f13.net

So the seasons have started for most (except the Spainish) and it's time for another thread in which we all talk out of our asses about the football season.

English Premier League
Liverpool will win the title!!!!

Ok, so seriously, I don't know that Liverpool has enough. They pissed around with the Gareth Barry shit way too long. While I think he's a very good, versatile player, I'm still not sure he's what they need. They need some genuine natural wide players and Rafa just never seems to bother to look for more than squad players in those positions. I think Keane was a great signing even though they overpaid, but I would have rather they get a cheaper, younger striker they can develop and get a proven winger for either the right or left side. Kuyt is just not a winger and playing 2 strikers up top means someone's going to have to play the wings - I just hope Rafa doesn't try to stick Gerrard out there again. I see this team struggling to break down some teams because everybody on the wings will naturally drift inside. The new fullbacks are an interesting pair, though.

I think Man. U. and Chelsea will fight it out for the title again, and I give Chelsea the edge because of United's strikers woes. IF they get Berbatov and Rondldo comes back soon, maybe. I do look forward to seeing Frazier Campbell play more though - he is a fantastic young talent and I just wish Hull had been able to buy him.

I think Everton will struggle to stay 5th this year, probably dropping a few places. Not doing bupkiss to improve their squad in the transfer window is going to hurt them when Yakubu decides he doesn't want to play Merseyside anymore. I think Villa will easily take 5th place and maybe 4th - that team just has some serious young guns with Young and Agbonlahor. They should keep Barry as he really completes that squad. Portsmouth SHOULD be improved but they have problems on the wings. Redknapp has some strange fascination with playing Pappa Bouba Diop no matter what, and I just don't understand it. He's not that good at really anything. He'd make a great Championship holding midfielder, but that's about it. If Blackburn keep Santa Cruz, they should maintain their top-10 finish.

The relegation battle will be interesting. I think Sunderland stays up, and I believe Hull actually has the stomach to stay up as well. I haven't seen Stoke play yet. I'm not sure West Brom has the defense to stay up, but they got a good keeper in Scott Carson. I think Fulham will finally do the drop - their game against Hull was ugly. Their back line is absolutely abysmal. My gut feeling is that Wigan's number is up as well.

Championship

My first impulse is that Birmingham and Reading will go back up. I think Wolves, Palace, Bristol City and maybe Watford will make the playoffs with Wolves finally busting through.

I haven't seen enough of the other leagues to discuss yet.

I think Man U will be ok when Rooney and Ronaldo get fit. They looked pretty dreadful against Newcastle, but that was definitely not their A squad. Chelsea is good though, and has to be bitter about the way the Champions League final ended, so they have something to prove.

arsenal was horrible last night. They're in for a bad season if they continue on like this. After that Hull city false start, Fulham is looking better and better, Arsenal was just clumsy with wasted possessions and giving away throw ins with no pressure on them.

Liverpool....wow what can I say, I resigned myself to losing my combination wager when there were 5 minutes left, even a draw would mean bye-bye to my twenty bucks, trust captain marvel to turn things around. It remains to be seen if they can actually beat the top 3 regularly to challenge for the title.

Liverpool winning the title? Uh...I don't know about that, too early to say but most of the time, Liverpool can't seem to decide whether they want to win cups or the title. They probably won't have to worry about Champions League qualification spot with the way Arsenal is playing at the moment.

Tonight, Man United will take their first 3 points.

Liverpool... they look way too ordinary to challenge for the title. If they'd played the way they played the first two games against Chelsea or Man. U., they'd have been beaten 3-0. They need someone on the wings so damn bad. And I've no idea what they are going to do when Macherano gets back. You can't play both Alonso and him in the central midfield AND play Keane and Torres up top unless you move Gerrard to the wing and he does not need to be on the wing.

Spurs are just as bad. I watched them get beat by Sunderland and they have way too much talent to play that mediocre. Of course, what kind of retard sells Robbie Keane and doesn't make Berbatov happy enough to stay? I mean shit, if you were going to have to get rid of one of them, get rid of the pissy one (Berba) and keep Keane so that you'd at least have 2 good strikers. Now it looks like Berbatov is a sure bet to go to Man. U. and Spurs will have days to find some kind of replacement striker. Very bad front office work there.

The Villa-Stoke game was a fun game to watch, and I'll be damned if Stoke didn't look a side that can stay up. That strike by Ricardo Fuller for the second goal was Premier League quaity. Of course, Villa looked very ordinary today.

Chelsea this week will give us a fair idea I think. If they win convincingly again, and get Robinho (sp) then they will have a great chance.

Man Utd needs their A side fit asap. Half of it being out is not going to help catching Chelsea and we cant afford to slip too far behind.

Liverpool and the Gunners, same old, same old.

I'm going to be in Barcelona when FC Barcelona plays Villarreal and am thinking about trying to go just to witness the craziness.

hahaha chelsea gave me heartattack. Take that Heskey! /vengeance  :grin:

Keane had been quieter but he'd wanted to test the waters of the champions league while he still had his best years in front of him.

Berbatov thought He'd be in Champions league by now and be considered :the: reason they were there.  You're good but not that good Berbie.

The skittery crafty guile  isn't currently working in the premiership for Spurs, But it's still early.

But they did look fucking dreadful.

Good show for Fullham. And Bravo to Hull City. I don't think they can keep it up, but get enough  points  of the energized start and hanging on to for another season might not be a bad way to go.

If you do not go to the game, you should be beaten severely by Spainish soccer hooligans. Seriously, dude, I'd kill for that chance.

EDIT: Berbatov is quite good, but anyone who watched them knew that Spurs offense was so good because Keane and Berbie worked well together. The chemistry between the two is what made them both great and neither can carry a team like Torres did for Liverpool last year (and really he had Gerrard playing the Keane role). But Spurs should totally have given Berbie tons of hookers or something to get him to stay, or sold him earlier and bring someone else in with time to build a partnership with Bent.

I really think Hull have the tenacity to stay up, to grind out some results when they need it. Stoke and West Brom I'm not so sure about.

I was also really impressed with Boro. Yes, Liverpool were ordinary, but Boro came out and attacked and actually were a threat. Shit, they should have won that game. If it hadn't been for that lucky break deflection on the first goal, it would have been a draw at worst. Not many teams come to Anfield and attack. Boro may actually finish top 10 this year if they stay healthy. More likely around the low teens, but they'll be better than last year.

Boro always take points off the top 4 though, so I think it's still too early to tell. They might just be doing their usual "big efforts in big games, rubbish everywhere else" act.

Just saw the Arsenal score... seriously... FULHAM? I realize that Fabregas is hurt but damn. FULHAM? With THAT back line? Even Hull City put 2 in on Fulham. They better get Fabregas back soon or it's going to be a long season for the Gunners.

Pavlyuchenko will join Spurs (http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/clubfootball/news/newsid=862112.html?cid=rssfeed&att=)

So yeah... another striker. Berba's on the way out. Remains to be seen whether Paylyuchenko is as good as his Euro '08 form would suggest.

Berbatov is a fantastic player, much much better than Keane. No one in the league has a better first touch than him. His problem (and Spurs) is that the rest of the team is fucking shit. No one other than Keane was able to read his passes, or know where to move around him. You get a half decent team around him, and he's going to flourish. I'm excited about him coming to Man U. And honestly.... Rooney could use someone to compete for his spot. I'd probably play Tevez and Berbatov at the start for awhile, because Rooney is serially underperforming, and has been for more than a year.

Rooney doesn't look like the same player the past year or so...I wonder if he is hurt more seriously than has been reported. His first touch on the ball seems much wilder. He really needs to have a partner up front who understands his game and can play off of him. I can't count the number of failed connections with Rooney involved in both the England v Czech game and the ManU v Newcastle game I saw- Rooney either playing a ball into space with no runner, or making a run only to see the ball played elsewhere (or just fumbled away). If he plays with someone who can handle the ball on first touch and then distribute/shoot immediately (RvN type) his production will skyrocket. He is also deadly playing the ball in from the wing if they choose to use him that way.

Sorry that's entirely wrong. The reason RvN left Utd is because he can't play well with Rooney and Ronaldo.

I've said it a lot, but the type of player who Rooney would play best with is Torres (who turned Utd down a number of times--Fergie knows what he needs, just couldn't get it). A fast skilled forward who can finish. Rooney has great strength vision and industry and works really well when he has someone else fast running forward when he drops back and gets the ball, or drops wide and crosses it, because that gives him space to work (because the defenders have to mark the runs of the other players) and/or gives him an outlet for some of his excellent passes (if the runs are not carefully marked).

It's why he plays so well with Ronaldo; because Ronaldo is the things he is not; fast and selfish, a good header and finisher.

Berbatov is a better player than Tevez and will do well for Utd, but he's not the answer. We need Ronaldo back because we don't have anyone fast and incisive enough without him. Berba is a good finisher and a great creative partner (where as Tevez is more like a Rooney-lite: less creativity but with solid industry and a decent finish) and he is taller too, but I don't think he's fast enough to really make the most of Rooney's skills.

People like to hang shit on Rooney but he was excellent last year despite not reaching his peak and is a great team player. His ability to work hard and hold the ball while still being creative is a vital part of the Utd team. There are few if players in the world who have the strength and industry of Rooney, but there are none who combine it with his creative powers.

Saha is the type Utd wants--though he's not Torres level. But unfortunatly he cannot get fit and has lost a lot of which made him so damaging since he's come to Utd.

Champions League Group Draws are Out (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=567100&sec=uefachampionsleague&cc=5901)

Probable teams to move on (IMO) are in bold.

Group A
Chelsea
AS Roma
Bordeaux
Cluj

Group B
Inter Milan
Werder Bremen
Panathinaikos
Anorthosis Famagusta

Group C
Barcelona
Sporting Lisbon
Basle
Shakhtar Donetsk

Group D
Liverpool
Atletico Madrid
PSV Eindhoven
Marseille

Group E
Man. U
Celtic
Villarreal
Aalborg

Group F
Lyon
Bayern Munich
Steaua Bucharest
Fiorentina

Group H
Real Madrid
Juventus
Zenit St Petersburg
Bate Borisov

I've seen people talking about how Man Utd has a 'hard' group in some places. What? Give me E over F or H any day.

I think Liverpool has the hardest group out of the English teams. Though they'll probably manage to scrape through again.

Also: Group G: ARSENAL, Porto, Fenerbahce, Dynamo Kiev.

My predictions at this early stage (1st, 2nd):

A: Chelsea, Roma
B: Inter, Werder
C: Barca, Sporting
D: Atletico, Liverpool
E: Utd, Villarreal
F: Bayern, Lyon
G: Arsenal, Fenerbahce
H: Real, Juve

Possible upsets in:

A - Bordeaux have been good under Blanc, but they probably wont pip Roma.
B - Panathinaikos might be better than Bremen if Werder are poor, but unlikely.
C - Unlikely that Shaktar or Basle will do much.
D - I think everyone in this group might sneak through if lucky, or miss if not. But Marseille have to be favourites for 4th.
E - Celtic might get up, but I expect not.
F - Fiorentina? Who knows. I don't think they have the experience (Who loses to rangers?) But they have to think they've got a good chance.
G - Porto might sneak through, but probably not.
H - Zenit will need solid home form if they are to be a chance. Anything can happen in Russia though.

Oh, and the full name of the team: Borisov Automobile and Tractor Electrical Equipment.  :awesome_for_real:

I can't see Bremen not making it through the group stages. They just added Pizarro, Diego will be back and they've actually got decent scoring options up front without any real superstar. Their problem lately has been (as always) keeping the goals out. I also just don't have any faith in any of the French sides. It's been a while since they did much in Europe.

Man, what the fuck is wrong with Everton? Pompey sliced them up and that is not one of the better Pompey midfields. Maybe it's all the injuries, but holy shit, they are getting punched in the dick.

Liverpool continues to be boring and listless. Granted, without Torres and Gerrard, one would expect them to lose a little something. But holy shit, Rafa continues to make moves that make no sense. He pulls off Keane in the 70th minute... who the fuck else is going to score goals? He'd already taken Kuyt out to replace him with a back. Why no Babel? He loved Babel last year and now the kid can barely get a look in. I just don't get it.

Also, Roofles Chelsea, good job Spurs.

Everton never added anything to their squad, if anything they are significantly weaker. It's not that surprising for them to lack goals, but to lose 3-0 and missing penalty at home is quite a big question mark about the team's strength.

As usual the last day of the transfer window throws up some immense panic buying. Everton spend £15m on a 20 year old no-one has heard of, Man U get dicked out of an extra £5m for Berbatov, Liverpool pay £8m for some guy who wasn't good enough for the premiership 2 years ago and Man City fans woke up yesterday morning fearing that their club was in freefall - what with their owner wanted in his homeland, his assets frozen and other directors having to put in their own money to get the tea-lady paid. By the end of the day they were quite possibly the richest club in the world, had bid £100m on players and had gazumped Chelski to the signing of Robinho from Madrid. Bizarre

Reports are today that the Newcastle manager will resign and be the first casualty of the day as he was fed up with the lack of transfer targets aquired. Keegan has previous for walking out on clubs when he throws a strop though, get your money on him being the first premiership manager to leave his club this season.

Too lste, hes gone already  :ye_gods:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/7593683.stm

I know very little about Riera, but fuck, at least he's a natural wide player. Liverpool need that like noboby's business. They also shipped off Voronin and Finnan. Not sure the second was a good idea, but I am liking Dossena.

Good on Man City for fucking Chelsea out of Robinho. That City side might actually make a few waves. Even better for Tottenham, they got rid of Bitchy Bear and picked up Frazier Campbell. Berbatov is very good, but I think Campbell has got a lot better upside for Spurs considering he's young and has the drive and ability to be a star and probably won't hate playing there. I hate that he didn't get to go back to Hull though. Fuck Man. U. for sending him to a rich club and not Hull.

ManU needed Berbatov, or someone. They have looked utterly ordinary so far. The first 60 minutes against Zenit were just horrifying.

So what will happen to Ronaldo?  Hasn't he been sitting every EPL game so far and the cup play as well?

As a Spurs fan I hate to lose him (Berb) but I think I'll continue pulling for him even at ManU... he's that beautiful to watch (when he's of a mood to be arsed).

Ronaldo is still recovering from ankle(?) surgery. Lacking his playmaking skills, with Rooney lacking a second experienced striking partner (I think Tevez is hurt too), they've just been average.

Spurs and Man City squads look really good this season I liked Spurs line up on Saturday if they can gel they might get into Europe at last this season.

Tevez played Friday and was an absolute ANIMAL. He may have worked his way into being one of my favorite players. Having both him and Rooney up top seems really redundant- they both play similar (at least in my limited viewings), and both are too small to be any sort of aerial target. Would love to see Rooney moved to MF so he can roam to his heart's content.


Also- LMAO at ManCity- that new ownership group is going to be fun to watch.

Yeh Rooney maybe deemed as a more adventurous replacement for Paul Scholes down the line and you're right about Tevez he is one of the strongest players I've seen since Maradona even big players just bounce off him due to his low centre of gravity (short legs and a long torso). Pity he doesn't have Maradonas finesse but he ain't bad technique wise either, he keeps sticking it to spurs fans singing "He's a shit Maradona". But Berbatov is on another level he doesn't have the tenacity of the other two he's just a class act in the mould of Eric Cantona something United have missed in recent times good addition.

I love the Fulham Hate. They are like the Rays and Cubs all rolled into one, and I hope they stay up this year, without the drama of the last couple.

And yes, I started following them because of Dempsey (former NE Revs season ticket holder), but if all Dempsey gets are some starts in the Carling Cup, so be it.

Does anyone know a way to see more EPL games on digital cable without shelling out a ton of cash? I find that I really want to get into the different leagues and whatnot, but I can only watch a game a week on FSN.

If you have Directv, you can get Setanta Sports for $14.99 a month. You will generally get 4-5 EPL games each weekend, 1-2 Scottish Premier League games a week, 2 English Championship games a week, plus Carling Cup, FA Cup and Champions League games. Or, see if your provider gets either Fox Soccer Channel (4-5 EPL games a week, Italian Serie A, plus MLS, Argentina, Colombia and other Latin American games) or GolTV which has Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga and some Italian leagues, with a bunch of other Latin American games as well.

Grats to pool yesterday played us off the park and even threw in a couple of jammy goals just to play with our minds. But yeh Riera looks handy enough needs to get attuned to the pace of Premier League and he could be good. Also Berba looks like a great addition but the midfield was pisspoor and he got little good service Scholes was a non starter & all fell apart when Carrick went off. Not taking anything away from Pool but it was a shambolic performance in the second half.

LIIIIIII-VER-POOOOOOOLLL!!!!!

Yeah, just had to say it. Game should probably have been a draw, but that shitty, fumbling own goal by Wes Brown was the clincher. Riera played his ass off and I can't wait to see him on the pitch with Gerrard, Keane, Torres and Babel. I hope Rafa starts playing Babel on the right wing. Man. U. midfield was pretty crap most of the day - you guys really miss Ronaldo. Had he been in there, game would have been completely different. I'm still not sure why Sir Alex played Rooney on the right instead of Nani. It isn't that he didn't do well there (though he disappeared the second half), but I think Nani is more suited to the role.

Either way, a beautiful, edge of your seat game.

We missed Carrick mostly. Needed a central midfielder who could hold the ball and pass.

Still, if it wasn't for that brain fade from VDS I still think Utd could have won.

No great worries, though it was still annoying to concede the two stupid goals like that, and when the team is full firing with Berbatov settled, Ronaldo back, and Nani and Carrick on top of their game I think we could see some amazing perfomances this year.

Nah United would never have won Ronaldo wouldn't have been allowed much space Liverpool defended immensely. Yeh I would have liked to see Nani on sooner I think the Giggs Scholes thing is kinda old hat at this stage.

Do please explain how Liverpool would have scored if it wasn't for the colective brain fades of VDS and then Giggs later in the game. I'm not suggesting Utd would have scored again. but if VDS hadn't gifted them the goal then Utd would have been in front still and they were defending just as solidly as Liverpool were for most of the game, even once the own goal handed Liverpool the momentum and Carricks injury lowered Utd's possession.

Delighted 'pool fan checking in.  I thought it had a lot to do with:

- Ferguson's mistake with Rooney.  You have a player on-fire for his country and you decide to play him out of position, wide on the right?  Terrible decision.  I look forward to Wenger asking Walcott to play in a holding midfield role.

- Ronaldo not playing.  The best player in the league will always make a few chances, and he would have let Rooney play more centrally.

- Kuyt and Keane pressing.  I am not normally a huge fan of Kuyt, who does work hard but makes the game look like hard work, too.  And Keane has yet to settle.  But the two of them put in a massive amount of energy in stopping Man Utd playing their passing game from the back.  The loss of Carrick made this easier.

- Man Utd looking jaded.  Ferdinand was pretty good at the back but the midfield were posted missing.

- Vidic being Vidic.  Great at coming up and attacking corners, but not always the wisest player on the pitch.  His clattering challenge, three yards from the ref, might not quite have been a yellow early in the game and 20 yards from the whistler.  But what a daft risk to take 18 yards out and needing to put pressure on Liverpool.  I was actually surprised that it affected Man Utd in as limited way as it did.

I don't hugely blame Giggs: everyone does that and tries to shepherd the ball out.  We were just playing an intense pressing game.  Babbel (give him more game time, Rafa) won a similarly lost cause a few minutes later before Kuyt shot tamely.

Amarr and I used to have some fairly heated Red vs Red (ultra-)late-night arguments on DF teamspeak.

Ronaldo is still coming back from injury. He 'might' play against Villireal on Wednesday.

Rooney defends. Playing Nani or Giggs wide would have put a lot more pressure on the team to defend early. And they played well early.

Also I think Nani having playing the international and not played for the team yet this season was part of the deal too. To throw someone into the team for their first game of the season in a big game coming off an international who can't defend that well in an away game. I think that's why Rooney got the nod.

Remember that Nani had been out, Hargraves battling his injury. Ronaldo out injured. Park still injured. Most of them having played internationals. An away game. Etc. I think the team sheet reflected a lot of that. I expect once Nani and Ronaldo and Park are fit and have got a few games you won't see Rooney back there much and will instead see the forwards rested a bit.

Yep, I didn't mean that Ronaldo's unavailability was Ferguson's fault.  Frankly, part of me hopes they're rushing him back too soon and he relapses for a few weeks, though the rugby player in me tries to shout that idea down.


I'm a great believer in playing your best players in their best positions.  Rooney is a terrifying prospect coming right at a defence fomr a central position.  The defence will react by trying to shepherd him out wide.  Ferguson put him there to begin with.


I think you're right as to Ferguson's reasoning.  It was still a relief.

Edit: fixed my broken quotes

Yeah, I don't necessarily expect that result to be repeated at Old Trafford. Ronalado alone would have made a huge difference in that game.

I have to disagree he would have been given no quarter and ended up throwing hissy fits, he rarely plays well against Liverpool or the other top teams. We had a good team on paper but Carrick coming off changed the perplexion of the United game as the usually uber composed Scholes looked jaded. We resorted to playing long balls into Berbatov and the tactics reminded me of how we used to play with Nistelrooy in the team. As far as how I think Liverpool would have scored I don't think it really matters, they deserved the win.

Hasn't this 'Ronaldo never plays well against top teams" shit been put to bed already. Yawn.  :awesome_for_real:

Well, if you say "against a team not at the top of their game he will have the space to be devastating" I think it's easier to swallow.  He's a great player, but well-organised teams with a fast wing-back or left-back can mitigate that to a large degree, especially if they niggle him a bit.  Once his head goes down and he gets that petulant, vitimised attitude then he's no longer so much of a threat.

Tell that to Lyon, Chelsea, etc etc. Really. He can certainly be petulant, and he can certainly have bad games, but as for him going missing in big games that not really true, unless you have those situations where the other team plays 3 people on him and thus leaves others free.

I said "can" mitigate it.  Not "will".  I don't imagine that, if you look at my post again, you really disagree with it that much.  Ronaldo is a great player, but a fast and agile marker who uses physical presence to frustrate him can, not will, cause Ronaldo to waste effort in amateur dramatics or even in disinterested surliness.  Yes, he can perform against top clubs.  What I said was that he is fairly consistently devastating against lesser clubs where he has the time and space to use his full arsenal of tricks.

Actually yeah that's what I'm saying, it's not that he's not a big game player, it's just against Liverpool, Chelsea (under mourhinho) and other teams that defend deep and pile on the pressure he can get frustrated and that's why he's earned the negative big game tag which I also don't agree with. In fact last year against Chelsea in Stamford bridge he played great, probably due to the fact Chelsea played a more open game under Avram.

The thing is, people single him out and say stuff like this when really it can apply to nearly any good player in the world when the opposition has a plan that plays against their strengths. Yet people mention it about Ronaldo as if he is somehow more inclined to go missing in big games than other great players, when it's just more likely that he can be so devestating when playing well that he is always singled out for treatment, while some other star players aren't consistently.

I dont disagree with you, I was just disagreeing with the idea that there is some sort of special criticism that can be leveled at Ronaldo alone. In this regard I think you can only really say that he can be inclined to be petulant and whingy, things which I very much dislike. However they don't make him play a whole lot worse. Other players, like Rooney and Tevez for example, suffer from much worse character flaws in attitude in that they get pissed off and can lose their self control; something that has much more of an impact on how well they and the team plays.

I particularly agree with you on Rooney, there.  Like Ronaldo, though, he's still quite young, and Ferguson should be able to shape their attitudes.

I think that's one of the reasons Fergie didn't introduce him on Saturday, after the summer he had w/injury and the Real kerfuffle, to put him into Lion's Den at Anfield would have been a terrible way to introduce him for the sake of eking out a result on the offchance he could make an impact.

We're still doing spoilers about the champ. league games, right? I ask because I usually watch them live and don't want to ruin it for anyone else, but I'm not sure who follows this thread apart from Haem and the other posters, and how long a spoiler window you all require.

I'd say you can talk about Champion's League games on the Fridays after all the games are done. I watched the Liverpool game, and won't be spoiled on any of the other scores.

Questions, so many questions...

What was the deal with the West Ham jerseys... which sponsor were we not supposed to glimpse?  (That white patch with the number on the front was F'n lame.)

Speaking of dubious sponsors... how soon before mighty ManU have to go shopping for new jerseys?  (To replace AIG.)

Speaking of Manu... will Berbatov EVER be happy with the inability of his teammates to get him the ball *just so*?

Speaking of Berb's old team... will Tottenham ever win again in the Prem?  And what happened to Modric, is he injured or something?  And and... I know it's a bad deal for Tottenham to take Campbell on loan from ManU with no real chance to sign him permanently, but DAMN can the kid play.

Frazier Campbell is the shit. I keep telling you guys how good this kid is.

Serious questions... STOKE? REALLY? You can't even get one fucking goal against STOKE? UGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

Yeh Liverpool always suffer in the bit part games hence why they probably won't win any titles in the near future.

Not our best moment.  I honestly thought we'd put them away comfortably, and take advantage of the fact that at least one of Chelsea or Man Utd had to drop points.

As it is, Amarr, only another 17 or 18 poor results and Fergie will begin to hear murmurs about his position :D

United are perennial slow starters so I'm not too worried especially as it's going to be tight again this season with a lot of teams capable of giant killing even Sunderland look like potential party spoilers and Hull are in Championship ejaculation mode at the moment, but that will probably wear off with the Christmas hangovers. Liverpool are still in with a shot undubably but I don't see them producing performances like they did against Manu week in week out & definitely a stronger squad with Keane and Riera.

Cheslea is the only worry really. I don't think Arsenal will keep it up either. But Chelsea can grind grind grind for loot. This period with Deco, Essien and Carvahlo out will say a lot about their chances. If they swing through watch out.

However once Berba and Ronaldo settle back in I think Utd will stomp some face. I expect them to win a few trophies this year even if not the Prem.

The last two seasons has seen Chelsea have significant injury periods for big players and yet they still manage to stay in the race both seasons. The loss of Carvahlo is no big thing, IMO, as he's overrated. But losing Deco and Essien will hurt. They really are the team I pick to win it. The other big 4's will be in it, but Arsenal doesn't have the depth and Liverpool is still missing something. Man. U. still have to get all the parts to gel, but I really don't see the top of the table changing much this season. I think Everton is going to fall some places and Villa will be there to take up the slack. Portsmouth? I just don't know, I thought Crouch would make them better, but they have been woefully inconsistent so far. Man. City may really make that push into the UEFA spots.

I agree but does anyone else think Scolari's pedigree is a tad questionable or am I being priggish?  I mean I could probably manage Brazil and win the world cup it's not really a massive feat, I felt even Ireland could have won the World Cup in 2002 with a decent manager the standard was that poor. Also Portugal were seasonal underachievers with him in charge so I think he has a lot to prove in my book.

Look up their points average when he is and isn't in the team then get back to me about how "overrated" you think he is.  :oh_i_see:

I think Scolari has done really well in international managment. The question is how well he will do over the season, which is a whole different thing. But Chelsea was solid with Grant, so Scolari would really have to stuff up to have a negative impact.

