July 2014 Soccer Thread

[Swift]

Reading about Blackpool, and it seems like they're fairly fucked. Since the end of last season, they fired their manager and have released or have had 27 players move on. They currently have a manager, without a coaching staff, and 8 first team players (no GK) with less than a month until they start playing pre-season friendlies.

[Death From Above]

Yeah they are complete toast. Their best prospect by far is off to Hull City, everyone is on the way out. I think they won one of their last 12 games last year, which was enough somehow to dodge relegation from the Championship by 2 points.

 

Sad days. I adopted them during their one and done Priemership season but it's been nothing good since there. It will take an absolute miracle for them to avoid relegation and from there, who really knows.

[odessasteps]

Mario Gotze and Andre Schurrle - scorer and provider of the winner - were the first players born in a unified Germany to appear for #GER.

[Ultimo The Great]

Manchester United have announced a ten year kit deal with Adidas worth £750m, £70m a season ($1.2B/$119m/€940m/€87m). That's double the last deal with Nike

That's £125m ($213m/€156m) a season just from the deals with Chevrolet and Adidas.

Previous record kit deal was Real Madrid's deal with Adidas worth £248m, £31m. ($423m/$52m/€310m/€38m)

Chelsea £30m ($51m/€) a season
Arsenal £30m ($51m/€) a season
Liverpool £25m ($42m/€) a season
Manchester City £12m ($20m/€) a season

INSANE!

[Raziel]

Let's go spend some of that cash!

[SolidGoldBomb]

Oh they are.  Man U is supposedly about to sign Vidal from Juve

[ReiseReise]

Can´t a guy dance in the street and getting boozed to the max without the World Cup thread getting locked?

I know I already posted my wrap up, but there still was the final.

Thanks for all the kind words, hell broke loose here and it got a little too wild when people lit up the fireworks partying right at a gas station. Place still stands, so all good, but a little hazardous. My voice is shattered, I´m hungover, deprived of sleep and lacking preperation for upcoming exams, but well, worth it.

Good this generation was the one to end a 24-year-wait for a World Cup and the 18-year-title drought along the way. Tremendously talented players, a coach / manager who helped change the face of German football and a footie federation that did improve their act over the last decade or so. There were worse teams in German footie history to reach finals and thereby coming close to winning the big one, but this one is a deserved champion and not one who fluked their way to the title somehow, it was the best team of the tournament which deserved to win wonderful ugly golden figurine.

The Neuer run sparked some discussion, but even trying not to have the clouded view of a German I think it´s no foul. Simply because he does clearly hit the ball first. However, giving a foul against the attacker was a ridiculous decision and the way Neuer went into it, it could have been understandable had he suffered from a - in my opinion - wrong call. The weird decisions extended to both teams though, within a few minutes during the second half of extra time there were booked Argentines fouling Schweinsteiger with at the very least bookable offenses. It was right at the time Germany scored, though, so maybe it was for the better.

It felt weird to have a player getting checked and fouled out within the first 30 minutes of the game while Germany basically got themselves booked twice for two fouls aswell.

The match was eeringly similar to the World Cup 2010 final looking at the way the teams played each other. Like Holland four years ago, Argentina looked very threatening with their breaks while our team controlled most of the match with good passing play while having trouble creating real chances. Argentina even had the chances where players were through on goal and just missed. In extra time a few powerful runs opened up space and one made the goal possible, oddly enough around the same time Iniesta scored in 2010.

Schweinsteiger was excellent and - like 2010 - every bit the leader we claimed not to have when we lost close matches in the past. I think we might have had this tournament´s best center backs in Hummels and Boateng. They were immense whenever they defended together and they were great yesterday aside from one Hummels slip up in extra time when the guy was running on less than emergency fuel. It was a mix of fighting your way into a game and - especially looking at the goal - and displaying tremendous technique and ball control that won us the match. "Classical Germany + Modern Day Germany" - football, of you will. Goetze´s goal was a mighty fine one when it happened, fitting response from a guy who got a lot of criticism (from me aswell). Needless to say you could hear a whole nation collectively go bonkers over here around midnight. Football can be great in defeat, but it is best in victory and the more you were longing for it and the stronger the believe is that "it was our time", the better the win feels in the end.

Oh, somebody whose time it was not to forget: I have proclaimed my utmost respect for Miroslav Klose time and time again and while he didn´t have many good plays up front yesterday, that dude tracked back and went into sliding tackles and one-on-ones up until he got subbed off very closely to the 90th minute. A guy with his injuries and lack of minutes over the season just gets to tropical Brazil and shows up in excellent condition, not only scoring, but providing, helping and running like his life depended on it. A forward like him, participating in good to great squads for four straight World Cups, making it to at least the semis, deserves to win one and it´s good he did. Him and his twin sons and wife partying on the pitch made my eyes a little watery. Deep down I hope the Klose twins have the same talent and attitude as their Dad has, that way he won´t have to clone that man. He will be hard to replace, although he did actually say that he might not be finished just yet. Or as he himself put it "I want to try and continue dragging my cadaver around for a little bit..."

