EPL 2007 Thread

[eldaec]

Champions League draw as follows....

Quarter-final draw
AC Milan v Bayern Munich
PSV Eindhoven v LIVERPOOL
Roma v MANCHESTER UNITED
CHELSEA v Valencia

Semi-final draw
Roma or MANCHESTER UNITED v AC Milan or Bayern Munich
CHELSEA or Valencia v PSV Eindhoven or LIVERPOOL



That draw is almost perfect from where I sit. I'd prefer to have no chance of meeting Chelsea in the SF, but you can't have everything.

If I were a betting man, I'd go for Munich, the Buccaneers, Liverpool as QF winners. I can't pick between Valencia and Chelsea. I'd say Valencia by a hair's breadth on form, but sheer fate tells me Liverpool will face Chelsea in the SF.

[Hoax]

If I were a betting man I'd never bet against Kaka myself.  If Chelsea somehow eeks out a win that'd be crap, they didn't deserve to get by Porto imo.  Also PSV knows how to play Liverpool, if they continue to look terrible that could be really interesting.

[Jobu]

The odds of an all English final look very, very good.

I have to have faith that ManU will make it through to the final. I think they'll get past Roma comfortably, but have a sticky fight against Milan (who I think will pip Bayern). But with our striking options severely limited... I could just be an hopelessly optimistic fan.

[eldaec]

I'm a little surprised to see that the draw hasn't changed odds on offer much. Right now betfair is showing...

To win competition:

Chelsea    4.4
Buccaneers  5
Liverpool   6.2
Milan        9
Valencia   10
Bayern    10.5
Roma     12.5
PSV        26

[HaemishM]

Watching the last 10 minutes of Liverpool-Barcelona right now, it's 0-1, but should be about 5-2. You really can't fault Bellamy and Kuyt for making chances and working hard, but the getting the shot off is such a performance - and it is getting old.

Barca's midfield has been awful throughout the tie. Whatever happens in the next ten minutes - Barca aren't winning anything.

Barca's problem is the coach right now, IMO. I watched the Liverpool game, then this past weekend watched them tie with Real Madrid. The coach keeps putting them in that 4-2-1-2-1 formation, then sending the 4th defender forward so there's only 3 at the back. It's a great offensive formation, but their defense has been TERRIBLE. I mean, they gave up 3 goals to a Real Madrid side without Beckham, with Robinho coming off the bench, and not much else. And I can chalk it all up to the 3 at the back just being overrun. Valencia has a real chance to win the Primera (don't spoil the Valencia game this weekend for me, I haven't watched it yet).

Man U took care of business with a pretty lackluster game. The Chelsea game was disappointing, as Porto just collapsed in the second half. Bayern and Real Madrid was an interesting game: Madrid looked like shit until they put Guti out there, but they still lost to a mediocre Bayern side.

Celtic got FUCKING ROBBED. The ref refused to give them two absolutely crystal clear penalties, one for handball in the box, the other for a guy getting hammered in the box. It was a fucking disgrace, especially when AC Milan scored in the extra time they shouldn't have had. That ref should never be allowed on the pitch again.

Liverpool drew PSV. Could be a worse draw, like Man U. who they've shown no ability to beat this year. As for Gerrard, he's really good, just not when he's forced to play on the right, like he has been all year. They really need to put him in the center, Xabi on the left and find someone decent to stick on the right. You don't want to move Sissoko out of the middle, and I think Xabi would do just fine on the left with his passing and crossing skills.

EDIT: I've give Valencia a decent chance to get by Chelsea, especially if John Terry is still having injury trouble. Chelsea is just not as good at the back without him, and Valencia has got some great fucking strikers in Villa and Morientes, especially with Angulo, Joquaim and Silva providing good service. Valencia can be a damned dangerous side when they come to play.

[eldaec]

Alonso really isn't mobile enough to play on the wing, also he's not really attacking enough or comfortable enough running with the ball. Alonso is all about distribution.

