Export thread

For @Bubble181

Soccer is stupid. You play for a half hour longer than most other sports and you're still lucky if you see one shot on goal, let alone a goal itself. The fact that soccer is the most popular sport in most countries that aren't america is undeniable proof that we're the greatest country this world has ever seen.

blotsfan said:

The fact that soccer is the most popular sport in most countries that aren't america is undeniable proof that we're the greatest country this world has ever seen.

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You could say the same sort of thing about bowling.

--Patrick

Bowling is only on tv when ESPN airs it as a sacrificial lamb against the NFL.

blotsfan said:

For @Bubble181

You play for a half hour longer

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"half an hour longer than most sports", except handegg, or baseball, right?

blotsfan said:

For @Bubble181
you're still lucky if you see one shot on goal, let alone a goal itself.

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I admit there aren't as many goals as, say, basketball, but if you don't see a single goal or shot on goal, you need to watch better teams.

blotsfan said:

undeniable proof that we're the greatest country this world has ever seen.

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Just like the Roman Empire and the German Reich, once upon a time.



I'm not particularly fond of soccer, to be honest; my preferred spectator sport is snooker. That said, hey, Belgium made it to the semi-finals in the U-17! Hurray for us!

Fighting should be allowed in soccer. Get rid of all that silly diving. Don't like a challenge, bust him up! And what's up with not being able to elbow people in the face who have the ball? Jesus, he's right in front of you, just bust his nose and take the damn ball already.

HCGLNS said:

Fighting should be allowed in soccer. Get rid of all that silly diving. Don't like a challenge, bust him up! And what's up with not being able to elbow people in the face who have the ball? Jesus, he's right in front of you, just bust his nose and take the damn ball already.

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You're allowed to, you're just not allowed to get caught by the ref, or the camera. Much like blood bowl. At least soccer players don't need to hide in some armor to look tough


(As far as team ball sports go, my favorite's probably rugby)

Bubble181 said:

"half an hour longer than most sports", except handegg, or baseball, right?

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Real football has 60 minutes of gameplay. And even if you want to throw out that "10 minutes" thing, a shitton happens in those 10 minutes. Unlike the 90 minutes of nothingness that is soccer.

Bubble181 said:

I admit there aren't as many goals as, say, basketball, but if you don't see a single goal or shot on goal, you need to watch better teams.

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8% of premier league games have no goals.The last 0-0 NFL game was in 1943. Last year there were 13 NHL games with no goals in regulation, 7 of which had a goal in overtime. You don't need to watch basketball to see scoring around here.

Bubble181 said:

Just like the Roman Empire and the German Reich, once upon a time.

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Godwin?

Bubble181 said:

I'm not particularly fond of soccer, to be honest; my preferred spectator sport is snooker. That said, hey, Belgium made it to the semi-finals in the U-17! Hurray for us!

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I have never heard of snooker. It looks kinda like pool, which is more entertaining than soccer though. So thats cool I suppose.

Anywhom back on topic. Soccer has been perfected in this hemisphere. They play it on ice and call it hockey.

Bubble181 said:

You're allowed to, you're just not allowed to get caught by the ref, or the camera. Much like blood bowl. At least soccer players don't need to hide in some armor to look tough


(As far as team ball sports go, my favorite's probably rugby)

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Football only has pads because it was under threat of being outlawed since too many people were dying.

blotsfan said:

Real football has 60 minutes of gameplay. And even if you want to throw out that "10 minutes" thing, a shitton happens in those 10 minutes. Unlike the 90 minutes of nothingness that is soccer.

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Handegg matches last for hours. And they seem to go for even longer.

blotsfan said:

8% of premier league games have no goals.The last 0-0 NFL game was in 1943. Last year there were 13 NHL games with no goals in regulation, 7 of which had a goal in overtime. You don't need to watch basketball to see scoring around here.

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Sure, and how many of those had zero shots on goal? It's not because they had to get rid of goalies for handegg because the fans are too wimpy, that other sports fans can't live with the excitement of almost scoring.

blotsfan said:

Godwin?

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Just pointing out other Greatest Nations on Earth, and how well they endured.

blotsfan said:

Football only has pads because it was under threat of being outlawed since too many pussies were watching.

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I prefer futsal, myself.

jwhouk said:

I prefer futsal, myself.

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Bit faster, bit shorter, bit more action; quite fun to watch. No big money in it, though, so not shown on tv very often

If we're talking niche sports that aren't aired much in america, I really enjoy watching darts. ESPN should get the rights to that. It cant be too expensive.

blotsfan said:

If we're talking niche sports that aren't aired much in america, I really enjoy watching darts. ESPN should get the rights to that. It cant be too expensive.

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ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTYYYY!

Bubble181 said:

ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTYYYY!

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Van Gerwen or Barny?

Ok, I know I'm probably going to come to regret this, but can someone explain soccer to me? All I understand about the sport is that only the goalie is supposed to touch the ball with their hands, there's a lot of running around, and even 0 - 0 draws seem to excite some of the most ravenous fans of the sport.

Is there a bigger jackass of a coach/manager in all of sports right now than Jose Mourinho? It's almost sad to see Chelsea fall flat on their faces week after week. And week after week, this guy responds like a child to the media.

Gared said:

Ok, I know I'm probably going to come to regret this, but can someone explain soccer to me? All I understand about the sport is that only the goalie is supposed to touch the ball with their hands, there's a lot of running around, and even 0 - 0 draws seem to excite some of the most ravenous fans of the sport.

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--Patrick

PatrThom said:

--Patrick

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Now imagine the entire NFL confined to the boundaries of New York State, with the entire NFC East playing in NYC. That's the scale of the Premiership. Now imagine other NFL-level leagues in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana. Those are the other major European leagues.

Niche sports. The Women's Roller Derby (WFTDA) World Finals are going to be on ESPN 3 this weekend! Way more interesting than soccer.

I'm not sure there's a sport where so many fans feel the need to remind everyone how much they don't like it than soccer.

DarkAudit said:

Is there a bigger jackass of a coach/manager in all of sports right now than Jose Mourinho? It's almost sad to see Chelsea fall flat on their faces week after week. And week after week, this guy responds like a child to the media.

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There's a theory that he initially acted up in interviews to take the focus off his players, so that they wouldn't feel too much pressure from media scrutiny, and would be given space to improve. Then they didn't improve, so Jose doubled down on his media antics, to the point where he's basically just clowning around now.

Chelsea's meltdown this season is weird though. It's almost as if Eva Carneiro was the only thing holding the team together, and with her gone the players don't feel like playing any more.

Soccer a game so slow moving that 1 person can keep an eye on and officiate 22 players, for ~90 minutes give or take their mood. Stoppage time is the dumbest and most pointless thing in a world where stopwatches exist.

Soccer uses as many officials as hockey.

And as far as the length of the games go, a soccer match has 50% more game time, but takes an hour less to actually play than a football game. That is a point for soccer ( . . . which is as many points as ever get scored in soccer)

One reason why I prefer futsal (and its North American variant, Indoor Soccer) is because the smaller field of play makes for higher scoring games - and the refs can catch much more in the way of infractions.

My biggest beef with soccer is the offside rule. Maybe it's because I learned the offside rule in hockey first, but I still can't figure out if a play is onside or offside, just by looking at it.

jwhouk said:

One reason why I prefer futsal (and its North American variant, Indoor Soccer) is because the smaller field of play makes for higher scoring games - and the refs can catch much more in the way of infractions.

My biggest beef with soccer is the offside rule. Maybe it's because I learned the offside rule in hockey first, but I still can't figure out if a play is onside or offside, just by looking at it.

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It's easy. When the ball is played downfield, the defending players all run upfield and raise their hands.

Come on, the offside rule is quite simple... Seeing whether a player is offside, though, is really hard for people who don't watch a lot of football (like me*), actual fans (i.e. 80% of the men in Europe) are brilliant at it. That's mostly because attacking players always go to the limit of the offside.

Re: the overall stuff... Soccer has some absurdities, yeah, but come oon, Handegg is way worse. I think the fact that you prefer a game where nothing is happening half of the time to one that is moving constantly just because of the number of times the teams score must say something about the culture of the US. I don't know what, but it's probably something bad

BTW, Covar: Soccer uses 3-4 refs. Also, unlike in other sports the main ref is right there in the middle of the action most of the time so duh, of couse he sees more or less everything. And added time seems a bit silly to me too, but it's not completely arbitrary, it has some rules (tv commenters usually predict how much it will approximately be).

Something that is really stupid is that they don't introduce instant replay, in a sport where a small mistake by the ref can completely overturn the game.

*I really am not a soccer fan, but my local team is one of the best in the world, so I end up watching at least a couple games a year.

tegid said:

my local team is one of the best in the world, so I end up watching at least a couple games a year.

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Barcelona, Real, Atletico, Sevilla? They're all good and I don't really have a preference, just wondering where in Spain you are

Hey, speaking of soccer, apparently the Belgians are the best in the world right now.

Bubble181 said:

Barcelona, Real, Atletico, Sevilla? They're all good and I don't really have a preference, just wondering where in Spain you are

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Barcelona

bhamv3 said:

Hey, speaking of soccer, apparently the Belgians are the best in the world right now.

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Technically, yes. And we're in the top 4 for under 17, too. Neither really means much, though, I wouldn't call us the best team in Europe, let alone the world. Even though a lot of people here seem to really think we "ought" to win the European Championship. High expectations, not entirely founded on reason. Though we do have a pretty good team right now, and I'd think we'd be able to make it to quarter or semi finals, possibly even the final, dependent on the draw.

tegid said:

Barcelona

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Excellent. You had a spare room to let for free, right?

Bubble181 said:

Technically, yes. And we're in the top 4 for under 17, too. Neither really means much, though, I wouldn't call us the best team in Europe, let alone the world. Even though a lot of people here seem to really think we "ought" to win the European Championship. High expectations, not entirely founded on reason. Though we do have a pretty good team right now, and I'd think we'd be able to make it to quarter or semi finals, possibly even the final, dependent on the draw.

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Bit ridiculous how many good players are in the current generation of Belgians though. You guys have a population of, what, 11 million? That's less than Tehran. And yet you could probably put out a first 11 that would probably win three quarters of the domestic leagues in Europe.

Although Eden Hazard is misfiring a bit these days...

bhamv3 said:

Bit ridiculous how many good players are in the current generation of Belgians though. You guys have a population of, what, 11 million? That's less than Tehran. And yet you could probably put out a first 11 that would probably win three quarters of the domestic leagues in Europe.

Although Eden Hazard is misfiring a bit these days...

