Association Football 2023/2024 Discussion Thread

[NewYorkExpress]

FIFA under fire for scheduling Oceania World Cup qualifiers outside of an international window.

New Zealand coach Danny Hay has criticised FIFA for scheduling part of Oceania's World Cup qualifying tournament outside the international window, saying it would not happen to any other region.

The nine-team tournament will be staged in Qatar from March 14-30 to decide which team advances to a playoff against the fourth-placed side from CONCACAF, which features nations from North and Central America and the Caribbean.

I think FIFA would have been better off canceling Oceania's qualifying altogether and allowing the fourth place team in CONCACAF to advance without a playoff.

[NewYorkExpress]

Watching the Arab Cup, and watching Tunisia slaughter Mauritania, with matches later today being Iraq vs Oman, Qatar vs Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates vs Syria.

[NewYorkExpress]

Struggling RB Leipzig fires Jesse Marsch.

RB Leipzig is really underperforming, currently sitting eleventh in the Bundesliga, and it doesn't really get easier for them. They have a Champions League match with Manchester City next, and they need a result (either a win or draw) and Club Brugge loss to Paris Saint German, or for both themselves and Club Brugge to lose or win, just to ensure that they make the Europa League.

They also have to get really hot to give themselves a shot at Germany's Europa Conference League place right now too, and they haven't playing well lately, with their last three Bundesliga games being losses to Hoffenheim, Bayer Leverkusen and Union Berlin.

[NewYorkExpress]

So, Groups A, B, C and D are done in the UEFA Champions League.

Advancing to the Round of Sixteen are Manchester City, Paris Saint German, Liverpool, Athletico Madrid, Ajax, Sporting Lisbon, Real Madrid and Inter Milan.

Heading to the Europa League are RB Leipzig, Porto, Borussia Dortmund and Sheriff Tiraspol.

Eliminated from Europe are Club Brugge, AC Milan, Bestikas and Shaktar Donetsk.

[NewYorkExpress]

Apparently the Atalanta/Villareal game has been postponed due to heavy snow in Bergamo, leaving the fate of Group F up in the air.

[NewYorkExpress]

Also, we have two International Friendlies tomorrow.

Tanzania vs Uganda (not particularly interesting, except from the standpoint of supremacy in Central and East Africa).

Mexico vs Chile (in Austin, Texas). Should be much more interesting, with one of CONCACAF's strongest sides, taking on a younger than usual Chile side. The oldest player on this Chile squad, for this game and for the one against El Salvador on is Universidad Catolica Goalkeeper Sebastian Perez, while Leon Forward Jean Meneses has the most caps for Chile with 18. This Mexico squad isn't particularly experienced either, with only Monterrey Defender Erick Aguirre, Guadalajara Midfielder Uriel Antuna and America Midfielder Sebastian Cordova having more than five caps.)

[NewYorkExpress]

Barcelona are off to the Europa League, as Bayern beat them 3-nil and Benfica won 2-0 over Dynamo Kyiv. For the 1st time since the 2000-01 UCL campaign, when S Club 7 were still pretty much all over Fox Family stateside, they fail to advance out of the group stage.

The worst part for Barcelona, is unless they get very lucky with their Europa League draw, they aren't going to advance past the knockout playoff round.

[NewYorkExpress]

Real Madrid gets an easy 2-0 win in the Madrid derby.

New York FC Club won the MLS Cup.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/nycfc-s-leadership-core-delivers-first-mls-cup-and-the-promise-of-a-bright-blue-

Unfortunately, most New Yorkers don't even know they exist. Major League Soccer is way behind the Premier League and other leagues globally.

The big problem with NYCFC and the New York Red Bulls is that unlike most other MLS sides, they are literally farm teams for bigger sides elsewhere in the world (Manchester City and RB Leipzig respectively).

[NewYorkExpress]

U.S.A gets a very nice 1-0 win against Bosnia and Herzegovina, behind a goal in the 89th minute by Colorado Rapids Midfielder Cole Bassett.

[NewYorkExpress]

I don't know how this has been missed, but pending Barcelona being able to offload players, sources say there is a $62 million transfer deal to bring Manchester City forward Ferran Torres.

I don't buy this one, given Barcelona's financial situation. It would be interesting to see who, if anyone Manchester City signed to replace Torres if this deal goes through, however.

[NewYorkExpress]

My goodness, look at the scoreline at the Manchester City/Leicester City game.

5-3 Manchester City, with five different Manchester City, and three different Leicester City players scoring....and the game isn't even over yet.

I thought they played Defense in the Premier League.

