Its gonna be a guacamole Sunday for the Finals tonight,
with some veggie burgers prolly...going light on meat
recently, not for any great reason

Took a good bike ride today....shout out to Celery for the
bike advice, go speed racer, goooooo


Anyway,

I like soccer...definitely not a *head* but I enjoy
it when I get the chance. I can appreciate excellence
and it is a beautiful game

But yeah,

Your average SEC Football redneck is like Nate Silver
compared to the average soccer fan of corresponding
demographic

Soccer culture isn't really into precision, logic or
anything like that when it comes to defending their positions
and making arguments

Mind you, I have NO agendas other than wanting the BLACKEST
niggas on the Latin American teams to score and dance all
African, embarrassing the shit out of their countries (It was
a Capelton looking nigga on Ecuador in 2006, I think, I wanted
his jersey)

But back to the subject at hand (c) Mega Montana

Soccer is a very passion driven sport, clearly comes at
the expense of the mean intelligence of analysis

I get it -- there are fewer goals, fewer countable items,
fewer overall stats, which means its harder to gauge talent
and effect using classic statistics

Cool

In some ways, then, one could argue that Soccer analysis
is harder and so you have to be smarter...that it requires
a real eye

I could roll with that argument if someone wants to present
it and defend it

But dudes at the bar was like "Obviously Didier Drogba is
the reason Ivory Coast scored them 2 goals vs. Japan"

I saw that match...I asked dude to explain at the bar,
he was like "he changed the flow of the offense"

Correlation = causation like a muffuka

OE scratched the top of his semi-crisp caesar (yeah, got my
first summer caesar last week, had girls 21-22 fresh
with a bachelors buying a nigga Tom Collins the other night..
...finna get a touch up late this week before I hit NY...get
at the Orbit_Legend if you're around next weekend and want
to understand the meaning of lyfe), confused


----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

look ive played soccer for almost 30 years
i watch pro soccer alot and have ever since i was teenager

i refuse to even have discussions about it at work because now everyone is an expert.

whenever i meet someone who tries to speak with authority on the best player at X position in the world, i laugh. there is just no way in shit you are watching a dozen different leagues in almost as many time zones that consistently. most soccer fans i find to be former players who know the game but are overly emotional about it at the professional level or, much worse, are the sort of "hip" fans that scour the internet for opinions to regurgitate from the slightly better informed. it's yet another reason i will never develop any great affinity for the sport.

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

by and large, the best players from everywhere around the world play in the European leagues...that's just an economic fact. So then, you get to see most of them play if you pay attention to inter-leagues competitions (ie the Champions' League). Sure, there will be some sleepers you have seen less of that will come out during world cups (one of the many reasons why it's the competition I enjoy the most by far), but if you're dedicated enough, you can have watched them too. Say, Cuardado on Colombia's team, not a household name by any stretch of the imagination, but he plays for Fiorentina...Bein shows their games every week-ends.

what you're saying is akin to me telling you you don't know shit about hockey because you're not watching the Swedish or Russian leagues.

with all that said, knowing who's a good player doesn't necessarily mean you're going to talk intelligently about the game.

All the top talent is concentrated in a handful of leagues, and depending on which league, the top talent can be highly concentrated to only a few teams. You're exaggerating just a bit.

---------------------------------
<--The drought is over

"have fun reveling in your pettiness tho" (C) Dula summing up 98% of OKS

"I didnt finish a damn thing...matter of fact I jerked off after she left."
-Kobe speaking to investigators

L D E A

____________________

Behold my works,ye mighty

there's a degree of nuance and strategy at the highest levels that goes over the average fan's head...just like pitching or hitting a baseball, deciphering an 11-man coverage in 1.5 seconds, running a half-court offense, hitting and not getting hit over 12 rounds, and so on.

despite what many of its fans think, soccer is not any more special in that regard. every sport is a "thinking man's game" if you want to classify it as such.

--------

The average soccer fan doesn't know anything about the
game,at all, can't make a basic fact based observation

Like in OKS...we're above average fans...our equivalents
in soccer are trotting 100% emotion filled arguments

Now of course we do too nahmsayin but you at least gotta
make a real argument if you wanna say Danny Granger > Carmelo

----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

That's why you can play it at three or four years old.