Sure he was OK at international management winning the World Cup with Brazil is like saying your Roger Federers psychological coach, but a 60 game season is a whole different kettle of fish ;) I agree Carvalho is a damn good defender I'd take him over John Terry anyday for the most part cause I think JT's a cunt.

Of course JT's a cunt... you have to be a tremendous douchebag to play for Chelsea. It's in the contracts.

I'm not saying Carvahlo isn't better than the other options on Chelsea's team... it's just that past John Terry, they don't have any good defending defenders on that team. Partly because they are forced to go on the attack by managerial fiat and partly because they just buy shitty defenders. I actually think Wayne Bridge is better than Carvahlo, he's just not a central defender. Bosingwa might not be so bad, but again... not central. I mean, they put Essien in the role a lot when Carvahlo was out last year. While Essien is good, he was thoroughly out of position. So yes, Chelsea is better with him in there because they haven't bought anybody else worth a shit.

*Sees the conversation*

*Looks again at Spurs pathetic performance*

*cries a single tear and closes the window*

Terrible decision by the ref. Just flat out terrible.

Berbatov did some very useful things though. And I think Rooney demonstrated why he should start over Tevez. Looking forward to seeing Berba, Rooney, Scholes, and Ronaldo on the pitch at the same time In the Champions League. And Carrick or Hargraves in the team instead of Fletcher (gah).

Hey, leave the token Jocko alone :(

PS Torres is the man.

Motherfucker yes.

Also, LOLZ ARSENAL. Hull is staying up this year. What a strike by Geovanni.

Oh, Hull absolutely made my week!

No joy in Tottenham still.

On paper Tottenham have quite a good team but the pundits called it, playing one man up front against Portsmouth was a bad idea. I was surprised Man. City lost they are playing so well I was wondering what has happened to Benjani?

There's no cohesion, no real direction and  the delays in assembling the team are killing Spurs.


On another note, sincere respect to the Houston Dynamo for going to Mexico City and playing in a thrilling 4-4 draw against UNAM Pumas, current Primera Division leaders. The fact that Pumas first goal came directly from poor sportsmanship and that the Dynamo nearly pulled off an injury time winner make me even more impressed.

Just when you think that Newcastle can't get any funnier: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/oct/03/newcastleunited.premierleague

Was that an actual transcript, or is someone taking the piss?  :awesome_for_real:  :ye_gods:

That's real.  The Guardian is basically the UK equivalent of the Washington Post.  Though I dunno if the latter would have someone saying "cunt" like that.

Fuck me, that's a goddamn tirade. Of course, he may just be so pissed off that his best career choice at this moment is fucking Newcastle. I think I'd rather manage a goddamn Conference squad on the brink of relegation than fucking Newcastle.

Hull  :drill:

Yeah, Hull is the mad notes.  :awesome_for_real: I mean, it's not that hard to beat Spurs right now, even at home, but beating Newcastle, Arsenal and Spurs all together - now THAT'S some inspired football.

Did anyone see the Liverpool - City game? That was a fan-fucking-tastic game. And unlike some of the other games they've won this season (*COUGH* UNITED *COUGH*), they actually deserved to win. The red card on the City player was deserved, the goal was well worked and it was an exciting match from start to finish. That was definitely a gritty, gutty performance. After the Cubs got dickstomped this weekend, I'm not even going to jinx the Reds by talking title.

Are you a Cubs fan as well as Liverpool?  If so, that's an odd coincidence, as I am a long-suffering Cubs fan myself.

Yes, I am a Cubs fan. Hence my pissy mood since Saturday. At least the Liverpool victory was a bright spot.

Finally got to watch the ManU/Rovers game from Saturday. God, the weather was shitty. Being from the PNW, I have played soccer in shit like that dozens of times, on much crappier fields  :grin:

Nice to see some of the big guns starting to get warmed up. Ronaldo to Rooney was just gorgeous. Speaking of Ronaldo- he has been much less dive-y and less confrontational with the refs this year, at least in the limited times I have seen him play. He is also getting held, tripped, kicked, hacked, etc constantly with no calls. I think it is the Boy Who Cried Wolf scenario catching up to him, but they really need to call SOME of them.

Fernando Torres would like to have a word with Ronaldo about that. They can compare bruises.

I think that is one of the reasons Ronaldo wanted to play in La Liga, The Premiership still has some pretty hard defenders especially if your club has a UK/Irish manager. Speaking of which anyone see Barcas annihilation of Atletico Madrid?

I don't know if Spurs can avoid the drop now.

Fuck...



On a positive note, I'm really hoping that  we get to see a Houston/Columbus MLS Cup Final. Two quality sides, for this part of they world, anyway.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

I laugh.

Also, Hull. Still.  :drill:

I didn't think Martin Jol was a bad manager actually it was strange they let him go, Spurs suffer the same fate as Villa being a stepping stone club.

Fuck, Spurs. At least get 1 win. SHEEEEEEE-IT.

Also, Hull is still teh awesome. I keep waiting for them to drop some points, but they don't. It was a good game. Their defense was "just in time" on a lot of those challenges. They keep getting points this early and they can probably take the second half of the season off and still avoid the drop. And I was worried when they lost Frazier Campbell.

Liverpool - Daniel Agger, WTF? I realize he was rusty, but shit that first goal was bad. BAD BAD BAD. Of course, he did make up for it with an assist, but damn. Next week's game at Stamford Bridge is shaping up to be the match of the early season. No Torres, Agger instead of Skrtel. I'm still not sure they can beat Chelsea, but damn will I be watching.

Reina's partially to blame for the dodgy pass and someone shoulda called "house". I hope pool destroy Chelsea really do.

Liverpool has been stealing the "lol last 15 min comeback" gimmick from old Utd this year and I'm not impressed. I how Chelsea smashes them and they fall into a few situations where they go behind and stay beind in the games afterwards.

Without Torres, I'm really not expecting the game with Chelsea to go well at all. Like, dreading watching it expecting disaster kind of thing.

I agree.  We've been doing well to keep up, with our comeback and our scraped results, but Chelsea look pretty impressive right now.

On the up side, at least they are missing more players than we are.  Not that they seem to be missing them...

Damn, I didn't realize Deco was fit enough to be on the bench. Wonder if he'll start. But yeah, lose Drogba and you still have Anelka. Deep pockets make deep benches.

I'm realy enjoying watching Utd play this year. Hopefully Ronaldo gets a little bit of the spring back in his step soon, and Berbatov becomes a little more selfish at times, but as it is right now they're still both great and the passing and movement of the team has never been better. I was really really impressed with the game against Celtic (even if they were woeful).

With Evans and the other young guys comming through it looks like Utd has some decent depth this year too, so I think we'll be able to manage better efforts in the cups while still keeping up in the league. The only worry is in midfield. Hopefully Scholes and Carrick are back soon to kick Fletcher out of the team.

I think coming first in the group is going to be a big deal this year in the champions league, looks like a lot of average teams are going to sit in second.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the football spectrum, my "main" team - Greenock Morton - just got their first league win of the season: ten games in.  We're the last team in Scotland to win a match, and it was a six-pointer to prevent us going 8 points adrift at the bottom of the league.  We got promoted two seasons ago, stayed up reasonably comfortably last season, in the end, but this year looks grim, when we should be pushing for a top-half finish.

I support Morton, by the way, on the traditional basis of choosing a team, which requires only a map of where you were born and a ruler for measuring what's closest.  If only I had been born in Milan.

Is Greenock (almost wrote Greencock) in 2nd division? The only Scottish league I follow is the SPL (GO HOOPS!) so I only find out names of second division teams when they do the drop.

The Champs League game between Celtic and Man. U. was pretty bad. Celtic got more chances than I expected based on how badly they were doing on possession, but they really don't do well with only 1 up top. That team is built to get service into one of the two big men, and Scott McDonald is prolific but he's no big man. Nakamura practically disappeared during the game, and when he's not on and there's no one to aim for, it's over. Hopefully Celtic will get Samaras or Venegor of Hesselink back by the time the return leg comes around. It won't matter though, 2 points out of 3 games in the same group as Man U and Villareal is pretty much a death sentence. I actually think Villareal may have the juice to go pretty damn far in the Champions League. I actually like both them and Atletico Madrid to make it through the groups and the next stage.

I'm not so sure about Atletico, but i agree about Villareal.

Celtic were unlucky that both of Berbatov's goals were offside, while Rooney's one that was allowed was weak but well placed.  That said, they didn't look like they were ever going to really pose a threat.  It's hard to scramble a lucky point in the face of decisions like those, though.

And Morton are in the 1st Division, which is the one below the Premier, illogically enough.  We've beaten one Premier side so far this year in the cup - Hibs, away - and very nearly turned over Inverness in the next round (we went out after extra time), but we keep freezing and then leaking goals in the last ten minutes.  I'm really hoping we can get a bit of momentum with a win over Dundee, 2 places above us, this weekend.  If not, we're looking pretty much like the Tottenham of our league.

Hibs has been real uneven the last year or so, haven't they?

Just looking at the tables, I noticed Gretna's not in Division 1. Did they dissolve that team completely over all the financial troubles from last year?

Yep, Hibs have been all over the place, and Gretna melted into nothingness.

True but United also had one ruled out that wasn't offside it all evens out somewhat and yeh Celtic were poor even by their CL standards.

I was surprised that the commentator I had was saying "this is the best Celtic has played away from home so far this year", I mean. Yikes.  :ye_gods:

But again, Man Utd's passing and movement was just amazing. I've watched them for a long time and it takes a fair bit to impress me,

I agree Lam I was very impressed with the link up play Berbatov, Nani, Ronaldo, Rooney as your forward line is dream team stuff. The pundits on RTE are absolutely hilarious they are always bickering and trying to be controversial, they were really hounding Berba before the game for being sulky and lazy and basically saying he isn't much of player, apart from Ronnie Whelan I might add, he musta been listening cause his play apart from the goals was lovely to watch, he really stuffed those has-beens.

Speaking of punditry some people might appreciate these.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiWdOTgDqLs&feature=related

Just to note the middle guy is Liam Brady who famously threatened to storm out of the RTE studio cause they did a montage of Wenger's (his boss) pitchside antics at the end of last season. His words where if I'd known you were gonna show that I wouldn't have come on tonight they stitched him up good.

Some good ones (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/oct/21/tottenham-hotspur-jokes) in there. Beware if you are a Tottenham fan.

Ha really good those, my cousin is a Spurs fan I'll try a few of them for the christmas slap up.

Well, yesterday he was Man Utd's best player, and not just for his goal: he worked back consistently and at least once saved Ferdinand's bacon when the latter just went missing.  He stood out particularly in the second half, when most of Utd just stopped playing.  It was much like the Liverpool match, where Utd also dominated us in the first half and just seemed to lose interest in the second.  And I'm not just saying that to defend my compatriot.

Ronaldo's roll after Neville's challenge was hilarious: the way he shoots his arms and legs out in a a starburst, completely rigid.  Ina Wright said he looked like a kid in a supermarket throwing himself to the floor when he's been told he's not getting sweets, which was a good comparison.  If I was a Man Utd fan I'd be pretty pissed that he put more effort into that roll than he has into his last few games put together.  I remember saying to Amarr last year that I thought Ronaldo could be better than Best, but at the moment he looks like a sulky little shit.

Yeah I was impressed with him yesterday, I agree. However it's not that I don't think Fletcher isn't a handy player, I think he is, I just think he's exposed technically in the Champions League and against certain opponents. He doesn't always have the imagination or the ball skills that Scholes and Carrick bring to the team, but in games with a bit more grunt and effort he's very useful.

In the end Everton deserved the point. I was disappointed that Utd couldn't find the second goal in the first half and kill the contest, much like our games against Liverpool and Chelsea, but I guess you'll take it. We've now played three of the top 5 from last year away and might be able to get away with being only 8 points (5 if we win our game in hand) despite dropping 7 points there. I guess that's bearable.

As for the Ronaldo bashing. Great, you don't like him. Whatever. The tackle on him by Neville was terrible, and the fact that you choose to have a big whinge session about a little theatrics over it is just silly. Please make a post about every indicent of theatrics in the league (there's heaps) or just be quiet. Signaling out one guy with a bad record for constant abuse is getting really boring. If it's such a huge issue for you I'm surprised you haven't hired assassins to kill Rivaldo or something.

Ronaldo has been a little off touch in the last few games (which incidently are the first few back from a long injury break), but to imply that he's not putting effort in is just pathetic. It's a cheap shot that has no reference to reality.

This is surreal.  I can only assume that you just didn't see the Neville challenge: I detest Neville, myself, but that was a good, strong challenge which took the ball, and merely skiffed Ronaldo on the thigh with his own ankle or shin of his trailing leg.  The incident was shown seven or eight times on Sky this morning, and it was pointed out that the referee had no intention of penalising anyone for a strong but fair challenge until Ferdinand got involved: he gestured for the throw-in and the line judge wasn't interested.

I have no idea what your idiotic nonsense about Rivaldo is about, but why do you bother posting here if you're going to spout such blinkered, angry-fanboi nonsense as soon as someone is critical of your idol?  Why not just post on a Man Utd fansite where everyone will agree with you, if your reaction to someone saying something as patently obvious as "Ronaldo is sublimely talented but play acts to get people booked and is under-performing this season" is going to be "hurf blurf rawr rawr so angry"?

At least back up your enraged furore with arguments, facts or statistics.  Do you think Ronaldo reacted genuinely to Neville's challenge?  Specifically, did Ronaldo, after doing a starfish impression then rolling around, crouching over a bit of his leg that was not in contact and virtually weeping with pain, need medical attention?  No.  He got up without a limp as soon as the booking occurred.

You say that my opinion is "pathetic".  Ok, avoid arguing by blatant assertion.  Now i have to go to the trouble of finding quotes to show how dumb you are to suggest my opinion is not, at least, valid and tenable.

From Steven Howard at the Sun (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/sunsport_columnists/article1828966.ece): "Cristiano Ronaldo seems weighed down by the fall-out from the summer’s Real Madrid transfer saga...Ronaldo frets. In time, Alex Ferguson may even regret not accepting the £70million Madrid put on the table."

From Setanta Sports: "Ronaldo's attitude is not right (http://www.setantasports.com/en/Blogs/A-to-Z-of-Bloggers/Paul-Parker/2008/10/Ronaldos-attitude-is-not-right/?facets/blog-space/)".

From Scotland on Sunday (http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/football/-Once-a-blue-always.4630402.jp): "[Rooney's] enthusiasm for the status quo is a perfect antidote to the huffiness of his attacking cohort, Cristiano Ronaldo."

Fomr the Man Utd fansite on VitalFootball (http://www.manchesterunited.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=128646) about the WBA game: "even Ronaldo's sustained poor form wasn't really a cause for concern".

From Sky Sports: "[Howard] found fine saves to deny an out-of-sorts Cristiano Ronaldo, Nemanja Vidic and the impressive Giggs" (my bold).

And regarding the tackle, the papers today agree with me, too:

From The Times (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/everton/article5014337.ece): "After Phil Neville had caught Cristiano Ronaldo with his trailing leg, a legitimate tackle accorded a triple roll by the Portuguese, Ferdinand ran 50 yards to remonstrate with his former teammate, turning a piece of pantomime villainy into a potential turning point" (my bold).

From the Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/3258851/Marouane-Fellaini-shows-his-class-as-Everton-deny-United-three-points-Football.html): "Phil Neville, who had harshly been shown the yellow card for a tackle on Ronaldo – the angry reaction of a posse of erstwhile Old Trafford colleagues did not help"

From the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1080631/Everton-1-Man-Utd-1-Everton-erase-Rooney-factor-Fellaini-makes-mark.html): "The challenge received a yellow card but, though Ronaldo was stumbling and therefore vulnerable, Neville had made full contact with the ball."

I could go on, but that's every british paper I've checked so far except the Guardian.  All those journalists agree with me.  You think that they are all pathetic, too?  Why not try arguing with facts and rational discourse?

And so after eight games of this shite,  Bye Bye Juande, we hardle knew ye. But fuck off all the same. (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=585828&sec=england&cc=5901)

And Hello Harry.

Well Harry, you got your dream of managing a "big" club. That's at the bottom of the table.
With two more points in the league than my rec league team.

That's gone from striker happy to toothless.

So, Harry, let's see what you can do.

To be fair, Harry took over Portsmouth when they were in the bottom three if I remember rightly, maybe even bottom.  And Tottenham has some really good players left.  Just so long as you don't believe that goalscorers are an important part of a football team.  Going to be a long time til the transfer window opens.

I actually go off what I watched. I thought it was a poor four and clearly hit him on or around the knee with some force. I guess if you make all your opinions up off an incident you've seen off newspaper reports then all power to you? But that's not even the point.

That doesn't change the fact that you singling out Ronaldo for abuse about his theatrics, or his playing poorly and being nothing more than a "sulky shit" as if he is somehow the only player in the league to overact a foul. Obviously you cannot read if you think at any point I'm defending his overreaction. But making a stupid personal attack on him exclusivly is just the usual stupid shit you see everywhere. Until you want to set yourself up as some kind of arbiter of reasonable reactions and point out all the shit that happens in every game from all sorts of players, and not just Ronaldo, then it seems quite reasonable to suggest you're being a dick by having a go at him.

So yeah, I hope you can follow. My problem is that people constantly and repeatedly point out incidents where Ronaldo overacts and then use it as an excuse to hang shit on him generally. Unless you're prepared to do that for all players I fail to see how you can honestly say that doing so is not pathetic.

Oh, and Harry will keep spurs up.

I just had this horrid thought.

Given Harry's penchant for wheeling and dealing, but with Spurs tendency to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory....

Landon Donovan to Spurs :ye_gods:

Fuck me, you didn't even read what I wrote (to spell it out again I saw the match then re-watched that incident numerous times today).

And stop lying about what I said, which was, far from saying he was 'nothing more than a "sulky shit"', in fact that he has "God-given talent" and that I had recently been comparing him to George Best.  What I said was that he is under-performing and squandering his ability with his negative attitude.  And, after you spouted your nonsense, I checked and saw that there's a lot (the majority of what I read) of professional journalists agree.  How am i supposed to have a discussion with someone whose idea of discourse is "RAH RAH NOT LISTENING NOT READING MY TEAM ARE THE BEST RONALDO IS THE BEST ANYONE WHO DENIES THIS IS STUPID"?

Fact is, you reacted like a ridiculous fanboy and demonstrated that your reading comprehension sucks (for the bits you actually read, which were clearly, obviously limited.

Apples.  How do you like them?

And for those here to discuss stuff: Liverpool enter November top of the table.  It's a victory in and of itself.

Much better stuff today.
Much better

Spurs:  relief
Pool:  love
Hull:  wtf (awesome)

Also Villa:  for real?

Indeed, all love for Pool, I miss Robbie, but I'm glad they're doing well.

Just want to agree with Endie before I read the rest of your extremely long posts  :ye_gods: It was barely even a foul it was a good hefty challenge from Neville booking was harsh, Ronaldo for all his greatness can be a right twat. Also well done too Pool for validating my point that Scolari doesn't have what it takes to manage a Premiership team he's a bluffer. Oh and in case you didn't notice I'm a United fan we'll still be there at the end, so just roll with the flak I've been doing it for near twenty years now  :grin:

I agree.  I still think Man utd will win the league (though I suspect that they can only lose another 8 points all season or something and still do so.  I think Chelsea will finish second, though, with us (Liverpool) third.  Even if Ronaldo doesn't shake himself out of his sulk and bang in 14 or 15 goals in the league between now and the end, Rooney looks like he could do the job by himself, right now.  And Torres seems to have tendons of glass  :sad:.

There's a Hoegaarden-fuelled, over-explicit prediction for you.

Yeh it's only nine games in, United have come back from bigger deficits with that many games left. Ha there's no harm in predictions I'm throwing my hat in the ring by saying Scolari doesn't have the mettle already I could well be proven wrong, I did think Torres would flop last season boy was I wrong about that but then I predicted Spain to beat Germany in the Euro champs final won me a few bob for that, sometimes you get it right. I'm hoping that Liverpool's lack of squad causes them to falter I hate making predictions on the Premiership but I think you might be right. Oh and don't forget Berbatov I love having him in the time he's a real United player.

I think Utd can win, the only problem is being in touch at christmas. If they can manage that within maybe... 8 points? then they have a chance. Liverpool hasn't won for a long time and might not know how to do it, and Chelsea will have a bad run at some point I expect. Arsenal is much more of an outside chance, given what they've shown so far.

Injuries will really screw Liverpool over though, if they lose Gerrard and Alonso at some point, while also having Torres having the odd niggle here and there then they'll lose a bit. Their second string isn't as strong as Chelsea and Utd, no where near.

However there's still a good chance Liverpool or Arsenal could sneak it in my mind, especially if they go out early in the champions league and focus on it. People forget how big a deal the champ league is for tiredness and fixtures, and recently all 4 teams have gone the length in it. If one drops early this year it could have a big say in how it all goes.

I'm pretty sure Ronaldo, Rooney, Berbatov will get around 20 each. Ronaldo has 3 already and it's a long long season, and he takes penalties.

Endie: Look through the football threads on here and see if you can find anyone else apart from Drogba who people hang shit on for theatrics. The fact is people repeat the same stuff over and over about Ronaldo (and Drogba to a leser extent) and it gets boring. Maybe worth a minor aside, but pointing out all that stuff every time there is some minor incident with him is very boring and, to me, seems entirely unfair given it doesn't happen to anyone else. Boring topic, I guess in future I will just ignore all the crap.

Lamaros, I agree with you about the fragility of the Liverpool squad: we simply don't have the depth to deal with three or four injuries, while both Man Utd and Chelsea have been without that many key players already, this season.  A scenario in which we win is also one where we get amazingly lucky over injuries.  It'll be especially difficult to sustain a challenge if we have good runs in Europe and one or both domestic cups.

Take it on the chin it's what happens when you got the greatest player in the world playing for the greatest team in the world  :drill:

Ronaldo - He is a DIVING BITCH. Having only watched football since the '06 World Cup, there has been maybe one game I've seen him in where he didn't pull an Oscar-worthy performance on a foul. He is without any question the greatest goddamn footballer playing in the world at this very moment, but he is also one of the worst divers/overactors I've seen. Drogba is right up there with him, but I give Drogba points for being more willing to foul a motherfucker back. Ronaldo just puts on his whiny cunt face. I think the reason it annoys me so much more than anyone else is because of the talent he has - he doesn't need the theatrics, and I honestly think he could be even better than he is without them. I didn't see the foul you guys are bitching about, but I'm familiar with his work.

LIVERPOOL!!!!!!!! Talk about a lucky victory. Completely off-the-wall-fall-ass-backwards-into-a-victory goal, but hey, they held off one of the best scoring teams in the league. Anelka was mostly invisible, Deco and Lampard disappeared for stretches of the match as well. It was an exciting game, and had Liverpool merely pulled a nil-nil, I'd have considered it a victory. But we've beaten 2 of the other 3 big 4. I don't want to jinx our title hopes by even thinking it's possible. But, I will say that Liverpool have done a damn good job this year just grinding out victories. The luck they've had can't hurt either. Torres' legs are seriously fragile, but I think if he can get 28-30 games in, he'll bang in 20 goals or more. If Keane gets on track and contributes at least 10, with another 10 from Gerrard, well, there's a chance. Their best signing since Torres has got to be Riera though. Finally having an actual winger out there to create width has been a godsend. Maybe Rafa will finally sign a real right winger in January, though Kuyt has actually done well.

Hull in 3rd place. It can't last forever (can it?) but they are halfway to the magic 40 number with only 9 games in the season, so I have to think they are almost a sure thing to stay up. They just play well, without fear. Phil Brown is definitely going to have to be considered manager of the year.

Harry to Spurs? WTF? I love what he did with Pompey, so now he gets to go to black hole of talent in Tottenham. Shame on Spurs fans and board for not giving Ramos a real chance, IMO. I still think most of Spurs' problems start in the front office. Radek Cerny was a good goalkeeper and instead of replacing Robinson with him, they shipped Cerny off to QPR where he's having some success. Spurs front office should have handled the Berbatov situation a lot sooner and with more class. Having him sit on the bench for 3 games soured the whole team. At least you know Redknapp will probably fix their defense. That team has too many good players to be this bad, though I'm not sure they need all the good players playing the positions they are playing. They need to be playing Frazier Campbell off of either Bent or Pavlyuchenko.

I'd like Pool to sign McGeady from Celtic he has plenty of ability but doesn't seemed to be coached to well and playing in the SPL can't be good for your game.

McGeady would be AWESOME. I'm not sure what the kerfluffle between him and Celtic management has been this year, but they've wasted him on the bench at times. He has a tendency to just put his head down and try to blow past the guy in front of him without looking for a good shot or cross, but yes, he'd be incredible. He's damn good as is.

And let's face it, the SPL is good for seeing how well you can take a punch. There are some rough motherfuckers in that league.

I agree sometimes he takes too many touches , but he has a lot of ability maybe Keane could put in the good word for him, anyone has to be better than Pennant.

Yep, he's a creative wee bastard, with almost 20 assists last year and, though he'd take a while to adjust to the defenders he'd be facing in the Premiership, he has 20-odd caps and a good number of Champion's League performances under his belt so he's got experience to playing good at the top level.

But can you really see Rafa picking him up? I can't see it.

Kewell has been getting on the park (and score sheet) so far this year. If I was a liverpool fan that'd annoy me a touch, but as an Australian fan it just makes me happy.

Yeh well I was surprised Benitez went for Keane I always thought he'd get overlooked he's a good little player worthy of a top team. Problem with McGeady is he mightn't have the guile to play at the highest level hasn't shown it at international level yet for me, but with some good coaching he's worth a shot in my book.

I'm still not sure about Keane at the top level to be honest. I certainly think he had a great partnership with Berbatov at Tottenham and was adept at putting in a few premiership goals, but Liverpool paid too much for him and I'm not sure if he's going to be able to set up a great partnership with Torres (who is really very different to Berbatov), nor be able to really lead the line himself when Torres is out.

However that said, he's never really had a chance to prove himself at the top before, so I'll wait and see if he can do it.

And given that Keane is a proven premiership performer, and no other strikers for Liverpool are that (Torres excepted) it's not a huge surprise to see Rafa go for him. Proven 20 goal a year players in the prem are a reasonably safe bet if you want to improve premiership form, McGeady is nowhere near as safe.

Sorry that's bullshit, Keane's been playing and performing at the top for six+ years has 35 international goals in 85 apps he's more than proven and he's not all about goals makes some nice assists. The reason I was surprised, the fact is Irish players just aren't liked by the Continental managers, if they were Wenger with all his market savvy would have bought Richard Dunne a couple of seasons ago, that guy is one of the best defenders in the Premiership. Instead he gets Silvestre ha love that he's not a United player anymore.

EDIT:awful punctuation.

I thought Pool overpayed for Keane as well. I'd have rather seen them buy another true winger so that Kuyt could go to the bench or be a second striker. Keane was a great provider for Berbatov, and I just haven't seen enough of that kind of partnership with Torres yet this year. I find he gets out on the wing way too much to score.

