Discussion The Football/Soccer Thread [Archive] - Page 5

Imperium

June 24, 2008, 05:15 AM

Nasri is attacking midfielder. He doesnt seem to be an option to fill in Adebayor's gap. It seems to me like its an alternative to Rosicky, who's having several problems with injuries. His price was very high, but I've heard he was already a huge player, and he may still benefit by Wenger's characteristic of improving youngsters. Arsenal has money, so they must be still be looking for a center midfielder with the characteristics of Flamini and a center forward.Not rosicky, hleb probably. Thats if hleb goes though(which has to be sooner or later) he wanted to leave since the winter and to be honest i suppose he would look a bit of a fool if he didnt :sweat. But the nasri deal is not fully done yet, apparently it was on the players website, but if its not on the arsenal site than its not fully completed. There are rumour that if barcelona buy hleb or ade than yaya toure is coming the other way, which would cover the centre of midfield. Not THAT would be a good piece of buisness. :D

If adebayor leaves the gap can easily be filled. Van persie is fit, and to partner him we have walcott, bentner and vela. And there is eduardo who amazingly might be training with the team in pre-season.

In what position does Nasri play? I'd say he's a center-forward, considering that Adebayor was already sold. Btw, 16.5 million it's pretty steep considering he's relatively unknown.That is IF the big togolese is sold, its upto arsenal to sell him. But to be honest if we get some decent money out of it (and yaya) , i wouldnt mind. :D

i would be surprised too if we gave that much. Wenger doesnt really waste a lot of money and when the deal is done, i expect the price to a bit lower. But if its not, doesnt matter, teams here have too much money for their own good. (Darren bent (striker) was bought by a shite team (spurs) for about £16.5 and he only scored about 6 times in the league >.>; )
[hr]

we call the biggest teams the 'grandes' as well, but the only possibility of one of them to drop from the 1st league is trough a corruption scandal like Juve in calcio-caos. Although, trough our justice system that seems very unlikely...We had some big teams relegated, like leeds untied, about 5/6 years ago they were playing in the CL semi-final and now they are in league one. And there is also nottingham forrest who have two champions league medals but have just got promoted from league one to the championship. United got relegated in the 70's but back then they were crap, and liverpool in the 50's were shite too. :rofl (I might as well mention here, that arsenal havent been relegated for about 81 years :D)

Mendes

June 24, 2008, 02:29 PM

I dont think bedtner is a good option to replace adebayor, if he's sold. van persie and walcot arent pure center forwards, so I think Arsenal would do well to look for a new player for that position. Unless, Vela is really a great player. Has anyone seen him play?

I remember that Leeds with that superb team with P.Robinson, Ferdinand, Viduka, Alan Smith and many others I dont remember

Imperium

June 25, 2008, 05:48 PM

Walcott is a natural striker but is being played in the wings (kinda like how henry use too), mainly to give him game time, i suppose. Which will most likely change next season (hopefully), vela is in the same boat, he was mainly played in the wings with osasuna but wenger says he see's him as a stiker *shrugs*. And though i didnt see vela play, i heard he's been doing good for mexico lately, scored in his last three matches for his country. I'll see if they have any decent clips on youtube (but then again youtube can make titus bramble look like messi >.>;, so its not the best of judges).
As for bendtner other than his somewhat annoying attitude, he is quite decent. He's a monster in the air, quick and has good control and decent finishing, kinda like adebayor 12months ago...Van persie i agree is not a pure centre foward, but if he has a season in which he is fully fit he can chip in with a lot of goals. But him being fully fit for a whole season seems optimistic to the highest degree >.>;

But since a lot of spanish newspapers seem to think adebayor is already barcelonas they've been linking us with a lot of liga players. Guiza seems to be their prefered "replacement", but i dont see it happening. -_-;

Edit: mendes, here is a vid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuBhldqfdmo) showing vela playing against real madrid (some poor soul has taken a lot of time out of his day to show, what seems to be, every touch vela made in that match...).

Mendes

July 01, 2008, 08:05 AM

Vela seems more like a striker that works more for the team than a natural born finisher, but I guess it's Arsenal striker's face for a long time.

As you know, Spain won the euro cup, after 44 years. A fair winner imo. Russia and Turkey were huge surprises. Xavi was the best player of the tournament.

