A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

Yeah, Champions League game is gonna promise some goals.

And Now streaming on YouTube... Huracán host Sarmiento in the 4th round of the Argentina Primera.

Huracán are still in search of a win, with two draws and a loss so far this season. Sarmiento, meanwhile, have one win, loss, and draw so far, but are currently beneath Huracán on the league's multi-year relegation table, hovering just above the expanded drop zone.

EDIT: 0-0 FT I hurt. Everybody hurts.

edited 24th Sep '16 6:58:50 PM by SeanMurrayI

Good news! FIFA fixed racism in Russia, so this will never become an issue ever again.

FIFA's anti-racism task force assembled during preparations for the 2018 World Cup was established by Sepp Blatter in 2013 and was originally run by former CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb... until that teeny, tiny incident over a year ago when Webb was one of several figures charged with racketeering during the United States Department of Justice's investigation into corruption in soccer and was subsequently banned for life by FIFA.

Webb was replaced as head of the task force, but apparently, the work that was already done under his oversight was so outstanding that the task force never held a meeting or did anything of note ever since. Incredible work.

That hashtag was powerful, man.

For an issue this serious, I can't stand FIFA reducing their stance to a slogan that lame.

Argentina Primera Live-Streaming: Boca Juniors vs. Quilmes. La Bombonera is bouncing... Carlos Tevez is still suspended... and Néstor Pitana with the greatest combover in modern football, who you may remember from the 2014 World Cup◊ is officiating.

And while I was posting this, Boca are already on the scoreboard inside seven minutes. EDIT: And Quilmes equalized inside 13 minutes. Now we got a match.

edited 25th Sep '16 2:16:25 PM by SeanMurrayI

#NoAlRacismo.

Moreirense 0-1 Vitória de Guimarães

We pressed a fair lot in the first half, and they were reduced to 10 men (perhaps a bit unfairly so). We had a couple of shots on target.

In the second half, they pressed more than us, but we ended up scoring (though only after their GK and the post defended). While it's a bit bittersweet that our topscorer (and current top goalscorer in the league) is on loan from Porto, it's still quite nice to see him doing what he does best: lots of physical presence and key shots/goals that help a lot (5 goals in 6 matches so far).

Though we didn't end up doing great (and were quite mediocre at times), we managed to get the 3 points.

And so it was the city/municipality 'derby'. Next week: Sporting, at our home (shudders).

edited 25th Sep '16 2:24:58 PM by Quag15

Does that loan deal include an option to buy the player if he stays this consistent?

And, yeah, that's a worthy red card offense. High foot, studs showing, not playing the ball... connecting with an opponent's knee... Ouch. Not intentional and unfortunate but very reckless.

...And while I was writing this, Boca Juniors scored twice thrice. Only 25 minutes past.

EDIT: Boca highlights already up...

Boca's second goal (Golasso!!!!):

Boca's third (backheel assist):

edited 25th Sep '16 2:47:01 PM by SeanMurrayI

Top goals (especially the one in the first video).

I don't think there's a buy out clause, but, even if there was, we can't really afford to pay 4M€ for him (unless we happen to reach the Europa League and get some satisfying amount of profits in the transfer market after the season is over)..

edited 25th Sep '16 4:41:37 PM by Quag15

Here's hoping he keeps carrying the team, then. 5th/6th place at this early stage of the season is a pretty good start.

Elsewhere... Seattle Sounders are wearing 'Gears of War 4'-sponsored/themed kits for their last two matches of the regular MLS season (Here in America, even in soccer we do playoffs). And the referee got the assist on their 4th goal against LA Galaxy.

EDIT: I should add that if you watch the video replay of that "referee assist", you may pick up an Galaxy supporter shouting, "Fucking Hell!"

edited 25th Sep '16 5:05:45 PM by SeanMurrayI

Why, what's the matter? :S

Defensa y Justicia 3 - 3 River Plate

I feel like River is really fatigued right now.

Meanwhile in the Scottish Premiership Ross County took another point off of much higher ranked opposition, holding Heart of Midlothian to a nil-all draw:

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/hearts-0-ross-county-0-8905536

Repeating what they did to Ibrox Sevco last week. Said club also had a horror show against Aberdeen, who won with a last-gasp of a last-gasp free kick, sending the Ibrox manager rather loopy according to this report:

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-match-reports/aberdeen-2-rangers-1-david-8911936

Though all banter aside, vandalizing the team bus and making references to the Ibrox Disaster in 1971 with the graffiti is a seriously shitty thing to do.

