English Premier League and La Liga Football

[Andaluz]

Okay, this is an American forum, but I can't believe there aren't many people here that aren't interested in the Beautiful Game, and it doesn't come more beautiful than that of my native country, England and my adopted country Spain.

Here's a thread to discuss it all.

My adopted Spanish heroes of FC Barcelona thrashed out a tough 2-2 draw with the evil Real Madrid last night in the first leg of the Supercopa. Any thoughts? I thought that class eventually told. Real were organised, determined and very motivated, the opposite of how Barca began the game. Nevertheless, Barca earned the draw through the genius of Messi and despite some worrying defensive frailties, especially the nightmare performance of Mascherano.

Tonight, my beloved of 42 years, Manchester City began their first real attempt at the English Premier League with a 4-0 destruction of new boys, Swansea City. Sergio Agüero, a club record signing scored two and made one and our hopes now are high and handsome. Is there anyone out there (who knows what they are talking about) who doubts that we wil be challenging United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool for that first championship title in...erm... 43 years?

All matters footballistic can be brought up here, apart from anything to do with that Gridiron nonesense you call football, but in which about 2 people ever touch the ball with their foot.

 

[ekrem]

Chelski and the Sheikhs buying up the English clubs is a distortion in fair-play. Unbelievable how much they pump into the Clubs.
Paris Saint-German was also bought by Arab investors and they've spent the most in this summer's transfer-period.

Between English and Spanish league I prefer Spanish league (more quality+more local identification as these are real city clubs and not some foreign investor's toys) although Barca and Real are heavily in debt. Sanchis and Fabregas were very good transfers for Barca.

But best league is German Bundesliga. German Football Federation is the richest in the world and in last years they've invested millions into youth-development. Mourinho has spotted the trend with Khedira, Özil, Sahin...
I watch some Spanish games once in a while, and this will now increase due to Arda Turan transfer to Atletico. He is best Turkish player together with Real's Sahin.
Özil isn't "counted" as Turk because he has decided to play for Germany.

If you (Spanish) want to repeat your new national-team success, you have to beat German national team in EC and WC. Last week they beat Brazil 3:1 and are absolutely dominating the EC-qualification group.

I played soccer myself in my youth.

 

[L.K.Eder]

ekrem, is süper lig still functional?

i lost track after the umpteenth match fixing scandal.

what a mess

 

[ekrem]

ekrem, is süper lig still functional?

i lost track after the umpteenth match fixing scandal.

what a mess

Yes, total mess.
But it's sign of "rule of law" finally reaching every society aspect, the involved (including high-profile Club Presidents) will likely be sent to prison.
We'll bounce back for the simple reason of demographics and every year being born more than 1 Million nappers.

We applied for EC venue 2016 which we unfortunately lost against France. Prime Minister has decided that Stadiums will be built and upgraded anyway.

 

[Toro]

My predictions for the Premiership this season;

1. Liverpool FC
2. ????????

...

20. Manchester United.

YNWA!

 

[L.K.Eder]

My predictions for the Premiership this season;

1. Liverpool FC
2. ????????

...

20. Manchester United.

YNWA!

2. will be QPR

 

[Swagger]

There's nothing "beautiful" about watching a band of glass-knee'd, grossly overpaid halfwits kicking a ball around a field with little or no action in between. It's boring beyond belief and I'd rather pay to watch my own toe nails grow than endure 90 minutes of abject tedium.

Rugby's where the real action's at. Blood, sweat and the very real threat of paralysis. Yup, I'll take that over oikball any day of the week.

 

[ginscpy]

If England is so great in soccer - how come they stunk up the World Cup the last time -and havent won the thing since 1966?

 

[L.K.Eder]

If England is so great in soccer - how come they stunk up the World Cup the last time -and havent won the thing since 1966?

it's because they just buy french, brazilian, dutch and argentinians to play in the clubs. and they don't have a goalkeeper worth anything.

oh, and they were totally demolished by the young german team in south africa.

awesome.

 

[Swagger]

And they say that chivalry's dead, eh, L. K. Eder...

 

[L.K.Eder]

la liga fällt erst mal aus wegen is nich.

La Liga - Weekend strike still on despite talks - Yahoo! Eurosport

 

[PeteEU]

la liga fällt erst mal aus wegen is nich.

Yep and it sucks.... but I do understand the players. Several clubs have not paid their players for months and something has to be done about it.

 

[PeteEU]

My adopted Spanish heroes of FC Barcelona thrashed out a tough 2-2 draw with the evil Real Madrid last night in the first leg of the Supercopa. Any thoughts? I thought that class eventually told. Real were organised, determined and very motivated, the opposite of how Barca began the game. Nevertheless, Barca earned the draw through the genius of Messi and despite some worrying defensive frailties, especially the nightmare performance of Mascherano.