You know, Babel could have that right winger position sewn up, but he takes too many touches way too often and I have never seen him provide any kind of decent crossing from the line. He only seems able to cut inside at best. I'm still not sure why Rafa signed him. Of course, I was surprised he let Kewell go, and Kewell seemed very capable when he was able to get on the pitch last season. More and more it's looking like a good thing that Rafa didn't get to sell Xabi Alonso. He's been reborn this year, and putting him in the midfield alongside Mascherano has been great. That won't last when Torres gets back, but it sure helped against Chelsea.

Those runs can create a space for Torres leaving him with more room as it pulls defenders out of position if timed well. I actually don't know how much Keane was but Spurs never give out players on the cheap so  it wouldn't surprise me if he was overpriced.

I think Pool paid 20 million pounds or some such.  :uhrr: Overpriced, but I doubt they were getting a decent striker for less than 15 anyway.

Bloody hell, where did Spurs pull that from??  :ye_gods:

Sounds little over priced but you gotta fork out these days to buy anyone decent, sure not an out an out goalscorer but damn better than Voronin & Kuyt put together. For someone that's only been watching since 2006 you know a good bit about the subject fair play.

How long will Fab last at the gunners I wonder. I think they'll probably drop back to 4th this season.

LOL! 

I believe, Spurs, I BELIEVE!!

(Although... for Fuck's sake, Harry... enough with the Russian already; start Bent plzkthx.)


Aaand... Berbatov to Ronaldo was somekindaniiice.

Yeah, that move Berbatov put on his defender was just SICK.

Yeh man that was beautiful and it resulted in a goal. Bergkamp comparisons start here..

You got that right. I like Kuyt because his workrate is just sick, but a Premier League goal scorer he is not. Voronin just looked lost out there most days - even his good days weren't very good. I really wish Pool could have hung onto Crouch, because I think with enough starts, he could give you 10-15 goals, and be a great target man for Torres. For goals, he'd have been better than keeping Kuyt in my opinion, but Rafa seems dead set on having Kuyt on the right wing for defense as much as anything.


Thank you. I've become almost OCD obsessive about football since then. I probably watch way too much thanks to Tivo.

Slightly OT but the beta for Football Manager 2009 is released Saturday night/Sunday morning, time to go through your team and moan about peoples stats being wrong. Wonder how much money Man City will be given this year :)

I officially hate you for attempting to bring Football Manager back in my life  :mob:

This.

Football Manager, or the original Championship Manager, ate large periods of my life.

Harry Hotspur! Harry Hotspur!

They did it again!

Woeful beginning, wonderful finish.

I was Dancing around the living room.

You and me both... nothing like a game winner in added time to put a little hop in my step.  I only saw the last 30 minutes but that was the whole game as far as Spurs were concerned.  Bentley is beginning to grow on me... still on the fence with Pavelchenko but maybe a partnership in the making alongside Bent.

That play was more Zokora with the nice get and the good pass.

I saw some signs of promise from Modric too. Great signs.

Well, it was outright theft, but three points is three points.  Or, more specifically, 7 from 9 points...

Ramos must be pissed.

Arsenal.  :awesome_for_real:

Utd is being VERY complacent in a few games this year.  :uhrr:

And my fantasy team must have done gangbusters this week. !

Awful day for it some mad decisions and a lot of excitement, odd that Ramos puts together a decent team and Redknapp strolls in and grabs the glory, he must feel like the jilted boyfriend indeed.

That Spurs game was  :uhrr: I have finally come to a decision about Ryan Babel. He doesn't hold the ball up well enough to play up front. He comes inside way too much and doesn't have good crossing skills, making him an iffy winger. I think he's a change of pace sub for tired leg time. Taking Keane out for Babel was a terrible decision. Liverpool never had an attack after that.

Is this the year Arsenal finally slips out of the top 4? If so, it may be Villa's year to finally break into the big time. I don't see Everton or Portsmouth competing for that slot and as much as I love Hull, if they finish even top 10 I'll be thrilled (I'm pretty sure they won't be going down). Spurs will stay up, Bolton will stay up, but Newcastle? Sorry Toon Army, get used to the Championship.

I finally picked up FIFA 09 for the 360. Anyone else play it? I like the BAP mode and the graphics, but I am not yet convinced that PES wasn't better. Haven't monkeyed around with the Manager mode yet; that will be the big test.

I played FIFA 09 for the PS2. The manager mode is awesome, though it's pretty much the same manager mode as '08 - don't break what ain't broken. I found the be-a-pro mode to be a shitload more fun than I expected. I sent it back to try out the Wii version, but I really don't have high hopes for that after last year's Wii version and this year's Madden for the Wii.

Hey, hey! Maradona is now Argentina's new head coach.


This is interesting and strange. If anything, it'll get me to pay more attention to a sport I rarely follow.

His first match in charge may well be against Scotland (I seem to remember he scored his debut goal against us, back in 79?)  My suspicion is that his managerial "abilities" may well be our best hope.

I can just picture it now he'll be the Argentinian Kevin Keegan, "England have the best fans in the world and Scotland's fans are second to none"

Or more aptly from the Keegan vernacular "I don't think there's anyone bigger or smaller than Maradona."

Or higher.

In horse-racing terms he's exactly one hand above 5'7 or so.  :awesome_for_real:

Lulz - Arsenal.  :awesome_for_real:

Also, that penalty Liverpool was given midweek against Atletico? That was total bullshit. A complete gift from a ref punching way above his weight class. I'm glad Pool got the kick, but there is no way you convince me that was a foul on Gerrard.

I've got my fingers crossed for Blackburn tomorrow.

I'm sure any team led by Maradona will be able to punch the ball in when it counts  :awesome_for_real:

The bottom half of the premiership is so fucked up right now that Spurs are only three points from the upper half.

Having said that. COME ON YOU SPURS!

I'm delighted by what Harry is doig.  Also chuffed that Liverpool have won the first of a series of games we really must take full points from.

And then my weekend was completed by Morton somehow doing a spurs and clambering out of last place with a 4-1 away win over Queen of the South, who would otherwise have been in second place.  We'd not given any clue of that happening so far this season...

North American Game alert:

Columbus hosts Chicago for the Eastern Division Final on Thursday on ESPN2. The two best teams still in the playoffs.  Good talent on both sides of the ball for both teams.  Plus Blanco against Schelotto, McBride coming to where he got his start and several rising US nats going at it. Worth a look.

GO FIRE!

Man, Fuck the Fire.

I need Champions League again. You know how much it would suck to not have all the things like superliga and champions league? Dynamo need a treble.

Fuck the Dynamo. It's time for some new blood to hold the Cup.

well, I for one  was loving the instant Dynasty :)


You're just better cause Spurs whipped up on pool yesterday again. Yeah, it's carling cup, but still :)

Spurs, understandably, fielded a much stronger side than us.  I liked that right-back we had, though: he just got better and better as the game went on, and I think Benitez was completely wrong to take him off.  He was clearly fouled in what should have been a stone-wall penalty decision, and I think that coming back from 4-1 to 4-3 with 15 minutes left would have seen Spurs crack.

That said, I'm pleased for Redknapp and, while I hate seeing Liverpool lose, I'd happily go out of both domestic cups early if it gives our fragile and shallow squad a chance to make it through the season.

yes, pool was depleted. I've also only seen snippets of the match so I can't give a decent assessment.

This. I'd have liked Liverpool to go on, but really, if it means we win the title, we can lose Carling, FA and Champion's League and I won't care.

Spurs fielding the better team, hands down. I stopped watching after the third goal, because Pool just looked listless. Even Torres was just standing around. Other than Babel making some good runs and Agger defending, everyone else looked like they didn't care. But really, there were what fewer than 10 total starts on the pitch for the Reds? Plessis reminds me of Sissoko on his worst days, Lucas is promising but raw, El Zhar is a forward playing in the Kuyt mold and Degen hasn't been in any games (and I really want to see what he can do against EPL competition - maybe he'll play this Saturday). Meanwhile, Spurs had Frazier Campbell, who is a future star as well as a number of other top line players like Pavlyuchenko. Harry has got that team playing well.

WTF has kyut come from this season? He's making me eat my words about him in the past. V impressed with some of his form.

I think Kuyt has just finally settled into the place Rafa has put him. He's played up front most of his career, and he didn't do that bad up front in 06/07. Rafa didn't know what to do with him last year when he decided to play one up top, so he put him on the right. I think Kuyt has gotten comfortable with his role and is starting to relish it.

Villa was awesome against the Gunners. Has Agbonlahor gotten any England caps yet? Because he really should, given how unsettled the striker postition is in that squad.

Gomes is shit.

I'd almost rather have freaking Matt Reis cross the pond than Gomes, although he's need some sort of cap to cover his massive bald head.

So, going american again... Columbus from the East. New York from the west. Yeah, MLS, That makes perfect fucking sense. Also those Volkswagen Road to the MLS Cup bits are funny. Seeing Ben Olsen saying "This is pure high fructose corn syrup" and sucking down a juice box makes me smile.

I always thought the guy was total shit terrible first touch etc. but I had seen footage of him playing in Holland and he was quite good so I just put it down to lower class league, that said he looks like a decent enough Centre forward when his confidence is up though he is still liable to let you down sometimes. Keane's been poor last few weeks he really can't play as a lone striker it's true, though he might nick a goal here and there. Agbon would totally be deserved of a place in the England squad he's been awesome for the last few seasons.

World class Keane! 4 goals in 22 games! Keeps getting subbed!

What?

People who don't know much about football beyond what they see on the highlights after the news often make this mistake of confusing form with ability.  To spell it out, he scored 107 goals in 254 appearances for Spurs, scoring pretty much one-in-two for the last three seasons.  Only someone with a pretty limited knowledge fo the game would claim that 61 goals in three years at a premiership club isn't a sign of real ability.  Plus 35 goals from 85 appearances at an international level, playing for a team that has been struggling now for several years.

It's kind of like Landon Donovan's the  leading goal scorer in US history, with like 39 goals in 103 starts. Meh. That just shows how much this nation sucks.

Keane is a top quality striker. He's just on terribad form right now. I can't for the life of me figure out why. I think part of it is that he just isn't getting in the box enough, or staying there with enough authority. Most of the games he's been in, he's seen so few touches inside the box that I can't believe he's playing striker. He sees more balls outside the box and wide than inside.

West Ham... goddamnit, there was no reason Liverpool shouldn't have won that game other than a complete lack of cutting edge. Gerrard was so off his game. It's like the goalmouth was surrounded by an invisible ball-repellant energy field.

He's a boyhood pool fan like most Irish people, perhaps the bright lights of Anfield are toying with his emotions a little that's my theory. Though he seems to be working his little bollox off and showing the right attitude or at least that's the report I got from my Liverpool supporting mates cause to be honest I can't vouch for how he's been playing not been watching much other than MOTD highlights this season. That statistic you mentioned above lamaros is quite similar to Rooneys at this stage of last season but I would still consider him world class go figure.

All I was saying, originaly and just then, is that there is a difference between "world class" and "really good international".

That and the trolling, that is...

COYW!

:)

At the rate they are playing, I'm beginning to think their game in hand against ManU could produce some points.

many things:

Congrats to Clint Dempsey for starting to make a name for himself.

LOL at  Man City, 0-3 to the Forest? really? did it suddenly become thirty years ago?

It's fun to watch the slow strangulation of Arsenal. :)

FIFA for 360 is light years ahead of PS2, the mechanics, the feel, the players... you need to drop the PS haemish, it's a much better game on the next gen.

 

When I can afford a HDTV and a 360, I'll switch. The '09 game for the PS2 is better than last year's, though the play differences are VERY subtle. Mostly it has to do with the animation. But I seriously want to skullfuck the cockgobbler who turned all the EA Sports' menu systems into the same shitty shiny shades of black transparancy crap on crap that they have become since the '08 Wii versions. The worst parts about all the EA Sports titles are the menus.

My mate in work is both a Forest fan and a canny gambler, and he said that was one to stick a tenner on, as Forest hadn't lost away from home since something like October, while City are a classic hard-luck story, despite their riches.  Seven-to-one odds.  I, of course, said "there's a reason it's seven to one" and passed on the deal, while he is already up for the year against the bookies.

Man City is just puzzling this year. Mark Hughes is a better manager than this team has displayed and that team has too much talent to not be challenging for a spot in UEFA. But maybe, just maybe, firing Sven was a bad fucking idea. It's probably a good thing the Dubai folks are in charage now, they just need to get everybody on the same page before more money is pissed away on a mid-table finish.

I'm quite happy with Sven where he is, fucking up the Mexican National Team.  Let's leave him there until the US gets the top seed out of CONCACAF.  :awesome_for_real:

Yeh I can't understand the sacking of Sven he is extremely experienced, the only problem with him is he's a bit fancy free not sure if he'll actually win you anything these days. To replace him with Hughes who doesn't have any pedigree in my book, I mean he turned Blackburn into a top seven team instead of a bottom seven team not much to holler about, still can't understand that maybe he's marked as one for the future.

I've got an honest question.

I want to write about  the extent of the corruption that's going into WC 2010, but don't know where I should put it. Ideally It's a political issue, but that board seems kind of a waste to put it  there.

Put it here. If it goes off the deep end we can always move it.

2010 is going to be a nightmare if they don't move it. SA is a fucking hellhole of crime and corruption by all accounts.

FIFA and SA are made for each other. It's Crime, corruption and evil fucking people.

Seriously, The shit FIFA and it's many minions can pull is fucking insanity.  President of the country wanting  to assert your authority? fine, just don't fuck with FIFA, or you will get your dick stomped quicker than anything. American Sport owners dream of the power that these cocks have and are willing to use at a moments notice.

The latest example I have from the World Cup is the killing of a whistle blower in South Africa  (http://www.runofplay.com/2009/01/05/jimmy-mohlala-world-cup-whistleblower-shot-to-death-in-south-africa/)

But there's so much that gets done. We don't see it in the US because FIFA doesn't really have their talons into the public consciousness here, but The US Committee is no better, playing along with Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer in a nasty mess of corruption and greed.

It's kind of why I like that Soccer is a fringe sport here. If it was really mainstream... oh god the mess there would be.

The scary thing is that Mohlala's murder could just be a coincidence- that is how bad the crime rate is there. Either way, it is certainly no place for tens of thousands of tourists.

I'm guessing the safest investment for 2010 is going to the African illegal organs market.

I'd suggest going long on whore commodities.  Which, given the astonishing rates of HIV infection in sub-saharan Africa, promises terrifying re-import rates afterwards.

Benitez is a bit lost recently it seems, can't handle the pressure of being on top.

Also, Chelsea is tarnishing Scolari's reputation.

There was a couple of surprising things yesterday that actually startled me and described fully how Chelsea have lost an edge. The main one was late on in the game, Ronaldo clipped Lampard's shin with a high tackle which could have lead to his second yellow and afterwards Lampard was just joking around. As much as I hate the sort of behaviour a couple of seasons ago Lampard would have been baiting for blood and demanding Webb send him off.  The other startling thing was how well Fletcher played in midfield! Chelsea just rolled over in a fashion I have not seen since Ruud Gullit was their dubious manager proof of the Scolari pudding is he's probably the only person who thinks Mikel is a first team player. I wonder does Benitez realise Uniteds fixtures were moved so they could play two games on the other side of the planet to try win the newly emerging World Club cup so I don't really know what all his guff was about, besides Fergie has always bullied officials it doesn't always work in his favour and sometimes he's justified in doing so, how he conducts his business is well frankly his business. But sure these aren't mind games dredging up past incidents that everybody had forgotten about is just laying out the facts, yeh right.

Jamie Carragher proving yet again he's not the brightest on Sky Sports, if I were Pool I would pull the plug on his pundity "err I agree with our gaffer the bigger clubs are always getting decisions in their favour". So Jamie are you implying that Man U are a bigger club than Liverpool?  :grin:

Benitez does, at the moment, look bereft of ideas, and it's not as if we've started all those 0-0 draws without any attacking or goalscoring talent available.

So against Stoke - surely a must-win game which would mean neither Man Utd nor Chelsea could go ahead of us on points regardless of their result, we have Keane and Torres both available and he starts both on the bench?  Does he even care about the Premiership?

He just loves Kuyt doesn't he I didn't know he kept his better strikers benchwarming that's slightly annoying. I remember last season he was benching Torres against teams that would sit back under the premise that Torres works best with space behind the defenders which is true but he's far better player than Kuyt and can get goals in tight spaces too, Kuyt missed a free header to boot.

What's worse isn't that he didn't just bench Keane and Torres, he never even called Keane on. 20 minutes left to go and Keane doesn't get put into the game. If this was earlier in the season, I'd understand, but Keane's actually gotten his form lately. And yet, he gets nothing against Newcastle, Preston in the Cup or against Stoke. WTF RAFA? The man is finally scoring goals.

Yeah, Kuyt's been a good worker, but fuck's sake, he isn't the quality of either Torres or Keane when either is on form.

3-0.

That was glorious, although I was afraid it was going to finish 9v8 with the way the ref was handing out yellows in the first half. Chelsea just looked lost most of the game. And why the hell does Anelka come off the bench? That is at least the 2nd time I have seen that. Is he not fully fit, or is Scolari just senile?

If Drogba's staring, Anelka will come off the bench if he comes off at all. The two's playstyles do not mix or something like that.

Drogba and Anelka also seems to be a bit of a personality clash to me. 0-0 with Stoke 20 minutes to go you really want to throw everything at them it's not a massive secret why United win a lot of games in the dying minutes it's the one thing Fergie's very good at, think Mark Robins or Soljskaer

Those two behemoths could have made some hay together in the area with Rio Ferdinand out, but they only got 45 minutes to try. Drogba was terrible- miskicked at least twice I can think of, continually dove with no sympathy from the ref, and committing just stupid fouls. His coiffure may be the biggest foul, however.

Yeh Drogba's hair is seriously dodgy I was also impressed by Evans as far as I'm concerned he could stand in for Rio anytime, Vidic is the main man at the moment probably always has been.

Evans was solid, but Ferdinand's experience is invaluable. Also, he is awfully useful when the ball is in the air, which is more what I was alluding to earlier. If Drogba and Anelka are both in the area, Evans is less able to defend them than Ferdinand simply by stature. Deco playing the first half took it easy on Evans (who I think will be really good, and soon).

I think I know what you mean but I personally think Ferdinand is poor in the air when compared to someone say like Vidic, but if you mean by stature his presence yeh Ferdinand has a lot of that and is terrific on the ball.

Vidic is definitely better in the air, but Ferdinand is so goddamned big that he can interfere with crosses without being that good  :grin:

Remember when Ferdinand was injured then banned for missing a drugs test (or was it the other way round)?  United struggled massively without him.  I admit that they have a better set of players around him now than then, and that Vidic is possibly technically more skilled in the air (he won me our work Fantasy football a couple of years ago with his goals), but Ferdinand is like Carragher: a steadying factor.

Except when he decides he's a midfielder.  :ye_gods:

Heh. Watching him try to dribble the ball more than 10 feet is pretty painful.

He used to play up front. Perhaps I got swayed by the 3-0 he is a top player but at 30m he'd want to be, Evans on the other hand a youth team product.

Still waiting for Keane to come good...

Fixed it for you.

Hard to do that from the stands.

It's pretty easy to wait, actually.

The bookies have Benitez odds on to be out of a job in September doesn't bode well.

If Benitez loses his job, he only has himself to blame.

Taking off Gerrard for Keane in the 81st fucking minute? REALLY? That's what you got? Why the fuck is Babel getting a full 90, when he's had one decent pop at goal the whole night, and has spent the rest of the time mostly losing possession on the edge of the box? And Lucas? WTF? Take Lucas off and put Keane up top with Gerrard in the middle and let Javier hold the middle. There were so many better ways to have subbed in Keane last night than what he chose.

I concur.

EL NINO, BITCHES!!!!!!

That red card against Lampard was total bullshit. And I say this as an absolute hater of Lampard, but he got rooked. At best, that should have been a yellow, or if Riley was going to show Lampard a red, he should have also showed Alonso a second yellow for his challenge. That was totally crazy and has probably ensured that Chelsea's title hopes are done (what with Lampard being suspended 3 games for a straight red). Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if the FA rescinds Lampard's red then gives Bosingwa a red for stomping on Benayoun's back in the corner. That shit was completely ridiculous and Bosingwa was lucky to finish the match.

Heh, scolari clearly prefers to have lampard in the team too, as he suggested the same thing.

It's official. Keane is headed back to Spurs.

Fuck's sake. Really? Better have a goddamn bubble built around Torres' hamstrings because if he goes down, WE ARE FUCKED.

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY
HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY
HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY
HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY
HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY
HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY
HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY JOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I could only understand this if you were going to receive Lennon or to a lesser extent Jenas in return for him you desperately need a right winger.

Yeah, a swap deal for Lennon would have been worth it's weight in fucking gold. As it is, they apparently got 12 million pounds with escalator clauses built in, are down a player to back up Torres' fragile hamstrings and Rafa looks like a DOUCHE for mistreating a good player. If Pool don't win the title or the Champion's League, Rafa should be gone.

But then, Tom Hicks should have been gone a fucking year ago. This little feud probably has more to do with player problems than anything else.

Keane's an odd one, I don't know if really like the guy but I think he's got a touch of class on the field and plays with a lot of heart unlike Kuyt who just has one of those traits going for him (no prizes for guessing which one). What's odd about him is I get the impression he might be a bit of a pain in the arse to have in your team though I can't imagine he's anywhere near as bad as Craig Bellamy.

Actually I decided to add to this: outside of my personal prejudices against Keane which may be completely arseways and media driven anyway. Rafa stated publically to the fans and media he wasn't going to sell him and then just went ahead regardless. Now I know he hasn't been having a great season but if you compare the situation to Berbatov it's fairly similar. You wouldn't see Fergie even dream of selling Berbatov he's an absolute gem of a player (on his day) and is willing to play as sub or in rotation as long as he is in a team competing for honours, I would imagine that's every managers dream. Now I don't understand why the media and people piled on Keane's performances in the way they seem to have done but Berbatov got a few initial bad writeups and then you have Kuyt wow that guy is a bit of a donkey if truth be told why not harangue him out the door? I think the problem is Benitez has become a total reactionary and is really trying to play up to the media and the fans/trolls more than he should, but then he keeps playing donkey legs IJDGI lol.

So, for my American Bretheren.

Who's ready for the 11th?  :drill:

IN.  So we going to be playing the 1st stringers, right?  Unlike that friendly v Sweeden?  (Which was actually fairly entertaining.)

Back to Pool v Chelsea for a second; I think the unsung man of the match would have to be Mascherano coming on late.  He totally fired up the offense and should have had a goal of his own in the mix there in the final minutes.  Hand it to Benitez for that subbing.  I was coming off the couch though with the Gerrard feed in to Torres... that is what it is all about for me watching football.

You must mean Benayoun. He came on late. Mascherano was on from the get go.

This is it, man, This is GAME FUCKING ONE of the fucking WORLD CUP qualifying FINALS! Against FUCKING MEXICO. In Columbus. Where we own them.

Yeah, this will be the the people Bob expects to start  in South Africa.   I'm  really looking forward to seeing who gets the nods.


Oh, he's in league one, so take it with a ton of salt, but check out Jemal Johnson. Dudes on fire for MK Dons, and If he can keep the form up I'd expect to see him in something like the gold cup or a qualifier if we wrap up top seed. God that would be sweet.


Feels good to have Keane back.

Mexico is going down hard. They don't like the cold weather much.

Grr.  Yes, that one.

Have to say though it was only Portsmouth Benitez might be having last laugh Kuyt's goal was superb and very important, you would think a team managed by a class central defender would be able to defend well, the defending from the freekick especialy was schoolboy shit, they didn't even make a wall.

Liverpool's free kick defense has at least one or two plays a game where they just fall the fuck asleep. The announcers keep blaming the zonal marking Rafa uses but I just think they go to sleep. I was pissed most of that game. I mean, Pompey has been playing for shit, but that lineup Rafa put out there was fucking clownshoes territory. 3-4-2-1? WTF? He was essentially playing 6 fucking defenders in that lineup - Carragher, Agger and Skrtel in the back, Dossena and Arbeloa on the sides and Aurellio in Alonso's playmaker position. Little fucking wonder they failed to score until they subbed in. That's the kind of defensive stacking you use against a Man U or a Chelsea, not fucking POMPEY.

Babel is just a completely worthless player to me. He absolutely cannot hold fucking possession. He only knows one style, run right the fuck at someone and hope you can blow by him. When he can't, which is often, his lazy, clumsy feet lose him the ball 9 times out of 10. He's ok as a sub to stretch some tired legs, but he is fucking worthless from the get go, and I say that as someone who wanted him to get more starts. That experiment needs to be over.

So, Who  pill pick up the ashes for Pompey? And who would you pick to man the good ship Chelsea?

Chewing these words after Sundays performance I've never seen Giggs looks so spritely & Scholes is class always been class wtf was I thinking about. Though they did look a bit ring rusty at the start of the season.

That was classic Giggs: really like that goal from about seven years ago where he ran down the wing (vs Arsenal?) to score, seemingly passing every defender twice on the way.

Oh you mean the greatest FA cup goal ever yeh that was pure magic :grin: He had a fairly average season last year by his standards figure he's got to be pushing on, but he's a consumate pro and keeps going on and on like a Duracell bunny.

I seem to remember hearing a commentator saying that was all 17 premiership seasons with at least one goal in every single one.  Gobsmacking.

Aye.

Fucking hiddink. If anyone can get something out of Chelsea for the rest of the year it's him.

Well tonights the night

Forecast: 50 degrees at gametime, with rain and winds in the mid twenties with gusts up to 60.

7 Eastern they'll probably get it started a few minutes after to get the game in before 9

ESPN2.

I predict a gritty slugfest, with a few fights and maybe even an ejection.  USA coming out on top 2-1. Man of the match going to Landon Donovan, but really belonging to Brian Ching.

Dos a cero yet again.

We own Mexico.

The coaches son actually has some game, doesn't he?  Very nice effort from the U.S.  I was hoping that Dempsey would show up in the scoresheet but despite some creative efforts it didn't pan out.  Still, 2-0 is great.  Stay classy, Mexico.

Good game! U-S-A U-S-A!!!

Bradley has definitely got game. He keeps this up, he might get some sniffs from a better league than one of the Scandies. That red card for Marquez though? In real time, I thought that was a nothing bump, but the replay showed that the ref has better eyes than me. That was a horribly stupid unnecessary challenge. Marquez should know better.

Not that anyone cares, but Norway beat Germany 0 - 1 in a friendly yesterday! First win against them since we took a bronze medal in Adolf's olympic games in 1936 :P

We had no wins throughout all of 2008 against rather medicore opposition, and then a few weeks ago(!) we got our glorious fotball professor of a coach (Egil "Drillo" Olsen, though few/none of you will likely recognize the name) back, and we all of a sudden beat Germany (#2 on Fifa Ranking right now) 0 - 1!

