Umm ... WTF

USMNT coach Berhalter calls Dest red card 'dumb mistake' - ESPN

Is that question for Dest or Berhalter? It is definitely an appropriate question to ask Dest. A better one might be why should Dest be given a chance to pull on the national shirt again. You can't get two yellow cards for that childlike behavior in middle school much less in international soccer. It is not like the ref missed some studs up ankle breaking tackle that was done to Dest. He got muscled off the ball in the final third with the U.S. up 1-0 and looking comfortable. Maniac behavior.

Oh I meant Dest. ESPN is to blame for the headline.

Yeah, I was watching the game, and couldn't figure out what in the hell set that off

Paths (mostly) set for the playoff draw


Path A: Poland, Wales, Estonia

Path B: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel

Path C : Georgia vs. Luxembourg, Greece vs. Kazakhstan

Why does Path A only have 3, Path B 2, and Path C 4? Because three teams need to be sorted to see what team will join Path A, and what two teams are in Path B. That draw will be on Thursday (Thanksgiving US) at 11 am GMT


Part of me wants to quip that if Ukraine gets put in Path B, the Israel v Ukraine game will decide who gets US aid first.

Meanwhile, here are the Pots for the draw (6 groups, each group will have one team from each Pot)

CONFIRMED EURO 2024 DRAW POTS

Pot 1: Germany, Portugal, France, Belgium, Spain, England

Pot 2: Hungary, Turkey, Denmark, Albania, Romania, Austria

Pot 3: Netherlands, Scotland, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czechia

Pot 4: Italy, Serbia, Switzerland, Playoff A, Playoff B, Playoff C

Group of death would be: Spain, Turkey, Netherlands, Italy.

and dola: Mexico advances on penalties. Of course, no one's going to mention the refs literally let them play until Mexico scored the equalizer in the 11th minute of second half stoppage time, sending off two Honduras players after that, and then forcing retakes of penalties until the third attempt was scored.

It's somewhat complicated, but it's cut and dry to me.
Path A is for Nations League A teams
Path B is for Nations League B teams
Path C is for Nations League C teams
The best 4 unqualified teams go into each playoffs path.

If for whatever reasons there would be less than 4 teams unqualified from any league, Estonia (as League D winner) was the wild card to get thrown into the highest open spot first. If there's still an open spot, next would be the next best starting at League A and going down to League B.

For Path B, you're missing Finland and Ukraine and for Path A you're missing Iceland.

Or I must have misread UEFA's regulations, becasuse they changed it once again, and they somehow decided to throw Finland in Path A and Iceland in Path B. :confused:

Joke of a disallow

He had his hand on the GK arm: certainly won’t be overturned by VAR as the ref gave it. Might have stood if it was given a goal, but even though I hate VAR, I do like them sticking with the on field decision if 50:50

Hope this is true. Barco is a very interesting prospect.

https://twitter.com/City_Xtra/status...tLvZwl7rw&s=19

Another corrupt official outed

https://twitter.com/Priceless_MCI/st...6SyYqwm-Q&s=19

Yeah, that decision makes no sense. Can't wait to hear the explanation. My best guess is that he figured Grealish was offside so wanted to give City the free kick instead of getting nothing, but....

FWIW, I don't think EPL officials are corrupt, I think they're suffering from a mixture of a) not being very good and b) the implementation of VAR warping their understanding of how to call a match.

The new US soccer training facility is going to be located near the home of Marvel and Walking Dead.

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PSA: Studs up two footed tackles now allowed

LOL. Really stretching the definition of two footed tackle there. Yellow card would have been justifiable but there are always tackles worse than that each week that also draw no cards

You love guys leaving their feet and landing on opposing players. Presenter on Sky Sports agreed it was a red

Reasonable Arsenal fan, rare

https://twitter.com/BigRedArsenal/st...anqEeBzOg&s=19

LOL from the Guardian write-up of Man City vs. Luton:

While that's not the standard example of a "studs up two footed tackle" it's certainly at least a yellow for a very reckless challenge. At game speed I can see not initially calling it a red, but not to call a foul at all?

And here's, again, the problem with VAR:


1. Can't believe the VAR can't recommend a yellow here. That's pants-on-head stupid.

2. When I reviewed it in slow motion, easy red. I thought this was the whole point behind VAR. Mistakes will be made / things missed at game speed, but if you get to see some of these instances in slow motion, you can make the right call.

From a fan's point of view, Part b just tells me you have weak minded officials which would lead to part a. Correct me if I am wrong but the only part of the on field officiating that has been adjusted for VAR are the assistant referees being told to delay putting up their flags for offsides. Other than that, I don't see why VAR would warp their understanding.

