row_33 Posted August 23, 2017 Share Posted August 23, 2017 Might as well get it going for the few of us. A few weeks into the English season have nothing dramatic yet, stars sat out the first week in Spain, elimination games this week for Champions League and WCQ games next week. Balotelli is playing for Nice. Name of the year so far is Windass for Glasgow Rangers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cugalabanza Posted August 23, 2017 Share Posted August 23, 2017 I'm a casual fan of the European leagues. I'll be following Borussia Dortmund some this year, with an eye on Pulisic. Each year, MLS gets a little more interesting. I live in Atlanta, so it's fun to see our expansion team doing well. I pay closer attention to the USMNT. Good, important games coming up against Costa Rica and Honduras. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KermitMcDermott Posted August 23, 2017 Share Posted August 23, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted August 23, 2017 Author Share Posted August 23, 2017 Toronto got into the bandwagon effect with a great playoff run last year, hope it keeps up. I tape a dozen or so games a week and let them run until the grossly stronger team scores (or laughs to a 2-0) lead, then on to the next game. I don't care to watch Barca or Bayern complete the 8-0 drubbing of a hopelessly outmatched team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blokestradamus Posted August 23, 2017 Share Posted August 23, 2017 After 5 games, the mighty Stockport County are 9th in the National League North. Home to Gainsborough Trinity on Saturday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted August 23, 2017 Author Share Posted August 23, 2017 Go Hatters!! Liverpool and Napoli move into the $$ rounds of the Champions League, of course they fix it so they knocked out teams from France and Germany that would have easily beaten almost every other team in this round. Gotta make sure Cyprus and Malta get teams in the $-rounds... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blokestradamus Posted August 23, 2017 Share Posted August 23, 2017 I have to admit, the first 20-25 minutes of that Liverpool game was about as good as I've seen them play under Klopp. Even Alberto Moreno didn't look his usual abject awful self. They'll probably get Real, Dortmund & Sporting Lisbon in the group stages and end up 3rd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaoulDuke79 Posted August 24, 2017 Share Posted August 24, 2017 I'm waiting for Coutinho to jump ship to Barcelona. Sooner or later one of the offers is going to stick. That'll be a tough pill to swallow. United has come out of the box hot. On a side note I turn on the TV to watch football (the American kind), and I keep getting bombarded with news and video of people protesting this and that I'm going to be watching more soccer than usual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augie Posted August 24, 2017 Share Posted August 24, 2017 While the progress is slow, in the 70's I had a friend who played middle school/HS soccer and everybody thought that was odd. Now, I take my mother to lunch and soccer is on half the TV's including the big screens. My son will watch when the broadcast is in Spanish. I'm planning on going to some of the Atlanta games (admittedly at least in part to see the new Mercedes Benz Dome cheaper than the NFL tix I bought there). It's not meteoric like MMA was, but it's real progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted August 24, 2017 Author Share Posted August 24, 2017 Some group in the Champions League will have Juve/Atletico/Paris St G while another group's best team will be 1845 Spartak Locomotiv Trabsonspor and another team that nobody has a clue what country it's from (one that doesn't use vowels at least). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snafu Posted August 24, 2017 Share Posted August 24, 2017 Some group in the Champions League will have Juve/Atletico/Paris St G while another group's best team will be 1845 Spartak Locomotiv Trabsonspor and another team that nobody has a clue what country it's from (one that doesn't use vowels at least). So you're saying the Champions League is like the Tony Awards of soccer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted August 24, 2017 Author Share Posted August 24, 2017 For euro WC qualifying they put France/Holland/Sweden in one group and Italy/Spain in another while Serbia is in first and Montenegro is 2nd in another. They always play these SJW games to force horrible teams into the later rounds. For the FA Cup semis we always get Liverpool and Man United and Scuntthorpe and Hartlepool, so the "draw" guarantees every time that Liverpool and ManU will play each other in the semis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaoulDuke79 Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 Good news for Liverpool fans such as myself. Domino effect: Assessing the impact of Dembele's big-money Barcelona move https://www.thescore.com/fran/news/1358278 (via http://thesco.re/theScore_app ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seasons1992 Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 My Watford side is playing well two games in. Currently live with a Spurs fan and the sky is falling in Wembley for this season....... Also keep an eye on Liverpool due to my morbid fascination with the Hillsborough tragedy, plus I love Klopp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canadian Bills Fan Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 Toronto got into the bandwagon effect with a great playoff run last year, hope it keeps up. I tape a dozen or so games a week and let them run until the grossly stronger team scores (or laughs to a 2-0) lead, then on to the next game. I don't care to watch Barca or Bayern complete the 8-0 drubbing of a hopelessly outmatched team. TFC is amazing this year. Might break Galaxy's points record this year CBF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne Cubed Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 I'm waiting for Coutinho to jump ship to Barcelona. Sooner or later one of the offers is going to stick. That'll be a tough pill to swallow. United has come out of the box hot. On a side note I turn on the TV to watch football (the American kind), and I keep getting bombarded with news and video of people protesting this and that I'm going to be watching more soccer than usual. United had 2 easy draws to open the season West Ham and Swansea, they aren't exactly world beaters and with the money spent, they should beat those teams. I guess we shall find out this weekend what they can do against Leicester. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cugalabanza Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 United had 2 easy draws to open the season West Ham and Swansea, they aren't exactly world beaters and with the money spent, they should beat those teams. I guess we shall find out this weekend what they can do against Leicester. +8 goal differential after week 2 is no joke though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne Cubed Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 +8 goal differential after week 2 is no joke though. I mean yea it's not a joke, because it happened. But West Ham/Swansea... 