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***Official Soccer Discussion Thread*** (3 Viewers)

The Z Machine said:
Desert_Power said:
Z, I know you do most of your soccer reading at Marca, but Soccernet's new Spain columnist has some withering commentary for Atletico this week: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=60...ope&cc=5901

Also seeing calls for firing their coach, what are your thoughts on this?
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I prefer AS.com over Marca, as I can't stand the over the top Real Madrid slat from them. It's sickening. I met a VP from Marca once though, and he was pretty cool.One would think that bringing in 2 very good defenders would make Atlético's defense a bit mroe sound. Instead, they look even more suspect than last year. It's a real disgrace.

Anyway, I'm not totally in favor of sacking Aguirre right now. Not really for his failure to shore up the defense, but more so that I don't think that firing a coach in mid-season does a whole lot for the team. I think he's still got the locker room's support right now, and that counts for a lot. Schuster didn't have the support of Raúl ever, and that was a determining factor in his departure (also, he didn´t look like he ever enjoyed it).

If Atlético fail to make CL this year, then I say let Aguirre go back to Mexico or to another, lower level La Liga team. Atlético has enough of a profile, and enough good talent that they'll likely be able to snag a good coach. The only issue I have is if Kun is a fan of Aguirre (which I have no idea about), then that could save his ###. Losing Kun would be a huge blow to Atlético. If they make the 4th spot again, I say that Aguirre could go either way at the end of the year.

Atlético drew a good match up against Porto, a team on paper they should beat. That would put them into the "octavos" of the CL, and they might get an easy draw there. IF (big if) my Atleti make it through to the semifinals, then I think Aguirre has a decent shot at sticking around.
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Interesting. It would certainly be huge for them to make it into the final eight, but I think they will have a hard time doing that since it seems their defense has a relatively hard time stopping the better sides in Spain, though I am sure the 6 GS by Barca skews that a bit. If they cannot regain their form of the last part of the first part of the season they will be in trouble soon when it comes to playing in Europe as their looks to be a decent amount of competition for the 5 and 6 spots.Certainly they need to make sure to keep Aguero happy as keeping the second highest scoring attack in Spain together is pivotal to them in the long run.

Are you watching the match today?

 
I've watched a total of maybe 2 NFL games this year, and even those I was only watching about 75% of the time. Both of them have been playoff games. I'll probably watch the Super Bowl, but that's really just an excuse to drink beer and eat a lot of food.

The NFL is boring. College football is more exciting, and at least I have a horse in that race (Go Bears!).

 
Bayern bringing in Toni hurt Podolski's playing time. Between the three, Klose, Toni and Podolski, Klinsmann has to start Klose and Toni if they are fit. Prince Poldi's big problem is that when he gets playing time he does hardly anything with it.

 
Have you guys caught the new ESPN website?

Up at the top where the links are to the various sports it goes like this:

NFL | MLB | NBA | Soccer | College: Football | Basketball | NHL

Wow. Think about that... ESPN is putting soccer at 4th place behind the 2 major US sports and the 2nd tier sport of pro basketball. Impressive.

People are speculating that ESPN is gonna make a very serious bid to put Premiership games on TV in the US. That would be fantastic.

 
The Z Machine said:
Have you guys caught the new ESPN website?Up at the top where the links are to the various sports it goes like this:NFL | MLB | NBA | Soccer | College: Football | Basketball | NHLWow. Think about that... ESPN is putting soccer at 4th place behind the 2 major US sports and the 2nd tier sport of pro basketball. Impressive.People are speculating that ESPN is gonna make a very serious bid to put Premiership games on TV in the US. That would be fantastic.
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1) This is mostly democratic. If a sport gets a lot of hits, it gets more exposure. If it gets less hits on the web site, it gets less exposure on the site. Hits on a web site are much more exact than ratings on TV. 2) The rumor for almost 1.5 years has been that if ESPN can acquire the EPL rights, they will immediately shut down ESPNClassic and launch ESPN3 with soccer as its showcase sport.
 
