The Soccer Thread 14/15

Wayne will always underachieve at the international level. The way global Manchester United works he's playing with 50% non-English players. Two world cups won by a team that is relatively young and from the same club Barcelona/Spain South Africa 2010, Bayern Munch/Germany Brazil 2014. Skilled players + years of chemistry = WORLD CUP. Now to get all the best Americans on one team and pump money into the other MLS teams to increase their skills. I say 2022 World Cup is the earliest USA will raise the cup. We're 6 years into a serious US youth program. 12+6 = 18. 18+8 years from now = 26. Those kids will be 26 and ready to take home the gold/cup.

Barcelona has finalized the signing of Thomas Vermaelen from Arsenal. They're still after Cuadrado.

What starting 11 and formation should Barca use with the players they currently have?

I would go with:

-------------Ter Stegen
Montoya-----Pique-----Bartra-----Alba
-------------Mascherano
-----Rakitic------------Iniesta
Suarez---------Messi-----------Neymar

Vermaelen and Mathieu will obviously see a lot of playing time once they are ready. Maybe one of them replaces Pique eventually? Pedro obviously starts while Suarez is out. Busquets will more than likely start ahead of Masche but I would put Masche after his play in the WC. I know Xavi will start but I would carefully watch his minutes. Rakitic has had a very good preseason. Montoya has played well in the preseason and will start. If Cuadrado does come in, he will have a bit of a hard time at first if he indeed is asked to play as a right back.

I wish when Bayern comes to the U.S. they would actually play their starters for once

Every time they play their B or C list guys and then the U.S. wins....which prompts all the pretend soccer fans to shout about how amazing the U.S. soccer teams are.....

I honestly don't understand these moves by Barca. Sign a f**king starter at CB rather than over paying for a bunch of sub level talent.

Donovan is great in these commerials

Originally posted by Janitor:
I wish when Bayern comes to the U.S. they would actually play their starters for once

Every time they play their B or C list guys and then the U.S. wins....which prompts all the pretend soccer fans to shout about how amazing the U.S. soccer teams are.....

Even worse is when you are trying to explain to these people that they just beat Bayern's backups or staters with minimal motivation.

Can't wait to get the actual seasons started. All these preseason tournaments are lame and nothing but a money trap. It is almost as bad as the NFL preseason

Originally posted by TURKISHSTALLION:

Even worse is when you are trying to explain to these people that they just beat Bayern's backups or staters with minimal motivation.

Can't wait to get the actual seasons started. All these preseason tournaments are lame and nothing but a money trap. It is almost as bad as the NFL preseason

Yeah, my first real year following the sport and I didn't realize this was preseason. Explains why they're playing games in f**king Michigan.

Couple nice developments recently:

Argentina hires Tata! Excellent hire.

Suarez can practice and play preseason. Glad ban was upheld too even though it hurts barca in the short term i think it's for the better in long term.

And even though I wanted to see Deulofeu play at Barca - it's a good move to send him to Sevilla. He can play regularly and develop under a terrific coach.

Dortmund over Bayern in the supercup. Bayern still holding out half of their starters though

pretty cool

http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/11354724/kit-deal-more-important-ever-premier-league

manure are f**ken idiots signing longterm kit deals....the market will change & inflate over time

5-year intervals is the smart thing to do...arsenal will trump them in the long run

Man U 1 - Swansea 2 . Home opener @ OT for Van Gaal.

Originally posted by H41L5ATAN:




Man U 1 - Swansea 2 . Home opener @ OT for Van Gaal.

embarrassing

good...f**ke em

USA Women's U-20 lost to North Korea lololol