2019/20 Soccer Thread

Chelsea: Good in the first half

Liverpool: Good in the second half

Adrian: Dumb in Extra time

Adrian : Good enough in the shoot out.

Tammy Abraham: Bad in penalties

Winners of the European Super Cup: Leicester and Southampton.

Delighted Liverpool won that - Obviously - but in the end it could gone either way. Disappointed with the penalty decision but probably an umpire’s call (if it were cricket) so I won’t blame VAR for that.

I don't follow the Football League much at all, mostly just checking up on Stoke and Charlton because I have a couple buddies who cheer for them and reveling in Sunderland's misfortune (I expect this will come back to bite me at some point). But I'm surprised Sol Campbell's left Macclesfield Town "by mutual agreement." Took over them last year when they were a fair ways away from being safe from relegation and got them there.

I'd honestly take Campbell as Newcastle manager tomorrow if that were possible. Bruce is a proven bad EPL-level manager and Campbell being mostly unproven (and completely unproven at that level) means there's a chance, however small, that he might actually be good.

To be fair, from what I've read, Macclesfield are skint, so he might as well jet.

Bury, meanwhile, still haven't played a game yet. They've got until the 23rd to get themselves sorted out.

Ah, my best friend got me a 19/20 Fulham kit for my birthday.

I am also amused, as an American, at a team jersey with the name of Asian betting website slapped on the front of it. No betting in our sport, but also please bet on our sport!

EDIT: Also, the Happy Birthday song easily can easily be changed into "Happy birthday to me, F**king Fulham F-C, Happy birthday to me now, F**king Fulham F-C!"

Fun in the green shirt at Liverpool as Alisson injured himself kicking the ball against Norwich and now Adrian is also out after a fan ran onto the pitch after Adrian's decisive penalty save midweek against Chelsea, slipped and fell into the Goalkeeper's ankles.

Third string youth keeper Caoimhin Kelleher is recovering from wrist surgery which means that 35 year old fourth choice emergency Keeper Andy Lonergan probably gets to start this weekend against Southampton.

Lonergan was released by Middlesbrough in the offseason but most recently played for League One Rochdale on loan.

If the Goalkeeping situation doesn't improve there's a chance Lonergan could start next weekend at Anfield against Arsenal, which would be quite the turnaround from on loan at Rochdale.

It would be Lonergans Premiership debut at the age of very nearly 36.

You can’t make it up really.

Apparently Sanchez is on the block but Clubs are struggling with his.... 560k a week wages. Spotrac has it listed at 350k though. Regardless there's also this year + 2 more left.

Partly why I'm against salary caps. Obviously having more resources is an advantage but there's no end to clubs handicapping themselves.

For example if spotrac.com is accurate Martial is making 250k. I rate him but United paid him before he actually proved the worth. That contract runs until 24/25 btw.

jowner wrote:

Apparently Sanchez is on the block but Clubs are struggling with his.... 560k a week wages. Spotrac has it listed at 350k though. Regardless there's also this year + 2 more left.

I love how that transfer ended up being terrible for Manchester United AND Arsenal and it looked pretty likely to be a bad idea at the time.

Mr Bismarck wrote:

Fun in the green shirt at Liverpool as Alisson injured himself kicking the ball against Norwich and now Adrian is also out after a fan ran onto the pitch after Adrian's decisive penalty save midweek against Chelsea, slipped and fell into the Goalkeeper's ankles.

Third string youth keeper Caoimhin Kelleher is recovering from wrist surgery which means that 35 year old fourth choice emergency Keeper Andy Lonergan probably gets to start this weekend against Southampton.

Lonergan was released by Middlesbrough in the offseason but most recently played for League One Rochdale on loan.

If the Goalkeeping situation doesn't improve there's a chance Lonergan could start next weekend at Anfield against Arsenal, which would be quite the turnaround from on loan at Rochdale.

Oh man, that is wild.

Barcelona lose on a beauty. Fulham win on a beauty.

Decent showing from Arsenal this morning. Ceballos and Pepe looking promising. A few better timed touches and passes on second half breaks and that could have been a 4 or 5 to 1 match.

Oh Dear Newcastle

Sorbicol wrote:

Oh Dear Newcastle

Hiring a Specialist in Relegation might not have been the best plan.

Lamela! Lucas! And VAR FTW!!!

Spoiler:

Well, it FELT like a win. :lol:

Watching Match of the Day (the BBC Premiership highlights package here in the UK) and the Man City v Spurs game. It was a good game, City should have walked away with it to be honest but kept allowing Spurs back into it.

However City also had a goal eventual disallowed in injury time because the ball was adjudged by the VAR team to hit Laporte’s arm on its way through the box before Jesus scores.

Believe me, nobody saw it at the time and none of the Spurs players were complaining about the goal. Even given the ridiculous ‘if it hits an arm intentionally or not it’s a handball’ rule this season there is no way the VAR team looked at that goal without the express reason to find something wrong. If the ball hadn’t have ‘hit’ is arm the end result would have been the same. The city players went through their full celebration before the VAR tram even let the ref know they’d spotted something.

This is why VAR will probably fail. It’s got to be for ‘clear and obvious’ errors or reviews - I.e. it’s a blatant handball, foul or whatever or when players are screaming for a review (this is why I think Captains should be able to ask for one - maybe just one or two per half, not for every decision though!) not ‘oh we’ll take a speculative look just in case’

I also see the handball rule being roundly ignored long before the end of the season.

Sorbicol wrote:

I also see the handball rule being roundly ignored long before the end of the season.

They're already ignoring the "goalkeeper must be on the line for a penalty" rule when it comes to VAR after that was a bit of disaster at the WWC.

