Champions League: Huge matchups today: LIVE THREAD (Vanity)

2-22-05

[Eurotwit]

Well, I am a soccer fan, and I would love to see Liverpool beat the stuffing out of Leverkusen. Although, I am a Blackburn fan, I support every English club in Europe (With the exception of the Frenchies in Arsenal).

Liverpool will be missing Gerard tonight though.

Is Donovan a regular for Leverkusen?

Cheers.

[dakine]

I'd rather listen to bowling on the radio....

[cripplecreek]

Curling man thats where it's at.

[dogbyte12]

Donovan just came over at the Winter Break. The first few games he came in as a sub, then he started one, did well. Saturday, the guy he was replacing in the line up had a binder, so you never know.

BL has only had about 4 games since he has made the transfer.

[Teacher317]

American soccer's wonder-boy Freddy Adu - the 14 year-old phenom signed to D.C. United - is the league's highest paid player at $500,000 in 2004, although his base salary is $300,000... At the bottom end of the scale - 80 league players earn less than $50,000 - the English Premier League average wage is $940,000.

TV money is a HUGE contributor to salaries, and televised soccer games do VERY well "over there"... but not so well here.

[freedumb2003]

So how did MLS manage to sell 25 million tickets in 9 seasons?

Let's look at that. I know the Dodgers sell over 3 million a season. So, in 9 seasons, they sold 27 million tickets.

One team in MLB, which is not even the most popular sport, outsells all of MLS.

Soccer is boring to watch (I imagine it is fun to play). It will be at least 25 years before MLS surpasses Nascar in popularity (since the NHL, another boring game self-destructed), if ever.

[ken5050]

Small suggestion..if you can figure out a way to get the words "Stanley Cup" in your headline, you can attract all the dsconsolate hockey fans...

[ken5050]

If you post the pic of Brandi Chastain I'll hang around..

(PSST..BTW..it's just good natured teasing..soccer, er, excuse me, football, is an awesome game..

[Glenn]

MLS teams average more than NHL or NBA teams.

The venues are quite different, don't you think? Big stadium v. small arena? Price per ticket seat would be an interesting indicator.

And you make my point about the NHL. They are on strike because the owners can't gather outside money from advertising or TV interests to afford the salaries of their players because there simply isn't the interest. The league is failing. Teams are on the brink. If there is no media interest in this country, sports do not succeed. Count the dead bodies along the roadway over the last 3 decades.

[tjwmason]

Soccer is boring to watch (I imagine it is fun to play).

I've never liked either personally, but it's going a tadfar to make a blanket statement that it's boring given that it's the most popular sport on the planet. At least they play for more than one minute at a time.

[soccer_linux_mozilla]

Ha ha ha. Nascar is extremely exciting. Left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn,

[Glenn]

though not quite as bad as American football where play never seems to last for more than a couple of seconds.

I am not saying soccer is a bad sport at all. I am trying to make the point that it is not all that interesting to American spectators, no matter how popular it is off the continent. Soccer thrives on rivalry, which the NFL and NBA have in spades here. Find a way to get LA fans pissed off at D.C. fans and you stand a chance at ratings, provided you have a timeslot which doesn't compete with the other sports -- a near impossibility.

[MetalHeadConservative35]

Soccers fun..i used to do that alot when i was off from hockey ,

only problem was..got in trouble cause i was too aggressive (what do you expect when you learned to play soccer from the mexicans next door,those guys were incredible player..one of em played for the mexican natl team)

[Eurotwit]

Thank you.

Donovan is one of my favourite American players, so it would be fun to see him start. It probably would be an awsome game to experience, with the atmosphere at Anfield Road and everything.

Cheers.

[soccer_linux_mozilla]

Germany captain Michael Ballack is likely to miss Bayern Munich's Champions League clash with Arsenal on Tuesday because of a thigh muscle strain.

[E Rocc]

'Live' being the operative word. Soccer is deadly boring to most Americans, some of whom even understand the game.

Hey come on now...it's very popular in the rest of the world.

Of course so is socialism, and good hygiene isn't.

-Eric

[soccer_linux_mozilla]

Your ignorance amazes me.

Each of these 4 soccer matches will be watched by over 800 million people today. NHL, NBA, MLB and NFL matches (including the SuperBowl) pale in comparison.

[cripplecreek]

My ignorance amazes you huh?

Thats really all I need to know about soccer.

[soccer_linux_mozilla]

Troll on some other threads now, please

[dakine]

Socialists/Communists captivate 800 million plus people, doesn't mean I have to like/agree with those folks....