Soccer Thread 2022-2023
 

Time for a new thread. The women are taking over the international stage.

Women's Euros start tomorrow on ESPN+. Big news today that Ballon d'Or and FIFA Best Women's Player winner Alexia Putellas who is also Spain's captain tore her ACL today and will miss the tournament. I will still be rooting for Spain though I expect England to win.

CONCACAF W Championship started yesterday with the USWNT beating Hati 3-0. It is streaming on Paramount. A win is a win but that performance was not a good one.

Finally, 39 days and 42 days after crowning their respective champions, the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying has begun.

Premier League football player faces two further allegations of rape

Paramount+ has been pretty good for the early Champions League qualifiers, brought to the end the long dark summer days of no soccer. Educational too, I now know that Batumi is in Georgia.

All of the internet rumors for the arrested PL player seem to be giving the same name now. 29 years old, North London, international who would be going to the World Cup, not many names who fit that list.

My god, this is an amazing attacking display by England and a horrible display of defense by Norway.

I forgot to post this back when it happened. Better late than never?

So happy to see Nottingham Forest make it back to the top. I watched their final match on ESPN+. It was my first time using the channel since I signed up for the Disney bundle back in December.

It was an exciting match. Their GK got injured around the 90th minute and their backup is an American. He came in and played well in the 7 or so minutes of stoppage to seal the 1-0 victory. I hope they manage to avoid relegation.

neymar.

Is Pep getting plugs or a transplant so he will have something to pull out when PSG Neymar does PSG Neymar things?

My son went to the Arsenal vs Chelsea match in Orlando last night. He said he had a great time despite going with his Chelsea supporting best friend. He enjoyed explaining to his friend why they had to go through a specific gate as opposed to the gate that was closest to where they parked.:lol:

Manchester United spending all summer trying to sign de Jong for 80M for a role not of need, no matter how good he is, when Manchester City just signed Kalvin Phillips for 42M for a role of great need for United really summarizes everything about being a fan of this team right now.

Oh knoes! What a frightening think-tank! As if Ferguson hasn't been pulling lots of strings since he retired. HE is part of the current problem with that club.

Sir Alex Ferguson is BACK at Manchester United to assist with all aspects of the club | Daily Mail Online

I think we have a top candidate for the award of "The most petulant red card of the 2022-23" season on day 1 of it.

https://twitter.com/Mattyp45/status/1553393769399160833

Seen some posts online complaining about the ref and blaming him, but Tomlin deserved the red just for being a dick.

Ah, Tomlin. The guy who would get into shape just long enough to play a couple of games towards the end of the year to get an extension and then show up for the new season 30lb overweight and immediately get injured for 6 months.

Complete waste of talent but he’s managed to use it just enough to make a nice career in the EFL. Definitely could have been much more though.

DOLA - 11th red card in the EFL I think that was. For somebody who has missed so many games in his career, that’s quite an impressive record.

England have won the the European Championship over Germany, in extra time, without needing to go to penalties!

Time to disband the men's team in shame, really....

LOL, idiots. Per Law 12.3, there's 3 or 4 yellow cards in the space of about 5 seconds there:

Delaying restart of the play, twice. (2)
Unsportsmanlike behavior for attempting to deceive the referee (1)
If you want to be petty, another yellow for persistent offences.

What an idiot.

Can someone tell me WTF Leicester is doing? From a US/casual fan standpoint, nothing makes sense. Following a nice 6-8 year run of top 8-10 finishes, they are the only EPL team not to sign a single player this off-season, all of their best players are rumored to be possibly sold, even to inferior teams in their own league, and now Schmeichel is gone. Why the hell would Vardy want to stay?

Is this just a total reset looking at the future, or are there financial issues offsetting several years of solid finishes? I don't get it. I root for them, and I get parting with aging players, but a total sell-off seems like an unforced error and/or profit-taking.

Not sure if this belongs in here or in the streaming thread, but the All or Nothing:Arsenal showed up today on Prime. First three episodes are available and one a week from now on.

A good watch so far.

My educated guess is they need to balance the books. LFC usually makes a big money player sale that helps finance player buys. Riyad Mahrez in 18/19, Harry Maguire in 19/20, and Ben Chillwell in 20/21. Those guys brought in at least $55 million each. Last year the biggest sale brought in a whopping $3.30 million and they only brought in about $4.4 million in total. According to Transfermarkt, Ndidi, Tielmans, and Maddison are valued at $55m or above. My guess is they probably need to sell 2 of those 3 to fund a few incoming transfers.

I'm going to try to do a version of the Premier League Predictions the BBC website does every week.

