Generic soccer thread
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Thought I’d create a thread for all three of us soccer fans. Can be a catch all thread…the EPL season started, US players abroad, World Cup run up, etc.
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Watched some of Chelsea-Everton yesterday.
Chelsea has a slew of new players I don’t know much about yet. This one defender with a name I’ll never be able to pronounce is huge (heavier than most)! I assume he must have some speed as well to pair next to Thiago Silva. He’s getting slower by the game.
Pulisic came on as a late sub. Made a few runs.
Anyway, I hope others find this a good place to chat about whatever the new soccer season brings us. Enjoy!
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Watched some of the opening weekend. Was surprised at how poor Liverpool looked.
I don’t really follow any particular EPL team; mostly I root for or against managers, and I always appreciate a good underdog club.
I do have a soft spot for Wolverhampton. Back in the late '60s they represented Kansas City in a summer tournament sponsored by the old NASL. Each franchise had a (lower-division) English club play for them in a round-robin Cup competition. The KC Spurs had Wolves as their representatives, who went on the win the Cup.
Unfortunately the Spurs went out of business the following year despite being one of the top teams in the league. By their last season they’d been reduced to playing in a high school stadium. Still, I enjoyed them while they were around. I even got to be a ball boy for a couple of their games. And I saw Pele play a friendly match with his club Santos against KC on the Fourth Of July! (Still have the ticket stub somewhere…)
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Ha, good story @nwhawkfan .
I was lucky enough to see Pele play in the NASL for the Cosmos in the early 80s? Not that i remember, but i’m sure it was exciting!
Agreed Liverpool looked off today. First half at least for sure. I didn’t really look to see if they have bunch of new players that need time to adjust.
Chelsea sure needs time to get its new players comfortable. And i’m sure they have coming and going in the next few weeks.
Back to Liverpool/Fulham…was fun to see Antonee Robinson mark superhuman Mo Salah! what a challenge. Looked like he generally kept him in check the first half. made some bad marking decisions in the second though. maybe he was winded.
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This aint generic
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@wissox said in Generic soccer thread:
This aint generic
I’m a big soccer fan, but I am definitely growing slightly disillusioned with all the whining, diving and bullying the refs.
It’s worse than the NBA sometimes — watching every single player put up his hands in disbelief every time there’s a whistle. Who, me?
I wish they’d put an end to it. Talk back to the ref? Card.
Surround the ref, booted from the game.
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I love soccer especially World Cup.
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Couldnt focus on Chelsea much this weekend. Watched them get waxed by Arsenal last week. Arsenal looked legit and finishing top 4 is going to be very hard for Chelsea i think given the defensive turnover. The new guy Koulibaly is a Senegalese vet, so Mendys happy. I agree im concerned about our defensive speed. We’ll see.
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Sterling is a pest though really excited by what he has shown
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I’ll be interested to see how the transfers (or non-transfers) for USMNT players pan out. I was hoping Pulisic would end up moving so he could be on the field more consistently. The moves by the goalies to get playing time…even at a lower level…hopefully will pay dividends in November
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@focojayhawk yeah Sterling is top left and an upgrade to Pulisic for what Chelsea needs there. His time just took a big hit.
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@focojayhawk said in Generic soccer thread:
I’ll be interested to see how the transfers (or non-transfers) for USMNT players pan out. I was hoping Pulisic would end up moving so he could be on the field more consistently. The moves by the goalies to get playing time…even at a lower level…hopefully will pay dividends in November
Poor Pulisic. He just doesn’t fit Tuchel’s at times non sensical tactical formation. Not sure who does, really. Mostly seems like he doesn’t like true offensive wingers. he’s got a guy or two just running around up front. Weird, because you’d think “mr all i do is run around Timo Werner” would fit right into that mayhem, but he doesn’t. why?
Well, what do i know. Chelsea was Top 3 last season. So, maybe he knows what he’s doing. Just seems like a bunch of pissed off players on the team.
His wingers appear to be wingbacks mostly. I’d be frustrated if i played on that team (as Pulisic should be).
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Yeah Werner is out. I’m so glad, he’s been horrible.
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@rockchalkjayhawk For sure. I coached a kid, just up from Honduras (probably undocumented) who could knock a coke can off the top of my head with a soccer ball from 40 yards away and not hurt me! He also was the biggest flopper we’ve ever had! Total language barrier between us, and we’d be yelling at him to get up and, well, it was just a funny scene! He made freshman all state and it was only after the season was over that we learned he was 19 years old!
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@wissox do we have tape of this?
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Wow! Anybody see DeBruyne’s amazing goal this morning? Wow. What skill.
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As for the other side of Manchester…I got a chuckle watching Brentford play giant killer against Man United. 4-zip after the first half hour.
