• The KillerFrogs

2023-2024 European Football Thread

Eight

Member
He was a New Zealander up until this recent switch so I’m not sure. I only know he has been in the Portuguese league for a bit, which is a good place to develop skills according to some, and is now in Turkey.

You and others have actually seen more of him than I have, Moose, since I keep missing the games sadly. No idea as to if he developed more within New Zealand youth levels or due to the Portuguese play time.

Edit: I’m assuming perhaps more the Portuguese and Turkish playtime as that obviously helps, I just have zero idea how New Zealand identities and develops its talent.

i can't imagine there aren't 5M people in new zealand so if you have plus athletic ability on the pitch i would imagine you get noticed fairly fast.

in regards to how they develop talent, not sure, but he did start playing fairly early for a couple of pro sides in new zealand and if they handle training for soccer similar to the way other countries treat developing skills in say basketball it would make sense
 

LVH

Active Member
scheiss the Women's National Team. They are supposed to represent the country but then they go and scheissing take a knee during the anthem and use their platform to bash the president. To hell with them.

It's no surprise that it plays well with soccer fans though. Pretty much every soccer fan I know is your typical smug pretentious liberal hipster millenial [ profanity ] anyway. They make it known soccer is the only sport they watch. For example we went to a 51s game for work one time and all the soccer fans kept purposely calling it a baseball "match" and one of them even referred to the diamond as the "pitch".
 

Zubaz

Member
scheiss the Women's National Team. They are supposed to represent the country but then they go and scheissing take a knee during the anthem and use their platform to bash the president. To hell with them.
When was this? Watched the game today and didn't catch that. Don't recall seeing it in the earlier games either. Could have sworn the national teams put a bylaw in place that prohibited kneeling anymore.
 

Eight

Member
When was this? Watched the game today and didn't catch that. Don't recall seeing it in the earlier games either. Could have sworn the national teams put a bylaw in place that prohibited kneeling anymore.

the us federation did put a bylaw in place in 2017 that prohibited kneeling and the issue is really one player, megan rapinoe, who openly and continually makes comments about trump.
 

Pharm Frog

Full Member
When was this? Watched the game today and didn't catch that. Don't recall seeing it in the earlier games either. Could have sworn the national teams put a bylaw in place that prohibited kneeling anymore.

Not that I really care about this stuff but they did prohibit kneeling. I don't care about this stuff mainly because I do not enjoy the sport. I would enjoy it even less if that's possible when people like Rapinoe declare themselves to be walking protests and say that they won't ever sing the national anthem or put their hand over their heart. Don't need nor want that crap intermingled in sport. I do disagree with LVH in that I know several generally conservative people who like and follow soccer. And, a couple of those have expressed diminished interest in the women's team because of the involvement of politics.
 

Purp

Active Member
Bradley/Jozy/Zardes annoy the hell out of me. They’re the best we have at the moment at those spots though so I guess my main annoyance is the fact that we can’t produce anyone better. Was really hoping Sargent would feature with this group.
I'm not willing to say Zardes is one of the best we've produced yet. For me he's barely past Juan Agudelo at this point. The potential is there, though.

I think we give Bradley more credit than he deserves. When he had a physical partner in the center of the park like Jermaine Jones or Mastroeni he really was great as a cerebral player with excellent work rate. Without guys like that, though, he can disappear at times.

My main frustration with Jozy is the same I had with Gooch. All the physical tools are there to be incredible, but something is missing to provide the consistency needed to hit that level. He's still excellent more than he's not, but he picks the most important moments to disappear.
 

Purp

Active Member
Not that I really care about this stuff but they did prohibit kneeling. I don't care about this stuff mainly because I do not enjoy the sport. I would enjoy it even less if that's possible when people like Rapinoe declare themselves to be walking protests and say that they won't ever sing the national anthem or put their hand over their heart. Don't need nor want that crap intermingled in sport. I do disagree with LVH in that I know several generally conservative people who like and follow soccer. And, a couple of those have expressed diminished interest in the women's team because of the involvement of politics.
This pretty well describes me. I know far more conservative soccer fans than liberal ones, but I do live in Texas.
 

Moose Stuff

Active Member
scheiss the Women's National Team. They are supposed to represent the country but then they go and scheissing take a knee during the anthem and use their platform to bash the president. To hell with them.

It's no surprise that it plays well with soccer fans though. Pretty much every soccer fan I know is your typical smug pretentious liberal hipster millenial [ profanity ] anyway. They make it known soccer is the only sport they watch. For example we went to a 51s game for work one time and all the soccer fans kept purposely calling it a baseball "match" and one of them even referred to the diamond as the "pitch".

I’m overwhelmingly conservative and lean very Republican. As for the anthem issue it’s obvious you haven’t watched a game since it’s just one girl that’s doing it. I don’t care for it either but it has zero impact on my enjoyment of the game. That being said, I love soccer as evidenced by the fact that I’m currently watching the Costa Rica/Haiti Gold Cup game and have watched a good portion of the non-USA WC games so I may not be the best example of how her kneeling impacts the average fan.
 

Moose Stuff

Active Member
I'm not willing to say Zardes is one of the best we've produced yet. For me he's barely past Juan Agudelo at this point. The potential is there, though.

I think we give Bradley more credit than he deserves. When he had a physical partner in the center of the park like Jermaine Jones or Mastroeni he really was great as a cerebral player with excellent work rate. Without guys like that, though, he can disappear at times.

My main frustration with Jozy is the same I had with Gooch. All the physical tools are there to be incredible, but something is missing to provide the consistency needed to hit that level. He's still excellent more than he's not, but he picks the most important moments to disappear.

I certainly didn’t mean to imply Zardes was one of the best we’d produced, just that he’s currently the best we HAVE. Personally I think Jozy is awful. Stiff robotic actions and little technical skill. I’d prefer he never play for us again. Just let the kids play and hope one of them has seized the spot by 2022.
 

Moose Stuff

Active Member
Shortest post in Purp history.
I was super disappointed in today's result. I didnt get to watch the 2nd half, but it must have been just as poor as the 1st.

I wouldn’t have called it poor, perhaps sloppy . Rapinoe and Morgan both had bad games IMO and the keeper still scares me a bit.
 
scheiss the Women's National Team. They are supposed to represent the country but then they go and scheissing take a knee during the anthem and use their platform to bash the president. To hell with them.

It's no surprise that it plays well with soccer fans though. Pretty much every soccer fan I know is your typical smug pretentious liberal hipster millenial [ profanity ] anyway. They make it known soccer is the only sport they watch. For example we went to a 51s game for work one time and all the soccer fans kept purposely calling it a baseball "match" and one of them even referred to the diamond as the "pitch".

"Soccer is for socialists."

- Grandpa, Co-rhea vet.
 
Top