After they tell you that only one guy can use his hands, you figure offsides out after a whistle or two and the rest of the kicking & throw-in stuff is pretty much an order you're given by the referee.

It's likely translatable to all countries/cultures in part due to the fact that there's almost nothing to explain before you try playing it.

The rest of the jargon ('kit', 'pitch' and the like) are things that I never heard while playing it but hear now if there's a US-born person trying to let you know he knows his footie.

If so, that's just false and rying to use the example of three or four year olds playing and picking it up as an example of it not being a thinking sport is pretty silly. Basketball is just as easy to pickup in that regard.

---------------------------------
<--The drought is over

"have fun reveling in your pettiness tho" (C) Dula summing up 98% of OKS

"I didnt finish a damn thing...matter of fact I jerked off after she left."
-Kobe speaking to investigators

L D E A

---------------------------------
<--The drought is over

"have fun reveling in your pettiness tho" (C) Dula summing up 98% of OKS

"I didnt finish a damn thing...matter of fact I jerked off after she left."
-Kobe speaking to investigators

L D E A

tight work on that guac recommendation BTW, we doing spaghetti on this end, i took my kids to 1 of those carnivals in a parking lot dropped a quick hundo on that shit like it wasnt nothing. when it was. they got that shit priced like its kings dominion. oh well, kids loved it.

on topic tho....yeah dog. soccer looks chaotic to me. call a play? for what? the other team can just slide feet first into your legs, trip you & fuck your play up

the team w/ the superior conditioning and fitness will obviously win...because all you gotta do is kick the ball into the fucking net.

goalie either stops it...in which case he kicks it over everyones head towards the other goal & everyone runs like a madman to get it

or the goalie DOESNT stop it...and you score

either way the team w/ the better more conditioned athletes will win.

if Kenya had ANY modicum of brain, they'd take their JV olympic marathon team, make em kick balls for four years and practice their run as fast as you can get the ball & kick it into the net skills...and they'd win in 2018


does it really matter?

vote for bin: http://tinyurl.com/qz8zep5

>tight work on that guac recommendation BTW, we doing
>spaghetti on this end, i took my kids to 1 of those carnivals
>in a parking lot dropped a quick hundo on that shit like it
>wasnt nothing. when it was. they got that shit priced like its
>kings dominion. oh well, kids loved it.
>
>on topic tho....yeah dog. soccer looks chaotic to me. call a
>play? for what? the other team can just slide feet first into
>your legs, trip you & fuck your play up
>
>the team w/ the superior conditioning and fitness will
>obviously win...because all you gotta do is kick the ball into
>the fucking net.
>
>goalie either stops it...in which case he kicks it over
>everyones head towards the other goal & everyone runs like a
>madman to get it
>
>or the goalie DOESNT stop it...and you score
>
>either way the team w/ the better more conditioned athletes
>will win.
>
>if Kenya had ANY modicum of brain, they'd take their JV
>olympic marathon team, make em kick balls for four years and
>practice their run as fast as you can get the ball & kick it
>into the net skills...and they'd win in 2018
>
>
>does it really matter?
>
>vote for bin: http://tinyurl.com/qz8zep5


----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

im ignorant i cop to that fact

but still.

a dude w/ superior conditioning will IMMD be on par if not better than the typical high level soccer athlete all things considered

he can run faster...longer & recover quicker.


while im sure the pro soccer player is in INSANE shape...they aint running 26 miles up a mountain as a warm up


does it really matter?

vote for bin: http://tinyurl.com/qz8zep5

>while im sure the pro soccer player is in INSANE shape...they
>aint running 26 miles up a mountain as a warm up

LMMFAOOOOO

I'm actually trying to do some WORK GOOD GRIEF Bin


----------------------------



O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

first, fitness is indeed crucial but it's not everything...the majority of goals are scored on set pieces (corner or free kicks). On those you have to be able to jostle for position, jump high...so you need strength. Your 11 frail Kenyan marathoners would get man handled every time.

second, these 'running with the ball' skills you're talking about can't be learned on the fly as easily as you think. All the great players practiced them in the streets/on the beach/wherever since they were able to walk.

does it really matter?

vote for bin: http://tinyurl.com/qz8zep5

formation
shape of the offense/defense
discipline
speed
spacing is key

this site, zonalmarking.net gives excellent analysis and they see things better than I do.

