Global Football Odds & Ends

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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Jul 2, 2006
22,429
Philadelphia
Awful idea that will produce a return to turgid negative football with lots of teams unwilling to move their defensive line up.

The person quoted at the end of the article saying “Catenaccio will be back!” has it right (except for the enthusiasm).
 
67YAZ

67YAZ

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Dec 1, 2000
8,832
U21 Euro Final on CBS Sports. 73rd minute, England 1-0 Spain. But the watch has become a wide open affair. Something crazy should happen.
 
67YAZ

67YAZ

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Dec 1, 2000
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VAR check in the 97th minute…which leads to a PK! Oh wow. Cowill whiffed on the ball, hit Ruiz in the ankle. Play Carrie’s on for a couple minutes while Ruiz rolled around on the ground. Wild stuff.

here’s the kick…
 
67YAZ

67YAZ

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Holy shit! Trafford saves the PK and then a follow up off the rebound. Insane.
 
dirtynine

dirtynine

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Dec 17, 2002
8,435
Philly
Headed to Brighton / Chelsea in Philly on Saturday. Between the heat and the stage of preseason these clubs are in I’m anticipating a leisurely affair.
 
McBride11

McBride11

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Jul 15, 2005
22,199
Durham, NC
Great to see Wrexham. But it really just highlights the top top players / teams vs the good pros

This came up in the ?’MLB trade thread. We will knock those pros. But my god they are so much more ahead of joe schmoe it isnt close. Wrexham would ruin 99.9% of of adult league USA teams and Chelsea’s B or C barely shed a sweat. Wrexham probably takes out most USL teams, MLS could be hit and miss.

The old meme of ‘allow regular person in the olympics’ to demonstrate the difference… pleSe do. Id rather tune into Joe Sixpack vs some
Jamaican in the 400m than the top 10 runners.
 
Zososoxfan

Zososoxfan

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Jul 30, 2009
9,245
South of North
McBride11 said:
Great to see Wrexham. But it really just highlights the top top players / teams vs the good pros

This came up in the ?’MLB trade thread. We will knock those pros. But my god they are so much more ahead of joe schmoe it isnt close. Wrexham would ruin 99.9% of of adult league USA teams and Chelsea’s B or C barely shed a sweat. Wrexham probably takes out most USL teams, MLS could be hit and miss.

The old meme of ‘allow regular person in the olympics’ to demonstrate the difference… pleSe do. Id rather tune into Joe Sixpack vs some
Jamaican in the 400m than the top 10 runners.
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QFT. Watching lower league professional sports crystallizes just how elite the top leagues/teams/players are. IOW, when I watch a League 1 or 2 match (or USL live--Go Rowdies!!) it's obvious how much better the EPL level is, but I can still recognize the speed of play and technical ability is a level only a handful of players I've shared the field with reach.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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Jul 16, 2005
1,697
Don’t know where to put this, but todays Barcelona-Juve match has been cancelled due to illness in the Barca squad.
 
dirtynine

dirtynine

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Dec 17, 2002
8,435
Philly
Didn’t, but now I do - thanks for the notice! Good community, NSC. Perhaps slightly prone to hype. After getting a look at Joao Pedro the bandwagon is getting a bit wild.
 
SocrManiac

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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Apr 15, 2006
8,689
Somers, CT
Gigi Buffon is retiring at the young age of 45. He’s the best goalkeeper to have played the game. Saudi Arabia was courting him and he turned down a last payday.

He’s been an inspiration to me for two and a half decades. I’ll miss watching him organize, fly, and win.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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Jul 16, 2005
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History has been made by Klaksvic who become the first team ever from the Faroe Islands to qualify for the group stages of a European competition (competition TBD).

Their stadium is amazing in the sense that it’s tiny and at the base of a very visible mountain. At one end, there is a chain link fence behind one of the goals that separates the field from the street. It would be amazing if they could host a true European giant.
 
