The [Horribly Unpopular] Soccer Thread

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
aygov said:
This exactly.

Don't engage in ********* antics with some ********* ball boy that's looking to get his 10 seconds of fame.

How ridiculous would it have looked if Hazard had walked up to get the ball and the kid falls down and smothers it without Hazard doing anything? Perhaps the spastic ball boy would have been the headline then?
Click to expand...

The key is being professional. I mean the kid is clearly at fault, especially when you have the mitigating factor of his twitter comment. But when you're a professional athlete you have to hold yourself to a higher standard. It's not appropriate for Ron Artest to run up in the stands and beat someone because they threw beer at him during a brawl. It's not appropriate for Roberto Alomar to spit in an umpires face even if he did something wrong.
 
Hearing that the Brek Shea to Stoke city deal has fallen through.

edit: also hearing that MLS blocked the move because Stoke wouldn't pay their asking price.
 
The only thing Brek Shea would pick up at Stoke would be the ability the throw the ball from one end of the pitch to the other and become the master of hoofing it....
 
Big win for Arsenal today :mug: It's been a rough month, and it's not getting any easier, especially with the lack of new blood coming in.
 
NEWS:

Beckham's future is getting a bit more clear. He's training with Arsenal right now... he hasn't signed but I kind of feel that it's a done deal if he's reporting for training.

So much for not suiting up for any EPL club that isn't Man U
 
He left on good terms. It's like a mutual breakup: we'd like to have him back and make it work but we've set him free to pursue other ventures.

EDIT: But if him leaving means Juninho and Sarvas will be the starting center midfielders I'm A-OK with that.
 
Reno_eNVy said:
NEWS:

Beckham's future is getting a bit more clear. He's training with Arsenal right now... he hasn't signed but I kind of feel that it's a done deal if he's reporting for training.

So much for not suiting up for any EPL club that isn't Man U
Click to expand...

If I remember correctly he's done this previously when he wanted to keep his fitness up during the MLS off-season. I highly doubt we'll see him taking the field for The Arsenal...
 
Becks trained with Spurs but it was just to keep him fit. Plenty of players do this at other top clubs. It's just to give them training facilities and get some sharpness back in the legs. I doubt Becks will play in the Premier League but I'm open to be proved wrong.
 
Reno_eNVy said:
He left on good terms. It's like a mutual breakup: we'd like to have him back and make it work but we've set him free to pursue other ventures.

EDIT: But if him leaving means Juninho and Sarvas will be the starting center midfielders I'm A-OK with that.
Click to expand...

I meant more along the lines of that LA is the perfect city for Becks. He's a hollywood type of dude. Also I severely doubt he signs with Arsenal, unless he's ok with a Bench/Carling Cup spot.
 
The US B Team drew against Canada. Not a pretty game for the US. Offensively I think the best looking players were Agudelo and Gatt. Both are flawed, Agudelo can't hold and isn't skilled enough in his creativity yet to make up for that. Gatt needs to learn to trush his left foot more. You can tell Klinsmann like he did with Chandler and Johnson is trying to break him of his one footedness. He looks a lot like Bale. Obviously nowhere near as talented as Bale not even gonna pretend that he is but in terms of speed and strength he looks like Bale and hopefully someday he can be half as good as Bale is cause I'd be happy with that from the left wing or right wing.

Canada was camped back happy with a draw and got their wish. I don't think if Dempsey, and company were there that they would have gotten away wth the same. I can't wait for Hex.
 
The game was pretty piss poor.
I thought Beckerman did ok, which I expected, considering he is more or less a first team member.
ESPN kept talking about Omar doing well, but he was never really tested on defense, and couldn't put 2 headers on frame, so not sure how they came to that conclusion.

Gatt needs to grow up and quit complaining every time someone touches him.
I wasn't too impressed with his performance.
 
That's the other reason he's a lot like Bale. I can live with it to be honest cause he seems very fiery right now. I'm much more concerned about him being a one foot player than him pleading with the ref. The ref was very bad, I think I saw 3 or 4 fouls given on good tackles.
 
While Josh Gatt is an exciting prospect for the distant future of US soccer, I hesitate to compare a single characteristic of his to Gareth Bale.
His tendency to cut in, rather than cross, while on the left, is pretty telling about his left foot.
I agree that the ref's overall performance was poor.
 
