Soccer Thread 2013-14

[DaddyTorgo]

da fuq is Jurgy putting in Jozy's water bottle?? Jeebus.

[Ryan S]

If anyone is interested joining the FOFC Fantasy Premier League at Fantasy Premier League - The official fantasy football game of the Barclays Premier League

The invite code is 1384910-407015

If you were a member of the league in previous years you may already be signed up.

You have until 11.30 BST on Saturday (12.30 CET, 06.30 ET) to sign up and select your team if you want to score points from week 1.

If you are already taking part in a fantasy league on the Premier League website you might as well take part as there is no extra work required to play in multiple leagues.

[sovereignstar v2]

I made the switch to DirecTV earlier this week on the hunch that Dish was going to drop the ball on Premier League "Extra Time". It paid off as Dish is not going to be providing the extra overflow channels. Got all 10 matches queued up in the Genie and I plan on watching all of them. The fun starts tomorrow!

Here is a page that will help you hunt down the matches your provider is airing -- Gamefinder | NBC Sports

[bulletsponge]

^^ thanks for that link, in going to OD on so much PL action

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Ryan S

If anyone is interested joining the FOFC Fantasy Premier League at Fantasy Premier League - The official fantasy football game of the Barclays Premier League

The invite code is 1384910-407015

If you were a member of the league in previous years you may already be signed up.

You have until 11.30 BST on Saturday (12.30 CET, 06.30 ET) to sign up and select your team if you want to score points from week 1.

If you are already taking part in a fantasy league on the Premier League website you might as well take part as there is no extra work required to play in multiple leagues.

Hopefully, I can qualify for the cup this season.

[kingfc22]

And Arsenal's defense is still crap plus Rosicky and Ramsey should never see the field.

2nd penalty was a poor call, but they can't stop any attack straight down the middle.

[sovereignstar v2]

Guzan.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

And Arsenal's defense is still crap plus Rosicky and Ramsey should never see the field.

2nd penalty was a poor call, but they can't stop any attack straight down the middle.

Rosicky has been outstanding.

[sovereignstar v2]

Looking forward to the post-match interview with Wenger.

[sovereignstar v2]

Scenes from the Emirates:

[rowech]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

Looking forward to the post-match interview with Wenger.

I feel like Costanza's line about a "delicate genius" is most applicable at this point.

[sovereignstar v2]

[miami_fan]

Screw the reaction of Moyes, I want to see the reaction of Rooney!

[I. J. Reilly]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

A City fan should know, right

As a Spurs fan I sure hope they can Wenger, if so I think they're next five years will look a lot like Liverpool's last five. It's not like they aren't spending because of Wenger, it's not FM, if the board isn't willing to let him spend I don't see why they would let someone else spend.

Of course the have two more weeks, so who knows. I don't see why any world class type player would sign up for that though so good luck to them.

[kingfc22]

Best part of today's NBC coverage...No Gus Johnson!

[MrBug708]

Penalty

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

Scenes from the Emirates:

The strange thing is Arsenal played quite well and didn't really deserve the result - there were two very poor refereeing decisions which turned the game on its head imho ...

(that being said I still think Arsenal need to buy some players - specifically a Viera style midfielder)

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

The strange thing is Arsenal played quite well and didn't really deserve the result - there were two very poor refereeing decisions which turned the game on its head imho ...

(that being said I still think Arsenal need to buy some players - specifically a Viera style midfielder)

A very young Villa put more shots on goal at the Emirates. Yeah, they had plenty of possession, but they mostly excelled in moaning and acting like a bunch of vaginas when Villa closed them down. Looks like more of the same for the Gunners.

[DaddyTorgo]

As someeone who's a huge football fan but has never been an EPL fan I'd say yesterday was a rousing success for NBC.

Some great games on BeINSport today - Barca vs. Levante, Real Madrid vs. (I forget), and the Italian Super Cup pitting Juve against Lazio (who played them very well last year).

Loving that football season is back!!

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

A very young Villa put more shots on goal at the Emirates. Yeah, they had plenty of possession, but they mostly excelled in moaning and acting like a bunch of vaginas when Villa closed them down. Looks like more of the same for the Gunners.

Considering Arsenal played a third of the game with ten men its not wholly surprising that they conceded shots - especially when chasing the game (thanks to the penalty which wasn't).

