Fútbol chatter

[Bruce]

The less that is said about La Liga's money-grabbing "football-spreading" match in the United States, the better.

It makes zero sense and I hope that FIFA and CONCACAF/USSF reject it without second thought. The only competitive matches that should be allowed outside their home countries are supercups (just glorified preseason friendlies).

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Yup. That was an unilateral decission by the LFP (Spanish pro league, the two top tiers). Not only fans are against that, even players oppose the plan, and they may go on strike. I hope they reverse that.

[english si]

The Premier League repeatedly moots having a '39th game' in Asia - ship all the teams out to China (or wherever), they play a game (that I doubt would count) for no reason than money that they already have excesses of!

Friendlies and the World Club Championship should be the only reason to leave the territory of your confederation. Confederation club competitions (eg Champions League, Europa League) and big fish in little ponds*/near border clubs** should be the only reason to leave the territory of your association.

And that last sentence shows how I feel about a European Super League (though my issues are more with the closed shop nature of it and the devaluing of domestic games, rather than the idea of playing foreign teams in a league as well as a cup).

*eg Vaduz in the Swiss leagues or Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham and Newport in the English leagues
**eg Owestry-based TNS in the Welsh leagues or Berwick Rangers in the Scottish leagues

[Bruce]

And speaking of leaving your confederation: On Tuesday, a rare friendly was played by an American club.

Chicago Fire went to the Allianz Arena to play Bayern Munich in Bastian Schweinsteiger's testimonial (in which he played a half for each club). It's very rare for American clubs to play a European team in Europe, even for a friendly. I can also remember the NY Cosmos (the 2nd division "revival" of the original team") playing at Old Trafford a few years ago as well.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Okay, Huesca has suffered a blowout against Barça. This was expected, however that goal just three minutes into the match was tottally unexpected!

Also, in the midst of the controversy about the possible La Liga matches in the USA Huesca has offered themshelves to cross the pond just to play one. It's all about the money.

Friendlies and the World Club Championship should be the only reason to leave the territory of your confederation. Confederation club competitions (eg Champions League, Europa League) and big fish in little ponds*/near border clubs** should be the only reason to leave the territory of your association.

*eg Vaduz in the Swiss leagues or Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham and Newport in the English leagues
**eg Owestry-based TNS in the Welsh leagues or Berwick Rangers in the Scottish leagues

The Vaduz example applies to all teams from Liechtenstein, since that country only has a cup and no league. A different thing are Andorra and San Marino, both with their own leagues but in addition they have one team each in the Spanish (FC Andorra) and Italian (San Marino Calcio) systems respectively. Not to mention they are the biggest clubs in their respective countries.

[english si]

The UEFA Nations League seems to have worked as hoped - by creating a competition where teams play teams roughly on their level for actual stakes (so not friendlies) they took out the boredom between major tournaments when international breaks roll around. Sure they'd be a qualifying upset where a big team draws against some little team (I remember a big team only winning 1-0 against the Faeroes being treated as some massive upset just to say something) or one where there wouldn't be a mishmash every international break, but that's like a couple of games out of 40+.

I did think that Spain at Wembley on Saturday night was the must-win game for England, but drawing-if-it-wasn't-for-bad-reffing against a team that has just put 6 past World Cup finalists (and 4th-ranked in the world) Croatia, doesn't seem too bad.

[Bruce]

CONCACAF is also staring up their own Nations League next year, with the first qualification matches this month. Middling powers like Canada, Haiti and Cuba are being forced to play real minnows like the U.S. Virgin Islands and various Dutch territories, resulting in record wins of 8-0, 11-0, etc. It's been a bit of a laugh.

Goal difference is going to determine which teams can qualify for League A/B and the Gold Cup more than anything, so there's plenty of reason to keep running up the score.

[wphiii]

This is getting ridiculous

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45483586

A third European club competition could be introduced alongside the Champions League and Europa League from 2021, according to the head of the association of Europe's biggest teams.

...

The idea, which could be approved by Uefa at a December meeting in Dublin, would see the Europa League reduced from 48 teams to 32 so that the Champions League, Europa League and the new competition would all have the same number of competitors.

It seems almost no one wants this.

[rawmustard]

This is getting ridiculous

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45483586

A third European club competition could be introduced alongside the Champions League and Europa League from 2021, according to the head of the association of Europe's biggest teams.

...

The idea, which could be approved by Uefa at a December meeting in Dublin, would see the Europa League reduced from 48 teams to 32 so that the Champions League, Europa League and the new competition would all have the same number of competitors.

It seems almost no one wants this.

UEFA used to have three club competitions. Europa League was basically an amalgamation of the UEFA Cup and Cup Winners' Cup.

[english si]

Don't forget the Intertoto Cup, which only got merged into the UEFA Cup (turning it into the Europa League) 10 years ago. The Cup Winners Cup was merged into the UEFA Cup without a branding change 9 years before that.

That said, it was basically a bonus qualifying route into the UEFA Cup (up to 12 from group stages) that returned to its 60s roots of a knock-out contest with only a couple of winners (multiple brackets) when UEFA took over in 1995, though 10 years later it lapsed into being about generating 11 teams that weren't called 'winners' for entry into the UEFA Cup, albeit this time by knock out.

[english si]

CONCACAF is also staring up their own Nations League next year, with the first qualification matches this month. Middling powers like Canada, Haiti and Cuba are being forced to play real minnows like the U.S. Virgin Islands and various Dutch territories, resulting in record wins of 8-0, 11-0, etc.