They said this about Japan v. Ivory Coast:

Japan went ahead, but the Ivory Coast always looked dangerous by switching their play out to the full-backs.

Japan sit deep

Keishuke Honda’s 10th-minute strike put Japan ahead, but this prompted them to go surprisingly defensive at a very early stage. They sat back deep in two banks of four, but their defensive shape wasn’t always good. They weren’t compact, sometimes leaving space between their defence and midfield for Yaya Toure to move into, but generally allowing space between their midfield and attack to allow the Ivory Coast time on the ball to switch the play between the flanks.

This was an odd strategy – we know about the Ivory Coast’s physicality upfront, and we know Japan aren’t comfortable aerially at the back. Japan shouldn’t have allowed the opposition to build such pressure – they should have kept a higher defensive line and pressed in midfield. Instead, while they went ahead early, Japan were never comfortable. By full-time, the Ivory Coast had recorded 21 shots to 7, and were much the better side.

Overlapping full-backs

The Ivory Coast’s main approach was to push the full-backs high up the pitch and whip in a stream of crosses. They were allowed most space down the right, with both Gervinho and Serge Aurier getting space near the touchline for quick diagonal balls towards that flank. However, it was on the left where they were most dangerous, because attacking left-back Arthur Boka continually took up advanced positions and whipped crosses into the box.

The Ivory Coast only created proper chances after the 62nd minute introduction of Didier Drogba, however, when 1-0 down. He replaced holding midfielder Serey Die, and the Ivory Coast went to a 4-4-2. With two crossing targets, they were now more threatening when the full-backs got forward, and within five minutes they were 2-1 up.

Drogba didn’t score either of the goals, but his introduction unquestionably added to the confusion in the Japanese defence when challenging for crosses – they no longer had a spare man, and this allowed first Bony, and then Gervinho, to head in from two right-wing Aurier crosses.

It wasn’t a great day for defensive discipline from Manchester United left-midfielders – just as England had suffered from Rooney and then Welbeck’s lack of defensive work, Shinji Kagawa was completely unaware of Aurier’s overlapping, and was caught in central positions for both of the Ivory Coast’s goals.

--

"You can't beat white people. You can only knock them out."

>The Ivory Coast only created proper chances after the 62nd
>minute introduction of Didier Drogba, however, when 1-0 down.
>He replaced holding midfielder Serey Die, and the Ivory Coast
>went to a 4-4-2. With two crossing targets, they were now more
>threatening when the full-backs got forward, and within five
>minutes they were 2-1 up.
>
>Drogba didn’t score either of the goals, but his introduction
>unquestionably added to the confusion in the Japanese defence
>when challenging for crosses – they no longer had a spare man,
>and this allowed first Bony, and then Gervinho, to head in
>from two right-wing Aurier crosses.

...changed the flow of the offense.

Formation is going to be the baseline organization and then based on specific strengths-weaknesses, you modify or highlight certain areas of the pitch. The game, IMO, begins and ends with "how do we go about pulling the other team out of their shape while maintaining our own".

Dude saying "Drogba changed the flow of the offense" is certainly a bit trite without any other explanation. What happened was that with Drogba coming on for a dmf, Ivory Coast then had two center forwards applying pressure on the Japan center backs and their one-man defensive advantage was negated which caused a whole lot of havoc for Japan on the service from the Ivory Coast full-backs. There became some serious communication issues which allowed for free runs into the box whereas previously the Japan center-backs knew they had much more margin for error because there was really just one direct run to account for.

---------------------------------
<--The drought is over

"have fun reveling in your pettiness tho" (C) Dula summing up 98% of OKS

"I didnt finish a damn thing...matter of fact I jerked off after she left."
-Kobe speaking to investigators

L D E A