All Roads Lead to Roma: Bradley in the Eternal City v. I

http://t.co/qbMMxC82

 

From the interview:

Gotta love that confidence, well-deserved by the way, showing that he doesn't and won't care what fans are saying and he'll show he deserves a place on the field.

Article as a whole is very thoughtful and well said by Bradley.

 

It seems that the Roma Youtube channel has videos from training almost every day, titled by date. Just a heads up for anyone that wants to see clips of training.

 

Very Sheldon-esque, using his mind to try and explode things.

 

I'm glad to see beInsport become what GolTV should have been. Wonder if Ray is going to join Phil over there. We need a channel to step up to the plate and offer us more than just the typical anglo fare. FSC's production value is just so crappy, I don't like paying for FSP...not good value for maybe one or two games a week. ESPN doesn't look at english speakers as a viable soccer audience beyond the token 8am EPL game.

I used to watch a lot of Gol, but as time when by, they lost so much offering. I'm guessing they'll have trouble keeping it on a lot of carriers going forward. Early Sunday mornings are fun when Serie A has about 6 or 7 games kick off at the same time. I'd like to say the goals come thick and fast...but that isn't always the case.

 

I heard some rumors that beIn Sport might buy out GolTV as well, if they did they would have Bundesliga and Copa Libertadores rights which would be nice.

 

From the beIN Sports twitter today:

OFFICIAL: We are proud to announce that beIN Sport has just acquired the rights to the Coppa Italia & the Italian Supercoppa in the U.S.

 

Yeah you can usually find training videos quite easily

At Trigoria the regular training ground they have open training sessions from time to time for members. Also there are ways you can watch depending on where the team is training, so you'll find non official videos popping up regularly.A lot of Italian teams are like this and it can be a double edged sword because fans will be fans.

Several times fans have invaded the pitch. Because of how open in general training grounds tend to be when players are going through a bad patch they can't escape the abuse of the fans. Or when the ultras aren't pleased with the manager the pressure they exert on him can really be excessive. Just last season the ultras after a loss blocked the players from leaving. I think Bojan and Jose Angel tried to leave but were pulled back until the crowd were dispersed.

Roma fans are very passionate. In fact because of policies like Tessera del tifoso while it effects attendance it actually doesn't fix the problem because the fans that jump through those hoops are usually the most passionate fans. We don't get many casual fans anymore.

I don't agree with any of that by the way, but that's just the reality of the situation. At Roma you're constantly under the microscope and it can be too much for players.

So yeah, if your ever in Rome all you have to do is drive out to Trigoria early and you might beat the crowd and get a few autographs.

 

Are they not going to do an unveiling for MB? That's kind of disappointing. I'm ready to see what number he gets.

This is my only hope of seeing Serie A games this year. Comcast and Al Jazeera don't seem to get along.

 

Long time reader, former poster, and one time soccer journalist here.

I'm friends with someone who works for Bein Sport (everyone here who has watched soccer in the US in the last 15 years or so knows who this person is). From a conversation I had with him on the Facebooks, he can't confirm is Bein Sport has finalized even one deal with a cable or satellite provider here in the US. He did say that they are very close to closing the deal with 2 "major" carriers though.

He also said that they are anticipating quite a few angry soccer fans at the start of the season as they really don't anticipate that they will be able to close enough deals in the next month to reach everyone.

 

Not surprising at all. I fully expect to be without it. Hell, I don't even have FSCHD yet.

 

Its really frustrating. I'm even more discouraged by the complete and total lack of a presence online by Bein Sport. No official US website. Their Facebook page is practically deserted and there is no option for fans to actually post on their wall. Their Twitter account only has a handful of tweets and they don't reply to their fans.

If I was an established brand internationally, trying to break into a new (HUGE) market, I would think that I would be all over every possible social network I could be trying to reach as many fans as possible.

The fact that they aren't tells me that they aren't even close to closing deals and the vast majority of soccer fans in the US are going to be without La Liga and Serie A the first several months of the season. I think that they know this is the reality and they are trying to avoid having to answer tough questions from fans for as long as they can.

 

Seriously, that has got to be the worst "check out the great, exciting player we bought!" photo ever.

 

They can also be very quick to turn on a new signing who doesn't adjust as quickly as they would like.

Anyone remember the Argentine central defender Roberto Trotta? He had been enormously successful with Velez Sarsfield, where he had recently captained the team to victory in the Copa Libertadores and the Intercontinental Cup (beating AC Milan 2-0).

When Carlos Bianchi signed on as Roma coach the following season (1996/97) he brought Trotta with him, but after only a couple poor games the fans completely turned on him, and there were even giant banners in the stands reading "Trotta Go Home!". After a total of 6 games he was gone.

It's one reason I'm glad that Bradley already has a season of Serie A ball under his belt, and hopefully he won't need any kind of long adjustment period. Also, most of their fans are already familiar with his game and what he brings to the table.

 

He's played in Azteca, I think he can handle it just fine.

 

It did say he arrived less than 2 hours before practice. I'm more impressed that he arrived and practiced, so often you see players get to their new team and not practice for a day or two to get "settled".

 

Yeah, I think it's indicative of a real hunger on his part. I'm excited to see how he performs, and even more excited to see him in the Champions League.

 

They aren't in the CL, are they?

 

Nope, but they'll have a better shot for 2013-14 than Chievo...

 

Should have been set to Eye of the Tiger man, missed opportunity.

 

What are realistic expectations for Roma this coming season? Getting to CL is quite a jump when they didn't make Europa. Are they improving the team that much? I'm interested in seeing how Zeman has them play, supposedly his teams have high scoring games for and against, another big change from Chievo.

 

It's more they underperformed last year and are expected to at least make the Europa league every year.

 

As far as I can tell, this season is the first time they won't be in a European competition since 97-98. The expectation will be to at least get back to the Europa League.