Delighted to see Liverpool rewarded for their season. Very well done.
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The 2018-2019 Football Thread
- Thread starter Lord Blackadder
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An amazing feeling. Just amazing.
Rewind to the match against Real Madrid last summer and, leaving aside Dirty Ramos' assault on Salah, Liverpool looked short on quality in defense and, notoriously, in the keeper position. Klopp, supported by the club, went out and addressed those weaknesses. Big Virgil and especially Alisson were the standout players today - calm, assured, unflappable (EDIT: Matip also had an excellent match). They were the foundation of Liverpool's success this season. Salah got his goal as well, albeit from the penalty spot.
It was a dull match really (for the neutral - I was biting my nails the whole match), but that can be traced to three factors. First, the three week break from playing left both teams short on match fitness, and then the early penalty dictated the tactics. Klopp obviously felt very comfortable relying on his defense to hold Spurs at bay, and to look for openings. Finally, both teams knew each other well, which often leads to tight affairs. (EDIT: the stifling heat probably didn't help either) Spurs, for their part, showed a lot of effort, slightly slicker passing and their own defending was excellent for almost the entire match.
While this match wasn't really a classic, it caps an amazing season for Liverpool and only the most coldhearted observer could argue that Klopp hasn't deserved something from this campaign (having said that, I would probably say the same for Pochettino). A final word for Divok Origi - a player who has written himself into Liverpool lore for all time with a series of legendary goals in big matches.
YNWA
Rewind to the match against Real Madrid last summer and, leaving aside Dirty Ramos' assault on Salah, Liverpool looked short on quality in defense and, notoriously, in the keeper position. Klopp, supported by the club, went out and addressed those weaknesses. Big Virgil and especially Alisson were the standout players today - calm, assured, unflappable (EDIT: Matip also had an excellent match). They were the foundation of Liverpool's success this season. Salah got his goal as well, albeit from the penalty spot.
It was a dull match really (for the neutral - I was biting my nails the whole match), but that can be traced to three factors. First, the three week break from playing left both teams short on match fitness, and then the early penalty dictated the tactics. Klopp obviously felt very comfortable relying on his defense to hold Spurs at bay, and to look for openings. Finally, both teams knew each other well, which often leads to tight affairs. (EDIT: the stifling heat probably didn't help either) Spurs, for their part, showed a lot of effort, slightly slicker passing and their own defending was excellent for almost the entire match.
While this match wasn't really a classic, it caps an amazing season for Liverpool and only the most coldhearted observer could argue that Klopp hasn't deserved something from this campaign (having said that, I would probably say the same for Pochettino). A final word for Divok Origi - a player who has written himself into Liverpool lore for all time with a series of legendary goals in big matches.
YNWA
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Well, the Netherlands won the match 3-1 (but only after extra time), while the English fans disgraced themselves by hurling racist abuse at Virgil van Dijk, an outstanding player (Player of the Year) on the pitch, and an impressive role model off it.
Agree our fans. Actually let’s give them their proper name, thugs are a disgrace.
But surly player of the year was Declan Rice
Fatigue was clearly a significant problem for England but not quite as much for the Dutch. The better team won, but England should have made it a tighter game. I think Southgate is right to stand behind his defenders, they won't always be that worn out and mental fatigue surely played a role in those errors. They need to learn from these mistakes and move on.
Contrast this embarrassing outing for England fans with the Champions League final where upwards of 80,000 Liverpool and Spurs fans traveled to Madrid without making any negative headlines.
Clearly England supporters have a cancer in their midst. If I were English and traveling to see a match I would probably avoid my own fellow "fans."
Contrast this embarrassing outing for England fans with the Champions League final where upwards of 80,000 Liverpool and Spurs fans traveled to Madrid without making any negative headlines.
Clearly England supporters have a cancer in their midst. If I were English and traveling to see a match I would probably avoid my own fellow "fans."
