2012-13 Soccer Thread

[bacon06]

With the loss of MLS rights and now the loss of EPL rights, what does Fox Soccer Channel have left? Champions League? World Cup 2018? Hardly seems like enough to sustain a channel. Maybe they could pick up the Bundesliga rights from GolTV.

[Kelbysdaddy]

They show alot of cricket, Australian Rugby, and other soccer leagues.

[Funketown]

Well I'm happy because I don't get Fox Soccer so this should mean more games for me. ESPN has a tendency to cover mediocre games (didn't they play something like Swansea-QPR at 7:45 ET a few weeks ago? Not sure if it's something in their contract), so I'm excited to see NBC pick up some coverage.

[trwi7]

NBC is picking up all the coverage. Like every game every week. Games will be shown on all platforms so if you're a fan of QPR or some low level team that may be relegated you can watch them. It won't be on NBC or NBCSN but it will be on probably Bravo or something.

[kalle8]

Inter just destroyed juventus for the first loss ever in juventus stadium.

[TooLiveBrew]

Whoa. Juve were on an amazing run, great win for Inter!

[Funketown]

Inter just destroyed juventus for the first loss ever in juventus stadium.

 

I'd pretty much stopped checking Juventus' streak because I figured they'd never lose.

 

Atletico dropped their first Serie A game of the year today vs. Valencia. They still lead Real by 5 points in the standings though. I've been following Falcao and he's become a phenomenally good striker. He's finally getting a bit of press, but it sure took a while for people to notice him. He has Colombia in hot pursuit of a world cup appearance as well.

[yoshii8]

Anybody know of a good website to watch soccer? Particuarly Bayern Munchen and EPL games?

[RobDeer 45]

I have never watched soccer in my life except for World Cup and Olympics. I just started watching a few games on fox soccer channel and I'm digging it. I don't know if I have the time to add another sport to my schedule but I've been sucked in to a few Premier League games. I find if it's a close game with 20 min left or less, it's hard to change the channel. Good stuff.

 

I've always been interested in the crazy following of soccer in Europe, so this has been interesting learning a bit more about what goes on over there.

[TooLiveBrew]

Welcome to the addiction. Be sure not to miss the next round of Champions League matches, with the first legs next week (12th-13th) & the week after (18th-19th). Man. Utd. @ Real Madrid in particular (on the 13th) should be a great match.

[ewitkows]

You have to go there to see for yourself. No one can explain it. I was living in Seville last year and went to the local 2nd division team's(Real Betis) last game. They ended up winning and got promoted and the whole city partied for 2 weeks. The next season they won the first 4 games to start the season and after the game I went to the local Irish pub with my jersey on and this older Spanish man in a suit yelled "Betis" and hugged me. He then point to his name tag. El Presidente Real Betis. Then we did a shot. It's a totally different atmosphere than any sport we have in the US

[RobDeer 45]

Can you explain that to me. So you have all the leagues in the different countries. What is the Champions League? Best teams of each leagues playing in a league or a tournament? I'm having a hard time figuring the whole picture.

[TooLiveBrew]

Best teams of each leagues playing in a league or a tournament?

Short answer -- yes.

 

Long answer --

 

Champions League is an annual tournament through UEFA (Union Européenne de Football Association/"European Union of Association Football"). Different countries/leagues have different numbers of qualifying teams, and Wikipedia has a breakdown of how many by country/league. I'll use this Premier League season as an example - the top four teams in the standings at the end of the '12-'13 season will qualify for the '13-'14 CL. If the season ended today, those four teams would be Man. Utd., Man. City, Chelsea, & Spurs.

 

Here is the "Competition Format" page from the UEFA website, which explains how the CL group play & knockout stage work. Quick version: Qualifying round → Group/Round-robin stage → Knockout stage.

 

Reading the Wikipedia page on CL qualification might also help.

 

There's also one loophole for qualification -- winning the previous season's CL. Chelsea actually went this route for this season's CL -- they won the CL last season, so even though they finished 6th in the '11-'12 Premier League, they automatically qualified for the '12-'13 CL. However, that came at the expense of Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs), who finished 4th & would normally have qualified for the CL*. Incidentally, this season Chelsea also became the first-ever defending CL champ to not get out of the group stage in the following CL competition.

 

 

* Spurs instead qualified for the '12-'13 UEFA Europa League. To explain this would be another long-ish post, but it's fairly similar to the CL. However, for a familiar comparison, think NCAA Men's Hoops tourney (CL) v. the NIT tourney (Europa Lg.)

