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2008-09 Football Thread - The Second Half
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In general, US sports teams don't change their designs much at all. I think it's because they need approval from whichever league they're in, and merchandise revenues are shared between clubs.
IIRC, the US national team gets a new design every two years or so.
USA 2-2 El Salvador. We top our group in CONCACAF, so the world cup campaign is still going well.
Like England, some defensive weaknesses showed themselves in the game and allowed ES to score early on. We were down by two with less than half an hour to go when Columbus captain Frankie Hedjuk dragged the team back into the match with a goal and an assist.
We have our own Torres too - José Francisco Torres, and the young holding midfielder came on as a sub and did well.
I've never liked the USA crest, but I think our jersey design is nice...it has to be, since we don't change ours every five minutes like England does.
We could've won 3-2. I still think we were on for that first goal...
Our crest is awful and I really dislike our horizontal striped kit.
Seattle is 2-0!! And I like that kit. But I am a Crew fan.
To be fair, they do look a bit like a group of holiday reps in that picture.
I like it though, and I'll pick one up once the price comes down a bit in the discount sports shops.
View attachment 164529
My Jaffatar™ is already kitted out in his, mind.
...
If anyone happens to be going along to that match, take your boots – at this rate you might just get a game.
He looks good in it! I thought that kit looked much better under actual game conditions than it did in still photos.
To be fair, they do look a bit like a group of holiday reps in that picture.
I thought the kit looked OK until I read that comment! It's ruined it for me now (not that I would have been seen dead in it anyway!)
Well I settled down to watch the Holland game, beer in hand. Made it to 39 minutes then next thing I know the wife woke me up at 10.30.
With the baby teething aparantly I "needed the sleep" i.e. there was something on the other side she wanted to watch. From what I hear, the ref was a bit dodgy (no, he wasn't from West Yorks) alegedly suspended pending review from the French system but still takes a World Cup qualifier match?
Good question. I've been waiting for a new Columbus jersey. They came out with a new one last season due to a new sponsorship deal with Glidden, but it looks like they are running the same jersey this season. Oh well, I can still get an away jersey, since I don't have one yet. Since our 2008 Jersey is a championship-winning jersey, maybe they are trying to cash in on that a little longer.
As for the USA national squad, we do not have a standard uniform design. If you look over the past few years, there have been some freakishly awful designs, and every World Cup campaign has us come up with a totally new design with no relation to the others. I like the current one, with its subtle horizontal striping, and would like to see a navy blue away kit, with maybe a red-based third kit.
I don't think we will gain a standardized design until we win something. Maybe if we made it into the semi's in the WC or won a major tournament the shirt would gain notoriety. But it would be nice to have a recognizable first kit that doesn't change much.
I'll let it pass - this time.
I still hate our playoff system, with over half the teams making it to the playoffs. Still, Seattle may very well have a good playoff run in their first season, and if any coach could do that it would be Sigi Schmidt
It may be the case that such a system is intended to keep the season alive for as many teams as possible for as long as possible – thus maintaining interest among supporters and the media as teams still have something to play for.
Meanwhile, speaking of football and Americans... Arsenal are a bit more USAian tonight as Stan Kroenke has increased his stake.
It is, but on the downside you have a situation where teams can do poorly in the regular season and then squeak into the playoffs. Americans love upsets, and this playoff system is designed to provide them. Thus, last season, the New York Red Bulls made it to the final after a losing record in the regular season.
Take the premier league table now - that would be like Aston Villa winning the title in a final against Man Utd. Big upset, but all the teams between Villa and Utsd get nothing, even though they had a better record.
I suppose it's a similar notion to the play-offs here, although we use them to decide the final promotion place rather than titles and stuff. Having being on the good end of such a system I can have no complaints although as we finished third in the league we'd still have gone up if it had been a 'first past the post' system.
However, rugby league's Super League does have an end of season play-off system to decide the championship, and I've always found it a bit unsettling. Silly egg-chasers.
However, rugby league's Super League does have an end of season play-off system to decide the championship, and I've always found it a bit unsettling. Silly egg-chasers.
The postseason playoff elimination tournaments that we use in North America are really because we don't do domestic cup tournaments in season. (Well we do, but no one cares.) Did anyone consider Portsmouth the best team in England last season? No, they just won the FA Cup. In most soccer-loving nations, the domestic league champ is more highly regarded than the domestic cup winner because it's obviously harder to win.
Since we don't have any important domestic tournaments that are concurrent with the seasons, we do it at the end of the season. The only real problem with this, as I see it, is that it tends to dilute the importance of the regular season, since you only have to be good enough to make the playoffs to have a chance at the title.
