It Could Get A Bit Messi In Here - The Football Thread.

[Joe Mac]

Might have something to do with the lack of crowds? I dunno.

This Dortmund team remind me of the past few season’s Spurs. On their day they can beat anyone but have a shit defense and get torn apart too easily after missing glorious chances. Also missing a couple of key players from being one of the best teams in Europe (see: Burki, Akanji, Piszczek).

Like you said, and the Fox Sports announcer said the same, Bayern are patient, don’t exert too much energy and then turn it on when they need. Dortmund presses really early and kept possession but now they’re affording Bayern acres of space and time.

Maybe. Maybe it’s the game being early after the restart? Or maybe German football is slower than what I’m used to?

I don’t agree. Spurs until this year were miles ahead of this Dortmund team. At their best Poch’s Spurs were defensively excellent. It’s only in the last 18 months as the Belgians and Lorris have aged has there been issues. Also, for all the hype, Haaland still isn’t close to the levels Kane has hit for 5 or 6 seasons now. Spurs’ biggest issue was midfield creativity, especially in the wide areas, and that’s maybe where this Dortmund team has the edge with Sancho. I must say from the last few games I don’t see the Brandt hype we’re getting on our tele, distinctly average to my eyes.

Bayern look like men who know how to win. Dortmund look like boys eager to impress.

Watch them come back and win now I’ve said that

 

[wokeupnew]

Maybe. Maybe it’s the game being early after the restart? Or maybe German football is slower than what I’m used to?

I don’t agree. Spurs until this year were miles ahead of this Dortmund team. At their best Poch’s Spurs were defensively excellent. It’s only in the last 18 months as the Belgians and Lorris have aged has there been issues. Also, for all the hype, Haaland still isn’t close to the levels Kane has hit for 5 or 6 seasons now. Spurs’ biggest issue was midfield creativity, especially in the wide areas, and that’s maybe where this Dortmund team has the edge with Sancho. I must say from the last few games I don’t see the Brandt hype we’re getting on our tele, distinctly average to my eyes.

Bayern look like men who know how to win. Dortmund look like boys eager to impress.

Watch them come back and win now I’ve said that

Yeah I guess I meant this past two years' Spurs 18-20. 15-17 Spurs would, and has beaten this Dortmund team. In the CL (3? years ago)

The qualities they both share IMO:

• have a shit defense
• get torn apart too easily
• missing glorious chances
• look like boys eager to impress (aka being fancy and flashy instead of stoic and precise, opposite of Bayern)

I agree with you though, Delaney and Witsel are a very, very good midfield. And Brandt was good against Shalke and Wolfsburg, but, it's Shalke and Wolfsburg.

 

[BazookaTooth]

... against Shalke and Wolfsburg, but, it's Shalke and Wolfsburg.

no, its Schalke

 

[wokeupnew]

no, its Schalke

God dammit

 

[mdmost]

EPL voted for matches to return on 6/17 with Aston Villa hosting Sheffield United and City hosting Arsenal. It's not ideal but it's better than no football. All games will be broadcast live in the UK. Not sure how NBC Sports will handle it but I'm sure the usual some on NBC Sports and some on Gold will happen.

 

[Joe Mac]

EPL voted for matches to return on 6/17 with Aston Villa hosting Sheffield United and City hosting Arsenal. It's not ideal but it's better than no football. All games will be broadcast live in the UK. Not sure how NBC Sports will handle it but I'm sure the usual some on NBC Sports and some on Gold will happen.

Yeah with the UK sky and BT have 45 of the 90 games already covered with BBC having highlights. a condition of the government allowing restart is that the other 45 are on free to air with the number being split between the 4 rights holders Sky/BT/BBC/Amazon proportionally depending on what they spent on the rights providing they find a way of making it free to air through all methods of receiving tele. Because we get covered by all those UK channels it will be the same here.

I always thought that internationally you theoretically had the rights to all 380 games anyway because you don’t have the same 3pm Saturday broadcasting restrictions that all UK broadcasters are under?

 

[mdmost]

Correct. We get a sweetheart deal here because we're not subject to the 3pm restriction. NBC Sports shows all the matches, in some form. If it's not broadcast over a cable or satellite channel in the NBC family such as NBC Sports Channel or one of the NBC Sports Extra channels, it's on some sort of affiliate like CNBC, their finance channel. Normally, the 5:30 Saturday match is shown on the over the air NBC national network. In the fall, it could get bumped if Notre Dame football or NASCAR is on.

If a match is not on the networks, it's either available on the NBC Sports app on streaming services (included as part of your cable/satellite subscription) or on NBC Sports Gold, which is available for a monthly fee. Usually it's clubs with less of a following over here like Southampton or Brighton. A handful of Liverpool matches find their way on Gold when they or any other bigger name club plays away to one of the smaller clubs. Gold is a bit of a cash grab but given we do have access to every match, it's not something to really complain about.

