Football XL - Thread of the NEW - SUN

[Ser Hippie]

And to think how I excited I was to get a Barca-Bayern semifinal, eesh.

At least Real put up a fight at the end...

[Alarich]

Bayern is wiping the floor with Barca. What a humiliation at home.

[Alcibiades]

Oh man, now Bayern are just being cruel.

[polishgenius]

The ref took pity on Barcelona by playing the minimum possible injury time.

That sentence looks so wrong.

[Jon AS]

Oh boy, German football pundits will be insufferably smug for at least a week after this.

Maybe we'll get lucky and some new revelations in Hoeneß' criminal case come to light, that's just about the only thing that could stop the circle jerk.

[Inigima]

Oh boy, German football pundits will be insufferably smug for at least a week after this.

They've kind of earned it.

[Jon AS]

They've kind of earned it.

The pundits? Most of them do engage in journalism at tabloid level at best. Shallow analysis and sensationalist rumourmongering. And none of them have done anything out of the ordinary lately, as far as I remember.

[Horus Ex Machina]

We talked about that a little earlier. I dislike the NY2 idea on principle, but it would probably be good for the league, and in my opinion, possibly bad for NYRB.

I'm just pissed that the Cosmos aren't getting in on this. If they don't sell the name to the NY2 owners I don't think I will be safe to be around.

[Inigima]

What is it with the Cosmos worship? Didn't they pretty much destroy NASL? I wasn't following soccer at that time.

[Horus Ex Machina]

0:7, and there's still a quarter to go.

Dammit, why did I come on here? I just got home and am still watching the replay. Oh well, happy to hear that Barca got it handed to them. At least Real made a play at equalizing.

[Horus Ex Machina]

What is it with the Cosmos worship? Didn't they pretty much destroy NASL? I wasn't following soccer at that time.

No they didn't. I hate when people say that, it's an incredible oversimplification of what actually happened. I posit that MLS, with the same people running it would have likely failed in the environment that NASL was operating in. And let's not forget that, for all of MLS' financial centralization, it's a league that almost failed itself. I'll expound later, but I just got home and want to watch Barca get destroyed.

[Alcibiades]

Well, the main problem with NASL was the lack of a TV deal, right? I think they did a pretty good job getting people to come watch the games (better than MLS), but it just wasn't viable without television revenues.

They do sell some pretty sweet retro Cosmos gear on their site that I've thought about buying.

[Alex.]

Barca really had their pants pulled down.

Maybe they should have pumped their players full of steroids and growth hormones. Might have stood more of a chance.

Oh.

[Horus Ex Machina]

Well, the main problem with NASL was the lack of a TV deal, right? I think they did a pretty good job getting people to come watch the games (better than MLS), but it just wasn't viable without television revenues.

They do sell some pretty sweet retro Cosmos gear on their site that I've thought about buying.

Exactly.

That coupled with overexpansion, having to playin NFL and MLB stadiums which they had to pay rent in as secondary and sometimes tertiary tenants, and the fact that soccer in America was in it's very infancy. The talent pool today is much deeper, there are more knowledgeable fans of the game today. The loss of the television deal was truly the killer, which is another thing that MLS had going for it. It's much easier to negotiate television deals due to the fragmentation of the television market. Content providers like Comcast now have multiple networks to provide content across, so it's easier to build a tv footprint with less pressure to provide immediate results. Back then it was only the big 3 for the most part.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

So who do Germans root for? My German friends always root for Bayern in the Champion's League, but the sitiuation's a bit different now. Does everybody outside of Bavaria and North-Rhine Westphalia just root for the meteor now, like most American's would watching a hypothetical Patriots v Cowboys Superbowl?

[polishgenius]

So who do Germans root for? My German friends always root for Bayern in the Champion's League, but the sitiuation's a bit different now. Does everybody outside of Bavaria and North-Rhine Westphalia just root for the meteor now, like most American's would watching a hypothetical Patriots v Cowboys Superbowl?

From my brief experience of Germany, there won't be a single person in the country, German or otherwise, who will be rooting for Bayern who doesn't actually support them.

