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K-pop, K-drama, K-lit (or "K-literature" if you want to be decent), K-beauty... things that start with K are pretty popular these days[.]() But can any of them really compare with K League?
Contents:

Why watch

Here comes the marketing spiel. If you follow K League, you'll get throw-ins like THIS, headers like THIS, and epic knee-slides like THIS. Are you not entertained?
The best practical reason for following it is that you can get live football at a time of day when there's not much other football on - afternoons in East Asia, mornings in UK and Europe, and evenings or nights in the Americas. It's also a summer league, so you'll never have to go without club football from ~June-August again.
The highly scientific and not-at-all-questionable IFFHS rankings also has K League as the best league in Asia by quite some bit, and the 20th best league in the world. If the 20th best league sounds like something you might be interested in, carry on reading. If not, also carry on reading.

2020 season recap

I started writing a separate 2020 season recap, but I didn't get past a gif of Jesse Pinkman shouting "He can't keep getting away with it!", where in this case "he" is Jeonbuk and "it" is winning the league. However, I've now some time to compose myself, so here goes my mini summary.
First some "best of" videos
The reason I wanted to scream like Jesse is that Jeonbuk just weren't that good - they regularly dropped points to teams in the lower half of the table, scraped wins, and played most of the season without a competent striker. This feeling that Jeonbuk were a bit pants was verified when Jeonbuk were knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage for the first time in ages. So why couldn't anyone take advantage of that?
The answer lies in Ulsan. Ulsan lost out on the 2019 league title on the tiebreaker of a single goal scored, and there was real determination to get it done in 2020. In 2020 Ulsan were great. They spent the majority of the season at the top of the table, were crowned champions of Asia in an unbeaten run, and only lost to two teams all year. Unfortunately, one of those teams was Jeonbuk, and they lost to them three times in the league. If Ulsan could have just drawn ONCE, they would have won their first league title since 2005. But they didn't. They came runner-up, trailing Jeonbuk by 3 points. To rub salt into the wound, they also lost to Jeonbuk in the FA Cup final the week after the league finished.
As for everyone else, in order of finishing:
From K League 2 Jeju bounce back after just one year, possibly thanks to promotion specialist Nam Ki-il, and Suwon FC won promotion with literally the last kick of the season to ensure we'll see a Suwon Derby again in 2021.
Also since it was the "big thing" in 2020, I'll give a small mention to coronavirus. Due to an abundance of caution, crowds were absent for most of the season, but not a single positive case among K League 1 clubs occured, which is just incredible.

The off-season

AFC Champions League

After the domestic season was finished, there was the small matter of almost an entire Champions League campaign to play in Qatar. There were 4 teams representing K League.
FC Seoul arrived at the competition with yet another caretaker manager, this time it was a scout from their backroom staff because they couldn't find anyone else with the correct coaching license that the AFC requires. They continued their domestic form and went home early, finishing 3rd in their group.
Jeonbuk also finished 3rd in their group. In their defence they did have a lot of their usual starting XI missing, but the Jeonbuk of yesteryear would have still managed. They just weren't very good in 2020.
Suwon Bluewings were perhaps the darkest horse at the tournament, and despite turning up with an all-Korean squad and without their captain, showed a will to scrap for every single ball and a self-confidence that was quite terrifying. They played in what was my personal favourite game of the tournament, a win over the then-reigning J.League champions Yokohama FM which included a lob from the halfway line. Unfortunately they had to play the majority of their next game with 10 men. They still pushed it to penalties, but didn't get lucky. If you count a loss on penalties as a draw, they still left Qatar unbeaten.
Ulsan... well they won it. Well done them. Their manager headed into the competition knowing he wouldn't have a job afterwards regardless of outcome, but they still bossed it. They lifted the trophy undefeated for only the second time in the competition's history. The first team that did it was themselves, in 2012.

Club World Cup

During Ulsan's rebuild, they had to jet off to Qatar again to fight for the title of champions of the universe. Literally half of the players who played in the Champions League final in December did not make the return trip to Qatar, either due to injury or having left the club, and the manager and 5 players were making their debut for the club. Expectations were not high, and they met those expectations by losing to Tigres and Al-Duhail. However, the trip wasn't totally pointless, as they managed to score this offside [goal that some said was Puskas-worthy]().

Transfers

The transfer window followed the familiar pattern of the previous season's best talent leaving for richer (but not necessarily better) leagues abroad, and an influx of Eastern Europeans with exotic names.
One notable pair of transfers is Seongnam's signing of forwards Park Yong-ji and Sergiu Bus. Will they be any good? Who knows. But the prospect of Park and Bus playing up front is the reddit comedian's wet dream.
Considering they came within touching distance of the league 2 seasons in a row and were just crowned champions of Asia, Ulsan are undergoing a massive rebuild. The new coach has minimal club coaching experience, and hasn't managed for over three years, but is apparently getting rid of anyone over the age of 30. Among the departures, captain Shin Jin-ho went to their East Coast Derby rivals Pohang, but the biggest shock is their striker Junior, who just had the most prolific season in K League history, being let go on a free to China.
I won't go over the other couple of hundred transfers that happened, but here's a list of all the foreigners in K League this season so that you can see if you recognise any journeymen:
Club AFC slot
Daegu 🇧🇷Cesinha 🇧🇷Edgar 🇯🇵Tsubasa
Gangwon 🇷🇸Siladi 🇯🇵Ishida 🇺🇿Ashurmatov
Gwangju 🇧🇷Felipe
Incheon 🇧🇷Negueba 🇲🇪Mugosa 🇨🇷Aguilar 🇦🇺Delbridge
Jeju 🇺🇿Kenzhaboev
Jeonbuk 🇧🇷Gustavo 🇬🇲Barrow 🇷🇺/🇩🇪Iljutcenko 🇯🇵Kunimoto
Pohang 🇨🇴Palacios 🇦🇺Grant
Seongnam 🇦🇹Windbichler 🇷🇸Mulic 🇷🇴Bus 🇺🇿Iskanderov
FC Seoul 🇷🇸Palocevic 🇪🇦Osmar 🇺🇿Alibaev
Suwon FC 🇧🇷Murilo 🇿🇦Veldwijk
Suwon Bluewings 🇮🇹Dumitru 🇷🇸Deric 🇨🇦Henry 🇦🇺Antonis
Ulsan 🇦🇹Hinterseer 🇳🇱Bulthuis 🇦🇺Davidson

Matchday 1

The season kicks off on Saturday, with reigning champions Jeonbuk hosting FC Seoul. The fixture is known as "the legendary match" (it's purely a Korean word play, it's not really that legendary), and FC Seoul haven't won this tie since 2017. FC Seoul have however had probably the most promising transfer window of anyone this winter, so putting an end to this record wouldn't be that shocking.
The times are admittedly not that convenient for UK viewers, but after the clocks change and the kick-off times shift to later in the day to avoid the daytime heat, you can still have a long lie-in and catch the whole match.
The K League 1 matchday 1 kick-off times are as follows:
Saturday 27th Feb
Sunday 28th Feb
Monday 1st Mar

How to follow

There is only one place on reddit to follow all the K League happenings - KLeague. Over the past year, we've grown by about 350 subscribers over 45% (wow!) and now have image flairs that work across old, new, and mobile reddit. It's your go-to place to ask "stupid" questions and seek terrible advice on who to "root for". If you check the subreddit wiki you'll find plenty of info on how to get into it and how to watch the action live or highlights.
There is no Supercup/Community Shield in Korea, but the first match of the season is arranged to be the previous season's League champions vs the FA Cup winners. This means it's Jeonbuk vs Suwon on Friday. The smart money will be on a Jeonbuk win, but the dollarydoos will be on Suwon. Given that nobody's played a league match since 1st December last year though, everything's a bit unpredictable.

The off-season

The main transfers that I can remember include
Ki Sung-yueng almost returned to the K League but talks broke down due to some weird contract clause that FC Seoul still had over him, leading Ki to write this very mature message on his instagram and head off to Spain:
Hurt me with a lie and I can hurt you with the truth...stop playing with me u ain't gonna like when I play back
There were of course many many more transfers in the winter window, but none that would interest most people reading this.
What everyone should be interested in is the K League mascot "class president election", a popular vote for the K League's favourite mascot. It was a two horse race between Daegu's adorable Rica the hedgehog, and the prince of darkness, Suwon Bluewing's Aguileon. Actually I'm not sure which one the prince of darkness is. To my dismay, Aguileon managed to take 1st place, leading Rica by over 1,000 votes. Although he only came 7th, I also want to give special mention to Jeju United's orange.
There were big changes in the lower leagues, as three divisions were merged into two, sorting out the confusing naming schemes, and removing barriers to promotion and relegation throughout the pyramid. The two new divisions are semi-pro, called K3 League and K4 League, sitting below the professional K League 2, and above the amateur K5 league. The long-standing target of having pro/rel with K League 2 "within 5 years" now actually looks possible.

How do I watch it?

Watching live
Watching K League outside of Korea used to be tricky and in Western markets the rights were typically hoovered up by sites like Bet365.
Interest abroad for K League rights are heightened now, so this year there are at least some countries that have been confirmed to broadcast K League, mainly in Asia and Eastern Europe. There are rumours of France, Germany, Italy, Australia, and USA (ESPN?) being interested in the rights, but nothing confirmed yet.
If you don't live in a country that has broadcasting rights, there is still a way to watch online from a proper source. If you can get yourself a Korean IP address, i.e. using a VPN, it's very easy to watch many of the matches in a (mostly?) legal way. If you're using a browser simply head to the Korean web portal Naver (https://sports.naver.com/kfootball/index.nhn), and when there's a match on, it will appear at the top of the webpage, usually with some indication that live video is available. Click on it and start watching. (Note that I haven't checked if it's this straightforward on desktop; I don't own a computer. There's a chance you might be asked to install a browser add-on or something - you can ask in the comments here or on kleague if you need help). An alternative if you're on mobile is to install the "Naver TV" app and find a match in the Live tab. You can also watch back full matches that were shown on Naver if you miss it live.
I won't share less-legal ways to watch here, but if you head over to kleague and look at recent posts you might find something won't find anything so don't even think about it buddy.
One thing to consider about live matches is the time difference - in the winter months, matches kick off around 5am or 7am GMT. In the summer months, kick off is ~10am or 11am GMT. However, for the first couple of weekends the kick-off times are spread throughout the day, so you should be able to catch a game wherever you are.
Watching highlights
If an inconvenient time difference is putting you off, you can still enjoy K League even if you don't watch live. Every single match gets a high quality ~10 minute highlight video produced that is region-free on YouTube. Just imagine you're watching MOTD but without the bad punditry. The official K League channel, should be hosting these videos again this year, but I should include the disclaimer that there's a possibility that the rights to show highlights might have been sold this year, in which case you'd have to find out who has those rights in your country. Highlights are usually uploaded 30 mins – 2 hours after the end of a match, although I did read that AI in their new media centre will be producing highlights within a few minutes of the match ending...

