2007-08 EPL Thread

[HaemishM]

He scored against Villa too. They are a much better side than Sunderland.

[sigil]

This is the same Villa that lost to Fulhamerica on Sunday, right?

[HaemishM]

Liverpool lost to West Ham. I mean, really, any side could lose to any side these days, no matter how unlikely. Fuck, Bolton beat Man. U. at one point this season.

[sigil]

I'd agree with that, Derby County excluded.

[sidereal]

Well, Newcastle can certainly lose to any side these days.  I can attest to that with some confidence.

[lamaros]

Liverpool lost to West Ham. I mean, really, any side could lose to any side these days, no matter how unlikely. Fuck, Bolton beat Man. U. at one point this season.

You neglect the extenuating circumstances.

And yeah. Liverpool losing to someone isn't really an argument. They're not exactly top 3 material.

[HaemishM]

Liverpool has enough extenuating circumstances of their own, beyond just that half of their players don't seem to know why they are playing the positions on the pitch they are.

Oh, and West Ham beat Man. U. too.

[sigil]

Only vagely related, and mostly due to Fulhamerica and Derby County, but National Piss on Mexico day is today.


USA - Mexico at 9PM eastern on the Deuce.


Anyone been following Michael Bradley here? He is absolutely tearing it up over in Holland for Heerenveen.

I'll be in houston tonight to watch it in person. You folks should check it out.

[Mr_PeaCH]

Only vagely related, and mostly due to Fulhamerica and Derby County, but National Piss on Mexico day is today.


USA - Mexico at 9PM eastern on the Deuce.


Anyone been following Michael Bradley here? He is absolutely tearing it up over in Holland for Heerenveen.

I'll be in houston tonight to watch it in person. You folks should check it out.

Sooo...?

How was it in person?  I watched most of the first half in real time and later scanned through the second half on DVR.  Seemed like a well fought game on the pitch and pretty great atmosphere (by US standards?) in the seats.

As for the Dempsey off-sides call... WTF?  Lame.  Also at one point one of the announcers rightly commented that the game was beginning to resemble an all-star event where nobody wants to play any defense.  The US had no business letting in that set piece goal by Mexico; dreadful.

[sigil]

It was a hell of a lot of fun. Packed house, mostly pro Mex, but not as bad as it used to be.

Lots of Dynamo shirts in the house, that warmed my heart.

My observations:

Drew Moor  can't cover for shit. But he can serve a hell of a cross. We need a fucking right back. On the left, Corrales is hust holding Bornsteins spot  while he recovers from injury.

Bobby Convey, I know I heard his name, and I think I saw him  for a second or two, but he did jack shit out there.

Landon doesn't need to play right side any more. It's a waste of his skills and it's not his thing.

Dempsey got hosed on that call, but he was the most skilled guy out there on either side. BUt skill couldn't get him the ball when it wasn't coming to him and he didn't do much to get to it himself.

Edu looked Good. Clark looked rusty. Bradley didn't mesh well. Feilhaber looked  especially good since he hasn't gotten a sniff at Derby.

But the one thing I'll come away from that game, other than it was one of the most enjoyable times I've had in some years, is Josy Altidore.

If you're reading this thread and you live in the US or Toronto. Take the time to go see Red Bull New York  when they come around. Go watch Jozy Altidore in person before he leaves for Europe. He's absolutely phenomenal. He does so many things so well, things that you just don't see forwards do. His runs off the ball are fabulous. HIs ability showed in going toe to toe with Marquez and not just hold his own, he flat out beat him on many occasions. Rafa is one of the best in the world, and  An 18 year old kid made him look silly on at least four occasions.
 
There was a foul called on a breakaway that was nonexistent. Josy just ran by him. He powered that header home for the second goal, holding off multiple defenders and deuce as well.


This was a young team that did better than I thought. If they can come together, solidify and fix that awful  right back and find a true number 10, they could be really, really good at the next World Cup.

[HaemishM]

Altidore is the real deal. He'd look so much better if he wasn't playing on that shitty turf for home games.

[Hoax]

I only saw the 2nd half.

