The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by 10spro »

Very early still in the season but if this trend continues, Solskjaer’s days maybe shorten in ManU.

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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by pk500 »

10spro wrote:Very early still in the season but if this trend continues, Solskjaer’s days maybe shorten in ManU.
Poch is under just as much pressure at Spurs. Losing 3-0 at Brighton after losing 7-2 to Bayern at home, in the same week? That's a club in crisis, too.
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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

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pk500 wrote:
10spro wrote:Very early still in the season but if this trend continues, Solskjaer’s days maybe shorten in ManU.
Poch is under just as much pressure at Spurs. Losing 3-0 at Brighton after losing 7-2 to Bayern at home, in the same week? That's a club in crisis, too.
I would agree although he may have a bit more rope than Solksjaer due to his recent success last season and recent extension. Lloris injury won’t help as he could be gone for the year but they need to plug those holes for sure.

I think letting Lukaku go was a mistake for the Red Devils, you just can’t rely on James, Martial and Rashford to score consistently for you.

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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by dbdynsty25 »

10spro wrote:Poch is under just as much pressure at Spurs. Losing 3-0 at Brighton after losing 7-2 to Bayern at home, in the same week? That's a club in crisis, too.
I would agree although he may have a bit more rope than Solksjaer due to his recent success last season and recent extension. Lloris injury won’t help as he could be gone for the year but they need to plug those holes for sure.[/quote]

Hard to plug holes when your team has quit on your. Clearly half the team has their foot out the door looking for the next opportunity, especially Erikson. They just don't look like they even care anymore. Losing to 4th tier teams, destroyed by Bayern and now Brighton? He needs to go.

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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by pk500 »

10spro wrote:
pk500 wrote:
10spro wrote:Very early still in the season but if this trend continues, Solskjaer’s days maybe shorten in ManU.
Poch is under just as much pressure at Spurs. Losing 3-0 at Brighton after losing 7-2 to Bayern at home, in the same week? That's a club in crisis, too.
I would agree although he may have a bit more rope than Solksjaer due to his recent success last season and recent extension. Lloris injury won’t help as he could be gone for the year but they need to plug those holes for sure.

I think letting Lukaku go was a mistake for the Red Devils, you just can’t rely on James, Martial and Rashford to score consistently for you.
I beg to differ. OGS may get more rope because this is his first full season, he is a United legend, and he arguably has less talent than Poch at Spurs. Tottenham made the CL final last year -- expectations are stratospheric. And Poch is blowing it, royally, and may have lost the changing room. As DB said, he needs to go.

Many pundits claim Poch will beg, lobby and coax to keep the Spurs' job just long enough for OGS to get sacked and then take the next train northwest to Manchester to waltz into the United job.
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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by pk500 »

What is the point of Gregg Berhalter continuing as the USMNT manager? Losing to Canada for the first time in 34 years in a performance that can be kindly described as desultory?

Dude needs to go.
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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by RobVarak »

RobVarak wrote:
To some extent he was supposed to change the way US Soccer itself worked, but the problem is bigger than that. Really, it's a job that involves more than just the USSF and you are correct that five years isn't enough time.

Problem No. 1 remains: We're still depending on players to fund their own development to far too large a degree. For years people thought MLS would improve the level of US talent, but the existing structure of private clubs and the NCAA has meant that there isn't enough incentive for the MLS clubs to make a meaningful investment in really aggressive talent acquisition and development. They fund grass roots organizations, but these still comprise a minute % of all of the clubs in the country, and by and large they are mining the same talent pool as those other clubs. The private, player-funded clubs, no matter how much they market as development tools, are incentivized to play to win. Coaches are pros and parents are only attracted to programs that will win and put them on the path to scholarship dollars.

This is compounded by the free and easy acquisition of foreign talent by MLS clubs, which has the effect of improving the level of the very CONCACAF teams against whom the US is trying to qualify.

The league has become:
1. High-floor, low-ceiling players from the US who have funded their own development
2. Higher-risk but higher-upside foreign players who are getting access to better training and competition than they used to get in their domestic leagues.
3. The smattering of washed-up stars from the European leagues who don't really figure into the CONCACAF picture.

So how does the US start to mine the population for better athletes and train them better? I'm brainstoming a bit as I write, but I think the only way is basic economics. The money in the domestic game all passes through MLS. Their TV deals are improving, they're expanding, and local sponsorship grows every year. The homegrown player incentives were a start, but that clearly hasn't been enough.

I'm a free-trader at heart, but it may be that a quota system is needed to further encourage the expansion and improvement of the academies. Teams need to get into under-served areas and let kids know that MLS may not be the path to immediate millionaire-hood, but it can be a way to make a living as an athlete.

Some of this is also cultural. Soccer may benefit from the building exodus away from football, although to a large extent the socio-economic strata that is leaving football is the same as that which is already well-exploited by soccer. A less immigrant friendly political environment is certainly not going to help the game, unfortunately.