Choosing a team

If any of you want to pick a team to support, if you give some criteria in the comments I can help by suggesting a team, but I'll leave some info here based on what I think could be some common ways to pick a team.
If looking good is your primary concern, here's an imgur album of all home and away K League kits. This album has the kits from both K League 1 & K League 2, so of you're only interested in the top flight you'll have to ignore a few. If looking good is really important to you, there's one particular corner of the internet that has already given their seal of approval to Daegu FC.
This short hype video also serves to show all club crests if you want to base a decision on that.
submitted by loser0001 to test [link] [comments]

So, what just happened in the hoffenhein - bayern game? Surely theres a case for that match being void on a bet?

As far as I know there was a banner put up by certain fans that caused the players to reside to the tunnel, if anyone could explain further? But the plauers came back out and the match was restarted from the 77th minute but for the remaining 13 minutes both teams just had a pass about and played keepy ups in the middle if the park, goalies included, surely that match should be void on a bet considering 13 minutes of the game was spent standing talking and no football was played?
submitted by Live-Love-Lie to SoccerBetting [link] [comments]

South Korea's 2020 K League season starts this Friday 8th May - a very mini guide

Delayed by coronavirus by 10 weeks, Asia's oldest professional league is finally here
Contents:

Why should you care?

The most obvious reason is that it's being played at all and will probably be the highest-quality football on offer in the world right now.
Longer-term, when the football calendar returns to normal, following the K League means you'll never have to go without club football from ~June-August again, as the K League plays from ~February–November. When everyone in the DD is lamenting how empty their lives are now that the EPL has finished, you can just enjoy watching the K League in full swing every weekend.
I could wax lyrical about how amazing the K League is, but really those will be the best reasons for most people. Aside from that, it does generally provide very good entertainment. Last season we saw:

The impact of coronavirus

The K League season was postponed in late February, 5 days before it was meant to kick off. Training was allowed to continue, although friendlies against other teams were banned. South Korea's response to the virus has widely been considered "very good", and so talks took place in April about resuming the season soon after friendlies were allowed again.
Clubs initially ruled out opening behind closed doors due to their reliance on gate receipts for their finances, but I guess they changed their minds on that, as there will be no crowd at the beginning with no date set for opening the doors. However, given that South Korea held a general election with their highest ever voter turnout a few weeks ago, with no apparent subsequent impact on coronavirus numbers, I'm hopeful there will be a crowd in the near future. New cases in South Korea have been about 10 per day for the past few weeks, and a majority of those have been arrivals from abroad. Social distancing is set to be relaxed from Wednesday, moving into a new phase of "everyday life quarantine", with public facilities and schools ready to reopen.
The K League 1 season is normally 38 games, but will be reduced to 27 games for this year - each of the 12 teams will play each other twice, and then after round 22 the table will "split" for the final 5 games. A league champion will only be crowned if at least 22 games are played.
If any player or coach tests positive, their team will not play for at least 2 weeks. No staff or players connected with K League clubs were reported as testing positive during the outbreak, and last week all players, coaches, and support staff in K League 1 & K League 2 were tested prior to the start of the season, all testing negative.
One interesting side-effect of the delay is that the K League will be the first to implement the new 2020-2021 IFAB rules, which bring a bit more common sense into penalising a goalkeeper for coming off their line for a penalty, and only penalise an accidental handball from the attacker if it happens immediately before a goal.

How do I get into it?

You could just start watching, but you might want to know a bit more about what you're watching. There are only a handful of English-language websites that cover the K League. Probably the most comprehensive overview can be found on this webpage, which basically serves as an index for a lot more content, but you can pick and choose what you want to read. If you want something a bit more digestable, I've been making OC on reddit over the past year, and if you read some of it, you'd be as well-informed as most who watch it:
Guide to 2019 K League - perhaps a bit wordy, but could be worth a skim - not much changes in the space of a year anyway.
Korean derbies - soccer really loves a derby. Here I tried to cover the main ones within the top flight with a bit of history, some stories, and significant matches.
Season in review: 2019 K League - my recap of the season past. It was actually pretty exciting, with the title race going to the final day and decided on a single goal scored.
I've also made this map so that you can get an idea of where each club is geographically. Stadium pictures are included.

Matchday 1

There is no Supercup/Community Shield in Korea, but the first match of the season is arranged to be the previous season's League champions vs the FA Cup winners. This means it's Jeonbuk vs Suwon on Friday. The smart money will be on a Jeonbuk win, but the dollarydoos will be on Suwon. Given that nobody's played a league match since 1st December last year though, everything's a bit unpredictable.
The K League 1 matchday 1 kick-off times are as follows:
Friday 8th May 19:00 local time (10:00 GMT) Jeonbuk vs Suwon
Saturday 9th May 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT) Ulsan vs Sangju Sangmu
16:30 local time (07:30 GMT) Incheon vs Daegu
19:00 local time (10:00 GMT) Gwangju vs Seongnam
Sunday 10th May 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT) Pohang vs Busan
16:30 local time (07:30 GMT) Gangwon vs FC Seoul

The off-season

The main transfers that I can remember include
Ki Sung-yueng almost returned to the K League but talks broke down due to some weird contract clause that FC Seoul still had over him, leading Ki to write this very mature message on his instagram and head off to Spain:
Hurt me with a lie and I can hurt you with the truth...stop playing with me u ain't gonna like when I play back
There were of course many many more transfers in the winter window, but none that would interest most people reading this.
What everyone should be interested in is the K League mascot "class president election", a popular vote for the K League's favourite mascot. It was a two horse race between Daegu's adorable Rica the hedgehog, and the prince of darkness, Suwon Bluewing's Aguileon. Actually I'm not sure which one the prince of darkness is. To my dismay, Aguileon managed to take 1st place, leading Rica by over 1,000 votes. Although he only came 7th, I also want to give special mention to Jeju United's orange.
There were big changes in the lower leagues, as three divisions were merged into two, sorting out the confusing naming schemes, and removing barriers to promotion and relegation throughout the pyramid. The two new divisions are semi-pro, called K3 League and K4 League, sitting below the professional K League 2, and above the amateur K5 league. The long-standing target of having pro/rel with K League 2 "within 5 years" now actually looks possible.

How do I watch it?

Watching live
Watching K League outside of Korea used to be tricky and in Western markets the rights were typically hoovered up by sites like Bet365.
Interest abroad for K League rights are heightened now, so this year there are at least some countries that have been confirmed to broadcast K League, mainly in Asia and Eastern Europe. There are rumours of France, Germany, Italy, Australia, and USA (ESPN?) being interested in the rights, but nothing confirmed yet.
If you don't live in a country that has broadcasting rights, there is still a way to watch online from a proper source. If you can get yourself a Korean IP address, i.e. using a VPN, it's very easy to watch many of the matches in a (mostly?) legal way. If you're using a browser simply head to the Korean web portal Naver (https://sports.naver.com/kfootball/index.nhn), and when there's a match on, it will appear at the top of the webpage, usually with some indication that live video is available. Click on it and start watching. (Note that I haven't checked if it's this straightforward on desktop; I don't own a computer. There's a chance you might be asked to install a browser add-on or something - you can ask in the comments here or on kleague if you need help). An alternative if you're on mobile is to install the "Naver TV" app and find a match in the Live tab. You can also watch back full matches that were shown on Naver if you miss it live.
I won't share less-legal ways to watch here, but if you head over to kleague and look at recent posts you might find something won't find anything so don't even think about it buddy.
One thing to consider about live matches is the time difference - in the winter months, matches kick off around 5am or 7am GMT. In the summer months, kick off is ~10am or 11am GMT. However, for the first couple of weekends the kick-off times are spread throughout the day, so you should be able to catch a game wherever you are.
Watching highlights
If an inconvenient time difference is putting you off, you can still enjoy K League even if you don't watch live. Every single match gets a high quality ~10 minute highlight video produced that is region-free on YouTube. Just imagine you're watching MOTD but without the bad punditry. The official K League channel, should be hosting these videos again this year, but I should include the disclaimer that there's a possibility that the rights to show highlights might have been sold this year, in which case you'd have to find out who has those rights in your country. Highlights are usually uploaded 30 mins – 2 hours after the end of a match, although I did read that AI in their new media centre will be producing highlights within a few minutes of the match ending...

Choosing a team

If any of you want to pick a team to support, if you give some criteria in the comments I can help by suggesting a team, but I'll leave some info here based on what I think could be some common ways to pick a team.
If looking good is your primary concern, here's an imgur album of all home and away K League kits. This album has the kits from both K League 1 & K League 2, so of you're only interested in the top flight you'll have to ignore a few. If looking good is really important to you, there's one particular corner of the internet that has already given their seal of approval to Daegu FC.
If you want to support your countrymen, here's a list of all foreigners playing in K League 1. There's no 🇺🇸Americans this year (Mix Diskerud was on loan at Ulsan last year, but he's returned to Man City), but Johnsen who plays for Ulsan was born and grew up in the US. 🇵🇹Portuguese Jose Morais is manager of Jeonbuk, formerly assistant manager to Mourinho.
Club AFC slot
Busan 🇧🇷Vintecinco 🇧🇷Rômulo 🇧🇷Reis 🇺🇿Tursunov
Daegu 🇧🇷Césinha 🇧🇷Edgar 🇲🇪Dejan 🇯🇵Tsubasa
Gangwon 🇯🇵Nakazato
Gwangju 🇧🇷Felipe 🇧🇷Willyan 🇨🇷Ureña 🇺🇿Ashurmatov
Incheon 🇧🇦Bunoza 🇲🇪Mugosa 🇳🇬Kehinde 🇦🇺Mahazi
Jeonbuk 🇧🇷Murilo 🇿🇦Veldwijk 🇯🇵Kunimoto
Pohang 🇨🇴Palacios 🇷🇺Iljutcenko 🇷🇸Palocevic 🇦🇺O'Neill
Seongnam 🇭🇷Jovanovic 🇭🇷Kis 🇺🇿Iskanderov
FC Seoul 🇧🇷Adriano 🇪🇦Osmar 🇷🇸Pesic 🇺🇿Alibaev
Suwon 🇦🇺Antonis 🇧🇦Krpic 🇨🇦Henry 🇦🇺Taggart
Ulsan 🇧🇷Junior 🇳🇱Bulthuis 🇳🇴Johnsen 🇦🇺Davidson
There's a lack of 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿English representation this year, but if you're looking for some familarity, there's a handful of South Koreans who have played in the English pyramid:
Other Koreans who had a stint in the 'top 5 leagues' include Park Joo-ho (Ulsan), Hong Jeong-ho, Kim Jin-su (both with Jeonbuk now), Yun Jun-tae (now with FC Seoul), and Kim Kyung-joong (now with Gangwon).
This short hype video also serves to show all club crests if you want to base a decision on that.
submitted by loser0001 to soccer [link] [comments]

Friday 2nd October 2020

Only had time to look at Dundalk, and the firms I bet with are amongst those yet to price up but having a stab.
 
