The Soccer thread

[Deestroy All 14,266]

Just popping in to tell @Satyriconhome his city is red. 

[Satyriconhome 10,878]

8 hours ago, Deestroy All said:

Just popping in to tell @Satyriconhome his city is red. 

I have a mother to tell me that

When my Dad was cremated had the Everton scarf with him, understand why now ??

[Dee Zephyr 19,267]

Haven’t caught up on all the EPL highlights but that Son goal overnight was simply breathtaking. 

[Macca 16,976]

5 hours ago, Dee Zephyr said:

Haven’t caught up on all the EPL highlights but that Son goal overnight was simply breathtaking. 

Here's the Son goal amidst the highlights package DZ ... the linked highlight packages tend to only be uploaded for a day or so even though the uploads are from the host broadcaster. 

 

 

 

 

[layzie 33,842]

A typical Simeone performance from Athletico this morning, credit to them it makes the tie more interesting. 

 

[layzie 33,842]

Wow Lyon, did anyone see that coming? Happy with the last 4 teams in the CL should make for some great viewing!

[layzie 33,842]

How are the Chelsea fans feeling about this season? Certainly building a neat squad. Should Abraham be worried with the arrival of Werner or can they fit both in? 

I think they might be another year off being a serious contender but after that watch out!

 

[roy11 3,857]

On 9/1/2020 at 9:52 AM, layzie said:

How are the Chelsea fans feeling about this season? Certainly building a neat squad. Should Abraham be worried with the arrival of Werner or can they fit both in? 

I think they might be another year off being a serious contender but after that watch out!

 

Abraham will be lucky to finish the season at Chelsea.

They've spent 400 million pounds on players over the last 3 seasons. With a front 4 of Werner in front of Pulisic Havertz Ziyech they should be challenging this season. A lot of pressure on Frank now. 

 

[Stevienic23 1,183]

Steven May couldn't fix City's defence at the moment! I look forward to the most expensive guard of honor when we go back to back

[Stein9193 129]

On 9/7/2020 at 12:05 AM, roy11 said:

Abraham will be lucky to finish the season at Chelsea.

They've spent 400 million pounds on players over the last 3 seasons. With a front 4 of Werner in front of Pulisic Havertz Ziyech they should be challenging this season. A lot of pressure on Frank now. 

 

I hope they have as much confidence as you do. Front 4 is great but defence wins leagues and theirs is simply not good enough. Top 3 would be a fair effort, quite a jump to be contenders City and Liverpool won't be knocked out easily.

[roy11 3,857]

11 hours ago, Stein9193 said:

I hope they have as much confidence as you do. Front 4 is great but defence wins leagues and theirs is simply not good enough. Top 3 would be a fair effort, quite a jump to be contenders City and Liverpool won't be knocked out easily.

there's a joke floating around that goes along the lines of

Arteta can couch but has no money;

Lampard has money but can't coach;

Then there's Ole who has no money and can't coach.

 

Ultimately, I think Lampard won't get the best out of the squad.

I'm no Chelsea fan but that front 4 (when fit and all available) is worthy of a title challenger.

I know Leicester a bit of an abnormality but they had a solid and not spectacular backline when they won the league. 

A back line of Chilwell Zouma Silva James is solid enough, give them time to gel - esp with the new keeper. 

it's been a crazy season so far, long may it continue - very hard to predict. 

 

[Macca 16,976]

Some EPL highlights from last night ... the links might take you back to youtube (to view) or you may be able to view the clips here

The terrific part of these Optus Sports clips are that they don't give away the scoreline beforehand.  Readily available on youtube not too long after the games are completed as well

p.s.  the Title is up for grabs!

 

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2020 by Macca

[Macca 16,976]

Did I say the Title is up for grabs? 

Highlights from last night

 

 

 

 

[Macca 16,976]

Games to look out for this weekend

• Sat 11.30pm Brighton vs Liverpool
• Sun 1.30am Stuttgart vs Bayern Munich (Bundesliga)
• Sun 4.30am Everton vs Leeds
• Mon 1.00am Southampton vs Man Utd
• Mon 3.30am Chelsea vs Tottenham
• Mon 6.45am Napoli vs Roma (Serie A)

 

[Macca 16,976]

The race for the title is on (see the next 3 weeks upcoming fixtures listed below the current table)

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by Macca

[Grapeviney 9,727]

Watching Arsenal fans watch the North London derby is my new favourite past-time ?

