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Post by leonmallett on Aug 6, 2007 2:42:49 GMT -5
I have a thought, and if it is cool with gowaltrip, then I will post here in this thread about the progress over the season of the football (soccer 'over the water', I guess) team that I support. Liverpool.
I grew up in the northwest of England and rugby and American football were my sports growing up (because they are what I played: rugby full-back/left wing; American Football: left corner-back). I didn't come to appreciate football later in life. Ironically Liverpool's glory days were long gone by then and real success didn't come until the late 90's and early 2000's. There are highs and lows and the season to come promises more of the same. The biggest high has to be winning the European cup/Champions League. Some posts may be a little depressing if recent patterns are to judge. Expect frustration around Novemeber (seriously). The club have signed some interesting players for the new season and the squad has undergone another semblence of overhaul (although for my money we have two too many midfielders and one too many strikers), as the current mamager further trie to dipatch players bought by his predecessor. the ones to watch most (for my mind, anyway) are Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Pepe Reina, Fernando Torres and Xabi Alonso as they will form the nucleus of the side. There is strength across the team but the manager tends to change players in and out too much for my liking. Torres is new to the side and I saw him destroy Barcelona when playing for Athletico Madrid. We were up in the gods above the goal and watching him that night I thought he'd be ideal for Liverpool. I discussed it a lot with a colleague in work who wasn't too aware of him and some 18 months later we get to see him where I think he should be. I think we can win the Premier League title, but I am not confident we absolutely will. Fingers are crossed.
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Post by leonmallett on Aug 12, 2007 11:29:05 GMT -5
So first game - a win by a lucky goal against Aston Villa (a team also owned by an American - Randy Lerner). Liverpool haven't won on the opening day of the season for five years. They rectified that yesterday with a lucky winning goal, although with sheer pressure and chances to score I think the result was fair.
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Post by G on Aug 13, 2007 4:34:36 GMT -5
Hey, yeah...its more than okay with me if you talk about it. Yeah, run the show over here. Make it your corner of the board. Go with it!
Im not much on it. I mean, I probably could get into a few games if it was on tv more around here. But it is not. My best friend at work, he is a soccer fanatic (sorry, I have a hard time calling it Football). His favorite team is, forgive me if I get the name wrong....I believe The Manchester United. He has Digital Cable and has ordered the Soccer channel. He spends many nights watching soccer and then comes in the next day and tells me about it.
I remember some years back the world cup was happening (like 6 years ago) and all the games over here were happening like 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning. His dumbass stays up at night to watch nearly every game for what, a couple of weeks? I told him to record it. He said he cant stand to record games. I do it all the time, I record almost all my races. He couldnt do it. So, he came stolling into work and I would catch him dozing off in front of his computer. One day he was especially tired and was passing out in front of his computer almost to the point of drooling. I leaned over by him and yelled real loud "GGGGOOOOOAAAALLLLLL!!!!!" He woke up and was looking around like "What did I miss....who scored?" I laughed my ass off.
Anyway. Soccer around here is next to dead but ever slowly picking up steam. The last World Cup had more people watching and talking than ever. I keep hearing more and more discussions about it. People are starting to get into here. But, its a small pocket of people at this point. But I would say it is growing. Even I was watching when the World Cup was on. The actually televised it at respectable hours and crowds of people were gathering in front of the tv in the break room at work to watch major games. It was kind of fun. But once that was over, it kind of died down and now only the die hards talk about it. But...its slowly getting there. I think another 5 - 10 years from now, lots more people will be hooked. And if soccer ever goes mainstream on tv and stops being something you have to pay a lot more for, that will boost things too.
In the meantime, keep us posted. Perhaps you'll get a few more of us watching more closely.
Have fun with it.
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Post by leonmallett on Aug 13, 2007 6:54:26 GMT -5
Cheers.
I am glad that the USA football team has sustained a modicum of success following USA '94 (was it really that long ago...), and have sustained a strong showing in the FIFA rankings. I beleive you guys are bidding to host the World Cup tournament again at some point, although I may be mistaken. Tournaments like the World Club Championship (usually each December) are a good thing in my view, giving champion teams from each continental club federation a chance to face one another, and thus broadening the accessibility of the sport.
