Soccer Thread 2016-17

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

"The CHEAPEST ticket on the resale market to next Saturday's MLS Cup (Seattle Sounders at Toronto FC) is $450. It is an obstructed view."

-Darren Rovell, ESPN

[miami_fan]

Well that escalated quickly.

[miami_fan]

And amazingly Diego was not one of the people sent off.

[CrescentMoonie]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

And amazingly Diego was not one of the people sent off.

He sure tried even though he had already been subbed out.

[CrescentMoonie]

And there's Dortmund and Monchengladbach going nuts less than 7 minutes in. 1-1 already.

[sovereignstar v2]

Anthony Taylor has to be man of the match for Chelsea. Standout performance for sure.

[Katon]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

Anthony Taylor has to be man of the match for Chelsea. Standout performance for sure.

No, man of the match would be City's collective shooting skills. If you show up with a plan which boils down to "dominate play and carve open their defence at the expense of Nicolas Otomendi spending a lot of time one-on-one with Hazard or Costa on the break" and then finish that poorly, getting torn to shreds is kind of the inevitable consequence.

Taylor declining to call David Luiz's block on Aguero certainly didn't help, but my sympathy for Aguero is at a rather low ebb given that joke of a tackle in stoppage time.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

Anthony Taylor has to be man of the match for Chelsea. Standout performance for sure.

Luiz deserved a straight red. I have no idea why the ref didn't give that.

I'm hard as hell on refs. Harder than just about anyone. No problems being pissed at Taylor for that, I think he butchered the call.

But what the hell? I mean, seriously, what in the hell? That challenge was disgusting. It isn't the first time Aguero has pulled this on Luiz either. The FA needs to go over the standard 3 game violent conduct suspension for this. It's at least 5 at a minimum. This is the second time in two months Aguero felt frustrated at a non call and decided to try to inflict pain on the player in question.

That's pure garbage. I hate Diego Costa for his garbage, Aguero has just cemented himself in that class as far as I'm concerned. There is simply no justification for his actions.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Plane crash involving Copa Sudamerica finalist Chapecoense (Brazil) on their way to play in Medellin. Hopefully the initial reports are inaccurate and there are more survivors than 6/81 Brazilian team Chapecoense on board plane that crashed over Colombia – latest | World news | The Guardian

Here's a little follow up on the plane crash:

Fuel folly: Why the Chapecoense football team’s plane ran out of fuel | The Economist

Disturbing Details Emerge About This Week's Crash In Colombia - One Mile at a Time

More Sickening Details Emerge About Lamia's Crash In Colombia - One Mile at a Time

• The flight from Santa Cruz to Medellin covers a distance of 2,960km, while the range of the Avro RJ85 is 2,965km

• The black box recording confirms that the pilot could be heard saying they were running out of fuel, and authorities have confirmed that the plane had no fuel when it crashed

How on earth could a plane try to operate a flight beyond its range?!? As is often the case with these accidents, it seems to be a combination of many unfortunate factors:

• Before taking Lamia from Santa Cruz, the team had taken a commercial flight from Sao Paulo to Santa Cruz, which was delayed by an hour
• Lamia had planned on making a refueling stop in Cobija, Bolivia, but that airport shuts down at night, so that was no longer possible due to the delay of the previous flight
• When the plane departed Santa Cruz, the ground staff raised concerns about the plane flying nonstop, though the pilot made “verbal guarantees” that the plane had enough fuel for the trip
• The Lamia pilot requested priority to land in Medellin, though another plane had a fuel leak, so got priority (requesting priority is different than declaring an emergency)
• The Lamia pilot only declared an emergency after the plane was out of fuel and descending
• The pilot was a co-owner of the airline, which may be why he was so motivated to operate the flight as scheduled; he may have been concerned that if they didn’t get the team where they needed to be on-time, it could cost them future business, and also concerned that if they declared an emergency, it could raise red flags with authorities about why they tried to operate a flight beyond the plane’s range
• Lamia’s operating license has now been suspended (their only plane crashed, so that may be a moot point)

From a professional standpoint this really equates to to murder. It's egregious. It'll be another one of those events that we study to find out how to prevent crashes, however we all know that this one was made in the planning room, by one person.

[AlexB]

Haven't seen anybody post this yet, so I present to you, from the ex-Swansea legend that is Lee Trundle, possibly the greatest penalty of all time!

Swansea City legend Lee Trundle scores outrageous penalty - YouTube

[Critch]

Good penalty, but he has two legs.

One legged Dundee United fan scores amazing goal at Tannadice

[CrescentMoonie]

Of course bottom of the table FC Ingolstadt is the first team to beat RB Leipzig this season.

[BishopMVP]

CL finally going to two time slots in 2018.

Also, any thoughts on the likely world cup expansion that'll probably come in 2026? I get that it'll water down the overall field, but I like it if they stick to 8 round robin groups with 5 teams each & 16 teams advancing to the knockout stages. An extra group stage game each & presumably slightly harder for fluke teams to advance thru.

