Men's Soccer (Football) Thread [ARCHIVED] Soccer • Page 2255

ESPN no longer having any of the US soccer leagues seems so weird.

 

Even after everything I’ve said above, and being a Spurs fan, the overwhelming praise we’re getting for losing 4-1 is really weird.

 

Jesus, what the hell is happening at United these days.

 

That Keys/Hackett comments do not surprise me. Even if Keys is a twat.

Look at who came out strongly in the defence of the referees. Neville, Carragher, Owen. The first two frequently have referees/PGMOL on MNF, and Owen literally presents a show defending referees. It’s absolutely clear that they had an agenda (besides acting like The Sun and baiting Arsenal fans) or are not objective.

It’s like the thing going on about the “statement”, which was just Arsenal saying “We back Mikel, but just want to say that apologies are no longer enough”. But no, it’s blown up into us being “at war” with PGMOL, which just isn’t true. And people believe it.

 

Another funny part of yesterday was Ange getting booked for being outside his area. I watch Arteta basically stand on the field every game and haven’t seen him get a card for it.

But I think you can find things like this in every game across the world. Refs are going to make mistakes. It happens. VAR was suppose to help with the errors and for the most part it has. But there are still too many bad decisions being made and the refs should be held accountable. I just don’t think the right way to hold them accountable is constant public shaming. I think it only magnifies every decision and opens the door for some chaos. And there’s a big difference between a manager saying he didn’t like a call after a game vs calling everything a disgrace and putting out club statements.

 

The part that needs addressing the most are some of these rules that appear to be enforced subjectively instead of objectively. For example, the Palace goal that wasn’t disallowed for a handball, but yesterday Sterling had his goal disallowed for the same thing. The lack of consistency for the same rule. That’s a problem.

 

Good for overall coverage but bad for actually catching the games.

 

Agreed. It’s a real minefield. I think the only fix is to totally overhaul VAR and train people specifically, as well as increase the budget for recruitment, training, and salary for referees. There must be SO many people who would be good at the job, but don’t want to put up with the hassle and abuse when they could earn the same in a middle management position. The money is there.

In the moment, I understood Arteta’s frustrations, but looking back with a clear mind. I do think he went a little overboard. We didn’t deserve to lose the game, but we sure didn’t deserve to win either. I’d rather he spent his time fixing our broken midfield than than blaming referees. We’ve been on the receiving end of some shit decisions but I’m willing to bet most teams would have some complaints about this. I back him and his sentiments though.

 

Yeah having games on actual CBS is good, I think all the games will be on Paramount+ which works for me since pretty much need that for Champions/Europa League. ESPN+ still was the easiest app to navigate strictly for sports purposes so I will miss that.

Edit: Actually I am wrong, so it sounds like any remaining games not included in this 100 game deal will be on ESPN+? Still seems there is a question point there that is not been addressed yet other than Forward Madison having an Instagram post stating this.

 

Black and white hardly clashes with Dortmund's kit, does it? Yet here are Newcastle playing in their "Saudi kit". I wonder if there's any sportswashing reasons behind it.

 

Maybe there's too much black overlap?

 

Donetsk woo

 

PSG/Milan is quality so far

 

Atleti are so fun now. They still love being little shits, but they combine it with being a very attacking, entertaining team ith a leaky defence now.

Probably means they'll get smashed in the Ro16 by PSG or Bayern though.

 

I’m mad Xavi Simons is going to disappear to PSG.

 

5-0 to Atleti and Celtic are a man down. This could get very messy.

 

We lost two players to injury and now have two others suspended. I really don’t understand where this reaction is coming from haha

I was happy with how we played after all the chaos. And I was happy to see the morale from the fans and players so high despite what just happened. But we weren’t the winners.

 

Charlotte FC going into their 3rd season with their 3rd different manager. Great stuff!

 

'A strange, crazy night' - 44-penalty cup shootout

44 penalty shoot-out in Northern Ireland last night! Madcap.

 

Whilst we're posting clickbait by The Daily Hate Mail, I'll just post this and say: you're all welcome

 

Would love to see some changes. He’s still a turd.