It's the same coach who previously brought us to two world-cup play-offs (in 94 and 98), beating England at Wembley during the 94 qualifiers and Brazil in Marseille in 98, amongst other things. We also beat Brazil 4 - 2 in a friendly earlier the same year, btw. Interesting note there: We've got the only national team in the world who've played Brazil and never lost (2 wins, 2 draws). :)

Anyway, I'm all of a sudden starting to get my enthusiasm for my national team back. Huzzah!

The only player I can think of who plays for them is Pedersen so must be a few handy unknowns in your team. Good one for stuffing the Germans, Brazil are funny like that in Euro friendlies they don't tend to shine Ireland have had pretty good results against them aswell. Speaking of which Ireland won 2-1 yesterday with a little generosity from the ref  =) Our pal Robbie Keane grabbed a brace despite having a fairly lacklustre game against some tenacious Georgian defending.

Bradley is in Bundesliga. Granted  it's with Borussia Monchengladbach, but still.

And you can see where that defensive play was a great benefit.  Any ball within five yards of him was his. he covered for some serious lapses by Pearce.  and kept the lack of communication between Gooch and Bocanegra from being terribly explioted.

Having said that, we know why Gio's on the back bench at Tottenham now. Wow, he couldn't finish for shit.

Also, One of the assistants for Mexico punched Frankie after the game, but all concerned think it was just a misunderstanding of what Hedjuck  said after the game.

I literally did not recognize Sasha without the hair. Also, great job one the field. as bad as it was before gametime,

Also, Jozy got a little introduction to the big time. No Jozy, you can not stand up  with the ball on your feet against mexico that close to the penalty area with the lead and expect to hold onto it.

Edit: Congrats to Norway on the great job getting the win.

I thought they said Bradley was loaned out to Heerneveen or some other unpronouncable (by my crude American tongue) Scandie club.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/players/stats?id=41952&cc=5901 (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/players/stats?id=41952&cc=5901)

Yep, Heerenveen.

A couple other high-profile players who play regularly that you may/may not know of:
-Ex-"Wannabe Liverpudlian" and left-back/winger John Arne Riise (now in Roma, but injured so didn't play against Germany)
-Aston Villa striker John Carew (also injured for this match)
-Fulham-defender Brede Hangeland (born in Houston, US!)

Also, Robbie Keane :heartbreak: - he never got the chance he deserved at Liverpool :( Just when it looked like his goal-scoring form was on it's way, Rafa benched him for good.

Soccernet? BWAHAHAHAHAH

http://www.borussia.de/en/first_team,118917,0.html

He's at Monchegladbach.

Heerenveen is Eredivisie,  Freeky deaky dutch. And he was there, but no more.

Also We really miss Cherundolo, and if we had Subotic with Bocanegra on the left, I'd be feeling a damn sight better about making noise in the cup.

Random friendly thoughts:

-Fucking Robinho, holy shit, Italy got owned, that was 2 defenders + gigi = nothing versus him.  What is he 23?  Younger?  Fuck me, Brazil might take South Africa even though they are playing flaky in the qualifiers.

-Meanwhile, France = shit.  Hahaha makes me so happy.  Their keeper didn't have a good game but still Argentina was playing like crap and they still took em out.  If they can clog the middle and swarm on defense while playing with their usual flair and creativity on attack...  Too bad whenever I see Argentina players up close I want to punch them.

-I saw the goal versus Germany, very nice to bury that cross.

Thoughts on USA v Mexico:

I know that I don't follow MLS, nor the qualifiers prior to this point but what the heavenly fuck.  I sat there wondering if people were hurt or if the US federation told Bradley to make it seem like soccer was a white kid's game as much as possible.  No Adu, no Altidore until garbage time and no Edu, no Eddie Johnson?  Wtf was going on there?  What have I missed?

Ching played a shit second half, Dempsey is a sulky cunt and barely played 20 minutes of decent football.  Frankie has always been my man, Donovan plays well versus Mexico every time.  Beasley had some pep in his step but I just don't think he can do that versus a side with quality.

Sadly the US suffered from some same as its ever been problems.  The crosses were for the most part wasted, though I was happy they were using the space found on the left flank very well in the first half.  The backs still broadcast their passes hella much and only make the simplest pass into midfield, they are also nowhere to be found on the overlap.  Also I saw every US player collapse to the middle of the top of the box like 4 times in the game.  Seriously, must have been 3+ players going to the same spot.  Fuck.

That second half after the red card was so sad.  I wanted them to step on Mexico's throat and instead we turtle?  Fuck that.

Johnson can't got a whiff from cardiff city, Edu is further on the pine than Beasley at Ibrox, Adu is stuck on the bench at monaco. Altidore is riding pine at xeres now, but Villareal will see to it that he gets quality minutes.

Ching is still working on match fitness and has always been a defensive aid at the international level rather than a goal scorer

Dempsey has started tracking back for the ball, he has improved greatly over the past year, but needed some better help from the wings.

Bradley was screaming at the guys to be more agressive. That's a team mind set that we have to get past. We're good enough to put a 4-0 score on Mexico. we're good enough to draw Italy. We were good enough to deserve to beat Germany in 02. We just need to believe that we can do it and eventually we will.


This might be the year we win at azteca. If it is, holy shit at the change that could bring.

This team, more than any other team in the world right now is  bigger than the sum of its parts. I think it's time we start to understand that. It's time for them to play  like it as well. Finish off teams decisively, with no chance to come back.

We've got a pretty good squad right now. I look forward to seeing what Jose Francisco Torres will do. He's a great player for Pachuca. Again, I miss the ones who got away.  I feel really good about the overall team development. MLS continues its gradual improvement.Americansare testing the european waters in bigger number, but the key will be to continue to grow the game here. That's happening in a way it never really has before, but it's still early in the cycle of growth.


This is a great time to be an American soccer fan.

You know, I was sort of hoping that he'd do something good for Mexico but that USA would win the game... missed a sitter in the opening minutes and then later, literally was sitting down with a chance from 2 feet to score.  Dreadful.  (OTOH he is only 19...)

Sitting on the bench at Spurs really doesn't do much good for developing talent. Rafa Benitez has been very critical of the EPL's reserve system for developing talent and he may have a point.

Cudicini on Scolari,
"It just didn't work out," the Italian told the Sunday Times. "I didn't say he was the wrong man the day he was appointed because I didn't know him then but now I know he was a mistake.
"He had been an international coach, not a club manager, for far too long. It was a different culture for him too. English football is totally different to what he knew and he found it difficult to adapt to the style and speed of the game. He was a very nice guy but not the right person. Jose Mourinho won two Premier League titles with Chelsea and Cudicini admits he was able to adjust to the demands of English football much quicker than Scolari."

I always believed him to be the wrong man for the job and yes I am gloating a little but hey sometimes you call it right.

Welp, there goes the fucking title. 7 points isn't insurmountable, but seriously at home against a side with super shitty away form and you can't manage to pot 2 goals to win?

At least second place will get them out of Champions League qualifying rounds next season.

Paddy power started paying out on a domestic treble already.

On a side note, Madrid beat the everliving shit out of Betis. 6-1 at the half and just coasted.  The fifth goal, a brilliant diagonal ball to an even better scooped finish by Raul was a thing of absolute beauty.

Goddamnit, I am so fucking disgusted. What team was that on pitch today at the Riverside in gray? Did someone bring up a League Two side without my knowing it and give them Liverpool masks? That wasn't worth a Carling Cup first round match. Fucking awful play and awful team selection. Why is Benayoun on the fucking bench? He's been carrying the goddamn team the last month. Donkey-Legs Kuyt (thank you to whoever gave him that nickname) was useless, El Zhar isn't even a good bench choice and Babel is worse than useless. His new nickname is Fumblestiltskin, because he cannot fucking keep the ball if there is anyone within 5 feet of him. If he can't run around you, he has no fucking idea what to do with the ball. He can't cross from wide areas worth a shit, which doesn't matter because the minute he gets the ball on the wing, he'll go towards the middle without fail (and without fail lose the fucking ball). Skrtel is now on my shit list. Why is he continually picked ahead of Daniel Agger? Agger is just as good defensively AND he's 100 times better coming out of the back with the ball.

Why is Liverpool so absolutely devoid of depth at most positions? Arbeloa goes down and Carragher or Skrtel has to play out there (because Degen got hurt, but Rafa never picked him anyway). Keane gets shipped off right when he was  getting in form and suddenly the only choices behind Torres are Donkey Legs and the Frenchie. It's fucking obscene how badly the Rafa/Parry tandem have brought in players - they overpay for people they turn around and ship off, they leave decent options like Crouch on the bench until they HAVE to sell him, and their depth players wouldn't be great on relegation sides.

It isn't like Boro put on a display of football acumen. They were fucking awful, especially at the back. Yet they were never even tested. Congrats Alex on your 3rd straight title.

I subscribe to the opinions of the above poster.

Barcelona crumbling, losing the past 2 matches…

Unfortunately, Valencia started fading before 2008 was out and has been out of the title race for a while. As it is, they'll be lucky to be challenging for a UEFA spot. I guess not paying your players does have an effect on the pitch after all!

If Blackburn can stay up (Fucking do it Big Sam!) and at least one of Spurs/Newcastle/Boro can fall out of the EPL I'll be fucking thrilled with this season's results.

Based on how badly they played in beating Liverpool, I would definitely put even odds on Boro. I think Big Sam can save Rovers - a team with Roque Santa Cruz should not be a candidate for relegation.

WBA, Portsmouth and Boro would be my bet, tightcall though.

I actually think it'll be WBA and Boro for sure, with either Stoke or Newcastle being the third team. Toon fans deserve the kick in the bollocks of taking the drop after the way they've shit on managers and the owner for the last few years.

Totally.  I'm  a Liverpool fan, but like a lot of Scots I had a soft spot for Newcastle for a long time, and popped down from Edinburgh for the odd match at St James, courtesy of a toon fan friend with contacts for tickets.

But their massive sense of entitlement, combined with an absolute rage at anyone who doesn't preface any comment on them with the words "best fans in the country/world/game", has me hoping they go down, Leeds-style.

A little MLS news for you. . .

Looks like the  two new expansion cities have been selected, from all accounts it's going to be Portland and Vancouver.

So all you Sounders fans now have your ready made rivals. this also to me sounds like a deathknell for USL 1.

Also, if DC United can't find a stadium home, expect them to move to Saint Louis. Normally I'd be pissy with this sort of thing, but it's been going on a decade they've had to work with the local government, and it wasn't like they were asking for a total handout, either.

Season starts next  Thursday :)

I am looking forward to having a local team to follow. Should be fun!

Something needs to clean out that fucking pathetic organization.  I've hated Newcastle with a passion for the last 5 years it feels like.  Terrible waste of the talent they have, awful moves, sacking all sorts of coaches, just a cesspool that seems to fuck  up anyone who gets involved and all the time people acting like they are owed a top 6 finish just for being Newcastle.  Pricks

The Nats had the same problem in baseball. The city is just fuckstupid for building any sort of stadium.

Unless it is for the Redskins.

Synder had money to piss away for the Skins (and broken down overpriced free agents). The Nats had to deal with Peter Angelos being a cockgobbler about the Baltimore market. DC United is soccer - even in a market where the team is loved, it's still soccer.

yes. and there you have it. DCU does well, but it's not a huge operation like the other two.

Although, Season tickets are up across the board and things continue to grow.  In this economy, that's saying something.

Buh Bye, Inter. Woot.

I'm pretty gay for Ronaldo, but that Utd team is scary, systemically they are just so fucking solid.  Inter had pretty much everything shut down, except Giggs who went bananas for whatever reason but it still never seemed like there was any doubt on Utd's side who was going to win.  I just fucking wish that Anderson and/or Nani would put me out of the misery of seeing Scholes play football.  Fuck I hate that guy.  Four English teams advance?  Weak.  Please don't make me root for Bayern...

Giggs is apparently a direct descendant of Ponce De Leon...he is playing like he is 25, not 35. He can't handle the grind of multiple 90 minute games every week, but he is has been spectacular in a variety of roles recently. I wonder if his prominence is related to Ronaldo's relatively quiet season. The team seems to be running through Giggs these days instead of Ronaldo. I think they will sell him off over the summer. Heard a rumor that they would try to buy Frank Ribery if they dumped Ronaldo. That guy is fun as hell to watch, but pretty much the polar opposite of Ronaldo in terms of looks.  :ye_gods:

I moved the entire Liverpool thread to the Den cause some of you guys are being fucktards.

LOL Awesome  :awesome_for_real:

Normally I have to go to bigsoccer to get my dose of people a little too personally invested in their soccer.

The FA Cup Semis are confirmed, and:

In the words of Benitez himself, “I do think they have weaknesses,” Benitez continued. “We knew they are really good at playing between the lines with penetrating passes, so we needed to stop those passes and put their midfielders under pressure every time they received the ball. After that, we had to play simple passes and go forward quickly because they are an offensive team and always high up the pitch."

This was actually taken from the Guardian yesterday related article here (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2009/0316/1224242905662.html)

No tactics eh?

I believe I said a number of times that the tactic was to pressure them in the final third and then counter. Which is a different thing to trying to flood the midfield. So I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to say here?


Which is pretty much exactly what Benetiz said he did. Tried to take advantage of Utd playing high up the pitch to counter quickly and get in behind them. I expect if Alonso played instead of Lucas that Liverpool would have been able to apply that pressure further up the pitch, but as it turned out Liverpool played deeper and moved the ball a lot down the wings.

Maybe we have different ideas of what "crowd out the midfield" means. I take that to mean dominate possession in the midfield through numbers and break up the other teams play by not letting them play through that area. This is also the general terminology I am familiar with from soccer commentators, with 'pressure' or a 'pressing game' being the word used to harassing the other side. In the Utd Liverpool game Liverpool tried to play a pressing game in their final defensive third, with players like Macherano who excel at it, then move the ball quickly up to to the other end and unsettle the defenders (which worked well as it turned out, though I'm not entirely sure if it's a real weakness of Utd or just the fact O'Shae was playing and Vidic had a bad day). Utd on the other had tried to play their more normal game with an emphasis on pressuring the opponent all over. This is what Rooney and Tevez do very well.

Yes but your original argument was that they had no tactics at all and I was talking "bullshit", so to come back with it's simple misunderstanding over soccer terminologies is a bit of a cop out. But I'll humour you in the hope you might learn something yes "crowding out the midfield" was meant to mean, deny them space in which to work which to me usually means applying pressure or just merely a lot of bodies in there and hope they move in the right direction ...you know five across the midfield with two or three hardworking deep players!! This I thought would have been made somewhat apparent with my constant reference to Scholes and his outstanding abilities to work in tight areas and under pressure through great technique and positional play.

That's not what happened in the game, though. Which is why I make the point. "crowding the midfield" and "pressuring their players" are not interchangeable terms. They can both happen at the same times, true, but they don't have to. In this game in fact it was Utd that had the majority of midfield possession. Their problem was not being able to find the final passes, in part due to the fact that their forwards, Rooney and Tevez, were often dropping back into the midfield. Liverpool did pressure the midfield players, but only when they were in the final third of the pitch, and then they tried to quickly counter.

Carrick missed 5 passes. 4 of those were ball into the final third of the pitch. He also made 3 midfield interceptions (Mascherano and Lucas together made 1, in the final third). Anderson misplaced 2, not counting corners. Only 1 wasn't in the final third of the pitch. Rooney misplaced, 12 (counting corners). All but one was in the final third of the pitch. Park misplaced 1. Final third of the pitch. (Scholes misplaced none from 13, but only played one ball into the final third, and that was a very short pass down the wing). Gerrard misplaced 6 not counting corners. All but one weren't in the final third. When one player misplaces more passes in the midfield than the entire midfield of the other side, you might want to think about what that indicates about the way the two teams were setup.

I could pick out these stats all day, but I'm not sure it's worth it. You can take a look yourself over at the Guardian chalkboards. Both the stats and my memory support the idea that it was Utd that crowded the midfield, and Liverpool that choose to let them advance up the field (letting them play 'high' as Benetiz said they do) and then pressure the passes in the final third and then break and try get in behind the defense.

Edit: My original comment was that I didn't think it was a fact that Benitez had got it 'right'. Not that he didn't have tactics. I think it was a case of Ferguson getting it wrong up forward, and Vidic having a bad day. It's not like Liverpool played all over Utd. They had two brain fades from Vidic to cancel out poor penalties from both sides. Utd played poorly and deservedly lost, but to put that down to a tactical masterstroke and nothing else is pretty flippant.

Edit 2: Made a Chalkboard to demonstrate the point.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/chalkboards/J18D351gFA0g06w7rk20

And interceptions:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/chalkboards/9716A3tO2X48va5H7EX5

Notice the location of where the various teams passing broke down.

I wouldn't use the superlative "masterstroke" but considering Liverpool were the ones who needed to win the game I thought it pretty canny. Where I think you are wrong is Liverpool applied the pressure not in the final third but in front of their own defence and at times up further, but mostly where Mascherano generally operates and United's midfield likes to play it around (your chalkboards whether you choose to see it or not actually reinforce that). & as far as arguing about crowding and pressure yer goin a bit off the rails, I mean do you think Benitez pulled Mascherano aside and said "listen son, today I need you to apply pressure to the opposing midfield ok"?

In reference to using chalkboards and how they can be misleading , take for example the game on Saturday & the pressure being applied to the midfield further up the pitch, Carrick then resorted to punting the ball from his own half to the forwards so a lot of missed passes will then show up in deep areas and in the final third, where forwards received some of the punts but don't have any options around them so ended up giving it away. This is not cause of pressure applied in these areas but because they needed to find a way around Liverpools congested midfield.

Anyhow I think Benitez pretty much mirrored exactly what I said albeit in his own language and your whole basis for your argument is falling apart or getting way too complicated/boring, or is it just that hard to admit you were wrong? The only thing worth discussing is was it a good idea for Benitez to reveal the blueprint on how to beat United or is it a bit much to expect most teams in the Premiership to be able to match the combative Liverpool midfield & the attacking prowess of Torres and Gerrard? Also take into account United only play all out attacking football at home (or away against the lesser teams) and any match that might be a bit cagey/important they resort to a more counterattacking ploy, which basically they should have employed on Saturday. If he got it right it might prove beneficial to the title race or maybe every team already knew this but just aren't Liverpool.

Reminder, Check out Seattle's new team tonight on

I wonder how much work it would be for MS to set up MLS themes, or at least a Sounder theme. It was funny to see.


Also.

ESPN lost the rights to air champions league, English or Spanish.

English is won by Fox Soccer.

Spanish is on Fox Sports Espanol.

 I think that starts up next year? maybe 2011, I don't know how far out they were bidding.

Either way, huge blow to ESPN's soccer coverage.

ESPN lost Champion's League to Fox? They must not have tried very hard. I'm going to chalk that up to the economy. Maybe ESPN is trying to focus on more core "American" content to save money.

Attention soccer fans in seattle.

Your team, unless something is horribly wrong with NY, has potential.

And Go. See. Montero.

Holy fuck he was doing some absolutely sick shit out there.

Liverpool and Chelsea just drew each other in the CL QF, facing Barca (or theoretically Bayern) in the semi. I suppose the pair meeting one round early is what passes for originality. Despite this draw, 08-09 will only feature 4 Liverpool-Chelsea ties, which is a record for the fewest times Liverpool have played Chelsea in a season since Benitez joined the club.

Manchester Utd and Arsenal received byes in the quarters and will face each other in the semis.

Liverpool vs Manchester final would be most probable right now imo.

You had me for a second with the "byes" thing  :awesome_for_real:

I suppose you're right that Liverpool might go into the QF as slight favourites this time round, but it's marginal, and I am even less sanguine about the Barca match.  I'd say a Man Utd appearance in the final is almost inevitable, but I believe they'll most likely be playing the Catalans.

Utd got by far the best draw of the lot there. Liverpool Chelsea will be too close to call you'd expect, but the winner of that would have to be a good chance at the final. I think they'll both match up well against a Barca side that knows how to attack but is shaky in defense and hasn't really shown a lot in being able to break down welll organised teams.

I don't really give Bayern a chance, though that might hasty, and I think Villarreal could actually get one over Arsenal on a good day.

More Liverpool-Chelsea teeth gnashing? Or are the fans of those sides not as bothered by them matching up again as I would have thought?

Wow that game was fun to watch. I am sure they will have some down times, but that was a hell of a way to start! I am guessing something is really wrong with NY though- other than about a 10 minute stretch in the 2nd half, most of the game was played in their end. And yes, Montero was just abusing their back 4. And he is only 21!! Should be fun to watch him over the next few seasons.

I agree it is marginal, Liverpool's side of the draw has 3 of top 4 sides imo.

You could argue that us playing at home first in both rounds (which the stats say is a 60:40 disadvantage) actually makes Barca the more likely finalist.

For what it's worth, I think Barca would beat Chelsea, but lose to Liverpool in a semi.

I'm more worried about not making the semi than losing in it.

The point when He had three defenders on him, and used  skill finesse and strength to get through them all, THEN pass it to guy making the  run on the wing. That was something to watch.

And then just abused Petke on the last goal. Absolutely sick. And he made it look effortless.


I want to watch them against rsl, and a little against Toronto. and I REALLY want to see them against Chicago.

Chances of him being here a few seasons are low.  It was a total coup getting him out of Colombia, and I suspect he's going to Europe in the near future.  Fantastic game.  The expectation is that Seattle will have a shitty back line this season, but either that's not true or Red Bull have the worst attack on the planet.

It was just announced that Portland is getting a team in '11, along with Vancouver, which had already been announced.  Fierce rivalries incoming!
I already pre-hate both of them for that critical game in the future that one of them will beat us in.

Well, my wife is a Chelsea fan (has been since the start of the nineties so not just a glory-hunter) and i'm a Liverpool fan, and I can tell you that in this house it's more an air of worried acceptance on both sides than excitement.  Not a statistically significant sample, I admit.

Yeah, I found out he is on loan after I posted that. And I agree- he will be in Europe eventually.

Did Ljunberg play? how'd he look?

He looked like this:
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_VPFo4Nzmas8/R6XFHLwlOCI/AAAAAAAAADU/KF_2pRfsnXs/s400/FredrikLjungberg.jpg)

But no, he didn't play.  He's out hurt.  But Alonso and Evans looked solid in Midfield, so he can probably go back to West Ham.

Holy shit, did Seattle look good or what? That Montero kid is fucking magic. Yeah, he's going to get snapped up within a year. If he makes it through the summer transfer window, I'll be gobsmacked. Alonso, Nyassi and Evans all appeared to be quality talent as well. Of course, NY looked like total monkey shit most of the game. Goldthwaite just got ABUSED. Their midfield was shit, they gave Angel nothing to work with and even Dane Richards got marginalized. Seattle's season shouldn't be nearly as good as this, but they already look better than both Toronto and San Jose did on their debuts.

Liverpool and Chelsea drawing in the CL is  :uhrr: I've seen this match before. With Guus on the job at Chelsea, I give it even odds.

It appears we've entered the inevitable 'didn't want that premier league anyway' phase of the season.
 :why_so_serious:

THAT'S MY SPURS!

Great heart, great determination. Some wonderful play there and a hell of a save by Gomes.

and LOL go Fulham  :drill:

Also, I think Seattle may be able to hold onto Montero. The pockets of Seattle are as deep as just about anyones out there. Also, it's just one game.  Let's see what happens when they play a team we know has some talent. Lets see what happens as far as budgets and the CBA...

Woo, the season finally gets interesting.

Has to be said it's one of the most entertaining PL's in a long while. The relegation fight is gonna be a hoot & I hope Newcastle go down as was said earlier in the thread. I think Pool might actually clinch this  :ye_gods:

For a season that mere weeks ago was considered dreadfully boring,  things sure changed quickly didn't they.

A ton of teams fighting out for a ticket to Europe, the Relegation fight, The top of the table, Villa trying to top Arsenal I can't think of a single team that can really afford to coast.

WHich of course means Spurs wil probabvly do it and wind up 15th  :oh_i_see:

AND Liverpool is back in the race!  :grin: :awesome_for_real: :uhrr: :ye_gods:

Wow, did they fucking dismantle Villa or what? I didn't think Villa was that bad, and yes, Liverpool certainly got the benefit of at least one red card penalty. But still... 5-0 is gold, Jerry, GOLD. Not only did it put them above Chelsea (congratulations on losing), but erased the goal differentials between themselves and both Man. U and Chelsea. So now Spurs has beaten Liverpool AND Chelsea. Do they still have a game against United? Maybe erase that game-in-hand advantage Man. U. has? Please?

The relegation battle is going to be tough and ugly. Looking at the table, you could conceivably take any team from 10 on down and put them in thd drop zone with just a few bad weeks. I think Spurs and Man City are safe enough, but from Bolton on down, the margins are just too close to call. Boro is going down and Southgate is probably going to lose his job. Albion is going down but I don't expect them to sack their manager. I think both Pompey and Rovers are safe, and Sunderland, Bolton and Hull have the backbone to at least limp into safety. So it'll be a Stoke City/Newcastle United face off, and I really think the Toons don't have the manager or the players to do it. Big Sam will laugh his ass off if he keeps Rovers up and the Toons drop, and so will I.

I'm hoping Villa turns their shit around and takes fourth. I'm tired of Arsenal being in the Champion's League, and I really like the way O'Neill has put together the Villa team. I really want to see Gareth Berry playing Champion's League with Villa and not with Liverpool. Even thoug he could do well at Liverpool, I'd rather see them get a right-sided midfielder like an Aaron Lennon. Riera is good enough on the left most days.

Spurs do have their away leg at ManU end of April.  On the other hand they play at Anfield on the final week of the season.  (You would hope Tottenham have nothing to play for by then, I suppose.)

I'm now doubtful about Villa's chances in unseating Arsenal; hope they can pull it out because I'd love to see that too.  Either way, taking a bite out of Chelsea's season was great for Spurs.

Hey now.  Spurs aren't out of the running for 6th.

Personally, most of my EPL attention is focused on anticipating rooting for Wolves in the Premiership next season.  Ebanks-Blake is a machine.

Yeah, Wolves have finally put it together again. I'm going to have too many teams to root for in the EPL next season if Hull stays up and Reading and Wolves make it back. Of course, as it is, Reading will still have to win the playoffs, but fingers crossed. They didn't look great against Palace this weekend.

This gave me a laugh-

(http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2333/imageofiouakaaig.jpg)

hehehe

I've actually felt a little guilty/embarassed wearing my ManU jersey when playing because of that shit.

A opposed to feeling guilty/embearrassed for having a shirt with this logo?
(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/kevbwright/Manchester_United_FC.png)
 :grin:

Whut no way that logo is just made of awesome.

British football club logos look awful, in general.  Not surprising, given when most of them were added or last revised.

I have to say the ManU logo is one of the better ones out there.

Just marks you as a gloryhound  :awesome_for_real:

(http://f-links.org.ru/scotland/Greenock_Morton1.gif)

Now that's a logo.

And it won't ever mark you out as a glory hunter...