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I could make the - sadly often heard around here - remark that this is "one of the few good things about our ridiculous amount of immigration", but considering half of them are more-than-three-generations-Belgian, I always think that's ridiculous. The sad part is that our players are indeed ridiculously talented at the moment ,but our coach just can't get them to play the way they can and should. Pretty much all of them perform way better in their respective teams than on the national team.

Bubble181 said:

Excellent. You had a spare room to let for free, right?

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Actually... I don't anymore but I will, in a couple months What's more, my mom and my brother have seats at Camp Nou (...but it's hard to get them to lend them)

tegid said:

What's more, my mom and my brother have seats at Camp Nou (...but it's hard to get them to lend them)

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They're just waiting for the right (read: large) bribe.

Oh, I definitely prefer a game where the players are constantly in motion. But that game actually has an offside rule that you can understand...

jwhouk said:

Oh, I definitely prefer a game where the players are constantly in motion. But that game actually has an offside rule that you can understand...

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"When the pass leaves the passing player's feet, the receiving player can't be behind the second-to-last defender, including the goal keeper". It's a bloody easy rule. Calling it correctly is often difficult - and the reason there are always at least 2 more refs (or 4), and the reason instant replay needs to be a thing. But the rule itself is easy as pie.

DarkAudit said:

They're just waiting for the right (read: large) bribe.

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Well sure, that's the easy way!

Bubble181 said:

. . . instant replay needs to be a thing . . .

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Nonsense. It's a bloody waste of time. If you think you lose a game on a couple bad calls, you should've been playing better. Besides, there were several bad calls in last week's Panthers/Colts football game that let the Colts come back to tie the game - and instant replay is in football in full force. It'll just drag soccer down.

It also needs to stop being a thing in baseball.

Gruebeard said:

Nonsense. It's a bloody waste of time. If you think you lose a game on a couple bad calls, you should've been playing better. Besides, there were several bad calls in last week's Panthers/Colts football game that let the Colts come back to tie the game - and instant replay is in football in full force. It'll just drag soccer down.

It also needs to stop being a thing in baseball.

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There's a difference, though. I've seen matches won on one bad call; especially off side, but also about whether or not it was a goal, or whether or not a tackle was inside the penalty zone. Some form of replay on demand, similar to tennis for example, could help for the worst cases.

Bubble181 said:

"When the pass leaves the passing player's feet, the receiving player can't be behind the second-to-last defender, including the goal keeper". It's a bloody easy rule. Calling it correctly is often difficult - and the reason there are always at least 2 more refs (or 4), and the reason instant replay needs to be a thing. But the rule itself is easy as pie.

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Case in point, is Lionel Messi (number 10) offside in this play?

The fact that that "shouldn't" count is an indictment against soccer's rules.

I'd just like to note that the goal was given (ie, there was no offside on the play).

Yeah, but if it was called correctly it wouldn't have counted. When that looks like shitty defensive coverage more than messi doing something unfair.

blotsfan said:

Yeah, but if it was called correctly it wouldn't have counted. When that looks like shitty defensive coverage more than messi doing something unfair.

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It was called correctly. Ball was initially played to 7, who was onside. The defenders misinterpreted the rule and quit on the play.

Like a certain offside call in Colorado with the team in my avatar. Of course, that's why the NHL is now allowing coaches challenges for such plays.

So... Chelsea again.

Jose Mourinho's been sacked for his team playing crap all season. And then, perhaps not coincidentally, Manchester United leaked to the press that Louise van Gaal will have the next two games to show that he should still be the Man United manager. Manchester United's next two games are against Stoke... and Chelsea.

The rumor flying around is that van Gaal's going to get the sack no matter what happens in those next two games, because it's no secret that Mourinho's wanted the Manchester United job for a while now. However, he doesn't want to manage an opposing team against Chelsea right after his dismissal, for various reasons. Thus, he'll only take over after the Chelsea game is over.

Leicester City are PL Champions. Let me repeat that...Leicester City are PL Champions!

5000-1 outsiders at the start of the season, many people's pick to be relegated, with an entire squad costing what the big teams would spend on one player and they just won the whole thing for the first time in their 132 year history.

Wow.

Neat!

This has been a season of fairy tales. It started out with a racist Thai orgy and actually got even more unbelievable from there.

Racist Thai orgy? This needs to be explained. With pictures.

I'm not looking it up but I think it also involved underage girls.

Well then forget the pictures.[DOUBLEPOST=1462284773,1462284622][/DOUBLEPOST]NSFW link (a few close pictures of the guys - they don't show anything but close enough that it might get attention).

Does NOT mention under-aged girls.

It's possible I'm mixing it up with a different scandal. I just don't want to google "underage orgies" or anything like that.

I'd like to talk about St. Totteringham's Day.

Arsenal FC and Tottenham Hotspur are two football clubs located in north London. Their geographical proximity and a few incidents in their early history have led to an intense rivalry between the two teams and their fans, a rivalry that's existed since the First World War. Their respective fortunes have waxed and waned over the past century, but over the last two decades or so, Arsenal have generally been more successful than Tottenham. Before this season, Arsenal had finished above Tottenham in the league table for twenty consecutive seasons.

Arsenal's fans have invented a holiday called St. Totteringham's Day. St. Totteringham's Day marks the day when Arsenal are mathematically assured of finishing above Tottenham in the league. As a result, St. Totteringham's Day does not fall on any set date, instead it depends on the two teams' relative performances in the league. If Arsenal do well compared to Tottenham, then St. Totteringham's Day would come earlier. There has been a St. Totteringham's Day every year for the past two decades.

This season has been crazy for the Premier League. As already mentioned, Leicester City won the league, a fairy tale that started out with a racist Thai orgy and only got stranger from there. Leicester's success was helped, in part, by the underperformance of the other "big" teams in the Premier League, Arsenal included. Despite Arsenal managing to beat Leicester early on in the season, they fell behind in the League, and instead it was Tottenham that were Leicester's closest opponents in the race for the league title.

Leicester clinched the title last week, with two games to spare. Tottenham lost their second-to-last game in the season, while Arsenal, in third place, managed a draw. This meant that, going into the last game of the season, Tottenham were two points ahead of Arsenal in the table. (For anyone who doesn't know, in the Premier League, you get three points for a win, one for a draw, and zero for a loss) If they managed to win their last game of the season, then they would be assured of finishing ahead of Arsenal, and the twenty-year streak of St. Totteringham's Days would be broken. Tottenham's cause was helped by their last match being against Newcastle, one of the Premier League's bottom teams. Arsenal would be playing Aston Villa, the very bottom team in the league, but that shouldn't matter, because Tottenham, the second-placed team in the league, should have more than enough firepower to beat Newcastle.

The end result? Tottenham lost 5-1 against Newcastle, despite Newcastle having a man sent off. This, coupled with Arsenal's 4-0 win against Aston Villa, meant that St. Totteringham's Day took place again for the twenty first consecutive year.

All Tottenham had to do was win against one of the weakest teams in the league this year. Heck, even a draw might have been enough, depending on Arsenal's result. Instead, they choked in the chokiest way possible. Tottenham fans are weeping in despair. Arsenal fans are drunk with delight. This might be the most delicious St. Totteringham's Day ever, and I'm not even an Arsenal fan.

When Newcastle went up 4-1, this happened...

(this isn't from yesterday, but you can hear the song better on this video)

Speaking of soccer, Usa vs Ecuador tonight. I will never forgive you if Usa doesn't win.

Cog said:

Speaking of soccer, Usa vs Ecuador tonight. I will never forgive you if Usa doesn't win.

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We'll do our best.

Congratulations for your win.

Chile beat Argentina on penalties to win the Copa America.

And Lionel Messi just retired from the national team.

Hey @Bubble181!

So... Roberto Martinez, eh?

bhamv3 said:

Hey @Bubble181!

So... Roberto Martinez, eh?

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Yeah. Don't ask me why or how this is a good choice. There were candidates who'd, you know, proven they could actually win something. A trainer whose best effort was "not dropping down to second division in the Premier League", and is known for being gullible and naive in his tactics....That's just what we needed.
But hey, no more language issues, 'cause he speaks neither of our two main national languages! Hurray!

At least he'll probably know how to get the best out of Lukaku. And you guys might not win everything, but at least every game will be an exciting high-scoring event.

bhamv3 said:

At least he'll probably know how to get the best out of Lukaku. And you guys might not win everything, but at least every game will be an exciting high-scoring event.

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Well, that would be a good start. Our offense is great, our defense sucks monkey balls. A coach who plays offensively may be useful in that sense. Though it still won't help us against the likes of Italy and Wales who put up a decent defense.

Bubble181 said:

our defense sucks monkey balls.

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Perhaps they should be practicing soccer, instead?

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

Perhaps they should be practicing soccer, instead?

--Patrick

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Hey now, this is a time tested voodoo soccer improving ritual. Or so Friday our Team Magician claims.

Bubble181 said:

Hey now, this is a time tested voodoo soccer improving ritual. Or so Friday our Team Magician claims.

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Let me guess: Friday's a talking monkey.

Hope Solo thinks you're all cowards, anyways.

DarkAudit said:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-38152105

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This story really hit me. I really don't know why.

sixpackshaker said:

This story really hit me. I really don't know why.

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Such a disaster is in itself already very tragic, but I think the tragedy is amplified by how their fairy tale was cut short in such an unexpected and senseless way. Chapecoense are a tiny team, from a tiny town, and they were on their way to a continental cup final. They were the lovable underdogs of South American football, and now they're just... gone.

Just like that.

WTF just happened to Barcelona?

Something painful

3-1. To West Brom. West FUCKING Brom.

I thought Arsene Wenger's a better manager than this.

He either needs to retire or at the very least move to another club - see if a change of scenery revitalizes him. Personally I'd like to see him move into international management but he may have to wait until after the next World Cup for the right vacancy to open up. Regardless the only way he shuld still be with Arsenal next season is if they kick him upstairs for a Director of Football type job.

Footballer scores 2 goals, gets Man of the Match award. Then he goes & fucks it up when he thanks one person too many in his after match interview.

Well, he won't make that mistake again.

--Patrick

St Totteringhams Day cancelled. The annual celebration held by Arsenal fans every year when it becomes mathematically impossible for Tottenham to finish above them in the table was officially cancelled - for the first time since 1995 - after Arsenal's 2-0 defeat today leaves them 17 points behind Tottenham with only 15 points left to play for. And who beat Arsenal to officially cancel St Totteringhams Day? Tottenham. Their fans are delighted. Arsenal fans are distraught. And Arsene Wenger walked out of the post match interview after being asked if Tottenham are now the dominant North London team.

mroosc1979 said:

And Arsene Wenger walked out of the post match interview after being asked if Tottenham are now the dominant North London team.

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Sore loser, eh?

But, huh. Arsenal looks like they're gonna finish out of everything this year.

