O/T Eurocup & Bisons Thread
by APV on Jun 25, 2008 1:53 PM EDT
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PrintConsider this a match thread for the semi-finals of the Eurocup, beginning at 2:30 this afternoon. Also, to keep it somewhat baseball related, we can follow Buffalo's game this afternoon which begins at 2 (Jeff "sure to win our hearts" Harris is on the mound for the Bisons). My two favorite teams got knocked out in the quarters (Netherlands and Croatia), so I've got no strong opinions on any of the remaining squads. It'd be fun to see Turkey beat Germany, but they've got so many guys out for today's match that I find that very unlikely. Russia's played very solid football, but I feel obliged to root for Spain. I hope Spain plays more animated football than they did in the quarterfinal matchup with Italy, which was extremely boring. Is that 75 words?
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i despise russia, but i like both turkey and germany. so i really just hope spain beats russia. I MEAN I FREAKING DESPISE RUSSIA PEOPLE
by Gradyforpresident on Jun 25, 2008 2:01 PM EDT reply actions
also! i am more excited about this thread than any recent Indians thread
by Gradyforpresident on Jun 25, 2008 2:01 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
http://www.snopes.com/photos/advertisements/ballgirl.asp
Saw this viral video on the front of milb.com. I was pretty sure it was a fake and snoped confirmed it. Awesome video though .. wish it were real.
Yeah, really. Thanks for sharing.
by ken from alexandria on Jun 25, 2008 2:32 PM EDT up reply actions
Croatia completely outplayed them, except for the whole “putting the ball in the net” part of the game
by JulioBernazard on Jun 25, 2008 3:15 PM EDT up reply actions
ESPN’s game cast contains the following comment. It’s not just baseball fans who are irritated by on-the-air commentary!!
“The supposedly ‘great’ British commentator John Motson has completely lost the plot judging by the opening to this game. He’s spewing some right rubbish about.”
Love it!
John Motson is borderline senile!...and you don’t even want to know about his joke of a colour guy. You guys have it good…trust me
by Luis (Tribe Fan in London) on Jun 26, 2008 4:11 AM EDT up reply actions
Sorry I’ve had to bail on this thread, but that was a great first half. I love the aggressive attacking from Turkey. And what’s not to like about staplers to the head?
Surprising? I thought the under-manned Turks were going to pack it in and hope for kicks. Instead they’ve outshot the Germans 15-3.
Do the Cavs have a pick in the draft tomorrow? I’ve become so accustomed to just viewing the team as Lebron, Z, and whatever veteran cast-offs Ferry can assemble throughout the course of the season/off-season.
Yes – 19th pick in the first round. No pick in the second round. If anyone tells you they have a clue what Danny Ferry will do with the pick, they’re lying.
Free Andy Marte!
by woodsmeister on Jun 25, 2008 3:49 PM EDT up reply actions
I want someone who can shoot the pill. These doodz would foot the bill.
by JulioBernazard on Jun 25, 2008 4:09 PM EDT up reply actions
I would pay $500 for Tommy Smyth to describe a goal as “Magically delicious!”
by Bernie19Kosar on Jun 25, 2008 4:29 PM EDT reply actions 4 recs
This is the funniest thing I have read on this site in ages.
Free Andy Marte!
by woodsmeister on Jun 25, 2008 4:44 PM EDT up reply actions
great now i have to pray for spain to shock russia.
by Gradyforpresident on Jun 25, 2008 4:53 PM EDT reply actions
well, no, not really. but spain looked really bad against italy.
by Gradyforpresident on Jun 25, 2008 7:02 PM EDT up reply actions
to be fair, most teams would have looked bad against an Italian team that determined to defend a 0-0
by Luis (Tribe Fan in London) on Jun 26, 2008 4:13 AM EDT up reply actions
What an unbelieveable finish to the Germany v Turkey game!! It was amazing that Turkey got a taste of their own medicine but you had to feel sorry for them.
Moment of the night though was definitely the staples to the head…I mean..what?! really? is that normal?
by Luis (Tribe Fan in London) on Jun 26, 2008 4:14 AM EDT reply actions
I had to wait to catch this on Classic at night. What a fantastic game. I honestly cannot figure out why football does not catch on over here. That upset would have made Fresno State pale in comparison. Turkey ended up just being outclassed by the Germans (Schweinsteiger’s goal was especially impressive) but that was the kind of tournament of which dreams are made.
Proud supporter of the Cleveland.
maybe because I just haven’t been exposed to it enough, but I have a hard time following league soccer. but national tournaments like the EuroCup and WorldCup, I absolutely love.
I actually think football IS starting to catch on a little. There’s noticeably more coverage in the media of events like the World Cup and the EuroCup and I think more Americans can name a few of the big time international players than would have been true in the past (Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Thierry Henry all come to mind). There have been good analyses of why it’s unlikely to supplant one of the existing national sports here (just as it hasn’t in places like India or even Australia where other sports dominated popular attention). But, I do think it’s getting more attention and might achieve at least the level of popularity at the national level that NHL hockey does (not local—some cities are really focused on their hockey team).
I love national tournaments. MLS, not so much.
by Gradyforpresident on Jun 26, 2008 10:31 AM EDT up reply actions
MLS is ok. Sure, if you watch a Euro match and then an MLS match you can see an almost hilarious difference in quality, but honestly that’s not all that important to me. I don’t root for my team because they’re the best, I root for them because they’re my team, dammit. Otherwise I’d be a #$@%* Red Sox fan.