BrazilianSoxFan

BrazilianSoxFan

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Apr 11, 2006
3,751
Brasil
rguilmar said:
History has been made by Klaksvic who become the first team ever from the Faroe Islands to qualify for the group stages of a European competition (competition TBD).

Their stadium is amazing in the sense that it’s tiny and at the base of a very visible mountain. At one end, there is a chain link fence behind one of the goals that separates the field from the street. It would be amazing if they could host a true European giant.
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candylandriots

candylandriots

unkempt
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Mar 30, 2004
12,389
Berlin
rguilmar said:
History has been made by Klaksvic who become the first team ever from the Faroe Islands to qualify for the group stages of a European competition (competition TBD).

Their stadium is amazing in the sense that it’s tiny and at the base of a very visible mountain. At one end, there is a chain link fence behind one of the goals that separates the field from the street. It would be amazing if they could host a true European giant.
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I remember watching them defeat Claudio Rainieri’s Greece team (on TV) there during Euro qualification and it looked like so much fun, and there was going to be a serious party after that game.
 
67YAZ

67YAZ

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Dec 1, 2000
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Mancini resigns from the Italy job. I have not seen rumors of this coming. Very strange. He’s gone 39-13-9 in the role and, after missing out on the WC, has started a full youth reboot of the squad. If seemed like FA had given him full backing to remake the team for 2026. And that he was thoroughly enjoying the work.

will be very interesting to see where he pops up next.

Edit: is it too early for the US to replace Gregg? Or too late?
 
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teddykgb

teddykgb

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Jul 16, 2005
11,114
Chelmsford, MA
67YAZ said:
Mancini resigns from the Italy job. I have not seen rumors of this coming. Very strange. He’s gone 39-13-9 in the role and, after missing out on the WC, has started a full youth reboot of the squad. If seemed like FA had given him full backing to remake the team for 2026. And that he was thoroughly enjoying the work.

will be very interesting to see where he pops up next.

Edit: is it too early for the US to replace Gregg? Or too soon?
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seems he’s headed to Saudi. Which is too bad he’d probably fist fight half of US Soccer
 
Senator Donut

Senator Donut

post-Domer
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Apr 21, 2010
5,529
67YAZ said:
Mancini resigns from the Italy job. I have not seen rumors of this coming. Very strange. He’s gone 39-13-9 in the role and, after missing out on the WC, has started a full youth reboot of the squad. If seemed like FA had given him full backing to remake the team for 2026. And that he was thoroughly enjoying the work.

will be very interesting to see where he pops up next.

Edit: is it too early for the US to replace Gregg? Or too late?
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Italy makes the obvious move and hires Luciano Spalletti who was on sabbatical/running out the end of his Napoli contract.

View: https://twitter.com/azzurri_en/status/1692601645186609565
 
Nick Kaufman

Nick Kaufman

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A Lost Time
SocrManiac said:
Gigi Buffon is retiring at the young age of 45. He’s the best goalkeeper to have played the game. Saudi Arabia was courting him and he turned down a last payday.

He’s been an inspiration to me for two and a half decades. I’ll miss watching him organize, fly, and win.
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Apparently an avid Panini collector.
 
Nick Kaufman

Nick Kaufman

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A Lost Time
candylandriots said:
I remember watching them defeat Claudio Rainieri’s Greece team (on TV) there during Euro qualification and it looked like so much fun, and there was going to be a serious party after that game.
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Always glad to provide opponents with historical nights. Still perplexed about that one no matter how bad or out of form that team was. I am not sure they had won a game before that and even if they had, it must have been decades ago.
 
67YAZ

67YAZ

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8,832
Mancini has popped up in Saudi Arabia…as the new national team manager. I hope he’s getting what he wants because that’s a slap on the face to his home nation. It would have been different to decamp for an SA club job, but not this.
 
Jimy Hendrix

Jimy Hendrix

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Jun 15, 2002
5,858
Mighty Joe Young said:
John Herdman is stepping down as coach of the Canadian men’s soccer team and joining Toronto FC

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/john-herdman-toronto-fc-coach-1.694986

This generally sucks as he seemed to be a great motivator. His tactical nous left something to be desired IMO.

