This Footy Thread is Now Closed, New Thread Link on Last page

[PRIME]

Cech the goat

Schmeichel says hi

"What's up?"

I just realized you used chelseas accomplishments to defend your Arsenal keeper

 

[josh4523]

I shouldn't even acknowledge this but this gotta be in the top 3 dumbest thing I ever read in this thread.

fair enough, I just think Madrid can benefit from letting the new blood take more minutes, asensio is a nice talent. I think asensio can be just as productive with all that quality around him

 

[Verde Shuttles]

I love Asensio's game, I been saying he needs to play but you don't bench Ronaldo for him unless Ronaldo falls off a cliff, and he's done no such thing, he's come off a long long season & knee surgery.

 

[AZwildcats]

Asensio needs to be a starter, Ronaldo is no longer starter material for Real Madrid. He's useful as a super sub

That's soccer fans for you

 

[vtotheinay]

Asensio needs to be a starter, Ronaldo is no longer starter material for Real Madrid. He's useful as a super sub

View media item 2167419View media item 2158263View media item 2156108View media item 2130160View media item 2134315View media item 2131475View media item 2123090View media item 2121657

 

[RayCashhhh]

LMFAOO. That was the funniest "take" I've every seen on NT, and that's saying something.

 

[PRIME]

LMFAOO. That was the funniest "take" I've every seen on NT, and that's saying something.

They murdered me when I said the rookie QB for Dallas was better than Romo


NTakes are dangerous

 

[RayCashhhh]

They murdered me when I said the rookie QB for Dallas was better than Romo


NTakes are dangerous

Lmao, I don't really follow the NFL like that, I mean I watch it but I don't follow a team or anything. That said, while I've been saying that they need to get someone besides Romo, I can't cosign that sentiment bro [emoji]128514[/emoji][emoji]128514[/emoji][emoji]128514[/emoji]

 

[Verde Shuttles]

They murdered me when I said the rookie QB for Dallas was better than Romo


NTakes are dangerous

What do you gain by saying something that holds no weIght? Dak is a rookie that has done nothing but play great in preseason, Romo is a top 10 qb in the league.

 

[RayCashhhh]

Romo is a specialist in failure. I have nothing else to say.

 

[rck3sactown]

 

[josh4523]

Lol I can take em on the chin

I'm not saying he's washed or trash, just think Madrid has the player that can be a positive change and up the work rate on the flank. But I'll take the boos
View media item 2177397

 

[PRIME]

They murdered me when I said the rookie QB for Dallas was better than Romo


NTakes are dangerous

What do you gain by saying something that holds no weIght? Dak is a rookie that has done nothing but play great in preseason, Romo is a top 10 qb in the league.

I'm a Skins fan. I gain everything by saying that. Broke back Romo will always catch slander

We beat the dog snot out of Orlando City

 

[rck3sactown]

SRFC up 3-0 on the Tulsa Roughnecks.... lets see how we bunker down in this second half

 

[PRIME]

Manchester United 4-1 Leicester City

DC United 4-1 Orlando City

Uniteds washing the City's today

 

[sneaksoy]

Respect josh4523 for realizing you just made the hottest of takes Ronnie da goat.

I know y'all hate fantasy talk but I feel like Theo Epstein today... realized my team was ****e so I used my wildcard this week.

Brought in Son after seeing him ball last week, made him captain thinking he'd flourish with Kane being out and boy did he also got rid of Xhaka, Martial (cut me deep to do this but he's been struggling), Azpilicueta, and some other randoms to bring in KDB and Lukaku. KDB had another solid day and I scooped a random Midd*****rough defender for as cheap as possible and dude gets a bucket today realized I have the highest gameweek total already and I still have two dudes yet to play their game this week


I'm coming for that crown to put back on my dude Zlatan'a head View media item 2177445

 

[EddieDoyers]

Manchester United 4-1 Leicester City

DC United 4-1 Orlando City

Uniteds washing the City's today

Orlando City defense is trash
Free kaka

 

[rck3sactown]

Harry Williams with a late goal to give us the 4-0 victory and 3 points, ensuring Sac Republic a top 2 finish in the West!

 

[Thierry Henry]

 

[rck3sactown]

Pls be ok Quincy Amarikwa... that looked bad

 

[QU!K]

Cech the goat

Schmeichel says hi

"What's up?"