But Alonso's big problem is that he can't tackle well enough. If Alonso could tackle you'd have the perfect holding player, Sissoko would drop to the bench, and Gerrard would move to the centre.

That said, the other part of why Gerrard is back on the right is that I think Benitez's patience with Pennant has run out. He doesn't have nearly enough impact on the right.



In other news, this weekend's FA cup ties were the funniest thing ever. Replays all round. IMO, the FA shoudl scrap the idea of replay extra time and penalties, and go back to the good old days when you just had more and more replays until you finally got a goddamn result. Arsenal and Liverpool once played a semi final tie four times.

And people criticising Rafa for not taking the FA cup seriously need to take a look at what is going on right now. The only mistake Liverpool made in those games against Arsenal was letting Garcia get exposed to injury.



As for Barca's defence, I have some sympathy given the complete lack of cover their midfield is giving them. Any defence will look shaky when every time the other team get the ball, they can carry it straight through the midfield unopposed. Barca's midfield might be great when they have the ball, but they switch off when they lose it, and that is what makes an admittedly lacklustre defence look abysmal.
 

[HaemishM]

Sure Barca's midfield is nonexistant on the defence, it's made up of guys who'd likely be strikers or wingers on other teams. It's like a 6 man-strike force, with Marquez playing so far up in the holding midfield role, he might as well be an attacking midfielder. I mean, it's a great formation if you want to score 3-4 goals a game, but if you give up 3-4 against the good sides like Valencia, Sevilla or Real Madrid, it does no good. It's a formation made to pick apart the Gimnastic's of La Liga.

Pennant is mostly useless on the right wing. He's probably great in the Championship, but he just doesn't have top flight quality. I think Alonso could do the left wing, it just wouldn't be a fast left wing. But really, Liverpool's not built on speed on the wings anyway, they are built on good defense with fast counter attacks on long balls.

If you aren't watching the playoff race in the Championship, you're missing some good football.

[sigil]

Who do you peg to head up next year?

I've started fallowing the update shows, but if my schedule permits, I'll start falling them more now that the majority of the premiership seems settled.

Dynamo v. Pachuca tomorrow night. CONCACAF Club semis for the next week or so, then God willing Finals, then MLS season starts.

I'll spare you guys the updates from that, Eurosnobs ;)

[eldaec]

Who do you peg to head up next year?

Birmingham and Sunderland in the automatic spots, though I hope I'm wrong, both managers irritate me intensely.

I hope West Brom win the playoffs, but I think Preston or Wolves is more likely.

[HaemishM]

I think Birmingham is a lock for automatic promotion. I'm not going to rule out anyone else to make the 2nd auto slot, it's just been such a muddle. Wolves is the Championship team I root for, because I love their unis and the name Wolves. Wolves are badass.

I'm American, I can be that simplistic, goddamnit.

Whoever makes it, I hope we see David Nugent or Michael Chopra in the EPL next year. Those guys do some good work.

[Hoax]

Cry more Boro, fuck off god damn.  FYI if he was an English player you wouldn't hear half this crying, that was such an obvious penalty.  Did he make sure it got called?  I think so, but so does EVERY OTHER PRO EVER.

Player of the year imo.

[sigil]

Spurs in sixth, 2 back of Notlob, seven back of Arsenal. Yes they have a game in hand. Yes they're starting to fall apart right now. No, I'm not expecting them to fall to fifth. Just saying.

Chelsea next, after a Thursday Sevilla UEFA game. Ugh.

From there, it may just come down to Arsenal playing at the lane.

Wouldn't that be something. ;)

Dynamo beat Pachuca 2-0. second leg thursday at Hildalgo. The biggest game in the history of the club, even back when it was San Jose.

Win, and it's the finals.  Worse that happens is they lose the final and play in the Copa Sudamericana.

Win the Final and it's off to Tokyo to play in the Would Club Championship this december. 

