The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 23/24

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 21/22.

Post by 10spro »

Brilliant finish by K. Mbappe vs Real in stoppage time after a cheeky back heel from Neymar. In a game where they controlled play much of the game but lacked finish, they’ll go back to Madrid with a slight lead.

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 21/22.

Post by 10spro »

If you get some form of streaming media, the WC draw is about to take place.

Teams you don’t want to face in the early rounds in my opinion: Canada (never living here after 40 years I would have said that before), Ecuador, Denmark and Senegal are my dark horses.

And Italy missing it yet again. Losing to North Macedonia? Oh how troubled are they?

Which group will be the group of death? I would say whoever draws Germany in it. BTW, the Great CAFU looks great.

Vamos Argentina!

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 21/22.

Post by 10spro »

As an avid fan of the sport and no affiliation of course to either City or RM, this was one of the better UEFA Cups semis that I’ve watched in awhile. The game had it all in terms of entertainment value, back and forth, each team knowing exactly what was at stake.

Benzema is just a monster, City may lament the missed opportunities in the end but the rematch next week will lack no drama for sure.

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 21/22.

Post by Zeppo »

10spro wrote:
Tue Apr 26, 2022 4:57 pm
As an avid fan of the sport and no affiliation of course to either City or RM, this was one of the better UEFA Cups semis that I’ve watched in awhile. The game had it all in terms of entertainment value, back and forth, each team knowing exactly what was at stake.

Benzema is just a monster, City may lament the missed opportunities in the end but the rematch next week will lack no drama for sure.
It was a very entertaining game and worthy of a UCL semi-final. Both teams were very good. Madrid seems so resilient! And Benzema mystifies me - how does he end up in these dangerous spots time and time again? He’s a wizard. City may well rue the many many missed chances they had especially in the early minutes before RM sort of woke up into the match, but they of course have plenty of attack available.

If Benzema is hurt (he was limping pretty badly towards the end there), that may be too much of Madrid to overcome.

I fully do not expect tonight’s match to be anywhere near as entertaining or, frankly, good. But hey, you never know!

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 21/22.

Post by Lancer »

What happened to that poster named 34?

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 21/22.

Post by 10spro »

What another exciting game between the Galacticos and MC. Adding Rodrygo late in the second half was the key move by Ancelotti just when it seemed that the home team was going to be sent packing. Asensio also with his speed.

They created enough spaces with their pace that City did not expect, and looked gassed at times.

Benzema was a work horse again being the victim of the penalty kick.

It was a chess match pretty much during the first half and all the drama in the second and ET.

The team that never quit in this run is in the finals now, they’ve beaten some pretty good damn teams along.

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 21/22.

Post by Zeppo »

That was crazy! It’s exactly the type of thing that makes me hate when people complain about “rubber band logic” or whatever in sports video games. This kind of a crazy stuff does happen! And it’s practically unbelievable when it does! But it happens!

What a pair of 2nd legs those games were. Really great stuff Villarreal was so tough, fighting so hard, and their crowd was so small but so loud! What a great scene. And last night, just an amazing match of very very high-level football and with just enough late insanity to almost match the bonkers first leg.

There’s no way the final can live up to these semis; but hey, you never know! They certainly are very worthy finalists.
Last edited by Zeppo on Fri May 06, 2022 10:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 21/22.

Post by dbdynsty25 »

Zeppo wrote:
Thu May 05, 2022 12:43 pm
There’s no way the final can live up to these semis; but hey, you never know! They certainly are very worthy finalists.
Well RM doesn't have Ramos anymore to intentionally hurt Salah in the first few minutes of the final so hopefully the Reds will be on full fitness for the match. ;)

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 21/22.

Post by vader29 »

Lancer wrote:
Sat Apr 30, 2022 11:19 am
What happened to that poster named 34?
Image
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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 21/22.

Post by RobVarak »

Haven't posted in a while. My bad, but having to go into suspended animation between matches doesn't leave me much time.

Feels like Liverpool have been playing Stanley Cup Game 7's every day for the last month and the end is hardly in sight.
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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 21/22.

Post by dbdynsty25 »

What an incredible finish even though I’m disappointed. Drama all over the table. Incredible final weekend.

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 21/22.

