The [Horribly Unpopular] Soccer Thread

Next round draw of FA Cup:

Chelsea vs. Manchester City
Reading vs. West Bromwich Albion or Peterborough
Watford FC vs. Leeds United
Shrewsbury Town vs. Manchester United
Blackburn Rovers vs. Liverpool or West Ham United
Tottenham Hotspur vs. Crystal Palace
Arsenal vs. Hull City
AFC Bournemouth vs. Everton

So looks like we'll be meeting Adebayor again sooner than expected.

Onward, to Norwich midweek. COYS!

So for me RObles has proven why he isn't starting or getting PT over Guzan and Howard, those 2 don't concede that second goal. I have no clue why he was on the near post.

Talgrath said:

So, we now have our 5 candidates confirmed as being eligible for the FIFA presidency. The election is February 26th

Here's a breakdown of each candidate:

Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein He's got a singing genie and he had a giant parade, how can he lose?

Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa I really enjoyed his latest album, Blacc Hollywood and his duet with Charlie Puth for the song "When I see You Again" featured on the movie "Furious 7" was really touching. Unlikely to win here though, FIFA executives are heartless bastards.

Jerome Champagne This man enjoys baguettes, cheese, wine, champagne, cigarettes and mocking American tourists. He's likely to win because he'll undermine FIFA executives' confidence.

Gianni Infantino Name translates to Giant Baby, also his mob name. Unlikely to win as the mob are small potatoes compared to FIFA, has the mob killed thousands of slaves in Qatar? I don't think so!

Tokyo Sexwale This is actually me, I'm the house DJ for FIFA parties. My music is an eclectic mix of J-Pop, whale songs and voice tracks from pornos. I don't know why the FIFA executives like it so much, but they're unlikely to give me the nod based on my music alone.

In all seriousness, Jerome Champagne is one of Blatter's old lackeys and is likely to replace him by all accounts. The circle of corruption is complete having ushered the filthy secrets into a dustpan, for now. Nothing substantive will change.

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Every sports editor everywhere must be rooting for Tokyo Sexwale

So USMNT won. Which is good. It wasn't pretty, which is bad. Jozy was great. Bradley was great. Kiesewetter was outstanding from the bench. Lots of positives overall. Defense left a good deal to be better. Though to be honest, Acosta was great.

I missed the game as I was in the hopsital, but my general opinion from the highlights is that while the offense looked solid, the youngster defense didn't. Granted, usually young defenses are worse than young offenses, but that wasn't a particularly good vs defensive work; hopefully they improve. I agree with hippo that Robles didn't look like an international caliber keeper...but I didn't expect him to.

Well my concern with Robles is he could have been Rimando, the veteran 3/4 who gets used when we have important matches that don't release European players, or we have players in important club battles. Rimando got a few games last WCQ because Guzan/Howard wasn't available or fit. I'm thinking Yarbrough will be our 3 and Hamid our 4. Robles has had his chance but IMO unless he shows much better on Friday, he'll be behind Howard, Guzan, Yarbrough, Hamid, and Johnson at least. Not even including potential younglings like Steffan, Cropper, or Horvath.

I had a lot of hope for Robles because he's got the natural ability to make the unreal saves. But it seems like his technique is just way too far behind even guys like Hamid and Johnson who're younger.

Robles had an incredible year in MLS and he got keeper of the year for it...but I never really thought he was all that amazing (and I personally thought Stefan Frei or Jesse Gonzalez should have gotten the nod). He's definitely, in MLS terms, an above average keeper though and the Red Bulls are lucky to have him.

If an easy 3 points, a clean sheet, and a brace for Harry wasn't enough, this makes my day: (just need to keep it this way)



I didn't expect Sunderland to muster much against City, but I'm proud of Southampton for making this possible. If only Liverpool could start pulling their weight

Talgrath said:

Robles had an incredible year in MLS and he got keeper of the year for it...but I never really thought he was all that amazing (and I personally thought Stefan Frei or Jesse Gonzalez should have gotten the nod). He's definitely, in MLS terms, an above average keeper though and the Red Bulls are lucky to have him.