I've always liked the design of the Spurs logo actually. It has a nice kind of PanAm era elegance about it.

I was going to add a derisive zinger at the end, but really, why bother?

Aw man I never noticed our badge has "ltd" at the end of it.  That's fucking awful.

When I was nine (1985 just after they had won the FA cup) a few older kids pinned me up against a wall and asked me which team I supported, the only team I could think of under the pressure of a severe beating was Man United. They were obviously supporters too cause they let me go unscathed seemed like a good idea to support them after that... though doesn't say much for the fans.

Spurs are a derisive zinger. I picked up Spurs because of Klinsmann and Kasey Keller. My first real taste of near glory was killed by bad lasagna.  Sad to think that's as close as they've come as of late.

Sounders game tomorrow night! I am headed to my brother's house for the evening, but plan to force him and his family to watch. They could use the culture!  :grin:

Gotta say I am not terribly envious of the fans in the stands tomorrow night. It is going to be a shitty wet windy mess. At least they sell beer!

MLS not following international schedule sucks ass, although it's better than it was.

I want to watch Sounders, I want to check out TFC to see if they're as good as last week  against a solid Columbus. I want to see  Convey and Huckerby against the Dynamo.


But several of the best players won't be there, because they're in El Salvador playing in a Cup Qualifier.

Plus I've got to watch all those games. Once again, MLSlive.tv is your friend.

Doh! I knew it was international week but I forgot all about the USMNT game- thanks for reminding me! Will have to keep an eye on that too.

Don't forget the third one Wednesday in Nashville against T&T.

Heh yeah I went and checked the schedule as soon as I realized there was a game coming. I have a Tivo Season Pass set up to grab the games in case I miss them, but I prefer to watch them live. Soccer is great that way, since there aren't a bunch of commercials slowing things down. I watch all my regular season hockey on TiVo-delay just so I can FF through all that crap. Watching the UW-Purdue game in the NCAA tourney live nearly drove me insane- there was literally a commercial break every two or 3 possessions!!

The talk about Montero got me checking the schedule.  I live less than 2 hours away from the Home Depot Center up in Carson, CA; home to both the Galaxy and Chivas USA.  (I didn't once ever think of going to see Beckham.)

Looks like for a Galaxy game against the Sounders I'll wait until August.  On the other hand, Chivas play them in 3 weeks.  Sweet.

And with Chivas, you'll know that plenty of Good seats are available.

You can probably sit front row for that.


Seriously. Chivas draws dick. All the people in the know are waiting for them to be moved to St louis or someplace that wants a team.

LA follows Galaxy. And Chivas forgot that only a small segment of the latino population a: was from Mexico b) were fans of Chivas de Guadalajara . All the CA fans and Pumas and Cruz Azul and everyone else  fucking hates chivas. Which is good, becuase Chivas is a bunch of smug turdburgulars.

Switched to the Sounders game at about the 69 minute mark in the US v El Salvador game. Apparently all hell broke loose soon afterwards! Very surprising result to me- away games are always tough, but El Salvador hadn't even scored on the US in like 12 years or something crazy.

Sounders game was a lot more fun to watch overall. Keller made a couple of fantastic saves, and Montero hit a 25 yarder that was just WRONG. That kid can fucking play!

US  stunk up the continent Saturday. fortunately, Frankie Hejduk never, ever quits. And Jozy is a scoring machine. Also, Time to put Torres in for Sascha.

Seattle is really good. but I want to see what happens when they're down a goal.

They can be broken, but it will be interesting to see who can do it.

Montero's goal was just wrong.  As soon as Ozzie dropped the ball off to him at around 35 yards out and it's a 4-on-3, you're thinking 'How's this going to go?  Cross to Jaqua?  Through ball to Ljungberg? Out to the corner. . OH HE DID WHAT?!'

Cold as fuck, though.  Thank Buddha they serve coffee at the stadium.

Oh, and the attendance was 28,548
Second highest this week was DCU at 15,895.  Yeah, we're lapping the league.

Noobs. You'd think your Chicago or something.

You haven't faced a challenge yet.

When  Montero pulls that off on Chad Marshall or Soumare or my beloved Dynamo's Goon squad then you can crow. Let s see what happens when you're playing on a really crappy turf like, well next weeks or  ugh Giants stadium. Wait until Kovalenko loses it  on Freddy.  Wait until your in august grinding out games.

Right now, you've got two wins at home. Talk to me after two months.

Yes, it's MLS. but  MLS is not a shit as  people make it out to be.  What it is lacking  is a lot of technical skill. but you won't find a harder charging league out there.

Also crowds are great, keep em coming, but for sheer insanity, nothing has beaten TFC's original goal celebration.



Seriously. Toronto is nuts, just ask Columbus. :D

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/blog.php?b=4617

They had to bring out the cops and the cops chopper to control the scene, in a wonderful display of  force by CBus's finest.


 

So yeah, Newcastle... WHAT THE FUCK?

I know you revere Alan Shearer and all but... ANOTHER FUCKING MANAGER? You cannot literally make this shit up. That's INSANE.

Look, they have a handful of games left, are two points into the relegation zone and are playing Liverpool, Chelsea and Aston Villa, as well as a resurgent Spurs who've not lost in seven games haveing taken 7 points from games against Chelsea, Man Utd and Villa in that time.  It's only natural that the Newcastle board would therefore look at candidates with a breadth and range of experience at the management level, and who have experienced similar situations both as a player and as a coach.  Then discard that list of names, pick a popular alumnus of the club and hail him as the new Geordie messiah, regardless of his never having coached anything more prestigious than his son's school side.

Welcome to the Championship, Toon Army! Be sure to say HI to the Derby County supporters. Tools.

Spurs have everything to play for now, what with seventh spot looking good for europe this year.

Oh and Southampton are on the verge of administration.  They've had trading in their shares suspended.

USA dominates Trinidad, Mexico gets stomped by Honduras. Good times, Good times.

Jozy with the hat trick. That second goal was something American strikers Just. Don't. Do.

He needs to get on the fucking field :now: No fucking way he should be sitting on  the bench for a second division Spanish team.

Much better from the US. What the FUCK happened to Argentina? Holy shit. Also Ireland tied Italy, Scotland beat Iceland, and Poland beat San Marino (Norway didn't play). All my ancestral brethren had good days  :grin:

Who reveres Alan Shearer?

Maybe Maradonna isn't as sharp a coach as the previous outing demonstrated? or  Maybe He owed a debt to a Bolivian.

Mexico has to be going apeshit right now. One win in three, out of the automatic spot and one point ahead of El Salvador and T&T.

Next game for the US is  in june @ Saprissa, with a 3 day turnaround to play in Chicago  against Honduras. four or six there will put us in the home stretch to win  the qualifications, and maybe even get seeded.

Also, only Geordie fuckheads revere Shearer, especially as a head coach. I hope they enjoy  the championship. I think they might be there a while.

The cocaine abuse probably destroyed a few brain cells, what a fucking player though, he singlehandedly (no pun intended) converted me to football  :heart:

I loudly expressed my WTFness when I saw the Bolivia score? When did Argentina become a League Two team? Where were Mascherano, Messi or any of the other world class Argentinian players?

As for the US, good on Altidore, but the rest of the team looked sloppy against T&T. Against any good World Cup opposition, they'd have gotten hammered. Sloppy passes, too many long balls to the wings (who were apparently invisible to the fullbacks for all the attention paid to them). I'm glad they won, but shit, they've got to improve.

I know what it is.

The us has to work on their passing and their touch as a team.

many balls were  given away or opportunities blunted because the just couldn't handle the ball pinged to their feet... Landon especially was notable for that, but he got three assists, so no one says anything. We all know Jozy needs to work on his first touch, but every one needs to do it, and DMB LD and CD especially need to work on their passing pace find the spaced behind more and let people run onto balls in the open.

Onyehu is a beast, but fuck's sake, I cringe everytime he gets the ball. I just know he's going to boing one 50 yards down the pitch. I can't say Beasley did that bad. But the midfield... creativity IN the midfield was completely nonexistent. They were ok once they got in the final 3rd, but they were dreadful on the center circle.

I actually watched the Bolivias match in the pub after the Scotland one, albeit with the sound down, but I have one suggestion as to why the result was so marked (Bolivia looked pretty tasty, anyway).

Your clue is that it was a home game for Bolivia, played in La Paz.

All Beasley seems to bring is speed- I am not seeing much more out of him. Wish the US had a decent option at left back. I used to be a DMB fan, but he is kind of a one trick pony these days.

Altitude does make a big difference, still 6-1 is the worst loss by Argentina in 50 years, or so I seem to remember reading. Not a great result for Maradona at all.

Australia with another dull but useful 2-0 win. 1 more point to qualify, so it's looking pretty solid, but I do wish the team would start playing some good football too...

Re: Argentina scoreline... Didn't FIFA (or COMEBOL or whoever) crack down on the Bolivians, Uruguayans, Peruvians, etc. about playing qualifying games at extreme altitudes or were/are there stadiums even higher than this one?  Yeah, I don't expect it matters how great your athletes are; coming up from sea level to 12,000 foot plus a mere 2 hours before kickoff is FTL.

Well it's not like they've never played in La Paz before.

Oh , So the first signs of the wheels coming off of Seattle.  Freddy's under investigation for Sexual Assault. Also he's got "the Flu" and will be absent from  the game @ TFC.

I'd put money on TFC winning that one. Their turf is wonky and that crowd is a bitch. Let's see Letoux  get a decent corner off with with a face full of streamers.  :awesome_for_real:

Yes they did, and ironically Maradona was one of the major defenders of the right to play at altitude.  To be fair to him. he's refusing to use it as an excuse, or was when I saw him interviewed.

Ok strange question here, would the ball behave differently at altitude aswell?

Probably going to move a little faster in the air, or fly a little farther, like the baseballs do in the Colorado Rockies stadium.

:heartbreak:

How random is it that a guy comes to town, just gets his career going and becomes known, and then gets accused of sexual assault? I don't know anything about Montero as a person (and if he did something like that he is obviously a scumbag), but this just sounds off to me.

I'm more likely to believe if he did do something, it's a guy who has not adjusted to the fact that here in America, being an up and rising soccer star and a couple of bucks will get you maybe a small cup of coffee anywhere. The ladies are not going to swoon over an MLS stud like they would and NFL guy. We'll see how it plays out.

I'm going to show my age here and admit that I remember that the way the ball moved in the air during the Mexico world cup was a source of some comment, and that wa with a heavier ball.  I can certainly tell you that a rugby ball flies much further (but, I felt, truer) at altitude, when kicked.

You know, on the FSC analysis they were talking about how Bolivian players pepper the goal from long range in La Paz and the knuckling action of the low air pressure causes problems for the goalies, but then I watched the highlights (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlfUpC7yh74) and the only goal from long range was Argentina's.  The Bolivian goals were all solid crosses (and a penalty).  The Argentinian defenders were just shit.


Easy Tex.  I wasn't crowing about the record.  I'm well aware that many losses are forthcoming.  I was crowing about the attendance, which will not be going down significantly anytime this season, regardless of the record.  As far as challenge, the two teams we beat were the two teams in the West finals last year.  Obviously with caveats, since we were home and New York has apparently gone to hell, but not exactly the Earthquakes either.


When it first came out last night I was 50/50 on crazy girlfriend vs crazy Montero.  Now the story is that the 'stalking' complaint is being dropped, so I'm about 60% crazy girlfriend.

Back in the day, they used to win 31-0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wg9ox9F7Vw).

Can someone decipher this (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/apr/03/barry-ferguson-allan-mcgregor-banned-scotland-rangers)?

Rangers' captain (and international captain for the Scottish team) and starting keeper (who is also the backup keeper for the national team) have been fined, suspended, transfer listed, and banned from ever representing Scotland internationally again.  Holy shit.  At first I thought they'd killed someone, but in fact they went out on a drunken bender and then a few days later made some 'offensive V-shaped gestures' during the Iceland match.  That seems a little stiff to me.  Maybe they are world-class douchebags and both club and country were looking for an excuse to drop them.  Most importantly, what were those gestures?  I want to know the hand sign to get kicked off the Scottish national team for life.

There's a perceived problem with drunken binges in UK sport and a media-driven belief that at this level you're a role model for kids. The captain is required to set the example and keep everyone focused, not be the ringleader. The captain is well aware of this when he agrees to become captain.

If it's just a standard V-sign with the back of your fingers towards the target, that's an offensive gesture in the UK, a bit milder than the middle-finger gesture. It's more of an "I don't need to give a fuck and I'm better than you" gesture than a "sit on this and spin" gesture. It's hundreds, maybe thousands of years old.

Wikipedia can help you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign

They went out drinking for something like 8-12 hours the night after they lose a friendly to Holland, saunter back into the hotel sometime around lunch the next day drunk as shit. They're with their international coach and have an actual competitive match a few days later. The coach (rightfully) puts them on the bench for their antics. The V-sign (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign#V_sign_as_an_insult) they were making is kind of the equivalent of the middle finger. So imagine if they were sitting there the whole 90 minutes flipping off everyone they could see. They got banned not because of the drinking binge, but because of the petulant childish way they reacted to it. At least that's how I read it.

re: Bolivia. Not only was the air bad, the pitch was dreadful. It's all well and good to bemoan a lack of preparation, but you cannot prepare your players for a grueling 90 minutes of cardio exercise with 25% less oxygen available to them. Maradona's idea was that showing up the same day was the best thing he could do to avoid the impact of the lack of oxygen setting in. It's not like he can ship atmospheric chambers to all his starting 11 around the world. It sucks, but I don't think it reflects poorly on their abilities or strategies. Remember they beat a nearly full strength France at home (kind of... Marseille) in February 2-0. I still think them and Spain are the top teams going into the World Cup next year.

Also FIFA recently repealed the ruling about high altitude venues, that's why Bolivia was allowed to play there again. The whole ban was put into effect ostensibly because they were worried/unsure about the medical effects of players not used to those conditions. I guess they decided it wasn't dangerous enough to their long term health to keep the ban up. It didn't help that most of South America was against it, including the FA's from countries not effected by it.

That's fantastic.  I have no doubt that if I were in a noisy pub trying to order two drinks, that's the gesture I'd use.  Who knew it'd get my ass kicked?  I've even spent maybe 6 months non-contiguously in Australia, England, and Wales.  Had no idea.

Still, if Ferguson is such a fuckwit, why was he captain?  The whole thing is bizarrely sudden.  Must be a UK thing.  If Randy Moss whipped it out and pissed on his coach, everyone would have a little tizzy and he'd go on TV and apologize and then the coach would come on and say these things happen because he's a competitor and something about the heat of the moment and then they'd sign him to a 5-year extension.

Once upon a time, little boys wanted to be like Gazza (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gascoigne).

If they were representing America in the most important competition in the most important sport? It's is people representing their country in World Cup qualifiers, remember. While there is a certain element of letting good players get away with shit as long as they're still good, a lot of people called in complaining, hence the increased penalties were applied.

Now you mention it I vaguely remember that aswell, if it makes you feel any better.

You'd have lost it.
 :drill:

Yep, sure would have.

Congrats to your squad. They're playing exceptionally well.

I'm trying to determine how exactly. People who were ok before are playing at a much higher level. People like Jaqua.

Hats off to you, although, there were more than a few blown calls that hurt tfc, they never were able to capitalize on the openings they had, so  it matters not.


Interested to see where this winds up now :)

MARCHEDAAAAAAAAAA!!!! instant hero.

I was extremely worried when I saw United's defensive lineup today and Villa really caused problems in the air, though I was glad to see Fletcher in the middle instead of Park or Giggs, he adds a bit of bite to the team. I was well impressed with O'Shea's performance he get's a lot of stick but he's been playing superb lately and was one of the best players on the pitch for Ireland's two internationals. It was interesting to see Marcheda when he came on, looked hungry held the ball up and played it simple like a player many years his senior, it helped change the complexion of the game. After Ronaldo equalised out of nowhere I was saying I'd love Marcheda to get the winner and become an instant hero, couldn't believe he did it and the goal itself was totally sublime.

He played well apart from his awesome goal too, I was impressed.

Made staying up to 3am to watch it all worth it!

You must be an Aussie?

Yes. Thank golly daylight saving kicked in, otherwise it'd have been a 3am start instead of a 3am finish. Being a fan over here can really screw with your sleeping patterns.

Indeed I was there for a year, during which I lost complete track of what was goin on in the Premiership. But the Korea/Japan World Cup was on at the time so I got to watch most of the games live which I wouldn't have back home.

The reall kicker is having to get up at 4:30am to watch the Champ League this week. Going from bed at 3am to up at 4:30am in two days means brain dead at work. But it's worth it!

Wow, what a sick goal from Macheda. I taped the game (along with the Canucks game). Watched the Canucks sleepwalk through their game with one of the worst teams in the league, and ended up fast forwarding through it from the mid 2nd period. Then I settled in to watch ManU. And they began to shit the bed, and I was wondering why I waste my time watching sports. Ronaldo equalized, and I was still lamenting the loss of two points. And then lightning struck out of the blue. WOW.

Friedel is still one of the top goaltenders in the world and he had NO chance at that. He was out of position on the first goal (doubt he would have gotten to it even if he was ready though), and the 2nd was perfectly placed to just evade him (very lucky imo). And the third was just ridiculous. Tough day for him.

Ok, great goal by Marcheda. BUT... had Villa actually tried playing 90 minutes instead of dropping off after 70 minutes, that might have been a different game. I understand defending in depth. But there were at least 2 or 3 opportunities in the last 20 minutes where a Villa player broke through, got behind the defense and his teammates just stood around the 18-yard box like they were yelling for a beer vendor. No runs into the box, no good attempts to support the runner, just standing pat. They never really tried to get that 3rd goal. You cannot give a team like Man U that kind of opening, they will gut you just like they did no matter who is on the pitch. That may have sunk both Villa's Champion's League chances and Liverpool's title chances.

As for the Sounders, I can tell you how they are winning. They are actually passing the goddamn ball, and passing it well. I don't think I've seen an MLS team in the time I've been watching that passes back and forth as smoothly and as frequently as they do. They make great runs past the defense. They just play attractive football, and I can only blame that on Ziggy. Seattle is definitely my backup team if Chicago shits the bed.

I was more excited by Liverpool vs Fulham. Schwarzer again made all the difference. Two great saves, and he almost stopped the impossible-to-save one that went in. Not bad for an old man.

They support the ball really well. There is always at least a triangle of players set up to move it around, often times a diamond. Short, quick passes are their forte, which really helped with the fucking hurricane in Toronto.

Hell chicago has been known to string together  the occassional 19 passes to victory.

It's a combination of the  passing and the agressive pressing of the attack and the pressure defence combined that ia really  unusual.

I think it's a combination of the coaching style of Sigi, with the overall desire of the ownership to have  an agressive team.It also helps to have some halfway decent players on the squad.

That kid Alonso on the Sounders is a good one. He'll help that defense just as much as Keller in goal. They had Nyassi on the bench for that game in Toronto, and he's got skills to burn. Most of the team seems to have good if not great pace. Yeah, it's early, but this team is good and damn fun to watch.

Wow United were poor last night, even worse than against Villa.

They were fucking terrible for huge stretches of the game. I have never seen them give the ball away so often. Tommy Smyth was right when he said he didn't see ManU connect on 76% of their passes. I don't know how they came up with that, since it seemed like every 2nd or 3rd ball was to no one or directly to a Porto player. If not for the utter gift of their first goal, they would be really fucked in the 2nd leg.

Why SAF insists on using Park is beyond me. The guy works his ass off, but he fucking sucks. Tevez also works his ass off and can actually put the ball in the net, so why not use him?

if park can do job well enough to get the result, then rest tevez and try to keep the team as fresh as possible  in the home stretch

They've got the FA cup, the rest of Premier league's season and the rest of  Champions league.

That's why.

Before Ronaldo scored that goal against Villa on Sunday I was shouting get up off yer arse ye sulky sod. Imagine what he can do if he spent less time sitting on his arse waving his hands in the air. At times he's just deadweight like most of last night, I would have replaced Tevez for anyone but Scholes at least if we went ahead we would still be able to retain the ball.

The worst part (for me) about the two goals United let in was the reaction of Evans and Neville. They both flapped their hands up and looked at their teammates with annoyance. Those were such elementary errors how can they behave like their teammates were the ones lacking. Fucking ridiculous.

Yeh especially considering Neville was partially at fault for both goals, but he was always a cunt.

Well  so much for that side of the bracket...  :awesome_for_real:

At the same time, I really respect Neville as a person. That's not a troll.  vOv

It's football you can be a cunt on the pitch and the nicest person ever off it I have no idea why you respect Neville so feel free to fill in the gaps.

Fuck me did pools zonal marking go to shreads tonight, not a man on the post for either corners. Guess you can concentrate on the league now which is kind of a worry for United.

My biggest problems with Neville are his rat-like visage and his failings on the pitch. I don't know much about him otherwise.

He hates cops and scousers according to Ferdinand's "you've been merked".

I can't say I blame him there, especially scousers.

I'm normally a big fan of scholes, but I thought he was pretty poor against porto. As bad as Park. To be fair to both of them they have played much much better in other games, so I don't think it was a bad option by SAF to play them, just something missing on the night.

It's the defence and midfield that is killing us though. No Ferdinand and Brown are really big losses as Neville has gone to seed and O'Shae is O'Shae. One player who was really important for us at this stage last year hasn't got on the park at all, Hargraves.

Still, if Ferdinand and Berbatov are back next week then there are no excuses. We have players good enough to beat Porto with some comfort and a failure to do so means they don't deserve it. With Rooney and Ronaldo you always have a change to win if you defence can get it together.

If it wasn't for Chelsea having such a good game I'd say Barca almost had its name on the cup. But as Liverpool and Utd have shown us recently, a lot can change in a few weeks.

Hargreaves is perma-injured.

I was delighted Scolari was Chelsea manager from the start of this season cause I always assumed he was mediocre and I seriously think Chelsea are probably the only first-team that are on a par with United and probably harder to beat, just shows what a good manager can do for your team. Unlikely as it is, they could seriously nick a double here though Barca were amazing last night also so we'll see, I just can't look past Barcas dodgy defence.

I'm probably going Barca->Chelsea->Utd in the order of likely winners now.

I passed out when the Liverpool game was 1-1. What the fuck happened? That zonal marking on free kicks is such an obvious weakness. A couple of men on the posts wouldn't have stopped that first goal last night, but it can't fucking hurt, now can it? For as much success as Rafa has had, he can make some dumb fucking decisions.

Can we just not talk about what happened next?

Guus Hiddink. Everything he touches turns to pwn.

Jesus- anyone watching Liverpool v Chelsea Scousers v Blue Brazil? This game is fucking crazy so far.

Chelsea's keeper looks like shit today. Also, why in the hell do they have to chant THE CHAAAAAAMPIOOOOOOONS 15 times during halftime? It's really really annoying.

EDIT: Check that, BOTH keepers look like shit. What a god awful Chelsea goal.  :ye_gods:

4-3 Liverpool. This game has gone completely batshit insane.

Entertaining, but I've rarely seen a top side score so many goals against such good opposition as Chelsea and yet be as awful at the basics as we were for much of the second half.

I'd played keeper for 15 years, and I have absolutely no idea what the hell either one of them was thinking on about 4 of the goals. That doesn't even bring into consideration some of the gaffs where the ball didn't go in. It was like they forgot how to position themselves for 90 minutes.

Yeah, this. That game was fucked up frantic. People running every which way, everyone out of position, both keepers making some real howlers. The fucking ref kept calling the most niggling little fouls (he must never have reffed a game with English teams before). That first Chelsea goal should NEVER have gone in. That was awful.

Poor Liverpool. Poor Chelsea. I look forward to Chelsea drawing Barca next (cross fingers) and watching Barca dickstomp them.

The most entertaining trainwreck of a game I've seen in quite some time. But yeah, Barca should just crush them.


MLS notes:  Montero's been cleared of all charges. And contrary to rumors,  Red Bull is not trying to unload their crappy team.

European refs can be truly awful the one for the United porto 1st leg was bananas everytime Tevez got on the ball he was getting fouled and in trying to remove said player attached to him he would have a foul given against him. Some international refs are even worse, their gullibilty in the face of gamesmanship is astonishing.

I was 90% sure the Montero thing was going to amount to dick. Flaky story and no evidence. One night stand who was mad that she was discarded imo.

Very worried about Porto today. They are nigh unbeatable at home, and United hasn't been on form for a month now. Gulp.

2 away goals is a decent hurdle to overcome, even for Man. U. They will need to be clicking on all cylinders. Arsenal doesn't have it quite as bad, but it could still end up with only 1 English team in the next round.

I'll take a 3-3 draw  :awesome_for_real:

So- how pissed are all the London ManU fans that they got to see them play in Wembley, but SAF decided to field his C team? Even then Everton had to go to penalties. So much for the quintuple.

I heard Fergie's comments about changing his lineup because of teh lack of life on the pitch in disbelief.  Does he actually believe that anyone will buy that line?  Why didn't he just say "we are in the running for the premiership and the champions' league, frankly the FA cup, prestigious as it is, comes in third to those two"?

It is the kind of thing I regularly do in FIFA 09, but not something I expect from a real team. Although I would tend to agree that the FA Cup is a distant third to CL and EPL titles. Which is too bad, because it is my favorite competition due to its egalitarian nature.

Also, Dimitar Berbatov always takes lazy ass penalties. WTF was he doing on the front of the line?

Maybe spurs can take him back for say 8 million? :D

Also, Seattle starting to come back to earth a bit. Chivas manhandled them. Dynamo might do worse, it will be interesting to see what their new guys can do.

Berbatov has the niftiest feet ever, as long as he doesn't have to use them to actually go get the ball or defend or anything. He is highly skilled, but slow and more than a little lazy. Infuriating to watch.

Seattle was ok until the final third of the field for most of the game. Their attack was just breaking down. I don't think they used Jacqua enough- he towered over the CBs for Chivas and could have been winning balls all night. Seattle also needs to find a better left back- Zack Scott works his ass off, but he is getting regularly abused.

I was quite pleased with the performance of the Man Yoo young lads good experience for them. Berbatov is totally off form at the moment & I understand people's frustration with him but asking an out an out forward to defend in recompense is just plain silly, also I liked what he had to offer against Porto when the gameplan was to try and keep possession he holds the ball up better than any of our other forwards. I'd give him another season to see if he can pick things up, we gave Andy Cole two seasons and look how that turned out.

Ok Spurs supporter here calling BULLSHIT

He's on form. This is how he plays. It's how he's  always played.

Just because you slip on the shirt with the  goofy looking devil on it does not boost your skills by ten percent. Especially if you're a crafty but  permanent slacker like old Dimi :)

Eh that's not really true. He covers as much ground as nearly anyone else when he's playing well, he just doesn't do a lot of it on camera.

Woot. Just got my FC Barcellona-Villarreal CF tickets.  They are actually playing Chelsea in the Champions when I'm there but I just couldn't bring myself to drop that kind of coin.

Wolves to Premiership is now official.  Looking forward to seeing what Ebanks-Blake can do at the top.  I suspect they'll be able to stay off the drop fairly comfortably, barring injury problems.

