General Soccer Thread

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lukethedrifter
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Re: General Soccer Thread

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Didier Drogba plays for a USL side. Sure, he’s 40, but c’mon.

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Hoot45
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Re: General Soccer Thread

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The Phoenix Drogbas are playing at the defending champions Louisville City tonight for the USL Cup final. This one has brought us quite a few storylines already and should be an entertaining match. Anyone else watching?

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Re: General Soccer Thread

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That entire match was ridiculous.

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Re: General Soccer Thread

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Watched Netflix docuseries -"Sunderland 'Til I Die." I considered putting this review in TV thread, but I doubt it has any widespread appeal. Spoilers so don't read if you want to see it fresh:

Follows all aspects of English club team, Sunderland thru 2017/18 season. The team had just been relegated from the Premier team to next level league.

Not something to watch if you want a Cinderella story like we've been conditioned to expect. Slow. Anti-climatic in each episode and overall. In this season they finished at bottom of 2nd league and thus were relegated down to the 3rd, and team ends up getting sold by disgruntled owner.

A complete fail of a season, but I was oddly interested in it and blew thru this series.

This might be extra boring to a soccer fan who is already familiar with English club soccer. But for a newb like me, I was fascinated with the way it all works with English Club Soccer -Player transfers, team construct, team relegation and promotion, feeder academy, ownership. I relished the glimpse at the fandom and the integration between a city's identity and the club. (STL TBFIBB -CARDs pale in comparison). The fans, at least the ones featured, are true die-hards, going through a horrible season.

Almost comical how bad the luck this team has. Everything turns to complete shi-te here.

For example, the team's best player Grabban, was there on loan ( I don't fully understand the player loans) and opted to leave mid-season. Almost all the signings they can manage are busts. New coaches. Injuries. The big contract players are busts - one guy doesn't even play but refuses to leave the team/contract. Another gets in a DWI accident. The team owner refuses to invest more money into the team and sells the team. Virtually every player or coach you latch onto/identify with ends up getting sacked, injured.

I suspect when Sunderland and the creators of this series signed the deal for access this season -they expected Sunderland to kick arse in the 2nd tier league and get promoted back to premier. Kind of refreshing to see reality of a team falling on hard times, instead of the sugary player or team profiles I am used to.

My criticism though - the series had a lot of access, but I could sense access was denied due to so much of it going south. Certain key players don't get interviewed much if/at all - like the guy who has the biggest contract and doesn't play. The owner who was AWOL doesn't cooperate with the series.

The glimpse at the fandom is great though. It doesn't appear that the players,coaches are as insulated from fans as they are in pro sports here. Cultivation and stoking of the fan base by players, coaches seems to be integral to the team's success or failure.

As a result of this, i definitely would like to attend a random English league game some time - one with a rabid fan base like Sunderland.

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Re: General Soccer Thread

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Freed Roger wrote: ( I don't fully understand the player loans)
There are basically two main types of loan scenarios.

1) the player who makes big league money but isn't good enough for the team's everyday roster:
It'd be like if we didn't want to pay Dexter Fowler's high salary anymore and no teams we're interested in buying his contract but a different team needed a right fielder and agreed to pay his salary for a season. So you get temporary salary relief and they fill their immediate need without a long-term commitment to a player.

