The Ultimate Football Thread 2013-2014 Vol. 4 EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A etc

Big win for Bilbao. Poor display from Barca. They really lost the plot when they were sending long balls towards Cesc like he's a target man.
Tough loss for Lyon, it's been a tough season for them so far. I'm glad they didn't receive any red cards considering they gave away two penalties.

Is it me or does Munian look like Bernard?
Out of curiosity, the commentators mentioned that a players buyout clause was raised to 25m, does anyone remember who they were talking about? I was being talked to so I didn't catch what was said.
 
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I hope Munian stays at Athletic, he seems to enjoy playing in his home. Please don't have him go to the EPL like a bunch of other Spanish players.

La Liga is great this year.
 
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Today, PSG became the first team in Ligue 1 to start a game with no Frenchmen in the starting XI.

For comparison...Chelsea was the first in England to do so. Happened pre-Roman even (1999).

PSG Starting XI vs. Lyon: Sirigu (Italy), Maxwell (Brazil), T. Silva (Brazil), Alex (Brazil), van der Wiel (Netherlands), T. Motta (Italy), Pastore (Argentina), Veratti (Italy), Lucas (Brazil), Cavani (Uruguay), Ibrahimovic (Sweden)
 
This girl from BeIn Sport has some knockers on here, god damn. She's sort of a butter face, but I'd go hard. Haven't played around with big knockers like that in a while. Grass is always god damn greener :{
 
I think Nike should have a commercial with the Real Ronaldo and Cristiano for next years World Cup. Something off the wall. Like that Diego Maradona commercial where he's having a nightmare that he's singing the Brazilian national anthem.

That's a dope commercial tho.
 
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Love Paul Scholes, Thankfully had the opportunity to meet him in Manchester in 1995 (i was only 7 :lol)

LEGEND
 
I was watching the Barca game yesterday while putting up Duck brand window insulation to help keep out the cold draft so I didn't get to pay attention like I'd like. Watched the game from my dvr again before Homeland last night & wow.

Barca only had 2-3 shots on goal (on target at least).

Xavi is really starting to look old on the pitch. He looked to be struggling with the high pace of the game. I hope Tata is indeed smart enough to start pulling back his playing time. I realize he's a Barca legend but his lack of ability is starting to effect results on the pitch, & badly too. Very sad to see...

Kudos to Bilbao though. Their high press really bothered Barca. They even forced Iniesta into a rare turnover turning into that dag on goal Mastamind89 had to remind me about with the gif.. LOL.

Barca's back 4 is looked terrible too. Montoya & Adriano looked out of their league, Masch is continuing to play terribly & Pique... His problem is that he poorly positions himself so consistently that I think he watches film to practice being out of position. For someone who has such family history at Barca, his play is just flat out embarrassing. He really ought to be ashamed of himself.

Not having Alves & Alba really hurts.
 
Lol that nike commercial is awesome.. Also reminded me or when Rooney kept referring to Brazil as Brasil

And Jesus :x how mata doesn't play every game is beyond me
 
Have ya'll seen this? Maybe I'm late. Gareth Bale really does look like a typical rugby player.


 
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Also for the Arsenal fans

One of the biggest (and most reliable) portals in Brazil have come up with some intriguing transfer news on Monday.

Arsenal have had an initial 8 million euro bid for Alexandre Pato rejected by Corinthians, according to Lancenet.

The 24-year-old has struggled at Corinthians since returning to Brazil from AC Milan and of late has been booed by the home support.

Nevertheless, Arsene Wenger clearly believes he can get the best out of Pato and Lancenet say the 8 million euro bid was rejected in recent weeks.

The initial bid from Arsenal has been labelled “derisory” by some in Brazil, despite Pato’s recent poor form.

Corinthians are holding out for a fee of closer to 12 million euros for the striker nicknamed “The Duck.”

Arsenal’s great north London rivals Tottenham had bid 15 million euros for Pato last summer, when they were negotiating for Paulinho, but the move was rejected.
 
Morata seems to be coming in January.

Not sure if he can handle the EPL.
 
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That wouldn't make any sense. Real need at least one striker on the bench if Benz gets hurt.

I think Pato going to Arsenal could be a good thing tho.
 
That Paul Scholes video was great, his reaction is clearly "Damn do I still got that in me? maybe I shouldn't have hung up the boots"
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http://worldsoccertalk.com/2013/12/...ights-to-uefa-champions-league-for-2015-2018/


Who Will Win the US Media Rights to UEFA Champions League For 2015-2018?
Posted on December 2, 2013 by Christopher Harris

The deadline to submit bids and final presentations is tomorrow for US media rights to the next round of UEFA Champions League coverage, which will span the 2015-16 to 2017-18 seasons.

