OT: soccer thread

[fatlever]

what do you have against russian oil money? haha

german's definitely are doing the business side the way it should be done. all leagues need to follow their lead.

i thought about adding rico clark but he hasnt played for the national team since last summer (i think). seems he has been replaced by maurice edu and jermaine jones for now. how has he played this year, btw? we also have edson buddle who is playing in german 2nd division.

do you know anything about david yelldell (sp?). i think he plays in the 2nd division. he is another duel german/usa guy like jones and chandler that has played in some of our friendlies recently.

is there any talk of germany trying to get chandler to play for them? i know lahm is a rock at right back, but chandler can play right back, right mid and is only 21. maybe lahm moves back to left back? or are there other better options behind lahm at right back? i would hate to lose chandler because we desperately need him with cherundolo getting up there in age.

[Det the Threat]

what do you have against russian oil money? haha

I just don't like guys coming in and just buying like crazy as if there's no tommorrow.
I know everyone buys players etc. but it just doesn't feels right to me.

BTW: We've got something similar with Hoffenheim, who're only playing Bundesliga because of Dietmar Hopp(founder of SAP), who financed them till this summer.
Though, now they've got to work financially stable, as Hopp isn't financing them anymore.

i thought about adding rico clark but he hasnt played for the national team since last summer (i think). seems he has been replaced by maurice edu and jermaine jones for now. how has he played this year, btw? we also have edson buddle who is playing in german 2nd division.

Clark didn't play all that much(12 games, I think) and he got relegated into the 2nd Bundesliga with Frankfurt.

do you know anything about david yelldell (sp?). i think he plays in the 2nd division. he is another duel german/usa guy like jones and chandler that has played in some of our friendlies recently.

He started all 34 games of the 2nd Bundesliga for MSV Duisburg and also got to the German Cup final with them.
He's alright, but nothing special, compared to all those good german goalkeepers.

is there any talk of germany trying to get chandler to play for them? i know lahm is a rock at right back, but chandler can play right back, right mid and is only 21. maybe lahm moves back to left back? or are there other better options behind lahm at right back? i would hate to lose chandler because we desperately need him with cherundolo getting up there in age.

There's no talk at all about Chandler playing for us.
We've got quite some talent at that position(Lahm, Beck, Boateng, Riether and some youngsters) and I doubt that Loew has any intention of him playing for Germany.

[fatlever]

yeah, you guys dont need any more help. we need all the extra players we can get.

i was just kidding about the russian oil money thing. even though i am a chelsea fan, i also dont like the idea of just running around buying up everyone. but right now its the only way anyone can really compete with barcelona and madrid in the transfer market. i would much rather see chelsea develop youth or buy cheap young guys with upside and bring them along for a few years rather than splashing big money on older guys or dropping a ridiculous 50 mil on torres.

where is klose going? what are the rumors with him?

[Det the Threat]

where is klose going? what are the rumors with him?

Currently he's been linked with Lazio, AC Milan, Galatasaray Istanbul, Valencia and even Everton.

Though Lazio and Galatasaray seem to be the frontrunners.

[doc.end]

Rugby's a game for sissies






Real men play tennis, gymnastics, polo, and badminton

Sure.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nVd23t3NNE[/youtube]
Whic polo do you mean anyway?

[SWedd523]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1YGP5x_Zug[/youtube]

[Det the Threat]

German striker Miroslav Klose will leave Bayern Munich and join Lazio Roma of Italy.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... er?cc=5739

Though, according to the German Kicker Magazine(very serious and the biggest one in Germany) Klose will not only sign for two, but for three years with the Italian side.

http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bund ... o-rom.html

[SWedd523]

Concerning this new "wave" of interest/players in the US, thought this was a good bit of news

"Without a doubt, this is the most technologically advanced soccer stadium in the country," Garber said. "It could be on the leading edge of technology of any stadium, including some of the NFL stadiums. That technology will not just provide unique experiences for fans, but also is extended to providing real competitive benefits for players and coaches."

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_ ... porting-kc

[fatlever]

so i went to the gold cup games in charlotte last night. that was interesting.

[Det the Threat]

so i went to the gold cup games in charlotte last night. that was interesting.

Which teams did you watch then?

BTW: My team just signed Swedish international left back Oscar Wendt from FC Kopenhagen.
He played there for five years, won the Danish titel four times and just played a very good CL campaign, reaching the last 16, where they ended up losing to Chelsea.
We won't have to pay any transfer fee(but certainly some earnest money, for him to chose us) as his contract was up in Denmark.