17:40 Dundalk - Royal Pippen (0.5pt E/W @ 20/1, PaddyPower)
 
Closely matched with Big White Chief, the duo faced an impossible task trying to come from off the pace at Listowel. There will be many big priced winners over the following weeks from that fixture such is the strength of the bias on the flat course. That was a career best from Royal Pippen, and he'll need to back that up against the better bred (and more consistent Jessica Harrington horse) but they've both avoided a low draw and he's double the price.
 
19:15 Dundalk - Irish Ambassador (2.5pt Win @ 8/1, PaddyPower) & Pushaq (0.5pt Win @ 25/1, William Hill)
 
You'd hardly call Irish Ambassador prolific but he's a consistent sort around here and fared much the best of those drawn low last time. Stalls 13, 14 & 16 filled the first 3 home, and the 5th placed horse (inconvenienced by stall 6) has placed subsequently. Irish Ambassador was drawn in 4. He gets stall 12 today though, and I can't see him out the frame. He also gets to race near some pace, namely Pushaq drawn in stall 11. He had absolutely no hope in that same race last time trying to race prominently on the inner. That was also his first run from nearly a year off, so he can produce a significantly stronger effort today.
 
19:45 Dundalk - Wisaka (1pt Win @ 25/1, Bet365)
 
Hopes firmly pinned on a return to Dundalk here, with much the best of his recent efforts being recorded at the venue. There's very little pace on here, and the scarce quantities of it appear to be drawn high. He should be able to track said pace and doubt there will be too much to worry about from the closers, who represent such a higher proportion of this field. This is why I've left Little Camacho alone, who finished 3rd when the race wasn't run to suit last time. PaddyPower trader has put him in at 14s, but surely that won't last and in a much more liquid market he'll be a much less appealing bet.
submitted by smithmustscore to HorseRacingUK [link] [comments]

If you are not watching the Premier League, here is why you are missing out on the greatest underdog fairytale in the history of any professional sport.

Leicester City (pronounced Les-ter), or the Foxes, are a relatively insignificant team. They are often fighting for a mid-table place in the Premier League, just as often slugging it out in lower leagues.
The way the league works is simple: 20 teams play against each other, at home and away, adding up to 38 matches in total. You get 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss, and the team with the most points at the end of the season wins. Unlike in American sports, there are no playoffs in the Premier League. This means that a team can't make it to the playoffs, then catch fire and take the trophy home. No one wins the Premier League by luck or by going on a hot streak at just the right time. They win by being consistently the best over the course of a year. It's not at all unusual for an underdog team to get off to a great start, before eventually dropping down the table as their good form inevitably wears off. It's a long and psychologically grueling season, and it's difficult to keep up the same level over a year, especially once star players get injuries. Over the course of an entire season, the top teams rise to where they belong. A team can easily finish last despite beating the eventual champions. Imagine if the Miracle on Ice players had to play in a league over an entire year - would they finish above the Soviet Union? A title-winning team needs not just to have star players, but also a sufficiently deep squad so that other top quality players can step in when the stars are injured. This is why "little" teams simply do not win the league.
In addition, the Premier League is ruthlessly capitalist. Teams that finish poorly don't get first pick of promising young players, but are instead severely punished with relegation (more on that in the next paragraph). There are no salary caps. The teams with the most money buy up the best players, and those that win trophies and enter elite competitions like the Champions League get huge cash prizes, and attract even more top players, perpetuating the cycle of inequality. Top teams also have the best trainers, the best physios, the best facilities, the best talent scouts. There is a huge disparity in resources and quality between the top teams and the bottom ones, and no real mechanisms to even things up. The same teams almost always finish in the top 4. From 1992-2015 only five teams won the Premier League. The last time a team won the league without having won it before was 38 years ago.
Finishing in the bottom 3 positions (out of 20) is not just humiliating; it's utterly disastrous. It means being relegated to a lower division, which means a subsequent loss of TV money, less fans coming to the stadium since they won't get to see any games against "big" teams and players, and an inevitable loss of that team's best players, who don't want to settle for playing in the lower divisions, and whose salaries the club probably can't afford with the reduced income. Meanwhile, the top 2 finishing teams from the lower division secure automatic promotion, while those who place 3-6 will go to a playoff to decide who will clinch that third promotion spot. The promotion and relegation system makes the stakes incredibly high, and a team that has been relegated may struggle years to go back to the top flight, if they ever make it back at all.
Ok, back to Leicester. An 18th-place finish in the 2003-04 season saw Leicester relegated to the Championship (the second division of English football). The next few years they would struggle to retain their position in the Championship. After a poor 2007-08 season, they sank even lower to League One (which, confusingly, is the third division of English football).
They would climb their way back out of League One at the first attempt. The following season, Leicester were widely touted as favourites to win promotion back to the Premier League, but the next three seasons would prove disappointing. In 2013 they finally barely snuck into 6th place, high enough to secure a place in the play-offs for a promotion spot, but lost in absolutely incredible fashion to Watford.
It was the semi-final of the play-offs, a two-legged tie. Leicester saw out the first match in a 1-0 win. Next they had to go to Watford to see out the tie. Watford fought back on their turf, and as the match was winding down the score was 2-1, meaning that on aggregate they stood tied at 2-2. Extra time, and perhaps a penalty shootout beckoned. Then, with just a few seconds left on the clock, Leicester were awarded a penalty to book their spot into the final. What happened next... I will not even describe. Do yourself a favour and watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWSc3-NACSY
Following this heartbreak, Leicester would come back stronger, finishing in first place in 2013-14, securing automatic promotion after 10 years out of the top flight.
Their first season back started promisingly, with a few initial decent results, most notably a stunning 5-3 win over Manchester United. Then misery followed, and after months of terrible results Leicester sat rock bottom with only 9 matches left to play. It looked certain that the door back into the Championship stood open after just one season with the big boys.
Incredibly, Leicester managed to win 7 of their last 9 matches to secure probably the most miraculous escape in Premier League history, finishing the season safely in 14th place.
Scandal struck the club during the summer. A sex tape of three Foxes players having an orgy in a Bangkok hotel room with some Thai women leaked out. The players shouted racist abuse including "slit eye." One of the players happened to be the son of Foxes manager Nigel Pearson. Leicester's Thai owner was not amused, and Pearson and the three players were subsequently let go. The inspirational manager who had dragged Leicester out of the Championship and led them to that miraculous escape would not be there to guide the ship the following season.
No one was particularly impressed with Pearson's replacement, Claudio Ranieri. He had not managed any Premier League team since Chelsea in 2004 – back in 2004 he was shown the door by new billionaire investor Roman Abramovich, who felt Ranieri wasn’t a sufficiently glamorous manager and brought in Jose Mourinho. Ranieri had since had mixed success with various Italian teams, and his most recent job was manager of Greece – a job that ended in disgrace after just a few months, following a humiliating defeat by the Faroe Islands (yes, that place with a population of 50 thousand which is not even a country). In retrospect, there was a precedent for what Ranieri was about to do with Leicester - in two seasons at Monaco he led the club out of the French Ligue 2 (less confusingly, the second division in France) and the next season finished in second place with 80 points, the highest points tally ever achieved by a team in the French league without winning. Still, he had been unbelievably unimpressive at Greece.
Things did not look good for Leicester. Ranieri was the odds-on favourite to be the first to lose his job. Their squad was made up mostly of unknown players and a few scraps from the table of bigger clubs, including Robert Huth and Danny Simpson, discarded from Chelsea and Manchester United, respectively, for not being good enough (Huth, in fairness, had since made a name for himself as a rock-solid defender at Stoke, but he seemed by now to be past his prime). Their most expensive signing of the summer was N’Golo Kante, brought in from French team Caen - not exactly a blockbuster signing. With this context, it's easy to understand why, going into the 2015-16 season, Leicester were favourites for relegation.
Leicester came flying out in their first match with a 4-2 win over Sunderland, and went undefeated their first 6 matches, the only Premier League team to do so. After a 2-5 spanking at home by contenders Arsenal, their hot streak appeared to be over, and the universe seemed to be back in order.
Undeterred, the Foxes would continue flying. They played extremely energetic, rapid, and deadly counter-attacking football. They were well organized at the back, with all the players knowing their jobs, doing them well, winning the ball and getting it quickly into one of their devastating counter-attacks, sprinting across the pitch like a pack of wild, well, foxes. And three previously unknown quantities – N’Golo Kante, Riyad Mahrez, and Jamie Vardy, started pulling off astonishing performances. As they continued winning week after week, the pundits picked up on a fascinating statistic: 28-year-old goalscorer Jamie Vardy was about to become a record-breaker. But first, more about Vardy. If you thought this was an impressive rags-to-riches story up until now, you haven’t heard anything yet.
Jamie Vardy dreamt of being a professional footballer, but at the age of 16 he was released from the youth academy of Sheffield Wednesday, a team now playing in the Championship. He wasn’t cut out for it. Nevertheless Vardy kept playing semi-professionally for minnows Stocksbridge Park Steels, a team in the seventh tier of English football. He would spend 7 years there, working 12-hour shifts at a factory to support himself and playing on the weekends for £30 a match. At one point, after being charged with assault (according to Vardy, he was sticking up for a deaf friend that was being picked on), he had a 6pm curfew enforced and had to wear an ankle bracelet. Sometimes he had to be subbed off an hour into a match so he could jump into his dad's car to avoid breaking his curfew.
After some impressive displays, he was signed by Halifax Town, a team then in the sixth tier. He finished as the league’s top goalscorer and helped his team win promotion before signing for Fleetwood Town, now in the fifth tier. Again he finished top scorer, and again he helped his team win promotion. His impressive performances got him a call from Leicester. Finally, in 2012, at the age of 25, when most players would expect to have a few years of experience behind them, Vardy could call himself a pro.
Vardy’s first season was poor, prompting criticism from sceptical fans: what the hell was Leicester thinking, signing a player from three divisions below? However in the 2013-14 season he started showing what he could do, and his 16 goals helped Leicester to get back into the Premier League. Early on in the next season, he turned in a man-of-the-match performance against Manchester United, scoring one goal and setting up the other four in that 5-3 win. Along with the rest of his team, he would fail to make much of a mark for the rest of the season, but came to life at the crucial moment, playing a key role in Leicester’s miraculous escape.
Like Leicester, Vardy got off to a blistering start to the 2015-16 season, scoring in the first match of the season. Failing to net in the next two games, he then scored again in the fourth match. And in the fifth. And in the sixth. Twice in the seventh. He scored again in the eighth. Twice in the ninth. And in the tenth. By the twelfth match of the season, Jamie Vardy, who five years earlier worked in a factory, was the top goalscorer of the most competitive league in the world, and he had now scored nine games in a row.
The Premier League record for goals scored in most consecutive matches, 10, had been set in 2002 by Manchester United legend Ruud van Nistelrooy, one of the greatest attacking players since the new millennium. Could Vardy match the great van Nistelrooy?
Could he ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUKsTmDjEb0
Having equaled the record, there was one more challenge left: could he BEAT it? Well, what better opposition to go for it than against Manchester United themselves?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot80PrLmkv0
By the way, did I mention that Vardy did all of this with a broken wrist?
At the end of 2015, Leicester made history: they were the only team to ever go from being bottom of the league on Christmas Day one season to top of the league on Christmas Day the next season. Meanwhile, Ranieri got his revenge over Abramovich and Mourinho: Leicester City's victory over Chelsea on December 14 was the final straw in an incomprehensibly dreadful season for defending champions Chelsea. Jose Mourinho, the glamorous manager brought in all those years ago to replace the unfashionable Ranieri, was fired from his second stint at the club that catapulted him to true stardom.
Thanks for playing, Leicester, everyone said. But it’s time for the fairytale to end. Surely these plucky underdogs would start to feel the pressure, would fall apart at some point?
Last weekend was the true test. Leicester faced title favourites Manchester City. Manchester City, until very recently, were a club mired in mediocrity, having undergone a long decline after some golden years in the late 60s. In 2008, the club was purchased by the Abu Dhabi United Group, a private equity company owned by Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family. Overnight, this once middling team was one of the richest in the world. A slew of huge money signings brought a wealth of talented players, finally translating into first place success in the league in 2012 and 2014. Manchester City are for many a symbol of everything that is wrong with the hyper-capitalist world of football: all you need is a billionaire investor with a blank check, and the success will come.
Just to put the gap in resources into context between these two teams: Leicester’s starting line-up cost a grand total of £22.5 million to put together. Last summer, Manchester City brought in Raheem Sterling for a reported £49 million.
That’s right: ONE of Manchester City’s players cost more than TWICE AS MUCH money as Leicester’s ENTIRE first team put together.
Surely, surely, order would be restored?
Well, Leicester hadn’t read the script. http://www.fullmatchesandshows.com/2016/02/06/manchester-city-vs-leicester-city-highlights-full-match/
It was vintage Leicester: good organisation combined with terrifyingly fast counter-attacks. They went to the richest team in the country, and they didn’t just beat them. They carved them apart, repeatedly, in front of their fans, on their own turf. And they did it in a thrilling, entertaining way that was an advertisement to everyone about why this sport is so great. Player-of-the-season Riyad Mahrez was at his scintillating best, bamboozling the Manchester City defence with a brilliant goal. N'Golo Kante was huge in midfield, charging down the ball and starting counter-attacks. Robert Huth, the Chelsea reject, was a beast at the back and bagged himself two goals.
Leicester now sit five points clear on first place. They are well over the halfway mark. No one is talking any longer about when they will fall away. They are odds-on favourites to take the whole thing. If they do, it will be an unbelievable accomplishment. This weekend, they travel to London to take on contenders Arsenal, one of only two teams who have beaten them (the other being Liverpool) early in the season. Whatever happens, it will be thrilling.
EDIT: LEICESTER ARE CHAMPIONS. UNBELIEVABLE. Since more people are being linked to this post I've added a couple more explanations on how the league system basically works, for those that know very little, and corrected a couple factual inaccuracies (yes, Manchester City fans, you are absolutely right, Leicester and Man City did not have a similar amount of titles before 2008, sorry about that).
Also bet365 has 100/1 odds on Leicester winning the Champions League next season. It's not quite 5000/1 but it might be worth putting a quid on it.
My inbox has not been silent at pretty much any point during the last few months. The replies I've most enjoyed getting have been the "I don't usually watch this sport but this season I'm watching every game." Welcome to the greatest sport in the world.
I'm still getting over this. If you had told anyone a year ago that Wes Morgan would be one of the top defenders of the season, or Kasper Schmeichel one of the top goalkeepers, you would have been ridiculed. If you had started raving over Riyad Mahrez (now officially Player of the Season), you would have gotten a one-word response: "who?"
submitted by hipcatjazzalot to sports [link] [comments]

