(02-16-2018 12:09 PM)Loco Bearcat Wrote:  

(02-16-2018 08:44 AM)aTxTIGER Wrote:  

(02-16-2018 08:02 AM)DowdyPirate2 Wrote:  

(02-16-2018 07:44 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(02-15-2018 07:16 PM)DowdyPirate2 Wrote:  Real aren’t challenged in their league each week

Real is currently in fourth place in La Liga and fighting for a Champions League spot.

And? The bottom 12 of both leagues have no business playing with Real or PSG

I would take Real Betis, Celta Vigo, Getafe, Ath. Bilbao, Espanyol, and Real Sociedad against any bottom table teams in the world.....minus maybe the Bundesliga.

I can agree with that, plus it shows how great La Liga and Bundesliga are at developing players and its also reflected in the dominance of their National Teams. My friend's son played in a youth tournament last year in Spain. They played Espanyol U12 and their coach said that Espanyol were so small and that they should beat them handily, they lost 12-1 and my friend and his son told me that Espanyol were technically and tactically superior, Espanyol won the U12 Championship.

There were teams from all over the World and they told me that the teams from Spain, France, Germany, Portugal, Brazil, and Argentina were on a different level. They said the EPL teams were decent but they were outclassed by the teams from the aforementioned countries. They watched Man U U16 get demolished by River Plate 5-0. My friend talked to a Spanish Scout and he told him that US needs to stop emulating the English Style and embrace a more South American or Continental European style.

Agreed.

Even the best English academies dont really teach the English style any more. Man City, Spurs, Southampton, and Chelsea's academies focus much more on ball skills/comfort in possession at early ages and tactics as teenagers than they used to. Unfortunately, a lot of English clubs(Man U's especially) still put way too much focus on winning/losing and raw athleticism. In the US, we shouldnt be emulating a system from a country where even their best academies dont follow that system.

We got another of those funky FA Cup draws where the 4 Big Clubs remaining all managed to avoid each other in the Quarterfinals.

Frozen Balls...I'm telling you.

Manchester United vs Brighton
Leicester City vs Chelsea
Sheffield Wednesday/Swansea vs Rochdale/Spurs
Wigan/Man City vs Southampton


Still have two 5th round replays after Swans and Spurs both played like literal crap in away draws to Championship and League One sides respectively away. Still, with both at home in the replay, they will still be favored to advance. (Swans are doomed to lose since they were drawn at home in an FA Cup for the first time in 5 years)

Wigan/Man City still to play tomorrow afternoon.

(02-18-2018 05:55 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  We got another of those funky FA Cup draws where the 4 Big Clubs remaining all managed to avoid each other in the Quarterfinals.

Frozen Balls...I'm telling you.

Manchester United vs Brighton
Leicester City vs Chelsea
Sheffield Wednesday/Swansea vs Rochdale/Spurs
Wigan/Man City vs Southampton


Still have two 5th round replays after Swans and Spurs both played like literal crap in away draws to Championship and League One sides respectively away. Still, with both at home in the replay, they will still be favored to advance. (Swans are doomed to lose since they were drawn at home in an FA Cup for the first time in 5 years)

Wigan/Man City still to play tomorrow afternoon.

Honestly I think it’s so the league can get 7 euro spots. Gotta get the numbers up!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Wigan Athletic *******!!!!!

(02-19-2018 03:36 PM)PurpleReigns Wrote:  

(02-18-2018 05:55 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  We got another of those funky FA Cup draws where the 4 Big Clubs remaining all managed to avoid each other in the Quarterfinals.

Frozen Balls...I'm telling you.

Manchester United vs Brighton
Leicester City vs Chelsea
Sheffield Wednesday/Swansea vs Rochdale/Spurs
Wigan/Man City vs Southampton


Still have two 5th round replays after Swans and Spurs both played like literal crap in away draws to Championship and League One sides respectively away. Still, with both at home in the replay, they will still be favored to advance. (Swans are doomed to lose since they were drawn at home in an FA Cup for the first time in 5 years)

Wigan/Man City still to play tomorrow afternoon.

Honestly I think it’s so the league can get 7 euro spots. Gotta get the numbers up!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

They get 7 league spots regardless since both the FA Cup and League Cup champs are guaranteed berths, as is 5th place in the PL. The difference is that if non Big 6 sides won the League and FA Cup, than one of the Big 6 would be left out of Europe.

Chelski defense just went full on stupid to hand Messi a goal.

(02-20-2018 04:20 PM)GrayBeard Wrote:  Chelski defense just went full on stupid to hand Messi a goal.

Yep, Chelsea had a great game plan up until that moment. Barca got the crucial away goal and now it's back to Camp Nou.

There's a CONCACAF Champions League Game in its 23rd minute of stoppage time. Power Outage forced a 30 minute delay, and they just sort of kept the clock running, and added it all as stoppage time.

(02-22-2018 12:23 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  There's a CONCACAF Champions League Game in its 23rd minute of stoppage time. Power Outage forced a 30 minute delay, and they just sort of kept the clock running, and added it all as stoppage time.

Because FIFA rules make no ******* sense most of the time

Looks like both the Rapids and FC Dallas probably wont advance.

Red Bulls and Seattle play today. Tigres was held to a draw by a Panamanian team.

Sepp Blatter just publicly backed the Morocco bid for WC 2026 over US/MX/CA bid. Love it. Not even trying to hide the checks flying at him anymore.