Oh, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, crazed forward of Mexican and more importantly Club America fame, is heading to the Chicago Fire. Now that's going to piss some people off.

[HaemishM]

Liverpool totally manhandled Arsenal this weekend. I don't think I've ever seen Arsenal play so flat. The announcer (Nigel something or other, a former Arsenal player) was about to strangle himself with his own tongue criticizing their play. I know Henry and Van Persie are out, and Cole was gone, but I expected better.

Also, Crouch - Hat Trick. Lollerz.

[Hoax]

-----P-----
-----S-----
-----V-----

Also go Seville, by far my favorite Spanish side this year.

[HaemishM]

PSV won't beat Liverpool. Now whether Liverpool can beat Chelsea or Man. U. in the Champions League is another story, but PSV. Pshaw.

[Hoax]

Not PSV w/out Alex and two other starters, god that was a pathetic game.  But damn that Milan v Munich game was fucking awesome.  I still expect Milan to pull it out in Germany tho.

[HaemishM]

Milan is living on borrowed time. They shouldn't even have made it to this game, what with the fact that Celtic was ROBBED of two obvious penalties in Milan. But they played much better than Bayern for the first 70 minutes or so. Bayern looked like they didn't even know what they were doing on the pitch. When Milan pissed away so many chances to go 2-0, they really gave away their chances. That penalty Milan got was a fucking gift - the ref was total shit who should be beaten with a brick bat. That was about the least offensive tackle I've seen in the box in a long time.

The Liverpool/PSV game was just fucking sad. PSV never looked even close to figuring out how to play, and it wasn't that Liverpool was that dominant. PSV just played a shit game. How the fuck did they beat Arsenal? I'm still not convinced Liverpool can beat Chelsea or even Valencia, mind you. Valencia playing without Morientes, Marchena and Navarro against Chelsea might be a brutal, brutal game, especially at Stamford Bridge. I've already assumed Man. U. is going through against Roma.

[eldaec]

Roma looked good tonight - though I get the impression they were playing above themselves, Valencia I wasn't as impressed by despite the draw with Chelsea. They looked basically good as individuals but without enough confidence or coherence to stop someone like Rafa getting in their heads. I'd be confident enough going into a semi final against them. I don't want to play Chelsea.

In the meantime every QF tie is set up for a either a great second leg, or a simple Liverpool victory, and you can't ask for more than that.

[Hoax]

Liverpool's luck will run out.  They are the least inspiring, most English of the top English clubs.  I say that in the most insulting way possible of course.

Roma played out of their minds for stretches, really if they could have done something other then walk through the game for the first 30 minutes of the 2nd half they would have the two goal advantage they deserve.  Well it would have also helped if Christiano hadn't been playing for the other team also I suppose.  They did do a good job of focusing on him and exposing how terrible his support is with the craptastic O'Shea lined up behind him.  God that guy is a tool, I wish he wasn't Irish so I could hate him more...

Also I find it annoying I didn't get to see any of the crazy riot police v fans action on ESPN2's broadcast..

GoGo Seville tomorrow!

[sigil]

Berbatov  will put a boot  in Seville's ass today.

Spurs today, Dynamo tonight.


Anyone catch what Eric Wynalda said to FullhamUSA?

Gold, solid gold from the man. If he gets canned over  what he said about Jim Rome, then fuck ESPN.

[Wolf]

Also I find it annoying I didn't get to see any of the crazy riot police v fans action on ESPN2's broadcast..

I think everyone watching the game live gets the same feed. Our comentators said that "It's champions league policy not to show that sort of stuff". I don't care. Show me the Melee, bitches :P

Berbatov  will put a boot  in Seville's ass today.

If he only played at atleast 20% when he's on the national team, I might like him...

[eldaec]

We got quite a bit of riot footage pieced together on the news channels over here. You usually can't really tell who was at fault, but this one really didn't show the Italian police in a good light.

