stoopidamerican

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Apertura 24-25 Top 25: Lyon - Marseille

22 September. Olympique Lyonnais 2 – Olympique de Marseille 3. Lyon came into the fifth matchday of Ligue 1 struggling in the bottom half of the table, desperate for an Olympico win against their second place opposition. Leonardo Balerdi gave Lyon a major helping hand by earning two yellow cards in the opening 5’ (fouls on Corentin Tolisso and Alexandre Lacazette) to leave Marseille a man down…

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Apertura 24-25 Top 25: Man City - Inter

Wednesday, 18 September. Manchester City 0 – Internazionale 0 (Champions League). This was the standout fixture of the first matchday of the new Swiss model Champions League making its debut this season, a repeat of the 2023 Champions League Final featuring last year’s winners of their respective leagues. Both teams came into this game unbeaten in their respective leagues, though a tie at the…

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Apertura 24-25 Top 25: Atalanta - Fiorentina

Sunday, 15 August. Atalanta 3 – Fiorentina 2. Coming out of the September International Break, both Atalanta and Fiorentina found themselves on three points from three games, and eager to improve. Fiorentina started the game well, and at the quarter-hour mark, a Cristiano Biraghi right corner was only cleared to Rolando Mandragora at the top of the box. He put the ball into the 6-yard box, and…

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Apertura 24-25 Top 25: Villarreal - Celta Vigo

Monday, 26 August. Villarreal 4 – Celta de Vigo 3. This game kicked off an early midweek Matchday 3 for La Liga, with the visitors at the top of an admittedly early table. Villarreal were also undefeated, though they had dropped points in a 2-2 draw with Atlético Madrid in Matchday 1, all four goals coming in the first half. Celta opened the scoring early, Ilaix Moriba hitting a long ball over…

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Apertura 24-25 Top 25: Wolves - Chelsea

Sunday, 25 August. Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 – Chelsea 6. In the opening weekend, Wolves and Chelsea had each lost 2-0 to the top two teams from the previous season, Arsenal and Manchester City respectively. That left Gary O’Neil and newly-appointed Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca, a former assistant coach under Pep Guardiola arriving fresh off a Championship-winning promotion campaign at Leicester…

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Apertura Top 25: Gladbach - Leverkusen

Friday, 23 August. Borussia Mönchengladbach 2 – Bayer Leverkusen 3. Although this was the opening fixture of the Bundesliga season (beginning a week after the other major European leagues), Bayer Leverkusen had already put in a stunning performance in the previous weekend’s DFL Supercup. Despite going a man down in the first half and conceding a second half goal to trail Stuttgart, late…

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Top Games of 24-25, June-August Plan

/ Embed from Getty Images Yesterday marks the end of the 2024-2025 European Football season, marked by the Champions League final. Today (Sunday, June 1st) marks the beginning of my plan to remember the 100 best games of that season. Here’s my plan of how to do so. Starting today, I will begin releasing one game a day in a top 50 games of the 2024-25 season, divided into a Top 25 Apertura…

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Eusébio: In Memoriam

This Sunday, one of the all-time greats passed away.  Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, la pantera negra, was born in Mozambique, then Portuguese East Africa, in 1942.  He played for Portugal and Benfica, and was one of the truly great players of the 1960s.  Tributes have come from everywhere, and this is just a brief selection. Let’s start with some of the big guns.  Among many other articles, The…

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2024-25 Super Cups Ranked

Having previously written on the history (and future) of Super Cup matches, it seems appropriate to offer up an account of the ten Super Cup matches that were played this season, beginning with the English FA’s Community Shield on the 10th of August and concluding with the final of the Supercopa de España last month. Generally speaking, Northern Europe opted for one-off, season-opening matches,…

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Champions League: How's the Swiss Model Working Out?

Embed from Getty Images Midway through the first half of the new Swiss model Champions League league phase seems like a good time to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of this newly-structured competition, at least in comparison to the group stage it has replaced. Overall, I will confess, my response has been mostly favorable. As a bias check, I did a comparison between the opening half of…

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Top NWSL and European Women's Soccer to Watch This Week

With the international break on, it’s a good time to turn your attention to women’s game. The first round of the Champions League kicked off this week with a second round of games next week, and there are a number of huge European games–many of them available for free thanks to DAZN–conveniently set for the weekend. In addition, the NWSL regular season is in its final run-up to the play-offs and…

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What to Watch - 24-25 Opening Weekend

With the Community Shield out of the way this weekend, the 2024-25 European season is kicking off. If you can’t wait until next weekend, I’ve got good news for you regarding midweek action. Embed from Getty Images José Mourinho questions a call in the first leg of Fenerbahçe’s tie with Lille. Tuesday, August 13th12:00 PM Fenerbahçe – LOSC Lille (Champions League Qualifying, Paramont+). This is…

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Olympic Soccer - Games to Watch 7/24-8/10

The simultaneous Euros and Copa América are now behind us, but there’s no rest for the football-obsessed. Despite the fact that the opening ceremony is not until next Friday, the men’s and women’s football tournaments start mid-week. The men’s tournament, it must be said, is probably only for the truly addicted. Because of the classist, anti-professional sentiments of the Olympics’ 19th century…

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10 Teams to Watch in 2024

For the past several years, I’ve made it a goal to watch at least one game from every team in Europe’s top five leagues (though last year, I missed by two Ligue 1 squads). I’m off to a good start this season, ending 2023 having seen every Premier League team at least once, and over half of the teams in each of the other four leagues. But aiming for range means sacrificing depth, and with the new…

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On Tap - Sept International Break

Even though it’s the first international break of the season and we just had a World Cup last December, Euro qualification is firmly underway. There’s also a semifinals and finals of the NWSL Challenge Cup and the regular season of the MLS mixed in. Hell, I’ve even thrown in some Brazilian games at the end of the window in case you want to broaden your horizons. Wednesday, September 6th7:00 PM…

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On Tap 9/1-3

Embed from Getty Images The last weekend before the September international break promises to be a good one, especially in the Premier League. But there’s also key games in the Bundesliga and Ligue 1, as well as an Old Firm derby to contend with. And then there’s a tasty opportunity to catch not-so-Stoopid American Christian Pulisic on Friday. All listed times are CDT. Friday, September…

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On Tap 8/25-28

In case you’re lost for what to do this weekend, here’s my call on the best European football games to watch in any given time slot this weekend. Can’t promise they’ll actually be the best games, but these are the one’s I would watch as a neutral. All listed times are CDT. Friday, August 25th12:30 AM Las Palmas – Real Sociedad (ESPN+). This is the only game on, and it will give you a chance to…