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Soccer

Championship ended today. Swansea snuck into the playoff. Stoke City beat Forest 4-1 and Swansea won their game 4-1, which gave them GD over Forest. And the Baggie who looked doubtful saw Brentford lose to two well bottom half teams.

And Wigan despite having 59 points, looks to be relegated due to Administration 12 pt penalty.
 
Toni said:
rousseau said:
I played for a county team as a youth, and straight through high-school, but in Canada there is absolutely no focus on the development of soccer players. If I was born in Europe I might have been identified for a youth camp, but most coaches in Canada are volunteers without much knowledge of the game. At best I got European ex-pats as coaches when I was playing for our county. In high-school our coaches were teachers who made sure we didn't break anything.

Hockey is king here - in my city our Junior team sells out an arena of 10 000 people all season. Lots of poor parents hoping their kid makes the NHL, but it's really a lottery, even some of the best junior players never achieve long-term careers in the NHL.
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Soccer here is pretty much at the same level as you describe in Canada. Only one of my kids was ‘serious’ about soccer and played for his small college team. Three played in high school. One played only on a summer youth team for a year or two. All played summer youth leagues at some level. Only two of their coaches ( except for college) had ever played the game as kids or had anything other than very cursory knowledge of the game. My husband played in a little bit as a kid. I had barely heard of the sport.

I was thrilled none of my kids wanted to play hockey. Thrilled. Equipment was expense and then the dental work! Plus ice time was very early...And hockey moms are crazy....
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I'm still having an internal debate about our kids and hockey. Might be fun, but as you say it's a big commitment.

I think there's a sea change going on with my generation and their kids playing hockey. We largely have less money and no pensions so it's not seen as something our kids *have* to do. Where when I was growing up it was hard to find peers who didn't play.

And from the genetics angle I was a good athlete but never truly loved playing sports. Im guessing it might be the same for our kids so they may not miss out with less stressful stuff - swimming, karate, stuff like that.
 
rousseau said:
Toni said:
rousseau said:
I played for a county team as a youth, and straight through high-school, but in Canada there is absolutely no focus on the development of soccer players. If I was born in Europe I might have been identified for a youth camp, but most coaches in Canada are volunteers without much knowledge of the game. At best I got European ex-pats as coaches when I was playing for our county. In high-school our coaches were teachers who made sure we didn't break anything.

Hockey is king here - in my city our Junior team sells out an arena of 10 000 people all season. Lots of poor parents hoping their kid makes the NHL, but it's really a lottery, even some of the best junior players never achieve long-term careers in the NHL.
Click to expand...

Soccer here is pretty much at the same level as you describe in Canada. Only one of my kids was ‘serious’ about soccer and played for his small college team. Three played in high school. One played only on a summer youth team for a year or two. All played summer youth leagues at some level. Only two of their coaches ( except for college) had ever played the game as kids or had anything other than very cursory knowledge of the game. My husband played in a little bit as a kid. I had barely heard of the sport.

I was thrilled none of my kids wanted to play hockey. Thrilled. Equipment was expense and then the dental work! Plus ice time was very early...And hockey moms are crazy....
Click to expand...
I'm still having an internal debate about our kids and hockey. Might be fun, but as you say it's a big commitment.

I think there's a sea change going on with my generation and their kids playing hockey. We largely have less money and no pensions so it's not seen as something our kids *have* to do. Where when I was growing up it was hard to find peers who didn't play.

And from the genetics angle I was a good athlete but never truly loved playing sports. Im guessing it might be the same for our kids so they may not miss out with less stressful stuff - swimming, karate, stuff like that.
Click to expand...

You've got years. Let the little guy start walking good!

For us, our oldest had a friend who was playing on a youth team and so our son wanted to play as well. I think he was 5 or 6. He played a few years, nothing big or overly organized. We moved and he didn't play for a couple of years. One of my husband's colleagues was coaching a team and was pretty involved with organizing the youth teams, coaching, etc. and so my husband asked our son if he thought he'd like to play again. And then we were off! The other kids mostly played because their big brother did. One only played a season or two, which was a shame because he had some talent but utterly disliked organized sports or team activities and so....no more team sports for him. Our daughter also had a bit of talent and legs for miles but she hated the high school girls' coach and purposely stayed on the junior varsity team--and then gave it up because she didn't really care that much about winning a game and sooner or later she was going to have to move up to varsity with the dreaded terrible coach who really was terrible, knew nothing about soccer or coaching for starters. I'm talking from a very basic: it should be fun, it should be safe, the kids should burn some energy and learn something point of view. None of the pre-professional development teams such as are found in Europe, etc.

The deal was that the kids could quit at the end of any season they wanted to quit and never had to sign up for the next (or any) season. Mostly, I just tried not to be one of *those* parents on the sidelines. There were a lot of jerks and assholes who got way over involved with their kids' 'athletic careers.' Or who just had anger management issues.
 
