Premier league soccer

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 3 years ago

Another topic....anyone here follow soccer, especially the Premier League?

I've started to, since last season....especially now since I'm home most of the time due to retired and the pandemic, and there's not much on TV that's worthwhile to watch.

I know NBCSN is closing down, but hopefully USA will pick up the games...and peacock is available but I haven't signed up for it yet.

Yeah soccer might be boring for some, but compared to the shitshow that is college BB [especially us], it's a welcome diversion.

Unread post by **SGreenwell** » 3 years ago

Ha, I actually love having soccer on in the background while I write - its taken the place of baseball for me. Just a kind of nice, pastoral sports thing to have on in the background. I couldn't tell you anything about which teams are good or bad historically though, which I suppose is why it's easier for me to use as a background watch, vs. baseball, where I still have a faint interest in how the Sox do.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 3 years ago

One thing I like about soccer is that the games take less than 2 hours to play, and the clock continues to run even when there's a stoppage in play due to injuries etc....although time is added on at the end of halves, it usually isn't much.

Of course now they have their own review system similar to US football, called VAR [video assisted replay] when it comes to close calls like offsides, which can be controversial of course even with reviews.

reef · Unread post by **reef** » 3 years ago

I like it too Liverpool is my team

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 3 years ago

reef, so do I, but this year they aren't so good....too many injuries causing too many different lineups.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 3 years ago

Liverpool has pulled a URI Baron/Cox style collapse.

Although those two were never very good, at least Liverpool was for a while.

Besides injuries, too many players playing out of position, and not a lot of quality backups.

Just like MLB, the biggest spenders in the major soccer leagues are usually the most successful....and though they are a bigger club [owned by Fenway Sports Group btw] they aren't close to clubs like the 2 Manchester ones.

reef · Unread post by **reef** » 3 years ago

Looks like Man City will coast to the title ??

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 3 years ago

That's 3 out of the last 4 PL titles for them.

They have a ton of depth, something the others don't have.

spookydog · Unread post by **spookydog** » 3 years ago

About 14 years ago I picked my team (Tottenham) but didn't pay much attention besides occasionally seeing a the result a couple times a season. Obviously not paying attention at all. But over the last 5 or 6 years I really got into it. What helped was that it was the only live sport on early Saturday & Sunday mornings while I was awake with my young children. 2 hour games & no commercials, I was sold. So now I will watch all of the Spurs games when they are on.

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 3 years ago

How did Premier League fans watch games 14 years ago?

spookydog · Unread post by **spookydog** » 3 years ago

ATPTourFan wrote: ↑3 years ago How did Premier League fans watch games 14 years ago?

ESPN2 would show the occasional game back then as did Fox Sports. Then about 7 or 8 years ago NBC Sports took over the rights & has been showing a lot more games.

The Dude · Unread post by **The Dude** » 3 years ago

I'm a big Tottenham fan. Go Spurs! Watch them on NBCSN each weekend.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 3 years ago

The Dude wrote: ↑3 years ago I'm a big Tottenham fan. Go Spurs! Watch them on NBCSN each weekend.

They are a frustrating team to watch sometimes.

When they're "on" they are great, but too often they play like they did yesterday against Arsenal.

Their coach Mourinho is fun to watch. What a sourpuss lol.

The Dude · Unread post by **The Dude** » 3 years ago

I don't like Tottenham's current coach. I liked Pochettino, but it seems he made some decisions that cost him the respect of some guys on the team when going into the top game for the champions league crown. The team seems to be one or two players short of being a top team. They need a change of mentality. Too inconsistent.

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 3 years ago

I’m not a Spurs fan but I will always try to watch Kane and Sonaldo. I adopted Chelsea because of Pulisic but now that he’s getting the shaft from Tuchel I’m in a weird spot as a fan: they’re winning but my guy is buried. He created a nice goal the other day to close out their Champions League game against Atletico after he came on as a sub, so hopefully he can stay healthy, find his form and start earning some of his minutes back.

Beautiful time to follow soccer as an American. Young American players are breaking thru in every major league and at some of the biggest clubs in the world.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 3 years ago

TP, everything is building toward a breakthrough at the World Cup in 2026, when North America [mostly US] will host the competition.

Next year could see the US reach the quarters or maybe the semis? That's as far as they've ever been.

The Premier league this season has become the Man City show again....but the Champions league could have them, Chelsea, or Liverpool make the final.

bigappleram · Unread post by **bigappleram** » 3 years ago

I think the kid Yusuf Mensah just decided to play for US. Really like him in the attack, skilled and strong.

The kid Sergino Dest just scored 2 goals for Barca this weekend and will be a great wing defender that can attack from the outside. We have never had a 2 way defensive player like that and if you look at all the top flight squads their wing defenders are huge parts of the offensive strategy.

