2015/16 International Football

[JTernup]

So the Sterling transfer got a lot of grief but City paid £44M (£5M in add ons that City will be HAPPY to have paid.) Then you consider that QPR gets 20% of the cash due to their sell on clause. This means LFC earned about £35.2M for Sterling. They just paid £32.5M for Benteke. They essentially traded a 20 year old homegrown winger who played a lot for a Europa League squad for £2.7M and a 24 year old striker from a team that finished 17th in the EPL.

If City over spent to get Raheem I don't know what to call what Liverpool has done to lock up their transfer targets this summer.

[rams80]

(words)

4. It’s probably best for me to walk away from this argument in a public forum; if you’d like to continue it, my PM mailbox is open.

It's probably best for you to relinquish moderation duties as well, if you're going to refer to one's reply as "(words)" while being in a position of power. That's a rather disrespectful and unprofessional move.

Respect is reserved for those who actually use it on occasion.

[marble21]

So the Sterling transfer got a lot of grief but City paid £44M (£5M in add ons that City will be HAPPY to have paid.) Then you consider that QPR gets 20% of the cash due to their sell on clause. This means LFC earned about £35.2M for Sterling. They just paid £32.5M for Benteke. They essentially traded a 20 year old homegrown winger who played a lot for a Europa League squad for £2.7M and a 24 year old striker from a team that finished 17th in the EPL.

If City over spent to get Raheem I don't know what to call what Liverpool has done to lock up their transfer targets this summer.

I think the biggest issue in my opinion with Liverpool is that they've made the same mistakes as last off-season. Which is the same mistakes Tottenham did the summer before. There's no point spending big on players when they are no better than what you already have. Sure, they have recruited some talented players but it's difficult to think of the best Starting XI for them because there are too many players you have to try and fit into the team somehow.

When you think that Chelsea spent approx £30m each on Fabregas and Costa, they were the missing pieces in the puzzle to build a title winning side. Firmino is a great player but he is no better than Coutinho and is a similar player. Benteke is not better than Sturridge. It's all well and good having a strong squad of 25 players but only 11 of them can be on the pitch at one time and it's difficult to see how they are going to put out a balanced starting XI week in week out.

[MJWalker45]

So the Sterling transfer got a lot of grief but City paid £44M (£5M in add ons that City will be HAPPY to have paid.) Then you consider that QPR gets 20% of the cash due to their sell on clause. This means LFC earned about £35.2M for Sterling. They just paid £32.5M for Benteke. They essentially traded a 20 year old homegrown winger who played a lot for a Europa League squad for £2.7M and a 24 year old striker from a team that finished 17th in the EPL.

If City over spent to get Raheem I don't know what to call what Liverpool has done to lock up their transfer targets this summer.

Panic buying. I think Benteke's recent injury record chased off a few suitors but Liverpool needed a big splash in the market and he could helpthem tremendously when fully fit. Now tosee if he fits with Sturridge.

[UnclearInitial]

"Six times" was in direct response to your dismissive comment about people watching less than "five times."

There's no need to assert one's bonafides when talking about, really, anything outside of a professional environment.

You may have watched more soccer. Congratulations. That doesn't invalidated the opinions of others, nor does it require everyone else to preface their opinions with their relative expertise level.

If you are an expert on watching soccer, it's on you to learn grace when discussing the sport you love with those who have less experience. Or else it's no fun for anyone and you have conversations like this.

I don't think crash intended it in the "you guys know nothing about soccer and therefore are not qualified to talk about it" way, but if I remember correctly he's a Villa fan, and watching a player week in and week out gives you a better opinion of a player than someone who might even be considered an expert, if said expert hasn't watched the player more than a dozen of times

[crashcarson15]

(words)

4. It’s probably best for me to walk away from this argument in a public forum; if you’d like to continue it, my PM mailbox is open.

It's probably best for you to relinquish moderation duties as well, if you're going to refer to one's reply as "(words)" while being in a position of power. That's a rather disrespectful and unprofessional move.

The use of “(words)” was to simply cut down on the space on this forum used by my reply; nothing more, nothing less. You wrote a long reply that I was responding to pretty much every part of, so I wanted to cut down the size of the quoted portion of my response. You knew what I was responding to, I knew what I was responding to, anyone else on the forum following this knew what I was responding to.

