International Football 2017-2018

[GFB]

Ramos absolutely knew what he was doing when he “crocodile death-rolled” with Salah’s arm locked under his own.... anyone who says otherwise has never played the game.

 

I feel for Liverpool supporters today. To lose on a wonder-goal and two howlers with your MVP taken out by injury is heartbreaking. 

[Seadragon76]

England has their playoff weekend. Today saw Fulham earn a return to the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Aston Villa. Tomorrow has the League One final between Shewsbury Town and Rotherham United (Winner moves up to the Championship) and Monday has the League Two final between Exeter City and Coventry City (Winner moves up to League One)

[Needschat]

Gareth Bale's game winner:

A Schwinn for the Win! 

[Jaffa]

15 hours ago, Seadragon76 said:

...the League One final between Shewsbury Town and Rotherham United (Winner moves up to the Championship)

 

My fingers are crossed for an away trip weekend to Shrewsbury next season. Mrs Jaffa isn't quite as enthused.

[Jaffa]

Curses! Foiled again.

[DS729]

It’ll be interesting to see if the big Prem clubs try to move for Wolves’ Ruben Neves, or Ryan Sessegnon from Fulham. Sessegnon’s goal tally is incredible for a fullback, nevermind one who is still a teenager. Really looking forward to being able to (hopefully) watch these two more in the Prem next year. 

[MJWalker45]

Manchester United Women will join the new WSL Championship next year. They're being restarted after being disbanded in 2005. West Ham Ladies move up and Sunderland drops from the Super League to the third division, mirroring the mens team. I'm very happy to see Man United back in women's football. I think if the Glazers treat it the same way City does it could make for an amazing rivalry. Casey Stoney is expected to be head coach.

[Crabcake]

Out of absolutely nowhere, Liverpool have agreed to a deal for Fabinho for €50m. Absolutely amazing deal, over the moon right now. Liverpool needed a DM desperately and they snagged a great one. Well done Klopp and the boys ?

[MJWalker45]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5781973/Alessandro-Lucarelli-loyal-man-football-leading-Parma-Serie-D-Serie-A.html

Parma is back in Serie A and their captain retires after getting them back up. 

[gosioux76]

On 5/28/2018 at 6:42 AM, MJWalker45 said:

Manchester United Women will join the new WSL Championship next year. They're being restarted after being disbanded in 2005. West Ham Ladies move up and Sunderland drops from the Super League to the third division, mirroring the mens team. I'm very happy to see Man United back in women's football. I think if the Glazers treat it the same way City does it could make for an amazing rivalry. Casey Stoney is expected to be head coach.

On a separate note, I'd love to see a Champions League-like competition between the NWSL, the FA Women's Super League and other women's leagues from around the globe. 

[MJWalker45]

28 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:

On a separate note, I'd love to see a Champions League-like competition between the NWSL, the FA Women's Super League and other women's leagues from around the globe. 

I think the NWSL would have the same issue as MLS. And I don't know if any other CONCACAF nations have womens leagues at the same level as NWSL, though Mexico is starting theirs this year, mostly with U-23 and U-17 players as opposed to full national stars. Brazil has a womens premier divsion as well but I haven't seen their teams to gauge what level they are at. 

 

Another dumb Mexican Women's League rule:

"Only players born in Mexico are allowed to participate.^[34] The rule raised controversy since the foreign-born Mexican players (mostly born in the United States) who already represented the country's national team are excluded from playing in the league. Verónica Pérez, who capped 89 times for Mexico at senior level, was prevented from competing in the league along with Jazmín Aguas and former Mexico U-20 national team member Olivia Jiménez. Pérez has criticized the rule publicly and retired from football.^[35]"

[gosioux76]

17 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

I think the NWSL would have the same issue as MLS. And I don't know if any other CONCACAF nations have womens leagues at the same level as NWSL, though Mexico is starting theirs this year, mostly with U-23 and U-17 players as opposed to full national stars. Brazil has a womens premier divsion as well but I haven't seen their teams to gauge what level they are at. 

 

Another dumb Mexican rule:

"Only players born in Mexico are allowed to participate.^[34] The rule raised controversy since the foreign-born Mexican players (mostly born in the United States) who already represented the country's national team are excluded from playing in the league. Verónica Pérez, who capped 89 times for Mexico at senior level, was prevented from competing in the league along with Jazmín Aguas and former Mexico U-20 national team member Olivia Jiménez. Pérez has criticized the rule publicly and retired from football.^[35]"

I'm not really thinking of a CONCACAF Champions League, but more of a global Champions League. Include the winners of the NWSL, the WSL, the Australian and Japanese leagues -- not sure what else is out there. Even if it's just a four team thing, it'll at least showcase the NWSL's talent on a global stage. 

[MJWalker45]

1 minute ago, gosioux76 said:

I'm not really thinking of a CONCACAF Champions League, but more of a global Champions League. Include the winners of the NWSL, the WSL, the Australian and Japanese leagues -- not sure what else is out there. Even if it's just a four team thing, it'll at least showcase the NWSL's talent on a global stage. 

I think a Womens Club Championship tied to the same time frame as the men's tournament would be a pretty good idea. Since the women's teams play less games it's actually easier to move around schedules in December to fit in a 4 to 6 team tournament.

[Crabcake]

HUGE news in the world of soccer today as Zinedine Zidane has stepped down as Real Madrid manager. Talk about leaving on a high note. 

 

Now the only question is who replaces him. Surely there’s only one option. 

 

 

 

[MJWalker45]

8 minutes ago, Crabcake47 said:

HUGE news in the world of soccer today as Zinedine Zidane has stepped down as Real Madrid manager. Talk about leaving on a high note. 

 

Now the only question is who replaces him. Surely there’s only one option. 

 

 

 

Arsene Wenger and Mauricio Pochetino are at the top of the list. Somehow Luis Enrique, formerly of Barcelona, is on there too as well as Sarri from Napoli who was getting tabbed to replace Conti at Chelsea, who is also supposedly in the running for the Madrid job.

[Jaffa]

1 hour ago, MJWalker45 said:

...as well as Sarri from Napoli who was getting tabbed to replace Conti at Chelsea, who is also supposedly in the running for the Madrid job.

 

If they want Sarri, they'd better move fast - they have just over an hour-and-a-half at the time of writing before his release clause expires. If the clause isn't activated he can only leave Napoli by mutual consent or by taking legal steps to get the contract terminated. 

[MJWalker45]

Can we retire Bill Hamid now? He was horrible. 

[Crabcake]

Liverpool have agreed a fee in the range of £50m for Lyon captain Nabil Fekir. 

[MJWalker45]

https://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2018/6/12/17413432/2018-world-cup-russia-expansion-qatar-fifa-sepp-blatter-gianni-infantino

A true sign of the apocalypse:

 

"On the other side of the Atlantic, the North and South American confederations — CONCACAF and CONMEBOL — are looking to build off the success of 2016’s Copa America Centenario, a tournament which featured teams from both continents and drew big ratings. Not only do they want to hold the tournament again, both federations are actually considering merging together."

 

This would seem to help FIFA avoid giving CONMEBOL almost a practice tournament before handing out 7-8 seeds for the expanded World Cup. It also further stymies Caribbean countries that have a hard enough time getting past the Big 3 of CONCACAF (MEX, CR, USA). Now they have to deal with Brazil, Argentina and Colombia if this happens. 

[Digby]

Griezemann pulled some Decision-level nonsense the last couple days but says he's going back to Atleti. Could have done without the drama, but cool to see him really building his legacy there and doing his damndest to break up the La Liga duopoly.