[NewYorkExpress]

So, Singapore and Indonesia played a game on Christmas Day, which saw three Singapore players sent off with red cards (two with straight reds, and one with a double yellow).

https://us.soccerway.com/matches/2021/12/25/asia/asean-football-championship/indonesia/singapore/3664281/

[NewYorkExpress]

Only about twenty minutes in, but Manchester United is losing 1-0 against 19th placed Newcastle United.

[NewYorkExpress]

Following fan violence last month that led to their match being supsended, Olympique Lyonnais and Paris FC have been thrown out of the French Cup.

Lyon and Paris FC have been thrown out of the French Cup after their game earlier this month was abandoned over crowd trouble, the French Football Federation (FFF) said on Monday.

The episode on Dec. 17 in Paris had supporters fighting and some of them coming onto the field to throw flares at each other at half-time when the score was level at 1-1.



It was the latest in a series of incidents that has marred French football this season, leading FFF president Noel Le Graet to say it was "disastrous" and "shameful."

The FFF's disciplinary commission also fined Lyon €52,000 ($58,890) while second-tier Paris FC were handed a €10,000 fine.

Lyon fans have been barred from attending away matches in domestic competitions for the rest of the season.

Lyon also received a suspended ban from the French Cup for the 2022-23 season with a warning that they will be thrown out again if their fans are guilty of violence which results in the match being stopped.

[NewYorkExpress]

Leicester City plays above and beyond their league position in a 1-0 upset of Liverpool today.

[NewYorkExpress]

Underperforming AS Monaco sacked Niko Kovac on Thursday.

[NewYorkExpress]

Salzburg vs Bayern
City vs Sporting
Benfica vs Ajax
Chelsea vs Lille
Atletico vs United
Villareal vs Juventus
Inter vs Liverpool
PSG vs Real Madrid

My predictions as of now, could change between now and then though

I think your're wrong about both the PSG/Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid/Manchester United matchups.

PSG should easily beat any non-Manchester City/Liverpool/Bayern Munich side (and they'd be favorites against Bayern and Liverpool if Kylian Mbappe doesn't leave in this transfer window).

Manchester United just isn't playing well enough in the Premier League to have a chance against Atletico Madrid.

[NewYorkExpress]

So, the January Transfer Window is in progress, and there have been a couple of interesting moves so far.

I already mentioned Ferran Torres's transfer from Manchester City to Barcelona.

FC Dallas sold rising U.S National Team star Ricardo Pepi to FC Augsburg for $20 million at the beginning of the window.

Ajax brought back Brian Brobbey on loan from RB Leipzig.

Ainsely Maitland Niles heads from Arsenal to Roma on Loan

Phillipe Coutinho heads from Barcelona to Aston Villa on Loan with a 40 million Euro option to buy.

Kieran Trippier was sold from Atletico Madrid to Newcastle United for $16.3 million.

[NewYorkExpress]

A couple of interesting deals as the January Transfer Window chugs on.

Axel Tuanzebe heads on loan from Manchester United to Napoli

Chris Wood is heading from Burnley to Newcastle United in a 30 million Euro deal.

Lucas Digne is heading from Everton to Aston Villa in a 30 million Euro deal.

Jesus Corona is heading from Porto to Sevilla in a 3 million Euro deal.

And, as previously mentioned, David Neres is heading from Ajax to Shakhtar Donetsk in a 12 million Euro deal.

[NewYorkExpress]

So some more interesting moves during this transfer window.

Pablo Mari goes on loan from Arsenal to Udinese Calcio

Saed Kolasinac was released by Arsenal and signed by Marseille on a free transfer.

Robin Olsen goes on loan from AS Roma to Aston Villa.

[NewYorkExpress]

Another interesting transfer move.

PSG's third string goalkeeper, Sergio Rico, is heading on loan to Mallorca.

[NewYorkExpress]

The latest notable transfer is Hwang Hee-Chan, already on loan at Wolverhampton Wanderers from RB Leipzig, getting a permanent transfer in July.

[NewYorkExpress]

Very interesting move going down today, as Anthony Martial goes on loan from Manchester United to Sevilla.

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Big games in progress in World Cup qualifying over in CONCACAF.

The USA leads El Salvador 1-0, Canada leads Honduras 1-0, and more importantly Jamaica leads Mexico 1-0.

[NewYorkExpress]

Four rather important moves:

First, Amad Diallo heads on loan from Manchester United to Rangers

Next, Daniel Wass will heading from Valencia to Atletico Madrid. Terms of the deal have yet to be confirmed.

Next, Robin Gosens will be heading from Atalanta to Inter Milan. Terms of this deal have yet to be disclosed.

And lastly, Calum Chambers will be heading from Arsenal to Aston Villa. Terms of this deal have yet to be disclosed.