I'm enjoying this playoff between Brentford and Fulham, the first time I've watched this competition. Tightly defended and intense game that's swinging both ways, but neither team seems to have a high enough quality play-maker to break through and create quality chances.

Looks like it might go to penalties.

ETA: I spoke too soon, Brentford made an embarrassing keeping mistake..makes sense that's how someone would score.
 
rousseau said:
I'm enjoying this playoff between Brentford and Fulham, the first time I've watched this competition. Tightly defended and intense game that's swinging both ways, but neither team seems to have a high enough quality play-maker to break through and create quality chances.

Looks like it might go to penalties.

ETA: I spoke too soon, Brentford made an embarrassing keeping mistake..makes sense that's how someone would score.
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The Championship playoff final is the most lucrative single match in world football. The winner traditionally gifts to the loser their share of the gate receipts in recognition of this fact, but as this year there are no gate receipts, the disparity between the financial fortunes of the winner and loser of that match is all the greater.

That goalkeeping error cost his team about £160m.

It also gives Brentford the unfortunate record for the most unsuccessful play-off series, having now failed to qualify for promotion via the play-offs nine times.
 
rousseau said:
I'm enjoying this playoff between Brentford and Fulham, the first time I've watched this competition. Tightly defended and intense game that's swinging both ways, but neither team seems to have a high enough quality play-maker to break through and create quality chances.

Looks like it might go to penalties.

ETA: I spoke too soon, Brentford made an embarrassing keeping mistake..makes sense that's how someone would score.
Click to expand...
The world's richest game. Brentford had auto-promotion in hand and at least came back against Swansea to make the final playoff game, but boy, it is sad so see what would have been a new team in the EPL.
 
And now for Champion's League - odds

Seems like this might be City's time to try to win it, with Liverpool out, but who knows with their defense. I'd love to see Ronaldo get the trophy with a third team, but don't see that happening.
 
Without the crowds and aggregate, things get so much different. Now it is more like the World Cup, which could make it worse as it becomes play not to lose.
 
Ah didn't realize they'd made that rule change. Yea that's too bad, the aggregate is nice.
 
For those not watching the Barca game, make sure you find Messi's goal at 23', just unreal. I actually laughed out loud it was so good.

Ronaldo is a great player, but Messi is other-worldly. Thankfully this likely means I'll be seeing him again in the next round.
 
Here it is at about the 50 second mark:



Ronaldo creates some space and shoots with accuracy, Messi brute forces his way past three players and scores from the ground.
 
The above got me thinking about playlists of Messi's highlights on Youtube. I searched and tracked down this playlist, which goes season by season through his career (and combines the first few years of his career into the first video).

Good watch for those not well versed in football, if not a bit repetitive - but if you've ever wanted to see the best player to ever play football in depth. I think you can sum up his game as having incredible ball-control, as well as amazing intelligence and vision. There is also something modest about his style of play, he's not a show-boat and instead incredibly efficient and unselfish. Rather than create more success for himself, he always does the right thing with the ball. And when he passes or shoots the weight/accuracy is usually on point.

A few years ago FiveThirtyEight did a deep dive into his abilities - here. Well worth the read.
 
Oof, Barcelona got pummeled. While watching the game I was having flashbacks to the second leg against Liverpool last year. A faster, stronger team dominated them again.

Assuming Man City wins tomorrow, their game against Bayern should be a good one, and I would assume decide the tournament.
 
I gave up watching the Barcelona vs Bayern match after the 4th goal. I must say I have never seen a goalkeeper look so inept at moving the ball out his half as ter Stegen did.

Early this year, there was some speculation about ter Stegen possibly replacing Neuer as keeper for Bayern. Not after that game.
 
I enjoyed the Man City - Lyon game. Watching the occasional match from Man City this year it feels like there's something wrong mentally going on in their play. Whenever they're up against someone who they out-rank on paper they play down and without a lot of charisma. It's like they're so over-hyped as a team that they expect to be handed games without performing to their full potential.

They've got the money, the players, the manager, but they just don't have the same character as other teams who have something to prove.
 
An all French final could be fun as well. Man City's loss really sets up a interesting final two rounds.
 
European Football didn't fail us... PSG v Bayern. How's that for establishment?
 
I didn't watch the PSG game too closely, but both games seemed like nothing-burgers. Leipzig and Lyon put a few plays together, failed to capitalize on any opportunities they did get, and otherwise got beat by teams that could score.

I have a feeling it's going to be Bayern in the end, they seem like a very good team.
 
Darn, looks like "CBS All Access" is the only place to watch the final unless there is a dodgy streaming service available, like Front Row. I believe there is a free seven day trial for the service so I might take advantage of that just to watch the final.
 
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