Help A New Fan

[Chris I]

Hello everyone. I have always enjoyed watching the game. Played it growing up. However, I never had anyone to root for. Now that we have the NYCFC coming to NY, I am all in. I have also now started following Man City seeing as how I can justify that. Can someone please explain to me what the deal with the Capital One Cup is? Is it something major clubs are really trying to win? And what the hell does it mean when an article I read says "Man City begins with a home tie against Sheffield?" Be easy on me people, I am a rookie here lol.

 

[CP_Scouse]

hey, its pretty much just another trophy to win. it has like 90 clubs participating (20 from the first division and 70 form the other divisions)

 

[NYJoe]

tl,dr : It's a tournament. Tie = Match

The Capital One Cup (League Cup) is a single-elimination competition open to all clubs in the Football League (i.e. Premier League, League Championship, League 1 and League 2). Premier League Clubs are entered into the second round of the tournament and clubs with European competitions in the current season enter in round three (or, later?). The final is played at Wembly Stadium.

In the Queen's English, a "tie" is a match in cup/elimination scenarios. e.g. The Seattle Sounders are going to PPL Park for what is lining up to be a classic US Open Cup tie against the Philadelphia Union.

It's a bit confusing to American sports fans at first because we are accustomed to a regular and post season format. Most European leagues have their league and elimination/cup competitions held during overlapping schedules (with breaks in league play, or strategically-scheduled weekday games to avoid scheduling conflicts).

Other terms to know:
Replay - if a match ends in a draw for certain cup competitions, there will be no extra time, but rather a complete 90 minute rematch at the away-team's stadium.

Draw - for most domestic cup competitions (E.g. League Cup, FA Cup), opponents for each round are drawn out of a lottery. There may be some kind of regional element to it - but I'm not really sure. It could be 100% random for all I know.

Two-Legged Tie (Aggregate Score) - The semi-finals of the League Cup (and similar knock-out rounds of other competitions like the Champions League) take place over two full 90-minute matches. The score of the first match rolls over to the second match. Essentially it is a 180 minute game played at both teams' home stadiums. Some tournaments (Champions League, this year's MLS Cup) apply the 'away-goals rule' to determine the winner in the case of an even scoreline (can't say tie or draw ).

Away-Goals Rule - (My least favorite Soccer rule) - The victor in a two-legged tie will be determined, in the case the score line is equal, by the team with the greater number of goals on their away leg. E.g. Game One: NYCFC 1 - 1RBNY (at Yankee Stadium), Game Two: NYCFC 2 - 2 RBNY (at Red Bull Arena), NYCFC would move on to the next round because we have two away goals, while that team from Jersey has only one.

 

[jerseyhotspur]

I've only started following football for a year so, yes, all the cups and leagues are confusing to newcomers (and we're just talking about England).

The Football League Cup (referred to as the Capital One Cup) and Football Association Cup (aka FA Cup) are 2 single elimination tournaments that are played throughout the year in England IN ADDITION to their regular season games. Once you factor in the European tournaments (like Europa League and UEFA Champions League), you'll begin to understand why clubs keep so many players on the roster and how many games they'll play from August to May every year.

The Capital One Cup only includes 92 teams:
20 Premier League clubs (top flight or 1st tier of English football)
24 Football League Championship clubs (2nd tier)
24 Football League One clubs (3rd tier)
24 Football League Two clubs (4th tier)

The FA Cup includes 736 teams.

In Man City's case (and the top teams in the Premier League), they probably won't put as much emphasis on the Capital One Cup or FA Cup since they're primary focus would be winning the Premier League and the Champions League.

In Manchester United's loss to MK Dons, they fielded a B-team (or maybe even guys they are thinking about selling or loaning out).

For the other teams outside the top of the Premier League, Capital One Cup and FA Cup are a bigger deal.

 

[jerseyhotspur]

It's a bit confusing to American sports fans at first because we are accustomed to a regular and post season format. Most European leagues have their league and elimination/cup competitions held during overlapping schedules (with breaks in league play, or strategically-scheduled weekday games to avoid scheduling conflicts).

For those watching at home, in the US, we have the US Open Cup which includes 80 teams.

 

[Falastur]

The other guys have pretty much answered everything that needs to be answered. Keep asking questions if you want to query anything else, though. There'll always be people around to answer.

Draw - for most domestic cup competitions (E.g. League Cup, FA Cup), opponents for each round are drawn out of a lottery. There may be some kind of regional element to it - but I'm not really sure. It could be 100% random for all I know.

There's no regional element to the League Cup draw. FYI there's also no regional element to the FA Cup either, except in the qualifying rounds, when you only have semi-pro teams playing in front of 500 fans and whatnot - the stages which you guys in the US never really hear about anyway.

 

[FredMertz]

I do not know this Capital One Cup. Unless you are referring to the Coca-Cola Cup, which is what I choose to permanently call whatever it is I think you're talking about.

 

[Falastur]

I do not know this Capital One Cup. Unless you are referring to the Coca-Cola Cup, which is what I choose to permanently call whatever it is I think you're talking about.

Then the Milk Cup it is!