Football Discussion.

[Angry_Panda]

Argentina wins on a solid strike from the right side in the 112th minute - Colombia got progressively sloppier in their backfield as AET ticked off, and eventually Argentina capitalized. This ends a streak of two and a half years of undefeated football for Colombia, which started following a loss to Argentina.

 

[pandascepter]

Its sooooo boring last night 0 0 i fell asleep

 

[Angry_Panda]

Following up on the CONMEBOL game last night - Colombia's federation president and his adult son were arrested for fighting security (as in, throwing punches) while trying to get on-field after the match, and CONMEBOL itself has attempted to blame the whole entry fiasco on stadium management. This is going to be entertaining once the lawyers get involved.

 

[HelperHand]

@Angry_Panda just curious, how it has been the reception of the event from the sports perspective in there? In preparation for 2026, which USA is a co-host, has football (soccer for you yanks) gained more traction, is something that the average Joe is interested outside from communities related to countries with high football (soccer for you yanks) culture?...

 

[Angry_Panda]

@Angry_Panda just curious, how it has been the reception of the event from the sports perspective in there? In preparation for 2026, which USA is a co-host, has football (soccer for you yanks) gained more traction, is something that the average Joe is interested outside from communities related to countries with high football (soccer for you yanks) culture?...

@HelperHand - it's gained a lot of traction over the past decade or so. I don't think that it will ever reach gridiron football (hand-egg) or baseball or basketball levels of attention, at least not in my lifetime, but it's a pretty solid second-tier sport here, and given the size of the US sports market, that's not small cheddar. It's pretty common at this point to see folks sporting logos for major European clubs on jerseys, car stickers, etc., in my mid-sized Midwestern city, and if it's making inroads here it's got some traction. Carriage agreements for European leagues on US television would also seem to back this up - most weekend mornings during the European season, I have the option of watching a full slate of matches from my choice of top leagues without having to have obscure streaming services, and both the recent Euros and the Copa America were covered pretty heavily.

The homegrown product is lagging some; MLS has quite a ways to go before it's going to hold interest the way the Premier League or Serie A or La Liga do, and our national men's team is a complete fucking mess not quite there yet. In addition, the US sports model is not conducive to (or even inclined to consider) the concept of promotion and relegation, so that part of the game is going to differ. But I don't think there's going to be any lack of interest among Americans in seeing international play, either up close and personal or on TV, in two years.

One other set of data backing this up - the average stadium size is gradually creeping up. The older MLS stadiums tend to be in the 15-20K range, whereas the more recent ones tend a bit higher, in the 20-25-30K range - and these are generally dedicated stadiums rather than being shared with gridiron football teams (either professional or large collegate), unlike ten or twenty years ago. The lower tiers of leagues are gradually expanding their team counts as well. And the US stadiums selected for 2026 are all NFL sites, and have all claimed to be able to handle 67K+ for a soccer configuration (with a couple claiming over 100K). I am hard pressed to believe these numbers would be getting tossed around if shareholders didn't think they could get butts in seats.

 

[HelperHand]

Thanks Genma Saotome, I mean @Angry_Panda , as someone from Latam having the perspective of a local is good to understand the level of news coverage, people and promotional interest, with time I have noticed more references to football in TV shows and Movies but usually only focused in Premier and La Liga players from the past and present, and the 2024 Copa America was a great opportunity.

Also, thanks for the "that's not small cheddar" and "gridiron football"

 

[Angry_Panda]

Thanks Genma Saotome, I mean @Angry_Panda , as someone from Latam having the perspective of a local is good to understand the level of news coverage, people and promotional interest, with time I have noticed more references to football in TV shows and Movies but usually only focused in Premier and La Liga players from the past and present, and the 2024 Copa America was a great opportunity.

Also, thanks for the "that's not small cheddar" and "gridiron football"

Sure thing! I will add that I have enjoyed seeing the US-Mexico matches the last few times - both fan bases seem really engaged - and I'm hopeful the US can get its game (and its organization) to where it can compete at the same level as the South American powerhouses.