Do they get a good draft pick out of it?

jwhouk said:

Do they get a good draft pick out of it?

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Better than Buffalo. Or Buffalo.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

jwhouk said:

Do they get a good draft pick out of it?

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Nope, no draft picks - this is REAL football!

mroosc1979 said:

Nope, no draft picks - this is REAL football!

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Yeah! Here, the quality of the team is just determined by the sponsor's pockets!

I have a lot of respect for Arsene Wenger. It's no exaggeration to say he revolutionized the English game when he arrived at Arsenal in the mid 90s. His teams, especially the Invincibles of 03-04, could utterly dominate matches, and mixed silky-smooth skills with iron will and strength. The likes of Henry, Bergkamp, and Vieira will be remembered in footballing history as titans. What's more, Wenger had a knack for finding relatively unknown young talent, and developing them into world-class players.

But the rest of the league caught up. Arsenal's style of play was unique in the early 2000s, but by the turn of the decade most other teams were playing that way too. Plus, Arsenal weren't spending as much as the other rich teams in the league, which meant they weren't bringing in the best players, and had to bank on Wenger's ability to develop young talent. Sure, that worked fine a few years ago, but again, the rest of the league caught up. Arsene Wenger's ability to find and develop young players was no longer unique, other teams had great youth setups too, and were also churning out great young talent.

So now we come to Arsenal today. Their squad has few world-class players, because Arsenal have been out-bought and out-developed by other teams. Wenger's tactics and playstyle, seen as so innovative 15 years ago, are now commonplace and easily countered, and Wenger doesn't seem to have any tricks up his sleeve to fix the slump. The players appear demoralized and unmotivated, the fans are split about what should be done, and the team's owners seem content to have the club languish where they are now.

We are almost certainly seeing the end of Wenger's reign at Arsenal. Maybe this season will be his last, maybe next season, it's hard to be sure, but it's increasingly clear that he just doesn't have it any more. And that's hard for me to say, because I remember the awesome Arsenal of decades past, and I don't want him to go out on a low note like this.

Plus, I can't think of any managers who would be obviously better than Arsene Wenger and who would be willing to take over at Arsenal.

So what you're saying is that Arsene Wenger is the Bill Belichick of football?

Or would that be Bill Belichick is the Arsene Wenger of football?

Gruebeard said:

So what you're saying is that Arsene Wenger is the Bill Belichick of football?

Or would that be Bill Belichick is the Arsene Wenger of football?

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That would make more sense if the Pats had lost a few more big games lately, but they haven't.

DarkAudit said:

That would make more sense if the Pats had lost a few more big games lately, but they haven't.

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Harder to cheat in soccer.

Dave said:

Harder to cheat in soccer.

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Buh?

sixpackshaker said:

Buh?

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..."bull". Very good. Almost there.
Next week we'll work on pronouncing "Bhamv" and "mroosc".

Bubble181 said:

..."bull". Very good. Almost there.
Next week we'll work on pronouncing "Bhamv" and "mroosc".

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typing out shock and derision upon what he said would take too long.

sixpackshaker said:

typing out shock and derision upon what he said would take too long.

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Yeah, I have no clue what he meant or how I'm supposed to react to that, either.

sixpackshaker said:

Buh?

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Calling the patriots cheaters. Because the patriots are cheaters.

Dave said:

Calling the patriots cheaters. Because the patriots are cheaters.

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Soccer players cheat constantly. Their rules and refs seem almost as honest as the NBA, which is almost as honest as Pro Wrestling.

sixpackshaker said:

Soccer players cheat constantly. Their rules and refs seem almost as honest as the NBA, which is almost as honest as Pro Wrestling.

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I know. I've seen the Fallon d'Floor stuff. I was just trying to get a rise out of our Patriots fans. Or at least a "you're doing the thing again" rating.

Dave said:

I know. I've seen the Fallon d'Floor stuff. I was just trying to get a rise out of our Patriots fans. Or at least a "you're doing the thing again" rating.

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You wanna get a rise out of this Patriots fan, you need @Celt Z's help.

Gruebeard said:

You wanna get a rise out of this Patriots fan, you need @Celt Z's help.

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"Boooo, ah say, boooo, son."

Bubble181 said:

..."bull". Very good. Almost there.
Next week we'll work on pronouncing "Bhamv" and "mroosc".

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For the record it's pronounced mmmrrroosc not mister-oosc.

Yes I know it's a stupid name (even moreso when you know there's a typo in it) & I keep thinking about retiring this account & setting up a new one with a better name but I'm not sure I want to lose my ratings.

mroosc1979 said:

For the record it's pronounced mmmrrroosc not mister-oosc.

Yes I know it's a stupid name (even moreso when you know there's a typo in it) & I keep thinking about retiring this account & setting up a new one with a better name but I'm not sure I want to lose my ratings.

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Should be morose-k, right?

Bubble181 said:

Should be morose-k, right?

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That's pretty close yeah. Essentially I was signing up for another website years ago & it kept refusing to accept my prospective u/names because they were all already taken. In the end I got annoyed and used first initial, middle name, last initial, year of birth. Then I started using that name a few other places online (like here). The typo is that my middle name is Ross not Roos. So emm-ross-k is how I think of it being pronounced.

Gruebeard said:

You wanna get a rise out of this Patriots fan, you need @Celt Z's help.

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I just realized there's a double entendre in there I didn't intend.


Fucking Giants, is all I was trying to say.

mroosc1979 said:

For the record it's pronounced mmmrrroosc not mister-oosc.

Yes I know it's a stupid name (even moreso when you know there's a typo in it) & I keep thinking about retiring this account & setting up a new one with a better name but I'm not sure I want to lose my ratings.

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Ah, fuck it. Changed.

Sixpackshaker is pronounced Felicia.

mikerc said:

Ah, fuck it. Changed.

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Well, let's raise up your ratings!

sixpackshaker said:

Sixpackshaker is pronounced Felicia.

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Well obviously. Goes without saying that.

mikerc said:

Well obviously. Goes without saying that.

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You realize we can change your name in the system, right?

Dave said:

You realize we can change your name in the system, right?

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Err...yes? I mean yes. Of course I knew that. Why wouldn't I know that?

Now, you can not change your profile picture for at least 3 months. Or we'll never know who you are...

I'm taking back my ratings!

Gruebeard said:

I just realized there's a double entendre in there I didn't intend.


Fucking Giants, is all I was trying to say.

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So what's this about fucking Giants? Or can it just be Giants fans?

(Because we make the Patriots spend a lot of time on their backs, but they don't get what they want in the end. Oooooooooh!)

Celt Z said:

So what's this about fucking Giants? Or can it just be Giants fans?

(Because we make the Patriots spend a lot of time on their backs, but they don't get what they want in the end. Oooooooooh!)

Click to expand...

I'm open to anyone, even if they might be Giants fans.

(And that's fine. I don't want it in the end.)

I'll just leave this here...

lol

blotsfan said:

lol

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Are you referring to the US, the Netherlands, or England?

(Yes, I realize England qualified for the WC, but there's never a bad time to laugh at England)

The US. Its a bit disappointing I guess, but it'll be nice not to have to hear "IS SOCCER A MAJOR SPORT IN THE US NOW?!?!?!?!" a thousand times.

I feel a bit for Pulisic though. Might've been interesting to see what a young, hungry, and talented guy like him could've done at the World Cup.

And personally I think the Netherlands' situation is much funnier. "They won't win 8-0, what a stupid question." Cue Sweden winning 8-0.

Look, to be fair... Trinidad and Tobago? They used to be the "joke" team in FIFA games if you wanted to practice with oddball tactics or something and wanted to be sure you'd win despite fielding 10 goal keepers and one defender.
I mean, I know the USA isn't France or Germany, but if you can't beat T&T, sheesh.

I'm a bit sad the Belgians only got 4 goals yesterday - our fifth one was ruled off side though it wasn't (it was a close call, though, and in the situation I can't really blame the line man). If we'd made that fifth one we'd've had the world record for most goals in a qualifier round. Now...well, we still have it, but we have to share with Germany. Pfuih.

Sigh...

Goalie gets sent off after getting himself in a wee bit of bother during the match.

Referees to be able to abandon games at Russia 2018 due to discriminatory incidents.

Nice idea - but let's be honest based on the attitude of many Russian football fans if FIFA are serious about this the question isn't "will any matches get abandoned?" it's "will any matches NOT get abandoned?"

I am an England supporter.

Bubble is a Belgium supporter.

England and Belgium have been drawn in the same group for the World Cup group stage.

I predict a dour 0-0 draw, and then we both finish behind Panana and Tunisia.

That's a tough group. Looks like the US managed to avoid all the top teams.

bhamv3 said:

I am an England supporter.

Bubble is a Belgium supporter.

England and Belgium have been drawn in the same group for the World Cup group stage.

I predict a dour 0-0 draw, and then we both finish behind Panana and Tunisia.

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I'm going to predict a 1-0 Belgium win, but we draw against Panama while you win both other matches, giving us 7 points and you 6. We both go on, but you get knocked out in the second round and we in the quarter finals.[DOUBLEPOST=1512147326,1512147257][/DOUBLEPOST]

blotsfan said:

That's a tough group. Looks like the US managed to avoid all the top teams.

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Yup, I'm pretty sure the USA won't have any losses this WC.

For those interested:

Forget this World Cup shit.


Toronto's playing in the big Championship next Saturday!

Biggest game in soccer is being played right now!

Toronto's been pressing hard early.

Third rate World Champions. Woot.

Okay, now y'all can get back to that World Cup shit

Hey Nashville is getting a team!

For anyone curious, Theo Walcott transferred away from Arsenal today and moved to Everton. This means that, for the first time in about 10 years, that IT Crowd reference no longer works.

Well, the World Cup is just around the corner, so the quadrennial tradition of English self-deprecation about how badly they're going to do has started again. The "official" English World Cup song is called Three Lions, and it's actually quite a catchy song. But now someone's rewritten it to become Three Lions Cursed, and put it to a video of all the worst moments in English footballing history.



I'll tell you what, I'm not even English and even I felt some pain watching this thing.

Song's still catchy though.

bhamv3 said:

Song's still catchy though.

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Your most successful diseases usually are.

—Patrick

So, the Euro 2020 qualifying draw. Meh, Scotland can take Belgium.

Okay maybe not but second ahead of Russia isn't completely out of the realm of possibility. And there's still that Nations League play-off in the bank.

mikerc said:

So, the Euro 2020 qualifying draw. Meh, Scotland can take Belgium.

Okay maybe not but second ahead of Russia isn't completely out of the realm of possibility. And there's still that Nations League play-off in the bank.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's not the strongest group in the world. Russia's the only theoretical challenger to Belgium, really, and Scotland and Russia will fight over the second spot. The rest is fluff.

