2018/19 Soccer Thread

Prederick wrote:

It's funny. As terrible as United certainly have looked, they've qualified with a game to spare and could still top the group. Things could still go profoundly badly for Liverpool. Like, "not even in the Europa League" badly.

Yeah but look at united’s group compared to Liverpool’s. Valencia and Young Boys are hardly the challenge that PSG and Napoli are - or even Red Star at their stadium. I can’t be the only person thinking PSG are going to find Belgrade just as difficult as Liverpool did. Even Napoli only managed a 0-0 and they were lucky to get that.

I am looking forward to the game tonight, I’m surprised Mbbapi is playing, not so much Neymar. I think it might help Liverpool more than PSG if he’s playing though. As for the result I’d settle for a draw.

Edit: I also suspect that if Liverpool do exit at the group stage, ‘not even in the Europa league’ would be the preferred result.

Ho ho! The stakes are way up on the Napoli - Liverpool match now!

I wasn't able to watch the match, as Sling dropped Univision over the summer. Bastards.

I ended up catching the last 60 minutes of Tottenham - Inter Milan.

That was Iittle disappointing to be honest. Thought we were worth a draw by the end but it not to be. Ho hum.

So they moved the Copa Libertadores final to the Bernabeu in Spain. River will also be fined a largely inconsequential amount ($400,000 (£310,000)) and have their ground closed for two games, which of course, equates to a limp-wristed slap.

It's as if there's an understanding of how incredibly embarrassing it is to not be able to host a final in your own country because a chunk of your fans and organizational officials are so ridiculous, but a total and complete inability to actually do anything to materially change that.

I thought they were holding it in Abu Dabi as Qatar were going to sponsor the Copa Libertadores next year? and it's where they are hold the "World Club Cup" or whatever it is

Nope, Benabeu.

I mean, the winner is still going the Club World Cup or whatever, and God knows how they came up with this idea, but it's headed to Spain.

I am not interested to see if the fans will still attempt to wild out for this one, and how Spanish authorities will respond.

"Rescuing" a point after being 2 down looks good for Mourinho, but draws aren't going to get Manchester United into the top four.

Newcastle-West Ham was played at a very high pace for most of the match which was fun. West Ham were the better team to my eye, creating more and better chances and could have easily had more than 3. I'm not sure Newcastle deserved even a single goal of their own from what they created.

Roke wrote:

"Rescuing" a point after being 2 down looks good for Mourinho, but draws aren't going to get Manchester United into the top four.

Rescuing a point after being down two would look good against the top 4. Against Southampton though? To surrender two goals to a team that last scored two against Fulham's defensive sieve and prior to that, hadn't scored two since September 17 (and had been shut out 5 times)?

This really is like the ending at Chelsea last time. When things go wrong with Mou (and they always do), they go all the way wrong.

Meanwhile, is there a word for what is a magnitude larger than a clusterf*ck? Because that's where the Copa Libertadores Final is now, with River refusing to play in Madrid.

Speaking of Spain, La Liga is taking the Spanish FA to court over the moronic Miami game. La Liga is the one that wants to do it, while the Spanish FA agrees with the players that it's dumb and bad.

Wholly unsurprised by the loss to Chelsea. Would've loved a point, but they're not one of the teams Fulham have to beat to stay up.

Meanwhile, we can safely say that Emery is a significant upgrade over what Wenger had become, right?

Check out Origi's goal for the Reds in the 96th minute. It's a howler.

Mixolyde wrote:

Check out Origi's goal for the Reds in the 96th minute. It's a howler.

The faux outrage from Klopp's celebration on BBC radio 5 (Danny Mills especially) has been hard to take this evening - talk about looking for controversy where there isn't really any to be had. Sure Klopp overdid it a little and probably deserves a fine, but when you look at Mike Dean's performance in the North London derby earlier? Hmmmm.

Liverpool absolutely got away with one tonight - Losing would have been harsh on either side. Still, a win is a win and we are keep track with City. The problem is it feels like we are hanging on to City by our finger tips rather than exerting any pressure. I'm not sure how long that's going to last.

As for Arsenal v Spurs I thought Arsenal deserved to win that one. Good to see some proper fire in these matches though, given the timing of all today's games were as TV influenced as they were it's nice to be reminded that football can still matter to so many people.

Sorbicol wrote:

The faux outrage from Klopp's celebration on BBC radio 5 (Danny Mills especially) has been hard to take this evening - talk about looking for controversy where there isn't really any to be had.

Even Marco Silva said he'd probably have done the same. It deserved an apology, and he'll get fined, but that really should be the end of it. The #Content monster must be fed though.

