Soccer Thread 2023-24 Edition

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by whomario

Well, so much for that ...

Edin Terzic resigns as Borussia Dortmund coach, citing ‘new era’ | Borussia Dortmund | The Guardian

From the outside, this feels like the right move for him and the club. I would have afraid that any early season struggles would have led him being fired 10 matches into next season. It felt like the only reason he kept the job was because of the CL run to the finals not because the board wanted him to stay.

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

From the outside, this feels like the right move for him and the club. I would have afraid that any early season struggles would have led him being fired 10 matches into next season. It felt like the only reason he kept the job was because of the CL run to the finals not because the board wanted him to stay.

deja vu

[miami_fan]

Hey Tartan Army! Wake your boys up. The match has started.

[miami_fan]

I really want UEFA and the match officials to be firm with this dissent rule.

[Ghost Econ]

Putin must be watching this match shouting at his generals about how weak the Ukrainian defense is.

[RainMaker]

Oh no Landon

[Critch]

Landon's haircut and Mbappe's nose are two Euro looks that wont catch on.

Julien Laurens (a French sports journalist who is apparently close to Mbappe) says he's in hospital and it's uncertain if he'll play again.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Critch

Landon's haircut and Mbappe's nose are two Euro looks that wont catch on.

Julien Laurens (a French sports journalist who is apparently close to Mbappe) says he's in hospital and it's uncertain if he'll play again.

As soon as they showed the closeup of Mbappe's nose, I thought it was broken and figured that he would put on the mask and play. The idea he wouldn't play again seems a bit extreme unless there is damage to the orbital area as well.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

The idea he wouldn't play again seems a bit extreme unless there is damage to the orbital area as well.

With reports now saying surgery is a real possibility, I suppose it would come down to what they had to do. And, I suppose realistically, what his pain tolerance is.

[sovereignstar v2]

Maybe France can get someone in there that can score a goal now

[MIJB#19]

With this tournament format, France basically only needs one more 0-0 draw to advance to the knockout phase. The risk of Mbappe running his nose into a Dutch or Polish defender, it's just not worth it.

[miami_fan]

Did anyone in the U.S. watch the Turkey v Georgia match this afternoon? I just wanted to know if they just moved Fox's broadcast exclusively to fuboTV similar to the Chiefs v Dolphins playoff game being on Peacock or did they have their own broadcast team like Amazon on Thursday Night?

[miami_fan]

I love to know how it was decided that one child will get the chance to walk out with Cristiano Ronaldo and another kid get to walk out with Joao Cancelo

[Edward64]

I'm guessing the defender (not goalkeeper) was at fault here? Can a soccer player ever recover from something like this? I'm thinking fans of the team (& country) will forever hold this against him.

Euro 2024: Bizarre own goal helps Portugal qualify for knockouts after victory against Turkey | CNN

Turkey's goalkeeper Altay Bayındır gestures towards defender Samet Akaydin after an own goal in the team's game against Portugal at Euro 2024

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by Edward64

I'm guessing the defender (not goalkeeper) was at fault here? Can a soccer player ever recover from something like this? I'm thinking fans of the team (& country) will forever hold this against him.

Euro 2024: Bizarre own goal helps Portugal qualify for knockouts after victory against Turkey | CNN

Nah, this one isn't even in the top5 of bizarre own goals of this tournament. This was the first genuine (non-freak) own goal purely based on a team's own incompetence.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

Nah, this one isn't even in the top5 of bizarre own goals of this tournament. This was the first genuine (non-freak) own goal purely based on a team's own incompetence.

I kinda thought own goals were like once every couple years in the entire soccer world. But holy crap, you're right! Shows you what a fan I am.

Six own goals have been scored during the group stage in UEFA Euro 2024 and there are a lot of matches still remaining: Klaus Gjasula (Albania), Maximilian Wöber (Austria), Antonio Rüdiger (Germany), Riccardo Calafiori (Italy), Robin Hranac (Czech Republic) and Samet Akaydin (Turkey).

[Ksyrup]

Aside from not having Fubo so missing 1/3 of the games so far, I've enjoyed having something live to watch for most of the day the past week (even more now that Copa America has started). But, I see that ends today in favor of doubled up games at 3pm. Why? Because it's Sunday? It's in Germany so 12 here would be late afternoon/early evening there.. Seems like an ideal day for 12/3 games.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Aside from not having Fubo so missing 1/3 of the games so far, I've enjoyed having something live to watch for most of the day the past week (even more now that Copa America has started). But, I see that ends today in favor of doubled up games at 3pm. Why? Because it's Sunday? It's in Germany so 12 here would be late afternoon/early evening there.. Seems like an ideal day for 12/3 games.

