, but man. I hate seeing posts similar to this that don't lay any responsibility at the feet of the players. I don't even mind the firing. I get it. You can't fire all the players so the manager has to go. All that makes sense.

The few times that I saw Leicester this year, I am sure many of those things you mentioned were evident. The one thing that stood out more than anything to me was the lack of accountability on the pitch by any of the players.

It's funny the last two managers to win the EPL title were fired the following season. I would hope the blame for the lackluster performance that led to the firing of Claudio would be spread out at least as evenly as the blame was when Jose got the ax last year. Both were let down by their players as much as their own personal flaws. Maybe the supporters will chant for Claudio's name this weekend.

It's a bit of a misconception that the players aren't trying, with the possible exception of Mahrez. Vardy isn't having as good a season, but although the eye test does suggest he's not working as hard, his stats show that he is covering the same amount of ground, sprinting more, his shot conversion rate is better than last year - the issue is he isn't getting good service. Drinkwater has been poor this year, Albrighton puts in a shift every game but quality is poor, and Fuchs has dropped off a cliff, but again works hard.

All of others, and I'd include Drinkwater in this, are suffering because of the strange decision to defend higher up the pitch - I get the reason to a certain extent: no Kante means that we don't win the ball as often or as high up the pitch, and the quick breaks from deep are less likely to happen, so the plan was to squeeze the game to allow others to try and nick the ball. However, all it has done is expose our defence for a lack of pace, and reduce the space for Vardy to run into, and means Mahrez is even more closely marked than he would have been anyway given last year.

That isn't the players, that's the manager.

Originally Posted by rowech

The team is exhausted. They're playing more games this year, many of them played every game last year -- some of them every minute. They don't have the depth to play this many games and maintain quality. I'll be shocked if they don't get relegated.

Ranieiri has made loads of changes this year, that's half the problem - the quality of his signings has been generally poor which is the reason for the lack of depth, and the lack of signings of a decent centre half is criminal, particularly given the tactics that mean we need quick defenders to cover the ball behind given we're defending higher, and that is something Morgan and particularly Huth lack.

I agree, shocked if we don't get relegated, and I'm sure we would have been with no changes at all. The dressing room needs a different voice, as the players clearly aren't responding to Ranieri, or Ranieri isn't able to motivtate the players, (tomato/tomato - that works better out loud!) and maybe the change in voice, changes in setup will make a difference. That's clearly the hope.

My guess is that Claudio had said wait until the Seville match and you'll see the real Leicester, and although the result was good the performance apparently was similar for the first 60 minutes and we could have got spanked 4/5 (was working Wednesday evening so haven't seen the game) and that was why the timing seemed strange.

I honestly don't get the reaction - yes, what the team did last year was amazing, and he kept the ball rolling amazingly well, but it was last year. Is it any surpris a team 1 point above the relegation zone, playing awful, haven't scored in 6 PL games, have won 5 PL matches all year and showing no signs of any improvement, change the manager?

Loyalty? There is none in football in any direction, stay loyal to a man who took over the form team in the PL and rode it out into something spectacular, and then ride it to relegation? How does that help anyone?

This article sums up this aspect pretty well
https://www.balls.ie/football/opinio...-unfair-359772

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by rowech

The team is exhausted. They're playing more games this year, many of them played every game last year -- some of them every minute. They don't have the depth to play this many games and maintain quality. I'll be shocked if they don't get relegated.

And also Chelsea, who isn't playing in Europe, looks far more refreshed than the other teams in the race. That is a big issue (the exhaustion that results from playing so many additional games if you qualify for Europe), but I'm not entirely sure there is a cure for that.

[CrescentMoonie]

I'm not sure what's worse, Bayern with the 8-0 on Hamburg or Diego Costa not having his career ended as a public service.

[sovereignstar v2]

How David Luiz gets away with throwing elbows all the time I will never understand.

[MIJB#19]

I was lucky to be at Feyenoord - PSV today and witnessed what happens when the goal line technology does it's job: a full stadium 'oohs' about a ball that didn't appear to go into the goal. Two seconds later, the referee raised his arm, signaling goal. A collective silent 'huh' for about a second or two was quickly followed by an outburst of enjoyment.
Three hours later, a game summary is on tv and just now I've been able to see what happened.

