Global Football Odds & Ends

Tangled Up In Red

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Like him (or not), great, short podcast episode of Men in Blazers this week, where Rog hosts a panel at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference featuring Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey and StatsBomb CEO Ted Knutson. Very informative and digestible on use of data and analytics in football.

Where ever you get your podcasts or here: https://meninblazers.com/2019/03/08/mib-03082019/
 

teddykgb

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I thought Morey came across as some sort of “why don’t they make the plane out of the black box” buffoon when speaking about soccer. He’d likely flip his lid if a basketball outsider tried to just wander into talking about basketball like that.
 

SoxFanInCali

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California. Duh.
It's a joke account, but it's pretty funny.

"Proud members of the Xtermin8 Rat Poison League".

They have a YouTube video of their "kit launch event". One of their shirt sponsors are Enya fans for Communism, and the robot modeling the kit ends up turning on and killing its creator at the end.
 

SoxFanInCali

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California. Duh.
PSG managed to blow a 2-0 lead and lose the Coupe de France final to Rennes on penalties. Mbappe got sent off late in extra time.
 

rguilmar

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And Dortmund seemed to blow their chance at a Bundesliga title at home in a derby loss to Schalke.

McKennie was solid if unspectacular. Pulisic came on after Dortmund collectively lost their minds- two red cards in five minutes. Absolute implosion in the Revierderby that will keep Schalke safe from relegation and should allow Bayern to waltz to the championship.
 

candylandriots

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I’m pretty excited about yesterday’s 2-0 victory for Union Berlin over Hamburg, which totally jumbled places 2-4 in Bundesliga 2. With 3 games to go, Köln is a near lock at 59 points. After that is:

Paderbon 54 (+27)
Union Berlin 53 (+19)
Hamburg 53 (+6)

Top 2 qualify automatically. 3rd has a 1 game playoff with the 16th place team in the first Bundesliga...so I’m really hoping Union can use the win over Hamburg to hopefully find a way into 2nd, with Paderborn and Hamburg facing off against one another in the penultimate weekend. This is going to be a nail biter.

I’m regretting not having bought season tickets like I thought about, though I’m sure it’s one of those things that they’ll win since I haven’t, and would have lost if I had them. Oh well...but I’ll be focusing on the Bundesliga the next couple of weekends!
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

RIP Dernell
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Iker Casillas had a heart attack during training today and is currently at the hospital and reports say he is "out of danger".

https://www.goal.com/en/news/iker-casillas-hospitalised-by-heart-attack/1ic3ayx3pom9p1s4wagubwlsul
https://gianlucadimarzio.com/en/corbalan-casillas-he-will-return-to-a-normal-life-but-can-no-longer-play-football

Sounds like he's going to have to hang up the gloves:

Juan Antonio Corbalan, former Real Madrid basketball player and cardiologist, spoke on what Casillas can expect moving forward.

"You cannot play football with a coronary stent, especially goalkeeper. Iker will return to living a normal life, but he can no longer be a professional athlete."
 

Titans Bastard

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Notts County, the oldest professional club in the world, are now a non-League club after suffering relegation from League Two. Juventus' iconic vertical black and white stripes are modeled after Notts County. They were in the top division as recently as the 1991-92 season.

They are guaranteed to be replaced by a Football League newcomer, either AFC Fylde or Salford City, the club co-owned by a bunch of ex-Man U players (the Nevilles, Beckham, Butt, Scholes, Giggs).
 

SoxFanInCali

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Notts County, the oldest professional club in the world, are now a non-League club after suffering relegation from League Two. Juventus' iconic vertical black and white stripes are modeled after Notts County. They were in the top division as recently as the 1991-92 season.
A little bit of related trivia: As this was the final season of English football before the EPL began, Notts County is one of two teams that signed the agreement to create the Premier League, but have never played in it (the other being fellow 1991-92 relegated side Luton Town).
 

candylandriots

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The promotion/relegation picture is mostly clear in the top two levels of German football. Nürnburg and Hannover are yo-yoing, and Stuttgart is locked into 16th.

