Järv Posted October 12, 2013 Share Posted October 12, 2013 JonAs, Iceman, I find it interesting that you guys so fervently defend the privileges of a handfull of small town amateur teams to regularly play against the best footballers of the continent. There are thousands of towns the size of Andorra, San Marino, Faroer, or Liechtenstein in Europe, and probably each of them has an amateur team. How often do these guys get the opportunity to play against Özil, Xavi or Ibrahimovic? But for some reason, the amateurs of Liechtenstein have a special holy entitlement to do so in your eyes. Interesting concept of justice you have there... And what's even stranger, you obviously think that a League system should also not be implemented in addition to the existing qualifying system. So you believe that these towns also should have the privilege to force millions of fans into year-long boredom, because of what? Their dignity dictates it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon AS Posted October 13, 2013 Share Posted October 13, 2013 JonAs, Iceman, I find it interesting that you guys so fervently defend the privileges of a handfull of small town amateur teams to regularly play against the best footballers of the continent. There are thousands of towns the size of Andorra, San Marino, Faroer, or Liechtenstein in Europe, and probably each of them has an amateur team. How often do these guys get the opportunity to play against Özil, Xavi or Ibrahimovic? But for some reason, the amateurs of Liechtenstein have a special holy entitlement to do so in your eyes. Interesting concept of justice you have there... This should be obvious to anyone: national teams and club teams are two very different animals. Apart from the possibility of a club rising through the league system (which you can't really implement in international football due to the tight schedule, see below), there's always the national cup in which usually all clubs participate. Even though most are eliminated through preliminary competitions, often simply by failing to win a regional trophy in the season before, the possibility of any small club in Germany going on to face Bayern is in fact there. And of course a player can always move to another club if they are good enough. National allegiance is usually not changed so easily. So again: are you going to tell an Irish citizen that their nationality makes them unworthy of facing the mighty Germany team in a competitive match? And what's even stranger, you obviously think that a League system should also not be implemented in addition to the existing qualifying system. So you believe that these towns also should have the privilege to force millions of fans into year-long boredom, because of what? Their dignity dictates it? Millions of fans aren't forced into year-long boredom. For one thing many of them are in fact not German or Italian, so for them qualification is not a foregone conclusion. They actually do worry about their team not making it to the finals. And of course most of them are also followers of a club. That's what they worry about for most of the season, since the few international games make up a very small amount of the football being played all year long. Which is also the reason why any kind of reform that treats every country with the necessary respect and somehow reflects the differences in quality is impossible to implement: there's no time for it in the calendar. And that's quite apart from the fact that I don't really see any kind of tiered system that does not disproportionally favour the big countries even more than the current one does. Again I refer you to the Champions League for comparison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rorshach Posted October 13, 2013 Share Posted October 13, 2013 So, as half-expected, Ethiopia lost at home to Nigeria in the play-off for Brazil. 1-2 means they'll have to score at least twice in the return leg. Oh well. Close, but no cigar (and all hope is not lost yet) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Iceman of the North Posted October 13, 2013 Share Posted October 13, 2013 And what's even stranger, you obviously think that a League system should also not be implemented in addition to the existing qualifying system. That's not my point at all, I was arguing against introducing this in the existing qualification system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcibiades Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 Cool vine of the Portland fans after scoring tonight: http://instagram.com/p/fbh-XslQOr/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renasko Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 Portland fans must be ecstatic about Seattle have fell apart lately. 5 games without a win, including getting hammered 5-1 by our lot. Not encouraging form, ahead of the playoffs.I just hope we sneak through, with a 2 game showdown against Vancouver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inigima Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 Congratulations to Nasrudin on the Cascadia Cup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxus Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 according to their twitter account, west ham signed carlton cole until january. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercenaryChef Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 mls thinking of going to european schedule not sure how i feel about this. they are discussing having a break between december and january to help out franchises in colder areas like canada, new york, chicago, etc. i for one like going to mls games in the summer. competing with the nfl, nba and the mlb during their season could be rough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inigima Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 MLS says they aren't doing that. At least, not next year. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2013/10/14/major-league-soccer-says-no-major-changes-schedule-2014 Competing with the NFL is probably insane. MLB is spring and summer though, we compete with MLB as it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLU-RAY Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Going head-to-head right now with the NFL is completely insane. In five years, soccer will be a little more entrenched (it's begun already, but it's still a process for now) and the NFL will finally have coverage probably 10 months out of the year, and it'll matter less and be a survivable move. So good job holding off for the time being. I remember a couple of years ago on a Sunday night, there was a World Series game going head-to-head with some meaningless Week 8 Sunday Night Football NFL game... I think the random regular-season NFL game got multiple times as many viewers as the championship-round baseball game. NFL is a juggernaut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Walker Texas Ranger Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Aren't MLS playoffs already going up against the NFL? So at least a move to an international schedule would help a little there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterOJ Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 The MLS has been "going up against" the NFL for the past six weeks. If they do change the schedule, the front end of the schedule will be going up against the NFL, college football and postseason MLB, but the back end of the schedule and the playoffs won't be. I would think it would make more sense that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcibiades Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Kind of gutted for Bob Bradley and Egypt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Iceman of the North Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Doesn't look good for Egypt this time either... Of course, if this result stands, they merely need 4:0 at home, so not all hope is out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLU-RAY Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 That is a fair point, I guess it depends on 3 things:How much additional time they'd be going against football compared to nowWhat they see as the potential viewership for the playoffs vs the regular season (IE if the playoffs have a TON more upside, then they're better served getting them away from the NFL even at the cost of more total time head-to-head with the NFL)Whether they need to build momentum by having their early season have little competition or if they'll get the same views for late season games even if fewer folks are paying attention earlyWhether they gain any advantage by going during the big European leagues' offseason or if they would instead benefit from the overall interest in soccer during the winter seasonThat's four, but I hate editing posts on my phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcibiades Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Damnit Bosnia, SCORE A GOAL. ETA: BiH on 66% possession and 10 attempts on target. Surely that means a goal is coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcibiades Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 IBISEVIC! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 That is a fair point, I guess it depends on 3 things:How much additional time they'd be going against football compared to nowWhat they see as the potential viewership for the playoffs vs the regular season (IE if the playoffs have a TON more upside, then they're better served getting them away from the NFL even at the cost of more total time head-to-head with the NFL)Whether they need to build momentum by having their early season have little competition or if they'll get the same views for late season games even if fewer folks are paying attention earlyWhether they gain any advantage by going during the big European leagues' offseason or if they would instead benefit from the overall interest in soccer during the winter seasonThat's four, but I hate editing posts on my phone. I tried to do a bit of research -- looked to see what amount of revenue comes from playoffs vs. regular season games, but didn't find anything definitive. The only way a switch would make sense is if there's a huge revenue bump for the playoffs (which I highly doubt). Thing is -- it's not just NFL that they'd compete with in fall. There's also NCAA helmetball (hugely popular). So, you basically have a serious drain on MLS viewers Wednesday-Monday every week from September through January. Not awesome in the least. At least right now that only goes on for 2.5 months, not half the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Englands group record so far W,D,W,D,W,D,W,D,W ? oops! Would also love to see research to see how much you care about England based on where you are from, I couldn't give a shit about England. I reckon London would be top, the Northeast would be bottom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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