5th round of the FA Cup.

Starts at noon EST.

You should watch it, even if you don't like soccer.

This is the equivalent of the Green Bay Packers' first round playoff game being against Broughton.

2/19/2011 4:08:28 AM

will be watching!

2/19/2011 7:01:32 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdEENBz1p40

2/19/2011 8:30:25 AM

2/19/2011 8:58:32 AM

Man...I do like that analogy.

2/19/2011 9:06:04 AM

It's not really a good analogy. This team is still full of professionals. I think the only equivalent I can think of in American sports would be the Yankees playing a low-A ball team or short season rookie ball team in a legitimate competition.

[Edited on February 19, 2011 at 12:24 PM. Reason : x]

2/19/2011 12:22:46 PM

holy crap! 1-0, what a blowout!!

2/19/2011 1:59:29 PM

Crawley should have leveled it. They totally outplayed Man U in the second half.

2/19/2011 2:19:25 PM

lol

soccer

blowout

2/19/2011 2:21:03 PM

ITT OP's analogy looks ridiculous, even for an exaggeration.

2/19/2011 2:24:52 PM

Yeah I had to hold my tongue. All respect due to Crawley Town, they made it to the 5th round of their own accord.

2/19/2011 4:10:54 PM

fuck soccer. what a bunch of pussies.

2/19/2011 4:13:39 PM

Crawley are the best non-league team in the country, sure, but being non-league means they are in the fifth tier of their sport.

The fifth tier of American football is some middling high school shit.

2/19/2011 4:35:48 PM

Soccer is a sport for dudes that didn't make the football team. And chicks.

2/19/2011 4:37:19 PM

^^ I see what you're saying, but it's not the same. Theoretically, they can hire anyone to play for their team. They aren't constrained by any sort of zoning but rather simply by the free market.

There really isn't a perfect analogy in American sports because any minor league system is going to be a feeder for someone, except I suppose the crappy independent minor league baseball system.

Maybe the Yankees versus the Long Island Ducks is a better example.

[Edited on February 19, 2011 at 4:51 PM. Reason : not worth it]

2/19/2011 4:48:45 PM

vb is probably a chelsea fan

[Edited on February 19, 2011 at 4:52 PM. Reason : ^ you're right]

2/19/2011 4:52:31 PM

iirc, Real Madrid played Shamrock Rovers in a friendly right after Ronaldo, Benzema and Kaka joined up and one of the guys with a SOG for Rovers was a part-time player who was an electrician when not playing. Most of the guys are part-timers on that team, though.

2/19/2011 4:56:26 PM

Quote :

"Soccer is a sport for dudes that didn't make the football team. And chicks."

im sure the rest of the world sees it that way too. Continue on

2/19/2011 5:03:03 PM

Wouldn't it be closer to say, Ohio State playing a Div 3 University? You've got your top flight college school playing a low ring college school (bypassing non BCS schools, 1AA, Div 2, etc). The comparison of professional men playing a bunch of prepubescent boys is a bit of a stretch.

2/19/2011 5:07:51 PM

hey now, broughton is not too shabby

2/19/2011 5:22:04 PM

^^ Perhaps you're right, as I hadn't thought about all the levels in the NCAA. Still, to go four tiers up from D3 would still be the NFL.

Anyway, baseball is indeed a better analogy since there are a sufficient number of professional levels. Yankees vs. Hickory Crawdads.

2/19/2011 6:21:06 PM

i guess what it shows is that soccer games are always going to be more even, then.

b/c even if the packers played Auburn or Oregon this year, the Packers would win by 50 even w/ a bad game.

2/19/2011 6:33:15 PM

when are the packers playing broughton?

would at least make football entertaining for a chance

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

2/19/2011 6:47:19 PM

Quote :

"b/c even if the packers played Auburn or Oregon this year, the Packers would win by 50 even w/ a bad game."

You don't know that. Anything can happen. Miracle on Ice, blahblahblah.

FWIW, though, the United starting lineup was all the guys who have fallen out of favor lately. The guy who scored their goal, Wes Brown, has been on the block to be sold for a while.

2/19/2011 6:49:16 PM

soccer's a pussy sport for homos anyway

2/19/2011 6:58:14 PM

u mad?

2/19/2011 7:03:29 PM

Quote :

"Perhaps you're right, as I hadn't thought about all the levels in the NCAA. Still, to go four tiers up from D3 would still be the NFL."

Not to argue semantics, but I think you're getting up on the number of "tiers." There are what, 116 teams in Div 1 college football? That's a lot more than the EPL and League Championship and League One combined. You could easily break Div 1 college football into three flights, making the Div 2 be the 4th flight, possibly even 5th flight.

2/19/2011 7:12:39 PM

Perhaps, but you could turn that around and say that all of the teams in the EPL, Ligue 1, La Liga, the Bundesliga, and Serie A are at the same level. That'd give you 100+ top flight teams.