One way to enjoy MLS a lot more is to only watch games that are broadcast from DC, Toronto, or Houston, because the fan support makes those games a lot more fun to watch.
but i just don’t have a reason to adopt an MLS team.
by Gradyforpresident on Jun 26, 2008 12:56 PM EDT up reply actions
Don’t. It’s like adopting a retarded puppy. At first you love your little puppy and it just seems like the greatest thing there ever was. Then, one day, you go to the park and see other puppies. They chase frisbies, come when they are called and generally just act cute. Your puppy trips on its own feet and plays in his own feces. Suddenly you realize that your puppy kind of sucks. That’s the MLS.
Of course, if you have a hometown team, that may not matter.
Proud supporter of the Cleveland.
Toronto FC fans are ridiculous. Closest thing to Europe you’ll ever see in North America.
by supermarioelia on Jun 26, 2008 3:11 PM EDT up reply actions
What does the US national team look like these days? I saw part of a “friendly” with England a little while back and they looked pathetic, but I don’t know if that was their A team.
Any really talented players on the rise?
They looked terrible against England, iffy against Spain and suddenly pretty dang good against Argentina in a two-week stretch earlier this month. They’ve just started the easier part of WC qualifying so they’ll be seeing a lot of Guatemala, Cuba, and Trinidad & Tobago for the next five months.
Freddy Adu, who you may recall being hyped to death as a 14-year-old, is now 19, playing in Portugal, and starting to look like the real deal. MLS also just sold a beastly young striker, Jozy Altidore, to Villareal for 10 or 12 million bucks. These guys should both be on the U-23 team at the Olympics this summer.
I should also have mentioned that midfielder Michael Bradley scored approximately one million goals for Heerenveen this past year, but he’s usually used as a more defensive midfielder with the US for some reason.
They are the best team in North America, one of the best in the Americas and probably not even to 20 in the world. Still remarkably inconsistent and without any real threat (Dempsey aside) going forward. They struggle to play anything even vaguely resembling compelling football.
Proud supporter of the Cleveland.
the future is at least a bit brighter with Adu and Altidore, though I admit even though I live in the US I really have limited knowledge of the men’s national team and the MLS..I’m a big European guy. All I know is, with the US’ terrible backline every single game, if we didn’t have a world class keeper we’d be so, so, so bad.
And I don’t really care for Bob Bradley, though I think he’s a ton better than Arena.
Boooooooooo snobs, all of you.
The Red Sox play compelling baseball. Jacoby Ellsbury has “pace.” I think they’re the team for you.
Also Mexico just hired a European coach who used to manage England (which is like, the capital of soccer from what I hear), so I think you’d probably like to root for them, too, at least once Sven gets them to start playing that compelling European football.
I’m sticking with my retarded mongrel teams.
can we just make this the open thread for today’s game too? thanks BOOO RUSSIA GAZPROM POLLUTES
by Gradyforpresident on Jun 26, 2008 2:01 PM EDT reply actions
If you’re waiting for the game to start there’s a kicking Andrew Jackson documentary on history channel. H.W. Brands showing he’s the man as a historical commentators.
Adam, what’s your opinion on the AA-AAA difference? I’ve always ‘heard’, though I’ve never seen it all that well sourced, that AA is probably as good as AAA and in some instances better.
Can that possibly be true? And if it is, why isn’t Hodges just in the majors already?
I also tend to diminish the difference between AA and AAA. But probably more than I should. My sense is that you have more big-time prospects at AA and a lot more veteran ML-backups in AAA. I’m sure if you scan through BP, THT, or BTF you’ll find detailed studies of it. I think one of the challenges is that the competition any individual player faces between the two leagues is pretty variable depending on which teams they actually face and who is currently on that team. When I used to read John Sickels blog regularly he would do a feature called the AA-transition monitor, looking at what he saw was the biggest transition a prospect faced (aside from the promotion to the bigs), the transition from A to AA.
When I used to read John Sickels blog
I’m in that boat too!
Yeah, I should pay for a BP subscription. Isn’t it incomprehensible I don’t have one?
Anyway, your sense is the same as mine. I wonder how MLE’s calculate AA to MLB and AAA to MLB. Seeing that math might help.
I’m pretty sure they just do a regression analysis lumping together how players fare at the various levels, taking into account issues of age, competition, etc…
Yeah I know. But there’s got to be some kind of multipliers that the system spits out, right? Maybe not.
Guiza has looked fantastically pacy so far but even he won’t be a ble to fill in for Villa. Guiza just doesn’t have the skill/pace combination that it is going to take to unseat Metzelder and Mertesacker in the back. I do think Torres could really give Lahm fits on the outside. I think Podolski and Klose will have enough going forward to win it for Germany. Call it 2-0 Germany in a pretty dry match.
Proud supporter of the Cleveland.
Fabregas looked pretty darn good filling in for Villa against Russia, though. I think Germany squeaks one out, possibly with a goal in extra time. 2-1.
He really did. I was actually somewhat surprised at how fluid Spain stayed with him in there. Not that there is anything wrong with him, but usually the loss of a starting XI striker slows you down a bit.
Proud supporter of the Cleveland.
true. I mean, sure Villa had that great opening game, but it’s not like going to Fabregas is a real downgrade. He was arguably the best player in the Premier League the first quarter of last season.
I’d say your line about Torres and Lahm was one hell of a prediction!
by Luis (Tribe Fan in London) on Jul 1, 2008 9:08 AM EDT up reply actions
Now that Euro 2008 is all over I stuck some thoughts on it up on the SB Nation soccer site, Global Futbol, as a FanPost. If anyone wants to add their two cents then feel free because I thought it was a really good tournament this year.
by Luis (Tribe Fan in London) on Jul 4, 2008 3:36 AM EDT reply actions
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