Association Football 2023/2024 Discussion Thread

[NewYorkExpress]

Flamengo won the Copa Libertadores today, and became the Champions of South America., defeating Brazlian side Athletico Paranaese 1-0 for their third title.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

A week after Lazio defied all expectations and won handily in Bergamo without Immobile, they are complete exposed at home by Salernitana who catapult themselves into ninth (!) in Serie A.

Lazio only brought in Malinkovic-Savic when they couldn't put Salernitana away without him and he immediately picked up a yellow card to keep him out of the derby. Both he and Immobile out against Roma...dangerous position for them to be in where every point counts in such a tight and unpredictable race.

[Blow by blow, the passion dies]

Flamengo won the Copa Libertadores today, and became the Champions of South America., defeating Brazlian side Athletico Paranaese 1-0 for their third title.

Good for them

[NewYorkExpress]

Another really impressive managerial hiring by a lower tier English Premier League side, as Wolverhampton, after firing Bruno Lage early last month, has hired Julen Lopeteugi, recently sacked by Sevilla.

Lopeteugi's not as impressive a hire as Aston Villa bringing in Unai Emery, but he did win the Europa League in 2020 with Sevilla, and twice has finished runner up in the European Super Cup, once with Real Madrid in 2018, and once with Sevilla in 2020.

Give him a budget and he at least get Wolves back to midtable.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Both [Malinkovic-Savic] and Immobile out against Roma...dangerous position for [Lazio] to be in where every point counts in such a tight and unpredictable race.

Hahahahahahaha, incredible stuff. Roma going down to sixth.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://twitter.com/90min_Football/status/1589578476906254337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etf...

Liverpool/Real Madrid, Milan/Tottenham, Borussia Dortmund/Chelsea and PSG/Bayern Munich all should be really great matchups.

[Benjamin Frank]

American association football championships

NWSL Portland Thorns 2 Kansas City Current 0,
The game drew 915,000 television viewers in prime time.
https://worldsoccertalk.com/tv/nwsl-championship-tv-ratings-are-a-record-breaker-20221102-WST-406608.html

MLS Los Angeles FC 3 Philadelphia Union 3 (Los Angeles FC wins 3-0 on penalty kicks)

The commentators described the game as 'the best MLS game ever.' I agree it was interesting, but it wasn't the best. I thought the play itself was up and down. The first goal was a fluke scored off a free kick that was directed in by one of the players in the wall. One Philadelphia goal was scored after a free kick in which the Los Angeles players remained more or less stationary.

MLS games I think compare to English League Championship games with a lot of fast pace and physical play and technical ability but not necessarily a lot of creativity/creative skill. Because MLS teams have 'designated players' there is likely slightly more creativity but slightly less technical ability than in the League Championship (due to the salary cap for non designated players.)

The game was called the 'best MLS game ever' because of the momentum changes including Philadelphia leading 3-2 before Gareth Bale tied the game in the last two minutes (with L.A down to 10 men.)

The problem though, was that the play was physical to the point where 4 players went down for several minutes each, three of them from collisions on headers and one of them a collision between Canadian international keeper Maxime Crepeau and the Philadelphia player who was in all alone on him. Crepeau sustained both an injury and a straight red card for the incident.

That aside, I don't know what specifically can be done, but keeping in mind that the game is called 'football' and not 'headball' I wonder if soccer needs to look at limits to heading and playing the ball in the air. There seems to be a steady increase in aerial collisions leading to concussions. Obviously part of the problem is the frequent size mismatch between central defenders and all the other players in the game.

I'm certainly not sure of all the consequences, but I wonder if heading the ball needs to be limited to just in the box when going for a goal or when trying to prevent a goal, and not allowed in midfield 'open play' anymore. Obviously that would significantly limit the use of kicking balls into the air.

There are already limits in at least some areas to heading the ball in youth soccer. So, new tactics are already brought in at the youth level. Of course, this is a result of the concern of the headers themselves leading to concussions and not due to the collisions.

[NewYorkExpress]

And here's the Europa League Draw:

https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/1589595906848206849?ref_src=twsrc%5Et...

Got to wonder if there was some rigging done to get Barcelona vs Manchester United on UEFA's part...

[Zinneke]

Ajax - Union Berlin is tasty, reckon Mayor Halsema will follow her Belgian counterpart and try to ban all Germans from Amsterdam for that.

[DavidB.]

Ajax - Union Berlin is tasty, reckon Mayor Halsema will follow her Belgian counterpart and try to ban all Germans from Amsterdam for that.

Why? Will be trying to go to the away game. Hope they wouldn't reciprocate a move like that.

A week after Lazio defied all expectations and won handily in Bergamo without Immobile, they are complete exposed at home by Salernitana who catapult themselves into ninth (!) in Serie A.

No idea what the deal with them is, this season. Got kicked out of the Europa League after a shameful campaign. Now winning against Roma again.

[Zinneke]

Ajax - Union Berlin is tasty, reckon Mayor Halsema will follow her Belgian counterpart and try to ban all Germans from Amsterdam for that.

Why? Will be trying to go to the away game. Hope they wouldn't reciprocate a move like that.

It's the latest trend amongst certain mayors to ban any fanscene that is remotely a bit on the rough side. Leuvens mayor saw their UEFA van and banned not just them from the stadium but the whole city and gave orders to the police to interrogate Germans. Halsema is capable of similar...see also : her ban of PSV fans for ... reasons...

[Santander]

Ajax - Union Berlin is tasty, reckon Mayor Halsema will follow her Belgian counterpart and try to ban all Germans from Amsterdam for that.

Why? Will be trying to go to the away game. Hope they wouldn't reciprocate a move like that.

