Global Football Odds & Ends

candylandriots

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I’m watching a replay of the Union Berlin:FC Nürnberg match on the Fox Soccer app. A rather surprising flag in the visiting Nürnberg section:

ImageUploadedBySons of Sam Horn1517008149.726720.jpg
 
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Jimy Hendrix

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OCST

Sunny von Bulow
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The 718
Um...


Taxi for Barry

Former Everton midfielder Gareth Barry and his West Brom team-mates have apologised for their involvement in an incident in which a taxi was stolen from a fast food restaurant in Barcelona while the Baggies were in Catalonia this week.

Click here for the full story
 

candylandriots

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Just came in on a flight to Bangkok with the Chiang Mai team and was welcomed almost immediately my the smiling face of Jamie Vardy at the Leicester City store here.
 

Senator Donut

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I don't know if it gets more Odds & Endsy than Mike Piazza yelling about his Serie C club, AC Reggiana 1919, and their stadium situation.

Seems like he's getting screwed over by the mayor, but the presser is worth watching
Wow, that's a fantastic find. From what I gather, the issue is that Piazza's team, Reggiana, had a stadium built by the local municipality. The municipality put the stadium up for auction and was bought by Mapei. Mapei owns Sassuolo who are from elsewhere in the province of Reggio Emilia. They outgrew their original home ground in Sassuolo when they were promoted to Serie B and later to Serie A. (Think of them as a smaller version of Leicester, buying their way to the top flight.)

So Mapei basically hijacked Reggiana's home stadium and appear to be raising the rent on Piazza. Piazza thinks the town should intervene to keep them in the city, instead of in the cities of Modena or Sassuolo, because having the Piazza name attached to the club brings in tourism to the town. I don't buy it.
 

PedroSpecialK

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Sukur was also a disciple of Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania for nearly 20 years
...aaand there goes any sympathy (edit: 'any' is harsh, but as someone whose own country has been ruined by a theocracy, it's tough to side with those who advocate it.)

Interesting read overall though- thanks for posting it
 

InstaFace

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I don't want to have this get all V&N, but the Gulenists are a long long way from theocracy fanatics. The thing that unites them most is opposition to the increasingly undemocratic Erdogan. I bet if you asked Sukur, he'd say he was secular - the devout Muslims in turkey tend to vote AKP overwhelmingly anyway.

You are pretty quick to chuck your sympathy for a political refugee.
 

Deathofthebambino

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I don't know anything about soccer, for the most part. I'll watch the World Cup or Olympics every four years, but that's about it. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I really don't have anymore time to devote to sports than what I already do, so soccer doesn't make the cut.

That said, I happened to tune into this "FA-Cup Final" that's on live between Chelsea and Man U., and I fee like this is a big important, championship type game. Is it? I figured if it was, there would have been a game thread or something with people talking about it, but for all I know, its just a regular season game, and they call them all "finals" for whatever reason.

Anyway, if it's a big game, who is the favorite? Any great players to look out for specifically? Chelsea scored the first goal on a penalty kick, which looked to be the right call (they should have had another one before that, which wasn't called, IMO), and to my untrained eye, Chelsea seems to be controlling the play thus far.
 

fletcherpost

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I don't know anything about soccer, for the most part. I'll watch the World Cup or Olympics every four years, but that's about it. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I really don't have anymore time to devote to sports than what I already do, so soccer doesn't make the cut.

That said, I happened to tune into this "FA-Cup Final" that's on live between Chelsea and Man U., and I fee like this is a big important, championship type game. Is it? I figured if it was, there would have been a game thread or something with people talking about it, but for all I know, its just a regular season game, and they call them all "finals" for whatever reason.

Anyway, if it's a big game, who is the favorite? Any great players to look out for specifically? Chelsea scored the first goal on a penalty kick, which looked to be the right call (they should have had another one before that, which wasn't called, IMO), and to my untrained eye, Chelsea seems to be controlling the play thus far.
It's the FA Cup Final at Wembley. Big English and Welsh knock out tournament. Hundreds of teams enter, this is the final. End of season show piece match. Used to have more to it, but we live in the days of Champions League or bust, so teams like Man U and Chelsea are all about the league, but they want to win of course.

It's being held at Wembley, the English national stadium.

It's cool being igornant sometimes innit gadgie?
 

Philip Jeff Frye

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It used to be bigger game. It's the traditional end to the season, normally featuring two big teams that have survived a season-long knockout tournament that, in the early stages anyway, involves every professional club in the country. It was sort the equivalent of the Super Bowl, although dimmed somewhat by the parallel existence of the league title. The league title has always been more prestigious, but the league season seldom ends with a dramatic winner-take-all single game showdown.