To your friend who is a Man U fan (Manchester United - he has added the "the" for effect), you can happily point out to him that they only drew at the weekend and Liverpool as previously noted happily won. Only 37 more league games to go...
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Post by leonmallett on Aug 20, 2007 2:15:32 GMT -5
So Liverpool won midweek in a Champions League (European Cup) qualifying game. From England, Italy and Spain the top two teams at the end of the season go through as of right to the next season's Champion's League, the next two highest have to go through qualifying rounds. Other countries have less teams entered and particularly small (in footballing terms) national leagues may have to go through qualifying rounds anyway.
Yesterday Liverpool faced Chelsea in the Premier League - a home fixture. Torres scored his first competitive goal for the club since signing, but Chelsea equalised after being awarded a penalty that commentators and fans (and even Chelsea players after the match) agreed should not have been given. In the last few seasons Liverpool have struggled against the other top four finishing sides so in some ways a good result. A win would have been far better.
To gowaltrip and your Man Utd supporting friend - I think this is their worst start in years and they have just lost a match against local rivals Manchester City (normally a win for Manchester United).
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Post by G on Aug 21, 2007 5:11:11 GMT -5
Thanks for the update. I dont normally know beforehand what happens unless my friend mentions it. This time I got to rag on him when he got to work yesterday. I think over here the leagues are hard to understand. You just mentioned various leagues and its hard to visualize, unlike baseball and REAL Football over here. We see those leagues in the paper all the time. But European Soccer, not at all. Also, I have always thought soccer (football) for you, could be much more interesting if it was a bit more like football over here. I always thought soccer needed blockers. And people getting set up for a bone jarring pick. Like you could deck anybody and the object would still be the same, everyone hits each other with offense and defense. And there is still the struggle to get the ball in the net, but it might be easier to get it in there if I had some blockers knocking a few dudes out of the way. The only one off limits would be the goalie.....just like Hockey actually. I think that would be cool!  |
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Post by leonmallett on Aug 21, 2007 6:59:37 GMT -5
Simple explanation coming up  Professional football (in England) comprises 4 divisions, the top one of which is the Premier League. Teams (3-4 depending on division) get relegated to the next lowest division at the end of the season based on which teams finish in the lowest spots. I won't bore you with how teams are promoted. So there is a race to win each division, Liverpool are competing to win the Premier League title, along with the likes of Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal primarily. In reality only a few teams in each division have a hope of winning their respective title. The top four placing sides in the Premier league can gain entry to the Champions League (aka the European Cup). Liverpool have won this top division (premier league, before that known as the First Division) 18 times, which is more than the next most successful team (Manchester United). the winner is determined on a points system scoring more for a win (3 points) than a draw (1 point0 and 0 points for a loss. Gola differenece is used to break ties for placings. There are currently 38 matches that each team plays in a Premier League season. In addition there are two English cup competitions. These are the F.A. and League Cups. the former is more prestigious. These competitions are independent of the Premier League competition and are based on a knockout format with a number of rounds. Teams compete from non-professional and semi-professional divisions in the F.A. Cup, so much so that this year over 700 teams have started in it. Teams from higher divisions get a 'bye', starting in later rounds, and teams playing in European competitions start even later. Each winner of the two cup competitions gains entry into the UEFA Cup. Liverpool have won the F.A. and League Cups seven times in both cases. European club competitions are the UEFA Cup and the more prestigious Champions League (aka European Cup). The former is a knockout competition that had a group phase last season followed by the knockout rounds, whilst the latter has qualifying and then group phase followed by straight knockout to the final. Liverpool have won the Champions league/Eurpoean Cup 5 times, as many times as all other English winners combined (including Man Utd who have won twice only)! they have won the UEFA Cup 3 times. The deatisl of league promotion and relegation and cup qualification are a little more complex than I have indicated, but this is the simple version. |
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Post by leonmallett on Aug 26, 2007 13:40:25 GMT -5
An away win yesterday, against Sunderland, a game which typically Liverpool would have drawn or lost in recent seasons. Only 35 more league games to go...
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Post by G on Aug 26, 2007 20:54:55 GMT -5
Hey Leon, do you have a good link where we can go and see the standings, rankings, scores and highlights? You know, what's news? I think this would be easier to follow if I could see the standings. Thanks!
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Post by leonmallett on Aug 27, 2007 7:03:14 GMT -5
I'll see what I can do.
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