2021/22 Soccer Thread: It's Euro 2020 until it becomes 2021

Prederick wrote:
Prederick wrote:

Chelsea, City, Liverpool.... and West Ham?

+1 West Ham, -1 Chelsea.

I can't even enjoy this, because I have hopes of Tottenham catching the Hammers, but not Chelsea.

Prederick wrote:

LOL, Origi. Who was Liverpool's last cult hero of this size?

FOOTBALL WITHOUT ORIGI IS NOTHING

Not quite professional, but my alma mater (Connecticut College) won the Division III National Championship in Men's Soccer today. It is the first time they've made it to the Final Four and the first National Championship for the school in any sport. Go Camels!

https://camelathletics.com/news/2021...

I saw that on the news here! The second penalty save by the Camels' goalie in the shootout was really nice.

Congratulations!

He's been drafted for the MLS...he's a solid keeper.

Have there been any recent, nuanced pieces evaluating VAR use and progress? Every conversation I have with football fans is anti-VAR and strewn with bias and anecdotal evidence. I recognize it's not perfect yet but assume it is iteratively improving. However, I don't want to assume this progress. Right now it's the cool thing to hate by all fans.

Definitely not asking as Richarlison has his second goal disallowed too

bigred wrote:

Have there been any recent, nuanced pieces evaluating VAR use and progress? Every conversation I have with football fans is anti-VAR and strewn with bias and anecdotal evidence. I recognize it's not perfect yet but assume it is iteratively improving. However, I don't want to assume this progress. Right now it's the cool thing to hate by all fans.

I take hatred of VAR as a sign that someone's logic centers are impaired.

Hatred of poor VAR implementation is a different thing, though. My running bit while watching Houston Dynamo games is "VAR doesn't exist" because the super sh*tty MLS officials don't review a TON of things that clearly and obviously need to be.

bigred wrote:

Have there been any recent, nuanced pieces evaluating VAR use and progress? Every conversation I have with football fans is anti-VAR and strewn with bias and anecdotal evidence. I recognize it's not perfect yet but assume it is iteratively improving. However, I don't want to assume this progress. Right now it's the cool thing to hate by all fans.

This is anecdotal - yes I know that’s not what you are looking for! - but it’s implementation in the Premier League this season has been considerably better than last season. We aren’t seeing quite as many of those mm offside decisions (although there have still been a few) and for the most part, where VAR does feel the ref has made a mistake they’ve asked the ref to review their decision rather than directly overrule them.

I don’t think VAR is something most fans still like - again, more about how it’s used rather than the actual technology itself - but there has been markedly less controversy about it this season. Progress certainly.

As for a any sort of non-bias scientific based review, I’d say there are too many variables in the VAR system to discover anything meaningful just yet. At the end of the day it’s all about opinion and who gets asked what questions in whatever survey. You’d need a couple of years of asking those questions regularly to get any sort of meaningful consensus.

Well, after a titanic struggle Liverpool have clawed their way out of the Champions League "Group of Death" with a last gasp victory in their last game, thus completing a complete whitewash and winning all their games - the first English side to do so.

I have to say if that AC Milan are the best Serie A have to offer, that league as really gone downhill.

It was Napoli until recently. Now Inter and Atalanta seem to have taken the transitional crown.

When the premier league has only 5 teams with a positive goal difference, I wouldn't be so quick to trash talk other leagues.

slazev wrote:

It was Napoli until recently. Now Inter and Atalanta seem to have taken the transitional crown.

When the premier league has only 5 teams with a positive goal difference, I wouldn't be so quick to trash talk other leagues.

ManU roaring into glory at +1!

IMAGE(https://media.guim.co.uk/c0bb7ba597dc16014319486fe69ea2a15f7f85c0/0_0_1987_3421/1987.jpg)

I keep expecting to like David Squires, but I never do. I think perhaps he's more "mildly clever" than funny. If I can ask a question with the full assurance of my sincerity, are cartoon strips like this not expected to be funny in the UK?