It can't be coincidence that the two Seattle games that I didn't either attend or watch live were the two losses, as I was lounging on beaches on (consecutively) Port Julia and Kangaroo Island, well away from Internet access.  The losses are pretty easy to rationalize, though.  One involved the red carding of our starting keeper and the other was away against likely the best team in the West (also without our starting keeper).  When they start losing to shitty teams at home with the starting 11, I'll worry.

I don't mind the laise faire attitude plenty of great players have had that, Bergkamp, Cantona, Le Tissier list goes on. He's just not scoring or creating much at the moment I think he hasn't scored since January that's what I meant. If he was banging the odd goal in or setting them up people would be less inclined to expect him to defend.

I'm quite excited that it looks like Rangers and Celtic will finally get into England, starting in the Premier 2 of a revamped premiership.  I hope they stick "B" teams in the Scottish leagues as feeder clubs, but I'd love to have Liverpool up in Glasgow a couple of times a season.  The Glasgow clubs would be huge after a few years of adjustment: Celtic in particular should be challenging Man Utd in scale, with their huge fanbase both locally and worlwide, and a stadium that is already larger than most premiership examples.

Where did you hear about that?

Yeah, links plz?

Wolves to Premiership is great. They've had a good defense for years, so I think they'll do ok in the top flight. Biggest problem I've seen with teams coming up seems to be scoring enough goals, and Ebanks-Blake seems to have taken care of that problem. Now if Hull can just manage to stay up and Reading can make it back in, I'll have too many teams to follow.  :awesome_for_real:

And Abragado? You are a lucky cocksucker, Mr. Caveman Lawyer.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11781_5217415,00.html

it's being talked about


wow, I don't know how I feel about this, other than you could kiss the SPL goodbye

Liverpool 4 - 4 Arsenal ......... after 0 - 1 by half-time.

Three goals for Arsenal after three huge personal mistakes by Liverpool-players. So much for putting pressure on ManU.  :heartbreak:

A game so good even the refs didn't want it to end six minutes of injury time eh! Another blow to the hype machine, as Arshavin bangs in four.

The WPL technically exists despite the fact that Swansea and Cardiff (and Newport Co and whoever else.  Wrexham?) are in the English system.  Of course, nobody gives a shit since their best team is TNS or Rhyl and nobody's ever heard of them.

That was a fan-fucking-tastic game to watch, even though it didn't end how I wanted. Is Benayoun not the sleeper MVP of this fucking team these days? He has stepped up his game big-time since January.

Side note apropos of nothing, but good for a laugh. No, this is not my blog.

My  mom goes on vacation, for the first time in twenty years. Good on her. She finds a "soccer shirt" for me. I am touched by my mom's thoughtfullness and generosity.

I  see my mom shortly after she gets back home and she proudly hands me the gift box.

I open my present,  and my eyes fall upon.

A Manchester United Shirt...

That I now have to wear regularly because I love my mom and I want to show her that I appreciate her thought.

A couple of friends I know see me in the shirt and pronounce me a glory hunter.

Could have been worse, could have been arsenal.


Also last nights MLS match made me realize just how far our little national league has to go. That was shit on a pitch.

Gomez is making a strong push for worst Premiership goalkeeper ever.

yes he is...

and I'm fucking gutted.

I still can't figure out why Spurs let their backup keeper from last year go (some Eastern Euro name) in favor of signing Gomez. Even Cesar (who they let go to Valencia, thank you very much) is better. They paid good money for shit. Their back 4 have always been shit at defense, so I guess you can't blame it all on the keeper.

And the pattern is vindicated!  I go to the game and they win 2-0.

Go when Chicago is there and watch the old men.  :D

Saturday was a lot of fun. ManU goes on a rampage and buries Spurs in the second half, then I turn the draft on and see Seattle get the best player in the draft at #4. Conclude the day watching Sounders FC beat up on the hapless Earthquakes. Good times!

Interesting to see Hull hovering above relegation at the moment after their splurge at the start of the season.

Klinsmann's out at Bayerm. Word has it they're going for Wegner. Klinsmann probably goes back to America, and Bob Bradley just had a little more pressure added to consistently do well in qualifying.

The sooner they take the coach position serious the better.  Fuck Bradley, nice guy but he should be coaching the American U19's at highest. 

Bill Archer from bigsoccer came up with a pretty good solution to a number of issues with coaches in the nation and the league.

Make Sigi Schmidt US Nats coach,  make Tom Soehn his assistant. Move Bruce Arena back to DC. Move Preki to RBNY. Move Bradley back to Chivas. Send Osorio back on a boat to colombia. Make Klinsmann coach of the Galaxy. Peter Nowak can coach Philly.

You shut your mouth.

(http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/8907/pawordone.jpg)

Signed,
Seattle Sounders FC

you could always make a play for Mourinho   :awesome_for_real:

Oh dear God, the absolute  :awesome_for_real: :why_so_serious: possibilities of the Special One dealing with the US press and the typical American's indifference to soccer makes me all tingly.

Barcelona carrying the play to Chelsea so far. Messi will be lucky if he can walk after this game- he is getting the fuck fouled out of him despite Guus's promise that systematic fouling was not the game plan.

Yeah, that was a fairly ugly game.

And the worst injury came when Marquez went down with no one near him. That was ugly.

Very similar to how Barca struggled last year against Utd. Though Barca are playing better this time and had a few chances.

Wow. I just wonder if the scoreline is going to get worse.

I'm sitting here thinking this is the first time in the twenty three years or so of supporting United that there isn't a player on the pitch or the bench that makes me cringe. I know a lot of people have different opinions, but seriously just two words Laurent Blanc.

O'Shae won't look nearly so accomplished when he's up against a team that, you know, has decent players.

And Tomasz Kuszczak was on the bench!  :why_so_serious:

Still, I understand the sentiment.

O'Shea's a damn fine player and has been playing extremely well this year had a brilliant game against Italy... you know the world champions, nothing too fancy just safe as houses. I swear though when I saw Silvestre on the bench I balked for a minute and then breathed a sigh of relief when I realised it was Arsenal's.

Heh. He's been very good in a number of games like you say, but he was also poor in the recent wobble when Utd dropped a few points. I think he, like Vidic, gets a lot of confidence from playing alongside Ferdinand in a settled team, and he's still much more useful than Neville would be, but my preference if Utd had a full team to pick from would probably see him the third right back option behind Brown and Hargraves.

Take nothing away from him, he's played well, I just hope he can continue to do so if he comes up against Barca or Chelsea. I fear he might get found out, but would love to be proven wrong.

Whew- through to the final without losing anyone to yellow card accumulation. Of course, Fletcher is gone due to the dicey red card he got, but they have a few extra midfielders that can come in and cover his spot. I am not sure who to root for today- Barca would be the more interesting matchup, but Chelsea would provide the opportunity to see replays of John Terry falling on his ass 50000000 times before the game starts. Win/win.

(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t11/wayabvpar/JohnTerryDay.jpg)

The last fucking thing I want to see in the Champions League is a replay of last year's matchup. Barca can beat United. Chelsea? I'm not so sure.

I'd like to see Barcelona United final, it's the purists choice.

Barcelona would have to pull a rabbit out of the hat considering they just got red carded for one of the most phantom fouls I've ever seen.

EDIT: Un-fucking-believable.

Seriously happy about that even if Barca beat United in the final thus is my hatred for those Chelsea fucks, ref was terrible no way was that a red card or even a foul.

Is Didier Drogba going to have to choke a bitch?
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2009/5/6/1241646114759/Chelseas-Didier-Drogba-sh-006.jpg)

I haven't seen it yet- was it worse than the call on Darren Fletcher yesterday?

CL finals, and a player from each side gets to sit out because of terrible referring. Well played, UEFA.

Yeh way worse as there was minimal intent or contact Anelka kinda tripped over, I think Abidal barely glanced his studs as he was running after him. At least with the Fletcher one when you watch the referee's angle you can see why he gave the penalty the red cards was bit harsh as he clearly played the balll. The Chelsea antics towards the ref as if they been robbed was sickening considering Barca had been playing with ten men due to his bad decisions for 36 minutes. Both Ballack and Drogba should be heavily reprimanded for their behaviour towards the referee even though he was terrible.

I maintain that flopping should be a suspendable offense.  Have a panel of officials go over each foul called after a game, and if a player induced a foul with no or minimal contact, they're suspended for some number of games based on the call that resulted.  1 game for a basic foul, 3 if it induced a card, 5 if it induced a penalty.

Get the fuck up off the grass.  You're killing the sport.

At the very least start handing out yellow cards for diving, even if it is after the game. That is one thing that football gets right compared to hockey: in hockey if a dive induces a penalty, both the diver and the player involved in the phantom foul go to the box. How stupid is that?

They need to call it what it is: a blatant attempt to deceive the referee. If a player ran up and shielded the referee's view while someone on his team fouled the shit out of someone, there would be repercussions. This should be the same.

Soccer players are seen as nothing but whiny pussys in the US. Frankly, I can't understand how they are respected in other countries for the shit they pull on the pitch. I've played for many years myself, and the funny part is the diving gets worse as you go up the skill ladder. I'm trying hard to think of another sport like that, and I'm coming up short.

Granted, I was a keeper, so I'm biased to hate pretty much everyone on offense and tried my best to manhandle them if they ever got within arms reach.

EDIT: I mean can you imagine a baseball player doing any kind of arguing like they do in soccer to an umpire? Their ass would be ejected so fast it would make their head spin.

Probably the worst performance by a ref I have ever seen. Should have given about 2 penalties to Chelsea. Shouldn't have sent of Abidal.

Unsure how I feel about the final result. Chelsea should have won 2 or 3 zip, but then they only have themselves to blame for not hitting another goal, Drogba missed a few 1 on 1s. At the same time Barca didn't deserve to win because they had one shot on target the whole game and played horribly.

And if Anelka was diving, which I don't think (but some of you seem to be saying) then you can apply the same thing to Messi, who did a clear dive soon after.

If sending off one player erroneously and avoiding to give a few penalties is the worst performance by a ref you've ever seen, then you haven't seen much.

Of course. But context is everything.

He should have sent Ballack off for manhandling him and Drogba as he was walking down the tunnel. I think it was his lack of control over the game that made him terrible for me, his worst decision was the sending off the penalty claims were mostly dubious, one sure was a penalty but he had a bad angle and from behind it looked like Toure won the ball. Of course this left Drogba flapping around on the ground like a wet fish, seriously what a chump. I think this brings forward the argument of allowing video replays for refs like in rugby it seems a lot of top refs buckle under the pressure of CL football, so it should be brought in at the highest level.

The first Barca handball in the box has to be called. The fact the ref that go was a blatant disregard for the rules. The second that they were crying about near the end was just a ball that hit a guy in the back.

Fixed that for you. Chelsea players have always been enormous raging douchebags towards the refs. It got better for a little bit after they got rid of Mourinho and because of the whole "respect" campaign in the Premier League (how's that working out for ya?). But Drogba has always been an enormous thugdouche and Lampard is the epitome of whiney doucheface. For a while there, it was very rare that any foul call was made on the field without 5 Chelsea players surrounding the ref flapping their sandy vaginas and begging for the ref to let them off or give their opponents a card.

Chelsea is a team of douchebags.

My sentiments exactly.

Never watched an NCAA/NBA game eh?  Feel free to go with Americans only started that when the eurofags came over.

I've played rugby up to (Scottish) premiership level and I occasionally ref the odd game as well and, while it's not uniformly good at all levels (weaker refs at lower levels sometimes put up with more chat), I have never in over four hundred and fifty games played seen a player confront and intimidate a referee in the way that Chelsea (and others like Keane-era Man Utd) will do: the player would be in Murrayfield for a disciplinary hearing within a fortnight, and banned for a month on the first offence.

Mind you, that ref in the Barca match was bloody awful, to both sides at various times.

(http://ninecommandments.com/UF/fuckingdisgrace.gif)
(http://i44.tinypic.com/18gal3.gif)

Hahahaha, that bottom one is fucking brilliant!

Basketball had it's issues with certain players like Vlade Divac in the 90s. Either way, at least the league makes some efforts to stop "flopping" in the NBA. In 1997 they put in the semi-circle under the basket to reduce charges. Then, they made it a technical foul. Since 2008, they've added fines and suspensions for it.

When FIFA starts actually doing something about it, then you might have a point. The amount of harassment the refs have to put up with is shameful. They need to do better job of protecting those guys.

That's seriously funny.

These are great
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgPgOUisPeI

Edit: My absolute favorites are the fake headbutts where both guys go down hoping to draw a card

I think they should introduce video refs and for one season a rule that if a player drops in pain and looks for a foul, play is stopped and the tape is reviewed. If the video ref doesn't think there's a foul then the player who dropped is red carded and banned for the next 3 games. I'm willing to bet they could relax it somewhat after that without a return to raging doucheiness of high level football.

I think the injury thing is a hard one to get right, because people can get sore from what looks to be trivial, or no contact at all. It's probably better to just take the 'pain' bit out and look at clear dives.

There are a few Chelsea players who I don't think are idiots and feel a little sorry for, Essien being the best example. And I didn't see Lampard being an idiot at the end of that match, I just remember him swapping shirts with Iniestia and looking reasonably devastated about it. Bit unfair to lump him in with Drogba, Ballack, and Terry.

As much as rugby has come on leaps and bounds the coverage and money that's involved in football is another level, so it's understandeable how a first time referee would shirk a bit under the spotlight not to mention the Combat 18 element of the Chelsea support. At least United at their most I'll behaved would just whine to the press and that would be it, Roy Keane to his credit was too busy kicking lumps out of his least favourite player to be bothered with the refs. I actually believe Arsenal were the first team to start doing that shit to referees though I must say they've curbed there attitude since the whole pizza debacle.  But any team that incurs death threats is a serious concern to how much you should value a bunch of grown men trying to encourage a ball of leather through two large sticks.This is also along the lines why I think Celtic & Rangers will probably never be allowed in the Premiership though I could be wrong about that. Every few years that story comes out but with no real substance.

I thought the ref kept his calm pretty well in the face of such abuse which is a credit to him, but he got a few rushes of blood to the head with some decisions under the massive spotlight. I just read he had commented ahead of the game that he was surprised that his team of officials had been selected for such a big match & it also looks like Drogba, Ballack and co are going to be hit with hefty bans which is fair enough.

Essien is one of the least heralded best players on the planet, IMO. He makes any team he's on better. Lampard might not have been douchey the other night, but he is often one of the main culprits of douchey behaviour.

I thought he was pretty heralded everyone talks about how amazing he is over here, although he hasn't gotten many media-plaudits of late probably cause his last few managers were too stupid to realise he was the best defensive midfielder in the Premiership. I don't think any midfielder has struck as much fear into the hearts of other midfielders since Roy Keane walked out on the pitch, not even "Mash".

Saw that Barca is going to play the Sounders in a friendly on the first week of august. Anyone here going?

Yep.  Season ticket holders already have tickets for it.  And the Chelsea match.  I'm not sure if the third friendly's been announced yet.

Edit: I just checked and the third 'friendly' is the MLS Cup semifinal.  Weird, but I'll take it.

I am assuming tickets are going to be rare and prohibitively expensive, so I doubt I will make it. Saw ManU v Celtic a few years ago (it may have been the first event @ Qwest Field) seats high enough that passing satellites were obstructing my view. Fun, but not sure it was worth the $65 per ticket I paid (sherpa guide tip not included).

When I watched the match live, I thought the Barca-Chelsea referee was awful. Then I watched late night highlights, with all the incidents in slo-mo from multiple angles, and thought the referee was absolutely right in most cases. The Chelsea players were way out of line at the end of the match. It was a solid refereeing performance with only a couple of errors, which isn't an unusual match. The referee was also disciplined under pressure, walking away from situations to give players a chance to cool down and only yellow carding Drogba when he deserved a red.

I was watching that CL game in a little bar in Barcelona and when Iniesta hit that goal the entire town went nuts and it stayed that way for four hours.  Our hotel was right by where the fans like to get together after games and they were setting off bombs until 2 in the morning.

The Barca home game I went to was a trip as well although the end result was a letdown (could have clinched the league title but gave up an injury time equalizer down a man).  Watching Messi dribble in the middle of 5 guys live is a thing to behold.  I'll post some pics when I get home (currently in the JFK Sky Club)

So with summer coming up, I'm waiting for the epic Ronaldo transfer drama to come up. For the life of me, I just don't understand why he would want to move away from Old Trafford, especially to Real Madrid of all places. His ego and his expectations for quality of play is going to bitterly disappoint once he dons the white strip. How long is he going to be able to handle two coaches every season and getting knocked out of competitions all the time? Seriously, what the hell do they have to offer other than money? I just don't get it. And not only because I desperately want him to stay and keep winning titles for us.

Have you ever been to Manchester?

Nah, I'm a foreign intruder who's really just hopping on a bandwagon.

What is it? Ugly women? Bad weather? Smelly river? No good Ferrari repairmen?

It isn't Madrid.

Yeah, I was only there for a couple of months, but Manchester isn't a great place to live or work.  Not that most of the players do: they're mostly out in Cheshire and the like.

Anyway, last night, having beaten Celtic to go top of the Scottish Premier League with three games to play, Rangers managed to hold that position until two nights ago, when Celtic won their game to go back ahead.  Rangers, playing a day later, should have reclaimed the lead, but they only just managed to scrape a draw with a late equaliser against Hibernian last night, and so are behind on goal difference.

If Rangers don't win the league this time, they may not for several years: they have run up tens upon tens of millions of pounds in debts and are probably going to have to sell most of their few remaining star players in the summer (which in turn will probably lead to them failing early in the Champions League in 2009-2010, compounding their problems).

Amarr will be chortling his head off - and I must admit to a little Schadenfreude myself - but it's a sad state of affairs for one of Scotland's few "big name" sporting teams.

Despite having the best manager on the planet awesome facilities and the like, as Endie said there's a serious lack of glitz or even culture in the working arena of Manchester that it's understandeable Ronaldo has looked towards the bright lights of Madrid and I don't begrudge him this never have. Actually if you watch Ronaldo collect Manchester player of the year on you tube in front of the supporters club it's a bit like a scene from Vegas nights. But if he wants to keep on winning trophies and being recognised as the best player in the world then he has to believe Manchester is the place for him so he's certainly in a state of conflict.

As far as Rangers go all I can say is they should be using that money to strenghten their youth system and general infrastructure Scottish league isn't the place for drafting in superstars anymore, they need a long term plan and it also benefits a league as a whole if teams invest in their youth system, so yeah I've no sympathy there.

Ronaldo wants to go to Real Madrid for the same reason Beckham did... money and fame. And he'd probably go a long way to fixing some of the problems the team has had lately - namely, they can win the La Liga title but look like also-rans in the Champion's League, especially in comparison to the Barcelona juggernaut. Plus, La Liga would actually suit him better, as he'd get pummeled less and be able to dive more. :why_so_serious:

Beckham left for Madrid because he was marginalized and essentially kicked out by Ferguson. He was happy to stay there his entire career, really.

Real Madrid is a whole different team to when Beckham went there and even that was a team in decline, I would imagine the reason is actually women and lifestyle choice. The money and fame is in the Premiership these days.

Beckham loves Utd, was just kicked out by Fergie. He'd still go back there an play in a heartbeat if the job was offered. Didn't you see him in the Champions League semi rubbing his hands in glee when Utd scored their third against Arsenal?

If Ronaldo wants to go to Real Madrid, it's not about the football.  Look at the Champions' League to see where the centre of excellence has lain in European (and world) football now and over the past few years.  If you are in an English club it's unlikely you'll get knocked out except by another English club.  The trend is so striking that I thuoght i must be wrong, and had to go away and look it up to be sure, but no non-English (later edit to make sense) English club got knocked out of the Champions' League by a non-English side between Man Utd losing to Milan in the semis in 2007 and Chelsea going out on away goals in the semis to Barca a couple of weeks ago.  And you have to go back to the 2003-04 season for at least one of the two finalists not to be English.

Damn the lack of an edit function on f13's mobile client. Of course, imeant no english club being knocked out by a non-english one between the man utd-milan and chelsea-barca games.

Manchester's got culture! There's a library and a theatre and... there are some museums about science and engineering... Umm... they've got Man Utd too, sport teams count as culture don't they?

As far as British domination of European football I'm curious as to why that is. I'm not much of a football fanatic but it seems to be pretty much down to money, the British teams that are dominating are the ones that managed to really sell themselves as brands and pretty much adopted the model of being a business first and a team second (while using the money to make sure that the second part pretty much made them the best in the world). Chelsea I know got saved by Abramovich but again that's because British teams seem to have managed to sell their brand abroad far better than most European teams, Barcelona and Real Madrid are the only other ones I can think about that have much of an international following. Is this it or is there more to it I'm missing out on because I'm not a huge fan and only really get exposed to UK journalism about football?

Ronaldo's probably sick of the food.

English teams are unbelievably popular in parts of the world that no one else has matched, especially in Asia. Man U has the biggest following by far that I've seen, with probably Liverpool next (especially amongst the older fans). From my experience the EPL is just better marketed, and the ubiquity of English probably helps, in addition to significant British expat populations as well as there being numerable ex-colonies.

Juve and the milanese teams also have fans. But outside of those teams you get very, very, few supporters.

Assuming that they ever get the right stage to perform upon (ie the English Premiership, not some North Atlantic nonsense) Celtic have a large overseas following in some potentially lucrative markets.

I think the Premiership really took off with the Premiership, and while the money has played a part I think the marketing of the 'product' globally has been much better than other leagues.

It used to be that you'd watch Seria A in the early 90's, but from about 95 onwards I just remember it being all EPL. And it's hard to say that Utd and Arsenal bought their way to early success there. In the last few years I think the money issue has played a larger part, but before that I'm not so sure.

Couple of pictures from Camp Nou.


(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y222/Abagadro/8bacc7b4.jpg)

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y222/Abagadro/80aea34b.jpg)

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y222/Abagadro/b49e0088.jpg)
You see that tiny fenced in area up in the very top left next to the scoreboard with the barbed wire around it? That's the Villareal fans. All of them.  :awesome_for_real:

So I'm watching the Everton-West Ham game and every time Fellaini gets the ball all I can think of is Fletch.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y222/Abagadro/b022db48.jpg)

You know, you look pretty high up there, yet the pitch doesn't look that small. Just from the pics it definitely looks like it's easier to see the game from there than it is from the nosebleeds of a place like the Superdome (the one place I've seen a live NFL game).

We were in the third deck, but the forth row thereof, so ya high up but still pretty decent. The stadium itself was really well designed IMO and I agree that the sight lines were better than most NFL stadiums.

Isn't this Barca vs Real? That guy's waving a Chelsea scarf.

Real?

Dude, That's the yellow Submarine of Villareal.

So envious...

Also, Camp Nou's pitch is monstrous. largest allowed by FIFA

As pointed out, Villareal.  That scarf is a two-sided one from the CL semi with Barca on one side and Chelsea on the other. 

I notice a lot of yellow speckled around the stands. Is it semi-desegregated, and more relaxed than in the uk? I like sitting next to opposition supporters at rugby matches, but never pictured latin football supporters as likely candidates for mingling.

Barca's away jersey is bright yellow and I would wager most of that yellow are those types of jerseys.  That away fan area literally did have barbed wire around it and high fences with those angled tops you see around prisons and they had a fair number of security personnel around it so I doubt there were many Villareal fans making a real show of it down in the regular crowd.

at the very best, they would be heckled mercilessly and teased.


However th outlook would be better than say a River plate fan standing in the supporters section of La Bombanera in Buenos Aries.

This is where I was talking about earlier (http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=ap-barcelona-violence&prov=ap&type=lgns). Our hotel was about 100 yards from that fountain. It didn't get as bad as this after the Chelsea game though.

Nice photos. Much more enjoyable looking than the Stadio Olimpico in Roma. Easier to pick out the opposition fan area in that stadium due to all the riot police and burning chairs...

So it looks like the CL final will be on ESPN on the 27th. Looks like I need to figure out a way to disappear for 2 hours in the middle of the workday.

Good luck with your efforts. My seekrit plan is a go.

Next year the final will be on F/X. Can't wait for popups of Nip/Tick to be shown on corner kicks.

Is it wrong of me to move Ribery to Tottenham on FIFA?

I just hope SAF moves him to ManU this summer  :grin: That guy is fun to watch.

Go go Fulham!

COYW!

Well, true to form, today was falling backwards to victory (Fulham, Hull, I"m looking at you)


Congrats to both, now Champions league final and then it's International time  :awesome_for_real:

Seriously, what Fulham did is the definition of "backing into" Europe.

Yay! Hull managed to stay up because Newcastle sucks more! And Liverpool finished 2nd, meaning they don't have to play the extra qualifiers in next season's Champion's League. All in all, a decent enough day.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahah

Newcastle and Boro gone!!! Man that is priceless, another title for Utd. is great too.  Arsenal still needs to add depth and durability to their squad but they are the only other team that I'd be satisfied seeing win it.

Someone please post, on Youtube, slow-motion footage of Newcastle fans crying into their "best fans in the world" scarves overlaid with Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz4dpbk8YBs) as a soundtrack.

This and Leeds failing to get promoted make this an almost-perfect season for Schadenfreude.  I just wish that St Mirren had been relegated.

Burnley looked damn good after the first 10 or so minutes of the playoff final. With them, Birmingham and my favorite Championship side Wolves in the EPL with Hull, Stoke and Sunderland, next season will see me following a lot of Premier league sides.

As for Newcastle, yep, they deserved it. I hope Allardyce is laughing his ass off in Blackburn. Fuck the Toon Army, let's see if they can get themsevles together and make a Championship winning side.

Hull are shit.  Brown is shit. Any fuckhead that can't win a game in months who has the gall to take the mic to shout "we are staying up" Fuck you, Brownie, if had not been such a shite manager you could have won one or two and not had to sweat out losing to Man U's "C" team? STFUAGBTW. I relish them going down next year.

Good season.  Things I'll be most interested in next year:

1) Wolves in the Premiership
2) Newcastle slumming it.  I actually like Newcastle as a franchise, but they need to get over this massive sense of entitlement.  Like they could just get the right old retreads in place and it could be 1996 forever.  Their team sucks, they need to know it sucks and stop pretending that Mark fucking Viduca is the answer.  They completely wasted great talents like Martins and N'zogbia.  Maybe a couple of seasons in the wilderness will wake them up.
3) The Tottenham keeper situation.  Cause Gomes. . . wow.  Is Alnwick any good?

Spurs had a good keeper last season backing up Paul Robinson. They shipped him off to a Championship team. Then they picked up Gomes and I just cannot for the life of me think of why. They even shipped Cesar to Valencia when Rennan got hurt and he's done better at age 50 than Gomes has done with Spurs. And Valencia's back line has been HORRIBLE with lots of injuries and chopped up lineup every week.

Juande Ramos. Yeah he got us a cup, but Fuck all after that. Spurs need some cohesion in a bad way, which means we need to hold on to some of these guys. However, I think we could do with a new keeper.

