Might as well start a general Footy/Soccer thread

[SumJongGuy]

Man U v Liverpool should be entertaining

Oh yes, I'm quite enjoying this beat down.. MU is a bunch of hacks. Strategy of cheap shot The Egyptian Magician every opportunity isn't working out too well for them.
EDIT, it was 3 nil when I posted this.. Aged quite well..

[SumJongGuy]

How much stoppage time??


Bring Alison up on the next corner kick..

[~mikey b]

wow

[EWG]

wow

I just checked the result and holy crap.

[The SnowShow]

That was a clinic by Liverpool. Holy crap.

[Woodsy]

It's one match
Scousers still firmly mid table with less trophies.

[altacoup]

I almost never watch the premier. But snow kept me from work and skiing today. Man U looked absolutely comically bad in mid field and defense. Amateurish and naive to the extreme. Has me feeling optimistic for the coming Europa league match of Man U vs REAL BETIS. We recently lost our star player (Fekir) to an acl injury and our mid field maestro (canales) might just only make it back for the tie. Last time we traveled to the isle the Liverpool fans were blown away by the passion, entire stadium gave a standing round of applause to the traveling beticos for their tireless singing. Here’s to BETICOS storming the theater of dreams! HAY UNA LEYENDA QUE CORRE EL MUNDO ENTER0! Viva er Beti, manque pierda!

[SumJongGuy]

It's one match
Scousers still firmly mid table with less trophies.

It was the WORST PL beatdown your boys have ever taken.. You're welcome!

[tintin5]

It was the WORST PL beatdown your boys have ever taken.. You're welcome!

Agreed. As an LFC fan, that was fun.

[SuperGaper]

When your captain is Bruno Fernandez and you great new signing is Antony, well...... good luck you Mancunian Scum!

I feel bad for Ten Haag, he has worked some magic with that crappy squad. But again Fernandez as your captain?!?

To think of all the stick Jordan Henderson gets and has gotten- never melted like that ever.

[~mikey b]

as I read the BBC Football news tonight I’m annoyed and I realize this game doesn’t really matter.

not really sure it’s worth my time

it’s been fun to follow but the the $ and other bs is just getting old

[MarcusBrody]

Barcelona have been officially charged with bribery of a referee (and several related crimes like document forgery) by the Spanish government. The charges that the Catalan prosecutors office laid out go back to 2014 due to statute of limitations and two presidents are named, but the alleged actions go back further. Basically through the whole Messi golden era.

For those of you who haven't been following the story, Barcelona paid millions of euros (I think a little over 7 million) to the vice president of the referees association while he was in office, which came out when he was put under tax investigation. Barcelona claimed it was for consulting reports, but neither side was able to produce any evidence of any reports and they eventually said that it was verbal but a former coach (now in charge of Bilbao), said he had no idea what they were talking about in terms of reports. When the payee left office, Barca cut the payments and the ref sent a fax threatening to expose "all the irregularities' at the club unless they were reinstated (which they weren't as far as people can tell).

I'm not really sure what can/will happen. It probably depends on how much people involved are willing to play ball with prosecutors. The statute of limitations is super short for sporting sanctions in Spain's Ley de Deporte (3 years), so even if it's found that Barca straight up bought refs, it's not clear that La Liga can do anything, but I'm not sure if the government legal penalties can also be sporting related (or allow the sporting organizations to levy penalties if there is a legal conviction rather than a rule violation.

I'm here for all the Barca shit show episodes, but this certainly doesn't help La Liga at a time when it's figuring out how to compete with the Premier League in the post-Messi/Ronaldo era.

[Woodsy]

Ah yes. Liverpool put 7 past their rivals.
The team that knocked them off their fucking perch and who still have more top flight titles.

It's almost as good as a 🏆 for the season, right? How bout those cherries? LOL

As a United fan I am still happier sitting top 4, in the mix for two MORE Cups this season, and watching young players like Pellistri and Garnacho thrive while Academy product Rashford keeps bringing home POTM and banging in goals across all comps.

[Danno]

According to ESPN, the investigation into the whole Berhalter/Reyna thing doesn't look good for the Reynas, and bears out exactly what the Berhalters said: https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-s...-investigation

[~mikey b]

ooooh gossip!

maybe we can get something on the Shiffrins

[SumJongGuy]

as I read the BBC Football news tonight I’m annoyed and I realize this game doesn’t really matter.

not really sure it’s worth my time

it’s been fun to follow but the the $ and other bs is just getting old

Ours (Both PL and CL) are more recent than yours :-P

[Woodsy]

Ours (Both PL and CL) are more recent than yours :-P

Ah yes the great and glorious Klopp "era" 2 trophies!
but
Have you ever won the treble have ya fuck?
Have you ever won the treble have you fuck?
Have you ever won the treble like Phil and Gary Neville, have ya fuck?!?

this 7-0 shellacking reminds me of the mid to late 00s when Liverpool would seem to always beat United head to head but somehow find a way to "slip up" on their way to the title....

