football

[ides1056]

I have only watched synopses of games so far this year, but yesterday I had the pleasure of watching an entire match: Man City versus PSG. Nothing compares.

I love Pep.

I scared the dogs when De Bruyne's cross went in and I let out a yell.

[rwsaunders]

Our household became Premier League snobs while my boys were playing for their HS...still a dream trip to catch a ManU-Liverpool match in Old Trafford, or if I “had to”, any Premier League Darby for that matter.

[holliscx]

Abu Dhabi vs Qatar

^ I fixed it for you

[rwsaunders]

Aaaah, but do they sing in Abu Dhabi?

[Tom]

Premier League has been the distraction through many hours on the trainer.

[72gmc]

Our household became Premier League snobs while my boys were playing for their HS...still a dream trip to catch a ManU-Liverpool match in Old Trafford, or if I “had to”, any Premier League Darby for that matter.

This brings up memories of my first trip to London with another American who had lived there prior. We were trying to fit in a match but the options weren't lining up with his experiences. Me: Could we go see this game at Millwall? Him: No, we can't go to Millwall. We'll get beaten up.

[ides1056]

OMFG

incredibly tense game

incredible finish

[ides1056]

Aaaah, but do they sing in Abu Dhabi?

That's got to make the hair stand up on the players' heads.

[rwsaunders]

That's got to make the hair stand up on the players' heads.

I read a story once about when Wayne Rooney played for ManU and they were playing one their traveling friendlies against Liverpool at the Big House in Ann Arbor. With the exception of Wembley Stadium, I think that most English stadiums hold 35-50,000 fans. Rooney said something to the effect that when he stepped out on the pitch and heard the sounds of 100,000 plus, he knew that he had to turn it up a notch for the fans. Probably the only time that you’ll ever see so many fans kitted in red at UM too...

[echappist]

I have only watched synopses of games so far this year, but yesterday I had the pleasure of watching an entire match: Man City versus PSG. Nothing compares.

I love Pep.

I scared the dogs when De Bruyne's cross went in and I let out a yell.

At the outset, thanks for starting this thread. To echo other posters here, I really enjoy watching the beautiful game and probably spend way more time than I ought to on the sports section of The Guardian.

On Guardiola and Man City, I begrudgingly admit that he's coached a helluva team, but let's not kid ourselves: since his Barça days, he's had nine cracks at the Big Ears, and this is the first time he gets to play in the Champion's League final. He could almost play the entire bench (as opposed to the starters), and barring one or two positions, those bench players would still be pretty close to world class if not world class.

Yesterday's bench reads as follows
--------------Steffen---------------
Cancelo - Laporte - Ake - Mendy
---------------Rodri----------------
Torres---------------------Sterling
------Aguero--------Jesus---------

Yes, that's only ten players, and only nine of them are top-notch, but that's quite the depth, which helps in a condensed season with so little down time between games. Of course, money, like in many facets in life, doesn't buy success (or happiness, love, or any other positive abstract noun), but that's because money is only necessary, but not sufficient for success. One only has to look across town to see what bad transfer policy and inadequate coaching look like, and to Guardiola's credit, there really hasn't bee many (if any) bad big-money transfers under Guardiola's reign at City. But it would be naive to think that Guardiola could pull this off without financial backing to the tune of more than 560 M Eur net spent over five years (and for comparison, Man Utd. spent 550 M Eur on net transfer over the same period and have little to show for it).

If he does win the Big Ears, it will represent a culmination of five years of dedication, and I would be amiss not to point out the tangible results of his tenure: numerous league titles plus the successful nurturing of, among others, Sterling, Foden, and Zinchenko. But just as it would be wrong to diminish his success by pointing out to the financial backings he received, it would be wrong to disregard the his financial backing and ignore that context.

[ides1056]

I just feel incredibly fortunate that someone has the money to spend to put together this kind of talent, and that I played soccer enough to understand and appreciate the game. There is no other sport I can watch where my head is totally in the game, riveted.

After Chelsea v Real Madrid I am spent. I could go to bed.

Hats off to the managers, because I think they are the ones who perform the necessary alchemy to create the sort of improvisational concert I have only otherwise seen in Jazz and Indian music.

I've read all sorts of blather about the hardest thing in sport being hitting a baseball, and I think it's bollox. Try to hit a half volley off a cross and drill it. If the catcher were able to kick the legs out from under you and the plate wandered around instead of remaining static, okay, that would be pretty hard.

But to my mind nothing compares. The difference between top level soccer and everything below: it's like two different games.

There's also the democratic nature of the sport, and the idiosyncratic national patterns. Democratic because you have a person 5' 4" playing on a par with one 6'6". Germany does not play like England does not play like Argentina, etc.

And the pattern of play is always evolving. Pep ushered in a new style, and others adjusted, and so on and forth.

I'll shut up now, for a bit.

[Tom]

To me the individual skills are a constant source of amazement culminated by the guys you speak of. Catching a ball kicked from 60 yards away with your left foot running at top speed changing direction instantly, hell I could only manage to run in a straight line slowly with nothing else going on. I don't need to see goals, the strategy and systems are over my head, its that stuff that leaves me agog.

[ides1056]

Addendum to "the hardest thing in sport:"

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/05/s...gtype=Homepage

Pitching a no-hitter is certainly up there.

[echappist]

Pep ushered in a new style, and others adjusted, and so on and forth.

Not a new style, but a refinement of an old one. There’s a great deal of similarities to the Dutch Total Football system of Michel and Cruijff. Guardiola, being a star pupil of Cruijff’s early 90’s Barça squad, learned much from the latter. The tucking fullback, the high press, and the positional interchange were all utilized by Cruijff.

[ides1056]

Not a new style, but a refinement of an old one. There’s a great deal of similarities to the Dutch Total Football system of Michel and Cruijff. Guardiola, being a star pupil of Cruijff’s early 90’s Barça squad, learned much from the latter. The tucking fullback, the high press, and the positional interchange were all utilized by Cruijff.

Yes absolutely, and he hasn't been shy to credit Cruyff.



My larger point is that the game evolves.