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***Official*** 2018 World Cup thread (and Drinking Guide) (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Sinn Fein
- Start date
its a contentious choice here. Most people here follow the EPL most closely, but you will find a few who prefer La Liga, and Bundesliga, and even Serie A (Italy). And some might suggest you find an MLS team to support locally
Good team and players in all those leagues.
Eephus
Footballguy
Amazon Prime video just added the full set of FIFA Official World Cup films dating back to 1954. They each run about 90-100 minutes.
I'm currently watching the 1982 movie G'olé! narrated by Sean Connery and with a soundtrack by Rick Wakeman. So far it's a lot of low camera angles and crowd shots but it's worth the price of admission to hear Connery pronounce "Diego Maradona".
I'm currently watching the 1982 movie G'olé! narrated by Sean Connery and with a soundtrack by Rick Wakeman. So far it's a lot of low camera angles and crowd shots but it's worth the price of admission to hear Connery pronounce "Diego Maradona".
Dinsy Ejotuz
Footballguy
You can get big doses of any of the "Big 4" leagues -- England, Spain, Germany, Italy. Coverage of England is by far the best and IMO it's the most entertaining league in the world. Spain has the two ~best teams in the world though -- Barcelona and Real Madrid. I personally wouldn't recommend Germany or Italy, but Germany does have a handful of our best Americans who are doing well.
As far as a team... watch your chosen league for awhile and someone will jump out at you.
Kane just signed a new deal before the WC - he is not going anywhere. And, Spurs are opening their new stadium this season...
Realistically, the EPL has more teams with a shot at the title in any given year. That and the lack of language barrier leads most American fans to gravitate to it. I find other leagues to have more entertaining styles of play. I follow FC Barcelona, a team in the Spanish La Liga and frequently watch interesting matchups across all the leagues.
There is also the Champions League, which is a season long tournament of top teams from all the European leagues. The quality of play in the knock-out rounds surpasses (IMO) the World Cup. Maybe doing some betting/fantasy league for that would be a good way to get a feel for the different teams/styles.
Major
Footballguy
I've been following club soccer for 20+ years and it's easily my favorite. I'd suggest it for beginners. Much easier being televised weekly on NBC. You'll recognize a lot of the players you've mentioned and soon understand the beauty of relegation.
Eephus
Footballguy
Ah, good to know. I enjoyed watching Kane in Wembley, Spurs have a lot of potential with him in the squad.
Frostillicus
Footballguy
See, soccer is too complicated. World Cup every 4 years it is!
comfortably numb
Footballguy
Ive been watching heavily the laat 2/4 years. I havent latched onto a team.
I do follow my team (my dads village is near thia team) in the Portuguese league but i also watch and follow
England, spain, Germany, france and italian league.
No specific teams. I juat enjoy good soccer when its on and follow for league title amd relegation status and such.
May not be good advice if you are looking to get into 1 team but it is good as you get to learn about a large variery of teams.
Picture college basketball. Why follow just the SEC when you got the Big East, ACC, B10 etc...
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Frostillicus
Footballguy
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
Frostillicus
Footballguy
El Floppo
Footballguy
Huh... Fantasy football effectively killed my rooting interest in the NFL. But yeah, outside of football manager vid game, probably the best way to get immersed.
Don't we usually recommend people just pick a team and start supporting them... It usually sticks, or they find a different team by the end of the season that's more interesting.
Another option is to watch the early Saturday game only... Get a range of teams to watch without having to commit to random hours and games.
We need some frosrty in the soccer thread.
Major
Footballguy
This. The Champions League knockout rounds are must watch football. Think NFL playoffs/Super Bowl. The problem with World Cup is a lot of these players don't have as much time to gel with each other as they do with their club sides.
Frostillicus
Footballguy
Whatever is on TV if there's no college basketball on, but the college basketball comparison above worked on me.
Frostillicus
Footballguy
I think betting is the way to go. I just need to figure out when and what is on TV/Internet to watch and when.
gianmarco
Footballguy
As I barely knew any players, I honestly joined the fantasy league here as a way to just force me to learn names more quickly. It worked.
I've remained in the fantasy league here since then and love it. It doesn't detract at all, tbh but it's different than fantasy football because scoring is much lower and happens much more infrequently. If anything, I pay more attention to West Ham/Burnley on Monday afternoon than I otherwise would.
drunken slob
Footballguy
This guy,
, amirite 
Came in here to post the same answer.
After the World Cup, there are a variety of Club Friendlies along with the International Champions Cup going through the end of July. Now that you've seen the Cup, watch ICC. Then jump over here: https://forums.footballguys.com/forum/topic/767619-epl-2018-19-fantasy-league/#comment-21167315
That's your ticket
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gianmarco
Footballguy
Betting is fine to learn the teams but I don't think it forces you to learn about the players as much. Which is fine, but I personally like that aspect.
Frostillicus
Footballguy
Fantasy League sounds good too. Betting will get to me to watch the games, which is the first step that never happens after each World Cup. If I can get that step, next thing you know I have an avatar of a shirtless Lukaku.
comfortably numb
Footballguy
Im Portuguese.
