Then I have a question for the room... Several years ago, I did a comparison of how competitive the top 5 leagues are. One of comparisons I used was "teams in realistic contention for the title", which I determined by counting the teams finishing within 6 and 3 points of first place. 6 may be a bit stingy though. 7 seems a good number, though Spurs finished 10 pts behind Chelsea last season. I believe more than 10 is too definitely too generous, but I'm not sure if 7 or 10 is the sweet spot? I'm not even sure that Spurs were in true contention last season, or if they simply threatened (but failed) to open up an all-but-finished title race late on. Thoughts? (this won't be my only metric btw)
Going by this projection for 2017/18: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/ Next season, # of teams with 5% or more chance of winning their league: EPL: 6 (in fact # of teams >1% = 6) La Liga: 2 Bundesliga: 2 Serie A: 5 Ligue 1: 2 MLS: 9 (not real comp: '17 MLS Cup and we are 2/3rds through season) Liga MX: 6 Brasileirao: 2 Superliga Argentina: 8 Priemeira Liga: 3 Eriedivisie: 4 Russia PL: 5 Super Lig (Turkey): 6 ... Ok, enough for me. MLS is best, obv.
At least it's not backed up to the "sex dungeon" or whatever the new nickname was for the Stubby's tailgating area.
I question any system that thinks that the Eredivisie is open to 4 teams and Super Lig is open to 6. Also, Brazil is usually a lot more competitive than that. For MLS, at the start of any given season, I'd give every team more than a 5% chance of winning the title.
To be fair to the system it was giving current odds of winning the '17 MLS Cup. That's why I mentioned it wasn't a true comp in parentheses Nitpicking PS - Every MLS team can't have >5% chance of winning the Cup - that adds up to >110%!
Watched a bunch of MLS games, or parts of them, tofay. Is it just my imagination, but it seems that even the crap teams (excluding DCU) are more fun to watch than this edition of LAG? Even Rapids and RSL are moving the ball with purpose and taking chances to score. Second observation: Juninho can't get off the bench in Chicago. Isn't there some way we can pry him loose from there?
I watched the Atl-Phi game. It's not your imagination - there is so much more movement with and off the ball, crisper passing on both sides than we see with LAG. Never thought I would say that about a Philly team. Sad days for our favorite team.
Can't stop watching this. Too adorbs. From Dortmund - Madrid group stage match Tuesday. Cute little girl doing the @Cristiano Ronaldo goal celebration in the crowd.... pic.twitter.com/VsjxXZB1rf— Jacqui Oatley (@JacquiOatley) September 26, 2017
Honduras and Australia draw 0-0 in first leg of World Cup playoff. Reading the comments about the Aussies playing in CONCACAF is fun: https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...in-honduras-leaves-world-cup-hopes-in-balance
So Italy fails to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 60 years, joining Chile, Netherlands, Ghana, and the US in the losers bracket. Crazy.
World Cup draw announced http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/final-draw/ Mexico has a fairly tough group; it's going to be a bloodbath. Feel bad for Iran and Morocco. Edit: England has a good chance to emerge, also.
I recall seeing (I don't remember where) about a WC nonqualifiers tournament being held in the US this summer. Does anyone know if this a real thing? Somehow I can't imagine FIFA sanctioning it.
Even though the race is over, the sheer quality of the top teams has been great to watch at times, which makes City being so far out in front all the more amazing. There are 5 English clubs in the UCL Rof16; 4 won their groups. Seems like the PL is getting stronger again in the region. Thanks for sharing! I dig reading your insights.
Hmm. Y'see, I'm getting progressively more disillusioned by this. When you look at the level of financial resources at the disposal of these top teams, then consider the level of talent they are able to acquire compared to the rest of the league, those teams should be looking incredible. Most weeks, when a big club plays one of the (for want of a better term) 'rank-and-file', it almost feels the football equivalent of Superstars of Wrestling, where you know full well that the Ultimate Warrior is not going to be losing to the Brooklyn Brawler. I was actually far more impressed with the Tikki-Taco era LA Galaxy, because we were dismantling teams with sublime passing football, in a parity-driven system. In fairness to City, they've actually looked very strong against the big teams as well as small.
I think the super teams is great for the soccer fan from somewhere else, who just tunes in to watch the marquee match of the week or the Champions League showdowns. But it really does suck for the real fans of the league who follow it top to bottom. Here, we start each season with every team having a legitimate chance of winning it all -- you can't say that in a lot of the top leagues around the world....