A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

~48 hours after being named PFA's Young Player of the Year, Dele Alli is being charged with violent conduct following yesterday's contest between Tottenham and West Brom, which may consequently see him suspended for the remaining three games the season.

The incident, which occurred in the 26th minute, went unnoticed by the official and wasn't seen during the original TV broadcast feed. See and judge for yourself.

edited 26th Apr '16 10:40:48 AM by SeanMurrayI

Seems they're determined to hand the Foxes the title now...

Manchester City 0 - 0 Real Madrid

Considering that CR 7 and James were absent, and that they were playing in Etihad, City has missed a big chance to win the match. And likely the chance to reach the final as well.

I dislike Manchester City, but I sort of hope they reach the Final and maybe even win it, just to silence the people who claim the Bundesliga and La Liga are vastly superior to the Premier League because the top clubs of those leagues do well in Europe.

Hell, I just want to see "someone new" lift the trophy.

Can't stop watching...

Oh man, he played them like a violin.

That goal definitely deserves to be nominated for the Puskás Award.

It's the kind of goal I wish Atletico would score in La Liga, just so it could come with Ray Hudson commentary about how we all "just witnessed a goal that would wake up a catatonic" or something. That goal was very much indeed magisterial.

Pretty sure the best football commentator is the Dutch guy in this clip (yeah, I'm going on just that one moment).

Atlético 1 - 0 Bayern

Well, Atlético might be that new team to lift the trophy, so don't put too many hopes in City just yet.

If we're measuring match commentators just by how loud they scream when they're feeling most passionate, that guy doesn't even come close to holding a candle for AC Milan superfan Tiziano Crudeli.

Still, Ray Hudson is the undisputed poet laureate of match commentary. The most cultured soccer fans in the United States don't even look forward to a Barça-Real Clasico for Messi and Ronaldo anymore; they watch for the enjoyment of Ray Hudson's commentary totally stealing the show. Plus, he'd know quite a lot more than just a thing or two about mind-blowing football; he was once teammates in the old NASL with George Best, Gerd Müller, and Nene Cubillas (a partnership which is, somehow, always cruelly overlooked in an era where Pelé and Beckenbauer would grace the same patch of AstroTurf with the New York Cosmos). This is the only photographic evidence I can find on the Internet that links all four men together◊ (Hudson's wearing No. 4 in the top row; Cubillas, Müller, and Best are all seated in the bottom row wearing Nos. 20, 15, and 3). Another fun side note about this team: Their manager in that same team photo is Ron Newman, who, following the dissolution of this totally batshit dream team, made the transition to coaching and utterly dominating the indoor sport (for all that's good for) with the San Diego Sockers.

edited 27th Apr '16 9:25:39 PM by SeanMurrayI

THERE IS BEAR CAMP! *wheezes* THERE IS BEAR CAMP! *wheezes* THERE IS BEAR CAMP! *wheezes* THERE IS BEAR CAMP!

You hear CAMP, I hear CUM (if I may be immature).

I don't get it.

Spurs player Alli has been banned for the rest of the season - 3 games - for violent conduct.

Villarreal 1 - 0 Liverpool

Shakhtar 2 - 2 Sevilla

Sorry, Best Of, but if you're waiting for an English team to make it to a final round so people stop saying Spanish/German teams are better,.... you'll have to keep waiting. It's not us saying it. The matches and teams are demonstrating it. And as long as the Football Association continues boasting the local competitions (Premier, FA Cup, League Cup, Community) for their.... well, competitivity rather than promoting the performance of their teams outside England, things won't change. I'm pretty sure all they need is to make their local stuff less bloated, and for that they have to eliminate the League Cup because it's redundant. They also need to eliminate the replay mechanic from the FA Cup because it's been completely outphased, and neither nostalgia nor tradition can excuse otherwise.

We don't suppose Liverpool could get a decisive win at home or Man City could snatch away goals at the Bernabeu?

Whatever the case may be, I certainly haven't seen matches and/or teams "demonstrate" that both of those scenarios come with a 0% chance of probability.

The problem with England is less related to its exhausting calendar (though it does play a part in English teams' performance in Europe), and more related to the fact that there's way too much money floating around due to the Premier League, which makes the group state of the Champions League and the Europa League as a whole less appealing (I've seen many English people on Reddit outright stating that the costs of playing in European competitions outweigh any benefits that could've come from there).

That being said, Villareal is a strong team and was playing at home. I think Klopp and his team could turn things around in the second leg.

The other problem, more related to the game, is that La Liga teams tend to have greater tactical efficiency and a more strategic (either defensive, e.g. Atlético, or offensive, e.g. Barcelona, with all knowing a lot about possession and its relationship to the fluidity of the game) mentality.

Just my 2 cents.

edited 28th Apr '16 4:48:00 PM by Quag15

Liverpool aren't currently one of the top teams of England, anyway. Or rather, they are, but not in terms of recent form and quality. Liverpool are a bigger club than Chelsea or Manchester City in terms of global support and history, but in recent years their lack of success in England and Europe means they're not a bigger team than Tottenham.

I think one of the reasons that English clubs aren't doing too well in Europe is that they don't consider Champions League games as important as a Premier League game. That's certainly the case with Arsenal. Basically, unless you're already in the Final of a European competition a given game is usually going to have less at stake than a Premier League match. Sounds insane on the face of it, but it sort of does make sense from some perspectives.

According to the Daily Mirror, otherwise known as the Daily Pravda because of it's Labour leanings, the Special One is going to trouser 60 million pounds for a three year contract as the next Manchester United manager - I hope Louis Van Gaal is paying attention.

http://tinyurl.com/hv4tfaj

Of course, being a story from the Daily Pravda, it's possibly so full of crap it squeaks when it goes round corners.

Uninspiring Match, Uninspiring Protests

edited 30th Apr '16 12:54:37 PM by SeanMurrayI

Real Sociedad 0 - 1 Real Madrid

Atlético Madrid 1 - 0 Rayo Vallecano

Real Betis 0 - 1 Barcelona (ongoing)

I can see the runners' tongues now.

Huracán-Racing Man of the Match: Roger Martinez.

• Scores the only goal in the match (utterly dreadful from El Globo's perspective) before the end of the first half.
• Is shown a straight red card at the beginning of the second.

Bollocks...