[bhlloy]

Is this ref the best MLS can come up with? He's been the worst kind, inconsistent and picky

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

CL finally going to two time slots in 2018.

Also, any thoughts on the likely world cup expansion that'll probably come in 2026? I get that it'll water down the overall field, but I like it if they stick to 8 round robin groups with 5 teams each & 16 teams advancing to the knockout stages. An extra group stage game each & presumably slightly harder for fluke teams to advance thru.

Infantino was talking about 3 team groups and an extra round, which would be a farce, especially with the additional nations, some of whom won't be very good.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Infantino was talking about 3 team groups and an extra round, which would be a farce, especially with the additional nations, some of whom won't be very good.

Yea. That is what I had heard as well. 3 team groups would be a joke.

[kingfc22]

Would be nice if Fox mixed up their crowd shots a bit more instead of showing the same 4 guys each time.

[kingfc22]

Michael Bradley in a nutshell

[MizzouCowboy]

Was never in doubt that he'd miss it... and just like it got interesting again.

[PilotMan]

Fire that producer for not getting the final shot on camera.

[ISiddiqui]

Absolutely insane that Seattle had 0 shots on goal for 120 mins and wins the Cup...

Though Torres and Frei were the Men of the Match. Bradley and Altidore played really well for TFC, but Giovinco was quite bad, and Ricketts came in waaaaay too late.

[kingfc22]

Arsenal getting absolutely dominated in this second half.

[Young Drachma]

Going to have to research how to watch Championship games next year when Swansea gets relegated.

Depor is above the line right now, but can't afford to fall.

Sassuolo has cooled off.

Hoffenheim, at least, have still not lost and sit third in the Bundesliga. So there's that.

Looking forward to the Spring season of LigaMX. Always an upside down league and not the slog that MLS is.

[BishopMVP]

Some news starting to trickle out about January camp (which is always over-populated by MLS guys.) DMB coming back into camp, Keegan Rosenberry & Kekuta Manneh (who is now a US citizen but doesn't have FIFA paperwork done yet) 2 interesting new additions. First game January 29 vs Serbia.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

Going to have to research how to watch Championship games next year when Swansea gets relegated.

It's on Bein Sports. Actual tv coverage is a bit sparse, they have more on their Bein Sports Connect streaming service. The streaming is unreliable though.

No idea how you'll see them in League One in two years time.

[ISiddiqui]

Looks like Crystal Palace have fired Alan Pardew and are currently talking to Sam Allardyce (yes, him) about the job.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Critch

It's on Bein Sports. Actual tv coverage is a bit sparse, they have more on their Bein Sports Connect streaming service. The streaming is unreliable though.

No idea how you'll see them in League One in two years time.

H8u

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Critch

It's on Bein Sports. Actual tv coverage is a bit sparse, they have more on their Bein Sports Connect streaming service. The streaming is unreliable though.

No idea how you'll see them in League One in two years time.

BeIn is pretty good - while you wont get 'every' match I manage to get 4-5 Brighton matches a year through it and supplement that with going to live matches when I'm back in England for work ..

[Neuqua]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

BeIn is pretty good - while you wont get 'every' match I manage to get 4-5 Brighton matches a year through it and supplement that with going to live matches when I'm back in England for work ..

He's right. It's been a struggle being a Newcastle supporter and no longer having every game on TV. Luckily most were available on radio streaming and there's been a decent handful available on Bein.

[miami_fan]

Props to Chelsea for turning a thirty five million pound profit on Oscar.

[miami_fan]

Anyone know if there are any documentaries similar to the Premier League Download and Behind the Badge series for clubs outside the Premier League?

[Critch]

This one is 20 years old, but it's good:

Leyton Orient Documentary - Sold for a Fiver

More recently there's a 4 episode thing called "Class of '92 - Out of their League" about the ex-Man Utd players (Butt, Nevilles, Beckham, Scholes) buying non-League Salford City. There are links on Youtube, although the BBC stamps down on them for copyright pretty quickly.

Not really the same subject, but it's the best soccer documentary I've watched recently: Storyville - Forever Pure. Follows the fallout when the owner of Beitar Jerusalem signs a couple of Chechen Muslim players. Beitar and their fans are hardline, they are the only Israeli team who refuse to use Arab players so the new players arent welcomed. Not sure where that can be found.

[Young Drachma]

Bob Bradley had to take that Swansea job, but man...I wonder if they'll let him hang out when we're in the Championship. Not that it's such an attractive gig right now anyway.

[bhlloy]

Hell be lucky if he sees February, never mind the championship

[Critch]

Swansea are home to Bournemouth on the 31st. Lose that one and he might not see 2017. Swansea have been pretty quick on the trigger (probably too quick) with their last few manager firings.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Critch

Swansea are home to Bournemouth on the 31st. Lose that one and he might not see 2017. Swansea have been pretty quick on the trigger (probably too quick) with their last few manager firings.

