Futebol

http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/tacticsandanalysis/id/2484/mikel-and-anderson-victims-of-english-footballs-distrust-of-creativity?cc=5901

if you see the comments, Chelsea fans loooooove defending Mikel and pretending he's a "stopper" and that he single handedly stopped Barcelona and Munich in the Champions league two years ago.

but somehow this is a player not good enough to keep David Luiz from challenging for his holding role and the club had to spend 21 million pounds on a Serbian dude to replace him.

i have a tendency to overstate his deficiencies because i don't like him as a player. he's certainly not bad. he completes a very high percentage of his passes (over 90% in 2011-2012), makes a couple tackles per game, has a decent range of passing, makes interceptions and knows his role. he's just not an elite defensive midfielder, which is what a title challenging EPL side would want if they are consistently playing in that style. he's also not an all-rounder and seems unable to provide any attacking impetus in games where he is directed to play the holding role. i don't think he can hang his hat on his defensive duties given that he lacks anything special in his distribution and goal scoring.

Their fans have 20 years of winning to celebrate but I still enjoy watching United suck.

David Moyes's Man Utd are going to give me a hernia from laughter.

are you laughing more today about crashing out of the Capital One Cup while only converting one spot kick or a 37+ million pound panic buy of Juan Mata?

i watched Sevilla vs Atletico yesterday and really enjoyed watching Rakitic. his excellent through ball and combativeness were on display and Sevilla got a deserved point.

Costa has been pretty magnificient every time i've watched him play as well. i shudder to think what it will look like if Del Bosque is able to successfully integrate him into the Spanish side.

totally lost my shit when i saw this guy on Twitter



hopefully JvJ will start up front for United against Cardiff on Tuesday


professional performance from Arsenal against Coventry today, loved seeing Zelalem make his senior debut

hearing Andy Gray and Ian Darke commentating the Everton v. Stevenage tie this weekend was weird as fuck

Take a bow son!

and fuck right off.

Why do people always act like such bitches and threaten legal action in Europe when someone talks some shit?

Imagine Richard Sherman getting threatened with a lawsuit in the US because he called Crabtree mediocre. People would be LOLing that to death.

https://vine.co/v/MuVQuiMHtDm

how do you feel when you watch this?

I feel bored

there's one for England too if you want that instead

I'm wondering if someone like Nick identifies with those guys or if he thinks they're really corny or fake or something else altogether.

Hyping "draws" is one of those pieces of soccer pageantry that doesn't resonate with me at all. I feel like its basically a media/ESPN driven hype because they televise the draws and gain traffic by drumming up excitement for computerized scheduling. American fans are likely even less connected to this pageantry than European fans, so I don't know why they keep pushing the narrative. The "Group of Death" narrative has been very popular in American media because its a humblebrag. It simultaneously is self-victimizing (look at how hard our group is!) and self-aggrandizing (this group is so hard because the USA is in it!). USA's group G is difficult, but the field is very strong this year and many groups are difficult. Especially with the volatility of an international tournament, it's unfair to project one group as obviously "the hardest."

It's somewhat "bleh" that almost all the dudes are beardy hipsters, but that stereotype is probably true, especially for fans of the US Men's National Team. Most of the people that I know personally who like soccer are more from the international set. I have a Mexican and an Iranian friend who like soccer and they root for players from those countries. I have Black friends who root for Nigeria, or wherever they can trace their roots. My support for US soccer is extremely lukewarm because it isn't really a form of patriotism that makes sense in America. How could it be patriotic to support the USMNT when most Americans think soccer is for the gays? At no point in my life have I developed shared experienced rooting for American soccer with other fans. I'm sure with more time and more World Cups I will begin to develop that fandom. For now, I feel more connected to the teams like England/Germany/Serbia where my family is from historically than I do with my own.

if most "real" futbol fans in the USA care more about international leagues and love to talk shit about MLS, would it then follow that they wouldn't care much about the World Cup, or at least wouldn't care about rooting for team USA because fuck those guys right?

jasperness wrote:It's somewhat "bleh" that almost all the dudes are beardy hipsters, but that stereotype is probably true, especially for fans of the US Men's National Team.

I suspect that dudes like this would call it "football" but Budweiser commercial writers forced them to use the s-word instead, what are your thoughts

undo wrote:if most "real" futbol fans in the USA care more about international leagues and love to talk shit about MLS, would it then follow that they wouldn't care much about the World Cup, or at least wouldn't care about rooting for team USA because fuck those guys right?

I don't really want to privilege myself as a "real" fan, but i see what you're getting at here. this is lightly my attitude. i care more about international leagues and talk shit about MLS all the time (its unwatchable). i also don't root that strongly for the USA. two things i disagree with though:

1. Just because club football is the highest quality doesn't mean there isn't something electrifying about international play, especially in tournaments. Even if you were an American soccer fan who doesn't like the USA team, you still want to see Brazil, Germany, Spain, etc. International football is just different.
2. There's nothing inherently unlikable about the USMNT. I don't dislike that many American players play in MLS. People like the Colombian National Team and no one even knows who the fuck half those dudes are or cares that they play in the Argentinean domestic league.

undo wrote:

jasperness wrote:It's somewhat "bleh" that almost all the dudes are beardy hipsters, but that stereotype is probably true, especially for fans of the US Men's National Team.

I suspect that dudes like this would call it "football" but Budweiser commercial writers forced them to use the s-word instead, what are your thoughts

i think most American fans are so used to switching back and forth between football and soccer depending on the contexts that they probably use both. for official purposes to the American media, it will always be soccer though. hard to get away from that.

Apart from not being sick, I can't see how I can top this night this season. And I'm not even talking about the score.

Bruegel, know much about this Milos Jojic going from Partizan to BVB?



Looks to be another decent young Serbian midfielder

saw him score in the friendly against Japan but dont know much about him tbh. Seems pretty versatile which will be handy with Kuba and Gundogan out for a while. the latter will probably be on the move in the summer.

another 20 shots against the Irons today. none on target. Lol

very excited to watch MOTD after today's fixtures.

it seems like in the back and forth to decide if it's Moyes fault or the players' fault that Man United are so mediocre that everyone has forgotten the middle path. Moyes appears to be a mediocre manager AND he has a mid-table squad.

Am I wrong to think this Atletico Madrid side feels very much like Sevilla a few years ago? They were exciting and must watch football but I always felt their challenge to Barca & Real Madrid was never going to go beyond a distant 2nd or 3rd place finish.

The swans are crazy to sack Laudrup.

i haven't read that much about it, but it seems like Laudrup planned to leave at the end of the season anyway, so they're just trying to light a fire under people. agree he's a good manager though and people are naive to say Swansea are "underperforming".

Nick wrote:Am I wrong to think this Atletico Madrid side feels very much like Sevilla a few years ago? They were exciting and must watch football but I always felt their challenge to Barca & Real Madrid was never going to go beyond a distant 2nd or 3rd place finish.

in terms of playing style they feel different, but in terms of title credentials you're probably right. the heavy pressing game Atletico play combined with their lack of squad rotation almost guarantees they'll slow down in the second half of the season. they're a very good side, but have been helped by the relative weakness of the bottom half of La Liga this year, picking up points against minnows they wouldn't have in years past. if Valencia and Villareal and Sevilla themselves were in better financial shape, Atletico wouldn't have so many points.

Laudrup always fucks off in the second year.