Pre-season friendlies

[Malko]

Sporting - Lyon 1-0...well, thjose mathces really are beginning to be a joke...they played one hour (it was 1-0), then both coaches changed nearly the whole team ....9 substitutions for Lyon , i did not count them, but probably same for Sporting........firendlies also should have 3 substitutions, that's all!...

[AlanK]

Sporting - Lyon 1-0...well, thjose mathces really are beginning to be a joke...they played one hour (it was 1-0), then both coaches changed nearly the whole team ....9 substitutions for Lyon , i did not count them, but probably same for Sporting........firendlies also should have 3 substitutions, that's all!...

These are matches for coaches to try out players for the games that count. Substitutions should be as many as the coaches want them to be. Players, in many cases, are not ready to play a full game yet, especially in summer heat.

Bit of confusion in your scoreline--It was Sporting CP 0, Lyon 1--goal by Lacazette at 53'.

[BurningStorm]

Brentford - Kaiserslautern 1-1

1000 fans from Kaiserslautern travelled to England:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrz7EW9z96o

[spoonman]

Man Utd v Man City (part of the International Champions Cup) was cancelled due to heavy rainfalls in Beijing.

[AlanK]

Yesterday we saw Inter 1, PSG 3; PSG looked MUCH better than Inter, and Mancini is said to be considering bailing out of Inter, as the new owners don't seem to be interested in putting together a world-class team.

Game was played just down the pike from where I live--game was in Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon, about an hour by car from Salem. It's the American football stadium of the University of Oregon. Starting time of 14:00 in heat going up to 88 degrees F.--not my idea of a good time, especially in a stadium without any seats covered from exposure to the sun. These "made for television" friendlies . . . well, they do stir some interest, but I rather imagine the players aren't overly happy about the playing conditions in summer heat . . .

[Malko]

FC Metz will also make a friendly vs Kaiserslautern. So they have not to travel so far

AlanK what was the attendance for PSG-Inter then? Here in Europe, Eurosport will now bring the Major Soccer league....

[AlanK]

FC Metz will also make a friendly vs Kaiserslautern. So they have not to travel so far

AlanK what was the attendance for PSG-Inter then? Here in Europe, Eurosport will now bring the Major Soccer league....

I wasn't able to come up with attendance figures. Autzen Stadium holds 54,000, but it looked to me as though a large area of the stands was not open to fans. Still, looked like a pretty decent crowd. Edit: 24,147 was the reported attendance.

[Malko]

...and PSG beats Real also 3-1. (i hope to see such results in CL this year too)

AlanK, of course, Lyon won vs Sporting

[Thunder_PT]

Special friendly last night. Benfica hosted Torino for the 9th edition of the Eusébio Cup. It was the first time Torino returned to Lisbon after the tragic airplane crash that killed their whole team (also after a friendly against Benfica).

Torino won on penalties.

[AlanK]

At the half: Celtic 1, Barça 3 Barça starts with only two starters from last season, plus a likely starter for this season. Masip; Vidal, José Antonio Martínez, Mathieu, Sergi Roberto; Munir, Cámara, Arda T.; Denis Suárez, Luis Suárez, Messi

At 11', Vidal passes to Arda T., who scores--0-1. At 29', José Antonio Martínez fails to control, effectively giving the ball to Griffiths in front of the Barça goal; Griffiths taps in for 1-1. At 31', Ambrose of Celtic puts one into his own net--1-2. At 40', Luis Suárez takes the ball deep and makes the pass of death to Munir, who makes no mistake--1-3. Barça has made many turnovers in the defensive area; could have given away another goal or two in addition to the one they did give away. But this ain't the "A" team. Messi looking great with his passes.

Wholesale changes in the second half leave two "B" teams playing one another; no goals. Messi stayed on the bench at the half.

At the half: Real Madrid 3, Chelsea 0 Two goals by Marcelo and one by Mariano Díaz give Real a 3-0 cushion at the half. Real has looked excellent; Chelsea has been largely inoffensive.

Real Madrid 3, Chelsea 2 as Eden Hazard scores for Chelsea at 80' and 91', both on breakaways. Over 105,000 in Ann Arbor for this game.