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Agree our fans. Actually let’s give them their proper name, thugs are a disgrace.
But surly player of the year was Declan Rice
Thugs, indeed.
Agree re fatigue, and I have absolutely no quarrel with Southgate - an impressive and dignified man, and first rate manager.
However, you draw an interesting and useful distinction between the thuggish and boorish (and racist) behaviour of "English" fans, that is, fans supporting the nation team, and the Champions' League final, where the conduct of the Liverpool and Spurs fans were a credit to their clubs.
Of course, thirty years ago, this was not the case, but club football has - to a large extent - addressed this issue, and club fans, by and large, are a lot better behaved than was the case thirty or more years ago.
At the risk of straying into somewhat political waters - or, rather, matters of identity - whether self-proclaimed or otherwise, I would argue that some of the political events of recent years (particularly the subsequently intensely polarised nature of English - not British - society as a result of the 2016 referendum) have enabled or facilitated a culture where such crude displays of racism (confused with, or conflated with, expressions of national identity) have been given permission to become more normalised and freely and openly expressed.
Lots of football happening this summer.
I haven't caught as much of the Woman's World Cup as I'd like, though the USA have not played yet. Our previous dominance of the women's game is weakening, and the USA is going to have a tough run if they want to get to the final - I'm not sure they have what it takes to beat France.
Some of the Nations League matches have been quite exciting, but the tournament has ended with a whimper...possibly due to timing, with players exhausted from their league seasons. But with the money involved, sponsors are driving the schedule and forcing players to run till they drop. Team Ronaldo - sorry, Portugal - were not the best team in the competition but they hung in there and won it. England's third place is their best tournament result in over half a century but nobody cares it seems...
And lastly, we have the Gold Cup in CONCACAF. Berhalter's USA just got spanked 3-0 in a friendly against Venezuela (and 3 Columbus Crew players started for the USMNT). Not good, not good at all. Berhalter is a good manager, but the USA hotseat is a different beast from MLS. For the USMNT, the journey to live down the failure of the previous WC qualifying campaign is still far from over. USA fans are whiney and trigger-happy about managers, I hope Berhalter is given time but unfortunately without results of some kind he may not be given enough. Personally, I expect very little of this USA team in the Gold Cup. There are a number of excellent prospects in the squad, but experience is thin on the ground and Berhalter's style requires a squad to work closely together - not always ideal in international football.
An understatement! Football hooliganism obviously predates the current pandemic of nationalism and xenophobia infesting the planet, but it is clear that the current version of hooliganism within the England ranks has a lot of crossover with some of the rhetoric we see in UK political discourse.
I haven't caught as much of the Woman's World Cup as I'd like, though the USA have not played yet. Our previous dominance of the women's game is weakening, and the USA is going to have a tough run if they want to get to the final - I'm not sure they have what it takes to beat France.
Some of the Nations League matches have been quite exciting, but the tournament has ended with a whimper...possibly due to timing, with players exhausted from their league seasons. But with the money involved, sponsors are driving the schedule and forcing players to run till they drop. Team Ronaldo - sorry, Portugal - were not the best team in the competition but they hung in there and won it. England's third place is their best tournament result in over half a century but nobody cares it seems...
And lastly, we have the Gold Cup in CONCACAF. Berhalter's USA just got spanked 3-0 in a friendly against Venezuela (and 3 Columbus Crew players started for the USMNT). Not good, not good at all. Berhalter is a good manager, but the USA hotseat is a different beast from MLS. For the USMNT, the journey to live down the failure of the previous WC qualifying campaign is still far from over. USA fans are whiney and trigger-happy about managers, I hope Berhalter is given time but unfortunately without results of some kind he may not be given enough. Personally, I expect very little of this USA team in the Gold Cup. There are a number of excellent prospects in the squad, but experience is thin on the ground and Berhalter's style requires a squad to work closely together - not always ideal in international football.
