A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

A pleasant surprise to see Getafe do well against Ajax. Admittedly, Ajax are past their prime right now, but still.

It's what happens when key players go to other clubs. It's a bit hard to recover the strength of yesteryear.

Yesterday: Desportivo das Aves 0-2 Vitória SC

Granted, it was against the last-placed team, but an away win is always pleasant.

Douglas saved Aves' penalty in the first half, and, in the second half, Davidson scored a lovely curved goal. André André more or less killed the match about 10 minutes later.

Time to wait and see how the other opponents in the battle for the top 5 do this weekend.

Highlights & goals here.

*sigh* Things were looking well as of late for Real Madrid, but with their latest defeat against Levante in Liga, plus Barcelona's victory, they're no longer the top-placed team right now. Now the next two matches are against City in UCL and Barcelona themselves in Liga.

I'm honestly sick and tired of this team's apathy.

At this point, you kind of want to see them lose so they get the overhaul they need.

And over in the Premier League, Manchester City beat Leicester 1-0, for what is worth, since they are pretty comfortable in their wasted Champions slot and depend on a massive blunder on Liverpool's part to have a chance at the title.

Edited by Blueace on Feb 23rd 2020 at 9:33:22 AM

I'm not exactly that kind of fan (at least I hope I don't qualify as such). If they can win something (the Spanish Supercup isn't enough, of course) this season, I'll be happy. But even if they do, they have to realize that some changes are necessary. For one, Bale needs to go, period. And Marcelo is already too old.

Look at Barcelona. Bartomeu has been booed to hell even today when they won 4-0. People are already asking for elections right now; most people know that things are going downhill there. If things don't improve for Real Madrid, their fans will have to do the same request (for what it's worth, the planned election year for both clubs will be 2021).

I admit my mood is further affected for that RL misfortune (my heart still hurts... ). And with the very real possibility that this upcoming week might be one of big tragedy for Real Madrid (in an eerie coincidence, it's the same week of the year when things went south in 2019, with the consecutive eliminations in Copa del Rey and Champions plus the defeat against Barcelona in La Liga), maybe I should just calm down and get distracted by other things. Perhaps this season just isn't destined to be a success for them.

At least River Plate is doing well, as they're still 1st in the Superliga. That's the only major trophy Gallard has yet to win with River, so I can only imagine his obsession with the domestic competition.

Which teams are “UNAM” and “MOR”?

I may be wrong, but those abbreviations refer to Pumas and Morelia, both from Mexico. As of this writing, they're playing right now and Pumas is winning 1-0

So, since I forgot, but is important to bring it up, in particular relative to my last post, but how likely is it that the UEFA's ban on Manchester City and possibly PSG if they decide on it stick?

Depends. If UEFA want the world of football to show respect to them, they will stcik with it. Now, City will proceed to appeal, so it'll be up to TAS to take a look at what each involved party has to say. If the evidence is clear, then TAS will have to reject City's arguments.

There have been times when TAS looked at a player's shirt or a club's icon and then chickened out, though (I remember when Messi did something outrageous,... yet his intended punishment was lessened because he was Messi).

Liverpool needed to come from behind (courtesy of goals from Sadio Mané and Mo Salah, their 13th and 15th of the season respectively) to beat West Ham 3-2 at home, only the second time they've conceded more than one goal in the Premier League this season. They've now tied Man City's record of 18 consecutive wins; they'll hold the record outright if they win at Watford on Saturday.

With eleven matchdays to go, Liverpool are 22 points ahead of City and 29 ahead of Leicester, and are now out of reach of the other 17 Premier League clubs; they only need four more wins, minus any points City drop or have docked by the English FA between now and the end of the season (especially if one of those four wins is when they pay City a visit in a few weeks). I'm not sure they'll duplicate the feat of Arsene's Invincibles from 2003-04 (they still have a home match against Chelsea and visits to City, Everton, and Arsenal), but it seems likely they'll at least match their points total from last season, which was already a club record.

Stateside, Major League Soccer kicks off this weekend. New franchises in Miami and Nashville bring the total number of clubs to 26, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who wonders if Americanadian soccer is trying to expand too far too fast. I'd hate to see MLS go the way of the NASL (both versions).

And speaking of former NASL clubs, the demise of Ottawa Fury FC has opened the door for a new club called Atlético Ottawa, owned by, well, have a guess. They have thus become the first expansion team in the Canadian Premier League, bringing the total number of clubs to... eight. It also means the only Canadian clubs to compete in Americanadian leagues are now the three MLS clubs (Toronto FC, Montreal Impact, Vancouver Whitecaps).

Is it me, or is the shutdown of US or Canadian clubs too frequent? I remember a club called Chivas USA that ceased operations only six years ago.

In a different, regrettably somber topic, some Serie A matches have been postponed due to the sudden novel coronavirus outbreak in Italy. I wish things go well there.

Good luck to any Italian tropers who are in the vortex of the coronavirus outbreak in Italy.

