Soccer Thread 2015-16

[whomario]

Meanwhile, Real with a pathetic effort while Wolfsburg caught lightning in a bottle.

Tonight Dortmund-Liverpool and i am giddy

[flere-imsaho]

OK, I was wrong in the other thread, sovereignstar.

[flere-imsaho]

Sack watch on Zidane, then?

[whomario]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

Sack watch on Zidane, then?

I doubt it. I have not seen a ton of game (maybe 4 both before and after the switch) of Real, but he clearly has instilled some improvements tactically and has just beaten Barcelona. He´s likely not a coaching genius yet, but has shown a willingness to do his legwork in terms of learning the game from that side by auditing elsewhere, assistant coaching and coaching the b-team (which he all did not have to, really) and has the big-name bonus (both with his players and ownership).

At the very least, he´ll get an offseason to shape the squad imo.

[Easy Mac]

So Leicester. We're either getting the most improbable title winners in sports history, or the most improbable title collapse in sports history.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

So Leicester. We're either getting the most improbable title winners in sports history, or the most improbable title collapse in sports history.

Not really if they lose, they'll be who we thought they were. And besides, if they choke it means a Tottenham title which if not for the Leicester City story would be just as ridiculous because Spurs always find a way to choke away a title in the few chances they've had.

Plus with the win today, they're 10 points clear with a declining few games. They'd basically have to stop showing up for matches at this point. Ties would get them over the finish line, even.

[The Jackal]

Was this game really delayed because United was stuck in traffic? That's pretty amusing.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by The Jackal

Was this game really delayed because United was stuck in traffic? That's pretty amusing.

Or maybe the bus driver was merely instructed by Van Gaal to drive extremely defensive.

Leicester still 7 points up, insane !


Bayern all but wrapped up the title with Dortmund only drawing at Schalke, putting Bayern up 7 points. Not that there was ever a chance of Bayern loosing 2 games anyway, but still. Dortmund basically played a complete reserve squad (only Hummels/Sokratis in, the former subbed at the half) in preperation for the Liverpool match.

Kagawa scored one of the more stunningly executed goals i have seen this year, an 18 yard chip with the GK only being like 5 yards of the line:




fine game by Pulisic as well, until he kinda ran out of steam in the 2nd half.

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

So Leicester. We're either getting the most improbable title winners in sports history, or the most improbable title collapse in sports history.

Newcastle's implosion under Keegan will still be much, much worse.

Originally Posted by whomario

Or maybe the bus driver was merely instructed by Van Gaal to drive extremely defensive.

[The Jackal]

I will say, Fosu-Mensah getting hurt was the turning point in that match in my eyes. Yes, Spurs deserved the win on the balance of play but they just destroyed the left after he had to leave the pitch.

[The Jackal]

Originally Posted by whomario

Or maybe the bus driver was merely instructed by Van Gaal to drive extremely defensive.

[Easy Mac]

So de Jong again tries ending someone's career. I'm glad he's in the same league as so many USMNT players.

Armchair Analyst: A horror tackle casts a pall over MLS Week 6 | MLSsoccer.com

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

So de Jong again tries ending someone's career. I'm glad he's in the same league as so many USMNT players.

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

There's a perverse symmetry with LA announcing the signing of Nigel de Jong the same day Stuart Holden retirees. Hopefully someone can sign him to a one game contact for a game against the Galaxy so he can end de Jong's career.

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

Get a fucking grip.

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

De Jong is widely accepted as one of the most violent players in European football (at least at the top league levels). I don't understand how anyone can take issue with this.

Resolution quicker than I anticipated, tbh.

[flere-imsaho]

Oof: Darlington Nagbe cut down. Nigel de Jong gets yellow? - YouTube

I suppose if you want to be charitable you could say it was just an incredibly clumsy attempt to get possession, but given his history and the way he follows through on Nagbe's ankle, I'm not willing to be that charitable.

Still not as bad as Bosvelt on Irwin, though.

[ISiddiqui]

It appears that Leicester cheated the Championship's FFP rules:

Leicester City and the strange finances behind their rise to the Premier League pinnacle | Football | The Guardian

Basically in response to rules put in place in the Championship to reduce debt held by clubs, Leicester, which was being sponsored by King Power, decided to use a "third party" to sell sponsorship rights which was won by... King Power! For 10mil pounds more than their original deal. Now, why is this important? Because under the Championship FFP rules, owners paying more than market value to clubs for sponsorships wouldn't be counted in calculating how much debt they had. But if a third party found a sponsor... that was seen as 'market value'.

