OT: Soccer/Football Thread Part Two

[Appleyard]

Yarmolenko is one of those players I always think is such a waste of talent.

Yeh, a good Prem player. But jeez he has everything. Pace, strength, shot, skill... kind of wasted his peak I think hanging around in Kiev. From 2013-16 he dominated every game I saw him in internationally and in Champions League.

I have no clue how he is not a World Class player. Well, he is a bit lazy and inconsistent I guess...

 

[FlyerFaithful17]

Yarmolenko is one of those players I always think is such a waste of talent.

Yeh, a good Prem player. But jeez he has everything. Pace, strength, shot, skill... kind of wasted his peak I think hanging around in Kiev. From 2013-16 he dominated every game I saw him in internationally and in Champions League.

I have no clue how he is not a World Class player. Well, he is a bit lazy and inconsistent I guess...

He terrorized Everton in Europa a few years back.

 

[Jack Straw]

Aurier simply cannot hit a decent cross to save his life.

 

[FlyerFaithful17]

VAR strikes again... we are ruining the organic nature of sports by diving into the minutiae.

 

[Jack Straw]

VAR strikes again... we are ruining the organic nature of sports by diving into the minutiae.

That was unspeakably horrible. What an atrocious rule.

 

[Starat327]

That was unspeakably horrible. What an atrocious rule.

If it means tottenham is losing, its a good one.

 

[Jack Straw]

VAR at its worst.

 

[Jack Straw]

If it means tottenham is losing, its a good one.

What does HC think of your efforts to drive away your campaign's supporters? As if the hot dog vote wasn't bad enough.

 

[Appleyard]

It is not VAR ruining it... it is the officials in charge of interpreting the rules...

But nice that Sheffield United are going to win!


Mourinho cant even get his teams to play the defensive football he is known for anymore. The game has passed the man by in the last 10 years.

 

[Starat327]

It is not VAR ruining it... it is the officials in charge of interpreting the rules...

But nice that Sheffield United are going to win!


Mourinho cant even get his teams to play the defensive football he is known for anymore. The game has passed the man by in the last 10 years.

I will always respect what Mourinho did for my club, but...yeah. His time is up.

 

[Starat327]

What does HC think of your efforts to drive away your campaign's supporters? As if the hot dog vote wasn't bad enough.

Ive already made a side deal for when @Beef Invictus throws his coup to remain in some position of power, and since our competition here is a single Toe, without any vice (we swayed his vice with a candy bar and a PS4), im not too concerned. I couldve voted skittles in the last poll and PB&J in this one and theres nothing that would have changed.

Welcome to the new world order.

 

[Appleyard]

I will always respect what Mourinho did for my club, but...yeah. His time is up.

I had a conversation with one of my friends back in November about what would happen and how he was completely the wrong manager for Spurs.

It was not one of those conversations with "maybes" from either of us. Like it was just accepted how silly the appointment was... especially with who he was replacing.

He has always been so stubborn. It is the same football he was playing with freaking Porto...

Spurs came so close to doing some special stuff as well, assembled a great team for a few years who were fantastic to watch.

 

[Chinatown88]

Ive already made a side deal for when @Beef Invictus throws his coup to remain in some position of power, and since our competition here is a single Toe, without any vice (we swayed his vice with a candy bar and a PS4), im not too concerned. I couldve voted skittles in the last poll and PB&J in this one and theres nothing that would have changed.

Welcome to the new world order.

You didn't even hold out for a PS5 @Striiker ???

 

[Jack Straw]

Ive already made a side deal for when @Beef Invictus throws his coup to remain in some position of power, and since our competition here is a single Toe, without any vice (we swayed his vice with a candy bar and a PS4), im not too concerned. I couldve voted skittles in the last poll and PB&J in this one and theres nothing that would have changed.

Welcome to the new world order.

And I may or may not (I'm not allowed to say) have already begun to plan my revolution of the apes when that baboon-hating Beef takes power.

 

[Starat327]

I had a conversation with one of my friends back in November about what would happen and how he was completely the wrong manager for Spurs.

It was not one of those conversations with "maybes" from either of us. Like it was just accepted how silly the appointment was... especially with who he was replacing.

He has always been so stubborn. It is the same football he was playing with freaking Porto...

Spurs came so close to doing some special stuff as well, assembled a great team for a few years who were fantastic to watch.

Yeah, I had secretly rooted for Spurs (except for the year we won by a few points) because i felt like they were the last team at the top doing it ' the right way'. Mourinho is such a step backwards from Poch, even if something desperately needed to change from Poch.

 

[Appleyard]

Yeah, I had secretly rooted for Spurs (except for the year we won by a few points) because i felt like they were the last team at the top doing it ' the right way'. Mourinho is such a step backwards from Poch, even if something desperately needed to change from Poch.

Dembele was a big loss.
Eriksen is an enormous loss.

Without them they have half the midfield that they had... which is part of it for sure.

 

[Starat327]

Dembele was a big loss.
Eriksen is an enormous loss.

Without them they have half the midfield that they had... which is part of it for sure.

and Ndombele doesnt look like he'll be long for Tottenham at this point, either.