As for Major League Soccer, there are actually only three teams who have had to cease operations permanently, although the San Jose Earthquakes did go into suspended animation for the 2006 and 2007 seasons (in a situation with parallels in other forms of Americanadian team sport, they moved to Houston to become the Houston Dynamo, then re-appeared in their original location). The two original Florida franchises, Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion, both went bust in 2001, while Chivas USA (an American satellite club of Liga MX's CD Guadalajara) did, indeed, cease operations six years ago, although they'd been in trouble for a while by then.

That said, the current plans are for new clubs in Austin and Charlotte starting in 2021 (Columbus Crew SC were repeatedly on the brink of being packed off to Austin until they were bought by a consortium led by Jimmy Haslam - more notorious Stateside as the owner of the NFL's Cleveland Browns - whose purchase included a clause requiring them to stay in Ohio), and then new clubs in Sacramento and St. Louis starting in 2022, which would bring the total number to thirty.

Now, to be fair, the National Football League has 32 teams, the National Hockey League will have 32 teams once the Seattle franchise takes to the ice (for now, they have 31), and the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball both have 30 teams. But they also have much bigger audiences in the USA and Canada than soccer (there's a reason Americans Hate Soccer is a trope). I'm just not certain there's enough of an audience to sustain a 30-club soccer league.

Yesterday (for those who may not have watched the goals):

Chelsea got battered at home by Bayern 0-3 (brace by Gnabry, and Lewandowski finishing it off).

Napoli 1-1 Barcelona (Dries Mertens - who has equalized Marek Hamsik as the all-time top goalscorer in Napoli's history, iirc; Griezmann; Arturo Vidal got a second yellow near stoppage time). Barcelona will probably go through in the second leg, considering their usual home advantage/strength.

Today: Real Madrid lost at home against Manchester City 1-2 (Isco; Gabriel Jesus, De Bruyne (penalty); aaaaand Sergio Ramos got a red card (26th in his career, apparently). Ouch.

Lyon 1-0 Juventus (Tousart). Should be interesting to see if Ronaldo's CL knockout powers get activated in the second leg or not.

There was also one Europa League round of 32 2nd leg match earlier today: Braga lost at home against Rangers 0-1 (2-4 on agg.) and are thus eliminated (Matheus saved a pen at the end of the first half, but Ryan Kent scored the decisive goal in the second half).

Edited by Quag15 on Feb 26th 2020 at 2:06:39 AM

Man, a lot of casualties for the next matches. Mendy in the City got a second yellow card, Laporte got apparently injured, Ramos got the red card, and so did Vidal in Barcelona, Pique got injured and Busquets too got another yellow card, and those are the games I actually watched. That'll be something for them to work for the rematch.

Edited by Blueace on Feb 26th 2020 at 11:01:12 AM

I miss the days when Ramos was the hero and not the villain.

Europa League round of 32 has just concluded (with the exception of Red Bull Salzburg x Frankfurt, which will be played tomorrow). Let's take a look, because oh boy:

Portugal is deleted, for there are no remaining Portuguese teams in the comp:

• Braga went out yesterday (see my post above);
• Porto lost at home against Bayer Leverkusen 1-3 (2-5 on agg.) (goals by Alario, Demirbay, Kai Havertz, and Marega; Tiquinho got a red card, to add to the humiliation);
• Benfica drew at home 3-3 against Shakhtar Donetsk (4-5 on agg.), even though they were winning 3-1 at a certain point (goals by Pizzi, Junior Moraes, Ruben Dias, Rafa, Stepanenko and Alan Patrick;
• And Sporting lost away in Istanbul against Basaksehir 4-1 (5-4 on agg., with the Turkish side's 4th goal being a penalty coming in during extra time, on the 119' (goals by Skrtel, Aleksic (what a free-kick!), Vietto, Edin Visca, and and Visca's killing pen).

But it's not only Portugal that is eliminated. The Netherlands are too, as Ajax win 2-1, but lose the aggregate (2-3) against Getafe (goals by Jaime Mata, Danilo and Eiting). Austrian side LASK eliminated the other Dutch side in this round, AZ Alkmaar, after winning 2-0 (3-1 on agg.) (brace by Marko Raguz; LASK's Wiesinger got a second yellow card). This is the same LASK that kicked PSV out in the group stages, if you don't recall.

Now, onto the other results:

Sevilla go through after a goalless draw at home against CFR Cluj, so, away goals criteria apply to the 1-1 agg. Espanyol won 3-2 against Wolves, thanks to the efforts of one Jonathan Calleri, but the heavy defeat (6-3 on agg.) in the first leg makes it a mere consolation win (Calleri's 1st, Adama Traore, Calleri's 2nd - a pen - Matt Doherty and Calleri's hat-trick goal; also, here's a horrific open goal miss by Neto).

Roma are through after drawing 1-1 away (2-1 on agg.) against Gent (goals by Jonathan David and Justin Kluivert), while Inter won 2-1 against Ludogorets (4-1 on agg.) (goals by Oliveira-Souza, Biraghi and a weirdly funny header by Lukaku).

