Football (Soccer) Thread

[Norgy]

I, as usual, feel some utterly misplaced optimism for Nottingham Forest pre-season. I think maybe they have one English player out of a squad of near 4500 players, so Brexit worked well in that way.

[Josephus]

My favourite American team in MLS is Toronto

[crazy canuck]

Jos, what do you mean by real teams that got signed up?

[HVC]

As part of the free apple TV I've got there's free MLS.
Will I ever find the time and interest to use it?
Unlikely.
But strikes me I should do the 10 year old child's thing of having a "favourite team" in every league.
Are any of the American teams less plastic and artificial than the others? Any that are actual real teams that got signed up for the MLS corporation?

As opposed to oligarchs PR expenses?

[Josquius]

As opposed to oligarchs PR expenses?

The top of English/European football has been corrupted to shit it's true.
But it's origins are more organic and community focussed (though not entirely pure. Often local rich guys were involved)

Jos, what do you mean by real teams that got signed up?

They were pre existing teams solidly based in local communities.

[crazy canuck]

The MLS is made up of many of those types of teams.

[Josquius]

The MLS is made up of many of those types of teams.

For example?
The ones I've heard the most about were artificially created franchises.

[Gups]

After a break for a few years while my son was in uni dropped £900 on season tickets for the two of us. Hope beats experience every time with football.

[Norgy]

Football pretty much moved from a working-class sport to middle-class entertainment in my lifetime. I remember grounds packed with drunk males ready for a fight. Now it is more of a theatre. Safe and you laugh at the players faking injuries.

That being said, the pace the game is played at, and skill of the players on (and off) the ball, it is way beyond anything from before.

Football was a sport played at English public schools. The professional version came about in Lancashire, because the workers got Saturdays off and I suppose needed a break from beating their children. And before radio and television, people needed some entertainment.

Footie was essentially the circus. The bread, it was British, so I imagine it wasn't very nutritious. White and a bit stale.

[FunkMonk]

Football pretty much moved from a working-class sport to middle-class entertainment in my lifetime. I remember grounds packed with drunk males ready for a fight. Now it is more of a theatre. Safe and you laugh at the players faking injuries.

That being said, the pace the game is played at, and skill of the players on (and off) the ball, it is way beyond anything from before.

Football was a sport played at English public schools. The professional version came about in Lancashire, because the workers got Saturdays off and I suppose needed a break from beating their children. And before radio and television, people needed some entertainment.

Footie was essentially the circus. The bread, it was British, so I imagine it wasn't very nutritious. White and a bit stale.

This might be the best post in this entire thread.   

[crazy canuck]

The MLS is made up of many of those types of teams.

For example?
The ones I've heard the most about were artificially created franchises.

I have been watching Whitecaps games since I was in high school.

But I think what you have in mind is that there are no teams with continual existence. That is true but only because past attempts to create professional leagues in the US and Canada failed. There would be no MLS if there has been no prior teams and markets which support them.

[Grey Fox]

As part of the free apple TV I've got there's free MLS.
Will I ever find the time and interest to use it?
Unlikely.
But strikes me I should do the 10 year old child's thing of having a "favourite team" in every league.
Are any of the American teams less plastic and artificial than the others? Any that are actual real teams that got signed up for the MLS corporation?

You are looking for something that doesn't exist in North America.

[Duque de Bragança]

As part of the free apple TV I've got there's free MLS.
Will I ever find the time and interest to use it?
Unlikely.
But strikes me I should do the 10 year old child's thing of having a "favourite team" in every league.
Are any of the American teams less plastic and artificial than the others? Any that are actual real teams that got signed up for the MLS corporation?

You are looking for something that doesn't exist in North America.

Actually, it does exist. In Mexico's Liga MX.  Not in the MLS, of course.

[Norgy]

Soon even fans will be franchised.
"Our keynote speaker tonight is NN, managing director of the Indian Manchester City football fans corporation"
"Thank you, thank you, thank you! Our numbers are up, and I can assure you, the investors, that you will have great returns, we even have an office calling people about how their computers are broken!"

[crazy canuck]

In case people missed it MLS has teams which had already existed.