MLS Summer Interregnum Thread (Nations League, Euros, Copa, Gold Cup, Other PBP)

And in the final Olympics soccer match, Brazil's men beat Spain in extra time 2-1 to defend their gold medal from Rio.

 

I've taken 3 dumps this week that were more exciting than this Community Shield match. I guess it's Nascar truck/Xfinity racing, English League One/Championship matches, and LLWS regionals for the next couple of hours until MLS matches kick off.

 

Thx,

Jay!

 

Middleweight boxing champion Lauren Price also plays soccer for the Welsh national team.

 

Her win guaranteed the US would have the most GOLD medals at the Games.

 

I thought I was a die hard fan getting up at 5 am on a Friday to watch the Women's Gold Medal match, apparently not...

On Friday morning, a TV audience of 4.4 million watched @CBC to cheer on the Canadian Women's Soccer team as they won gold for Canada at 10:47 am, making this the most-watched moment of #Tokyo2020 in Canada pic.twitter.com/31dE7VF937

— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) August 7, 2021

 

I am not surprised by this--but to be completely fair, and I know that perhaps many will disagree with me, I am finding snoozer games to be more prevalent in Euro soccer presently than they were even just a few years back. Many games turn out to be a case of cruel and unusual punishment for soccer fans to watch. Even the really big games between league giants will often turn out to be 0-0 or 1-0 snoozers with lots of defensive football and teams canceling each other out. Sometimes this phenomenon is called "negative football." It's not necessarily the score--I think it's more the team effort and at other times it's the coaching. Every time I see a coach roll out an ultra defensive formation guaranteed to clog the midfield all I can do is just roll my eyes and hope for the best. I think we all know there's a difference between a close nail biting 1-0, and a 90 minute snooze fest and we can all as fans spot when players are giving it their all and when they're just mailing it in.

I grew up watching Serie A in the 80's and the infamous "Sunday nap." At that time it was just a feature of that one league. If you tuned in to Serie A back then you knew full well what you were in for. Today however this mentality has spread into the other major Euro leagues. Of course there are exciting games each season and that's why we as soccer fans keep watching and why we keep coming back to our favorite Euro leagues year after year--because the memory of the few good matches stays in our heads and overshadows the many forgettable ones. However, now those beautiful games seem to be scattered oases of football fixtures in an otherwise arid season-long calendar for each league. It shouldn't be this way really. I understand full well as a fan of soccer that it is virtually impossible for every game in a season to be either an exciting tension filled close nail biter of a game or an action packed attacking fiesta with lots of goals, but at the same time tuning into the knockout stages of the Champions League on tv shouldn't be the only place a fan can turn to in order to get consistently good quality football that is watchable.

I am sure that a huge part of this is that inside each league the distinction between the league "giants" and the league "minnows" seems to be growing. The "league giants" keep getting bigger and everybody else just has to make do with what they have. Oftentimes smaller clubs and mid table clubs have no choice but to play ultra defensively and hope for a tie when they play the super rich clubs.

 

English football was nearly as bad as Serie A in the eighties and nineties. In fact the whole hooliganism thing grew with the end of wing play in the 70s and the move to prevent goals rather than score them, mainly through the offside trap. Fans were bored.

Eventually they brought in 3 points for a win and there was a lot of talk about bonus points for scoring goals, which thankfully never happened.

The only reason that English football was more exciting than Serie A was the lack of competence. Every English first division team had a few skilful players and a bunch of "cloggers" who's job it was not to let them pass.

Two teams seemingly immune from negative play were Manchester United and Tottenham but Arsenal were the epitome.

The 'interfering with play' change to the offside rule made a huge difference.

 

I think the economic morass that England was with unemployment and attacks on social safety nets by the Thatcher government had more to do with the rise of hooliganism than the end of wing play.

Which is just an excuse to post this:

 

Hooliganism predated Thatcher. It became a thing in the seventies, it got organized in the eighties.

 

SKC U21 vs. Leon O31 has kicked off.

 

All of my questions have been answered with this post.

 

That was an absolutely ATROCIOUS play from the Leon attacker. On what planet do you not square the ball for the easiest goal ever?

 

O SKC may not see the semifinals.

 

Actually....I don't want to step on @newtex toes. As he already made a thread for this:

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/2021-leagues-cup.2114340/#post-39403922

 

That's likely the dagger, but honestly it's commendable that SKC even made it to the knockout stages of this tournament.

 

Matty Lawerence has no off switch.

and this game sucks.