The [Horribly Unpopular] Soccer Thread

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

All the female supporters of my team look like this one.

Click to expand...

I knew your lot didn't have all that many fans, but even so it's too bad that only one of them is a girl.

dwarven_stout said:

I knew your lot didn't have all that many fans, but even so it's too bad that only one of them is a girl.

Click to expand...

haha I was gonna edit my post to avoid that particular smackdown, but then I thought what the hell, it's all true.

Time to start drinking in my LA kit. It's matchday, mofos!

LA 2
HOU 1

Someone get Alexi a cowboy hat and a duster...

I'm not much of a gal fan, but it'd be nice to see Becks get one last title before he leaves.

Congrats LA!

3-1 LA!

Ha, I almost predicted the final score

congrats. My hope now is that Seattle doesn't implode as they plan for next season. Lots of blowback from the fans. Most of which don't understand league restrictions to begin with.

Lots of domestic soccer news:

- Here's the Re-Entry Draft list. It could change if clubs make deals with players before Friday. But there are some big names. Who knows, maybe Toronto will pick de Guzman back up

- Olave and Espindola traded to NYRB for allocation money. Wow... and in further gutting of RSL, Johnson was sent to Portland

- Portland sent Kosuke Kimura to NYRB

- Justin Braun will continue to be punted around the league, this time to Toronto

- NYRB put a big red bow on Kenny Cooper and is looking for offers, which is absolutely ridiculous. "Hey, thanks for scoring 18 goals. Now don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out."

- Sacramento is starting a USL PRO (3rd tier) franchise, the name to be chosen by the community. This is a few months after initial rumors of MLS expanding or moving a franchise to Elk Grove (Sacramento suburb.) USL PRO is also adding franchises in Tampa and Phoenix

- LA Galaxy are still the MLS Champs... not news, just wanted to mention it again

I find RSL moves interesting too. The three they got rid of were real thorns in Seattle's side. There is some talent out there to be had that will fit Seattle's needs, but in general it seems like a lot of teams are just dumping payroll more than anything else.

And yes, congrats on the cup win. Let's hope Donovan gets the playing bug back after a break. I will miss Becks too.

Right now looking at things and having experienced the NASL I am a bit concerned about the clubs who are trying to go cheap. We're only as strong as our worst club.

Well Portland, Toronto, and Chivas are making big moves both on and off the field so that may help in general.

Reno_eNVy said:

Well Portland, Toronto, and Chivas are making big moves both on and off the field so that may help in general.

Click to expand...

Getting daily changes for the Timbers:

Palmer - contract not renewed
Purdy - contract not renewed

Kimura - goes to New York
Brunner - goes to Houston

Acquire Michael Harrington from Sporting KC
Acquire Will Johnson from Real Salt Lake

I wish they would get our keeper back and find us a mobile striker with ball handling skills.

Joker said:

I wish they would get our keeper back and find us a mobile striker with ball handling skills.

Click to expand...

As Jack Nicholson once said "Balls? You can't handle my balls!"

Joker said:

Getting daily changes for the Timbers:

I wish they would get our keeper back and find us a mobile striker with ball handling skills.

Click to expand...

I hear NYRB are shopping out Kenny Cooper.

Grannyknot said:

I hear NYRB are shopping out Kenny Cooper.

Click to expand...

Yup

Reno_eNVy said:

Lots of domestic soccer news:
.
.
.
- NYRB put a big red bow on Kenny Cooper and is looking for offers, which is absolutely ridiculous. "Hey, thanks for scoring 18 goals. Now don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out."

Click to expand...

But I doubt Portland will want him back seeing as he was dead weight for them.

We seem to be the striker black hole, they are great before they get here and do good after they leave.

So Chelsea become the first CL holders to fail to advance beyond the group stages....

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

aygov said:

So Chelsea become the first CL holders to fail to advance beyond the group stages....

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

Click to expand...

And 2 England teams crash out of CL group stage again.
The past two Champions League campaigns are really going to hurt the EPL uefa coefficient. I wouldn't be suprised to see them limited to 3 teams in the coming years.

edit....and to add to this. My Arsenal team, who is having an awful season, decided not to field a strong team and subsequently loose their last game. They didn't care, because they had already qualified in 2nd. Last time they sandbagged like that to finish 2nd, they got Barcelona in the first round of knockouts and promptly got their bell rung.

Grannyknot said:

And 2 England teams crash out of CL group stage again.
The past two Champions League campaigns are really going to hurt the EPL uefa coefficient. I wouldn't be suprised to see them limited to 3 teams in the coming years.

Click to expand...

If I'm understanding the coefficient process properly, they are not in any real risk of losing a team any time soon. They may well get passed by Germany for the number 2 spot, but the top three teams all get 4 CL spots and 3 EL spots. England is 17 points ahead of #4, italy, with a 5 year coefficient of 77 vs Italy's 60.

