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.)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
And here I was hating on the guys who keep bringing impossibly fast high schoolers to my pickup game
...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.)Sukur was also a disciple of Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania for nearly 20 years
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.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.
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.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.
FYI, the German Cup final is on now - it’s the equivalent for Germany as the FA cup final you watched is for Britain.Awesome, thanks for the explanations guys. I would never have been able to learn any of that listening to the broadcast or reading online.
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).FYI, the German Cup final is on now - it’s the equivalent for Germany as the FA cup final you watched is for Britain.
I was a bit surprised about the non-call of the handball, especially with VAR that sort of thing can get reversed.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).
Ha, Paul Mariner. My 13 year old sister thought he was very dreamy!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.
And it was quite a match, I highly recommend the highlights.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.
Highly recommended. The match went crazy at around the 75th minute. There was a penalty, another overturned by VAR, and a red card.And it was quite a match, I highly recommend the highlights.
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.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.
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.Ah, that would make sense - unrelated, Bruno de Carvalho's picture on Google
Looks like a Wesley Willis fan taking it too far.Ah, that would make sense - unrelated, Bruno de Carvalho's picture on Google right now is pretty spectacular
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44637931I 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.