Football (Soccer) Thread

[Ed Anger]

That's who plays hockey - Canucks, slavss, and scandies.

Miroslav Satan is cool.

[Liep]

The local team wins in overtime with an bicycle kick from the goalie.

[The Larch]

The local team wins in overtime with an bicycle kick from the goalie.

Ossum. I assume that the guy now has a free tab in every pub in his town.

[Admiral Yi]

Doesn't that happen as well in your sports? IE a group of players from the same country playing in the same team getting really close and sometimes clashing with the other team mates?

No.

I agree that it sounds absurd.

[Sheilbh]

Doesn't that happen as well in your sports? IE a group of players from the same country playing in the same team getting really close and sometimes clashing with the other team mates?

No.

I agree that it sounds absurd.

As BBoy says I think it's more often linguistic than nationalist.  So groups of Francophone players sticking together for example.

[Admiral Yi]

As BBoy says I think it's more often linguistic than nationalist.  So groups of Francophone players sticking together for example.

The sticking together thing is not absurd.  The prison gang style clashing thing is absurd.

[The Larch]

As BBoy says I think it's more often linguistic than nationalist.  So groups of Francophone players sticking together for example.

The sticking together thing is not absurd.  The prison gang style clashing thing is absurd.

Nobody is saying that they're shanking each other in the showers.

[Sheilbh]

As BBoy says I think it's more often linguistic than nationalist.  So groups of Francophone players sticking together for example.

The sticking together thing is not absurd.  The prison gang style clashing thing is absurd.

I think you've the wrong idea.  The correct comparison isn't a prison gang, but Mean Girls.

Plus I think it's kind of inevitable.  You get 20+ young men who are all very rich, competitive and able in the same room and there'll be clashes. 

The reverse happens on the national level when club loyalties can create conflict.  There's always been reports of splits in the England team between Chelsea players based in London and the Northern-based Man U and Liverpool players.  Something similar has, I believe, happened in Spain between Barca and Real players (not least stoked by Mourinho's performance art). 

What helps, in both situations, is if you have older, senior players who can take everyone aside and calm a situation down - which I think happened with Spain where, from what I've read Casillas and Xavi calmed the situation down.  Needless to say England's older statesman, like John Terry, haven't been quite so successful

[The Larch]

The reverse happens on the national level when club loyalties can create conflict.  There's always been reports of splits in the England team between Chelsea players based in London and the Northern-based Man U and Liverpool players.  Something similar has, I believe, happened in Spain between Barca and Real players (not least stoked by Mourinho's performance art). 

What helps, in both situations, is if you have older, senior players who can take everyone aside and calm a situation down - which I think happened with Spain where, from what I've read Casillas and Xavi calmed the situation down.  Needless to say England's older statesman, like John Terry, haven't been quite so successful

Yup, a couple of seasons ago, on Mourinho's first year in Madrid, the rivalry got REALLY heated, and lots of people got seriously worried that it'd affect the atmosphere in the national team, where good locker room atmosphere had been cultivated for many years as a way to unite the team and was considered one of the main strengths and reasons why we won the WC (the dropping of the allegedly controversial Raúl in 2006 has been pointed out as the turning point for the national team, and controversial players have been routinely passed over since then, apparently one of the reasons why Valencia's Soldado wasn't called up for the last Euro).

So, when the rivalry was becoming ridiculous Casillas and Xavi met one day for dinner, talked it over and agreed that it was all BS and that they were not going to allow that to affect the national team. It seems that Casillas was not particulary fond of Mourinho's mind games and was never very cooperative in them, one of the reasons why Mourinho has never really liked him but there's no way that he can drop him from the team. In a way it's only natural that they're good buddies, they're roughly the same age and have been playing together with the national team since they were kids. For instance this is them in the lineup for the U-20 WC final in 1999.

[Syt]

I could have gotten a ticket for the World Cup Qualifier Austria-Germany through the company, but I politely declined, because it would have meant spending the evening with a rather obnoxious colleague I can't stand.

[Tamas]

I could have gotten a ticket for the World Cup Qualifier Austria-Germany through the company, but I politely declined, because it would have meant spending the evening with a rather obnoxious colleague I can't stand.

this reminded me of the old joke:

-There will be an Austria - Hungary match soon
-Who they are playing against?

[Viking]

I could have gotten a ticket for the World Cup Qualifier Austria-Germany through the company, but I politely declined, because it would have meant spending the evening with a rather obnoxious colleague I can't stand.

this reminded me of the old joke:

-There will be an Austria - Hungary match soon
-Who they are playing against?

The winner of the Denmark-Norway - Poland-Lithuania game.

[Josephus]

I'm seeing an upset in Italy today. Go Malta

[Josephus]

Well a 2-0 loss, right in injury time, is almost an upset.

[FunkMonk]

If the US men's team loses to Jamaica on this day of all days I will hate them forever.