They were tied for second in coefficient based on 2011-2012 season, and are currently third for the 2012-2013 season. So yeah, these past couple years haven't helped them solidify their position, but their relative performance in the past couple years has still been solid enough to maintain 4 CL spots.

Grannyknot said:

edit....and to add to this. My Arsenal team, who is having an awful season, decided not to field a strong team and subsequently loose their last game. They didn't care, because they had already qualified in 2nd. Last time they sandbagged like that to finish 2nd, they got Barcelona in the first round of knockouts and promptly got their bell rung.

Click to expand...

As a fellow Gooner I hear ya. Unfortunately with our abysmal back 4 at some point in the tournament we're going to get stomped. It's just a matter of sooner or later.

aygov said:

As a fellow Gooner I hear ya. Unfortunately with our abysmal back 4 at some point in the tournament we're going to get stomped. It's just a matter of sooner or later.

Click to expand...

I feel for the sanity of my Gooner friends. That was no skeleton team they put out against Bradford.

ThickHead said:

I feel for the sanity of my Gooner friends. That was no skeleton team they put out against Bradford.

Click to expand...

I had a feeling we'd lose. Wenger has pretty well lost the team at the moment if we can't get up enough to beat the mighty Bradford. It's going to be a long year....

Sepp Blatter, I hope you stub your big toe so hard that you shatter the toenail and it gets all infected and your toe falls off.

For those of you who don't know that name and the seething hate it can create, he's the president of FIFA. Corrupt, inept, possibly mentally impaired. On Saturday he made a statement to the effect that MLS is not a major professional league. His biggest criticism? MLS doesn't follow the FIFA calendar. He made this statement on the same day that a college football bowl game got cancelled due to snow.

News flash, Sepp: the eastern United States and Canada don't enjoy the benefits of the Gulf Stream. To wit, it's really f**king cold. How many matches would get cancelled or have abysmal attendance if they were held in January in New York, Boston, Toronto, Montreal, etc.?

Please do us all a favor and go play in traffic.

On a lighter side, great video of all USMNT goals this year. And Tim Howard's impossible save can be viewed at roughly 3:45

[ame="http://youtu.be/pyb65X1UWmM"]http://youtu.be/pyb65X1UWmM[/ame]

Bradley's volley against Scotland is one of the best goals of the year in all competitions for all nations. I'm glad Klinsmann has promoted him to the first squad seemingly for good. I like him and Jones in the middle.

US needs better central defenders though, just don't have any talent there at all. Boca isn't terrible but he's old and losing speed.

I'm hoping that Omar Gonzalez will be able to suit up in 2013. He got the call-up last January before he tore his ACL on loan... now that he's MLS Cup MVP it may be likely he'll get a second call-up.

It would be great to see him next to Geoff Cameron so we can build our center backs on size, strength, speed, and good distribution. They are both very young, have huge potential, and could be the starters for a good long time.

Really we just need more people in the pipeline. Almost everyone we have is too old to go on just potential. So we need guys who're refined skills, almost all of them are physically capable of playing CB, but they lack a variety of other skills needed to play at a high level. I'm bummed out that seemingly nothing happened out of Ream. Hopefully he gets on the right track.

I also think it will be interesting in 2013 to see what they do with Holden. He has been training with Bolton recently and I imagine will be back with the first squad. His addition could be interesting for the US since he can play any midfield position. Personally I think he's a long term replacement for Donovan.

Ha as I read your first paragraph my first thought went to Holden. Already proven and still young.

But as far as fullbacks, I'd like to see more MLSers in the mix. There's been a big push for strengthening defense in the top MLS clubs and a lot of them are big and fast Americans.

MLSers are the best bet. I mean unless Onyewu actually can stay healthy and refine his technique, but I don't see that happening. They just need to get the best guys. Sadly I fear for now the best starters are Cameron and Boca, but I hope someone can surpass one of them at least. They're the biggest weakness for the squad since Fabian Johnson has emerged as an amazing LB. If Chandler gets his act together and joins the US squad for good that solved our RB and LB solution for years.

Reno_eNVy said:

Sepp Blatter, I hope you stub your big toe so hard that you shatter the toenail and it gets all infected and your toe falls off.

For those of you who don't know that name and the seething hate it can create, he's the president of FIFA. Corrupt, inept, possibly mentally impaired. On Saturday he made a statement to the effect that MLS is not a major professional league. His biggest criticism? MLS doesn't follow the FIFA calendar. He made this statement on the same day that a college football bowl game got cancelled due to snow.

News flash, Sepp: the eastern United States and Canada don't enjoy the benefits of the Gulf Stream. To wit, it's really f**king cold. How many matches would get cancelled or have abysmal attendance if they were held in January in New York, Boston, Toronto, Montreal, etc.?