An understatement! Football hooliganism obviously predates the current pandemic of nationalism and xenophobia infesting the planet, but it is clear that the current version of hooliganism within the England ranks has a lot of crossover with some of the rhetoric we see in UK political discourse.
This problem is hardly isolated to England; you're seeing it all across the UEFA region nowadays, and seemingly no country is exempt.
But no two hooligan groups are alike, and each nation's support evolves in different ways. I won't claim to be an expert, but from where I sit English "hooligans" are definitely parroting some Brexit politics - the widely reported stories about England fans refusing to use the EU passport lines while traveling, for instance. Again, Liverpool and Spurs fans did not behave like that for the CL final - an indication that this troublesome group of England fans come from a different demographic.
England is far from the only country with a problematic traveling fanbase (the less said about Russia the better, for instance), but it's clear that Brexit politics and football hooliganism are mixing within a subset of the England away fan support. And it's a phenomena that won't go away overnight.
And it is ugly, very ugly, to see "bog standard" thuggish hooliganism - an excuse for the expression of aggression of the worst and most violent kind - become blended and mixed in with what are considered to be issues of national identity.
In England, I have no doubt that Brexit has enabled the particular form that the expression of such hooliganism has taken, which is now further fuelled and informed by what they consider to be an English "national identity".
Yes, of course, other countries have had such issues - and yes, @Lord Blackadder about Russian fans completely agreed, and the less said the better, - while I myself have witnessed Polish football fans run riot wrecking, thrashing, and fighting in a railway station in Krakow in the mid 1990s immediately after a football match that had been played there against Israel (and the less said about classical Polish anti-Semitism, and how that was/is considered to be inextricably linked with a sense of Polish national (and Catholic) identity, again, the better).
But, recent political events have allowed, enabled, facilitated and given permission to some hooligan groups (some of which have long been linked to far right groups) to express what they attempt to argue is an expression of national identity by the crudest, most vicious and violent means possible.
And that is deeply depressing.
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There are going to be teams that make the WWC that don't belong for quite a while I fear.
You may be right, but I’m not that worried about it. The women’s game is working from a massive financial disadvantage (despite the billions sitting in FIFA’s coffers), not to mention the sexism women’s teams face on a daily basis. Given all that the women’s game is still gradually improving and the best teams are very good. Sure, the football is not quite the same quality as the elite men’s game (which has 15x the funding...), and you still see a few really weak teams in major tournaments, but the only people really whining about the women’s World Cup are the usual group of dinosaurs and trolls.
Germany beat Brazil in the men’s WC knockout stages 7-1 not that long ago, so lopsided results still happen even at the most elite levels.
Germany - Spain today should be a good match.
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Chelsea really do seem serious about bringing in Frank Lampard. Why clubs assume all former star players are also world-class managers is beyond me. A few of them probably could be. Most are not.
After just two matches, USA have racked up a 16-0 aggregate score. However, a couple cracks in the defense were also visible today. Better teams will surely have noticed this, and the games are going to get substantially harder from here. USA still have yet to be truly tested.
After just two matches, USA have racked up a 16-0 aggregate score. However, a couple cracks in the defense were also visible today. Better teams will surely have noticed this, and the games are going to get substantially harder from here. USA still have yet to be truly tested.
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Michel Platini arrested over award of 2022 World Cup to Qatar
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...rrested-over-award-of-2022-world-cup-to-qatar
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...rrested-over-award-of-2022-world-cup-to-qatar
More filth coming out of the top echelons of football administration. Everyone knows the Qatar WC voting was a fix, as was Russia. But apart from nailing a couple individuals nothing is being done.
Scapegoating Platini - however crucial his role in this may have been - still fails to address the corruption of the system. Infantino's "re-election" as FIFA president reminds us how little has changed from the Blatter years. Sponsors have no appetite to reform the system (though they will act to maintain a razor-thin veneer of respectability), governments are lukewarm about messing with international football administration, and the mass of punters don't really care that much. Though they should.