The rules are as follows: Call the correct result (win or draw), 10 Points. Call the correct score, 30 Points

For comparison, here are the BBC's picks between their main predictor (Chris Sutton) and their weekly guest (this time it's his co-host, Ali Bruce-Ball)

Premier League predictions - week 1
Result Sutton ABB
FRIDAY
Crystal Palace v Arsenal x-x 1-2 1-1
SATURDAY
Fulham v Liverpool x-x 0-3 0-4
Bournemouth v Aston Villa x-x 0-1 1-2
Leeds v Wolves x-x 0-0 1-1
Newcastle v Nott'm Forest x-x 1-0 2-0
Tottenham v Southampton x-x 2-1 3-0
Everton v Chelsea x-x 0-2 0-2
SUNDAY
Leicester v Brentford x-x 1-1 2-1
Man Utd v Brighton x-x 1-1 0-1
West Ham v Man City x-x 0-3 0-2

My predictions

Friday

Crystal Palace v Arsenal (3:00 PM Eastern)

My brain tells me it's a horrible idea to predict a fast start for the Gunners, because, well, (waves hand at all their debacles over the last few years). But Crystal Palace haven't done enough to improve in the transfer market, and Arsenal are looking good in preseason (now that joke's out of the way...). I'm going to reluctantly pick Arsenal to avoid the banana peel.

Foz Predicts: Arsenal 1-0

Saturday

Fulham v Liverpool (7:30 AM Eastern)

Welcome back to the Premier League, Cottagers.. your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to not get utterly thrashed by a Liverpool team that decided to reload and just took the Community Shield from Man City. (Random Note: The auto-correct in Firefox wanted to change Fulham into Shameful. You know something I don't auto-correct?)

(talk about Mission:Impossible)

Foz Prediction: Liverpool 4-0

Bournemouth v Aston Villa (10 AM Eastern)

Neither side has really improved itself over the last season, but Villa had a better squad last year, and I like them to squeak it by the lone goal.

Foz Prediction: Aston Villa 1-0

Leeds vs Wolves (10 AM Eastern)

We talk about matchup where the irresistible force meets the immovable object. This is the opposite of that. The resistible force (Wolves offense without injured players) vs the Moveable Object (Leeds traditionally all-offense defense). I almost went with the Leeds shocker but I'll take the safe draw.

Foz Prediction: 0-0

Newcastle vs Nottingham Forest (10 AM Eastern)

I was so prepared to LOL at the Magpies when they were taking over by the Saudis in their current sportswashing regime. This looked to be a prime candidate for the usual "Instant Gratification signing high priced has-beens and overhyped players before it all breaks down messily" story we see when new rich owners take over. That hasn't happened so far, and looking at their transfer activity, I'm not sure it will ever happen. Not quite a big six team yet, but I don't see Newcastle sweating the drop like they did last season pre-takeover. Forest has made it back to the EPL, but this is one of the tougher matchups they could have gotten as they travel to Newcastle

Foz Prediction Newcastle 2-0

Spurs vs Southampton (10 AM Eastern)

Someone needs to remake a certain show and make it about Spurs. They could call it "It's always sunny (to start the season) in Tottenham." Every year, they look placed to do well to start the season, only to well, you know... be Tottenham. They have a lot of offense, and for once actually have some capable backups. Southampton have to be favorites for the drop, so I think that the Tottenham hype train will be full speed ahead after a big week 1 win. Of course, we're just waiting for the wheels to come off..

Foz Prediction: Tottenham 3-0

Chelsea v Everton (12:30 PM Eastern)

You know, with Everton being so laughable last year for most of the season, you think this would be a great time to bet on Chelsea. Not so fast, my friends. Chelsea are a team in flux (as opposed to their opponents, who are a team in fucked.). They're still at the stage that most Football Manager players are familiar with. "Well, I can put him there, but that leaves an opening here, and do I really want to use him in that role...". Chelsea lack familiarity and a common vision at this point. I'm still taking them to win, but I wouldn't be shocked to see a sharing of the points.

Foz Prediction 1-0 Chelsea

SUNDAY

Leicster City vs Brentford (9:00 AM Eastern)

True story: When I was going to type this section out, I tried for a gut reaction to seeing the match up, but I get "Eff If I know what's going to happen" out of this. Any of the three results wouldn't surprise me. Selling your long term first choice keeper a week before the season does not a confidence booster make. Brentford look decent enough, but I'm going to take the draw because well, "Eff if I know what's going to happen."

