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Football (Soccer) 2018-19


daven

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Since there was one for NFL, i'll start a REAL sport topic.

 

Liverpool are still at the top at the half way point. Man City just did them on Thursday.

 

My money is on City to win still.

 

Anyone even interested? Probably not.

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nowt

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I don't follow it much but it is quite cool that we are getting EPL games on NBC here in the US these days

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"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

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How popular is the Premier League in the US? As far as we know in England, it's basically nothing over there.

That is correct.

 

It's basically a small niche in an overloaded sports market. You have American Football, baseball, basketball, hockey, Nascar, golf, and tennis all getting more attention.

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How popular is the Premier League in the US? As far as we know in England, it's basically nothing over there.

That is correct.

 

It's basically a small niche in an overloaded sports market. You have American Football, baseball, basketball, hockey, Nascar, golf, and tennis all getting more attention.

Americans and their inferior sports.

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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How popular is the Premier League in the US? As far as we know in England, it's basically nothing over there.

It's not as popular as the top pro league here, MLS. But MLS popularity does not extend too much beyond the cities that have a club. But MLS actually doing pretty well. It has TV & radio contracts, never hurts for attendance, and has recognizable branding. EPL gets a game of the week on NBC every weekend and it's decent as far as ratings go considering. The US is not the barren wasteland for the sport it once was. It's the 5th most popular sport here and likely a distant 5th behind the NHL, MLB, NBA, & NFL respectively. But 5th is enough to make is successful. There has long been this notion if soccer is not the most popular sport in the US then we must hate it. That has never been the case. Most of the pro leagues here were either regional or the few "major" league circuits had stupid bad business models. MLS appears to be doing it right and that has helped the sport grow a lot. Without that you would never see an EPL match on TV here and soccer would be limited to Women's World cup in the attention of the US sports consumer. 

"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

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Oh yeah, soccer is plenty popular as an activity in the US. I mean it's a pretty standard sport to play as a kid, and there are plenty of recreational adult leagues where I live. Indoor Soccer does pretty well too.

 

But why would a league that takes place in a different country have any real popularity when there are plenty of local options to choose from? 

 

It will be interesting to see if the MLS grows well enough in the next decade or two to attract better American athletes to the sport. That's what happened with the NHL expansion when I was growing up, and now you have a pretty solid core of young American players that can compete at the highest level in hockey.

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Higher standard for one. MLS isn't as horrid as it used to be, though

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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  • 3 weeks later...

40 years? Did the Ayatollahs screw up football's development in Iran?

 

Are you guys happy with Queiroz?

"My hovercraft is full of eels!" - Hungarian tourist
I am Dan Quayle of the Romans.
I want to tattoo a map of the Netherlands on my nether lands.
Heja Sverige!!
Everyone should cuffawkle more.
The wrench is your friend. :bat:

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Glad I've stopped caring that much about Arsenal. Season is pretty depressing

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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Oh yeah, soccer is plenty popular as an activity in the US. I mean it's a pretty standard sport to play as a kid, and there are plenty of recreational adult leagues where I live. Indoor Soccer does pretty well too.

 

But why would a league that takes place in a different country have any real popularity when there are plenty of local options to choose from? 

 

It will be interesting to see if the MLS grows well enough in the next decade or two to attract better American athletes to the sport. That's what happened with the NHL expansion when I was growing up, and now you have a pretty solid core of young American players that can compete at the highest level in hockey.

Hahah, yeah there has been a perception that MLS was a "retirement league" - a place for the international stars to wind down their career with good paychecks after they stopped being able to compete on the international stage. I think having Premier League on tv can help as well; as good as the MLS players can be, the top Premier League clubs are at a different level and it shows in a good competitive match.

I cannot - yet I must. How do you calculate that? At what point on the graph do "must" and "cannot" meet? Yet I must - but I cannot! ~ Ro-Man

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Soccer popularity in the US is slowly climbing. It was listed as the most popular sport by 7% of the polled audience in 2017, with Baseball being 9%. American Football is steadily declining in popularity, but is still top. It peaked at 43% in 2007, but has declined to 37% in 2017. I know I don't watch it much any more -- just the local teams.

 

https://news.gallup.com/poll/224864/football-americans-favorite-sport-watch.aspx

 

U.S. soccer academies are just starting to make progress, but they have a ways to go.

"It has just been discovered that research causes cancer in rats."

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Well... I let this die didn't I!?!?

 

Man City have lost 4 games now??? How the hell did that happen.

 

Liverpool seem to be on the road or the title... I haven't given up hope yet I still think Man City are a better team, we just bottled a few games. Ah well, we will fight to the bitter end!

 

Funny to see how Man United have done a complete 180 since Jose got fired eh!

nowt

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Qatar are AFC champions, huh.  I guess their academy system paid off.

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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Qatar are AFC champions, huh.  I guess their academy system paid off.

 

I laughed loudly when they beat the UAE in the UAE to get to the final.

 

Doubt think it's their academy system though, if it's anything like their successful athletics program it mostly consists of poaching people from other countries rather than home grown talent. Suppose it's good news for the World Cup, since Qatar was at risk of being the weakest team ever to be in a WC via their automatic qualification.

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Qatar are AFC champions, huh.  I guess their academy system paid off.

 

I laughed loudly when they beat the UAE in the UAE to get to the final.

 

Doubt think it's their academy system though, if it's anything like their successful athletics program it mostly consists of poaching people from other countries rather than home grown talent. Suppose it's good news for the World Cup, since Qatar was at risk of being the weakest team ever to be in a WC via their automatic qualification.

 

 

Well, most of the team was born in Qatar and it looks like a good bit of the players came through the Aspire Academy.  Their U-19 team was successful a couple of years back and they came through there.   Football forums I am reading are very upset by this, well mostly Anglos, about how this slave state run by war criminals (er..) won through obvious corruption, etc.

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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40 years? Did the Ayatollahs screw up football's development in Iran?

 

Are you guys happy with Queiroz?

Well, the Ayatollahs screwed up a whole lot more than just football...

 

As for Queiroz, he built the best team we have had in quite a while, just not good enough to become AFC champions I guess. We are happy I guess.

There used to be a signature here, a really cool one...and now it's gone.  

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40 years? Did the Ayatollahs screw up football's development in Iran?

 

Are you guys happy with Queiroz?

Well, the Ayatollahs screwed up a whole lot more than just football...

 

 

No kidding. I guess I should have asked if the Ayatollahs also screwed up football in Iran, in addition to everything else.

"My hovercraft is full of eels!" - Hungarian tourist
I am Dan Quayle of the Romans.
I want to tattoo a map of the Netherlands on my nether lands.
Heja Sverige!!
Everyone should cuffawkle more.
The wrench is your friend. :bat:

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Well, this is the football thread, but it is worth noting how much the ayatollahs worked in the favor of the west.

 

We lost 600 billion dollars in the Iran-Iraq war which was mostly spent on dated World War 2 weapons which were bought from Austria, Germany and Switzerland...among other countries.

 

I never forget what an Austrian dude said once:

 

'The Iran-Iraq war ended on the exact day we wanted it to end.'

 

'We had to throw the Iraqis out of the weapons factory because Iranians were showing up to buy some weapons as well!'

 

 

:lol:

 

Fuelling both sides of war? Why am I not surprised? The west has no intention of seeing a peaceful Iran, but an Iran that is in favor of its interest.

There used to be a signature here, a really cool one...and now it's gone.  

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  • 3 months later...

Interesting last couple of days in the UEFA Champions League semi's

 

Makes you wonder how hard you have to beat, kick and stomp the English teams for them to stay dead 😂

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein

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