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andy_b said:
2) The rumor for almost 1.5 years has been that if ESPN can acquire the EPL rights, they will immediately shut down ESPNClassic and launch ESPN3 with soccer as its showcase sport.
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This would be sweet. :hophead:
 
I have a question for Z as well. I was watching Barca beat your Atletico in the Copa Del Rey yesterday and they mentioned a rift between Aguerro and Messi. Something about Aguerro not naming Messi one of the top 11? Do you know what they were talking about?

Good game (if you're a Barca fan). Bojan and Gudjonsen might have scored, but other than that they did not play very well. I wish Barca would have held on to Dos Santos. Anyone know how he is doing?

 
Sebowski said:
I have a question for Z as well. I was watching Barca beat your Atletico in the Copa Del Rey yesterday and they mentioned a rift between Aguerro and Messi. Something about Aguerro not naming Messi one of the top 11? Do you know what they were talking about?
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The UEFA website (Uefa.com) had a bunch of players pick their Team of the Year for 2008. The site is a bear to search, I can find Messi's picks (where Kun was one of the forwards) but not Aguero's picks. Using Google I found some other forums that showed Kun's team. He picked Ibrahimovich and Del Piero as his forwards. He had Ronaldo and Ribery on the flanks in the midfield. I'm not sure Aguero was trying to pick the absolute best players in the world so much as pick players he thought deserved mention for their 2008 performance. If anyone had a right to be aggrieved by these Team of 2008 picks, it was Iker Casillas. I saw more players pick Cech than Casillas.
 
I think the rift is more on Kun's part than Messi. It saddens me to say, but the latter is far more classy in his interviews than the former (plus he's a better player too). They're about the same age, play similar positions for the same national team... so the potential for conflict is there. Personally, I think it's a bit overblown, but we'll see.

One can look at the "Best 11" thing in 2 ways: 1) the best 11 players in the world right now, or 2) the best 11 players in the world based on their contributions over the last year. In the former, I'd probably take Cech, in the later case, I'd take San Iker.

BTW, did you guys see that Ramón Calderón quit as the president of Real Madrid? Vicente Boluda will be int interim president until this summer when a new election will occur. Since there is no "owner" of teams like Real Madrid, the president position is the equivalent of the GM/owner, but is elected by the "socios" or club members that pay dues each year to support the team.

 
Thanks for the info on Kun and Dos Santos guys. Kun has always rubbed me the wrong way a little for no real reason. He always hits the bench in Fifa when I'm Argentina for Tevez.

You guys already talk about Kaka going to City? I don't see him leaving seeing that he was the one who lobbied to get all the Brazialns together at Milan (I think).

 
Surprised Kljestan to Celtic hasn't been mentioned. Not a done deal though. I'd like to see Sasha get overseas but I don't know if this is a good fit. Still, I'd rather see him sit for Celtic than play for Chivas next year.

 
Sebowski said:
You guys already talk about Kaka going to City? I don't see him leaving seeing that he was the one who lobbied to get all the Brazialns together at Milan (I think).
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Sounds to me like he's indifferent from what I've read. He's said he'd like to stay at Milan if they want him to stay. But he's never really said Milan is where he wants to be.Example:

Kaka himself was quoted as saying that he was happy to stay at AC Milan if the club did not want to sell him, but he has given every indication in the past that he would love to play in the English Premiership at some stage in his career.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/artic...7cYxarpYarMoutAI'm all for getting more talent to the EPL that doesn't end up at Man U., Arsenal, Liverpool or Chelsea.

 
Trap game today.

FA Cup tie next week, and Everton as well.

Arsenal already lost to Hull City at home in September, and they need a win to just stay within 3 pts of Villa.

I'm not optimistic :lmao:

 
I'm getting really sick of not being able to watch any decent soccer in this godforsaken country. I just told my gf, "we need digital cable."

This is terrible. ESPN needs to get on the ball and make the EPL a reality.

