****OFFICIAL SOCCER THREAD****

[DaEagles4Life]

Was waiting for this post lol 

 

They definitely dominated

[TEW]

It’s a shame Madrid’s defense has been so ravaged by injuries.

If they had Courtois, Alaba and Militao healthy, I think they’d have a chance at the treble.

Going to be fun to see what this team can do next year with a proper striker and some help on defense.

[DaEagles4Life]

Klopp is stepping away at the end of the year 

[TEW]

Seems like this is finally it.

Hopefully Mbappe, Alphonso Davies, and a new young CB this offseason. If we get that we are going to see a few more European titles this decade.

Also, give it a year or two, but my money is on Haaland joining as well.

[DaEagles4Life]

On 2/15/2024 at 1:36 PM, TEW said:

Seems like this is finally it.

Hopefully Mbappe, Alphonso Davies, and a new young CB this offseason. If we get that we are going to see a few more European titles this decade.

Also, give it a year or two, but my money is on Haaland joining as well.

Haaland doesn't seem like that type of dude. 

[TEW]

2 hours ago, DaEagles4Life said:

Haaland doesn't seem like that type of dude. 

He’s been fairly outspoken in the past about wanting to play in multiple leagues (compared his ideal career to Zlatan’s a few times) and literally has a release clause built into his contract to allow him to leave City for a foreign league at a reduced price. I don’t know where he could go outside of England that would be an upgraded over City other than Madrid.
 

He’s already played in Germany and Bayern isn’t good and won’t pay him. Italy is no longer competitive. PSG could pay him but does he want to spend his prime there?

Barca have greater prestige and marketing than City, but they are in shambles with no end in sight.

No — there is only one move up, and it is Madrid. Just like Ronaldo. You make your name in the EPL and then spend your prime at Madrid:

 

Quote

Haaland told FourFourTwo of Ibrahimovic, who rejoined AC Milan in January at the age of 38: 'I like his mentality and how he sees different things.

'I think I've always had that confidence, too – that's just me. 

'I also like how he moves from one club to another, in another country – which isn't easy – but he always comes in and just bangs in goals, from the first second. I liked seeing that.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8210205/amp/Erling-Haaland-admires-Zlatan-Ibrahimovic-moving-one-club-another.html

Quote

Alf-Inge Haaland has told France Football when discussing his son’s future: "Erling could stay at City for 15 years because he is very happy and we are talking about a huge club. But my impression is that he wants to demonstrate that he can win at any of the big leagues. He was in Germany for two-and-a-half years and he could do something like that in his future. Staying in the Premier League for three years and then going to Italy, Spain or France. There's nothing firm about it, but it's a possibility because Erling is capable of being a winner in any team.”

https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/haaland-stay-man-city-15-years-win-big-leagues-father/bltd557a9ce058d7a0c

It just makes sense for Haaland to move in a year or two. Hes bigger than City even if City are a great club. Madrid is the only club that can let him grow to new heights.

Heck, he wanted to sign with us two years ago. If Benzema wasn’t at Madrid he’d already be wearing white. 

And from Perez’s end, it’s all about the Super League. Get a front four of Vinicius, Haaland, Mbappe, and Bellingham to headline the new league. 

The only way he doesn’t end up at Madrid IMO is if Endrick blows up in the next 2 years. But I don’t see that happening since the competition is so strong with VMR as the starters and Brahim and Arda as the backups. Rodrygo is a fantastic player but Perez will have no problem selling him for Haaland.

 

[UK_EaglesFan89]

5 hours ago, TEW said:

No — there is only one move up, and it is Madrid. Just like Ronaldo. You make your name in the EPL and then spend your prime at Madrid:

No! Actually he could come join the mighty Southampton as that would be a move up.

 Only kidding. Yeah I agree Madrid are the only logical choice. They have the allure plus the finances to make a move happen. I can’t see any other team in the world other than PSG being able to afford him.

