Sports The Football Discussion Thread!

Minnesota United FC revealed their inaugural MLS season kits last night.



Thoughts?

...They've got targets on their chests.

Not the worst I've seen.

Massive respect to Lincoln City, first non-league team to reach FA cup quarter- final in almost, if not over 100 years.

Joey Barton is a grade A hypocrite.

My god United have the worst luck - Chelsea away in the Cup between Europa League ties (Assuming St. Etienne don't pull off a comeback that would be talked about for a century). Also an incredible over-reliance on two guys closer to 40 than 30. I would love it if Sutton beat Arsenal tomorrow then we'd be guaranteed a non-league semi-finalist. Either way though those two are set financially - if Lincoln get promoted they'd probably end up with one of the biggest budgets in League 2.

EDIT: 103 years - first non-league quarter-finalists in 103 years is what all the papers are saying

Frozocrone said:

Not the worst I've seen.

Massive respect to Lincoln City, first non-league team to reach FA cup final in almost, if not over 100 years.

Joey Barton is a grade A hypocrite.

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Fairytale for them too.

The first time I saw that scene and didn't know who it involved (it didn't say, and I didn't recognize the dude's face) I was just dafuq, how does this happen in England, but then a few hours later I saw the same somewhere else that identified the player as Barton, and suddenly everything made sense.

Amore said:

My god United have the worst luck - Chelsea away in the Cup between Europa League ties (Assuming St. Etienne don't pull off a comeback that would be talked about for a century). Also an incredible over-reliance on two guys closer to 40 than 30. I would love it if Sutton beat Arsenal tomorrow then we'd be guaranteed a non-league semi-finalist. Either way though those two are set financially - if Lincoln get promoted they'd probably end up with one of the biggest budgets in League 2.

EDIT: 103 years - first non-league quarter-finalists in 103 years is what all the papers are saying

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It's incredible how Zlatan is 35 years old and still plays with such quality. Then you have Mkhitaryan and Mata orchestrating the rest of the game, what can go wrong

Amore said:

...They've got targets on their chests.

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Dangerous move considering the country they're playing in.

There's actually a streaker for Sutton vs Arsenal xD

Well, the game looks like it's going to be Arsenal's so my thoughts:

1) Wayne Shaw, MOTM for this valiant effort. Has commentary, be warned.
2) Alexis has a clause in his contract that must allow him to play
3) Arsenal are not world beaters and this game proves it. The Bayern result could be Bayern being way too good. For a lot of the match, the Arsenal performance was meh.

http://webm.land/media/APUE.webm

MAGIC OF THE CUP

Claudio Ranieri was fired by Leicester today.

http://www.foxsports.com/soccer/story/claudio-ranieri-fire-leicester-manager-premier-league

I hope Ranieri gets some good fortune. He seems like a character.

Leicester better stay up to justify this now.

Frozocrone said:

2) Alexis has a clause in his contract that must allow him to play

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Honestly wouldn't surprise me, given he was gonna be sidelined at Barca. Either that or Wenger just worried that if he didn't bring him on he'd also become a pitch invader out of sheer desperation to kick a football. He's like the guy that turned up to every training and every game when you were younger and got into the team because they never stopped working - except with talent.

I don't understand why Leicester didn't wait until after the second leg? They actually have a decent chance to go through at that scoreline if they took the confidence and transferred it into some form, now they've just destabilised it.

Back to the Sutton game though - I really feel sorry for Wayne Shaw. The guy doesn't appear to have personally profited from the stunt, it's nothing like what Joey Barton's done yet whilst he's a Premiership footballer, a man who lives and breathes Sutton has lost his livelihood. Football and the betting industry are in bed with each other anyway - you'd think if the FA cared this much they'd ban clubs with bookies logos on their shirts from competing (incidentally that is 11/20 of the PL teams - and I'd assume even United aren't completely innocent, we just have so many sponsors if we do have a betting partner anywhere we could probably ditch them if the PR got bad) or tell them to play with un-sponsored shirts. It's just the latest in the FA's hypocritical attempt to be moral custodians of the game - like how what Sam Allardyce said pales in comparison to what one of his assistants (who didn't lose his job) had done.