It's the latest trend amongst certain mayors to ban any fanscene that is remotely a bit on the rough side. Leuvens mayor saw their UEFA van and banned not just them from the stadium but the whole city and gave orders to the police to interrogate Germans. Halsema is capable of similar...see also : her ban of PSV fans for ... reasons...

They should permanently ban the English, then.

[DavidB.]

It's the latest trend amongst certain mayors to ban any fanscene that is remotely a bit on the rough side. Leuvens mayor saw their UEFA van and banned not just them from the stadium but the whole city and gave orders to the police to interrogate Germans. Halsema is capable of similar...see also : her ban of PSV fans for ... reasons...

As a football fan I am obviously opposed to nonsensical bans, but Halsema's 'reasons' to ban PSV fans were quite solid. In every Ajax-PSV game since 2017 they had chanted antisemitic songs and they had been warned countless times. I obviously don't think there should be a blanket ban on PSV supporters visiting the Arena from now on (just like I disagree with the blanket ban on Feyenoord and Ajax supporters visiting the Klassieker away games), but the ban for this game was completely reasonable. (Wish there had been a ban on organizing the game itself, but that's a different story...)

[JGibson]

The UECL Knockout Round Playoffs draw:

Braga v. Fiorentina is the main treat of this draw.

https://twitter.com/europacnfleague/status/1589608994464735232

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I only occasionally remember this thread exists, but I just want to pop in to express my appreciation for this year's Napoli - absolute steamroller. Maybe this time is the lucky one, smilo! Not to mention Salernitana is doing surprisingly well so far. Campania Revenge Tour?

[NewYorkExpress]

Real Madrid got stunned by Rayo Vallecano 3-2, allowing Barcelona to take the La Liga lead (and the Catalan side gets another match today against Osasuna to try and extend it).

[Zinneke]

It's the latest trend amongst certain mayors to ban any fanscene that is remotely a bit on the rough side. Leuvens mayor saw their UEFA van and banned not just them from the stadium but the whole city and gave orders to the police to interrogate Germans. Halsema is capable of similar...see also : her ban of PSV fans for ... reasons...

As a football fan I am obviously opposed to nonsensical bans, but Halsema's 'reasons' to ban PSV fans were quite solid. In every Ajax-PSV game since 2017 they had chanted antisemitic songs and they had been warned countless times. I obviously don't think there should be a blanket ban on PSV supporters visiting the Arena from now on (just like I disagree with the blanket ban on Feyenoord and Ajax supporters visiting the Klassieker away games), but the ban for this game was completely reasonable. (Wish there had been a ban on organizing the game itself, but that's a different story...)

I get that if PSV fans sung the Hamas Joden Aan Het Gas song they don't deserve sympathy ...at the same time collective and especially pre-emptive punishments for me are an absolute no-no. And also there's a big difference between a whole away stand singing choice song like Beerschot coming to ours and their whole away block singing "vak vol makkaken" and a group of the stand with political motivations singing their song. I don't want to be held responsible for the far right thugs in my stand.

[NewYorkExpress]

We had an upset in the Carabao Cup today as Brentford, midtable in the English Premier League, lost on penalties to Gillingham, which is at the bottom of League Two.

Also in the Carabao Cup, Bournemouth destroyed Everton 4-1.

[NewYorkExpress]

While all eyes were on Manchester City's 2-0 demolition of Chelsea, we had a couple of upsets in the Carabao Cup today.

Blackburn continues their hot streak (they're second in Championship right now), knocking out West Ham on penalties.

Premier League leading Arsenal crashed and burned against Brighton and Hove Albion 3-1 (then again, they were starting their third or fourth string goalkeeper, Karl Hein, and multiple other non-regulars started).

Tottenham Hotspur also crashed out, falling to Nottingham Forest 2-0.

Liverpool escaped on penalties against Derby County (seventh in League One), in what is quite frankly an embarrassing result, even when you consider that Liverpool started their youth prospects and reserve team, as those players are better than Derby's first team by a mile.

[NewYorkExpress]

We've got a mouthwatering Manchester City/Liverpool battle as part of the Carabao Cup fourth round, which will be played the week of December 19.

[JGibson]

Arsenal will head into the World Cup and Christmas Day top of the Premier League table, thanks to Brentford's stunning 2-1 over Manchester City.

[Mike88]

Cristiano Ronaldo: United has betrayed me and made me a black sheep.

Oof... This are going to get even more "tense" in United.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

While the above is clearly incorrect, I hesitate to offer a similar take:

Juventus does indeed have a relatively big October match on Saturday in the Derby della Mole during an otherwise light weekend. They are currently only 29% to finish top seven for any European spot next year (compared to 32% to finish in the bottom half of the table). If they can't win this one (Torino has taken just one match in this derby in the last 27 years), we're really going to see the odds for the latter shoot up - but 10th or 11th placing is downright likely.

3 of the 5 remaining matches in 2022 are supposed to be certain victories, and if they start dropping points there, we'll know if they are really in trouble.

Maybe being out of European competitions (and the World Cup too) will give old legs a rest come springtime though. But this is too enjoyable not to relish.

Juventus has taken all 18 points since this point to elevate to themselves to third in the league table and second in goal differential! Conceding less than half a goal per match for the season. From 29 percent chance to 85 percent chance of a top 7 finish.

Huge odds-changing victory leaves both Roman clubs outside the forecasted top four. All that hullabaloo for more of the same...

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

https://twitter.com/philipoconnor/status/1591742608040075265?s=20&t=8BZlLiKA...

It may be problematic to get giddy over the gossip of real people's lives while pining for representation, so I'm just pretending this is a Ted Lasso Season 3 storyline so I can still feel happy with a fictional fake face to it, until they want it covered. Congrats to the happy teammates!

[Santander]

Ronaldo is an idiot.