Malmö were summarily beaten 0-3 (1-5 on agg.) by Wolfsburg (Brekalo, Gerhardt and Joao Victor). Basel confirmed the ticket to the next round after doing the bare minimum to beat APOEL 1-0 (Fabian Frei's pen; APOEL's De Vincenti's penalty miss - 4-0 on agg.).

Celtic were surprisingly eliminated at home after losing 1-3 (2-4 on agg.) against Copenhagen (goals by Santos, Edouard (pen), Biel and N'doye). Manchester United, unsurprisingly, perhaps (except by the amount of goals after that red card), smashed Club Brugge 5-0 (6-1 on agg.) (Bruno Fernandes (pen) + that red card, Ighalo, McTominay, and a brace by Fred).

And... Arsenal lost at home 1-2 (2-2 on agg., away goals rule apply) after extra time to Olympiacos (goals by Cissé, Aubameyang and El Arabi near stoppage time). Aubameyang then missed... this right at the end!

What a bonkers night!

Edited by Quag15 on Feb 27th 2020 at 3:34:48 AM

At this point, Arsenal's case is almost a lost one. Wenger isn't around anymore, neither is Emery with his Engrish, playes have come and gone,... and yet the club is still fizzling out.

The only good thing about this month (February) is that it's almost over.

There's been some ruffled feathers at Crespo (Defensa y justicia's manager, and famously a Libertadores winner with River) deciding to play substitutes against River to rest starters before their own Libertadores debut, as River-Dy J may decide the league title.

Between that and the drama surrounding whether Boca will present Diego Maradona with special stuff when they play his Gimnasia side, football has taken a back seat in Argentina

It's quite weird that the Superliga is going to end so soon, but that's a natural side effect of the teams only having single-leg matches (it's been like that since the dumb experiment of having 30 teams in the top division, since which AFA has tried to gradually trim down the number to reach 20 once again).

Either way, I'll keep my fingers crossed so River can win this league. It's the only major trophy Gallardo has yet to win (he's also missing the Copa Superliga, but it's not terribly important to win that one; again, I find these League Cups unnecessary, though this one at least serves as a good filler on behalf of the shortened Superliga duration).

Honestly I'll be content if the Copa Superliga remains this tinpot for the couple years it has left. Tigre was a great start. Maybe Gimnasia this year?

So, how do you see the teams now while waiting for el Derby Español?

Hard to tell, honestly. Judging by the latest respective two matches of the teams, Barcelona is the favorite. Madrid was actually having a good start this year, but lately they've fallen back into a rut. However, Barcelona is not without its problems (it's not readily apparent in their footplay, as much of their rut is in the adminship, given those protests against Bartomeu).

I wish I was a little less ambiguous in my prediction, but I just can't tell how things will end for this Clásico anymore.

Should've written something yesterday, but I was tired.

Anyway, yesterday Frankfurt eliminated Red Bull Salzburg after drawing 2-2 away in Salzburg (6-3 on agg.). Both Frankfurt goals were scored by André Silva.

Therefore, here's the round of 16. Sevilla x Roma, Inter x Getafe and Olympiacos x Wolves will be the more interesting matches (also, Rangers x Leverkusen, for they defeated Braga and Porto, respectively).

In case someone hasn't checked yet, here's the group stage for the Libertadores◊. Groups A and E are very interesting (and, imo, C as well, even if to a lesser extent).

Meanwhile, some Serie A matches have been postponed due to Corona (including the Derby D'Italia, Juventus x Inter).

And the infamous 'Irriducibili' ultras (yes, the Lazio ones) have officially disbanded. Time will tell if this is true (and good), or if they'll just make the same group with a different name.

We have a proverb in Spanish that says: Hierba mala nunca muere (literally "bad weed never dies"). Basically, there are still people who think that the Ultras' idealism must prevail, so they'll return in a different shape. I mean, if even the ideology of Nazism never truly died (sorry), then neither will that of a group of violent "fans" (quotation marks because they don't deserve that label; a club simply can do fine and better without them).

Ultras, Hooligans, Barras Bravas,... it's sadly something we'll have to deal with as long as sports are played.

Also, I've heard that FIFA and the International Board are considering changing some rules on the concept of offside. I'd be all for it being less strict, but still present.

Well, talk about a sudden curveball. Real Madrid defeated Barcelona 2-0.

Barcelona dominated during the first half, but afterwards Madrid took advantage of their limited options. If you think about it, the worst of both teams was seen during the match: Barcelona had the possession but couldn't materialize too many goal opportunities, and Madrid had occasions but wasn't aiming very well.

At this point, it's best to get used to their inconsistencies.

On a side note, Cristiano witnessed the match from the Bernabéu. Manchester City won the League Cup after defeating Aston Villa by 1-2 in the final.

Edited by MyFinalEdits on Mar 1st 2020 at 6:32:18 AM