Consolidated Soccer Thread 14-15

Started by TheCommandTent, August 08, 2014, 08:33:42 PM

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TheCommandTent

Quote from: bayonetbrant on August 30, 2014, 08:37:53 AM
you know what a triangle has that ManU doesn't?


3 points

:)

... snicker ...
"No wants, no needs, we weren't meant for that, none of us.  Man stagnates if he has no ambition, no desire to be more than he is."

bayonetbrant

The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

bayonetbrant

Considering how far out Columbus was from even making the playoffs back in June, the fact that they are mathematically alive for the 3-seed and avoiding the play-in game in the last weekend is pretty freakin' incredible.

Go Crew!
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

bayonetbrant

MLS playoffs are all set, with Columbus going from 7th place in the summer, to the 3-seed and a bye into the semis thanks to the perfect storm of results on the last matchday


EAST Conference Semifinals

DC vs NY/KC winner
NE Revs vs Crew


WEST Conference Semifinals

SEA vs DAL/VAN winner
LA vs RSL


Let's go CREW!
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

bayonetbrant

soccer humor found on the web...




"Two Andy Gorams, there's only two Andy Gorams" - Kilmarnock fans to the Rangers keeper after he had been diagnosed with mild schizophrenia



"I've told the players we need to win so that I can have the cash to buy some new ones." - Chris Turner, Peterborough manager, before League Cup Quarter Final, 1992



"I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered." - George Best



"If we played like that every week we wouldn't be so inconsistent." - Bryan Robson, Man Utd, 1990



"That's great, tell him he's Pele and get him back on." - John Lambie, Partick Thistle manager, when told a concussed striker did not know who he was.



"I was saying the other day, how often the most vulnerable area for goalies is between their legs." - Andy Gray, Sky Sports Commentator



Richard Keys: "Well Roy, do you think that you'll have to finish above Manchester United to win the league?" Roy Evans: "You have to finish above everyone to win the league"



"It's now 1-1, an exact reversal of the score on Saturday." - Radio 5 Live



"Football today, it's like a game of chess. It's all about money." - Newcastle United Fan, Radio 5 Live



"I'm not a believer in luck but I do believe you need it." - Alan Ball



"Merseyside derbies usually last 90 minutes and I'm sure today's won't be any different." - Trevor Brooking



"Dumbarton player Steve McCahill has limped off with a badly cut forehead" - Tom Ferrie



"And I honestly believe we can go all the way to Wembley unless somebody knocks us out." - Dave Bassett, Manager



"And Arsenal now have plenty of time to dictate the last few seconds." - Peter Jones



"What makes this game so delightful is that when both teams get the ball they are attacking their opponents goal." - Jimmy Hill



"Newcastle, of course, unbeaten in their last five wins." - Brian Moore



"Strangely, in slow motion replay, the ball seemed to hang in the air for even longer." - David Ackfield



"What I said to them at half time would be unprintable on the radio." - Gerry Francis



"If there weren't such a thing as football, we'd all be frustrated footballers." - Mick Lyons



"He's one of those footballers whose brains are in his head." - Derek Johnstone, BBC TV Scotland, 1994



"I can see the carrot at the end of the tunnel." - Stuart Pearce, 1992



Jimmy Hill: "Don't sit on the fence Terry, what chance do you think Germany has got of getting through?" Terry Venables: "I think it's fifty-fifty"



"There's nobody fitter at his age, except maybe Raquel Welch" - Ron Atkinson lauds Gordon Strachan, 39



"If I walked on water, my accusers would say it is because I can't swim." - Berti Vogts, Germany coach



"You don't have to have been a horse to be a jockey." - Arrigo Sacchi, Italy coach, defending a meagre playing record



"The only way we will be going to Europe is if the club splash out and take us all to Eurodisney." - Dean Holdsworth, Wimbledon



"If the players want to make it hard for me, I am happy to make it twice as hard for them." - Wendy Toms, the first female referee to officiate in a professional game.



"I think having Wasps around here as well gives us that little buzz around the place." - Ray Wilkins on the QPR-Wasps groundshare



It took a lot of bottle for Tony to own up." - Ian Wright on the Arsenal captain's confession to alcoholism
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

bayonetbrant

excellent MLS graphic

click to enlarge
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

OJsDad

Great map.  I noticed there is a big hole in SEC land.  Any idea why that is. 
'Here at NASA we all pee the same color.'  Al Harrison from the movie Hidden Figures.

bayonetbrant

No big soccer population centers. They're adding Atlanta and Orlando with a second New York team soon.  But SEC country is about college football first, college football second, college football recruiting third, accusing each other of cheating at recruiting fourth, followed by Spring football high school football, and football probation, in order of importance. The south is primarily a void of pro sports, unless you're cynical and count college football as a pro sport.
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

OJsDad

Atlanta should not have an issue with supporting a soccer team.  I would the same with the Carolina's
'Here at NASA we all pee the same color.'  Al Harrison from the movie Hidden Figures.

bayonetbrant

Quote from: OJsDad on October 29, 2014, 04:51:21 PM
Atlanta should not have an issue with supporting a soccer team.  I would the same with the Carolina's


One Atlanta 'cheerleader' said elsewhere "I can guarantee you that the ATL franchise will outperform Orlando and Miami."

the reply was
QuoteWell, yeah, and if I paint a stripe on the sidewalk, even *I* can jump over it.  If that's the bar you want to set, you're aiming pretty low.