This is so sweet it deserves a double post, so sorry. It concerns Sam Allardyce, Engerlund's shiny new Australia, I mean, manager.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/football/exclusive-investigation-england-manager-sam-allardyce-for-sale/ar-BBwF8A5?ocid=spartanntp

"He agreed to travel to Singapore and Hong Kong as an ambassador and explained to the “businessmen” how they could circumvent Football Association rules which prohibit third parties “owning” players. Unbeknown to Allardyce, the businessmen were undercover reporters and he was being filmed as part of a 10-month Telegraph investigation that separately unearthed widespread evidence of bribery and corruption in British football. Over the course of two meetings, lasting four hours in total, Allardyce told the fictitious businessmen that it was “not a problem” to bypass the rules introduced by his employers in 2008."

Remember back when Allardyce got the job and I called him Mike Bassett? Well... At least that guy wasn't daft enough to get caught out like this by journos from the Torygraph.

And... looks like Big Sam could end up being sacked over that.

Ah, here we go◊.

They're big candidates for the title, and, though they no longer have Slimani, they have Bas Dost, who has scored 3 goals in 4 matches (iirc).

Besides, Jorge Jesus can be a great tactician when it comes to defense (as one can see from the most of the match against Real Madrid a couple of weeks ago).

edited 27th Sep '16 7:09:56 AM by Quag15

In an altogether different story now appearing in The Telegraph, Jamie Vardy makes me feel a little less disgusted with myself about how I drink my OWN vodka.◊

edited 27th Sep '16 9:54:50 AM by SeanMurrayI

And Big Sam has officially resigned as England manager. At least, he'll be leaving with a 100% win record intact, right?

Big Sam. Best Engerlund manager... they've actually had.

Results from tonight's matches in the Champions League:

Monaco 1-1 Bayer Leverkusen. Chicharito scored for Leverkusen, but Monaco scored the equalizer in the last minute(!) And what a goal by Glik.

But then again, it is Leverkusen (aka the Cruz Azul of Europe).

CSKA 0-1 Tottenham. Goal by Son Heung-min (Akinfeev was unlucky there). Also, Spurs didn't have Kane, Dier, Rose, Dembele or Sissoko on the field.

Borussia Dortmund 2-2 Real Madrid. Any thoughts, MyFinalEdits (I haven't watched it, since I saw the Leicester - Porto match)?

Sporting 2-0 Legia. Oh look, Bas Dost scored again.

Copenhagen 4-0 Club Brugge.

Leicester 1-0 Porto. It doesn't matter if he changes clubs, Slimani will almost always slay the Dragons (and, no surprise there, through a header).

Sevilla 1-0 Lyon

Dinamo Zagreb 0-4 Juventus.

edited 27th Sep '16 2:20:46 PM by Quag15

Borussia Dortmund 2-2 Real Madrid. Any thoughts, MyFinalEdits (I haven't watched it, since I saw the Leicester - Porto match)?

The match ended with a Kaizo Trap for Madrid. They had the 1-2 victory in their hands, and then thought that they could let the clock tick to finish the ordeal with that score.... and then, in 85', Schürrle took them by surprise and equalized the score.

Also, I have heard that CONMEBOL wants to change the format of the Copa Libertadores so it starts in February and finishes in November, very similar to the Champions League in Africa and Asia. They're also considering making it so the final is disputed in a neutral field like in the UEFA Champions League. So far it sounds fantastic, right? But they also want to give special treatment to high-profile teams (i.e. Boca, River, Cruzeiro) that don't qualify via normal tourneys so they can still qualify by coefficient, which of course sucks horribly.

If you don't qualify, suck it down, no matter how well you've done historically.

Absolutely agree that those who don't qualify by ranking high enough in their league to get in (or make it to qualifiers and win those) shouldn't be in the competition. Well, one exception: the previous year's winner should obviously be in.

Minor quibble: the Champions League Final is played on a neutral ground most of the time. The venue does get decided well in advance, though, and sometimes the team that normally plays in that stadium manages to reach the Final, thus winning effectively a home game. There's no reasonable way to avoid this.

(The best you could do would be to ban every team in the competition from having their stadium bid to host - but then you'd have to know in advance which teams will make it through the qualifiers and so on, so effectively you'd have to ban all the clubs that could potentially get in the competition next year from bidding to host the Final.)

The biggest thing that baffles me about CONMEBOL club tourneys is that clubs which manage to qualify for both the equivalents of the Champions League and Europa League (winning a league and federation cup double, for example) are actually allowed to participate in both tournaments. Two years ago or so, we even saw River Plate reach the semifinals of both the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana (they only won the Copa Libertadores, after Huracán gave them the boot in the the Sudamericana, but in theory, one team could win both tournaments in one year).

Because the venue chosen for finals is intended to be neutral, even if its primary tenant makes it to that final, they do lose a few perks that they'd ordinarily have if the match were any other home game. Most obviously, ticket sales and revenue are controlled more by the primary event organizer (in this case, UEFA), rather than the venue itself. This leaves supporters of the "away" team a larger ticket allocation and supporters section than the stadium's ordinary accommodations for traveling support, a significantly smaller section for the traditional "home" support, and newly created room for foreigners and "neutrals" from all over Europe and the rest of the world to travel to the venue for the big event.