 

[Joe Mac]

Correct. We get a sweetheart deal here because we're not subject to the 3pm restriction. NBC Sports shows all the matches, in some form. If it's not broadcast over a cable or satellite channel in the NBC family such as NBC Sports Channel or one of the NBC Sports Extra channels, it's on some sort of affiliate like CNBC, their finance channel. Normally, the 5:30 Saturday match is shown on the over the air NBC national network. In the fall, it could get bumped if Notre Dame football or NASCAR is on.

If a match is not on the networks, it's either available on the NBC Sports app on streaming services (included as part of your cable/satellite subscription) or on NBC Sports Gold, which is available for a monthly fee. Usually it's clubs with less of a following over here like Southampton or Brighton. A handful of Liverpool matches find their way on Gold when they or any other bigger name club plays away to one of the smaller clubs. Gold is a bit of a cash grab but given we do have access to every match, it's not something to really complain about.

Yeah, we’re equally not subject to it but no Irish native broadcaster can deal with multiple simultaneous matches so we just get the one pick from the broadcaster with the rights every Saturday.

When I was in Australia on hols their broadcaster had one match on the main channel and all the other Saturday 3pms under the “red button” in sub channels!

The channel actually comes as part of the Sky Sports package for Ireland which is something because I pay an absolute fortune for all the other channels to watch the Premier League on!

 

[wokeupnew]

Correct. We get a sweetheart deal here because we're not subject to the 3pm restriction. NBC Sports shows all the matches, in some form. If it's not broadcast over a cable or satellite channel in the NBC family such as NBC Sports Channel or one of the NBC Sports Extra channels, it's on some sort of affiliate like CNBC, their finance channel. Normally, the 5:30 Saturday match is shown on the over the air NBC national network. In the fall, it could get bumped if Notre Dame football or NASCAR is on.

If a match is not on the networks, it's either available on the NBC Sports app on streaming services (included as part of your cable/satellite subscription) or on NBC Sports Gold, which is available for a monthly fee. Usually it's clubs with less of a following over here like Southampton or Brighton. A handful of Liverpool matches find their way on Gold when they or any other bigger name club plays away to one of the smaller clubs. Gold is a bit of a cash grab but given we do have access to every match, it's not something to really complain about.

I subscribed to Gold because when there is the one or two random Spurs games on there, I'd rather deal with the $$$ than not watch it at all. And sometimes I do tend to want to watch a random Brighton vs. Newcastle instead of a predictable Liverpool thrashing of Aston Villa. The one thing that I don't understand about NBCSports and NBC Sports Gold is why doesn't NBC Sports provide more content to Gold Subscribers on their app. They've been showing re-runs of classic games on Saturdays and Sundays, but then they don't have those games for replay afterwards on the app. At least have them available for paying Gold subscribers... They have rights to the entire archive of the PL. They'll throw up a random Leeds vs. MU game or Wimbledon vs. Arsenal from like 2000. like what the hell. If they wanted more Gold subscribers, give people access to the every PL game ever and you'd get thousands of people paying $50 for access. It's so dumb. I don't think I'll re-sub for next season because it hasn't been worth it during these past three months.

 

[mdmost]

Before NBC won the rights in the mid 2010s, you'd have to subscribe to a separate channel like Fox Soccer Channel or Setanta Sports which would net you very few matches. Or you'd get a random replay on a Wednesday of a match from the previous weekend. NBC broke the mold over here on how to broadcast EPL matches. ESPN's not bad. Fox Sports is the worst. I'm glad they're losing the Bundesliga.

 

[Joe Mac]

I subscribed to Gold because when there is the one or two random Spurs games on there, I'd rather deal with the $$$ than not watch it at all. And sometimes I do tend to want to watch a random Brighton vs. Newcastle instead of a predictable Liverpool thrashing of Aston Villa. The one thing that I don't understand about NBCSports and NBC Sports Gold is why doesn't NBC Sports provide more content to Gold Subscribers on their app. They've been showing re-runs of classic games on Saturdays and Sundays, but then they don't have those games for replay afterwards on the app. At least have them available for paying Gold subscribers... They have rights to the entire archive of the PL. They'll throw up a random Leeds vs. MU game or Wimbledon vs. Arsenal from like 2000. like what the hell. If they wanted more Gold subscribers, give people access to the every PL game ever and you'd get thousands of people paying $50 for access. It's so dumb. I don't think I'll re-sub for next season because it hasn't been worth it during these past three months.

They made you pay during all this? Sky allowed me to defer my two sports packages for the period of downtime. As much as I want to watch the games I’m not looking forward to how much my bill is going up again every month, I’ve enjoyed the two discounted months

 

[Barry Lird]

They made you pay during all this? Sky allowed me to defer my two sports packages for the period of downtime. As much as I want to watch the games I’m not looking forward to how much my bill is going up again every month, I’ve enjoyed the two discounted months

The problem with that for NBCS gold is that I paid ahead of time ($60) for the whole season, so I don't have any more payments to make technically.

 

[mdmost]

 

[Joe Mac]

The problem with that for NBCS gold is that I paid ahead of time ($60) for the whole season, so I don't have any more payments to make technically.

Oh right $60 for the season, I’m not so sympathetic anymore. The RRP for the two satellite sports packages needed is €100 month. I usually pay nearer €60 a month with all the discounts I cajole because I’ve had their dish set up for nearly 10 years now!