[TEW]

8 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

No! Actually he could come join the mighty Southampton as that would be a move up.

 Only kidding. Yeah I agree Madrid are the only logical choice. They have the allure plus the finances to make a move happen. I can’t see any other team in the world other than PSG being able to afford him.

I think it’s a little worrying that Barca has such problems. It would be great for La Liga and the sport in general if Mbappe and Haaland could face each other in El Classico every season.

But, this is where we are.

I think the writing has been on the wall for some time. Haaland wants Madrid. Madrid, presumably, wants Haaland. Rodrygo will likely be the odd man out. He’s a very good player, but he will have a hard time starting even without Haaland joining, and the competition from Endrick and Arda makes more sense as the long term backup.

 

[UK_EaglesFan89]

3 hours ago, TEW said:

Rodrygo will likely be the odd man out.

Do you think? I think there would be a lot of rotation with Mbappe able to play wide or through the middle. With Real being such a force I suspect they’ll be playing a lot of games in total each other.

[Cochis_Calhoun]

On 2/17/2024 at 4:44 PM, TEW said:

I think it’s a little worrying that Barca has such problems. It would be great for La Liga and the sport in general if Mbappe and Haaland could face each other in El Classico every season.

But, this is where we are.

I think the writing has been on the wall for some time. Haaland wants Madrid. Madrid, presumably, wants Haaland. Rodrygo will likely be the odd man out. He’s a very good player, but he will have a hard time starting even without Haaland joining, and the competition from Endrick and Arda makes more sense as the long term backup.

 

The best thing for Barca would have been to declare bankcruptcy 2 years ago and restart at the bottom of the pyramid with a clean slate, instead they've made their situation infinitely worse with Laporta putting them in hock for the next 30 years chasing something that was never going to work.

I don't believe Madrid are complying with FFP and I never will.

[TEW]

23 hours ago, Cochis_Calhoun said:

The best thing for Barca would have been to declare bankcruptcy 2 years ago and restart at the bottom of the pyramid with a clean slate, instead they've made their situation infinitely worse with Laporta putting them in hock for the next 30 years chasing something that was never going to work.

I don't believe Madrid are complying with FFP and I never will.

Madrid’s finances are a matter of public record. We simply haven’t spent much money. Our transfer strategy has basically been a "baby galacticos” focus — Vinicius, Rodrygo, Militao, Camavinga, etc were all signed for under 60 million. Alaba and Rudiger were signed as free agents. Really the only big purchases we’ve made have been Bellingham and Tchouameni. But we have the highest revenue in the world and a strict wage structure. It’s the wage structure which doomed Barca.

Madrid are simply the best run club in the world. There is a reason Perez is a billionaire developer by trade — he knows business and long term financial planning. All throughout COVID we had a net positive transfer spend, selling players like Hakimi to balance the books. The new stadium is bringing in gobs of money. New sponsorships are announced frequently.

Compare them to this:

 

 

 

[Dave Moss]

More Champs League action today

[DaEagles4Life]

Embarrassing, fire him

[LacesOut]

England vs Brazil is fun.

Brazil just scored to go up 1-0. Looked like offsides to me. 

[TEW]

Real Madrid vs Man City 3-3

Probably the eventual champion in the first knockout round.

Going into this I was worried that Pep would have the tactical advantage over Carlo.

Interestingly, I thought Carlo thoroughly out coached Pep. City had possession for long stretches of course, but Madrid had far better and more numerous chances.

Unfortunately for Madrid, a botched wall gave up a goal and two fantastic strikes from outside the area found the back of the net for City.

Madrid had a ton of breakaway type chances but couldn’t seem to convert except for one by Rodrygo. The other two came from a brilliant volley by Fede and a deflected shot by Camavinga.

Overall, City made more of their chances than Madrid. If this game was repeated a hundred times, I think Madrid would come away with a 2 goal advantage maybe 40% of the time and a 1 goal advantage 50% of the time.