-The coach's kid looked out of place, he has no business playing centre mid from what I watched, fucking pathetic.
-Dempsey didn't quite look comfortable in his role, he has the skills to start somewhere on the US team but hopefully its either not there or somebody gives him some coaching.
-I didn't think Convey did too terribly in the 2nd half before he was removed.  But I'm a huge fan of his, him and Hejduk were the best guys on the US team for so many years (fuck you Donovan).
-Edu did look good, Adu looked solid as well, hopefully he's getting some playtime in the BWIN league, he also looked stupid running up into his teammate's space
-I like this Altidore kid, the sooner somebody swoops him up in Europe the better
-The entire backline looked like shit, except the LB who started to look like shit as he got tired.
-Feilhaber did look awesome, but I think that was partially how much ass Bradley sucked and the announcer being all up on his cock.  Srsly though, he showed well as a sub.
-Where the fuck was whathisface with the Italian sounding name?  That guy looked so promising in the WC, is he hurt?
-Onyewu still looks like a big oaf on the pitch, fucking clown, even if he did score.  He also missed the frame terribly in the 2nd on a free header.


Mexico had some serious cutting edge to them considering how easily they cut through the midfield and delivered pressure straight down the center of the pitch forcing the defense to collapse, its criminal they couldn't do more with it after the attacker would draw two and put a touch pass to the corner of the penalty area for a winger to run onto.

[sigil]

Several of those good runs were shut down by Bocanegra. And we have other central defenders than gooch. it's the wings that make me nervous.

Altidore can still learn from Angel,  and MLS is not  so substandard as to be a waste of time for him to stay here another year or so.

[Mr_PeaCH]

FA Cup - 5th round
Liverpool - Barnsley

Don't read if you don't want to know...







************ SPOILERS ************************







Holy shit, what an amazing finish!  Barnsley's keeper must have stopped 7 or 8 shots in the final 30 minutes.  Just on fire in front of his net.  And then... THEN!  That finisher in extra time.  What the hell, Liverpool?  Feel free to play some defense there Alonso.  Amazing game.  Unbelievable drama.

[sigil]

Fucking amazing... and Arsenal getting kicked in the balls in the early going by ManU just warms my heart.

Got to find a way that I can catch the carling cup final.

[sigil]

I know there's out on DVD at spurs' shop, but  anyone seen a torrent of the 5-1 semifinal beatdown?

[HaemishM]

Fucking Barnsley.

Really? You can't beat fucking Barnsley?

Cockles. To be fair, the Barnsley goalkeeper and right back (Steele and Hassel respectively) were fucking monsters all day. But really, this shouldn't have been a problem. At Anfield, the Reds should have been able to put 3 goals up easy.

But it's like they've done all year. They get 1 goal and they take their foots off the pedal and try to cruise to a 1-0. When that doesn't happen, they are out of ideas.

[sigil]

The video of the guys in sky sport's  studios reaction was tremendously  funny.

[Mr_PeaCH]

I understand the goalie, Steele, had only joined Barnsley mid-week on loan and this was his first appearance with the club.

Sigil - Spurs-Chelsea for the Carling Cup final on Sunday... you got anything on who if anyone is going to carry it in the states?

[sigil]

Carling Cup is Setanta.

Spurs won  their UEFA fixture last weekend, and  Woodgate will be available for the Final, as Boro freed him up.

Let's see if Ramos can work some Cup magic for us.

[eldaec]

If Inter has one of their 'on' days Liverpool will get ruined in the champ league

if Ibrahimovich can be bothered Liverpool should be doomed

Heh.

[lamaros]

No spoilers, but:

Very silly ref. Very boring half. Very surprised to see the final scoreline.

[HaemishM]

No spoilers, but:

Very silly ref. Very boring half. Very surprised to see the final scoreline.

SPOILERS





Yes. Though not on the boring part, but yes on the ref. Sending off Materazzi for those two fouls... hell, booking him for either of those fouls was silly. The second one I could have understood getting his first yellow for cumulative fouls, but both fouls were really ticky tack fouls to be handing out cautions. Not to mention the fact that the ref just had no clue what a handball was, or was just refusing to call it. That Belgian crew was pretty terrible.

The scoreline was a beautiful thing. Again, why isn't Crouch starting? Why put Lucas out on the wing and leave Pennant on the bench? Rafa just seems to have no respect or understanding of what makes a good wing midfielder. Either put someone with pace like Babel and Pennant, or put a passer like Kewell there. Babel really doesn't thrill me as a winger, since he loses the ball too much when trying to charge into the box, and Lucas is much better in central midfield.