Yeah, but Huw keeps doing that and I was thinking maybe the new American investors would have sway. I mean, axing managers worked last year to keep us up...though I think that was more about the talent of our personnel.

I was just assuming if they brought him here at this point, they figured they'd just go down with the ship with him at the helm. Not like Ryan Giggs wants the job now (anymore) so no idea whose supposed to replace him and motivate this roster into something other than a lethargic mess.

But they're not just bad because they're bad, they look even worse and overmatched since he took over.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Critch

Not really the same subject, but it's the best soccer documentary I've watched recently: Storyville - Forever Pure. Follows the fallout when the owner of Beitar Jerusalem signs a couple of Chechen Muslim players. Beitar and their fans are hardline, they are the only Israeli team who refuse to use Arab players so the new players arent welcomed. Not sure where that can be found.

It's a BBC production so its not commonly available outside of the UK - It irks me horribly that they don't allow people to pay the license fee if you're out of the country ... anyway it's available on YouTube fortunately ..

Forever Pure (2016) FULL MOVIE HD | Documentary - YouTube

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

It's a BBC production so its not commonly available outside of the UK - It irks me horribly that they don't allow people to pay the license fee if you're out of the country

New streaming service BritBox brings British TV to the U.S.

Looks like it's mainly old things, all the UK stuff currently on Netflix, but at least it'll have Eastenders within 24 hours.

There's always Bittorrent and/or IPTV if you are desperate for UK tv, that's what I use.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

I was just assuming if they brought him here at this point, they figured they'd just go down with the ship with him at the helm. Not like Ryan Giggs wants the job now (anymore) so no idea whose supposed to replace him and motivate this roster into something other than a lethargic mess.

They were outside the relegation zone when Swansea brought him in, so I dont think the plan was to go down with him, it was that he would repeat last season's kickstart and save them.

Looks like the Swansea fans are revolting, so not much chance that they can let Bradley take them down and carry on. When the fans start chanting "we want our club back" and "you dont know what you're doing", the board have to find a scapegoat quick.

Alan Pardew is available...

[ISiddiqui]

So the rumored deal of Darlington Nagbe to Celtic (from Portland Timbers), for $4mil at last rumor, has fallen through and both sides are say that they are the ones that killed it. An interesting situation that also raised some questions about Scottish league vs. MLS (though Celtic has Champions League, so that's some great potential experience).

[cartman]

It should have been called offside, but Mkhitaryan's goal yesterday was incredible.

http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Fe...oxing-Day.aspx

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

So the rumored deal of Darlington Nagbe to Celtic (from Portland Timbers), for $4mil at last rumor, has fallen through and both sides are say that they are the ones that killed it. An interesting situation that also raised some questions about Scottish league vs. MLS (though Celtic has Champions League, so that's some great potential experience).

MLS transfer fees back to line the pockets of SUM.

After watching the English League Two playoffs last year (long story), I felt like MLS is probably somewhere between the Championship and League One if one needed a crude comparison.

I have no doubt a MLS team without wage restrictions could compete in a different model league, but...top to bottom, there's a reason our best teams get waxed by LigaMX on the regular. We aren't even the best domestic league in our hemisphere.

[ISiddiqui]

The main reason, actually, is because we are in our preseason/early season form while LigaMX are in midseason form.

I would easily put MLS as Championship quality and a few of the teams are probably lower Prem quality. Equal to the Scottish Prem easily - I mean Perry Kitchen jumps to Hearts of Midlothian and becomes the Captain within a season (and they finished 3rd last season).

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Hell be lucky if he sees February, never mind the championship

Bradley is out.

[miami_fan]

Bob Bradley sacked as manager of Swansea City after just 11 games - ESPN FC

[Young Drachma]

haha...welp.

In his defense, he wasn't given much of a real chance. On the flip side, he wasn't the right guy for the job.

[ISiddiqui]

Eh... the only right guy for the job is likely someone like Sam Allerdyce and he was a bit tainted at the time (still is IMO, but oh well).

[ISiddiqui]

Interestingly, the CONCACAF President today pushed for a joint US/Mexico/Canada World Cup bid. In the past when joint bids were being suggested it was US & Mexico or US & Canada. All 3 is somewhat interesting. And, of course, I'm not too naive to realize that this is being proposed in light of who the US President is going to be next year.

[MrBug708]

Not everything is a tinfoil conspiracy theory

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Interestingly, the CONCACAF President today pushed for a joint US/Mexico/Canada World Cup bid. In the past when joint bids were being suggested it was US & Mexico or US & Canada. All 3 is somewhat interesting. And, of course, I'm not too naive to realize that this is being proposed in light of who the US President is going to be next year.

A. They gave a Cup to Russia under Putin
B. That dude won't be President when this WC is held, and that's even if he wins the next election (which I don't think he will).