General Soccer Thread

[thrill]

For some reason, Joe Hart is my least favorite player in the world. Well, not for "some" reason. It's because of his ridiculous histrionics, the fact that he plays for Man City and the fact that he's incredibly overrated.

Anyway, enjoyed yesterday.

[Freed Roger]

[MrSaigon]

Michael Lewis wrote about Iceland in his book Boomerang. It was very entertaining.

[TimeForGuinness]

England left Europe twice in 7 days...go Iceland!

[Transmogrified Tiger]

For some reason, Joe Hart is my least favorite player in the world. Well, not for "some" reason. It's because of his ridiculous histrionics, the fact that he plays for Man City and the fact that he's incredibly overrated.

Anyway, enjoyed yesterday.

Every time I watch him play I end up thinking 'this is the best keeper England can muster'? It's baffling.

[thrill]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 95491.html


Hahahahahahahahahahajahajahahahahahahahahaaaaaaa
Let's get this baby to critical mass.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/articl ... coach.html
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/ ... ky-sources

Despite failing to guide the team to this year's Olympic football tournament, as well as missing out on London 2012, Klinsmann took USA to glory in the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

2013 was, indeed, glorious.

[thrill]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/ ... ce-8380775
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/ ... nd-manager

God is real.

[MrSaigon]

Been to one MLS game and scanned a book about European Hooligans?

Would you mind spilling 5k words on how racist and downright Trumpian (his first paragraph, Good God) MLS fans are for NYT? We won't even require you to include a single quote from the team or league involved.

What a POS article. If he had done any research at all he'd be aware that the San Jose SG has given him all the crayons to paint the picture he's painting on his one trip to Seattle, where if they weren't racist, why'd they sing songs? It would still be ridiculous, but at least he'd have a workable nugget.

You went to Seattle and found the 'Dark Side of American Soccer Culture?' Somewhere between the marching band and complete void of violence? Jay Kang, wow.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/magaz ... lture.html

Remember Highlights magazine? See if you can find all the ridiculous things in the final paragraph:

If Alexi Lalas wants to know why so many Mexican-Americans choose not to root for the United States, he doesn’t need to look much farther than the crowds who gather in M.L.S. stadiums and bars and sing songs inspired by groups who shove black men off subway trains and travel to foreign cities to taunt Muslim immigrants. There is nothing wrong about borrowing what you love, but it should be called what it is — a dream of an ultimately monochromatic gathering in which thousands of white men can brawl (but safely and without guns!) in the streets and drunkenly sing Phil Collins melodies in pubs, lending a hooligan snarl to a white, suburban culture.

[thrill]

The tough part of that article is that it touches on some actual issues but that dude's flawed premise and methodology discredit his whole intent. MLS and US Soccer don't do enough to reach latino fans (who are still by far the largest demographic of existing soccer fans in the US) and the obnoxious cosplaying bro element in many supporter's groups, especially the American Outlaw-adjacent fans (the ones who do the outlaw thing but aren't governed by AO) are completely off-putting and would probably be even harder to stomach if I were a woman or latino.

And yes, the EPL hooligan apeing is hilarious and sad, but coming at groups like ECS for having some kind of insidious nature when they are in fact, overwhelmingly socially progressive and pretty much completely peaceful is not the way to do it. Make fun of them for being cheesy. Not for being violent racists, because they aren't. I find a lot about "supporter" culture in America to be loathsome but it's more for aesthetic reasons (I haven't totally grown out of my cooler-than-thou indie aesthetic yet).

And he did spend a ton of time speaking to ECS leadership, including their president, who is a woman. In fact, he spoke to her on ECS pride weekend. But female leadership and a progressive social agenda contradicted his pre-conceived narrative, so he just didn't include it in the story.

[MrSaigon]

All these years I could have been working out my Lost White Inheritance and I've just been watching soccer. Goddam shame. Come to think of it between all the gay pride flags in the Army every week, there is a guy I ocassionally see wearing a European team's jersey. If he wasn't racist, why would he wear that jersey?

Dorkiness, self importance, and the silliest pissing contests you can imagine (No, Seattle we borrowed that chant from England first!) are the biggest problems with the SGs I see (aside from SJ, who maybe you have to give credit to for not leaving the tribal chest beating at a cute little show where a junior accountant burns a Timbers scarf in a terribly inaccurate indication of how SUPER HARD he is). That and Timber Joey lynching a minority in the 42nd minute of each home match. Those are probably the worst things.