World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

Stop yelling at me, Skip Bayless.

It would be worth the time, money and effort to start a brand new sports channel for the sole purpose of hiring Bayless away from ESPN and then never putting him on air ever again.

 

[AMC]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

It would be worth the time, money and effort to start a brand new sports channel for the sole purpose of hiring Bayless away from ESPN and then never putting him on air ever again.

Here's my thought, if I were a billionaire. At some point, somewhere in the world, there is always a live sporting event going on. It may be sumo wrestling in Japan, Australian Rules Football, sepak takraw in Myanmar (which looks AWESOME, btw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CP6ykzsK0M), whatever. You could create an entire network of just live sporting events. No talking heads. Just roll the ball out there, play, and air it.

You're telling me that at 3am you would rather watch a rerun of Skip Bayless and Woody Paige yelling at each other?

I'm AMC and this is my dream.

 

[GreatLakerMohawk]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

How old is the Premier League if only 4 teams have ever won it?

People say American sports have no parity, but that's freaking ridiculous.

Yeah but one of those four is Blackburn Rovers.

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

The best way to think about it is to picture college football. Each nation's league is kinda like one of the BCS conferences - you've got a couple of well established powers that always win, and over the long term those results are fairly static.

The real competition isn't between, say, Indiana and Ohio State within the leauge, it's between Ohio State and USC, Texas, Florida, etc. in the Champions Leauge - where the resources are far more balanced and the playoff structure of the competition a little more varied.

Except that far more than 4 teams earned a 'national title' in Div I football since the EPL began.

 

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

Here's my thought, if I were a billionaire. At some point, somewhere in the world, there is always a live sporting event going on. It may be sumo wrestling in Japan, Australian Rules Football, sepak takraw in Myanmar (which looks AWESOME, btw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CP6ykzsK0M), whatever. You could create an entire network of just live sporting events. No talking heads. Just roll the ball out there, play, and air it.

You're telling me that at 3am you would rather watch a rerun of Skip Bayless and Woody Paige yelling at each other?

I'm AMC and this is my dream.

No arguments here. Although, one has to admit that you would run into FREQUENT problems with overlapping time slots. Overtime would not be your friend. You would probably still need plenty of pre/post game coverage just to be safe.

 

[unofan]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

Here's my thought, if I were a billionaire. At some point, somewhere in the world, there is always a live sporting event going on. It may be sumo wrestling in Japan, Australian Rules Football, sepak takraw in Myanmar (which looks AWESOME, btw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CP6ykzsK0M), whatever. You could create an entire network of just live sporting events. No talking heads. Just roll the ball out there, play, and air it.

You're telling me that at 3am you would rather watch a rerun of Skip Bayless and Woody Paige yelling at each other?

I'm AMC and this is my dream.

Why do TV's even need talking heads? Just mic the crowd, maybe tap into the PA system at the site, and broadcast with ambient noise. No announcing costs, no more idiots like McCarver or Billy Packer talking over everything. Yeah, we'd lose Gus Johnson too, but the tradeoff is worth it.

 

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

Except that far more than 4 teams earned a 'national title' in Div I football since the EPL began.

The EPL is like a 20 team Pac-10 for Football...every team plays everyone else (twice in EPL home & home) and the winner goes to the rose (normally)...

 

[Biddco]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

The EPL is like a 20 team Pac-10 for Football...every team plays everyone else (twice in EPL home & home) and the winner goes to the rose (normally)...

Except the sucky teams get kicked out to the WAC

Villa seems like an accepted choice here.

I will see when I get there. It depends on what souvenirs I pick up

 

[blockski]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

Except that far more than 4 teams earned a 'national title' in Div I football since the EPL began.

Well, let's see - EPL began play in 1992.

Teams that have won a CFB National Championship since 1992:

Alabama
Florida State
Nebraska
Florida
Michigan
Tennessee
Oklahoma
Miami
Ohio State
LSU
USC
Texas

So, 12 schools out of 119 in D-1A. Just about 10% of the schools.

I was wrong, that's even more restrictive than the 4 out of 20 that have won the Premier League.

Though, to be fair, you'd have to account for relegation, so that's 4 champions out of the 43 total teams that have played in the Premier League - right in the 10% range.

 

[Priceless]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

No arguments here. Although, one has to admit that you would run into FREQUENT problems with overlapping time slots. Overtime would not be your friend. You would probably still need plenty of pre/post game coverage just to be safe.