At the half: Inter 0, Bayern M. 4 Green with a hat trick, Ribery with one for Bayern. Inter looks frankly pathetic Will Mancini be willing to stay when the regular season begins

Inter 1, Bayern 4 Second half really didn't do much to polish Inter's image, but at least they didn't concede any more to a Bayern who was merely playing out the string. Icardi scored the goal of honor at 90' after a giveaway by Bayern at midfield.

[Malko]

Paris SG - Leicester City 4-(Cavani, Moura, Ikone, Edouard)

...while Metz only draws 1-1 in Kaiseslautern.

[Aliceag]

Based on what I've been seeing this pre-season and what Portugal was able to do in Euro, I'd say things look promising for PSG, Juventus and Atletico.
It seems "the outstanding clubs" are not performing "outstanding". Real, Barcelona, Bayern seem "weaker", the english teams have been declining for some years now, and it seems, on the other hand, that PSG and Juventus have been keeping their stamina. Not that they are "outstanding" compared to what I've seen teams do 10 years ago, it just seems there are not really outstanding teams this year.

This will imply a more "even" fight due to the loss of quality. So, depending on draws, I predict 2017 might be a similar year to 2004 or 2012 and we might actually have an outsider or two in CL reaching very far. From that point of view, PSG, Juventus, Atletico, maybe even a Portuguese team, might have reasons to dream...

[AlanK]

Based on what I've been seeing this pre-season and what Portugal was able to do in Euro, I'd say things look promising for PSG, Juventus and Atletico.
It seems "the outstanding clubs" are not performing "outstanding". Real, Barcelona, Bayern seem "weaker", the english teams have been declining for some years now, and it seems, on the other hand, that PSG and Juventus have been keeping their stamina. Not that they are "outstanding" compared to what I've seen teams do 10 years ago, it just seems there are not really outstanding teams this year.

This will imply a more "even" fight due to the loss of quality. So, depending on draws, I predict 2017 might be a similar year to 2004 or 2012 and we might actually have an outsider or two in CL reaching very far. From that point of view, PSG, Juventus, Atletico, maybe even a Portuguese team, might have reasons to dream...

Interested why Barça seems "weaker" to you. They've played one preseason game; all the questions about players who appeared were answered positively. They won't have Alves--that's the only position that seems "weaker" IMO, but Aleix Vidal was excellent yesterday in Alves's spot--as was Sergi Roberto in midfield. Arda T. looked good; Messi looked great. Luis Suárez was maybe a wee bit rusty, but his pass for the third goal, "caño" included, was sublime. Denis Suárez debuted to rave reviews.

[Thunder_PT]

Am I the only one annoyed by all this attention given to friendly games? Last Thursday, a one hour news program on a sports channel here in Portugal showed very quick highlights of the Fenerbahçe-Monaco game (showed the 3 goals very quickly and nothing more), ignored all other CL qualifiers (didn't even show the results, no mention at all), and then proceeded to spend several minutes showing highlights of the International Champions Cup friendlies.

This is the end of football, isn't it? Everyone complains how teams from smaller leagues can't compete and all, but then instead of watching a game from their league or a CL qualifier, they're watching foreign teams playing friendlies.

[AlanK]

Am I the only one annoyed by all this attention given to friendly games? Last Thursday, a one hour news program on a sports channel here in Portugal showed very quick highlights of the Fenerbahçe-Monaco game (showed the 3 goals very quickly and nothing more), ignored all other CL qualifiers (didn't even show the results, no mention at all), and then proceeded to spend several minutes showing highlights of the International Champions Cup friendlies.

This is the end of football, isn't it? Everyone complains how teams from smaller leagues can't compete and all, but then instead of watching a game from their league or a CL qualifier, they're watching foreign teams playing friendlies.

Agreed. The hype about the "International Champions Cup" games is incredible--1n the games I've seen, most teams play very few of the "A team" players, and then only for half of the game or so. Clear why the hype is what it is in the USA--name recognition of the "big teams" draws audience. They don't give us an option to watch the real games--Fener-Monaco, Heracles-Arouca, etc. I can only watch the real games if I go to web sites which offer pirated streams, which I have agreed not to do since we purchased a new computer.

Sure hope they put on some REAL GAMES in QR4 (Playoff Round) of CL and EL--we might get Monaco-Fener next Wednesday--the ONLY QR3 game which anything I can access will offer.