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2020 Soccer Catchall Thread


Firemans4Horn

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/1/2020 at 10:19 AM, mdmost said:

The first of what will be many clubs to not make it through the pandemic. Saw they'll get a 12 point deduction. They are currently 8 points clear of the relegation zone. 

The whole Wigan situation is weird. IEC, a Hong Kong company, bought it in 2018. They sold the club 4 weeks ago to a company partially owned by a main shareholder in IEC and IEC loaned them the money to purchase the club. 

Wigan effectively has no debt, but it was costing the owners around £600k/month to cover expenses. The administrators are only looking for £10mm to purchase the club. Thats very cheap if they manage to stay in the Championship, and about right if the go down to League One.

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The English Championship is set up for an interesting final three match days starting today with a pretty massive game between West Brom and Fullham at 11am central on ESPN+.

Leeds all but locked up promotion back to the Premier League with a last minute winner against Swansea. They're six points clear of third place Brentford so one more win and they're back up for the first time since 2004. Speaking of Brentford, they've been the story of the restart. They've won all six games since the season resumed and sit just three points back of West Brom for the second automatic promotion spot. Brentford hasn't played in the top division since 1947. They have a better goal differential which is why today's game is massive for West Brom hoping to make it back to the Prem after a two year absence. Fulham is two points back of Brentford and five points back of West Brom so a win today and they keep their automatic promotion hopes alive.

The battle for the final promotion playoff spot could be wild as well. Brentford and Fulham have likely locked in spots to the playoff at worst. Nottingham Forest has a six point edge on 7th place Swansea so it would take a catastrophe for them to not make the playoff. Cardiff is in 6th place with 64 points. Swansea, Preston North End, Milwall, Derby County, Bristol City and Blackburn are all within four points of them.

Championship schedule on ESPN+ (all times Central)

Today - West Brom vs Fulham (11am)

Tomorrow - Brentford vs Preston North End (11am)

Thursday - Leeds vs Barnsley (11am)

Friday - Huddersfield vs West Brom (11:30am)

Saturday - Stoke vs Brentford (6:30am)

Sunday - Derby County vs Leeds (8am)

Wed July 22 - No TV schedule yet for decision day

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1 hour ago, Captain Ron said:

I know who my team in the Championship is for next year - The Wycombe Wanderers. I've been there for work a few times and the place is great.

 

 

That interview was so great and he got his Whatsapp chat with Klopp late last night which was really cool and he got invited to Liverpool's championship parade. Wycombe is a great story. They barely stayed in the Football League a few years back surviving based on goal differential. They were a relegation favorite entering the year with one of the smallest budgets in the division but here they are.

 

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7 hours ago, Captain Ron said:

I know who my team in the Championship is for next year - The Wycombe Wanderers. I've been there for work a few times and the place is great.

 

 

The funny thing is their style of play is very similar to Burnley's. They don't give a shit about possession (23rd out of 24 teams in League One) and try to nick goals on setpieces. The vast majority of this board would complain about how boring and unappealing their style of play is.

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If you aren't familiar with what's going on at Wigan Athletic right now this podcast is an interesting listen to catch up on a wild story. 

- At the end of the 2018 season the Whelan family which brought Wigan into prominence including a run in the Prem opts to sell the team to a company based in Hong Kong fronted by a successful poker player named David Choi

- In June 2020 the company opts to sell the team to a new company started by Choi, but shortly thereafter a man named Wai Kay Au Yeung became the principle owner of the club.

- The day Yeung was announced as the owner of the club he claims the club has too much debt and has put the club into administration, incurring a 12 point penalty.

- Very little information about Yeung exists in the world which is odd for a man who apparently had enough money to buy a soccer club. We're talking only two hits on a deep dive Google search yielded anything.

- The question became why the hell did he put Wigan into administration? They own their own stadium, training ground and have enough promising young players to sell that they could have funded the club the rest of the season.

- A FA member was recorded on camera saying there's some discussion, but nothing concrete, that a massive bet had been placed on Wigan to be relegated. They were on a good run of form before this mess happened. A 12 point penalty would put them in severe jeopardy of being relegated.

- The Wigan fans have taken up a go fund me to try and keep the team afloat for now. The supporters are literally paying to transport the team to away games.

- Yesterday Wigan scored SEVEN goals in the first half and beat Hull 8-0. Hull is in the third relegation spot now 12 points behind Wigan, the amount of points Wigan is set to be deduced at the end of the season.

 

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5 hours ago, ATLLonghorn said:

Yeah, I'm really interested to see how this plays out because the missing piece of the puzzle, why they went into administration, could be a lot of different things.

They were losing ~£8m a year. It looks like this was a convenient way for Choi to get Wigan off IEC's books (publicly traded company on the HK stock exchange) and into a company where they could dump their losses without any public disclosure. 

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Decision day for the Championship is on Wednesday and there's only one thing decided: Leeds won the league and is headed back to the Premier League. Everything else is up for grabs.

Automatic Promotion

Both West Brom and Brentford took ill-timed losses this weekend so the 2nd automatic promotion spot is still very much up for grabs. 

West Brom is promoted with a win vs Queens Park Raisins or losses by Brentford and Fulham

If Brentford beats Barnsley they go up as long as West Brom doesn't win. If they draw Barnsley they go up with a West Brom loss and Fulham loss or draw vs Wigan

Fulham goes up with a win and losses by West Brom and Brentford

Promotion Playoff

The two who don't get automatic promotion will be joined in the Promotion Playoff by two of Nottingham Forest, Cardiff City and Swansea City. A point by each will get Forest and Cardiff in. Swansea needs a win and varying losses by either. Swansea is 1 goal back of Cardiff on goal differential so a win and a Cardiff loss gets them in. Forest is 5 goals ahead so they'd need a pretty dramatic win and Forest loss to get in if Cardiff gets at least a point.

Relegation

Hull City *technically* isn't relegated but would Luton Town to lose and need to make up SIXTEEN goals on Charlton Athletic to survive so they're basically gone.

Hull, Barnsley and Luton Town stand to be relegated as of now. Huddersfield is probably safe with a three point edge and +14 GD on Luton Town so who knows. Middlesbrough, Birmingham City and Charlton all sit less than 3 points ahead of Luton Town so they still have work to do. Then there's Wigan. Wigan is 10 points clear of Luton Town, but they stare down a 12 point deduction for going into administration so a loss to Fulham will see them relegated.

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50 minutes ago, ATLLonghorn said:

Decision day for the Championship is on Wednesday and there's only one thing decided: Leeds won the league and is headed back to the Premier League. Everything else is up for grabs.

Automatic Promotion

Both West Brom and Brentford took ill-timed losses this weekend so the 2nd automatic promotion spot is still very much up for grabs. 

West Brom is promoted with a win vs Queens Park Raisins or losses by Brentford and Fulham

If Brentford beats Barnsley they go up as long as West Brom doesn't win. If they draw Barnsley they go up with a West Brom loss and Fulham loss or draw vs Wigan

Fulham goes up with a win and losses by West Brom and Brentford

Promotion Playoff

The two who don't get automatic promotion will be joined in the Promotion Playoff by two of Nottingham Forest, Cardiff City and Swansea City. A point by each will get Forest and Cardiff in. Swansea needs a win and varying losses by either. Swansea is 1 goal back of Cardiff on goal differential so a win and a Cardiff loss gets them in. Forest is 5 goals ahead so they'd need a pretty dramatic win and Forest loss to get in if Cardiff gets at least a point.

Relegation

Hull City *technically* isn't relegated but would Luton Town to lose and need to make up SIXTEEN goals on Charlton Athletic to survive so they're basically gone.

Hull, Barnsley and Luton Town stand to be relegated as of now. Huddersfield is probably safe with a three point edge and +14 GD on Luton Town so who knows. Middlesbrough, Birmingham City and Charlton all sit less than 3 points ahead of Luton Town so they still have work to do. Then there's Wigan. Wigan is 10 points clear of Luton Town, but they stare down a 12 point deduction for going into administration so a loss to Fulham will see them relegated.

Sheffield Wednesday and Birmingham City also potentially have points deductions coming. It's a shit show.

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On 7/20/2020 at 11:29 PM, Captain Ron said:

I gotta say, maybe all these players should stop keeping their hands way out there from their body?

Yeah, that's a good call to me.  Turning your head or turning completely around for deniability doesn't change the fact that you're spreading your arms to make yourself big and increase the chance of blocking the shot.

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21 minutes ago, WBT said:

Yeah, that's a good call to me.  Turning your head or turning completely around for deniability doesn't change the fact that you're spreading your arms to make yourself big and increase the chance of blocking the shot.

This. Looking again at these 3 calls:

1 https://streamable.com/r4cfbx
2 https://streamable.com/qlamxu
3 https://streamja.com/y3gV5

At least 2 of those are deliberate, and the 3rd probably is too:

1. Maybe the only questionable one in terms of being deliberate, EXCEPT why is #16 moving his arms from his back to his front, except to cut off the cross?
2. #9 has that weird arm just sticking out there, clearly thrown out there to cut off a passing lane
3. #15 throwing his arm out to stop the shot.

I don't see anything in those 3 calls that is questionable to me.

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On 7/20/2020 at 8:37 AM, ATLLonghorn said:

West Brom is promoted with a win vs Queens Park Raisins or losses by Brentford and Fulham

If Brentford beats Barnsley they go up as long as West Brom doesn't win. If they draw Barnsley they go up with a West Brom loss and Fulham loss or draw vs Wigan

Fulham goes up with a win and losses by West Brom and Brentford

Don't make fun (thanks a lot Van Gaal).  QPR up 1-0 btw.  Your move Brentford.