COME ON YOU GUNNERS

DarkAudit said:

COME ON YOU GUNNERS

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They came all right.

They beat the Hotspurs 4-2, that's more than okay.

Man City win the Carabao Cup 4-3 on pens. Main story though is that the Chelsea keeper outright refuses to be subbed at the end of the game while suffering from cramp and with the substitute keeper specialising in penalties.

Sarri now almost certain to be sacked as Chelsea manager & interesting to see if Arizzabalaga ever plays for Chelsea again or what retrospective action the FA take if any.

Fucking shambolic. You don't disrespect your manager like that. When the manager makes a call to sub you off, you fucking go off. If you disagree with the decision, you can plead your case after the match, behind closed doors. But ultimately the decision is the manager's, and there can be no questioning that. To humiliate your manager and your club like that in front if millions of viewers is so unprofessional it's mind-boggling.

If I were Sarri I'd've resigned on the spot. Screw the payoff from being sacked, my integrity is worth more than that.

Yeah, I would have liked to see the ref tell him to get off the pitch for being subbed or head down the tunnel after being red carded for unsportsmanlike behaviour.

mikerc said:

Yeah, I would have liked to see the ref tell him to get off the pitch for being subbed or head down the tunnel after being red carded for unsportsmanlike behaviour.

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I don't think the ref can do that, because such a situation is covered in the rules of the game. "If a player who is to be replaced refuses to leave, play continues."

So... how about them Champions League bottlers, eh?

bhamv3 said:

So... how about them Champions League bottlers, eh?

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PSG or Real?

mikerc said:

PSG or Real?

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Yes.

Holy fuck. That Man City - Spurs match.

Yeah that was a cracking match. Some defensive howlers from both sides, but overall it was very entertaining.

And wow, that was a ballsy call from the ref to disallow that last goal, even if it was the right decision.

KV Mechelen (my local club) just won the Belgian Cup. Not bad for a team in second class that's about to get demoted for an idiot broker who tried to bribe another team to protect his investment.

Oh man, you don't ever want to go 3-0 up against Liverpool. Not in a European match. It just pisses them off.

Still can't get over that corner. The sheer impudence fucking genius of it.

On the one hand, that corner definitely was a bit underhanded.

On the other hand, it's Barcelona's own fault for getting caught napping. Not to mention blowing a three goal lead before then.

bhamv3 said:

On the one hand, that corner definitely was a bit underhanded.

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It's a bit like taking a quick free kick, either the ref lets it go, or he pulls it back & demands you take it again. Absolute worst that could have happened for Liverpool there is Alexander-Arnold getting booked, which wouldn't have mattered in the grand scheme of things, best case scenario is the winning goal which is what happened.

Definitely a smart decision by Liverpool, though if I was a Barcelona supporter I'd be screaming blue murder about how the corner should have been retaken.

Ok, can we just all agree that this year's UCL has been absolutely insane?

Arsenal & Chelsea have been awarded just 6,000 tickets each to sell to their supporters for the Europa League final. This means only 12,000 people - less that 20% of the 68,700 capacity of the ground - will actually be there to support their team. The rest of the 56,700 tickets will presumably go to commercial sponsorships, media & UEFA officials.

I'm not the only one thinking those numbers should be swapped am I?

mikerc said:

Arsenal & Chelsea have been awarded just 6,000 tickets each to sell to their supporters for the Europa League final. This means only 12,000 people - less that 20% of the 68,700 capacity of the ground - will actually be there to support their team. The rest of the 56,700 tickets will presumably go to commercial sponsorships, media & UEFA officials.

I'm not the only one thinking those numbers should be swapped am I?

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Baku. That should explain everything.

DarkAudit said:

UEFA. That should explain everything.

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FTFY

And just because I'm not all that surprised that they did it & can guess at the reasons behind it (officials want their jolly, UEFA thinks commercial sponsors are more important than the fans) doesn't mean I'm not going to call them out & say those reasons are wrong.

mikerc said:

FTFY

And just because I'm not all that surprised that they did it & can guess at the reasons behind it (officials want their jolly, UEFA thinks commercial sponsors are more important than the fans) doesn't mean I'm not going to call them out & say those reasons are wrong.

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Having the final in Azerbaijan puts a turbocharger to the corruption.

Corruption?! In my FIFA?! Well, I never!

Former Arsenal and Sevilla winger Jose Antonio Reyes died in a car accident today.

Huh. Apparently in Italy monkey chants aren't racist - they're a way to show respect

"We do everything we can to put you off since you're our team's opponent, and if that includes racist chants, well why don't you just take that as a compliment?"

Mauricio Pochettino was one of the three finalists for FIFA men's manager of the year last night - despite never having won a major trophy as a manager. Tonight his Spurs side have been knocked out of the League Cup by Colchester United.

To put this in perspective the top tier of English football is the Premiership consisting of 20 teams. Below that is the Championship with 24 teams. Below that is League 1 with 23 teams (should be 24 but one went bust earlier this season). Below that is League 2 with 24 teams. Colchester are 10th in League 2. A mid-table tier 4 team just beat one of the big 6 teams in English football.

This might just be the most humiliating defeat in Spurs history.

It's like Tottenham actually miss being a banter team or something.

It's like a short-season single A minor league team beating its parent club.

mikerc said:

So, the Euro 2020 qualifying draw. Meh, Scotland can take Belgium.

Okay maybe not but second ahead of Russia isn't completely out of the realm of possibility. And there's still that Nations League play-off in the bank.

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I'd just like to remind everyone that I'm a wildly overoptimistic idiot.

For those of you that still think it's too hard to score in soccer (hi @blotsfan) I'd like to remind you that 10 years ago today a beach ball managed to score in the EPL.



Admittedly the goal is officially credited to Darren Bent but it was the beach ball that got the final crucial touch to put it past the keeper.

Watched the Spurs-Watford match this weekend. If there was ever a match to use as an indictment of how utterly useless VAR is, it'd be this one. I'd be furious if I was a Watford supporter.

What? That should never have been a card ref! He clearly got the ball(s).

I would like to share with you all this looping gif of the ball bouncing off Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga's face and into the net for an own goal, from last night's Chelsea-Ajax match.

If you told me when I woke up this morning that Spurs would sack Poch and hire Jose... well, I wouldn't disbelieve you exactly, but I'd be rather surprised.

Oh, dear. Moronho is back.

EC qualifiers finished, and Belgium had the best offense in number of goals, and best defense in number of counter goals, of all teams.
Now if only we'd actually faced any serious opposition, that would mean something.

Bubble181 said:

EC qualifiers finished, and Belgium had the best offense in number of goals, and best defense in number of counter goals, of all teams.
Now if only we'd actually faced any serious opposition, that would mean something.

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Scotland: "Am I a joke to you?"

*looks at results*

"Never mind."

Emery out at Arsenal. *shrug*

DarkAudit said:

Emery out at Arsenal. *shrug*

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I doubt many would say that it wasn't deserved. Most would probably even say overdue.

bhamv3 said:

I doubt many would say that it wasn't deserved. Most would probably even say overdue.

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I'd heard the phrase 'dead man walking' a few times in recent weeks.

Solskjaer's probably already praying Poch gets the Arsenal job since it might make him less likely to get sacked if the United board don't have a ready made replacement sitting around looking for a new job.

What's the right league for me? ESPN is here to help!

I really don't understand the foul system, like not even close. I was baffled when the goalie for Manchester City got sent off the other day. I was like "get up and walk it off, he barely touched you and it was an accident "

HCGLNS said:

I really don't understand the foul system, like not even close. I was baffled when the goalie for Manchester City got sent off the other day. I was like "get up and walk it off, he barely touched you and it was an accident "

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It's because his foul prevented a clear goalscoring opportunity. If he hadn't brought Jota down then Jota had a good chance of beating Walker to the loose ball & scoring.

Man City banned from the Champions League for the next 2 seasons for FFP violations.

I'm guessing it'll probably be reduced on appeal, but still, even one season without CL is probably going to lead to a mass exodus.

European Championship's been postponed to June 2021 due to Covid-19.

Couple of leagues have started up again with some rather interesting ways to get around the lack of fans in the ground. In Germany Borussia Monchengladbach have elected to fill the stands with cardboard cutouts

And in South Korea FC Seoul are using what they're calling "premium mannequins"

Honestly the only real surprise here is that this is happening in South Korea & not Japan.

mikerc said:

And in South Korea FC Seoul are using what they're calling "premium mannequins"

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Yeah, about that.

Bundesliga is back, albeit in empty stadiums with piped in crowd noise. US viewers can watch live via Fox Sports.

Yes, *that* Rick Wakeman.

@jwhouk, I didn't even notice I'd done that until you pointed it out.

You'll never walk alone.

Today I learned that Luis Suarez has become Barcelona's third-highest goalscorer in the club's history, at 195 goals.

Ahead of him, in second place, is Cesar Rodriguez at 232. He played in the 1940s and 50s, so it's quite possible some modern fans haven't heard of him.

In first place is a guy you've probably heard of, though. Lionel Messi has 629 total goals for Barcelona. That's right, Messi has more than triple Suarez's tally, in third place.

Messi's just ridiculous. We're truly blessed to be able to see this guy play.

bhamv3 said:

That's right, Messi has more than triple Suarez's tally, in third place.

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Not to downplay Messi's achievements but when comparing those 2 it's worth remembering that Messi has spent his whole career at Barcelona where Suarez was at Ajax & Liverpool before that. Although for comparison Suarez scores a goal on average every 1.43 games for Barcelona & Messi scores on average every 1.15 games. Meaning over the typical 38 game La Liga season Suarez scores 26.5 goals every season & Messi scores 33. Which is still crazy high numbers for both players.

mikerc said:

Man City banned from the Champions League for the next 2 seasons for FFP violations.

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And the ban has been overturned on appeal. Welp, stick a fork in the FFP regulations they're done. If a club like Man City who have already got previous on violating the regs can just refuse to cooperate with the investigation when they're caught violating them agan, then walk away with a (to them) minor fine then the whole system is worthless.

mikerc said:

And the ban has been overturned on appeal. Welp, stick a fork in the FFP regulations they're done. If a club like Man City who have already got previous on violating the regs can just refuse to cooperate with the investigation when they're caught violating them agan, then walk away with a (to them) minor fine then the whole system is worthless.

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Nonono, you don't understand.
The small competition clubs from, like, Belgium or Sweden or Croatia that do something wrong will MOST DEFINITELY be prosecuted to the full extent possible, heavily fined and punished.
But, well, you can't really expect the Big Boys to be held to the same standard?! The competition wouldn't be the same without them!