 

[wokeupnew]

They made you pay during all this? Sky allowed me to defer my two sports packages for the period of downtime. As much as I want to watch the games I’m not looking forward to how much my bill is going up again every month, I’ve enjoyed the two discounted months

The problem with that for NBCS gold is that I paid ahead of time ($60) for the whole season, so I don't have any more payments to make technically.

Oh right $60 for the season, I’m not so sympathetic anymore. The RRP for the two satellite sports packages needed is €100 month. I usually pay nearer €60 a month with all the discounts I cajole because I’ve had their dish set up for nearly 10 years now!

I think I paid $50 last season and was locked into that rate for this season when I just let it re-subscribe. I didn't just start paying a couple of months ago.

They really squandered an opportunity to provide value for paying customers. In comparison Bleacher Report has done a brilliant job in uploading full CL matches to their Youtube page which anyone can watch for free and I can easily stream that to my TV via the YT app.

EDIT: there's 50 full CL matches you can watch right now, extremely easily. Doing the lord's work honestly. I don't know how to link a full playlist but the 1999 Final is the first one of the playlist



Also Re: British TV, I always see people on r/coys, r/soccer, and some twitter accounts I follow complain about how poor and expensive service to Sky, SkyHD, whatever else there is. the British TV structure just seems like a nightmare to manage. People seem to keep subscribing and unsubscribing to different channels, because different games are shown on different networks that you don't need to pay for all the time.

 

[Joe Mac]

I think I paid $50 last season and was locked into that rate for this season when I just let it re-subscribe. I didn't just start paying a couple of months ago.

They really squandered an opportunity to provide value for paying customers. In comparison Bleacher Report has done a brilliant job in uploading full CL matches to their Youtube page which anyone can watch for free and I can easily stream that to my TV via the YT app.

EDIT: there's 50 full CL matches you can watch right now, extremely easily. Doing the lord's work honestly.



Also Re: British TV, I always see people on r/coys, r/soccer, and some twitter accounts I follow complain about how poor and expensive service to Sky, SkyHD, whatever else there is. the British TV structure just seems like a nightmare to manage. People seem to keep subscribing and unsubscribing to different channels, because different games are shown on different networks that you don't need to pay for all the time.

so yeah, the eu forced competition in about 2002. Prior to that sky used to buy all the coverage in bulk but the ecj declared that to be an anti-competitive monopoly. The premier league was forced to split different categories of matches into 6 packages, any single broadcaster could only buy 4.

It used to be worse than it is now. It really depends on who gets the other 2 packages. If they sell direct and pay sky only a carrier fee it can be hugely expensive because they’re really hoarding the channels to get you onto their own cable/iptv service rather than skys satelite one. Visa versa if you want sky on their services.

thankfully this year sky and bt saw sense and now pay each other a fee for the channels and sell the entire lot to their own customers. It’s still expensive, but not as bad as it used to be.

that and we’re the home market, the product is more valuable so they pay more for it and so in turn to we. They do also play a whole host of other sport for that fee too, I’m just not as interested in that lol

 

[wokeupnew]

so yeah, the eu forced competition in about 2002. Prior to that sky used to buy all the coverage in bulk but the ecj declared that to be an anti-competitive monopoly. The premier league was forced to split different categories of matches into 6 packages, any single broadcaster could only buy 4.

It used to be worse than it is now. It really depends on who gets the other 2 packages. If they sell direct and pay sky only a carrier fee it can be hugely expensive because they’re really hoarding the channels to get you onto their own cable/iptv service rather than skys satelite one. Visa versa if you want sky on their services.

thankfully this year sky and bt saw sense and now pay each other a fee for the channels and sell the entire lot to their own customers. It’s still expensive, but not as bad as it used to be.

that and we’re the home market, the product is more valuable so they pay more for it and so in turn to we. They do also play a whole host of other sport for that fee too, I’m just not as interested in that lol

don't pubs and restaurants get charged a ridiculous rate to air the games too? like way more than a standard subscription, I've heard some owners say they pay upwards of $1000 or something insane like that. I guess the logic there is people who don't pay end up visiting the bar instead and increasing business, so the league and broadcasters want a cut of that money.

 

[Joe Mac]

don't pubs and restaurants get charged a ridiculous rate to air the games too? like way more than a standard subscription, I've heard some owners say they pay upwards of $1000 or something insane like that. I guess the logic there is people who don't pay end up visiting the bar instead and increasing business, so the league and broadcasters want a cut of that money.

Yeah they do there is a pubs and clubs package that is much higher. If they are caught running the cable down from their apartment/house above (as sometimes happens) the fine is enormous too. You can tell as well, there’s a little translucent icon of a pint glass in the bottom corner if they’re on the right subscription. That said it’s worth every penny for them too, pubs that are empty all week can be heaving on a Saturday evening or Sunday if there is a big match on.

 

[Jan]

The bundesliga got political this weekend

 

[mdmost]

Liverpool as well. I really love this especially since there's still a problem with racism from supporters when these players step on the an opposing pitch.