Truly awful defending, and that included DeGea, who’s usually solid in goal. All this from a club with more than ten times the payroll of Brentford.
Ever since Alex Ferguson retired as manager they’ve been on a long decline, and with Liverpool up next there’s no relief in sight. How the mighty have fallen.
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@nwhawkfan said in Generic soccer thread:
As for the other side of Manchester…I got a chuckle watching Brentford play giant killer against Man United. 4-zip after the first half hour.
Truly awful defending, and that included DeGea, who’s usually solid in goal. All this from a club with more than ten times the payroll of Brentford.
Ever since Alex Ferguson retired as manager they’ve been on a long decline, and with Liverpool up next there’s no relief in sight. How the mighty have fallen.
Man U seems like a bit of a complicated mess at the moment.
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Watched both games, actually almost all of the Premiere League games this weekend. It didnt disappoint! Jesus is going to be a monster for Arsenal this year. I think they could finish top 4 and bump Chelsea.
Did you see the end of the Chelsea Everton game? Tuchel and Conte got into it. Battle of the psycho weenies
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Also its easy to say but i think Man City could easily run away with it. Amazing talent around De Bruyne. Ridiculous.
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@approxinfinity Pretty sure that was Chelsea/Tottenham. My buddy is a Hot Spur fan and said that emotions were turned up that entire game. A goal in the 96th minute to secure a tie is always great drama.
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@approxinfinity said in Generic soccer thread:
Watched both games, actually almost all of the Premiere League games this weekend. It didnt disappoint! Jesus is going to be a monster for Arsenal this year. I think they could finish top 4 and bump Chelsea.
Did you see the end of the Chelsea Everton game? Tuchel and Conte got into it. Battle of the psycho weenies
Crazy! That was one of those games where if you looked away for two seconds you missed something! Entertaining.
Tuchel was clearly the aggressor from what I saw. Acting like a little immature beotch on more than once occasion. But fun to watch!
I missed the main semi brawl during the water break? What happened?
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@approxinfinity said in Generic soccer thread:
Also its easy to say but i think Man City could easily run away with it. Amazing talent around De Bruyne. Ridiculous.
Clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the EPL.
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@benshawks08 oops yep. I misspoke. Evertons match was first of the day. Last 20 minutes had me yelling and waking up the fam for teams I normally dont follow. Great day for soccer. Scratched that itch!
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@rockchalkjayhawk yeah it was Tuchel! He grabbed Contes hand then made him look him in the eye even though he walked by without looking. Self important nut case. That being said Tottenham stole one, and those fouls shouls have been called.
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@rockchalkjayhawk afaict the earlier Tuchel just didnt like Conte running up to his bench when they scored seemingly in the run of play after Havertz got mauled on a no call. However it was like a minute later.
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@approxinfinity missed that one. no doubt both coaches were acting a fool. yet highly entertaining! There were some serious no calls in that game. I can see how the players and managers were on edge.
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You guys will have to forgive me for not commenting much on club soccer. Followed La Liga for a stretch after a study abroad season in Zaragoza (since relegated to 2nd division) but fell off following once I got married and had kids. I’m all-in as a USMNT guy, but am only a novice otherwise. As the World Cup approaches, I promise to be more engaged here. I appreciate the space on here to talk shop.
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@rockchalkjayhawk said in Generic soccer thread:
@approxinfinity missed that one. no doubt both coaches were acting a fool. yet highly entertaining! There were some serious no calls in that game. I can see how the players and managers were on edge.
Only saw the start of that game; finally caught the highlights later. What a donnybrook ! Better than WWE, complete with hair pulling.
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On the women’s side, once again the USA U-20 team failed to make it out of the group stage in their World Cup after losing to favorite Japan last night. This doesn’t bode well for continuing the dominance of the senior team, which is getting a bit long in the tooth.
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Wow! meant to watch that, and i spaced @nwhawkfan . i watched a bit of their last game. did not look good.
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Two pretty entertaining EPL games over the weekend.
The Leeds/Chelsea game featured three Americans (at one point). Pulisic, Adams and Aaronsen. I think Leeds may be my new go to team to watch. That means I can finally break out that Leeds cap I bought in England 20 years ago! They are all over the place, as you can imagine with the later two US guys. They shut out Chelsea!
And somehow Newcastle scored three on Man City for a tie.
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I’ve got mixed feelings about Leeds. Jesse Marsch has a reputation as being a pretty abrasive manager. I guess winning will cover up a lot of that, and take away some of the anti-American prejudice there’s been in the past among English fans.
Impressive showing by Newcastle. Eddie Howe did a great job bringing Bournemouth up from the ashes a few years ago. I always wondered what he could do once he was given proper resources. Regardless of how you feel about Saudi oil money in sports, there’s no doubt that the new owners will spend what’s necessary to get the job done.
