The Soccer Thread 14/15

Europe's biggest club football competition, the Champions League, will be hitting the US in strong fashion this year. Thanks to a recently announced agreement with Fox, which owns the rights to the tournament through the 2017-2018 season, ESPN is set to also broadcast matches here in the States.

There are a couple of caveats, however -- the games acquired from this deal are only going to be available on ESPN Deportes (Spanish-language) and WatchESPN (ESPN3), so don't expect to catch any of these on the main ESPN or ESPN2 channels.

Originally posted by 4ML:
Europe's biggest club football competition, the Champions League, will be hitting the US in strong fashion this year. Thanks to a recently announced agreement with Fox, which owns the rights to the tournament through the 2017-2018 season, ESPN is set to also broadcast matches here in the States.

There are a couple of caveats, however -- the games acquired from this deal are only going to be available on ESPN Deportes (Spanish-language) and WatchESPN (ESPN3), so don't expect to catch any of these on the main ESPN or ESPN2 channels.

Awesome, because I don't get ESPN or ESPN2, but I get ESPN3 lolololol

Originally posted by 4ML:
Europe's biggest club football competition, the Champions League, will be hitting the US in strong fashion this year. Thanks to a recently announced agreement with Fox, which owns the rights to the tournament through the 2017-2018 season, ESPN is set to also broadcast matches here in the States.

There are a couple of caveats, however -- the games acquired from this deal are only going to be available on ESPN Deportes (Spanish-language) and WatchESPN (ESPN3), so don't expect to catch any of these on the main ESPN or ESPN2 channels.

Yep. Getting into soccer as well now. Was a big fan as a little kid since I lived with my Uncle and he was a huge soccer fan, but lost interest over the years. Fox also has a deal, there's a champions league match on right now (fox west).

I've even been watching MLS as well

BTW, they need to get rid of the salary cap. Read a lot and watched a lot of people talk about it, it will be really hard to bring in a lot of star players with a salary cap, since the players themselves hate the salary cap. I think it's good right now just to keep every market as interested in the MLS as possible, but if the MLS starts getting bigger, they either need to get rid of the salary cap or make the cap much higher, to the point where you can sign 4-5 guys to 300K+ contracts if you wanted.

btw, how is it decided who gets into the champions cup? i see countries like england, spain, italy, they got like 2-4 teams, while other countries only get 1 or even none.

Originally posted by TheG0RE49er:

btw, how is it decided who gets into the champions cup? i see countries like england, spain, italy, they got like 2-4 teams, while other countries only get 1 or even none.

UEFA use a coefficient system to decide how many teams from each country gain entry into the group stages and how many must go through Champions League qualifying.

The teams who occupy the top three league places in the countries ranked 1 to 3 in UEFA competition gain automatic entry into the group stages for the following season's Champions League competition. The first and second placed teams in the countries ranked 4 to 6 also gain automatic entry, as do the champions in the countries ranked 7 to 12. The Champions League holders automatically get the chance to defend their title in the following season's competition. (Real Madrid is the current Champion!)

A country's UEFA coefficient ranking is decided by how well its teams have been doing in Europe over the previous five years. The club coefficient is determined by the results of a club in European club competition in the last five seasons, and the league coefficient.
http://worldsoccer.about.com/od/leaguesandclubs/a/How-Teams-Qualify-For-The-Champions-League.htm

Just as an added bonus of info, Real Madrid is both the current Champion and the team with the most Championships (La Decima!)

Originally posted by Travisty13:
Just as an added bonus of info, Real Madrid is both the current Champion and the team with the most Championships (La Decima!)

...hopefully Barca will be much better this season to challenge Real.

Mario Balotelli: Liverpool agree £16m fee for AC Milan striker
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/28878088

Real lost their super cup match too

damn, it cost me like 90mil in fifa to get balotelli

Originally posted by TheG0RE49er:
damn, it cost me like 90mil in fifa to get balotelli

That's because you don't have to deal with his tantrums in Fifa.

That's one really good player I don't want on my team.

Messi scores first Barca La Liga goal of 2014-2015 season.

Originally posted by 4ML:

Messi scores first Barca La Liga goal of 2014-2015 season.

Good start for Barca. Messi proves once again that he is not a muggle like the rest of us. Munir scored his first career first team gol. Rakitic and Mathieu played very well. Everyone, including Luis Enrique, knew that red card was coming out.

Now... on to the niners game im recording!!