Another bet the sub might like to get behind (FIBA World Cup 2019)

After our incredible journey on the 5 day cricket test match, I would completely understand if you didn't want to put yourself through the emotional rollercoaster again. I wouldn't post on here unless I had done some research and determined that I really liked this bet. I'll preface the write-up by saying that this is no "lock of the century," but I do think the bookies have underrated this severely. I will explain my reasoning below.
​
Format:
(1) The pick
(2) The odds + bookmakers
(3) Reasons why this bet could LOSE
(4) Reasons why I really like this bet
(5) TLDR
​
(1)
Giannis Antetokounmpo to lead the 2019 FIBA World in total points scored
​
(2)
I got in at 5.00 (decimal)/ +400 American on Bet365, however, regrettably this has gone down to 4.5/ +350.
On other Aussie bookmakers, you can fetch:
I'm sure my international friends can find comparable odds at your respective betting sites.
​
(3)
It's always important to consider how the bet can fall apart. Only considering the positives lends itself to making biased decisions, nit-picking only the information which helps your argument. So, here's where things can go wrong:
​
(4)
These are the reasons why I think this bet is tremendous value, with the final point being the real kicker.
(5)
TLDR: Bet on Giannis Antetokounmpo to lead the 2019 FIBA World in total points scored at odds of about 4.5/ +350 because the changed format means that it is very likely Greece will play the maximum of 8 games, and if that comes to fruition, Giannis will be the overwhelming favourite to outscore everyone else.
​
EDIT: There is also a classification round for teams 9-16 and 17-32, but I do not know if these games will count towards the official tournament statistics. If they do, then I think this bet is even better, but I am not relying on it. If anyone knows the answer I'm keen to hear.
submitted by youngbuckman to sportsbook [link] [comments]

[Match Thread] Stoke vs Chelsea - Premier League

Stoke 0-4 Chelsea

Matchday 6
23 September 2017
Kick Off: 15:00 BST / 10:00 EST / 07:00 PST
Venue: bet365 Stadium
Referee: Mike Dean
Links
Discord Server
Stream Thread
Pre-Match Thread
Post-Match Thread
Lineups
Chelsea
Starting XI:
Courtois; Azpilicueta (C), Christensen, Rudiger; Moses, Bakayoko, Kante, Alonso; Willian, Morata, Pedro
Subs:
Caballero, Cahill, Zappacosta, Fabregas, Musonda, Hazard, Batshuayi
Stoke
Starting XI:
Butland; Johnson, Martins Indi, Pieters; Diouf, Fletcher (C), Allen, Ramadan; Shaqiri, Choupo-Moting; Jese
Subs:
Grant, Berahino, Tymon, Afellay, Adam, Crouch, Souttar
Form
Chelsea W W W D W
Stoke W D D L L
Current Table

POS CLUB P W D L GD PTS
1 Man City 5 4 1 0 14 13
2 Man United 5 4 1 0 14 13
3 Spurs 6 3 2 1 5 11
4 Chelsea 5 3 1 1 3 10
5 Newcastle 5 3 0 2 2 9
Earlier Matches
WHU 2-3 TOT
Events
GIFs by Meladroit1 & irrenhouse & gemifra
01 Kickoff
02 GOAL CHELSEA (0-1) TURNS OUT HE DOES HAVE FEET! The best new partnership in the prem combines again as Azpi puts one over the top to Morata who does well to keep it under control and slot it into the far post
09 Stoke have responded well to going a goal down. Quick passing has caught out Chelsea on a couple occasions, but yeah to threaten Courtois
11 Corner Stoke
11 Great delivery on the corner but somehow it's allowed to bounce in the box and out without touching anyone
12 Been all Stoke since the goal with Chelsea only able to occasionally counter. Chelsea unable to get out of their own half at the moment
27 Better from Chelsea as the match has gone on, but still struggling to hold onto the ball. Stoke with the majority of possession
30 GOAL CHELSEA (0-2) It's a give away by Fletcher to Pedro who is quickly on it and what a finish. Smashes it into the bottom corner and no chance for Butland
34 Corner Stoke
34 Another corner makes its way through everyone, this time Pedro is first to it and can start a Chelsea counter
38 Corner Stoke
38 Somehow Chelsea haven't conceded off the corner. Placement is perfect but no one can convincingly get on the end of it and eventually Chelsea clear
42 Corner Stoke
42 Shaqiri giving Stoke every opportunity to get one back on the corner but Morata is first to it. Chelsea just can't clear it though and Stoke get a number of other chances to put on in. Finally Diouf puts it behind after attempting an overhead kick
45 1 Minute Added
45+1 Halftime
STK 0-2 CHE
46 Second Half
49 Shaqiri booked after refusing to accept the Chelsea free kick and letting the linesman know all about it
51 Alonso puts in a late challenge and earns himself a yellow
53 Very dangerous from Alonso who goes through Diouf after just being booked, no second yellow
57 Kante becomes the third in six minutes to see yellow after unfairly stopping the Stoke attack
58 Chelsea Alonso Cahill
61 Stoke Jese Crouch
65 Corner Stoke
66 Courtois comes out to claim it but winds up over top of Cahill and lands awkwardly. Looks very out of it
68 Looks like Courtois is staying on
68 Chelsea Pedro Fabregas
72 Again Chelsea get away with one. Another great set piece delivery looks like it was going to land perfectly for Fletcher but he gets it all wrong, and Diouf ends up putting it into the side netting instead
72 Chelsea Willian Hazard
76 Stoke Martins Indi Afellay
77 GOAL CHELSEA (0-3) Another mistake from Stoke another goal for Morata. Johnson gives it away and Morata is quickly on the ball doing everything on his own and flicks it over Butland to finish it off. Fantastic work from the striker
82 GOAL CHELSEA (0-4) HE HAS HIS HAT TRICK! It's a Fabregas beauty who finds Azpi's run into the box he touches it down to Morata who taps in his third
88 I think Morata has decided not to score simple goals today as he should have had at least a fourth after a Moses cross hits him right in front of the net. Johnson is there to keep it out again
89 Crouch gets away with one after a high and late challenge on Cesc earns him just a yellow. Poor decision from Dean
90 3 Minutes Added
90+3 Fulltime
STK 0-4 CHE
Live Matches
BUR 0-0 HUD

EVE 2-1 BOU

MCI 5-0 CRY

SOU 0-1 MUN

SWA 1-2 WAT
submitted by YIIZWL to chelseafc [link] [comments]

Match Thread: Stoke City vs. Manchester United [Premier League]

