Soccer Thread 2024-25 Edition
 

Women's Bronze Medal game
Men's Gold Medal
Eredivisie
Turkish Super Lig
The Lower Divisions

And that is just tomorrow!:popcorn:

EFL Championship, etcetera. This is where ESPN+ and Paramount+ start earning their subscription fees.

Fixed that for ya.

I'll give Spain the U23 designation but not France despite what the rules say. Can't have 50% of your U23 team's goals in the tournament by men OVER the age of 23.

Well, EPL starts this weekend and from what I've read, Leicester is an easy relegation candidate. And then I see Daka is out for several months and of course Vardy is out for a while. Long season coming, it sounds like.

I believe the decision on the points deduction is still pending, right?

Without the points deduction it's going to be tough, given the personnel and basically an inability to strengthen the squad. With a points deduction it's a foregone conclusion, sadly.

Interestingly, one of the articles I read said they had money for players but were bidding for players against the teams they had previously been matched up against during their last EPL run, and lost out on all of them - and, it was doubtful they had the money to pay those transfer fees. Instead, they should have been focusing on battles for players against the bottom tier teams that they will be fighting to stay up against.

After watching the EPL and a few of the Pokal matches involving the top German clubs, I think these players need another 2-3 weeks of actual preseason work to get them ready for the new season.

They play too many dang matches. I don't think Rodri will even be in the squad tomorrow. Looking forward to that club world cup next summer and I'm sure all the players are too

Erling B. Haaland

In terms of pure action/excitement, Wolves/Chelsea 1st half is one of the best soccer games I've watched in a long time.

Figures I decided to watch the Newcastle game

Well the action has continued in the 2nd half; the suspense not so much.

and the Newcastle game has gotten VERY entertaining

How is that goal disallowed. PL officiating is so shockingly bad

Not only was that absurd but clotheslining the keeper only gets you a yellow card?

World's biggest document scanner was just build in Madrid. Hearing it will be multi-purpose and also play host to Real Madrid matches.

USB or Bluetooth?

Probably will get more use as a document shredder.

Haaland

Again, the football equivalent of a war crime.

Although, it does show rather dramatically how much benefit there is to actually having the summer off from football.

Re Man U's coaching situation... sometimes your first instinct is the right answer.

Just needs a little more time and another transfer window

If we are being honest, their first instinct is to re-hire Sir Alex. It might be a better answer but I don't think it would be the right answer.

We have the NWSL on because there is ABSOLUTELY nothing else on (good job, again, NFL for wasting the weekend). Two impressions.

One, I was made to understand that the league was having boffo turnouts? The game in Cary, NC looked like a high school crowd. (I know, same could be said for the A’s.) This LA game is a little better…kind of like a midweek MAC game or something.

Two, I know, tradition and all that. It just seems ass stupid to keep a running clock for the five minutes it takes to evaluate a player for a concussion, then two more for a video review…just stop the damned clock.

Also, wife just asked: “Is this in Chicago?” No, it’s in LA, they just list the home team first because reasons, I guess.

Seventeen minutes of extra time.

Yeah, that's a pretty popular, but utterly false, narrative.

2-3 draw relatively okay (five figure averages, though often buffed by one big game), the rest hover around 5,000 at most.

And that doesn't take into consideration any "creative accounting" that could take place to fluff those numbers.

Another 115, maybe.


I think that was the problem. The Glazers kept trying to hire another Sir Alex, not realizing that the day of just hiring the Great Man and letting him make all the decisions has passed on into history. Klopp was a great manager, but FSG had a whole infrastructure built to support him. Guardiola is a great manager, but famously CFG put a very specific infrastructure (imported from Barcelona) to support him. Ditto Arteta at Arsenal. Even Levy at Tottenham kind of gets this.

Hopefully Ratcliffe understands this, and certainly the appointments over the summer point in that direction, but the club is simply rotten to the core and just like trying to transform any large organization, it's going to take a lot of time.

