The Official Football (Soccer) Thread (v. It's starting again!)

[senecadawg2]

I don't know if anyone else watched the opening match today, but Tottenham made a decent run at it in Old Trafford today. Disappointing result for them- I really thought they deserved at least one point. A single, silly mistake cost them the game, despite being the greater threat throughout most of the game.

Go Bournemouth!

[Lowdz]

After a few weeks of stress free weekends it starts again today. Come on Liverpool. Here's to a better season.

[Nekov]

After a few weeks of stress free weekends it starts again today. Come on Liverpool. Here's to a better season.

If yesterday's game is any indication you're up for a lot of stress 

[Zydar]

Yeah I watched the Man United game against Tottenham on Saturday. Pretty lame match, and to win on an own goal... But it's three points anyway and it's nice to start the season off with a win.

[The Trooper]

Interesting opening weekend in the EPL. Watched almost every game. Lets see what Man City has today. I do not think we will see  run away like last year. But there is still 3 weeks in transfer season. moves will be made. I still think that Chelsea, Man U, Man City, are the teams to beat. Stoke is my so called dark with West Brom. Arsenal is overrated and a cluster f going on there. On paper Chelsea is the team to beat. MONSTER team.

[Onno]

So the goalkeeper of ADO Den Haag (Dutch Eredivisie) scored this goal today. Wow. That's a world class goal, although a bit of luck was involved of course. Not really a fan of any Dutch team in particular but that was great.

[Nekov]

So the goalkeeper of ADO Den Haag (Dutch Eredivisie) scored this goal today. Wow. That's a world class goal, although a bit of luck was involved of course. Not really a fan of any Dutch team in particular but that was great.

That is magnificent and should be nominated for Best goal of the year

[Cyclopssss]

Come on, we're one game into the season. Goal of the year? already?

[Nekov]

Come on, we're one game into the season. Goal of the year? already?

Well, we're in August so there's that  . But really, I know Zlatan can score one of those in any game, but still it will not be nearly as good as this one because of the context, it's a goal keeper scoring in one of the last plays of the game, managing to make the game a draw against the defending champion. Tough to beat

[Nekov]

And we have the Champions Groups

Group A: Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, Malmo
Group B: PSV, Manchester United, CSKA Moscow, Wolfsburg
Group C: Benfica, Atletico Madrid, Galatasaray, Astana
Group D: Juventus, Manchester City, Sevilla, Borussia Monchengladbach
Group E: Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Roma, BATE
Group F: Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Olympiacos, Dinamo Zagreb
Group G: Chelsea, Porto, Dynamo Kiev, Maccabi Tel-Aviv
Group H: Zenit, Valencia, Lyon, Gent

Group D will be a massacre. It seems City can't catch a break in the Champions

[Dimitrius]

Poor, Sevilla. They win the Europa League only to be drawn to the group of death!

Chelsea has an easy route to the round of 16, albeit with a lot of travel time!

[FlyingBIZKIT]

Group D is insane.

[Zydar]

I'm looking forward to seeing PSG coming to Malmö, since it's the home town of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the club he played for when he was a youngster (he left them in 2001 for Ajax).

[Zantera]

I don't think group D looks that tough. Juventus and City will 95% go through, Sevilla has a decent chance if City continues underperforming in Europe, but otherwise it looks pretty clear IMO.

[Nekov]

I don't think group D looks that tough. Juventus and City will 95% go through, Sevilla has a decent chance if City continues underperforming in Europe, but otherwise it looks pretty clear IMO.

Borussia M might not be a big name but it will no doubt give the other teams trouble

[rumborak]

Yeah, I don't really see group D standing out either. Not easy for sure, but there are other groups of equal difficulty.

[Peter]

Soccer (football) is my favorite sport! My first season starts in about 1 week! My favorite team is without a doubt Man United.

[rumborak]

Germany seems to have gotten out of the post-WC rut, they looked good yesterday. If they also win against Scotland on Monday, they're virtually through.

Netherlands, oh boy. They better get their shit together soon.

[Zydar]

I am watching Russia vs Sweden right now. So far in the game it has been all Russia.

[Onno]

Netherlands - Iceland was a disaster. The whole game was ruined by that idiotic foul from Martens Indi. What a fucking idiot.

[Onno]

Well, if our game against Iceland was a disaster, I've run out of words to describe this one.

[Cyclopssss]

We f....´ed up again. Oh well, see you in four years.

[Nekov]

What the hell happened? You made it to the semi-finals of the world cup just last year

[Cyclopssss]

Yeah, starting to think luck had a lot to do with that.

[Kwyjibo]

Even so, the Netherlands have one of the better teams in Europe, it's hard to believe that they can't qualify in a group that isn't that hard, regardless of Iceland playing 300% of what they are normally capable of.

It's actually sad when EURO 2016 runs without the Netherlands, and I really mean this, although I'm from Germany.

[Nekov]

This article here has some good points

[Onno]

Agreed, though that's a bid unusual for the Daily Mail I think 

[senecadawg2]

It's bad karma from knocking Mexico out of the WC on a shitty flop. Of course it's not that simple, but I'm still a touch disappointed.

[Cyclopssss]

Really? You guys are really still mad about that?

[senecadawg2]

Really? You guys are really still mad about that?

I'm not Mexican, so I don't even belong to that group of 'you guys' 

But as a relatively impartial fan of the game itself, it does disappoint me to see teams reap the benefits of cheating on the largest stage in the game.

At the same time, I've always enjoyed watching the Netherlands play and cheered for them several times (against Spain in 2010, for example) before so I'm also disappointed to see them struggling so much against teams like Iceland.

[Cyclopssss]

Alright, I get that. But do me a favor. Go back and watch all the world cups, back as the earliest '60's and '70's.
Diving for penalty's has always been part of the game and it is, over time, more or less accepted as being part of the game.

We could start an entire thread about unncaceptable fouls in world cups and european cups and whatnot through the years. It's sour at the time when it happens, but we have to move on.

[Nekov]

Yeah no, that's the main problem, people being ok with it. It's not Ok, it shouldn't happen and FIFA sooner rather than later needs to implement a replay system for these kind of plays. Not for all plays cause that wouldn't be feasible, but penalties and goals where there might have been an offside should be reviewed.

[Cyclopssss]

Good point. FIFA has always blocked the implementation of video-reffereeing, or video-playback. The technology is there, why not use it? It works in (field/ice) hockey, it works in tennis. It may take up a few extra seconds, a minute tops. In a sport where the stakes are so high, especially in tournements like that or the Champion's League, why not introduce video and goal-line aid.

FIFA won't change it. Why? Beats me.

[Kwyjibo]

FIFA doesn't change anything because as of now there's no-one that has offered the right amount of bribes to change it. 

[Nekov]

 

I think they are reluctant to change it because on one hand, FIFA is run by dinosaurs who don't like any change and on the other hand, when those kinds of things happen the media goes batshit crazy and generates a lot of attention which means more money for them to some extent.

And you also have lots of cases where the referees are clearly told that certain team has to win like Korea vs Italy in 2002 or the most recent fiasco in the Concacaf Gold Cup where the referee awarded Mexico 2 penalties out of the blue because they needed them to get to the finals.