A few bottles got thrown by Roma fans after the goal and for some reason that triggered an immeadiate baton charge by the riot police in the Man U section. It didn't even look like a baton charge intended to push the fans back or move the police line to a new position, it just looked like a one sided medieval battle scene with policemen simply clubbing the nearest fan they could find until they started bleeding. There was also a fair bit of footage of some Italian policemen trying to pull their colleagues off of random 50 year old man U supporters who just couldn't run quick enough.

Pictures can of course turn out to be out of context - but this was bad shit.


You should probably note that I didn't even feel it necessary to snipe at Man U by referring to them as the Buccaneers in this post - that is how awful the pictures looked.

[Mr_PeaCH]

Cool.  Didn't even know this thread was here.   :-D

Recently got my cable upgraded and Fox Soccer Channel now owns my life.  Giving a nod to a British colleague I have adopted the Tottenham Hotspur as my team and they're giving me quite a good return for my efforts so far.

COME ON YOU SPURS!

(I imagine their Sevilla game is about to go off live so I'll refrain from revisiting this thread until after I can watch it later at home on DVR.  Clean sheet for Robinson and a Berbatov header off the foot of Lennon in the 90th minute... To dare is to do or so they say; I can still dream can't I?)

[Hoax]

If you have the ability to somehow watch/record the game currently going on live on FSC you FUCKING NEED TO.

Awesome awesome awesome stuff, I wont post anything about the UEFA games until this weekend though as they are showing all of them and I'm going to record the ones that aren't live and watch them later.

[Mr_PeaCH]

I can only hope that the ref at White Hart Lane next week will be as good to the Spurs as this one was to Sevilla... gawd almighty   

Not to beat the dead horse but in my scant weeks of passionate football following; mostly EPL games but now the UEFA stuff with euro clubs and a bit of Serie A on FSC... what is it with all the theatrical diving?  Seems to be completely legitimate in Europe but frowned upon (as it should be) in England or by English players at any rate.  Fucksticks.

[sigil]

I can only hope that the ref at White Hart Lane next week will be as good to the Spurs as this one was to Sevilla... gawd almighty   

Not to beat the dead horse but in my scant weeks of passionate football following; mostly EPL games but now the UEFA stuff with euro clubs and a bit of Serie A on FSC... what is it with all the theatrical diving?  Seems to be completely legitimate in Europe but frowned upon (as it should be) in England or by English players at any rate.  Fucksticks.

There's two Spurs fans here.

Fear.

Having said that, the most entertaining game of the night was the CONCACAF semi second leg at Pachuca. It was like a God Damned heavyweight fight.  Pachuca deserved the victory, but  the MLS champs fought like hell.

Watch DC and Houston in the MLS if you get a chance. Especially Houston.

[Hoax]

Spurs can't cry too hard, they got away with what sure looked like a penalty in the box after the bogus PK was awarded.  Also they were outplayed for much of the game and while they are more interesting then your average English team they are still boring to watch compared to Seville.  It was annoying in the second half when the theatrics started in terms of people rolling around a bit too much but that is something you see everywhere.  The calls on 50/50 headers were completely bizzare in that game though, I couldn't figure out what the fuck the ref was calling.

Peach, I think you should be wary of buying into the England-hype that announcers spew at us.  I've found it is a given that English players get twice the respect they deserve, usually even more if they play(ed) for the English national team.

Spurs deserved to lose, Berbatov was half-assing it much of the way, Lennon didn't get enough opportunities to attack David after he got that yellow and as usual the team from England just played less inspiring football.

[HaemishM]

Having said that, the most entertaining game of the night was the CONCACAF semi second leg at Pachuca. It was like a God Damned heavyweight fight.  Pachuca deserved the victory, but  the MLS champs fought like hell.

Yeah, that was a pretty thrilling game. I didn't think about the fact that there might need to be extra time in this game, so my fucking Tivo gave out right after Pachcuca made it 4-2. FUCK. Too bad Houston lost, because that was a pretty damn thrilling game.