US has at times had a few nice pieces (Dempsey, Donovan, Howard) but never a deep core group of guys at all the key positions (striker, midfield, defense) and ultimately would get exposed against top flight teams. Now with Pulisic, Reyna, McKennie, Dest they have a core that plays at all 3 levels and can defend as well as attack and are all playing in top flight leagues. Hoping we show up well for 22 and then come back in 26 as legit title contenders. That would be something we have never seen before. The whole country would embrace soccer; for that month at least.

EasyEdBrown · Unread post by **EasyEdBrown** » 3 years ago

I'm a Tottenham guy too, from the "Watch on FoxSoccer every few weeks, try to find clips online, and use extra-legal streams when possible" era.

I also follow Dortmund, Houston Dash, Revolution, and the 2 national teams pretty closely.

If anyone has ESPN+, try to catch Juventus play. Weston McKinney is a mainstay for Juventus this season...he's 22 and I believe he's the best player on the national team (including Pulisic). Claudio Reyna's kid Gio is 18 and he played for Dortmund...he's still eligible to play for England and the US, but I think they are going to do everything they can to lock him into the USMNT. Sergino Dest is 20, and regularly starts for Barcelona. Messi's Barcelona.

Dest actually scored off a Messi assist this weekend.

bigappleram · Unread post by **bigappleram** » 3 years ago

Dest scored in USMNT's 4-1 win against Jamaica yesterday...him a Pulisic teamed up on the left side will put pressure on opponents defense. Both are fast and highly skilled.

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 3 years ago

Dest’s goal yesterday was filthy. Curler from at least 30 yards out, perfectly placed to the far corner and out of reach of the keeper.

I think the most fascinating position to watch right now is striker because Berhalter is apparently committed to a lone striker and you have a bunch of young guys that are fascinating to me playing in Europe (Sargent, Dike, Weah, Hoppe, Soto, Gioacchini, Siebatcheu) and that one seems wide open to me. I think the wingers (Pulisic/Reyna), midfield (McKennie, Adams, Musah), defender (Dest, Cannon/Robinson, Long, Miazga/Richards - and Brooks at least for the next cycle) are set for like the next decade or so.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 3 years ago

The future is indeed bright for US men's soccer.

Of course the under 23 squad attempting to qualify for the Olympics crashed out with a loss to Honduras, but they were nowhere near full strength.

ramster · Unread post by **ramster** » 3 years ago

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 3 years ago

As usual, Donaldson is a clueless buffoon. The team the U.S. sent to qualifying should have won and advanced, but it was full of guys who will never play competitively for country again in their careers. It was effectively a B or even C team. The age group of Americans that would be Olympic eligible is likely to be the Golden Generation, but as a result they are a continent away playing in the best leagues and for the biggest clubs in the world. The failure to qualify for the Olympics sucks and it was a failure for the group of guys that were in that team as well as the coaching staff, but it is hardly a reflection of the state American soccer at the moment.

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 3 years ago

TruePoint wrote: ↑3 years ago As usual, Donaldson is a clueless buffoon. The team the U.S. sent to qualifying should have won and advanced, but it was full of guys who will never play competitively for country again in their careers. It was effectively a B or even C team. The age group of Americans that would be Olympic eligible is likely to be the Golden Generation, but as a result they are a continent away playing in the best leagues and for the biggest clubs in the world. The failure to qualify for the Olympics sucks and it was a failure for the group of guys that were in that team as well as the coaching staff, but it is hardly a reflection of the state American soccer at the moment.

Is it? Honest question, because soccer is way down the line of sports I follow, but the national team does come up on my radar at times. Because I remember in the aftermath of us failing to qualify for the last World Cup one of the warning signs people pointed to was failing to qualify for the Olympics before that and the coming dearth of talent that failing to qualify signified. Yes, we've got some high level talent now, do we have the necessary depth as well?

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 3 years ago

Yeah, I mean it’s important to realize that probably the best 25 or so age-eligible Americans were not on the team because they’re in the middle of their club seasons in Europe. It isn’t just the big names - Pulisic, Dest, McKinnie, Reyna, Adams, Musah. We have probably a whole team’s worth of other guys playing in good euro leagues, and even THAT leftover team would probably be more talented than just about every team we’ve ever sent to a World Cup. The aforementioned guys are all on track to be elite players, not just for Americans but legit actual global stars.

MLS plays off-cycle compared to the rest of the world, and because it’s the biggest league in North America its schedule dictates the Olympic qualifying schedule. As a result, we are stuck sending a team of young MLS players. And even within that group, we were missing several likely starters who play with Atlanta which is about to kickoff the CONCACAF champions league so they held their players back.

