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2016/17 Soccer/Football Thread
- Thread starter Aurious
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If only there wasn't a break in between the league for something worthless like germany vs san marino
What about Lipsia? Is there a new Leicester in Germany? Only a draw at home, no lose away and 27 points in 11 games is really a good score.
They were predicted to be a top 6 team by most analysts, but their performances have been even better than expected (while Leverkusen and Dortmund have underperformed). I don't think they'll win the Bundesliga this season, as they have been luckier than Bayern/Dortmund/Leverkusen so far, and it'll end up catching up to them, but they look like a solid top4 team right now.
Looks like Ancelotti's reputation of not taking the league as a priority is true.
I would be 100% with you that they wouldn't win the bundesliga if pep was still at Bayern, but this season the bundesliga has been a little weird. Fc Koln, Hertha Berlin, and Hoffenheim are all in the top 5 right now which is insane. Dortmund need to beat Bayern to break into that top 5 but that means Leipzig have a 3 point gap at the top. Very exciting
Oh absolutely, I'm not ruling them out at all, some models already have them at a 13% chance at the title, which is quite impressive. What I meant is that despite their great performances, they have been lucky in the important/close games (like against Leverkusen this weekend), and that might not happen in the following games. As for the rest of teams, I wouldn't count Hertha as a surprise, they were already one of the best teams last season. Hoffenheim is a pleasant surprise and will fight for the top spots for sure; while Köln is mediocre and have been lucky so far, expect them to drop to the 10-12th position as the season goes on.
International break kills off the momentum of teams and caused players to be fatigued or injured. You can see how Liverpool, for example, missed Lallana while Coutinho looked tired and his game was very off.
Yeah. Should have been a predictable one.
Are there anymore international breaks?
Next one is in March iirc.
Ok so right in the middle of late season fun. Perfect
Pre-qualifiers for international competition makes some sense imo. Teams with a very low coefficient can face off in the summer months in pre-qualifiers since they won't be at the world cup or regional championships anyway. This reduces the total number of international matches for top teams which will probably help ease fixture congestion for most top players and top teams. However it will unnecessarily punish top players from otherwise poor football nations, like Bale for Wales two years ago for example. He would have had to finish a gruelling season with RM only to then have to play pre-qualifiers with Wales and then have to do a full (although slightly reduced, relative to the current system) international program like the other top players from top footballing nations. This puts an even greater and unfair burden on gifted players from small nations than now but it does help solve the fixture congestion a little bit for most players. There's pros and cons either way but I think on balance it would probably be better to do international pre-qualifiers.
The reasons you say make a lot of sense, but I'm pretty sure the main reason why FIFA prefers the current system is so that there are more games involving top countries (so more money on television rights) and also because the mafia (Platini, Villar, Blatter, etc) need to keep the small federations favour to maintain power, so ensuring those small countries always have the chance of playing against the top teams is important.
Everybody's vote is equal. A lot more smaller countries than bigger ones. Can't wait for the 2050 world cup where San Marino will play Guatemala in the group stages of the world cup final
Rooney gets half his goals against these teams.
Needs something to celebrate as he gets hammered
The US just sacked Klinsmann. Despite the poor quality of the players (Bradley, Jones, Guzan / Howard, Altidore being better players in that team), he still managed to consistently punch above his weight; got out of the group of death in the last world cup and finished 4th in the Copa America. What's so bad about that? Are they so obsessed about losing 2 games away against Mexico and Costa Rica?
There are a bunch of fans here who would rather blame Klinsmann for the poor performance instead of admitting that the MLS isn't that great of a league to prepare players for the international level, admit Michael Bradley is a terrible midfielder, or that the United States needs a few more years of actually developing players before we have a good chance to compete. Don Garber was in Gulati's ear to fire him from the moment Klinsmann spoke the truth about the MLS not being at a high enough level and the idiot fan base bought into his bullshit. Klinsmann got Fabian Johnson to switch from Germany to the United States (He won the Euro u 21s with Neuer, Boetang, Howedes, Castro, Khedira, Ozil, and Hummels) Got John Brooks and most likely helped Bobby Wood become a big enough star to move to the Bundesliga and Aron Johannsson to Werder Bremen. He discovered Jordan Morris and tried to get him to Bremen as well but the kid refused Bundesliga for some reason and now with 2 losses against clearly better competition he is out. It's a God damn Fucking disgrace by US Soccer and when we appoint Bruce Arena to play kick ball again and get blown out by much better competition like we did in 2006, I hope those morons will realize what a terrible decision they made. FUCK Don Garber in the ass
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