Kudos to City for making their chances count.

This bodes well for City heading home for the second leg. I don’t think Madrid will have such a lopsided opportunity advantage in Manchester again. But then again, count Madrid out at your own risk.

[DrPhilly]

14 hours ago, TEW said:

Real Madrid vs Man City 3-3

Probably the eventual champion in the first knockout round.

Going into this I was worried that Pep would have the tactical advantage over Carlo.

Interestingly, I thought Carlo thoroughly out coached Pep. City had possession for long stretches of course, but Madrid had far better and more numerous chances.

Unfortunately for Madrid, a botched wall gave up a goal and two fantastic strikes from outside the area found the back of the net for City.

Madrid had a ton of breakaway type chances but couldn’t seem to convert except for one by Rodrygo. The other two came from a brilliant volley by Fede and a deflected shot by Camavinga.

Overall, City made more of their chances than Madrid. If this game was repeated a hundred times, I think Madrid would come away with a 2 goal advantage maybe 40% of the time and a 1 goal advantage 50% of the time.

Kudos to City for making their chances count.

This bodes well for City heading home for the second leg. I don’t think Madrid will have such a lopsided opportunity advantage in Manchester again. But then again, count Madrid out at your own risk.

I'm not going to debate your overall analysis but I will say the first two Madrid goals were on fortunate deflections so you could have easily lost last night.

[TEW]

46 minutes ago, DrPhilly said:

I'm not going to debate your overall analysis but I will say the first two Madrid goals were on fortunate deflections so you could have easily lost last night.

I look at the number of chances and their quality. You can say deflections are lucky, but you can’t say the number of breakaways where Madrid had 1v1s in space were lucky.

It was a consistent trend throughout the match that Madrid were able to get quality chances where as I thought City struggled to get quality chances.

I’ll put it this way, City were lucky Madrid didn’t score more and Madrid were unlucky that City didn’t score fewer.

[DrPhilly]

16 minutes ago, TEW said:

I look at the number of chances and their quality. You can say deflections are lucky, but you can’t say the number of breakaways where Madrid had 1v1s in space were lucky.

It was a consistent trend throughout the match that Madrid were able to get quality chances where as I thought City struggled to get quality chances.

I’ll put it this way, City were lucky Madrid didn’t score more and Madrid were unlucky that City didn’t score fewer.

That's fine and I'll admit I only watched the 1st half and just a bit of the 2nd so I shouldn't comment too much.  I thought most of the Real counters in the first half looked dangerous at first but then didn't amount to much as the City backline did a great job of snuffing them out.

[TEW]

On 4/10/2024 at 12:52 PM, DrPhilly said:

That's fine and I'll admit I only watched the 1st half and just a bit of the 2nd so I shouldn't comment too much.  I thought most of the Real counters in the first half looked dangerous at first but then didn't amount to much as the City backline did a great job of snuffing them out.

THE EPL ARSE KICKING TOUR, SEASON INFINITY, STREAMED LIVE TO A TELEVISION NEAR YOU!

[TEW]

OK, now that I’ve calmed down and sobered up a bit…

City is definitely a handful. Great team and manager. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Madrid park the bus like this before.

Madrid couldn’t seem to link up in transition like they normally do. City’s midfield thoroughly outplayed Madrid’s in 50/50 situations. I have no idea of the stats but I wouldn’t be surprised if City had the ball 80+% of the time.

On the flip side, City really struggled to get quality chances in the penalty area. Even the goal they had tonight was only because Rudiger slipped. Otherwise they were held to long range shots over both legs.

One thing I will say — the criticism of Haaland is legitimate in my view. I was really high on him and thought he was clearly the 2nd best player in the world, with a chance to take Mbappe off the #1 spot.

I can’t say that any more. You just can’t get completely shut down like this against top competition if you want to be at that level. The lack of scoring doesn’t bother me, but what does is he constantly lost the ball. Rudiger totally owned him.