[fatlever]

i friend of mine hooked me up with some awesome suite level seats for the games.

i saw all of the costa rica vs el salvador game and i saw the first half of the mexico vs cuba game. i left at halftime of that match as it was getting late. the first game was delayed 35 minutes for lightning.

costa rica and el salvador tied 1-1 after costa rica equalized in stoppage time. it was a really good game with costa rica controling most of the possession but with both teams having lots of scoring chances. el salvador was doing some serious diving, but overall they were tough and probably deserved the win the way they defended in the 2nd half.

mexico looked really good against cuba. possession was probably 80-20 in favor of mexico. i dont even remember cuba getting a shot off. hernandez is a would class poacher. dude has 0 defensive responsibilities and just stayed right in front of the goal the entire first half barely moving, just waiting for crosses and deflections. he scored off a header and mexico was up 1-0 when i left. apparently they scored 4 times in 12 minutes in the 2nd half.

the crowd was amazing. hats off to the mexican fans who came out in full force. the stadium was 70% green. with maybe 10% red for costa rica, 10% blue for el salvador maybe 9% neutral observers like me and maybe 1% cuba.

[fatlever]

seriously? panama? at home no less.

the players on the field change, the opponent changes but the performance stays the same. every game we come out flat, sit back play too passively until the other team goes up in the first half. then bradley makes subs, changes tactics and only then do we start playing well. why does this seem to be an ongoing trend dating back about 2 years to wc qualifying. i can only look towards the coach who always seems to start the wrong players, have the wrong tactics, seemingly not prepared for the other teams tactics, makes some ridiculous team selections. he should not have been given another 4 years after the wc cycle, but here we are again.

and, of course the players who we thought were going to get better just havent. jozy altidore really makes me angry. i dont understand why he keeps getting starts for the national team when every game he jogs around, doesnt move off the ball, doesnt track back on defense. his club teams have figured out that he stinks, why havent we?

bradley insists on starting dempsey as a left mid instead of starting him up top. every game dempsey starts out left, then in the 2nd half he moves up top and all of a sudden our attack looks 100 times better. its maddening.

and where the hell is donovan?

and sadly our centerbacks have been awful lately. gotta move bocanegra back to the middle of the defense and go with lichaj on the left.

[Det the Threat]

Some news from Germany.

Ricardo Clark looks like he'll be leaving Eintracht Frankfurt.
There are rumors of him maybe joining Pachuca of Mexico.

Also, Michael Bradley will join Aston Villa full time. They've used their option to buy him and are currently negotiating the details of his contract.

This one's for doc.end:
Moravek won't be back with Kaiserslautern as they couldn't come to terms with Schalke.
So as of right now, he'll be back with Schalke and might get another shot under new coach Ralf Ragnick.
Though, the transfer window's still open till August 31st.

[doc.end]

Thanks for news Det, I heard the same thing, bad news, although Magath-less Schalke shopuld be better environmentthen the last time. I still kind of hope he will play somewhere else. Schalke is Schalke and russian oil money on top of that - hard to root for. Now I can at least watch him playing on u21 Euro. (Damned Spaniards today! )

[fatlever]

freddy adu is back!!!!!! finally.

too bad we also saw the return of bornstein yesterday. how many lives does that dude have?

hats off to mexico. they are clearly a better team than us right now.

[Walt Cronkite]

I was veeeerrry impressed with Adu, definitely starting to understand the hype.

Have a story about seeing Adu walk into a swanky sushi place in Raleigh a few weeks ago with a not very impressive looking female, but I think you had to be there.

[fatlever]

i guess that was when team usa was in chapel hill training prior to the start of the gold cup? pretty cool that they always comes to chapel hill to practice.

maybe now that freddy is playing again he can move up the chick ladder. haha.

[SWedd523]

Can't believe this thread has been dead for so long.

1. How about that US Brazil game? Never jumped up and down so much for a national team game. Really sucks they lost to Japan in PKs (total choke job) but the women's side is so much more enjoyable to watch than the men's

2. New FIFA rankings has the men's team down to 30th! After the recent struggles, I can't say I disagree. They really need to get that next wave of youth talent on the NT to get some core for the future, I wasn't really impressed by the young guys during the Gold Cup

3. Just heard Bob Bradley got fired. I assume that makes a lot of people happy and it makes me think they have somebody else lined up to take his spot. I'm one of the many that would love to see Jurgen take the reins, but the USSF seems to be another one of those good ol' boys clubs, so we'll see

[fatlever]

WOW! i cant believe they fired bradley. why now? why not last summer? sure we werent great the last year, but what changed between then and now?

he finally seemed more flexible, moving to a 4-5-1, more open, playing adu. all things i've been wanting.

any ideas on who the next coach will be? i have a feeling it will be another american with zero international experience. sigh.

[Det the Threat]

any ideas on who the next coach will be? i have a feeling it will be another american with zero international experience. sigh.

It might be the guy that was considered at the time when you made Bob Bradley the head coach.

That is, our very own, Juergen Klinsmann as our media's reporting.

If that happens, get ready for a huge coaching staff(loads of strenght and conditioning coaches) and be prepared to bring in an assistant coach that knows all the tactical stuff(like we had with Joachim Loew), because Klinsmann isn't all that great in that aspect of coaching. He's more of an motivator.