All-Purpose, Never-Ending Soccer Thread

So that's what happened this afternoon. I failed to pay attention and a friend of mine was watching it in The City. Something tells me he's not going to be in such a good mood for this weekend's Red's match.

 

I realize I'm turning into (if I wasn't already one) a soccer snob :-\, but I'm even sick of the EPL.  Whenever I watch, it just turns into seeing who can knock the ball the farthest, then taking people on 1v1.  There's little skillful passing, there's little teamwork to it.  I realize it's the league with most of the best players on the planet, but how many of the best midfielders on the planet are playing there?  I think that's worth discussion, as there's not a whole lot of possession going on in that league. 

Give me La Liga or even the Bundesliga anyday....

 

Now that you point that out ... you're right.
It's all a bunch of long ball, occasionally two-touch soccer just outside the box, but more often one guy backing in or taking a defender on 1 v 1.

I've yet to watch much of the Italian leagues on FSC, but that's on the budget.

 

And the more I think about it, I think that's why the EPL teams don't fare all that well in the Champions League, for the most part. They can't adapt to a possession style game very well....

The Champions League, that shit I'd watch every second of every day if I could. The blending of styles and flow of the game is something that is only matched in the World Cup.

 

It's akin to the farm boys who work the ball around, defend and play team basketball to beat the athletic and quick team that plays a bunch of one on one but doesn't get back to defend.

 

Alexi bails on the Red Bulls:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/17/sports/soccer/17lalas.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

 

Disappointing to say the least.

I liked what he had done, but with all that was going on in LA it was somewhat expected, even if I didn't want to believe it.

 

how long before Lalas sacks Sampson

 

Depends if the in-flight phone works.

 

One of the more entertaining rumors regarding his replacement is that long-time MLS basher Giorgio Chinaglia is on the shortlist.

-------------

Euro styling: I, too, am recently with FSC and GolTV. Serie A = great insomnia cure, EPL = great atmosphere, average soccer. The Bundesliga and Ligue 1 matches are a nice middle ground (though it's still not the real Bundesliga without Toby Charles).

The lack of MLS on FSC disturbs me, but not as much as Gambare! being on at such impossibly bad times.

 

Trooper, FSC was going to have MLS games again this season. However, Garber, the idiot that he is, asked for television rights fees. He assumed, wrongly, that since ESPN is paying for it, that FSC should pay a large chunk as well.

They literally laughed at him.

Garber tried to play the, "You market yourselves as the American Soccer Channel. How can you not have MLS?" Garber must not have remembered that sister station, Fox News Channel, markets itself as fair and balanced.

 

I think games with the better EPL or Ligue 1 teams are the most fun to watch.  Lyon in particular is a great team.  However, I don't get to see any La Liga matches and of what I have seen of Barca in the UCL, they are pretty entertaining.

No way Chinaglia comes back to the Meadowlands -- the Red Bull people must know that he is hated by the establishment here.