General Soccer Discussion

Status
Not open for further replies.
#351      

KBLEE

Montgomery, IL
It looks like Manchester City must have bribed the powers-that-be to get 3 Europa League level opponents.
 
#352      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
What, no USMNT discussion? Boy, they really stunk up the joint yesterday.
 
#354      

unimaroon

Baja Ontario
I recorded it to watch tomorrow, but my enthusiasm has now been dampened.
 
#355      
Chicago Fire have sold controlling ownership to Joe Mansueto, the executive chairman of Morningstar, a leading investment research firm based in Chicago. Mansueto had previously purchased a 49% stake in the team in July 2018. The team has also reached a deal with MLS that will see them move from SeatGeek Stadium in suburban Bridgeview back to Soldier Field, where they have signed a three-year lease which starts in 2020. The club is also working on getting a new soccer-specific stadium built in downtown Chicago.
 
#357      

KBLEE

Montgomery, IL
UEFA Champions League group play is back. There are some decent matches today / tomorrow.
 
#358      

wettsten

Chicago
UEFA Champions League group play is back. There are some decent matches today / tomorrow.

today's biggest matches:
dortmund v barcelona
napoli v liverpool

tomorrow:
atletico v juventus
psg v real madrid
 
#360      
CONCACAF president says the confederation may have to alter their qualifying schedule for the 2022 World Cup as they still want to complete the final stages of the Nations League and qualifying for the 2021 Gold Cup as well as Olympic qualifying. Where this leads to a problem is that many of those matches will have to be played in international break windows that would have previously been used for friendlies that would have aided in improving FIFA rankings. This is especially the case in the 6th and 7th place spots in the Confederation which are currently held by El Salvador and Canada with El Salvador currently having the advantage that would have them playing in the hex rather than the tournament with the remaining CONCACAF sides.
 
#362      
The Bundesliga returned with matches this weekend. Their website created a flow chart for anyone new to the league who wants to decide which team they should follow:
en_supportwho_flowchart_hd-1-scaled.jpg
 
#363      
Mexican federation president today said El Tri will play no games in the U.S. until fans are allowed back in the stands. El Tri were originally scheduled to play the Czech Republic and Greece in March and Colombia in June but all those matches have been cancelled.
 
#365      
MLS set to return July 8 with the MLS is Back Tournament to be held at the Disney Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando. Here are some of the details of the tournament:

-Teams can begin arriving in Orlando on June 24 but teams will be allowed to stay in their home markets to train if they prefer but must arrive in Orlando no later than one week before their first scheduled match.
-Eastern Conference will have three groups, one consisting of 6 teams each, two consisting of 4 each with Nashville SC moving to the Eastern Conference for the remainder of the 2020 season. Western Conference will have 3 groups, all with 4 teams each.
-Tournament will consist of a group stage with each team playing 3 matches, followed by a knockout stage. The teams are divided in six groups with the top 2 in each group plus the 4 best 3rd place finishers moving on to the knockout stage.
-As the host club, Orlando City SC will be given the top seed in Group A, and will play in the first match on July 8. The five remaining seeds will be the four semifinalists from the 2019 MLS Cup playoffs (Atlanta United, LAFC, Seattle Sounders FC and Toronto FC) and Real Salt Lake, which had the next-highest points total in the Western Conference from the 2019 season. The draw for the tournament is Thursday at 3:30 p.m. ET.
-There will be three matches held per day at the beginning of the tournament with the start times at 9 a.m., 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. ET in order to avoid the midday heat in Florida.
-Once they get to the knockout round, there will be no extra time and they will go directly to penalty kicks.
-The tournament final will be played August 11th.
-All of the group stage matches count in the regular-season standings, with the winner of the tournament earning a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League, regardless of whether it is a U.S. or Canadian club. The winner would replace the berth previously awarded to the MLS regular-season points leader in the conference opposite of the 2020 Supporters' Shield winner.

Once the tournament is over, MLS plans to resume their season with a revised schedule in MLS home markets, followed by the MLS Cup Playoffs and the 25th MLS Cup.
 
#366      
For those wanting to watch the MLS is Back Tournament Draw this afternoon at 3:30 PM ET, you can watch it on MLSSoccer.com, MLS' Facebook and Twitter pages, or on the stream for MLS' Youtube page, which you can see below:

 
#367      
Here's how the groups for the MLS is Back Tournament ended up being drawn:

Group A
Orlando City
Inter Miami
New York City FC
Philadelphia Union
Chicago Fire
Nashville SC

Group B
Seattle Sounders
FC Dallas
Vancouver Whitecaps
San Jose Earthquakes

Group C
Toronto FC
New England Revolution
Montreal Impact
DC United

Group D
Real Salt Lake
Sporting Kansas City
Colorado Rapids
Minnesota United

Group E
Atlanta
FC Cincinnati
New York Red Bulls
Columbus Crew

Group F
LAFC
LA Galaxy
Houston Dynamo
Portland Timbers

Here's how the opponent fixtures were set for Group A prior to the draw:

A1/A4/A5 (A2, A3, A6)
A2/A3/A6 (A1, A4, A5)

So I know we talk about this during the World Cup, so it's worth asking for this style of tournament. Among the 4 team groups, which is the Group of Death? Who got the easiest draw? For those in Group A, who got the toughest draw of matches? Who got the easiest draw of matches in that group?
 
#373      
MLS released the schedule for the MLS is Back tournament earlier this week, which you can see here: https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/

In addition to the Orlando City-Inter Miami match-up that is set to kick off the tournament on July 8 at 8:00 PM ET, the other Group A match-up that night will be Chicago Fire vs. Nashville SC.

ESPN will oversee all game production during the tournament with matches in the tournament being televised nationally on ESPN, ESPN2, Fox and FS1 and will also be streamed live on the ESPN and Fox Sports apps.
 
#374      
FC Dallas' first match in the MLS is Back Tournament against the Vancouver Whitecaps has been postponed until a later date. To this point there have been 11 members of FC Dallas' delegation, 10 players and 1 coach, that have tested positive for covid since arriving in Orlando for the tournament. Both teams first matches in the tournament will now be on July 15 as FC Dallas faces the Seattle Sounders and the Vancouver Whitecaps face the San Jose Earthquakes.
 
#375      
Chicago Fire's first match in the MLS Back is Tournament set for tomorrow night against Nashville SC has been postponed after 5 Nashville players tested positive for covid. In addition, the Toronto FC-DC United match set for Friday has been pushed back to Sunday because of Toronto's late arrival in Orlando.

This comes on the heels of FC Dallas being sent home after 10 of their players tested positive.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.