European soccer

Came across this article about how Sunderland of the BPL is taking away people's season tickets for persistent standing. I think this topic has been argued out pretty well on this site, but I found it interesting that a team / organization was actively trying to get their fans to sit down. (HT: John Infante)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/dec/27/sunderland-suspend-fans-standing-up

Similar to their March Madness competition, ESPN also has a bracket predictor contest for the European Championships that begin today.  I've created an MGoBlog group, and if anyone is interested please join! I know this is kind of a late notice, but I just discovered the bracket predictor today. Good luck to all!

Group Name: MGoBlog

Password: Tacopants

Link here

^Not sure if that link will work, but give it a shot!
 

I need your collective MGoHelp:  I am an admitted novice when it comes to European soccer but have recently become more interested in it.  I have a fixed amount of time to spend in the evenings watching games and I'm having trouble deciding even what league to focus on during my time.  After reading up a bit, I sense that the UEFA Championship League might be the way to go.  But then I read that the British Premier League is the best league overall.  And I know that Fox Soccer channel also shows games of the Italian Serie A as well (and probably others too).  I guess what I am saying is that I have no f-ing idea what I should be watching.  Can anyone help point me in the right direction with respect to the league to focus on?  Is the UEFA Championship League the way to go for a late bloomer like me?

(As an aside, I still don't understand how the UEFA Championship League works - how can teams play in it while their regular season is ongoing?  For example, how can Arsenal play in it while the Premier League is in-season?)

Thanks in advance.

So, has anyone noticed the parallels between the movie "The Damned United" and the recent history of Michigan football?  I did a search and couldn't find any discussion of this on the board, which surprised me, because as I was watching, it really felt like I was watching Rich Rodriguez's life story, if only he'd been born in England instead of West Virginia.

If you're not familiar, the movie is based on the true story of the hiring of Brian Clough, a legendary English soccer coach, at Leeds United in 1974.  I don't want to give too much away, so I'll just say it's a familiar story. 

If you're the kind of person who hates soccer, don't worry: there's very little actual soccer content in it, and the soccer that's in it mostly involves fistfights and violent tackles.  It's just a very well put together movie directed by the same guy who did "The King's Speech" and the "John Adams" documentary on HBO.  It's a movie about sports without being a sports movie, if you get the distinction.

Anyway, it's very much worth watching if you're trying to make sense of the last three years, and it's available to watch instantly on Netflix.