MLS/Soccer Thread

[jays4life19]

Mr. Bob I trust you will be watching the match today.

[Abomination]

Prediction: 2-1 Bayern with Davies scoring 2 goals.

 

This seems highly unlikely. He may set up a goal, and will almost certainly terrorize some unprepared defenders though.

[TheHurl]

Who is broadcasting the game in Canada? What is the start time? I am going to throw it on Dazn and have it on in the background at work

[jays4life19]

This seems highly unlikely. He may set up a goal, and will almost certainly terrorize some unprepared defenders though.

 

Coman is starting and Ribbery is back healthy so I doubt he plays much so you're right. I was just kinda crossing my fingers Coman ankle wouldn't be healthy enough to go.

[jays4life19]

Who is broadcasting the game in Canada? I am going to throw it on Dazn and have it on in the background at work

 

I'll be watching on Dazn, I checked the TV and did not see it.

[jays4life19]

Holy f*** soccer is boring.

[Spanky99]

Holy f*** soccer is boring.

 

lol

[Orgfiller]

Holy f*** soccer is boring.

 

Lmao, three of the top teams in the world played today - and Lyon, who are a young and exciting club - and both games ended in draws. That sucks buddy, did Davies play at least?

[jays4life19]

Lmao, three of the top teams in the world played today - and Lyon, who are a young and exciting club - and both games ended in draws. That sucks buddy, did Davies play at least?

 

Nope. I kinda had a feeling this might happen as it was his first champions league game and they keep talking about not "over exposing" him. Coman started and Ribbery replaced him late. I think this was only his second game he did not get in, but they usually only play him a few mins towards the end of each game. Probably going to take an injury to Coman to get him some serious mins.

 

But f*** I really hate how a soccer game can end 0-0. Ties in sports shouldn't be a thing.

[Bobthe4th]

Nope. I kinda had a feeling this might happen as it was his first champions league game and they keep talking about not "over exposing" him. Coman started and Ribbery replaced him late. I think this was only his second game he did not get in, but they usually only play him a few mins towards the end of each game. Probably going to take an injury to Coman to get him some serious mins.

 

But f*** I really hate how a soccer game can end 0-0. Ties in sports shouldn't be a thing.

 

Even though you're wrong about not wanting draws, you'll be pleased to know that the games at this stage of the Champions League are over two legs, so in the second leg they'll play until there is a winner (including the away goals rule).

[Bobthe4th]

Messi scored his 50th hattrick for Barcelona today:

 

[jays4life19]

Nope. I kinda had a feeling this might happen as it was his first champions league game and they keep talking about not "over exposing" him. Coman started and Ribbery replaced him late. I think this was only his second game he did not get in, but they usually only play him a few mins towards the end of each game. Probably going to take an injury to Coman to get him some serious mins.

But f*** I really hate how a soccer game can end 0-0. Ties in sports shouldn't be a thing.

 

This happened today

[jays4life19]

Fantastic read on Davies

 

___

 

 

Just over an hour before Bayern Munich were set to kick off against Liverpool in one of the club’s most anticipated European matches in recent memory, Alphonso Davies walked out onto the pitch. The 18-year-old Canadian left winger broke from his hunched-over pose to pull his phone out of his training jacket pocket and took a 360-degree video of the Anfield grounds.

 

He was in awe of his surroundings, and the players he would soon line up with and play against.

 

“I was watching these guys when I was little,” Davies told The Athletic of his first Champions League experience. “You have to capture this moment. It’s incredible.”

 

It was a brief opportunity for Davies to take stock of how much his world has been turned on its head. Less than four months earlier, the teenage phenom spread the proverbial icing on the cake when he bagged a first-half brace for the Vancouver Whitecaps in his final game with the club after being the subject of a then MLS record outgoing-player transfer fee. He had shown that he could boss MLS as a teenager. Europe beckoned.

