What is the best venue for SOCCER after the WORLD CUP?

Fishhead · Jun 20, 2006

Any specific league and/or other world competition?

ElJefe · Jun 20, 2006

I think the Gold Cup tournament they have every couple of years is pretty good for the Concacaf teams. Really close and competitive games all the time. I'm sure most soccer experts don't respect the Concacaf teams but it's one hell of a good tournament when they have it.

copacabana · Jun 20, 2006

UEFA Champions League is similar i terms of quality

fookineejit · Jun 20, 2006

Probably some different opinions on this. Personally I would say

i) UEFA Champions League
ii) Spanish La Liga
iii) English Premiership

Duckstabber · Jun 20, 2006

fookin eejit said:
Probably some different opinions on this. Personally I would say

i) UEFA Champions League
ii) Spanish La Liga
iii) English Premiership

I agree. I find the German Bundesliga more entertaining though.

amstel · Jun 20, 2006

Euro Cup...every 4 years..2 years after the WC.so summer 2008 :suomi:

valueman · Jun 20, 2006

For level of football Champion league is the tops, prolly followed by any one of the the English, Spanish and Italian leagues the WC and then Euro champs.

Atmosphere - nothing beats a WC but next best is Euro champs.

Labeeb · Jun 20, 2006

Can't go wrong with UEFA Champions League. I personally prefer the EPL. For an action league, the Bundesliga is definately the way to go in Europe. If you appreciate systematic defense, then Serie A would be your choice.

Duckstabber · Jun 20, 2006

If you prefer some football action right after the World Cup, the Finnish & Norwegian leagues are the way to go. :drink:

zee · Jun 20, 2006

Seria A is the best national league in the world by a long shot, IF you look to watch football and not entertainment.
Champions League gives a couple of games per week that are well balanced and make for a nice time.
European Championship is of course the other big tournament worth watching as quality of play from the start is vastly superiour to the WC group stages...

WildBill · Jun 20, 2006

Rivalry games are great wherever for the atmosphere. A Superclasico south of the border, America-Chivas is absolute mayhem twice a year and you don't have to pay close to $1000 like you would for some of the European rivalry games.

PokerKingJim · Jun 20, 2006

Champions League is outstanding. I watch the Premier league when it is occassionaly shown on FSN or ESPN but that is few and far between.

FSN has a Fox Soccer channel but it is not carried by my shitty cable provider. Back when I used to have the channel it was awesome. They show games all day long from all over the world

goodcall · Jun 20, 2006

Women's World Cup.

Just kidding.

Wrigley · Jun 20, 2006

which league does the manchester team play in that franchise is worth more then any franchise in the world including the New York Yankees

The_Man · Jun 20, 2006

Never used to be much for soccer until this year's World Cup. Can't get enough. Going to miss sweating soccer games in the mornings. Just can't get into MLS it has to be World Cup, who knows why.

:smoking:

zee · Jun 20, 2006

Just can't get into MLS

Level of play in the MLS is very close to the level of play in regional leagues(4th division) in Eastern european countries. Not kidding. I can't stomach it either.

dj_mercury · Jun 20, 2006

Wrigley said:
which league does the manchester team play in that franchise is worth more then any franchise in the world including the New York Yankees

In the English premier league, but they are finding hard recently to compete with Chelsea, owned by the Russian Abramovich, who has spent approximately 400 millions of euro for new players since he is the owner three years ago. Recently there are a lot of streams that allows to follow the most important matches and league (almost) live from the web, broadcasted by some Chinese stations like CCTV5 and others. As for what to watch I agree with the description made by Labeeb.

Fishhead · Jun 20, 2006

Thanks for the excellent opinions all.

Wrigley · Jun 20, 2006

dj_mercury said:
In the English premier league, but they are finding hard recently to compete with Chelsea, owned by the Russian Abramovich, who has spent approximately 400 millions of euro for new players since he is the owner three years ago. Recently there are a lot of streams that allows to follow the most important matches and league (almost) live from the web, broadcasted by some Chinese stations like CCTV5 and others. As for what to watch I agree with the description made by Labeeb.

TY

GreenDoberman · Jun 20, 2006

Top leagues would have to be:
Spain
England
Italy

with:
Germany
France
a notch below

The nice concept of soccer is they have the domestic leagues, then qualifiers for the next year's Champions League, even have an NIT-like UEFA Cup where the winner is in the Champion's League.
Most leagues will have a League Cup tournament as well which features every team all the way down to the local pub teams and can make for some fascinating underdog stories.
They also usually throw in another tournament.

I follow the English Premiership because I frequent an English bar and run into visitors from every part of the UK.

There are certainly parts of soccer that are despisable, but there are a few things that are hands down superior to American sports:
1) The concept of relegation and promotion (where the bottom teams are sent to a lower, less lucrative league and the top teams are promoted)
2) The all-encompassing League Cups where every team in the country starts on relatively equal footing for glory.
3) The rewarding of a great season by going to "Europe" as they call it(Champion's League play)
4) The local "derbys" or grudge matches which pit rival vs. rival, town vs. neighboring town, religion vs. religion.

These are just a few ideas off of the top of my head.

If I were you I'd find a local watering hole that shows the games of a particular league and study the teams and talk to the fans. Football fans can't wait to talk about who they support.