Atlanta is a lousy choice for an MLS team.  Miami is probably worse. But if Artie and Becks want to throw their money away, MLS won't stop them.

I'd love to have an MLS team in Raleigh (I live here) but would keep my loyalty to The Crew first.  I know that an MLS team in Raleigh is a stretch, mainly b/c of ownership issues - we have no deep-pocketed locals to rival Artie here that would do it, and no outside businessman has stepped up.  Why?  See the last paragraph, below.

But what will inevitably happen - because we've seen it already with the NFL, NBA, and NHL - is that the ATL team will get marketed as the "Southeast" team and then everyone will wonder why no one in Raleigh or Charlotte or Chattanooga or Charleston gives a crap.  Just like no one in Raleigh cares about the Bobcats and no one in Charlotte cares about the Hurricanes and no one in Charleston cares about the Panthers.

If Atlanta wasn't a failed sports town, you could find owners that actually wanted to get in there because it's good business, not because they want the prestige of introducing themselves at cocktail parties as "Mr Bigego Bossman, owner of the Atlanta Failures"  The fact that no one wants to buy the Hawks tells you something about the local market.  The fact that no one wanted to buy the Flames and keep them there, or the Thrashers 30 years later, and keep them there tells you something about the local market. 
Owners that are in business to succeed, and not stroke their own egos, are avoiding Atlanta.  There's a reason why.


This was also posted elsewhere about Atlanta
QuoteI get that you want a deep-pocketed owner, but there's no history of soccer success there at all. The Silverbacks sucked for years until this past spring, and the Beat, Magic, Express, and Lightning/Quicksilver/whatever have all failed. Yeah, the Chiefs won the NASL in the late '60s, with all of 4k people/game there.
The league is desperate for a "southeast" team figuring that fans from Raleigh, Charlotte, Columbia, Charleston, Jacksonville, etc will all adopt them as a regional team, but quite frankly no one outside Atlanta gives a rip what happens in Atlanta.
Go get a team in a market that's going to give a crap instead of letting Artie Blank overpay for a franchise that will be a model of failure within 5 years.
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

bayonetbrant

So there are several tiers to the English football league system, and below that are what they call the "non-league" sides.  Think of them as low-single-A teams compared to US baseball.  What's hilarious is that there's a hashtag on Twitter for tweets of the wackdonculous stuff that happens at that level -  #onlyinnonleague

https://twitter.com/hashtag/onlyinnonleague?src=hash

some the stuff that people tweet at that level is awesome :)
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

bayonetbrant

http://instagram.com/p/wmNhInqPLf/

My son's team is in white.  He's on the other end of the field, in goal.
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

bayonetbrant

cross-posted from football thread


Quote from: OJsDad on January 06, 2015, 09:45:27 PM
Brant can probably talk to this better than I can, but if I remember correctly, it's based on you record at the end of the season.  When I lived in England back in the 80's, it was common from some teams to move up and down from one division to the other every year, because they're a top four team in the lower division, but a bottom four team in the upper division. 

Bottom 3 go down each season.
Top 2 come up, and #s 3-6 have a 2-round playoff to determine the 3d team coming up.

In the EPL, the top division is 20 teams. You play everyone home-and-home, for a total of 38 games.  The team on top on the last day wins the league; there is no "playoff" afterwards.  There are other concurrent knockout tournaments that go on over top of the league season, such as the FA cup.

The next division down in England - called "the Championship" - is 24 teams, as are League One and League Two (the two divisions below that).  Same thing w/ promotion and relegation there.  So you can earn your way up from the equivalent of single-A to the major leagues by playing well enough to win your way up.

If you want to talk more about this, let's shift over to the soccer thread, and I'll cross post this there.
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

bayonetbrant

Hey Brits!  (And Scots, etc)

Sky Sports signed a deal to show MLS games in the UK.
http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2015/02/25/mls-have-games-televised-sky-sports-uk-first-time

will anyone over there care?
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

bayonetbrant

So I managed to get the Sirius XM Football Show sidetracked this morning :)

They were asking what recommendation would you make for a change in the game.  I said that during league play, I'd give zero points for a nil-nil draw instead of getting a point.  You can get a draw and get a point, but only if you get at least 1 goal in there.  1-1 draw?  1 point.  5-5 draw?  1 point.  0-0 draw?  Squat.

Charlie Stilitano started going ape-shit over it.  It was awesome.
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers