Arena The Old Title Was Way Too Long: US Soccer/MLS Discussion

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.

 

Portland will be getting a MLS team next year and I will be a big fan. Can't wait.

 

Nice! Does the Portland team have a name yet?

 

I believe it will be the Portland Timbers. They "the Timbers" are a semi pro team in Portland and will kind of just turn into a MLS team.

 

One problem, if this is an international soccer thread then golden goal isn't a good title. Golden goal doesn't exist in international soccer.

I am a huge fan of English soccer. Premier League but also League Championship and I follow down to the League Two.
West Brom being my favorite team(LC but will be promoted to EPL)

Other leagues: I like Palermo in the Serie A and Villareal in La Liga

 

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.

 

La Liga has becoem a two-horse race and will probably be that way for a while now. Real and Barcelona are by far and away on top of the table. I don't like that. It's like everyone else is a bunch of 2nd class citizens. La Liga used to be one of the parity leagues and the Premier League had an ironclad top 4, but now that Liverpool is down in the dumps teams like Spurs and Man City can break the top 4 barricade.

 

I'm glad you started this thread, McClain. My 2010 sports goal as a fan is to become an actual football fan. And that starts by stopping referring to it as soccer.

I'm genuinely excited for the World Cup this year. I got to watch a good part of the UEFA cup a few years back, and that showed me what it looked like to have actual *good* footballers playing the game. And it was fun to watch. Then, the US and their success in the Confed cup gave me a little more hunger to follow the sport. Plus, I live in the same town as one of the best US clubs, and even though that's not saying much on the world stage, it does give me a decent team to go see in person.

 

anyone see that new world cup sommercail? It's awesome

Soccer is a sport where you have to watch the best. In other sports there is a certain charm about watching lowel levels as well as the top. Like watching high school and college football or basketball. College soccer is dreadful to watch, soccer has to be at a high level to be good.

That being said, I do follow the low English leagues pretty closely(although I have never watched a full game lower than LC, I mean where am I supposed to see that in the USA).

 

Top 7 of English League One(2 leagues below premeir league) with 2 game remaining. Top 2 get promoted automatically and 3-6 play in a playoff.

1.Norwich City 92
2.Leeds United 83
3.Millwall 82
4.Swindon Town 79
5.Charlton Athletic 78
6.Huddersfield Town 77
7.Southampton 70

With Norwich home and dry after just one season in the League One doldrums, It's now up to Leeds. Will Leeds finally get themselves out of their extended 3 year stay in purgatory? Millwall breathing down their neck. Southampton is out of reach for a playoff spot, so the playoffs will be contested between 3-6.

 

Hilarious [link=http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/blog/sow_experts/post/The-latest-worst-miss-ever?urn=sow,236778]self-pwnage[/link] by a Kansas City striker.

Guess it's not hard to figure out why this guy's not playing in Europe...

 

Bayern München vs Lyon today in the second UEFA game to make it to the finals. Bayern won the 1st game 1-0. Should be a good game.

 

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.

 

That (along with a couple of the other linked videos there) is hilarious indeed. He's gotta be pretty embarrassed after that

 

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.

 

Clinical display from Bayern.

I will be pulling for Inter tommorrow

 

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.)

 

Whereas, the Victory did well in the domestic league, but bombed in the ACL.

Still...

Victory 6 Adelaide 0!

 

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.

 

I wish ESPN picked the Champions League back up. They used to always show it until this year.

 

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.

 

[link=http://boards.theforce.net/the_arena/b10777/25605461/p1/?14] RICHARDSON'S FOOTBALL THREAD (FORMERLY SHOPPING CENTRE (FORMERLY MALL)) [/link] > this thread



Also, it is a travesty that the last post in that thread didn't get major lols. A travesty.

 

We actually talk about football here.