Yeah, I thought Ramos was some hot shit after Sevilla. Turns out he can't even get Real Madrid to win games. I expect him to be looking for a new job next week.

I would give Cudicini a chance, only reason he was benched for Chelsea was cause Cech was best keeper in the world til he got whacked on the head & he's deemed injury prone.

So, who ya got?

I say an early Man U goal by CR gets them to close up shop and leaves us with an agonizingly dull final.

1-0 United, but I'm  desperately hoping that doesn't happen.

I'd say Man Utd with a very late winner, 2-1.  But if I had any chance of being right then bookies would be poor.

A "why I love my wife" story: I'm reading in the living room.  Suddenly she says "Great!"  I look up at the telly and she's found the time of the CL final on the satellite programme guide.  It's her birthday and she's delighted she can watch a Man Utd/Barca match.  :heart:

You have chosen your mate wisely, sir. I get to play the 'avoid hearing the score until I get home to my TiVo' game. I am usually pretty good at it, but sometimes I get tripped up by weird places like Facebook.

I'm going to play the 'I'm out of the office for a while' game and hope no one notices.

Going to slip out and catch at least the first half, will have to monitor the remainder from the confines of my office…

I'm watching it in the office on a digital projector against the wall.  Take that, bitches!

52 inch plasma in mine . In high def  :drill:

And definitely do everything you can to not hear the result.

Good fucking football from Barca, but seriously where the fuck is Scholes and what the fuck is this long ball shit.

I'm watching it live at 5am at home while working on a website that is covering it (I'm just the homepage editor, not the football editor). It's the full fan experience while also chatting with the commentators on my netbook :)

Renaldo is such a little bitch.

Wow.  I've never seen such a worldclass team made to look so much like a pack of amateurs.

I will say no more.

Yeh I totally agree, nobones about it the best team on the night won. But I just can't understand why you would leave Scholes on the bench in the final game of the season, I also think there was a good case for Berbatov to start. It's exactly the same team that started against Liverpool it's a weak shitty midfield without Scholes. Xavi is fucking amazing and has been for a long time, he's propably the other most underrated player in the world beside Scholes, fuck Messi and Ronaldo he's the best player in the world for me.

That Xavi to Messi goal was fucking art.

Shirt facts.

Manchester United: receive £14.1m/year from AIG to wear their logo.
Barcelona: donate US$1.9m/year to UNICEF to wear their logo.

So I Tivoed this and avoided this thread to try and not get the score spoiled. Go to Comcast.net's page to check my email and what do they have as the first fucking headline? That's right, the goddamn result. So much for me watching this tonight. Comcast.net for fuck's sake.

It is still worth watching.

Some random Mafia Wars friend dipshit mentioned who won just below a post I was actually reading. I was doing SO WELL avoiding it too. FUCK.

I thought it was a pretty shitty game if you took Barcelona out of the equation. It was potentially a mouth watering clash of two of the best footballing teams in the tournament instead we got the Barcelona show, no excuses SAF great manager you are but you totally blew it tonight.

you should definitely watch this. One, to see Eto'o just completely destroy Vidic. Two to see Man U look like the LA fucking Galaxy. Three to see that sweet sweet sweet goal from Messi.

Barca were so much better. Soooo much better. Beautiful to watch as well.


Messi's wonder header (http://footylounge.com/films/musicvideo.php?vid=e37e22dcb)

  Eto'o early strike (http://footylounge.com/films/musicvideo.php?vid=f94193c15)

Yeh well I suppose if you support Spurs your last bastion of hope is to wish ill to the teams that kicks your arse sideways at least twice a year by suddenly becoming an overnight Barcelona fan, nice work there.

You know dick about the teams I support. We only talk epl here.

US
Houston
Tottenham
Barcelona
Celtic

Go cry more. Your boys brought out all their trophies so they could play with them on the field after they won. Oops...

(http://i42.tinypic.com/149ns79.jpg)


Kiss. of. Death.

If Spurs ever get into the CL then you might understand where I'm coming from (which will probably be never), and like I could care less if you supported Boca Juniors and Grampas fucking 8 too. In other words I'm pretty partisan to the Barca cause myself but just dissapointed United didn't make a decent spectacle of it after all the hype. So enough of the United bashing it's a bit fucking puerile.

I actually don't mind United, Alex Ferguson has a warm spot in my heart because he strikes me as a euro Bear Bryant.

But I did have a rooting interest in them losing, and not as an ABU.

I was drawn to Spurs because of Jurgen Klinsmann and Kasey Keller back in the day. It's been an interesting ride. Much more insightful than hitching on the glory train. I'm not saying you did that. We all have our reasons.


Besides, They don't have to go to Japan to play in that stupid tourney and can focus on the league all the more. See? There's positives in everything.

Apparently this is what the Man U fans were singing for Park Ji-Sung (to the tune of Lord of the Dance).

Park! Park! Wherever you may be
You eat dogs in your home country
But it could be worse, you could be Scouse
Eating rats in your council house!

Yeah, classy tune that one...

Barca deserved the win, Utd was, apart from Ronaldo early, a complete embarrassment.

Ferguson put out the wrong team and made the wrong changes. Giggs shouldn't have been on the pitch, let alone in the centre, and Tevez on for Anderson at half time? Epic fail. Looks like SAF is a stupid sentimentalist and really could have used Fletcher being available. Would have taken the Giggs option off his plate.

Barca are a three man team, Xavi, Iniesta and Messi are awesome.

Also, for those of you not Australian, thank the stars that you don't have to listen to David Basheer as commentator. I was tempted to watch it in a low quality stream rather than beautiful wide screen HD just to hear a voice that isn't a fucking idiot.

Edit: As for Ferguson going on about how his side struggled to hold possession and were outplayed. Don't play a 35 year old who can't hold the ball or tackle or run that hard in the midfield against players the quality of Iniestia and Xavi then. And don't take off the one guy with the energy and dynamism in that part of the pitch to put on a headless chicken that runs around all over the place and destroys any semblance of structure that team was meant to have.

Forgot to watch, fuck, I only know how to steal it in real time.  I guess I can find a HD torrent a goal from Samuel is always worth it one of my fav strikers since 2002.

I would disagree with this. Poyul is a hell of a defender and was all over the field today.  When Henry is healthy he is deadly and Eto'o is a very good striker.

I only wish their emblematic tunes could be as imaginative.

Yep, worth seeing.

Yeh I really feel your view was too skewed against United to see it was actually a poor game and a letdown for any impartial viewers, most of the people I spoke to today agreed it was a bit of a shit game but watching Barcelona somewhat made up for it. I'm fairly happy in some respects as it might force United to ship Tevez off and buy a decent replacement for Scholes, not a priority but I think Ribery would be a good addition too so we can stop playing Rooney out of position, it's pissing me off at this stage. Also I'm so buying a Xavi shirt I hope some of the sales go towards Unicef.

See, I think the reason Man U looked like shit was due to several reasons, some self imposed, some not.  They were shocked at allowing a goal,  Darren Fletcher not being around to give Carrick support, and Sir Alex not throwing in enough (read any) new wrinkles into his attack. Eto'o and Messi Swap and Vidic doesn't look like he's knows where he's coming or going. Those are the main points, but it's more than just that.

Man U did not look like shit until they had to chase Barca. Remember the first nine minutes were all, and I mean ALL Man U. Eto's goal was the first real opportunity of the match for them. Then they had to press. Which meant they had to play more on Barca's terms. Once that happened, it became clear that they could not outperform them. Carrick was trying to make too many super passes to cut through the whole defence, Scholes was trying to find space behind because they could not handle the pressure of dealing with a pass around game with the ball at their feet against a much more technically skilled team. That's not a slam on Man U, they can handle just about anyone on the planet with power and teamwork. It just comes down to this fact. 

Man U simply was not as good as Barca.

I don't think United gave up. I don't think they stunk. I just don't think they were in a position to handle what was given them. A small difference, but important.


The only way Chelsea made it close was to not play, just park the bus and dig the bunker deeper. United could not do that, partly out of pride, partly out of only having one leg. It almost worked, though. If Ronaldo makes one of those kicks, Man U tighten up defense and in the more conservative play, they spot the things Barca were doing and compensate for them. Barca pings the ball around the penalty area but can't break through. Ballgame.

What's happened is Man U has been exposed as having a weakness. But it's not a weakness that anyone in the premiership will be able to exploit. And the ones who can exploit it need to have things go their way to use it. So, What's Sir Alex to do?

Excellent analysis sigil. Spot on.

Yeh that's pretty much what I saw too but I could sum it up in one sentence, if you have the ball the other team can't score.

This is why players like Scholes and Xavi are solid gold (perhaps Essien but I hate Chelsea). The difference with these two at the moment to Alonso or say Fabregas (he should be doing this in a few years) is they also can control the tempo of the game and so confident are they in their ability to retain the ball they are always looking to pick it up and lay it off for every second they are on the pitch, that's their mentality they always make good decisions rarely give it away cheaply. This has a huge unseen effect as it dictates how the whole team plays, the defenders have someone they are confident in giving the ball to and they can ease into their passing game without resorting to longballs, the attacking players like Iniesta Ronaldo Giggs can make intelligent runs and play one twos off these guys, I like Iniesta but he wouldn't look half as good a player if he didn't play alongside Xavi trust me on that one.

If I was Sir Alex I would be looking for this type of player as soon as possible cause we're fucked if he doesn't.

Was Yaya Toure playing last night? Because do not underestimate the confidence he brings to a guy like Xavi. He was IMO THE reason Spain won the Euro '08. He allows guys like Xavi and Iniesta to get forward as well as they do, because they know he'll be back there if they lose possession. It's why Liverpool is better when Mascherano AND Alonso are in the midfield behind Gerrard. Masch stops anything going past Alonso, who can then confidently feed the ball to Gerrard or the wings. Man. U. and Arsenal don't have that kind of a holding midfielder - neither Carrick nor Anderson can really do that job as well as say a Toure or a Mascherano and Fabregas doesn't really have that type of player behind him these days.

Yaya played in defence but sometimes it looked like he was a midfielder such was the free reign Barcelona had in the centre of the park. Yeh it does help if you have both types of player for sure, but then there's the rare egg like Keane and Makelele that can do both jobs. Also it was Marcos Senna who was the playbreaker for Spain in Euro 08 that you're thinking of he's a top player that guy (Toure is an Ivorian), I was hoping United would buy him and Arshavin, imagine that for a midfield ;)

That's true, but lots of not good teams look reasonable against good teams.  I mean Barcelona barely squeaked by Chelsea just a few weeks ago, and Man U are better than Chelsea.  I think they were rattled as hell. . a little bit before the first goal, but overwhelmingly so afterward.  A few things stood out to me.  First, Ronaldo was trying way too hard.  In the first half he took a shot every time he touched the ball as soon as he touched the ball (In the second half, he never touched the ball).  Look at this shot chart (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/gamecast?id=266961&cc=5901&league=UEFA.CHAMPIONS), and at the three furthest Man U shots.  WTF was he doing?  Either they thought it would be impossible to get some people in the box with the ball in there and the plan was to shoot from orbit or he was just being an idiot.  Second, their passing was absolutely atrocious.  The number of uncontested passes that went out of bounds or 20 yards beyond the target was incredible for football at that level.  I wish better stats on that kind of thing were kept, because I'd like to see the numbers.  But my jaw was hanging half the game watching Man U try to just pass the fucking ball to each other without shanking it.  The only explanation I have is nerves.  Or drugs.  Third, as others have said, their midfield was destroyed.  I thought the backline actually did well, all told.  We know Ronaldo was a long bomber, but nobody knows how Rooney was playing because he couldn't get the ball.  And that's why Tevez was so useless.  He's a poacher.  He needs someone to feed him.  Same with Berbatov.  Rooney's hit or miss.  Ronaldo's probably the best player on that squad to create scoring opportunities for himself dribbling it out of the midfield, and he fucked it by shooting from 40 yards out every time.

I'd accept nerves in the sense that Barca's pressure, especially by the forwards, threw off their balance and made them antsy.

Also, going back a bit and hopping over to MLS...




IT HAS BEGUN!  (http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/sports_breaking/20090528_Nowak_hired_as_first_head_coach_of_Philadelphia_Union.html)

Nah Anderson and Carrick just aren't good enough at the highest level, Anderson has time to improve but I doubt he will ever cut it I mean a Brazilian midfielder that can't shoot I didn't think such a thing existed and Carrick unfortunately is just too inconsistent.

(http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd50/jam3ie/fergies-paradise.jpg)

The next useful performance I see out of Anderson will be his first. He has been pure crap every time I see him play. I think Carrick was missing Fletcher (who really came into his own this year).

You must have missed his performances against Porto, Arsenal and the last few league games, in which he was close to the best player on the pitch.

Some of you seem to be forgetting the first few miniutes of the game, when Utd was on top and looked to have Barca rattled. If Ronaldo had hit one of his shots in then we'd probably be talking about a Utd victory now, not a Barca one. Early goals change games.

Having said that Utd was in no way set up to counter Barca once they went behind. I think they were thrown out and a bit poor from that point on, but I think that the team formation Ferguson had out there was a huge factor.

Giggs is not a CL quality mid, especially not at his age and against Barca, which have the best passing midfielders in the world, and because SAF developed an unhealthy fixation on playing defensive players on the wings. If you want to have a go at Anderson you have to also look at Giggs. How does a midfield of Anderson, Fletcher and Carrick boss games for a month, even against teams like Arsenal, and then fall apart when Giggs is there instead? Picking on Carrick and Anderson is not really the only thing to look at, they didn't have the support to play as well as they can.

Apart from that Ronaldo up front was a mistake again. It works against certain teams but Barca is not one of them. They pass the ball up the pitch and back, you're not really going to rely on long balls to Ronaldo running all out, are you? Somehow Ferguson seemed to think that would work... Ronaldo should have been on the wing, which was Barca's big weakness in this game, but Utd didn't go at it until the last 20 mins of the game. Berbatov up front (a guy who, unlike Tevez, Giggs, Anderson, Carrick, can actually hold the ball and keep possession), Rooney in behind him dropping back to clog the midfield (also able to hold the ball), with Either Park or Giggs on the other wing.

Rooney stranded on the wing in games like this is almost a crime. He's such a good player and yet is so reliant on others to let him have an influence if you don't play him more central.

Utd's midfield was destroyed by Barca's because they couldn't hold the ball, but when the only guys you have in the team who can hold the ball and pass together well are stranded up front (Ronaldo), on the wing (Rooney), or in defense (Ferdinand, Carrick) how the hell do you expect to get it through the gaping hole that is the midfield?

I thought it was a pretty boring game really. Though Utd were poor and Barca were good the goals for the most part were defensive mistakes (Vidic exposed when people run at him again.. caused by Iniestia being able to waltz past a midfield that didn't have Fletcher/Hargaves, and Evra with a horrible rushed miskick out of defense), not amazing pieces of attacking (Xavi and Iniestia's balls were great, and Messi's header superb, but nothing astounding) and after Barca went in front the game really lacked a lot of energy.

Would have been much better to see a game with Barca at full strength with Alves on the pitch. Maybe that would have showed them as a quality team, and maybe Utd would have responded to that and played a bit closer to the level they're capable of.

Caught Chivas USA v Chicago last night. What a debacle. 9 or 10 yellow cards, 1 red, 3 PKs, including one in the 5th minute of stoppage time to give Chicago the win. I loathe Chivas and was glad to see them lose, but that was among the worst calls I have ever seen. A defender leans slightly on Brian McBride as the ball goes 10 feet over his head, McBride goes down like a puppet whose strings were cut, and the referee hands the game to the Fire. I like and respect McBride for his ability and all he has done for the USMNT, but that sort of shit is just embarrassing and lessens the game.

It's no different than claiming pass interference in the end zone when you know darn well you were never going to catch the ball.

Most of those cards were legit though. This just in: Chivas is dirty as fuck.

Oh ya, definitely. It was a nasty game, and very entertaining for a mostly neutral fan. I just hate to see that shit get rewarded- just reinforces the behavior. Ideally there would be video review after each game, and any obvious dives would get awarded retroactive red cards and get to sit out their next match. Guess how many dives there would be after a few weeks of that?

Only the really good ones  :awesome_for_real:


Columbus tomorrow for your boys. They've been flat this year, but I'd like to see what Schelotto does to the back line.

Houston plays TFC at home. Will be odd to see DeRo at Robinson in something other than the orange.

Yeah Schelotto should have a field day. Hopefully KK can keep us in it. We may get Freddie  back, and I think Brad Evans is almost ready too, so the midfield won't be quite as FUBAR as last week. No Alonso will hurt though, especially as poorly as the back line has played.

Kaka to Real Madrid.

Barry Jumps from Villa to Citeh.

Motherfucker. They wouldn't let Barry go for 15 million to Liverpool last year, now they let him go to City for FUCKING 12? ASSGOBLINS.

Also, Kaka to Real Madrid. Guess that means Ronaldo's staying at Man. U.

I see Rangers did the double that's pretty depressing when added to the outlook for Uniteds midfield :(

*plays for underachieving UEFA cup team with little to no hope of reaching CL or challenging for title*
*complains about underachievement*
*transfers to team that is not in Europe and likely to achieve only sightly less*
*gets pay increased to £80k/week*

*is Gareth Barry*



The reason the fee dropped to £12M is that Barry only has one year left on his contract, in 12 months he can walk for nothing.

Have a friend who is from Glasgow and bleeds blue. He's been fucking insufferable

So has anyone confirmed the Kaka to Madrid story? Apparently, he and his agent came out and said that it was a bogus story. It sounded fishy to get him for only 52 million since Villa has been touted as 100 million Euro buy and Kaka is at least on the same level as Villa & Ronaldo in terms of money to get him.

Looks like the bbc and everyone else under the sun is asking the same thing after running with it.

I think this happens, but I think the bargaining is no where close to being done after reading the denials this morning.

US at Costa Rica tonight. 9:30 eastern on ESPN2. They wisely moved it off of ESPN with a baseball game as the lead in. American league at that. :ye_gods: Saprissa is a shit turf pitch and we've never won there.  If we do, that will turn more than a few heads. Costa Rica has an ungodly record in that place, so I'd be delighted with a draw and a healthy team for Saturday.

Confederations cup coming up in a couple of weeks.  US against Brazil, Italy and Egypt. A tougher draw, but I like the thought of this instead of say Iraq, South Africa and Spain.

I am interested to see the Confederations Cup. Over/under for Italian diving induced red cards is 4.5.

Confed cup is nice, but this is the meat and potatoes that makes the team better. Tonight's going to be a dogfight. That turf, that environment (as we start to enter Urine bomb and battery chucking nation territory) being offset by the fact the USA is superior in just about every position, but with no up front depth.

Man to key on is Brian Ching. If he can hold up the ball and draw a lot of fouls  successfully, we'll be in better shape. If he gets mauled and the ref says play on, well it's going to be like the old days... especially when we draw fouls for looking at the Ticos the wrong way.  Seriously, drawing here would be great. Winning, that would be fucking awesome. Losing 1-0 or 2-1 would not crush me, but we'd really need to get those points against Honduras, who really needs them too.

 :ye_gods:    :ye_gods:!!!                 :uhrr:

I wrote this off as soon as I saw the 4-3-3 with Ching out. So did Bob.

But ow, Damarcus Beasley at left back needs to be ended. Torres  is a good offensive player but got gobbled up on D.

Yeah, lots of  :ye_gods:  :uhrr:  :ye_gods:

If Bradley loses Saturday and stinks up the confed cup, I'd fully expect Sunnil to give Sigi a call.

Fucking ESPN SONS OF WHORES. Nice, change the channel you're playing the game on then don't bother to have the Tivo change as well. So I get 30 minutes of a blowout baseball game and 1 1/2 hours of Baseball Tonight/SportsCenter.

Fuckers.

I got nailed by the same fucking thing. I started watching my Recording at 7:17, realized they had swapped to 2, then turned on the live feed just in time to see Costa Rica's second goal. Jesus Christ the back end was just useless. The offense wasn't much better. Landon Donavan disappears for huge stretches of games, and something about Dempsey just seems like he doesn't fit in with the rest of the team's style. If they struggle with Honduras I will be officially worried. But not worried enough to give up Sigi! Hands off- we stole him from Columbus fair and square.

Twitter offically becaue useful for me as I got a tweet from US Soccer and that fat starfucker who runs DuNord saying the game had changed.

Haem, you missed nothing but utter fail. It was horrid.

If I see that sort of thing in the future, I'll send a message to you guys as well as Schild style BOLD TEXT post with the correct info.

Upon further reflection, man did we suck last night. Ghastly.

The only good thing is the team is getting younger and once somebody stops trying to find superstar saviors in mediocre at best players we might be able to have an almost good enough to get out of group stage lineup.  People like Donovan and Dempsey aren't being held to task for their sucking nearly enough.  Dempsey especially that fucker is the American Anelka, a lazy sulky fuck who I forget is on the pitch for 60 minutes a game.

Its exciting though seeing these 20 somethings I've never heard of from the MLS each time I watch a game esp considering they aren't any kind of big step down from anyone else on the team.  Altidore really played a weak game, he was solid until he got caught up trying to draw a foul every time he touched the ball.  God we suck though is my overall impression, fucking suck.

Away wins are hard in qualifying.  Home teams in the group are so far 7-0-3 this cycle.  Last World Cup season they were 20-6-4.

It really seems to be tough in international games. I wonder why that is? Obviously flying thousands of miles and sleeping in a strange bed puts you our of your normal routine, but the difference between home and away is striking for the USMNT.

Its because the #1 problem for the USMNT is nerves/confidence.  Half of their players look like fools when the ball gets near them in anything but the most ideal and comfortable circumstances.  Seriously, how many guys did you see last night who had decided who they were going to pass to as the ball was getting to them, they didn't look up, take a breath, think or anything.  So much pointless one-touch passing to the closest teammate that  parts of the game looked like kids playing soccer who don't want the responsibility of holding the ball.

And it depends on the pressure involved.I still keep going back the the calming presence of Ching. This team is as much chemistry as anything. It's always been the whole being greater than the sum of it's parts. Trying to work the ball up against pressure has never been good for us. Getting the ball to midfield to Ching then running to where they will be while he finds the open guy or draws the foul. The next time we play with him on, look to see where he gets the ball and what he does with it.

The difference between Ching and McBride is that McBride is a better finisher. Ching is a better passer. We normally expect out strikers to finish. This is why he "sucks"

Kaka's move to Real Madrid sort of confirmed (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jun/04/kaka-real-madrid-chelsea-milan).

56.2 million pounds. Fuck me. Looks like La Liga is going to be a 2-team race again. Please don't let Madrid sign David Villa away from Valencia or it will be even worse. They can have Ronaldo though - Liverpool not having to face that bastard twice a year will be nothing but a good thing.

LSU - Rice is running long - GO TO ESPN CLASSIC IF LSU CHOKES and put it into extra innings  Game starts at 8:25 eastern.


Wow. that was a fucking heart attack followed by some of the best combination play I'd seen from the US, in like, well ever.

My man of the match: Ricardo Clark.

Not a bad game, but man it solidified my idea of Onyewu. He had one decent pass, but on that first goal he was completely out of position. Had he been playing his position correctly, that might not have been a goal. Team got much better when Mastroeni went to the bench for Felahaber. Dempsey was pretty useless most of the game.

Good Premier League news: Frazier Campbell goes to Hull (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/h/hull_city/8088111.stm).

Good on him. He looked nice at spurs, Hopefully Brown won't be a total douchbag this season like last...


Our boys are in the air to SA. All kinds of curious/nervous about this game with Italy. Rossi is on the squad. I really don't want to see him score on us. That would be depressing.

What channel is showing the US games of the Confed Cup?

U.S. Men vs. Italy
Live on ESPN, ESPN360.com and Telefutura
06/15/2009  2:30 PM  ET       Monday...
U.S. Men vs. Brazil
Live on ESPN2, ESPN360.com and Telefutura
06/18/2009  10:00 AM  ET    Thursaday...
U.S. Men vs. Egypt
Live on ESPN2, ESPN360.com and Telefutura
06/21/2009  2:30 PM  ET       Sunday...

from ussoccer.com

Sporscenter lead in for Monday and Thursday. US Wrestling Championship lead in on Sunday. Should be a pretty reliable schedule.

Since I am just beginning to follow MLS closely, I have a question regarding the scheduling next summer. Does MLS take a month off or schedule lightly to avoid conflict with the World Cup? It would be shitty to have so many star players all out of the league for up to a month.

MLS never takes international weekends off like the Premier League does, so I'm guessing no.

 MLS does not do shit to work around international schedules. The party line is that given  that many teams cannot control the venues in which they play ( NY, Houston in particular) they'll do what they damn well please to get the games in. Another reason to get their teams in their own stadiums.

Also, there really aren't that many internationals in MLS.  Seattle has. . uh. . Montero, in the very unlikely chance that Colombia qualifies.

Most MLS international players are has-beens (Ljungberg, Schelotto, Blanco) or play for shitty teams that won't make the tournament (Montero, De Rosario, Ricketts).  Even the US national team only has 6 players in MLS (And Chivas has 2 of them.  Ha!).

Because it's much better for Freddy Adu to sit on his ass for AS Monaco or Altidore for fucking Xerez (He can't get playing time on a second division side?  Really?) than get fulltime playing time at home.

Also, obscure but potentially interesting news:

Setanta Sports is going broke (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=653789&cc=5901), and ESPN might take over their Premier League broadcasting.  Which would be great, because I already get ESPN and Setanta is something stupid like $20 a month on Comcast.

In my dream scenario, Setanta go bust and the three at-risk, Scottish Premier Division sides go bust, forcing a redesign into a single, larger premier division into which Morton manage to squeak.

The annoyance is that, if we'd not lost all of our last three games after the league decider against St Johnstone, we'd be in position to get promoted anyhow, if the clubs went into administration.

Most people say "oh, it would be terrible if so-and-so went into receivership.. history.. tradition.. blah blah..."  Frankly, I love deserving clubs going bust and having to get demoted.  Leeds were hilarious.  Gretna had it coming.  And so on.

Also, the BBC news site is reporting that Manchester Utd have accepted a bid (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8094720.stm) from Real Madrid of £80 million (so $130 million?) for Ronaldo.  If you have a strong stomach and a forceful manager then he's worth every penny.

Good riddance  :ye_gods:

Against all my better judgement I put €20 on England to win the World Cup which I got at 11/1 a couple of months back they are now being touted 7/1 or third favourites behind Brazil/Argentina/Spain by some bookies, but the downside is I'll have to cheer England on and if they do win we'll never hear the end of it.

You forget  injuries pulled off Ching and Hejduk. There's a lot more than six in the mix, additionally some of the bigger names were schlepping in MLS until they got plucked.


Also Stuart Holden and Geoff Cameron are going to be shoe ins for a serious look. Hell, 3/4 of the Dynamo have been capped. Brek Shea will def get a look from Dallas, as will Chad Marshall.

Someone should pull some strings and get Mac Kandji a greencard.

No. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article6476897.ece)

Como se dice "SUPERGALACTICOS" en ingles?

See, I can't imagine a side that needs both Kaka and Ronaldo on the pitch at the same time. They are very similar players. But hey, putting down obscene sums for All-Star teams that never quite materialize into champions is Madrid's bag, apparently. It worked out so well for them last time, right? Haven't they won more titles in the last 3 years than during the entire Galacticos' run?

Also, Setanta Sports is worth the money in the US. I pay $15 a month for it on Directv and it's easily worth that. With a combo of Setanta and Fox Soccer Channel, I saw all but the last Premier League Liverpool game this past season, plus a bunch of other stuff. If ESPN gets it, I'm pretty sure the coverage will be spotty and shit.

I could totally see Kaka and Ronaldo working well together, in fact I can't think of a more dangerous combination of two players but the only thing is getting them to work well together. Kaka seems to be pretty down to earth.

I will miss Ronaldo's production, but his diving, whining, and general cuntery are welcome to fuck off to Madrid.


Now sign Ribery and maybe re-sign Tevez, get Hargreaves back from injury, and go out and win a quintuple next season just to piss in Ronaldo's eye.

Nah fuck tevez too I dont want to hear anymore about the jumped up little fuck, plus an attack line with Ribery, Tevez and Rooney could be very damaging to any teams public image even United.

I on the other hand no longer have to root for United and can finally get a Ronaldo jersey in that nice white Real uses.  Happy days.

Berbatov is Tevez but better.  You don't need him.

If I were Sir Alex, I'd do two chicks at the same time.  Wait, what were we talking about?  If I were Sir Alex, I'd go get Andrei Arshavin.

Berbatov drives me insane. He will be asleep for 80 minutes, then spend 10 minutes looking world class. He has an unbelievable touch on the ball, but he is slow and lazy. Tevez works his ass off, but often runs himself out of position and commits fouls of overaggression. It is also tough to play him and Rooney up front together since neither one can do shit in the air.

United definitely need someone else to finish now that Ronaldo is gone. The guy could score from anywhere. I am not sure he gets enough credit for his ability in the air- he is incredibly athletic. If he wasn't such a cunt...

There was a player once called Cantona the only time I ever saw him do a sliding tackle was into the face of some fat git in the stands, but he was a god of football his mere presence on the pitch could win a game singlehandedly. Berbatov has the potential but not sure if he can up his game I'd definitely give him another season, it took Andy Cole three seasons to start scoring goals.

Who united gets will be interesting. I expect another winger, but they might show faith in Nani (hah, unlikely) or the two new guys they picked up and get someone else instead.

I'd like to see them get Ibra, actually. And Ribery.

Robery, Rooney, Ibra, Berbatov. I think you'd get enough goals from that lot.

With Hargraves getting fit again (not sure if he can) and Fletcher, Anderson, Carrick, Park, Nani, Tosic... there are probably enough options there for the rest of the midfield.

Will miss Ronaldo on the pitch as he is the best in the world on his day. But given his personality and relationship with Utd of late I don't think he was the best option for Utd any more and 80 million is a fair effort.

Ronaldo and the will he/won't he saga had become way too distracting for United, IMO. Ever since last summer, everybody knew he'd be going and where. You knew it's what he wanted to do. United is deep enough with enough transfer clout they can replace him for sure. Obviously not going to get a player of his quality back, but they don't need someone that good - they are still Man. U. They might see some dropoff in victories, however, but it remains to be seen whether either Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal can still challenge them. We've all seen that Liverpool is fragile without Torres and/or Gerrard, Chelsea has a new manager and playing style to adapt to, and Arsenal isn't that deep. I'm hoping that the loss of Ronaldo will mean the title will be more competitive next year.

It was brilliant business sense to get one more season out of him, he really does want to be the greatest on the pitch SAF knew this and knew he could milk another season out of him disenchanted or no. The profit they have made on him is akin to winning two more Champ leagues & Premiership doubles and in a few years when he loses a yard or two of pace and starts getting injured more he won't be worth 80m. To recoup the money spent, Real will have to win a few domestic leagues and a CL or two although merchandising will definitely help their cause he's extremely saleable.

Schalke Midfielder Jones to jump ship and play for the US Nats (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hgJ4YhyNZhA-nP3u6fGgzKdo42uwD98P76DG1)

I've followed Schalke a bit and asking some more knowledgeable folk, I think he'd start as a defensive midfielder, which while seeming a case of  "How many D Mids do the Yanks need?" would allow Edu to move to CB and Bocanegra to fill the slot  at Left Back. It's intriguing proposition, anyway.

27 seems pretty old to never have been capped. How bad does he suck?

He's got Germany's Midfield in front of him. Ballack alone would have him riding pine. also there's a couple of D Mids who are a bit older who are in front of him. So not, not world class. but not exactly sucking.  Like I said, He'd start and play a solid role, assuming he fits in with the team.

He'd have to have unseated both Ballack and Torsten Frings, who are both pretty good at the international level (though both have really lost a step in the last few years), as well as a few others. This was probably a better move for him. As for how bad could he be? Well, he's younger than Mastroeni and he's had a regular place at Schalke, meaning he's probably not as injury prone as Mastroeni has been the last few years. I'd say unless he has the positional sense of Onyewu, he's probably going to be at least as good as what we've got.

FiFA 09 ranks hims as an 80  :grin:

Don't think I can make a player that will be an 80.  perhaps if I tank the ai dependent things in favor of his prime stats I can make him :)

Also. Really looking forward to seeing Houston and Seattle play now. Houston  can make shit shine like solid gold. Just ask Cam Weaver!

It's going to be a fucking miracle if we get one point from this group.

Find a replay of Egypt - Brazil. Egypt has such vision and control on the ball. Which we don't have. They canb't defend a set piece for shit though.

Brazil... equal parts of  :awesome_for_real:  :ye_gods: :grin: :uhrr: :drill:

Mother fucking Traitor Rossi :(

Didn't get to see it, was the send-off legit?

Yes and no.

No, that does not get a red in italy. or any where else. But it did there. and worse, it was on FUCKING GATTUSO? Motherfucker does ten times worse before eating  breakfast himself. Yes in the sense of the following truth: We are not Italy, we are the USA. We will never get calls  against Italy.It took a pretty decent flop  by Jozy to get the PK, and by rights he should have gotten at least a yellow. Landon also got Jobbed on a penalty call late in the game, but fucker just waited for the crunch. if he makes a halfassed effort for the ball he gets a shot to make it 2-2, and we probably stay there.

I :really: want to see Jones with this lineup. And I'm having serious doubts as to Dempsey. I think Bradley needs to sit him. Fuck. Sit him for Azteca, No one should feel their spot on the Nats is a birthright. Well, save for Timmeh. Donovan.... no, not even him.

And once again. Fuck Guiseppi Rossi.  :mob:

I've been on the fuck Dempsey tip for quite some time, welcome to my bandwagon.  That guy is a piece of shit most games, I refer to him as the American Anelka at times.

That sending off was crazy, I have no idea how anyone can imagine that was a straight up red, what did I not see?  I knew it was an auto-yellow but I couldn't imagine it being a red, when I saw all the reaction I thought he was on a yellow that I had missed.  Sucks for that  kid too I had enjoyed his play up to that point.

They tired out really, first and second goals might not have happened if defenders weren't so easily caught flat footed.

Jozy can be a beast, but I  doubt it happens in time for this world cup, he's our only hope though so Bradley can only keep starting him, people who yammer about Ching are fucking insane.

MVP's for me:
Bradley, who I usually hate with a passion but who has won me over for now.  He ran himself out of the game by the 70th minute but he'll learn.

Spector, he played a really good game, best defender on the pitch for us by a mile.

Bornstein, yeah he had a hard time but he had a hard time against one of the best and almost held his own on defense.  He also came forward and played with conviction and confidence throughout the game before he completely gassed.  We need more of that.

Donovan, I don't know if anyone else noticed but he actually played balls to the walls at points, I wish he would have taken that one shot that he tried to lay off (wish Jozy had done the same) and I wish his free kicks were as good as people tell him they are.  But he takes a solid pk and his corners have looked a bit better (less of this loft it hella too high to the far post shit) so I give him props for once.

I'm actually really fucking excited right now about 2010, that team looked like  they could score 3-5 goals if they show up with that kind of effort.  Given the right group and some magic from Howard and 3-5 goals could be enough to get to the knock outs.  I fully expect 0-1 goals against Egypt and Brasil to crash my hope and make it burn.

Donovan did look sharp. Bradley totally bottled that attempt, and Jozy forgot his main job it to score goals. I want to see what tomorrow brings.

IF I EVER SEE DAMARCUS FUCKING BEASLEY ON THE FIELD AGAIN FOR THE US  I"M CLIMBING THE FUCKING BELLTOWER AND TAKING CARE OF THE PROBLEM MYSELF.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!!! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?!>!

FUCK FUCK FUCK YOU IN YOUR FUCKING ASS YOU TALENTLESS PIECE OF DONKEYSHIT.


GAH


I'm done. Fuck...

hold on:

 How do you give up a fucking goal on a corner... when you're taking the corner?

Sasha, nice red card. Fucker. You're not playing IN MLS! you won't get a call. EVER!


Jesus christ. NOW I'm done.

Bob Bradley needs to go. He refuses to put a even semi-competent team on the pitch.

God that corner was a fucking travesty. Bad enough Brazil was getting fouls called for them when the US players even breathed on them (talk about some diving bitches - way to flop there, Brazil). But to just fuck up a goddamn corner THAT BADLY... why is Beasley out there again? Could Justin Mapp really have been a worse option? FUCK. You know who I'd like to see them use on the wings? John Thorrington with Chicago. He's not bad and shit, he cannot CANNOT be as bad as both Beasley and Dempsey have been lately. Those two fuckers have been useless.

But really, our back line without Frankie Hejduk is just sub par. We're ok at the defense part, but the transition game is awful. They dawdle on the ball too long, get caught out and suddenly they have to foul or they give up a goal. There should have been at least two guys playing back on that corner, so why was Spector the only one with any shot at stopping that breakout? Where was Bornstein?

So...

How about those Egyptians?

I love love LOVED seeing Italy go down.  Watching them flounder and flail and dive to no avail in the final 5 minutes was a wonderful thing.

My two favorite teams are the US and whoever is playing Italy. I fucking LOATHE them. I was happy to see them lose, and will be even happier on Sunday when they get eliminated.

I TiVo'ed both games and ended up watching more of the 2nd- I hit fast forward after Brazil went up 3-0. The second game was much better obviously.

Heh. Hilarious that the US gets through after looking so crappy.

That was one of those, holy shit , is this really happening moments that makes you wonder where the fuck that was earlier in the week.

Eqypt were AWFUL. The US really didn't play all that well, but they finally buried some chances for a change. I almost didn't bother watching- I set the TiVo and was watching the US Open, but thought I would watch the first few minutes to see how quickly they coughed up a goal. When it got past 10 minutes I figured I would just watch a decent performance. No way did I think they would ever get through, even after Brazil went up 3-0 so early.

Nice reward- Spain will fucking dismantle them. Unfortunately I think this may have saved Bob Bradley's job.

Gooch was a monster. Demerit played well. Spector played himself into at least a backup to Cherundolo, and Clark probably will hold D-Mid until Jones can get a look in October. Bradley is looking solid. and Donovan pushed this whole team.

Which leaves us with Dempsey, who needs a break or something... Even with the goal. Jozy needs work, a lot more work. Our second forward, well right now it's Ching. Ching does all the stuff Jozy doesn't do well, so it makes him look better and is an aerial threat.

OH and right back. We've only been saying that since 1994...

Big football broadcast news:

Setanta UK is le dead (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jun/23/setanta-goes-into-administration).

Supposedly, this doesn't affect subscribers of Setanta in the US (http://www.setanta.com/global/us.html).

ESPN gets the English Premier League broadcast rights that Setanta had for the UK Market (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=656557&sec=england&cc=5901).

ESPN2 will broadcast some La Liga matches in the US next season as a sublicensee of GolTV (http://www.multichannel.com/article/295424-GolTV_Sublicenses_Some_La_Liga_Rights_To_ESPN.php?rssid=20062&q=%22la+liga%22).

Most of that is bad news (because I find it hard to believe that Setanta US won't follow its parent company down the tubes eventually) but the ESPN2 news of La Liga is good. Even if their commentators suck at it, more La Liga is a good thing. There's some damn good football being played there.

Ah good oul Sellotanta Sports serves them right,

MOTD viewers might enjoy this quite funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmGrVIFGOB4&feature=related

Mark Lawrenson was one of the English players drafted into the Irish national team under Jack Charlton under the grandmother rule.

How about THAT!

That game was Onyewu's start to end.  He stopped 8 goals by himself.

Howard was pretty nails too.

God, that was good to watch. The Aus commentator said it best - Fernando Torres, all blonde hair and empty air.

I am dumbstruck. if not for some deepy sad shit that happened IRL. I think I'd be doing a dance today.

Sorry to hear that, sigil.

I TiVoed the game but accidentally heard the score before I watched. I am actually almost glad I did, since I probably would have had a heart attack otherwise. Spain should have won that game about 5-2. Howard was great, and Demerit and Onyewu were awesome. The other two backs, not so much. I don't know if it was Bradley or Clark or whoever, but someone should have been marking Villa at the top of the area- he got the ball there what, 10 times, with room to work?

US got very lucky. The played hard too, which is likely what saved them. Bradley's red card was a bad tackle, but judging from the angles I saw shouldn't have been a straight red. I am really getting tired of referees imposing themselves into match stories. It is far worse in MLS, but 3 red cards in 4 games for the US? Clark's was probably legitmate (but I see that stuff let go every week in EPL), but the other two were dicey at best.

Great game. Let's face it, the US goals were both lucky goals - a good bounce and/or a slightly off touch from a Spain player. BUT... the US finished the chances and they defended well. I wouldn't say Onyewu was fantastic. He was good at what he does, which is stopping shots. As soon as he's called on to play the ball in anything other than a reactionary way, he invariably makes the wrong move. He should never leave his half 3rd of the field for any reason other than corners. Dermerit and Howard were both spectacular though.

Who is this Charlie Davies kid? I've never heard of him but he was damn good most of the night. Clint Dempsey, you are the luckiest fuck alive, because you were useless for 89 minutes. The one good touch you had was a poacher's goal that fell at your feet. Do we just not have anybody on the wing that can play worth a fuck? Is that why he keeps getting starts?

That Bradley red card was BULLSHIT. If you squint real hard, that's a yellow. The Donovan yellow was also bullshit.

I really think we need to use a midfield of Clarke or Feilharber on one wing, Bradley in the center and find someone who can play a defensive mid behind Bradley. I think that's a big part of why Onyewu's play bugs me - he doesn't have someone in front of him to pass it to out of the back. Both Clarke and Bradley tend to go too far forward to be good holding mids. We also need wingers not named Dempsey and Beasley. Dononvan/Clarke/Felharber on the wings with Altidore/Davies/Ching/Casey up front sounds good. Now we just need some fullbacks.

Feilhaber should be in the lineup Sunday with Bradley out for sure. I would like to see Adu get some time too- Bring Dempsey in as a striker sub in the 60th minute or something.

better now, thanks man.

We made the most of our chances we took advantage of mistakes.

That's what good teams do.

Altidore showed me a lot, even if he did pull a bonehead with the shirt. The way he held off the defender through strength and positioning, then fooled Casillas. That was a fade away tip as he dove to his left and center, (as opposed to full right  or left.)

Some things we now know.

US plays much MUCH MUCH better pissed off and with a chip on its shoulder... not even close.

US athleticisim and heart can go very very far in the right circumstances.

Spain play similar in style to mexico, just much better. We can handle that type of play. Other teams probably took note. Look for European teams to try similar pressure tactics. Capello was at the game with his staff. You can be sure copious notes were taken.

US - Mex at Azteca just got a :lot: more interesting. We win there, and we should probably sew up getting seeded after this. God I'd love to get us seeded. It is FIFA though, so I
wouldn't bet the ranch on it.
                 

I'd bet
             Timmeh
Spector Oneywu DeMeritt Boca
Dempsey Feilhaber  Clark   Donovan
      Davies                Altidore

Casey in at70 for Davies.

Frankly, based off of Adu's behavior, he's been acting like a dick in some of his tweeting for one, which looks terrible, I wouldn't be surprised if he isn't  one step up from DMB. How many people are going to have to fall over dead before he puts on the shirt? Kevin Goldthwaite , Brad Evand  and Pat Ianni will get looks before DMB. Breck Shea will get a look before DMB...

Evans may get a chance sooner than later (http://gosounders.com/2009/06/25/brad-evans-called-up-to-usmnt/).

As for Adu- the kid has to be frustrated. He doesn't get any PT anywhere he goes. It is really hard to develop as a player without playing games. Training only does so much. On the other hand, he needs to show that he is committed and ready in training in order to convince his coaches to play him. Chicken/egg, etc.

Soccer sells pretty well already in Seattle, but adding a Sounder to the USMNT for the Gold Cup just added 3000 more fans to the July 4th game (if it isn't sold out yet). Probably 65% female, since Brad is dreamy  :awesome_for_real:

oh yeah, fogot about gold cup.

you know,  I think we are very subtly sneaking up on having depth.

I really wanted to see Cameron from Houston get a shot.

I would really like Bradley to call up a bunch of new faces for the Gold Cup- give guys some experience, and maybe find some parts that work better than people like Beasley.

Didn't he tackle Alonso? Then he was fated to receive a red card. Everyone who tackles Alonso gets one. =P

Goalkeepers: Jon Busch (Chicago), Troy Perkins (Valerenga, Norway), Luis Robles (Kaiserslautern, Germany).
Defenders: Steve Cherundolo (Hannover, Germany), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City), Clarence Goodson (Start, Norway), Jay Heaps (New England), Chad Marshall (Columbus), Michael Parkhurst (Nordsjaelland, Denmark), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock, Germany).
Midfielders: Davy Arnaud (Kansas City), Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Colin Clark (Colorado), Sam Cronin (Toronto), Brad Evans (Seattle), Stuart Holden (Houston), Logan Pause (Chicago), Robbie Rogers (Columbus).
Forwards: Freddy Adu (Monaco, France), Brian Ching (Houston), Kenny Cooper (Dallas), Charlie Davies (Hammarby, Sweden), Santino Quaranta (D.C. United).


Not bad...


My guess:
           Robles
Dolo Conrad Marshall Parkhurst
Evans Beckerman Holden Rogers
  Ching          (Davies - Adu)

Perfect! Now play Adu kthx.

I cannot understand why Beckerman, Conrad and Heaps aren't in this Confederation's Cup team. Or Kenny Cooper for that matter. Beckerman is criminally underrated. Why doesn't John Thorrington get more love as well?

There are better options on defense. Conrad is funny as hell and will be doing well after the game, but he's just not as good as his competition. he's good though. Cooper is the american Crouch. Small size mind in big lanky body. The rest, who do you take out. ok after Beasley and obviously now Freddy.

I'd put Beckerman in as defensive mid, maybe in preference to Clarke. Thorrington can take Dempsey's place if you don't use Clarke for that and Heaps or Conrad over Onyewu.

wat

I like John Thorrington from the Fire. He'd be a better winger than Dempsey has been.

You're speaking English,  but these words make no sense to me. Oh well, I will give you your right to an opinion.

Brad Davis would be better than Thorrington. His ears would distract the opposing team.

Watched the games while in Mexico, half the resort heard me yelling when Jozy scored.

Thoughts:
Spain should have and usually would have at least 2 if not 4 goals in that game.  We got lucky on both scores and the second one was Donovan going for an extra pass when the shot was his to take for the 5th time.

Howard was the man, the defense blocked shots and scrambled well and got lucky.  Fucking Jay DeMerit put on a show, best game I've seen from him, so did Gooch in the air but dear god he is so fucking bad with his feet.  There was one ball that he gave up a corner on that was just so  :ye_gods: I was beside myself for about 5 minutes.  Bocanegra couldn't handle his assignment but how many can, esp playing out of position.  He got fucking shook a couple of times so bad.

Midfield faded again late, which isn't good but early on they were playing great pressuring everything and taking away any imperfect pass.  Real fucking shame for Bradley, another completely bogus straight red.  A straight red should be a rare event, seeing them for this ticky tack calls where you have to turn your head just right to find some malice in the positioning of the studs chaps my ass.  The one thing the midfield didn't do well was find Xavi, he was getting the ball the entire first half at the start of the attacking third in the middle with space, DO NOT WANT, every time that happened I was expecting them to score.  That area is where the 2nd and 3rd Italy goals came from, somebody needs to learn something.

If this does something major for Jozy's career and playtime maybe just maybe we'll have a real striking threat for 2010, I wouldn't bet on it but its an exciting thought.

re: Gold Cup roster
I've read and heard that people see this roster and think this will be Adu's last chance, that he'll get the playtime and the offense will revolve around him.  If he doesn't shine then its probably over.  I'm devastated that Ricardo Clark isn't on this roster, he just needs more experience his workrate, athleticism, heart and confidence have been great.  I guess if you want to argue that the Concacaf CL (what do they call that?) is better competition then the gold cup I might agree.

I still think Dempsey is a cunt.

Rico doesn't got the same reason Cameron doesn't Go. It's not fair to houston to take four players off their team because they're quality.

Prediction for final.

Brazil 10-0 USA

Sigil, you can't make a 'your posting is incomprehensible' burn then post that "Rico doesn't got the same reason Cameron doesn't Go" in your next post.

So drop Ching or this midfielder Holden who wasn't good enough to make the Confed Cup then.  Clark is just raw, but he has the talents, its criminal not seeing him play if its just because of club team politics.  Also, are you drunk?  I have no idea what Cameron doesn't Go means.

Yes, but mine was an error of omitting words,as I had to step out. Sorry about that.  Rico doesn't go because Ching and Holden are going to the Gold cup. Are you going to take four players off of Houston? No.

The brain moves faster than the fingers most of the time. I just spat out my thought that was clear in my head but screwy typed out.  Had to unexpectedly leave right after. So yeah. Fake drunk posting.

WARNING: If you are trying to tape this on Dish, they have switched it from ESPN2 to ESPN but the tags are still wrong so it won't DVR it on a timer.

That was a shame. US really needs a better midfield. Way too many turnovers in that second half. Kljestan is horrible.

I'd rather lose 3-0 than play that poorly in the second half and absolutely choke.

we didn't choke

we ran out of gas.

Remember we had no Ching, no Edu. I think we've replaced Hejduk now. and we're getting one more guy, as I'll talk  about in a sec

 The first Brazil goal was a shot to the gut. chalk it up to demerit having his limits.

After that you could see the cracks opening up the gaps opening slowly bit by bit... eventually they capitalized.

But I'll say this. You start off Jermaine Jones and have Clark as a reserve, and Ching to come on for Altidore in the 70th and  we probably win. This team took a big step forward. We know  and they know what they're capable of doing.

I'm not sure of the numbers, but I'd imagine that the teams up 2-0 at the half and lose in regulation in international play...

Well they are fucking rare. We choked. There's no way around it. Not to mention we got a break on a terrible call that was a goal and they apparently didn't see it. The game is 4-2 if that counts.

Still, you SHOCKED THE WORLD!!!!  :drill:

I've never seen a team run as much as USA did in the first half, defended superbly aswell. Kaka is amazing though, love watching that guy.

I have to say that if we had Bradley and Edu that you would figure the midfield would be much stronger.  I better not see Kljestan on the field again for quite some time, I also really question why Bocanegra is considered such a gem considering he's been getting smoked all tournament but its hard to call out any other players except to nitpick.

Defensively Gooch was a monster again and even played the ball to a midfielder out of defense on several occasions.  Spector is mvp because he was all over the pitch and played a hell of a game, simply great defending.  DeMerit is DeMerit, he's not that good but he's solid, unlucky on that first goal, he did close out like you would want.  I'm not thrilled with Bocanegra but if he's playing out of position I guess he deserves some credit.  Howard made great saves and it would be crazy to fault him for any of the goals.  If anyone takes the starting job from Spector (*cough* Cherundelo *endcough*) I'm going to be pissed, best service on the team in this tournament, great defending, pushes forward, plays smart.

The midfield gassed again, Ricardo Clark played ok but was nonexistent for almost all of the second half, it shouldn't be ignored that he sprung the 2nd goal.  Benny really played well as a holding midfielder at times, some great tackles at key moments but I never saw him going forward and he also vanished in the second half.  Donovan wanted to win, I hope he goes back to Germany or somewhere after this.  Dempsey, fucking Dempsey, who knows what to say, I still don't really like him, it was his mark on the 3rd goal and I'm sure I've seen him get beat on corners for the USMNT several times before.  He looked all choked up afterwards and that will get a lot of play but...  I guess for now we've got to play him, he gets goals, but I wish he wouldn't be so inconsistent and sulky.

Altidore showed flashes, not a great game for him but he better remain or #1 striker, that white guy (Kasey?) is useless and Ching is an old man.  Fucking Davies, I love this kid, I think in the end him Spector and Clark are the trio that really give me hope for the future even more so then Altidore.  Sure he tried to do a little too much, a few too many moves at times but to have the balls to run at the defense and he was close to breaking free 2-3 times is something most of the USMNT lacks.  He's fast, he makes good runs and he played some good balls.  Needs more experience for sure, I look forward to watching him in the finals of the gold cup tearing shit up.

I knew it was over when Brazil scored less than a minute into the 2nd half. That was enough to erode the confidence of the team and give Brazil the extra energy to finish it off. Utterly predictable. If they could have hung on until 65 or 70 before conceding they might have had a chance to hang on. Still, I am happier with their overall play than I was after Costa Rica and the first 2 games of the tournament. They have a TON of work to do to be competitive with the world class teams, however.


As soon as the final whistle blew I switched over to my DVR recording of the Seattle v Colorado game. Wow, does Colorado miss Conor Casey. Although he was not responsible for the total demolition of the back line by Fredy/Freddie/Nate. Seattle REALLY needs to upgrade their back line too. That game could have easily been 6-3 with all the chances on both ends. I heard a rumor last week about them picking up the starting left back for the Costa Rican national team. Apparently his backup is a starter for Chicago, so he sounds like quite an improvement over Wahl/Scott/Ianni/whoever gets stuck back there.

For whatever reason, Kljestan just cannot translate his talent to the international level. He's fantastic at Chivas, but he has fallen on his dick at the international level. Some guys are just like that. The fact that we even kept that game close after they torched us the first game is an achievement. The first US goal was lucky, the second was skill. I agree with Hoax, I think if we'd have had Bradley either as a starter or sub, it would have been a better performance. I'm not too broken up about it, because at least we took it to 2 of the best teams in the world and gave them all they could handle. I'm looking forward to the Gold Cup now.

EDIT: Also, have to mention Altidore. Though he wasn't flashy last night, I appreciate his attempts to hold the ball in possession. I think taking him off in the second half was a mistake. He didn't look that gassed, and he brings some danger to the front that putting in another midfielder didn't. Who does Davies play his club football for, because he is good. I think the team has some good talent to build on.