Well that's the other reason I compare him to Bale haha. He wasn't lucky enough as a kid to have a coach like Bale did he made him play right footed to improve that but even with that work, Bale prefers the left foot. But even with all that, Bale is largely a one footed player. Klinsmann is a massively smart coach. He could have played Gatt at RW wing and he'd probably dazzle. But instead he put him out of his comfort knowing he has a lot to work on. It's the same thing he did with Chandler and Chandler grew massively under Klinsmann's tutelage. Hopefully the same will happen with Gatt. For WC 2014 I don't expect more out of Gatt than to be a late replacement when we need some pace, but there's a lot of value to that as well. And in those games, almost for sure, Klinsmann will put him on the right.

I also have to say I do love even when the B team is doing it the flowing passing game of the US. While they're not even a small amount close to them in talent they're becoming more like Spain which is great for the players the US has. Retaining possession was an achilles heel under Bradley and a huge reason for the collapses against Mexico and Brazil. While the new passing system needs more refining (as Brazil proved in their pressing style of play) I can't help but think this team short of the Central defense won't be a contender to make it out of the Group of 16 in the WC. Not saying they will for sure. But they will have the talent to score, and with more practice better ability to distribute and retain possession, even if they're playing Brazil, Spain, etc. They're not gonna win it or even pull a surprise like Uraguay and make the final 4 but a better showing this year will only build more interest in the game.
 
hoppyhoppyhippo said:
I also have to say I do love even when the B team is doing it the flowing passing game of the US. While they're not even a small amount close to them in talent they're becoming more like Spain which is great for the players the US has. Retaining possession was an achilles heel under Bradley and a huge reason for the collapses against Mexico and Brazil. While the new passing system needs more refining (as Brazil proved in their pressing style of play) I can't help but think this team short of the Central defense won't be a contender to make it out of the Group of 16 in the WC. Not saying they will for sure. But they will have the talent to score, and with more practice better ability to distribute and retain possession, even if they're playing Brazil, Spain, etc. They're not gonna win it or even pull a surprise like Uraguay and make the final 4 but a better showing this year will only build more interest in the game.
Click to expand...

I wouldn´t be surprised if USA gets to the semis one of these days, don´t know if Brazil 2014 or later, but I must admit that I haven´t seen so much improvment in the last 2 decades in any other team in the world. I don´t watch many USA matches but the few that I watched I liked the team a lot... of course next world cup already has an owner... wich is Argentina of course :D (hey a man can dream rigth?)
 
Well it depends. Brazil is certainly better now than in 2010 becuase their amazing youth crop (Neymar, Lucas Moara, Oscar) will be joining the more experienced former young guys who're still young but now have more top football under their wings (Pato, Marcelo, Hulk, Ramires, and David Luiz)

If there's 2 things that would concern me about being a Brazil fan it's Brazil's natural collapsing on the big stage that's seemed to happen lately. They're always one of the 3 favored teams to start the tournament and almost always fall short against an opponent. Their concerns are GK where they don't have a star and central defense. If they can hold those positions they'll be the favorites.

My personal favorites are the Klinsmann trained Germans. For my money, the Germans are only contested by the Spaniards for the best back 5. Neuer, Lahm, Hummels, Badstuber, Boateng, Schmelzer, Howerdes and the slow buy smart Mertesacker. Only weakness is their second full back which Boateng filled in fine before but Schmelzer may push him. The German midfield is the stuff dreams are made of though. Ozil, Schweinsteiger, Reus, Muller, the Benders, Podolski, Mario Gotze (who may be the most talented young midfielder in the world), Kroos, Schurrle and Khedira, you can build 2 world cup winning quality midfields with those guys. And they're great at striking as well with Gomez and Klose can be the off the bench killer.

Spain is also great, Iker, Ramos, Pique, Alba, and Albiol will likely be their back 5, I don't think Puyol will start much. Xavi and Xabi Alonso at holding midfield, Silva, Iniesta, Fabregas, Mata, and Carzola as the attacking midfielders (though I'm sure Busquets will find his way in there and move Xavi or Xavi Alonso up) and Villa and Torres for strikers. Spian wil lbe very formidable in WC2014, but I'd bet my money on the Germans because of their team currently being younger and having a speed and strength advantage.