I just realized you used chelseas accomplishments to defend your Arsenal keeper

I respect him as an individual

I seen't you miring Arsenal today tho bruh

 

[PRIME]

Yeah brah.

I respect them as individuals

 

[mastamind89]

Dude got megged by Theo tho

 

[QU!K]

 

[mastamind89]

THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE OF THE NASL

By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Sep 23, 2016) US Soccer Players - Depending on just how doom-and-gloom one wants to be about the North American Soccer League, the news swirling around the NASL and its clubs is either “troubling” or “nuclear meltdown disastrous.” Not only is the NASL facing the departure of one of its anchor teams as Minnesota United plays out the string before moving to MLS next season, now SI.com's Brian Straus is reporting that the Ottawa Fury are considering jumping to the USL for 2017.

Oh, and the Tampa Bay Rowdies may follow suit. That's a bombshell of a revelation. It says more about the health of the league than of the other worrisome developments. Rowdies owner Bill Edwards is a true believe of the NASL Way. That's a specific set of free markets ideals that sets the league apart from single-entity Major League Soccer. The NASL built its image on legacy brands like the New York Cosmos and the Rowdies. Both have ownerships committed to the cause.

Meanwhile, Ft Lauderdale’s owners may or may not have already pulled out and left the league holding the financial bag. Rayo OKC’s future is in real jeopardy after their parent club dropped down a division over in Spain. Even an expansion team in San Francisco can’t distract from the reality that life is hard in these second division streets.

In a lot of ways, this is the NASL reaping what it sowed. Getting into relationships with owners who couldn’t commit to long term projects. Taking on markets that were fraught with potential pitfalls. All while trumpeting the growing relevance of the league and pushing teams to invest more in their on-field project. That brought the NASL to this point. There’s no better word than “ironic” for resurrecting the name of a defunct soccer league that collapsed due to over-expansion, over-spending, and fly-by-night ownership, and so we’ll use it.

Straus’s quotes NASL commissioner Bill Peterson about the “unique relationship” between soccer leagues in the United States. In many other countries, leagues operate under the umbrella of a Federation that helps to align their interests. Here, three leagues are operating as competing businesses. They're making decisions that are only about soccer insofar as they help the business of the league prosper.

In other words, America doesn’t have an integrated pyramid. That's something the NASL has made soft noises about before. It's part of their lament over US Soccer’s labeling of leagues “Division 1”, ‘Division 2”, and “Division 3.”

Peterson isn't wrong here. The sanctioning battle was part of what created both NASL's, the old one and the new. League always precede franchises in this country. The power dynamics are very different. Leagues are business partnerships in their own right, rather than as the framework in which individual teams operate. With that comes distinct North American soccer problems. It's not just the current version of the NASL that hasn't come up with a workable solution.

The future is not written and the NASL may survive this rough patch. If it does not, it's a strike against the pyramid concept. While it frustrates purists, the only path to an integrated pyramid and the romance of promotion and relegation is multiple strong leagues with a host of well-run teams building infrastructure and becoming relevant a sports entities in their communities. There is no reality in which the people who have invested heavily in the game in the United States choose to hit a hard reset button and institute a system that could see their investment relegated. Only upward pressure could convince those people that there would be more to gain from that system than the one currently in place.

The NASL issued a statement late Thursday night, addressing the news of their travails. It offered no specifics. The five-sentence missive only hints at the turmoil reported by Sports Illustrated. Perhaps most interesting is a casual reference to the league’s “dedicated owners”, a phrase that implies there might be some NASL groups not as dedicated.

Here’s to hoping that the NASL Board, commissioner Bill Peterson, and the group of “dedicated owners” right the ship before it sinks beneath the waves. There, at the bottom, lies a vast graveyard of leagues and clubs that operated in denial of the realities of the American soccer landscape. Each and every one of those dead leagues and clubs represents a calcified piece of failure of the sport in the country. Creating new soccer things is fun and exciting and sometimes surprises. However, it’s important and necessary that things both new and old simply survive so that supporting soccer in America becomes a habit that none of us can shake.

Jason Davis is the founder of MatchFitUSA.com and the host of The United States of Soccer on SiriusXM. Contact him: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter:http://twitter.com/davisjsn.