 

[Mr_Detective]

So... while Euro ended without much drama, Copa was the opposite. From the fight after Uruguay's match with Colombia, to the aftermath of the final. Argentina's players sang racist song taunting French players, even after Messi told them not to say anything out of line. There was already a grudge between these two teams after the WC22 final, and it only has gotten worse over the years. Before the tournament, the ARG fans were already mad that Mbappe insisted that Euro is more difficult than Copa. And I think I have to agree. But just watch whatever you people want. Even after the players involved already apologized, the vice president of Argentina doubled down on the song, and defended the act. It really wasn't a good look for the country as a whole.

And tomorrow, both teams are facing each other in the Olympics.

Fate has a sense of humor. How many red cards can we expect tomorrow? XD

 

[Angry_Panda]

This is going to be entertaining once the lawyers get involved.

For the record, it took about four days for multiple lawsuits to be filed against CONMEBOL, CONCACAF (?), the stadium, and the security company. Yay American litigation!

And tomorrow, both teams are facing each other in the Olympics.

rubs hands together gleefully
I have four screens on my desk; one of them will be dedicated to the matches once they start in a couple hours. Summer Fridays are always slow, so with no calls to disturb me I should be able to watch just about everything.

How many red cards can we expect tomorrow? XD

I'll go one further - I'm expecting the clock will have to be stopped at some point and teams will be sent back into their locker rooms.

 

[Angry_Panda]

So, France-Spain for the Olympic finals - kind of a rematch of the Euros semi (except with U23 teams). Should be good fun. But even though France has probably been the better team through this tournament, I think I have to go with Spain for the win - they just seem scrappier, from what I've seen.

 

[Manko-sensei]

This year unless both men and women teams win the gold I doubt Spain gets another gold metal, for the other sports only a few have managed to pass semis and it's not like we are getting many metals either. Press was excessively optimist and we're not even reaching the lowest prediction in medals.
Edit: forget about the women team, they lost yesterday 2-4 against Brazil, the coach fumbled really hard. A shame because their team is more entertaining than the men's.

 

[Angry_Panda]

Well, the final did not disappoint - congrats to Spain on pulling out a thrilling win (and staving off what would have been an epic collapse)!

 

[Manko-sensei]

I'd have been more surprised if they had lost, specially considering how they both played in the Euro Cup. I must say that it's been a while since we had a good coach or at least one fit for selecting the players, and considering that he was training the young ones before he knows which players should join among the youngest, besides the fact that he shows no need to call in old "glories". I can imagine that in the following years they'll keep winning trophies, many things should change to stop that.

 

[Angry_Panda]

New season - who's watching what? For me:

EPL - I kind of like Leicester; roommate's an Arsenal fan. (Related - even though they're over covered, Wrexham is a fun story to follow.)

Serie A - Parma is owned by a group from my city, so I should probably make some attempt to keep up on the table, at least.

Any other suggestions?

Also... USMNT looks to be hiring Mauricio Pochettino as the new boss - nice to see them finally reach out for an international coach.

 

[anasnaufal]

I get that it's only week 3 of EPL. But this is straight up one of the funniest things I've seen. They are currently rank 14 in the EPL table.

 

[Angry_Panda]

Pochettino offically USMNT manager as of earlier today - let's see how that goes.

 

[anasnaufal]

Hey, Liverpool. Remember how you beat MU so hard that they become a laughing stock last week?

Well, how about becoming this weeks laughing stock?

 

[Mr_Detective]

We had some great matches this week.

Will talk about them later. Really looking forward to see Haaland scoring today.

 

[Angry_Panda]

Really looking forward to see Haaland scoring today.

Didn't take long (9th minute). Gunner roommate is not pleased.

 

[anasnaufal]

Hello. Here I am again for this week's funnies in this season's EPL. And would you look at that, they did it again. Manchester United really wants to prove themselves once again that they are this season's funniest team in the EPL. All I can say is conglaturations.