curses and Janet's thrad for soccer Battle Royale!

[ImGod]

I find myself drawn to Cheslea for some odd reason. I think it's Petr Cech and his goofy looking rugby helmet. He looks so different without it, but I understand wearing it after having your head bashed in on the pitch.

Premiere league footy ball is on a lot at our house since we get fox soccer. Though the girls would like to see more women teams on TV.

[curses]

Chelsea's had some top talent recently, but they're not so popular for the same reason as Man United and Man City. They had foreign investors come in (Roman Abramovich in Chelsea's case), spend a shit ton of money for top players and then almost bankrupt themselves with little to show for it.

That being said, Petr Cech is one of my top keepers of all time. The man's a genius. We saw the match where he got his head bashed in, he was unconscious for a long time and we were worried he'd never play again.

[ImGod]

Our household is all NOOBIES when it comes to socccer futball. Having only been around it since 2006 or so. The kids noticed the other day they say nil instead of zero. And that there was an English guy, a Irish guy, and an American guy announcing.

So we're slowly learning. We spend more time practicing than watching teams. But it does help to watch a game to see how it's done. I'm always reminding them to watch the footwork, passing, strategy, etc.

There are way more teams out there in the big wide world to figure out which to follow. But I am starting to pick up on some of the differences in play between the different areas of the world.

[curses]

I've only been watching since about 2004. I got into it the first time I visited my husband in London. Shit's contagious when you're surrounded by other fans.

I'm partial to Mexico and Argentina for fun-watching. Their style of play is organic, not too organized, but absolutely manic!

The Bundesliga is probably the best European league to watch, they have the larger chance to have more than 3 teams vying for the top place.


In local news, the Atlanta Silverbacks are on top of the NASL table! GO ATL!

[curses]

Oh, and have a gif of Messi doing what he does (yeah, I know I said I thought he was overrated, this is just beautiful, though)

[Janet]

I too, love the Argentinian style of play. They way the seem to be playing keep-away in midfield is mesmerizing. And, wow, you are a newbie, too. I've been a City supporter since 1980 when I caught my first English football match on Canadian TV while I was home sick from school. It was love at first sight.

There were many years when I couldn't get any information on City over here and I started following Liverpool as well because I could find stuff on them. More to the point, perhaps, people traveling to England who wanted to bring me gifts would find stuff. Every time Mick toured England and I asked him for City gear he came back with Liverpool gear.

I figured that was okay because it just meant I hated United twice as much. But then the internet happened and I was able to get information about them and some Englishmen I met on another forum forced me to choose. Well, there was never any choice. The day they made me choose I went home on my lunch hour, removed the Liverpool window sticker that Mick had bought me and put up the City sticker I had bought myself. I've never looked back and if anyone wants a pile of Liverpool scarves, hit me up.

[ImGod]

My kids play soccer because girls get to choose between soccer, basketball, volleyball, track/running, and cheerleading.

We tried soccer and basketball. Soccer stuck, but one does play basketball in the offseason to stay in shape. Cheerleading, ha!

There are some good clubs here for kids with decent coaches who have played college level and above. But too many of them are brutal on younger kid's egos. We found a good one that isn't so political and nasty to parents after our old one cut a daughter at 10 years old. She scored 6 goals in the last 3 games when they moved her to stiker and played 4 positions that year including some time at goalie. She's good at passing on a give an go and never leaves the back door open on defense. I have no idea why they dorked her other than the team manger didn't care for us. Seriously, they're 10 year old kids. So we found a better place.

The girls started following women's soccer in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. Abby Wambach is responsible for my younger daughter headering stuff that makes my head hurt from the sidelines. I can't tell if my daugther has concussions after a game or is just acting like a normal teenager.

[curses]

Originally Posted by Janet

Canadian TV

There ya go, lucky. TV in the Southern US didn't carry any soccer except for Olympic and World Cup. Maybe. Plus we didn't have cable growing up so no ESPN. I'd imagine a lot of folks in the US are in the same boat.

LOL, Liverpool is a poor substitution for any other team except maybe Millwall.

