2013-14 Soccer Thread

[trwi7]

NBC has all the games. NBC Sports Network carries most of the games, NBC has some games (usually the big matches) and CNBC has a few as well. Since a lot of them start at the same time they have overflow channels though it depends on your cable provider I guess. I have AT&T and there's usually 3-4 overflow channels that have a game on. I don't know what it's like for other carriers if you don't have AT&T.

 

Newcastle just came back up from the League Championship a couple years ago but they were in the Champions League about 10 years ago so there's been a history of recent success as well as some pretty bad failure. You won't be miserable as long as you don't expect Champions League qualification and probably Europa League as well.

 

Southampton is different. They were in the Premier League for the first 15ish years of its existence but were relegated to the Championship about 8 years ago and then relegated from the Championship down to League One but made it back to the Premier League last season and finished 14th, 5 points clear of relegation.

 

Just don't expect much from them either despite their current position as they really haven't played anyone (other than Liverpool who they beat) but they also have a bad loss to Norwich (Norwich's only win) and a draw with Sunderland (Sunderland's only point).

 

They have a great head start on the rest of the competition and if you decide to root for them you should be ecstatic if either qualify for the Europa League.

[RobDeer 45]

Ok so this might be a lot to ask, I'm so new to all this, but can you explain league championship, champions league, etc. I don't know how any of that works. Well I have a guess on champions league but really not educated on it.

 

Thanks for the reply though! Pretty intriguing.

 

Also, is there a way to watch serie A? Or is there any other leagues that you know are on worth watching?

[trwi7]

League Championship is the league below the Premier League basically the Triple-A of English soccer. League One is a tier below the League Championship and so on.

 

The bottom 3 teams in each league at the end of the season are relegated down to the next division, the top 2 teams are automatically promoted to the next division up and a 4 team playoff between teams 3-6 is used to determine the third team that will be promoted.

 

The Champions League is the top European competition. The top 3 teams in the Premier League automatically qualify and the 4th place team goes to a playoff.

 

Same for the Europa League except the competition isn't as good (5-8th place teams in Premier League)

 

I have no idea about Serie A or anything else. I'm sure you could probably find something online about it but I just hate watching sports online. I'm sure they probably have some games on BeIN Sport but I don't get that so I don't really pay attention to any of those teams unless I'm watching the Champions League.

[TooLiveBrew]

I'd like to see some serie A from Italy.

For Serie A games, you'd need to either find streams online (try Wiziwig.tv) or get the channel beIN Sport (who also carries La Liga (Spain), the Bundesliga (Germany) & Ligue 1 (France)).

 

Ok so this might be a lot to ask, I'm so new to all this, but can you explain league championship, champions league, etc. I don't know how any of that works. Well I have a guess on champions league but really not educated on it.

For the UEFA Champions League, each of the leagues in Europe/qualifying geographic area are ranked based on lots of factors. From those rankings, each league is allocated X number of spots in the Champions League. Like trwi7 said, the BPL in England gets 4 spots (this is the highest of any of the leagues), with the 4th-best team from the previous season having to win a play-in home-&-home matchup against a club from another league in Europe. This season, that club was Arsenal, who defeated Galatasaray (Turkish Süper Lig) & advanced to the group stages of the Champions League.

 

Once the playoff/play-in round is finished, the Champions League field is at 32 clubs. UEFA then hosts the draw for the eight 4-club groups. Clubs are again ranked in this process, so you don't wind up with a group of 4 of the world's elite clubs. Typically speaking, a group has one big-time power, one club that's equal to or not far behind the big dog, and then two lower-caliber clubs. However, nearly every season, there winds up being one group that somehow has 3 really good clubs, which always gets the nickname "group of death" (anecdotal point, but you'll encounter that phrase at some point & now you know what it means )

 

Ok, so groups have been set. For this year's competition, the groups can be viewed here (scroll to the bottom of the page). In the group stage, each club plays the other three clubs in its group once home & once away. After all group stage matches have been played, the top two clubs from each group advance to the knockout stages. If clubs are tied on overall points at the end of the group stage, goal differential is used as the first tiebreaker.