Of course you can't count out the Portuguese, the Italians, the English, Russians, Dutch, Mexicans, and the Argentines. Any team that has Leo Messi is a threat. Especially coupled with Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuin. Argentina's problem though is gonna be getting the balls to their super stars, I have serious questions about their midfield, and their defense and goal keeping are also suspicious. I think they'll run into the Germans or Spanish and get swept aside. But I personalyl hope for an Argentina/Brazil matchup cause that would be awesome. Probably end like 7-5
 
The good thing about world cups is that you actually never now is not always the best team the one who lift the trophy at the end. If I have to bet I´ll definitly bet for a south american team, in every edition played in the american continent a south american team won, never in history an european team was able to win a world cup in the american continent, of course these static are going to be broken some day. My bet is for Brazil or Argentina even tough Brazil is not in it´s best shape ever and as you say Argentina struggles with it the defense and midfield, last few matches they are doing a lot better, still there is a lot of work to be done. Just one more year to go I can´t wait for the World Cup!!!
 
That's a very good point. Didn't even think about that. I still am betting on the German or Spanish squad to win. I jsut think they're 2 teams that are complete, the German's and Spanish kinda have the same weakness with second fullback. but their midfield is too good and both have great top strikers. By the time 2014 rolls around I think that Mesut Ozil will be one of the best players in the world and that will catapult the Krauts to victory.
 
hoppyhoppyhippo said:
That's a very good point. Didn't even think about that. I still am betting on the German or Spanish squad to win. I jsut think they're 2 teams that are complete, the German's and Spanish kinda have the same weakness with second fullback. but their midfield is too good and both have great top strikers. By the time 2014 rolls around I think that Mesut Ozil will be one of the best players in the world and that will catapult the Krauts to victory.
Click to expand...

Agree on Ozil he can be great I don´t think that playing in Real Madrid is actually helping him, I´ve seen Madrid ruin lots of great players before. No doubt Spain and Germany are strong solid teams, I don´t think that Spain is going to be able to repeat but you never know, Germany is always a good option.
 
Ozil seems to fit in great at Madrid. Though I'd prefer him at Man U playing behind Robin Van Persie if Real, Barca, or PSG decide to go bonkers and get Rooney. Ozil has great dribbling and vision some of the passes he made in the Euros were insane.
 
hoppyhoppyhippo said:
Ozil seems to fit in great at Madrid. Though I'd prefer him at Man U playing behind Robin Van Persie if Real, Barca, or PSG decide to go bonkers and get Rooney. Ozil has great dribbling and vision some of the passes he made in the Euros were insane.
Click to expand...

Ozil will fit good in any team, not only his dribbling skills but the way he plays without the ball and his ability to "read" the game, make him able to play in any team in the world... the bad thing about Madrid is that there is so many internal stuff going on... I mean if you think about the team, on one side you have the spaniards, they always make a liitle group that it´s in command, then the portuguese and brazilians like Cristiano and Marcelo and then the rest... Ozil is still for his teammates in the "everybody else" group... which is a shame, I´ve seen situations like that in Madrid too many times, hopefully Ozil will be able to shine with all that sh*t going on around him.
 
Ozil and Khedira seem to do well on Real, probably formed their own like German clique. Real is certainly a divisive squad, that is one of the reasons I don't get Wenger going there.
 
News:

Plata traded from TFC to RSL... for a 2015 second-round draft pick. Dumb move considering he was the only attacking threat they had apart from Koevermanns (sp?) Should have pushed for more in the deal. But I guess that should help out when Toronto goes through their 10th rebuilding season :D

Also, Kei Kamara sent on loan to Norwich until May with an option for a full transfer afterwards. Rough for SKC... no Roger Espinoza, Kamara missing and possibly gone for good, no stadium sponsor (give it a month), and Zusi likely gone a lot for WCQ and Gold Cup.
 
Oh, and to the shock of the football world :rolleyes: it's official that Becks isn't signing with the Gunners.
 
mrgstiffler said:
ibcN3plDZj7bbS.gif
Click to expand...

I have watched it over a few times and it really looks like all he got was ball. For the kid, play stupid games win stupid prizes. The ref should have stepped in as soon as he fell on the ball.
 
Sorry about the double post but thought for a moment and realised remembered how excited mrs beckham was to go to LA. now how excited will she be to go fashion world of Paris. Just saying
 
From what I read at the beginning of the speculations, Lady Becks will stay in LA with the kids due to school and whatnot.
 
I'm betting they move back to London.
People commute from London to Paris on a daily basis all the time.
Apparently their eldest son is having a go with the Chelsea youth academy as well.
 

Similar threads

Reno_eNVy
The World Cup Approacheth
19 20 21
Replies
828
Views
33K
Gremlyn
Gremlyn
U
If nothing else, be a USA soccer fan today...
Replies
20
Views
2K
Laughing_Gnome_Invisible
Laughing_Gnome_Invisible
SSBrew 300

Latest posts

Back
Top