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2018 Soccer thread

Insidious Von

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The CSA are run by a bunch of Richard Peddies and they've thrown Canadian Men's coach Octavio Zambrano under a bus. They knew Canadian Women's coach John Herdman was getting ready to leave and they couldn't risk it. He's now the new coach of the Men's program. All Zambrano did was turn the Men's program around, with only ten months on the job. Had he been given more time Canada would have qualified for the World Cup.

Herdman was in a bind and here's why. Canadians were satisfied with the Women's team picking up the Bronze Medal at the Brazil Olympics, I wasn't. Christine Sinclair cost us a chance at the Gold Medal. She insisted on being the point woman even though she's lost more than few steps. She put her legacy ahead the good of the team, she's not keen on the idea that Janine Beckie may surpass her. She made life very easy for the German defense in the Semifinal, they double teamed Beckie (a full decade younger than Sinclair) knowing that Sinclair's forays would be easily picked up a holding midfielder. And that's what happened. Instead of retiring with dignity Sinclair pulled rank and stayed with the team. Herdman was not happy. Knowing this the CSA put him in charge of the Men's team, nullifying all of Zambrano's good work. The Women's Team will not qualify for the Women's World Cup with Sinclair in the starting lineup, she's way too slow.

I feel sorry for Beckie, she could have played for the Americans.

 

Insidious Von

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Atalanta 2 Roma 1

Is this a surprise, no. Atalanta can beat anybody, they are Italy's best nursery club and Napoli could be next. Andy Corlenius may have won himself the starting point man position for the rest of the season. Petagna holds defenders better but he's not a flat out goal poacher like the Dane. If he gets to start for Denmark at the World Cup, they could upset a number of Selects.

 

Insidious Von

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Italian teenage prodigy Pietro Pellegri has signed with Monaco. A sensible move to get him away from heavy Serie A marking, he'll do well in France. He doesn't turn 17 till March. Juventus, Manchester United and PSG are tracking his play.

 

danmand

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Atalanta 2 Roma 1

Is this a surprise, no. Atalanta can beat anybody, they are Italy's best nursery club and Napoli could be next. Andy Corlenius may have won himself the starting point man position for the rest of the season. Petagna holds defenders better but he's not a flat out goal poacher like the Dane. If he gets to start for Denmark at the World Cup, they could upset a number of Selects.

Atalanta has a good goal keeper. Why did Italy still use the old man in the World Cup qualifications?
 

Insidious Von

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In Italy, respect for elders is paramount, danmand you've visited the country enough, you should know this. There are plenty of good goaltenders in Italy but Buffon is Buffon.

Gollini is third on the depth chart behind Perrin and Donnarumma. The player that's impressed me the most is the Canadian Bryan Cristante, AC Milan gave up on him too soon. He scored against Sassuolo and looks like the trequartista The Azzurri desperately need. Moise Keen scored a brace against Fiorentina. Now lets see what Pellegri can do at Monaco.
 

Insidious Von

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Thomas Rongen, of beIN Sports, said that Patrick Cutrone reminds him of Gerd Muller. That raised my eyebrows!

Rongen's comment notwithstanding, Ac Milan are undefeated since he became a starter. It took them long enough! Kalinic is too slow, that makes it easy for opposing club to defend and counter-attack against them - money wasted. The same can't be said for Andre Silva. He's great in the Europe League but can't handle Serie A marking. Perhaps CR7 put too much pressure on him by saying that he was his successor. He's not the first, Philippe Coutinho couldn't handle Serie A marking either. He went on to prosper at Liverpool.

 

danmand

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Tottenham came back from 0-2 to end 2-2 against Juventus. Good game with a fine scoring from Eriksen.
 

Insidious Von

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I hated the way Juve let them back into the match. From the 30th minute onward, Douglas Costa was the only one going for a win.

First time I've seen Eriksen paly, he was the man of the match. I don't watch much EPL, I stick to Serie A and La Liga - beIN Sports is a premium channel on Rogers so I must get my money's worth.
 

danmand

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I hated the way Juve let them back into the match. From the 30th minute onward, Douglas Costa was the only one going for a win.

First time I've seen Eriksen paly, he was the man of the match. I don't watch much EPL, I stick to Serie A and La Liga - beIN Sports is a premium channel on Rogers so I must get my money's worth.
I hate to sound like a broken record, but Buffon really is beginning to look old. Chiellini can still hold his own.
 

