OT: Soccer Wednesday Open Thread
Today’s Schedule:
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Round of 16, Leg 2, Day 2
2:45p Barcelona v PSG – FS1 (0-4 Agg)
2:45p Borussia Dortmund v Benfica – FS2 (0-1 Agg)
English Premier League
3:00p Manchester City v Stoke City – NBCSN
La Liga
12:45pm La Coruna v Real Betis – BeinsportsConnect
Notes
*Champions League Round of 16 involves 2 legs, of which this is the second. Away goals are accounted for in the knockout round.
*If you don’t see a league or team listed that you want to follow and discuss, let me know and I’ll add it (within reason). I’m not going out of my way to make sure Scunthorpe or Drogheda United are covered here.
*These Times are Eastern TIme
*Games on Major TV Networks are in Bold
Enjoy, cheers, and Go Blue!
Since I've got no rooting interest from the EPL, BVB will have to do. Trivia point - if I'm remembering this correctly - die Schwartzgelben was the first major professional sports team named after a brewery.
Anyway, wish I was able to watch some of these. Thanks to the OP for making these posts.
Dortmund is awesome. Huge stadium, familiar colors and an amazing home atmosphere.
Even though I know they aren’t playing and it is impossible, I still hope ar5ena1 find a way to lose 5-1 again today.
Don't have to fire him. Pretty sure his contract is up after this season. Can just elect not to give him a new contract.
Don't expect a Chelsea-like uptick, though. Arsenal doesn't have the infrastructure set up. AW literally does *everything* and management doesn't have a clue how to hire for anything else. It's going to be a VERY ROUGH few years for Arsenal after AW departs. And you can say good bye to Alexis Sanchez, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mesut Ozil and probably others.
AW needs to go, I agree, but if that's what you want, you better be prepared for what's going to come in the short term. And it's going to suck (unless you're a Spuds fan).
BVB! BVB! Hopefully Pulisic gets the start today. His play warranted it last Saturday.
Out of all the teams to root for Barcelona?
I know the champions league is full of teams with unfair talent in comparison to their national league but Barcelona strikes me as the worst. Go PSG
It is a bit cringeworthy how so many Americans who get into European soccer seem to gravitate to what are basically the equivalents of the Yankees/Cowboys/Lakers.
When I started following soccer about 15 years ago, I choose Man City because I am not a fan of teams in red, so United and Liverpool were instantly off the table. I liked the scappy underdog role that the club had. Then 5 years later, the new owners took over, and it has been awesome to see the club take step after step in the right direction. Being flushed with cash helps, and I know a lot of people call City a team of Mercenaries, but that is so untrue. Kompany and Zabaleta have been with the club for 10 yrs. David Silva has been here for 7 years, and Yaya and Aguero have been at City 6 years. The core group has been with the club a long time, and now with Pep, and the influx of youth, City looks like the team to beat in England for years to come. Been a pretty up and down season, but starting to really see it come together. Sane and Sterling have both been playing great. Sterling has been a revelation this season. Just got to shore up the back 4 and GK to really be contenders in UCL and EPL though. That will be addressed in the offseason though.
I can't really blame anyone for choosing Barca as their team. They play beautiful soccer and have one of the best players ever, and you have Ray Hudson calling the games on BEIN, it's usually very entertaining stuff.
When I first started watching the EPL I didn't want to just pick any random team to pull for, so I dug up where my family (name) was from, found the closest club, and now I'm a Stoke City supporter.
On some level I get it. Unless you pay for additional soccer channels you are not seeing a huge variety of teams around the world so it is important to choose a team that can compete in the champions league or at the very least compete in the EPL which has the most televised league play in the US. BUT Barcelona is a juggernaut with the worlds greatest player. They are the Yankees of the best teams in the world
For the dealer at the casino.
Nicely put, uncle leo. I will put this to use elsewhere.
