Futebol

The few Portland Timbers matches I've caught glimpses of this year have been typically slow as mud. That's MLS in a nutshell to me: boring, muddy games where the goals come out of nowhere. There's some interesting attacking players on the Timbers in Chara, Adi, and Valeri, but only semblances of fluidity.

My work moved offices and we're two blocks from the stadium, so I gotta go to a match though. I know the environment will get me into it.

Really excited to watch Arsenal play today and pick up some really important (by Mou's standards) silverware in the process. I haven't gotten the chance to watch any of their preseason friendlies so this will be my first time seeing both Lacazette and Kolasinac playing with Arsenal. I'm particularly excited about seeing how the latter works as a left wingback in the 3-5-2.

It should be a fun Premier League season. I'm also cautiously optimistic about Inter's upcoming season. They've been quietly efficient this summer.

chrondog wrote:There's some interesting attacking players on the Timbers in Chara, Adi, and Valeri

yeah...

All the football pods are back this week. Looking forward to James Richardson's new pod assuming it gets made accessible in the US by next week.

Tim Vickery had like a 10 minute segment on World Football this week regarding the Neymar deal that was exactly why Vickery is a treasure.

i haven't listened to Football Weekly yet, but i like Max Rushden. seems like it will be nice to have two good football podcasts instead of just one.

Do you listen to The Football Ramble? Also an excellent pod. Thinking of dropping Men in Blazers. Their sense of humor has kind of worn out with me.

Football Ramble is great,. I've never met any of the hosts but I still regard them as my friends

Well, Balague is Tweeting that Coutinho would like to play for FCB so their goes the only playmaker LFC has and any chance of a sustained run in the CL or top 4 finish.

Nick wrote:Do you listen to The Football Ramble? Also an excellent pod. Thinking of dropping Men in Blazers. Their sense of humor has kind of worn out with me.

Football Ramble has priority for me over Football Weekly, it's my favorite. i started listening to it a few years ago based on your rec. i dropped Men in Blazers about the same time because their schtick sucks and it's total ESPN "narrative" garbage.

Michael Cox's The Mixer podcasts over the summer were alright, Marcus was hosting. i assume the book will be better than the pods because Cox doesn't shine in short snippets.

there's only room for one Wenger av on this board WP

This United performance has been something else. Easily the most impressive team this opening weekend.

chrondog wrote:My work moved offices and we're two blocks from the stadium, so I gotta go to a match though. I know the environment will get me into it.

I was at that train stop last week in the middle of a game, I thought it looked festive and fun!

Nick wrote:This United performance has been something else. Easily the most impressive team this opening weekend.

they played an abject West Ham side, let's not get carried away

that being said, United impressed me and they have some explosive talent. now they can roll with Pogba-Matic in the double pivot against shite teams like they did against West Ham, and pack the midfield with Herrera-Pogba-Matic against stronger sides. Herrera-Pogba-Matic isn't going to win you the CL, but it's more formidable then what they had before. the lack of a proper CDM last season caused Mourinho to set up very defensively and shackle his creative players like Rashford and Mkhitaryan. with Matic on the pitch, Mourinho lets those wide forwards actually make something happen. the pendulum always seems to be swinging back and forth on Fellaini, and it's currently on the side of "he's a very useful Plan B", but i fucking hate him as a player and he gummed up United's attacks time after time last season.

everything about this weekend of football was positive for this Arsenal lad. thrilling Arsenal victory on Friday at work, Liverpool and Chelsea cocked it up, great matches up and down the Prem, the Spanish Supercup was hilarity personified. WELCOME BACK

chrondog wrote:there's only room for one Wenger av on this board WP

I can offer some suggestions if you are looking for a change.

I am very excited about the start of the Serie A season this weekend! Most of the international attention is going to be on AC Milan this season and rightfully so after they dropped somewhere around €225 million in one transfer window. Bonucci was an incredible bargain signing for them (especially given the inflated market values we are seeing elsewhere) and he could shift the balance of power as profoundly as Pirlo did in 2011. They did a great job keeping Donnarumma as well and I like their midfield improvements but there are still a lot of problems with this squad (Montella is shit, lack of quality at CF, and we aren't even sure if these moves are going to pass FFP.)

Meanwhile Inter had one of their best preseasons in recent memory and Spalletti's presence is already being felt. They could use another CB (Murillo is probably leaving to Valencia, but I really love the Skriniar signing from Samp) and a replacement for D'Ambrosio at RB. Now that Banega has returned to Sevilla and Brozovic has fallen down the depth charts, it will be really interesting to watch J. Mario develop this season. Whether or not Inter finally qualifies for the Champions League this season might depend upon his success as their trequartista.

Part of me wants to start watching more La Liga matches this season as well, but I can't really tell if I mean that. Real Madrid should run away with it this year and the narrative of this season is going to be revolve around Barcelona's instability post-Neymar, which is boring.

Who are the cool Spanish teams to support? Atletico is the obvious choice and I really like Diego Simeone but I'd rather pick a team further down the table with an outside shot at Europa League, an established history, and the potential to someday mature into cinderella title challengers.

Valencia

Bilbao

Benfica

Nick wrote:Valencia

I watched the second half of their match today actually against Las Palmas, but only to watch Joao Cancelo who is set to move to Inter. It was a disgusting half of football and Las Palmas was already down to 10 men. Why them? Alternatively, why Bilbao? It's obviously impressive that they are the only team to never have been relegated outside of the top division in Spain (other than Real and Barça), especially given the self-imposed limitations of their 'cantera' policy of recruiting and fielding only Basque players.

That's unique and cool, but also exclusive and I'm not Basque so it would always feel like there is an unbridgeable divide between me and club, which already exists spatially, temporally, linguistically, culturally anyway though so whatever.

Ҩ wrote:Alternatively, why Bilbao? It's obviously impressive that they are the only team to never have been relegated outside of the top division in Spain (other than Real and Barça), especially given the self-imposed limitations of their 'cantera' policy of recruiting and fielding only Basque players.

That's unique and cool, but also exclusive and I'm not Basque so it would always feel like there is an unbridgeable divide between me and club, which already exists spatially, temporally, linguistically, culturally anyway though so whatever.

grab some pinxtos and dig in my friend.

like you mention they're always a fixture in the league. they have an identity. they field interesting and competitive teams. they're not overly corporatized or cash rich. they have history. they have a cool jersey.

Valencia is definitely a bigger club that is currently down but could eventually be up again.

Yea Jesus Christ dude I think you're over thinking this. Valencia is a team that should compete for a top 6 finish most seasons, they have made some decent summer signings & have a bat as their badge.

Plus it's a city that you might want to visit.

Liverpool have been incredible with their counterattack football today. Arsenal though have been moving at half speed.

Wenger Out will dominate the headlines tomorrow.

6-0 wouldn't be flattering in this one.

Arsenal turned up to an arse kicking contest barefoot with their arses hanging out.

Ramsey spent most of the first half admiring Emre Can's boots.