They won the title last night (late last night...) and deserved it barely. Real Madrid actually attempted to play football and played well again for 88ish minutes of the game.

But then the whole game was tainted by the assault by Marcelo on Fabregas near the end and then the attack by Murinho (Manager of Real Madrid) on the Barcelona Assistant coach during the bench bust up which saw one player from each team get sent off plus the sending off Marcelo. I hope the Spanish FA throws the book at Murinho for his assault.. this has got to stop... Murinho even called the assistant manager for Barcelona a "Dick" at the press conference...

Tonight, my beloved of 42 years, Manchester City began their first real attempt at the English Premier League with a 4-0 destruction of new boys, Swansea City. Sergio Agüero, a club record signing scored two and made one and our hopes now are high and handsome. Is there anyone out there (who knows what they are talking about) who doubts that we wil be challenging United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool for that first championship title in...erm... 43 years?

Man City looked crap in the first half and it was only when Kun came on that the team started to look like a top team and dang he showed those spoilt rich kids at Man City how to play football... Hope he and Man City keep it up because then it will be a fun season to watch.

Sucks that the Spanish La Liga are striking but I do understand them.. guess it is only the British EPL this weekend... but what a game on Saturday... Liverpool vs Arsenal..

 

[Andaluz]

Chelski and the Sheikhs buying up the English clubs is a distortion in fair-play. Unbelievable how much they pump into the Clubs.
Paris Saint-German was also bought by Arab investors and they've spent the most in this summer's transfer-period.

Between English and Spanish league I prefer Spanish league (more quality+more local identification as these are real city clubs and not some foreign investor's toys) although Barca and Real are heavily in debt. Sanchis and Fabregas were very good transfers for Barca.

But best league is German Bundesliga. German Football Federation is the richest in the world and in last years they've invested millions into youth-development. Mourinho has spotted the trend with Khedira, Özil, Sahin...
I watch some Spanish games once in a while, and this will now increase due to Arda Turan transfer to Atletico. He is best Turkish player together with Real's Sahin.
Özil isn't "counted" as Turk because he has decided to play for Germany.

If you (Spanish) want to repeat your new national-team success, you have to beat German national team in EC and WC. Last week they beat Brazil 3:1 and are absolutely dominating the EC-qualification group.

I played soccer myself in my youth.

Top-level football has been largely about high finance for some time and that applies to the bigger and smaller leagues in Europe. It's no surprise that Fenerbahce has been the most successful team for some time; they are by far the richest club in Turkey. The same applies to Spain where the extension of credit to the highly indebted Real and Barca, without any requirement for the clubs to repay their loans, also acts as, arguably, a distortion of fair play and ensures that only those two have any real hope of winning the league.

I agree with your praise for the Bundesliga. It is well-run, properly financed and far more responsive to the needs and desires of the fans. Unfortunately this level playing field ensures that the best German teams are held back from competing with the richest English, Italian and Spanish teams.

I'm not sure what your point is about repeating the national team success. Of course they will need to beat the best of the other nations in the EC and WC - that's what 'repeating your success' means, isn't it? La Selección has not been playing too well in recent friendlies, but then they are not trying that hard, but giving new faces a chance to get experience playing international football. The Germans are very strong at the moment, but I think that's more about them wanting to make up for their poor showing in the WC semi-final.

As for comparing the English Premiership and La Liga, I notice that peteeu has joined us. We've been over this subject elsewhere. I maintain that when it is good, the quality of football in La Liga is higher than the Premiership, but that level doesn't happen every week and really is only produced by 4-5 clubs. The average quality of Premiership football is higher, more consistent, it just doesn't reach the towering heights of a great Clásico. That may be about to change with the emergence of the supremely talented and ambitious Manchester City side this season. I may be somewhat biased on that point however.

 

[Andaluz]

They won the title last night (late last night...) and deserved it barely. Real Madrid actually attempted to play football and played well again for 88ish minutes of the game.

Agreed. Real played as well as they had done the previous week, but were still beaten by an under-performing Barca. I think that tells us quite a lot about how far Real still have to go to match the the Azulgrana.

But then the whole game was tainted by the assault by Marcelo on Fabregas near the end and then the attack by Murinho (Manager of Real Madrid) on the Barcelona Assistant coach during the bench bust up which saw one player from each team get sent off plus the sending off Marcelo. I hope the Spanish FA throws the book at Murinho for his assault.. this has got to stop... Murinho even called the assistant manager for Barcelona a "Dick" at the press conference...

Mourinho was a disgrace, but I doubt any action will be taken against him. He's the manager of Real ffs.

Man City looked crap in the first half and it was only when Kun came on that the team started to look like a top team and dang he showed those spoilt rich kids at Man City how to play football... Hope he and Man City keep it up because then it will be a fun season to watch.