As for the market, Deco signed with Chelsea for 10M€, but Lampard is still unconfirmed for Inter. Porto and Inter have been negotiating for Quaresma for a long time. Inter is apparently giving 30M€ plus a player of theirs (Suazo or Pele). I say goodbye Quaresma... I think it'd be a huge deal for Porto. Not only Quaresma wants to leave, but Suazo would be an amazing add to his position. Pele is also one of the portuguese players I see with best future prospects.

Thuram found heart problems when he was transfered to PSG and will end his career to avoid endangering his life. Del Bosque may replace Aragones in Spain. Jô signed for City. I think this one will make impact. Very good striker.

Imperium

July 01, 2008, 12:42 PM

I heard about the deco deal, and i suppose it opens up lampards move to inter. He played really well for portugal, but i doubt he would can do the same for chelsea, it might just end up another shevchenko. Bosingwa seems to be the more exciting signing.I hope lampard goes to inter, since english players seem to avoid going to other leagues, it would be intresting to see if he does well.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/graphics/2008/06/30/ron300x400.jpg
Gordinho?

sk.nite

July 01, 2008, 02:26 PM

KnuckleheadedNinja

July 02, 2008, 01:49 AM

The extra weight doesn't keep him from doing magic with the ball. Did you see the friendly match between Gordinho's friends and Messi's?

yeah the exta weight doesn't keep him from doing magic with the ball but it keeps him from been able to play a full game of football.

patedecarne

July 02, 2008, 12:00 PM

Nah, Ronaldinho Gaucho, a.k.a Gordinho is done with soccer; his life is only about parties and girls, seems he doesn't care much about soccer anymore;

Oh, and he also screwed up Brazilian team in some past games...

Mendes

July 02, 2008, 12:18 PM

Well, I dont believe that. He may be enjoying his social life too much for a soccer player, but he still loves to play football, like he always did. That smile on his face in the pitch isnt just for show. Maybe he needs a new challenge in another club to save his career. At least I hope he does

Imperium

July 02, 2008, 12:40 PM

^ He might still go to city, even though it seems crazy. Its sad, but he might end up like ronaldo.

The extra weight doesn't keep him from doing magic with the ball. Did you see the friendly match between Gordinho's friends and Messi's?
I didnt watch the match, but saw some highlights. A friendly promoting anti-racism is different from a competitive match. And if that belly is anything to go by, he has a lot of work in the gym to do. xD

sk.nite

July 02, 2008, 08:21 PM

What I meant before is that to a player like Ronaldinho fitness isn't all that important (of course, that in todays standards, even being a little overweight is unacceptable). For players like him, who rely mostly on their superior technique, even not being 100% fit doesn't prevent them from having good performances. Not that with that beer belly Roni can actually compete in the major leagues (maybe that was implied in my previous post, but I didn't mean that. I blame my laziness for forcing me to write one line posts in most cases).

And about that friendly match, at certain times that kind of non-competitive match is more entertaining to me because it allows players to try stuff that they wouldn't normally do when playing for the points.

goldb

July 03, 2008, 07:41 PM

nah there's no excuse for footballer's these days. Ronnie needs to hit the gym quicktime!! he's become literally a shadow of his former self...
I can't believe he's a two time world footie of the year...seems like such a long time ago....

and talking about brazilians....who remembers when chelsea wanted to buy adriano for £40 million? where is he now?

Pirulito

July 05, 2008, 05:20 PM

Adriano will return to Internazionale. Jose Mourinho wants him in his team.

Mendes

July 05, 2008, 05:46 PM

Yeah Adriano was borrowed to São Paulo in order to regain shape and confidence in his football. I was really surprised with Adriano's sudden lack of form in his last months playing for Inter. The guy was amazing in both technique and power. Mourinho wants to take a look at him in the summer digression and then he'll decide whether he's in shape to return to Inter or if he is borrowed once again or sold.

Its official. Every day there's at least 1 press new connecting Ronaldo with Real Madrid. I guess this'll go on till Real buys him, or till the transfer market is over. Today I saw 2 consecutive online news. The 1st said 'Fergunson assures Ronaldo will stay in Manchester', while the 2nd said 'Calderón assures Ronaldo will move to Madrid soon'. If this deal went trough, Robinho would most likely experience the premier league

Imperium

July 05, 2008, 06:25 PM

^ Hahaha, and i actually thought it all died down. To be honest about ronaldo, i think he will go, since he is in a position of power (i.e. united need him more than he needs united) so he is in control, and if its his dream, i suppose few can stop him, also if queiroz takes over at portugal, that will be another reason to head for the exit.

