Association Football 2023/2024 Discussion Thread

[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.)

[JGibson]

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.

[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.

[Suburbia]

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.

[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).

[Mike88]

The Champions League draw was today:

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

Well, Lille, Salzburg and Sporting are "toasted". But there will be good matches like the the Madrid-PSG, or the Atletico vs United.

Also, props for UEFA for botching up the game draw.

[DavidB.]

The Champions League draw was today:

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

Well, Lille, Salzburg and Sporting are "toasted". But there will be good matches like the the Madrid-PSG, or the Atletico vs United.

Also, props for UEFA for botching up the game draw.

Just booked my ticket to Lisbon. #letsgo

Going to be two tough games though. Benfica to me seems much more of a defending side than Sporting, who play much more attractive football. I watched the PSV-Benfica CL qualifier earlier this season on tv and while it is true that Benfica kind of had to defend there given that they received a red card early in the game, it wasn't fun to watch at all. And Ajax don't tend to perform well against sides that "park the bus" and don't want to attack. At the same time, Inter, Ajax' original opponent, probably does the same thing but with better players. Still, on the betting market, the odds seem to be way too optimistic for Ajax. Looking forward to a fun awayday though (if I get in at all given Covid regulations and all that). My last one was Dortmund-Ajax in November, which was amazing.

[JGibson]

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been stripped of primary captaincy duties for Arsenal. A replacement has yet to be named.

https://twitter.com/afcstuff/status/1470727216975777794

[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.

[Suburbia]

Happy Boxing Day!!!

Are you ready for some classics tomorrow?

[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.

[Mike88]

7 days and two Porto wins against Benfica: 3-0 on 24 December for the Portuguese Cup; 3-1 today, 30 December, for the Championship. Beautiful!! So happy!

[JGibson]

In the US, NBCSN's final Premier League game to be televised ends in a 3-1 victory for Manchester United. RIP NBCSN.

As of January 1st, almost all of what would've aired on NBCSN heads to USA for Premier League coverage.

[Suburbia]

In the US, NBCSN's final Premier League game to be televised ends in a 3-1 victory for Manchester United. RIP NBCSN.

As of January 1st, almost all of what would've aired on NBCSN heads to USA for Premier League coverage.

Due to low ratings. NBC will air the big games on Saturday afternoons, which gets more ratings

[NewYorkExpress]

Underperforming AS Monaco sacked Niko Kovac on Thursday.

[JGibson]

Refs stole that game for Man City, and Arsenal were robbed of at least a point if not all three.

[Alcibiades]

Arsenal - Man City has left me feeling the angriest I’ve been for a long time after a football match. We played Man City off the park when it was 11 vs 11 - the first half was arguably the best 45 minutes of football we’ve played this season - but sadly the ref ruined the game.

The Man City penalty was kind of 50-50 - you can see why it was given - but what infuriates me is the inconsistency. How was the challenge on Ødegaard earlier not a penalty when that one was? Why did the referee make a clear and obvious error with the City appeal, but not ours? Why wasn’t he even sent to the screen for the Ødegaard incident? As for Gabriel’s second yellow, it honestly baffles me, especially when Man City did several similar fouls for which they received no caution; if Rodri had been in an Arsenal shirt, he probably wouldn’t have been on the pitch by the time he scored.

Everyone knows the Premier League has the worst standard of refereeing of any of the major European leagues, and yet nothing ever changes. It’s the same sh—t week in week out - zero accountability and mind-boggling inconsistency. I would say decisions seem to be made almost at random, but it always ends up being teams like Man City who benefit, and those like Arsenal who suffer.

[Lechasseur]

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

[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.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I have not followed much in the last months, but at the end of the first half-season Inter leads the Serie A, Spezia is not in a relegation spot, and Ciro Immobile keeps winning scoring (although amazingly not as much as Dušan Vlahović) so I guess this football season is being good enough for me.