***Official Soccer Discussion Thread*** (4 Viewers)

[bigbottom]

I miss those weird field level boxes that Goodison Park had along the far touchline. They made Everton games instantly recognizable. I'm sure the new stadium has a more comfortable fan experience but the grounds come across as very generic on TV.

It’s like night and day.

 

[NewlyRetired]

This is going to be a long break. I wonder if fans will prefer one longer break vs two shorter one as in the past

============

FIFA has changed the men’s international calendar for the 2026-2030 period by merging the September and October international breaks into one.

Currently, there are separate international windows beginning in the first full week of September and the second full week of October — the current window — with each nation playing a maximum of two matches in each.

From 2026 onwards, this will be condensed into one period which covers the final full week of September and early October, in which each nation can participate in a maximum of four matches. The change means that clubs across the Premier League and other top European leagues will have around three weeks without football from September 21.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

Fun recap of the 3-match 1987 Copa Libertadores final. Cool for lots of reasons, but a pretty epic best-of too.

 

[NewlyRetired]

First Busquets retires, now Alba. Messi is going to out last all his bros.

 

[encaitar]

This is going to be a long break. I wonder if fans will prefer one longer break vs two shorter one as in the past

============

FIFA has changed the men’s international calendar for the 2026-2030 period by merging the September and October international breaks into one.

Currently, there are separate international windows beginning in the first full week of September and the second full week of October — the current window — with each nation playing a maximum of two matches in each.

From 2026 onwards, this will be condensed into one period which covers the final full week of September and early October, in which each nation can participate in a maximum of four matches. The change means that clubs across the Premier League and other top European leagues will have around three weeks without football from September 21.

I think this makes a ton of sense. Guys get pretty jetlagged when they fly back and forth in 9 days and play 2 games. We've seen many of our players have to rest the first game back due to this very fact. It'll help out club teams immensely by reducing the windows. Especially teams that have stars from NA, SA, and Asia.

 

[NewlyRetired]

This is going to be a long break. I wonder if fans will prefer one longer break vs two shorter one as in the past

============

FIFA has changed the men’s international calendar for the 2026-2030 period by merging the September and October international breaks into one.

Currently, there are separate international windows beginning in the first full week of September and the second full week of October — the current window — with each nation playing a maximum of two matches in each.

From 2026 onwards, this will be condensed into one period which covers the final full week of September and early October, in which each nation can participate in a maximum of four matches. The change means that clubs across the Premier League and other top European leagues will have around three weeks without football from September 21.

I think this makes a ton of sense. Guys get pretty jetlagged when they fly back and forth in 9 days and play 2 games. We've seen many of our players have to rest the first game back due to this very fact. It'll help out club teams immensely by reducing the windows. Especially teams that have stars from NA, SA, and Asia.

I think I like it as an international fan as well. It could be fun having up to 4 qualifiers in a single window.

 

[gianmarco]

This is going to be a long break. I wonder if fans will prefer one longer break vs two shorter one as in the past

============

FIFA has changed the men’s international calendar for the 2026-2030 period by merging the September and October international breaks into one.

Currently, there are separate international windows beginning in the first full week of September and the second full week of October — the current window — with each nation playing a maximum of two matches in each.

From 2026 onwards, this will be condensed into one period which covers the final full week of September and early October, in which each nation can participate in a maximum of four matches. The change means that clubs across the Premier League and other top European leagues will have around three weeks without football from September 21.

I think this makes a ton of sense. Guys get pretty jetlagged when they fly back and forth in 9 days and play 2 games. We've seen many of our players have to rest the first game back due to this very fact. It'll help out club teams immensely by reducing the windows. Especially teams that have stars from NA, SA, and Asia.

I think I like as an international fan as well. It could be fun having up to 4 qualifiers in a single window.

Not to mention it helps the international team have more time together to practice, work on tactics, etc

 

[Ramsay Hunt Experience]

First Busquets retires, now Alba. Messi is going to out last all his bros.

With DePaul and now possibly Regulon joining, he seems to be restocking with younger bros.

 

[zoobird]

Does anybody understand the details of the World Cup ticket situation? Seems so confusing...feels like almost any avenue to buying tickets is going to feel like I got scammed.

I know they've already done the VISA lottery tickets, with multiple future rounds of ticket sales planned

I see nothing at all for sale on Ticketmaster

Stubhub has some specific seats for sale, and then some that are just labeled as 'Category 1', 'Category 2', 'Category 3', 'Category 4', 'Upper', 'Mid', etc.

Why is stubhub selling stuff when ticketmaster isn't? Is this a scam?

Are the tickets on stubhub just resellers of the VISA tickets?

Are we likely to see more tickets go on sale before the group drawing (at which point I assume prices of tickets for any game involving decent teams will skyrocket)?

Does anyone know the definitions of Category 1 - Category 4?

If I buy one of those Category tickets, am I going to get slightly screwed (if sellers lucks into better seats within the category, they sell those and buy cheaper, worse seats in same category to give me)?