The expectations is for the on field officials to call the match and receive assistance from VAR. Take the incident from the City/Luton match this weekend. I also think it was a yellow, not a red for me. However, according to the EPL VAR rules, if the ref saw it, does not think it was a foul and most importantly is clear to everyone involved that he saw the incident clearly then that is that. The match official had the final say. It is also the reason VAR can only recommend actions outside of offsides

I think the implementation of VAR is making themselves doubt themselves through a combination of overthinking (because of what can and cannot be done by VAR) and second guessing.

You can call that weak minded, but there's a certain amount of career / money / pride at stake here. They're already in a challenging position and the way the EPL has implemented VAR is making it worse.

Man' I can't believe a ref would give a yellow for a studs up, DOGSO tackle. Emerson has to protect himself, shouldn't even have been a foul.

Blocked

That "tackle" is pretty much the dictionary definition of Serious Foul Play. Ederson should have been sent off.

I'd be pretty disappointed by that draw, Liverpool.

The verdict is out, FIFA and UEFA have lost the case, as predicted, there's nothing they can legally do to stop any Super League kind of ideas (blame ESPN for the auto-loading video if that bothers you as much as it bothers me): Top EU court rules UEFA, FIFA ban on Super League illegal - ESPN

Reportedly Paris Saint Germain rigged the Ballon d'Or election in 2021 to make Lionel Messi win it ahead of Robert Lewandowski. So shocking for PSG to do something like that, that's so uncharacteristic for that club. :rolleyes:

Sadio Mane married an 18 year old. But don't worry, he didn't approach her until she was 18... although he did court her in secret, which is totally different.

Senegal star Sadio Mane marries longtime girlfriend Aisha Tamba - Businessday NG

We nearly had a Chapecoense situation as the Oxygen failed on a flight carrying Gambia's national team to the African Cup of Nations, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing after some players fell unconscious due to lack of oxygen:


The Gambia (you have to say "The Gambia", right?) officials then tried to put them on the very same small propeller-based plane for the trip again, claiming the problem had been fixed.


Needless to say, the players said "FUCK NO" to that.


Gambia players, staff say oxygen failed on plane to AFCON - ESPN

Five crazy good goals in the City-Newcastle match today

Wow! I would say this is a surprise when I can post a link from CNN.

Jürgen Klopp to step down as Liverpool manager at the end of the season | CNN

That's a big blow and a big surprise, but it sounds like he was starting to burn out, and you like to see people leave before that happens, given the toll it takes on them and others.

Now let's watch Liverpool do succession planning like 1000% better than Man Utd.

Putting two and two together, Klopp is burnt out by club football and the Germany coach Nagelsmann is only contracted until the end of the Euros in the summer, so Klopp for Germany.

And some more guesswork, Xabi Alonso is doing great at Leverkusen and he's ex-Liverpool. So succession plan is in place.

Still wouldnt count out them finding creative ways to bottle it but Leverkuse beat Bayern 3-0 and is now up 5 points.

Only at AFCON ... Ivory Coast, hosting the tournament, lost 2 games in the group Stage, sacked the coach, still ended up advancing somehow and ... Win the title. And scoring the winning goal was Haller, who hadn't scored a single goal for Dortmund this season after being at the centre of last seasons last game choke (missing a penalty), while before that he was playing amazing in his return from cancer treatment.

Well that escalated quickly



Austria after 6 seconds

Florian Wirtz erzielt das schnellste Tor der DFB-Geschichte! 🤯 | sportstudio | #shorts - YouTube

Germany after 8

I know what you're trying to share here (two goals on one night in friendly matches with a goal after 7 seconds), but the first link is somebody random playing a simulation and the second one is a link without video.

Wasn't when i posted. The pitfalls of avoiding copyright infractions for the first link i guess ... (2nd still works for me, maybe a region thing as it's from the german official broadcaster of that game)

Berhalter haters are in shambles today after yet another dos a cero.

that Tyler Adams goal right before halftime was amazing

Leverkusen will (likely...) really win a title. Just after Alonso announced he's staying they win another one late (from 0:1 at 87 minutes to 2:1) and Bayern looses at home to Dortmund for the first time in 10 years.

Leverkusen is 13 points up with 7 games left.

Having a panenka saved really looks painful for the taker.

That wasn't a paneka. It was just a shit penalty down the middle. No idea what he was thinking there

One hundred and fifty-five financial violations only buys you one UCL trophy, apparently.

Pretty ballsy for a United fan to be trolling

32 matches into the 2023-24 Premier League season and Manchester United have a goal differential of -1

Zoinks Scoob!

Demo-economic analysis of player transfers (2014-2023) - CIES Football Observatory

I was looking to trigger you and you delivered beyond my expectations. Thank you.

Also:

Those football clubs from Manchester - and from England in general - sure know how to quickly burn all that money given by their foreign sugar daddies.

This seems like lawsuit words to me.

Three extremely poor decisions - three penalties not given - which we simply cannot accept.

We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times.

NFFC will now consider its options.

— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) April 21, 2024