Soccer Thread

[MiamiPhish]

The Roberto Carlos free-kick has to be the best ever.  So ridiculous. :crazy:

[crnl4bn]

[gainesvillegreen]

Who do folks like in the CL final tomorrow?

[MiamiPhish]

Inter.  I like Eto'o.

[Superfreakie]

Montreal's soccer team is entering into the MLS next year or the year after. Presently our team, the Impact, play in lord knows what league, I think the concacaf and some others. I'm not a soccer fan though. But on that note, I will keep my reservations to myself. I will watch some WC this summer.

[gainesvillegreen]

Inter.  I like Eto'o.

The question I think with Inter is: are they going to play as they did in the first leg against Barca at the San Siro (and to some extent at Stamford Bridge), or are they going to play the way they mostly do in Serie A and the second leg of the tie against Barca. Mourinho the schizo. I like Inter if they are attacking, not so much if they are sitting back and playing on the break.

Bayern won't change their style at all, except for the loss of Ribery, which will take an adjustment of positioning but prolly not tactics. Their central defense is soft, and if Mourinho plans to play and Milito/Eto'o/Pandev/Sneijder type set up, Bayern are in trouble.

I'll toss my hat in with Inter as well, Miami. I just hope the attractive Inter show up.

[whatapiper]

I'd say you were spot on, Inter dominated the entire game, bayerns best chance was in the first few seconds of the 2nd, they looked tired, the MU game took a lot out of them.

Are we gonna start a WC2010 thread?

I'm obv with the US but my family comes from Spain and puerto Rico so I'm in two groups.
Too bad the games are so early, not as bad as 2002 but 0430, 0730 and 1130 are hardly ideal for a local pub experience

[mattstick]

Started reading Declan Hill's "The Fix".

http://www.amazon.ca/Fix-Soccer-Organized-Crime/dp/0771041381

Great read, must for soccer fans.

[gainesvillegreen]

Thanks mattstick, I'll have to see if my local library has that on the shelves.

whatapiper - I thought about starting a WC separate thread as well, but soccer doesn't look to be lighting up with post counts, so I think this existing thread can handle any WC chatter we care to have.

Anyone else have thoughts on this? I am open to either way.

I watched the Mexico/Holland game today (In MEXICAN!  :lol:), and was impressed with the Oranje for the first 70 minutes or so. Then Mexico made a couple of subs (Dos Santos being one of them), and completely turned the game on its head. Holland looked very slick for those first 70 minutes, much better than England did against Mexico a few days ago. But, they faded, and that is a ser concern. Their group isn't too difficult (on paper), but they simply can't fade like that. Between Sneijder, Robben (neither of which played today) and Van Persie, as well as PSV Einhoven-ite Afellay who was on fire, they have significant depth up front and in the center of the field.

I've always rooted for Italy for whatever reason, and will do so for 2010, but I don't hold out much hope this year. Argentina, Spain, Brazil - the winner is in there somewhere.

[whatapiper]

im going to put the sounders game on shortly

i think this will due for now, if a lot of peeps show interest before the tourney starts we can make a thread

[whatapiper]

it was nice to see the Sounders get a win at home with three goals

[gainesvillegreen]

Was that the match against Boca?
If so, did they play a full strength team (i.e. was Riquelme playing)?

Good result for them either way. What's with MLS teams playing international friendlies lately? I saw the Red Bulls played Juve recently too.

[jonyem]

Hard to believe there are other Sounders supporters on the 'paug.
I enjoyed the match, and love the 3rd kit (looks better in action than in the stores).

[jedifunk]

ok, first, the paug just let me know that no one has posted in this thread for at least 120 days, and suggested i start a new thread (neat feature).

anyways, to why i'm here.

the Copa America is going on, is anyone watching it?  so far the games have been pretty Meh.  but to be expected in a tourney like this.

but tonight is uruguay v chile, both of which are very attack minded teams.

also if you didn't know, YouTube is streaming every game LIVE for FREE.  check it out at youtube.com/copaamerica

the quality of the streams has been very very good.  i've been hooking my macbook up via HDMI to my 37" HD  and it looks pretty good (not HD, but at least at SD levels)

[spaced]

OK, so I can't be the only one who saw the women's quarterfinal game against Brazil today. Utter insanity. One of the best World Cup games I've ever seen, men's or women's. (Yes, better than the men's win against Algeria last year.) Not the always the prettiest playing from both sides, but man, what a finish. They're replaying it tonight, I think on ESPN2.