Football (Soccer) Thread

[FunkMonk]

Still seems crazy to me that club football is basically imploding except for the Petro-clubs and the English Premier league.

[Duque de Bragança]

Unrelated, what cities are worth a visit in Northern Portugal?

Porto, Braga, Guimarães in the NW for starters. Can watch a Portuguese league there  though the gauge is narrow, specially for Porto i.e 1/3.

Can be followed by Aveiro and Coimbra, but still in the North (stretching it).

The NE (Bragança!) is somewhat less accessible, depending on your means of transportation, but worthy of a detour. Less people, though throngs of tourists in the NW are unlikely due to the current situation.

[Sheilbh]

Still seems crazy to me that club football is basically imploding except for the Petro-clubs and the English Premier league.

And even here it's mainly the petro-clubs plus the genuine commercial juggernaut of United. You feel like given the carnage across other leagues more clubs would be able to take advantage but haven't and I think that can only be because they're struggling themselves.

[celedhring]

So Real Madrid are pursuing "civil and criminal" claims against La Liga and Tebas? What's happening/the issue here?

La Liga announced a deal with an investment fund, where the fund will take 10% of TV revenue for 50 years in exchange of €2.7 billion. Barça didn't like it but it was a way to resign Messi (but Laporta couldn't convince his board), Real Madrid downright hate it. However, the rest of clubs are mostly in favor, and can outvote them. So Florentino has now deployed the legal artillery. I think they claim that transferring La Liga's assets to a privately held company (part of the deal) violates their contracts.

It looks like a bad deal to me, but most clubs need the money.

[clandestino]

Unrelated, what cities are worth a visit in Northern Portugal?

I guess it depends, a few questions:

How long are you staying?
Where is your entry point?
How are you moving around?
What are your main interests?
Around here, North usually means north of the Douro/Duero river. Do you have the same boundaries in mind?

[Sheilbh]

Lovely reception for Saka coming on at Brentford v Arsenal - everyone gave him a standing ovation

Also lovely first episode of the upcoming Amazon series - at this stage - Arsenal are currently trailing a newly promoted team who haven't been in the top division for 70 years

I feel like Arsenal inviting Amazon in just guarantees chaos.

Edit: Brentford fans cheering Saka:
https://twitter.com/SkySportsPL/status/1426296334429085697?s=20

[FunkMonk]

As soon as I saw the fixture list a month ago or whenever it came out I knew Arsenal would lose this match. It was inevitable. Written in the stars. Of course Arsenal will lose to a newly-promoted team who hasn't played top flight football since World War 2 or whatever their history is, in the very first game of the season with fans filling the stadiums so every single camera in the world is pointed directly at history in the making.

Ffs

[FunkMonk]

Also this game has forced me to admit I am officially "Arteta OUT" now.

[Sheilbh]

Also this game has forced me to admit I am officially "Arteta OUT" now.

Current mood:


Edit: God - imagine watching football and actually liking your team

[FunkMonk]

Also this game has forced me to admit I am officially "Arteta OUT" now.

Current mood:


Edit: God - imagine watching football and actually liking your team

Damn game ruined my Friday 

Thankfully I won't have to watch Arsenal play again until next week.

[Syt]

RIP Gerd Müller. 75 years old.

[Josephus]

One of the first players I remember well. the 74 world cup was the first I remember watching.

After, i remember playing pickup soccer with kids on the street, scoring a goal and yelling "M-u-u-u-u-u-lller"

[Zoupa]

This will be my weekly report on Tottenham, my newly adopted club. I still have a soft spot for OM (Olympique de Marseille), but Ligue 1 is kind of a joke now so whatever.

Much attention before the game on the Harry Kane situation and his desire to move to ManCity. Just looking at the line-up, it seems like ManCity started the game with about 300 millions sitting on the bench, plus they just signed Grealish for 100... Not sure how Kane would fit into that squad, they certainly don't need him.

Then again, do the Spurs? That kid Bergwin is a lesser Mbappé (in terms of speed and power), the korean dude (Sun? Sung? Son?) is quite good although he made a few mistakes in the first half. Dele seems to want to play this year, made a few key takeaways.

Spurs started poorly but started being a threat about 20 minutes in. This is City after all, I think they finished above the Spurs by over 20 points last season. Grealish was ok, not worth the price.

There's a kid in defense for the Spurs that played great, Tanganga I think. Manhandled Sterling all game, loved it.

That's it for this week. Come on you Spurs!

[celedhring]

We won the season opener 4-2, while playing actually well (Liep will be pleased that Braithwaite had a brace). Real Sociedad are a good team, too.

We'll see, this has been the most chaotic/awful offseason since 2000, and without Messi I still think it will be an uphill battle to make the CL. We do have a good team all things considered, but there's too much upheaval around the club so starting with a win was a very good thing. Right now we have to survive, then once the desert is crossed we'll see if we can contend for trophies again.

[Liep]

We won the season opener 4-2, while playing actually well (Liep will be pleased that Braithwaite had a brace). Real Sociedad are a good team, too.

Danish media is already speculating that he might get the number 10 now that he lost the 9.