2018/19 Soccer Thread

Come on Ajax! Do it again!

And meanwhile, in Barcelona, Messi.

(I will openly admit, having seen a bunch of below-the-line Ronaldo partisans on sites that I read for a few days now, I will be overjoyed if he goes out to Ajax while Messi personally ensures Barca go through.)

They did the thing!

Not only did they do the thing, they were easily the better team. As far as I'm concerned, they've got a fair shot to win the whole damn thing. Wow.

Assuming Liverpool don't blow it, Barcelona/Liverpool should be one hell of a tie. If Messi weren't there, I'd say I'd shade it to Liverpool. But Messi is there, and, as we saw tonight, he's... well, he's Messi.

Yeah, I'm officially an Ajax fan for this tournament. What a fun, exciting team.

Ajax, Liverpool, Man City, Barcelona would make for a super fun final four teams.

Also, if I may speak on the stupidity of fans and money in football, people everywhere are celebrating this as "a victory for football" because the moneybags team got knocked out by the (comparatively) smaller team.

Of course, this is completely ignoring the reality that in the Netherlands, Ajax are absolutely one of the big-dog teams that can outspend most of the rest of the league exponentially and buy all the talent they need to maintain league dominance. But sure, now they're Middlesbrough making the UEFA Cup final.

And I'm rooting for Ajax! But can we not be dumb about it?

.....alright, that's a stupid thing to ask about sports, isn't it?

Prederick wrote:

Also, if I may speak on the stupidity of fans and money in football, people everywhere are celebrating this as "a victory for football" because the moneybags team got knocked out by the (comparatively) smaller team.

Of course, this is completely ignoring the reality that in the Netherlands, Ajax are absolutely one of the big-dog teams that can outspend most of the rest of the league exponentially and buy all the talent they need to maintain league dominance. But sure, now they're Middlesbrough making the UEFA Cup final.

And I'm rooting for Ajax! But can we not be dumb about it?

.....alright, that's a stupid thing to ask about sports, isn't it?

Ajax are not in the top 20 Deloitte list.

They didn't win the Eredivisie last year.... They haven't even won since 2013-14. Sure that was 4 on the trot but.

No it's an absolute major accomplishment. Don't under sell it.

Man City v Spurs is 2-2 after 11 minutes.

Liverpool v Porto is 0-0 but Liverpool have barely even started. All Porto at the moment

I already was planning on catching up tonight on the Juventus-Ajax match from yesterday. Guess I'll need to add Man City-Spurs to the list.

It’s 3-2 to City now, Sterling scored on 21 minutes.

It’s also 1-0 to Liverpool, who despite being distinctly second best scored with their first attempt. Mane’s Goal needed a VAR decision but he was just - just - onside when Salah played the ball through. Porto need 4 now.

City-Spurs is just great fun to watch. What a match!

Liverpool 2-0 up. Porto stopped trying about 10 minutes ago, so just a formality now.

Edit: He says as Porto get one back. Still need another 4 though.

Joe Gomez is on the pitch for Liverpool. First time since Christmas I think.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

City-Spurs is just great fun to watch. What a match!

It's monumentally absurd. And this VAR check will be the most important one in months.

WHAT IS THIS EVEN

Prederick wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

City-Spurs is just great fun to watch. What a match!

It's monumentally absurd. And this VAR check will be the most important one in months.

It's been given. Spurs have ~20 minutes to shut up shop. have a 10 man defence and lock City out.

It's Spurs..........

Edit: Liverpool now 3-1 up. Mane, Salah and Firmino.

Edit Edit: Liverpool 4-1 up. They'll have to play a ton better than this to beat Barcelona though.

Offside against Aguero, ruling out the last-second goal that would have sent City through. Holy crap, what a game.

Holy crap Spurs did it

I cannot believe Fernando Llorente got the winner. Ridiculous.

Prederick wrote:

I cannot believe Fernando Llorente got the winner. Ridiculous.

And it was so ugly haha.

Best part is.... Grudge match this weekend which highly effects title race and top 4 because Spurs are not in the clear yet.

Spuuuuuuurs! Come on, take the whole thing home!
(Sorry, Bernardo.)

Ajax will be tough, but nothing's impossible.

Edit: I'm reading a lot of complaints from Porto fans about the refereeing.