Blame the 'Disgrace of Dijon' match between West Germany and Austria.

Disgrace of Gijón - Wikipedia

Due to the tiebreaker rules in the group stage, a West German win by one or two goals would ensure that both Austria and West Germany advanced to the next round. West Germany scored the only goal in the first 10 minutes of the match, which progressively deteriorated to a virtual standstill in the second half.[1] Despite widespread condemnation and a formal complaint lodged by Algeria – who was consequently eliminated – FIFA ruled that neither team had broken any rules. Austrian player Reinhold Hintermaier later admitted the match was fixed.[2]

[miami_fan]

Ah, Scotland. Could just make it slightly painful could you. It had to be maximum pain.

[miami_fan]

Who on the USMNT frontline is supposed to be getting a head on all of these floaters?

[RainMaker]

Not a bad half.

[jcard]

If the NCAA ran the Euro Cup, no doubt Argentina and Brazil would have won a couple each by now. Just some minor realignment.

[miami_fan]

Fans being pissed that there is now technology that will let the match official know who touched the ball last before it goes out of play is hilarious.

[miked]

What an unreal ending to the Croatia-Italy game. Literally seconds from advancing, and the Italians with an equalizer at the buzzer.

[miami_fan]

I was just going to give Croatia full marks for not only their last gasp defending but also their offense work. Alas it was all for naught.

Who is going to have the heartbreaking defeat tomorrow?

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Blame the 'Disgrace of Dijon' match between West Germany and Austria.

Disgrace of Gijón - Wikipedia

Some of us may still remember Euro 2004, the day Italy got knocked out because Denmark and Sweden draw 2-2 and got ahead of Italy on the 3-way tie-breaker on goals scored against one another, regardless the result of Italy against Bulgaria in the other match, played simultaneously. In all fairness, Italy ended up with the worse goal difference over all matches as well. The foreshadowed magic number ended up on the score board: bye bye Italy.


Extrapolating what happened then and there (WC 1982) vs the 2004 events into the ongoing Euro 2024, there's no perfect solution. Basically, they should play all 12 matches at the same time to avoid having teams knowing in advance whether a 0-0 draw will be sufficient te be amongst the better 3rd place teams.

Things won't get any better tomorrow, where it's quite possible Czechia takes a 1-goal lead vs Turkey and (as long as Portugal's B team doesn't let Georgia win) it'll put both Czechia and Turkey through to the knockout phase, because of Turkey's goal difference compared to Hungary's. Which might become moot by that time if in Group E another team (or two) gets steamrolled into a dreadful goal difference and somehow still ends up 3rd.

Group E is the mindfuck of clusterfucks between Romania, Belgium, Slovakia and Ukraine will be at another level, as they all know that the result at the other game is almost as important as their own, all 4 have a very strong preference of which team wins the other match, whether it be to win the group or, most importantly, not to finish last in the group.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah that makes sense. Annoying as a viewer though.

Today's games were 2 entertaining/must-watch at noon and 2 garbage/boring games at 3.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Yeah that makes sense. Annoying as a viewer though.

Today's games were 2 entertaining/must-watch at noon and 2 garbage/boring games at 3.

Oh yeah, they should have made the schedule such that Sunday had 2 games. It should be possible in this format.

[MIJB#19]

How about that, after conclusion of Group E games, Portugal can decide their own opponent by losing (Slovenia) or not losing (Hungary).

[JonInMiddleGA]

Okay, maybe time to start random drug testing the coaches on match day?



Euro 2024: Italy's Spalletti apologises after bizarre rant - ESPN

[RainMaker]

Seemed fairly tame until that last line which came out of nowhere.

[miked]

Another stunning stoppage time goal, though with bogus 2nd yellow, it was Turkey's to lose.

[cartman]

Sitting in a city park in Porto watching the Portugal v. Georgia match was interesting

[RainMaker]

Another Berhalter masterclass

[SirFozzie]

did gregg berhalter punch a panamanian player in the back of the head?

No.

[RainMaker]

His team lost to Panama at home and won't make it out a group with Bolivia and Panama in it.

[sovereignstar v2]

Going down to 10 men that early in the match is a death wish.

