2019-2020 Football / Calcio / Futbol / Fußball Thread
 

And the first game of the Premier League is already underway. Not much to see, other than the fact that Allison is out injured. Looked really gnarly (seems like he tweaked his hamstring during the goal kick), reminded me of the injury Tim Howard suffered a few years back. Hope he's okay, as it'd be a real blow to LFC's title challenges.

Whom do you have as the winners of the various competitions? I'm hoping that LFC and BVB can both move one spot higher (at the expense of Pep's current and former teams). Juventus may just get shaken up a bit, now it's coached by Sarri. I wouldn't be surprised if his shoehorning catches up to him with the wily Ancelloti pips him.

Klopp fan?

not quite, but I do admire his coaching philosophy and managerial capabilities.

Jürgen Klopp is the coolest German of the last two hundred years. Fight me.

Tied for distant second: Jochen Distelmeyer, Jaki Liebezeit, Florian Schneider.

Gladly... Klopp is witty, intelligent, clearly an excellent coach, can be very charming. Uses said fact to cover that he can be very, very petty. Uncool.

As a german myself, i should stay away from counter-suggestions. Just one, Lutz Pfannenstiel. Turned down a Bayern Munich offer at age 17 to go globetrotting, played professional on 5 continents.

1991–1993 1. FC Bad Kötzting 68 (0)
1993–1994 Penang FA 12 (0)
1994–1995 Wimbledon 12 (0)
1995–1997 Nottingham Forest 0 (0)
1996–1997 → Orlando Pirates (loan) 7 (0)
1997 TPV 8 (0)
1997 FC Haka 0 (0)
1998–1999 SV Wacker Burghausen 14 (0)
1999–2000 Geylang United 46 (0)
2001 Dunedin Technical 18 (0)
2001–2002 → Bradford Park Avenue (loan) 1 (0)
2001–2002 Huddersfield Town 0 (0)
2002 Dunedin Technical 18 (0)
2002 ASV Cham 12 (0)
2002–2003 → Bradford Park Avenue (loan) 14 (0)
2003 Dunedin Technical 18 (0)
2003 → Bærum SK (loan) 13 (0)
2004 Calgary Mustangs 28 (0)
2004–2006 Otago United 36 (0)
2006–2007 Vllaznia Shkodër 14 (0)
2007 Bentonit Ijevan 12 (0)
2007 Bærum SK 9 (0)
2007 Vancouver Whitecaps 4 (0)
2008 Hermann Aichinger 24 (0)
2008–2009 Flekkerøy IL 14 (0)
2009 Manglerud Star 11 (0)
2009–2011 Ramblers 45 (0)

No consideration (as a footballer) for "Der Kaiser" - won world cups both as a player and manager.

Beckenbauer? Corruption is not cool.

I had forgotten about Bernd Trautmann. He deserves consideration.

Werner Herzog?

Yup - agree fraud and corruption are not cool. Of course he was complicit in influencing votes with his slush fund etc. In that regards, I believe he is guilty as charged. I was referring to him only in the context of footballer.

Is Trautmann the guy who won a FA Cup while playing with a broken neck?

Dieter. Hands down coolest German

Yup.
But google his early history - he signed up for the wrong "team" - worse than corruption and fraud.

right, i almost forgot that he was a paratrooper in the German Army. I donno if fighting in the Wehrmarcht as a foot solider (cf. a commissioned officer or being part of the SS) is worse than corruption and fraud. Yes, he was friends with a Dassler brother (a cynical backstabbing nazi), but i don't think he joined the SS. Now, if he committed war crimes, that'd be different, but there's a lot of gray when it comes to judging foot soldiers. In the same vein, I wouldn't call the Soviet soldiers in WWII as good. They are merely people licensed to carry out acts of sanctioned barbarism.

Arsenal's new jerseys, the yellow ones, the bruised banana ones, are ugly. Usually Addidas kit is simple and classic. Oy.

They arent the only ones with ugly kits this year.
But their third kit is pretty classy.

i actually like arsenal's away. adidas did a good job on all 3 kits.

i saw a pic of the home jersey with the bruised banana themed name/numbers...not sure if legit or not.

They wore the yellow bruised banana at the weekend. The dark blue jersey is far better, though.

i like the yellow kit a lot, and it has a historical significance for the club. and im more worried about their inability to create from the midfield than a jersey.

what's the connection to Woolwich?

Fingers crossed that after a few league games, they'll be more creative, but yes, the pre-season and game 1 were not exactly confidence-inspiring. While other top teams came out blazing in game 1, the Gunners eked out a measly goal. Maybe the jersey will distract me?;):eek:

man, that LFC D looks rather porous... getting pulled out of shape by Chelsea's movement

edit: as if on queue, Chelsea scores (though from counter-attack, to be fair)

they look so much better with Kante beefing up their midfield. Also, first American assist in the Supercup

And LFC takes it on penalties, quite a bit past midnight in Instanbul

but the overall winner has to be...














