A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

BBC: Fifa lodges criminal complaint over World Cup hosting

Apparently Arsenal fans are quite wealthy and lean a bit right (no surprise to me although neither of those criteria apply to me). Out of the British newspapers they're most likely to read the Guardian (which I would also pick).

They're most likely to be 18-24-year old females. (I'm a 25-year-old male.)

They're interested in global news (that's me) and business (not me) and fashion & cosmetics (not me).

They're also interested in the USA.

Among the most common (self-described) personality traits are "analytical" and "difficult" - both of which I could easily apply to myself, at least when it comes to Arsenal.

Their most likely car is a Honda (I don't have a car, nor would I care what brand it is if I was to buy one).

The bank they use is HSBC. I happen to have an account with them, but I picked that back almost entirely by random from a few options available in the place where I lived and worked for a few months this summer. It could just as easily have been Nat West or Barclays.

Arsenal fans like mostly football-related programmes. Their favourite entertainers include Chris Tucker, Jonathan Ross, and, unaccountably, Pier Morgan. (Not quite enough to make me reconsider my loyalty to the club but...) Arsenal fans like pop, R&B (in the modern sense) and rap, mostly by black American artists. (This doesn't describe me at all - I listen to heavy metal, mostly by British and Finnish bands.) Their favourite movies include The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (which was OK), Johnny English (which I remember as being very unfunny but maybe if I saw it again my opinion might change, as it's been a long time since I saw it) and Waltz with Bashir, which is a movie I've been meaning to watch for a while.

On social media most of the top hits have to do with Arsenal and football.

They watch a lot of TV (1-5 hours per day) and spend loads of time online (41-45 hpw). They watch football, news, Two and a Half Men and Eastenders. (I've never seen either of those shows but my understanding is that they're shit.)

edited 19th Nov '14 10:27:10 PM by BestOf

Eastenders is apparently good enough to still be going after nearly thirty years.

Argentina 0-1 Portugal (friendly)

I only saw the second half. Apparently, we were shit in the first half (due to Santos exchanging players' positions and testing out different tactics), but we ended up recovering. We could've lost, and near the end it looked like it was gonna end up in a draw, but our defender, Raphael Guerrreiro (2nd cap, debuted against Armenia a few days ago, plays for Lorient) scored a few seconds before the end of the match, with a header. He's also our shortest player, which is kinda awesome.

Adrien Silva (Sporting), José Fonte (Southampton), Tiago Gomes (Braga) had their debut, with the former two having played well, while the latter still has to do some work and adjust himself to a proper position.

This was not a Messi x Ronaldo match, which was probably good for the teams (Di Maria was one of the Argentines who fought the most).

A nice win (last time we defeated Argentina was 40-something years ago) in Old Trafford. Most English fans ended up celebrating our goal, so thanks.

Also, Scotland 1-3 England. How was it?

edited 18th Nov '14 2:01:51 PM by Quag15

Finland lost 2-1 against Slovakia. It was refreshing to see us lose because we were clearly the inferior team. Finland played about as well as they can with their current squad, while Slovakia put in a routine performance. It's been a while since we didn't lose because the other side converted 50% of their chances or because our strikers wasted half a dozen clear opportunities or the referee missed a penalty call (or made a wrong one) or anything. We were simply nowhere near as good as Slovakia, and got punished for it. No ifs or buts this time.

Annoyingly dire from Scotland. Still, just a friendly.

Rooney only needs 3 more goals to equal Charlton's record as England's highest-scoring national team player. He's got years of world-class football left in him, so he'll get there quickly and keep improving his record quite considerably before he finishes his national team career.

The first goal (the only one I've seen) is a header from Oxlade-Chamberlain, enabled by a wonderful cross from Wilshere. If only they played so well for the club...

I just watched an analysis of Arsenal's stats so far this season and apparently they've scored 3 goals fewer than this point last season, while conceding 3 more - and that translates into 8 points. That's a pretty heavy punishment for 6 goals.

