Yankee151
Hot Girl Summer
This thread will attempt to cover essentially every non-English non-MLS league out there. Right now most of the leagues that are going on are South American or Scandinavian, but there's still plenty of tranfer rumors around for the others.
Some of the second tier leagues are still getting finalized for next year in the case of Europe. Eibar, a team from Gizpukoa in the Basque County, just won promotion from Liga Adelante. Deportivo la Coruna looks close to winning their promotion soon, as they can only be beat with some GD wackiness. There are 4 or 5 teams fighting for the 4 playoff spots (Barca B can't be promoted) and that looks to come down to the final day. Valla, Real Betis and Osasuna are the ones going down.
Anyhow, should be interesting to see what the big names in La Liga do next year. Barca have already grabbed ter Stegen, and with a suspension looming they aren't going to stop anytime soon. Real Madrid will try and blow 100mm on someone yet again as is tradition. Atletico, who knows. Costa is probably out but they'll pull another ST out of thin air (Leo Baptistao?). Valencia could be dark horses, especially if they do bring Benfica's Rodrigo and Andre Almeida as rumored. They have a really young core and some big signings will help.
In the Bundesliga, Hamburg narrowly beat Furth in the relegation playoff to stay safe. Doesn't look like it's going to get much beter for them though. Koln and Paderborn are replacing Timmy Chandler's Nurnburg and Eintracht Braunschwieg. This league is pretty predictable though, especially with Lewa moving to Munich. Munich gon win quickly. My team to watch in Germany won't be a Bundesliga side, but 2nd division team RasenBallSport Leipzig. They're Red Bull's team, and corporate sponsors aren't allowed in Germany (or something to this effect). Wonder how long it'll take them to reach the top flight.
Ligue 1 wasn't much of a fight this year, though Monaco finished within 9 points of PSG. PSG dumbed pretty hard with David Luiz, and barring sales can't upgrade anymore with FFP. Could be enough to have Monaco swoop in, though they are weak in defense. Metz, Lens, and Caen are up from Ligue 2. I'll be watching Bielsa's Marseille side, because I love his tactics and they're just the kind of attacking play that this league desperately needs to keep from getting even more boring.
Serie A= Juventus. Palermo is coming up. Latina, from the Lazio region could win another promotion, either automatically on the last match day or through the promotion playoff. Big questions are what the Milans are going to do, and if Rafa's Napoli and Garcia's Roma can hold up. But Juventus is king of this league and will be for a while. Practically every young Italian talent is on Juve (Berardi, Zaza, etc.)
The Eredivisie is all Ajax. Two big questions: Can they go for the 5-peat, and who leaves this year? Usually one of their guys goes, and there's a lot of options. Fischer, Blind, Cilessen?
The Russian League came down to the last match day, when CSKA repeated after AVB's Zenit crashed and CSKA picked up a win in a crosstown game against Loko. This year's edition will have 5 teams from Moscow after Torpedo won promotion in the playoffs. It's not all local though, as Ural from Yekaterinaburg remains as a daunting road trip after they kept their position following their promotion two years ago.
Libertadores play won't resume until a week after the WC final, where Nacional(PAR) will play Defensor(URU) and Bolivar will face San Lorenzo(ARG). The Copa Sudamericana (The Europa League equivalent) doesn't start until August.
Argentina will be switching to a 30-team league in 2015, and thus there will be a transition tournament this fall where no team will be relegated. If it sounds bizarre, that's because it is.
The Brazilian Serie A is 7 games in, and it runs May-Dec. There'll be a break for the WC. Cruzeiro lead with 16 points, with Fluminense (@Shakabreaux) in second.
The Norweigan Tippeligaen is 11 games in, and of note for US fans, Bob Bradley's Stabaek are in 4th while Mix's Rosenborg are in 6th. Molde FK (Josh Gatt) are runnign away with it though, as they are 5 and 8 points clear of 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
More to come.
Some of the second tier leagues are still getting finalized for next year in the case of Europe. Eibar, a team from Gizpukoa in the Basque County, just won promotion from Liga Adelante. Deportivo la Coruna looks close to winning their promotion soon, as they can only be beat with some GD wackiness. There are 4 or 5 teams fighting for the 4 playoff spots (Barca B can't be promoted) and that looks to come down to the final day. Valla, Real Betis and Osasuna are the ones going down.
Anyhow, should be interesting to see what the big names in La Liga do next year. Barca have already grabbed ter Stegen, and with a suspension looming they aren't going to stop anytime soon. Real Madrid will try and blow 100mm on someone yet again as is tradition. Atletico, who knows. Costa is probably out but they'll pull another ST out of thin air (Leo Baptistao?). Valencia could be dark horses, especially if they do bring Benfica's Rodrigo and Andre Almeida as rumored. They have a really young core and some big signings will help.
In the Bundesliga, Hamburg narrowly beat Furth in the relegation playoff to stay safe. Doesn't look like it's going to get much beter for them though. Koln and Paderborn are replacing Timmy Chandler's Nurnburg and Eintracht Braunschwieg. This league is pretty predictable though, especially with Lewa moving to Munich. Munich gon win quickly. My team to watch in Germany won't be a Bundesliga side, but 2nd division team RasenBallSport Leipzig. They're Red Bull's team, and corporate sponsors aren't allowed in Germany (or something to this effect). Wonder how long it'll take them to reach the top flight.
Ligue 1 wasn't much of a fight this year, though Monaco finished within 9 points of PSG. PSG dumbed pretty hard with David Luiz, and barring sales can't upgrade anymore with FFP. Could be enough to have Monaco swoop in, though they are weak in defense. Metz, Lens, and Caen are up from Ligue 2. I'll be watching Bielsa's Marseille side, because I love his tactics and they're just the kind of attacking play that this league desperately needs to keep from getting even more boring.
Serie A= Juventus. Palermo is coming up. Latina, from the Lazio region could win another promotion, either automatically on the last match day or through the promotion playoff. Big questions are what the Milans are going to do, and if Rafa's Napoli and Garcia's Roma can hold up. But Juventus is king of this league and will be for a while. Practically every young Italian talent is on Juve (Berardi, Zaza, etc.)
The Eredivisie is all Ajax. Two big questions: Can they go for the 5-peat, and who leaves this year? Usually one of their guys goes, and there's a lot of options. Fischer, Blind, Cilessen?
The Russian League came down to the last match day, when CSKA repeated after AVB's Zenit crashed and CSKA picked up a win in a crosstown game against Loko. This year's edition will have 5 teams from Moscow after Torpedo won promotion in the playoffs. It's not all local though, as Ural from Yekaterinaburg remains as a daunting road trip after they kept their position following their promotion two years ago.
Libertadores play won't resume until a week after the WC final, where Nacional(PAR) will play Defensor(URU) and Bolivar will face San Lorenzo(ARG). The Copa Sudamericana (The Europa League equivalent) doesn't start until August.
Argentina will be switching to a 30-team league in 2015, and thus there will be a transition tournament this fall where no team will be relegated. If it sounds bizarre, that's because it is.
The Brazilian Serie A is 7 games in, and it runs May-Dec. There'll be a break for the WC. Cruzeiro lead with 16 points, with Fluminense (@Shakabreaux) in second.
The Norweigan Tippeligaen is 11 games in, and of note for US fans, Bob Bradley's Stabaek are in 4th while Mix's Rosenborg are in 6th. Molde FK (Josh Gatt) are runnign away with it though, as they are 5 and 8 points clear of 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
More to come.
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