Foz Prediction: 1-1 Draw

Manchester United vs Brighton (9:00 AM)

Speaking of teams that "Eff I know what's going to happen", helloooooo Manchester United! After an offseason where Cristiano Ronaldo tried to flog himself to every champions league under the sun and tried to pull the petulant star power move of leaving a preseason game at halftime after being substituted, but he's not going anywhere. At least for now. New manager, new system, and well (waves vaguely at the fans wanting the Glazers under the Guillotines). In short, this fixture is a whole truckload of banana peels for the Red Devils. I don't think it's a complete wind up, but to the Red Devils fans, a draw is as good as a loss, so let's go for that.

Foz Prediction: 2-2 draw

West Ham United vs Manchester City 11:30 AM

Oof. Poor ol Hammers. Playing the last game of the week. Against the defending champs. Who are snarling mad over losing the Community Shield. Who have a new striker whose every game without at least two goals will be panned by the critics. The last thing we'll see in week 1 of the Premier League is a mighty old fashioned tushy whompin of West Ham.

Foz Predicts: Manchester City 3-1

City lost the Community Shield to Leicester last season, then followed it up with a dud to Spurs. And West Ham has been a bit of a bogey team as of late. I would not be surprised with a draw or loss to be honest. Pep limited preseason matches so as to not overwork the players, some of who will be struggling mightily with this Qatar World Cup bullshit. We won't be clicking on all cylinders until September most likely.

It's this.

They haven't made an operating profit since 2017. Which isn't the end of the world, really, as long as they don't get too far over their skis. So they need sales to fund purchases.

Honestly, I'd take the news as more of a good thing than a bad thing. Plenty of mid-table teams make a gamble that they can overspend and then make it up by qualifying for the UCL and then when they miss they get into huge financial trouble which screws them up for years. What Leicester's doing is a sign that they know what the safe road to take it, and aren't going to jeopardize their position.


Just a reminder that this fixture ended 4-0 in favor of Brighton last May.

I'm watching all the Ten Hag stuff with a creeping sense of dread. It's all positives of how he's getting the team to "buy in" and whatnot, but there's still a gaping hole in the bottom of the midfield that's been there since Carrick retired and has only grown in importance in the modern game.

I meant to write this for a couple of weeks now: FC Barcelona has turned into the new Real Madrid in terms of asshole-ish player management.

The club really has become an embarrassment. None of it makes any sense unless the plan is to sell it to a nation state that write off all debt or run it out of business.

I beg of you Fulham FC. Stop holding Tim Ream hostage and allow him to retire or to go to a EFL club.

That is a positive way of me saying Tim Ream is not a starting center back for a Premier League team.

Also, who thought bringing in Bobby Madley to referee in the EPL was a good guy?

Well, only called three results right so far, but at least two of them was the right score-result. Small blessings.

I probably posted the same thing a year ago, but I really appreciate the EPL knowing its North American audience so well that it continues to shoot itself in the foot. Any diehard EPL fan has likely bought Peacock. Every other NA sport celebrates its season opening by televising a bunch of games on opening day/weekend and giving complimentary access to their main PPV packages. Instead, EPL buries 2 of 10 games on USA Network and only 1 game on Saturday/Sunday. Ridiculous. Meanwhile, surfing around on Saturday afternoon I see Bundesliga airing on frickin ABC.

WTG, EPL and NBC!

I remember the beginning of EPL and NBC. I had DirecTV and was able to DVR every match every week. That was 9 years ago. I think only half the matches were on extra/overrun channels.

Ten Haag is either making a deliberate point to the Glazers or he’s not lasting more than half a season. A center midfield of Fred and McTominay is probably a bottom 5 midfield in the prem… and that might be generous.

Glad I didn't get to watch Leicester anyway. Continuation from last year, blowing leads. So predictable.

You love to see it

To be fair, who else is supposed to do the running for everyone upfront along with Fernandes AND protect Matt Maguire from being exposed? I am not even trying to slag off Maguire either. He is not a bad defender. He just can't be left out on an island while everyone is bombing forward. The fact that they have not bought a DM to move both of them to the bench is a failure of the board once again.

90 Points from Week 1, as I called five match results right, with two exact scores. Let's make it into triple digits in round 2, ya?

Saturday

Aston Villa-Everton : Everton aren't very good at all, still. But they were much less disappointing than Villa was in week 1.

Foz Prediction: 1-1 draw

Arsenal-Leicester City: Leicester blew a two goal lead against Brentford. It's very unlikely they'll have a chance to blow a two goal lead against the Gunners.

Foz Prediction: 2-0 Arsenal

Brighton & Hove Albion-Newcastle United: Brighton outplayed ManYoo in week 1, this week, they face a Real United. Newcastle looked very good, and I think Newcastle will make it two for two.