(02-22-2018 10:40 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  Sepp Blatter just publicly backed the Morocco bid for WC 2026 over US/MX/CA bid. Love it. Not even trying to hide the checks flying at him anymore.

Don’t discount the Trump factor. We’ve been hearing rumblings that Trump being president could disrupt a World Cup bid. Me personally I just know know why we are doing a joint bid in the first place. We have enough infrastructure to do it ourselves.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

(02-22-2018 12:34 PM)PurpleReigns Wrote:  

(02-22-2018 10:40 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  Sepp Blatter just publicly backed the Morocco bid for WC 2026 over US/MX/CA bid. Love it. Not even trying to hide the checks flying at him anymore.

Don’t discount the Trump factor. We’ve been hearing rumblings that Trump being president could disrupt a World Cup bid. Me personally I just know know why we are doing a joint bid in the first place. We have enough infrastructure to do it ourselves.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Because we are trying to consolidate some voting power and use the extra pull off Mexico to lock out any competition. It's purely politics. It makes a good bid great. It also seems to be where the world cup is going with the the extra teams. I heard a couple of the European countries were putting together a bid.

(02-22-2018 12:34 PM)PurpleReigns Wrote:  

(02-22-2018 10:40 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  Sepp Blatter just publicly backed the Morocco bid for WC 2026 over US/MX/CA bid. Love it. Not even trying to hide the checks flying at him anymore.

Don’t discount the Trump factor. We’ve been hearing rumblings that Trump being president could disrupt a World Cup bid. Me personally I just know know why we are doing a joint bid in the first place. We have enough infrastructure to do it ourselves.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

IMO, it's probably more to do with the US's role in cleaning house at FIFA than anything Trump related. Pretty sure Sepp is holding a grudge.

(02-22-2018 01:38 PM)VA49er Wrote:  

(02-22-2018 12:34 PM)PurpleReigns Wrote:  

(02-22-2018 10:40 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  Sepp Blatter just publicly backed the Morocco bid for WC 2026 over US/MX/CA bid. Love it. Not even trying to hide the checks flying at him anymore.

Don’t discount the Trump factor. We’ve been hearing rumblings that Trump being president could disrupt a World Cup bid. Me personally I just know know why we are doing a joint bid in the first place. We have enough infrastructure to do it ourselves.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

IMO, it's probably more to do with the US's role in cleaning house at FIFA than anything Trump related. Pretty sure Sepp is holding a grudge.

Oh for sure...Sepp is Extra Salty Ruffles right now.

Jordan Morris tore his ACL this week and will likely be out for the entire MLS Season. Going to make selection at striker for the National Team interesting for a while. I'd say it could mean some of the kids like Sargent get a chance, but we all know it just means more Dom Dwyer forced down our throats.

Swans advance, Real Madrid loses again, and Antonine Griezmann looks set to join Barca in the summer. Yesterday was a good day.

(02-28-2018 09:45 AM)VA49er Wrote:  Swans advance, Real Madrid loses again, and Antonine Griezmann looks set to join Barca in the summer. Yesterday was a good day.

This is the biggest transfer news I've seen in awhile that I just don't see a way of it working out well. Is Suarez out? They just spent $150M on Dembele to play on the wing and they've still got Messi, they just added Coutinho, and still have Suarez...there's no way they're getting rid of the former 3 and there's not way Griezmann is sitting the bench.

(02-28-2018 10:17 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(02-28-2018 09:45 AM)VA49er Wrote:  Swans advance, Real Madrid loses again, and Antonine Griezmann looks set to join Barca in the summer. Yesterday was a good day.

This is the biggest transfer news I've seen in awhile that I just don't see a way of it working out well. Is Suarez out? They just spent $150M on Dembele to play on the wing and they've still got Messi, they just added Coutinho, and still have Suarez...there's no way they're getting rid of the former 3 and there's not way Griezmann is sitting the bench.

Suarez is the odd man out.

(02-28-2018 10:50 AM)aTxTIGER Wrote:  

(02-28-2018 10:17 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(02-28-2018 09:45 AM)VA49er Wrote:  Swans advance, Real Madrid loses again, and Antonine Griezmann looks set to join Barca in the summer. Yesterday was a good day.

This is the biggest transfer news I've seen in awhile that I just don't see a way of it working out well. Is Suarez out? They just spent $150M on Dembele to play on the wing and they've still got Messi, they just added Coutinho, and still have Suarez...there's no way they're getting rid of the former 3 and there's not way Griezmann is sitting the bench.

Suarez is the odd man out.

As much as I hate to say it, but I imagine Iniesta is on his way out. I think he's 34 now and considering a huge China deal. I don't think Suarez will be sold immediately, but Greizmann does look like his eventual replacement with Coutinho replacing Iniesta. Barca also has several other players that it needs to sell to balance the books and it appears Valverde prefers a small squad to manage. Barca is also selling the naming rights to the Camp Nou.

I'm thinking the lineup will look something like this:

Ter Stegen

Sergi Pique Umtiti Alba

Rakatic Busquests Iniesta/Coutinho

Messi Suarez Griezmann/Dembel

Of course all of this may be moot if Griezmann doesn't move; however, from what I've read the source detailing his move is supposed to be pretty reliable. We'll see. BTW, his release clause decreased from 200 million to 100 million.