That being said if they'd had a bit more 'grit' in midfield they'd have bossed the game far more imho and not been in that circumstance to begin with ...

[sovereignstar v2]

I didn't even mention that Szczesny could've been sent off very early on.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

I didn't even mention that Szczesny could've been sent off very early on.

Yeah I'll give you that - thought he did get away lightly ....

[gstelmack]

Railhawks 3-0 over the newly-formed Cosmos. My main complaint about NASL officiating has been that they let the game get out of hand (that said, most of them have also at least been consistent, at least until they have to start calling it tight late because they let it get out of hand early). I loved watching the official in this one be strict on the fouls. One player from each team gone right before the half on their second yellows. They were all moaning about it, but they were also all clear dangerous fouls. It was clear this guy was going to call it tight, so stop sticking your leg out while the other guy is running, and stop slamming into the other player instead of going for the ball on a header.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

Yeah I'll give you that - thought he did get away lightly ....

The interesting thing about the Sczeszny - first PK incident was, the ref clearly played advantage and then when the player missed his shot (which was from a bad angle admittedly), he went back and called the PK. Happens all the time in rugby but not sure I've ever seen that in football before, and I admit I have no idea what the rule is.

[sovereignstar v2]

Barca squeak by Levante. Wide open league that one is.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

Barca squeak by Levante. Wide open league that one is.

[DaddyTorgo]

was watching on DVR and was pretty sure you were kidding, but I kept waiting for Levante to make it close...up until a point.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

Barca squeak by Levante. Wide open league that one is.

Financial Fair Play is supposed to get rid of the red figures nonsense with the top clubs, but we're forgetting that entire leagues are balancing on very thin ice and the smaller clubs have much less to fall back on.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

Financial Fair Play is supposed to get rid of the red figures nonsense with the top clubs, but we're forgetting that entire leagues are balancing on very thin ice and the smaller clubs have much less to fall back on.

I don't think fans are forgetting. I think UEFA is just invested in maintaining the current system and just putting in place some empty rule changes to make it look like they're trying to change things.

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

Financial Fair Play is supposed to get rid of the red figures nonsense with the top clubs, but we're forgetting that entire leagues are balancing on very thin ice and the smaller clubs have much less to fall back on.

It doesn't help that Real Madrid and Barca get 50% of the La Liga TV money.

[MrBug708]

ANDRES CANTOR ?@AndresCantorGOL 35m
The volatile Marco Rodríguez from México has been appointed for CR-USA which happens 4 days before the USA-MEX showdown in Columbus

Players on yellows:
Jermaine Jones, Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, Matt Besler, Geoff Cameron, Brad Davis, Clint Dempsey, Brad Evans, Tim Howard and Fabian Johnson.

Thanks CONCACAF

[DaddyTorgo]

At least 2 of them will miss USA-MEX...

[MrBug708]

Looks like the Mexico/Honduras game will be reffed by a Panamanian. Honduras's next game? Panama. Things are definitely stacked in Mexico's favor.

[Sublime 2]

Spurs on a potential spending binge, foreshadowing the departure of Bale I'm sure.

[saldana]

Originally Posted by Sublime 2

Spurs on a potential spending binge, foreshadowing the departure of Bale I'm sure.

or trying to convince him to stay by bringing in better guys around him... like Ted Lasso

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

Let me say a couple of things first:

1) I'm beyond pissed Arsenal didn't spend money earlier. With the new sponsorships and the fresh money, they had a chance and chose to screw around again it was a disgrace.

2) The fact they decided to try and spend money and they went after a dirtbag like Suarez made me even more sick. (which isn't because I'm made we didn't get him, see earlier posts)

3) All of this is compounded by the fact I think the Spurs have had an amazing offseason and I love their team even without Bale.


OK, all of that said:

Seriously, what the hell? Fire Wenger? Blow up the team? Panic and blood in the streets?

Good lord. there is still a metric ton of talent on the Arsenal roster. It was the first game of the season with Cazorla still not fit, Wilshire still recovering from injury and most of the depth we do have at the moment injured and healing. You combine that with an obviously drunk ref and it simply was not that bad of a loss. The GK could have been sent off. Then again, Villa could (should) have had at least 2 players sent off for persistent fouling, the penalty was comical, the sending off was beyond comical, the "advantage" allowed all game was a disgrace.

