2020-21 News Thread
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The US Under 23s crapped out of Olympic qualifying for the third cycle in a row with a loss to Honduras yesterday. Honestly, most of the US U23s are actually playing for the senior National Team at this point so it's easy to shrug this off, but USSL once again made a joke out of the process by refusing to fund enough games ahead of the qualifying tournament and that just ticks me off. The US kids played TWO friendlies ahead of qualifying while the Mexicans played like 16 or so. That's the kind of nonsense that we get on a regular basis from Soccer House, no matter who is in charge.
VinatieriDefinesClutch
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Wow! This is an incredible early bday present for me
It's really early for mine as well, but ... I'll take it
Three years after finishing 2nd in the Bundesliga, Schalke were relegated, for the first time in 30 years. They sit on 13 points and will finish last in the league. They had given up any ambition of competing for the league championship and were content to stay a mid-table team after flirting with bankruptcy last year. As recently as 2019, Forbes had ranked them as the 14th richest club in the world.
When Schalke returned to their stadium after losing the other day, they were greeted by an estimated 500-600 fans who threw eggs at them and verbally abused them. The should be more upset with team management who nearly put them into bankruptcy and forced the austerity and player sales that put them in that position.
www.espn.com
Schalke fans attack players after relegation
Schalke players were attacked by their own fans when returning from Bielefeld after being relegated from Bundesliga for the first time in 30 years.
Weston McKennie, exhibit A. They included a fair valuation in the loan deal to Juve, but gave them 3 years to pay off the permanent fee. For a cash-starved club, that’s malpractice.
Musical chairs in Germany. Hansi Flick is leaving Bayern Munich and will succeed Joachim Low as National Team Coach. Julian Nagelsmann will leave RB Leipzig for the job in Munich. Jesse Marsch will leave RB Salzburg and take over in Leipzig, where he had been an assistant for 1 season before taking over at Salzburg.
Derek Rae says that Marsch turned down Spurs to move to Leipzig.
Well, he's a RB system guy ... and don't tell Kurtzie but it might just be a better job at this point.
Jose Mourinho has a new gig already, he was hired by Roma starting next season. And they’re “delighted”. Current coach Paulo Fonseca is out of contract after the season. Roma are 7th in Serie A, 9 points behind Lazio for the last Europa League spot and only 2 points ahead of Sassuolo for the Europa Conference League spot.
StormChaserBH
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Good, confirmation he's out of the PL for a while. I won't have to watch his joyless condescending act play itself out in interviews or in his squad's matches.
I picked that tweet off of Grant Wahl’ s feed. One of the comments was that Mourinho was one of the greatest managers of his generation. I nearly spit coffee on my monitor.
VinatieriDefinesClutch
Active member
I mean, he WAS. His early career success is undeniable. He won the Champions League with Porto, elevated Chelsea to being an elite team and then won the champions league again with Inter. I'd argue he's the manager of the decade for the 00s and at the very least he has to be in the discussion. He's just not the same manager anymore and the game has passed him by.
Yeah ... the problem is with verb tense, not the facts. Mourinho has the hardware to back up the statement, for sure, but at this stage of his career he's a walking bottle of Nyquil.
Yeah, if he had retired after leaving Real Madrid, no question. But his last 3 stops all tarnished his image. Yeah, he won the league at Chelsea in 2014-15 and was sacked 7 months later. He won the Europa League with Man U his first year, dropped to 6th in the table the following year and was sacked in December of his 3rd season with the team mired mid-table. Nd the less said about his Spurs tenure, the better.
ESPN picks up the US English and Spanish language rights to LaLiga through the 2028-29 season. They had been on beIN Sports. With all the leagues they have, they’ll broadcast something like 2,900 matches next year. They are losing Serie A to Paramount + though.
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