Timeout Maryland!

 

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

Well, let's see - EPL began play in 1992.

Teams that have won a CFB National Championship since 1992:

Alabama
Florida State
Nebraska
Florida
Michigan
Tennessee
Oklahoma
Miami
Ohio State
LSU
USC
Texas

So, 12 schools out of 119 in D-1A. Just about 10% of the schools.

I was wrong, that's even more restrictive than the 4 out of 20 that have won the Premier League.

Though, to be fair, you'd have to account for relegation, so that's 4 champions out of the 43 total teams that have played in the Premier League - right in the 10% range.

That still not a fair comparison...no matter how well teams do in the WAC, MAC, MWC, Sun Belt, Conference USA...they have no chance of winning the National Championship since 1992...so its 12 out of 65 BSC teams plus the 3 independents

 

[blockski]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

That still not a fair comparison...no matter how well teams do in the WAC, MAC, MWC, Sun Belt, Conference USA...they have no chance of winning the National Championship since 1992...so its 12 out of 65 BSC teams plus the 3 independents

All I was trying to say with the analogy is that there is an entrenched power structure in European soccer, reinforced both by the economics of the league (with the EPL being the spendiest of them all) and the competitive structure (no playoffs to allow for upset victories, hot playoff runs, etc).

But we can keep going, if you like. How are those WAC teams any different than the ones at the bottom of the table, really? Sure, they looked good against lesser competition in the lower division, but if we forced them to play a full season's SEC or PAC10 or Big Ten schedule, they wouldn't last long

 

[AMC]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

No arguments here. Although, one has to admit that you would run into FREQUENT problems with overlapping time slots. Overtime would not be your friend. You would probably still need plenty of pre/post game coverage just to be safe.

Nah. If they run over, they run over. We won't even have studios. I like unofan's idea. No announcers either.

 

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

All I was trying to say with the analogy is that there is an entrenched power structure in European soccer, reinforced both by the economics of the league (with the EPL being the spendiest of them all) and the competitive structure (no playoffs to allow for upset victories, hot playoff runs, etc).

But we can keep going, if you like. How are those WAC teams any different than the ones at the bottom of the table, really? Sure, they looked good against lesser competition in the lower division, but if we forced them to play a full season's SEC or PAC10 or Big Ten schedule, they wouldn't last long

True but the WAC, MWC and Conference USA are more like members of The Championship and the Sun Belt is more like a bunch of first division teams without the relegation/promotion. So if you say 12 of 112 teams in the NCAA FBS, than it should be 4 of 138 (or how ever far down you want to go) teams in the English football league system

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

But we can keep going, if you like. How are those WAC teams any different than the ones at the bottom of the table, really?

Most teams in the weaker conferences don't have a shot at a BCS title game, even if they do everything they can to recruit the same players, and even if they win their division as well as a NC game or two against teams from the better conferences. iow it's completely out of their control. Theoretically the only thing getting in the way of Everton (or whatever) is $$ out of their own pocket.

btw, I'm not trying to take a shot at the EPL per se, but it is very curious thing that only 4 teams have won it all in nearly 2 decades.

 

[jmh]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

Are any of you (currently) certified officials watching the West Ham-Chelsea match? I let my certification lapse a few years ago, but the announcers just criticized an offsides call that I think the linesman got right.

Cech was off his line, Terry behind him on the line. West Ham played the ball to a player standing between Cech and Terry. The linesman flagged for offsides. If I remember the reading of the offsides rule, it is actually worded as the last two players (usually including the goalkeeper, but not necessarily), not solely the last field player. Am I right there?

I'm not a certified official, but since I don't think anyone answered you, I believe this is correct. Pretty sure the rule is, as you say, last two players, and because this almost always is equivalent to "goalkeeper and last field player" people tend to simplify it as "last field player".

I watch the EPL Review Show every Sunday night and Bobby Zamora of Fulham really caught my eye with his performance against Manchester United...how old is he? Is he a rising star?

Zamora has been in great form of late, though it should be borne in mind, in evaluating his performance against Manchester United in particular, that United were without their best five or six center backs, and were using a kid who just turned 21 making his second-ever Premier League appearance and a couple of midfielders back there. For what it's worth, not many of the people debating whether he deserves an England callup (I'm not convinced he does; if they're all in form, he's probably not as good a target striker as any of Heskey or Cole or Crouch) seem to be taking into account that he declared (though never played) for Trinidad and Tobago. (Though, on the flip side, I think he'd have to be crazy to pass up a shot at the World Cup with England in favor of a shot at the Gold Cup and some WCQs with T&T.)

