General Soccer Thread

[MrSaigon]

The other angle:


Misery:

[thrill]

He broke Stu Holden's leg a few years ago. What's with this dude and USMNT up and coming star midfielders?

[MrSaigon]

I remember his awesome Bloodsport karate kick better. But people, even beyond whiny Timbers fans, were pissed when Arena brought him to the league.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

As someone whose playing days(which peaked in high school) have too much influence over the way I perceive pro soccer, I have a hard time understanding what tackles are truly dangerous at times. For example, I was confused as to why there was universal agreement, even among Sounders fans, why this tackle was a straight red when the biggest danger was to Fisher's junk (skip to 1:50): http://www.soundersfc.com/post/2016/03/ ... son-opener

That prologue aside, even as an apologist on questionable challenges, I have a hard time fathoming how De Jong can even pretend he's not just trying to hurt Nagbe there, unless he's perfecting a stomp tackle move to unleash on the world and get his name on the patent.

[MrSaigon]

The ref org for MLS, such as it is, is cracking down on anything with two feet and studs toward a player. The Timbers were the beneficiaries of one of these against RSL earlier this year. There are some soft-ish looking reds for those this year. Ultimately that will be good if those tackles become off limits. Nagbe gets ripped to the ground damn near every time he touches the ball. The league has cleaning up to do, and that's a good place to start.

But a lot of good that does if de Jong still gets to do that and play 90.

[go birds]

penalty call at the end of the Leicester game had to be a make-up call for the missed penalty call earlier in the game

[mtcefc]

penalty call at the end of the Leicester game had to be a make-up call for the missed penalty call earlier in the game

When it was 2-1 the silence in the ground was amazing. THAT is sport right there.

The referee was terrible, he was right to send off Vardy for diving, he has done it all season and players are "clever" (cheating) by leaving their leg to be kicked as he goes down.

The pushing/barging at corners goes on at EVERY corner in every game, in a way I am glad to see the referee finally pulling a defender up on it, but Martin Skrtl of Liverpool is the biggest culprit of this and he never gets penalised for it.

All I ask for as fans is consistency and it quite simply does not happen. Over the years plenty of smaller teams will have not got decisions like those yesterday whereas players only need to sneeze at Old Trafford Manchester United get a penalty.

In a way I would like to see Leicester do it, but the devil inside me wants to see them implode and blow it. Tottenham need to win tonight first though.

I am dreading this week, Everton are terrible and Liverpool seem to be on fire. Then I will be at Wembley on Saturday for the cup semi final against Man U.

Hoping for a miracle, I would take a win in one of them but I am not holding my breath.

[go birds]

yea i tuned in late to the match so i missed the Vardy play in real time, but after seeing the replay, i think a case could be made for either side.

bring me up to speed....is a flop an automatic red card these days? As a fan, i like it, but as a player i hate it haha.

the big take away for me was the candid interviews with andy carroll and west ham's manager. i cant imagine an american sports player/manager being that open about how bad the reffing was...at least not without getting fined.

[lukethedrifter]

Nephew got his first professional start. Named Man of the Match. Hope they're watching in NE.

[mtcefc]

yea i tuned in late to the match so i missed the Vardy play in real time, but after seeing the replay, i think a case could be made for either side.

bring me up to speed....is a flop an automatic red card these days? As a fan, i like it, but as a player i hate it haha.

the big take away for me was the candid interviews with andy carroll and west ham's manager. i cant imagine an american sports player/manager being that open about how bad the reffing was...at least not without getting fined.

It should be, but it isn't, it is a yellow card and Vardy had already been booked so he was sent off. It is open to interpretation, you will get some pundits saying they are "entitled to go down" or they "drew the foul" but if you look when most of them dive they roll over, make the most of it and normally end up appealing at the referee.

Players are clever about how they do it, the referee only has a split second to make his decision. The other year when Liverpool nearly won the league Suarez was always at it to the point where defenders were scared to go near him incase he dived.

Referees are terrible and I dont care what anyone says certain teams get certain decisions and especially for games that are on tv (here, I know they show them all over there) they want to keep things entertaining. The media today have acted like the referee was Judas to Vardys Jesus (I cant think of a better analogy). This Leicester fairy tale is starting to grind on a few people and Vardy has been diving all season and getting away with it, plus lots of other things because this is the biggest underdog story in sports history. Like I said, I hope they blow it now.

Interesting in tonights game there was hardly any pushing and shoving during corner kicks, that has been going on forever and hardly ever gets punished. If the referees are consistant (which they are not) there should be a penalty in every game next weekend.

I presume Allardyce and Carrol will both get fined for their comments. Managers usually are when they come out and just tell it how it is. The referees are never questioned, they just get the next week off or are demoted a division for a while until the heat blows over.

In the mean time, here is a random (cough) video about diving.