Soccer/Football random discussion & other leagues thread

[keebler61]

Originally Posted by theBruiser500

QUESTION - What are the best cities in the US to play soccer? This is in terms of weather, soccer fans, most pick up games, most weekend leagues, USL teams.

I am guessing, San Diego, Austin, Richmond, Washington D.C.?

South Cali will be good, Texas should be good, if you don't mind heat.

I don't know about DC, I think NYC > DC. Most parks in NYC will have some pickup available, and there are a few leagues in NY that are good if you're interested in that.

Also:

[DemonOfTheFall]

To Ashley & ChrisV I guess:

HT and we let slip a 2 goal lead against Kuwait. Either Verbeek doesn't know how to give tactical instructions to his defenders re: when to close down and when to give space or every Australian defender post-Hiddink has turned into a walking joke.

[Wondercall]

Originally Posted by theBruiser500

QUESTION - What are the best cities in the US to play soccer? This is in terms of weather, soccer fans, most pick up games, most weekend leagues, USL teams.

I am guessing, San Diego, Austin, Richmond, Washington D.C.?

Phoenix is in there too (if you don't mind extreme heat 3 months out of the year). Lots of mens leagues, however no USL or PDL teams. We have the Saguaros who can't figure out what league to join. They play in the Open Cup every year.

Come to PHX Bruiser we'll get you straightened out.

Edit: Definitely Seattle too. Seattle is a HUGE soccer town.

[ashley12]

Originally Posted by DemonOfTheFall

To Ashley & ChrisV I guess:

HT and we let slip a 2 goal lead against Kuwait. Either Verbeek doesn't know how to give tactical instructions to his defenders re: when to close down and when to give space or every Australian defender post-Hiddink has turned into a walking joke.

Watched the game at the pub. Some thoughts...

- Dropping a 2-0 lead within 5 minutes in an absolute travesty. IMR. Two goal lead within 5 minutes, some joking chants of "we want 32" etc... and to not win the game is a joke. Yes, we will still qualify if we get a draw at home vs Indonesia, which we ferkin well should, but still...

- The pitch was an absolute shambles... I wouldnt walk my dog on it...

- Not one single Australian based player stood up tonight and told Pim to pick me for the sqaud. After that game I think Colosimo and Galekovic can pretty much kiss any chance of being a squad member goodbye. Galekovic had absolutely terrible positioning for each goal, as did Colosimo and Kemp, who wouldnt go to S.A either... Same for Sterjovski as well I think, he was pretty quiet... Thompson was greedy at times, Moore was listless and moved like he was missing his wheelchair.

- No speed up front IMO. Could have used either Rukavystya or Brosque from the start. Thompson as I said was playing for himself tonight. Sterjovski was barely seen, but Vidosic had IMO a pretty good game... Our best area by far was IMO in CM where Jedinak and Wilkshire really put in a shift. Without those two IMO we would have lost...

Overall, I think that this game was really meh. No-one really played after the first 5 minutes, and it cost us. Hopefully not a spot in the Asian Cup...

About the defenders being a walking joke, for a defensive side we really dont have that good of a defence... This will be mean that the holding two mids, probably Grella and Culina, will have to be very deep to provide cover for Neill and Moore. This brings Cahill, and to a lesser extent the wide players, probably Kewell and Bresciano, further from goal, isolating Kennedy and causing pain... Intriguing to see who will be the 4ish CB's in South Africa. Colosimo has the versatility, but that is about it. I would like to see Neill, and one of either Spiranovic, Beauchamp etc... to step up and provide an option or else it will either be Neill or Chris Coyne...

[DemonOfTheFall]

Originally Posted by ashley12

Watched the game at the pub. Some thoughts...

- Dropping a 2-0 lead within 5 minutes in an absolute travesty. IMR. Two goal lead within 5 minutes, some joking chants of "we want 32" etc... and to not win the game is a joke. Yes, we will still qualify if we get a draw at home vs Indonesia, which we ferkin well should, but still...

- The pitch was an absolute shambles... I wouldnt walk my dog on it...

- Not one single Australian based player stood up tonight and told Pim to pick me for the sqaud. After that game I think Colosimo and Galekovic can pretty much kiss any chance of being a squad member goodbye. Galekovic had absolutely terrible positioning for each goal, as did Colosimo and Kemp, who wouldnt go to S.A either... Same for Sterjovski as well I think, he was pretty quiet... Thompson was greedy at times, Moore was listless and moved like he was missing his wheelchair.

- No speed up front IMO. Could have used either Rukavystya or Brosque from the start. Thompson as I said was playing for himself tonight. Sterjovski was barely seen, but Vidosic had IMO a pretty good game... Our best area by far was IMO in CM where Jedinak and Wilkshire really put in a shift. Without those two IMO we would have lost...

Overall, I think that this game was really meh. No-one really played after the first 5 minutes, and it cost us. Hopefully not a spot in the Asian Cup...

About the defenders being a walking joke, for a defensive side we really dont have that good of a defence... This will be mean that the holding two mids, probably Grella and Culina, will have to be very deep to provide cover for Neill and Moore. This brings Cahill, and to a lesser extent the wide players, probably Kewell and Bresciano, further from goal, isolating Kennedy and causing pain... Intriguing to see who will be the 4ish CB's in South Africa. Colosimo has the versatility, but that is about it. I would like to see Neill, and one of either Spiranovic, Beauchamp etc... to step up and provide an option or else it will either be Neill or Chris Coyne...

Agree with all of this.

Last paragraph is great.