Guzan has been fine since he took over for Howard. Unfortunately, he had a below average game last night.

I don't know, but JK's lineups have seemed SUPER random lately. I'd agree with playing people he wants to be good instead of those who are actually good. Wish Feilhaber was at least in the camp. 1000x better than Corona. Also did I miss something with Omar Gonzalez? I like him as a CB, but maybe I missed him playing terrible or something?

Also I so want Zardes to be good, but he hasn't played well. ):

It's year one of the World Cup cycle. We've already got a slot in the playoff for the Confederations Cup (yes we shouldn't have to worry about the playoff, but *shrugs*). Now is the perfect time to see what you have and what you may have in 2018.

Edit, speaking of which, that might be why we used Guzan. Howard's going to be 39 by the time the next World Cup rolls around. He might still be able to compete at the level he has in the past, but there's a decent chance he won't be able to. Again, see what you may have if you can't have Howard.

Meh, I’d argue it’s year four of the four-year cycle. The A-team version of the Gold Cup ends the cycle for me; it’s what gets you back (in theory) to the Confederations Cup.

Speaking of which, we should really do away with the Gold Cup in 2017, 2021, etc.

"Six times" was in direct response to your dismissive comment about people watching less than "five times."

There's no need to assert one's bonafides when talking about, really, anything outside of a professional environment.

You may have watched more soccer. Congratulations. That doesn't invalidated the opinions of others, nor does it require everyone else to preface their opinions with their relative expertise level.

If you are an expert on watching soccer, it's on you to learn grace when discussing the sport you love with those who have less experience. Or else it's no fun for anyone and you have conversations like this.

I don't think crash intended it in the "you guys know nothing about soccer and therefore are not qualified to talk about it" way, but if I remember correctly he's a Villa fan, and watching a player week in and week out gives you a better opinion of a player than someone who might even be considered an expert, if said expert hasn't watched the player more than a dozen of times

Yeah, AL’s pretty much hit it straight on the nose. I’ve watched Guzan ~35 times a year each of the last three seasons, so yeah, it’s gonna set me off a bit when someone has a grand opinion on him because of one poor outing.

(Also, I’m just a miserable fool after US losses.)

[IanC]

Manchester City suffer a heavy 4-1 defeat against Real Madrid. New signing Fabian Delph is injured 18 minutes into his debut with a hamstring injury.

[pcgd]

I've felt since JK has started coaching that he's always experimenting. I keep thinking, ok he'll get our best 11 out there for __________, but then that shows up and I say... Well maybe for ________? I feel like the closest to "his first team" was the beginning of the World Cup, the Jozy goes down and... Well you know.

I am willing to give him through this cycle. I like him because he's challenging the status quo a bit and it needs to challenged. We need European style development, we need consistent coaching styles all the way down, we need to get rid of the pay to play model, and yes I'll say it, we need pro/rel to develop players better in this country. (Totally get its not financially possible, but for player development it would be better IMO) He's the only person high enough in the U.S. thats willing to talk about it.

[Crabcake]

Manchester City suffer a heavy 4-1 defeat against Real Madrid. New signing Fabian Delph is injured 18 minutes into his debut with a hamstring injury.

If that is not the definition of karma, I don't know what is.

[Corvus]

I've felt since JK has started coaching that he's always experimenting. I keep thinking, ok he'll get our best 11 out there for __________, but then that shows up and I say... Well maybe for ________? I feel like the closest to "his first team" was the beginning of the World Cup, the Jozy goes down and... Well you know.

I am willing to give him through this cycle. I like him because he's challenging the status quo a bit and it needs to challenged. We need European style development, we need consistent coaching styles all the way down, we need to get rid of the pay to play model, and yes I'll say it, we need pro/rel to develop players better in this country. (Totally get its not financially possible, but for player development it would be better IMO) He's the only person high enough in the U.S. thats willing to talk about it.

How exactly would pro/rel help development? Teams being relegated would face a huge financial hit and I would think might cut spending on development.

[MJWalker45]

Australia has gotten better without promotion and relegation. I don't think promotion and relegation play a part in the national team. It's also a fallacy that relegation promotes competition. It only promotes throwing money to keep your team from going down. The coach needs to stop picking from a hat and put a solid backline together.

[pcgd]

I sincerely appreciate NOT being labeled a pro/rel crazy right off the bat so thank you!