The increased importance of the Champions League has dulled the shine of the FA Cup. That final is now the Super Bowl at the end of the season. For the big English clubs with aspirations to win the Premier League and go deep in (and perhaps even win) the Champions League, the FA Cup tournament plays third fiddle, adding fixtures to congested schedules. Top teams often don't play their best lineups in qualifying games, and getting knocked out of the tournament is almost a relief to teams that can now concentrate on bigger things. However, it's still seen as a decent consolation prize to win the final. Chelsea or ManU will be happy to end the season with some silverware, but everyone would rather be Man City or Liverpool this year instead.

I went to the FA Cup final 40 years ago this week to see Ipswich Town, very good back then but solidly mired in the Championship for the last 20 years or so, beat a heavily favored Arsenal squad 1-0. Still probably the single biggest sporting event I've ever attended.
 
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Deathofthebambino

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Awesome, thanks for the explanations guys. I would never have been able to learn any of that listening to the broadcast or reading online.
 

fletcherpost

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Watch the Champions League final next week, you'll notice the difference. It's football's top table and the pinnacle of the club game.
 

CodPiece XL

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It used to be bigger game. It's the traditional end to the season, normally featuring two big teams that have survived a season-long knockout tournament that, in the early stages anyway, involves every professional club in the country. It was sort the equivalent of the Super Bowl, although dimmed somewhat by the parallel existence of the league title. The league title has always been more prestigious, but the league season seldom ends with a dramatic winner-take-all single game showdown.

The increased importance of the Champions League has dulled the shine of the FA Cup. That final is now the Super Bowl at the end of the season. For the big English clubs with aspirations to win the Premier League and go deep in (and perhaps even win) the Champions League, the FA Cup tournament plays third fiddle, adding fixtures to congested schedules. Top teams often don't play their best lineups in qualifying games, and getting knocked out of the tournament is almost a relief to teams that can now concentrate on bigger things. However, it's still seen as a decent consolation prize to win the final. Chelsea or ManU will be happy to end the season with some silverware, but everyone would rather be Man City or Liverpool this year instead.

I went to the FA Cup final 40 years ago this week to see Ipswich Town, very good back then but solidly mired in the Championship for the last 20 years or so, beat a heavily favored Arsenal squad 1-0. Still probably the single biggest sporting event I've ever attended.
A good few years ago I was speaking to Paul Mariner..we spoke about that cup final specifically. He said he missed an open goal by blootering the ball, he also said it was 1:0 but in reality going on 5. I think he said they hit the woodwork 2-3 times. He said Clive woods had a hell of a game.
 

SoxFanInCali

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California. Duh.
Prince William is the President of the FA, and would normally be there to hand out the trophy, but clearly his brother didn't check the calendar before setting his wedding date.
 

cgori

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Awesome, thanks for the explanations guys. I would never have been able to learn any of that listening to the broadcast or reading online.
FYI, the German Cup final is on now - it’s the equivalent for Germany as the FA cup final you watched is for Britain.
 

mauf

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FYI, the German Cup final is on now - it’s the equivalent for Germany as the FA cup final you watched is for Britain.
Have to imagine there will be lots of controversy in the FRG about the two late non-calls (a handball that would have nullified Frankfurt’s second goal, and a penalty that would’ve given Munich a chance to tie in stoppage time).
 

cgori

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Have to imagine there will be lots of controversy in the FRG about the two late non-calls (a handball that would have nullified Frankfurt’s second goal, and a penalty that would’ve given Munich a chance to tie in stoppage time).
I was a bit surprised about the non-call of the handball, especially with VAR that sort of thing can get reversed.
 

Philip Jeff Frye

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A good few years ago I was speaking to Paul Mariner..we spoke about that cup final specifically. He said he missed an open goal by blootering the ball, he also said it was 1:0 but in reality going on 5. I think he said they hit the woodwork 2-3 times. He said Clive woods had a hell of a game.
Ha, Paul Mariner. My 13 year old sister thought he was very dreamy!

The guy who scored the one goal, Roger Osborne, was a bit player for us - it was certainly the biggest moment of his career. The really weird part was that he basically fainted right after running around celebrating the goal (it was an unusually hot, humid day as I recall), so he got subbed out right away. I've got a VHS tape of the game somewhere - I should try to find it and figure out a way to watch it.
 

Senator Donut

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Lazio and Inter are a half hour away from playing for Italy’s final Champions League spot. Inter needs a win and Lazio needs only a draw at home.
 

Senator Donut

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And it was quite a match, I highly recommend the highlights.
Highly recommended. The match went crazy at around the 75th minute. There was a penalty, another overturned by VAR, and a red card.


Lazio’s de Vrij has essentially agreed to sign for Inter was able to help get his future club into Champions League by committing a late penalty. Nothing fishy there…
 

Dummy Hoy

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Today is the 33rd anniversary of the Heysel Disaster. It always surprises me how little attention this receives, especially given the short and medium term impact it had on European Football. The fallout had Liverpool and all English clubs banned from European competition, but more importantly 39 people went to a football match and never came home.

