2008/2009 Football (Soccer) Thread

[sigil]

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.

[Endie]

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

[HaemishM]

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

[Endie]

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

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.

[HaemishM]

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.

[lamaros]

Hull 

[HaemishM]

Yeah, Hull is the mad notes.  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.

[Endie]

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.

[HaemishM]

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

[WayAbvPar]

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 

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.

[HaemishM]

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

[Amarr HM]

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?

[sigil]

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.

[lamaros]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

I laugh.

Also, Hull. Still. 

[Amarr HM]

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.

[HaemishM]

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.

[Amarr HM]

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

[lamaros]

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.

[HaemishM]

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.

[Endie]

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...

[HaemishM]

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.

[lamaros]

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.

[Endie]

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.

[HaemishM]

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.

[Endie]

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.

[HaemishM]

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?

[Endie]

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.

[Amarr HM]

Celtic were unlucky that both of Berbatov's goals were offside, while Rooney's one that was allowed was weak but well placed. 

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.

[lamaros]

Celtic were unlucky that both of Berbatov's goals were offside, while Rooney's one that was allowed was weak but well placed. 

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. 

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,

[Amarr HM]

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.

[Amarr HM]

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.

[WayAbvPar]

Some good ones in there. Beware if you are a Tottenham fan.

[Amarr HM]

Some good ones 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.

[Endie]

The only worry is in midfield. Hopefully Scholes and Carrick are back soon to kick Fletcher out of the team.

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.

[lamaros]

The only worry is in midfield. Hopefully Scholes and Carrick are back soon to kick Fletcher out of the team.

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.

More Ronaldo bashing.

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.