FUCK QATAR

I didn't read the article but I agree. Fuck that worthless terrorist supporting country.

oregonblitzkrieg said:

I didn't read the article but I agree. Fuck that worthless terrorist supporting country.

What do you mean? Qatar allows Obubba to to funnel all his weapons to al Qaeda...I mean freedom fighters, forgive me. They're our new buddy.

Tequilla said:

What I don't get is that soccer is reaching an apex in terms of support in this country. You have the top English teams coming over here every year. You have the head of the Spanish Premera Division talking about wanting to expand their footprint in the US including possible league matchups. You're finding more and more US players choosing to stay home in MLS.

IF they wanted to do, it would be very easy to expand the Champions League such that the US and really Mexico were brought into the discussion. Getting North America even more tied into the Champions League would be a no brainer IMO and with transportation to/from the US and Europe easier than it has ever been, you could also very easily have a breakout "Super League" with the Top Teams from Europe breaking off from the "Financial Fair Play" that is in place right now.

I'm all for the World Cup going to other parts of the world. Russia makes sense. Strong domestic league. Fairly strong national team. Qatar makes ZERO sense. It's just a flat out bad idea. The sooner Sepp Blatter gets away from the European control the better for soccer in general.

Agree with most of what you said.

However, each continental federation already has their own Champions League. The winners play each other in the Club World Cup. You would want to expand that tournament.

Also, MLS will never take off unless we start producing more American talent. We don't have the financial means to import good talent, and won't for at least a couple more decades. I find most of the games to be unwatchable dreck, which is one of the reasons why I can't get into the Sounders.

I think what needs to happen is for a major league like the EPL or La Liga to tell FIFA to fuck off and secede. That's the only way they lose their grip on the sport.

Cuogar_Gold said:

I support soccer. I'll be at the MLS all-star game in Portland wearing my 2010 Auburn vs. Oregon National Title t-shirt if anyone wants to meet up.

Will you be wearing a warm winter scarf in the summer heat so you can look the part of a wannabe European?

Cuogar_Gold said:

PurpleJ said:

Cuogar_Gold said:

I support soccer. I'll be at the MLS all-star game in Portland wearing my 2010 Auburn vs. Oregon National Title t-shirt if anyone wants to meet up.

Will you be wearing a warm winter scarf in the summer heat so you can look the part of a wannabe European?

I just hope all the Europeans like the Tifo we made.

I know you are being sarcastic, but the Euros won't truly respect us as a futbol nation until we learn to write more offensive chants and start engaging in large-scale riots after every match. Not likely, when you consider the fannypack wearing motherfuckers that currently follow MLS.

PurpleJ said:

Tequilla said:

What I don't get is that soccer is reaching an apex in terms of support in this country. You have the top English teams coming over here every year. You have the head of the Spanish Premera Division talking about wanting to expand their footprint in the US including possible league matchups. You're finding more and more US players choosing to stay home in MLS.

IF they wanted to do, it would be very easy to expand the Champions League such that the US and really Mexico were brought into the discussion. Getting North America even more tied into the Champions League would be a no brainer IMO and with transportation to/from the US and Europe easier than it has ever been, you could also very easily have a breakout "Super League" with the Top Teams from Europe breaking off from the "Financial Fair Play" that is in place right now.

I'm all for the World Cup going to other parts of the world. Russia makes sense. Strong domestic league. Fairly strong national team. Qatar makes ZERO sense. It's just a flat out bad idea. The sooner Sepp Blatter gets away from the European control the better for soccer in general.

Agree with most of what you said.

However, each continental federation already has their own Champions League. The winners play each other in the Club World Cup. You would want to expand that tournament.

Also, MLS will never take off unless we start producing more American talent. We don't have the financial means to import good talent, and won't for at least a couple more decades. I find most of the games to be unwatchable dreck, which is one of the reasons why I can't get into the Sounders.

