Official 2014-15 Club Soccer/Football Discussion Thread

[Tender Branson]

The Austrian and Swiss leagues already start on Saturday.

For Austria:

2 teams from Salzburg (Red Bull Sbg. and Grödig)
2 teams from Vienna (Rapid and Austria)
2 teams from Lower Austria (Admira and Wr. Neustadt)
1 team each from Vorarlberg (Altach), Upper Austria (Ried), Styria (Sturm Graz) and Carinthia (Wolfsberg)

Altach was promoted to the Bundesliga this season by winning the Erste League last season.

Wacker Innsbruck (Tyrol) was relegated, because they were last in the 2013-14 Bundesliga season (sorry Cranberry).

Which means there are no teams from the states of Tyrol and Burgenland in the BL this season.

...

Also, Rapid Vienna will play the next 2 seasons at the Ernst-Happel-Stadium because a new stadium will be built for them, the so called Allianz-Stadion, which will seat 28.000 people in BL matches and 24.000 in international games. The stadium will be ready by the 2016 season, while the old stadium will be demolished.

The new stadium:







http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014%E2%80%9315_Austrian_Football_Bundesliga

Other than that, the usual suspects for the win in the 2014-15 season are Red Bull Salzburg (2013-14 winner), and the 2 Vienna teams.

[Tender Branson]

The Austrian and Swiss leagues already start on Saturday.

The first game of the new season is over and Salzburg defeats Rapid Vienna with 6-1.

[Tender Branson]

In the 2nd league game this season, Red Bull Salzburg is leading 5-0, with just 10 men, after 80 minutes.

Champions League group stage should be likely with the way they are playing ...

[Tender Branson]

Today is CL 3rd quali round: Red Bull Salzburg is playing in Baku for a playoff spot.

[Tender Branson]

The TV broadcast from Azerbaijan is the worst I have ever seen in my life.

I think there would be a better broadcast from the South Pole or the Moon ...

Either the satellite is not working right, or the people at the Azeri TV are total douches.

Link

[Tender Branson]

The TV broadcast from Azerbaijan is the worst I have ever seen in my life.

I think there would be a better broadcast from the South Pole or the Moon ...

Either the satellite is not working right, or the people at the Azeri TV are total douches.

Link

Finally, after 58 minutes they corrected the signal.

[Tender Branson]

The TV broadcast from Azerbaijan is the worst I have ever seen in my life.

I think there would be a better broadcast from the South Pole or the Moon ...

Either the satellite is not working right, or the people at the Azeri TV are total douches.

Link

Finally, after 58 minutes they corrected the signal.

According to the ORF mod, not the people from the Azeri TV were the problem - but the satellite was sucking.

[Tender Branson]

77th minute and the equalizer (and away goal) for Salzburg.

Nice.

[Tender Branson]

2-1 Baku now.

[Tender Branson]

I guess we have to seal this at home next week ...

[Tender Branson]

Yesterday, ManU defeated Real Madrid @ the Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor (109.318 visitors).



It was the game with the biggest football crowd in a US stadium ever.

ManU won 3-1.

Highlights:

http://hoofoot.com/?match=Manchester_United_3_-_1_Real_Madrid_2014_08_02

[Tender Branson]

Yes !

Red Bull Salzburg made it to the Champions League playoffs yesterday and was also seeded highest by UEFA.

Which means they will play one of the following clubs in the playoff:

* Legia Warsaw (they raped Celtic Glasgow)
* Malmö
* Slovan Bratislava
* Maribor
* Aalborg

Warsaw would be the toughest nut to crack, the others are beatable.

The draw is on Friday.

The chances are good though that we'll once again be in the CL group stage after 20 years.

[Tender Branson]

The MLS All-Stars are playing against Bayern Munich in Portland today, which is funny because it could be almost considered a rematch of the Germany vs. US game on June 26 during the recent World Cup.

(The All-Stars include US national football team members like Gonzalez, Besler, Beckerman, Zusi, Bradley, Dempsey, and Yedlin and the Bayern Munich squad consists of German national football players Neuer, Boateng, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, T. Müller, Götze).

Bayern btw lost to the US all-star-team with 1-2 ...

[Tender Branson]

The CL-playoff draw starts in ca. 45 minutes.

More on Celtic's challenge of Legia:

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[Tender Branson]

And just as I write this, Celtic has won the challenge and will be re-instated:

Celtic have been reinstated to the Champions League after Legia Warsaw were handed a harsh penalty by Uefa for fielding an ineligible player.

Legia won the third qualifying round tie 6-1 on aggregate but brought on Bartosz Bereszynski for the last four minutes of their 2-0 second-leg victory at Murrayfield, while he was supposed to be serving a suspension.

Uefa on Friday punished the Polish club by awarding the game 3-0 to Celtic, meaning the Scottish champions progressed on away goals having lost the first match in Warsaw 4-1.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/aug/08/celtic-reinstated-champions-league-uefa-legia-warsaw

[Tender Branson]

Not only that, Celtic was also seeded by UEFA - which means Red Bull Salzburg can't get them as opponents in the play-off.

Rasgrad (BUL) will now be the 5th option for RBS, instead of Legia.

[Tender Branson]

Red Bull Salzburg will play Malmö (Sweden) !

What a great draw.

[Tender Branson]

The draw:

[Tender Branson]

German Super-Cup starts in ca. 15 minutes:

Dortmund vs. Bayern

Live Stream here.

[Tender Branson]

Dortmund beats Bayern by 2-0 in the German Super Cup:

[Tender Branson]

A Swedish columnist for the major newspaper Aftonbladet recently compared Red Bull Salzburg to Hitler and Fritzl:



http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/kolumnister/ronniesandahl/article19349861.ab



Red Bull Salzburg will play Malmö for the CL-Playoffs soon.

The perfect answer to this Swedish moron would be a solid trashing of Malmö ...

[Tender Branson]

Tomorrow is the 1st Champions League play-off game between Red Bull Salzburg & Malmö !

My prediction: 3-1 for RBS



If they advance to the CL group stage, it would be the first time since the 1994-95 season that a team from my state (Salzburg) is in a CL group stage.

The referee tomorrow will be Nicola Rizzoli (ITA), who officiated the 2014 World Cup Final between GER & ARG.

[Tender Branson]

A Swedish columnist for the major newspaper Aftonbladet recently compared Red Bull Salzburg to Hitler and Fritzl:

(pic)

The chief editor of the newspaper has now personally apologized for the column, by writing an e-mail to Red Bull Salzburg:

http://derstandard.at/2000004467681/Aftonbladet-entschuldigte-sich-in-Salzburg-fuer-Entgleisung

Good.

[Tender Branson]

Tomorrow is the 1st Champions League play-off game between Red Bull Salzburg & Malmö !

My prediction: 3-1 for RBS



If they advance to the CL group stage, it would be the first time since the 1994-95 season that a team from my state (Salzburg) is in a CL group stage.

The referee tomorrow will be Nicola Rizzoli (ITA), who officiated the 2014 World Cup Final between GER & ARG.

The game will likely be sold out, 30.000 visitors.

As of yesterday morning, 26.000 tickets were sold and I'm pretty sure the remaining ones will be gone today.

If Salzburg makes it to the CL group stage, I might go there to watch a game as well.

[Tender Branson]

Red Bull Salzburg defeats Malmö 2-1 at home in a strong performance (3 shots to the goalposts and a few 100% shots, 60% ball possession, 30 to 10 shots in general), but due to a silly defender/goalkeeper misunderstanding conceded an away goal for Malmö in overtime.

So there's still some work to do next week in Sweden, but I remain confident that RBS will enter the group stage.