Foz Prediction: 2-1 Newcastle

Manchester City-AFC Bournemouth: Bournemouth got the somewhat surprise win last week, but until further notice, picking against Man City to drop points is a stupid idea, and shouldn't be done.

Foz Prediction: 3-0 Manchester City

Southampton-Leeds United: Leeds were somewhat fortunate to get the three points last week against Wolves, but another victory here would be big, six points in the bank from 2 would go a long way towards easing relegation concerns early in the year. I don't think it's going to quite happen, mind you, but it could. And wouldn't that be a cool surprise.

Foz Prediction: 1-1 draw

Wolverhampton Wanderers-Fulham: Fulham looked much better than expected in leading Pool twice, only to be caught at the end for a draw. Wolves.. well.. they lost to Leeds, despite looking decent. I wonder about a big match hangover for the Cottagers, but.. until Wolves give me a reason to pick them, I can't take them to take all three.

Foz Prediction: 0-0 Draw

Brentford-Manchester United: All hail the conquering heroes of.. Wait. Nevermind. All hail the conquered Manchester United, who apparently have woken up to the fact that, well.. they're not very good right now. So they're wildly reaching out and trying to grab replacements and reinforcements. The time to do that was before the season started, fellas. This is going to PROBABLY make me look bad (not that it needs much for me to do so...) but...

Foz Prediction: Brentford 1-0


Sunday

Nottingham Forest-West Ham United: The Hammers weren't bad against City, they just are nowhere near as rich/talented. Forest should be an easier game, but easier does not necessarily mean easy. When in doubt, go with the favorites:

Foz Prediction: West Ham 1-0


Chelsea-Tottenham: mmmm.. early season derby. Spicy. Tottenham looked really good week 1. Chelsea.. did not. Chelsea are still disjointed and Tottenham are pretty settled in. Spurs to take it by the odd goal and raise their spirits higher

Foz Prediction: Tottenham 2-1


Monday

Liverpool-Crystal Palace Liverpool did not look exactly sharp against Fulham on week 1, but they got goals old and new (Salah and Nunez) to come back twice. I'm going to back them to do much better in week 2

Foz Prediction: 2-0 Liverpool

Marko Arnautović??

Yep.

Read a comment on The Athletic that Brighton (who are a good and well-coached team) lost two key contributors from their midfield over the summer and were still better than McFred.

Like Thanos, Manchester City are now inevitable. And also evil.

This is the third year in a row that the "starting" double pivot (assuming a 4-2-3-1, which has been pretty standard) is McFred. I'm not sure either of these start for any other EPL midfield except maybe the newly-promoted sides. But they're in good company because you could say that about a fair number of the side.

This is what happens when no one who understands football is in charge. The number of incredibly poor decisions that have been made because there is no consistent strategy is mind-boggling, especially when you look at how other clubs operate on these principles, with Manchester City and Liverpool being the paragons, of course.

Example 1: Maguire is a perfectly fine battling defender who excelled in the low block at Leicester where his size & strength were put to good use. He's terrible when asked to play a high line because he doesn't have the pace or agility to do it.

Example 2: Fullbacks comfortable in attack and defense have been increasingly important over the past 10 years. United spent 50M on AWB, who has never developed a comfort level going forward. He's a good to great defending fullback for a side that is expecting to be pinned back on a regular basis, but is not going to take that side forward.

Example 3: Competent holding midfielders have been pretty much a necessity in the modern game for, again, at least 10 years. Michael Carrick's last really full season was 10 years ago and although he officially retired from playing in 2018, he had only two appearances that year. Throughout all that time no adequate replacement has ever been pursued or contemplated. So you get the leaky sieve of McFred putting the inadequate defense under even more pressure, and attacking players like Fernandes routinely having to come incredibly deep to restart play.

The whole club is now a disaster from top to bottom. A truly dysfunctional organization with no obvious path forward. I wish Ten Hag the best, but I strongly suspect this will be another lost season of shipping ridiculous goals, being out-controlled in midfield by everyone, and only randomness in attack. Plus we likely have a whole Ronaldo want-away saga to get through which could easily last through the January window (when hopefully some team with UCL ambitions will get desperate and the fact that he couldn't be registered for the UCL will be a bonus big enough to overlook his enormous wages).

Barcelona:

Mes que un shitshow.

https://twitter.com/David_Ornstein/s...83526778249216

short version: They're trying to threaten their own player with criminal charges.