[Winterfell is Burning]

I hope Dortmund takes this, in part because the team will be sacked like it's a zombie apocalypse after this season and they won't have another chance.

Plus, Bayern are just bullies.

From my brief experience of Germany, there won't be a single person in the country, German or otherwise, who will be rooting for Bayern who doesn't actually support them.

Yes. Bayern supporters will support Bayern, and everyone else will support Dortmund.

Schalke 04 supporters will commit mass suicide.

Reminds me of the time when (real) Ronaldo and Ronaldinho were in the Brazil team, and the coach was thinking of calling up the defender Ronaldo as well. He was asked why he didn't just refer to them by their surnames to avoid confusion, and replied that this wouldn't really help as the squad had three da Silvas and four named Santos.

Well, you don't know the funnier part- until Ronaldinho appeared, Ronaldo was known in Brazil pretty much only as...Ronaldinho, which means Little Ronaldo. That's because in the 1994 World Cup Squad there was another Ronaldo, which was known as Ronaldão (Big Ronaldo).

And the best part is that the narrator simply refused to stop calling Old Ronaldo as Ronaldinho (in part because Ronaldo was and still is pretty much an employee and marketing piece of the TV station the narrator worked in, but that's another discussion) and begun to call Ronaldinho as Ronaldinho Gaúcho (Gaúcho is what people from Ronaldinho's state of Rio Grande do Sul are called).

So from that point on Old Ronaldo was known as both Ronaldo and Ronaldinho and New Ronaldinho as Ronaldinho and Ronaldinho Gaúcho.

And a few years later, Cristiano Ronaldo appeared...

Also, there's dozens of young players (born in the early and mid 90's) called Romário or Romarinho, in tribute to Romário of course. So far, no one is playing in the same team, but that's gotta happen eventually.

[mormont]

Well, I did know that part, but yeah, it does add a certain something. :P

[Alex.]

Any of you American lot pick up Howler magazine? Really worth a read. Got the first issue shipped over and the second one is just out.

Absolutely beautiful piece of work.

[Demiant]

No he hasn't. He's scored a little under a third. I believe the stat was 'scored or assisted', which does make it a fair proportion, but, ya know, you can't just take that in isolation and go 'yeah, it's all coz he's great'.

It really hasn't. It's been decent, and his assist stat is nice, but compared to Arsenal where he was driving them creatively as well as getting the goals it's been much lesser. Of course he doesn't have to do that to get the goals for us, but it would be nice if he did. Especially since we've almost certainly scored less goals this season than last, and he's got three games to score three goals to get more than Rooney did last year - and is also almost certainly not going to top his total from before either.

Last season he was stunning. This season he's been really good at his best and okay in places.

Dude, RvP is a striker, and plays for a better team. Of course his stats are going to be better. Particularly the assists one, coz Spurs have Gareth Bale, occasionally Jermaine Defoe, and a squadful of crap finishers, whereas everyone in our team might get a goal.

But the "he plays for a better team so obviously he'll have better stats" argument is bull, cos players from shitter teams get good stats frequently. Benteke is a prime example. And by that logic, Suarez plays in a shitter team (by league standing) and has better stats so he should have won it?

Either way, you don't seem like you're going to change your mind and I'm quite a stubborn man myself, so we'll just agree to disagree friend. ;)

I hope Dortmund takes this, in part because the team will be sacked like it's a zombie apocalypse after this season and they won't have another chance.

Plus, Bayern are just bullies.

I don't think Dortmund will go down that road, they're a smart club with experience at the top level, and they already know what it's like to go from Champions of Europe to financially-screwed midtable mediocrity. They might lose a player or two but they'll replace him and move on. Apparently they're already looking at alternatives for Gotze (Draxler/Eriksen are names being brought up frequently), not to mention they have Leitner and Bittencourt who are considered top prospects.

They'll probably lose Lewandowski as well but they'll replace him I'm sure. They'll have huge money from getting to the final of the CL (and perhaps winning it) as well as 37m (or 39m, I forget) for Gotze and whatever they'll eventually get for Lewandowski, more than enough for them to be replaced.