 

But on this chilly night in northwest England, Davies was a player in transition. He huddled close to teenaged Bayern fringe players, including Lukas Mai and Jeong Woo-yeong. Davies would not get on the pitch against Liverpool, but he was called upon to limber up alongside Franck Ribery, Rafinha and Renato Sanches for a potential late-game appearance while Mai and Woo-yeong’s posteriors would remain glued to the bench.

 

As the soccer world’s spotlight continues to shine brighter on MLS, and more young North American players move abroad, Davies’ transition to one of the giants of club football could become less of an outlier and more of a natural evolution. But what can be learned from the early days of Davies transition from North America to Europe?

 

Most days in Munich begin the same for Davies. He lives alone in a comfortable apartment close to Bayern’s Säbener Straße training center. It is an apartment that Bayern helped Davies find, but the club does not pay for his accommodations.

 

He’s active on Instagram, promoting his own brand with the hashtag #AD19 and with stories that often focus on his FIFA skills, music interests and daily activities around Munich. According to Hype Auditor, Davies’ Instagram following has grown rapidly since arriving in Munich in late November: From approximately 112,000 followers to over 210,000.

 

Davies drives himself to training sessions in a team-provided Audi. There, he’ll often face playful ribbing from members of Bayern’s player relations staff about how much Canadians eat maple syrup and the general lack of syrup available in Germany.

 

After training sessions, Davies takes German lessons multiple times a week. His German is progressing, but he still considers the language to be a serious stumbling block in his transition. Though English is widely spoken throughout Munich, German is used more frequently within the club itself.

 

“The pronunciation, and understanding the structure of language is tough,” said Davies, shaking his head.

 

Language difficulties aside, Davies is slowly starting to form bonds with some of the more senior members of Bayern’s first team. He speaks often with celebrated left back David Alaba, but Davies has yet to find a senior player with whom he’s connected on the level that he did with one of his Whitecaps mentors, Kei Kamara. Though Kamara is 16 years older than Davies, the two formed a tight bond in Kamara’s lone season with Vancouver last year. Their dance routines made waves across MLS, and Kamara helped Davies come out of his shell, which came back to bite him as Davies ended up breaking rank and giving the veteran player a nickname: Kangaroo Kai.

 

“I haven’t really found someone like that,” Davies said quietly. “There isn’t anyone in specific.” But he understands that integrating more with the first team could only benefit his game. “You learn so much and you gain so much advice from experienced players that I can apply to my game.”

 

Davies communicates with Kovac every day as the coach tries to guide him in his development. That communication has been pivotal to Davies’ transition after he failed to keep up in early training sessions.

 

“My first two weeks in training, I was messing up a lot,” Davies confessed. After being surrounded by a Whitecaps team that wasn’t always renowned for its speed, and then showcasing an ability to blow by his markers with relative ease in MLS play, Davies arrived at Bayern training with the inherent belief that he’d be granted more time on the ball. The opposite turned out to be true.

 

“Players close down early,” said Davies of Bayern training. “Your first touch has to be good to be able to move the ball forward.”

 

Compared to sessions with the Whitecaps, Bayern’s training focuses on much quicker ball movement. Under Kovac, the expectation of players is that touches and ball movement are much more precise. Drills are heavy on passing and a lack of accuracy in those drills stunts a player’s progression. Every element of training is calculated to mimic what could happen in an upcoming game. But there are also more intangible differences.

 

“The hunger is much stronger here,” said Davies of training at Bayern compared to the Whitecaps. “There’s so much more to lose.”

 

By trying to be a sponge for information and taking instructions well, Davies has overcome early struggles and now doesn’t look out of place in training.

 

“My play has gotten faster,” Davies said of how he’s adapted to Bayern. “I’m playing pretty well at the moment, overall.”

 

“He adapted quickly,” Kovac said of Davies. “He has integrated into the team well and he is a nice young man. We need quality, that’s why he’s here.”