The post match thing with having the best player of the tournament and the GK of the tourney being awarded those prices was harsh, especially for Messi. Seriously, FIFA, I know it´s much to ask, but SHOW SOME DECENCY, just for once. Tell those guys to get suited up, invite them to a nice dinner somewhere in Switzerland at the end of July, and give them those trophies there.

Ah, well... I should stop ranting, because ultimately, I´m just happy now, that is all.

[Death From Above]

Reading about Blackpool, and it seems like they're fairly fucked. Since the end of last season, they fired their manager and have released or have had 27 players move on. They currently have a manager, without a coaching staff, and 8 first team players (no GK) with less than a month until they start playing pre-season friendlies.

 

And they just cancelled their two preseason games in Spain because they basically have no squad, so there is that.

[SirFozzie]

Whafuck?

 

Conte resigns as Juve Coach.

 

Either he's been offered the Azurri job, or the fact that Juve are now a selling club meant winning Serie A will be hard and he doesn't want to fail

[Jiji]

He's probably going to coach the national team.

 

Edit: It would appear you're right on both accounts. Juventus losing players and likely the Italian job. Here's what he said about his departure:

I have decided to terminate my contract with Juventus. I have matured with time and my feelings led me to make this choice. It may be more difficult to keep winning with Juventus.

[Cristobal]

This strategy is the epitome of win-win.

[ReiseReise]

It is true the US-media and maybe a part of the footie-fanbase (I assume it´s mostly those who would be considered "casuals") need to understand that becoming a "soccer superpower" is a building process and that they will have to experience setbacks and endure hardships until they will be a real contender. I can see them getting there, but it needs patience and a coach who helps changing a lot about how "soccer" is perceived and how the coaching is done in the States. Some of you gave great insight how young players basically are meant to get bigger, faster and stronger. And while strength and speed are immensely important in any athletic competition today, it´s still important to show tactical and technical abilities. Today´s top players and teams are able to combine all that into what I´d call a modern day football player. Some of the footballing greats of the past (especially of the 60ies to 80ies) would still be great technically and tactically, but might not even be professionals nowadays simply because they´d lack speed and stamina. And the German national squads of the past were almost always excellent athletically while often playing ugly football. The inability to combine those aspects played huge part in our lack of players considered great in the late-90ies and the horrible shape "die Mannschaft" was in around that time.

The thing with the nationality switches is something that struck me as odd aswell. Of course we have players born in other countries or born with parents from other countries and the like. I can´t blame players who decide to play for the country they feel is their home and I never will. But some of those just leave a weird taste in my mouth.

Jones, as good as he was for the USA, was a CDM who played three friendlies for Germany, then claimed that he wasn´t wanted because of his dark eyes and tattoos in an interview iirc. And since he hadn´t played competitive games he decided he wanted to play football for the USMNT.

Diego Costa played a few friendly games for the Brazilians, then decided to play for Spain. It seemed somewhat out of the blue, although I admit I might have missed something.

Don´t get me wrong, I really think players have the right to chose the country they feel is their home to play for by any means, but some decisions just don´t seem to be motivated that way and their timing seems just weird.

And a word of warning might be added: Around 2000, Germany tried their darndest to find German grandparents to players like Sean Dundee and Paolo Rink so they could start for Germany. For Dundee, this might have been something that obstructed his career path, since he basically was a shooting star until the debate whether he should be German or not started. Not only did the debate seem to hinder Dundee´s career, neither him nor the afromentioned Paolo Rink were of any help for German football´s struggling flagship at that time.

There is always the possibility of political changes, but other than that, when you play U21 or U20 you are at an age where the competitive game rules should apply imo. A guy like Cacau just worked to get German citizenship after having felt at home here for a while, a guy like Sahin (born near Dortmund) decided he wanted to play for Turkey when he became an adult. It is possible an whatever your motivation is, you will spare yourselves lots of drama with that. You can still be respectful and appreciative towards your heritage and your country of birth ot the country you grew up in, but I´d like to think once you made the decision in first place you made it for a reason and I tend to think the reason was "I want to play for this country". It´s odd to be like "sat on the bench this game, f*** this, I´m out to Germany / USA / Wales whatever".

I remember a German comedy site claiming breaking news and reporting a Schweinsteiger transfer to the Spanish national team before the World Cup began. I sometimes fear that this kind of stuff, as ridiculous as it seems now, might only be 15 to 20 years away.

P.S.: Is it just me or does the flag´s colour-scheme in that comic look like a flag from the empirial days of Germany? It´s black, red and yellow/gold nowadays, not black, white and red. I guess there was no ill intent, but some of us are a little overly sensitive to this since it´s not entirely the finest period of our history those colours represent.

[Cristobal]

I don't think the cartoonist was trying to reference previous eras of Germany, I think he just got the flag wrong. It's hardly the most egregious mistake we've ever made on that front...

[piranesi]

How do you pronounce PL$?

[ReiseReise]

I don't think the cartoonist was trying to reference previous eras of Germany, I think he just got the flag wrong. It's hardly the most egregious mistake we've ever made on that front...