[SumJongGuy]

Ah yes the great and glorious Klopp "era" 2 trophies!
but
Have you ever won the treble have ya fuck?
Have you ever won the treble have you fuck?
Have you ever won the treble like Phil and Gary Neville, have ya fuck?!?

this 7-0 shellacking reminds me of the mid to late 00s when Liverpool would seem to always beat United head to head but somehow find a way to "slip up" on their way to the title....

Only thing that matters is that they've been good since I've been following along. DGA FUCK about the previous century. Go back to your good old days and Make MU Great Again LOL!

[Long duc dong]

How fast is Haaland!!!!!!

That breakaway was insane to watch. Obviously it didn't result in a goal, but wow!!!!

The first Man City goal was pretty lucky. The second was the product of two of the best players in the world.

I love watching Leipzig play, particularly Werner. After losing his cool at Chelsea he seems to be getting back to being one of the best strikers in the world. They are a fun team to watch, it's unfortunate they happened to draw Man City in this round.

Great save on Haaland after that through ball. He looks absolutely lethal today. Even though he is going to set the EPL goal record there are some days (even when he scores) where he doesn't look like he quite fits. He is at his best flying down the pitch in transition, and he doesn't always get to do that with ManC. Today he looks lethal.


EDIT:

Here are some highlights. He was predatory with those first two goals in the second half, great finishes in the box, but it was still that first breakaway that impressed me most. The defenders had positioning on him and he ran past, and through, them like they weren't there and almost put it past the goalie. That goal would have been one of those 'moment of brilliance' ones.

[SumJongGuy]

City is AMAZING, definitely some of the best players in the world. . Arsenal is playing well as a team.

[EWG]

Arsenal is playing well as a team.

shhhhhhh

[Long duc dong]

I'm here for all the Barca shit show episodes, but this certainly doesn't help La Liga at a time when it's figuring out how to compete with the Premier League in the post-Messi/Ronaldo era.

It will be interesting to see how it shakes out.

The funny thing is, in the last 5 seasons La Liga has just as many UCL wins as the EPL. There is just something about Madrid. They were certainly not the best team in 2018, but they found a way to get to the final and Bale put on a performance for the ages. Having said that, that team was loaded with talent and you can say that title was the tail end of all that. Then last season they just keep winning. Over the last five seasons you would have to say Liverpool have been a much better team overall than Madrid, with the exception of this year, but Madrid have beaten them twice in the final and have 2 UCL wins to Liverpool's one. City have been far better than Madrid over that period, but they just can't seem to put it together and win a final. They are like the Yankees in the way that they just seem to win titles when they are not at their best.

Of course, there is a flip side to that. There have been plenty of times in baseball history when the Yankees probably WERE The best team and didn't win the World Series. I'm sure the same is true with Madrid.

[MarcusBrody]

It will be interesting to see how it shakes out.

The funny thing is, in the last 5 seasons La Liga has just as many UCL wins as the EPL. There is just something about Madrid. They were certainly not the best team in 2018, but they found a way to get to the final and Bale put on a performance for the ages. Having said that, that team was loaded with talent and you can say that title was the tail end of all that. Then last season they just keep winning. Over the last five seasons you would have to say Liverpool have been a much better team overall than Madrid, with the exception of this year, but Madrid have beaten them twice in the final and have 2 UCL wins to Liverpool's one. City have been far better than Madrid over that period, but they just can't seem to put it together and win a final. They are like the Yankees in the way that they just seem to win titles when they are not at their best.

Of course, there is a flip side to that. There have been plenty of times in baseball history when the Yankees probably WERE The best team and didn't win the World Series. I'm sure the same is true with Madrid.

This is probably the salty Madrid fan/English football press reader in me, but why would we have to say that Liverpool has been a much better team overall than Madrid? Madrid has won more UCLs, more league titles, and they've played 6 times in high stakes competition and Madrid has won every time. In the past 3 years, they've played 5 times and again Madrid has won every time [edit: OK, I lied, they tied once in the second leg of a tie where Madrid was up 2 goals from the first leg, so Madrid saw out the 0-0 and eased through to the next round. I forgot that wasn't a win as I was happy after it). How many times can one team beat the other before you have to decide that winner might be as good of a team as the loser? The English pundits (often the ex-Liverpool ones especially) would be like "Well, the better team doesn't always win in football. Bad luck, that's just the breaks." But how many times can it happen in a row before you think to yourself: "Hmm, maybe this isn't all bad luck."