More proof that we should just get the European supercompetition between the 12 richest and biggest clubs going already, and allow them to do whatever the F they want with regards to money and transfers, and have a normal human competition below it. Get rid of the Too Big assholes by sequestering them off intheir own playground. I'm sure people will like it, but I'm really not convinced people will keep liking it - there's a different audience for that than for the normal competition.

Bubble181 said:

Nonono, you don't understand.
The small competition clubs from, like, Belgium or Sweden or Croatia that do something wrong will MOST DEFINITELY be prosecuted to the full extent possible, heavily fined and punished.
But, well, you can't really expect the Big Boys to be held to the same standard?! The competition wouldn't be the same without them!

More proof that we should just get the European supercompetition between the 12 richest and biggest clubs going already, and allow them to do whatever the F they want with regards to money and transfers, and have a normal human competition below it. Get rid of the Too Big assholes by sequestering them off intheir own playground. I'm sure people will like it, but I'm really not convinced people will keep liking it - there's a different audience for that than for the normal competition.

Click to expand...

Well sure the competition wouldn't be the same without them. That's why even though there are 55 associations that are members of UEFA 16 of the 32 places in the Champions League "proper" aka the group stages are filled by teams from the big 4 leagues. Even though 12 of those 16 teams obviously can't be the Champions of their respective association.

Jesse Lingard is a player for Manchester United. While he did show some potential in his youth, as he got older it became clear that he would never reach the heights that people thought he might, and that he's turned out to be a distinctively average player. This has led to some memeing, with people jokingly calling him "Lionel Lingard" or "Lingardinho", mocking the fact that he's nowhere near the level of those legends of the game.

Things got so bad, in fact, that when this season started, some guy placed a bet that Lingard would get no goals or assists for the whole season. This was, of course, pretty much just a joke bet, because even though Lingard's not a great player, he does play in an attacking role in one of England's better teams, so the chances of him having no goal contributions for the whole season were slim.

However, Lingard ended up having a dismal season, and he actually did not get any goals or assists as the season went on. Part of it was because his poor form led to him being given fewer chances to play, but even when he did get on the pitch, he did not contribute to any goals. So it seemed increasingly likely that the guy would actually be able to cash out on his bet.

And then today, on the last day of the season, Lingard seized upon a horrible error by the opposing goalkeeper to score in the 97th minute of the match, ie literally the last kick in the last match of the season, thus preventing the man from winning his bet.



The betting agency that the guy placed the bet with said they'll still pay out (hey, free publicity after all) but the guy said it wouldn't be right to accept the money, so he's donated it to BLM.

Holy shit. Bayern just beat Barcelona 8-2 in the Champions League. If Setien isn't sacked tonight then it'll happen tomorrow.

Setien is more of a symptom than the cause though. There are things wrong with the club all the way at the top.

bhamv3 said:

Setien is more of a symptom than the cause though. There are things wrong with the club all the way at the top.

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Yeah, my comment about him getting sacked was more about what I expected would happen than what should happen. They're an aging squad who by all accounts have held more power in the club than the manager since long before Setien was hired, and when they struggle in matches their only real tactic is "get the ball to Messi he's the best player in the world, he'll fix it".

Speaking of things going wrong at Barcelona, how about that Messi news, huh?

bhamv3 said:

Speaking of things going wrong at Barcelona, how about that Messi news, huh?

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If he's available on a free we should set up our own Halforums United team & try to sign him! I can play left back.

mikerc said:

If he's available on a free we should set up our own Halforums United team & try to sign him! I can play left back.

Click to expand...

I've got long arms, I can do goalie.

mikerc said:

So, the Euro 2020 qualifying draw. Meh, Scotland can take Belgium.

Okay maybe not but second ahead of Russia isn't completely out of the realm of possibility. And there's still that Nations League play-off in the bank.

Click to expand...

mikerc said:

I'd just like to remind everyone that I'm a wildly overoptimistic idiot.

Click to expand...

Not so wildly overoptimistic after all!!!

San Marino draws Gibraltar 0-0. On a 2-match unbeaten run for the first time ever.

Well, this is interesting. FIFA condemns proposed European Super League says any club / player who takes part will be banned from any official FIFA competition.

There's been talk of this for years & nothing's ever come of it. The fact FIFA felt the need to make this statement suggests its maybe closer to happening than ever before.

I hope this does kill off the Super League. It's clearly an attempt by the biggest clubs to grab a bigger slice of the pie & fuck any smaller teams. Not that FIFA would have any real objections to that in general it's just that this specific way will lessen their authority over the sport and that's their real objection.

There's been talk of that sort of consolidation for ages. The big clubs already have a ridiculous lead over everyone else and are more big companies than actual, you know, sports clubs.
Both those players and those clubs have way too much money and really I don't find it interesting to watch quite often... A $250million team vs a $5million dollar team just isn't a good match-up - and even if there's the occasional upset, it's still not fun to watch. Yeah, that's exactly their argument to make the Super League, but ugh.

The only thing wrong with that Rangers v Royal Antwerp tie is that due to Covid it wasn't possible to have fans in the grounds. Antwerp 3 Rangers 4 last week, Rangers 5 Antwerp 2 tonight, 9-5 on aggregate.

2 fantastic games of football and a worthy reminder that it's not just about teams from the "big 5" European leagues.

So... what's going on with Liverpool?

bhamv3 said:

So... what's going on with Liverpool?

Click to expand...

Calamity.

I saw Pep had a sneaky little dig at them yesterday when he said how nice it was that every time Man City won the league over the last decade they would finish in at least the top 2 next season.

Still ahead of Arsenal in the table.

So about a day ago, Manchester United beat Tottenham 3-1. During the match, Tottenham's Son Heung-Min apparently didn't get up from a foul quickly enough for Man Utd manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's tastes. After the match, Ole basically said, "If my son had taken that long to get up, he wouldn't get any food." (Basically saying that he thinks Son Heung-Min's behavior was unsporting, and that he's glad he raised his own son better than that.)

It should be noted that apparently "my son wouldn't get any food" is a fairly common saying in Ole's native Norwegian, and is basically equivalent to "I'd put him over my knee" in English.

Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho, apparently in an attempt to deflect from this embarrassing loss, decided to latch onto Ole's comment, and basically said, "Boy am I glad that Son Heung-Min's father was a better father than Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was. Not feed your child? For shame!"

The fans decided to run with it, and proposed directing Ole and his family to Manchester United player Marcus Rashford, who is well-known for his charitable efforts to end child hunger in the UK. In fact, Rashford received an MBE last year for the results of his campaign against child hunger.

This culminated in Ole's actual son Noah Solskjaer coming out today and basically saying, "Um, thanks for the concern, but I actually always got fed when I was growing up."

Moronho gonna moronho.

mikerc said:

Well, this is interesting. FIFA condemns proposed European Super League says any club / player who takes part will be banned from any official FIFA competition.

There's been talk of this for years & nothing's ever come of it. The fact FIFA felt the need to make this statement suggests its maybe closer to happening than ever before.

I hope this does kill off the Super League. It's clearly an attempt by the biggest clubs to grab a bigger slice of the pie & fuck any smaller teams. Not that FIFA would have any real objections to that in general it's just that this specific way will lessen their authority over the sport and that's their real objection.

Click to expand...

Welp. 12 clubs have announced plans for a European Super League.
Manchester United
Manchester City
Liverpool
Chelsea
Tottenham Hotspur
Arsenal
AC Milan
Inter Milan
Juventus
Barcelona
Real Madrid
Atletico Madrid

Plans are for 3 other clubs to join as Founder Members (presumably they're hoping to recruit PSG, Bayern Munich & Borussia Dortmund) with plans for each season consisting of the 15 permanent clubs & 5 other clubs who will qualify...somehow. They haven't explained how that will work yet. They intend to continue to play in their respective domestic leagues with the ESL as a midweek tournament. Although it is worth noting that the English FA's response to this is to remind the 6 English clubs that under their rules any club that takes part in a non FA, UEFA or FIFA organised competition without written authorisation from the FA is potentially subject to being expelled from all FA competitions. I don't know about whether the Italian or Spanish FA's have similar rules but it wouldn't surprise me & they all oppose this.

Either these clubs are going to be forced into a humiliating climb down, or European club football is going to look very different going forward. Either these clubs get away with this, killing the Champions League & severely damaging their national leagues in the process or we have 2 major organisations running football in Europe with the clubs & players in one being banned from competing in the other (yes FIFA have said any player who takes part in the ESL will be banned from representing their country at a World Cup) or potentially these clubs try it, get kicked out of their leagues, the ESL fails & they have to try & rejoin their national associations, at the bottom of their country's league system potentially going bust due to losing all that TV / Champions League money.

mikerc said:

Welp. 12 clubs have announced plans for a European Super League.
Manchester United
Manchester City
Liverpool
Chelsea
Tottenham Hotspur
Arsenal
AC Milan
Inter Milan
Juventus
Barcelona
Real Madrid
Atletico Madrid

Plans are for 3 other clubs to join as Founder Members (presumably they're hoping to recruit PSG, Bayern Munich & Borussia Dortmund) with plans for each season consisting of the 15 permanent clubs & 5 other clubs who will qualify...somehow. They haven't explained how that will work yet. They intend to continue to play in their respective domestic leagues with the ESL as a midweek tournament. Although it is worth noting that the English FA's response to this is to remind the 6 English clubs that under their rules any club that takes part in a non FA, UEFA or FIFA organised competition without written authorisation from the FA is potentially subject to being expelled from all FA competitions. I don't know about whether the Italian or Spanish FA's have similar rules but it wouldn't surprise me & they all oppose this.

Either these clubs are going to be forced into a humiliating climb down, or European club football is going to look very different going forward. Either these clubs get away with this, killing the Champions League & severely damaging their national leagues in the process or we have 2 major organisations running football in Europe with the clubs & players in one being banned from competing in the other (yes FIFA have said any player who takes part in the ESL will be banned from representing their country at a World Cup) or potentially these clubs try it, get kicked out of their leagues, the ESL fails & they have to try & rejoin their national associations, at the bottom of their country's league system potentially going bust due to losing all that TV / Champions League money.

Click to expand...

Holy fuck the madmen actually went for it.

Also their press release has some...interesting quotes in it.

"The formation of the Super League comes at a time when the global pandemic has accelerated the instability in the existing European football economic model. " The instability in the existing European football economic model is largely caused by the bigger clubs attempts to hoover up as much of the TV / advertising money as possible in order to finance their massive overspending on players transfer fees / wages so that they can get to the latter stages of the CL & get that TV / advertising money. This is not a fix for that - it's just going to be another symptom.