Sheikty, of course, having seen two of its cohorts go 120 minutes in a mid-week match.

At least Chelsea gets an extra day. LFC needs to play again on Saturday morning, though granted, it's against a team that flirted with relegation last year. At least Firminho and TAA didn't have to play the whole 120...

and speaking of magical nights in Istanbul
 

an article on their club legend by the name of Xabi Alonso. He's apparently taken up a coaching role at Real Sociedad.

I started following soccer a bit late, so my first memories was him taking a kung-fu kick from de Jong.

Anyways, interesting perspectives from the man

https://www.theguardian.com/football...dad-management

I know it's bad form, but...
 

All that money spent on a new DM, and all that money spent on a new outside back, and Sheikty still can't defend at home.

Of course, VAR stars yet again, but then again, a) it is the right call according to the rules, and b) the stadium didn't get nearly as loud the whole game as when their fair weather, bandwagon jumping fans booed VAR at the end

The shot differential was incredible. Spurs made theirs count. And it was correct VAR call. Maybe MC luck is evening out some?

I heard that the most recent rule change was made so that the way Llorentes scored in the Quarterfinals against City would no longer count

Just so happens that they were on the receiving end of adverse decisions, under both set of rules

Otoh, I thought Tottenham got really lucky, and Lloris (and the woodworks) came up huge for them. Just like last week, they played really compact, with their attacking players all jamming up the middle. Lamela and Eriksen nominally played as wingers, but both normally operate better in and between the channels, and that's how they positioned themselves. Having Winks, Sissoko, and Ndembele playing in the middle just seemed a bit too congested.

If they do play the diamond midfield, they need at least someone like Son or Moura to play as the forward who could stretch defenses out wide.

I am for VAR regarding offsides as that is a black and white call - either you are on side or you are not. Goal line is the same - either the entire ball crossed the goal or it didnt.
Handball is still open to interpretation, even with VAR so I would leave that solely to the ref.

My club.

i disagree. What does it help if we know with 100% certainty that the ball crossed the line, but the ref didn't see the foul or handball that lead to the shot...

That's the game - the refs miss calls - fact of life.

Even with var calls are still subjective, with no certainty, as refs have the ultimate say even after review - still left to the discretion of the ref.

So for me, it takes away spontaneity and disrupts the momentum and movement of the game. But var is here and it's not going away, but I still don't like it.

And I sure as heck don't want var calling balls and strikes in baseball games!

Arsenal v Liverpool should be a good early season test at the weekend. The Gunners won’t crush my hopes week 3 will they?

i just hope we start our best lineup. need pepe and ceballos in there. not sure who will round out the midfield 3 but i hope its torreira and guendouzi. I have liked some things this season, but we are not playing fast or direct enough yet. it was painful watching them try to break burnleys press, as they couldnt do it until they brought on the more direct pepe. Nelson, the young winger, was not quite up to the task of breaking that press.

should be a brilliant game

Emery’s stamp on the club is beginning to crystallize. You’re right. Even with six points, the club has looked ragged, even a bit lethargic. But there are glimpses. I hope they’ll come together before MC and LIV get too far away. Please don’t make the CL’s fourth slot our ‘prize’ this season.

Sheiky vs Spurs last weekend, Man U v Chelsea the weekend before

what the hell is a neutral supposed to do when there are no more matches amongst big-6 teams left?

then again, perhaps we should be talking about big-7 teams. Have a suspicion that Wolves is going to sneak up on one of the putative big-6 teams

i think we did well to control both games, but i failed to see enough being created from the wings and from anyone not named dani ceballos or guendouzi. and we need to be less predictable. i like possession, but the backs need to use better judgement when to play a long ball to relieve pressure vs actually playing out of the back, and we need to make the passes much faster, before the other team can organize the press. Newcastle stacked it on us and defended with 10 or 11, and burnley pressed as hard as ive seen anyone press us in the last 2 years. lets see what arsenal can do vs a club that wants to play football.

score a first goal and then let in five :p?

Ynwa!

damn, it's really unfair that Ajax, semi-finalist from last year, should have to go through two rounds of qualification just to reach the group stage. They did beat Juve and Real last year (sorry Ronaldo), and were this close to playing in the finals.

For all that trouble, they have to travel to the far reaches of Europe to qualify. Kind of a farce when the likes of Salzburg gets a direct route to the group stage...

It all has to do with the league's performance over the previous years in UEFA competitions. No-one else in the Dutch league has done as well, so based on their country ranking, they're inserted at a specific stage as champions. Salzburg goes to the group stage as Austrian champions because they Austrian league has has better UEFA performances recently