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OT: Association Football Thread III (All Soccer Talk Here!)

I Eat Crow

I Eat Crow

Fear The Mullet
Jul 9, 2007
19,638
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Machinehead said:
There's potential for some strange teams to be going for 3rd and 4th.
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For sure. Tottenham is bottling games as badly as United has been lately.

Liverpool and City are the only guarantees for top 4, IMO. Other two spots are between Arsenal, West Ham, Everton, Tottenham, and Leicester City. United and Chelsea are on the outside looking in. United may actually finish 8th or 9th this year.
 
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I Eat Crow

I Eat Crow

Fear The Mullet
Jul 9, 2007
19,638
12,713
Machinehead said:
Lampard has Chelsea playing well IMO. The quality just isn't that of a top 6 team with the ban.
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I feel this way a bit about Ole sometimes, but sometimes I don't. On one hand he looks totally overmatched tactically on a weekly basis by the likes of Crystal Palace and West Ham. On the other the club's board has done absolutely jack all to help improve the squad in a major way. Was Maguire a good signing? In a vacuum yes. That being said, you could have gone out and gotten Skrinar, de Ligt, or just about any other world class defender with the fee they paid for him.

They did nothing to replace Herrera (which is a big loss, IMO) in the midfield. They've needed a right winger for a few fortnights and they still haven't addressed that. Hell, I'm open to Bale at this point even at his bloated wages. There's no way he'd be a worse flop than Sanchez....right?

They did a good job of cutting dead weight this summer. Lukaku? Buh bye, no one needs your attitude. Darmian? What was he still even doing here? Sanchez? Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. Keep doing it. Jones? Enjoy retirement and a new career as a scout. Rojo? Shoot him into the sun. Fred? To Jupiter. Matic? Goodbye. It'll take him a year to walk out of the training center to his car at this rate he's so slow.
 
Machinehead

Machinehead

GoAwayTrouba
Jan 21, 2011
142,212
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I Eat Crow said:
I feel this way a bit about Ole sometimes, but sometimes I don't. On one hand he looks totally overmatched tactically on a weekly basis by the likes of Crystal Palace and West Ham. On the other the club's board has done absolutely jack all to help improve the squad in a major way. Was Maguire a good signing? In a vacuum yes. That being said, you could have gone out and gotten Skrinar, de Ligt, or just about any other world class defender with the fee they paid for him.

They did nothing to replace Herrera (which is a big loss, IMO) in the midfield. They've needed a right winger for a few fortnights and they still haven't addressed that. Hell, I'm open to Bale at this point even at his bloated wages. There's no way he'd be a worse flop than Sanchez....right?

They did a good job of cutting dead weight this summer. Lukaku? Buh bye, no one needs your attitude. Darmian? What was he still even doing here? Sanchez? Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. Keep doing it. Jones? Enjoy retirement and a new career as a scout. Rojo? Shoot him into the sun. Fred? To Jupiter. Matic? Goodbye. It'll take him a year to walk out of the training center to his car at this rate he's so slow.
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It sucks to watch a team once expected to win at least one trophy struggle but I feel that a down year to flush out and reset might be needed, like when we finished 8th in 15-16.

We needed to slowly weed out the Rodgers flops and make a roster for our manager. Whether or not you want to stick with Ole through that whole process is another can of worms.
 
sabremike

sabremike

Friend To All Giraffes
Aug 30, 2010
22,762
34,186
Brewster, NY
Twist.

Shout.

Repeat.
20190922_204150.jpg
 
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Synergy27

Synergy27

F-A-C-G-C-E
Apr 27, 2004
13,271
11,650
Washington, D.C.
So, uh, this Spurs team sure is something right now. Also, watching Hugo Lloris lying in absolute agony and then getting stretchered off while sucking on oxygen, FOR A POSSIBLE BROKEN ARM, was a sad reminder of why I used to really hate soccer. A hockey player would have finished his shift, this dude seriously looked like he might die.
 
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Machinehead

Machinehead

GoAwayTrouba
Jan 21, 2011
142,212
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NYC
Synergy27 said:
So, uh, this Spurs team sure is something right now. Also, watching Hugo Lloris lying in absolute agony and then getting stretchered off while sucking on oxygen, FOR A POSSIBLE BROKEN ARM, was a sad reminder of why I used to really hate soccer. A hockey player would have finished his shift, this dude seriously looked like he might die.
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He probably got the wind knocked out of him, which basically is dying and then coming back to life.
 