[Janet]

I also watched the Spain-Uruguay match on the CBC. Unfortunately they don't seem to be showing any more matches during the week. And I learned exactly how lucky I was when I went to college in Southern California and experienced my first Olympics on an American network. The downside of that is that I am stuck with Comcast because no other cable or satellite provider seems to understand that Michiganders consider the CBC to be one of their local channels.

[curses]

Buh-bay Tevez. BBC Sport - Carlos Tevez: Manchester City striker moves to Juventus

Bonus sidebar of Tevez' City troubles.

[Janet]

Yeah, wasn't even sure it was worth mentioning. They need to buy us some damn strikers right quick or we'll be buggered next season. So far our targets are either too expensive, Cavani, or getting poached by Real Madrid, Isco.

In other news, our new signing Jesus Navas scored the winning goal in the Spain-Italy penalty kick battle in the Confederations Cup a minute or so ago.

[curses]

The actual fuck....
South American Football - Referee beheaded by fans for killing player - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

I can't even crowbar a joke into this, it's too horrible.

[Stormlight]

Good lord.

[Janet]

4 - 1 City! In your face, Curses! You were lucky to get that one. WOOHOO!



Me

Curses

[curses]

I can't believe I missed this one! I also missed the match. indeed. Figured it'd be a rough season...

[ImGod]

They took Fox Soccer off our cable and replaced it with another channel that shows rerun R rated movies and rerun edgy sitcoms. Apparently, I was the only person watching Soccer and it was more cost effective to run a second FX channel instead.

So I'm soccerless at the moment.

[curses]

Fox lost broadcasting rights to NBC for the Premiership. Some of the games are even played on the network channel. Check to see if you get those instead.

[Janet]

The new NBC Sports channel, at least where I live, has taken over what used to be called Versus, so if you had that channel, you can get your Premier League. It's basic cable on Comcast.

[ImGod]

I searched the guide for soccer and nothing came up. Just a few scattered games here and there one week then nothing. I'll look around again at different channels.

I have Cox.

for cable that is.

[curses]

The Swansea-Arsenal match should show up on NBC unless they just hate the Midwest or something. 12:30PM

[Janet]

Here's their schedule. Also, they are all available free streaming with the NBC Sports app, as long as you have the cable service. I'm pretty happy with the NBC deal. Last year I got to see some games if they were on ESPN2 or Fox Sports, but many were on Fox Soccer which costs extra here. It's nice to have more games aired. I'm spoiled for choice now.

[Janet]

Bamped because I am GOING TO SEE CITY TOMORROW! They are playing in Pittsburgh which was a reasonable enough drive to go for it. I'm taking my niece and nephew. Another niece was supposed to be joining us from Maryland but now she can't make it. My niece Anne is working to find a replacement, if not we'll just give it away to someone who needs one. My brother in Maryland insists on paying his daughter's share anyway.

I am so excited I am barely keeping from bouncing up and down in front of the patrons. Yay, CITY TOMORROW!

[mickthinks]

Let's raise a cheer for Leicester City, Richard III's own football team, who look like they are going to end the season at the top of English football.

Explaining the Leicester City story to Americans - BBC News

From the link

Should they win English football's most prestigious prize, some say the feat would be the most unlikely event in the history of team sports. Globally. Bookmakers' odds on them winning the Premier League were 5,000 to one last summer. So it was five times more likely that Hugh Hefner would declare himself a virgin.

[curses]

This has truly been an exciting season! I've enjoyed watching LCFC play. Absolute joy. It's really nice to get a shakeup in the top 5, even if my beloved Manchester United have had a shit time of it. A shame to see Aston Villa get relegated and I hope they don't continue to fall-but with the season they've had it wouldn't be too surprising to see them where Portsmouth are now in a few seasons.

[Janet]

Oh, I protest! Leicester was never a pro-Richard city and it only has him because he was murdered near there. Hell, they buried him in a car park! He would never, ever have supported Leicester.

That said, fair play to them. I would much rather they win the title than any of the other contenders. I have my doubts, however. The horrible officiating last week combined with Vardy's possible second ban makes me think the fix is in. I hope I'm wrong. I like to believe the Premier League is somewhat less corrupt than other European leagues, but I know there's a good chance I'm kidding myself.