Football (Soccer) Thread

[Josephus]

Speaking of post-seasons... another Toronto FC v. Seattle final God bless parity

[Liep]

5 minutes of utter collapse for Ajax. Wow.

[Liep]

Great game.

[Admiral Yi]

Lively FIXTURE.

Who committed the hand ball on the goal that was called off?  I've watched that part of the clip 3 times and can't see it.  Was it on Abraham down by the end line?

And someone please explain to me very slowly and simply, as one would to a golden retriever, what the hell the Champions League is.

[The Larch]

And someone please explain to me very slowly and simply, as one would to a golden retriever, what the hell the Champions League is.

It's the top continental title.

[Admiral Yi]

How can they start playing Champions League games before the regular season has ended?  I.e., how can they tell which teams qualify?

[Josquius]

They don't.
This years champions league is based on last year's domestic  league positions, traditionally just champions but now going down to 4th place finishers in the big leagues,

[Admiral Yi]

Got it.  Thanks.

[FunkMonk]

Think of it as a playoff in which the top teams from each country's league face each other in a multi-round tournament. However, it's lagged a year, so the teams in this year's tournament are last year's top teams.

There is also a tournament called the Europa league which is much less prestigious as it's basically the teams who aren't good enough for the big boy tournament.

[Josephus]

Received my tickets today....will be at Wembley next week. 

[Liep]

Received my tickets today....will be at Wembley next week. 

Nice! Is England playing at home?

Man City is playing Kyle Walker as a goalie as Bravo was sent off and 1st keeper injured. Walker is laughably bad but Atalanta frustratingly can't get close enough to really test him.

[Josephus]

Received my tickets today....will be at Wembley next week. 

Nice! Is England playing at home?

Man City is playing Kyle Walker as a goalie as Bravo was sent off and 1st keeper injured. Walker is laughably bad but Atalanta frustratingly can't get close enough to really test him.

Yeah watching England v. Montenegro. Seeing England at Wembely has always been a bucket list wish.

[Duque de Bragança]

Think of it as a playoff in which the top teams from each country's league face each other in a multi-round tournament. However, it's lagged a year, so the teams in this year's tournament are last year's top teams.

There is also a tournament called the Europa league which is much less prestigious as it's basically the teams who aren't good enough for the big boy tournament.

It's more complex than that. Champions' League is the UEFA competition to avoid a closed league based on the US model. Performance is not the only criterium, with the French league among the top 5 thanks to Qatari money, Russian league was 6th thanks to lots of money poured to prepare for WC 2018.
Europa League has the flavour of European cups of yesteryear with some exotic games unlike the same old big games of the Champions League.

In other news, this is the worst season European season for Porto I can remember. Benfica sucks and fields a B-team in Champions League and get trounced, but that's hardly surprising this has been the case for the past years even with their main team.

[Sheilbh]

It's more complex than that. Champions' League is the UEFA competition to avoid a closed league based on the US model. Performance is not the only criterium, with the French league among the top 5 thanks to Qatari money, Russian league was 6th thanks to lots of money poured to prepare for WC 2018.
Europa League has the flavour of European cups of yesteryear with some exotic games unlike the same old big games of the Champions League.

I get so annoyed by people who want a US model on this though. I just hate the disrespect of good, historic European clubs in favour of the rich leagues

[FunkMonk]

In MLS there is always talk of adding a relegation system to the league, even though I think most reasonable people think it is basically impossible because of the owner's structure. Still, there is an effort here to "Europeanize" the league. Just look at how the teams rebranded themselves.

Oddly enough, I think the European leagues will start to look more like American-style leagues, eventually.