Please do us all a favor and go play in traffic.

Click to expand...

Amen, especially to the bolded part. As Steve at pro soccer dot com points out his comments also talked of how MLS played in non-soccer specific stadiums and that's what's needed to grow the game in the US. Well.... there's a bit of ignorance in that statement as well.

I particularly enjoy reading the columnist at bigsoccer whom is always skewering Chuck Glazer and the crook Warner as well as other concacaf thieves and crooks. Would be nice if concacaf could shed some caribbean weight and just have the dozen or so nations of consequence having equal say with a little input from the minnows. It's one thing when you're south america, but it's something else when 92% of the north american landmass is occupied by 3 countries and the likes of island nations with 70K citizens have as much say in soccer matters as nations of hundreds of millions of people.

MVKTR2 said:

Amen, especially to the bolded part. As Steve at pro soccer dot com points out his comments also talked of how MLS played in non-soccer specific stadiums and that's what's needed to grow the game in the US. Well.... there's a bit of ignorance in that statement as well.

I particularly enjoy reading the columnist at bigsoccer whom is always skewering Chuck Glazer and the crook Warner as well as other concacaf thieves and crooks. Would be nice if concacaf could shed some caribbean weight and just have the dozen or so nations of consequence having equal say with a little input from the minnows. It's one thing when you're south america, but it's something else when 92% of the north american landmass is occupied by 3 countries and the likes of island nations with 70K citizens have as much say in soccer matters as nations of hundreds of millions of people.

Click to expand...

It's FIFA. They HAVE to have equal representation. Remember the fantastic officiating at the 2010 World Cup. And as far as non soccer specific stadiums go you do have to look far in Europe to find non soccer specific stadiums. I don't know who's more clown shoes Sepp Blatter or Gary Bettman

I honestly don't see why a huge country like the US should get more say than a smaller country based on solely population. S#ccer is vilified by most of the US population, so why should the size of that population matter one bit as far as FIFA are concerned?

I'm certainly no fan of FIFA either. Far from it, but the USA is not a big player yet in world soccer. Sure, everyone should be listened to, but I think much of the rest of the world does enjoy one small aspect of their lives in which the US does not have the lion's share of control. I'm not saying it's right or wrong....Just perfectly understandable.

If any of the past attempts at getting American Football played overseas had been succesful, how do you think it would be received in America if all those other countries started to want to change American football around to the way they liked them?

Just take yer time is all I'm saying.

If FIFA had to base their decisions in population only what will happen with countries like Uruguay with 3 million people but two world cups and a semifinal spot on last world cup..

Obliviousbrew said:

If FIFA had to base their decisions in population only what will happen with countries like Uruguay with 3 million people but two world cups and a semifinal spot on last world cup..

Click to expand...

You make a great point

Soccer is a lot like the Twilight movies. People running around for two and half hours and nobody scores while the fans insist that millions of people "just don't understand it"

No where did I suggest population, landmass, or anything else should be the sole or even leading matrix for measuring involvement in the decision making process for the region nor the world in regards to fifa.

All I suggested was that the major powers in the region are forced to grant too much power to the 'minnows' of the region. Granted I didn't go into details or offer an alternate plan, just an observation. I wouldn't have the US lord over the region, I simply think Guatemala for instance has a lot more skin in the game than does Antigua & Barbuda. Perhaps there should be a board of X# of people with X# (a majority)of spots going to the larger nations with X# (a minority)of spots going to the smaller island nations with the ratio more closely resembling the footprint of influence.

Gnome I agree/see the world the same way in regards to US influence... and frankly see it as a bad thing in many ways.

Heck the concacaf board's makeup could be loosely based on the qualification round preceding the hex with an additional number of members elected at large. Just thinking out loud...

HoppyDaze said:

Soccer is a lot like the Twilight movies. People running around for two and half hours and nobody scores while the fans insist that millions of people "just don't understand it"

Click to expand...

Meanwhile billions of fans do understand it! :rockin:

HoppyDaze said:

Soccer is a lot like the Twilight movies. People running around for two and half hours and nobody scores while the fans insist that millions of people "just don't understand it"

Click to expand...

Indeed. To make it more palatable for the US market we should make goals worth 7 pts, introduce TV time outs, and allow the officials to replay decisions for 5 minutes....

aygov said:

Indeed. To make it more palatable for the US market we should make goals worth 7 pts, introduce TV time outs, and allow the officials to replay decisions for 5 minutes....

Click to expand...

Nice. Klinsmann released his 25-man roster for the January training camp. Veeeery MLS-heavy, which is awesome since it's a chance to prove to Sepp Blatter (aka F**kface) that MLS has produced some quality players.

My favorite part of the roster? Both AJ DeLaGarza and Omar Gonzalez got the call-up. I would love to see how they would fare as the starting centerbacks against Canada.

Click here for detailed roster