Don't trust the match official to add the proper amount of extra time I see:lol:

You can definitely blame the Glazers but I also don't see anyone inside or outside the Manchester United organization being accepting of that new structure ESPECIALLY right after Sir Alex retired. Arsene Wenger said this in May 2017


Remember how much ridicule Liverpool's "Moneyball transfer committee" got after Brendan Rogers got fired and everyone claimed that Klopp should not take the job if he and he alone was not allowed to make the decisions on which players to bring in. I would argue that it wasn't until Pep came in and won it in 17-18 that the English football community began accepting that such a structure would be successful in the EPL.

Oh, that was a function of the player who was checked the first time hitting her head AGAIN, necessitating a second prolonged injury stoppage. It still seems like a silly construct.

Actually...even more silly when I look at the final -- it looks like they didn't stop the clock during the lengthy weather delay either. 90+98'. Wonder what they do if a game needs to be resumed at a later date.

Leicester win appeal, will avoid Premier League points deduction - ESPN

Congratulations Leicester Fans!

The relegation was worth it?

Rhetorical question I’m guessing, but I’ll answer anyway - no.

Although we escaped a direct punishment for what would have been a clear breach, relegation, selling all our best players last year, selling KDH this year, and not being able to compete in the market this summer because of the uncertainty are all indirect punishments that have hamstrung us: Forest and Everton are (or maybe should be in Everton’s case!) in much stronger positions than us.

Relegation may have meant we dodged a points deduction, but we’re still much worse off than if we’d have stayed up, so those who are saying we have gotten away with it scot free are very mistaken.

San Marino got their first non-friendly win.no longer worth managing on FM.

It was not rhetorical tbh. I don't think that there was a conscience decision by the club owners to get the club relegated to avoid punishment. I did wonder if it provided the fans with a small respite from losing in the PL every week to winning in the Champ most week while also providing the owners a scapegoat to point and blame for the club's uncertain financial position.

I wonder if that is the real reason why SI made international management unplayable in FM25:confused:

Last season was definitely more fun, but relegation is rarely worth it!

Was Mauricio Pochettino at the US-Canada match yesterday?

It's not a big deal if he wasn't but I kinda want to see him around the US matches and more importantly US training. I don't think it is some major insult to Mikey Varas's training sessions or game management if Poch was an observer this international break before he officially takes the job.

Do those exist?

Another masterclass from a "top" English referee

got my ticket for the 12th to see the Pochettino era begin for the USMNT in Austin

This is potentially a game-changing ruling for world soccer, especially in Europe, on a level with the Bosman ruling which allowed (mainly) players to move for no transfer fee once their contracts were up.

Diarra verdict a landmark day which could alter balance of football power | Fifa | The Guardian

There's a lot of complexity here, and there are still some court cases to come, but essentially this ruling could make it so players can terminate their contracts at will and go play for another club, more-or-less bringing them into the same employment rules as pretty much any other worker in the EU.

I don't know if I agree with the most dire assessments, but at the very least this ruling is likely to result in a big change to the way we see transfer fees. Their possible elimination would be significant.

oops

archive.ph

Interesting news that MLS is apparently considering flipping its schedule after the 2026 WC to a fall-spring season so it can compete better in the transfer market. Makes sense. I don't really follow MLS but occasionally during the summer I'll catch a game or 2 if I'm bored. I don't see that happening (or at least less often) when they'd be competing with so many other sports beyond basically just baseball. Although apparently it would mean less competiton for the playoffs which is where the money's at. And then there's weather considerations in some cities, I imagine.

Sounds Iike lots of competing interests so certainly not a slam dunk decision.

Smart move: global warming will take care of those weather considerations.

Real Madrid are a pathetic excuse of a football club

They've won 14 more European Cups than your club.

Theatre of dreams

Pep's going to retire before you get to 20 EPL titles, you know that, right?