The 2. Bundesliga champ is FC Köln, who will be returning to the top league after running pretty much wire-to-wire at the top of the second division. Paderborn is in 2nd with 57 points, my team, Union Berlin sits 3rd at 56. Hamburg, in 4th, has been eliminated unless they can make up a 22 goal differential on Union Berlin. Paderborn and Union Berlin play #13 and #10 respectively, to settle who gets the automatic promotion and who plays the 2-legged playoff (not 1 as I said before) against Stuttgart.

Paderborn has spent only one season in the top league, and if Union Berlin were to secure promotion, it would be their first visit to the Bundesliga.
 

OCST

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And then there's this....

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/may/07/former-referee-who-invaded-pitch-in-mexican-wrestling-mask-gets-10-year-ban

A pitch invader wearing a Mexican wrestling mask has been handed a 10-year ban following bizarre scenes in a Canberra first-grade football match over the weekend.

The invader ran onto the field in the second half, of the game between Cooma and Woden-Weston, with his face masked and brandished the referee with a red card.

Players then ripped off the mask and exposed the man’s identity before he was taken from the field.

It is understood the man is a former referee who was staging a protest against the treatment of officials in Canberra over the past 12 months.

Capital Football – the ACT’s football governing body – wasted no time in punishing the invader and slapped him with a decade-long ban.


All-righty then.
 

teddykgb

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As far as I know it has been sung much of the year. Of course because it is Liverpool now it is being misconstrued as being about one of their fans who were attacked (not in Kiev)and of course some suggesting Hillsborough. Should be a big nothingburger in my view as it’s clearly a song mocking Liverpool fan optimism and dejection in last season’s CL albeit it’s probably not especially effective on that front given pool are certainly favorites to win this year

“All the way to Kiev
To end up in defeat
Crying in the stands
And battered on the streets
Ramos injured Salah
Victims of it all
Sterling won the double
The scousers won f*ck all
ALLEZ ALLEZ ALLEZ”
 

teddykgb

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Think there was video of things kicking off a bit last year in Kiev but nothing particularly major. As chants go I’d probably honestly assume it’s more of an insult to their manhood in terms of saying beaten on and off the pitch.
 

Vinho Tinto

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In news that doesn’t involve debating if naughty songs are being badly sung: Wolves fans have voted Joao Moutinho player of the year. Clearly a fan vote is not a scientific metric; but it’s still impressive for a guy who just completed his 15th senior level season (and is not an athletic marvel).

But that makes for an interesting pickle for Wolves this offseason. They likely feel they have made up big ground on the top 6, but how many of these guys can they count on in the next couple of years? Moutinho will be 33 this fall. Raúl flopped at Atlético and was an effective sub at Benfica.

Do they make moves to add to the current squad or start hedging against some of these guys turning into turnips?
 

rguilmar

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Last week of Serie A coming up with a remote chance at a 4 way tie for 3rd/4th. I don’t know how they would break that time, but I assume just plain goal differential.

3. Atalanta (66 points) against Sassuolo. In a weird twist, it is a home game for Atalanta being played at Sassuolo because Atalanta’s stadium is being renovated. Sassuolo have little to play for besides pride as they sit in 10th.
4. Inter (66 points) home versus Empoli. Empoli have to win to ensure survival, and Inter are coming off a thrashing at Napoli.
5. Milan (65 points) at SPAL. SPAL are also just playing out the season sitting 11th.
6. Roma (63 points) home against Parma. Parma are safe, so it might be their B squad in Rome.

I’m not sure if Atalanta’s stadium will be open next year, but it would be a shame if they were to get into the Champions League and get no true home games.
 

67YAZ

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3. Atalanta (66 points) against Sassuolo. In a weird twist, it is a home game for Atalanta being played at Sassuolo because Atalanta’s stadium is being renovated. Sassuolo have little to play for besides pride as they sit in 10th.
.
I did some reading around after you mentioned the Gasperini to Roma rumors. A bunch of Italian outlets have Gasperini already signed on for 3 years, €2.5m per plus bonuses. I can see how it would be hard to turn down the kind of offer, especially if he figures that Roma is such a mess that soon enough he’ll be collecting that money while laying on a beach.