Btw, today is the big day for barca, the president laporta faces a vote of no confidence. He probably will win it, but if two thirds of the vote go against him, they face new elections for a president, apparently if that happens transfers will seize. And we think we have it bad with idiot shareholders -_-;

Mendes

July 05, 2008, 07:00 PM

Yeah, elections in Barça would mean a huge movement in the market. Ronaldo could even end in Barça instead! xD
They were already the team best reinforced imo, so this could mean a new galactic team for Barça

KnuckleheadedNinja

July 07, 2008, 12:49 AM

C. Ronaldo is most likely going to miss the start of the season cause of an ankle surgey. He is set to undergo the surgey next week.

goldb

July 07, 2008, 04:12 AM

Ramon Calderon said he is likely to stay at Man.Utd this season coz even if if Manchester Utd wants to sell him, he doesn't think they could come up with the money to buy...

patedecarne

July 07, 2008, 06:10 PM

Hahaha, Ronaldinho Gaucho is back to the Brazil team, what a bad joke...

This way, Brazil is condemned to fail in the Olimpic Games...

Someone must replace Dunga, immediately, or else...

KnuckleheadedNinja

July 07, 2008, 11:32 PM

^^At least you going to have someone to blame when they lose.lol. Robinho and Anderson are also on the team.

DragonKiss

July 08, 2008, 03:31 AM

Looks like Carlos Queiroz will become Portugal's new manager,leaving Ferguson searching for his 6th assistant lol
Well,with Cantona been strongly tipped to return as coach,maybe he'll become Man Utd's new no. 2?i hope that happens coz he can then influence Karim Benzema to leave Lyon for Old Trafford ^^

Mendes

July 08, 2008, 10:08 AM

Still, Brazil's olympic team is impressive. Aside from Ronaldinho and Robinho, there's Diego, Anderson, Sobis, Jo, Rafinha, Marcelo, Lucas and Pato and some young talented center backs. I dont see many teams capable of competing with this, except for Argentina. Ronaldinho may be out of shape, but this is a huge opportunity for him to prove his worth. If he is to move to another club, he needs this competition to impress the interested teams in order to pay his price.

About Queiroz, it was my favorite for the Portuguese squad, but didnt believe he could be hired to be honest. Not only he is in Man U with great prospects of succeeding Sir Fergunson, but he was also pissed off at the portuguese FA. Still, recent news almost confirm him in Portugal. It'd be a reason to celebrate if this happens.

KnuckleheadedNinja

July 09, 2008, 12:34 AM

Looks like Chelsea are trying to make a move for Kaka. And Milan are eying Adebayor and Drogba. Also Chelsea coach reveal that Lampard told him he want to stay at Chelsea.

Epul

July 09, 2008, 07:44 AM

Yeah it seems chelsea wants Kaka, apparently from what I've read from the newspaper, chelsea has made an "astronomical" bid to milan for Kaka.....
and I'm currently waiting more news on the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer saga.......

Mendes

July 10, 2008, 05:27 AM

DragonKiss

July 10, 2008, 08:03 AM

@Epul
I think that Chelsea wont sign Kaka and Ronaldinho in the mean time..coz Kenyon himself stated that there are just speculations...

@mendes
well British and Spanish club purchasing power are almost equal..so its hard to see British clubs repeating last CL feat this forthcoming season...^^
Mclair as no. 2?what about the rumours pertaining Pako the ex-Scouser no. 2 man?i'm sure he's a def. more capable and world-class than Mclair..which so far...isn't very convincing enough for the job IMO

just my 2 $...

Pirulito

July 10, 2008, 05:18 PM

Hey, its true Quaresma will play for Internazionale?

Mendes

July 10, 2008, 05:45 PM

Hey, its true Quaresma will play for Internazionale?

He's being linked with Inter Milan for quite a long time, but Porto's demands are too high (40M€) for Moratti, so the transfer will most likely depend on players exchange. The portuguese young defensive midfielder, Pélé, and/or David Suazo are the most spoken to switch with Quaresma, but its far from settled...

Epul

July 11, 2008, 10:58 AM

what about news on frank lampard? last I heard he wanted to stay at chelsea and Scolari also made a statement that Lampard is staying. I also heard Chelsea is not giving him the 140,00 pound wage that he is asking for.. and Inter has made a new bid for him.....