Stoke City 2 - 2 Manchester United

Venue: bet365 Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent, England
Referee: Neil Swarbrick
Stoke City:
Starting XI Notes Subs Notes
Jack Butland Jakob Haugaard
Geoff Cameron 46' Saido Berahino 75'
Kevin Wimmer Josh Tymon
Kurt Zouma Bruno Martins Indi 46'
Erik Pieters Charlie Adam
Joe Allen Peter Crouch
Darren Fletcher Ramadan Sobhi
Mame Biram Diouf
Jesé 75'
Xherdan Shaqiri
Eric Choupo-Moting 43', 63'
Manager: Mark Hughes (Wales)
Manchester United:
Starting XI Notes Subs Notes
David de Gea Sergio Romero
Matteo Darmian Juan Mata 72'
Phil Jones Anthony Martial 72'
Eric Bailly Chris Smalling
Antonio Valencia Jesse Lingard 84'
Paul Pogba Michael Carrick
Nemanja Matić Daley Blind
Henrikh Mkhitaryan 84'
Ander Herrera 72'
Marcus Rashford 45+1' 72'
Romelu Lukaku 57'
Manager: Jose Mourinho (Portugal)
MATCH EVENTS
1': We're off!
1': Choupo-Moting breaks the offside trap and is in on goal within the first minute! Bailly recovers to force it out for a corner.
2': Geoff Cameron loses the ball and Man U take off on the counter! It's a great move by Pogba to break it up.
3': Jese fires it across face of goal! Geez, this game took off quick
17': Choupo-Moting tries a chip from long. It's high. Points for ambition though.
24': Rashford one-on-one with Butland! Butland makes the save!
27': Shaqiri tests De Gea at his near post from long. That was going in but De Gea is a good keeper, it turns out.
28': Rashford nutmegs Zouma with a shot at the far post but Butland beats him. Lukaku scrambles towards the rebound but he's offside.
28': Another long shot from Shaqiri forces a good save from De Gea. I don't think that one was going in though.
43': GOAL!!!!! Choupo-Moting! It's a beautiful passing sequence to find the route through and Choupo-Moting's perfect run makes it an easy finish!
45+1': GOAL!!!! The corner kick makes it to Matic, Matic heads it to Pogba, Pogba heads it in! (Off the back of Rashford's head too, ha ha)
45+3': Lukaku takes aim but only manages to hit Butland
HT Stoke City 1 - 1 Manchester United Never a dull moment!
HT': Martins Indi on for Cameron, not surprising
46': We're back!
57': GOAL!!! Lukaku gets in behind and forces a big save from Butland, but Butland can't prevent Lukaku from nailing the rebound!
62': What a save by de Gea!! Jese volleys it at the far post and de Gea manages to get just one reflexive hand up to deny him!
63': GOAL!!!!! Shaqiri takes the corner and Choupo-Moting gets his head onto it for his second of the day!
67': Valencia rolls one just wide of the near post!
72': Mata and Martial on for Rashford and Herrera
75': Berahino on for Jese
76': Pogba tries from long, goes straight to Butland for an easy save
81': Lukaku takes a good pass and hits it over on his first touch
84': Lingard on for Mkhitaryan
89': Uh-oh. Allen fouls Mata and concedes a free kick right at the edge of the box...
90+1': Lukaku hits the free kick into the wall, and then hits the rebound into the wall. So much for that
90+2': What a save! Butland dives backwards to keep the corner kick out of the net!
FT Stoke City 2 - 2 Manchester United That's the game! A highly entertaining one sees United drop points for the first time
submitted by MisterBadIdea2 to soccer [link] [comments]

Post-Match Thread: Stoke City 2 - 2 Manchester United

Stoke City 2 - 2 Manchester United

Venue: bet365 Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent, England
Referee: Neil Swarbrick
Stoke City:
Starting XI Notes Subs Notes
Jack Butland Jakob Haugaard
Geoff Cameron 46' Saido Berahino 75'
Kevin Wimmer Josh Tymon
Kurt Zouma Bruno Martins Indi 46'
Erik Pieters Charlie Adam
Joe Allen Peter Crouch
Darren Fletcher Ramadan Sobhi
Mame Biram Diouf
Jesé 75'
Xherdan Shaqiri
Eric Choupo-Moting 43', 63'
Manager: Mark Hughes (Wales)
Manchester United:
Starting XI Notes Subs Notes
David de Gea Sergio Romero
Matteo Darmian Juan Mata 72'
Phil Jones Anthony Martial 72'
Eric Bailly Chris Smalling
Antonio Valencia Jesse Lingard 84'
Paul Pogba Michael Carrick
Nemanja Matić Daley Blind
Henrikh Mkhitaryan 84'
Ander Herrera 72'
Marcus Rashford 45+1' 72'
Romelu Lukaku 57'
Manager: Jose Mourinho (Portugal)
MATCH EVENTS
1': We're off!
1': Choupo-Moting breaks the offside trap and is in on goal within the first minute! Bailly recovers to force it out for a corner.
2': Geoff Cameron loses the ball and Man U take off on the counter! It's a great move by Pogba to break it up.
3': Jese fires it across face of goal! Geez, this game took off quick
17': Choupo-Moting tries a chip from long. It's high. Points for ambition though.
24': Rashford one-on-one with Butland! Butland makes the save!
27': Shaqiri tests De Gea at his near post from long. That was going in but De Gea is a good keeper, it turns out.
28': Rashford nutmegs Zouma with a shot at the far post but Butland beats him. Lukaku scrambles towards the rebound but he's offside.
28': Another long shot from Shaqiri forces a good save from De Gea. I don't think that one was going in though.
43': GOAL!!!!! Choupo-Moting! It's a beautiful passing sequence to find the route through and Choupo-Moting's perfect run makes it an easy finish!
45+1': GOAL!!!! The corner kick makes it to Matic, Matic heads it to Pogba, Pogba heads it in! (Off the back of Rashford's head too, ha ha)
45+3': Lukaku takes aim but only manages to hit Butland
HT Stoke City 1 - 1 Manchester United Never a dull moment!
HT': Martins Indi on for Cameron, not surprising
46': We're back!
57': GOAL!!! Lukaku gets in behind and forces a big save from Butland, but Butland can't prevent Lukaku from nailing the rebound!
62': What a save by de Gea!! Jese volleys it at the far post and de Gea manages to get just one reflexive hand up to deny him!
63': GOAL!!!!! Shaqiri takes the corner and Choupo-Moting gets his head onto it for his second of the day!
67': Valencia rolls one just wide of the near post!
72': Mata and Martial on for Rashford and Herrera
75': Berahino on for Jese
76': Pogba tries from long, goes straight to Butland for an easy save
81': Lukaku takes a good pass and hits it over on his first touch
84': Lingard on for Mkhitaryan
89': Uh-oh. Allen fouls Mata and concedes a free kick right at the edge of the box...
90+1': Lukaku hits the free kick into the wall, and then hits the rebound into the wall. So much for that
90+2': What a save! Butland dives backwards to keep the corner kick out of the net!
submitted by buurp to soccer [link] [comments]

[Daily Discussion Thread] Sun May. 03, 2015

Please use this thread to discuss anything related to SFTC, including the day's matchups.
submitted by AutoModerator to SFTC [link] [comments]

/r/Championship's Championship club by club season preview - part 1!

Part 2 here - Part 3 here - Part 4 here

On Friday at 8pm UK time, Reading and Derby County will kick off the 127th season of the English second division - also known as the Championship! 24 clubs will compete for 3 promotion spots to the Premier league (2 via automatic promotion and 1 via playoffs) and to avoid the 3 relegation spots to the third tier a.k.a League One.

Its looking like a really tight and competitive season. The league is absolutely full of ambitious player and managerial talent - the more time goes by the more it looks like a Premier League 2. If you want a competitive league with proper English football, that also has the spice of skilful players and forward thinking managers, it really is the place to go.

This is guide written by the fans who have come together on /Championship - an absolutely huge thanks to them. Do check out the sub, we try to keep it a good place to discuss the EFL, away from the rancid gloryhunting shithole that is /soccer (just kidding - I like this place). Lots going on, including a score predictor thread which is running all season.

This guide is in table order with the PL demoted sides first. Only 5 clubs today (because the Swansea one is a fucking novel and I can't fit any more in), the rest will be submitted tomorrow and Friday. Do bare in mind that not all the transfer news will be up to date as these guides were largely written a week ago. Point out to me if there are any clear errors with formatting or spelling.

Championship info, links and media

/Championship's 17/18 player of the season review

Season previews: The Guardian | Sky Sports | The Mirror
EFL focused podcasts: Not the Top 20 | The Totally Football League Show
The 17/18 table - Wolves, Cardiff and Fulham went up. Barnsley, Burton and Sunderland went down. This season West Brom, Swansea and Stoke join from the PL and Wigan, Blackburn and Rotherham join from League 1.
These are the bookies' favourites for promotion (via Oddschecker):
Club Odds
Stoke 2.75
Middlesbrough 4
West Brom 4
Nottingham Forest 4.5
Leeds 4.75
Swansea 5
And relegation:
Club Odds
Rotherham 2.2
Bolton 2.25
Ipswich 4.5
Reading 5
QPR 6
Hull 6
How to watch in the UK: Live rights are owned by Sky Sports. They are upping the number of televised matches this season. Reading v Derby on Friday is televised. The weekly highlights show previously on Channel 5 is moving to Quest TV, which apparently is on Freeview.
How to watch abroad: Depends, but in most territories, the iFollow Service is available, which is £110 to watch all a single club's matches. Bargain. I think the clubs that aren't on iFollow have their own similar streaming services.
Check out club Youtube channels - quite a few of them post extended highlights now with their own commentary, including Derby, Norwich, Sheffield Wednesday, Brentford and more. (You may need VPN to watch if you're abroad.)