Though, the Premier League has NO FFP rules, and therefore Leicester appear to escape sanction. And to avoid UEFA Champions League FFP rules, they can merely sell the sponsorship rights for real this time - and as Champions of the league, their fair market value is likely going to be much higher.

Of course, this is more an indictment of FFP, IMO, than Leicester, even though they did break the rules while in the Championship.

[AlexB]

It's an old and ongoing story: it does sound a bit (OK, more than a bit) fishy, but it's not news. Or completed: the Football League haven't ruled one way or the other. A quick search fround this from 18 months ago
http://www.90min.com/posts/1630904-l...-over-spending

What will likely happen is that if/when we eventually get relegated, and assuming that as would appear to be the case something has happened, there will be some sort of settlement, because nothing matters until then - the EPL is a separate structure to the Football League, and much like QPR last year, it's only when we in effect have to reapply that the Football League have any leverage at all.

[ISiddiqui]

Yeah, likely the Football League will have to wait for its payout, but I feel that stories like this show how silly the FFP is. If an owner is wealthy and wants to benefit their club, I feel that they should be able to do so. I understand the fear of what happened with Leeds, but in that case, crack down on debt itself - for instance, require the owner to put up the money before they spend it, rather than put the club in debt.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

Oof: Darlington Nagbe cut down. Nigel de Jong gets yellow? - YouTube

I suppose if you want to be charitable you could say it was just an incredibly clumsy attempt to get possession, but given his history and the way he follows through on Nagbe's ankle, I'm not willing to be that charitable.

Still not as bad as Bosvelt on Irwin, though.

Any ref who doesn't give a red for that tackle deserves to be immediately struck off. Intent or not, that's a career ender and Nagbe is lucky if he's only out a few months

[sovereignstar v2]

Thank you Jose.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

Sack watch on Zidane, then?

Not anymore at any rate . Christiano Ronaldo may have saved his job.

[Alf]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

Sack watch on Zidane, then?

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Not anymore at any rate . Christiano Ronaldo may have saved his job.

Zidane is also a beloved iconic former Real player. He also is very close to Florentino Perez. However, Ronaldo did a good job for Zidane yesterday, that's for sure !

[whomario]

Atletico with the upset ! Suddenly this looks wide open, especially with Bayern "struggling" recently (for their standards at least).

Not sure what games i´m rooting for, maybe City-Atletico and Bayern-Real would be neat.

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

OK, I was wrong in the other thread, sovereignstar.

Make that wrongX2.

[Alf]

Rooting for Atletico here. They play as a team and have a great great coach.

[MIJB#19]

That Liverpool - Dortmund game...

[cougarfreak]

Liverpool!


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[ISiddiqui]

MLS talks expansion to 28 (well, within the next 10 years - Sacramento coming much earlier than that, of course) or so.

Garber: Sacramento leads field for MLS expansion to 28 | Soccer By Ives

Speaking in downtown Sacramento, Garber explained his vision for expansion to a large crowd of Sacramento Republic FC supporters, and even Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. Republic FC could be officially announced as the next expansion team within the next year, according to the Sacramento Bee. Garber also revealed cities in the running for the remaining three spots, including San Diego, Detroit, St. Louis, San Antonio and Austin.

MLS currently has 20 teams, but Atlanta United FC, Los Angeles FC, Minnesota United FC and a David Beckham-backed team in Miami are all set to begin play in the coming years.

I think a number of people wanted Sacramento to come in before Miami (Beckham United) because of the issues Miami had with getting stadium rights, so Sacramento being ushered is definitely a good thing.

San Antonio is fairly well placed as well, with the Scorpions (NASL) getting bought by the Spurs and turned into San Antonio FC (USL), and a new planned stadium being revealed.

That leaves: San Diego, Detroit, St. Louis, and Austin in the running for the last two spots. I heard St. Louis a LOT. MLS really wants to make that happen but they don't seem to have an ownership group in place. Austin would create too many Texas teams, IMO - and San Antonio really isn't that far away. If you add Sacramento you'd also have 3 California teams. So maybe Detroit may be a good possibility. Though I wonder why Indianapolis is not in the running... the Indy 11 have a decent ownership group and local support.

