Association Football 2023/2024 Discussion Thread

[NewYorkExpress]

Manchester City lifts yet another trophy, this time beating Sevilla for the UEFA Super Cup on penalties.

[NewYorkExpress]

Someone at ESPN actually spent time arguing as to why Jesse Marsch is a candidate to manage the USWNT.

Seriously, If Marsch can't even get serious consideration for men's job, why would anyone consider him for the women's job (and why would anyone eligible for the Women's National Team want Marsch?).

[NewYorkExpress]

New Manchester United, same as the old Manchester United. Tottenham wins 2-0.

Meanwhile, halfway after week two, Brighton & Hove Albion is atop the Premier League table, ahead of Manchester City on goal differential.

[Mike88]

Spain has won the Women's World Cup, after defeating England 1-0.

[NewYorkExpress]

Spain has won the Women's World Cup, after defeating England 1-0.

Apparently the curse on English Football isn't just limited to the Men's team.

[buritobr]

Only Germany and Spain are soccer world champion in both genders

[NewYorkExpress]

John Herdman, quite possibly the most successful head coach in recent Canadian memory will be stepping down as head coach of the Canadian Men's National Team to take over at Toronto FC.

That's a great hire for Toronto. Herdman's the only manager to have successfully led both a men's and women's team (Canada) to the World Cup.

[NewYorkExpress]

UEFA Champions League Groups have been drawn.

Group A: Bayern Munich, Manchester United, FC Copenhagen, Galatasaray

Group B: Sevilla, Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven, Lens

Group C: Napoli, Real Madrid, Braga, Union Berlin

Group D: Benfica, Inter Milan, RB Salzburg, Real Sociedad

Group E: Feyenoord, Atletico Madrid, Lazio, Celtic

Group F: PSG, Borussia Dortmund, AC Milan, Newcastle United

Group G: Manchester City, RB Leipzig, Red Star Belgrade, Young Boys

Group H: Barcelona, FC Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Royal Antwerp

[JGibson]

2023-24 UEFA Europa League draw:



https://twitter.com/EuropaLeague/status/1697575470219264357

[NewYorkExpress]

I would love to know what UEFA did with the balls for Group F of the Champions League to come out the way it did.

That group is stacked.

[NewYorkExpress]

The Europa Conference League Draw was also yesterday.

Group A: LSOC Lille, Slovan Bratislava, Olimpija Ljubljana, Kl Klaksvik

Group B: Gent, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Zorya Luhansk, Breidabik

Group C: Dinamo Zagreb, Viktoria Plzen, Astana, Ballkani

Group D: Club Brugge, Bodo/Glimt, Bestikas, Lugano

Group E: AZ Alkmaar, Aston Villa, Legia Warsawza, Zrinjski

Group F: Ferencvaros, Fiorentina, Genk, Cukaricki

Group G: Eintracht Frankfurt, PAOK, HJK, Helsinki, Aberdeen

Group H: Fenerbahce, Ludogerets, Spartak Trnava, Nordsjaelland

[Santander]

I would love to know what UEFA did with the balls for Group F of the Champions League to come out the way it did.

That group is stacked.

There is always a Group of Death. Group F only looks strong because there are a lot of weird groups this year.

[NewYorkExpress]

Is it normal for eight total goals to be scored in a La Liga game?

Real Sociedad and Granada completely forget to play defense in Real Sociedad's 5-3 victory.

[JGibson]

Arsenal win 3-1 over Manchester United, with 2 stoppage time goals from Declan Rice and Gabriel Jesus to give the Gunners the 3 points. The VAR took away Manchester United's potential game-winner and a potential penalty from Arsenal.

[Mike88]

Meanwhile in Portugal...

https://twitter.com/ProximaJornada1/status/1698411576963838404

[NewYorkExpress]

Lamine Yamal became the youngest player and goalscorer in the history of the Spanish National Team in Spain's 7-1 victory over Georgia in European Championship Qualifying.

[NewYorkExpress]

USMNT facing Uzbekistan today in St. Louis in Gregg Berhalter's return as manager.

We're up 1-0 at about forty minutes, but quite honestly, we should be doing better than this. Uzbekistan isn't really on our level, at least compared to other possible Asian sides we could be facing like Japan, Iran or South Korea.

We'll play Oman in Saint Paul on Monday to close out the International Window, before having a much more exciting pair of friendlies in October, hosting Germany in East Hartford, and Ghana in Nashville.

[NewYorkExpress]

Following getting demolished by Japan 4-1, and failing to win any of their past five matches, Hansi Flick is out as manager of the German National Team.

I have to think this is Julian Nagelsmann's job if he wants it.

[JGibson]

Big comeback wins today in Premier League:

Liverpool beat Wolverhampton 3-1 after being down 1-0.

Manchester City beat West Ham 3-1 after being down 1-0.

Tottenham beat Sheffield United 2-1 after being down 1-0 deep into stoppage time.

[Santander]

Lazio... seeing that in real-time was incredible.

[JGibson]

Arsenal beat PSV 4-nil yesterday in their return to the Champions League after a 6-year hiatus of mostly playing in the Europa.

[Battista Minola 1616]

Victor Osimhen's agent is furious after an official Napoli social media account posted a video mocking the team's own star striker for missing a penalty in the fifth day of Serie A (the post was deleted shortly thereafter, but still) and today suddenly there are reports that Osimhen will not renew his contract and leave as soon as possible. One of the most embarrassing and petty scandals I've heard of.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Utterly insane format for the 2030 FIFA World Cup--Spain, Portugal, and Morocco tri-hosting the event with the opening matches held in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. We're really never getting a normal World Cup again.

[buritobr]

Uruguay was planning to host the 2030 World Cup because this tournment will be the 100th anniversary of the first one, who took place in the country. Since Uruguay is not able to hold a 48 national squad tournment alone, there was a plan to Uruguay and Argentina, and maybe Chile and Paraguay too to host together this World Cup.

But Spain/Portugal/Morocco won. Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay will host only the first game of each country. Squads who play in these countries will have to travel long distances for the second game. It will be the only problem related to distance, since Spain, Portugal and Morocco are small countries, close to each other. The sum of the areas of these 3 countries is smaller than the area of the USA (which hosted in 1994), Brazil (1950, 2014), Russia (2018).

The last FIFA men's world cup 100% outside the global south took place in Germany 2006.
Mexico will partially host 2026, Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Morocco will partially host 2030

[Mike88]

Utterly insane format for the 2030 FIFA World Cup--Spain, Portugal, and Morocco tri-hosting the event with the opening matches held in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. We're really never getting a normal World Cup again.

Complete bonkers format. In practice, it's Spain who is really going to host the World Cup, the other countries will only receive a few matches. In my country, the media's reaction is that FIFA is just "inventing" things.