2/19/2011 7:19:50 PM

Yes, you could. But they only play each other in the Champions League, not the FA cup. So that's pretty irrelevant, no? That is to say, I'd be much more impressed if Crawley Town made it out of the group stage of the champions league, which would never happen.

[Edited on February 19, 2011 at 7:23 PM. Reason : ]

2/19/2011 7:21:57 PM

bwahahhahahah 1-0!!!!

WHAT AN EXCITING SPECTACLE OF ATHLETIC COMPETITION


fucking queers

Quote :

"Soccer is a sport for dudes that didn't make the football team. And chicks."

ftw

2/19/2011 9:05:20 PM

1-0? fuck that. boring ass game. who the heck wants to watch a 1 goal snoozefest?

2/19/2011 9:24:25 PM

don't forget all the faking injuries like a bunch of fairies bullshit

2/19/2011 9:36:12 PM

Quote :

"You don't know that. Anything can happen. Miracle on Ice, blahblahblah."

i would bet everything i had against that outcome.

miracle on ice, the guys were just underdogs. it would be more like the panthers against the packers or something. or maybe nba best rookies vs nba all-stars.

auburn and oregon have maybe half of their starters that will actually be on nfl teams. even the panthers, all of their starters are nfl worthy, even though it is just barely.

2/19/2011 10:28:02 PM

...

2/19/2011 10:42:57 PM

Quote :

"miracle on ice, the guys were just underdogs. it would be more like the panthers against the packers or something. or maybe nba best rookies vs nba all-stars."

Not at all true. Team USA was a bunch of college kids, most of whom never made it in the NHL, playing against a team of players who grew up with ONLY hockey and who were professional players who would rival anyone playing in the NHL today. Saying it was comparable to two teams in the top professional league in the world is a complete injustice.

2/19/2011 10:45:06 PM

FLORENT MALOUDA

2/20/2011 2:02:17 AM

Quote :

"miracle on ice, the guys were just underdogs."

No. Only five of the players on that team went on to professional careers of any significance. Five of the Russian players joined the NHL just in 1990 and were relatively dominant, including Sergei Makarov who won Rookie of the Year at age 31.

2/20/2011 3:04:20 AM

seriously why do you guys keep posting in this sissy thread for this sissy sport



they had some soccer on today at ruckus and I watched a guy go down like he got shot when a dude barely brushed his leg


then he got up and they started a slap fight


it was the lamest shit I've ever seen


AND GUESS WHAT THE FINAL SCORE WAS


1-0. SISSY SLAP FEST. SO BORING AND GAY.

2/20/2011 6:09:32 PM

I like watching football better than soccer but I like playing FIFA 11 better than Madden.

2/20/2011 6:16:55 PM

Soccer can go die.

2/20/2011 6:17:42 PM

ill admit to talking out of my ass about the miracle

i dont know shit about hockey.

that said, wiki says 4 of the 5 miracle nhl'ers were all-stars. eruzione didnt even try to play hockey professionally.

as for college aged comment, plenty of USSR's players were college aged and eruzione was 26.

2/20/2011 6:29:50 PM

this thread is full of pussies.

if i saw any of you out playing soccer, I'd deck you in the mouth for being a pussy.

2/20/2011 7:41:58 PM

ibtm

2/20/2011 7:42:23 PM

this is sports talk?

2/20/2011 7:55:06 PM

Quote :

"wiki says 4 of the 5 miracle nhl'ers were all-stars"

Yes, four of the 20 players on the team appeared in at least one All-Star game. Only two of those ever made it more than once.

Just for the sake of comparison, three of the Soviet players are in the Hockey Hall of Fame. None of the Americans are.

Quote :

"as for college aged comment, plenty of USSR's players were college aged"

Most hockey players who are not professionals by the time they reach college age do not become professionals. Hockey is like baseball, you're playing full-time by the time you're 15 and you're a pro of some sort by 18 or you're behind the curve. The fact that the Russians has some college-aged players is irrelevant on two fronts, since most of those younger players were depth/role players and since the Russians essentially had a professional hockey program under a wing of their military.

2/20/2011 10:17:34 PM

not here to hate on soccer, just to point out how this is a good example of why i still dont think it will ever catch on huge in the mainstream in the US

[Edited on February 20, 2011 at 10:21 PM. Reason : unless maybe the NFL and NBA both have lockouts next year...and that would only be temporary]

2/20/2011 10:21:02 PM

because a team of nobodies can occasionally hang tough with a team that has a 230 million dollar payroll?

sounds like the ultimate underdog story to me

americans love underdogs

2/20/2011 10:29:45 PM

I sent that American an underdog.

2/21/2011 12:46:01 AM

Smells like underdog in here

[Edited on February 21, 2011 at 10:30 AM. Reason : Am I doing this right?]

2/21/2011 10:30:00 AM

Quote :

"Soccer can go die."

2/21/2011 10:36:56 AM