Here's my thought, if I were a billionaire. At some point, somewhere in the world, there is always a live sporting event going on. It may be sumo wrestling in Japan, Australian Rules Football, sepak takraw in Myanmar (which looks AWESOME, btw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CP6ykzsK0M), whatever. You could create an entire network of just live sporting events. No talking heads. Just roll the ball out there, play, and air it.

You're telling me that at 3am you would rather watch a rerun of Skip Bayless and Woody Paige yelling at each other?

I'm AMC and this is my dream.

I love this idea, and I agree that there don't even need to be commentators, ambient crowd noise is fine.

In response to Biddco's suggestion, I'll echo the above comments about Aston Villa (rather than suggesting the team that I support, which is what I usually do).

 

[AMC]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

If Zamora declared for T&T and didn't get a callup, is he really England's best option? Or did T&T just completely miss the boat?

I've been trying to pick an EPL team to root for since the beginning of last season, just based on watching games and seeing who I end up pulling for. I really seem to be leaning towards Spurs.

 

[jmh]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

If Zamora declared for T&T and didn't get a callup, is he really England's best option? Or did T&T just completely miss the boat?

He received his T&T passport over the summer and was going to be called up (maybe was called up, I'm not completely sure) for T&T's qualifier against El Salvador in August (at that point T&T still had an outside chance of qualifying) but didn't play because he was injured. I'm not sure why they didn't call him up for their subsequent qualifiers; he and Kenwyne Jones would be a pretty intimidating pair to play against, but maybe their styles are too similar to be a good pairing.

 

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

If Zamora declared for T&T and didn't get a callup, is he really England's best option? Or did T&T just completely miss the boat?

I've been trying to pick an EPL team to root for since the beginning of last season, just based on watching games and seeing who I end up pulling for. I really seem to be leaning towards Spurs.

I'm digging Spurs at the moment as well. If only for the fact that I enjoy seeing any team (ANY team) challenge the Big Four. It definately seems like Spurs, Villa and Citeh are doing a much better job of breaking the stranglehold than they have in years past.

As for picking an EPL team... I've thought about that a lot, but its really hard to just arbitrarily pick one, isn't it? I have a list of clubs I'm willing to support, but its hard to really try narrowing it down. I didn't grow up with soccer. I have only a cursory knowlege of the history of the game. I've never been to England, nor do I have any family history there. I know very few people who really care about the EPL (I have a college friend who's either a Blackburn or a Bolton fan, but I can't remember which, so that tells you how much we talked about it).

All I have to go one is that I don't like the Big Four, and I'm sure I'd like whichever English team is the most similar to my favorite American teams (Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Wild... yeah, try finding similarities between those franchises, beyond having very tradition-minded fans).

 

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: World Soccer XI: To South Africa, and Beyond!

I'm digging Spurs at the moment as well. If only for the fact that I enjoy seeing any team (ANY team) challenge the Big Four. It definately seems like Spurs, Villa and Citeh are doing a much better job of breaking the stranglehold than they have in years past.

As for picking an EPL team... I've thought about that a lot, but its really hard to just arbitrarily pick one, isn't it? I have a list of clubs I'm willing to support, but its hard to really try narrowing it down. I didn't grow up with soccer. I have only a cursory knowlege of the history of the game. I've never been to England, nor do I have any family history there. I know very few people who really care about the EPL (I have a college friend who's either a Blackburn or a Bolton fan, but I can't remember which, so that tells you how much we talked about it).

All I have to go one is that I don't like the Big Four, and I'm sure I'd like whichever English team is the most similar to my favorite American teams (Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Wild... yeah, try finding similarities between those franchises, beyond having very tradition-minded fans).

I actually haven't spent much time watching it, I've just gotten into following things a little more since enjoying my time playing FIFA 10. Its been kind of interesting playing "be a pro" with teams I've never heard of before. I'm currently running through a season with Hull City, to complete an "accomplishment" for getting a team promoted (the game has them in the championship for some reason. The only relationship I have with any EPL teams or ANY teams for that matter is the ones that have americans on them or did at some point. I started following things a bit back when Sunderland had Claudio Reyna, but as you mentioned, without that locality (why I'm a fan of the Wild) or "growing up a fan" (Packers/Brewers)...its hard to pick a team and stick with them...