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I'm actively gonna root against Jesse Gonzalez, don't know why he didn't join the USMNT January camp. Even if his long term would play for Mexico, to say you're gonna play for the US then change at the last minute is pretty bush.

Qhrumphf said:

If an easy 3 points, a clean sheet, and a brace for Harry wasn't enough, this makes my day: (just need to keep it this way)

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I didn't expect Sunderland to muster much against City, but I'm proud of Southampton for making this possible. If only Liverpool could start pulling their weight

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If only Vardy weren't a racist ******* I could really get behind the Foxes. It'll be interesting to see where this season ends up. If only Everton could start moving up the table a little...

ShizuokaBrad said:

If only Vardy weren't a racist ******* I could really get behind the Foxes. It'll be interesting to see where this season ends up. If only Everton could start moving up the table a little...

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I'm slowly coming to grips with the fact that their form isn't a fluke. They're going to the Champions League. Perhaps not winning the title. Or maybe they will. If they're able to maintain this form (and it's looking more and more like they can), they may well win the league.

Qhrumphf said:

I'm slowly coming to grips with the fact that their form isn't a fluke. They're going to the Champions League. Perhaps not winning the title. Or maybe they will. If they're able to maintain this form (and it's looking more and more like they can), they may well win the league.

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They're scoring goals, they're not keepign them out super well. Not including today. Arsenal was the top dog in performance, Leicester was second. They are legit.

Also Leicester's next two league matches are Manchester City and Arsenal. That spells only good things for Spurs. Especially if we've got a six pointer with City the same day as Gunners/Foxes (hopefully we can play we did our first time with City). Will be an interesting few weeks if nothing else.

hoppyhoppyhippo said:

They're scoring goals, they're not keepign them out super well. Not including today. Arsenal was the top dog in performance, Leicester was second. They are legit.

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Arsenal today? I didn't watch, but it sounded like Southampton was very strong defensively. Or do you mean Liverpool? Again, I didn't watch, but my Liverpool supporting friend was adamant that Leicester scored twice against the run of the play, and Liverpool just couldn't materialize on the attack.

(for the record I just haven't had a chance to watch replays yet, I'll get to em)

I just finished watching the reply of the Arsenal v. Southampton game. Southampton was absolutely saved by Frazier Forster. The Gunners probably should have scored 3. He was en feugo today.

Mane had his worst performance of the season. He missed two chances that should have been goals.

hoppyhoppyhippo said:

They're scoring goals, they're not keepign them out super well. Not including today. Arsenal was the top dog in performance, Leicester was second. They are legit.

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They hadn't been keeping them out super well. They've now had 5 clean sheets in their last 6 PL matches. No mean feat considering they played Man City, Spurs, Stoke and Liverpool during that run. With their current form they are set to win the league... still lots of matches left though!

Qhrumphf said:

Arsenal today? I didn't watch, but it sounded like Southampton was very strong defensively. Or do you mean Liverpool? Again, I didn't watch, but my Liverpool supporting friend was adamant that Leicester scored twice against the run of the play, and Liverpool just couldn't materialize on the attack.

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I was talking about just overall season form. Obviously things could change after today one way or the other. I'm going off "old" stats here when it comes to overall form. My point was that Leicester is legit. They're winning because they're playing well. It's not a full blown paper tiger they keep winnign games by pure luck.

hoppyhoppyhippo said:

I'm actively gonna root against Jesse Gonzalez, don't know why he didn't join the USMNT January camp. Even if his long term would play for Mexico, to say you're gonna play for the US then change at the last minute is pretty bush.

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Can't blame you there, though I don't tend to harbor such grudges quite so harshly. Ultimately if there's one thing the USMNT has a glut of, it's competent keepers, while Mexico has a pretty good lineup it's not quite as deep, better chance for the kid to break in down south. That said, as a fan of team USA, screw that guy.

hoppyhoppyhippo said:

I was talking about just overall season form. Obviously things could change after today one way or the other. I'm going off "old" stats here when it comes to overall form. My point was that Leicester is legit. They're winning because they're playing well. It's not a full blown paper tiger they keep winnign games by pure luck.

