Official 2014-15 Club Soccer/Football Discussion Thread

[Middle-aged Europe]

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).

[Middle-aged Europe]

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 ...

Well, they were probably still drunk from celebrating their World Cup victory. At least that's the general impression they gave the last few weeks.

[Middle-aged Europe]

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 ...

Well, they were probably still drunk from celebrating their World Cup victory. At least that's the general impression they gave the last few weeks.

I watched the game, it was pretty entertaining for a not so friendly, friendly.

http://www.espnfc.us/major-league-soccer/story/1975860/bayern-munichs-pep-guardiola-does-not-shake-portland-timbers-caleb-porters-hand-after-mls-all-star-game-loss

By now, you could make a running gag out of Schweinsteiger getting hurt in match though (in kind of a "OMG, they killed Kenny!" way).

First the beating those Argentinian thugs gave him in World Cup Final, and now this.

[Middle-aged Europe]

On Tuesday: UEFA Super Cup between Champions League winner Real Madrid and Europa League winner Sevilla. A Spain vs. Spain match just like the recent Champions League Final.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_UEFA_Super_Cup

On Wednesday: DFL-Supercup between Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich and Bundesliga runner-up Borussia Dortmund. Coincidentally, this will be the third year in a row that these two teams face each other in the Supercup (2012 was won by Bayern, 2013 by Dortmund).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_DFL-Supercup

[Middle-aged Europe]

The commentators attributed Bayern's defeat to a "World Cup curse". No German club contributes more players to the German national football team than Bayern Munich. And because the Bayern players are exhausted after a World Cup participation, Bayern supposedly suffers a sub-standard season immediately following a WC. Which is good news for the rest of the Bundesliga because it levels the playing field.

Anyhow, Bayern was indeed pretty weak yesterday, with the notable exception of Manuel Neuer who was awesome as ever. But he can't replace a weak defense all on his own for 90 minutes. The way Bayern played it could have very well ended in a 5-0 without Neuer as goalkeeper. Dortmund's performance on the other hand was pretty strong and solidified their unofficial status as "Germany's Barcelona" (Dortmund has become to Bayern what Barcelona is to Real). So, the yellow ones are possibly on their way to their sixth Bundesliga championship.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Interesting trivia:

Red Bull Salzburg has sort of sister club with RB Leizpig (mentioned earlier in this thread in Yeaysayyeah's post on the DFB cup). Along with a couple with other clubs like the New York Red Bulls or Red Bull Brasil they're forming the Red Bull company's football franchise.

Salzburg and Leipzig have a somewhat closer relationship than with the other RB clubs, because they're even swapping players. The current Salzburg squad includes three former Leipzig players (Bredlow, Bruno, Sabitzer) and vice versa (Dähne, Teigl, Hierländer).

 

(Oficially, RB Leipzig's full name is RasenBallsport Leipzig and not Red Bull Leipzig, because German football statutes don't allow naming a club after a company. But they are the main sponsor, the club is effectively owned by Red Bull employees, and their stadium is called the Red Bull Arena.)

[Middle-aged Europe]

Today the first surprise, Dortmund loses to Leverkusen by 0-2 at home.

With the fastest goal in Bundesliga history... Leverkusen's Karim Bellarabi gave his team a 1-0 lead only nine seconds into the game.

[Middle-aged Europe]

After a slow start - partially attributed to exhaustion their players suffered during the World Cup - Bayern Munich has "finally" taken the lead in the Bundesliga as usual.

They did so by defeating and unseating the previous leader SC Paderborn who is considered a bit of an oddball. Prior to 2014, they never played in Germany's top league, being recently promoted from the second division last season. They subsequently made news by (briefly) taking 1st place in the premier division, leading a lot of people to wonder why this newcomer has become so f***ing strong out of the blue (the only match they lost so far is the one against Bayern ).

What else is up? Leverkusen has now taken 2nd place behind Bayern, which totally makes sense and is well-deserved, I guess. Borussia Dortmund turned out to be bit of a disappointed so far. With two wins, two defeats, and one draw they're now only on 8th place.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Dortmund seriously can't get relegated.

The bizarre thing is that they could be relegated to 2nd Bundesliga division, while easily making it past the Champions League group stage at the same time.

[Middle-aged Europe]

lol Bayern

lol Porto

[Middle-aged Europe]

lol Bayern

It was one epic Bayern-Dortmund match yesterday.