Swansea City by RafiakaMacakaDirk and my_knob_is_gr8

Location: Swansea, Wales
Nickname: Swans, The Jacks
Major honours: Football League Cup (2013), Championship Play-off Winner (2011), League One Winners (1925, 1949, 2008)
17/18 finishing postion: 18th (Premier League)
Transfermarkt squad value: €115.5 mil NOTE: This number is as of July 22nd, when we still have Mawson (€15 mil), A. Ayew (€15 mil), Bony (€10 mil), Clucas (€8 mil) and Fernandez (€8 mil), who are all pretty much expected to be sold, or loaned out, before the season starts. Without all of these players except Bony (who's injured for a while so it makes it unlikely he'll be sold soon), the squad value would be around €70 mil.
Manager: Graham Potter joined the Swans on 11th June 2018. In 2010, he became head coach of Östersund, who were in the fourth tier of Swedish football. 5 years later, he got the club promoted into the Swedish top flight and in 2017, they won Svenska Cupen which qualified them for the Europa League where they managed to get through the group stage. He’s been applauded for what he did at Östersund and the way he managed to build the club up from nothing. The year after his success in the Europa league he signed a 3 year contract with Swansea.
Potter is well respected by The Swans and after a few years of poor managerial and financial decisions his appointment is seen as a step in the right direction to bringing us back to our old ways of being a well-run club. Potter has been recognised for his "progressive" and "unconventional" coaching methods. At Östersund, he encouraged his players and staff to engage in community activities, such as performing in theatre and music productions which was designed to take them out of their comfort zone. Potter describes his style of football on the pitch as "tactically flexible, attacking, and possession-based". At Östersund, he deployed a flexible 3–5–2 formation centred on ball possession.
Best player(s)/ talisman:With many of our best players being rumoured with a move away what good players that remain at the start of the season is yet to be seen.
Alfie Mawson is probably our standout player. He’s been amazing for us since we got him and was a bargain at about £3m. He’s great in the air and is just an all round tank. Keeping him will be a huge boost for us and should be solid in the championship.
Federico "El Pajaro" Fernandez has also been strong at the back with Alfie. The pair played with each other for the majority of last season and together became a solid unit. We will most likely sell him to reduce wages though.
Jordan Ayew put in a great shift last season and was our top goal scorer. His work rate was immense and was able to drop back and defend when needed. He’s fast, able to beat a man and a decent finisher. Sadly all these players are transfer targets for other clubs and might not even be here at the start of the season. If we can keep a lot of our players we should have a decent season but who knows who'll be left by the end of the window…
Rising star: Swansea’s U23 had a great season last year and with Potter wanting a young and fresh squad, a handful have moved up into the first team.
Our standout youngster, Oliver McBurnie, joined Barnsley on loan in January last season where he went on to win a Championship player of the month award after 6 goals in 8 games and went on to win Barnsley’s Player of the year award. While only 22, he’s struggled to break into our first team but will most likely be our main striker for the coming season. Be on the lookout for his long legs, miniature shinpads and ridiculous sock length! LEGS LEGS LEGS!!!
Connor Roberts performed well at RB last season and adapted quickly to the premier league where he battled Kyle Naughton to be in the starting line up and did great when given the chance. Decent at going forward and professional at the back. Hopefully potter puts him ahead of Naughton.
What happened last season?: What Happened last season?: After our great escape the season before and with Paul Clement at the helm there was optimism that the 17/18 season could be our turning point where we start rebuilding 'The Swansea Way". How wrong we were.
After a disastrous transfer window where we sold Sigurdsson and never replaced him and started panic buying the week before the transfer window closed we were left an obvious hole in our team. We had no creativity in midfield and no one could kick the ball into the box to save their life. And just to rub it in further Renato Sanches turned out to be more disappointing than Bob Bradley. With the team sitting bottom of the table Clement was sacked in late December.
Then along came the wise talking Carlos Carvalhal who managed to rebuild the confidence the team had lost. Our results took a turn for the good, beating Liverpool, Arsenal, Burnley and West Ham consecutively at home. He pulled us out of the relegation zone and things were looking good. However, the good times were quickly followed by the bad times. Our form turned and we didn’t win a single one of our last 9 matches. We were quickly relegated after pitifully losing to both Southampton and Stoke in our last 2 games of the season.
Highlights (Or lowlights):
The pass by Renato Sanches that summed up his and our season
Swansea City 3-1 Arsenal
Summer transfer business (so far): At the end of last season, it was clear we needed several transfers, both in and out. However, this would all depend on the manager we got.
Yan Dhanda (Free, Liverpool): A 19 year-old Midfielder, Yan Dhanda left Liverpool this summer and joined the Swans in a free, before we even hired Graham Potter. At one time one of the most promosing youngsters in Liverpool's Academy, injuries slowed down his progress, and ultimately made him fall behind other players. Citing lack of first-team playing time, Dhanda decided to join us this summer in hopes of getting regular playing time in the senior squad. Through 3 pre-season games, Dhanda has been one of the brighest and most impressive players in the squad, even scoring a game-winning goal and smashing a penalty in a shootout against Genoa. With our current injuries and shenanigans involved in our midfield, Dhanda has a good chance of becoming a starter and hopefully guide our midfield during the season.
Jordi Govea (Free, Real Madrid): Another 19 year-old from Ecuador, Jordi was the first signing under Potter. Not much can be said about the lad, but this is what Real Madrid had as his bio:
Jordi is an Ecuadorian defender who possess three key qualities for a player in his position: he's skilful, is able to go past a player and has a good shot on him. He's left footed and is able to send in good crosses on the run.
With Martin Olsson currently as our starting LB, and Kyle Naughton as the backup, the hope is that Jordi can develop on our U-23 squad and hopefully move up to the senior squad in coming years. Also the only man I've seen do a medical while wearing jeans (https://twitter.com/SwansOfficial/status/1015251916132057089)
Joel Asoro (€2 mil., Sunderland): Yet another 19 year-old, a Swedish winger who has represented his country in the younger levels, he was Potter's first senior signing. With world-class speed, and some impressive skills, Asoro was able to score 3 goals and get 2 assists last season in 26 apperances for Sunderland. While these numbers may seem a bit disappointing, many of these games were sub appearances on a very dysfunctional team. Along with Dhanda, Asoro has been one of the most impressive players during preseason, constantly beating his man with either speed or skills, and whipping in good balls to Legs. At the current rate, Asoro appears to have a good chance of starting on the right wing spot, with Nathan Dyer and Luciano Narsingh backing him up.
Predicted starting XI: NOTE: This is gonna be assuming Mawson, A. Ayew, Clucas, and Fernandez are all sold by the start of the season. If by some reason they end up staying, they are pretty much guaranteed to start. Based on the pre-season games so far, a lineup looking like this would be plausible, with Rodon most likely to be replaced by a CB (possibly Scott McKenna) when we buy one. Our second unit is looking something like this.
Best case scenario: Graham Potter is able to motivate and make sure our senior players (Fer, Carroll, etc.) stay fit, along with our youngsters being able to make an impact as expected, and also we retain Mawson, Fernandez, and Clucas, we can finish in the top 2 and get promoted automatically.
Worst case scenario: Our worst case scenario, and something many of us fear of happening, consists of primarily 3 things. 1. Graham Potter isn't given enough time to build an identity with our squad and is sacked by the midway point of the season by the greedy, dumb American owners. . 2. We end up not replacing the players we sold properly like last summer, therefore having a squad with holes everywhere and no chemistry. 3. Our youngsters such as Asoro, McBurnie, Dhanda and company don't pan out and progress at all, thefore becoming mediocre players. This would all culminate in us looking like Sunderland, and making relegation a probability.
Prediction: Realistically I see us selling Mawson and company in the last days before the season starts and not replacing them properly until later on. Because of this, as well as our current injuries with Fer and Clucas, I can see us initially struggling to build an identity but over time, we will start playing like Potter wants us and finishing the season strongly.
8th place, missing the play-offs by 4 points
What will happen to your closest rivals?: The scum that is known as Cardiff City will break the record for lowest points ever accumulated in a Premier League season, getting 5 points all from draws, and will therefore get relegated with 17 games to spare.

West Bromwich Albion by Joelwba

Location: The Hawthorns, West Bromwich, West Midlands
Nickname: The Baggies, The Throstles
Major honours: 1x League title, 1x League Cup, 5x FA Cup
17/18 finishing postion: 20th in Premier League (relegated)
Transfermarkt squad value: £101.16m
Manager: Darren Moore or Big Dave as he's known to Albion fans. A club icon as a player in the early 2000s, he returned to look after our U23 squad before being promoted to assistant manager by Alan Pardew in January. Following the end of Pardew's horrific reign, Moore took temporary charge with Albion facing inevitable relegation. He led us to wins over Newcastle, Spurs, Man Utd and a draw with Liverpool, somehow taking our futile battle for survival to the final week of the season. Following this he earned the head coach role permanently. Moore is loved among the Albion faithful, largely due to his reputation as a player here. He heavily favours a 4-4-2 formation and at the back end of last season, tended to soak up pressure and play on the counter attack. It will be interesting to see how his approach differs in a league where we are one of the favourites, not fighting to survive (hopefully)
Best player(s)/ talisman: It's an interesting situation for Albion currently. There are plenty of Premier League quality players still in the squad. A lot depends on if they are picked off before the deadline shuts. Chris Brunt is a club stalwart and likely to be reappointed as captain. He is adored by the fans and in my opinion will be an incredible asset in the championship. His set pieces alone will bring 10+ goals to the side. Kieran Gibbs is a high quality player who appears to be set to stay and should make a big difference. Jay Rodriguez, Craig Dawson, Salomon Rondon and Nacer Chadli should all make a big difference in this division IF they stay. In all honesty I expect to lose a few of the above. Sam Johnstone appears to be an astute signing to replace the outgoing Ben Foster.
Rising star: Sam Field he's one of our own! He looked completely at home against some of the top Premier League sides last campaign. A box-to-box midfielder, he's full of energy and looks so comfortable on the ball. I expect him to be a major part of our side this season, having just signed a new long-term deal.
Kyle Edwards is an exciting attacking midfielder who has been impressing in pre-season. He may have a part to play following a loan spell at Exeter last campaign.
Jonathon Leko looked like a potential world-beater when he first came through a couple of years back. A lightning quick winger full of tricks. A loan spell at Bristol City and limited appearances later he seems to be losing his way. Will be an interesting one to watch.
Finally, the enigma that is Olly Burke. After signing with us last summer for £15m, he failed to impress any of the four managers we had over the season. He looks exciting when he comes on, without any end product so far, and was unfairly blamed for a loss at West Ham by Alan 'Coward' Pardew. We all know the talent he's got. Hopefully we can see it this season.
What happened last season?: Let's not talk about it... We finally escaped the stranglehold of Tony Pulis, only to opt for the human joke that is Alan Pardew and duly hurtled towards relegation. Four of our players stole a taxi and then played (and lost) the following weekend.
Pardew was sacked about 3 months too late, and Moore took over, restoring pride with some notable wins over Man Utd and Spurs.
This season we also lost the great Cyrille Regis, and the outpouring of emotion and the coming together of the club during the weeks after his passing was something special.
Summer transfer business (so far): We started by releasing Claudio Yacob, Boaz Myhill and Gareth McAuley. Yacob and McAuley will be greatly missed but it is perhaps the right time for them to go.
Jonny Evans departed for Leicester for a cut-price £3m, Ben Foster left for Watford and James McClean has departed for Stoke City.
Sam Johnstone has been bought in to replace Foster, with Jonathon Bond arriving as backup. Kyle Bartley has joined from Swansea City and it appears that Harvey Barnes will soon be arriving on loan from Leicester.
Finally, James Morrison is currently out of contract but still with the club. His future is uncertain.
I am very happy with Johnstone and Bartley. It has been a quiet window for Albion so far but that is largely a good thing. The squad is packed with Premier League talent and the window is more about keeping hold of them.
There is major interest in Dawson and Rondon, along with interest in Rodriguez, Hegazi and Chadli. If any of the above go, then we would need to replace. Otherwise I would be happy with another striker and another CB.
It is also worth mentioning that every player in the Albion side suffered a 50% wage cut upon relegation which means that we are financially sound despite relegation, but may lead to more big names leaving.
Predicted starting XI: This is my best attempt. It will undoubtedly be 4-4-2. We may see Nyom in at right back and perhaps Barry in for Field.
Obviously about half of this side could leave, so we shall see.
Best case scenario: The bulk of the side remains and the quality in the side shines through as we breeze to automatic promotion.
Worst case scenario: The better players leave or do not put the effort in. Moore cannot transfer his great start into his first full season in management. We become embroiled in a relegation battle
Prediction: It will be somewhere in the middle. I'd like to think we'll go up automatically but I think play-offs are more likely. 6th
What will happen to your closest rivals?: Villa won't go down but will settle into mid-table, despite the recent takeover.
I think Wolves will do well in the PL, although I don't know how long Nuno will last before a big club comes in.