 

EDIT: Here is the Wikipedia page on the Europa League in general, if you're interested in reading up on it as well.

[ewitkows]

Champions leagues is the top 2-4 teams from Europe who play in a 32 team tourney. Broken up into 8 groups of 4 , the top 2 go to the knockout round. they play a home/away and most goals win.

 

Europa league is the next group of teams that dont get in. Think of it like the NCAA/NIT tourney.

 

Champions league is pretty boring until the knockout stage.

[TooLiveBrew]

You have to go there to see for yourself. No one can explain it. I was living in Seville last year and went to the local 2nd division team's(Real Betis) last game. They ended up winning and got promoted and the whole city partied for 2 weeks. The next season they won the first 4 games to start the season and after the game I went to the local Irish pub with my jersey on and this older Spanish man in a suit yelled "Betis" and hugged me. He then point to his name tag. El Presidente Real Betis. Then we did a shot. It's a totally different atmosphere than any sport we have in the US

Your latest post reminded me that I wanted to reply to this.

 

Amazing story! Sounds like it was a blast.

[RobDeer 45]

Awesome stuff guys, thanks. I'll have to dive in to the links you posted. Actuay watching a replay game right now! So does this other stuff happen during the season instead of after?

[trwi7]

Champions League takes place during the season.

[trwi7]

Well, give United the title again because the only team that could catch them just lost to 7 points from relegation Southampton.

 

Seems like every week United is playing a Premier League bottom feeder. After Everton their next 5 are (20th) QPR, (14th) Norwich City, 11th (West Ham United), (17th) Reading and (13th) Sunderland. Ugh.

[TooLiveBrew]

Well, give United the title again because the only team that could catch them just lost to 7 points from relegation Southampton.

3-1... 7 points? I'm confused.

[ewitkows]

3 points for a win , 1 for a tie. so 2 wins and a draw behind

[trwi7]

Well, give United the title again because the only team that could catch them just lost to 7 points from relegation Southampton.

3-1... 7 points? I'm confused.

 

Southampton is 7 points ahead of the 18th place team which would put them in relagation territory. In other words, a bad loss to a team Man City should beat.

[TooLiveBrew]

Well, give United the title again because the only team that could catch them just lost to 7 points from relegation Southampton.

3-1... 7 points? I'm confused.

 

Southampton is 7 points ahead of the 18th place team which would put them in relagation territory. In other words, a bad loss to a team Man City should beat.

D'oh. Thank you. I read it as "just lost to 7 points", not "just lost to 7-points-from-relegation..."

 

I actually went a-googlin' expecting to see a 7-0 or 8-1 scoreline... was dissapoint.

[trwi7]

Saw highlights a couple days ago of Man City's game with Southampton and they were just terrible. First goal for Southampton was good. Second goal consisted of Joe Hart having an easy save, dropping the ball which resulted in it going behind him and an easy tap in goal for Southampton. Third goal was Barry literally kicking it in his own net. Sometimes you get own goals and it's off a deflection or whatever but this was a cross on the ground right to Barry's feet with no one around him and instead of clearing it for a corner or turning and clearing it down the field he thinks the best idea is to tap it towards the goal, right in the corner away from where Hart is.

 

And the first Champions League Round of 16 Legs were today.

 

Juventus beat Celtic 3-0 in Scotland so they should advance and Paris Saint Germain beat Valencia 2-1 in Spain, so they have a pretty good shot of advancing.

 

Madrid and United tomorrow at 1:45 Central Time and Shakhtar Donetsk takes on Borussia Dortmund in Ukraine at the same time.

[TooLiveBrew]

And the first Champions League Round of 16 Legs were today.

 

Juventus beat Celtic 3-0 in Scotland so they should advance and Paris Saint Germain beat Valencia 2-1 in Spain, so they have a pretty good shot of advancing.

 

Madrid and United tomorrow at 1:45 Central Time and Shakhtar Donetsk takes on Borussia Dortmund in Ukraine at the same time.

Good idea to post a reminder about tomorrow. Can't wait for Utd-Real.

 

Also of note: Ibrahimović was sent off w/a straight red in stoppage time in the Valencia-PSG match. PSG mid Marco Verratti saw a yellow in the first half, and per the announcers he'll miss the second leg as well. That matchup in Paris should be very interesting.

[trwi7]

Yeah, saw that he got a red card on ESPN. Not so easy now for PSG.