International Soccer: POCH

Sports & Other Games
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International soccer is catching up after some delays from COVID.

Euro 2020 June 11 to July 11th

For the filthy casuals - Euro 2020 is second only to the World Cup in prestige, and Eurosnobs will tell you the overall quality is higher.

Hosts: Europe. No single host country anymore. Sites include: London, Rome, Munich, Baku (apparently in Europe!), Saint Petersburg, Budapest, Seville, Bucharest, Amsterdamn, Glasgow and Copenhagen.

Favorites:
France (+500) - Won the last World Cup. Beasts everywhere. Will piss off some racists because they have a lot of guys who aren’t “French”, read: white.
England (+550) - England is apparently a favorite despite last winning a major tournament in 1966. Might as well be Texas football (they did win the Euro Nations League in 2019 but fuck that).

Germany is +900 on the random website I looked at. Their core has aged, but seems like good value to me.

This is a seriously fun tournament. Games will be on ESPN/ESPN2/ABC. Highly recommend.

Bored or a USMNT Fan? We got something for you!

2020 Concacaf Nations League June 3rd and June 6th

What’s the Nations League? I’m not sure. USA played some random games against the Canucks and Communists and finished with the same record as the Canucks but scored more goals, so apparently we go to this semi-final thing in Denver.

USA plays Honduras and Mexico plays Costa Rica on June 3rd, Final on June 6th

Come join us as USMNT fans wildly overreact to the only full squad competitive soccer games until the World Cup qualifiers this fall. We’re still smarting from not qualifying in 2018.

Haven’t looked up odds, but Mexico is the likely favorite, with USA second. Fuck Mexico, dos a cero, etc.

Are you a real sicko, well then we also got the 2021 Gold Cup!

2021 Gold Cup July 10th - August 1st

This is the CONCACAF equivalent of the Euros, so obviously it blows in comparison. It’s held every two years instead of four, and it’s always in the USA because $$$. Teams frequently don’t send their best squads. Players for major European teams will frequently sit, and it’s hard to blame them deciding against playing powerhouses like Curacao.

However, If you’re in the Houston area for the semi-final, I would recommend going. Usually one ticket gets you two games, and the stadium will be rocking because of the Mexican fans.

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I’m going to be in Denver for the semifinal of the nations league, pretty excited to go the game

Edit: I’ve never seen the USMNT play in person

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Also if anyone has any recs for Denver let me know, restaurants bars breweries etc, we are staying downtown at the Hyatt regency and won’t have a car.

Also probably looking to try some gummies or edibles or something

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I’m a watch soccer every 4 years during the world cup kind of viewer. Are these other tournaments better or worse in terms of people falling down for no reason?

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Euros may be just a hair better in this regard.

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Gold cup this cycle will be all shitty C teams. Since it’s every 2 years, every other one qualifies you for the confederations cup and is the one teams try in. This one doesn’t so nobody cares.

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Probably a little bit better. For the Euros, this tournament is a big fuckin deal. However, it’s still soccer so ya know there’s a lot of reasons to dive and very few reasons not to

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Don’t think it’s that way any more, unless they changed it back. The winner of the prior two gold cups play a home and away to go to the confed cup, or at least the last one.

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Oh yeah they did change that. And now it doesn’t even exist anymore. Hard to see anyone ever trying for the gold cup again

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Don’t like Germany for Euros. They’re in the group of death but I think Portugal have the best squad this tournament. They won last time with a bad squad comparatively. They didn’t have Bruno Fernandes, Joao Felix or Diego Jota last Euros. Those are insane upgrades.

Portugal for Euros
Brazil for Olympics and Copa

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Also, this week we have the knockout stages of the under 21 Euro cup. French were heavy favorites, and all over the Netherlands in the final 20 minutes of yesterday’s quarterfinal, only to lose to a goal from a fast counter with 12 seconds left on the clock. Absolute scenes.

Semis are on Thursday, final on Sunday.

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well mexico cheated in a youth soccer tournament so I’m sure they’ll try something at least.

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Its not cheating when Mexico does it, its passion.

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Follow Scotland because we go down for no â– â– â– â– â– 

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For the European Championships

  • France
  • Portugal
  • Belgium
  • England

Is my top 4 with France as a very slight favourites over Portugal.

But don’t count out Ronaldo & the Portuguese team for winning it all as they definitely have 1 of the most together squads out there.

Germany are well German and the’ve got Mueller :smiling_face:

Look, we’re winning the Party, the statues in London will be covered in Tartan and Cones when we arrive until we leave, singing and dancing all the way, win or lose we’ll be on the streets of London dancing the night away, come join us as we hold ourselves up during the night singing Flower of Scotland like its never been sung before.

Scotland Scotland Scotland

2048Ă—1365 410 KB

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It’s hard to overstate how loaded France is. Their second 11 could win the World Cup. Kante is probably the best player in the world at the moment, and if he’s not, it’s Mbappe. Loaded at every position. But that group is brutal.

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Until this month basically no one in their team was in good form though. Kante had been very mediocre until late in the season, griezmann wasn’t great, pogba was just ok. Then they welcome benzema back and kante has a world class stretch.
I was heavy on them in 2018 but don’t feel it as much this time. Still the most talent on paper, but a ton of their guys were just better a few years ago and they won’t turn it over to the very impressive second stringers.

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I’ve got the USA winning the Euros.

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I’d probably pick Holland if VVD was playing. They and Belgium have a shot. England is tied with France as favorite on my book and that’s super lol

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Yeah I’d put a small bet on the Dutch if VVD was healthy. They have a lot of fun young players and the best CB partnership, but goals will be a problem.