Arsenal have had more shots on goal per game on average than last season, and fewer shots on goal from opponents - suggesting that opposition 'keepers have been excellent, while Szczesny has been underperforming. (I don't think he has, though - the goals conceded have almost always been the fault of Arsenal's defenders, giving the opponent better chances than they tended to have last season.)

Arsenal have also lost points from stupid refereeing errors (like handballs in the penalty area that went unpunished) and I won't be surprised if those errors account for at least 5 points in Arsenal's first 11 games of the season. This is the Premier League, though, which has shameful refereeing errors in almost every game, so it's not really an acceptable excuse.

Those stats do comfort me, though. If the margins really are that small Arsenal can probably take the relatively small step forward that they seem to need to catch up, especially with Debuchy and Giroud preparing to play this year and Koscielny and Özil returning early in January. A bit of stability (especially in defence) should prevent things like Hull scoring 2 from 4 attempts, and the return of Giroud and Özil should enable Arsenal to restore their ability to score.

edited 18th Nov '14 3:21:52 PM by BestOf

I have two clubs who I love somewhat equally: Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United. I'm mentioning both, though the information is likely to be useless :P.

The average Spurs fan is supposedly 60+ (21), male (true) and ABC 1 (what?). Our politics leans slightly right (mostly left-leaning centrist). We are most likely in finance (engineer). We are most likely to own a cat (no pets) and have niche interests in cricket (I object to 'niche'). Most of the brands make no sense to me as they aren't here, but I'm most likely to own a Ford (!).

Spurs fans apparently liked 'Gone Girl' and 'Thunderball', listen to Michael Jackson and admire Al Pacino, and I can say that is true for me. Top websites visited include simplybe.co.uk and, of all things, porntube.com(!!!). Top Twitter follows include Charlie Sheen, Gary Lineker and @19900778(?), which casts doubts on my loyalty to the club.

Spurs fans surf the internet for 26-30 hours a week, football forms a major part of their lives (we love to watch the PL, the Europa and the CL, which is the only thing I watch on TV) and their paper is most likely to be...

The Daily Mail.

[cringe]

DOUBLE POST WARNING

Manchester United fans are typically women between 25 and 39, typically in advertising or interior decoration. Both United and Spurs fans, funnily enough, tend to save less than £125 a year. United fans tend to be more centrist than Spurs fans, meaning they're pretty much centrist.

Our most likely pet is a bird, we tend to be 'telly addicts' and our favourite movies include 'Home Alone 2' and 'An Indecent Proposal' -sigh- The only celebrity liked that I know is Simon Cowell, and I utterly detest the man, and it seems Michael Jackson is loved by United fans too.

Twitter follows mentioned are all current or former United players (Ferdinand, Rooney, Owen, Gary Neville and RVP). The average United fan surfs the Internet for 36-40 hours a week, watches TV for about the same period of time, also likes Real Madrid (Ronaldo?) and their favourite newspaper is...

The Sun.

-sigh-

Times like this, I wouldn't mind joining up with Best Of and supporting Arsenal :P

Phoenix - ABC1 refers to social class. A is upper-middle, think upper management and more expensive lawyers and accountants. B is middle management and middle of the middle class, with C1 being junior management and lower-middle as a whole. C2DE means working class, C2 being skilled labour, D unskilled labour and E the long term unemployed, unless they live on income from investments.

There is also an A* or * class included with them now and then, essentially those at the very top who are either defined by how they generate money through what they have already, or those who have significant holdings or wealth and live on that.

edited 19th Nov '14 4:07:08 AM by RatherRandomRachel

Man, Ireland beat the USA 4-1. As an American, I'm rather disappointed. Yet as someone whose family is Irish, I'm pretty happy about it.

That's embarrassing, frankly.

While I understand it was just a friendly, it was a rather shameful display from the US side. I'm sure Juergen will figure out what to do with our national team by the time World Cup qualifying starts in about 2 years, but it's still pretty painful to lose to an Irish side that didn't even have their best players playing the entire match. Goodness knows what would've happened if Robbie Keane or Seamus Coleman were playing in that one...

@ 6258: Comparing myself to the average Spurs fan...