 

It might go without saying, but minor setbacks should be considered par for the course for young players moving to Europe. Last month, Davies encountered what was perceived to be another stumbling block in his development. After not being named to Bayern’s squad against Augsburg and then not featuring in Bayern’s match against Hertha Berlin, Davies played his first match for FC Bayern II—the club’s reserve side in the Bayern Regionalliga, the fourth tier of German soccer on Feb. 24.

 

Despite Davies showing well, and playing the full 90 minutes in a 3-0 win over FC Ingolstadt II, the German tabloid media jumped on the situation. Bild immediately questioned whether Davies had the technical abilities to stay up with the first team. Yet, that match is further indicative of how much faith Bayern have in Davies. He was not demoted, but instead given the choice to play in the match, and could have turned down the opportunity. Bayern contacted Davies’ camp and asked if he was interested in logging some game time, free of any pressure. After a brief conversation, Davies determined that, at this point in the season, he wanted to be on the pitch. He’s not hurting for energy, even after a full 2018 season with the Whitecaps. Davies simply wanted to play.

 

Since that match, fellow Bayern youngsters—including Jeong and Mai—have returned to play for the reserve side, yet Davies has not.

 

Playing for the reserves speaks not only to the amount of empowerment Davies has to make decisions that could impact his future, but also just how difficult the road can be for young players joining top-flight sides. Davies understands there is a pecking order within the club. Sacrificing his own minutes in the short-term for a chance to be part of Bayern’s long-term plans may also provide a pathway for other players to make a similar decision.

 

There was a sense from others in the soccer business that Davies’ image as a first-team player might have been tarnished by playing with the reserves. Yet Davies returned to Kovac’s squad this past weekend against Borussia Monchengladbach, logging his second most minutes in a single match this season.

 

“Footballing wise, (Davies) is developing,” Kovac said in February. “But this is Bayern Munich. And it isn’t always easy right away to make an impact as a young player.”

 

To make an impact with the first team, Davies has continued to do what worked for him in the past, and what landed him at Bayern to begin with: Use his speed to beat players in one-on-one situations on the flank, and then move the ball into dangerous areas. In three of Davies’ four matches, he has hugged the left touchline. But in his 13-minute appearance against Leverkusen, Davies’ 10 touches were literally all over the map.

 

 

 

To continue his progress at Bayern, Davies will need to flourish in a limited role. That’s not necessarily an easy thing to do for an 18 year old, but playing a simple game based on forward ball progression, and understanding his place in Kovac’s desired shape, will go a long way to establishing a more regular place in the first team.

 

“I’m here to perform, to play,” said Davies. “Every chance I get, whenever the coach needs me, I give it my all in no short period of time that I have on the field.”

 

According to Transfermarkt, Davies is the eighth youngest left winger to ever play in the Bundesliga. Where the seven wingers younger than him developed reads like a who’s who of the German football development factory: Wolfsburg, (Julian Brandt) Hoffenheim (Marco Terrazzino) and Bayern Munich (Franck Evina). Only two of those seven players were not developed in Germany—at Brazilian side Vasco da Gama (Paulinho) and Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb (Josip Brekalo). And, just for the sake of discussion, the two left wingers who round out the top 10, and who started their Bundesliga careers at an older age than Davies, were Leroy Sané and Son Heung-min.

 

When you look through the seven left wingers who debuted at a younger age than Davies, you also get a sense of how much faith Kovac already has in the Canadian. The majority of them played for teams either in the middle or much lower in the Bundesliga table at the time. Or, in the case of Bayern prospect Franck Evina, made their debut when the title was already won. Bayern are currently in the thick of a title race—one that could very well determine whether or not Kovac returns to Munich this summer. Only Julian Brandt, who was the second youngest left winger to make his debut in the Bundesliga, was part of a title-challenging squad.