I think what needs to happen is for a major league like the EPL or La Liga to tell FIFA to fuck off and secede. That's the only way they lose their grip on the sport.

I agree with most of what you said as well (we should all drink chocolate milk and sing soccer chants - $75k) ...

I realize each federation has their own Champions League and that they all play in the Club World Cup ... which is fairly worthless because the scheduling. IMO there's room to expand the tournament one way or another or to have some kind of joint agreement in place. Growth of the game is good for all parties ... so thinking outside of the box of how to make it work is what is needed.

I agree with you that MLS needs more local American talent - which I think we'll see over the next 20 years as all of the guys that I play soccer with all have their kids playing soccer and playing at relatively high levels. Not only is the success of the National Team taking place, but we're starting to see some success at the U-levels as well. This is very similar to what we saw in the past 20 years or so with hockey. Big event with the 1980 team inspired the first generation of American talent in the 90s which has in turn spawn this generation where the US is now on the short list of favorites in any junior or senior national tournament.

The Sounders are at times painful to watch in many ways to me because of the other teams and their lack of skill and talent. When the Sounders get going, if you didn't know better, you could see them playing in a mid-tier European league.

The big thing that is missing in the US though is $$$. I think that the $$$ is there in the US for elite level soccer. But I don't think it is there for middling soccer. MLS needs to further figure out the divide between having good young players like DeAndre Yedlin who have to go to Europe to get paid (and it's good for his development as well) versus being able to pay them at home. Having only 3 DP slots on the roster really limits the growth. What I'd rather see the league move more in the direction of is more of a Financial Fair Play model where the teams have a certain floor that they can spend up to regardless of profitability but then anything about that they can spend and invest in their team as long as they remain at minimum a break-even franchise. I think it's ridiculous that Seattle can sell 40k tickets per game but have more or less the same financial limitations to them that a team like Columbus has. Although I also understand that you can't let the gap between the have's and have nots get too big.

It would not shock me if the EPL and La Liga as the richest leagues in the world at some point tell UEFA to fuck off.

Finding a replacement for gas and oil will return the arab world to the stone age, where they belong. It's what those Islamofascists want anyway.

Tequilla said:

HoustonHusky said:

Spent two and a half weeks down in Brazil for the WC...probably spend about the same in Russia in 2018. No way in hell I'm going to Qatar in 2022.

Not sure how much you know about them, but it's fucked up...when the Saudis call them rich relative to themselves (the Saudis) it's nuts to begin with, but when you see/hear what they do with the money...

Waiting for the punch line ...

No punch line...$200 billion for the World Cup...$15 billion for an airport...think it has the highest per capita income per citizen by far of any country. And never been, but have heard they take pride I importing the professional girls from most every country in the world. May be why they made the first WC stadium look like a VJJ.

mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/al-wakrah-vagina-stadium-qatar-world-2807997

Hate posting on an ipad. Good thing is, that's $200 billion less that goes to Hamas and other nut jobs.

oregonblitzkrieg said:

C'mon, give OBK some love for this - it's funny

Cuogar_Gold said:

PurpleJ said:

Cuogar_Gold said:

PurpleJ said:

Cuogar_Gold said:

I support soccer. I'll be at the MLS all-star game in Portland wearing my 2010 Auburn vs. Oregon National Title t-shirt if anyone wants to meet up.

Will you be wearing a warm winter scarf in the summer heat so you can look the part of a wannabe European?

I just hope all the Europeans like the Tifo we made.

I know you are being sarcastic, but the Euros won't truly respect us as a futbol nation until we learn to write more offensive chants and start engaging in large-scale riots after every match. Not likely, when you consider the fannypack wearing motherfuckers that currently follow MLS.

Agree. Some of the kilt wearing tryhards down here talk about fighting Seattle supporters inbetween their barista shifts.

Kilt baristas sounds like a great bidness model. It fits the area much better than bikini baristas.