Topic: The Push Square Football (Soccer) Thread

Woke up this morning, turned on my tv and less than 5 seconds later Benzima scored the first goal. Missed the first half but thought RM was better than Liverpool during the second half. What a wonder goal by Bale!

Karius is a PROFESSIONAL goalkeeper. Hahaha awful. The first one was stupid, the third goal has ended his top flight career.

Ramos proved yet again dirty players cause injuries, absolutely disgusting. Apparently this guy is looked on as world class and the game management hes famous for is bad sportsmanshipm plain and simple, diving around, dirty hacks, gesticulatiobs to the ref etc etc. He purposefully landed on Salah and ruined the game.

I'm absolutely ecstatic. What an unreal achievement. 3 in 3 years. 4 in 5 years.
That's more than most clubs have achieved in their history.
Very happy for the City of Madrid and La Liga in general.

Madrid have amassed a fantastic squad and they haven't really splashed the cash compared to other teams. Unless I'm mistaken last nights starting 11 was the same that started against Juventus last year.
(Euro):
Navas- 10million
Carvajal- 6.5million
Varane- 10million
Ramos - 27million
Marcelo- 7million
Modric- 35million
Casemiro- 7million
Kroos- 30million
Isco- 30million
Benzema- 35million
Ronaldo- 94million

Probably one of the 'cheapest' starting 11 for any top side- yet it's Madrid 'buy' success.

The best thing about this is that Keylor Navas has 3 Champions League Winners medals and he started all 3 finals . OverAchieverLAD.

EDIT: SuberSUB Bale 100million
You know there's is a gulf in class when you sub your star player for Lallana and the other team brings on Bale lol.

Been watching a few programmes about the history of football this past week on the History channel. Didn't know Pele scored 1,200+ goals during his career playing football. Which is insane!

Is Fred (Brazilian player) any good? Looks like he's the first summer buy for United but I'm looking at his stats on Google and it's not very impressive.

@WanderingBullet Hopefully he will be as good as Anderson lol.

But stats can only tell you so much. Like the one of the best passers in the premier league last season was a centre back according to stats, with something like a 90% pass completion rate. But if most of passes he is doing is sideways and backwards 5 yards should they really compare to someone that is taking more risks and trying to do 50 yard cross field passes?

@JohnnyShoulder I think Kleberson is worst than Anderson.haha

Which team do yall reckon will lift the World Cup?

My money is on Argentina or France.

Argentina is one of the teams that I'm rooting for.

Brazil. As long as Luis doesn't have one of his moments.

I'm going for the Germans or the Spaniards.

Teams currently can qualify for Europe via the Fair Play table, but it's limited to a few teams drawn from a large pool at random. Incorporating this with what BAMOzzy is mentioning above would work, but only if they expand the (I believe) three sides that can qualify this way to genuinely make playing fairly a viable option for sides, who are not at the sharp end of tournaments, leagues and cups... That way it would spread the wealth abit....

@dellyrascal I was referring to the use of VAR which is being implemented now to a degree. The 3 challenges, whether its per half or per match (with maybe an extra challenge or 2 (1 per half) for extra time) could be used by the Captain/Manager to review an incident. Over a season of 38 matches - lets say 3 challenges per half, 6 per match (essentially 1 per 15mins so you get an extra 1 per half in Extra-time for cup matches - similar to getting extra challenges in tie-breaks in tennis) would make a total of 228 per season. Every 'wrong' challenge would lose 1 so the most any team can have is 228 but the team with the 'most' left gets a bonus 3pts which could make the difference between finishing in the relegation zone or not, change their league position which could be worth a couple of £m to the club or even get them into Europe at the expense of another club.

This is different to qualifying for 'Europe' under the fair play because you could still play 'dirty', accumulate numerous yellow/red cards but because you 'never' challenged a decision or at least never 'lost' a challenge, I don't think that is worthy of a European place. That's ridiculous. It could be used in conjunction of course - the team with the best 'fair play' record AND highest number of challenges remaining.

The purpose of the above though was to stop the players surrounding the ref or getting angry with decisions. If they also handed out yellows/reds for that behaviour and only the captain/manager can approach the ref to 'challenge' their decision, then it would cut out a lot of the 'negative' side of football. The 'diving' and play-acting too - If the captain of the opposition can challenge the ref that was 'conned' by diving/play-acting to have a 'second look' via VAR, then that will stop players like Sterling throwing himself to the floor so much - ensure the game is cleaned up...

@BAMozzy fair point, the idea of the extra points I'd have to agree would be the best form of implementation above anything else.

I can also see the idea coming through in the future, the continental confederations and the FA's do give a lot of ideas a go, as i'm sure you are aware. VAR took a while with various trials and i'm sure the challenges idea has probably been mooted already, with VAR still needing some refinement, now is the perfect time to incorporate such changes.

@JohnnyShoulder Luiz isnt in the squad.

@themcnoisy #problemsolved

Can't believe Germany left out Sane from Man City. 😨

@JohnnyShoulder Hes been below average for the National Team tbf.

Spain's national team manager has been sacked. Hope this doesn't mess up their preparation.

US, Canada and Mexico to host 2026's World Cup.

We did a sweepstake at work yesterday. I got Saudi Arabia. Quietly confident.