Icon's Football (Soccer) Knowledge Request Thread

[conmee]

Sesh,

I'm not sure I can say the name Patrick Thistle without laughing and sounding incredibly gay.... I'm also not sure I should take football advice from a Scot... no offense, it just doesn't feel right.

Ok... gentlemen... I'll try to focus the discussion:

1) What are the main leagues? Break it down top-to-bottom. World Cup=Biggest Show; FIFA=NFL?; EuroCup=? I mean what is the hierarchy? What is played in the US? Didn't that wanker from the UK end up playing for an LA soccer team for a spell? I mean, do I need to have a team in EVERY league? Is it like NFL, NCAA, High School, Pop Warner? I just need some clarity.

2) What is the calendar/schedule each year? I know the World Cup is every 4 years, right? What are the other major dates/playoffs/schedules I need to be familiar with?

Many thanks, my "footy" friends... which sounds fucking gay, but I guess... when in Rome...

Mind The Gap!©®™

Icon©®™

[Von Halen]

Why would you waste your time even thinking about the foot fairy "sport" of SOCCER, Commie?

[vandeleur]

Why would you waste your time even thinking about the foot fairy "sport" of SOCCER, Commie?

Wooah ..... Is there any fucking need

[VHscraps]

Sesh,

I'm not sure I can say the name Patrick Thistle without laughing and sounding incredibly gay.... I'm also not sure I should take football advice from a Scot... no offense, it just doesn't feel right.

Ok... gentlemen... I'll try to focus the discussion:

1) What are the main leagues? Break it down top-to-bottom. World Cup=Biggest Show; FIFA=NFL?; EuroCup=? I mean what is the hierarchy? What is played in the US? Didn't that wanker from the UK end up playing for an LA soccer team for a spell? I mean, do I need to have a team in EVERY league? Is it like NFL, NCAA, High School, Pop Warner? I just need some clarity.

2) What is the calendar/schedule each year? I know the World Cup is every 4 years, right? What are the other major dates/playoffs/schedules I need to be familiar with?

Many thanks, my "footy" friends... which sounds fucking gay, but I guess... when in Rome...

Mind The Gap!©®™

Icon©®™

I believe that the first ever international football match was played in Partick, a suburb of Glasgow. That was Scotland v. England, the two founders of international football, or 'soccer' as they call it in less civilised quarters!

The pitch on which the game was played is now - and was then - a cricket ground. West of Scotland Cricket Club.

Partick Thistle play a coupla miles up the road.

Keep in mind, conmee, that the Scots used to be world leaders (and beaters) at fitba.

I think the record for match attendance is still 147,000 at a Scotland fixture at Hampden Park, Glasgow. There's one to test your new friends with ...!

[Seshmeister]

Awesome post!

My grandfather was at that 147 000 game. I asked him about it and he said he couldn't see a thing...

[vandeleur]

Awesome post!

Your biased lol

I do love those old pics of post war matches with over flowing crowds.
147 thousand is an insane amount of people .

[Seshmeister]

I looked it up and the official attendance was 149 400 still a European record and its' believed there were at least 20 000 who sneaked in that weren't counted.

The score was Scotland 3 England 1.

I was there quite a few times before it was modernised and made squeaky clean in the 1980s. It was an amazing place.



The thing that won't be clear from that picture is that everyone who isn't under cover is standing. Standing people take up much less room than sitting people hence the vast crowds.

[conmee]

I believe that the first ever international football match was played in Partick, a suburb of Glasgow. That was Scotland v. England, the two founders of international football, or 'soccer' as they call it in less civilised quarters!

The pitch on which the game was played is now - and was then - a cricket ground. West of Scotland Cricket Club.

Partick Thistle play a coupla miles up the road.

Keep in mind, conmee, that the Scots used to be world leaders (and beaters) at fitba.

I think the record for match attendance is still 147,000 at a Scotland fixture at Hampden Park, Glasgow. There's one to test your new friends with ...!

That's all well and good, but just because Napoleon had some military success way back doesn't mean I'd want to take military advice from the French. Wasn't golf also invented in Scotland? Are there even any Scotlandians even playing on the tour?

Look, I will consider Sesh's input, but only as historical reference material, not from the perspective of a fan whose team or country has tasted success in the game this century.

Mind The Gap!©®™

Icon©®™

[VHscraps]

Well, Scottish scientists and philosophers of the Enlightenment basically invented the modern world, so excluding our recent football efforts due to - frankly - the financial doping of the leagues with large TV audiences who have connived to make sporting integrity something that has little meaning in the upper echelons of the game, worries me not a jot.

A Scottish football manager, acclaimed as the most successful ever - Alex Ferguson - has just retired from his job as the coach / manager of the biggest football club in the world, Manchester United. He is being replaced by another Scot, David Moyes.

Both men are from Glasgow. From a little parish known as Govan - which you can see from Partick as it is just across the River Clyde.

[ashstralia]

our nrl is without doubt the toughest contact sport in the world. judge for yourselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66wK9zAppHc

[Von Halen]

our nrl is without doubt the toughest contact sport in the world. judge for yourselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66wK9zAppHc

That is fuckin' awesome!

I think the biggest difference between those hits, and the hits you are seeing in NFL Football and NHL Hockey are, they are mostly torso hits. Torso on torso. Or a shoulder at the most. The majority of those hits are upright hits too. To me, it just looks clean. Like even though they are wrecking someone, they respect them, and the game. Make sense?

I would only argue hockey is a tougher contact sport, because of the speed. The speed these guys are traveling on skates is making for super violent impacts. Not to mention, there are a lot more hits in hockey, that aren't chest to chest, or face to face. Too much hitting when a guy has his back turned to you. Very dangerous. Extending the arms and projecting a guy into the glass or boards, is also a problem.

[VHscraps]

Back in the late 80s Aussie Rules Football used to be on non-subscription terrestrial TV in the UK on Sundays. One of the most exciting sports you will ever see.

[ashstralia]

yes mate, having seen blades of glory a few times i get it...

[Von Halen]

yes mate, having seen blades of glory a few times i get it...

I had to IMDb that movie.

Slap Shot is a much better hockey movie.

[vandeleur]

Slap shot is really funny .
As a sports fan I base my knowledge of hockey on happy Gilmore , actually that movie is how i learnt to play golf