I'm looking for a Liverpool/Roma final in the Champions League. I can dream!

The diving is a big problem in football, IMO, mainly because refs aren't handing out the yellows like candy when it happens. Yesterday's Man U./Portsmouth game was a perfect example. Ronaldo was a diving, whiny bitch the whole fucking game, never got a card.

[sigil]

That goal at the end of regulation was a dagger, but  Dynamo had the better of it in the first overtime period, great save on a DeRosario header on the counter.

The ref had the whistle in his god damn mouth for  end of first overtime when Jimenez puts in a 90 mph rocket top right corner. Houston learns to always close down on the hot shooter. Shit.

Ching put the ball into the net in the 210th minute. Dissallowed for a foul on the Goalie, which was BS.  Ching did knock it down with his forearm. so no tears from me.


Looked to be 26-27,000 at the opener with the Galaxy. I'll be there for at least one, maybe three this year. Houston is the best city in the US to catch a professional soccer game right now.  I'd go more, but it's a seven hour trip to H-town.

[Falconeer]

I'm looking for a Liverpool/Roma final in the Champions League. I can dream!

That in 1983 has been the greatest shock half of this city had in the whole XX century. You have no idea the kind of trauma it generated. Even now, if you say "Liverpool" in front of an (old) Roma fan you can get any kind of reaction from shaking to random blasphemies.

Fuck, for a long time even the Beatles were hated for being from Liverpool.
Me, being a supporter of Lazio, I would dream about the same final... and with the same result of the 1983 one.

Only bad part is that they would kill each other in a final like that. And the supporters too. It'd be war. With casualties. Heysel style. So better hope Manchester kicks out those italian posers.

[sigil]

Man U is down to a three point lead.

Bolton v Arsenal is a definite game of the year candidate.

I I think Spurs can make their way to another fifth. This one being far more satisfying.

[eldaec]

Man U is down to a three point lead.

Bolton v Arsenal is a definite game of the year candidate.

I I think Spurs can make their way to another fifth. This one being far more satisfying.

Really? Who out of Bolton and Arsenal (or Liverpool maybe?) do you imagine they are getting past?

Anyway, seems I might have been wrong to call everything so early - hurrah for that.

I still see the Buccaneers winning it though :( . Still see Chelsea second, Liverpool third, Arsenal forth, Bolton fifth.

Relegation West Ham's run in has them doomed, Watford obv down, and tbh, I still make Charlton favourites to drop, I think Sheff Utd will pull it out of the fire. At least everyone has conspired to keep the run in alive though ;)

[sigil]

Bolton.

Their form is terrible, they'll lose to Arsenal. I say they lose to Arsenal, Chelsea, Barcodes and Hammers.

Draw to reading

Win against  Villa.


Spurs get wins against Wigan, Charlton and Citeh  (Charlton maybe a draw)

Draw Boro, Rovers.

Lose to Arsenal.


Everton - Win a Charlton ( I can see this a draw)

Draw at pompey

Lose to ManU, Chelsea, West Ham

The battle for the championship and the relegation battle  will be the deciding factors.

ManU
Chelsea
Liverpool
Arsenal
-------
Spurs
Bolton
|
|
West Ham
Fulham
-------
Wigan
Sheffield U.
Watford

[HaemishM]

Everton won't lose to West Ham. They'll get a draw at least. They might even get a draw against Man. U. or Chelsea depending on which  team shows up that day. Both have shown themselves to be suspect at times lately.

Bolton's form may be terrible, but it's ALWAYS terrible. Yet somehow, they are mostly in games. Arsenal without van Persie and Henry have been imminently beatable. Chelsea will likely beat them.

[sigil]

Everton is the fly in the ointment over , I will grant you. but it's not like I have Spurs winning out.

The fan in me has them winning all save drawing arsenal,but I'm not going to stick my neck out on that.