Football: Four Amigos

[Lord of Oop North]

6 hours ago, MercurialCannibal said:

so season ticket holders could not have their regular seats? that is fucked. 

I hate mls for so many things. Garber sucks. 

Yup. Ticketing for the final is controlled by the League and they take a lot of seats to give to sponsors, douchebags etc. It was the same last year. People in supporters sections had their seats guaranteed. But if you were outside of a supporters section, we had windows to purchase seats and were not guaranteed our regular seats. 

Last year, we got the seating map through Ticketmaster so I managed to get my normal seats that I've had for ten years. For a lot of people last year, that wasn't possible due to people in earlier windows buying their seats or technical issues due to high volume. 

This year they also had problems with the system crashing and even the ticket code they sent out didn't work at first. We also didn't get the seat map option and we basically got a list of "best available" seats that we could pick from. Yesterday I saw my seats up on StubHub for like $500. Bunch of bullshit.

[Lord of Oop North]

15 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

That sounds like football finals everywhere, sadly. There's no ecaping those corporate cockholsters and their thirst for tickets to sporting events they care little about!

Yeah, pretty much. It sucks, but we still got to go and didn't have to pay scalpers for tickets. So that's something. 

[Jordan La Cabra]

Chelsea vs Barcelona. At least we avoided PSG for what would have been the fourth consequetive Champions League season, if nothing else.

[Consigliere]

Pretty good draw for all English clubs bar Chelsea and Spurs. Juve don't look to be quite the force this season though so I'd say Spurs have a better chance of progressing than Chelsea do. Real vs PSG is the standout tie.

[The Winged Shadow]

Well, 1-1 was a pretty disappointing result for Pool. Some good signs with Ox, playing fairly well in the box to box role. I thought he looked better than when he played on the wings. He was pretty good at switching play quickly without too much time on the ball, which can't be said of Hendo, who sure likes to take his god damn time moving the ball. Sometimes in that match, it felt like he was breaking up play better than Everton ever could!

I expect Klopp will get fined for the rant at the referee at the end there.

Liverpool got Porto on the last 16 draw. I should be happy because on paper this is one of the easier draws. But a part of me is terrified because Pool tend to fuck up the easy route. I would've felt a lot more confident against one of the big boys!

 

 

 

[BigFatCoward]

Quite a few competitive games, only really Man City and Bayern would seem a lock to get through. 

[Jordan La Cabra]

Celtic vs Zenit. I’m sure the hoops will be out to seek revenge for Zenit beating their old buddies Rangers in the ‘08 UEFA cup final...

[Mark Antony]

Good draw for sure. Madrid/PSG is tasty

 

[Mark Antony]

1 hour ago, The Winged Shadow said:

Well, 1-1 was a pretty disappointing result for Pool. Some good signs with Ox, playing fairly well in the box to box role. I thought he looked better than when he played on the wings. He was pretty good at switching play quickly without too much time on the ball, which can't be said of Hendo, who sure likes to take his god damn time moving the ball. Sometimes in that match, it felt like he was breaking up play better than Everton ever could

Man our fans are really turning on Hendo this season but I find it hard to disagree. I think he’s a decent player but the position doesn’t suit him. It’s pretty bad when an average player like Can should definitely be getting picked ahead of you. 

 I agree about Ox in midfield. I’d like to see him in over Gini on the road. 

[MercenaryChef]

I like the Chelsea Barcelona matchup. it could be a very fun one. 

if real Madrid fails to pass Paris zidane will be sacked.

how about the upcoming clasico? in the eastern side of the states it is on at 7am. they are really trying to make some solid moves to the Asian market with this kickoff time. 

[Daemon the Leaner]

7 hours ago, MercurialCannibal said:

if real Madrid fails to pass Paris zidane will be sacked.

On the other hand, should PSG fail to pass the round of 16, Emery will be sacked. Whoever wins, there will be blood and tears. And gosh that's what we like.

Very glad with the United draw, not to mention we will play the 2nd leg at home.

[Consigliere]

25 minutes ago, Sandokan I Ironborn said:

Very glad with the United draw, not to mention we will play the 2nd leg at home.

