row_33 Posted August 23, 2017 Posted August 23, 2017 Might as well get it going for the few of us. A few weeks into the English season have nothing dramatic yet, stars sat out the first week in Spain, elimination games this week for Champions League and WCQ games next week. Balotelli is playing for Nice. Name of the year so far is Windass for Glasgow Rangers...
Cugalabanza Posted August 23, 2017 Posted August 23, 2017 I'm a casual fan of the European leagues. I'll be following Borussia Dortmund some this year, with an eye on Pulisic. Each year, MLS gets a little more interesting. I live in Atlanta, so it's fun to see our expansion team doing well. I pay closer attention to the USMNT. Good, important games coming up against Costa Rica and Honduras.
row_33 Posted August 23, 2017 Author Posted August 23, 2017 Toronto got into the bandwagon effect with a great playoff run last year, hope it keeps up. I tape a dozen or so games a week and let them run until the grossly stronger team scores (or laughs to a 2-0) lead, then on to the next game. I don't care to watch Barca or Bayern complete the 8-0 drubbing of a hopelessly outmatched team.
Blokestradamus Posted August 23, 2017 Posted August 23, 2017 After 5 games, the mighty Stockport County are 9th in the National League North. Home to Gainsborough Trinity on Saturday.
row_33 Posted August 23, 2017 Author Posted August 23, 2017 Go Hatters!! Liverpool and Napoli move into the $$ rounds of the Champions League, of course they fix it so they knocked out teams from France and Germany that would have easily beaten almost every other team in this round. Gotta make sure Cyprus and Malta get teams in the $-rounds...
Blokestradamus Posted August 23, 2017 Posted August 23, 2017 I have to admit, the first 20-25 minutes of that Liverpool game was about as good as I've seen them play under Klopp. Even Alberto Moreno didn't look his usual abject awful self. They'll probably get Real, Dortmund & Sporting Lisbon in the group stages and end up 3rd
RaoulDuke79 Posted August 24, 2017 Posted August 24, 2017 I'm waiting for Coutinho to jump ship to Barcelona. Sooner or later one of the offers is going to stick. That'll be a tough pill to swallow. United has come out of the box hot. On a side note I turn on the TV to watch football (the American kind), and I keep getting bombarded with news and video of people protesting this and that I'm going to be watching more soccer than usual.
Augie Posted August 24, 2017 Posted August 24, 2017 While the progress is slow, in the 70's I had a friend who played middle school/HS soccer and everybody thought that was odd. Now, I take my mother to lunch and soccer is on half the TV's including the big screens. My son will watch when the broadcast is in Spanish. I'm planning on going to some of the Atlanta games (admittedly at least in part to see the new Mercedes Benz Dome cheaper than the NFL tix I bought there). It's not meteoric like MMA was, but it's real progress.
row_33 Posted August 24, 2017 Author Posted August 24, 2017 Some group in the Champions League will have Juve/Atletico/Paris St G while another group's best team will be 1845 Spartak Locomotiv Trabsonspor and another team that nobody has a clue what country it's from (one that doesn't use vowels at least).
snafu Posted August 24, 2017 Posted August 24, 2017 Some group in the Champions League will have Juve/Atletico/Paris St G while another group's best team will be 1845 Spartak Locomotiv Trabsonspor and another team that nobody has a clue what country it's from (one that doesn't use vowels at least). So you're saying the Champions League is like the Tony Awards of soccer?
row_33 Posted August 24, 2017 Author Posted August 24, 2017 For euro WC qualifying they put France/Holland/Sweden in one group and Italy/Spain in another while Serbia is in first and Montenegro is 2nd in another. They always play these SJW games to force horrible teams into the later rounds. For the FA Cup semis we always get Liverpool and Man United and Scuntthorpe and Hartlepool, so the "draw" guarantees every time that Liverpool and ManU will play each other in the semis.
RaoulDuke79 Posted August 25, 2017 Posted August 25, 2017 Good news for Liverpool fans such as myself. Domino effect: Assessing the impact of Dembele's big-money Barcelona move https://www.thescore.com/fran/news/1358278 (via http://thesco.re/theScore_app )
Seasons1992 Posted August 25, 2017 Posted August 25, 2017 My Watford side is playing well two games in. Currently live with a Spurs fan and the sky is falling in Wembley for this season....... Also keep an eye on Liverpool due to my morbid fascination with the Hillsborough tragedy, plus I love Klopp.
Canadian Bills Fan Posted August 25, 2017 Posted August 25, 2017 Toronto got into the bandwagon effect with a great playoff run last year, hope it keeps up. I tape a dozen or so games a week and let them run until the grossly stronger team scores (or laughs to a 2-0) lead, then on to the next game. I don't care to watch Barca or Bayern complete the 8-0 drubbing of a hopelessly outmatched team. TFC is amazing this year. Might break Galaxy's points record this year CBF
Wayne Cubed Posted August 25, 2017 Posted August 25, 2017 I'm waiting for Coutinho to jump ship to Barcelona. Sooner or later one of the offers is going to stick. That'll be a tough pill to swallow. United has come out of the box hot. On a side note I turn on the TV to watch football (the American kind), and I keep getting bombarded with news and video of people protesting this and that I'm going to be watching more soccer than usual. United had 2 easy draws to open the season West Ham and Swansea, they aren't exactly world beaters and with the money spent, they should beat those teams. I guess we shall find out this weekend what they can do against Leicester.
Cugalabanza Posted August 25, 2017 Posted August 25, 2017 United had 2 easy draws to open the season West Ham and Swansea, they aren't exactly world beaters and with the money spent, they should beat those teams. I guess we shall find out this weekend what they can do against Leicester. +8 goal differential after week 2 is no joke though.
Wayne Cubed Posted August 25, 2017 Posted August 25, 2017 +8 goal differential after week 2 is no joke though. I mean yea it's not a joke, because it happened. But West Ham/Swansea... 2 teams that will probably finish bottom of the table. Huddersfield came out hot against CP and beat Toons. All I'm saying is I'll be interest to see what they do this weekend. Maybe it's me being bitter because I didn't pick up Lukaku in fantasy and am getting roasted now haha.
row_33 Posted August 26, 2017 Author Posted August 26, 2017 Watched Neymar out there with PSG for awhile, he's not the kind of player that is going to singlehandedly create excitement and dominate the top teams. Very few ever were....
row_33 Posted September 11, 2017 Author Posted September 11, 2017 On to the Champions League 8 groups for the Final 32 starting tomorrow. And they give us..... Barcelona hosting Juve for the first game... The groupings aren't too egregious, ManU and Liverpool got cupcakes and Roma/Chelsea/Atletico is only one with 3 top teams for only 2 spots to advance.
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