football anyone? as in soccer...

[badmanganjaspliff]

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He’s obviously been not just replaced, but upgraded.
But scoring goals was never the problem.
This years success is down to the defenders imho.

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John stones is a fuckin gem I’m expecting a brilliant performance in the euros

Yes, absolutely. Seems mad to say that when considering Haaland's numbers this season, but City's defense has been ultra reliable throughout. And John Stones has just completely reinvented himself.

[whale]

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He’s obviously been not just replaced, but upgraded.
But scoring goals was never the problem.
This years success is down to the defenders imho.

[close]

John stones is a fuckin gem I’m expecting a brilliant performance in the euros

Yes, absolutely. Seems mad to say that when considering Haaland's numbers this season, but City's defense has been ultra reliable throughout. And John Stones has just completely reinvented himself.

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I wouldn’t put my fate in Southgate

[GuessAgain?]

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He’s obviously been not just replaced, but upgraded.
But scoring goals was never the problem.
This years success is down to the defenders imho.

[close]

John stones is a fuckin gem I’m expecting a brilliant performance in the euros

Yes, absolutely. Seems mad to say that when considering Haaland's numbers this season, but City's defense has been ultra reliable throughout. And John Stones has just completely reinvented himself.

[close]

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I wouldn’t put my fate in Southgate

Yeah, especially when his cb partner is most likely Maguire. The added factor of playing with him definitely puts too much pressure on the back line. Also Stones is outstanding right now because of how Pep plays him, it’s the same with Foden… 2 world class players and yet when playing for country they’re not utilised correctly

[Síota]

Maguire is the best thing to happen to England in ages let alone Untied.

[Atiba Applebum]

Maguire is the best thing to happen to England in ages let alone Untied.

Maguire has been fairly consistent in the back.  I kept waiting for something to fuck up in the WC or Euros, but no dice so far.   

Southgate isn’t some genius manager or anything close, but he gets his team to overachieve (or achieve as they’re supposed to which is a novelty).   A semi-final and a final in consecutive tournaments is good shit.     I back him because he’s almost there to take all the bullets instead of his players.   

[Síota]

I actually was taking the piss.

[Madam, I'm Adam]

Bellingham on Real Madrid is cool. I'm an RM fan and I've been watching him progress with Dortmund for a few years, so hopefully it works out for him. I'm saying this as more of a semi-casual fan of soccer, though.

[Atiba Applebum]

Bellingham on Real Madrid is cool. I'm an RM fan and I've been watching him progress with Dortmund for a few years, so hopefully it works out for him. I'm saying this as more of a semi-casual fan of soccer, though.

As a Liverpool fan, I’m glad he didn’t go to anywhere in England since I knew we’d never afford him.   I used to be a fan of RM in the mid 00s bc I liked Guti (and others) a lot, but also hated Barca fans in the US and their self-righteousness.   Lately though, RM just bores me independent of them beating LFC in two CL finals

[Síota]

I wish Dortmund wasn't a selling club. They seriously turn out so many good players.

[Atiba Applebum]

I wish Dortmund wasn't a selling club. They seriously turn out so many good players.

Still surprised Reus is still there.   Great of him

[Síota]

Did anyone watch the US/Mexico match yesterday? Just read about it sounded crazy.

Yeah no clue why he (Reus) didn't move, but fair play to him for staying that long. Wonder if he ever got his driver's license hahahaha.

[Madam, I'm Adam]

Did anyone watch the US/Mexico match yesterday? Just read about it sounded crazy.

Yeah no clue why he (Reus) didn't move, but fair play to him for staying that long. Wonder if he ever got his driver's license hahahaha.

He doesn't have one? Damn, he's like the Jason Dill of football.

[Síota]

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Did anyone watch the US/Mexico match yesterday? Just read about it sounded crazy.

Yeah no clue why he (Reus) didn't move, but fair play to him for staying that long. Wonder if he ever got his driver's license hahahaha.

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He doesn't have one? Damn, he's like the Jason Dill of football.

He had a fake one lol. He was in car ad's and all kinds of crazy shit before getting busted (which is a felony in Germany). It's a pretty good story.

[Roy Machine]

Did anyone watch the US/Mexico match yesterday? Just read about it sounded crazy.

Yeah no clue why he (Reus) didn't move, but fair play to him for staying that long. Wonder if he ever got his driver's license hahahaha.

I think him being injured maybe half his professional Football career plays a big role

[Atiba Applebum]

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Did anyone watch the US/Mexico match yesterday? Just read about it sounded crazy.

Yeah no clue why he (Reus) didn't move, but fair play to him for staying that long. Wonder if he ever got his driver's license hahahaha.

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I think him being injured maybe half his professional Football career plays a big role

I think he chose to stay.   Didn’t want to be one of those guys that ends up at Bayern eventually.

[nonickname]

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Did anyone watch the US/Mexico match yesterday? Just read about it sounded crazy.

Yeah no clue why he (Reus) didn't move, but fair play to him for staying that long. Wonder if he ever got his driver's license hahahaha.

[close]

He doesn't have one? Damn, he's like the Jason Dill of football.

[close]

He had a fake one lol. He was in car ad's and all kinds of crazy shit before getting busted (which is a felony in Germany). It's a pretty good story.

