11/23/24
August 30, 2012
SportsFilter: The Thursday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
When Hurricane Isaac passed through Haiti, it reminded me of several programs there that might have been affected.
Including a soccer program called GOALS Haiti. Here are a couple of players from the program competing for the ball.
posted by beaverboard at 12:51 PM on August 30, 2012
Group D looks tasty for a neutral.
posted by flannelenigma at 03:13 PM on August 30, 2012
How are the members of the Champions League determined? Do they take the top two teams from each league? Which leagues are represented?
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 04:41 PM on August 30, 2012
Is Pedroia a super athlete? He plays 2nd base in Anaheim Tuesday night, wins the 3rd race at Suffolk Downs near Boston on Wednesday afternoon, and is back on the field in Anaheim that night. Amazing!
posted by Howard_T at 04:53 PM on August 30, 2012
Andy Roddick is retiring. What comforts could there possibly be at home that would drive him to walk away from the injuries, constant training and grueling international travel?
posted by beaverboard at 09:07 PM on August 30, 2012
Yeah, I'm pretty sure retiring and having to hang out with his old ball-and-chain more often is going to be tough on him.
posted by grum@work at 11:24 PM on August 30, 2012
"How are the members of the Champions League determined? Do they take the top two teams from each league? Which leagues are represented?"
All leagues in Europe are represented, but those leagues with less money successful teams have to go through a couple rounds of qualifiers to get into the group stages that were drawn today.
The winner of last year's tournament plus the winner of each country's league gain entry to the tournament in some shape, either the qualifiers or the main draw.
The number of other teams from the major leagues is decided by an esoteric UEFA coefficient based on the past performances of teams from your country. If you listen to the Guardian football podcast you'll often hear Raphael Honigstein and Paolo Bandini ribbing each other over who's winning the coefficient race.
Germany have "stolen" a place off of Italy this year thanks to those coefficients, meaning there were only three Italian teams in the competition and Udinese lost in the qualifiers, leaving only an insipid Milan side and Juventus in the league stages.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:36 PM on August 30, 2012
Yeah, I'm pretty sure retiring and having to hang out with his old ball-and-chain more often is going to be tough on him.
I mean really! Who wants to hang out with that?!
/No sleep till Brooklyn
posted by BornIcon at 03:35 PM on August 31, 2012
The Champions League groups have been drawn :
Group A: Porto, Dynamo Kiev, Paris St Germain, Dinamo Zagreb.
Group B: Arsenal, Schalke, Olympiakos, Montpellier.
Group C: AC Milan, Zenit St Petersburg, Anderlecht, Malaga.
Group D: Real Madrid, Manchester City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund.
Group E: Chelsea, Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, FC Nordsjaelland.
Group F: Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lille, BATE Borisov.
Group G: Barcelona, Benfica, Spartak Moscow, Celtic.
Group H: Manchester United, Braga, Galatasaray, CFR Cluj.
Italy only have
one and a halftwo teams in the tournament this year and got a bit lucky as Milan have a chance to get out of that group.Man United should be fine as they have an easy group. Just like last year.