 
The Z Machine said:
I'm getting really sick of not being able to watch any decent soccer in this godforsaken country. I just told my gf, "we need digital cable."This is terrible. ESPN needs to get on the ball and make the EPL a reality.
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Z, first time posting to this thread, but I assume you mean US? What do you have? I have Dish Network and get Fox Soccer Channel with the package I have and then I have Setanta for 15 bucks a month and I get to basically see every match each week. Absolutely get all of the top 4 matches each week which includes the team I support - Manchester United. I'll try to post here more often now that I know about it.As for today's games - United, Chelsea and Villa all left it sort of late. I've always said that it's something champions have to do - grind out results. I actually didn't watch Stoke/Chelsea, but I watched all of United and Arsenal's matches. Stoke fans have to be heart broken giving up those two late goals though.Oh, one more thing related to your post - have you noticed that ESPNews has started showing the big 3 leagues scores? You get the occasional highlight, but at least they are showing the scores now. It'll just be a matter of time before they bid on it for the states.
 
Yes. I have basic cable with 3 freaking ESPN channels, the golf network, and 70 more channels of pure crap, but I can't get a decent soccer game on. In order to get Setanta and FSC, I'd need to spend like an extra $25/month (to $80) to get digital cable, and I'm not even sure my apartment building can handle the feed. I can't go dish because I don't own the place and there's no convenient balcony to put it on anyway.

Ridiculous.

Oh and the local Irish pub opens at noon Pacific.

 
The Z Machine said:
Yes. I have basic cable with 3 freaking ESPN channels, the golf network, and 70 more channels of pure crap, but I can't get a decent soccer game on. In order to get Setanta and FSC, I'd need to spend like an extra $25/month (to $80) to get digital cable, and I'm not even sure my apartment building can handle the feed. I can't go dish because I don't own the place and there's no convenient balcony to put it on anyway.Ridiculous.Oh and the local Irish pub opens at noon Pacific.
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So you're telling me Chivas USA vs. Houston Dynamo isn't quality soccer? :goodposting:
 
Actually a pretty exciting game going on between Portsmouth and Spurs on FSC right now....back and forth attacks on both ends.

1-0 Pompey right now...David Nugent

 
guru_007 said:
Steve Tasker for Prez said:
guru_007 said:
Moe. said:
bentley to spurs. link. assuming berbatov stays (and even if he doesnt, really) tottenham should be pretty impressive on the attack this year. what do you all see their preferred lineup being?
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I was absolutely stunned Spurs was able to pull this off....more shocked that Blackburn would let Bentley go.With Bale and Bentley, they have two of the best, youngest midfielders in the EPL and arguably two of the best set piece guys in the league. Pretty much like two young Beckhams taking corners out there. If Berbatov stays and you have a healthy Bent, Jenas and Lennon, this is the most potent offense in the league.

But, as was mentioned earlier, who the hell is playing defense? And goal?
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Those guys are all damn good players, but let's not get carried away....
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Tell me who you think is going to score more goals this year.Tottenham scored the 5th most goals last years and that is with a ton of injuries to key guys. Now, they've lost Keene, sure, but should start the season at full health, have added a very good midfielder. I think, barring significant injuries, they lead the league this year in both goals scored, and probably come in top 3 in goals allowed
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Spurs are currently 16th in the league with 21 goals in 21 games :rolleyes:

 
And that Arsenal-Hull game last night was scary for 82 minutes.....I can't rave enough about Samir Nasri, as I've done all year. Sensational player...

 
The Z Machine said:
Really getting pissed that I have no decent soccer to watch. This blows.
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Do you get Setanta?A friend of mine keeps telling me about this online Setanta package he has. He pays a flat rate per month, and gets access to a TON of games. On top of that, he has the choice to watch the games on-demand, which is great cause we all know that the 10 AM games aren't always the most feasible.I've been meaning to look into it, I'll ask him to explain it more next time I see him.
 
Steve Tasker for Prez said:
And that Arsenal-Hull game last night was scary for 82 minutes.....I can't rave enough about Samir Nasri, as I've done all year. Sensational player...
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Caught the last 25 minutes. Terrific action. If van Pressie isn't scoring, he's assisting. He's a beast. I think I've found my favorite team.As an aside, there's a gal at work who was raised in England. Her favorite team growing up was the Southampton Saints. They got relegated, I think, in 2005. Is there any way FSC would show any Southampton games and/or highlights that I could record? Thanks.
 
