Football (Soccer) Thread

[Syt]

In 1971/72 Bayern Munich's Gerd Müller scored 40 goals in one season. This record was broken today when Robert Lewandowski scored his 41st goal (and there's 5 matches to go in the season).

[Agelastus]

In 1971/72 Bayern Munich's Gerd Müller scored 40 goals in one season. This record was broken today when Robert Lewandowski scored his 41st goal (and there's 5 matches to go in the season).

Looking at the Wikipedia article for that year, were any goals he scored against the team that had their record that year expunged counted?

[Liep]

It's a crazy record for a 34 games league. Waited for the 90th minute too.

[Syt]

In 1971/72 Bayern Munich's Gerd Müller scored 40 goals in one season. This record was broken today when Robert Lewandowski scored his 41st goal (and there's 5 matches to go in the season).

Looking at the Wikipedia article for that year, were any goals he scored against the team that had their record that year expunged counted?

Not sure. Bayern Munich played them to a 1-1 draw and won the second match 1-0. Müller scored in both matches. The scores are pretty low for Bayern's season, though (they beat Dortmund 11-1, won 7-0 against Oberhausen, 5-1 against Bochum and Schalke, 6-2 against Bremen, etc.).

This article has a summary of the scandal, including the manipulated matches: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Bundesliga_scandal

[Admiral Yi]

Not crazy about the pro wrestling style public address announcer for Sergio Aguero's substitution. 

[FunkMonk]

EMERY MASTERCLASS

FUCK UNITED

[Josquius]

I was torn on who to support in that one. The northern team or the underdog.
I guess in light of the European super league stuff it's good that villareal won.

[FunkMonk]

If you search 'Villarreal' in Google fireworks appear 

[Josquius]

I imagine a lot of people are doing this just to find out where that place is.

[The Larch]

Our big teams might be a bunch of entitled bastards who are currently underperforming massively, but our 2nd tier teams just own the Europa League at this point. 

[celedhring]

I imagine a lot of people are doing this just to find out where that place is.

I've seen it claimed it's the smallest town to ever win a trophy.

Now, they are owned by a Spanish billionaire and although they don't have sheik-level cash or anything close to it, he has bankrolled them when needed.

[Duque de Bragança]

Previous smallest town winner was probably FC Malines/Mechelen (80,000 people) in 1988 (C2). Pre-Bosman era though.

PS: Villareal winning means Porto ends up in Pot 3 of the next CL. Still, since it was against Man U...
Also, the oligarchic club of Monaco (1/3 still owned by the principality) will have to go through CL play-offs as well.

[Josquius]

Looking the place up it does seem to be pretty much a suburb of the bigger city next door too. I know nothing of the actual situation there but it seems a weird record.

[celedhring]

Looking the place up it does seem to be pretty much a suburb of the bigger city next door too. I know nothing of the actual situation there but it seems a weird record.

That city (Castellón) has its own team, and used to be the #1 team in the region until the 2000s.

[The Larch]

Looking the place up it does seem to be pretty much a suburb of the bigger city next door too. I know nothing of the actual situation there but it seems a weird record.

That city (Castellón) has its own team, and used to be the #1 team in the region until the 2000s.

To complete the background, Castellón, the larger nearby city (170k inhabitants), is the province's capital, and its football team used to be in the 1st division as late as the 90-91 season, while Villarreal, their historical minnow neighbours (51k inhabitants), only reached the 1st division for the first time in their history in 98-99 after quickly rising from the lower leagues.