A few years ago I read this article and I think about it a lot- it does a good job discussing some of the major ramifications, mistakes that were made, and how strange the response was then (and still is to this day).
 

SoxFanInCali

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Yeah, it's one of those subjects where it's tough to get info about what exactly happened, because basically everyone involved (the Belgian government, the stadium, UEFA, and both clubs) have things to be ashamed of, so nobody wants to discuss it. It was very tense when the clubs were drawn together in the 2005 Champions League, a month or so before the 20th anniversary. That was when Liverpool added a memorial plaque at Anfield and did a moment of silence and Kop mosaic, but I remember that many of the Juventus fans turned their back on it before the game.

Liverpool did mark the occasion today, but again, it's a memorial post and goes into very little detail about the disaster itself.
 

SoxFanInCali

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I would doubt there's any effect, other than possibly Roman having to interview managerial candidates by video conference.
 

Dummy Hoy

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Yeah, it's one of those subjects where it's tough to get info about what exactly happened, because basically everyone involved (the Belgian government, the stadium, UEFA, and both clubs) have things to be ashamed of, so nobody wants to discuss it. It was very tense when the clubs were drawn together in the 2005 Champions League, a month or so before the 20th anniversary. That was when Liverpool added a memorial plaque at Anfield and did a moment of silence and Kop mosaic, but I remember that many of the Juventus fans turned their back on it before the game.

Liverpool did mark the occasion today, but again, it's a memorial post and goes into very little detail about the disaster itself.
The main thing I took away from that article and do still think about was how the FA (among others) didn't really take any lesson from it...the frightening suggestion that Hillsborough could have been prevented.

It's tough because many of those tragedies weren't unique to those teams/stadiums. Yes it was a group of Liverpool fans in Heysel, but their behavior was no different than Spurs fans or United fans or Chelsea fans, or whomever. The Bradford City fire could have occurred at any number of crumbling stadia around the country, and Hillsborough was just one of many stadiums that could have been home to that horrorshow (and as awful as the SYP were, in that political climate I think many other local police would have demonstrated the same disdain for the common football fan. The rest of it might not have been such a cock-up, but who knows.) Individuals (people and institutions) get blamed, but it was a systemic issue.

The football (and political, but aren't they symbiotic?) culture in England created explosive situations throughout the country and europe- it was just a matter of time before things blew up, but it's just awful to consider that virtually no lessons were learned until tragedies the magnitude of Valley Parade or Hillsborough occurred.
 

PedroSpecialK

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InstaFace

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I guess you can allege material breach of the contract by the team by not providing them a safe working environment. Don't know the first damn thing about Portuguese law, obviously, but it's not an unreasonable claim to make given what happened. They're not slaves, they have a right to expect certain baseline aspects to an employment agreement.
 

PedroSpecialK

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Ah, that would make sense - unrelated, Bruno de Carvalho's picture on Google right now is pretty spectacular

 

Titans Bastard

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On American television, the second leg of the Liga MX final between Toluca and Santos Laguna outdrew the Champions League final.
 

Vinho Tinto

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Ah, that would make sense - unrelated, Bruno de Carvalho's picture on Google
I was visting my parents yesterday. They can now stream a bunch of Portuguese tv, so they have it on 24/7. One of the news programs was discussing how BdC made it a point to highlight all of the club’s teams that won a trophy this past year - except the men’s futebol team that won the league cup.

I can’t recall seeing anything like this before. A top executive is at open war with their own squad. It VERY unusual for anything in Portuguese club soccer to get covered by the English speaking media. To see articles and a segment on ESPN talking about makes it more surreal.

If you are interested in following news about Portuguese futebol, Tom Kundert is a good follow on Twitter. He’s an English ex-pat who has lived in Portugal since 1994. He just got a nice write up by Abola for his coverage and promotion of the league.
 

dirtynine

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Looks like there are more points at stake in Nations League games than for traditional friendlies. I’m assuming this includes the announced Concacaf nations league and not just the UEFA version.
 

Infield Infidel

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I was visting my parents yesterday. They can now stream a bunch of Portuguese tv, so they have it on 24/7. One of the news programs was discussing how BdC made it a point to highlight all of the club’s teams that won a trophy this past year - except the men’s futebol team that won the league cup.

I can’t recall seeing anything like this before. A top executive is at open war with their own squad. It VERY unusual for anything in Portuguese club soccer to get covered by the English speaking media. To see articles and a segment on ESPN talking about makes it more surreal.

If you are interested in following news about Portuguese futebol, Tom Kundert is a good follow on Twitter. He’s an English ex-pat who has lived in Portugal since 1994. He just got a nice write up by Abola for his coverage and promotion of the league.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44637931

This saga is pretty crazy for a non-fan. Sporting fired their manager after nine days, four days after they fired de Carvalho, who hired the manager.
 
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