Love to see Dortmund invading the (metaphorical) pitch!
3 of the 4 quarterfinals went against me. Dortmund are the only team remaining I don’t actively dislike, so I’m all in for them.
Man, KDB is going to be up all night thinking about shaking that 8 yard shot in regulation.
Should’ve put Julian in the field earlier… (Joking, mostly, my man Julian didn’t precisely shake the field when the mighty Pep decided to put him in)
And Leverkusen does it again, a late equalizer at West Ham, advancing to the semi finals in the Euroleague and playing the 44th unbeaten game of the season, a new record for the top five leagues in Europe. They really seem invincible this season.
And Leverkusen stay unbeaten, it’s unbelievable. In the 7th minute of overtime, they equalize for a 1-1 in Dortmund. They’ve done it again and again in this season, scoring late goals, that’s also a sign of mental strength and a sheer will that team has been showing for the whole season.
Incredible.
I’m not that familiar with Bundesliga, but once a team has won the title (it cannot possibly be surpassed,) what is its incentive to keep playing hard? Seems it might make more sense to rest all the good stars and instead only play the lower-level players to give them experience and develop them?
The pride of finishing undefeated would be a huge incentive.
They also have the longest undefeated streak in European football history, it’s a chance to make that streak even longer.
What everybody said, an unbeaten season in the Bundesliga and on top of that, for all competitive games in the season including the DFB Cup and the Euroleague, would be records for the ages no team ever has pulled of, and they have only 7 games to play to break both records. And in a way, Alonso has already done what you propose, changing the starting team on 4-6 positions for every game. Leverkusen’s bench is so good that in most games, it doesn’t make a difference.
Too late to edit: correction, 8 games to play: 4 last Bundesliga games, both semi-finals (against Roma) and the (possible) final in the Euroleague, and the DFB Cup final against Kaiserslautern.
Watching El Clasico now and a good example of something that’s bothered me for a while, dragging your leg to cause contact in search of a foul. RM got a penalty after a sloppy challenge, but the contact was caused by the attacker who dove and then stuck his leg out so that there would be contact. Uncontroversial pk given and all the announcers agree. Later, Yamal goes down in the box avoiding a challenge, but he doesn’t drag his leg to cause contact. Is it intended/ok that the difference between a foul and good defending is whether or not the attacker initiates contact with a deliberate intention to draw a pk?
There are 3 knockout games that could potentially end in a penalty shootout. Would losing one of those still count as “unbeaten”?
I’m really at a loss there, as these kind of records are not official. But I seem to remember that according to official FIFA rules, knock-out games that end in a shoot-out are officially registered as draws for both teams.
Yes, the match is a draw, the penalties are just to clarify who goes forward.
And the incoming players have an unusually powerful incentive in not wanting to be responsible for the record-ending defeat.
I’m not an expert on the laws of association football (LOAF), but I believe if a player has to take action to avoid contact with a challenging player, a foul and free kick (or penalty kick if in the box) can still be awarded. But I’m not sure how often that’s enforced.
I’m sorry that I sound like a broken record, but Leverkusen once again held up their record of unbeaten games in a season (now the 46th), and again equalized for a 2-2 in the 6th minute of overtime against Stuttgart, maybe the second best Bundesliga team of this season (they are 3rd behind Bayern, but played the much more attractive football). They seem to have nerves of steel.
Unfreakingbelievable. All that extra time certainly helps.
At this point we must conclude that they are doing it on purpose.
Thought of you today, Messi is literally a couple of miles away from me at this very moment & sold out the stadium. A lot of excitement locally!