 

[Appleyard]

Phil Foden... sheesh. So good.

 

[Jack Straw]

City doing a number on Liverpool. Didn't really see that coming.

 

[Fire Tortorella]

Yeah, I had secretly rooted for Spurs (except for the year we won by a few points) because i felt like they were the last team at the top doing it ' the right way'. Mourinho is such a step backwards from Poch, even if something desperately needed to change from Poch.

And this is the reason why as much as I enjoy watching and following Spurs, I'll never be as emotionally vested in the results as I will for the Flyers or Eagles.

Because of the way soccer is set up in the rest of the world, there are always have and have nots. In the Premier League, there are teams that just have an exorbitant amount of money to spend compared to their competition. You still have to spend the money smartly, but at the end of the day, if you have money, you can be "successful".

I started following Spurs towards the end of the 13/14 year, so the first season I would really call myself a Tottenham fan just happened to be Pochettino's first year. I remember watching us where we came from, and honestly, what we "are". And that's the thing. There are teams that are going to be better than mine because the playing field is not remotely level. If you want to punch above your weight, you need 15 million things to go right. If you want to continuously punch above your weight, you need even more. I know teams in the NHL and NFL aren't 100% even, but at least the system is designed to give everyone a chance.

At the end of the day, we are a team that should make Europa every season and challenge for a Champions League spot. But given the funny money that other teams at the top have...I can't expect anything more.

 

[CanadianFlyer88]

@Appleyard, watching the City match today led me to reminisce about the 2012 championship season and how my little hovel of Vancouver almost ruined that season for City before it started.

2011 was the MLS debut season for the Whitecaps and while downtown BC Place was undergoing renovations to make the stadium soccer friendly, the Caps played the majority of the season on an outdoor artificial pitch in East Vancouver called Empire Field.

On their summer preseason tour, City played a match against the Caps at Empire on the condition that the game be played on natural grass. Not a problem in July in Vancouver, normally, but leading up to the game Vancouver had a rare stretch of rainy July days. Empire Field wasn't capable of proper drainage, as it was normally an artificial pitch.

In warmups for the start of the game, we could see there were going to be problems with the sod. In the first half, Yaya Toure hit a patch of sod that stuck and he hyperextended his knee. It looked awful, but he ended up being okay. Fortunately it was the only somewhat serious incident in a game that almost certainly should have been cancelled.

When they won that 2012 title, I felt fortunate to say I got to see the EPL champions live that season, but I can't imagine how that season would have gone for City if Toure had missed a chunk of that season because of an injury he picked up against an MLS expansion team.

*********

I haven't seen a lot of City this season (we used to get practically every EPL game in Canada, but the TSN and Sportsnet lost the rights this year), but, man, Zinchenko was awful today. Doesn't look like he has a lot of minutes on the first team. Is he in the long term plans for the club?

 

[sabremike]

@Appleyard, watching the City match today led me to reminisce about the 2012 championship season and how my little hovel of Vancouver almost ruined that season for City before it started.

2011 was the MLS debut season for the Whitecaps and while downtown BC Place was undergoing renovations to make the stadium soccer friendly, the Caps played the majority of the season on an outdoor artificial pitch in East Vancouver called Empire Field.

On their summer preseason tour, City played a match against the Caps at Empire on the condition that the game be played on natural grass. Not a problem in July in Vancouver, normally, but leading up to the game Vancouver had a rare stretch of rainy July days. Empire Field wasn't capable of proper drainage, as it was normally an artificial pitch.

In warmups for the start of the game, we could see there were going to be problems with the sod. In the first half, Yaya Toure hit a patch of sod that stuck and he hyperextended his knee. It looked awful, but he ended up being okay. Fortunately it was the only somewhat serious incident in a game that almost certainly should have been cancelled.

When they won that 2012 title, I felt fortunate to say I got to see the EPL champions live that season, but I can't imagine how that season would have gone for City if Toure had missed a chunk of that season because of an injury he picked up against an MLS expansion team.

*********

I haven't seen a lot of City this season (we used to get practically every EPL game in Canada, but the TSN and Sportsnet lost the rights this year), but, man, Zinchenko was awful today. Doesn't look like he has a lot of minutes on the first team. Is he in the long term plans for the club?

Poor Whitecaps, 5th best team in Canada behind:

1) Toronto FC
2) Montreal Impact
3) Forge FC (FOREVER FIRST!!!)
4) Cavalry FC (Whose ground is fittingly covered in horse manure, FOREVER SECOND!!!)

 

[CanadianFlyer88]

Poor Whitecaps, 5th best team in Canada behind:

1) Toronto FC
2) Montreal Impact
3) Forge FC (FOREVER FIRST!!!)
4) Cavalry FC (Whose ground is fittingly covered in horse manure, FOREVER SECOND!!!)

Hard to argue when the Caps were knocked out of the Canadian Championship in 2019 by Calgary while fielding a mostly first team squad.

 

[Starat327]

Once again, Christensen gets caught out in the box, and the other team scores. I'm honestly baffled as to how hes a part of the squad selection, let alone starting XI.

 

[forzanerazzurri]

Do you guys talk about anything other than Premier League?