The traditional "home" team can rely on the familiar dressing room, amenities, and grass, but the crowd atmosphere is far more alien than what they're ordinarily used to. And, of course, need I say, the last team to boast a "home field advantage" in a Champions League Final (and the first time in the last 47 years) still lost, anyway.

edited 27th Sep '16 10:52:47 PM by SeanMurrayI

Bayern Munich, correct?

On a related note, it's funny when the neutral field belongs to a club that failed to qualify to the UCL (or even Europa League), such as San Siro in past May. Juventus had the chance in 2014 to get into their stadium in the UEL Final (after they were repulsed from the UCL group phase), but were eliminated in semifinals.

I wonder who will be the next candidate to drink from the poisoned chalice, I mean, take the Engerlund manager job? Hopefully it won't be Harry Redknapp.

Allardyce could have been a decent long-term prospect but I had my doubts about him from the start, and he just couldn't keep his big mouth shut in front of people who he should have had suspicions of being journos, given how often in recent history conversations like the ones he's been having ended up in high-profile news articles whose sequence usually ended with "... has just resigned".

edit

Speaking of which, the man isn't happy:

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/news/sam-allardyce-claims-entrapment-has-won-in-response-to-undercover-sting/

edited 28th Sep '16 9:49:23 AM by TamH70

There are already stories about the FA trying to convince Wenger to manage England after his Arsenal contract ends (which would be after this season). Wenger might be interested, but if he's also got an offer from Arsenal he'll take that instead.

I'd prefer that England pick Alan Pardew. I think he'd be able to get performances from the players, and to get them to work together as a team. I thought he did well at Newcastle, and his Crystal Palace has been pretty good, as well.

Obligatory gif◊.

Arsenal lead Basel 2-0 towards at half-time. It's total domination - every bit as good as the Chelsea game, if not better.

Arsenal's line-up is as expected: Ospina starts in goal, the typical line ahead of him (Bellerin-Mustafi-Koscielny-Monreal), Xhaka instead of the injured Coquelin next to Cazorla, Walcott and Iwobi flanking Özil, and Alexis up front.

Walcott scored both of Arsenal's goals so far. That puts him at 5 goals and an assist so far in the season, from 7 games. That's very good for him. He's obviously settled on playing on the right, where he is more useful than in the centre. He's earning those massive wages of his - and, in my opinion, he's vindicating Wenger's decision to use him when the team is set up to suit him, as it is with Alexis as the centre-forward.

That's actually one of my observations this season: Alexis as the centre-forward works very well when the wide players are very fast. Walcott and Iwobi certainly fit that bill. Alexis takes so many defenders to control that it's impossible to also stop Arsenal's wingers from creating chances, and they can always pass to either Özil or Cazorla. It's very hard to control an attack like that.

In particular I've noticed that Alexis and Walcott are very good at finding and supporting each other. In this game both of the assists came from Alexis.

Another standout for Arsenal this season is Mustafi. He's intantly created a great understanding with Koscielny, and while his positioning is perhaps a little bit riskier than Mertesacker's, he's got the technique, confidence, and speed to deal with the situations where someone seems to get past him. He doesn't make mistakes when he needs to commit the final defensive action, usually in the box. He's not conceded a penalty, nor has he looked likely to.

For Basel, they've been defending for just about every second of the game so far. They goalkeeper, Petr Cech's replacement as Czechia's first-choice 'keeper, is Tomás Vaclik. He's been fantastic so far. Sure, he's conceded twice, but neither goal was his fault; and he's had a number of really impressive saves, especially against Alexis.

edited 28th Sep '16 12:41:09 PM by BestOf

Results from tonight's matches:

Ludogorets 1-3 PSG

The aforementioned 2-0 win by Arsenal

Besiktas 1-1 Dynamo Kyiv

Napoli 4-2 Benfica. For the record, Napoli was winning 4-0 by the 58 minute mark. The biggest highlight is this free kick by Mertens which pretty much sealed the deal on how the match was gonna end (at least until Benfica scored two goals from the 70' onwards).

Borussia Mönchen'gladbach 1-2 Barcelona. Gifs of the goals here.

Celtic 3-3 Manchester City. Now there's a result I wasn't expecting. And Sterling even scored an OG (but he redeemed himself 8 minutes later). Gifs here. Also, great football and great atmosphere (then again, it is Celtic Park).

Atlético Madrid 1-0 Bayern Munich. Goal by Carrasco, missed penalty by Griezmann.

Rostov 2-2 PSV. Gifs here.

edited 28th Sep '16 2:40:18 PM by Quag15