“We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world. Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires.” The overwhelming response by fans to this announcement was disgust and a stated desire for it not to happen. Anyone want to take a bet on whether they will respond to that desire?

It’s the old “If you don’t, someone else will” play. And it has worked for major professional sports leagues - for the most part - for over a century.

Moronho sacked by scum.

DarkAudit said:

Moronho sacked by scum.

Click to expand...

Interesting timing, given the Super League news. Makes me wonder if Jose was vocally against it, and Levy decided to sack him.

bhamv3 said:

Interesting timing, given the Super League news. Makes me wonder if Jose was vocally against it, and Levy decided to sack him.

Click to expand...

That may be how he'd like to spin it, but the side's form has been crap. So it was probably coming anyway.

DarkAudit said:

That may be how he'd like to spin it, but the side's form has been crap. So it was probably coming anyway.

Click to expand...

Indeed, but given that they have a cup final coming up, which represents Tottenham's only chance of silverware this season, to sack him now seems very odd. I would've figured he'd be sacked in the summer, after they've got a permanent replacement lined up.

jwhouk said:

It’s the old “If you don’t, someone else will” play. And it has worked for major professional sports leagues - for the most part - for over a century.

Click to expand...

If - and this is a very big IF - FIFA actually holds true and anyone playing in the Euroleague can't compete on the national scale or in the domestic leagues, this is dead on arrival. But they won't. And thus, it won't. And the further stratification into different levels of play continues.

Maybe I'm cynical, but I doubt players care that much about playing for their countries when they have an extra 10 million euros a year dangled in front of their faces.

That being said, I feel like the domestic leagues actually will hold firm on kicking out the teams that do this. I don't think they like the idea of turning into a minor league, which if this league happens will be the case no matter what. I get that their TV deals will plummet if they lose the big squads but they will probably also plummet in the future if they don't. My gut says that if this league happens, it's something that ends up hurting everyone longterm.

blotsfan said:

Maybe I'm cynical, but I doubt players care that much about playing for their countries when they have an extra 10 million euros a year dangled in front of their faces.

That being said, I feel like the domestic leagues actually will hold firm on kicking out the teams that do this. I don't think they like the idea of turning into a minor league, which if this league happens will be the case no matter what. I get that their TV deals will plummet if they lose the big squads but they will probably also plummet in the future if they don't. My gut says that if this league happens, it's something that ends up hurting everyone longterm.

Click to expand...

The players may not care. The public does. A Portugal without Ronaldo against Argentina without Messi? Who cares?
It may work out for the current generation of superstar players, but the next one? Nuh-uh.
Of course, we may see two competing sports come out of this - one with camera control and such, the other one without; or one with more or less allowances for doping; I can see the rules start to diverge if they don't have to follow one another... Not sure anyone wants that, though.

It's a decision that I can only see working in the favor of a small group of super-rich, and even so, not necessarily long term.

Here's my question: how many games do top-tier teams in Europe actually play during a given calendar year? I mean, yeah, the Premiership has 38 regular season games, but in addition to the Champions League and all the other "super" leagues, how many games would a team like, say, ManU or Real Madrid actually play in a given calendar year?

jwhouk said:

Here's my question: how many games do top-tier teams in Europe actually play during a given calendar year? I mean, yeah, the Premiership has 38 regular season games, but in addition to the Champions League and all the other "super" leagues, how many games would a team like, say, ManU or Real Madrid actually play in a given calendar year?

Click to expand...

Using Man Utd in the 2019-2020 season as a rough benchmark, they played 67 matches in total, including league matches, cup matches, continental matches, friendlies, etc. Obviously this would vary somewhat for other teams, due to factors like a different number of teams in the league, different cup competitions and formats, making it farther in cup and continental competitions, etc.

So essentially weekly with at least one extra match per month.

I think a general rule of thumb for teams in continental competitions is two games a week: domestic league/cup games on the weekends, and continental games mid-week. Though continental competitions don't always play every week, so sometimes they'll just play one game for that week.

And it looks like a humiliating climb down for the clubs. Chelsea & Man City are both out of the ESL.

As well as Barca and Atletico.

Think @DarkAudit might appreciate this

All the English sides are out of the ESL.

I'm imagining all twelve clubs looking at the fan backlash with shocked Pikachu faces.

This would be the equivalent of the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, and Cubs partnering up with the best teams from the Dominican, Cuban, KBO and JPL leagues to form a "super league" - for a sheer money grab, right?

jwhouk said:

This would be the equivalent of the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, and Cubs partnering up with the best teams from the Dominican, Cuban, KBO and JPL leagues to form a "super league" - for a sheer money grab, right?

Click to expand...

I could see the (Yomiuri) Giants and (Hanshin) Tigers being allowed in the rich kids' club, but Dominican and Cuban? Not a chance. The quality of play might be there, but they're still peasants. And peasants need not apply.

Would anyone in the KBO do it?

jwhouk said:

Would anyone in the KBO do it?

Click to expand...

Again, compared to the Giants and Tigers in NPB, and most of MLB, peasants.

And even the Tigers have to take a back seat to high school baseball in their own stadium.

Moronho to AS Roma.

DarkAudit said:

Moronho to AS Roma.

Click to expand...

Boy, Roma really swooped in, didn't they. Feels like this came out of nowhere.

I'm just gonna leave this here.

So... Manchester City still can't win the Champions League.

bhamv3 said:

So... Manchester City still can't win the Champions League.

Click to expand...

It's all 'bout the money.
It's all 'bout the dum dum dadadeedum

(we're missing a decent music smiley)

Whups!

Ah, yes, the kind of goal keeper where I think, I could do better.

Well that was certainly a thing.

Lionel Messi does not sign a new contract with Barcelona.

Lionel Messi is now a free agent.

Lionel Messi coming to MLS?….

Lionel Messi is no longer a free agent.

Lionel Messi has joined PSG, to create an attacking trio of Messi, Neymar, and Mbappe.

If they still don't win the Champions League I'm going to laugh at them forever.

Gerd Muller has died at the age of 75.

547 goals in 594 games for Bayern Munich. 68 goals in 62 games for West Germany (yes that's better than a goal a game). Only Messi has scored more goals in a calendar year.

Sheriff Tiraspol.

W. T. F.

That's it. That's the post.

I think a lot of people are going to be googling "who the fuck are Sheriff Tiraspol".

I did, only to find I'd actually heard of them already. I watched an HITC Sevens video on them just a month ago.

Yeah, Belgian team Club Brugge is doing surprisingly well (tieing with PSG and now winning against Leipzig) and they're completely overshadowed by... Who?

...That's the equivalent of the Jacksonville Jaguars beating Tampa Bay on MNF - by a last minute touchdown.

jwhouk said:

...That's the equivalent of the Jacksonville Jaguars beating Tampa Bay on MNF - by a last minute touchdown.

Click to expand...

Yes, it's like the Martian Manhunters defeating the Alpha Centaurs by a Golden Hoop in the third Whimple, indeed.

No no no, get that right. It's like the Denebola Tigers beating the Alpha Centauri Aces 12-0 on a three-hitter.

(And that reference is so inside, I'm pretty much the only one who understands it.)

jwhouk said:

...That's the equivalent of the Jacksonville Jaguars beating Tampa Bay on MNF - by a last minute touchdown.

Click to expand...

Wait, are you saying the Jacksonville Jaguars are actually real & not just something The Good Place made up? I don't know what's real, or how many Hemsworth brothers there are anymore!

Great thread I read about the details of Moldovan soccer, which is insane.

…I take it back.

This is like Kazakhstan beating Team Canada 2-1 in the mens Olympic tourney.

Before we get *too* impressed, compared to the rest of the Moldovan league, Tiraspol are the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers rolled into one. There's no one to challenge them, and won't be for a long time.

Dude, what the fuck?! Player attacks the ref badly enough to be charged with attempted murder.

mikerc said:

Dude, what the fuck?! Player attacks the ref badly enough to be charged with attempted murder.

Click to expand...

I think you're mistaken. This is the soccer thread. The....kickboxing? MMA? Abuse? thread is over that-a-way.

Today everyone's googling "who the fuck are Bodo/Glimt".

PSG Women's team player Aminata Diallo was arrested for hiring masked men to assault one of her teammates, Kheira Hamraoui. As in they attacked her in the street and beat her on the legs with iron bars!

Definite shades of Tonya Harding there.

I have 3 things to say. 2 reminders & a stolen catchphrase.

Firstly, (modern) football was invented in Scotland. Secondly, I'm a wildly overoptimistic idiot. Thirdly, IT'S COMING HOME!

Apparently Canada won a key world cup qualifier versus Mexico the other day. The Mexicans were stymied by our tough defence and that it was held outside, in Edmonton, in sub zero weather and 12 inches of snow.

Then to be fair, the next contest needs to be held in Sonora. In early June. At noon, when it’s 40C.

jwhouk said:

Then to be fair, the next contest needs to be held in Sonora. In early June. At noon, when it’s 40C.

Click to expand...

That's the sport related issue with Qatar isn't it? Too hot to play in the desert.

Ignoring the humanitarian issues...

HCGLNS said:

That's the sport related issue with Qatar isn't it? Too hot to play in the desert.

Ignoring the humanitarian issues...

Click to expand...

But the intention still is to aircondition the whole stadiums (yes, the open-to-the-air ones) and keep it to a nice 30° max inside. Of course it'll still be suffocatingly warm and dry ouytside and everyone and their dog will suffer, and there's the whole thing we're conveniently ignoring, but, yeah. Even sportswise, Qatar was a rubbish decision.

...86 F? Good got, at least they get it down into the 70's at Chase Field.

So... is anyone else following Romain Molina's revelations?

bhamv3 said:

So... is anyone else following Romain Molina's revelations?

Click to expand...

The following is a non-exhaustive list of some of the claims made by investigative journalist Romain Molina (published in The Guardian, New York Times) in his most recent Twitter Space. It is important to note that while Molina's word is not to be taken lightly, as his work has influenced multiple FAs and officials in the past, this is not an official release on his part.

