It seems still quite unlikely to happen, but I really hope it happens. It needs to happen at least once just to prove that it can happen.
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A similar ecase happened in Peru with Alianza Lima, one of its oldest teams.
Some of my friends growing up are very disappointed but accepted the outcome due to the irregularities of the team and management during the 2020 season.
I for one hope that having such a well known sports team relegated to the peruvian soccer second league will bring more attention to those games, and therefore making the second league a little more known.
I just learned about how german club Schalke 04 is doing currently and it kind of shocked me. I donât really follow football, but I do get the overall things through osmosis. Schalke 04 has always been seen as one of the top destinations in germany. A traditional club thatâs always in the running, with domestic titles before the Bundesliga and some international success in the 90s and 2000s. They never won the Bundesliga (which I found suprising when I just looked at their club stats) but they finished as runners-up six times in club history, including in the 2017-18 season (though a distant second then).
Theyâve had recent struggles, but in the second half of last year all the wheels fell off continuing into this season. They almost tied the Bundesliga record for longest winless streak, managing just one shy of the record, which lasted almost a full calendar year.
It is now halfway through the 2020-21 season, and Schalke is sitting dead last with just one win and four ties. Their goal differential is -34 in 18 games. For comparison, the last place team in the last three years each finished with goal differential of -37, -42 and -35 respectively, and that is for 34 games. They are already on their fourth head coach in the season.
This may perhaps be the biggest disaster in history of the league. Sure, there have been similar or worse seasons before, but usually by clubs which everyone had written off beforehand anyway, not clubs that have been sitting near the top of the table for three decades.
Oh man, this Super League thing is such a big deal probably gonna be GeekNights news. I already went out and figured out most of what there is to know. Daaaang. As if the World Cup FIFA corruption shenanigans werenât enough.
Three days after it announced its existence the Super League suspended operations. Hilarious.
And nothing of value was lost.
I really have no idea how they expected this to go down. Did they believe that the entirety of society and existing football system would just take it lying down?
Guess Iâm a Ronaldo fan now.
Some ridiculous biz going on with Brazil vs. Argentina.
Four Argentinian players supposedly falsified information related to COVID protocol to enter the country illegally and avoid quarantine. Brazilian federal police came to stop the match. Iâve never seen anything like this, though I have often wanted to. Iâd love to see NYPD go onto the ice at MSG to arrest fighting hockey players for assault, etc.
For some godforsaken reason FIFA is trying to push for the World Cup every two years. UEFA and many other organization are saying thatâs a bad idea:
All the sports leagues try to do this. From the fan perspective we mostly donât like it. I guess there are some fans that want more more more. But the feeling I get is that people realize that rarity is what makes a thing more special. Because it doesnât happen that often, itâs a HUGE deal when it does happen. There are already plenty of annual big deals. We need some things to be less than annual so that they can be an even bigger deal. See also the NFL always trying to make the season longer.
But from the greed perspective, more is better. If they have twice as many World Cups, will the popularity, excitement, and money for each one be half, or less than half of what it is for a single World Cup now? It might be lessened, but not by half! Therefore, twice as many World Cups stands to make them a lot more money.
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World Cup is happening. More corrupt than ever.
In other news, we might sadly be posting about Pelé in that other thread soon.
Interesting and entertaining story time about the 1930 World Cup. This may not have it all, but it has a lot!
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In ice hockey they seem to recognize that a shootout is not the fairest way to end a game. They do it during the regular season because of time constraints mostly. Itâs a compromise.
In the playoffs, when games really matter, they play regular old 5v5 hockey until someone scores.
Iâm not watching the World Cup, but I see headlines. Itâs shocking to me how many games end on penalties. This is the World Cup. The biggest most important tournament. And itâs single elimination. How can they possibly justify these games ending on penalty kicks? Play soccer with golden goal until someone scores, no matter how long it takes.
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Itâs the reason I lose interest in football in the later stages of international tournaments.
Also the game design is weird too. Thereâs a situation in the penalty shootout where itâs just ânext goal winsâ, and as someone who knows about tennis tie breaks, that never feels right. At minimum it should be âgoal ahead wins after the same number of attemptsâ.
I stayed up late watching England vs Italy in the Euros last year, and it was so dumb. Not even the commentary team knew that it was next goal wins until Italy started celebrating and England didnât get another attempt.
Itâs like Verstappen vs Hamilton. I donât mind who wins and who loses if the rules are fair and applied correctly, but it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth when it feels bullshit.
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Meanwhile, away from the World Cup, weâve got the absolute worst down under.
I only caught the end of the final (after the first four goals) but it was still thrilling to see Messi (and I guess the rest of the Argentina team) take the win.
More Messi
