The Soccer Thread (Version 8)

This tape of the Chelsea fans on the Metro in Paris is all sorts of depressing.

 

It makes me glad I'm an Arsenal fan.
(I don't say that often)

 

Confirming what we all knew ...

The Qatar World Cup Will Be Held In The Winter

 

The major European leagues all take winter breaks except the EPL, which doubles down on scheduling during the holidays. This will certainly rock their world. The other leagues can adjust their breaks to coincide with the World Cup.

It could mess with the MLS playoffs, too. MLS will have to either condense its season or start a month earlier for it to end before the World Cup. Also in this country, having the World Cup go up against the NFL and everything else won't be great for TV ratings.

 

The prevailing thought seems to be starting Nov. 26 with the final on ... Dec. 23. Which is a Friday.

 

Friday is the Muslim equivalent of Christian Sunday, isn't it? That may not play well in Qatar itself. Middle East being what it is, who's to say there will be a Qatar by 2022?

 

Home sick today and watching Man City-Barca. What a pleasure it is to watch Barca when they are firing on all cylinders.

 

Suarez apparently loves to score on English soil.

 

Madrid back to back

 

English FA pushing to play the Qatar final on Dec. 18. That avoids the Christmas holiday travel madness and preserves the traditional EPL Boxing Day (Dec. 26) fixtures. That puts the start at Nov. 20 or so. Best of a bad set of choices.

 

One of the things I hate about this godforsaken sport is that I don't understand what the hell the significance of any particular game is, and what they are playing for. I forced myself this morning to read the New York Times article on the Barcelona-Manchester United game yesterday, thinking, "OK, this is big news. I'm going to at least try to figure it out." I had no idea by the end what the fuck had happened. Barcelona won. The dude who bit somebody played. They are going to play again at some point in another important game that has some unstated significance with regards to one of several trophies that all these teams vie for. Lots of word picture sentences about the Beautiful Game. The end. Huh? WTF? Who is up in the series now? Is it a series? Who would they play next? Why are there three championships for one league?

 

Every country has 3 or 4 leagues, the teams fight for promotion and relegation from 4th to 1st division.

The 3 or 4 best clubs of every country go into regional tournaments to crown the best club in the world, currently Real Madrid.

Every country has a National team with the best players in their nations, they play regionals, then the world cup to crown the best soccer nation in the world every 4 years, currently Germany.

My club is the LA Galaxy, my country the USA.

Simple?