[SirFozzie]

Looks like after next season, you'll be finding the Champions league and Europa League on TBS and TNT (at least the main games, they may sublet some of the games to another network

Turner Sports and Univision acquire UEFA Champions League TV rights in USA - World Soccer Talk

[ISiddiqui]

Woot! MLS is back!! The first game of the season is tonight as Minnesota United, in it's first ever game, travels to Portland. I'm really excited for Atlanta United's first game this Sunday, where a sold out Bobby Dodd Stadium is going to be welcoming the New York Red Bulls.

[Neuqua]

You going to the game?

Fire had a great preseason and I'm hoping they can use that as momentum to just simply improve from last year's abysmal season. They're not going to win anything but just seeing progress will satisfy a lot of the diehards.

[ISiddiqui]

Yep, I'll be there. I got season tickets - home side, 22 rows back at the 18 (for the 8 games at Bobby Dodd its more like at the 10, but close enough).

The Fire really retooled this offseason. Nikolic, McCarthy, Juninho, and Leaux (sp?) are going to be fun to watch.

[ISiddiqui]

So even though we lost in the end (too soon!), it was a fantastic experience watching Atlanta United's first game! Bobby Dodd was seriously LOUD with 55,000+ fans and no one sat down the entire game! I don't think I've ever seen that - usually just the supporters section is standing the entire game, but the entire stadium didn't sit down. Insane! The team looks like it's going to be good too. Just need to work on that fitness and when Garza comes it'll be better at the back. (Oh, also, can we NOT do the "Puto" chant, but I guess when you do massive outreach to the Hispanic folk in Atlanta, that's going to be something we have to address).

[Neuqua]

So pretty cool moment for me this weekend. I and other Newcastle supporters, @ToonArmyChicago, meet for matches on the weekends. This weekend we had former Toon Player Ryan Taylor stop by and watch the match against Huddersfield with us.

[Easy Mac]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

So even though we lost in the end (too soon!), it was a fantastic experience watching Atlanta United's first game! Bobby Dodd was seriously LOUD with 55,000+ fans and no one sat down the entire game! I don't think I've ever seen that - usually just the supporters section is standing the entire game, but the entire stadium didn't sit down. Insane! The team looks like it's going to be good too. Just need to work on that fitness and when Garza comes it'll be better at the back. (Oh, also, can we NOT do the "Puto" chant, but I guess when you do massive outreach to the Hispanic folk in Atlanta, that's going to be something we have to address).

I think Garza played. The backline was fine. There was good interplay with the forwards and attacking midfield. Not much in the way of width for the team, nor an option in the middle of the park. It was pretty much knock it forward to have someone run on it. A little better finishing and it could have been a different result.

They definitely need to get a new right back. I'd say 4/5 of the attack was either straight down the middle or down the right, and Mears was not the answer over there. It's where their attacks went to die. Garza did solid overlapping, but they didn't attack that side nearly enough.

They reminded me a bit of Leicester last year, with their quick counters.

[ISiddiqui]

Ooops, sorry, meant Guzan. Their names are too similar .

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

So pretty cool moment for me this weekend. I and other Newcastle supporters, @ToonArmyChicago, meet for matches on the weekends. This weekend we had former Toon Player Ryan Taylor stop by and watch the match against Huddersfield with us.

How many matches are you able to watch when they are in the Championship?

[Neuqua]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

How many matches are you able to watch when they are in the Championship?

Most of the games still can be streamed on BeIN so the group will still get together at the pub and watch the lower quality feed.

Hoping next year won't be an issue though.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

So pretty cool moment for me this weekend. I and other Newcastle supporters, @ToonArmyChicago, meet for matches on the weekends. This weekend we had former Toon Player Ryan Taylor stop by and watch the match against Huddersfield with us.

What bar is that if you don't mind me asking? Looks familiar.

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

What bar is that if you don't mind me asking? Looks familiar.

Check the wall on the left.

[Neuqua]

Yeah, AJ Hudsons.

[RainMaker]

Cool. I'm about a mile away from there. There use to be a place called Small Bar that was packed with soccer fans right by me that closed down a couple years ago.

[Neuqua]

There's some selection of soccer bars in the area. We used to frequent the Globe on Saturday mornings but their ownership wasn't nearly as friendly as Hudsons so we moved.

[CrescentMoonie]

PSG

[cartman]

Holy shit Barca