I'm quite happy with it too but I only hope that Mourinho doesn't resort to his usual cowardly tactics. While Sevilla are not as strong as they were two seasons ago, they remain a good footballing side and Mourinho usually resorts to hoofball when up against teams that are good in possession and capable of pressing high up the pitch.

[Consigliere]

Another Watford defensive meltdown after Cleverly was sent off. Zaha has been the difference.

[Jordan La Cabra]

I know we won, but conceding that goal 30 seconds from the end was so frustrating. I’d like to see us start keeping more clean sheets.

Anyway, a really strong performance off the back of a terrible one on Saturday. I’m a big fan of Morata, but he has looked behind the pace the past few weeks. That front three of Hazard, Willian and Pedro was so fresh, fast and fluid. As a defender, I’d probably rather face Morata for 90 minutes than either one of those three at any given time in a game. Could be an idea for Barcelona in February, as I wouldn’t class their centre backs as the most mobile in the world. 

Happy to see Bakayoko score (they may take the goal from him, but I’m giving it to him for now), as he’s received a lot of harsh criticism from sections of Chelsea fans.

Highlight of the night was seeing Ethan Ampadu make his Premier League debut. Hopefully he gets a few more opportunities as the season goes on.

 

PS: Things are starting to click for Crystal Palace.

[polishgenius]

I completely forgot there was footy this midweek. I see Burnley are continuing to push for the CL...

[Mexal]

43 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

I completely forgot there was footy this midweek. I see Burnley are continuing to push for the CL...

Love it. They're playing such good football right now.

[Consigliere]

12 hours ago, JordanJH1993 said:

Anyway, a really strong performance off the back of a terrible one on Saturday. I’m a big fan of Morata, but he has looked behind the pace the past few weeks. That front three of Hazard, Willian and Pedro was so fresh, fast and fluid. As a defender, I’d probably rather face Morata for 90 minutes than either one of those three at any given time in a game.

IIRC, Conte said that Morata was suffering from a bit of fatigue. Think Pedro should be a regular starter.

 

Quote

Could be an idea for Barcelona in February, as I wouldn’t class their centre backs as the most mobile in the world. 

Umtiti has been quite good for them and Yerry Mina is set to join in January. Haven't seen him play but by all accounts he is a highly rated CB. Chelsea should be able to cause them trouble on the counter though.

[Jordan La Cabra]

1 hour ago, Consigliere said:

IIRC, Conte said that Morata was suffering from a bit of fatigue. Think Pedro should be a regular starter..

A combination of fatigue and a back issue, I think. He's played practically every game since he came back from his hamstring injury, so it's no wonder he is a bit tired. Hopefully the rest last night will help him come back. Though, with Huddersfield being as poor as they were last night, it might have been a good chance for him to get back into scoring ways, to gain a little confidence.

1 hour ago, Consigliere said:

Umtiti has been quite good for them and Yerry Mina is set to join in January. Haven't seen him play but by all accounts he is a highly rated CB. Chelsea should be able to cause them trouble on the counter though.

I don't know much about Yerry Mina, but I do think Hazard, Pedro and Willian together could cause issues for Pique and Umtiti. It would almost be like trying to play Barca at their own game when they were playing a front three of David Villa, Messi and Pedro. As I said before, Huddersfield were poor last night, but some of the interplay between the three Chelsea forwards was as good as I've seen from us all season.

I'd be worried if I were Michy Batshuayi. Time and time again he has been overlooked by Conte, who clearly had nothing to do with his signing. With a World Cup coming up, you'd expect he would be looking for some more game time, but despite Conte's clear preference to not play him even if Morata is out, I can't see us letting him go for sale or for loan unless we can sign a striker to replace him. Unfortunately, there aren't many options out there, especially in the January window.

[Winterfell is Burning]

Mina is a pretty solid defender- not on the level of Piqué/Umtiti yet, but considering he's only 23, he might get there eventually. And he scores a lot of goals for a defender. His main problem is a lot of injuries in the last year and a half.

[Jordan La Cabra]

Luke Shaw and Scott McTominay starting for Manchester United tonight.