• Elye Wahi (Montpellier striker) wasn't fired from SM Caen's youth setup for physically assaulting a supervisor at the academy. Instead, after physical threats, he brought over some secondary school friends in the washrooms to undress and masturbate in front of him.
• 400+ players currently playing in the Premier League, Championship, Ligue 1, and Ligue 2 have been raped multiple times in their youth. Some of them have contracted anal injuries and/or diseases, and have gone to specialized clinics as a result. This is a two-decade-old issue, the first story will come out in December.
• Megan Rapinoe wasn't bothered by Haitian girls getting raped. She prefers 'earning money' over 'defending these young girls'.
• A Ligue 1 team covered up a pedophilia scandal in their youth academy by brainwashing the player by the time law enforcement was involved. Then, they sent the young player in question back to his country (he was a foreigner).
• One of the largest academies in DR Congo is currently managed by a pedophilia ring.
• An international coach was 'caught red-handed' after raping two 13 year-old girls in the middle of a tournament. His employer, a large media, fired him under other pre-tenses in 2017. This issue is especially concerning for 'us, as French people'. A famous, very well-liked personality participated in covering up this story as well.
• Ferland Mendy hit a woman, knocked her to the ground, kicked her in the head, before showing her his genitals. She was taken to the emergency room after suffering head trauma. He also assaulted another woman. The player's club covered up the story in order to sell him the following year.
• Some international games in Asia are fixed. Many players have stopped joining their national teams because of this.
• Paris Saint-Germain has been conceding burn-out after burn-out. Over 100 employees have left the club in the last year alone. Leonardo is hated because of his behaviour/attitude.
• The 'boss of Colombia's refereeing' is a pedophile. Molina has a complaint from a 12 year-old, which he can barely read in its entirety because it's 'gut-wrenching'.
• Alexandre Benalla (French 'personality') has been trying to get involved in PSG for years. He fought with some of Nasser's entourage.
• A consultant from L'Équipe has been involved in 'some shady stuff' in the transfer market.
• Some very important people bend over backwards to get in touch with people close to Nasser Al Khelaïfi.
• Most African FA presidents get paid prostitutes, or have their daughters' studies covered in other countries.
• At Arsenal, all the players inhale nitrous oxide. A player came back to celebrate his birthday in Paris under the theme "nitrous oxide balloons".
• A French international organized parties where he would defecate in women's mouths and film himself while doing it. He forced a girl, who later on sought to issue a formal complaint, to participate. Someone offered Molina a video, which he declined to see.
• A Saudi consortium was never involved in the takeover of Olympique de Marseille.
• The French FA pushes some of its people to coach national teams in Africa. They already did it with Didier Six, for example, and Guinea (note: he also coached Togo and Mauritius in the past).
• Leonardo is hated in PSG. His signing of Icardi was not well-received by the coach at the time.
• The massive media outrage surrounding the Qatar World Cup is political and financed by people/organizations who wish harm upon the country.
• The son of Congo-Brazzaville's president is involved in the national team. In the Central African Republic, Kondogbia is friends with the president.
• 80% of players smoke shisha. At one point in time, PSG players used to bring their shisha/hookah with them on away games. Blaise Matuidi regularly smoked shisha, but things still worked out for him.
• The leagues in most Southeast Asian, Eastern European, and Latin American countries are fixed. Ireland, Malta, and Gibraltar also have 'lots' of matchfixing.
• A former French international was involved in a 'go-fast' (smuggling drugs and/or other products in another country). His club's president 'saved his ass'.
• FIFA claims to push for women's football, but does very little to protect the girls/women from abuse. It's rampant everywhere, on a global scale.
• Morocco can 'shit on the ground' if they want, they have a large influence at CAF. They can 'do whatever they want'.
• In the long-term, Tony Parker should take over the OL Group.
• Kenya's FA has 16 bank accounts, including some 'hidden' accounts, when most FAs have one or two.
• Amiens (Ligue 2) is [a circus]. On the way back from their away game at Ajaccio, everybody smelled like alcohol. The players love booze, shisha, drunken nights.
• After Senegal complained against an overaged player in a U17 African team they faced, the national team declared the player as 'deceased'. He is currently continuing his career in the U21 national team of the same country.
• A minor was raped and forced into an abortion at an "international center of FIFA".
• East Timor eliminated Mongolia by paying Brazilian players to play for its national team.
• Friends of the former Algerian FA president are waging war against the current leadership.
• The Sierra Leone FA faked COVID tests throughout the entirety of the pandemic, most notably in its qualifier against Benin. Other nations and/or clubs are suspected to have forged documents as well, but this is not confirmed.
• Mario Lemina received a handsome sum of money for representing Gabon. Other African players are also in similar positions.
• EDIT: A player from Spezia has disappeared. The affair is linked with human trafficking issues and an academy founded in Nigeria by the club's president. Molina didn't have much time to expand on this one.
• EDIT: Sexual abuse is rampant in the Mongolian FA, including players from the U15 girls' team. A coach even asked to sleep with a player's grandmother in exchange for a starting spot for the player.

Sources used for collecting the claims above: Twitter Space, transcripts from Instant Foot, Actu Foot, Footballogue.

Click to expand...

Some of those are not like the others... Oh no, a couple of guys like to smoke shisha!

Don't know how many people here also watch women's soccer, but yesterday the Belgian Red Flames had a qualifier match against Armenia.
It was a slightly lopsided match, and became the biggest victory in any qualifying match ever in women's football, with a final score of 19-0. And another goal was (incorrectly) counted as off side, it should've been 20-0.

Sergio Agüero has retired due to his heart condition.

I'll always remember his goal against QPR.

...financial inequality among teams also went up over time. He compares it to gentrification — but in sports.
Better teams win more games and rake in more riches.
Then, they buy even better players and win more games.

Click to expand...

Footie Capitalism?

--Patrick

Meikayla Moore scored a perfect hat trick (goals with the left foot, right foot & a header) for the US in their match with New Zealand at the weekend. Just 1 problem - she's a New Zealander & they were all own goals.

mikerc said:

Meikayla Moore scored a perfect hat trick (goals with the left foot, right foot & a header) for the US in their match with New Zealand at the weekend. Just 1 problem - she's a New Zealander & they were all own goals.

Click to expand...

Give her honorary US citizenship.

Poland were due to play Russia next month with the winners playing the winners of Sweden v Czech Republic for a place in Qatar 2022. Poland have said they WILL NOT play against Russia. I'd imagine the Swedes & Czechs will follow suit.

FIFA needs to kick Russia out of World Cup qualifying now before they essentially receive a bye through both play off rounds into the World Cup.

mikerc said:

FIFA needs to kick Russia out of World Cup qualifying now before they essentially receive a bye through both play off rounds into the World Cup.

Click to expand...

Throughout the past few I've been annoyed at media just saying "Russia" instead of the ROC. And honestly, if we are in ANY way serious about measures, we need to go hoop much further.
The EBU has given the example - Russia cannot take part in eurovision.
Exclude them from everything. Music, sports, culture, I don't care. Russia is not welcome. Russia has nothing to offer. We don't care about Russia. Russia is't part of our world.

As long as it amount to "gosh, be nice" it doesn't matter.

Obviously taking part in some sports doesn't actually matter. But for Russia, it does. Putin wants international power and standing. Deny it. Always,every here.

In happier news...

Welcome back Christian!

“Unavailable in your country.”

—Patrick

PatrThom said:

“Unavailable in your country.”

—Patrick

Click to expand...

Footage of Christian Eriksen coming on as a sub for Brentford to play his first competitive football since collapsing with a heart attack for Denmark at Euro 2020. And the player he replaced - Mathias Jensen - is the same player who replaced him when that match resumed.

A: Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands
B: England, Iran, USA, Ukraine/Scotland/Wales
C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland
D: France, Peru/Australia/Ukraine, Denmark, Tunisia
E: Spain, New Zealand/Costa Rica, Germany, Japan
F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia
G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon
H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, Korea

I look forward to the sheer drama that's going to happen in Group B.

I have to say that for the first round, the only interesting matchups seem to be Germany vs Spain and Belgium vs Croatia.

Northern Ireland's womens team lost 5-0 against England last night. NI's manager Kenny Shiels explained this heavy loss as "Girls and women are more emotional than men. So they take a goal going in not very well."

Fair to say (male) ex-player Ian Wright rather strongly disagrees.

Good thing for a women’s coach to say.

The most memorable example of (male) footballers crying in my mind is the 1999 Champion's League final. Manchester United beat Bayern Munich by scoring two late goals, despite Bayern leading for most of the game and honestly being the better team overall. After the second goal and the final whistle there were several Bayern players left lying face down on the pitch, sobbing.

Paddy Power's taking the piss out of Man Utd.



(3:19 long video)

My brother had tickets to go to the Champions League finals with a big customer of his.
Then he traded jobs, becoming CEO for another company than where he was working.
So that customer is no longer a customer of his, and he doesn't really know any of his new customers well enough to take them along.
So somehow he's decided he's taking me. And since he already paid for tickets and hotel and transportation...It's all good.

The first soccer match I'll ever watch live (except for, like, 10-to-15 year old cousins and such) and it's the Champions League finals Liverpool - Real. Sounds like a plan

Bubble181 said:

My brother had tickets to go to the Champions League finals with a big customer of his.
Then he traded jobs, becoming CEO for another company than where he was working.
So that customer is no longer a customer of his, and he doesn't really know any of his new customers well enough to take them along.
So somehow he's decided he's taking me. And since he already paid for tickets and hotel and transportation...It's all good.

The first soccer match I'll ever watch live (except for, like, 10-to-15 year old cousins and such) and it's the Champions League finals Liverpool - Real. Sounds like a plan

Click to expand...

I am seething with jealously.

mikerc said:

I am seething with jealously.

Click to expand...

I'll send pictures

Lol Aston Villa

Aston Villa had one job, to beat one of the richest clubs in the world who have some of the best players in the world and are managed by one of the best managers in the world, and they couldn't even do that right.

Well there go their chances of making a heartwarming(tm) movie about it.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

Well there go their chances of making a heartwarming(tm) movie about it.

--Patrick

Click to expand...

Disney will pull it off. They’ll switch the places of the teams and add a dog to the roster

BErt said:

Disney will pull it off. They’ll switch the places of the teams and add a dog to the roster

Click to expand...

I think Leicester's title-winning season would be a better candidate for a Disney movie, with Mahrez replaced by a dog.

Why Mahrez? Because then the dog could be portrayed running up and down the flank with lots of time on the ball.

In the latest Fuck UEFA news the total number of tickets they've made available for wheelchair users at the Champions League final this weekend is 93. The Stad de France which is hosting the final has space for 550 wheelchair users. What are they doing with the other 457 spaces that tickets aren't being sold for?

Amount available in total, or amount being sold?
I mean, I'm perfectly willing to believe UEFA are just that big of a bunch of dicks, but I know that easily half of the stadium isn't for sale because it goes directly to sponsors. Heck, I've heard it said that FedEx alone had almost 5000 seats reserved. So I could see the other 457 being set aside for sponsors? Or replaced with regular seats that'll make them more money, of course.

Bubble181 said:

Amount available in total, or amount being sold?
I mean, I'm perfectly willing to believe UEFA are just that big of a bunch of dicks, but I know that easily half of the stadium isn't for sale because it goes directly to sponsors. Heck, I've heard it said that FedEx alone had almost 5000 seats reserved. So I could see the other 457 being set aside for sponsors? Or replaced with regular seats that'll make them more money, of course.