[miami_fan]

That was a harsh decision IMO against Vardy. I thought there was enough contact to a simple no call.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

That was a harsh decision IMO against Vardy. I thought there was enough contact to a simple no call.

On replays, I would agree. Live speed I would issue a card every time. It looked like a ridiculous dive.

[AlexB]

Not sure. Think a yellow was fair enough tbh. The problem was the first yellow was nowhere near a booking. Dumb of Vardy to go over like that when already booked for me.

[miami_fan]

Absolutely brutal!

[miami_fan]

I was just typing up a post saying the BPL has to figure out what sort of play they want to have in the penalty box. If it is a physical contact sport that hard men play, fine. But you can't have those three calls in the box, and be consistent.

[AlexB]

Individually I don't thnk you can say any of the refs decisions were wrong, but if there was a 50:50 aspect to the call every one went against us today. IMO it was a dive and it was a penalty, but equally Huth should have had a penalty and Payet dived.

And as I type he evens it up with a soft penalty call. Not John Moss's best day.

[miami_fan]

Unbelievable!

[rowech]

Official made a mess of the second half in pretty much every way.

[rowech]

In the end, the result is probably what it should have been.

[kingfc22]

When will Arsenal learn that possession DOES NOT equal wins, but rather goals do.

And now we're going to have to scuffle for a CL spot the rest of the way.

[bhlloy]

At the risk of setting off this particular firestorm once again, when they get a manager who realizes that Giroud might be French and one of his favorites but isn't good enough to get you the goals to win a title, and actually spends some money on someone who can

[MrBug708]

That should keep Palace another season in the PL

[I. J. Reilly]

So if Liverpool win Europa, and City finish fourth but win the Champions League will the third place team be stuck with Europa League next year?

As a Spurs fan you learn to prepare yourself for this type of thing.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

That should keep Palace another season in the PL

Yea. The win against Norwich last week should have all but sealed it.

[Easy Mac]

Orlando City drew a penalty 14 seconds into their game against New England.

[whomario]

Pulisic scored his first goal today for Dormund. Still bummed from Thursday, so no glowing description ...

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Yea. The win against Norwich last week should have all but sealed it.

Yup. Wasn't secure but likely. Today probably locks us in. Hopefully we spend money

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by I. J. Reilly

So if Liverpool win Europa, and City finish fourth but win the Champions League will the third place team be stuck with Europa League next year?

As a Spurs fan you learn to prepare yourself for this type of thing.

Don't think so, pretty sure Juve losing early ensured at least 4 spots for the EPL and if Liverpool win the Europa they would get the +1 to make it 5. At least that's what the BBC was saying during the game on Thursday

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Don't think so, pretty sure Juve losing early ensured at least 4 spots for the EPL and if Liverpool win the Europa they would get the +1 to make it 5. At least that's what the BBC was saying during the game on Thursday

Only way fourth doesn't get in the CL is if:

• Liverpool win the Europa League
• and Man City win the CL
• and both finish outside the top 4

As a Leicester fan all the talk of us being guaranteed CL football next year is still a little premature. I think us and Spurs have the same fear of collapse...

[bhlloy]

If Leicester or Spurs finish outside of the top 4 it's pretty much guaranteed that City would be in the top 4 though right? Is it even mathematically possible for it to go another way?

Edit - never mind, I see what you are saying. For example

Spurs
Arsenal
United
Leicester
City - winning the Champions League
Liverpool - winning the Europa League

Would mean Leicester miss out. Possible, but got to be in the order of tens of a percent chance of all that happening. I think you guys are safe.

[Critch]

In the big game of the day, Rangers showed they were back from the depths and ready to dominate Scottish football again by beating Celtic in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup. 2-2 final scores with Rangers winning on penalties.

Rangers second goal, goal of the season contender:

Young Barry McKay, deemed not good enough for the Scotland team despite most of the Celtic team being regulars, including the bald carthorse McKay skips past before shooting. Maybe that's why Scotland are the only British Isles team to not qualify for the Euros.

[Easy Mac]

New England ties the game with a PK in the 96th minute on a phantom handball, after Orlando took the lead after the ref missed an obvious handball.

The New England and Orlando managers have to be separated by police after the game.

[MizzouCowboy]

Epic day of reffing today in the world of soccer.