Arena The Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, and Landon Donovan Mancrush Thread: The Arena's American Soccer Hub

Well, it's time to start another football/soccer thread, especially with the World Cup starting up in a few months.

Since the English Premier League dominates in the YJCC thread, I'd like this one to have a more international flavor. I've got no problems with people talking about the EPL here, but I'd also want fans of Spanish, German, Italian, French, American, Dutch, etc teams to have a home here.


I've become a fan of Valencia CF over the past few years. I had the opportunity to go a match at Estadio Mestalla in 2007, and have been following them since. I also follow FC Nantes (where I studied abroad for a semester), but they've been relegated down after one season up in Ligue 1.

Valencia won 1-0 last night against Deportivo de la Coruña. I'm surprised that one wasn't on tv. AC Milan and Barça both were on Hungarian tv (where I'll be for the two weeks). Barça looked really good, winning 3-1 over Xerez, and AC Milan looked terrible, loosing 1-3 to Palermo.

Nice! Does the Portland team have a name yet?

Timbers? Nice, as long as people don't somehow get them confused with the T-Wolves.



Well, if you have a better title, rech, I'm definitely open to suggestions.

I'm really surprised how little EPL football has been on here. There's been a lot more stuff from La Liga and even Serie A than the EPL. I don't really have an EPL team that I follow that closely. I sort of like Man U, but I can't come up with a reason why. One of my friends here supports the Tottenham Hotspurs, so I've been thinking of switching to supporting them. Ironically, he's from the Manchester area.

Yep, I'm really looking forward to this one. I watched the first leg a few days ago, and Bayern absolutely dominated at home. I think that Lyon could come back to advance, but I really think that the German side have the upper hand.

darthdrago, great find!

Yep, Valencia is way behind Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. I'm hopeful that they can improve next year and push those two clubs, but I don't know if those are realistic expectations. I guess we'll see.

Bayern won easily today. I'm surprised Lyon didn't put up more of a fight.

Looking forward to Inter - Barca part 2 tomorrow night.

My local side, Adelaide United, last night sealed top of their group in the Asian Champion's League. Despite being terrible domestically this season we're doing OK in Asia. (Like a couple of years ago...didn't make the finals of the domestic season but were runners up in the ACL.)

I'll be pulling for Inter, as well. I'm not crazy about them, but I really don't like Barca.

Oh snap, Marcus.

Well, Inter lost the match, but won 3-2 on aggregate. Barca had some good chances at the end, but couldn't capitalize.

Oddly enough, I couldn't find the match on tv anywhere, so I was stuck with a play-by-play description. They had last night's match on, so you figure that they'd have tonight's on, too, right?

Who's your early pick for the winner? I think that I'd take Inter over Bayern Munich, depending on Sneijder's ability.

That's a strange decision, considering how much ESPN/ABC are pushing the World Cup.

I'm just really surprised that it wasn't on Hungarian tv.

Bayern Munich virtually sealed their Bundesliga league title thanks to a rout against Bochum and a Schalke loss.


There have also been reports linking David Villa to Barca. I hope that he doesn't go, but I won't be surprised if he does. I believe that Valencia is in a ton of financial trouble, and they have to raise capital somehow. Still, he's a very good talent and it'd really set their team back.

We actually talk about football here.