VERYBADBOY

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Back in the 6ix
Good couple of games yesterday but really looking forward to Real Madrid vs PSG today

VBB
 

Gibbons#1

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I hated the way Juve let them back into the match. From the 30th minute onward, Douglas Costa was the only one going for a win.

First time I've seen Eriksen paly, he was the man of the match. I don't watch much EPL, I stick to Serie A and La Liga - beIN Sports is a premium channel on Rogers so I must get my money's worth.
I called Rogers and threatened to cut my cable, so they gave me Sportsnet World ($20 a month) for free. They would rather give you a better deal or a free premium channel than lose you completely as a customer.
 

Insidious Von

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I called Rogers and threatened to cut my cable, so they gave me Sportsnet World ($20 a month) for free. They would rather give you a better deal or a free premium channel than lose you completely as a customer.
Been there done dat. That's how I got TMN. I'm waiting on IMDB to develop their own streaming service, then I'm going to cut my cable by half.
 

danmand

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RM 3-1 PSG

In my humble opinion, PSG should have spent some money on midfielders (Eriksen, Iniesta) instead of on forwards. They have too many forward stars and nobody to feed them.
 

Insidious Von

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Real Madrid 3 PSG 1

Is Marco Asencio Spain's best player. He lifted RM when he got into the match. I wasn't buying into the hype PSG is the new order, their league is to weak for that. They were able to play subs against Toulouse and win, Juve had a grindhouse match against Fiorentina.

Tomorrow: Atalanta vs Borussia Dortmund
Next Tuesday: TFC vs Colorado (Concacaf CL)
 

Twister

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Real Madrid 3 PSG 1

Is Marco Asencio Spain's best player. He lifted RM when he got into the match. I wasn't buying into the hype PSG is the new order, their league is to weak for that. They were able to play subs against Toulouse and win, Juve had a grindhouse match against Fiorentina.

Tomorrow: Atalanta vs Borussia Dortmund
Next Tuesday: TFC vs Colorado (Concacaf CL)
I like Marcelo almost 30 years old and keeps going non stop. Great player. A whole bunch of games tomorrow for the Europa league. Also Milan, Napoli etc...
 

Don Draper

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RM 3-1 PSG

In my humble opinion, PSG should have spent some money on midfielders (Eriksen, Iniesta) instead of on forwards. They have too many forward stars and nobody to feed them.
You have to realize that some players are not for sale. It's not a 'North American' mentality for many European players. Andres Iniesta is one of these. He would never leave Camp Nou and in fact has happily signed a lifetime contract with the club.

Gerard Pique also renewed his contract earlier this month and said: "If this club had not offered me a contract extension I would then have retired. It's here or nothing else". Many a team would love to have the talents of Pique on their roster. The options he has are legion.

I wonder what it would make you say that PSG, or any other club, had any chance of buying a player of his caliber?
 

danmand

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You have to realize that some players are not for sale. It's not a 'North American' mentality for many European players. Andres Iniesta is one of these. He would never leave Camp Nou and in fact has happily signed a lifetime contract with the club.

Gerard Pique also renewed his contract earlier this month and said: "If this club had not offered me a contract extension I would then have retired. It's here or nothing else". Many a team would love to have the talents of Pique on their roster. The options he has are legion.

I wonder what it would make you say that PSG, or any other club, had any chance of buying a player of his caliber?
I am aware of Inieasts's situation.

My point was, that PSG has spent colossal amounts of money on Forwards (Cavani, Mbappe and Neymar), but seems to me to be lacking in midfielders. Kroos and Modric dominated. Maybe because Di Maria was absent.
 

Gibbons#1

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Anyone have a link for the game? Another reason to hate Barcelona, putting their champions league games exclusively on Bein TV, when everyone else's is on one of the tsn or Sportsnet channels.
 

Insidious Von

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beIN Sports is the sports affiliate of Al - Jazeera (Qatar), they are extending their influence at a time when TV contracts are up for renegotiation. It doesn't appear that the major players want to extend the lavish contracts for football as they've done in the past. beIN Sports is extending their rights to CL matches of the nationalities they currently own (La Liga, Serie A, Legue 1 and the Turkish Premiere League). Currently beIN are beaming with the rise of Turkish prodigy Gengiz Under with Roma. It increases their cross promotional options.

As for PSG's midfield, it's aging. Marco Verratti is their main distributor but he's erratic, too many red cards. We say what that meant for Italy against Sweden. PSG extended his contract with a big bump in pay, but I'm not convinced he'll become another Pirlo. Pirlo had already won a Champions Cup at his age.
 
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