Damn, I had to miss the 2nd half. I'll have to head to the LPB boards, and drink in their tears! Then, when I get home, watch the 2nd half, and drink in mcmanamamamamman's tears! Also, "LBP" is such an apt moniker for a fanbase and club and media types that cry as much as they do.
Just watched most of the match now. I didn't know Atletico scored another one making it a manita. What a stomping. Madrid were never in this game. They didn't look like they wanted to be out there. Shit effort. I haven't been watching them play much ... just a couple of matches this season. So I thought they'd roll over Atletico after going head in the score board.
Atleti always seem give LPB a tough match no matter their form. Considering that along with all of Madrid's narrow wins this season had me hopeful before today's match. But I never expected LPB to eat a manita!
It is glorious to see LPB take Five To The Eye. Also, their tears and meltdown are delicious! Now, its up to Barça to take advantage of this.
At least we didn't get Konate over the summer. He is having a disastrous campaign so far! I am half kidding. He will probably turn this around and have a good/great career.
Fvck. https://www.intothecalderon.com/atl...g-director-official-simeone-bucero-gil-apollo Atleti hire Alemany. Ya know, the guy with a law degree and a master's in Financial Accounting, and years of experience in and around the game. Meanwhile, Barça keep an imbecile as sporting director with zero qualifications beyond his sweet first touch, and whats more, hire his buddies as scouting leads. Yay. This is problematic, IMO.
Meanwhile, this happened against mighty Azerbaijan, in the 80th minute: https://prosoccerwire.usatoday.com/...-star-leaves-match-vs-azerbaijan/86630670007/ 80th minute. Vs Azerbaijan. While up 3-1, and up a man.
Apparently it's not serious injury. I am with you on this, but I will add that players like Mbappe like Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar don't like to be subbed even it's the most pointless match.
Big match between Wales and Belgium tonight. A win for Belgium and they'll be fine. But a loss for Belgium and they'll fall into 3rd place and quite likely could remain there (and eliminated) even if they win their last 2 qualifiers in November. Wales also have to go for the win, so should be a good match!
The ticket sale system is one of the most disgusting predatory things I've seen in the industry. Even by FIFA scummy standards. At least what they've done in the US. Apparently in Mexico they have actual regulations to keep things in check. Not sure about Canada.
While true, if one wanted to go to a WC match, just use the secondary market to grab tickets. Back in '94, myself and my buddies got to see Espana - Alemania at old soldier field by buying tickets off the secondary market at half the face value. I suspect that FIFA will again gouge people, hoping that dumbasses will pay any price, but then they will end up disappointed and have to cut prices. I think that demand will be suppressed by the bigot in the white house, because folks abroad see what is happening here, and be less motivated to come. For myself, I have no interest in giving the corrupt a$$holes at FIFA my money. International football is becoming debased and is inferior to the club game, in any case.
Well .. that assumes you commit yourself to going near a stadium at match time with the chance of getting or not in. It's OK if you're local .. terrible if you have to travel. Terrible for planning. Not even sure they are doing paper tickets anymore. I am sure that market is still available. The problem isn't just one fold. It's many annoying systems they've put in place. From demand driven dynamic pricing to selling tickets before the schedule is even determined. And from what I read, as part of their NFT project failure, they sold the right (hundreds of dollars just for the "privilege") for people to buy tickets in early round and then released mostly Cat 1 and some Cat 2 tickets. Not to mention their $60 ticket section is an absolute joke in terms of size. FIFA are trying to be the primary and secondary market instead of finding ways to constrain the secondary market. It's just disgusting on so many levels.
Stubhub and seatgeek exist, and allow for (some) advance planning. Agreed that its not ideal, but these options do exist. Oh, I don't disagree. Fans love the expanded WC in theory. But in actuality, when it becomes a massacre of a Giant in the game vs a micron, some games will be difficult to sell tickets for that match. And they will fail at being both the primary and secondary market. Some stadia have deals with seatgeek or Stubhub. Some states do not allow one vendor for both primary and secondary markets. Some purchasers will foolishly rush in to buy (what they HOPE to be) expensive tickets for Espana vs Argentina, but will be stuck with Brasil vs Cape Verde. Or some other microscopic flea of a seleccion vs a titan of the game; a match that will be over BEFORE kickoff. Overall, I agree with your views about FIFA's greed and corruption. And, for those reasons and others, what WC matches I do watch will be from my home or from a pub with friends. But, there are and there will be workarounds to many of the issues you cite, IF one is bound and determined to do so.
Although part of the secondary market is the FIFA website and FIFA will be taking an admin charge for those secondary resales (I think its 10-15%). Since ticketmaster, stubhub, etc also use dynamic pricing, I wouldn't expect prices on those platforms to be any better, and the FIFA site will probably have the better selection. Granted, there will be lots of movement in the prices - both up and down - after the WC draw is made. I agree. This sucks. I already wasn't at all enthusiastic about attending this WC since the vibe is just terrible in all sporting events in the US, apart from college football. But FIFA has made my decision easy. I agree with @Khan that unlike all previous WCs, there doesn't seem to be any advantage to buying tickets early this time. I always found it a struggle to plan and commit to a vacation 10-12 months in advance (good luck trying to tell your boss you want to take 3 weeks off a year from now ), but it was worth it because it gave you your best chance to score tickets at face value/reasonable prices. Now, people can buy tickets when its convenient for them and probably won't miss out, whether its 2 weeks or 8 months prior. But that's the only good thing. And its not really a good thing because that was probably always true if you were willing to pay these kinds of prices.
And I dont think that FIFA will have much control over the secondary market; the primary ticketholders will either sell or not sell their seats, or choose to not attend an unattractive fixture. Overseas fans will be less likely to be exposed to Trumpy fascism AND to pay obese prices for the privilege. More cogently, the secondary ticket sellers are brokering tickets that they themselves do not own; the primary ticketholders own those. And so, it doesn't matter to Stubhub what the sellers price their seats at, it only matters to them that they are able to broker a sale and take a fee for it. And this will have a further downward pressure on prices in the secondary market. Agreed. I'm not amped up to see something in person, AND give my cash to FIFA to do so. Agreed. Ticket sales were underwhelming for the CWC, and FIFA still declared that cashgrab "a success." I doubt they will have learned their lesson, and high (initial) prices in the primary market will suppress demand. The watered-down nature of a 48 team tournament will create a PILE of unattractive games that will sell poorly. And the current unpopularity of the US and its president will further suppress demand. I'm not gonna go, but I think if you want you go, you will be able to do so reasonably, if you wait.
Sadly, I think FIFA will be able to sell a vast majority of tickets at super high prices, including probably all of the knockout stage matches. There are just too many multi-millionaires in the US for whom money is no constraint, plus a whole bunch of others with uncontrollable FOMO who will make an exception and break the bank. In fact, if each American worth USD 10 million or more bought 4 tickets for just one game for their family, you'd still have almost all the tickets in the US stadiums sold even if zero people travelled to the US.
For another month, probably. Big-picture wise, Man Utd caught Liverpool at the best possible time (worst stretch for them in over a decade), and Gakpo hit the post 3 times and missed a sitter - any of those go in and the result is very different. This result isn't as impressive as it may first come across.
Scoreline was quite harsh on Atleti, but yeah, they deserved to lose. La Liga teams getting beat up pretty bad by EPL teams so far this CL season. Basically, a must win match for Athletic Club about to kick off if they have any hopes of finishing in the top 24.