Champions League - Matchday 6 - 12/10 & 12/11

Vinho Tinto

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Dec 9, 2003
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What is going on in Group G is insane. At the start of the second half it was:

Leipzig
Zenit
Benfica
Lyon

Then, Zenit gets a red card and Benfica is now up 3-0, giving them second place with the GD. BUT then Lyon scores two unanswered goals to tie Leipzig and now it is in second with the GD.
The first tie breaker in CL is head to head. Lyon had that going into today vs Benfica (4-3 from match day weeks 3 and 4). Benfica blowing a 2 goal lead late in MD 5 @ Leipzig cost them a spot in the knockout rounds.
 

Vinho Tinto

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He's now 60 and been let go from his last two jobs without finishing the season.

is it time for him to transition into international football?
 

tmracht

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Aug 19, 2009
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That was really a brutal group, if you told me Chelsea was coming second going into match day 4 I would have never thought it was to Valencia after they dropped the 2 points to Lille. Then Wass hits that Golazo/Flub? and then Ajax can't equalize vs 10 men.
 

candylandriots

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I’m on the way to Spurs Bayern with a million Spurs fans singing, “Jose is a Yid, among a million other songs.”
 

JayMags71

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He's now 60 and been let go from his last two jobs without finishing the season.

is it time for him to transition into international football?
I’d say “not so fast”.” I think he got caught in a situation at Napoli that was uniquely dysfunctional. And I think results at Bayern after he left have proven that the struggles he had there weren’t entirely his own fault (reports that he had “lost the dressing room” notwithstanding). Bayern’s currently languishing in seventh, which leads me to believe he would have been entitled to pull a Joe Morgan on the way out, and tell everyone ”they aren’t as good as they think they are.”

That said, I would LOVE to see him take over team USA, even though that would never happen.
 

SoxFanInCali

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California. Duh.
Here's a breakdown of the qualifiers for the last 16, with 1 spot still up for grabs:

England: 4 (Liverpool, City, Spurs, Chelsea)
Spain: 3* (Barca, Real, Valencia, possibly Atletico)
Germany: 3* (Bayern, Dortmund, Leipzig, possibly Leverkusen)
Italy: 3 (Juventus, Napoli, Atalanta)
France: 2 (PSG, Lyon)

Only teams from the Big 4 leagues (that send their top 4 into the group stages) that didn't advance were Inter (who finished 3rd behind a Spanish and German team) and either Atletico or Leverkusen (finishing behind an Italian team).

Not exactly a year for a Cinderella run.
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
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Sep 27, 2016
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That said, I would LOVE to see him take over team USA, even though that would never happen.
The average Championship manager would likely be an improvement over Gregggg. Probably some League One managers too. I dearly wish we had the cachet to interest managers who weren't also enormous yank-o-philes like Klinsmann.

Here's a breakdown of the qualifiers for the last 16, with 1 spot still up for grabs:

England: 4 (Liverpool, City, Spurs, Chelsea)
Spain: 3* (Barca, Real, Valencia, possibly Atletico)
Germany: 3* (Bayern, Dortmund, Leipzig, possibly Leverkusen)
Italy: 3 (Juventus, Napoli, Atalanta)
France: 2 (PSG, Lyon)

Only teams from the Big 4 leagues (that send their top 4 into the group stages) that didn't advance were Inter (who finished 3rd behind a Spanish and German team) and either Atletico or Leverkusen (finishing behind an Italian team).

Not exactly a year for a Cinderella run.
On the other hand, a bunch of relative minnows got to take the field against the big guns in all their glory, and in some cases took points off of them. While each making millions of euros for their clubs, in a 'season' that lasted half the year.

I don't feel bad for them, I feel bad for the teams that basically aren't allowed to qualify - the auto-bid for the 4th teams in those leagues (limiting the Champions Path to 4 group stage spots, and the League Path to 2) really killed the diversity. Who didn't love Legia Warsaw taking a point off of defending-champs Real Madrid a few years ago?

Biggest upsets of the Group Stage - feel free to rank 'em
  • RMA 2 - 2 Club Brugge
  • Olympiacos 2 - 2 Spurs
  • Man City 1 - 1 Shakhtar Donetsk
  • Leverkusen 1 - 2 Lokomotiv Moscow
  • Genk 0 - 0 Napoli
  • Barcelona 0 - 0 Slavia Prague
  • Zenit St Pete 2 - 0 Lyon
  • Lille 1 - 1 Valencia
I could include Ajax getting exactly 1 point in 4 matches against Valencia and Chelsea, but those are much closer to being peers.

(Atalanta lost at home to Shakhtar and on the road 4-0! to Zagreb, and got 2nd by the skin of their teeth - I won't call those yuuuge upsets because Atalanta is just not that strong, though they did also get a home draw with City)
 
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DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
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Dec 16, 2010
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Sessegnon gets his first UCL start and scores. 1-1 with Bayern late first.
 