KnuckleheadedNinja

July 12, 2008, 01:09 AM

Quieroz have been appointed as Portugal coach.

Lohnt

July 14, 2008, 03:06 AM

And it finally seems like van der Vaart will move up to Real Madrid for about 20M€. I was looking forward to see him play in a powerful team and I'm pretty sure he'll succeed.
As for Hleb, he's set for Barça. Arsenal will earn about 15M€.
Atletico de Madrid hired Paulo Assunção, Porto's former defensive midfielder. He did brilliant in our league, let's see how he'll do in Spain.
Spanish teams are reinforcing alot in this summer market. I dont think we'll see 3 british teams in the CL's semi-finals this time :P

Nooooo, damn Spain and all of their money, they're ruining good clubs star players =( I guess some clubs buy their players already made, and some train them to be that good, with all that money they'll probably find replacements, still bleh.
[hr]
So MU is looking in to Aguero for Ronaldo's old position (?).. This is what I mean by rich clubs ruining star players, for him to go to MU this year, if Christiano leaves, it'll be a waste. Aguero is a great player, but he needs support, he'd be better suited for Arsenal, or Liverpool than MU.

Epul

July 14, 2008, 12:58 PM

Berbatov's agent has revealed that Man utd is very interested in signing him. I personally think, if he comes, berbatov would be excellent for man utd. I could see him working well with rooney like he did with robbie keane at spurs.

also, Barcelona said they have received a formal bid from man city for ronaldinho.....

Mendes

July 15, 2008, 06:27 PM

I heard Berbatov signed for united for the huge amount of 36M€. Very close to Rooney's transfer in amount and a huge reinforcement for MU. I still think hiring a competent right back should be their priority, but I guess they count on Gary Neville for the next season...

Ronaldinho is set for Milan. The bid from city was high, but Dinho wanted to play in Milan the most, so the deal should be settled in about 15-20M€.

The Euro champs ended up appointing Vicente del Bosque as their new manager. Its a great coach imo. He was fired from real madrid in an unfair way, a few years ago, after having won every cup with the merengues.

Mancini traded Roma for Inter Milan, which means Inter will most likely cool down their interest for Quaresma. Porto's chairman told the press he had a surprise coming up for the squad, but can he keep the promise without a Quaresma's transfer earnings? We'll see... Aimar is also having a tough transfer with Benfica and Newcastle battling for him.

Dutch midfielder Engelaar transfered to schalke. He was in good shape in the Euro cup.
Also, Luca Toni said Bayern needed more forwards because they 'only' had 3. When those 3 are Toni himself, Podolski and Klose, I wouldnt mind at all having 'only' them in my team... or any team to tell the truth.

Finally, Porto will play the UEFA CL next season. UEFA confirmed today and we're back to our beloved CL : D

Epul

July 16, 2008, 12:23 AM

goldb

July 17, 2008, 08:26 PM

really? i aint really been watching sports news lately...but last thing i heard was gilberto and hleb have officially left arsenal....they're gonna need some replacements quicktime( and some good ones too)

Mendes

July 18, 2008, 04:53 AM

I hope they buy Sporting's J.Moutinho :P
In Portugal, Benfica hired Pablo Aimar. A huge player for our league's reality. Sporting reinforced well in the defense and in the midfield with Rochemback. I know he wasnt very successful in 'boro, but the last time he played in Sporting he was a superb player. This year I doubt Porto will win the league with 20 pts difference again. Still I see us as very favorites again.

Roma sold Giuly to PSG for 2.5M€... after Mancini, they sell yet another winger. And for the ridiculous amount of 2.5M? I wonder what are they doing... Tadei's the only winger they got now

KnuckleheadedNinja

July 19, 2008, 01:36 AM

I guess C. Ronaldo wouldn't be going to Real Madrid. Ferguson, in a news confrence today, said Ronaldo will definitely be at ManU next season.

Ghetto_Kid

July 24, 2008, 02:43 PM

this ronaldo situation is becoming more n more annoying...... i think the player himself should just come out in public and say his true desire whether it's to saty at united or go to real.

I am arsenal fan and i don't really like man u players but either way i don't care, but i would love to c him leave.