The crime? Comes out of signing a renewal (that would see him earn back money they agreed to give to keep the club from bankruptcy during COVID) in 2020. They are alleging some "Criminal happenings" between the old board and de Jong, so they want de Jong to go back to his agreed to paycut deal (costing him $18 million) or face a criminal investigation. (They do not explain what the criminal happenings are in their letter)

Bonus stupidity: There's additional news today that the reason that Barcelona's new players can't be registered is that Barcelona tried to play the shell game, when they sold their TV rights, they sold it to a company they are 50% owners of. This allowed them to "book" an extra $150 million in "profit", that would allow them to register new players under LaLiga financial rules. La Liga said "No, that's literally just moving money from your front pocket to your back pocket, there's no new money on hand here". To make things worse, since they registered the $150 million as profit, it then becomes taxable under Spanish rules. So, they have to pay like 25% of that $150 million they gave themselves as "profit"to the taxman.

So they may have paid nearly $40 million for no benefit at all.

At this point, they're weaponizing a "We're too big to fail" speedrun

You'll get no argument from me that the owners and directors at United are solely to blame for the shitshow that their squad is... for now. The fact that somehow one of the biggest clubs in the world has multiple positions in which you can argue they don't have a starting option who would be in the top two-thirds of the Prem is unforgivable.

With that being said, managers can adapt their tactics and style to the players available to them. The fact that Ten Haag decided to play McFred in his Ajax tactical framework having seen them in training for months now and how they've played the last few years, he's either making a point to the board or he's just not going to be a success. The options to rebuild a midfield before the transfer window shuts are not currently out there. So he's either going to figure it out and change, or they are going to be in the bottom half of the table and he's not finishing the year out.

They should have learned from how Manchester City and Paris SG get away with spending money they don't have, except that their creative book keeping won't be allowed in Spain. Still, FC Barcelona has earned the place in the cheaters clique, working hard to reach the Real Madrid and Juventus top tier level.

I believe he is absolutely making a point. Manchester United brought him in to play the Ajax tactical style and make everyone adapt to him. not for him to adapt to the pieces they currently have. Manchester City did the same for Pep, Liverpool did the same for Klopp, and Spurs did the same for Conte this summer. To use a much smaller club as an example, look at what Burnley did this summer. Vincent Kompany does not set up his team the same way that Sean Dyche did. So when Burnley hired Kompany, the club knew his system was different. The board know they had to get rid of players who only fit Dyche's system and bring in players to fit Kompany's system. The board replaced at least half of last year's squad. Manchester United may need to take a few steps while they get rid of the current dross in the squad and slowly bring in Ten Haag's players. I don't see both of them playing together too much longer since I don't expect Christian Eriksen to be leading the line anymore. But if playing McFred and watching them be terrible gets the board to bring in the players he wants and fits what he is trying to do, that is what he needs to do.

I got a chance to watch that second goal and it's just as I feared when the rumors of his signing started: the combination of City's ability to move defenses out of shape and then lay on perfect passes with Haaland's exceptional positioning plus explosive pace plus ruthless finishing is going to make life for their opponents really rough this year.

@miami_fan: couldn't agree more.

If you watch the Manchester City doc on Amazon from a few years back (I think it was in Pep's second season), it is really clear how thoroughly the entire organization, from the board to the catering staff, is set up to achieve Pep's vision.

There's a great scene where several execs are discussing the search for a central defender (who ends up being Laporte) and they are able to talk about what exactly Guardiola is looking for when he's not even there.

You can definitely see the same at other clubs, like the ones you mention, and I think another way you can see it is that those relatively well-run clubs get their signings done early in the transfer window and increasingly it's a lot of players you might not have thought of but are clearly the result of well-run and well-drilled (in the manager's playing philosophy) analytics & scouting teams.

Nothing like this exists at Manchester United. The Glazers are content to milk the cash cow, like they do for Tampa Bay (where the socialism of the NFL saves them from something like relegation) and wait for their Tom Brady to show up and win them a championship or two.

He's a physical specimen. The only thing that could derail him are injuries. I remember when someone at the City fan forum compared him to Edin Dzeko and I was like are you kidding me. Edin Dzeko cannot run like this. Haaland is the one who get the clearing header on the corner.

Haaland Incredible world record worthy sprint against PSG - YouTube

There is a similar video where he does end up getting the pass and goal, but I think this one is better. What was great about Sunday is it showed how he can get his favored goals on the break, but also be dangerous when teams are sitting back like West Ham were in the first half.

Yeah, that's definitely the holy grail there.

Hopefully he stays injury free.

Manchester United out here showing everyone how not to execute a transfer window.

You misspelled “decade”

Leicester has managed to replay its entire 2021-22 season in the first two games this year.

But at least they aren't MU.