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2021-22-23-24 News Thread

Oh, I don't have a problem with the choice personally. It's not like I'm going to pony up the cash and amount of patience required to attend the thing anyway. So long as the Final is in the US, I'm good.
 
Michelle Kang has officially taken ownership of Olympique Lyonnais Feminin. She adds them to her growin stable that includes the NWSL Washington Spirit and the London City Lionesses, that play in the 2nd tier of English Women’s soccer. They’re 10th of 12 in the table, after a 3rd place finish last year. Only the league champion is promoted, the bottom 2 teams are relegated to the National League.
 
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For all that's been written about increased investment in the women's game in England, it's really a VERY shallow trend. The WSL has a lot of wonderful talent and three or four very good programs, but it's nowhere as deep as NWSL ... even with that league having been deeply damaged by scandal fairly recently, and having been administered by absolute idiots until 2 skinny years ago. Bottom line ... money, staff and facilities can be rocket fuel to a club in the women's pyramid in England. If Kang invests well, she'll absolutely get results with London City.
 
The MLS season starts on Wednesday and, as of now, there are no officials. The Professional Soccer Referees Association rejected me, but a huge margin, an agreement negotiated by their leadership and the Professional Referee Organization, which employs MLS match officials. PRO is locking out match officials at 12:01 eastern time tomorrow.

PRO says they have contingency plans in place, but if you know any rec league officials, I’m sure they’d love to hear from them..


View: https://x.com/soccerinsider/status/1758895209750921510?s=61&t=ZT8KDHkGMyk7V3JAuh5_ag
 
USL's games are gonna SUCK. They supposedly have a pool of 22 refs pulled from the lower divisions.
 
Thomas Tuchel will leave Bayern Munich at the end of the season. He was hired in March 2023 and won the Bundesliga after replacing a Julian Nagelsmann. But they’re 8 points behind Bayern Leverkusen this year and have a 1-0 deficit to make up in the 2nd leg of their Champions League tie against Lazio. They’ve already been eliminated from the DFB-Pokal and face the possibility of their first trophy-less season since 2011-12.
 
Interesting, kind of knee jerk since it's more that Leverkusen is having a spectacular season rather than Bayern having a poor one. Bayern's points average is significantly higher than last season and is in line with all their previous Bundesliga seasons.
 
I dunno. Bayern just haven't been very convincing under Tuchel. I think if they finished second but looked good in the Cup and UCL then that would be different, but everything has been a slog for them this season. Plus, Tuchel is a joyless a-hole, so there's that
 
Ha, I don't really follow the Bundesliga so I'm sure there's more to it. I'm just looking at the stats and it's kind of funny that they're having a season that would have won the league with ease for most of the past decade and it's seen as a failure.
 
Overall they've been fine ... but drill down a bit and look at some of those scruffy losses. Hard to defend the record when you got knocked out of the Pokol by Saarbruken and dropped a game to freaking Bochum last week.
 
MLS started their season last night ... not that anybody without an Apple package noticed. By all accounts the replacement refs were as sketchy as you'd expect. This is all going great, in case anyone wondered.
 
Paul Pogba was suspended for 4 years for violating anti-doping rules. He was found to have excess testosterone not produced by his body. He’s under contract at Juventus until 2026.
 
andyt said:
Paul Pogba was suspended for 4 years for violating anti-doping rules. He was found to have excess testosterone not produced by his body. He’s under contract at Juventus until 2026.
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Pogba has brought so much baggage with him over the years that he must require his own train at this point
 
I've always kind of assumed that doping is higher in soccer than we think and I have no idea how thorough the testing process is considering how few players get busted. It feels like soccer's response to deal with everything other than racism is to make an example of someone and hope it scares everyone else straight. We saw that with Everton's initial ten game ban which turned the winter window into barely existing with teams afraid to push their ffp limits. Now a formerly prominent big name who is past his prime is getting a four year ban for what I believe is a first offense (I didn't see anyone say otherwise at least). That's a crazy suspension and probably benefits the team since I'm assuming they're going to get relief from paying the rest of his contract.
 
Yeah, this wasn't even "doping" since what Pogba got busted for is found in basic over the counter supplements. So, definitely a case of a message being sent. Maybe there's some trend in their testing that has yet to be made public. Who knows? My level of trust in both soccer's governing authorities and the anti-doping authorities couldn't be lower, really.
 
I guess I hadn't even read into the full details. Four years for an over the counter supplement and absolutely benefits the club financially. That's fishy as all hell. And I guess because Pogba is a "controversial" figure, they can get away with it.
 
VinatieriDefinesClutch said:
I guess I hadn't even read into the full details. Four years for an over the counter supplement and absolutely benefits the club financially. That's fishy as all hell. And I guess because Pogba is a "controversial" figure, they can get away with it.
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I think* that they're trying to crack down on testosterone-containing products of all kinds ... including supplements. That seems to be the bottom line issue here, plus I think Pogba has some priors.

*think is doing a lot of work here because the reporting has been so crappy, as is always the case with big name figures in soccer
 
Oh ... also, the CONCACAF W Gold Cup is happening. They got down to the semis last night, as the US will square off with Canada and Brazil will play a very sharp, very confident looking Mexican side that beat the US in groups. This is still a transitional phase for the US, awaiting Emma Hayes' arrival as boss in May. It's a weirdly transitional roster too, and I've gotta say that the old hands have looked worse than the kids for the most part. Either way, US/Canada is fun no matter the sport or circumstances. Coming up Wednesday After Dark
 
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