"...revealed the attacker (Reus) has been fined a whopping €540,000 for driving for a full three years without a licence." WTF?!?!?  He kept getting speeding tickets for 3 years before they clued in he shouldn't be driving in the first place...gawd damn

[Atiba Applebum]

Obvious bias, but the storyline this year I’m most excited about is the emergence of Trent Alexander Arnold in the midfield.    He’s been crushing it with England lately

[Owen]

Obvious bias, but the storyline this year I’m most excited about is the emergence of Trent Alexander Arnold in the midfield.    He’s been crushing it with England lately

I am also looking forward to this storyline

[Atiba Applebum]

The other storyline is Chelsea moving from Russkie money to Saudi money.   

[nonickname]

Dear Canadian Soccer Federation: Get your shit together!

After the ups&downs of the World Cup and the damp squib showing in the recent Concacaf Finals vs the US...you NEED to have a great Gold Cup. Believing they'd see it the same way -  the day tickets went on sale (over a month ago) for our 1st home game vs a yet to be named team I got tickets for my family. Low and behold this week they annouce pretty much every 1st string player is left off the squad...no Davies, David, Larin, Buchanan or Estaquio...well that sucks (and once people found out ticket sales basically stopped) but hey we've been drawn with Guadeloupe so that's an "easy" start. Hell they don't even have a FIFA ranking as they're an overseas department of France...so book those 3 pts!

Nope. With a disjointed lineup of kids getting their first caps and 2nd string vets who looked a step off all game they put in a woeful display...and scored an OG in added time to hand Guadeloupe a 2-2 draw that their players celebrated like nobodies bid'ness. I'll repeat...they have no FIFA ranking.

On top of it the TV ads...still show Davies. It's basically how, in the same week that the new head Jason DeVos mentions not being able to play friendlies vs higher ranked teams due to the cost and being hamstrung by the multi decade CSB contract (basically sold all the advertising rights to a 3rd party), to kill all the goodwill built up over the WC cycle. It's maddening. I've lived through many decades of bad footy here...but now that we have a decent squad...they have no idea how to use it.

Now off on my hobbled leg to get shredded in my 7v7 league...hooray?

[Síota]

They are gonna be bankrupt soon no? (Canada)

[nonickname]

They are gonna be bankrupt soon no? (Canada)

Apparently that's a tactic that Jason DeVos rolled out to get the CSB contract renegotiated...as in, if we go under you get nothing and we'll just reform under a new name...but it's a bluff and now everyone is seeing what a shitahow our Association has been for years. They basically sold away all their marketing for about 3 million a year - right before the men made the WC and the women won Olympic gold. It was sooo damn shortsighted - and on top of that the contract is 20 fucking years!!!

[whale]

Maybe it is the best move for him, but as a finn, I’m bummed Teemu Pukki went to the MLS.
Wanted to see last PL hooraah.

[Síota]

Fuck I guess the Jamaican woman's team is in shit due to the federation there also. They were great to watch in 2019 for the last world cup. Great support.

[Owen]

Tyshawn on football / Vini on Hardies

[Mean salto]

Why the fuck would they make teams play friendlies less than a week before the world cup? It's obvs gonna be a shit game and both France and Aus got injuries.


Is anyone going to watch the upcoming world cup, is it worth posting about it or maybe even starting a thread for?

[Atiba Applebum]

Why the fuck would they make teams play friendlies less than a week before the world cup? It's obvs gonna be a shit game and both France and Aus got injuries.


Is anyone going to watch the upcoming world cup, is it worth posting about it or maybe even starting a thread for?

Don’t think a new thread is needed.   This one isn’t lively enough.   Took me a second to realize you were talking about the Women’s WC.   That said, I believe they do that kind of schedule for the men too.   The only thing I can think of is maybe it helps with match preparedness by keeping their bodies “warm”

[Síota]

Will only be treated as a friendly like training and testing with out showing anything

Edit: or not ...  https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jul/14/ireland-abandon-pre-world-cup-friendly-20-minutes-overly-physical-colombia

[ThatIsNotCricket]

Why the fuck would they make teams play friendlies less than a week before the world cup? It's obvs gonna be a shit game and both France and Aus got injuries.


Is anyone going to watch the upcoming world cup, is it worth posting about it or maybe even starting a thread for?

The majority of the matches will be played when it's night-time here, so for the first few rounds I'll be watching highlights mostly. But from the quarter finals onwards the match times are more favourable: morning coffee with live football from then on.

I'm a bit less informed about stuff like favourites and dark horses, specific players to look out for, storylines etc. than I think I naturally am at the start of a men's World Cup, but I'll be reading up a bit as the matches move along.

[ThatIsNotCricket]

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Obvious bias, but the storyline this year I’m most excited about is the emergence of Trent Alexander Arnold in the midfield.    He’s been crushing it with England lately

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I am also looking forward to this storyline

Definitely. I've got no skin in the game with regard to Liverpool and England, but I hope Trent's going to kill it this season.

I think Deli Alli's storyline has perhaps now become THE storyline in the league for next season, in terms of individual players at least, for entirely different reasons of course. I hope to see him on the pitch more and more, putting in good performances, as the season progresses. Ideally with Everton, but maybe a bit more breathing space in a foreign league would make more sense for all involved (if the opportunity is there).