I don't want VAR to nitpick every play of the game, but I do want all goals reviewed. This is a low-scoring sport, and wrongly decided goals absolutely ruin games.

I feel this way in every sport, FWIW. I want the biggest plays adjudicated rightly. I don't think that's a weird position.

I also fully realize that VAR giveth and VAR taketh away. It will happen to you, too!

Spoiler:

Not today!

Apropos of nothing, I'm genuinely a bit sad they're going to end up changing the name of New White Hart Lane to something corporate and boring like "Asda Stadium" or something. Corporate stadium names always suck.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I don't want VAR to nitpick every play of the game, but I do want all goals reviewed. This is a low-scoring sport, and wrongly decided goals absolutely ruin games.

I feel this way in every sport, FWIW. I want the biggest plays adjudicated rightly. I don't think that's a weird position.

I also fully realize that VAR giveth and VAR taketh away. It will happen to you, too!

Spoiler:

Not today!

So nobody is going to celebrate any goal until VAR says it's OK? Now I broadly support VAR but if that happens there would be a revolt amongst most supporters. Probably players too.

Sorbicol wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

I don't want VAR to nitpick every play of the game, but I do want all goals reviewed. This is a low-scoring sport, and wrongly decided goals absolutely ruin games.

I feel this way in every sport, FWIW. I want the biggest plays adjudicated rightly. I don't think that's a weird position.

I also fully realize that VAR giveth and VAR taketh away. It will happen to you, too!

Spoiler:

Not today!

So nobody is going to celebrate any goal until VAR says it's OK? Now I broadly support VAR but if that happens there would be a revolt amongst most supporters. Probably players too.

The thing is, VAR is going to encourage officials to not make close calls (nobody wants to give an offside foul that turns out to be wrong), so we're going to end up with more reviews than we would if VAR were somehow instantaneous.

The NHL introduced video review for offsides (using a limited coaching challenge system mind you, not "review everything") and there was a pretty significant drop in the rate of offside calls linesmen were making.

VAR should have been introduced gradually. First with penalties and red cards where the delay wouldn't amount to much because there's a huge delay already from players arguing/walking off the pitch/setting up the penalty. Then once that works expands it to the VAR official being able to help with yellow cards, and then maybe ordinary fouls and you're set.

Good graphic about the margin of error in VAR for that Sterling offside call from matchday one. In no world was it "clear and obvious"

https://twitter.com/ben_rumsby/statu...

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ECPQCMHXsAEeFMR?format=jpg&name=small)

Prederick wrote:

Apropos of nothing, I'm genuinely a bit sad they're going to end up changing the name of New White Hart Lane to something corporate and boring like "Asda Stadium" or something. Corporate stadium names always suck.

I agree. Hope people just keep calling it WHL.

When Texas A&M built the biggest football stadium in Texas, we somehow avoided adding a corporate name, despite the great construction expense. The baseball stadium now gets called Blue Bell (a Texan ice cream brand), though, instead of the former player the field was named after.

Sorbicol wrote:

So nobody is going to celebrate any goal until VAR says it's OK? Now I broadly support VAR but if that happens there would be a revolt amongst most supporters. Probably players too.

It has been that way for a couple years in MLS and Bundesliga, and while it can be a bummer, the vast majority of goals stand. I would also mention that it's never been safe to celebrate the ball in the net until you look at the ref and the linesman to see if the goal was offside, etc.

Plenty of sports have video refs and it doesn't rob the fans of their moment. It's just a long list of excuses by football pundits because they don't like change.

Lampards' wait for a win with Chelsea goes on, what a shame. Maybe hiring someone because they are a former player and off the back of beating Leeds once wasn't the best idea for a team that can't buy any new players.

onewild wrote:

Lampards' wait for a win with Chelsea goes on, what a shame. Maybe hiring someone because they are a former player and off the back of beating Leeds once wasn't the best idea for a team that can't buy any new players.

I don't know what to make of Lampard yet. They had spans of brilliance today and spans where they had no answers.

Chelsea started out balls to the wall awesome in the first 15 minutes. Their work rate was through the roof, but there was no way they'd keep that pace and intensity for more than a short span. Things flattened out considerably after the first 10-15 minutes, as soon as Chelsea backed off on the intensity. The second half had a lot of up and down, but Leicester had the better of things. 1-1 seems fair on the whole, but it was an interesting downhill performance from Chelsea.

I was already regretting my Sheffield United bottom prediction when I started reading season previews. It is not going to be a good year for my predictions.

I have zero interest in VAR turning into an NFL style debate over fractions of an inch. Absolute perfection in application of the laws of the game has never been obtained, and never will. Don't destroy the joy of the game by making everything on the pitch subservient to the cameras. While so far it's going better than the WWC, I'm not feeling good about what I've seen in the first two weeks.

My favorite officiating of late was the Wales/Ireland rugby match in the seven nations. Twice during the match the ref watched the replay on the scoreboard and said "yup, my bad guys -- other way!" Saw his own clear error.

Clear and obvious error? That looks more like this:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/bVwgCZS.png)

LilCodger wrote:

My favorite officiating of late was the Wales/Ireland rugby match in the seven nations. Twice during the match the ref watched the replay on the scoreboard and said "yup, my bad guys -- other way!" Saw his own clear error.

Yeah, rugby's the only sport that does video replay decently, though it's helped by their being natural breaks in the game to set up scrums, line-outs, kicks, and the like.

Roke wrote:

I was already regretting my Sheffield United bottom prediction when I started reading season previews. It is not going to be a good year for my predictions.

If it makes you feel better I totally forgot to do any which would if been worse.

It's week 2 and I already hate my fantasy team so I'm sure my predictions would of been similar.