Who knows whether the fuck ups at Canada Soccer had anything to do with this.
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It seems clear that they do IMO. Seems hard to move a national team forwards when the fed is cheaping out on scheduling matches for you, so might as well get paid somewhere and see if you can make it in club management.
 
DJnVa

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
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Dec 16, 2010
54,199
Nothing surprising here:

Qatar’s World Cup FIFA Bribe Documents Exposed

The price of some FIFA committee votes was apparently higher than others. For instance, Nicolas Leoz, the now-deceased former head of South America’s soccer federation, got 5.4 million pounds ($8.5 million). But the highest payments went to Vitaly Mutko, Russia’s minister for sport between 2008 and 2016, chairman of the successful Russian bid for the 2018 World Cup, and deputy prime minister from 2016 to 2020. He got 46 million pounds ($72.6 million) on Feb. 19, 2009, followed by another 21.5 million pounds ($34 million) on Dec. 20, 2010.
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nayrbrey

nayrbrey

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Jul 20, 2005
2,453
Driving somewhere most likely
Great write up by the Guardian on Chelsea’s spending and what they are trying to accomplish.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/aug/30/chelsea-owners-may-see-clubs-own-fans-as-obstacles-in-violent-new-world

From the start, Boehly and Eghbali have talked about reimagining Chelsea as “an engine for football talent development”, which sounds fine in principle but a little alien if you’re more interested in, say, seeing your team win the FA Cup or forming an oddly personal bond with César Azpilicueta.
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The fact is, nobody knows what the best talent is. This isn’t a draft system. This isn’t US sport where competence is far more measurable in numbers and stats. Football is chancy, obscure, chemistry-based, nurture‑dependent. Mykhailo Mudryk is a super-talented footballer in isolation. But he needs tender care, stability and a system to work inside, as does every other young player hurled into Chelsea’s human investment portfolio. This is a model that will destroy careers as much as enrich them.
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67YAZ

67YAZ

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Long piece in the Athletic on Mancini’s decision to quit Italy for KSA. Bottom line - he got a €100m/4 year contract to walk away from his national team and ruin his reputation.

Lots of other fun tidbits in there like Mourinho was contacted by 2 Saudi clubs this summer and turned them down. And Wojciech Szczęsny coming out to say he turned down a move because he’s already rich.
 
ifmanis5

ifmanis5

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Sep 29, 2007
64,035
Rotten Apple
Sad quote here:

In an interview with Al Jazeera published on Monday, Paul said he had considered retiring from the sport having been worn down by the alleged extortion attempts and threats.
"Sometimes I was just by myself thinking, 'I don't want to have money anymore. I just don't want to play anymore. I just want to be with normal people, so they will love me for me - not for the fame, not for the money,'" he said.
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67YAZ

67YAZ

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Dec 1, 2000
8,832
That’s really sad, but maybe sheds some insight into why he went from such a joyous, clever, and daring young player at Juve to a dude who seemed to be actively bunkering down every time he stepped in a pitch. Admittedly, he maintained his excellence for France much longer than United, but it was such a loss to fans everywhere to see him fade at such a young age.
 
the1andonly3003

the1andonly3003

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Jul 15, 2005
4,427
Chicago
rguilmar said:
Swifties mobilized to swing 2023 Golden Boy voting to Jude Bellingham after an Alejandro Balde tweet surfaced saying that he doesn’t like Taylor Swift’s music. Can’t make this up.

https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/how-taylor-swift-help-real-madrid-jude-bellingham-beat-barcelona-alejandro-balde-2023-golden-boy/blt0d86734b557da1fe
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Did it work?


Separately, it looks like Chelsea's kit sponsor is going to Utd? Manchester United confirm Qualcomm as new shirt sponsors from 2024-25 season - The Athletic
 
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