yeah gg

FAO Dembo

Can you tell me anything about Poya Asbaghi? He has been linked with my club. Record looks far from impressive. Thanks.

He managed a team called Dalkurd when they had their first stint in the Swedish second league. He took them to 53 points which is the best result for a first time team. They didn't advance though. He left the club after 1,5 years after some sort of schism with the people in charge of the club - probably mostly due to the people in charge. They have a reputation of being difficult to work with. He then took the job to save the club Gefle IF from not be relegated from the Swedish second league and he did that well. He then took over IFK Göteborg (one of Sweden's, traditionally, largest clubs).

Poya has done excellent in his second year at IFK Göteborg. They were looked at as a bottom team, many even thought they might be relegated. They have had a real tough time internally and with money. Poya has done really well to get the team to play as a team and brought hope to the club. It was more prevalent at the start of the season than it is now at the end of it though.

I'd say that he is looked upon as someone with large potential and he is young. He keeps proving himself and he seem to be really well liked. However he hasn't reached the top of the Swedish league system and has no experience beyond that.

I'd say its a risky move since he is unproven but he is exciting and it could well be a real gem to get as well. He's certainly got the potential.

I'm far from impressed by Poya, and I'm leaning towards him being sort of a "bluff". His first year at Gothenburg was bad. The second being better may have more to do with them recruiting the assistant coach from another Swedish club, which did great last year and terrible this year, after losing that assistant coach.

Recently, my club defeated Gothenburg away. And on the press conference, Poya focused on the fact that the corner we scored on was preceded by an offside, rather than the fact that his players failed to mark one of the league's best goal scorers (currently the leading goal-scorer of the league).
The goal:
http://highlights.allsvenskan.se/playlist/a67j7iwd4r1hr

I mean, that type of un-called offsides happens plenty of times during a season, so he just came across as ridiculous when focusing on that rather than on what he could, or should, have had an effect on, which is how his team defended on the corner.

Yes, I've seen this line of reasoning as well. Some do think the assistant coach is the actual brains behind their success this year. I guess the future will tell.

Thanks to both. I remain unconvinced. My club is currently in the English Championship (rock bottom) and I think we need someone with experience in the division not a young manager who has only managed in Sweden.

As a side note Goteborg seem to have gone downhill of late. If you asked most English football fans who the biggest and most successful club in Sweden is they would say Goteborg. Still, every club must have a slump in its history and it is clearly their time.

I listened to a podcast where they said he will meet with Barnsley. So the link between him and the club seem concrete.

Congratulations Bayern Munich on the highest league defeat since 2009.

Heh... just out of curiosity, what was the result then (in 2009, I mean)?

Same as today but against Wolfsburg. (Dzeko era and German champion that year.)

Thanks! I just read that Kovac might get sacked.

That would be funny. He joined Bayern after beating them with Frankfurt in the 2018 cup final so he could leave the same way he came. Frankfurt beats Bayern, Kovac leaves.

...And Kovac is indeed out! Apparently Mourinho might replace him.

Likeliest candidate according to German media is the guy from Ajax.

As a BVB fan, I hope so. I think Mourinho is a better coach.

SWEDISH CHAMPIONS 2019!!!

On Saturday I had the worst emotional roller-coaster of my life. My club, Djurgården that I talk about on the first page of this thread, had to take one point to secure the league title in an away game against the fifth-placed team. And we started terrible, by being down 2-0 after 15 minutes and at half-time. And then we started second half by missing a clear chance. But we scored at around 50 minutes and then also equalized around the 65th minute, and 2-2 was the final result. This meant that we finished one point before the second (and third) team!

I'm telling you, the adrenaline and everything else from the complete misery at half-time to the euphoria at the equalizer and the final whistle is ridiculous. I felt like fainting after the game. And actually, our sports director did indeed faint after lifting the trophy:



Highlights from the last game, including pitch-invasion:





No-one believed in us before the season. Last season, we finished sixth, and we entered this one with new coaches, and having lost our goalkeeper and our best striker. This was our twelfth championship, which is fourth best of all clubs together with two others, including our main local rival that won last year.



All our goals from the league this season, I especially recommend the solo goal at 8:53:

Congratulations Dembo. Must be an amazing feeling to win a title and Champion's League football to look forward to.

Just looking through your squad and I must be honest I didn't recognise any names. However, one did stand out - Kevin Walker! Not the most Swedish of names but he was also on Pop Idol? Must get some abuse from opposition fans?

Three German teams well on track in the Champions League, I like that even if it includes clubs I don't like because it's good for the league. Leverkusen still have a shot at the Europa League, which might be a much needed addition if Mönchengladbach don't step up their game fast. They have a three point lead in the Bundesliga but in the EL they suck so far.

Also, Chelsea scored two own goals, Ajax got two red cards, now that's a game where both teams desparately want to lose.

Thanks. Yes, I've experienced three failed CL qualifications before, including against Juventus where we played 2-2 (after being up 2-0) in Turin but lost 1-4 in the second leg. But nowadays, there's a champions path and a league path in the qualification rounds, meaning that we will only face other champions from leagues where the champion don't go directly to the group stage. This gives a higher chance of easier opponents, though not guaranteed.

