The 2021-2022 Football Thread

[Lord Blackadder]

In yet another darkly familiar "our leaders and institutions continue to fail us during COVID" moment, Brazilian health officials officials marched onto the pitch and caused today's World Cup qualifier between Brazil and Argentina to be abandoned 10 minutes after the opening whistle.

It's a mess...on many levels, and stinks of both incompetence and corruption amongst a number of different groups. The incident revolves around four Argentina players who play in the Premier league and traveled from England to play in the match.

Why they were allowed to travel, why they were allowed into the country if it was against the rules / law, why the game was allowed to start, and why Brazil's own president ignores the very same laws without consequences remain unclear.

 

[HandsomeDanNZ]

Love the Rob Brydon shirt celebration.

I watch a lot of QI and always found Lee Mack a funny panelist. Hilarious to see him on the pitch and good to see so much money being raised for charity.

I heard Jamie Carragher put in some meaty challenges in that match.

I'll never forget watching an interview with Brian McFadden of Westlife fame.
He said he was in one of those matches and was being relentlessly heckled from the stands, going on about him being soft and a fairy etc...
He came out in the second half, seething and basically karate kicked a former professional player (can't remember who, now) and promptly ran over to the stands and shouted, "Who's soft now?"...and got sent off.
Hilarious. Whiteline fever...it can take us all.

 

[pachyderm]

US draws when a win was much needed...

 

[Lord Blackadder]

US draws when a win was much needed...

It's not a terrible result, there are still a lot of qualifying matches left to play. Also, this is the best Canada team we've seen in 30 years.

With that being said, USA created plenty of chances and should have won. A mix of inexperience in the young players and bad luck led to the draw.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

It sounds like Lo Celso and Romero might be in big trouble with Spurs for traveling to play for Argentina despite being forbidden by the club to do so...at minimum thy will now miss games for Spurs due to being quarantined, but you'd have to assume they'll get big fines and be training with the kids. It could be a breach of contract situation.

 

[HandsomeDanNZ]

It sounds like Lo Celso and Romero might be in big trouble with Spurs for traveling to play for Argentina despite being forbidden by the club to do so...at minimum thy will now miss games for Spurs due to being quarantined, but you'd have to assume they'll get big fines and be training with the kids. It could be a breach of contract situation.

I think regardless of whether you want to play for your country or not, your employer is your club and without them, you wouldn't be in a position to play internationally anyway.
If they stop you from going to represent your country, so be it. It may hurt, but unless you have a contract that states they MUST release you, you have little to no wiggle room.
There's contractual obligations as well as insurance, potential for injuries and in this case there's COVID quarantining as well.
I have no sympathy for the players, personally.

 

[Silencio]

Brazil is invoking the "Five Day Rule", which will prevent numerous Brazilian internationals for playing in the Premier League at the weekend. Alisson Becker, Fabinho, Roberto Firmino, Gabriel Jesus, Ederson and Fred will all miss out. The Brazilian FA is not invoking the rule against Everton, so Richarlison can feature — apparently because Everton allowed Richarlison to participate in the Olympics.

The four Argentinian players above will also miss out, as well as players from Mexico, Chile, and Paraguay.

Certainly Fred missing out on the Newcastle match and the opening Champions League match next week is IMHO a blessing in disguise. I only hope Ole doesn't go with Nemanja Matic to replace him, as he is well past it at the PL level. Please play van de Beek instead, for goodness sakes.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Brazil is invoking the "Five Day Rule", which will prevent numerous Brazilian internationals for playing in the Premier League at the weekend.

Retaliation, pure and simple, and otherwise purposeless.

USA thumped Honduras 4-1. Pulisic picked up an injury, however...the overall picture is good for qualifying, though there are a lot of games left to play.

 

[Silencio]

Retaliation, pure and simple, and otherwise purposeless.

USA thumped Honduras 4-1. Pulisic picked up an injury, however...the overall picture is good for qualifying, though there are a lot of games left to play.

A much needed win for Team USA, though they sure didn't start very well. I want to like Berhalter and see him succeed, but he does make some baffling decisions, like playing his best DM as a wingback or whatever. Just play Pepi and let him ball out seems like a good plan — he made a lot of good things happen.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

A much needed win for Team USA, though they sure didn't start very well. I want to like Berhalter and see him succeed, but he does make some baffling decisions, like playing his best DM as a wingback or whatever. Just play Pepi and let him ball out seems like a good plan — he made a lot of good things happen.

I'm 100% team Berhalter after having watched him at Columbus, though I confess I don't know if he will ultimately succeed in the USA hot seat. It's still early enough in the campaign to experiment a little though.

 

[pachyderm]

I'm 100% team Berhalter after having watched him at Columbus, though I confess I don't know if he will ultimately succeed in the USA hot seat. It's still early enough in the campaign to experiment a little though.

I really like him as well.

 

[DoM-i-NiC]

CR7 (Christiano Ronaldo) scores in his "second first" game for Man Utd.
In the 56th minute, Newcastle equalised. There are about 30 mins left.