 

Davies’ debut at such a young age is all the more remarkable considering how wide the gap is between an MLS club like the Whitecaps and the aforementioned clubs, in terms of history of development. Those who argue that his 25 minutes over four Bundesliga matches isn’t all that impressive overlook Davies’ role in Bayern’s title race. With Bayern down 2-1 to Leverkusen last month, Kovac brought on Davies as his second substitute in the 77th minute, hoping the Canadian could influence the game.

 

At a fee that could total $22 million (U.S.), Davies cost a fraction of what many other clubs are currently paying for attacking wing players. But spending thriftily and wisely has become central to Bayern’s approach as of late. If Davies becomes the world-class player that many suspect he could be, then $22 million will seem like a bargain of an investment—not a small sum that can be easily written off.

 

Davies’ move to Bayern, a club laden with some of the world’s most notable talent, has been questioned by many since consistent playing time can be so vital to teenaged players’ development. But Davies was given a degree of choice on where and how that playing time should come. And that speaks to not only how invested Bayern genuinely appear in his development, and how much faith they have in Davies as a person, but also the multitude of options young North American players now have at their disposal. No longer is the first offer from Europe the one that every player must accept. Davies has chosen to bet on himself, even if it is a long-term play. His camp was more than aware that this season would be one of transition for him. That much was evident in the discussions they had with Bayern through contract negotiations.

 

It’s far too early to tell what sort of dividends Davies’ bet on himself will pay. The mere fact that he can make that sort of bet with one of the biggest clubs on the planet speaks to what a generational talent he is and the choice that young MLS players can now make for themselves.

 

But in the short-term, Davies has set a personal goal for the rest of the season: opening his account at Bayern.

 

“Hopefully I can score a goal,” said Davies, his smile growing wide. “It’s every footballer’s personal goal to score a goal for his club. Me being able to do that in my time here would be fantastic.”

[G-Snarls]

One of the best pranks I've ever seen:

 

James Corden Pranks David Beckham With Ugly Fake Statue

 

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainment/entertainmenttv/james-corden-pranks-david-beckham-with-ugly-fake-statue/ar-BBUFxKG?ocid=spartanntp

[jays4life19]

Liverpool vs Bayern play at 4pm.

 

Out of protest of Bayern not playing Davies i have bet on Liverpool and will not be watching the game because...soccer.

[TheHurl]

Liverpool vs Bayern play at 4pm.

 

Out of protest of Bayern not playing Davies i have bet on Liverpool and will not be watching the game because...soccer.

 

Eww...Liverpool.

[jays4life19]

Yay Liverpool

[jays4life19]

I placed a 3 dollar bet on Canada to win the 2022 World Cup. Pays 4950 dollars.

 

Easy money

[Bobthe4th]

Some fascinating ties in the CL quarter finals (Liverpool have to be happy!):

 

http://i.imgur.com/f2SDHCn.jpg

[TheHurl]

Seems like such a weak final 8. Probably because there are 4 Premier League teams.

[jays4life19]

Hi Guys. Local resident soccer expert here providing you the winners of the Champions League.

 

1. Ajax over Juventus

2. Liverpool over Porto

3. Man City over Tottenham

4. Barcelona over Man United.

[jays4life19]

Alphonso Davies scored his first goal today!

[Abomination]

Alphonso Davies scored his first goal today!

 

I wish he was still on the Whitecaps. Their first three games have been painful to watch (although they've had some very questionable penalty kick calls against them).

[jays4life19]

Davies is the youngest player to score a goal in this league since 1999.

[Bobthe4th]

Just watched Messi score another impossibly great hattrick. He didn’t even look at the goal for the third one and the Betis (opposition) fans gave him a standing ovation and starting bowing:

 

[Bobthe4th]

[TheHurl]

Davies is the youngest player to score a goal in this league since 1999.

 

does the 6th goal for a team in a game even count?

[jays4life19]

does the 6th goal for a team in a game even count?

 

Yes it does.

[TheHurl]

Yes it does.

 

Fight me!

[jays4life19]

Fight me!

 

Young/Bloor midnight tonight. Be there or you're a huge puso