Mendes

July 24, 2008, 04:23 PM

Well, Ronaldo said publicly he desired to move to Madrid, but recently it seems like Fergunson convinced him to stay. I dont believe Ronaldo's desire changed. It's more like Fergunson placed some sense in him. Ronaldo has a lot of remaining millionaire contract years with manchester united, and he would have no chance of coming out to Spain any time soon. Ronaldo has no choice but to accept this, and I'm pretty confident he'll stay in United for at least 1 more year.

goldb

July 24, 2008, 05:12 PM

if ferguson says he won't leave, HE WON'T LEAVE!!
end of story, ferguson would prefer to let him rot in the reserves than to sell him to Real Madrid

Ghetto_Kid

July 24, 2008, 06:42 PM

Even if ferguson says that he'd rather let him rot in the reserve instead of selling, well he cannot do that coz u cannot keep a player at a club against he's wishes, besides UEFA will need to step to sort out the case anyway....

Mendes

July 25, 2008, 05:01 AM

well he cannot do that coz u cannot keep a player at a club against he's wishes

Well, you can :P Ronaldo has a contract he signed of free will with United, so he's free to leave as soon as that contract ends, which is about 4 or 5 years from now. If he stops playing coz he's pissed off (like Ronaldinho), his market value will decrease, but so will the interest in him.

Ghetto_Kid

July 25, 2008, 07:30 AM

Pirulito

July 25, 2008, 08:25 PM

See this:
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/5065/messixd0.jpg

LO~~~~L!!! This guy is really famous.

Mendes

July 25, 2008, 09:23 PM

Yea... but soon or later ferguson will have to just let him leave, anyways i'm sure theres a way a player can pay off the remaining years of his contract so y can't he just do that instead to just make things easier for himself......

I think the only way a player can leave by paying off his remaining contract salaries to the club is to invoke the Webster law. 'The Webster Rule states that any player between the age of 23 and 28 WHO HAS SERVED over 3 years on a 5 year contract is entitled to leave as long as they (or more realistically, their new club) is willing to pay the remaining wages on the contract.' Since Ronaldo signed a 5 year contract last year, he still needs 2 years to play for MU to invoke this law.
Its a possibility, but its pretty rare. I doubt Ronaldo (or Real Madrid) could wait 2 years without signing a new and more lucrative deal with United. The fact that Fergunson get him to sign a new contract every year tells me he's aware of this possibility, and he'll avoid that for sure imo.
The truth is, FCPorto's Paulo Assunção used this rule a month ago and he went to Atletico de Madrid in a surprising transfer
[hr]

See this:
http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/5065/messixd0.jpg

LO~~~~L!!! This guy is really famous.

wow! messi on a japanese manga magazine cover! the guy's everywhere :O
Speaking of which, what's the thing with Barça and Messi going to the olympics? I thought every player with less than 24 years could join the olympic squad on free will, but it seems like Barça want him out of the Argentinian squad and somehow they seem to be doing it! Can they legally keep a 21 year old player out of the olympics?

Ghetto_Kid

July 26, 2008, 04:57 PM

rah i dnt know....

XxVascoxX

July 28, 2008, 08:11 AM

Well for those who still thinks that ronaldo gonna stay ...The answer is no ...!!
WE ManUtd Have won everything we could have altogether ronaldo too has won all possibl medals so just as we let goo of beckham we have to let ronaldo go and accept that..!!

Well now what we must do is look for a replacement for him ...and IMO A.Lennon Will be a good fit..!!

ikcud

July 28, 2008, 09:31 AM

I doubt the Spurs will sell at all lol

Imperium

August 01, 2008, 06:10 PM

Well now what we must do is look for a replacement for him ...and IMO A.Lennon Will be a good fit..!!If you dont mind me saying, that would be like swapping a ferrari for a skoda. >.> (but skoda's are not bad cars mind you :p)

wow! messi on a japanese manga magazine cover! the guy's everywhere :O
Speaking of which, what's the thing with Barça and Messi going to the olympics? I thought every player with less than 24 years could join the olympic squad on free will, but it seems like Barça want him out of the Argentinian squad and somehow they seem to be doing it! Can they legally keep a 21 year old player out of the olympics?I think they can since its not a FIFA competition, but im not really sure. Its doesnt matter anyway, they've been told to let him go :p

As for the transfer news, Robbie keane moved to liverpool from spurs for mega bucks. Liverpool's six signing this summer, and they mean buisness. I suppose almost 20 years without the league title is getting too much for merseyside. xDD Chelsea have been linked with robinho but nothing so far, and united have been quiet this summer, no signings but are still linked with raiding spurs for berbatov.