I think your particular sensibilities and anyone working for The Guardian are fairly diametrically opposed, Fed. XD

Also, we are remiss not to talk about the absolutely batsh*t situation over at PSG Féminine.

It was dark by the time Aminata Diallo stepped through the concrete arch of the Hôtel de Police and onto the sidewalk outside. It had been about 36 hours since officers had banged on her apartment door, rousing her from sleep and taking her into custody.

Now released and scrolling through the hundreds of messages she had missed, Diallo, a midfielder for the French soccer team Paris St.-Germain, was stunned by what she saw. Little known only days earlier beyond the cloistered world of French women’s soccer, her name was suddenly headline news around the world.

Diallo, the news reports said, was the player who had been driving the car last month when one of her teammates was pulled from the passenger seat by a masked man and assaulted. Diallo, the reports said, was the one who had been unharmed as her friend and teammate Kheira Hamraoui was beaten with an iron bar. And Diallo was the player now being questioned not as a witness but as a possible suspect in what the police had suggested was an orchestrated attack.

The story, with its hints of sporting jealousy, its echoes of Tonya Harding and its links to Paris St.-Germain, the reigning French champion and one of the richest soccer clubs in the world, quickly spread far and wide.

But as details emerge — about marital infidelity; about accusations implicating other members of the team; about reports of menacing phone calls to players disparaging the victim before she was attacked — that initial story has been turned on its head.

And now no one is sure what, or whom, to believe.

Barca in the Europa League. My goodness.

Prederick wrote:

I think your particular sensibilities and anyone working for The Guardian are fairly diametrically opposed, Fed. XD

I don't feel seen.

Prederick wrote:

Barca in the Europa League. My goodness.

Maybe their best chance to qualify for the Champions League next season?

I'm all aboard the Ajax hype train, again.

Sam Kerr got a yellow for this, which is a crime against humanity.

Spurs v Rennes Europa Conference League game will not be replayed as neither club can find a slot in their schedules where they would happy to play it.

UEFA will decide the result instead and you'd expect that it'll be a 3-0 victory to Rennes, with Spurs dropping out of the competition. You'd imagine that would be a result both teams would be more than happy with. What it says about the point of there being a Europa Conference League in the first place I'll leave others to comment on.

Spurts couldn't play because half their team is out with Covid infections (presumably the new Omicron variant) which is causing increasing issues here in the UK. They have also had to cancel their game against Brighton this weekend and the Leicester game next week looks in Doubt. A Bradford player is now infected and things aren't looking good for Norwich either.

Problem is, with the World Cup in Qatar next Winter, there is no give in the schedule at all for lengthy season delays. If it carries on, something will have to give.

Eliminate the League Cup. Forever.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Eliminate the League Cup. Forever.

I 99% agree.

Only argument I've seen in favour of it is that smaller clubs get a big revenue boost from it when they play against the larger clubs, so eliminating the competition would hurt them a fair bit.

Nothing sending a sliver or TV money down the pyramid wouldn't solve but I won't hold my breath on that happening.

The 1988 League Cup Final (one of the Gus Casear moments from Fever Pitch), might be one of the best games of football I ever went to.

Officer Dibble played out of his mind in that game.

Mr Bismarck wrote:

The 1988 League Cup Final (one of the Gus Casear moments from Fever Pitch), might be one of the best games of football I ever went to.

That game was played the day before my 8th birthday and is the earliest football match I can remember watching. Great game. The number of chances Arsenal had in eight minutes between Smith's goal and Wilson's equaliser was unreal.

Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and now Manchester United have all won their games today after being awarded slightly contentious penalties. Last minute in Chelsea's case.

A seriously dark day for the New York Red Bulls. Still haven't won the MLS Cup in 25 years, and now the upstart neighbors are the champions. Ouch.

Upstart neighbors who play on a baseball field!

Down. Bad.

Which one of you psychopaths said you were considering letting your child become a Newcastle fan?

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FGa1fq-WYAEZeoO?format=jpg&name=medium)

I'm calling child services, I don't care if you live on a different continent.