Football (Soccer) Thread

[celedhring]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/oct/07/newcastle-confirm-300m-saudi-backed-takeover-to-end-mike-ashley-era

Looks like it's done now.

It took Manchester City several years from oil sheikh takeover to winning the league. How long will it take Newcastle?

It's Newcastle, they will fuck it up somehow. Maybe take the House of Saud down with them.

[Sheilbh]

It's Newcastle, they will fuck it up somehow. Maybe take the House of Saud down with them.

"Who put Steve Bruce in charge of OPEC?"

[Jacob]

It's Newcastle, they will fuck it up somehow. Maybe take the House of Saud down with them.

Wouldn't that be nice

[Barrister]

Canada plays Mexico, in Mexico City, tonight in an important World Cup qualifier.

Obviously Mexico is a pretty heavy favourite, but it sure would be nice to pull out a draw (or even eke out a win).  Canada can still qualify even with losing tonight, but even getting a single point would be huge.

[FunkMonk]

It's Newcastle, they will fuck it up somehow. Maybe take the House of Saud down with them.

"Who put Steve Bruce in charge of OPEC?"

[FunkMonk]

"Always been a fan of the Magpies, me. Second club, etc etc."

[Duque de Bragança]

In the Nations League Final Four, Spain beat Italy 2-1.

Belgium-France follows, the revenge of the 2018 semi-final. Ça va se friter ! Pun intended.

[Duque de Bragança]

2-0 at half-time for Belgium, Carrasco and Lukaku. Diables Rouges dominated the first half, with the last 10 minutes painful to watch for les Bleus.
Where are the the Languish Bleus "fans" tonight?

[Duque de Bragança]

Nice game to watch. 2-2 now with less than 10 minutes to watch.

[Duque de Bragança]

3-2 for les Bleus with a VAR centimetric offside goal denied for Belgium just before the French goal. La chatte à Dédé is back!

[FunkMonk]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2021/oct/07/premier-league-newcastle-saudi-arabia-takeover-morality-collapse

Barney Ronay's piece on Newcastle brought up an interesting point to me:

It is surely worth factoring in why this is happening. It's not about sport. It's not even about money. English football is not a vast global industry or a good bet for a handsome return. Newcastle United's annual turnover is a relatively minuscule £170m. So why go through this mill?

It doesn't take an Icke-level conspiracy theory to see that the Premier League has become a soft power tool, that this is about reach, about using what were once community clubs as projector screens to the world. Is it really desirable, or a sensible long-term plan, to sell that capacity to whichever sovereign state happens to be passing?

[Josquius]

So. Yep. Shitty news on many many levels.
Newcastle were the original premier league new money club back in the 90s (Blackburn being the last of the old school) , though hopefully they have missed the boat on this one. The football bubble has to pop.
A lot of their fans are being insufferable-well why can't we knock down that beautiful 18th century terrace that keeps St James so wonky so we can have a 100,000 seater stadium?
Fecking horse punchers.

[Barrister]

Canada plays Mexico, in Mexico City, tonight in an important World Cup qualifier.

Obviously Mexico is a pretty heavy favourite, but it sure would be nice to pull out a draw (or even eke out a win).  Canada can still qualify even with losing tonight, but even getting a single point would be huge.

1-1 final.

[Barrister]

I'm not a soccer guy, but I'm getting hyped for the Canadian men's team.  They could actually pull this off!  With a record of 1-0-3 they're undefeated.

They're sitting third in the CONCACAF standings - and top three automatically qualify.  Sitting in 4th is Panama (Mexico and USA sitting 1 and 2 respectively).

Canada has games coming up against Jamaica (which is winless), then Panama (which would be huge), then those games in Edmonton I mentioned against Costa Rica and Mexico in November, and finish up with games against Honduras, USA, El Salvador (x2), Panama and Jamaica.

Still lots of soccer left to play, but they're positioning themselves nicely.

[Jacob]

I'm not a soccer guy, but I'm getting hyped for the Canadian men's team.  They could actually pull this off!  With a record of 1-0-3 they're undefeated.

They're sitting third in the CONCACAF standings - and top three automatically qualify.  Sitting in 4th is Panama (Mexico and USA sitting 1 and 2 respectively).

Canada has games coming up against Jamaica (which is winless), then Panama (which would be huge), then those games in Edmonton I mentioned against Costa Rica and Mexico in November, and finish up with games against Honduras, USA, El Salvador (x2), Panama and Jamaica.

Still lots of soccer left to play, but they're positioning themselves nicely.