• 60+ (22)
• Male (check)
• ABC 1 (grad student)
• Somewhat conservative (democrat)
• Occupation in finance (studying International Relations)
• Own a cat (yup)
• Interest in cricket (I got hooked with the ODI and Twenty20 formats in Lanka)
• 26-30 hours on the internet (guilty as charged)
• Hooked to football (yup!)
• Favorite paper: Daily Mail (The Guardian)

edited 19th Nov '14 4:02:30 PM by sanfranman91

The average Democrat voter in the US would probably count as Conservative in the UK.

Some interesting rumblings from The Rangers football club. David Somers has given his reasons for not accepting the Dave King consortium offer and going to Mike Ashley instead.

Dave King then claimed that the Easdales had OK'ed his bid, to which the Easdales have responded: "Naw we didnae, get tae fuck mate."

What would the average Republican be called?

FC Goa 0-0 FC Mumbai

Third 0-0 draw in a row. Happily, we're still fourth, but we're tied on points with Pune at 5th and Kerala at 3rd, but it is tough to say how long this can last. One defeat and we could tumble right down to 6th, or even 7th if Delhi, currently at the bottom, defeat us away. Honestly, against this Goa side, I can safely say we've dropped four points.

Next match is against Chennai on Monday at home. I hope we can forget about the 5-1 away loss and do our best to at least get a draw. Chennai come as league leaders on goals scored (they're tied with Kolkata on points and GD) and having won their last match 3-1 and drawn the previous four (1-1, 2-2, 1-1 and 0-0, in order), they could obviously be tough. Still, we've had a reasonable record at DY, so I'm hoping for at least a point.

Also, how did you get those little icons under your avatar, Best Of?

edited 20th Nov '14 12:51:56 AM by arcanephoenix

You used to be able to buy TVT money and then buy badges with it as a way of donating to the site. It's been discontinued, annoyingly.

edited 20th Nov '14 1:18:30 AM by Achaemenid

Badges were disabled for various reasons but they'll probably make a comeback quite soon, in one form or another.

An average Republican would be a far-right, fringe Conservative in the UK. In matters of religion and science even the Conservatives would probably laugh at him (Republicans tend to be male) as he would claim that evolution and climate change are contriversial theories and he would endorse mandatory prayer and discrimination against gay people and the non-religious.

I'm not entirely sure who I'm supporting at the moment, so... ^.^;

What's even funnier is that a fair number of far-right, fringe British Conservatives are also actually militant atheists, as disillusioned and disgusted with religion as they are with everything else...

edited 20th Nov '14 3:39:45 AM by Greenmantle

Former Rangers owner Craig Whyte failed to appear in court in London today for Ticketus v Whyte & Others. Mr Justice Newey has issued an arrest warrant for contempt of court and attached a 28-day prison sentence, since this is his fourth no-show. Despite this, he had previously said that he would be returning to Scotland to assist investigators with their inquiries into the death of Rangers.

This is just ridiculous. Lord Lucan, Shergar...Craig Whyte?

Seems possible for Joel Campbell, of Costa Rica, to move to Leicester.

Also Costa Rica defeated Uruguay, again, sorta recently. No bites happened. But the loss of the Director Jorge Luis Pinto was apparently quite noticeable

Cripes, I'm a militant atheist. Though I don't vote for the Tories. Is that mandatory now if you are an atheist?

In the UK I'd assume atheists tend to vote Labour, though Clegg is a Liberal (as is Dawkins, BTW.)

Philippines 4-1 Laos (AFF Suzuki Cup 2014, Group A)

• Laos scores - "OH...YES!!! ONE-NIL LAOS!!!" (0:21-0:26)
• Philippines equalizes - "Oh that's the equalizer." (0:42-0:46)
• Philippines takes the lead - "And they've taken the lead." (1:08-1:11)

The period and the exclamation point is the only way to easily represent the difference in speaking tone through writing. I would not be surprised if the commentator is actually Singaporean.

edited 22nd Nov '14 5:01:22 AM by entropy13