Post by Zeppo »

Real Madrid has been touched by some magical force this season. I cannot believe they have won the UCL. Am I wrong, or did they have exactly one (1) shot on target? Vs. 8 or 9 for Liverpool? Crazy.

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 21/22.

Post by pk500 »

Zeppo wrote:
Sun May 29, 2022 4:23 am
Real Madrid has been touched by some magical force this season. I cannot believe they have won the UCL. Am I wrong, or did they have exactly one (1) shot on target? Vs. 8 or 9 for Liverpool? Crazy.
Alexander-Arnold blew it on Vinicius Jr.s' goal, big time. He lost him and was ball-watching even before VJ got near the box. Atrocious defending that wasn't worthy of a Sunday League match, let alone a UCL final.
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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 21/22.

Post by 10spro »

pk500 wrote:
Sun May 29, 2022 6:09 am
Zeppo wrote:
Sun May 29, 2022 4:23 am
Real Madrid has been touched by some magical force this season. I cannot believe they have won the UCL. Am I wrong, or did they have exactly one (1) shot on target? Vs. 8 or 9 for Liverpool? Crazy.
Alexander-Arnold blew it on Vinicius Jr.s' goal, big time. He lost him and was ball-watching even before VJ got near the box. Atrocious defending that wasn't worthy of a Sunday League match, let alone a UCL final.
Luck, definitely was on their side this season, the comebacks, the assertion of Vinicius as one of the best strikers in the world with Rodrygo along the wings. But Courtois was the main man yesterday and during this whole ride in fact, robbing Liverpool and in particular M. Salah a couple of times.

And yes, AA definitely blew his coverage that a top D-man should never do especially when you have a dangerous speedster like Vinicius.

If this was the WC in Qatar and he lets a striker so wide open, the Hooligans would be all over him.

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 21/22.

Post by 10spro »

Very excited that Vancouver will be one of the cities hosting the WC in 2026.

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 22/23.

Post by 10spro »

I thought Chelsea was a better team overall, ref was brutal with some non calls. That TT-Conte hand shake was something to see…

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 22/23.

Post by wco81 »

Interesting article about how the owners of Man City are pioneering a new model for expanding their branding all over the world.

City is owned by the City Football Group, a holding company which owns almost a dozen clubs throughout the world, including the NYC FC team in the MLS. They use the same branding, for instance the NYC FC team has similar jersey colors and designs as Man City. It's deliberate and unless the club they acquire already has a well-established brand with kits which have a lot of history, they change it to the Man City themes.

But the strategy behind collecting clubs goes well beyond uniforms and visual branding.

They actually park some prospects, like a 17 year old Brazilian forward on NYC FC who may some day be good enough to be transferred to the flagship club of CFG.

Rather than loan prospects to other clubs, they park them in other clubs owned by CFG, so that they play under the same system as City and go through the same development process, same analytics, etc.

In fact, when some of these clubs, such as a Belgian club in the lower divisions, are making big transfer decisions, they actually consult by teleconference with some personnel people at MC.

These other CFG clubs have bigger budgets than other clubs in their leagues, just like MC. There haven't been any stars developed through this system yet. For one thing, MC just buys the best players, not rely so heavily on internal development, at least since the Emirati have owned them.

But other owners are starting to use similar strategies:
The success of CFG's corporate model has been noticed by other investors who have been building stables of clubs, such as Miami-based 777 Partners, which has added Genoa, Vasco da Gama, Standard Liege and Red Star to its portfolio in the past year alone. The United World group, run by Saudi Arabia's Prince Abdullah, is built around Sheffield United. David Blitzer, Real Salt Lake principal owner, has holdings in England, Germany and Spain. Red Bull has six clubs from Austria to Ghana. None of those has the same degree of integration as CFG or a similar corporate structure, but the building blocks are there.

Inevitably, there will be others. For the same $3 billion that Boehly and his partners recently paid for Chelsea, an entity could buy an MLS club and add teams in every country where CFG now operates and beyond. The ownership stakes in Palermo, Lommel, Troyes and Montevideo were acquired for a total of less than $50 million. Boehly himself seems interested in adding several smaller clubs to create a similar stable.
Read in ESPN: https://apple.news/AJRSfFKPnTnCnsAz07KhiYA

There may come a time when these conglomerates have teams in the same competition. For instance, if their other clubs do well enough in the top divisions of these other countries, they may be UCL opponents, in which case UEFA would force them to have one of the clubs withdraw.