Yeah, he won Idol in 2013, before he was in the club. I assume he get some from opposition fans online at least, but that's not something I know much about. Don't think he get much of that during games.

Last year we had the more known Andreas Isaksson as goal-keeper and the centre back Jonas Olson who played many years in England, mostly at West Bromwich. But for the future, I think the Norwegian midfielder Fredrik Ulvestad may reach some of the big leagues. He's already been at Burnley.

chelsea - ajax was something else alright....

Any bets on which ultra rich trash league we'll see Mesut Özil play soon? China? Qatar?

i think he will go to Turkey

Now that you have reminded me I did remember Olson going to Djurgardens as I was quite surprised at the time - thought he might have stayed in England. Isaksson I know of course. I also note you have another English player, previously with Ostersunds - looks like they are in a bit of a decline since Potter left.

Poya Asbaghi appears to have turned us down by the way, and the current favourite is Jens Keller who was sacked by Ingoldstadt last season before they were relegated to 3 Bundesliga.

That they would experience a decline after the fairytale march which was rounded off by a victory against Arsenal at The Emirates was expected. However the club might just fall apart totally. Their strong man and former CEO Daniel Kindberg was sentenced to jail for serious financial crimes. It has rocked the whole club and some thought they wouldn't even be licensed to play the last few remaining games (they did manage to solve that - for the time being). Everything combined the future looks very bleak for the club.

Yeah, "a bit of decline" is the understatement of the year.

Their whole success story was financed through corruption. The only reason they are not being forcefully relegated is due to a technicality regarding statute of limitations, which the Swedish Football Association now are about to change. But also, apart from their main man being sentenced to three years in prison for financial crimes, FIFA forbid the club to buy players in the coming two transfer windows due to a messy affair with the player Saman Ghoddos who first signed with Spanish club Huesca and then signed with French club Amiens. The club may also be fined for it.

But all of this is being appealed so it's not set in stone. But things are not looking good for them, and most people, including me, would like to see the club crumble. It's a shame considering how many non-corrupt clubs throughout the league system that's been denied promotions and transfers because of this corrupt project taking them instead.

But yeah, at least we got Curtis Edwards from them. He's not brought here as a goalscorer, but he did score in his debut in August:
http://highlights.allsvenskan.se/playlist/aq3iuthzg31zj

Smart move, he could go accuse everyone of racism again when he gets criticised for going to Başakşehir.

Disappointed to hear the truth about Ostersunds. It seems with these stories that are too good to be true, in reality they are. When I looked at their squad when Potter was manager they had a lot of English players I had never heard of as they had been playing seventh tier football, so can't have been on big wages. I thought the whole process had been about getting the best out of a very average (at best) group of players and turning them into a well organised unit. Clearly there's been a bit more to it. Shame.

I so wish Dortmund would win tonight, Bayern could be handed down all the way to #9. I know it's probably not going to happen, Dortmund hasn't been any more impressive than Bayern so far this season, they both shock audiences with some very questionable performances and Bayern only muddle through with their Polish life insurance, as they probably will tonight.

I'm just surprised they didn't fall so far as to be relegated. But perhaps they would have if the season was longer. We'll see if they can manage to fix this somehow.

Bureaucracy and stubbornness have conspired to rob Ottawa of professional soccer for 2020 at least CONCACAF has been pressuring the Fury to join the new Canadian Premier League - which I think they should, but I’ve understood the team’s choice to stay in their established US-based league until they’re satisfied the CPL has a solid future.
So, the Fury applied for an exemption to play in the USL again, and CONCACAF sat on it and piddled around until past the November 1 registration deadline; then came back to the team with a half-assed claim that their exemption application was somehow incomplete. Now past the deadline, Ottawa Fury is too late to register for any league at all.
Why must soccer be subject to far more of this suffocating officiousness than any sport?

As a Canadian football fan you'll be happy to know that no matter how much I hate Bayern Munich, Alphonso Davies is an incredible football player and easily twice as good as Christian Pulisic is. He'll put your country on the football map that it's been absent from for so many decades.

I wonder if 9 points advantage in mid-November will be enough for LFC this season, but of course I have a gut feeling that all of it will unravel at some point. I guess that end of December and how the table looks then will be a good gauge.

I think it will be insurmountable but let's live in hope. Their already unbearable fans will be a thousand times worse, as will the media fawns over them as if their club means more to them than any other set of fans.

Poch sacked then.....

Wales completes the 20 that qualify the regular way.

Mourinho just signed with Tottenham.

Here's something that has a 3.7% chance of being interesting to tomcat_ha: With an 8 point lead after 20 games in the regional league Bavaria, Türkgücü Ataspor Munich looks set to become the first Turkish-German club to play professionally.

I wasn't clear; I really hope it will insurmountable, and that gut feeling bugs me

Mou off to a good start, though it seems it was a bit shaky towards the end of the match. Still, I think Levy made a mistake by hiring him.

Just out of interest, how much coverage does the English Premier League get in Croatia?

Eh, to be honest I'm really not informed about coverage. I guess a lot of folks watch IPTV and cable sports channels, I assume there's solid coverage there, but national TV is a no-go. There seems to be a lot of folks regularly watching PL.