* Update - Ronaldo just scored again (Man. Utd 2-1 New. Utd)

The other 5 games that started at the same time were scoreless at half time (and at the 60th minute).

442oons have a few videos covering Ronaldo's move to Man Utd

 

[Silencio]

4-1 FT at Old Trafford. I was out and about this morning so missed the first 75 minutes. A Ronaldo had trick would have been special, but I was happy to see Bruno score a nice goal and Lingard be the beneficiary of some magnificent work from Paul Pogba, all signs that United's other big players won't shrink under Ronaldo's glaring spotlight.

Antonio drew a very foolish second yellow card in the West Ham match and will thus miss out against United next weekend.

 

[pachyderm]

Stupid, stupid Sheffield Wednesday...

BOYS IN GOLD! GET BIG!!

 

[Apple fanboy]

4-1 FT at Old Trafford. I was out and about this morning so missed the first 75 minutes. A Ronaldo had trick would have been special, but I was happy to see Bruno score a nice goal and Lingard be the beneficiary of some magnificent work from Paul Pogba, all signs that United's other big players won't shrink under Ronaldo's glaring spotlight.

Antonio drew a very foolish second yellow card in the West Ham match and will thus miss out against United next weekend.

Gutted we will lose Antonio for the Man Utd game. Really feeling the worst for that one.

We’ve dropped points against Palace and Southampton now where we should really have picked up another 6 points.

Plus we have the distraction of the Europa league on Thursday.
Oh well. At least we are still in the European spots for next year!

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Dreadful, ghastly, awful week for me football-wise. Columbus are just a burning wreck preparing to roll over and sink in terms of form, Harvey Elliot had his ankle ruined, and C. Ronaldo....exists in the premier league again. Sigh. I'd happily give Leeds three points to have Elliot back healthy. As a manager, Brucie's teams do tend to roll over and have their bellies scratched by Man Utd, so it was the best possible opponent for Ronaldo's debut. And the result won't help Bruce with his fans, though few would have predicted a different outcome.

Mo Salah joins the 100-goal club though, an impressive achievement and his strike rate is phenomenal over that period. What a player.

 

[Silencio]

Grrrrrreat start for United in the UCL today. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer conspired to lose a very winnable match at Young Boys with some absolutely confounding substitutions and dreadful match management after Aaron Wan Bissaka got sent off.

The Ole Out brigade has some very compelling new ammunition tonight.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Grrrrrreat start for United in the UCL today. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer conspired to lose a very winnable match at Young Boys with some absolutely confounding substitutions and dreadful match management after Aaron Wan Bissaka got sent off.

The Ole Out brigade has some very compelling new ammunition tonight.

I just watched the match...it actually reminded me a bit of England at the Euros in terms of late match passivity. Granted they were down to 10 but they still should have exerted more control than they managed. The Martial sub did seem baffling, not necessarily in its intent but in its lateness - if OGS wanted to give Man Utd more of a counterattacking threat / relieve some pressure on the defense, why wait till the 89th minute when his team are visibly running out of gas?

 

[JamesMike]

I just watched the match...it actually reminded me a bit of England at the Euros in terms of late match passivity. Granted they were down to 10 but they still should have exerted more control than they managed. The Martial sub did seem baffling, not necessarily in its intent but in its lateness - if OGS wanted to give Man Utd more of a counterattacking threat / relieve some pressure on the defense, why wait till the 89th minute when his team are visibly running out of gas?

I’m hopping mad!

 

[Apple fanboy]

I’m hopping mad!

Well I hope they don’t take it out on the next team they face. Us on Sunday!

Before that we have our own European adventure tomorrow night.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

It is such a historical oddity that Liverpool and Milan have never met in Europe outside a final. Klopp names a strong, if somewhat rotated, starting XI today.

This will be a tough match but one Liverpool will expect to get some kind of result from - all the more so given the difficulty of the group we've been handed. Points will be at a premium. A win, however ugly, would be huge here.

 

[HandsomeDanNZ]

It is such a historical oddity that Liverpool and Milan have never met in Europe outside a final. Klopp names a strong, if somewhat rotated, starting XI today.

This will be a tough match but one Liverpool will expect to get some kind of result from - all the more so given the difficulty of the group we've been handed. Points will be at a premium. A win, however ugly, would be huge here.

And what a final result that turned out to be!

 

[Apple fanboy]

Good night for us so far. Two goals to the good away at Dinamo Zagreb. Come on you Irons!

 

[Scepticalscribe]

West Ham did exceptionally well tonight, as was the case with both Liverpool and Manchester City last night.

No comment on Manchester United, other than to remark that OGS has some terrific players, but they are not yet a team.

 

[Apple fanboy]

West Ham did exceptionally well tonight, as was the case with both Liverpool and Manchester City last night.

No comment on Manchester United, other than to remark that OGS has some terrific players, but they are not yet a team.

It was nice having a bit more interest in the European games. I fear for Sunday though. Man Utd played Tuesday. We play (away) Thursday. Sunday lunchtime kick off. I think we won't know which player to try and stop. I bet Lingard plays and scores against us.