Random soccer discussion

[Spy Dog]

Preface: I'm an American currently living in Europe.

I love the Champions League but am baffled by something. In the 1st 2 rounds of the knockout stages they start the games concurrently. Why is this done? Why don't they stagger the starts 15-20 minutes apart? Or have back-to-back games (like a 6:30 game followed by an 8:30 game)? Having 4 (or 2 in the 2nd round) games going at the same time seems so fan-unfriendly when they could easily show more coverage. I have Sky so I know I can interactively change games, but in soccer this isn't viable if you have 2-3 close games going at the same time.

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Getafe's German coach Bernd Schuster has signed a pre-contract agreement to become Real Madrid's manager next season, according to reports.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...19&cc=5901

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And Michael Laudrup could very well be the next Getafe manager then.

[iron81]

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In the 1st 2 rounds of the knockout stages they start the games concurrently. Why is this done?

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Its so no one has an unfair advantage by knowing what they need to do to advance.

An example scenario: 4 team group, two teams advance. Going into the last game of the round, two teams are tied at the top of the group with 3rd place 1 points back and winning the tiebreak. The top two teams and bottom two teams are playing against each other in the last game.

If the bottom two teams play first and tie, the top two teams know they only need a tie to advance, so they will collude to produce a tie. If they play simultaneously, the 3rd place team might win, so the top two need to play all out to win in order to clinch a berth.

[ThaSaltCracka]

he is talking about the knockout stage, not the group stage.

[JaredL]

[ QUOTE ]
Preface: I'm an American currently living in Europe.

I love the Champions League but am baffled by something. In the 1st 2 rounds of the knockout stages they start the games concurrently. Why is this done? Why don't they stagger the starts 15-20 minutes apart? Or have back-to-back games (like a 6:30 game followed by an 8:30 game)? Having 4 (or 2 in the 2nd round) games going at the same time seems so fan-unfriendly when they could easily show more coverage. I have Sky so I know I can interactively change games, but in soccer this isn't viable if you have 2-3 close games going at the same time.

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I think it's friendly to the home team. Basically if the game started at 6:30 it wouldn't be as grand an occasion. So they start them all at the same time. Similarly if they played some Monday night that would suck so they stick to Tuesday - Thursday (often Tue and Wed with UEFA on Thu).

Sucks for fans in the US and people who support other teams. Honestly they probably would make more money from ad revenue if they staggered them.

[PITTM]

i had a question. what is the function of the little half circle thing at the top of the penalty box? ive always been curious but have never known.

[gusmahler]

When a player is taking a penalty kick, everyone except the kicker and the GK have to be behind that half circle (and outside of the penalty area).

[PITTM]

ah, that makes sense. at first i thought a penalty kick would be received if someone was fouled in there. but i have seen many free kicks taken from there so i needed a real explanation. thanks.

[ThaSaltCracka]

I would like someone to explain how its possible for the opposing team to get a direct free kick in the box instead of a pk.

[PITTM]

-get free kick on the edge of box
-have other team not give the full 10 yards or whatever the distance is/keep moving forward after the ref sets them.
-the ref moves the ball forward to penalize them
-this results in a direct free kick inside the box.