Arsenal have signed the french born portuguese under-21 international, bischoff from werder bremen. Typical wenger signing, nobody has heard of him (Even some werder fans, since he only made one appearence xD). But he admits its a gamble since the player has been plagued by injury.

oh, and spurs bought bentley for a lot, and we end up pocketing something like 7 million. But also establishes the already well known fact that bentley is a huge cunt:notrust

Mendes

August 01, 2008, 10:14 PM

As for the transfer news, Robbie keane moved to liverpool from spurs for mega bucks. Liverpool's six signing this summer, and they mean buisness. I suppose almost 20 years without the league title is getting too much for merseyside. xDD Chelsea have been linked with robinho but nothing so far, and united have been quiet this summer, no signings but are still linked with raiding spurs for berbatov.

Keane is a huge striker, but I never saw L'pool out of options for the attack. The price they paid for him seems a little too far as well. Still, I think he'll do a very strong attacking pair with el niño and with Gerrard behind.
The market in England's not as active as the Spanish. Real Madrid isnt giving up Ronaldo and they seem to have about 85M€ ready for him even tough they just signed van der Vaart and they're attempting to buy Villa for about 40M€ as well. I wonder if their money is infinite...

Arsenal have signed the french born portuguese under-21 international, bischoff from werder bremen. Typical wenger signing, nobody has heard of him (Even some werder fans, since he only made one appearence xD). But he admits its a gamble since the player has been plagued by injury.

As you say, typical Wenger signing. I hadnt even heard of this transfer even tough a portuguese international u-21 went to Arsenal... I hope Wenger turns him into a monster soon :P
And I guess you were right, Adebayor is staying with the gunners and he may sign a new contract soon.

Porto's Quaresma will most likely stay in Portugal, since the only interested, Inter Milan, has already splashed the cash on Mancini, Muntari and now a center back from Romenia for some impressive 15M€. I never heard of the guy, but the price he costed Inter tells me he's ready to replace Materazzi. I'm just surprised Porto seems to be managing to keep Lucho Gonzalez, Quaresma, Bruno Alves and Lisandro Lopez. I'm confident it'll be another year of glory in the portuguese league, but in CL we should go further

Ichimaru Gin n Tonic

August 01, 2008, 10:27 PM

Keane is a huge striker, but I never saw L'pool out of options for the attack. The price they paid for him seems a little too far as well. Still, I think he'll do a very strong attacking pair with el niño and with Gerrard behind.I have a bad feeling that Keane will most likely to sit on the bench with Liverpool. But that's just me. What i'm saying is, Liverpool already got a great lineup, even without Keane. And eventhough Keane is awesome both as attacking midfield or as a forward, his chance of being in the starting eleven is a bit slim in liverpool.

The market in England's not as active as the Spanish. Real Madrid isnt giving up Ronaldo and they seem to have about 85M€ ready for him even tough they just signed van der Vaart and they're attempting to buy Villa for about 40M€ as well. I wonder if their money is infinite...That's why they're called Lost Galacticos. The sky's the limit. Maybe they got like 5 Abrahamovich supporting Real. :XD

Mendes

August 02, 2008, 04:30 AM

Ichimaru Gin n Tonic

August 02, 2008, 01:01 PM

They must have... and they're not shy at all to spend that money. I mean, last year they placed Robben on the bench for the whole season. He used to enter the match after 80 minutes played. Now they have Vaart and they're looking for Ronaldo as well... Shouldnt they at least sell a player or 2? I heard Robinho was leaving, but I heard he was not as well. I think next season Real Madrid will have the best 11 and a bench capable of winning the champions league by itself
That's always been the thing with Real Madrid, they buy every good/great players just to make them sit on the bench a whole season long. In EPL, Chelsea is starting that "trend" now with so many good players on their side.

Imperium

August 03, 2008, 01:56 PM

I have a bad feeling that Keane will most likely to sit on the bench with Liverpool. But that's just me. What i'm saying is, Liverpool already got a great lineup, even without Keane. And eventhough Keane is awesome both as attacking midfield or as a forward, his chance of being in the starting eleven is a bit slim in liverpool.It depends on where benitez wants keane to play. Most people think, he will be partnering torres because to be honest kuyt and voronin are not going to get you goals, and from a couple of pre seasons matches they seemed to be developing that partnership. So i wont be surprised if does actually play. Probably right behind torres, in a second-striker role, flicking balls on etc

The main pre-season friendlies have started, and the most interesting one was Chelsea demolishing AC Milan 5-0. Anelka got four, maybe a sign of things to come. Anyway The Emirates cup is over, Hamburg won it, but it was still good practice for arsenal, juventus and real madrid.