 

 

[layzie 33,842]

Don't care what the media says this title race is well and truly on, at least for another month. It's that kind of season where good teams are just going to drop points. 

Wolves and Spurs was a tight one with Wolves nearly nicking all 3 points. Big Sam brought West Brom to Anfield with a plan and played it perfectly. Liverpool were way off in the second half. One thing I'll say is I don't know why people get annoyed when the other side isn't 'playing football'. Just find other ways to score.

[Grapeviney 9,727]

Spurs have dropped 13 points after the 85th minute this season - 6 wins which became draws, and a draw which turned into a loss. 

It’s like watching us get beaten by a kick after the siren every week. 

If Mourinho was dead he’d be turning in his grave. 

Could @Macca‘s  Hammers be headed to Europe? 

[Macca 16,976]

12 minutes ago, Grapeviney said:

Spurs have dropped 13 points after the 85th minute this season - 6 wins which became draws, and a draw which turned into a loss. 

It’s like watching us get beaten by a kick after the siren every week. 

If Mourinho was dead he’d be turning in his grave. 

Could @Macca‘s  Hammers be headed to Europe? 

Well, we're every chance GV ... was having a look at our remaining fixtures last night 

Run home is vs Leicester, @ Newcastle, vs Chelsea, @ Burnley, vs Everton,  @ Brighton,  @ West Brom and then vs Southampton

There is not a game amongst that lot which we can't win or gain points from

If we can beat Leicester we're right in it as 2 CL spots would then be up for grabs

Of course Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea, Everton & Leicester are all eyeing off a spot as well.  But Man Utd could drop points in the run home thus opening up a 3rd slot

Dare to dream!!!

 

 

[Diamond_Jim 12,592]

well well

Is this the end of football as we have known it for the last 20 odd years.

Will be a fascinating study in power politics at so many levels not to mention TV rights battles.

How it will impact development of Australian players will be interesting. Could mean more spots in the various European national leagues as clubs replace the Super League teams.

O to live in such interesting times

[Macca 16,976]

9 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

well well

Is this the end of football as we have known it for the last 20 odd years.

Will be a fascinating study in power politics at so many levels not to mention TV rights battles.

How it will impact development of Australian players will be interesting. Could mean more spots in the various European national leagues as clubs replace the Super League teams.

O to live in such interesting times

Big news hey DJ!

Looks like the people behind the idea are all-in but the backlash already has been full-on

Threats of reprisals and bans dominate the news. 

But a number of other sports have their own version of a 'Super League' so what this new group is proposing isn't really groundbreaking - although that's the perception (NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL, NRL & AFL are good examples)

Interesting that the head honchos of the proposed new league are the current presidents of Real Madrid & Juventus

But Soccer/Football is entrenched with its own leagues,  European Cups, Champions League, World Cups etc etc so this league would be a huge intrusion. 

And $Billions of dollars are at stake so the fight will be dirty.  In fact, there's talk that the new league with it's 15 teams (with 5 other invited/qualified teams) could generate $5.6Billion to start things off.  2 groups of 10 clubs is the rumoured structure

Banking giant JP Morgan will be financing the new league with the $5.6Billion+

The Financial Review has a comprehensive article on the whole proceedings

Copy & Paste ...

European Super League Explained: teams, formats, winners and losers

Edited April 19, 2021 by Macca

[Dee Zephyr 19,267]

Big news continue. Mourinho sacked overnight just days before the League Cup final. Reportedly he was against Spurs joining the Super League. 

[Guest]

10 hours ago, Macca said:

Big news hey DJ!

Looks like the people behind the idea are all-in but the backlash already has been full-on

Threats of reprisals and bans dominate the news. 