None of this is to suggest that this wasn’t a colossal failure by the group that went and the people that sent them. It absolutely was. It was a huge missed opportunity because we likely would have brought the A-team to Tokyo and that team could have been a legit gold medal contender. And this team, despite being the C team, had more than enough talent to qualify. It’s a stupid system where you can only qualify or fail to qualify based on the result of a single game - regardless of your body of work. And in a single game, weird stuff happens like your 18 year old keeper botches a clearance and the opponent deflects it into the goal and then you’re cooked, which is what happened to the U.S. against Honduras. But that game really shouldn’t have been close. No argument from me about the massive squandering of resources that losing a qualifying spot to Honduras represents, but I just think it doesn’t really represent where the U.S. is right now as a soccer country. It will bring a really, really good team to World Cup qualifying and hopefully to the World Cup. None of the guys on the team that lost to Honduras will ever see the field for the senior team in a competitive game.

Tl;dr is that judging the overall state of American soccer by the Olympic Qualifying results would be like judging the state of the Red Sox based on Portland Sea Dogs finishing 15 games under .500. That might matter if the big league club is aging out a core group of veterans (which is analogous to the USMNT in 2016), but not as much if it is comprised of elite prospects that are younger than most of the AA guys.

(ETA for completeness: the kid Jackson Yuiell (sp?) who did score the goal for the U.S. on Sunday - a certified banger actually - is a promising player that I think could eventually cap for the USMNT senior club.)

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 3 years ago

Thx for the excellent breakdown.

The Dude · Unread post by **The Dude** » 3 years ago

Love watching European club teams play who have U.S. players on them right now! There are some super promising talented players and watching them play together in the Jamaica & Northern Ireland games was special. I am finally witnessing a squad that plays with creativity and with one another. They're all unselfish or at least appear to be.
As for the Olympic qualifying team, it was clearly a B or C squad that played Honduras. I do however agree with something Alexi Lawless said after the game, which is that those guys were still "pros" and play for MLS and to play the way they played in that game was, in my opinion, an utter embarrassment. The passing was SOOOOOOO slow from the backline especially. I've seen sloths move faster. The goal keeper was lazy & tried to pass the ball by an opposing player that was less than...10ft? away with no angle...only for it to be deflected into his own net. Yuiell & maybe Lewis were probably the only guys that looked remotely threatening. The midfield was just poorly positioned throughout the game. I was actually surprised to see that the game wasn't 4-0 by the end of it. I really expected more heart & fight in that team. I've seen college teams play better than those so called "pros" did. I think that is what really bothered me & I'm sure others about that game. It was a lost opportunity for a U.S. squad to play in solid tournament style soccer (Olympics) together that was squandered in my opinion.
Looking forward to seeing how the Premier League shakes out in terms of the top 4 though.

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 3 years ago

100% agree that the team that went choked and should be embarrassed. They were horrible. As you said, despite being a C team there was more than enough talent there to beat Honduras and qualify for the Olympics.

My only point is that all of the above is a reflection on the team that went specifically and not US soccer overall, because none of the players we will rely on for the next 3 World Cup cycles were on that team. That group is so young and so talented that in my mind they have established a floor for the next decade - who knows what the next crop of young guys that are now 15-20 years old will produce to add reinforcements. The failure of 20-odd guys who won’t ever factor into the senior team in their careers doesn’t bode one way or the other for our prospects in world cups.

RhowdyRam02 · Unread post by **RhowdyRam02** » 3 years ago

TruePoint wrote: ↑3 years ago Yeah, I mean it’s important to realize that probably the best 25 or so age-eligible Americans were not on the team because they’re in the middle of their club seasons in Europe. It isn’t just the big names - Pulisic, Dest, McKinnie, Reyna, Adams, Musah. We have probably a whole team’s worth of other guys playing in good euro leagues, and even THAT leftover team would probably be more talented than just about every team we’ve ever sent to a World Cup. The aforementioned guys are all on track to be elite players, not just for Americans but legit actual global stars.

MLS plays off-cycle compared to the rest of the world, and because it’s the biggest league in North America its schedule dictates the Olympic qualifying schedule. As a result, we are stuck sending a team of young MLS players. And even within that group, we were missing several likely starters who play with Atlanta which is about to kickoff the CONCACAF champions league so they held their players back.

None of this is to suggest that this wasn’t a colossal failure by the group that went and the people that sent them. It absolutely was. It was a huge missed opportunity because we likely would have brought the A-team to Tokyo and that team could have been a legit gold medal contender. And this team, despite being the C team, had more than enough talent to qualify. It’s a stupid system where you can only qualify or fail to qualify based on the result of a single game - regardless of your body of work. And in a single game, weird stuff happens like your 18 year old keeper botches a clearance and the opponent deflects it into the goal and then you’re cooked, which is what happened to the U.S. against Honduras. But that game really shouldn’t have been close. No argument from me about the massive squandering of resources that losing a qualifying spot to Honduras represents, but I just think it doesn’t really represent where the U.S. is right now as a soccer country. It will bring a really, really good team to World Cup qualifying and hopefully to the World Cup. None of the guys on the team that lost to Honduras will ever see the field for the senior team in a competitive game.

