• The KillerFrogs

2023-2024 European Football Thread

Chongo94

Active Member
This post certainly hasn't aged well. And maybe, just maybe, we need a defender or three. Not another scheissing midfielder. Being a Gooner these days...



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Oh, and #KroenkeOut. scheiss that [ mother farger ].

Lol, a red card and an own goal from our defenders. Just business as usual ha. Honestly, and Brits would kill me for this, but as long as Kroenke is in charge, I’d rather the club do worse. That guy isn’t worth the junk on the bottom of my shoes.

And yeah, what in the world was up with the Suarez loan given the state of the defense? Why not recall Chambers, or trot out Mavropanos here and there as he is apparently getting healthy again? I don’t blame Emery that much but that Suarez loan looks horrendously bad, otherwise known as a usual Wenger transfer move ha.
 

TAINTed frog

Active Member
Gag. Haha
Ha! I get it. I'm definitely a Man U apologist. During the heydays of my time playing - the 90s - Man U was one of the few teams you could sometimes watch on TV. I played outside half and loved watching Giggs and Beckham.

Also, I despise Arsenal and Chelsea in the same way you do Man U. Arsenal during the early 00s, ugh.

Anyway, I think Ole Gunnar should be brought on permanently, but I'm sure Ed Woodward will scheiss it up.
 

dawg

Active Member
Anyway, I think Ole Gunnar should be brought on permanently, but I'm sure Ed Woodward will scheiss it up.

The turnaround under Solskjær is nothing short of remarkable, even moreso overturning a 0-2 home loss while missing something like 10 senior players. Hard to say he’s not earned the gig.
 

Purp

Active Member
Had a first tonight on the pitch. In 35 years playing this game I'd never seen the same player get 2 red cards in the same game. It takes one of the worst refs ever for that to even happen. And the 2nd red was the wrong call. Should have been a forfeit.
 

Chongo94

Active Member
Had a first tonight on the pitch. In 35 years playing this game I'd never seen the same player get 2 red cards in the same game. It takes one of the worst refs ever for that to even happen. And the 2nd red was the wrong call. Should have been a forfeit.

I had to read this twice haha. Wow. Maybe it was that ref’s Monday.
 

Purp

Active Member
I had to read this twice haha. Wow. Maybe it was that ref’s Monday.
No idea. Dude was clueless. Guy takes my teammate out with a careless foul from behind. He'd have only gotten yellow had he left it there, but he took 2 more hacks at my boy after he'd gone to ground. Then our guy jumps up to defend himself and the ref runs in to give both straight red before any bombs get thrown.

After both guys go off we are playing 10 a side until their guy who got sent off comes back on the pitch to play. I'm not sure how long he had been on, but we all noticed bc he fouled another guy recklessly.

At that point the ref had no idea what to do. The game should have been a forfeit at that point for playing an illegal/ineligible player, but after a 12 minute conclave with the assistant refs he showed the guy another red card. Then he proceeded to wait well over 5 minutes for the guy to take off his boots, socks, and guards, pack up his gear, and move like frozen pond water across our field and out of the gate.

As bad as all that is, he added no time at all. He whistled our game over before games on adjacent fields were done. I'm dead serious when I say that incident took at least 10 minutes to sort out. Add in the wasted time for fake injuries and the initial red card fiasco and he probably should have added 15 minutes and still would have cheated us on time.

We lost 2-1, but I'm 100% certain the league will nullify that result and award us the win by forfeit.
 

Chongo94

Active Member
No idea. Dude was clueless. Guy takes my teammate out with a careless foul from behind. He'd have only gotten yellow had he left it there, but he took 2 more hacks at my boy after he'd gone to ground. Then our guy jumps up to defend himself and the ref runs in to give both straight red before any bombs get thrown.

After both guys go off we are playing 10 a side until their guy who got sent off comes back on the pitch to play. I'm not sure how long he had been on, but we all noticed bc he fouled another guy recklessly.

At that point the ref had no idea what to do. The game should have been a forfeit at that point for playing an illegal/ineligible player, but after a 12 minute conclave with the assistant refs he showed the guy another red card. Then he proceeded to wait well over 5 minutes for the guy to take off his boots, socks, and guards, pack up his gear, and move like frozen pond water across our field and out of the gate.