Disappointing for Atalanta, though maybe Champions League would help them hang on to a few key players for another year.
 

OCST

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Uncharacteristically pushing themselves away from the slop trough and bowing to common sense, FIFA decide not to take the 2022 WC in Qatar to 48 teams, mostly because a neighboring nation would need to host some games and Qatar is on bad terms with the whole neighborhood:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/05/22/world-cup-scraps-expansion-plans-will-play-qatar-with-teams/?utm_term=.9915678a60ba

In addition to the brutal heat and the desire not to underwrite a despotic regime, the prospect of getting caught in an attack on a venue further argues against staying the fuck away from this atrocity.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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Guardiola is leaving City and signing a 4 year deal with Juventus.

Hard to tell if he's just accomplished everything he wanted to at City or is pulling a Pete Carroll and getting out before sanctions for evading Financial Fair Play rules. Will be very interesting to see who they pick up to replace him, as certainly it's a squad that will have all the talent in the world, but exceedingly high expectations.
 

Zomp

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Lets pump the breaks on Pep leaving. For now its only rumors and I don't see it happening.

But if it does, I think its new thread worthy.
 

SocrManiac

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Pep will at some point leave but he flat out denied this before Fa cup. He’s not really the type to lie so I think this is made up
Pep isn't going to Juventus. This is typical Italian media posturing.

I do think the smoke around Sarri seems more realistic.
 

rguilmar

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Halftime in Italy (at least for the games of import).

Atalanta and Sassuolo 1-1. There was a red shown at the half. It looked like it was a Sassuolo player who was shown red but it’s unclear.

Inter and Empoli 0-0. Milan 2-1 over SPAL. Fiorentina and Genoa 0-0. As it stands right now, Milan and Atalanta would go to UCL and Genoa would be delegated.

45 minutes to go
 

rguilmar

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Inter ended up edging Empoli, which put the former in the CL and relegated the latter.
Genoa barely survive after selling their top goal scorer in January, then unsurprisingly not scoring much the second half of the year.

Hell of a year for Atalanta. Third place finish, cup finalists, top scorers in Serie A.
 

rguilmar

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I guess Genoa and AC got what they wanted out of the deal. Barely.
I’m sure AC Milan would have preferred the last UCL spot go to themselves, not their arch rivals. I would guess Gattuso is gone and they will spend for a big name manager.

In other news, Villa take the lead in the worlds most expensive game.
 

wonderland

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I’m sure AC Milan would have preferred the last UCL spot go to themselves, not their arch rivals. I would guess Gattuso is gone and they will spend for a big name manager.

In other news, Villa take the lead in the worlds most expensive game.
Whoops I got the results mixed up.
 

candylandriots

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I’ll use this thread to report on the Bundesliga pro/rel playoff that only I probably care about. 21 minutes in, and Stuttgart had a goal disallowed for offside on a free kick just outside the box. Which made me laugh a little after the big relief, when they showed someone in the visitor section waving a big flag protesting VAR.

This game isn’t broadcast on the Fox Matchpass app, like all other Bundesliga games. That made for a slightly annoyed Mrs. jkempa, who was almost finished cooking dinner. Fortunately for me, there is a sports betting shop/bar literally next door to my apartment building. So I’ll be eating dinner at halftime haha.
 

candylandriots

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A not particularly exciting first half is in the books. Neither team has had a clear chance (though Stuttgart had a nice shot from well outside the box), though I would say that Stuttgart has looked a bit more threatening and had more of the ball. I must have missed something in the first five minutes or so though, as there was four minutes of added time in the first half.

Since the first game was 2:2 in Stuttgart, a 0 or 1 goal draw is as good as a win, so the current pace makes me happy. Holding my thumbs for the second half.
 

candylandriots

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70 minutes in now and some heart-stopping moments for Stuttgart: Union Berlin hit the post, had a ball squirt around in the 6 yard box for what seemed like a forever, then had a questionable foul on the edge of the area and since the keeper was involved, the ball slowly rolled towards goal until it hit the post. Still 0-0, but momentum seems to be with the good guys.