Nonsense. We were cruising to victory even before Kun made his spectacular debut. The first half was quiet and City took 30 minutes to get going even though they hit the bar twice in that first half-hour. Swansea never looked remotely like scoring and once the City boys began timing their passes and runs, the goals were always going to come. We'd have won easily without Kun's entrance, but what an entrance it was!

Sunday's game will be a very different kettle of fish. Bolton are a very good, very organised side with an excellent manager. They had a rotten end to last season but up until just before Easter were in 7th place. They will be no push-over. Apparently Tevez might play up front with Kun in the second half. That will be worth watching!

 

[Andaluz]

If England is so great in soccer - how come they stunk up the World Cup the last time -and havent won the thing since 1966?

The English league is excellent in terms of the quality of the football, but then it is an international league these days, not really a domestic league at all.

England's national team are very average and that is probably because players, like most English football fans, are much more interested in playing the club sport. If you asked many, if not most, English footie fans whether they'd prefer to see England win the WC or their own team to win the CL, I reckon most would take the CL. I know I would. Man City champions of Europe? I'd take losing to the Germans in a penalty shoot-out (again) if that happened.

 

[ginscpy]

If England is so great in soccer - how come they stunk up the World Cup the last time -and havent won the thing since 1966?

The English league is excellent in terms of the quality of the football, but then it is an international league these days, not really a domestic league at all.

England's national team are very average and that is probably because players, like most English football fans, are much more interested in playing the club sport. If you asked many, if not most, English footie fans whether they'd prefer to see England win the WC or their own team to win the CL, I reckon most would take the CL. I know I would. Man City champions of Europe? I'd take losing to the Germans in a penalty shoot-out (again) if that happened.

England proper just simply doesn't have the athletes.

They don't play basketball, they don't play baseball, they don't play American football, they don't play ice hockey- they are really out of the loop not playing sports most of the rest of the world plays. - they haven't had a male tennis player win Wimbledon since the 1930s, they don't do well in the Summer or Winter Olympcs - not even in golf (N.Ireland gets all the glory there.)

And England -by itself - isn't that great in soccer either.

Don't follow cricket or rugby - does England do well in those?

 

[Toro]

Arsenal looked horrendous today.

Even though they are ravaged by injuries, have had stars leave and players suspended, I doubt they will be in the CL next year.

 

[Andaluz]

If England is so great in soccer - how come they stunk up the World Cup the last time -and havent won the thing since 1966?

The English league is excellent in terms of the quality of the football, but then it is an international league these days, not really a domestic league at all.

England's national team are very average and that is probably because players, like most English football fans, are much more interested in playing the club sport. If you asked many, if not most, English footie fans whether they'd prefer to see England win the WC or their own team to win the CL, I reckon most would take the CL. I know I would. Man City champions of Europe? I'd take losing to the Germans in a penalty shoot-out (again) if that happened.

England proper just simply doesn't have the athletes.

They don't play basketball, they don't play baseball, they don't play American football, they don't play ice hockey- they are really out of the loop not playing sports most of the rest of the world plays. - they haven't had a male tennis player win Wimbledon since the 1930s, they don't do well in the Summer or Winter Olympcs - not even in golf (N.Ireland gets all the glory there.)

And England -by itself - isn't that great in soccer either.

Don't follow cricket or rugby - does England do well in those?

That's a very US-centric view on the world of sport. You could say the same of the US and it's non-participation in several of the most popular sports on the planet - cricket is played by far more nations than is baseball. Formula One racing has a greater reach and audience (by far) than any US form of motor racing. Rugby is more widely played than ice hockey, and please don't try to compare the world's most popular sport with American Football, that's like comparing Shakespeare with Peanuts. Check this out.

Great Britain was fourth in the 2008 summer Olympics medal table ahead of Germany, Japan, France and Italy all of whom have bigger populations. If you adjust the figures for population size, GB came second to Australia. True, they don't perform well at the winter games, but that's because the UK gets snow for about one week a year and has no ski resorts, no sled-runs, few ice rinks and doesn't play ice hockey. Brazil doesn't do too well at the winter olympics either.

As for football, the league played in England is the most successful football league in the world in terms of audience and income. The English national team is much less successful. I think I covered that in my earlier post.

Oh, and by the way, currently the top two golfers in the world by the Official World Ranking System are English.

 

[Andaluz]

Arsenal looked horrendous today.

Even though they are ravaged by injuries, have had stars leave and players suspended, I doubt they will be in the CL next year.

Yes, they looked horribly lacking in attacking threat. I heard this week that Arsene almost left this summer to go to newly-wealthy PSG. I have a feeling he may live to regret his loyalty to a club that clearly doesn't share his ambition.