Other Domestic Leagues 16/17

[Savi]

Argentina league has been postponed. The AFA had planned to start this weekend, but the players informed them they're striking...The FA had the audacity to even schedule the games.

Is their a bigger joke right now than Argentinean soccer?

What's the reason for the strike?

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Players not being paid due to tv contract being cancelled. The government apparently gave the players 20 ish million in back pay but they claim it's not enough. I for one do not blame them. They need to clean house from top to bottom

 

[Savi]

Argentinean football is getting ridiculous

 

[HajdukSplit]

Can see Liga MX and MLS totally raiding that league now, in fact its already slowly starting

 

[Savi]

I don't follow Liga MX at all, but are they a financially stable league? How do salaries over there stack up against European leagues?

 

[HajdukSplit]

The top players in Liga MX make low 7 figures (1-2m per year) with the likes of Peralta and especially Gignac probably making double that. They also don't have a salary cap so they are free to spend what they want

I don't follow the league too closely but I would assume just behind the top 5 Euro leagues in terms of finances

 

[HajdukSplit]

so what happened here?

http://www.livescore.com/soccer/poland/ekstraklasa/lech-poznan-vs-lechia-gdansk/1-2258916/

Any interesting title race happening in Poland with that result

1. Lechia Gdansk 46
2. Jagiellonia 45
3. Lech Poznan 44
4. Legia Warsaw 42

 

[Milos Krasic]

Russian league resumed after the winter break.

The top 4 drew each other. CSKA-Zenit finished 0-0. Krasnodar-Spartak was 2-2.

 

[Savi]

Big moment in Belgian football today; after 13 years in the Second divison, FC Antwerp has achieved promotion back to the top division

FC Antwerp are the oldest professional football club in Belgium and have always had huge potential. Even though they had such a tough stretch in the second division, they always drew crowds of 15.000 which would be among the best even in the first division. They were the last Belgian team to play a European Cup final (they lost the 1993 Cup Winners' Cup final at Wembley to Parma). After they went down in 2004 however they were grossly mismanaged for years. Players coming in and going out, several coaching changes each season, shady constructions with agents etc. But now they have a new (local) owner with some money, a young ambitious coach and there's talk of a new stadium (frankly it's ridiculous a city like Antwerp doesn't have a modern sports stadium yet) so things are looking up for them.

 

[HajdukSplit]

Rangers earn a point against Celtic with a late goal by Clint Hill of all people who scored a tap-in after Gordon made a save on Hyndman's shot. Celtic should have buried Rangers earlier and Rangers looked poor for most of the match

Result in the grand scheme of things is meaningless, Celtic will win the league and Rangers will probably finish 3rd which is good enough to see them return to Europe in the EL qualifying rounds

 

[Pouchkine]

A Belgian team in a European Cup final this year? Do you believe in it?

 

[Savi]

I honestly think both Anderlecht and Genk, with the exception of United, would have a realistic chance against anyone left in the tourney

 

[Pouchkine]

I'd say even against United! It's wide open for me, the draw could help a lot also.

 

[Milos Krasic]

Zenit lost to Amkar. Bad result.

Spartak won to go 8 points clear.

 

[Pouchkine]

The big race in Russia is for the 2nd Champions League place and 3rd and 4th place for Europa League since the 5th spot will go to the surprising Cup Winner. Spartak going for their first title since 2001 after so many years of mediocrity. Quite incredible. Their new 45K stadium is also very nice.

 

[Milos Krasic]

Spartak going for their first title since 2001 after so many years of mediocrity.

Which is why they weren't selling Promes and brought in 32-year-old Samedov. They are all in for the title this season.

 

[Savi]

So Hajduk played Rijeka in the Croatian league this weekend. A Hajduk "fan" raced onto the field with a crowbar and went after the referee. There were no police, no stewards, not anything. Basically the Hajduk players had to make him go off the pitch

 

[Pouchkine]

Impressive...

Spartak is going to be fun to follow, if they do win the title and how will they approach the Champions League. Sell their best players, keep the team intact, add some new players...

I think Krasnodar have a chance to climb to 2nd place, will be tough but not impossible.

 

[HajdukSplit]

So Hajduk played Rijeka in the Croatian league this weekend. A Hajduk "fan" raced onto the field with a crowbar and went after the referee. There were no police, no stewards, not anything. Basically the Hajduk players had to make him go off the pitch

Typical Croatian incompetence but the HNS (who Hajduk don't have a great relationship with either) handed down a 2 match ban + fine. Hajduk will appeal I guess on the basis that they hired a large amount of security/police who obviously didn't do their job.

The actual ref in this case was lucky, in the past referees have been attacked off the field in Split and even Niko Kovac when he was the NT coach was confronted by hooligans in Dalmacija (southern Croatia), don't think he was roughed up though. There is a big north-south divide in Croatian football, its always been there but its worse than ever last few years

Its all very political too but won't go into that either. Doesn't help when Mamic has allies high up in the government

 

[Milos Krasic]

Maxime Lestienne apparently regularly shows up to training smelling like alcohol. Rubin's veterans proposed sending him and Alex Song to the reserves.

 

[ViD]

Russia will have 2 automatic spots in the CL in 18/19 season with one more team in the qualification, this is for the first time since 2010.

 

[Savi]

Maxime Lestienne apparently regularly shows up to training smelling like alcohol. Rubin's veterans proposed sending him and Alex Song to the reserves.

Such a waste of talent. Couple of years ago he was doing fantastic in Belgium but as soon as he started getting serious praise and the rumours about top clubs being interested in him started coming, it went straight to his head. I think he also lost both of his parents(?) while playing at PSV. I'm not sure if he will ever recover mentally from that rollercoaster and be the player he was at Club Brugge again.

He'll go in the could-have-been Belgians category along with Anthony Vanden Borre, Vadis Odjidja, Bakkali etc (although there's still hope for him)

 

[ViD]

Such a waste of talent. Couple of years ago he was doing fantastic in Belgium but as soon as he started getting serious praise and the rumours about top clubs being interested in him started coming, it went straight to his head. I think he also lost both of his parents(?) while playing at PSV. I'm not sure if he will ever recover mentally from that rollercoaster and be the player he was at Club Brugge again.

He'll go in the could-have-been Belgians category along with Anthony Vanden Borre, Vadis Odjidja, Bakkali etc (although there's still hope for him)

What about Defour? He was projected to be a big star

 

[Savi]

I don't think he was, most people knew he didn't have the raw talent to be as good a player as Witsel for instance

He's solid player but he couldn't make it at Porto, he came back to Anderlecht but he never fitted in (and while playing at Standard he on multiple occasions said he hated Anderlecht), the fans were 50/50 on him, he was injured a lot, suspended a lot and frankly he was getting in the way of Tielemans' progression

And now with Burnley he's only played in like half of their games so I don't know. I wouldn't call him a bust but yeah, I think most of us thought he would have gotten more out of his career than what we've seen so far.

 

[HajdukSplit]

Benfica drew with FC Porto 1:1 at home and remain one point above them in the title race, both teams are winless in two league matches which must be a rarity. Benfica probably have the harder fixtures on paper only considering they still go to Sporting later this season. Porto still go to Braga which isn't as tough of a match

Ajax are within three points of Feyenoord after their 2:1 win over them today in Amsterdam. PSV are now only 5 points behind the leaders despite their slow start to the season