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Agreed. And most of us who swore they were a paper tiger are having to eat our words.

Yeah so I'm a Reds fan and that was pretty embarrassing.

Talgrath said:

Can't blame you there, though I don't tend to harbor such grudges quite so harshly. Ultimately if there's one thing the USMNT has a glut of, it's competent keepers, while Mexico has a pretty good lineup it's not quite as deep, better chance for the kid to break in down south. That said, as a fan of team USA, screw that guy.

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I'm fine with him choosing Mexico. I'm OK with that. But to say you're gonna join the USMNT for a non-binding camp and friendlies then leave (and I'm 90% sure that was the reason for the naming of the roster delay was scrambling to try and replace him) It's not cool to do that. If you knew you wanted to play for Mexico U-23s then you shouldn't have accepted the offer. I don't care that he's not playing for the US, it's the way he handled it.

Qhrumphf said:

If an easy 3 points, a clean sheet, and a brace for Harry wasn't enough, this makes my day: (just need to keep it this way)

View attachment 334826

I didn't expect Sunderland to muster much against City, but I'm proud of Southampton for making this possible. If only Liverpool could start pulling their weight

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Things were quite topsy turvy there for a while, but it has taken until February and the natural order of things has come around and Arsenal is in 4th place.

BrewSavage said:

Things were quite topsy turvy there for a while, but it has taken until February and the natural order of things has come around and Arsenal is in 4th place.

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Yep. Aside from a few surprises (that have been consistent enough to say they'll stay that way- Leicester, Chelsea, and Aston Villa), everything is as it should be.

Qhrumphf said:

Yep. Aside from a few surprises (that have been consistent enough to say they'll stay that way- Leicester, Chelsea, and Aston Villa), everything is as it should be.

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Is Villa a shock though? They barely finished above the drop last year. Year before that they were only 3 points above the drop, with excellent play from Watford and Bournemouth doing well, it's not a shock that Villa is in deep ****. Same thing with Sunderland. 2 clubs that have been on the knife's edge for a few seasons.

Villa is obviously ****ed. For some reason they thought benching Guzan for an old couldn't start for Norwich, even in the Championship. If the answer to your problem is Mark Bunn, then you don't realize what the problem is.

They went through the whole January transfer window as the lowest scoring team in the premierleague, and didn't add a single forward or attacking mid. They didn't anyone but they needed a forward as they have scored less than one goal per game which is pathetic.

hoppyhoppyhippo said:

Is Villa a shock though? They barely finished above the drop last year. Year before that they were only 3 points above the drop, with excellent play from Watford and Bournemouth doing well, it's not a shock that Villa is in deep ****. Same thing with Sunderland. 2 clubs that have been on the knife's edge for a few seasons.

Villa is obviously ****ed. For some reason they thought benching Guzan for an old couldn't start for Norwich, even in the Championship. If the answer to your problem is Mark Bunn, then you don't realize what the problem is.

They went through the whole January transfer window as the lowest scoring team in the premierleague, and didn't add a single forward or attacking mid. They didn't anyone but they needed a forward as they have scored less than one goal per game which is pathetic.

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Villa is a bad side, don't get me wrong. Middle bottom table for sure. However, I don't think they're THIS bad. They're bad even in comparison to the others at the bottom of the table. It'll be a fight over who ends up at in the 18th and 19th relegation spots. Aston Villa is going to end up in 20th without a doubt. Now, if they were sitting in 18th with 22 points instead of 13 points, I'd say yeah, that's about where Aston Villa belongs given their form in recent years. But with how they're playing, they're going to struggle even in Championship.

Villa have been making ridiculous decisions since before the season began. Allowing Benteke and Delph to leave without filling their void and then ditching Sherwood... They deserve their position now. They seem to actually be self destructing the same way that Fulham did.