City can move into sole second place today with the win. Team is flying right now and in great form. FA Cup on the weekend and UCL next week, so we may rest some big guns today.
Lets see if Barca can pull off a miracle comeback and Benfica can pull off the upset.
In different area codes.
Go teams!
Ha! Clearly accidental, but the ref had to book him LOL
1. why these soccer threads now? i don't mean this in the context of 'how could you like soccer, get off my lawn'. instead, i'm asking in the context of thinking it might be like the NCAA tourney or something, it's championship, playoff, crunch time, etc. or will we have 365 days/yr of soccer threads.
2. how come i read all the time that soccer players are the #1 concussion leaders when i never see much in the way of head banging, full-speed, large body, out-go-the-lights types of plays? i get that heading the ball, especially if you arrive there when someone else does, can be a knock, but that seems to me far different than what goes on in football, hockey, boxing, kick-boxing, mma all the time, in far greater multiples, etc.
thanks
and you don't have to get off my lawn. you can even play soccer on my lawn, just watch where you step. the live stock get out sometimes and particularly the cows will leave you some gifts that could suck a soccer ball (or smallish soccer player) right into it.
My over-arching plan for the soccer threads are as follows:
One or two at the beginning of the season to celebrate the returm in August, followed by a shutdown (unless of course, there is an absolutely giganticf USMNT competive match) for the NO-OT based football season, followed there by a return of the threads in January as this is when all major European competitions are heating up, and OT topics are back in play.
Why now? Because this is a new incarnation and instead of waiting until next season, it made sense to go ahead and get these fired up. So no, no soccer thread 365 days a year. If you looked last week, it was a slow week so we just had one for Tuesday-Friday.
The threads have been well received, and I haven't ran into any confrontation from Brian, Ace, or any of the other moderaters or MGoBlogerati. I think the threads strengthen the blog, give us something more to discuss than just the normal football off-season talk, and plan on continuing to post them.
What I don't plan on doing is posting a defense for them every second thread. In reality, people who hate soccer (not saying that's you) have the ability to down vote the threads, as the people who love the soccer threads have the democratic ability to upvote. When we get to the point to where there are 2 upvotes and 37 downvotes, I might step back into the bushes. Also, the very fact that the smart-asses on this board may rally just to get this thread 37 downvotes is hilarious and one of the reasons I love coming to this forum.
I hope that answers the why now question for you. I'm simply trying to provide a free service to the blog, from an anonymous position, in order to promote community, commonwealth and discussion, within the pre-set rules. You're welcome to join the ride and learn about soccer, and root along with us. The reality is that soccer is growing and will soon be to a point in the United States where you simply can't avoid it. And frankly, I think that's pretty fuckin' nifty.
Explain anything. It's a message board. And it'll be slow until Michigan plays again. And when the NCAAs are over, there's NOTHING to discuss short of recruiting prospects in 2024.
1) Its soccer season around the world, think NFL weeks 12-Playoffs right now. Season’s are winding down, World biggest Club tournaments are enter the quater finals (ChampionsCup/Euros). Most major European leagues will end late April early May. Just that time of year.
2) Ive always been perplexed by this. Life long soccer player (knock on wood) and I have yet to witness someone receive a concussion from playing.
"Concussions in soccer mostly occur from player-to-player and player-to-ground contact. Heading is involved in only 15% to 25% of concussions in soccer, and most of those are a result of poorly executed headers where two players hit heads," Kontos said, based on his knowledge of recent research on the topic. (CNN)
So, looks like concussions that happen in soccer are due to players smacking heads, not the actual contact of ball to head.
It makes sense why the NFL has such a massive history of serious CTEs. You have 250-350 pound battering rams launching themselves at each other play after play. A guy like Luke Kuchkley (spelling) gets one of those, and that can end a career. There's no link between headers and the repetition of the head contact to a ball. If it's executed properly, there shouldn't be long term effects.
I looked at some other studies, and the data is either insufficient or does not prove a case that headers cause long-term injury.