[sovereignstar v2]

So dumb that's a penalty

[AlexB]

VAR ruining a good game again. Danish goal ruled out, for literally a toe being offside, and then a penalty being given to Germany for what should never in a million years be a handball.

It’s just shite

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by AlexB

VAR ruining a good game again. Danish goal ruled out, for literally a toe being offside, and then a penalty being given to Germany for what should never in a million years be a handball.

It’s just shite

But is it really VAR's fault that the (offside) rules haven't been adjusted to account for whatever level of inaccuracy everybody seems to want?

It just seems like the same situation MLB has, people don't actually want calls to be truly accurate, but don't change the rules fast enough to do whateverthehell people actually want either.

I know there's at least some soccer people I've seen admit that they don't really want the rule (especially offside) called as its written, that they want more "nuance" or something ... fine, so why not write the rule that way? Of course, the more nuance, the more that inept (or downright crooked) officiating can come into play.

[Ksyrup]

Yep. Soccer's offsides rule is the functional equivalent to baseball's tag rule where the entire game changed from "throw the guy out" to "get the ball there and hold the tag hoping he lifts off the bag for a microsecond so we can challenge and get the out."

I think MLB adjusted the rule? I don't know. But I swear I'm not seeing as many ticky tack challenges like this anymore. Either that, or guys have learned how to slide so they always keep some part of their body on the base. Or the obstruction rules have also helped cut down on it, not sure.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I think MLB adjusted the rule? I don't know. But I swear I'm not seeing as many ticky tack challenges like this anymore. Either that, or guys have learned how to slide so they always keep some part of their body on the base.

I believe it's the latter since I literally just saw an out this way in the past week, no challenge required.

It was always an out too, players/managers just got smarter about insisting it be called. And good on them for doing so, shouldn't have required challenges & replays to get it right in the first place.

[RainMaker]

I'm with Jon on this. If you're going to have VAR, you have to call the rule as it is. If you like the human element, get rid of VAR.

You can't have an instant replay system and then add in exceptions to rules because it's close.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Atlanta United game winner.

Google it.

MLS ... Catch The Fever

[RainMaker]

Page out of Jose Alvarado's playbook. That was really cool.

[AlexB]

I agree to an extent on the offside - yes, the rule needs rewriting, but what was annoying was that they were checking for potential offside on the initial free kick, but then found by accident another reason to chalk the goal off by a toe in the middle phase.

If it was called, fine, or if it was the phase of play they were checking, fine. But the game seen hell bent on finding reasons to disallow goals now.

The handball rule is like the catch rule in the NFL - they’ve tried to define something so much that it’s become unworkable

[miked]

The handball thing was a joke, he did not move his hand and it was in a fairly natural position that did not alter the play. But yeah, we've decided that we want VAR for offsides, so this is what it is.

ATL UTD goal was insane, especially since it was the last seconds of stoppage time and nobody communicated to the goalie.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

But is it really VAR's fault that the (offside) rules haven't been adjusted to account for whatever level of inaccuracy everybody seems to want?

Exactly, this is the key part.

We all wanted a fair way to measure offside and hands calls for almost a century. VAR is the solution, but now we're coming to understand that we want the rules to be different. Apparently we don't like "offside" to be as strict as a finish photo decision in running and cycling and "hands" to be as strict as a touch call in volleyball.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by miked

ATL UTD goal was insane, especially since it was the last seconds of stoppage time and nobody communicated to the goalie.

And by a team that hadn't won at home in 90 days, literally last home win was Easter.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I'm with Jon on this. If you're going to have VAR, you have to call the rule as it is. If you like the human element, get rid of VAR.

You can't have an instant replay system and then add in exceptions to rules because it's close.

I don't disagree but it's undeniable that it changed the way the players played the game, and that's certainly not the intent of replay. Of course those are outs but unless it was obvious before, it never got called. Then with replay that seemed to be the primary way of throwing runners out.

I definitely think we have to learn to live with things like this but it's certainly harder than we probably imagined, and it's definitely robbing games of both exciting plays and causing awkward/delayed celebrations. Although, I think an even stupider rule would be to use replay but with a buffer - so in soccer, even though the right technical call would be offsides, we're giving a 5 centimeter buffer or something along those lines.

Not sure there's a happy medium. Replay is kinda like the sport of baseball as a whole - we have almost too much information that we can't put back into the tube, and the games suffer for it. Kinda like life with the internet/social media as a whole, now that I think about it.