So, US Soccer dropped a bit of a bombshell on the USWNTPA today, filing suit to prevent players from striking. This is a pretty good breakdown of the dispute. Personally outside of gripes about field conditions, I'm not sure that I can find a lot of fault with US Soccer, particularly looking at the breakdown of the CBA here. Unlike the men's team, the USWNT players draw a salary (likely because most women's leagues pay very little, the league maximum for the NWSL is $38k) and get benefits, they're also getting the same bonus for making the Woman's World Cup roster as the men do for theirs. If this is about field conditions, I can agree to a large extent, that field in Hawaii was atrocious and someone from US Soccer should have seen it long before anyone from the team did. If this is about pay...I don't feel that's a good reason to gripe, especially since the USMNT bring in more FIFA cash for making the round of 16 than the USWNT for winning the Women's World Cup.

hoppyhoppyhippo said:

Is Villa a shock though? They barely finished above the drop last year. Year before that they were only 3 points above the drop, with excellent play from Watford and Bournemouth doing well, it's not a shock that Villa is in deep ****. Same thing with Sunderland. 2 clubs that have been on the knife's edge for a few seasons.

Villa is obviously ****ed. For some reason they thought benching Guzan for an old couldn't start for Norwich, even in the Championship. If the answer to your problem is Mark Bunn, then you don't realize what the problem is.

They went through the whole January transfer window as the lowest scoring team in the premierleague, and didn't add a single forward or attacking mid. They didn't anyone but they needed a forward as they have scored less than one goal per game which is pathetic.

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Aston Villa reminds me an awful lot of the Philadelphia Union from last season, believing, somehow, that the keeper is the issue and not that almost everything else is atrocious. That said, when Villa drops (I don't think there's an "if" in there anymore), do you guys think Guzan jumps ship? If so, where do you think he'll land?

After Guzan's form of late I think if Villa go down and he jumps ship he'll either end up at a newly promoted PL club or MLS. I don't see any established clubs in the PL picking him up.

Talgrath said:

Aston Villa reminds me an awful lot of the Philadelphia Union from last season, believing, somehow, that the keeper is the issue and not that almost everything else is atrocious. That said, when Villa drops (I don't think there's an "if" in there anymore), do you guys think Guzan jumps ship? If so, where do you think he'll land?

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I think for benching him he jumps ship. As far as where. I'd also guess a newly promoted premier league team as being most likely. I'd also say a good shot of him moving to Ligue 1 or Bundesliga. He needs to move from Villa unless Villa puts him back in net and they start scoring and they survive relegation. Odds are Villa will be back up, but no point for Guzan to go down to a club that has no faith in him.

A couple of interesting "behind the scenes" tidbits from MLS. First, no surprise if you follow MLS expansion news, MLS is scouting out possible sites for a St. Louis expansion stadium:

St. Louis Stadium Search

The next bit is that the player's union published the full 2015-2020 MLS CBA. Much of this was already known, but the interesting bit are some of the bonus details. Grant Wahl at SI has the details in an easier to read form, though he doesn't explain in the article that the team and tournament bonuses listed are for the team to pay their players for making the tournament or whatnot.

MLS CBA Summary

To me, the most important details are not the bonuses, but the allocation money. First, the big one is that MLS only gives $650,000 maximum allocation cash to teams for a transfer, so if the transfer fee is $3 million...well you get $650,000. In a certain sense, this encourages teams to not sell their big names for big cash, though of course $650,000 buys you a lot of player power in MLS, that's 2.5 Jordan Morrises or 3 Gyasi Zardes.

The other thing is the allocation money for missing the playoffs: $250,000, and I think that's a problem; why? Because it makes tanking more viable. MLS teams are automatically in the Open Cup or Canadian Cup, depending on their country, so that's $200,000 right off the bat, missing the playoffs is $250,000, but there's no allocation incentive for winning MLS Cup or doing well in the playoffs; doing well enough to make the CCL only gets you an extra $200,000. The only way to top the $450,000 total allocation cash for doing poorly in MLS is to win it all and join the International Club Cup in addition to the CCL for a total of $600,00. Admittedly, this isn't as bad as basketball where tanking is endemic, but certainly there's some incentives to miss the playoffs completely if you aren't good enough to go far.