[lamaros]

Kewell was injured (again!).

I think he felt Pennant isn't that good defensively and would get exposed. I thought Lucas did ok from what I saw (only saw the first half).

[HaemishM]

Lucas did fine, but he didn't really provide much out there, either. He's just better as a center mid, a la the Alonso role, than he is a winger. It's not the first time Rafa has used someone like that on the wings. He's done it with Voronin, which did not work at all, and he's doing it with Babel with mixed results, IMO. It's just silly to put Lucas out there on the wing when you have good enough options on the bench in Pennant.

[eldaec]

Funniest thing about the Liverpool game is the press reporting today.

Everyone had quite clearly written 80% of their reports before the goals, half of them in a '0-0 is a good result' mode, half of them in 'Rafa is the anti-christ' mode.

There is no sensible reporting on LFC at this point. It is fricking hilarious. The media is equally split between Rafa lovers and haters.


As for why Rafa played with no wingers at the start, I suspect it was because he felt being able to switch play from side to side, and interchange players to break up inter's defensive organisation was more important than being able to run at inter in a conventional manner, and as a plan it seemed to work pretty well. In all probability Pennant, Kewell, Benayoun etc would have been much less effective from the start.

Incidentally, having been through countless games of frustrating rotation earlier in the season is what makes this sort of thing work when it really counts. See also, Barca 07, Chelsea 07, Juve 05, Chelsea 05 etc. Inability to change their plan is a big part of why Chelsea, Arsenal, and ManU choke so often in this situation.

[lamaros]

Inability to change their plan is a big part of why Chelsea, Arsenal, and ManU choke so often in this situation.

I don't think it's that so much as an inability to control this own game.

Remember the Utd teams of the past? The way they would have a whole different game to play when they needed to? It is the same with AFL teams here in Australia. In 2000 my team lost the one game for the year only. In all the other games they looked solid, not always just because of the scoreline, but because that had that other gear to go to.

"Other gear" has now become a bit of a cliche, but the great teams still have it and know when to use it. Without it you get caught playing a predictable game too often. Watching the City game vs Utd I felt this. They didn't have another gear to go to, all they could do was try to play faster, which is not the same. Faster just means you rush things and your approach play isn't as solid. However with the right side on the park I think they can play like this (For me I think that side includes Carrick (passing), Saha (pace, different forward threats) and Nani (less Ronaldo centric)--SAF disagrees)

Liverpool has some serious big game players and always need to prove itself in Europe. I don't think it's necessarily an indication of Rafa.

[sigil]

SPURS get the cup!


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

*dancing and  shouting at the house at the moment*

/faints

[HaemishM]

That Carling Cup final was a good game. In your face, Chelsea, you sea of raging douchebags.

[rk47]

yeah always hated setpiece goal winner, especially chelsea specialists at that.
Was so close to FT too.

[Mr_PeaCH]

Hooray for Spurs!

Didn't get to see it and succeeded in not spoiling myself until the FSC could deliver me the highlights on Sunday night and then some nice analysis on Monday.  And now I cannot WAIT to see the next installment of the Fox Football Fone-In to find out from Steven Cohen how it tastes to have fat, lillywhite, Tottenham cock rammed down his throat.  Joy.

[sigil]

You'd think with a name like Cohen he'd be all over Spurs.

Yid Army all the way

[sigil]

A song from the ever classy Villa fans at the last match.

What's that sticking out of his sock,
Is it his ankle, is it his ankle

Eduardo Wwooooo
He had some silky skills,
Now he walks like heather mills wwooooo wwooooo

he used to run down the left
he used to run down the right
That boy Eduardo will run in circles for life

[HaemishM]

You stay classy, Villa.

[lamaros]

Here are my predictions for the return legs of the champ. league:

Utd by 3 goals.
Liverpool through on away goals.
Milan 2-1.
Schalke through by one goal (a draw away).
Roma through (draw or one goal up away).
Chelsea by 2 goals.
Barca comfortably.
Sevilla by 2 (at home, by one overall).

How wrong will I be? Time will tell.

(Here's who I'd prefer go through: Utd, Liverpool, Gunners, Schalke, Roma, Olympiacos, Celtic, Sevilla)