Current rights holder FOX Sports is expected to try to hold on to the rights, but faces fierce competition from a couple of new faces in bidding for the prestigious UEFA Champions League rights.

First things first, we can exclusively reveal to you that the number of packages available for bidding has increased this year to break out the English-language and Spanish-language rights separately. In leaked documents, we’ve discovered that there will be four separate packages to bid on. They are:

1. UEFA Champions League/UEFA Super Cup package — in English,
2. UEFA Champions League/UEFA Super Cup package — in Spanish,
3. UEFA Europa League package — in English, and
4. UEFA Europa League package — in Spanish.

Second, here’s the kicker. According to the confidential documents from UEFA, the soccer body won’t be just looking at the highest bid. The Invitation to Submit Offer document reveals:

“For the sake of clarity, it is confirmed that UEFA is not under any obligation to accept the highest financial bid for the media rights.”

Also note the criteria that UEFA will be considering:

“…distribution channels (for instance television channels, websites) to be used, programming plans, coverage and level of exposure, to include anticipated audience and estimated market share.”

While it’s good news that UEFA is looking out for the best interests of its brand, advertisers and soccer fans by ensuring that the eventual rights winner will have the ability to showcase the Champions League to as many viewers as possible, it’s bad news for beIN SPORT since the sports network currently has limited distribution channels. Al Jazeera has the following properties: beIN SPORT, beIN SPORT Espanol and beIN SPORT Play. However, its ‘Play’ online streaming product is only available via a small number of TV providers.

Now that we know more details about the criteria that UEFA is looking for, which media giants in the United States are bidding for the rights? That’s the difficult part because the bids are confidential, so it’s a silent bid where even some of the sports networks don’t know who they’re bidding against or what the amount of the competing bids are. What we do know is, thanks to the success of its coverage and ratings for the Premier League, NBC will be bidding for the UEFA Champions League. The acquisition of the Champions League would give NBCSN a massive leg-up for its quantity and quality of soccer coverage. Plus the mid-week afternoon games would slot perfectly into NBCSN as well as the full breadth of other NBC-owned networks where other lives UCL games can be shown.

The remaining bidders have been silent. It’s purely conjecture, but I wouldn’t be surprised if FOX and ESPN make a joint bid to try to win the UEFA Champions League rights, similar to what they did for the Premier League TV rights (but ultimately were outbid by NBC Sports Group). The relationship between FOX and ESPN, nicknamed FOSPN by some, is so cozy that ESPN has invited FOX executives to join them in Rio next summer to see how ESPN handles its production. FOX has the rights to World Cup tournaments 2018 and 2022, while FOX and ESPN will share the US media rights to the Euro 2016 qualifying games.

In another example of how FOX and ESPN have been working closely together as of late, ESPN signed a sub-license deal with FOX Sports last week to broadcast live UEFA Champions League games in Spanish on ESPN Deportes Radio.

Other than FOX (who has held the UCL rights since 2009), ESPN (which had the UCL rights from 1994 to 2008), beIN SPORT and NBC, there’s always the possibility of surprise bidders, much like how Universal/NBC came out of practically nowhere to scoop up the Premier League rights.

Whichever media giants are involved in the bidding, you can guarantee that executives at those companies will be rushing around today to put the finishing touches on their presentations and bids before the final deadline of Noon ET on Tuesday, December 3. Then it’s up to UEFA to review the proposals and bids, and then to select a winner.

As a soccer fan, which network would you like to see broadcasting the UEFA Champions League and Europa League games between 2015-18? And, your personal preferences aside, which of the networks do you think will win the rights?
 
World Cup draw Friday!!!

Here's a cool vid. It's a behind the scenes look at Rebecca Lowe & NBC's coverage of the Prem. World Soccer Talk reported Lowe will be gone for a month to help cover the winter Olympics & it sounds like NBC is bringing in Steve Bower to cover for Lowe.

NBC has done an outstanding job covering the Prem. ESPN FC has developed into a solid show too.
 
Champions League on NBC Sports would be so dope.

No major network does sports better than NBC. It's so organized, classy, and accessible. Basketball was better in NBC, and when the NFL went over to NBC it's been the highest rated game almost every week.

BeIn Sports make me feel like I'm on Ocean drive and just popped a Molly with all there bright colors and animations. Hope they don't get it. Although I wouldn't mind because of Ray Hudson, but they need more channels.

Do it NBC!
 
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