Ed Wood said:
Steve Tasker for Prez said:
And that Arsenal-Hull game last night was scary for 82 minutes.....I can't rave enough about Samir Nasri, as I've done all year. Sensational player...
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Caught the last 25 minutes. Terrific action. If van Pressie isn't scoring, he's assisting. He's a beast. I think I've found my favorite team.As an aside, there's a gal at work who was raised in England. Her favorite team growing up was the Southampton Saints. They got relegated, I think, in 2005. Is there any way FSC would show any Southampton games and/or highlights that I could record? Thanks.
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Very rarely....FA Cup games, maybe....otherwise you'll be lucky to find a 30-second highlight every week, if that.
 
Steve Tasker for Prez said:
guru_007 said:
Steve Tasker for Prez said:
guru_007 said:
Moe. said:
bentley to spurs. link. assuming berbatov stays (and even if he doesnt, really) tottenham should be pretty impressive on the attack this year. what do you all see their preferred lineup being?
Click to expand...
I was absolutely stunned Spurs was able to pull this off....more shocked that Blackburn would let Bentley go.With Bale and Bentley, they have two of the best, youngest midfielders in the EPL and arguably two of the best set piece guys in the league. Pretty much like two young Beckhams taking corners out there. If Berbatov stays and you have a healthy Bent, Jenas and Lennon, this is the most potent offense in the league.

But, as was mentioned earlier, who the hell is playing defense? And goal?
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Those guys are all damn good players, but let's not get carried away....
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Tell me who you think is going to score more goals this year.Tottenham scored the 5th most goals last years and that is with a ton of injuries to key guys. Now, they've lost Keene, sure, but should start the season at full health, have added a very good midfielder. I think, barring significant injuries, they lead the league this year in both goals scored, and probably come in top 3 in goals allowed
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Spurs are currently 16th in the league with 21 goals in 21 games :confused:
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:unsure: Spurs is horrible

 
Kendall said:
CletiusMaximus said:
Bayern is apprently very close to completing the long-expected deal to send Podolski back to Cologne, which is very important development for Landon Donovan's career if he hopes to stay in the bundesliga (Link). I have a good friend in Germany who is a huge Bayern fan, and this is what he wrote in an email to me two days ago:

Luckily they've got the bad affair of Podolskis contract almost solved. He will play the second half of the season in Munich (as they don't get another forward in time, - but Klinsmann has already announced that Dononvan is the first player to replace Klose or Toni, if they have to get out) and then go back to his beloved Cologne. He was a huge failure. I saw him quite often and believe that he will never become a superstar, for sure not by returning to lowly Cologne.

Donovan had a promising start to the season in two frienlies in U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia where he had two assists and one goal. I believe that Klinsmann wants him under all circumstances if he doesn't fail in the upcoming three months. He just has to convince the rest of the "rulers" in the club, like Rummenigge, Hoeness and Breitner. Donovan seems really determined to succeed this time.
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As of two days ago, my friend did not expect Podolski to leave until after the season because Bayern had only Donovan and Podolski behind Toni and Klose, so I would say if they do sell Podolski this week or next, this can almost certainly be seen as a very strong positive for LD.In unrelated news, it appears Drogba played his last game for Chelsea last weekend, something I pined for in this thread probably about 50 pages back.

Finally, an interesting, completely unsolicited comment from my German friend, a huge fan of american sports, which relates to discussions in the trolling thread on this board. He watched the NFL playoffs this weekend and said this:

By the way, what has happened to this great sport? I watched three of the four games this weekend and I couldn't believe the amount of commercial breaks they had. I think, they kill this sport. One game took 3 1/2 hours and had only about 1 1/2 hours playing time. I couldn't stand it in the end. We get stupid advertisements while you at least see some more interesting ones. I couldn't stand it at the end and shut it off. I hear from a lot of Europeans who are watching the games that the many breaks turn them off the

American Football. They hurt themselves. I doubted for some time which Football is more exciting, but now I am sure it is our Football European style. There is so much more action and we don't have to endure these dreaded advertisements.
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I replied that, if I'm not at the game or at a bar, I only watch NFL on dvr these days for this reason.
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I haven't really watched lick of the NFL playoffs for this reason. The NFL is getting a big head thinking they're the number one American sport now.That's really interesting stuff about Podolski and Donovon. I hope Donovan gets some serious PT there and keeps his head in it. To me his biggest problem always seemed that he didn't want to challenge the comfort he had in being an American soccer star. If he pushes himself to be an international football star who knows where he could take himself.