Tl;dr is that judging the overall state of American soccer by the Olympic Qualifying results would be like judging the state of the Red Sox based on Portland Sea Dogs finishing 15 games under .500. That might matter if the big league club is aging out a core group of veterans (which is analogous to the USMNT in 2016), but not as much if it is comprised of elite prospects that are younger than most of the AA guys.

(ETA for completeness: the kid Jackson Yuiell (sp?) who did score the goal for the U.S. on Sunday - a certified banger actually - is a promising player that I think could eventually cap for the USMNT senior club.)

Thank you for this, this was very informative

spookydog · Unread post by **spookydog** » 3 years ago

rambone 78 wrote: ↑3 years ago
The Dude wrote: ↑3 years ago I'm a big Tottenham fan. Go Spurs! Watch them on NBCSN each weekend.
They are a frustrating team to watch sometimes.

When they're "on" they are great, but too often they play like they did yesterday against Arsenal.

Their coach Mourinho is fun to watch. What a sourpuss lol.

Or like yesterday morning. Just an awful showing against Newcastle.

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 3 years ago

I’ve enjoyed the Ted Lasso show on AppleTV+. Anybody else watch that?

Ramulous · Unread post by **Ramulous** » 3 years ago

Yes. Very enjoyable

Rhode_Island_Red · Unread post by **Rhode_Island_Red** » 3 years ago

Been following Newcastle since Little Red went to grad school Tyneside. Perfect masochistic complement to following the Red Sox (back to the Impossible Dream team when I was eight) and URI.

bigappleram · Unread post by **bigappleram** » 3 years ago

ATPTourFan wrote: ↑3 years ago I’ve enjoyed the Ted Lasso show on AppleTV+. Anybody else watch that?

Me and agree it's awesome. I think they are shooting season 2 right now.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 3 years ago

This Super League proposal will ruin soccer as we know it.

I'm sure there will be some compromises made, but it sure looks like a huge money grab for the big clubs.

The Premier League is threatening to expel the 6 clubs that are planning to join, along with other restrictions like players from those clubs not being eligible to play in the World Cup, etc.

I doubt that will happen. They would be killing themselves off.

But what a mess. FSG from Liverpool who also own the Sox are in this knee deep.....they are in the sports business to make money over everything.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 3 years ago

So Henry finally apologizes for being one of the main drivers behind this farce.

All of this stuff was withheld from the teams staff and players and then they took the brunt of the protests.

Shameful. Of course the revamped Champions League is just another excuse for the governing bodies to make more money.

ramster · Unread post by **ramster** » 3 years ago

ramster · Unread post by **ramster** » 3 years ago

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 3 years ago

Beautiful Pulisic assist clinches Chelsea’s trip to the Champions League final. After his goal earned them a 1-1 draw away in the first leg.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 3 years ago

Hate to say it, but the best teams in soccer for the most part, are the ones who spend the most, like Chelsea and Manchester City.

Even Liverpool, who is one of the biggest clubs, didn't spend after they won the CL and Premier League, and it cost them big time after they didn't have the depth to withstand the injuries they suffered this season.

You can't stand still and continue to win in pro sports.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 2 years ago

After having made the above post, it does look like the 4 richest clubs will get the 4 Champions League spots for next season....go figure....soccer's no different than baseball in that regard.

And if Manchester City get Harry Kane from the Spurs, they will win everything again next season, no doubt....and likely continue to do so after that.

ramster · Unread post by **ramster** » 2 years ago

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 2 years ago

The rich just keep getting richer in the Premier League.

The big spenders are already dominating just 8 games into the schedule.

Will be a 4 team race for the top....Chelsea, Man U, Man City, and Liverpool. Only Liverpool didn't spend big in the offseason, but they already had a ton of talent that's mostly healthy now.

The rest are playing for scraps.

limkangyoung · Unread post by **limkangyoung** » 11 months ago

rambone 78 wrote: ↑2 years ago The rich just keep getting richer in the Premier League.

The big spenders are already dominating just 8 games into the schedule.

Will be a 4 team race for the top....Chelsea, Man U, Man City, and Liverpool. Only Liverpool didn't spend big in the offseason, but they already had a ton of talent that's mostly healthy now.

The rest are playing for scraps.

It's been a year and your message is as relevant as ever... What money has done to Newcastle can only be seen!

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