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@nwhawkfan said in Generic soccer thread:
Eddie Howe
I honestly didn’t even realize Jesse Marsch was American! ha. dunno anything about him. he did look excitable on the sideline. So, i don’t know his drama. I do know that Leeds played a pretty entertaining match. Their style of play brought some energy to the pitch. I haven’t really watched Leeds lately, so i can only assume they play that way all the time.
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@rockchalkjayhawk said in Generic soccer thread:
@nwhawkfan said in Generic soccer thread:
Eddie Howe
I honestly didn’t even realize Jesse Marsch was American! ha. dunno anything about him. he did look excitable on the sideline. So, i don’t know his drama. I do know that Leeds played a pretty entertaining match. Their style of play brought some energy to the pitch. I haven’t really watched Leeds lately, so i can only assume they play that way all the time.
That uptempo style is a carryover from their previous manager, Marcelo Bielsa. He managed to get Leeds promoted back to the Premier League, but couldn’t keep up the success. When they were close to relegation last season, he resigned in an “amicable” split Apparently he was still pretty popular among their fans. When Marsch took over he was smart enough to keep that attacking style.
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Well, i’m guessing that the one game i saw Leeds play with all that speed and energy was an outlier…they looked like nothing of the sort today in a loss vs BHA. Still enjoyed watching the US guys.
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I never thought I’d read about Jesus and the psycho weenies, but it just happened.
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This just in…not sure this is great news, but at least he’s on a quality club still.
Pulisic to stay at Chelsea (The Athletic)
Christian Pulisic will continue with Chelsea in the upcoming season, according to The Athletic. The London club has decided to keep the 23-year-old despite interest from Manchester United, Newcastle United, and some other clubs in Spain and Italy.
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@rockchalkjayhawk newcastle sounded most intriguing to me
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I just can’t see how this is good news if he plays so sporadically. If he’s “Captain America” and plays so infrequently then it’s hard to believe that he’ll be in top form in November we the USMNT needs him
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@focojayhawk said in Generic soccer thread:
I just can’t see how this is good news if he plays so sporadically. If he’s “Captain America” and plays so infrequently then it’s hard to believe that he’ll be in top form in November we the USMNT needs him
yup. Tuchel needs to come to his senses and get his front line in order.
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What a shame. Newcastle nearly pulled off a draw at Liverpool in a matchup of my two favorite managers, Eddie Howe and Jurgen Klopp. Just a few days after the Reds hung nine goals on Bournemouth.
IMO the ref gave Liverpool way too much stoppage time to let them get the last minute win.
Still, I was impressed by Newcastle’s new striker Isak, with a goal in his first game. A nice 70-million dollar addition to the roster.
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Hey, good news for Sergino Dest!
AC Milan agree loan deal for Sergino Dest (Di Marzio) 7 hours ago 16:00 Sergino Dest has been linked with a host of top European clubs this summer but has now found a new club, for this season at least. Di Marzio has reported that a full agreement has been reached between Barcelona and AC Milan for the signing of the USMNT right-back. He will move on loan for the duration of this season and the Italian champions are likely to have the option to purchase him permanently at the conclusion of the loan
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@rockchalkjayhawk As long as he gets playing time. Don’t want him to end up like Pulisic at Chelsea.
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Finally got around to watching Chelsea/West Ham. Chelsea is kind of a mess. Every offensive player just seems lost, stifled, restricted, tied down, boxed in, not sure what to do or where to go on the pitch. It’s like they have a team of wingers but only the wingers who aren’t playing whatever Tuchel defines as wing aren’t allowed to venture to the wing. so weird. Pulisic did nothing of note, nor did anybody else in the first 70 minutes.
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Fofana was a nice get. New ownership willing to spend and not gonna put up with Tuchels mediocrity. “What have you done lately Tommy?”
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Weston McKennie with a UCL goal today for Juventus!!! Very nice header.
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Down goes Tuchel! Zero surprise.
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@approxinfinity Can’t lose to a club like Zagreb and expect to stick around very long.
Hope the new owners hire a coach who gives Pulisic more playing time.
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@approxinfinity said in Generic soccer thread:
Down goes Tuchel! Zero surprise.
Wait, they fired Tuchel? Wow.
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Can’t figure out what’s wrong with Liverpool. The same club that scored nine goals against Bournemouth has to settle for draws against bottom-feeders Everton and Fulham. Then they get clobbered by an inferior Napoli side in the Champions League. All this from a team that was expected to be in the mix for multiple trophies this season.
Jurgen Klopp isn’t exactly on the hot seat like Tuchel was, but their play lately has got to be driving him nuts.