I believe that pro/rel would lower the threshold to the top division, thereby allowing more teams to be started with players that need to be developed to win in order to move up. It's more of a bottom up mentality.

I don't believe it's likely or even viable at the current time. I think there is a way to work to it and I'm more interested in hearing ways to do it instead of MLS soccer shutting it down completely.

Listen, it's not MLS's job to develop players. They exist to make money. It's the federations job to develop players in this country and they need to start leading the way. I believe one of the ways we get there is with more teams, and more interest and I think that helps develop talent. The federation is way too attached to MLS at the moment.

Soccer is not MLB, NFL, NBA or NHL. We aren't the best in the world and we need to play in the world market. That means playing by their rules where we can. For every Australia and U.S. That improves without pro/rel, you have a Iceland that has 75 teams in 4 divisions and has tons of players playing abroad in Europe. They invested heavily in development and have improved their team dramatically only just losing to Croatia in the last WC playoffs. Remember of course, Iceland has a total population of 325,000. Less than every city/region with a D1, D2, and some D3 teams in the U.S. They are maximizing their population. Meanwhile we have 300 million people and we struggle. We can and should be better.

As for relegation not causing excitement, I just think by the fact everyone towards the end of the year pays attention to the bottom of the EPL table nearly as much as they do to the top proves that it's exciting.

[JTernup]

Manchester City suffer a heavy 4-1 defeat against Real Madrid. New signing Fabian Delph is injured 18 minutes into his debut with a hamstring injury.

If that is not the definition of karma, I don't know what is.

This is :censored:ing moronic and pisses me off! A player chose a move to a squad where he can win trophies from a team that will be in the relegation battle. I don't like how he did it but calling an injury karma is sick and wrong. If you moved from your job at Walmart to one at Google I would be happy for you, not hope you got injured on the first day. (Just an analogy, not demeaning you or those who work at Walmart.)

Also I wouldn't overreact to the loss it's preseason and that was essentially RM's first team against a City XI you will never see again.

[MJWalker45]

Villa fans took joy in a bird crapping in Ashley Young's mouth. They considered that karma too. Obviously when a player does two U turns within a month, people will be pissed.

Watching the draw for Russia 2018, ot struck me as strange that FIFA are not announcing federations by their proper names. Also glad CONCACAF won't be playing CONMEBOL for the playoffs. It will be the AFC. Oceania gets the 6th placed team from CONMEBOL.

[dfwabel]

Villa fans took joy in a bird crapping in Ashley Young's mouth. They considered that karma too. Obviously when a player does two U turns within a month, people will be pissed.

Watching the draw for Russia 2018, ot struck me as strange that FIFA are not announcing federations by their proper names. Also glad CONCACAF won't be playing CONMEBOL for the playoffs. It will be the AFC. Oceania gets the 6th placed team from CONMEBOL.

Best part of the draw was...

Fat Ronaldo.

[lordsketor]

And to make matters worst for the USMNT they lost to a very angry Panama side 3-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw on the 3rd place game...capping off a Gold Cup campaign which is a great disappointment. (A failure would be losing the Confederations Cup Playoff this fall.)

[BlackBolt3]

I wouldn't be shocked if Jurgen gets canned soon, especially if they lose the playoff. If not, he needs to get back to the drawing board.

[dfwabel]

If JK is fired, there are two important questions for US Soccer to ask themselves...

1- Who is better?

2- Who is available?

As we get to August, is there a real answer to either?

[HedleyLamarr]

And to make matters worst for the USMNT they lost to a very angry Panama side 3-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw on the 3rd place game...capping off a Gold Cup campaign which is a great disappointment. (A failure would be losing the Confederations Cup Playoff this fall.)

It bears repeating....

We shouldn't put much stock in third-place games, much like making strong opinions in meaningless bowl games. Very often in these third place games, the favored team often has a case of the IDGAF's while the underdog gets excited about playing and finishing on a high note. The goal was to win the Gold Cup, that goal was dashed, and nothing was on the line today.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

At least Dempsey picked up another USMNT goal (and generally showed up throughout the tournament). He's clearly playing for the US record before he runs out of time.

The US has had a good couple of years. I don't think this tournament went as badly for them as the Copa did for Argentina and Brazil, so there's at least that.