 

Once you're in the knockout stages, it proceeds like a regular tournament. The only exception is that each round is again a home-&-home matchup. The final is the only round that is a single game.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Champions_League

http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/index.html

 

I realize that's a lot to read from me, and I'm only in my second full season myself of following club soccer. Keep asking questions, & just watch games until you find a club that draws your interest based on style of play.

[TooLiveBrew]

Also, some advice please. I've found myself cheering for south Hampton (because of the pink Floyd song from final cut) and New Castle (caught a few of their games last year and enjoyed). Will I be miserable????

Neither club is in the top echelon of England, but of those two I lean Southampton at this point in time. Newcastle has the more storied history, though. Trwi7 hits the nail on the head that these are two clubs realistically chasing the Europa League, & for whom qualification there should be counted as a success.

[kalle8]

if you like Southampton you should read and watch about Le Tissier. a legend on and off the field.

[bacon06]

There are plenty of streaming options available for every game. Usually if you Google "Team A vs. Team B live free stream" you will find some sites. Eventually you find a reliable site or two and can check there every match day.

[RobDeer 45]

Hey guys thank you so much for taking the time to help me out. Great info!!! So appreciated.

 

I'm sure more questions will come up, so I will keep you posted.

[trwi7]

My fellow soccer fans will love this. Fox gets rights to Bundesliga beginning in 2015-16.

[TooLiveBrew]

My fellow soccer fans will love this. Fox gets rights to Bundesliga beginning in 2015-16.

Great move & recovery by Fox. I'm excited, because I'd love to watch more of the Bundesliga (I don't (yet) pay extra to get beIN Sport).

[thebruce44]

Soooo, what are our chances in what appears to be a really tough group?

[trwi7]

I see maybe a 20% chance of advancing to the knockout stage. The good news is if they do advance to the knockout stage, they have a better chance of advancing to the quarters even though they would likely face Belgium who has some really good players (Hazard, Mignolet, Vertonghen, Miralles, Lukaku, Fellaini, Dembélé Benteke, Vermaelen).

[ewitkows]

we have 0% chance of advancing

[brwrsfan]

So no chance at all of advancing? I only casually follow soccer but we really have no chance at all?

[trwi7]

Of course we have a chance but it's a really tough group. Germany is ranked #2 in the world, Portugal has a ton of skill and Ghana has knocked us out of the last two World Cups once in the group stage and once in the knockout stage. To say we have no chance is ridiculous. It's not a good chance but it's at least a chance. If you want a team with no chance, look at Australia.

[thebruce44]

Are the groups randomly chosen? I mean, it seems like we really got screwed here just looking at the world rankings.

[TooLiveBrew]

So no chance at all of advancing? I only casually follow soccer but we really have no chance at all?

It's greater than 0%, but probably not by much. We definitely drew this go-round's Group of Death.

[trwi7]

Are the groups randomly chosen? I mean, it seems like we really got screwed here just looking at the world rankings.

 

Yes, they literally draw ping pong type balls out of a bowl after the pots are determined.

 

 

Obviously not 2014 but pretty much exactly the same thing.

[trwi7]

And fwiw and I have no idea how they do these projections, the US has a 39.4% chance to advance while Portugal is at 40.3%. Germany is far and away ahead of every team in the group with a 91.6% chance to advance. So while it will be very difficult to advance and we're obviously not in one of the easier groups, it's not impossible and it's basically a toss-up between us and Portugal.

 

http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1639248/spi-world-cup-group-stage-projections?cc=5901

 

Should add these projections are done by Nate Silver, a guy who kind of knows what he's talking about.

[brwrsfan]

So again, I don't follow soccer a ton, so I apologize if this is a stupid question....

 

But isn't there a better way of setting up the groups? This just seems like a system that was designed a hundred years ago and was never updated.

 

In any tournament format (for me at least), I want the best teams to match up as close to the end of the tournament as possible, and when you literally draw names out of a hat, you could wind up with top 4 or the worst 4 teams in any given group right? Wouldn't you want to divide those up as best as possible? Especially for an event that only happens every 4 years?

 

Maybe I'm missing some safeguards they have in place or something, but that's just how it seems to me and I can't imagine any other sporting event (like say, the NCAA tournament) just leaving it to complete randomness.