I just wanna talk a bit about Pim - our media keeps implying Australia have a psychological edge over Ghana & Serbia but I have seen little evidence of this under Pim.
If anything, I've seen a lack of professionalism and constant lapses of concentration. And his motivation skills leave something to be desired - the "hopeless" debacle has carried on for nearly a year.

I hope he can work miracles in the training camp before the WC because we really haven't progressed that much. Our defensive positioning is bad, we often don't know how high a line to keep, but worst of all, it's like we pride ourselves on making mediocre players look world-class. For the last point, I have to blame Verbeek, his instructions are not working.

I hated the comment he made about Serbia too - when they asked him who he knew from the side he replied "I know Ivanovic but that's all...we'll have to get the DVD's out". For a supposedly high-level European coach to have no clue about the state of the game in Europe is lolbad.

I hope I'm being needlessly negative but he's already decided to leave us after his contract finishes...for me that shows he lacks belief in the squad, which transmits through to the players. I already hear Lucas Neill talking in interviews about how the public should tone down their expectations which is also worrying.

Hopefully the next time we shell out for a decent Italian coach like Ireland did with Trap and make sure that we're still focused on being a premier footballing nation, and not having these periods of decline between good coaches (Venables, Hiddink).

[Bigindiemen]

FWIW
I never even heard about Pim Verbeek till a few years ago and he def is not a highly ranked/respected coach here.

[DemonOfTheFall]

Originally Posted by Bigindiemen

FWIW
I never even heard about Pim Verbeek till a few years ago and he def is not a highly ranked/respected coach here.

At least two footballing organisations have been fooled by hiring the assistants of really good WC coaches. Ferrara as Lippi's WC2006 assistant and Verbeek as Hiddink's WC2002 assistant. Not to mention Mclaren as Fergie's assistant. All epic fails.

I don't know if there's any correlation there but as a growing football nation it's absolutely vital we don't stagnate. Every generation has to move us forward tactically considering how far behind we are technically.

Ahh **** it I'll just apply for a job in Europe somewhere as we'll never get anywhere with the small-country mentality our press and politicians love to throw at us.

[PITTM]

Just got Soccernomics and Inverting the Triangle in the mail. Which should I read first iyo?

[JaredL]

I'm kind of reading both at the same time but not as much as I would like. I personally prefer Inverting the Pyramid so far and I think it'll get more interesting as I go along because I'm getting to the modern stuff. Soccernomics is a decent read but is more hit or miss IMO.

[PlzBeALevel]

Originally Posted by PITTM

Just got Soccernomics and Inverting the Triangle in the mail. Which should I read first iyo?

Inverting the Pyramid for sure.

[sharkstevie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8449319.stm

A bus carrying Togo's national football team to the Africa Cup of Nations has been hit by machine-gun fire, injuring two players, reports say.
The reported incident occurred as the bus was en route to Angola from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Africa Cup of Nations is due to start in Angola on Sunday.
Togo's first game is to be played on Monday in the oil-rich northern territory of Cabinda, where rebels have been fighting for independence.
The identities of the wounded players are not known. There are unconfirmed reports of serious injuries.
The Togolese team includes Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor.

[KDawg]

just saw that headline as well, wtf is all I can say about that. That's some scary ****

[valenzuela]

omg, lets hope south africa is safer

[ashley12]

Originally Posted by DemonOfTheFall

Agree with all of this.

Last paragraph is great.

I just wanna talk a bit about Pim - our media keeps implying Australia have a psychological edge over Ghana & Serbia but I have seen little evidence of this under Pim.
If anything, I've seen a lack of professionalism and constant lapses of concentration. And his motivation skills leave something to be desired - the "hopeless" debacle has carried on for nearly a year.

I hope he can work miracles in the training camp before the WC because we really haven't progressed that much. Our defensive positioning is bad, we often don't know how high a line to keep, but worst of all, it's like we pride ourselves on making mediocre players look world-class. For the last point, I have to blame Verbeek, his instructions are not working.

I hated the comment he made about Serbia too - when they asked him who he knew from the side he replied "I know Ivanovic but that's all...we'll have to get the DVD's out". For a supposedly high-level European coach to have no clue about the state of the game in Europe is lolbad.

I hope I'm being needlessly negative but he's already decided to leave us after his contract finishes...for me that shows he lacks belief in the squad, which transmits through to the players. I already hear Lucas Neill talking in interviews about how the public should tone down their expectations which is also worrying.

Hopefully the next time we shell out for a decent Italian coach like Ireland did with Trap and make sure that we're still focused on being a premier footballing nation, and not having these periods of decline between good coaches (Venables, Hiddink).

Again, concur with most of this as well...

People under-rate how much Hiddink actually did for the Socceroo's. Not so much belief, but he actually the team functioning as a whole. Yeah, sometimes he didnt man-manage the best (Schwarzer vs Kalac for one) but he was a sensational coach so to speak...

For what it is worth I wanted Troussier as the manager of the national team, instead of Verbeek. Sure, Troussier wasnt "with the Dutch mentality" but he had had better experience as a full manager IMO. Verbeek was average with the Koreans at the 2007 Asian Cup, and results have been good, but we have been average for the most part...

Originally Posted by valenzuela

omg, lets hope south africa is safer

Serious problems were held with a lot of journo's in South Africa for the Confed Cup. Mainly because these journo's didnt want to lose accreditation with FIFA was a reason why not so many of these stories came to light... I have big concerns about how South Africa will host the tournament. I dont want to be a major downer on it, but I think something will happen IMO... One way or the other...

[ChrisV]

People under-rate how much Hiddink actually did for the Socceroo's.

They do? Everyone I know speaks of Hiddink like he was some sort of deity.