Stoke City by mrmariomaster

Location: Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
Nickname: The Potters
Stadium: bet365 Stadium, 30,089 seats
Major honours: 1972 League Cup
17/18 finishing position: 19th, Premier League
Squad value: £127.8 million
Manager: Gary Rowett signed from Derby in May. His honest attitude has brought lots of optimism to fans, who are looking forward to an overhaul of the Club. His style of play seems to change based on the squad he has available.
Best Player: Joe Allen was vital to the Club last season, giving us hope that we would avoid relegation. His massive new contract signed this summer shows how loyal and committed to the Club he is, and will be a vital player this season.
Rising star: Tom Edwards is a local lad who has won the Under 18 Player of the Year award twice in the Club. In the latter parts of last season he played some good first team football.
What happened last season: A pathetic attempt at a season that had been coming for a while under Mark Hughes. Paul Lambert was appointed in January, but a win rate of just 2 in 15 matches wasn’t enough for him to keep his job and miss out on the million pound bonus offered to him.
Transfer business so far: So far this has been a decent transfer window. Peter Etebo had an amazing World Cup for Nigeria and Benik Afobe looks really promising. Adam Federici has also been appointed to replace Lee Grant. Xherdan Shaqiri has left along with a few players like Stephen Ireland and Glen Johnson who will not be missed. Badou Ndiaye also looks to be on his way out, but it looks like Jack Butland will stay with us, which is massive. Perhaps most surprising are the new contracts signed by our 2 best players last season, Joe Allen and Moritz Bauer.
Predicted Line up: Here is our predicted squad. I’m not sure what formation we will have. EDIT: This is a new version, complete with our rumoured new signings and in the right formation.
Best case scenario: Stoke will finish top with an all-time Championship points record.
Worst case scenario: A mediocre start to the season will see Rowett sacked and Stoke with a disappointing mid-table finish.
Prediction: I think with our squad and our new manager, we will finish 1st.
What will happen to our closest rivals? Port Vale will be relegated to the Vanarama National League.

Aston Villa by trueschoolalumni

Location: Villa Park, Trinity Rd, Birmingham B6 6HE
Nickname: The Villans, The Villa, Prince William's Club, David "Twat" Cameron's Second Club.
Major honours: 7 First Division wins, 7 FA Cups, 5 League Cups, 1 European Cup, 1 European Super Cup, 1 Intertoto Cup
17/18 finishing postion: 4th
Transfermarkt squad value: £67.77m and dropping fast
Manager: Steve Bruce (for now). Former Man Utd playing legend who's been a fixture of English football for decades. He joined Villa in 2016 after successful runs at Hull, Sunderland (yes they were good once) and Birmingham City. A bit of a promotion specialist, he's taken Championship clubs up to the Premier League 4 times in the past and just missed out last season, losing 1-0 to Fulham in the Playoff Final. Tactically, he's fairly old school who prefers 4-4-2 or a 4-1-4-1, usually involving a big man up top. Fun fact: while managing Huddersfield in 1999 he wrote three novels, "Striker!", "Sweeper!" and "Defender!", which focus on main character Steve Barnes, a football manager. Barnes solves crime and takes on terrorists, and the books have become prized rarities. The Guardian's Football Weekly podcast managed to get a copy and read out some of the copy - suitably awful.
Best player(s)/ talisman: There's only one Jack Grealish. A Villa boy through and through, he's been with the club since 2001 (aged 6), and made his way into the first team in the 2013-14 season. He's been the centre of controversy a few times, most notably getting on the beers and passing out on a Tenerife street. Playing as a number 10, his quick feet and dribbling skills provide a number of goals and assists, as well as fouls. He probably went down a bit too easily when first in the Premier League, but time in the gym has noticeably toughened him up and he's a much more solid player as a result. One of the better players in the Championship, and due to Villa's abject finances, a transfer target for the likes of Leicester.
Rising star: Keinan Davis could possibly be it, potentially Andre Green and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy as well.
What happened last season?: Have you ever walked into a casino, spotted the roulette table and popped £10,000 on red? It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off. You've doubled your money if you win, but look like a right git if you lose. Villa figured this was a good way to approach 2017-18: spend millions on players, get in lots of loans, gamble everything on achieving promotion. After a so-so start, Bruce got the team playing well, stringing together a number of wins and moving through the playoff spots. Unfortunately they ran into a few teams playing out of their skin - champions Wolves ran away with the league and boasted a squad that included several Champions League players. Neil Warnock's Cardiff couldn't stop winning and grabbed the second automatic promotion. In the playoff final Villa came up against a Ryan Sessegnon-led Fulham and were just pipped at the post 1-0.
Summer transfer business (so far): It's one-way traffic, due to absolutely abysmal finances. Loan spells for Lewis Grabban, Robert Snodgrass, Josh Onomah and Sam Johnstone have all ended, which is almost the spine of the team (Johnstone in particular - he was arguably the best keeper in the Championship and personally bagged a number of wins). Plus clubs are circling to pick off whatever assets we have left (eg. Jack Grealish, James Chester). With no prospect of anyone new coming in, it looks like the youth academy will be getting a lot more game time.
Predicted starting XI: Possibly this, but half these players could be gone before the first match.
Best case scenario: Mid-table anonymity would have to be best case - Villa are a mess and could go down this time around.
Worst case scenario: Our finances are the real issue - they are dire. Villa need to find £9 million this month to avoid going into administration. Owner "Dr." Tony Xia is a billionaire, apparently, but tax bills went unpaid and the question remains if he's able to support the club as generously as he has in the past. Administration, points deductions and potentially relegation to League One are all real possibilities right now. It's not looking good.
Prediction: Due to financial irregularities in the 23 clubs above us, Villa will get into the Champions League and take out the likes of Atletico, Bayern and Real Madrid on the way to our second European Cup. "Taylor, Green, prepared to venture down the left. There's a good ball played in for Jack Grealish. Oh, it must be and it is! It's Keinan Davis!"
What will happen to your closest rivals?: Unfortunately the Scum managed to avoid League One in the final rounds of the season. Here's hoping they go one better. Agbonlahor to re-sign for one game: the Derby. And score the winner, again.

Middlesbrough by OneSmallHuman

Location: The Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough
Founded: 1876
Nickname: The Boro (Or just Boro)
Major honours: The League cup 2003-2004 season
17/18 finishing position: 5th
Transfermarkt squad value: 79.34m
Manager: Tony Pulis became manager of us in late December 2017, replacing the sacked Garry Monk after a pretty lacklustre few months of the campaign (despite where our league position was). Pulis is known in England for being the man that is never relegated when in charge of someone in the top flight. We are all aware of Tony Pulis' style of football. You start by having a strong and massive defence and maximise your use of set pieces to gain an advantage. Pulis is a lover of all set piece plays, whether that is crossing the ball in from a corner or free kick, or launching a ball into the box from a throw in, they're all in his arsenal of weapons. 'Pulisball' as it is pretty much known. Pulis has achieved promotion from the championship once before with Stoke, and I hope he achieves it again with us this season
Best player(s)/ rising star: I mean, where else do I begin. Adama Traore. Arguably the best player in the championship on his day and is one of the most frightening dribblers in English football, maybe even world football. The winger is known for his speed and dribbling ability although is usually criticised for his lack of end product. Before last season I would've agreed, however 5 goals and 10 assists, with all but 2 assists coming before Pulis' arrival show the progression of the Spanish winger.
As for other members of the squad, Ben Gibson, the prodigal son. Boro through and through he's progressed into a commanding centre half with the ability to play out from the back thanks to Karanka. He gained attention and emerged as one of the few given credit after our disappointing premier league campaign but was only the subject of one bid upon our relegation, from now manager Tony Pulis. It remains to be seen whether he'll be here come the first game of the season, but I hope he will be.
As for future stars, Dael Fry, already has played 2 championship campaigns for us and looks as assured as a veteran of the game. Another centre half produced by our academy and he is being played in cdm this pre-season by Pulis, to add to his versatility. Hopefully a standout season for him, especially if Gibson does end up leaving. Finally, yes, he does always look as confused as images of him show.
What happened last season?: Well, the first half of the season was tragic under Monk. We played really poor football at times and looked like we hadn't defended a day in our lives. There was also no consistency in the team, we'd win one game then lose the next. A key theme under both managers however, was our inability to beat those around us in the table. After Pulis' appointment the results picked up and it ended with us finishing 5th in the table. We ultimately lost in the playoff semi finals to Aston Villa but honestly, we didn't think we'd even be in the top half around Christmas.
Summer transfer business (so far): Just the three deals to talk about so far. We've acquired Paddy McNair from Sunderland who looks like a decent player. He's been utilised in right back and midfield during pre-season so it looks like they'll be his positions for the season. I imagine he'll play alongside Clayts and Howson in a midfield three.
Aden Flint was signed from Bristol City and I think I'm in the minority when I say I don't like how much we paid for him. Obviously the man is a Pulis player but I'm a bit unsure about his defensive ability. That being said he's looked strong during pre-season and I'm sure Pulis will get the best out of him. Fabio departed our club for Nantes so we'll need more full back cover.
As for the rest of the window, I expect Gibson to leave but will be delighted if he doesn't. One of our strikers will also leave and Braithwaite should follow after his decent World Cup performances. We'll probably bring in a striker and a winger and hopefully hold onto Adama. That'd be a successful window in my eyes.
Predicted starting XI: My best guess The only other guess I could make is that Gibson might leave and then Ayala would start, but he's injured at this point in time. Britt might play over Gestede too if Pulis is feeling fancy.
Best case scenario: It has to be top of the pile right? It's not out of the question to imagine us up there and if everything clicks then we've got a chance. A defence that scores more than some teams' strikers, Adama channelling his inner Messi and finding consistency, Rudy/Britt/Bamford scoring for fun. It could be carnage.
Worst case scenario: I can't see us finishing outside the playoffs, if we did then that would be gut-wrenching. But if we did then that would most certainly be the worst. Realistically, it'd be losing in the playoffs... again, and if it were in the final again then god help me. Although saying this, now losing Bamford and maybe Traore will be a worst case scenario in itself, definitely if they're not replaced.
Prediction: Have to be confident, although it always kills me. 1st or 2nd. Tony Pulis and his nice white trainers carry us to the promise land. That being said, we never do it the easy way.
Best Match of Last Season Sorry Leeds fans, but it had to be. "Hattrick Bamford" as our Twitter account tweeted, 3-0 against Leeds with Adama running the show. Leeds clearly found some positive from the game as they're set to sign him off us. This was the sign of what we should've done more last season. Showed what Paddy could've been too if given an even more extended period in Striker by himself. Oh well.
What will happen to your closest rivals?: Who even are our closest rivals in this league? We're in geographical purgatory. Can't say Sunderland anymore so what? Leeds? Bielsa either turns them into the well oiled machine they hope for or he succumbs to the old Leeds ways and is sacked by December. As for the Mackems, probably promoted from League 1.
submitted by s0ngsforthedeaf to soccer [link] [comments]