Also, the second Sutton agreed to have the logo of The Sun anywhere near them after what they did with Hillsborough, I was hoping that not only would Arsenal beat them, but that the subsequent loss of morale would get them relegated all the way to being fully amateur.

Rant over.

The timing was certainly odd on the Ranieri firing. It's a shame for me because it might give Leicester a boost in the relegation fight, but it's also a shame to see him fired before he could finish their Champions League journey.

Amazed to see Henry Winter claim that some of the players want Pearson back, it would be a good laugh to see him manage a Champions League game.

Jyn Erso said:

Amazed to see Henry Winter claim that some of the players want Pearson back, it would be a good laugh to see him manage a Champions League game.

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Well he pulled off a great escape before, right? Wrong. Doubt the likes of Islam Slimani are going to respect a guy who was bad enough to be replaced by Steve McLaren (and before that Ranieri when his stock was at arguably its lowest).

Nobody seems to know for certain why he was sacked but given the events around it (his son's involvement in the "racist sex tape") I can assume he was trying to defend his own son being racist? Would make sense that Jamie Vardy would support him I guess, the man did used to play with an ankle bracelet after all.

On a lighter note - I'm concerned about the League Cup final. I think Manolo Gabbiadini could expose Chris Smalling for the liability he is, and the less said about Marcos Rojo appearing in games that matter the better. Although Mourinho does tend to know how to win the crunch games so hopefully history will be a good predictor.

Amore said:

Well he pulled off a great escape before, right? Wrong. Doubt the likes of Islam Slimani are going to respect a guy who was bad enough to be replaced by Steve McLaren (and before that Ranieri when his stock was at arguably its lowest).

Nobody seems to know for certain why he was sacked but given the events around it (his son's involvement in the "racist sex tape") I can assume he was trying to defend his own son being racist? Would make sense that Jamie Vardy would support him I guess, the man did used to play with an ankle bracelet after all.

On a lighter note - I'm concerned about the League Cup final. I think Manolo Gabbiadini could expose Chris Smalling for the liability he is, and the less said about Marcos Rojo appearing in games that matter the better. Although Mourinho does tend to know how to win the crunch games so hopefully history will be a good predictor.

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So he did.

Make no mistake, Southampton were the better side for much of the match and were cruelly disallowed a goal. Game could have changed had it counted.

Peter Moore from EA heading to Liverpool?

What does their chief executive do? Is he part of the famous transfer committee now?

Also, let's all laugh at Liverpool for getting beat by Leicester (bunch of pricks). Although I can absolutely see Leicester going on a great run of form now, just like how Chelsea's players sold out Mourinho (although I begrudge them that slightly less because if he was still in a job United would still be the most boring team on the planet all the time).


EDIT: Glad to see Fernando Torres has been given the all-clear after last night, looked horrific. José Gimenez was nearly in tears when he was unconscious.

https://twitter.com/Atleti/status/837601117643096066

Interesting battle between Ibrahimovic and Tyrone Mings today.

Our season has gone down the coal mine and died. Been a long time since we've had so much dead rubber at the end of a season.

Liverpool looked good, Arsenal a shambles again.

Meanwhile I'm lamenting the draw to Bournemouth and wondering why this unbeaten streak since October is still placing Man Utd in sixth...

Thinking Europa League win is best bet for Champions League next season.

Barcelona just did something spectacular...

This reaction is the best.

I feel weird, yeah what Barca did was amazing and I really like Neymar and some of their other non-superstars like Umtiti, but I absolutely loath Luis Suarez (For many reasons, not least his racism which people tend to forgive somehow because of his abilities as a footballer) and the way Barca lost their identity.

Helps that PSG are owned and funded by an autocratic government that sponsors terrorism though. Especially with the irony of their team of expensively acquired talents failing at least partially because they played one of those (Thiago Silva) over an academy product.