So your Ballon d'Or winner is Luka Modric, which is, I think, a bit of a "lifetime achievement" award, and also a "we're tired of giving it to Messi/Ronaldo" award. But he had a fantastic 2018, and performance in the the World Cup is always grossly over-rated, so I can totally understand the win.

Unfortunately, the story out of the ceremony won't be Luka, or the achievement of Ada Hegerberg who became the inaugural winner of the women’s award, but instead the sh*thead presenter who asked her to twerk after she won.

Prederick wrote:

Unfortunately, the story out of the ceremony won't be Luka, or the achievement of Ada Hegerberg who became the inaugural winner of the women’s award, but instead the sh*thead presenter who asked her to twerk after she won.

I don’t think either Ronaldo or Messi did much this year to deserve the award, Modric (his domestic legal issues aside) is probably a more than worthy winner.

As for the incident with Ada Hegerberg, I am continuously amazed at the number of men still living in the 1970s. When would you ever think that was acceptable in this day and age?

Hughes out, Hasenhuttl in at Southampton. Hughes out alone is a pretty big upgrade but I'm hearing really good thing about Hasenhuttl, could be a really smart hire.

Of course Southampton have a lot of work to do from not being as good at buying in the transfer market in the last few years as they were before then. A bunch of decent bets that just didn't work out, though basically going 1-for-1 in replacements for players they sold to bigger clubs meant they didn't spread out the risk enough.

Brighton are beating Palace 3-0 at halftime... despite having a man sent off.

Warm up Fat Sam!

I really should've put a bet on Arsenal-ManU ending in a 2-2 draw. I think literally everyone could see that result coming down the pike.

Liverpool dug themselves out of a hole tonight, although Burnley should have had a player sent off and their goal should have been offside. Feels a little churlish to say that because they were at their combative best, but pleased to see us ride the challenge and come out on top. City and Liverpool pulling away now, still can’t see City slipping up though.

I do worry about the injury front, particularly centre back. Lovren missed the game because of a knock in training and Gomez went off on a stretcher. That leaves us down to precisely two centre backs. Matip did enough against Burnley, but you still like to have options.

Liverpool might need a player? sh*t.

Deeply enjoying the continuing adventures of ultra-sub Paco Alcacer. He's never had a shot saved!

It would be hilarious and wonderful if he won top scorer while coming on a majority of the time as a sub.

Prederick wrote:

It would be hilarious and wonderful if he won top scorer while coming on a majority of the time as a sub.

Sounds like one PES Master League campaign where my best striker had the "super sub" trait, so I'd always start someone else, and bring him on after half an hour to have him run at relatively tired opposition.

Oh my, that was some kind of ugly. Fulham has much work to do.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Oh my, that was some kind of ugly. Fulham has much work to do.

UuuuUUUuuuuugh. January can't come soon enough, Fulham desperately need to bring in some reinforcements, specifically at the back. They've got the worst goal difference in the league by a full seven goals, and at this rate will get relegated easily.

And to think, back in June, I was saying this team would stay up comfortably.

Prederick wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Oh my, that was some kind of ugly. Fulham has much work to do.

UuuuUUUuuuuugh. January can't come soon enough, Fulham desperately need to bring in some reinforcements, specifically at the back. They've got the worst goal difference in the league by a full seven goals, and at this rate will get relegated easily.

And to think, back in June, I was saying this team would stay up comfortably.

On the bright side, the second half was less worse than the first half. But Man U didn't even look very good. I'm rooting for Fulham to stay up and do well, but they didn't look like a Premier League side today.

And I agree, there were a handful of players who seemed just abysmal. I'm not sure what they've got left after spending $100m this summer, but picking up a couple of functional defenders would be a huge help. With the talent they have at a number of spots, eliminating their two or three greatest weaknesses could make all the difference.

If you haven't seen it yet, please glory in Messi's free-kick goal against Espanyol today.

He literally could not have placed it better.

Apparently, Pele called Messi a "one-skill player" a few days ago, which I think is fair. As far as we know, Messi only has one skill, that skill being soccer. I have no idea if Messi is any good at knitting or cribbage, for instance.

I have to say, I was impressed by the crowd size and energy in Atlanta for the MLS Cup.

They really, truly love that team down there. Have been basically filling Mercedes-Benz stadium all season long, and that thing holds 70,000+. And it's all incredibly organic and awesome (and the tailgate scene is, apparently, delicious).

I don’t know anything about the team, but that Ezequiel Barco fellow has been a solid youngster to pick up in both PES and FIFA last year (and presumably the current ones as well).