Odds drifting

Hi all,
How do you read games where the odds on a particular event drift in the days/hours before the game?
I was keeping an eye on the Bali United game today - they were 1.30 to win last night, 1.33 this morning and 1.40 at game start (match finished 1-1, but partially due to a red card)
AC Milan were 1.50 to win against SPAL earlier today and are now 1.57 with Bet365: is there something the bookies know that we don't or is it a case of there simply not being all that many bets being placed on a home win?
Thanks for any advice :)
B.
submitted by BazingaQQ to SoccerBetting [link] [comments]

[Match Thread] Juventus Turin - Borussia Dortmund (CL, RO16)

Juventus FC2 - 1Borussia Dortmund
Champions League, round of 16, first leg
Stadium: Juventus Stadium, Turin
Kick off: 20:45 CET (UTC+1)
Referee: Antonia Mateu (Spain)
The Teams
Team Juventus FC Borussia Dortmund
Subreddit /Juve /BorussiaDortmund
Group 2nd place, GD 7:4, WLLWWD 1st place, GD 14:4, WWWWLD
Line-up 4-3-1-2 4-2-3-1
Buffon (GK) (C) Weidenfeller (GK)
Evra Schmelzer
Chiellini Kirch 45'
Bonucci Hummels (C)
Lichtsteiner Ginter 32'
Pogba Sahin
Pereyra 36' 79' Gündogan
Marchioso Reus 18'
Padoin 85' Mkhitaryan
Coman 88' Aubameyang
Morata 42' Blaszczykowski 75'
Bench Storari (GK) Langerak (GK)
Caceres Piszczek 32'
Ogbonna Immobile 75'
Tevez 13' 88' Kagawa
Vidal 48' 85' Kehl
Pirlo 36' Sokratis 45'
Llorente Ramos
Coach Allegri Klopp
Unavailable players:
  • Juventus FC: Asamoah (injured), Romulo (injured), Marrone (injured), Matri (injured)
  • Borussia Dortmund: Kampl (sick), Großkreutz (injured), Subotic (injured), Durm (injured), Bender (injured)
Outlook
The 2 teams met each other a total of 7 times, including the UEFA-Cup final of 1993 and the Champions League final of 1997. In general, Turin won 4 times, Dortmund twice, once they drew. In the CL alone however, Dortmund won twice and Juventus only once. The total goal difference is 15:10 in favour of Juvents, in the CL however Dortmund claims again the lead with 6:5 goals.
The stats couldn't possibly closer for this old international rivalry that decided 2 international competitions so far. The squads have a total market value of €322m. vs. €318m., average player market values of €11.9m. vs. €10.6m, both have 19 players in national teams, the total amount of club members are just as equal at 111'000 vs. 115'000. The (literally) most valuable players are both estimated at ~€50m be it Pogba or Reus, and neither looks to leave their club any time soon.
Juventus is unbeaten at home for 46 matches running now, the last time someone took a win off away from them in their stadium was a German team - Bayern Munich, in the 2nd leg of the CL RO8 of 2012/13.
  • Juventus FC key players: Buffon, Pirlo, Pogba, Tevez
  • Borussia Dortmund key players: Hummels, Kagawa, Reus, Aubameyang
Betting odds - according to bet365.com
Win Turin Draw Win Dortmund
2.00 3.40 4.33
0 - 1 goals 2 or more goals 4 or more goals
2.75 1.40 4.33
  • Juventus FC advances to the RO8 - 1.80
  • Borussia Dortmund advances to the RO8 - 2.00
  • Lowest odds for exact results - 1:0 (for 6.00), 1:1 (for 6.00)
Match Updates
0' Kick-off
1' Immobile with the first shot of the game, goes 1m over the bar of his fellow Italians.
3' Dortmund with two smaller fouls, but neither called. Ref seems to not want to interrupt the game too much today.
4' Buffon not as good with his feet as with his hands, causing a throw in. The following throw in ends up being a mare because the ref somehow isn't statisfied, ends up with a throw in for Juventus in the end.
6' Juve with decent passing around the box, getting 2 subsequent corners, but not much more.
13' 1-0 Tevez! Who else could possibly bring Juve the lead? A quick counter attack over Morata, followed by a terrible mistake from Weidenfeller. The goalkeeper let a rather weak shot deflect directly to Tevez who just had to tap it in. Which he did, in best striker fashion.
18' 1-1 Reus, following the 2nd blatant individual mistake of the game. Chiellini slipping and losing the ball (not sure if you can really blame him for slipping here) in the build up and Reus leavues Buffon absolutely no chance in the 1on1 against Buffon. With this, Dortmund has the very least an important away goal.
21' Morata completely free on the penalty spot, but his header is neither placed nor strong, it goes wide. The chance was much better than what he made from it.
26' Marchioso with a header after a free kick, Weidenfeller completely underruning the ball. Dortmund is lucky that Juves headers are ill placed so far, and Weidenfeller should look to get some security back into his game.
28' Pogba with a very rough tackle on Piszczek, but no card. Seems like Juve is picking up Dortmunds higher physicality, the ref might want to keep this in check or it could end poorly. The mood is heating up quite a bit.
32' Dortmund (1/3) - Piszczek, Ginter, Klopp forced to rearrange his defence after Pogba basically got rid of Piszczek.
36' Juventus (1/3) - Pirlo, Pereyra, I'm not sure what happened to Pirlo but I wouldn't be exactly surprised if it was because of a rough tackle as well.
40' Vidal with a studs up tackle on Immobile, again no yellow, and honestly that would be a very orange-y yellow card. This is starting to be a completely pathetic ref performance.
42' 2-1 Morata, out of nowhere! Dortmund took the game over for the last 15min, but a single combination from Vidal to Pogba to Morata leaves the Dortmund defense completely disoriented. No one marking Morata who just has to tap it in.
45' Halftime. Weird game so far, Dortmund started rough but then turned it around to play well. In total two goals from individual mistakes, and Juve scoring twice just as Dortmund is looking stronger. The referee too afraid to show a card in a game where frankly, Vidal is lucky to still be on the field after his challenge on Immobile amongst other stuff, not even starting to talk on all the other unnecessary fouls from either side. Here's to hope the 2nd half is less phsyique and more play.
45' Dortmund (2/3) - Sokratis, Kirch
46' 2nd half is on, my friends!
48' Vidal, and I dare to say: finally. This challenge was just as reckless as the one on Immobile, if he continues this he won't finish the game.
53' Juve with their 5th corner of the game, and that's a dangerous one. Weidenfeller with a minor insecurity letting the ball drop in his knee but he saves it directly after.
56' Dortmund with a combination through the center, ends up with Immobile open on half-right position. His shot is a rather easy one for Buffon. Replay shows that a handball call might've been possible here, I'm not sure so let's wait for a gfy on that. I think most agree there was nothing close to a penalty happening here, if you look at him even moving his arm away.
58' Hummels losing the ball in build up, luckily for Dortmund Juve doesn't push their advantage properly.
60' Pogba with his hand in Kirchs face, ref doesn't bother calling it. Sorry folks but I can't not make it sound like a complete joke what this alleged referee is doing. It was nothing vicious at all, but hand in face is one of the clearest calls out there.
62' Tevez with a great chance from a great position roughly 8m in front of the goal, but he can't quite control it, so his attempt goes very wide.
67' I have to say, Dortmund is rather clueless in the 2nd half so far. Even after a gifted corner, Dortmund doesn't even come close to create a proper chance.
70' Tevez free to shoot from the edge of the box after Dortmund is a bit disordered in their defence, it goes wide by just a few inches. Wiedenfeller doesn't seem to have gotten it.
72' A long ball and a lack of communication between Ginter and Weidenfeller forces Weidenfeller to first smash it away, then tackle down Ginter as I think Tevez was approaching.
74' A shot from Immobile goes roughly 1m over the bar, Buffon recognizing this and not even trying to save it.
75' Dortmund (3/3) - Immobile, Blaszczykowski - Aubameyang going as striker now, Kuba on the right wing, same as last weekend against Stuttgart. The Italian fans whistling Immobile off the field, which is no surprise as they were whistling him throughout the entire game.
77' Ginter slipping basically on the same spot as Chiellini leading up to the temporary equalizer, Tevez taking the attempt but Weidenfeller saves it. The following corner is as dangerous as most Juve corners so far, but it goes over the bar.
78' An incomplete pass allows Juve to play out a 3v3, but offside players force an unideal pass which gets intercepted on a great sliding tackle.
79' Pereyra for a professional foul from behind on Mkhitaryan.
85' Dortmunds central defense disordered yet again, Pereyra gets through open in front of the goal, but his shot misses to post just narrowly.
85' Juventus (2/3) - Vidal, Padoin, even though Vidal cooled a bit down it's a smart decision from Allegri before he somehow gets himself send off.
88' Juventus (3/3) - Tevez, Coman. He who opened the scoring tonight gets to take a shower earlier, Juve looking to defend their lead over the time now.
89' Dortmund with a good chance on a counter, but they completely mess it up and it leads to nothing.
90' It's over, Juventus wins the first leg at home 2-1 against Dortmund.
Highlights - the place for gifs
cppn02 and his gifs, I'll only put major events in the thread, visit his post for more moving images.
Statistics
Juventus FC 90' Borussia Dortmund
47% Possession 53%
10 Shots 12
55% Duells 45%
412 total passes 463
80% Passing accuracy 80%
8 Fouls 9
4 Offsides 1
Streams
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"Who is it this week?" - A preview of Arsenal vs Stoke City

Hey there! I'm Heroic_Lifesaver and welcome to this weeks one stop shop as we prepare for Arsenal's next Premier League match.
Here's last weeks post ahead of the brilliant 5-1 win at West Ham.
This week, the Stoke-on-Trent branch of Sauron's Army descend upon the Emirates, led by their Commander in Chief. It's Stoke City.
The Managers
Arsenal
Stoke City
How's your form?
Arsenal
Stoke City
Team News
Arsenal
Stoke City
Head-to-Head
That's Interesting
How about some goals?
And that's that...
So there it is, everything you need to know ahead of our clash with the Orcs on Saturday. It's a 3pm (GMT) kick off. Here's hoping for a win to put us top, at least until Chelsea play on Sunday. Hopefully we can keep up the goal-scoring streak we're on at the minute too.
I'll be back a little earlier than usual ahead of our next match, which is on Tuesday evening away to Everton. Plenty of games to keep on top of during the busy Christmas period.
Thanks for reading!
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bet365 finished matches video

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bet365 finished matches

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