A shame for Podolski though. After the 2006 World Cup I thought he was primed for an amazing career. Obviously its to early to sell him short, but right now his path is oddly mirroring that of a young Landon Donovan.
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Podolski to Cologne completed but the transfer will take place after the season.
 
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prefontaine said:
Kendall said:
Finally, an interesting, completely unsolicited comment from my German friend, a huge fan of american sports, which relates to discussions in the trolling thread on this board. He watched the NFL playoffs this weekend and said this:

By the way, what has happened to this great sport? I watched three of the four games this weekend and I couldn't believe the amount of commercial breaks they had. I think, they kill this sport. One game took 3 1/2 hours and had only about 1 1/2 hours playing time. I couldn't stand it in the end. We get stupid advertisements while you at least see some more interesting ones. I couldn't stand it at the end and shut it off. I hear from a lot of Europeans who are watching the games that the many breaks turn them off theAmerican Football. They hurt themselves. I doubted for some time which Football is more exciting, but now I am sure it is our Football European style. There is so much more action and we don't have to endure these dreaded advertisements.
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I replied that, if I'm not at the game or at a bar, I only watch NFL on dvr these days for this reason.
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I haven't really watched lick of the NFL playoffs for this reason. The NFL is getting a big head thinking they're the number one American sport now.
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:bye: I've had a lot of trouble just staying interested in most NFL games this post-season. I've never felt the NFL was boring before, but this season + playoffs are killing me.
 
Just wanted to note that halfway through La Liga (after thumping Deportivo 5-0), Barcelona has racked up 50 points with a goal differential of +46. :confused: Damn, they are a fun team to watch right now. I hope they keep it up.

 
The Kansas Comet said:
Just wanted to note that halfway through La Liga (after thumping Deportivo 5-0), Barcelona has racked up 50 points with a goal differential of +46. :lmao: Damn, they are a fun team to watch right now. I hope they keep it up.
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A record setting first half of the season.Alves was absolutely on fire yesterday.
 
Desert_Power said:
The Kansas Comet said:
Just wanted to note that halfway through La Liga (after thumping Deportivo 5-0), Barcelona has racked up 50 points with a goal differential of +46. :confused: Damn, they are a fun team to watch right now. I hope they keep it up.
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A record setting first half of the season.Alves was absolutely on fire yesterday.
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He was tremendous - that cross he had with the outside of the right foot on Henry's header was perfect. I love reading how Pep isn't satisfied either - he said there were things they didn't do right yesterday. I don't see him allowing the Blaugrana to get too pleased with themselves.
 
I have an honest question: why is it "cool" to make fun of soccer?

I realize I'm preaching to the choir here, but I just don't understand it. I was reading a different message board today, and someone had posted the list of 10 most valuable sports franchises in the world. #1 is Manchester United, valued at $1.8 billion. Real Madrid and Arsenal were like 6 and 7, respectively. Most of the replies in the thread were along the lines of "what sport is this? rugby?" or "why are these teams in here? soccer sucks".

I understand the arguments: soccer's boring, soccer will never be the most popular sport in the US, etc. Is it an ethnocentric sentiment? Sorta like, in theory, the USA >> other countries, ergo our sports are better and other sports suck? And in conjunction with that, people don't want "European" sports like soccer to overtake true "American" sports like baseball and football?

If someone has given soccer a fair shake and decides that it's just not interesting, that's fine. I have many friends who I played with for years who just can't stand to watch it...that's fine. But way too many people just dismiss soccer because they've heard it's boring, or they watched 15 minutes of it once and no one scored.

I feel the same way about other fringe sports. Cricket, for example (I have a few Indian/Pakistani friends at school). Some people just immediately write off cricket. When you ask them why, they can't tell you a single thing about cricket except that it's similar to baseball and the games are too long.

I guess this rant really didn't go anywhere, and didn't have a real point. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

 
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