Even if Arsenal didn't play their best, they were hard done by the result and the venom and spewed by the haters and the panic spewed by the supporters was over the F'n top.

As I said above, we need more players and it's a disgrace they haven't been brought in sooner, but I'll need a hell of a lot more than a loss to Villa before I go into a full blown panic about how Arsenal are going to do this year. It's not like we got beat by a newly promoted side after signing 129 million dollars worth of talent or anything. . .

[cubboyroy1826]

How about that Cardiff vs Man City game?

[bhlloy]

Cardiff v Man City was today?

[cubboyroy1826]

Hence why I did not say anything about the score...

[bhlloy]

Serious answer... obviously we were insanely lucky against a team that dominated for 70% of the match, and that we ran into Joe Hart in his generous persona and also a team without Vincent Kompany (and who needed to put a CM at CB, bit of a strange decision by Pelligrini that). 19 out of 20 times that game is a pretty comfortable win for Man City, doesn't mean I'm not on cloud nine for a couple of days though. If we can keep that kind of effort and commitment up at home, hopefully we might stay up after all.

[cubboyroy1826]

I am a life long soccer who is just starting to watch the Premier League. Part of that is because NBC Sports has all of the games plus the Match of the Day recap show. Not sure how good Fox's coverage was but I really like what NBC Sports is doing with the coverage.

Pretty cool some the background info on Cardiff and this being their foray into the Premier League in 50 years.

[SirFozzie]

So, ManYoo-Chelski.

Who ya got?

[cubboyroy1826]

I am pulling for the Chelski's but am really just hoping for a good game. I have the game sitting on the DVR waiting for everyone to go to sleep tonight.

On a side not where would one find out more about the Premier Leagues? I have picked up a couple books for my Kindle already so any suggestions would be great.

[Ronnie Dobbs3]

What exactly are you looking for? I would say the best way to "get it" is to play Football Manager.

[cubboyroy1826]

Just trying to learn more about the history and how the Euro tourney thing works. I have FM 2013 and am definitely spending time fiddling with it as well.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

So, ManYoo-Chelski.

Who ya got?

Chelsea!

[SirFozzie]

That was a whole bunch of nothing, wasn't it?

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by cubboyroy1826

Just trying to learn more about the history and how the Euro tourney thing works. I have FM 2013 and am definitely spending time fiddling with it as well.

Here's some good books on the history of footie:

Amazon.com: The Association Game: A History of British Football (9780582505964): Matthew Taylor: Books - The Association Game covers the history of soccer in the UK. Fairly dry, but good reading..

Amazon.com: Football Nation eBook: Andrew Ward, John Williams: Kindle Store Football Nation covers English post-war football (when the game started to be more dominated by professionals, and the smaller teams started to fade), through the wild 70's, the rise of the English Hooligans, disasters such as Hillsborough and then the coming of the English Premier League

Amazon.com: Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football eBook: Phil Ball: Kindle Store Morbo is a one book "History of Spanish Soccer", from when English Ships docking at Spanish ports brought the game over, to it's growth, and unique setup during the Spanish Civil War, and the growth of the Big Two (Barcelona and Real Madrid)

Amazon.com: Tor! The Story of German Football eBook: Uli Hesse: Kindle Store Tor is like Morbo, but features the history of German Soccer, the post-war split of west germany and east germany (for example, for the longest time, there was no true national league, all the teams played in regional leagues, and then the winners of each regional league played a knockout tournament to be crowned the national champion)

Amazon.com: Winning at All Costs: A Scandalous History of Italian Soccer (9781568583686): John Foot: Books Finally, the history of Italy, but with more of a focus on broad eras, and various scandals (the Grande Torino aircrash, where a team of stars died in a plane crash, the Italian version of Munich, the Calciopoli scandal, the history of corruption with referees, etcetera)

Amazon.com: The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer eBook: David Goldblatt: Kindle Store A brief history of soccer.. nice but it can't really go into detail since its world wide and focuses on international histories.

[cubboyroy1826]

Thanks Foz I will take a look at those.

[Marc Vaughan]

Not really relevant to FM - but if you're interested in how Football (Soccer) evolved as a game over the course of history then I'd recommend reading ...

Inverting the pyramid