2) The young player who is too good for the academy teams and needs crucial minutes to develop that they wouldn't get sitting on the bench:
There is no minor league feeder system, just the reserve team and the youth academy teams. So say Nolan Gorman is absolutely destroying the hypothetical Cardinals academy team league and is clearly too good for that low level. We have Goldy now so Carp is firmly planted as the starter at 3B so we can't call him up, plus we're not sure he's ready for the bigs and we don't want him to fail, but since we want him to get as many high level reps as possible so he can be challenged and get ready for the major league roster as soon as possible, we could loan him to a team in a lower league or a team that could use him immediately in the bigs (think a [expletive] team with low payroll like the Rays). Big teams do this a lot. Chelsea and Manchester City have literally hundreds of players out on loan right now. Matt Miazga who is one of the US national team's top center backs is owned by Chelsea but clearly not good enough for Chelsea so they loan him out every year. Maybe he pans out and becomes a Chelsea regular or maybe he doesn't. No biggie if he doesn't because the clubs that they loaned him out to carry his salary, or large portions of it anyway.
Freed Roger wrote: I suspect when Sunderland and the creators of this series signed the deal for access this season -they expected Sunderland to kick arse in the 2nd tier league and get promoted back to premier. Kind of refreshing to see reality of a team falling on hard times, instead of the sugary player or team profiles I am used to.
I think it's exactly one of the two outcomes they hoped for. They wanted the triumphant return to the premier league or the catastrophic fall to League 1. They wanted this precisely because that team is so important to the town. A mid-table finish in the Championship is probably what they didn't want. Sunderland has been in free fall for almost ten years, but some fortunate finishes kept them holding on to their spot in the Premier League by their fingernails. This fall has been a long time coming because of a terrible owner and mismanagement.
Freed Roger wrote:
As a result of this, i definitely would like to attend a random English league game some time - one with a rabid fan base like Sunderland.
I've never been but I want to go to a Fulham match. It's in London so that's automatically way better than going to Sunderland (be like going to Youngstown Ohio for your multi-thousand dollar vacation instead of New York City) and they play in Craven Cottage which is one of the few Wrigley Field/Fenway Park analogs in the Premier League and the atmosphere is passionate but positive. Plus they always have American players to root for.

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Re: General Soccer Thread

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thrill wrote:
Freed Roger wrote: ( I don't fully understand the player loans)
There are basically two main types of loan scenarios....
Good info, thanks
thrill wrote:
Freed Roger wrote: I suspect when Sunderland and the creators of this series signed the deal for access this season -they expected Sunderland to kick arse in the 2nd tier league and get promoted back to premier. Kind of refreshing to see reality of a team falling on hard times, instead of the sugary player or team profiles I am used to.
I think it's exactly one of the two outcomes they hoped for. They wanted the triumphant return to the premier league or the catastrophic fall to League 1. They wanted this precisely because that team is so important to the town. A mid-table finish in the Championship is probably what they didn't want. Sunderland has been in free fall for almost ten years, but some fortunate finishes kept them holding on to their spot in the Premier League by their fingernails. This fall has been a long time coming because of a terrible owner and mismanagement.
Probably so. The town's enduring relationship with the team, even with major failure, ended up being the main theme. As is the series title didn't make it obvious.

They still had to flush out 8 parts, and were compelled to fill it with player storylines they were cultivating, even if they fizzled. They just had bad luck in picking the players to profile, (the new goalie Robbin Ruiter, was injured, and a bust, likewise Jonny Williams, Darron Gibson -was interesting, but access wiped out with his DWI and release). It's like if the Cardinals season was a documentary subject and they guessed on Brett Cecil, and Alex Reyes etc to profile. Likewise with both coaches. When they got Chris Coleman as coach, I thought, ah now the Shildt happens..., but no

The GM (like Mozeliak) - Martin Bain was clearly a main subject line with access etc and moving it along. And boy was it tough to see this like-able guy go through the ringer and canned. You saw him physically deteriorate as the series went. Interesting, nonetheless.

With the team/town relationship- I just read Sunderland is in promotion range, and set a League One attendance high. Kind of mind-blowing - would the Cardinals sell out if they were booted back to playing in the minors? (yeah, I know that analogy is a bit different - the lower tier teams of EFL are not farm clubs, still theoretically have this promotion concept at stake).

Was glad to have this bit of my Americans-love-happy-endings thirst quenched. (Though granted, this was a club that was in premier league two years ago. so not that big a deal). They could have easily gotten a new ownership, content with selling off assets and while milking the loyal fan base.
Freed Roger wrote:
As a result of this, i definitely would like to attend a random English league game some time - one with a rabid fan base like Sunderland.
thrill wrote:I've never been but I want to go to a Fulham match.
Thanks, yeah I'd definitely seek out advice first. Your plan seems wise. Mainly, I wouldn't care so much to see the biggies - like Man U, Chelsea etc, would rather get a taste for a local flavor.

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lukethedrifter
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Re: General Soccer Thread

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Saw some talk of a local tavern showing episodes then having a convo about.

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Re: General Soccer Thread

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A couple more questions Thrill. Does EFL have a quota % of English players per team?

Is there an easy primer on how players from different leagues (non-EFL) get moved? When Man U gets a player from a La Liga team, is it just a deal between the player and Man U, or is La Liga somehow bought out.?

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Re: General Soccer Thread

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Don’t we have a Brighton & Hove Albion fan on here. Maybe that’s your team.

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