My dads village has a team within 20 min (GD Chaves) so i latched onto that team when they were in the 2nd division a few years ago to root for the little engine that couls. They got promoted 2 years ago so they are the team i follow and cheer for as a fan, despite them nevee really having a ahot to win a title.
I used fuboTV to watch and last year i forgot the channel that qas televising 1 or 3 games a week. Also, Portuguese channels via cable but i dont subscribe right now. Laat resort stream via reddit.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
Frostillicus
Footballguy
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
comfortably numb
Footballguy
So...if you picture each country as a conference. Winning your conference is the goal every year and a huge major accomplishment.
The champions league...picture the NCAA tournament going on....during the regular season. It has the highest level of play and as it pools top teams from every countries finish the year prior. Some countries get 5 entries cause theyre good leagues others get 2 or 3 and as low as 1..or none.
So the CL entries for this year are based on LAST years finish. (CL will really start up in Sept i believe. League play games will start up in August.)
Then there is a Europa League. That is another tournament like the champions league also running during the season.
Picture that as the NIT.
comfortably numb
Footballguy
Careful with the shirtless avatars. I think joe is away right now and when he gets back i suspect anyone with a shirtless avatar gets banned
El Floppo
Footballguy
Frostillicus
Footballguy
If anyone would shoot me a PM when EPL or any other league on TV or internet is going to start, I would luff you long time.
comfortably numb
Footballguy
Will do
I bookmarked this page
https://www.socceramerica.com/publications/soccer-on-tv/current/
Each day it tells you the games that will be on TV from various countries.
El Floppo
Footballguy
gianmarco
Footballguy
In 1 month. Every Saturday and Sunday morning.
1 game usually early, then a bunch of games, then one later on Saturdays.
2 time slots usually on Sunday.
1 game on Monday afternoon.
There will be variations on that but that's the general schedule for EPL. It's on NBC sports mostly but will be shown on other channels at times.
Frostillicus
Footballguy
El Floppo
Footballguy
comfortably numb
Footballguy
Keeping with the theme....MLS is like the Sun Belt conference. (They dont gwt any champions league entries the US has its own verison of that)
comfortably numb
Footballguy
This is where i feel conflicted sometimes.
I follow all the leagues i mentioned daily. Checking standings, scores and schedules.
Usually throwing bets around said leagues. Seemingly, between those leagues and then CL and Europa league games there seems to be a game on every day of the week.
I know a lot of players but seem like i should know more. I really enjoy watching but i havent studied to know positions. I dont know all the rules depsite the amount i watch. If i followed 1 league i would probably know alot more about all the players on 20EPL teams instead of a bunch of players scattered over 80 teams.
Good thing about following so many leagues is i can appreciate good soccer on TV any time. Whether the teams or the playing atmosphere its fun tonwake up early and have something to watch or bet on.
Zow
Footballguy
shader
Footballguy
NewlyRetired
Footballguy
Thankfully, right now our best American players are also our youngest players. We have a handful of teenagers that if they curve out well, should be very good players.
The best US player right now is 19 year old Christian Pulisic. He plays for Dortmund in Germany but not a day seems to pass by where another rumor emerges of him moving to one of the big teams in England.
NewlyRetired
Footballguy
NewlyRetired
Footballguy
@Frostillicus just FYI. There is more soccer on TV in the US than in almost any country in the world. The massive amount of games is just frightening.
As a newbie, my recommendation would be to pick one foreign league until a team emerges you want to follow and then pick an MLS team to follow (if one is in your area that should make it easier). This will give you soccer to watch on easy to access channels 12 months a year.
As a newbie, my recommendation would be to pick one foreign league until a team emerges you want to follow and then pick an MLS team to follow (if one is in your area that should make it easier). This will give you soccer to watch on easy to access channels 12 months a year.
El Floppo
Footballguy
NewlyRetired
Footballguy
Eephus
Footballguy
Normally don't like to bump my own posts but this one got kind of lost in Frosty's North Woods Fishing trip.
I finished 1982 and it's kind of a mixed bag. These films were made for audiences who were presumably familiar with the recent tournament so they take more of a NFL Films-style approach. Most of the game footage is filmed from low angles and the editing is more artistic than informative.
The movie is a game of two halves. The first half is more like a travelogue with nice views of post-Franco Spain and features on the New Zealand and Cameroon teams. They didn't cover the groups exhaustively (the Disgrace in Gijon isn't shown) but spent time on the great Brazil-Italy match. The last 45 minutes or so focus on the two semi-finals and the final. There's one famous/infamous game and two better left forgotten. The segment on France-Germany is by far the best part of the movie.
There's a lot to like here but it's definitely a product of it's time. There are shots of topless beaches, coaches smoking in the dugout, dugouts, the Bernabeu in 1982, hooligans, Paolo Rossi and lots and lots of mullets and porn star mustaches. The big takeaway for me was the physicality of the game. If soccer was still played that way, there wouldn't be enough Neymar left to roll on the turf.
12 stars. Next up 1974