Click to expand...

I believe it's amount being sold. However Liverpool & Real are each getting 19,618 tickets with another 12,000 on general sale so that's 51,236 tickets to supporters at a 75,000 capacity stadium.

In comparison the club's are getting 38 wheelchair tickets each, with I assume the remaining 17 going on general sale. Even if the other 457 are going to sponsors why would that be so lopsided? I did see a quote where UEFA blamed the short preparation time due to the final initially due to be held in Russia for the poor wheelchair allocation suggesting that these tickets aren't going to sponsors - or at least not sponsors that are actually in wheelchairs.

If I'm not mistaken, wheelchair seating is basically an empty space with a view of the pitch, which the wheelchair user can park their wheelchair in. I suspect it would be rather easy to install some chairs there and turn them into more seats that can be sold. Therefore I wonder if UEFA or whoever intends to put some chairs there and then sell or give away those wheelchair spaces to able-bodied people.

Nottingham Forest wins promotion to the Premier League on a goal by Levi Colwill.

Unfortunately, Levi Colwill played for Huddersfield, their opponent.

(EDIT: I had to clarify it for myself: Colwill was on loan to Huddersfield from - of all teams - Chelsea.)

Y'know how people will often accuse each other of moving the goalposts?

A goalkeeper in Norway apparently took it literally.

Goalkeeper Patrik Gunnarsson accused of making his goal smaller

Streamable video:

Belgium 1 - 4 Netherlands, ouch.

And you can't say it's not deserved. Half of the Belgians seemed to be sleeping.

Bubble181 said:

And you can't say it's not deserved. Half of the Belgians seemed to be sleeping.

Click to expand...

The Belgians just seemed off until about the last 10 and extra time. It was a weird game.

The Full Draw for Qatar 2022:

• Group A: Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands
• Group B: England, Iran, USA, Wales
• Group C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland
• Group D: France, Australia, Denmark, Tunisia
• Group E: Spain, Costa Rica, Germany, Japan
• Group F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia
• Group G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon
• Group H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, South Korea

Looks like Qatar won't go further than first round

chris said:

Looks like Qatar won't go further than first round

Click to expand...

Was there ever any doubt?

Bubble181 said:

Was there ever any doubt?

Click to expand...

In the right group maybe?

15 players have threatened to resign from the Spanish women's national team unless the head coach is fired. They claim his tenure is actively harming both their emotional state & their health.

The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) is very much siding with the coach telling the players they need to "accept their mistake and ask for forgiveness" under threat of never being considered for international selection again.

If 15 players are collectively saying they'd rather not play than play for that specific coach then something somewhere has gone seriously wrong & that needs to be looked at rather than this knee jerk how dare they question the coach reaction the RFEF have got going here.

Yeah, 15 out of a selection of some thirty-ish is....significant. It's "only" the women so in Spain it'll pretty much get ignored, but can you imagine what it'd do on the men's side (the one Spanish people care about)? It'd be a national scandal.

I have a confession. Every time I see a news article about Lewandowski my brain automatically reads "Lewinsky" and I get the mental image of Monica Lewinsky doing stuff like playing for Barcelona and scoring goals and winning awards.

Sooo, anybody care about the WC at all this year?

Bubble181 said:

Sooo, anybody care about the WC at all this year?

Click to expand...

I try to go at least once every day.

--Patrick

Bubble181 said:

Sooo, anybody care about the WC at all this year?

Click to expand...

I would if it were anywhere else. I’m not even going to watch this year.

Dave said:

I would if it were anywhere else. I’m not even going to watch this year.

Click to expand...

Compared to the normal pre-championship atmosphere it really doesn't live around here. Fan villages, big group large screen viewings, etc are getting canceled left and right.
Part of it is Belgium not expecting any great result this time, but even that aside... There's just no interest. It's in winter, it's in QTR, it's... I dunno. Very weird.
Can't say I mind though... FIFA deserves to see how much they screwed up. The "fans" in QTR aren't exactly a glowing recommendation, either.

First time Canada makes it in years and it's this shit show.

I watched the opening and the first game. It was so and so. I learned that Morgan Freeman has a prostetic hand?

The game was not really good. The "fans" left after the first half with Qatar behind two goals. Shows how enthusiastic they are.

I’ll watch teams I’m interested in watching. Saw the disallowed goal and the first goal today before getting on the road. I’m curious when the ass will fall off this thing and the QTR “police” do something that outrages the world.

Ecuador won and I see too many people that thinks that their lives have somewhat improved because of this. I mean, you can be proud for your national team, but I feel that many think that this is a lot more important than it really is.

The economy sucks, politics suck, climate change is coming and will suck, everyone is quickly getting poorer, but hey, football! Whooo!
Bread & circuses, still holds true.

A number of (European) teams had agreed with Fifa that they could mount minimalist protest on the field against oppression and for human rights and so on - the captain would wear a rainbow arm band instead of a one-colored one. Larger tokens were already off the table.
Now England, the Netherlands et al have been informed that wearing a rainbow band will result in a yellow card for the captain in question.
"we were willing to risk a fine, but not a yellow card" so England and the Netherlands, at least, have decided to abide and not show any sort of protest at all.
Gosh, all that "tolerance" and "unite people everywhere" and "human rights" talk and all those commercials against racism sure matter huh Fifa?
Pathetic, and perhaps an even more powerful statement of "in big sports the only thing that matters is money and keeping the status quo, no civil disobedience or making fans think allowed" than the whole kneeling thing in the USA.
Qatar could protest all they want, they could write a fine or whatever, but sports penalties? Those are not for the host to determine. What's next, gay players aren't allowed? No colored hair? No music?

Bubble181 said:

England and the Netherlands, at least, have decided to abide and not show any sort of protest at all.

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Germany too.

“We cannot risk offending my patron sheik who is giving me millions of dollars and this really cool car.” -every FIFA board member

chris said:

Germany too.

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They've all bowed down by now, Belgium too.
I hope the players dare organize their own unofficial means... Shave their hair in rainbow shape, color your hair as a team in tan different colors, whatever.

Qatar has also banned beer, kosher food, and religious displays that are not muslim.

It’s weird. Normally the evil countries just chill out for a few weeks when hosting.

So apparently even though it's in Qatar, it's Saudi Arabia that paid off their opponents and the refs?
That second Saudi goal really was a good action, though, well done.

Bubble181 said:

So apparently even though it's in Qatar, it's Saudi Arabia that paid off their opponents and the refs?
That second Saudi goal really was a good action, though, well done.

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If they did I hope they got a partial refund for the amount of time the ref added on after the Saudi keeper accidentally hit one of his own defenders with the Atomic Hyper Knee of Death!

Argentina, well Messi and those other guys, played just like Argentina of late. Score early, get complacent and try to scramble to stay in the game.

OMG. Japan with the upset over Germany. Germany pulled an Argentina with getting a bit complacent and Japan just continuously building the pressure. The game winner was a great play, highlight of the tournament so far.

Well. Belgium had a match. It was played. We have a result.
I don't think there's anything else positive to say about that performance.

Courtois was great, as usual.

Bubble181 said:

Well. Belgium had a match. It was played. We have a result.
I don't think there's anything else positive to say about that performance.

Courtois was great, as usual.

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Well… they didn’t allow Canada to score their first ever WC goal. That’s a positive, right?

Go America

Good lord that bel-mar match was a drama.
We played much better than against Canada, but uggghhhh.

Sports or politics. Politics or sports.

Obviously horrible and all but... You're in a country in the middle of social unrest, the football team and their family were openly threatened with violence, hundreds have been killed for simply being out on the streets at the wrong time, and you tihnk it's a good idea to celebrate the Great Satan's win over the team of the Holy Republic? That was, perhaps, not the wisest course of action possible.

What a day. Woof.

One of the biggest US soccer journalists who got in trouble for showing up to a game in a rainbow tshirt and has been very critical of Qatar in general has mysteriously died.

Yeah this is fucked

Argentina just won in penalty kicks. I was going for France but am still impressed the French equalized like they did. That was one hell of a game.

One of the best Soccer games I’ve ever seen. Congrats to Argentina for winning the coin toss contest as well.

Oh, that was today? I haven't watched much this week.

I was unable to watch it thanks to cable company turf wars but I kept up on the ESPN site and was still excited. I’ll be able to watch the replay later.

Had the game on my phone though
2 1/2 church services, I’m our video director/producer so I was in my own room. That was the best finals game in years. Messi getting the goals he did was incredible, and not surprised that he’s now changed his mind about retiring from international play.

Sparhawk said:

Messi getting the goals he did was incredible, and not surprised that he’s now changed his mind about retiring from international play.

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Huh I would’ve thought he’d be happy to go out on top and only keep doing it if he still hadn’t won one.

blotsfan said:

Huh I would’ve thought he’d be happy to go out on top and only keep doing it if he still hadn’t won one.

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He’s been really wishy-washy the past couple of years about international play. He has gone from playing to not to playing but this is it and now I’m not retiring.

So I've been determinedly avoiding following this World Cup because I don't like all the stuff that's gone into Qatar hosting it, but I'd just like to say I'm happy Messi's finally got one.

Any of you guys Man Utd supporters? I need to make fun of Man Utd supporters but I don't know any.

bhamv3 said:

Any of you guys Man Utd supporters? I need to make fun of Man Utd supporters but I don't know any.

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Not I. I enjoy the games in PL, but I don’t really have a favorite team. Closest for me is probably Leicester or Wolverton for different reasons.

Erling Haaland just broke the Manchester City record for most goals scored by one player in a single season (he's on 39 for the season). For context they've still got another 11 Premier League games to go. At least 2 more Champions League games - 5 if they reach the Final. Between 1-3 FA Cup games depending on their results.

That means he hasn't just broken the record, he's broken it with at least 14 games & potentially up to 19 games still to play. And he's averaging more than a goal a game!

Der Kaiser, Franz Beckenbauer has died at the age of 78. One of the greatest footballers ever & one of only three men to have won the World Cup as both a player and a manager. In a slightly spooky coincidence that's less than a week after Mario Zagallo the first man to do so also died.

I'd heard about Beckenbauer but hadn't heard about Zagallo. Odd indeed.

See here's the problem with holding the World Cup (partially) in the US. They have so little respect for the game the Final will be held in *shudder* New Jersey!

Between Dallas and Houston there will be 16 games in Texas so at least I have some choices on catching some games. Cost wise I’ll probably be limited to only the Group stage, but that’s okay.

When you roll a critical failure on your free-kick skill.

I'm starting to think Harry Kane is cursed. That is all.

I think Dortmund fans self-immolated

I haven’t seen that many German bodies burning since-