And from my memory, I can't recall any stories of a soccer player dying young because of a CTE.
There was a time when Alecko Eskandarian was among the rising stars in the United States Men's National Soccer Team development program. He was a high school All American and won the Gatorade National High School Athlete of the Year Award. At the University of Virginia, he won the Hermann Trophy (college soccer's equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.) He was the top pick in the 2003 MLS Super Draft and the MVP of the 2004 MLS Super Cup (the league championship game.) Concussios ended his career.
His November 18, 2016 article on The Players' Tribune website, "Soccer's Unspoken Problem," offers some insight into concussions suffered by soccer players.
If it was evident before, Wenger needs to go there is absolutely no excuses this time. He has a lot of talent on that team in Xaka, Ozil, Sanchez, Czech, but wastes it without filling out the roster. How Monreal still starts is amazing, Coquelin shouldnt even have a spot on the team. Giroud is a waste of money. A solid Striker to play along Sanchez, and some help on the outside and this team could have been something special with Ozil and Sanchez, instead Wenger continues to play 90’s boring ball when his team is built for something entirely different. Just time to move and rebuild, Sanchez/Ozil gone as well.....
10-2 come on
Someone get me a telescope.
with the exception of the Giroud comment. He has single handedly kept Arsenal in the top 4-5 of the PL with his late game goals this year. Without him, they'd be in 6th or 7th place.
Yes, he's oft injured, yes, he disappears at times . . . . but he is by no means a waste of money. Ozil? Sure. But Giroud and Sanchez are (were since Giroud is aging) excellent guys to build a team around. Koscielny and Bellerin are fantastic as well.
Injuries, suspensions, aging and locker room dissension have made for a less-than-plesant time for Arsenal this season. I believe that the one player whom they've missed most has been Santi Cazorla. He has missed most of this season and last season due to injuries When Cazorla has been healthy, he has been electric.
He is the real problem. The Gunners, Avs, Rams owner is simply worried about cash flow and profit margin. Wenger did an amazing job of convincing Ozil and Alexis to join the club, but the competition has been making a signing like that pretty much every year. And so instead of putting Arsenal over the top, it's only papered over the previous talent loss.
Last 2 years have seen what, Cech, Zhaka, Lucas, Mustafi. Those guys are solid but no difference makers. If Arsenal are not going to compete financially with Chelski, Man City, and Man U, they you are correct, they need to cash out on Sanchez and Ozil (and the cash will be huge) and go all-in with youth/depth acquisition and development.
I've been watching for 5 or so years, Wenger was the main reason I became an Arsenal fan. When he packs up I'm not sure if I'll gravitate to another team.
I can't bring myself to root for Cheslki or the ManCity oil, and I enjoy rooting against Mourinho. If the Spuds weren't the Gunners rival I would probably like them. There's not a hugely likeable team for me if Wenger leaves the EPL.
That's my team! LFC has enough money to be competitive but not so much that it feels like rooting for the Yankees, and...let's see...they play an exciting high-energy pressing style that works great against aggressive teams but falls apart against teams that park the bus, and they have a cool fight song that sounds especially cool when the whole stadium sings it, and the manager gesticulates like a madman on the sideline. Whaddya think?
I've always liked Klopp. Or at least since BVB made that run to the CL final. I also really liked Suarez' game until it became (even more) obvious what kind of person he is.
I'll probably end up rooting for anybody but ManU/ManCity/Chelsea to be honest when Wenger leaves. That basically means Spurs, Liverpool, Gunners and any LC type underdogs.
The downside to Liverpool is Henry owns the Red Sox and I hate the Red Sox!
Hopefully Aboumayong (sp?) continues missing today. He blew 3 or 4 great chances last game!!
Early goals in both games... good to see Pulisic involved early (sounds like he had the assist on a BVB goal)
How about the USMNT get someone better than Cameron to play that position. He's ok but only in the way of, "well we could do worse."