As I said, we are very very sensitive over here...we see stuff others neither mean nor see themselves. To proove my point...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iDEMGT_gQk

This here translates to "this is how the Gauchos walk, this is how the Gauchos walk" followed by the players jumping around and singing "And this is how the Germans walk! This is how the Germans walk!"

It turned into a giant debate with a lot of people in different media outlets claiming these players considered themselves racially superior to the Argentines. So, yeah, our general public managed to get enjoyment out of "our" World Cup win for roughly 36 hours until we deemed guys right wing ambassadors for a harmless little show act. This country, wow...

[Pete]

Apropos of nothing, Keef is awesome.

[Cristobal]

How do you pronounce PL$?

piry pl$

[Chaos]

Men in Blazers was talking about the work Germany put in to build that squad. They also talked about Julian Green and how it largely was not acknowledged in German Sports media.

 

The Germans attitude was "we have trout farms just like him and you just took one of our trout."

 

Also, if Juventus is on the downslide, who does that place as a team to fight to be in that top position? Milan? Roma?

[SolidGoldBomb]

Men in Blazers was talking about the work Germany put in to build that squad. They also talked about Julian Green and how it largely was not acknowledged in German Sports media.

 

The Germans attitude was "we have trout farms just like him and you just took one of our trout."

 

Also, if Juventus is on the downslide, who does that place as a team to fight to be in that top position? Milan? Roma?

 

Juve could still possibly win the league again with what they've got, but now with a loser like Allegri coming into Juve I can't see him inspiring anyone to win, or lifting Juve higher than Conte did.  Allegri took Milan from the top team in Italy to 11th place before he was sacked.  The same genius who pushed Pirlo out the door at MIlan, and so he went to Juve and led the team to 3 titles.

 

Juve have committed suicide by appointing Allegri

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2014/07/16/4962704/what-will-vidal-and-pogba-think-now-juventus-have-committed?ICID=HP_FT_1

(LOL they changed the title to committed an own goal)

 

Napoli has been the 2nd best side in Italy the last few years so I could see them taking the Scudetto this season.  Roma has also been very solid and will definitely be a title contender as well. Inter has been improving as well under Mazzarrii.  Milan looked horrible the last few years (under Allegri) so they are going to need some big changes if they want to compete for the title again.  If Fiorentina can keep some of their stars they may finish near the top of the table also.

[SirFozzie]

Germany has a history of not taking celebrating world cup wins well, after the 74 World Cup win, the official party that night was.. less than successful, with german FA folks locking the WAG out of the celebration while the wives of the FA members were allowed in (seriously), and loudly reprimanding one person for being "Too Familiar" with the chancellor of Germany (for the heinous crime of addressing the chancellor by his first name).

 

Between that, and a row over pre-tournament negotiations about the bonus pot, several German stars immediately left the banquet while it was in progress (heading to the Berlin disco clubs instead), and several quit the German team on the spot.

 

http://www.spiegel.de/international/1974-world-cup-land-of-the-long-haired-legends-a-418582-2.html

[Chaos]

Apparently there is some controversy around this MLS All Star fan vote that name recognition is getting in over statistical worthiness The most egregious one is due to the leading goal scorer in MLS, Bradley Wright-Phillips, being nowhere near the fan vote. There are other ways for him to make the team, but I think it shows that America's familiarity with the sport has to go a long way.

 

Then again, other fan votes are the same way in many other US Sports.

[Death From Above]

My favourite was the year San Jose Sharks fans got Vinnie Damphousse voted in as the all star center for the western conference in the NHL.

 

I mean God bless the guy, but come on.

[odessasteps]

Apparently there is some controversy around this MLS All Star fan vote that name recognition is getting in over statistical worthiness The most egregious one is due to the leading goal scorer in MLS, Bradley Wright-Phillips, being nowhere near the fan vote. There are other ways for him to make the team, but I think it shows that America's familiarity with the sport has to go a long way.

Then again, other fan votes are the same way in many other US Sports.

Maybe they aren't voting for him because they heard Wrighty's commentary stints w Gus Johnson on Fox.

----

Baseball asg voting has elected playes who retired during the season on more than one occassion. Or guys who spent all season on the DL.

[Beech27]

Apparently there is some controversy around this MLS All Star fan vote that name recognition is getting in over statistical worthiness The most egregious one is due to the leading goal scorer in MLS, Bradley Wright-Phillips, being nowhere near the fan vote. There are other ways for him to make the team, but I think it shows that America's familiarity with the sport has to go a long way.

 

Then again, other fan votes are the same way in many other US Sports.

Locally, there's a similar feeling that Dom Dwyer - and his 14 goals - ought to make the squad. I imagine he'll find his way in, although if not, he'll have his chance to make a dent against one of Europe's big clubs when Sporting hosts Manchester City (for an invented trophy! penalties possible in an exhibition!). Of course, we could also just get drilled. 

[Pete]

 

Rio to QPR, and doesn't he just look thrilled? There's something awesomely funny about this photo.