2 teams that will probably finish bottom of the table. Huddersfield came out hot against CP and beat Toons. All I'm saying is I'll be interest to see what they do this weekend. Maybe it's me being bitter because I didn't pick up Lukaku in fantasy and am getting roasted now haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted August 26, 2017 Author Share Posted August 26, 2017 Watched Neymar out there with PSG for awhile, he's not the kind of player that is going to singlehandedly create excitement and dominate the top teams. Very few ever were.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted September 11, 2017 Author Share Posted September 11, 2017 On to the Champions League 8 groups for the Final 32 starting tomorrow. And they give us..... Barcelona hosting Juve for the first game... The groupings aren't too egregious, ManU and Liverpool got cupcakes and Roma/Chelsea/Atletico is only one with 3 top teams for only 2 spots to advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted October 10, 2017 Author Share Posted October 10, 2017 Final day of WC qualifying for this round. Dutch need to beat Sweden by 7 or more goals to get through. A challenge to say the least. Slovakia will be the runner-up for a group that misses out of the playoff round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cugalabanza Posted October 10, 2017 Share Posted October 10, 2017 (edited) USMNT needs to not lose to Trinidad & Tobago tonight in order to take the third & final confirmed WC spot for CONCACAF. If they lose, they could slip to 4th place, which would mean a playoff situation, or to 5th which would mean elimination. Should be no problem to get the win or draw tonight, but the game's at T&T, the field is water-logged and T&T has nothing to lose. No English speaking networks are carrying the game, so I'll watch in Spanish on Universo. Edited October 10, 2017 by Cugalabanza Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted October 10, 2017 Author Share Posted October 10, 2017 The playoff is with New Zealand and Australia and 5th from South America (could be Argentina) so best not to enter that playoff situation for the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cugalabanza Posted October 10, 2017 Share Posted October 10, 2017 The playoff is with New Zealand and Australia and 5th from South America (could be Argentina) so best not to enter that playoff situation for the US. My understanding is that the playoff will be against a team from Asia (AFC), so it would be against Australia, two legs in November. But yeah, best not to deal with that at all. It's bad enough that the USA is now consistently the 3rd best in this region, behind Mexico and Costa Rica. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted October 10, 2017 Author Share Posted October 10, 2017 No, South America ends up being the final two-leg thingy to get that spot, which is a pretty rough road to drive, having to go to Argentina could be perilous in so many ways... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cugalabanza Posted October 10, 2017 Share Posted October 10, 2017 The CONMEBOL playoff will be with OFC (New Zealand). CONCACAF's playoff will be against AFC (Australia). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted October 10, 2017 Author Share Posted October 10, 2017 totally lucked out there for CONCACAAF.... they must have sent Platini $10,000,000 to get out of that jam... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted October 10, 2017 Author Share Posted October 10, 2017 adios Holland, tough draw and sadly they went to the bargain basement method of goal diff to break a tie, not a common thing in soccer. So make sure you beat Vatican City or the Faroe Islands 28-0 next chance you get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted October 10, 2017 Author Share Posted October 10, 2017 BeIn has the US game in English starting in 20 minutes. Will watch along with Argentina struggling to get onto the next round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaoulDuke79 Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 US down 0-2 going into half.....wtf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted October 11, 2017 Author Share Posted October 11, 2017 Messi with an epic hat trick to put them in the Workd Cup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoloinOhio Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 😳 USMNT eliminated from World Cup for first time since 1986 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted October 11, 2017 Author Share Posted October 11, 2017 Looked like Canada losing to T&T out there... Heads are gonna roll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cugalabanza Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 I'm destroyed. Complete shame for USA soccer. !@#$ed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BringBackFergy Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 USMNT needs to not lose to Trinidad & Tobago tonight in order to take the third & final confirmed WC spot for CONCACAF. If they lose, they could slip to 4th place, which would mean a playoff situation, or to 5th which would mean elimination. Should be no problem to get the win or draw tonight, but the game's at T&T, the field is water-logged and T&T has nothing to lose. No English speaking networks are carrying the game, so I'll watch in Spanish on Universo. Ouch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mead107 Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 They suck? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted October 11, 2017 Author Share Posted October 11, 2017 Hard to lose to places where US children collect and send Unicef pennies to at Halloween Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 So they went from having a spot locked out to totally out? No playoff against New Zealand or whatever? That's pretty unfathomable for a country of 330 million people, no matter how many popular sports exist here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted October 11, 2017 Author Share Posted October 11, 2017 Its not really that big a sport for adults in North America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cugalabanza Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 (edited) Its not really that big a sport for adults in North America.Trump hasn't kicked Mexico out of North America just yet. They take soccer pretty seriously. ...and, they showed themselves to be the class of CONCACAF once again. Plus they managed to play this last game just soft enough to help the USA get knocked out. Well done, El Tri. Edited October 11, 2017 by Cugalabanza Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts