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Napoleon

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Posts posted by Napoleon

  1. 54 minutes ago, ATLLonghorn said:

    I wish Sargent was, I'm fine with Adams not being on the squad. Adams came in and played really well for Leipzig before he got hurt so he needs to be in the senior team plans right now and if it was a choice between the U20 Tournament and the Gold Cup for him then Gold Cup is the right choice.

     

    46 minutes ago, Ollie Slatt said:

    Adams is a lock to start for the senior team so I am happy he is there.  If Sargent gets significant minutes in the Gold Cup, then that is great too.  Guys who can meaningfully contribute at that level should be working on gelling with the senior team.  

    It would be fun to see those guys on the U20 and up our win chances a bit, but there is not a ton of prestige in winning this.  Its not like France are trotting out Mbappe and Guendouzi for this tournament. 

     

    36 minutes ago, ztejas said:

    Adams is our best player right now (and if he's 2nd it's to a healthy, in form Pulisic). I would drown myself in vodka and stick a pencil in my eye if we played him at anything but a senior level. 

    Messi and Agüero played for Argentina in the FIFA U-20 World Cup and Adams can’t carry either of those guys’ jocks. (Now or when they were 19/20.)

    Adams and Sargent should be playing in the FIFA U-20 World Cup rather than the shitfest that is the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

    You learn a shit-load more carrying your team to a semifinal/final/WIN in a World Cup at any age level than you do playing in 5 Gold Cups. 

    Having those two skip the World Cup is one of the dumbest fucking things that US Soccer has done in the last 20 years and they’ve got a wall of shame 120 yards long of stupid fucking shit that they’ve done over that time. 

  2. 1 hour ago, Firemans4Horn said:

    Crazy how much Coutinho sucks. 

     

    Barca’s roster is old they need some good signings this summer to make a couple more CL runs with Messi. 

    I felt like half their roster consisted of young guys who could fly up and down the field for 90 minutes or longer. 

  3. I’m in Spain and unfortunately my traveling partner, an amiga, has already gone to sleep. It looks like this at 9:33pm outside. 

    BC7-E34-AA-1342-490-B-9025-0-FA58898-B2-

    I’m going to probably sneak out to watch the 2nd half in a bar. 

  4. 8 hours ago, yoladu said:

    just because i am a dork, looked at some weather stats.

     

    Average high in January - Santa Barbara 64F | Austin 51F

    Average high in August - Santa Barbara 76F | Austin 97F

    # of rainy days a year ; Santa Barbara 37 | Austin 88

    SB averages 0.9 days of rain in June, 0.4 days of rain in July, and 0.5 days of rain in August. Essentially it doesn't rain all summer, with a high averaging around 75 every day. Jesus.


    Most years, it rains some over about a 4 to 5 week period from early January to mid February, and then it doesn't rain more than a few days the rest of the year in Southern California.

    People plan beach weddings months in advance, because they know that it isn't going to rain. The thought of having an umbrella in your car doesn't exist. But sadly, people already know this and that's why money from all over the world pours into SoCal to buy real estate, because it's one of the most perfect spots on earth, if you can afford it.

  5. 1 hour ago, b_p said:

    Just came back from San Sebastian and would highly recommend the restaurants Rekando, Arzak, and Elkano (in Gatteria).  Excellent food, and amazing wine lists with bargain pricing.  Ask to go on a wine cellar tour at Rekando.

    Muchísimas Gracias!

     

  6. On 5/14/2019 at 5:48 PM, HenryJames said:

    f7a31eb6fa46447268ac21c23ab8a8d7.jpg

    Riesling, imo.

     

    4 hours ago, HenryJames said:

    fff3c1d45de9497d7a008a807a55899a.jpg

    Basque, imo.


    Your kid has quite a sophisticated palate for someone of that age.

    Keep the wine supply locked at all times.

  7. 4 hours ago, HenryJames said:

    fff3c1d45de9497d7a008a807a55899a.jpg

    Basque, imo.

    Gracias!

    I just checked the weather for my time in the Basque Country (after the London Wine Fair).

    Friday (Partly Cloudy)
    Saturday (Partly Cloudy)

    Arrive in San Sebastian Sunday, May 26th and scheduled to head out Thursday morning, May 30th:
    Screen-Shot-2019-05-15-at-10-00-20-PM.pn



    I might be leaving before the morning of the 30th and just eat the cost of one night and find a place in the Rioja region on the way to Barcelona, because Rioja's forecast looks much more friendly.

    Screen-Shot-2019-05-15-at-10-40-21-PM.pn

  8. 50 minutes ago, ztejas said:

    Was wondering why they are all with US clubs - then saw your note about Euro passports. 

    So generally I'm guessing it's difficult for US teens to play in Europe before they turn 17? Unless they have dual citizenship or some shit?

    Before they turn 18.

    Some clubs were signing a bunch of kids from "Developing Countries" and then would dump them at age 16 or 17 and they basically had no education and had been pulled away from their families for a number of years. FIFA got shamed into putting a stop to this.

    Now, you have to have a Euro passport AND perhaps even have family over there, in order to sign before you are 18.

    Claudio Reyna's kid, Giovanni, has a Portuguese passport through the kid's mom, so he is in Dortmund's youth system even though he is listed as "unattached". Other than that, they're all Stateside except for the kid in Vancouver. [12-Chituru Odunze (GK, Vancouver Whitecaps FC/CAN; Calgary, Alta.; 4/0)] His parents probably live up there, or across the border in that tiny peninsula that is US Territory- "Point Roberts", that is technically the state of Washington.

     

    Screen-Shot-2019-05-15-at-3-48-19-PM.png

    • Like 1
  9. The boys have qualified for this fall's FIFA U-17 World Cup (they just had to make it to the Semis) and now they play Mexico's U-17 boys in the CONCACAF U-17 Final tomorrow (May 16th, 2019).

    Stars of note so far have been Giovanni Reyna (6 goals so far, 3 from set pieces) and FC Dallas'. 16 year-old foward/striker Ricardo Pepi (3 goals in last two games), plus Sporting Kansas City's wunderkind Gianluca Busio, who seems to provide an assist to nearly every goal from the run of play. That kid is short, but at 16 he has been a regular off the bench, and occasional starter, for Sporting Kansas City since the start of last year. If he could get a European passport, it would behoove him to make the jump ASAP. Otherwise, he'll just keep getting MLS 1st team minutes before going over (hopefully) in the Fall of 2020. (He turns 17 at the end of May.) Chituru Odunze (GK) who was born in London and lives in Canada, but somehow has an American passport and is somewhere between 6'5" and 6'7", depending on how accurate the various sources are. Supposedly he's also working on getting his Canadian passport, but don't know if playing in the U-17s would nullify Canada, because he didn't qualify for having that passport before he played an official FIFA tournament. (Can't remember if that applies to U-17 or U-20.)

     

    ROSTER through qualifying:

    2019 Concacaf U-17 Championship Roster by Position (Club; Hometown; U-17 Caps/Goals)
    GOALKEEPERS (2): 
    1-Damian Las (Chicago Fire; Norridge, Ill.; 13/0)
    12-Chituru Odunze (Vancouver Whitecaps FC/CAN; Calgary, Alta.; 4/0)

    DEFENDERS (7): 
    4-Axel Alejandre (FC United; Chicago, Ill.; 14/0)
    3-Adam Armour (North Carolina FC; Cary, N.C.; 11/0)
    13-Mauricio Cuevas (LA Galaxy; Los Angeles, Calif.; 2/0)
    14-Tayvon Gray (New York City FC; Bronx, N.Y.; 10/0)
    5-Kobe Hernandez (LA Galaxy; Los Angeles, Calif.; 14/1),
    2-Joseph Scally (New York City FC; Lake Grove, N.Y.; 14/1)
    15-John Tolkin (New York Red Bulls; Chatham, N.J.; 3/0)

    MIDFIELDERS (5): 
    7-Gianluca Busio (Sporting Kansas City; Greensboro, N.C.; 7/2)
    20-Gilbert Fuentes (San Jose Earthquakes; Tracy, Calif.; 13/0)
    8-Bryang Kayo (D.C. United; Poolesville, Md.; 0/0)
    6-Daniel Leyva (Seattle Sounders FC; Las Vegas, Nev.; 0/0)
    16-Adam Saldana (LA Galaxy; Panorama City, Calif.; 17/1)

    FORWARDS (6): 
    18-Jack de Vries (Philadelphia Union; Wayne, Pa.; 0/0)
    17-Tyler Freeman (Sporting Kansas City; Shawnee, Kan.; 3/1)
    19-Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez (Tacoma Defiance; Kent, Wash.; 14/5)
    9-Ricardo Pepi (North Texas SC; McKinney, Texas; 6/1)
    10-Giovanni Reyna (Unattached; Bedford, N.Y.; 8/1)
    11-Griffin Yow (D.C. United; Clifton, Va.; 6/3)          

    • Like 1
  10. 20 hours ago, Machinator said:

     


    Is it a bad sign that 24 hours after claiming Calvin Anderson, then Jets fired their GM?

    It's better to be claimed than unclaimed at this point, but #timing...

    • Like 1
  11. 4 hours ago, Bosco said:

    Those who think it’s rigged look like idiots, as usual.


    So much of the NBA is "nudged" in certain areas. A few things, like the Lakers beating the Sacramento Kings in ~2000 & Miami Heat beating the Mavericks in 2006, were absolutely rigged, 100%.

    This result shows that not everything is rigged... and the NBA is going to suffer because of this.

     

    1 hour ago, Michael Knight said:

    Zion to the Pelicans was about the worst possible option for the NBA and for Zion. Dude is fucked

    New Orleans is a shit hole. 

    Having to play basketball in New Orleans is tantamount to being chosen by the Washington Generals with the #1 pick.

    This lottery felt like the winning ticket was immediately dropped in the mud. Then the NBA cut away while assistants got on their hands and knees and started slowly moving their hands through the mud trying to find that dropped ticket while someone tried to distract the cameras from the muddy search to ask rhetorically "How awesome is this?".. still searching in the mud for the winning ticket.

     

    48 minutes ago, NowThis said:

    how soon until  he demands a trade?

    refresh me.. why does AD want to be traded?

    why does NOLA have an NBA team anyway? When will they move to Seattle?


    1) Zion should pull an Eli Manning and demand that either the team moves to Seattle or he get traded.

    2) AD is in the last year of his contract and absolutely will NOT resign with New Orleans. If they want to make the best of a lose-lose situation, they have to trade him. It is like a soccer player going into the last year of his contract and his team has to sell him at a discount, because they know that in 5 months, he can sign with a new team (in the middle of the season) and the second half of the season there will be a lovely albatross around the neck of the club.

    3) No one is really sure why NOLA has a team other than they used to have one and they lost it... and Charlotte couldn't even keep a team.

    • Like 1
  12. Is anyone else going to the London Wine Fair next week?

    Screen-Shot-2019-05-14-at-5-53-14-PM.png

     

    Should be a festival of wrinkly pasty white people.

    "Featuring over 14,000 wines from 32 countries" and roughly 1,100 different wineries. There are also heaps of educational talks and specialized presentations that make it as much of a Wine Industry Conference as it is a Wine Expo.

    https://www.londonwinefair.com


    And here's a list of the WINES AVAILABLE FOR TASTING: http://bottlebooks.londonwinefair.com/wines

    Does anyone have any suggestions of wines I should seek out? (Thanks in advance.)

     

     

    SIDE NOTE:  Apparently this week (and perhaps this past weekend) is Bordeaux's Wine Fair. I won't be making it to that, but I have an Argentine sommelier amiga who is there, that's how I know.

  13. 1 hour ago, Schulz2.0 said:

    Easier to bankroll your club when you can make up whatever revenue you want.

    Especially with your purchased World Cup coming up.

    "The Fighting Middle Eastern War Lords!"...

    ..."and Slave Owners & Human Traffickers!"

     

    • Like 2
  14. 4 hours ago, G650 said:

    ...And I always watch the finish in Santa Barbara as it makes me nostalgic for my time there. 

    [snip]

    Jealous you are almost in London. My home away from home...


    This year the finish is in Pasadena, where they will circle "The House That Vince Built" (The Rose Bowl) a few times leading to the finish line.


    I've been through London a handful of times, but I've never stayed more than 24 hours. This will be the visit time that I'm actually stopping there for a bit. A few of those nights I'll be staying with a friend and frequenting his corner pub. It should be fun.

  15. 9 hours ago, G650 said:

    ToC is a pretty substantial race in its own right these days.


    Yes, during the preview of the race, they kept talking about how it used to be a joke warmup race in February, but now it is near the midway point of the season (their observation), so it is a perfect opportunity for teams or riders to start fresh if they've had a bad start of the season and reset for the rest of the year. 

    They also said that for the first time, this year's tour will include the opportunity to earn points that could toward the world rankings.

    So even though it is still sponsored by a manufacturer of EPO, it is a legit race now that includes a 3 stage women's race that covers some of the same roads the same day as the men's race, so people can line the streets on 3 different days and see the women race by and then the men. (In fact, I think that it is THE "stage race" in May for the women, so it will get the top female teams and riders in the world.)

    They also mentioned how much the riders enjoy the Nice Hotels and the Big Beds that are found at each stop in California.

    I guess that sometimes staying in a 200 year-old hotel built for people who were 5'2" and with thick brick walls that hate WiFi isn't always as charming as some would think. (That being said, I'm going to stay in a hotel that is a former house... along a row of identical hotel conversions, that supposedly has tiny rooms this Sunday night in London, and then am considering a very modest former (fake?) castle a week from Thursday in the Ribera del Duero region of Spain.

  16. So I just thought about the Giro d'Italia and looked it up and it started yesterday, May 11th.

    And there was EPO Tour of California preview show on TV today an it turns out that the ToC starts today, May 12th.

    I then looked up to see the different teams competing in each and there is more than 50% cross pollination between to the two races, so I guess that teams are using the ToC to get multi-stage race miles into he legs of JV riders as well as some main riders who they are holding back from the Giro d'Italia in anticipation of the Tour de France.

    *Teams listed below in BOLD are competing in both multi-stage races at the same time.

    Giro d'Italia Team List:  https://www.cyclingstage.com/giro-2019/riders-italy-2019/

    Movistar Team
    AG2R La Mondiale
    Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec
    Astana Pro Team
    Bahrain Merida
    Bardiani – CSF
    BORA – hansgrohe

    CCC
    Deceuninck – Quick-Step
    EF Education First
    Groupama – FDJ
    Israel Cycling Academy
    Lotto Soudal
    Mitchelton-Scott
    Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizanè
    Dimension Data
    Team Ineos
    Jumbo – Visma
    Katusha – Alpecin
    Team Sunweb
    Trek – Segafredo

    UAE-Team Emirates

     

    EPO Tour of California Team List: https://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/the-race/teams

    Astana Pro Team
    Bahrain Merida
    BORA – hansgrohe

    CCC
    Confidis
    Deceuninck – Quick-Step
    EF Education First
    Hagens Berman Axeon Cycling Team
    Israel Cycling Academy
    Team Dimension Data
    Team Jumbo – Visma
    Team Katusha – Alpecin
    Team Sunweb
    Trek – Segafredo

    UAE-Team Emirates
    USA Cycling

  17. 1 hour ago, shnsajax said:

    Weah is heading to the U20 World Cup. Sargent and Adams are heading to the Gold Cup. Kind of wanted to see Sargent at the U20, but as long as he is getting burn at the Gold Cup I really don't care too much.

    I absolutely wanted to see Sargent and Adams on the U-20 team.

    The Gold Cup is a fucking joke. If you're going to have Michael Bradley on the USMNT squad for the tournament, it means that it is a fucking joke.

    With Sargent & Adams, we would have had an opportunity to go make the Semis and from there, who knows? It just pisses me off that we finally have an opportunity to do something in a FIFA World Cup at any level and we piss it away on a fucking GOLD CUP!

    • Like 1
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