Posted on 05/21/2015 6:04:09 AM PDT by kevkrom
For the soccer ping lists...
Tottenham going on 5 years in a row for Europa....
They’ll be gunning for the Champions League next year and I think with new signings and finally buying into the high-pressing attacking philosophy of Pochettino, they’ll get there.
Liverpool may not want to be in the Europa League. They would have to pay multiple away matches in strange eastern-european/ Russian countries and it is a serious drain.
Gerard needs to hang it up....he cost them dearly against Man U.
Gerard’s moving to the MLS this year. Getting the red card in less than a minute after being brought on against Man U was a big mistake, but he’s had a brilliant career overall. Hopefully he will have something left in the tank when he plays in the MLS.
For Liverpool, Tottenham, or Everton, I’d say Europa would act as a punishment more than a reward. The money’s not that good and it puts a hellacious strain on the players, traveling to a variety of European hell-holes for Thursday games that really disrupt the training schedule for BPL, which is what these teams need to focus on.
Why does Hull City qualify for Europa League? Aren’t Aston Villa the runner up if Arsenal wins the FA Cup?
Did I get that wrong? Oh, gosh, I did... strike Hull City and replace with Aston Villa.
In my opinion, though, a EPL/FA/EUFA treble is more valuable than a La Liga/Copa del Rey/UEFA treble.
Yeah, the EPL may not be the best league in Europe (certainly behind Bundesliga and La Liga at the very least), it may very well be the deepest, with teams way down the ladder being competitive against the top teams.
Much harder to win multiple trophies there and still manage a successful EUFA campaign, as the domestic titles are just harder to come by week in and week out, and they can’t cruise a bit and focus on the UEFA games as much.
I didn’t know if Hull City qualified because they were the 2014 runner up and the UEFA qualification lags, or if it would be the winner of Arsenal/Aston Villa.
No, I’m pretty sure it’s Aston Villa. Some of the research I was doing for the qualification stuff was from last year, and I think I just got it in my head wrong that last year’s runners-up were for this year instead.
I feel like the EPL usually has five or six contenders each season, while the entire rest of Europe seems to have about 9 or 10 contenders spread across 5 leagues.
Ligue 1 seems more competitive to me now that Lyon is somewhat dethroned, but the teams outside of PSG and Marseille are also boring.
Anyway, aside from the glaring Hull / Villa error, the games to watch are still valid.
In the relegation battle, Hull and Newcastle are both at home to good teams. Newcastle has to go all-out for a win - if Hull loses or draws, they survive anyway, so there’s nothing to risk.
For the 5th-7th places, all three are on the road, which really makes the permutations pretty interesting, because it brings losses and draws more into play.
Despite being technically alive via Fair Play, I can’t imagine any incentive to watch the Burnley match, unless you’re a die-hard fan of the teams involved.
I’m actually all for dumping the entire Europa League all together. As you say, it’s way too much of a strain on travel and the players who already have a ridiculous playing schedule.
I think it’s a good competition for the “lesser” leagues, to help develop their top teams to be more competitive, but for the top-flight leagues, the potential rewards generally aren’t worth the costs.
Of course, it was only a few years ago that Chelsea qualified for UEFA (knocking out Tottenham, who finished 4th) by winning Europa, so maybe that dream still lives on.
But that was a case of falling into Europa by failing to get out of a UEFA group stage, and going to Europa for the knock-out stages, wasn’t it? That’s probably a better route anyway.
soccer ping
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