I think Madrid gets underrated in the English media for a couple of reasons:
1. They just don't play a "branded" kind of football, and what they do play isn't that exciting at times. Under both Zidane and Ancelotti, Madrid has generally been pretty pragmatic. They don't really care to stamp a style on a game like Liverpool and their heavy metal football or Pep/Barca's choking possession. But on the other hand, they are really hard to press given the Modric/Kroos/Casemiro (now featuring Fede, Camavinga, Tchouameni) midfield, had Benzema up front finishing clinically (prior to this year), and Courtois is spectacular. I hate when commentators talk about high possession and shots numbers and talk about how that team was unlucky to lose. That's absolutely sometimes the case, but Madrid is just really happy to let teams have possessions and hit long, hopeful shots at Courtois. It's not really a sign that they're being made uncomfortable. Last year's final was a perfect example. Madrid had a goal ruled out that was REALLY tight (well not so much tight as dependent on enough interpretations of the rule that writers were coming down on opposing sides for days). They scored another chance then backed off and took the sting out of things. Courtois made two really good saves (the Mane ball he pushed onto the post especially) and a lot of saves that were good, but I'd expect him to make 99/100 times. There is always going to be a few moments against a team as good as Liverpool, but overall I thought Madrid looked pretty comfortable once they took the lead despite Liverool's crazy shot total.

2. They aren't amazing against not that great teams, which hurts them in the league - They'd have a lot more gaudy point totals if they were better at playing teams that just drop super deep and play physically and defensively all game. Before the emergence of Vini, they didn't really have a line breaker to destabilize those type of set ups and it showed, especially after CR and his header threat was gone. Hazard was supposed to be that, but we all saw how that worked out. Vini changed that to a good extent, but right now teams are finding that they can somewhat neutralize him by putting two players on that wing and having them foul/be very physical with him from the get go, especially as Benz isn't having a great season. This is a legit critique of the team, but it just doesn't matter as much when evaluating big UCL teams against each other as there is a lot less incentive for bunker, shithouse, and hope for a point to happen in elimination tournaments.

Don't get me wrong, I recognize that improbability of last year's title run and wouldn't have put any money on Madrid to go through in the 88th minute against City. But I do think people - especially the English punditry - underestimates how good Madrid is due both to a lack of familiarity/natural home team bias and because what Madrid is really good at isn't that flashy (outside of now Vini). Just thinking about Jamie Carragher's commentary gets me fired up. ha

OK, end of rant. Sorry!

[SumJongGuy]

Any bets on Arsenal's skipper being lured away next season?

[Long duc dong]

Marcus Brody,

Certainly fair, and accurate points.

I will say that THIS season Madrid has been better, as Liverpool are all over the place.

I won't say the 2021 knockout round defeat was a surprise. That was a Liverpool team that finished well down the table. They really did not look great.

I think if you cherry pick from Sept 2018 to May 2022 Liverpool was a better team overall during that period. There are some obvious blips, like the 20/21 season when Liverpool finished well down the table. But I think Liverpool were better in 18/19, 19/20 and 21/22. To me, that makes them better over that period. I think Liverpool had some seasons where they were a really great team during those years.

In the two knockout round defeats I would say Madrid was the better team for that season.

But Madrid's 17/18 team gives me some pause. If you look at the names on paper, that was a generational squad. Granted, everyone had written them off by that point, but it show what can happen when you have talent like that. When you can bring a guy off the bench who is one of the best players of his generation, a player capable of scoring those 'moment of brilliance' goals, well that says something. Gareth Bale was simply a man playing against boys in that final.

Obviously the fact that Bale was on the bench had to do with other factors, so that does need to be noted. He was on the outs with management and he had certainly had some injury problems.

And truth be told, Liverpool was fourth in the table that year. I don't think either team was really of the top few in the world that season. I must confess that I remembered the 17/18 Liverpool team as better than it actually was in the EPL. They finished fourth. Given how great they were in 18/19 and 19/20 I guess I lumped the 17/18 team in with those other teams, when they hadn't really hit there stride yet. Such logic is certainly unfair to Madrid, as if you are going to lump 17/18 Liverpool in with 18/19 and 19/20 Liverpool you have to lump 17/18 Madrid with the previous 3 years. And like I said before, just look at that Madrid roster from that year.....

I don't think you can compare Madrid winning La Liga and Liverpool winning the EPL. Liverpool has put together some great EPL seasons. The 18/19 and 21/22 EPL performances of Liverpool have been absolutely nuts, more impressive than anything Madrid has done in La Liga. They just have had the misfortune of City being one point better. In think in most periods in history Liverpool would have thee titles over the last 5 seasons.