As bad as all that is, he added no time at all. He whistled our game over before games on adjacent fields were done. I'm dead serious when I say that incident took at least 10 minutes to sort out. Add in the wasted time for fake injuries and the initial red card fiasco and he probably should have added 15 minutes and still would have cheated us on time.

We lost 2-1, but I'm 100% certain the league will nullify that result and award us the win by forfeit.

Good lord. Have y’all played that team before? Does the league keep track of players who seem to continually have misadventures on the pitch? I don’t play up here but back home ours did but that was a much smaller league than most up here so it was actually fairly easy for them to do that.
 

Purp

Active Member
Good lord. Have y’all played that team before? Does the league keep track of players who seem to continually have misadventures on the pitch? I don’t play up here but back home ours did but that was a much smaller league than most up here so it was actually fairly easy for them to do that.
Yeah. Every time these guys play there's a significant incident. It happens with every team, not just us. Two seasons ago they dislocated one of our guys' elbows. He got a matching red card in the incident that was later rescinded by the league after he produced x-rays. I know of a fee guys who have been banned for life from all North Texas leagues for persistent conflicts like that. This guy will probably get a 3 game suspension. The ref should get a lifetime ban, though. Dude was an absolute abortion.
 

Pharm Frog

Full Member
Question for you soccer folks (and especially for @Chongo94 )

I watch this Premier League a bit and the play doesn’t even come close to what I see during the World Cup events. Do players play harder for their country? Are players having to play more games and reserving energy in league play? Are players much more evenly matched in talent such that the parity knocks down some of the excitement? Are these teams just so darn familiar with each other’s coaching and tendencies that they can better neutralize each other? Is the officiating different?

Just seems so different in tone and feel. Just wondering.
 

Chongo94

Active Member
Question for you soccer folks (and especially for @Chongo94 )

I watch this Premier League a bit and the play doesn’t even come close to what I see during the World Cup events. Do players play harder for their country? Are players having to play more games and reserving energy in league play? Are players much more evenly matched in talent such that the parity knocks down some of the excitement? Are these teams just so darn familiar with each other’s coaching and tendencies that they can better neutralize each other? Is the officiating different?

Just seems so different in tone and feel. Just wondering.

You’ll get a lot of arguments Pharm, but really, you hit on a lot of the main points. One thing to note is that while they may play harder for their country, they are arguably more tired during the WC because it’s after a long season. So you can see a bit of a rub there.

The players are familiar with each other but the coaching systems and coaches change so often, I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on that affecting things but you never know.

For me, personally, I have found the EPL lacking in excitement as of late. The quality of play is good but just falls flat to me. Plus, like you alluded to, some players may not play as hard as often, they may only make efforts during contract years (hello Theo Walcott!) and because the EPL generates the most money, they can pay the best and their depth is ridiculous so there ends up being tremendous parity. I enjoy the Bundesliga matches far more, the atmosphere just seems far better and I can actually discern very easily true skill differential and quality. Plus their games just seem far more wide open, which I enjoy at times. You may wish to watch one of theirs to see how it compares.

And you’ll have to watch the Champions League final this year. I’d be interested to see how you feel it compares to the WC events as you may find it more similar with its play and excitement.
 
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Chongo94

Active Member
Question for you soccer folks (and especially for @Chongo94 )

I watch this Premier League a bit and the play doesn’t even come close to what I see during the World Cup events. Do players play harder for their country? Are players having to play more games and reserving energy in league play? Are players much more evenly matched in talent such that the parity knocks down some of the excitement? Are these teams just so darn familiar with each other’s coaching and tendencies that they can better neutralize each other? Is the officiating different?

Just seems so different in tone and feel. Just wondering.

Also, keep in mind, the WC is an event where pretty much every single match matters or can matter. I don’t know what you watched this morning but if either team wasn’t in danger of relegation nor were they near any European spots in the league, you may have found the quality and atmosphere lacking because of that as well.