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 22/23.

Post by 10spro »

It definitely feels weird watching the WC in November, but hey it happens only every 4 years and I am as usual excited for the event.

Probably the home team Qatar can’t say the same thing as they spent probably 90% of the time trying to defend their territory.

Ecuador is no slouch for those that don’t follow the Sport and should advance along the Dutch in group A.

Maybe they should reconsider selling beer at the stadium after their performance today.

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 22/23.

Post by pk500 »

I'm normally geeked out of my mind for the World Cup, but not this one, for a few reasons.

One, the corruption and cynicism. Yes, corruption and cynicism are synonyms for FIFA, but this World Cup is the most greedy and amoral in the tourney's long history of soiled shorts. That's saying something. Qatar has zero football heritage or infrastructure and NEVER would have landed the tournament without massive bribes to Infantino and FIFA. Unsettling.

Two, the timing. One of the beauties of the World Cup, at least for an American sports fan, is that it happens in July. That is the most moribund month in American sport, with ease, which helps the tournament gain traction in America. Right now is the BUSIEST time in American sport, with the NFL, NBA, NHL, college football and college hoop. The TV ratings will be down in America. Considerably, I predict.

Three, the disruption of the domestic league season. It's just straight-up BS that placing the tournament in Qatar has created a stoppage of the domestic league seasons for six weeks. Players will be destroyed when they get back from the World Cup, and they'll be asked to jump right back into a congested fixture list for their league clubs. Cue some really bad football and plenty of injuries this spring, if not sooner, on the domestic level. Plus Newcastle is third in the table -- why do I want to see this magic-carpet ride stalled? :)

Sure, I'll watch and enjoy the football. I always do. But I need a spark other than just the arrival of this quadrennial event to get me SUPER interested. Maybe a deep run by the U.S. (fat chance) or Wales. Maybe a surprise finalist, like Belgium or Denmark. Maybe Messi and Argentina steamrolling the field to give No. 10 a fitting international send-off as a world champion. But I need something upon which to hang my Qatar 2022 hat (with no Budweiser logos, of course).
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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 22/23.

Post by 10spro »

All valid reasons PK. Wow did you even call the sport ’Football’? Good for you, there’s a cool commercial with P. Manning and Beckham together discussing the proper term for the sport.

Some commercials are actually quite funny.

And yes I don’t need to express my sentimentalism for Argentina here, but I know this is indeed his last crack at it along Ronaldo and the only trophy missing in his great career.

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 22/23.

Post by pk500 »

10spro wrote:
Sun Nov 20, 2022 5:28 pm
And yes I don’t need to express my sentimentalism for Argentina here, but I know this is indeed his last crack at it along Ronaldo and the only trophy missing in his great career.
I'm not English; I would LOVE to see Argentina win the whole thing. :)
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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 22/23.

Post by wco81 »

It makes no sense for the Qataris to hold the event.

They spent billions on infrastructure, guess that could help them long term, but most of those stadiums won't be used because they won't be a power in the sport.

Maybe they should have bribed some good players to emigrate to that country but the whole Gulf is a cesspool.

A lot, maybe most, fans are staying in Dubai, another shithole. They will be flying over to attend matches, so Qatar doesn't even get the full benefit.

Those oil dollars aren't running out so no need to diversify their economy?

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 22/23.

Post by 10spro »

No need to re-emphasize what a big mistake Infantino did a decade ago to award this WC to Qatar. The entire Universe knows that it all comes to money, these politicians won’t care what legacy this WC will leave behind them when they can’t even hold a candle to their own citizens today when it comes to human right abuses and corruption.

Try to enjoy the Sport as it is with the presence of the best players in the world representing their countries, ideally I thought it was time that the event would be co-shared in Central or South America but here we are.

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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 22/23.

Post by 10spro »

I really hope that his fifth kick at a WC will bring him all glory. Vamos Argentina! 8)


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Re: The Beautiful Game, Fútbol, Calcio, Footie Season 22/23.

Post by 10spro »

The rules on VAR just need to be changed. Just shocking…

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