Soccer 2017-2018

Jozu said:

For Madrid fans, it will be a tough adjustment, as they will be expecting to win everything every year, but Ronaldo will be gone, they will need a new manager and will have to bring in a huge name like Lewandowski in order to stay competitive.
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Surely you're not talking about Robert Lewandowski, the scorer who can only run up the score against weaker opponents and is always useless in the big, important games?

3 goals against FC Augsburg? No problem. Even one solid attempt against Real? yeah... that's asking too much.

Maul said:

Concussion could have happened anytime after or before the match, Ramos barely even touched him for what they are claiming the concussion is from. There is no way you can claim with certainty that it was from that specific incident, its not like Karius career is in ruins and he wouldn't lie about his history to save some face.

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What lead to the concussion was already posted ITT.

Brando said:

My only point where I disagree with you is that in all my years of watching this sport I don't agree that a defender hitting a GK has regularly happened. Again can you actually think of one? Usually you will have a defender try to impede the GK by standing near them but I honestly can't recall one instance where a player hits the GK when they weren't making a play for the ball first. To me that clearly indicates that Ramos went out of his way to do it once he was shoved.

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I'm trying to think of actual cases and coming up blank, although in no other instance was any of the goalies examined for a concussion b/c they gave up 2 of the worst goals on the biggest stage, so not something I'd just remember.

Normally as you note, it'll just be contact that is meant to hinder the keeper from making a play on the cross, although sometimes I remember there being significant contact...but like pretty much any free kick/corner near the box, defenders get away with virtually anything including bodying/shoving guys into other players/keepers to no calls, while even slightly hindering the keeper from making a play on a cross (or even running into another defender after being shoved into them) will result in a free kick the other way. It's one of the worst refereed plays in the game today, and happens extremely often (although contact on the keeper versus any defender less so).

Brando said:

Should we do a separate thread for the World Cup or just keep it in this thread?

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Can just keep this one I guess? 3 days away getting fucking pumped.

Did Salah recover for the Friday game?

South Korea got pretty unlucky in the draw and Japan was not a lot luckier... that being said, I would be surprised if Serbia or Costa Rica go out of the group instead of Switzerland.

Brando I'm just not sure if I can buy England going as far as they should. Feels like something stupid should happen to prevent that. Like every major tournament ever for the last 52 years.

It should be mentioned that for decades and until not so long ago, Spain was a shitty team of great players. The Barca players could not be arsed to pass the ball to Real players who themselves would rather die on the spot than deliver a cross to an Atletico player... fun times. And even in this current uncharacteristic period of success, the thin veneer of harmony is ready to crack at the slightest vexation. When Switzerland beat Spain in the group stage of the 2010 Word Cup, the non catalan press exploded against the sterile Barca inspired tiki taka bullshit.

Brando said:

Speaking of things getting fucked up, wish I could take my Spain pick back. Holy shit what a mess...

Also let's all celebrate that 8 years from now we'll have the World Cup here in the US!!!!

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Seriously wtf is going on with Spain? Buddy texted me the news this morning and was just crazy.

Thank goodness they made the right pick and it's coming here.

My favorite memory of the '94 WC had to be Bulgaria upsetting Germany. I actually was rooting for Germany at the time (US was out, I had lived in Germany for a year and a half and had just gotten back to US the year before)...but the two goals Bulgaria scored to comeback and win were absolutely world class.

There is a bit of revisionist history going on in that video about Bulgaria beating Germany. Bulgaria was a no joke team at the time. They had an offensive line with Emil Kostadinov (very successful at Porto) and Hristo Stoichkov (runner up for FIFA player of the year in 1992 and a pillar of the Cruyff helmed Barcelona that dominated la Liga then).
They qualified by eliminating France in a barrage (with a last minute goal when France just had to run the clock after a free kick) and after losing to Nigeria (that was also a no joke team during those years), they beat Greece, Argentina and Mexico before facing Germany. Obviously the german team was the favorite, but Bulgaria winning was absolutely a possibility.