Lastly, there's talk of a US-Mexico champions cup in the CBA, a potential glimpse of things to come. There aren't a lot of details, but I'm guessing it's maybe the eastern and western conference winners vs the top to Liga MX teams, or maybe top 4 from both.

Bingham making his USMNT debut, probably will see at least one if not 2 of th edefenders who haven't made a debut make thier debut as well. Aside from them, only Shelton hasn't made their debut. I'm hoping for another Kiesewetter sighting.

Well, Leicester City made pretty short work of Manchester City. They're definitely not going to just go away. I'd be ok with them winning (if Spurs can't) if Vardy weren't a racist. A draw would have been best, Citizens winning preferred to Foxes. Silver lining is that hopefully this disheartens them a bit and makes it easier for us when we face them next weekend. Either that, or it lights a fire and makes them fight harder against us.

Gomes was absolutely incredible for Watford today. Saved their bacon from what would have been a slaughter. 18 shots on target, he saved all but one of them. I wouldn't call his performance anywhere near Howard vs. Belgium, but he was impressive for sure. We played extraordinarily well, defensively very solid given Vertongen's injury, Hugo didn't have much to do the whole 90 mins. Toby a rock as (almost) always, Wimmer was good, and both Trippier and Davies were bloody fantastic. Midfield was solid. Harry had chance after chance, two blatant penalty non-calls, one he should have dove after a shirt tug and no call otherwise, another Gomes blatantly tripped him late. So the 1-0 result I don't think fairly describes the match, but 3 points are 3 points.

2nd in the league! And I doubt the Gooners will beat the Cherries by a wide enough margin to overtake the GD tiebreaker.

Sunderland seemed to come back late against Liverpool. And hey, look, Aston Villa won!

Oh, and Adebayor is back in style. Gives up a free kick, results in a goal for Swansea. Glad we have that disaster out of our dressing room (if not entirely off of our books, at least CP is paying the balance).

hoppyhoppyhippo said:

Bingham making his USMNT debut, probably will see at least one if not 2 of th edefenders who haven't made a debut make thier debut as well. Aside from them, only Shelton hasn't made their debut. I'm hoping for another Kiesewetter sighting.

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I have to say Bingham looked pretty damn good. Admittedly, that's only one match, but he had some key plays that nipped attempts in the bud. That said, I'm curious to see how he is at stopping shots on the international level, we didn't get to see him make a single save! Morris looked good, but yet again didn't get a goal, hopefully he can hone that killer instinct with the Sounders. Jermain Jones is not a center back, sorry but I think it's time he steps aside and makes room on the USMNT for someone else.

For our neighbors in the north, aside from a couple of chances here and there, Canada really didn't have much in the way of offense. Their best chance was that missed penalty call for them on Cyle Larin...but then again that only came about because the ref missed an earlier handball call on Larin. It's pretty obvious that Canada has a long way to go if they want to return to any sort of prominence.

Qhrumphf said:

Well, Leicester City made pretty short work of Manchester City. They're definitely not going to just go away. I'd be ok with them winning (if Spurs can't) if Vardy weren't a racist.

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This is exactly how I feel about Leicester (especially since half my family are 'Japs' as Vardy would say!)

Everton dominated again. I'm interested to see what kind of consistency we can produce. It's the first time all season that we've won back to back matches in the PL. Joel is making a big push for starting keeper right now. I'm worried Martinez will throw Howard back in as soon as he is fit.

Watching Man U and Chelsea it's surreal. Two giants that are both obviously struggling immensely. Although breaking out of Mourinho bus parking may do Chelsea some good.

In both cases, no real drive, no creativity. Fully expect a 0-0 result.

FYI for folks, looks like the MLS All-Star match will be against Arsenal.

http://www.skysports.com/football/n...o-play-in-mls-all-star-game-during-pre-season