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News Thread for the 2016-17 Season

A couple of things:

Eden Hazard broke his ankle training with the Belgian National team. He's expected to be out 6-8 weeks and could affect his availability at the start of Chelsea's season.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the FIFA transfer ban imposed on Atletico Madrid. They won't be able to sign any players in the summer window. Antoine Griezmann said he will stay at Atletico, saying it would be a "dirty move" to leave now with no chance of replacing him. He had been linked to a move to Man U.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/40148890
 
One more set of group games to go, but the top two in each group of the Confed Cup in Russia are settled. Not much of a competition, same as usual.

Portugal and Mexico finished 1/2 in Group A and Chile and Germany will do so in Group B. Knockouts start on Wednesday
 
This really affects the 2017-18 Premier League but...

NBC is launching a paid subscription streaming service for Premier League matches. The free with authentication overflow matches on Live Extra platform and overflow channels available to certain cable companies will be eliminated. It will affect approximately 130 games. They'll still broadcast at least 1 game in each window and committed to broadcasting 2 matches most Saturdays 3 pm UK time windows on "linear" channels (NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, etc.) But if there are 5 matches in the 3 pm window, you're going to have to pay if you want to watch one of the 3 that aren't on a linear channel.

The subscription will cost $49.99 for the season.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports...free-paid-subscription-cable-tv-20170627.html
 
This really affects the 2017-18 Premier League but...

NBC is launching a paid subscription streaming service for Premier League matches. The free with authentication overflow matches on Live Extra platform and overflow channels available to certain cable companies will be eliminated. It will affect approximately 130 games. They'll still broadcast at least 1 game in each window and committed to broadcasting 2 matches most Saturdays 3 pm UK time windows on "linear" channels (NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, etc.) But if there are 5 matches in the 3 pm window, you're going to have to pay if you want to watch one of the 3 that aren't on a linear channel.

The subscription will cost $49.99 for the season.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports...free-paid-subscription-cable-tv-20170627.html

It was bound to end once the hook was set. On the other hand, we still get more of the 3pm games than they get on free tv in the UK... which is exactly none.
 
First Confed Cup semi is in the books and it was an ugly, poorly officiated affair. Chile beat Portugal in a penalty shootout after a chippy 0-0 result.

As of right now, the defining factor of this tournament is the crap officiating, IMO. Video assistant refereeing is being tested and might actually be making things worse.
 
Germany curb stomped Mexico yesterday to set up a rematch with Chile in the Final. For once El Tri didn't self destruct under pressure ... they just got badly beaten by a MUCH better side.

The Final will be live Sunday at 2PM eastern time
 
Germany won the Confed Cup 1-0 over Chile in a game the reds dominated but couldn't cash in. They played it loose in the back a couple of times and paid the ultimate price on one particularly awful turnover. Germany got away with bringing a mostly young group too. That bodes badly for everybody else over the next two World Cup cycles. Germany is loaded on top of loaded. This next World Cup is probably a last hurrah for Chile's golden generation. Boy, they are fun to watch.
 
Germany was the youngest team in the tournament with an average age of 24. Joachim Low managed to do in Germany what Klinsmann couldn't do here...build a reliable reserve squad. That's not to say that our A team can win a major tournament but the squad is so thin in some areas that we're always 1 injury from disaster.
 
Germany won the Confed Cup 1-0 over Chile in a game the reds dominated but couldn't cash in. They played it loose in the back a couple of times and paid the ultimate price on one particularly awful turnover. Germany got away with bringing a mostly young group too. That bodes badly for everybody else over the next two World Cup cycles. Germany is loaded on top of loaded. This next World Cup is probably a last hurrah for Chile's golden generation. Boy, they are fun to watch.

Don't discount France over the same time period. Mbappe, Dembele, and Lemar are scary talented and also very young. Against England Mbappe looked ready to score every time he touched the ball.
 
Don't discount France over the same time period. Mbappe, Dembele, and Lemar are scary talented and also very young. Against England Mbappe looked ready to score every time he touched the ball.

True, but this German group has actually won silverware while that French group has largely run around looking good. I mean no offense by that. They're a really good group of youngsters, but Germany's group meshes together and gets stuff done. Winning that tournament, while it's basically meaningless, was a BIG deal for what amounted to the B Team. What other country goes out and wins that tourney without a single meaningful player from their senior national team? Nobody.
 
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