I Eat Crow

I Eat Crow

Fear The Mullet
Jul 9, 2007
19,638
12,713
Twellman is LOSING IT after the US's wet fart effort against Canada tonight. First time the USMNT lost to Canada...ever.
 

NCRanger

Bettman's Enemy
Feb 4, 2007
5,438
2,118
Charlotte, NC
I Eat Crow said:
Twellman is LOSING IT after the US's wet fart effort against Canada tonight. First time the USMNT lost to Canada...ever.
Click to expand...

Well, not exactly EVER. It's been 30 something years though.

I really don't think the problems here are all related to "pay to play" and all of that rabbit hole. It's some of it, but that can easily be overcome. It's an easy excuse.

It's also not about "our best athletes" play other sports. A 6'3", 210 pound four star/five star high school football player is not going to be able to transition to soccer. I don't care how great of a football player he may be. He's not running 90 minutes at full effort. That goes for the LeBron Jameses of the basketball world. The only real correlation between football and soccer positions are wide receiver and defensive back, more so defensive back, and we're already loaded with those kind of athletes on the soccer field.

To me, it has to do with coaching, AND, finding players who absolutely understand the game. The key to being a successful striker isn't being able to beat 4 guys on the way the the goal (Lazy Altidore). It's about being able to find the soft spot of the defense inside the box, having a quality midfielder who can find you, and then be able to bury a shot. We have NEVER been able to find a guy like that. Occasionally, we've found the player that sees the game, but will miss the net 9 times out of 10 (McBride, Wondolowski).
 
I Eat Crow

I Eat Crow

Fear The Mullet
Jul 9, 2007
19,638
12,713
NCRanger said:
Well, not exactly EVER. It's been 30 something years though.

I really don't think the problems here are all related to "pay to play" and all of that rabbit hole. It's some of it, but that can easily be overcome. It's an easy excuse.

It's also not about "our best athletes" play other sports. A 6'3", 210 pound four star/five star high school football player is not going to be able to transition to soccer. I don't care how great of a football player he may be. He's not running 90 minutes at full effort. That goes for the LeBron Jameses of the basketball world. The only real correlation between football and soccer positions are wide receiver and defensive back, more so defensive back, and we're already loaded with those kind of athletes on the soccer field.

To me, it has to do with coaching, AND, finding players who absolutely understand the game. The key to being a successful striker isn't being able to beat 4 guys on the way the the goal (Lazy Altidore). It's about being able to find the soft spot of the defense inside the box, having a quality midfielder who can find you, and then be able to bury a shot. We have NEVER been able to find a guy like that. Occasionally, we've found the player that sees the game, but will miss the net 9 times out of 10 (McBride, Wondolowski).
Click to expand...
Coaching is definitely a huge part of the equation from the youth levels all the way up the ladder to the NCAA and professional levels.

I can say from my own experience that youth coaching doesn't reward skill and smarts, and I'll just leave it at that. Due respect, my coaches growing up were morons that knew nothing about the game. My high school coach's attack strategy was literally to play balls towards the corners for the wingers, and hope and pray that they can get a cross in. Horrible tactics.

Another thing that I noticed among some of the best soccer players in the world is that they grew up poor, hungry (in the literal and figurative sense) and saw going pro in soccer as a way out of the slums and poor houses. Not unlike how the poorer kids in the US view basketball, football, baseball, et al as their way out. Soccer isn't viewed the same way as those sports in the US.
 
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East Coast Bias

East Coast Bias

Registered User
Feb 28, 2014
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NYC
Didn’t see the Liverpool-United match as I was at the Rangers game but i see Klopp is full meltdown mode as usual.
 
Machinehead

Machinehead

GoAwayTrouba
Jan 21, 2011
142,212
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NYC
Personally, I prefer the aggregate, but I can objectively agree with MLS making the switch to single-elimination.

The regular season means absolutely nothing if you give both teams a home game.
 
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Machinehead

Machinehead

GoAwayTrouba
Jan 21, 2011
142,212
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NYC
I also wouldn't call this a meltdown now that I'm watching it. He calmly explained that he disagreed with some of the calls and then spent 10 minutes talking about tactics.
 
Machinehead

Machinehead

GoAwayTrouba
Jan 21, 2011
142,212
112,228
NYC
Tbh I felt Robles was prevented from playing his position on that winning goal. Keeper gets the benefit of the doubt in the six-yard box.
 
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