JayMags71

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The average Championship manager would likely be an improvement over Gregggg.
27436
I dearly wish we had the cachet to interest managers who weren't also enormous yank-o-philes like Klinsmann.
It’s not that the US lacks “caché”.The problem is the pay-for-play club system hinders the level of control the MNT Manager needs to oversee player development. And the club teams emphasize winning games over developing skills. That’s why (along with nepotism) the US can’t attract a coach worth a damn.
 

InstaFace

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this isn't the place to discuss it, and maybe I'm misreading you, but I'm not sure in any country the MNT Manager has control over player development. They have some youth national teams, but the main point of learning happens in the club academies. That has little to do with the things that the MNT has influence over by the time a player pool is handed to him. My complaints with G. Berhalter have very little to do with US youth soccer being woefully pay-to-play, and a lot to do with what he's doing with that player pool once it's handed to him.
 

67YAZ

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Dec 1, 2000
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It was really well taken.

I thought Couthino’s shot wasn’t in, then saw the replay and thought it was, but I guess it wasn’t.
This was exciting. Sessegnon was one of the most exciting young players in the world 2 years ago, and then he got all screwed up in the morass that Fulham became. Personally, I just love fullbacks and think he could be unique one.
 

candylandriots

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This was exciting. Sessegnon was one of the most exciting young players in the world 2 years ago, and then he got all screwed up in the morass that Fulham became. Personally, I just love fullbacks and think he could be unique one.
Seemed like he was playing more on the wing last night, no? He was always among the most advanced players when I looked at him.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

RIP Dernell
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Mar 24, 2008
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Here's a breakdown of the qualifiers for the last 16, with 1 spot still up for grabs:

England: 4 (Liverpool, City, Spurs, Chelsea)
Spain: 3* (Barca, Real, Valencia, possibly Atletico)
Germany: 3* (Bayern, Dortmund, Leipzig, possibly Leverkusen)
Italy: 3 (Juventus, Napoli, Atalanta)
France: 2 (PSG, Lyon)

Only teams from the Big 4 leagues (that send their top 4 into the group stages) that didn't advance were Inter (who finished 3rd behind a Spanish and German team) and either Atletico or Leverkusen (finishing behind an Italian team).

Not exactly a year for a Cinderella run.
While disappointing we won't get a Cinderella run, the upside is almost every match from here on out should be exciting and offer at least a chance of an upset.
 

Zososoxfan

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Jul 30, 2009
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South of North
The average Championship manager would likely be an improvement over Gregggg. Probably some League One managers too. I dearly wish we had the cachet to interest managers who weren't also enormous yank-o-philes like Klinsmann.


On the other hand, a bunch of relative minnows got to take the field against the big guns in all their glory, and in some cases took points off of them. While each making millions of euros for their clubs, in a 'season' that lasted half the year.

I don't feel bad for them, I feel bad for the teams that basically aren't allowed to qualify - the auto-bid for the 4th teams in those leagues (limiting the Champions Path to 4 group stage spots, and the League Path to 2) really killed the diversity. Who didn't love Legia Warsaw taking a point off of defending-champs Real Madrid a few years ago?

Biggest upsets of the Group Stage - feel free to rank 'em
  • RMA 2 - 2 Club Brugge
  • Olympiacos 2 - 2 Spurs
  • Man City 1 - 1 Shakhtar Donetsk
  • Leverkusen 1 - 2 Lokomotiv Moscow
  • Genk 0 - 0 Napoli
  • Barcelona 0 - 0 Slavia Prague
  • Zenit St Pete 2 - 0 Lyon
  • Lille 1 - 1 Valencia
I could include Ajax getting exactly 1 point in 4 matches against Valencia and Chelsea, but those are much closer to being peers.

(Atalanta lost at home to Shakhtar and on the road 4-0! to Zagreb, and got 2nd by the skin of their teeth - I won't call those yuuuge upsets because Atalanta is just not that strong, though they did also get a home draw with City)
This is the first time in UCL history that all the knockout clubs are from one of the 5 major leagues:

EPL - 4/4 (Liverpool and MANC as group winners; Spurs and Chelsea as first losers)
La Liga - 4/4 (Barca and Valencia (!) as group winners; Real and Atleti as silver medalists)
Bundesliga - 3/4 (Bayern and Leipzig (!) as group winners; Dortmund as B squad)
Serie A - 3/4 (Juve as group winners; Atalanta and Napoli as secondi)
Les Farmers - 2/3 (PSG as group winners; Lyon as Part Deux)
 

DLew On Roids

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Aug 30, 2001
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He's now 60 and been let go from his last two jobs without finishing the season.

is it time for him to transition into international football?
I’m not sure being fired by an Italian team midseason when the squad is openly fighting with upper management is a data point against any manager. Ancelotti is famously a players coach, and now they want a guy who’s more...

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