Edited by LonghornSean
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West Brom up. Brentford, Fulham, Cardiff and Swansea make the Promotion Playoff. Nottingham Forest loses, capping off a five game winless streak, that cost them a spot in the playoff. Hull, Wigan and Charlton Athletic going down. Wigan gets relegated with positive goal differential which probably has never happened. Barnsley's late winner vs Brentford kept them up. The scene was pretty entertaining.

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Geez, I didn't realize that Nottingham Forest blew 5 straight to cost them this. Then today was an even bigger OOoooofff and they entered the day in 3rd and well ahead on GD.

image.png.8c428c5e33b2823092647a1e2c35fd2d.png
 

At the half Cardiff had a 2-0 lead and probably cruising. Nottingham was losing 1-0, but Swansea was tied 1-1. With the Big GD lead, Nottingham had to feel safe.

Then the 2nd half ...

61' Goal Nottingham Forest, game tied 1-1
66' Goal Swansea, Up 2-1
73' Goal Stoke, Nottingham down 2-1
78' Goal Stoke, Nottingham down 3-1
83' Goal Cardiff, up 3-0

Cardiff was on their way, but the race for 6:
Nottingham 70 pts / 9 GD / 58 GS
Swansea    70 /  7 / 60

Then the wheels fell off
84' Goal Swansea, Up 3-1 and now within 1 GD
90+1' Goal Swansea, Up 4-1, level on GD and up on goals scored
90+4' Goal Stoke (an OG at that), Down 4-1, 1 goal down on GD

OOF

image.png.14681b252a0ca0c17fc9a4dcb872ac1a.png

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8 minutes ago, Jive Turkey said:

Hoffenheim leading Bayern 2-1 in the 72nd minute. 

I need to put this ESPN+ subscription to use. 

Yea, they came in with a perfect plan and Bayern sat a few key guys in the first half because of the super cup. Hoffenheim have been aggressive and never let Bayern get comfortable. They have the legs up front to expose the high line with Boateng in it. Bayern getting humbled, should help get guys hungry again. 

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9 minutes ago, TXSG8R said:

Yea, they came in with a perfect plan and Bayern sat a few key guys in the first half because of the super cup. Hoffenheim have been aggressive and never let Bayern get comfortable. They have the legs up front to expose the high line with Boateng in it. Bayern getting humbled, should help get guys hungry again. 

Yep. This is good for the league. Bayern will still win it, but the longer it’s interesting, the better. 

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We adopted hoffe after attending a match there a year ago. Doubt they’ll ever be more than a mid table team with the occasional top 4 finish to get to euro, but it’s nice when they can jump up and bite one of the big guys.

who knows what will happen to them when hopp dies. 

Edited by Pato del Muerto
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The more I chewed on the game I had some thoughts.  
Bayern miss Thiago. Tolisso was never in synch with the front or back. Lots of wasted passes, nothing to speak of defensively. Just a dead spot on the field for 60 minutes.

Bayern really need a right back, and it looks like they are going to lose the race for Dest. Pavard was another dead spot. Kimmich had to drop back into his old position after subbing Pavard out. That was another hit to the midfield and will be a problem if Bayern have to do that regularly. Kimmich needs to play at the 6.

Sane and Gnabry being on the field at the same time needs work. Flick needs to sort that out, because Gnabry playing on the left wasn’t effective. I think it also limited Davies, who seems to play better with Coman in front of him. Sane and Gnabry need to either sub for each other, or they need to juggle with Muller in the middle to make everyone happy with playing time. 


The high defensive line with Boateng got eaten alive today, I’m still stunned that PSG couldn’t be more effective attacking it.  Like Jive said, it really should have been 6-1, Neuer made some incredible saves and Hoffenheim also shit the bed on some plus runs. Alaba is letting the contract talk strains show on the field, he was invisible most of the game. It’s still surprising that Hernandez can’t sniff the field as a CB with the money they paid for him. The board can’t be thrilled they paid that kind of money for a guy to sit on the bench every game. Between that, whiffing on Dest, and not finding a usable replacement for Thiago, Salihamidzic is in some shit. 

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On 9/27/2020 at 1:08 PM, TXSG8R said:

Bayern miss Thiago. Tolisso was never in synch with the front or back. Lots of wasted passes, nothing to speak of defensively. Just a dead spot on the field for 60 minutes.

we will get a really good sense today.  Bayern plays Dortmund in the German Super Cup at 1:30.  it's on ESPN+.

several Carabao Cup games today.  Everton v. West Ham at 1:45 is probably the best game.

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