[trwi7]

No, the "seeded" teams in Pot 1 are the top ranked teams in the world (except Brazil who is 10th but they're in there because they're the hosts).

 

And you don't want teams who have been playing each other in qualifying to play each other in the group stage. What fun is watching USA/Costa Rica again when they just played each other in qualifying so I understand why they put teams in Pots based on geography.

 

And if we're doing this why not just send the top 32 in FIFA's rankings to the World Cup? Kick out Iran, Australia, Japan, Cameroon etc. but I'm fine with this.

 

At least with this you have a luck of the draw scenario and not a you're biased towards this country, why do you hate us? Why are we put in this group? That would also lead to possible bribery as well, not really something people need.

 

You think people aren't ecstatic about the 2010 Final rematch between Spain and The Netherlands as the first game of Group B? That's an awesome matchup.

 

I'm just going to go through the rankings to show how close these teams really are and how there are no "easy" groups except those with teams ranked in the 40s and 50s.

 

Group A

 

Brazil 10th

Croatia 16th

Mexico 20th

Cameroon 51st

 

Group B

 

Spain 1st

The Netherlands 9th

Chile 15th

Australia 59th

 

Group C

 

Colombia 4th

Greece 12th

Ivory Coast 17th

Japan 48th

 

Group D

 

Uruguay 6th

Costa Rica 31st

England 13th

Italy 7th

 

Group E

 

Switzerland 8th

Ecuador 23rd

France 19th

Honduras 41st

 

Group F

 

Argentina 3rd

Bosnia-Herzegovina 21st

Iran 45th

Nigeria 36th

 

Group G

 

Germany 2nd

Portugal 5th

Ghana 24th

USA 13th

 

Group H

 

Belgium 11th

Algeria 26th

Russia 22nd

South Korea 54th

 

 

Now I'm not an expert so I don't exactly know how Switzerland and Belgium get to be seeded teams while Portugal and Italy aren't and I'd obviously like the USA to be in Group A, C, E, F or H over the group they're in, it's hard to complain about because you're going to need to knockout some great teams to advance anyways.

 

And since you brought up the NCAA Tournament, let's not act like they're some awesome group who know how to rank teams. First example that came to mind was the 2004 tournament where the Badgers, at 24-6, winners of the Big Ten tournament and top 10 ranked were a 6th seed and placed against 3rd seed and 6th ranked Pittsburgh in the 2nd round of the tournament. Granted that game was in Milwaukee but you don't expect to see two top 10 teams in the tournament facing each other in the 2nd round, that's more like an Elite 8 matchup.

[Funketown]

There's a ton riding on the opener vs. Ghana. If they don't win that game, I don't see any way they make it through. If they can beat Ghana on day 1, and Germany knocks off Portugal, they'll be sitting in a good spot. Otherwise...not so much.

[bigredrobbo]

In answer to the question of how "lesser" teams like Switzerland have a higher seeding, this BBC article explains it perfectly.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25134584

 

Basically, a country has a world ranking based on who they play, and their results. Kinda like college football rankings. A win against a higher ranked team in a competition, such as the World Cup or Euros always gets more ranking points than a friendly (exhibition match) against a lesser power. By playing lowly Indonesia recently, the Netherlands may have lowered their world ranking enough to not be in a position to get one of the top seeds when the draw was announced.

[yoshii8]

So no chance at all of advancing? I only casually follow soccer but we really have no chance at all?

It's greater than 0%, but probably not by much. We definitely drew this go-round's Group of Death.

 

 

I really don't think it's that far fetched to think US can make the 2nd round. I don't think Portugal or Ghana are powerhouse teams, and can definitely be beaten. IMO it's also a big advantage to have to play Germany 3rd, when they will probably have already advanced.

[kalle8]

i think Portugal is stronger than USA team. Cristiano Ronaldo is maybe the best player of all tournament (given that Messi didn't shine in all the past main tournaments).

 

World cups are often decided by players more than teams (7 games max), so i doubt USA will advance.

 

that said, a 4 team groupe can be decided by a good (or bad) match, so there is hope.