The CONCACAF one has qualifying? And, looking, the qualifying teams were either automatically qualified (the 6 teams who got to the last stage of the WC Qualifying) or ranked and put into 4 seeding pots for the draw to determine their opponents to see which of 4 leagues they get put into? Seems rather pointless to rank the teams as part of the ranking process and not to leave it there.

And that qualifying involves a load of mis-matches. The first game week provided 3 double-digit scores and 10 out of 17 games being 3-or-more to nil. The problem the Nations League is trying to fix is a (most bad in UEFA) problem of international games normally either being meaningful games in terms of stakes or meaningful games in terms of being a near-equal match. Haiti playing Sint Marteen with stakes is as meaningless a game of football as Haiti playing Trinidad and Tobago (the closest CONACAF team to them in the FIFA rankings) in a friendly.

Thankfully this qualifying looks to be one-off due to the competition itself dealing with team placement next time around. I guess it would give a slightly more accurate assessment of the team's current ability than rankings, but it still seems to be missing the point.

[Bruce]

CONCACAF's voting power comes from the smaller Caribbean and Central American nations, which outnumber the powers and thus generally have their way (see: the infamous Jack Warner). They probably demanded a qualification stage to give their nations a small chance of making it to League B and fighting for

Note that this qualification round also functions as qualification for the Gold Cup, which used to be just a pair of knockout tournaments divided by sub-region (and Canada getting an automatic spot).

[DandyDan]

So since when did TNT get the Champions League? And why did they have Barcelona on early today?

[Bruce]

So since when did TNT get the Champions League? And why did they have Barcelona on early today?

They acquired the rights for 2018-19 thru to 2020-21 last year. It's going to be a disaster, so I'm sticking to my online streams.

Soccer coverage here is starting to get worse for a lot of leagues, either in terms of partners or availability for the price. I wish we still had World Cups on ESPN, MLS on NBC, and Fox on Champions League.

[Bruce]

Tonight's Copa Libertadores final has been postponed to Sunday because of the attack on the Boca team bus.

What a total embarrassment for the sport. River needs to be slapped with a heavy punishment (closed-door games and no international competition for a decade).

[Bruce]

The MLS Cup is set for next Saturday: Atlanta United will host the Portland Timbers.

All 70K tickets have already been sold out, so the attendance record set in 2002 (61K at Gillette Stadium) will likely be broken. Given how both teams have played throughout the second half of the season and the playoffs, I'm expecting more than a few goals.

[Bruce]

Atlanta United have won the MLS Cup, in their second-ever season, in front of the largest MLS Cup crowd ever (73,019). Pretty great night.

[Buck87]

The renderings for the proposed new Columbus Crew Stadium look pretty incredible, and it would be in a great location as a natural expansion to the existing Arena district. Hopefully this deal goes through. The vast majority of the project built with private funds provided by the potential new ownership group.

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2018/12/06/plan-calls-for-230m-columbus-crew-stadium-in-the.html?__twitter_impression=true#g/446854/1

[Bruce]

The MLS Cup Playoffs will now have 14 teams (instead of 12), single-match rounds, and fit neatly between the two international breaks.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/12/13/2019-mls-playoff-structure

[Buck87]

The MLS Cup Playoffs will now have 14 teams (instead of 12), single-match rounds, and fit neatly between the two international breaks.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/12/13/2019-mls-playoff-structure

Glad to see the 2 leg series go away. Those make sense in continental competitions with teams from a bunch of different leagues, but not so much for a North American style playoff system where the bracket seeding is determined by a long regular season.

14 of 24 teams seems like a lot, but one year later it'll be 14 of 26 and then eventually 14 of 28. Well, that's assuming they stay with this new playoff system throughout the planned expansion to 28, but I'm guessing they designed this system for 28 and then just started it a few years early. It'll be interesting to what happens if/when they go to 30 or 32 teams.

[Bruce]

Sigi Schmid, the winningest coach in MLS history, died on Tuesday at the age of 65.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-sigi-schmid-obit-20181226-story.html

[Bruce]

The semifinals for the CONCACAF Champions League are set, with only one American team managing to survive, while three fall to Mexican clubs.



MLS teams remain at a disadvantage due to the competition beginning in the middle of preseason, though the new schedule in 2020 will move league games into mid-February and make things only slightly better. Liga MX teams are still in the Clausura, so they remain at a significant advantage.

[jp the roadgeek]

Speaking of domination by one country, the UEFA Champions League has turned into the EPL Invitational somewhat.  Both Manchesters, Liverpool, and Tottenham comprise half of the round of 8. 

[mgk920]

The semifinals for the CONCACAF Champions League are set, with only one American team managing to survive, while three fall to Mexican clubs.



MLS teams remain at a disadvantage due to the competition beginning in the middle of preseason, though the new schedule in 2020 will move league games into mid-February and make things only slightly better. Liga MX teams are still in the Clausura, so they remain at a significant advantage.

Eventually, the North American league schedule will be harmonized with the FIFA league schedule.

Mike

[Bruce]

Eventually, the North American league schedule will be harmonized with the FIFA league schedule.

Mike

That's unlikely to happen. Latin American leagues are quite content with the Apertura/Clasura schedule, while the colder climates for a good majority of cities in the US and Canada requires MLS to use a summer schedule. Playing in the snow is something that should not normally occur in soccer, which is why Scandinavian leagues use a summer schedule and Russian leagues have a long winter break that pretty much emulates the Apertura/Clasura.