Prederick wrote:

I cannot believe Fernando Llorente got the winner. Ridiculous.

One camera angle clearly show that the ball hit Llorente's elbow first. Interestingly, they showed the ref looking at the VAR camera, and the angle the ref got was straight on, and you couldn't see the ball hit the elbow first. They needed to shift to the other camera angle for the ref to see it, and they never did. Baffling.

What drama though. I was really hoping City would win, but that was just great fun to watch.

jowner wrote:

Best part is.... Grudge match this weekend which highly effects title race and top 4 because Spurs are not in the clear yet.

LOL THAT IS ON SATURDAY

For those of you looking for The Narrative coming out of this, Pep has now not made a CL Final since he last won it in 2010-11.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Prederick wrote:

I cannot believe Fernando Llorente got the winner. Ridiculous.

One camera angle clearly show that the ball hit Llorente's elbow first. Interestingly, they showed the ref looking at the VAR camera, and the angle the ref got was straight on, and you couldn't see the ball hit the elbow first. They needed to shift to the other camera angle for the ref to see it, and they never did. Baffling.

What drama though. I was really hoping City would win, but that was just great fun to watch.

I think the ref saw it. He probably just thought it didn't change the ball direction enough to invalidate the goal. At least, I thought that, but I'm a Spurs fan so take that with a football field's worth of salt.

Also, can you imagine the media reaction if Harry Kane had scored three goals over two legs to basically drag Tottenham to a Champions League Semi-Final?

Except Heung-Min Son just actually did that.

EDIT: Also, Raheem Sterling! When did he get this good?

WHAT A GAME! COME ON YOU SPURS! TO DARE IS TO DO! YIDS! [Insert Howard Dean scream here]

slazev wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Prederick wrote:

I cannot believe Fernando Llorente got the winner. Ridiculous.

One camera angle clearly show that the ball hit Llorente's elbow first. Interestingly, they showed the ref looking at the VAR camera, and the angle the ref got was straight on, and you couldn't see the ball hit the elbow first. They needed to shift to the other camera angle for the ref to see it, and they never did. Baffling.

What drama though. I was really hoping City would win, but that was just great fun to watch.

I think the ref saw it. He probably just thought it didn't change the ball direction enough to invalidate the goal. At least, I thought that, but I'm a Spurs fan so take that with a football field's worth of salt.

The handball rule also involves intent, which has been broadened through interpretation to "unnatural position", and Llorente had his arm tucked to his body.

The replay box on TNT was maybe an eighth of the screen so it was hard to see the elbow contact the announcers were discussing, but to my extremely biased eye the ball didn't change direction until it hit his hip.

Also: WAY TO GO SONNY! Brb ordering today's jersey in a number 7.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

The handball rule also involves intent, which has been broadened through interpretation to "unnatural position", and Llorente had his arm tucked to his body.

The replay box on TNT was maybe an eighth of the screen so it was hard to see the elbow contact the announcers were discussing, but to my extremely biased eye the ball didn't change direction until it hit his hip.

I think the "intent/unnatural position" is a good observation ... perhaps. I'd like to see the camera shot from inside the goal again, but I don't see it online yet. Two of the angles (front on and more 45 degrees) were definitely ambiguous.

There was one camera shot from within the net that seemed clearly a handball. I was convinced they would overturn the goal based on that. I *thought* his arm was away from his body enough too and the ball went off his elbow, to his hip, and in.

But almost as quickly as they showed that angle, they went back to the other angles and never came back to the one from within the goal.

This shows clear evidence of an anti-City conspiracy!

I'm happy for Tottenham though and am excited for the semi-finals. Ajax, Tottenham, Barcelona, and Liverpool? What a fun four teams to have left in the competition.

LOL, PSG blew it again.

So here's a look at the shot from inside the net where you can see the ball hit Llorente's arm.

I thought there was a slightly different angle that showed his arm was away from his body more, but based on this I'd have to agree that the arm was against the body as much as can be expected and all was unintentional. I think it's likely that even if the ref had seen this angle he would have allowed the goal.

So yeah, go Spurs!

I dunno how much I like VAR in soccer tbh

Like honestly was the City winning goal actually egregious offside? Aguero had to check back from his marginal offside position to come and play the ball.