I still think that the closest equivalent we have to cup competition in terms of excitement is the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, which is going on right now. Sixty-four teams, single elimination, six games in three weeks, winner take all. But it only works because it's still a postseason tournament. I don't see Americans ever warming up to a drawn-out, season-long, cup tournament featuring mostly teams they've never heard of.
Nah, maybe not, but in Norway the cup winner can call themselves national champions, while the winners of the league are just that: league champions.
The cup winners also gets the royal trophy, which is handed out to the national champion in virtually any sport in Norway**:
** One for men and one for women in each sport. Must be more than a certain number of elite participants in the sport and in sports with many events, like skiing or swimming, the trophy gets awarded the best result, or predetermined event, or some variant.
That's certainly a handsome trophy, Mitty, although tying ribbons onto it may prove tricky.
But am I understanding it right – that there are actually only two trophies (a mens and womens), and they alternate between sports? So for example a football team wins it, then the following month there's a skiing tournament and whoever comes out on top then gets the silverware?
But am I understanding it right – that there are actually only two trophies (a mens and womens), and they alternate between sports? So for example a football team wins it, then the following month there's a skiing tournament and whoever comes out on top then gets the silverware?
No, no, one for each sport: One for football, another for handball, yet another for cross country skiing, one for alpine skiing, another for ice hockey, one for track and field, etc. Or rather two for each sport, one for men and another for women.
And - as far as I understand it - they make a new one, for each sport, every year, so when you or your team wins it you get to keep it.
Ah, thanks for clearing that up. Good job too, if you've just won a nice trophy you don't want some ice hockey player or similar denting it the following week.
According to a quick wiki search, chess and brass bands too
How many pints does it hold?
That is absolutely fantastic.
We ought to do something similar here I reckon the East Yorkshire Motor Services Band could win that and thus qualify for the Europa League.
I basically agree, though I think our biggest problem is that we don't have something big to win. Someday the MLS cup and CONCACAF Champions League may be big enough, but they aren't there yet.
Pure ****ing madness.
You mean appointing a man with zero managerial experience to turn your club's fortunes around, something managers with bags of experience have failed to do? I disagree your Lordship, from our point of view giving Princess Shearer the job is a stroke of absolute genius.Lord Blackadder said:
I think its a big mistake for both club and man. A good player does not always equal a good manager. Hopefully i'm wrong
I was convinced this was an April Fools joke when I heard it on the radio this morning.
I was convinced this was an April Fools joke when I heard it on the radio this morning.
As did I!
I'm now even more confident in my prediction of Newcastle being relegated. (So they're almost certain to stay up!)
On a similar vien, I thought it was an April Fool when it was announced that Burley has dropped Scotland captain Ferguson and #1 keeper MacGregor ahead of what he's called a 'must win game'. Oooops.
Looks like the Scotland team are in self-destruct mode now, we ain't going to qualify and Burley will be out of a job soon. I did like him, but his record (7 games, 1 win 3 draws) is appaling, he made some weird team and tactical choices against Holland and now he's lost the respect of the players.
I'm not sticking up for Ferguson in all this, expect him to leave Ibrox this summer.
Looks like the Scotland team are in self-destruct mode now, we ain't going to qualify and Burley will be out of a job soon. I did like him, but his record (7 games, 1 win 3 draws) is appaling, he made some weird team and tactical choices against Holland and now he's lost the respect of the players.
I'm not sticking up for Ferguson in all this, expect him to leave Ibrox this summer.
The BBC reporting on the shearer story was brilliant. They were desperately trying to get a line in about how avoiding relegation would be better than winning a cup. Of course they tried to match the imagery with the spoken track and they had to show Shearer in a Blackburn shirt.
I like everyone else around here thinks this is ridiculous. Why would you appoint someone who clearly has no idea about football.
I like everyone else around here thinks this is ridiculous. Why would you appoint someone who clearly has no idea about football.
I can see why - to raise the morale of the players and fans, and hopefully for them, that's enough to see them through to safety.
It'll raise the morale of the fans, certainly but I'm not sure if the same holds true of the players. I suspect a few of them will be looking for escape routes already given that the club seems to be in self-destruct mode, and you can't imagine their better players settling down for a season or two of graft in the Championship.
If they do go down, you can see them having serious problems in the manner of Leeds or Nottingham Forest. With their best players likely to jump ship, a huge deal of uncertainty surrounding the manager's job and a distinct lack of common sense in the boardroom, I imagine they'd find regaining Premier League status much harder than they might care to think...
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