Klinsmann tried to get around some of these issues by shaking the carpet to see what European-based and dual-citizenship kids trained in Europe he could find. This caused pretty serious blowback in the media and, it appears, in the locker room. But his willingness to innovate, even in this limited way, was refreshing even as it was an indication of the kinds of problems we have with domestic players.

Every one of these issues remains a problem, which isn't a surprise since it was just a few years ago. The problem is that none of them have been addressed in any systematic manner and the USSF is still the same collection of useless empty suits that it has been for decades.
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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by sportdan30 »

Christian Pulisic has arrived! A hat trick against Burnley. So wonderful to see.

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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by pk500 »

sportdan30 wrote:Christian Pulisic has arrived! A hat trick against Burnley. So wonderful to see.
Definitely. A huge boost for his confidence, too.
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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by 10spro »

The way M. Son reacted after fouling Portuguese forward Gomes from behind and the rest of the players were in absolute shock and disbelief. Most players just turned away from the scene of the crime, Gomes was to have immediate surgery.

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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by Jimmydeicide »

10spro wrote:The way M. Son reacted after fouling Portuguese forward Gomes from behind and the rest of the players were in absolute shock and disbelief. Most players just turned away from the scene of the crime, Gomes was to have immediate surgery.
OMG it was hideous i screamed out loud when i saw his foot side ways. such an horrific injury from such a relatively harmless tackle.
It did look worse at normal speed tackle wise, but i wasnt expecting that result 8O holy s***!!!
It wasnt the tackle that did the damage it was how he landed that caused it but if Son didnt clip him then... Horrible. Hope he makes it back.

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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by 10spro »

RM found their next Neymar Jr in Rodrygo. Remember his name. Natural hat trick at the recent UEFA Cup, brilliant performance and only 18 years old. Speed, talent, skills. Needs to beef up just a bit, but he’s only a teen.

Love watching SA kids shine in the big leagues.

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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

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Let’s see if Jose can fix the Locker room for the Spurs. Players like Alli and Erikssen need to be better, a leaky D is also a concern and more importantly who will be the big budget recruit under Mourinho?

Imagine Levy spending $$$ on his players. This relationship won’t last long.

And don’t cry for Poch either, he’ll be coaching one of the big clubs in a Spain soon enough.

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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by 10spro »

You don’t often see a change of managers in mid season especially when you are leading at La Liga 1 in Spain. Perhaps it was the tough loss last week vs Atlético, the inability to keep leads or the past failures in the Euro Cup. Whatever the reason, Quique Setien will have Barcelona play the Jogo Bonito that Pepe Guardiola touted when he was there.

He’s the perfect manager to coach this talented team, with team possession and fast attacks as the main attraction to his style of coaching.

We’ll see how this one develops...

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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by XXXIV »

I wanted to punch Salah in the face when he didnt score a goal that any 8 yr old girl would have buried but then he went and totally totally redeemed himself scoring a goal no girl could ever score. 8)

Klopp is brilliant.

Liverpool are amazing.

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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by wco81 »

City banned from the UCL for the next two seasons. City will appeal.

But is this the first time UEFA imposed FFP penalties with any teeth?

If the penalty holds up, what happens, the #5 club in the EPL plays in the UCL if MC makes the top 4 in the next two seasons?

Which MC stars are going to bail?

Is Guardiola going to stick around?

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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by 10spro »

I should start a new updated thread once all the leagues reopen but footie fans of the MLS get ready for July 8th as the games resume. All teams will be gathered in Orlando, it’ll feel like a little World Cup I guess, all teams gathered in one place.

Good to see some sports starting up again.

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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by wco81 »

Beautiful game, ugly commentary.
Researchers from RunRepeat sampled 80 games from the 2019-20 seasons of the English Premier League, French Ligue 1, Italian Serie A and Spanish La Liga — broadcast across seven different networks1 — and analyzed more than 2,000 statements made by commentators about 643 unique players. The study included 1,361 comments about players with lighter skin and 713 comments about players with darker skin.2 The study found that, weighting for the different number of comments made about each group, players with lighter skin were praised more frequently for their intelligence (62.6 percent of the comments coded as positive were about players with lighter skin), work ethic (60.4 percent) and overall quality (62.8 percent), while 63.3 percent of criticism about a player’s intelligence was aimed at players with darker skin, along with 67.6 percent of criticism about a player’s quality.

The study also found that players with darker skin were often reduced to racist tropes about their speed and strength, which is often coded by commentators as “pace and power.”
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/so ... ed-racism/

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Re: The Beautiful Game thread, season 2018/19

Post by pk500 »

It's no different in basketball. How often do you hear commentators say Black players are "scrappy," "gym rats" or "heady players?" Maybe never? Conversely, how often are white players called "incredible athletes," "guys who can jump out of the gym," etc.? Perhaps never?

Or just in general. Randy Moss was a "troublemaker," yet repeated baseball drug abuser Josh Hamilton was "a troubled man."

I'm not trying to condone soccer announcers. But the cliches of institutionalized racism are prevalent in the broadcast booths of every major sport. It's annoying as hell and just plain wrong.
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