At this point in the year, not every match matters for all the teams.
 
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hiphopfroggy

Active Member
Question for you soccer folks (and especially for @Chongo94 )

I watch this Premier League a bit and the play doesn’t even come close to what I see during the World Cup events. Do players play harder for their country? Are players having to play more games and reserving energy in league play? Are players much more evenly matched in talent such that the parity knocks down some of the excitement? Are these teams just so darn familiar with each other’s coaching and tendencies that they can better neutralize each other? Is the officiating different?

Just seems so different in tone and feel. Just wondering.

You are watching the wrong league, Series A on ESPN + is where its at. And Champions League of course.




: )
 

Chongo94

Active Member
Just a reminder, for all you hipster NEW Spurs fans (I kid) the official unveiling of their stadium is tomorrow and their game will be televised on nbcsports. Set your dvr.

Stadium enthusiasts may want to watch as well just for the stadium. It looks amazing.
 

Chongo94

Active Member
Well the “Der Klassiker” has become the Der Struggle. What a choke job by Borussia so far. I get their backline is essentially walking wounded but wow.
 

Chongo94

Active Member
EPL race is gonna be crazy this year the way Man City and Liverpool are winning. Neither can afford a slip up whatsoever.

If Liverpool wins, I can only imagine the number of bandwagon fans that will come out of the woodwork. They already seem to have a lot in the states anyway.
 

Purp

Active Member
Question for you soccer folks (and especially for @Chongo94 )

I watch this Premier League a bit and the play doesn’t even come close to what I see during the World Cup events. Do players play harder for their country? Are players having to play more games and reserving energy in league play? Are players much more evenly matched in talent such that the parity knocks down some of the excitement? Are these teams just so darn familiar with each other’s coaching and tendencies that they can better neutralize each other? Is the officiating different?

Just seems so different in tone and feel. Just wondering.
Not sure how I've missed getting into this thread for 2 weeks, but...

I think Chongo hit on the biggest key for me in a later response, but at this point in the season there is absolutely nothing to play for at this juncture of the season for most EPL clubs. There is no threat of relegation nor is there a chance to earn a spot in any of the European competitions.

In the EPL the top 4 finishers earn spots in the Champion's League (which is why you'll want to heed Chongo's advice and watch that from the semis through the final) and the next 2 go to the UEFA Cup (still can't accept the Europa League nomenclature). There are some qualification nuances that make it more complicated than just "the next 2", but that's a simpler way of putting it. It's technically possible the EPL could send 5 clubs to the Champion's League and the FA Cup and EFL Cup winners also auto-qualify for UEFA Cup. There are usually a total of 4 Champion's League qualifiers and 3 UEFA Cup qualifiers totaling 7 from England.

The bottom 3 clubs get relegated to the next lowest division so 3 of the bottom 4-5 clubs usually have a lot to play for right now. Presently, Huddersfield and Fulham have no prayer to stay up and only BHA appear close enough to Cardiff City to sweat relegation so only 2 of the bottom 4 have meaningful games to play.

The very top of the table has Liverpool and Man City as the only sides with a realistic shot at Premier League hardware. After that you have Tottenham, Chelsea, Man U, and Arsenal all within reach of the final 2 Champion's League spots in the top 4 so that battle is fierce. Whichever of those sides doesn't make it will qualify for UEFA Cup.

So 2 teams with hope near the relegation zone and 6 teams at the top of the table make 8 of the 20 EPL sides with meaningful matches. Behind them there is essentially nothing to play for beyond pride and developing some younger players/evaluating fringe guys. I think this accounts for most of what you observed.

Beyond that the comparison to the World Cup isn't really an apples to apples comparison. Most of the time I think players play harder for their club than they do their country. The lone exception to this general rule is the World Cup. It's the single greatest competition in sport for these players and there's an importance there that can't be rivaled by a club side. Also, the fact that it only takes place every 4 years means the very best in the world usually only get 3 chances to compete in that tournament and occasionally you'll see the most elite play in 4. That rarity adds some gravity to that competition that none of the others can match. Then you add the national pride to that tournament and it takes it way over the top for these guys.
 
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