But a number of other sports have their own version of a 'Super League' so what this new group is proposing isn't really groundbreaking - although that's the perception (NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL, NRL & AFL are good examples)

Interesting that the head honchos of the proposed new league are the current presidents of Real Madrid & Juventus

But Soccer/Football is entrenched with its own leagues,  European Cups, Champions League, World Cups etc etc so this league would be a huge intrusion. 

And $Billions of dollars are at stake so the fight will be dirty.  In fact, there's talk that the new league with it's 15 teams (with 5 other invited/qualified teams) could generate $5.6Billion to start things off.  2 groups of 10 clubs is the rumoured structure

Banking giant JP Morgan will be financing the new league with the $5.6Billion+

The Financial Review has a comprehensive article on the whole proceedings

Copy & Paste ...

European Super League Explained: teams, formats, winners and losers

Capitalist Greed Created the European Super League

 

Some may not like the source, but I’ve seen some parallels with what’s in this article to certain epochs of AFL history (mid to late ‘90’s). Thankfully, by 2002, David Smorgon made his speech, and football neo-liberalism was contained somewhat.

Bill Shankly would be cringing if he saw who was the owner (a previously foreign concept to English football) of Liverpool these days.

[Macca 16,976]

4 hours ago, Colin B. Flaubert said:

Capitalist Greed Created the European Super League

 

Some may not like the source, but I’ve seen some parallels with what’s in this article to certain epochs of AFL history (mid to late ‘90’s). Thankfully, by 2002, David Smorgon made his speech, and football neo-liberalism was contained somewhat.

Bill Shankly would be cringing if he saw who was the owner (a previously foreign concept to English football) of Liverpool these days.

Although the greed already exists anyway Col ... for years we've been noting the spending spree along with the gouging of pricing for attendees (as well as a need to have pay TV to watch etc etc)

The big clubs with their rich ownership have been practising this sort of behavior for decades

The new league (if it goes ahead) is just an extension of greedy practises

Soccer allows it's own clubs to be owned by greedy rich billionaires and then is outraged by greedy rich billionaires acting like greedy rich billionaires!

Stands to reason that a super league was inevitable ... and a little club like Leipzig with its well connected ownership (Redbull) will want a seat at the table

By the way,  I'm more so siding with the practicalities of inevitable outcomes not the billionaire owners ... I'm quite surprised that this sort of league hasn't happened earlier. 

It was first mooted over 2 decades ago. 

Not convinced it will get off the ground though as it may just be an ambit claim

But we're seeing capitalism with a capital C at work!

Edited April 20, 2021 by Macca

[Guest]

An interesting point raised in the Jacobin article @Maccais that there were regulations that prohibited football club board members from being paid a salary, and that lifting this paved the way for the era of private ownership. Not to divert the conversation too off topic, this does highlight the earnings available and global attractiveness of both AFL and what is now the English Premier League.

I'm not sure if there is a regulatory framework in place in the AFL, but there have been salaried presidents (George Harris) and private ownership. However, AFL being a quaint product of the Antipodes has made the monied powers more reticent to invest in the clubs. When private buyers have invested, they have either been shysters (Christopher Skase and Geoffrey Edelsten), disinterested (Reuben Pelerman) or a means to keep a struggling club afloat (Mike Willessee, Bob Ansett and the North Melbourne share float). 

AFL has gone down the TV rights path, but while it has teetered on the precipice of going full blown corporate, it's never pulled the trigger entirely. I think it's telling that Rupert decided to sink his claws into the then ARL, instead of the AFL in the mid 90's. The ability to sell the former to boardrooms beyond the borders of Australia were clearly greater. 

I recently read a book called 'Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low Wage Britain', and Blackpool, one of the cities mentioned in the article whose club had fallen from grace thanks to the agglomeration of wealth by the 'big 7' clubs, featured heavily. From what was once a beachside holiday destination to a city struggling with homelessness, alcoholism and chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes and heart disease, this seems to be another kick in the guts for communities that largely voted for Brexit wanting something, ANYTHING, to change (and were pointed mostly in the wrong direction by shameless charlatans). While football isn't life, it seems brutally unfair that this will now happen while the same race baiting Tories are basically silent in the background.

 

Edited April 20, 2021 by Colin B. Flaubert