And the only real surprise performer in the Emirates cup, was the 16-year old jack wilshere , he had a masterclass performance against juventus, and would have scored the goal of the pre-season if it wasnt for buffon, he then played the ending of the real madrid match, and stretched the madrid back line to breaking point (humiliating garcia in the process). He is going to be playing with the first team after his performances, and it would be interesting to see if he breaks the record for youngest player to play for arsenal (held by fabregas) Anyway thats enough drooling from me, but the boy is just amazing for a 16 year old!!!!

Oh, and we also broke sneijder. >.>
[hr]
One of the funniest things ive seen this summer (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x67tpy_fcb-trikot-the-musical_sport). Its bayern presenting their new kit, and i have a inclination that whoever thought this up has been having a little too much to drink (the best is at around 1:25 min XDDDD).

Mendes

August 04, 2008, 05:16 AM

I didnt watch the Emirates Cup, except for the ending of Real Madrid - Hamburg. The injury on Sjneider may just drive them forward into hiring van der Vaart as soon as possible.
I watched Chelsea - Milan. The numbers dont fool. Chelsea was light years ahead of Milan in everything, and I'm really enjoying watching Chelsea's football. Deco has settled and very well in London and I'm sure he'll leave behind magic on the premier league as he plays. With a stronger Liverpool, the same Man U and an Arsenal without important and long injuries, this upcoming league has to be interesting!

Now, that Bayern's kit presentation was bizarre! loool watta hell?
Speaking of funny moments, for those who havent seen it, you must see Chelsea's 3rd goal against Milan: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KrczZCNY7y0
Milan's GK, Kalac, did a terrible match, to the point it started to be funny just to watch him fail again. But that miss on Anelka's goal was outstanding!
[hr]

And the only real surprise performer in the Emirates cup, was the 16-year old jack wilshere , he had a masterclass performance against juventus, and would have scored the goal of the pre-season if it wasnt for buffon, he then played the ending of the real madrid match, and stretched the madrid back line to breaking point (humiliating garcia in the process). He is going to be playing with the first team after his performances, and it would be interesting to see if he breaks the record for youngest player to play for arsenal (held by fabregas) Anyway thats enough drooling from me, but the boy is just amazing for a 16 year old!!!!

You speak of Aaron Ramsey, right? I think he's already turned 17, so he couldnt break Fabregas record. Still, its always incredible how Arsenal always turns these guys into monsters so quick

Imperium

August 04, 2008, 11:38 AM

I didnt watch the Emirates Cup, except for the ending of Real Madrid - Hamburg. The injury on Sjneider may just drive them forward into hiring van der Vaart as soon as possible. The injury seems bad, he'll be out for some time now. And to be honest im losing confidence in abou diaby, he seems like a red card waiting to happen. ^^; But madrid have acted, the officially sign VDV. Its a good signing for madrid, and from the prices being quoted(9 million euro's), its also one hell of a bargain (considering what players like barry and bentley are going for >.>).

Speaking of funny moments, for those who havent seen it, you must see Chelsea's 3rd goal against Milan: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KrczZCNY7y0
Milan's GK, Kalac, did a terrible match, to the point it started to be funny just to watch him fail again. But that miss on Anelka's goal was outstanding!Lol, reminds me of lehman last season. Its funny too since kalac was saying not so long ago about how good the milan keepers are. XD

You speak of Aaron Ramsey, right? I think he's already turned 17, so he couldnt break Fabregas record. Still, its always incredible how Arsenal always turns these guys into monsters so quickNo i was not speaking of ramsey xD (although he is also talented). I was speaking about this guy (http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=494828&lid=NewsHeadline&Title=Wilshere+named+in+Arsenal%27s+first-team+squad). He's just been added to the first team, after some amazing performances in pre-season. He is only a school boy and still hasnt signed a contract yet, but has a great future ahead of him. :amuse

Mendes

August 08, 2008, 07:25 AM

Arsenal's age average mustnt exceed 21 years old... unbelievable.

Benfica hired Jose Antonio Reyes on loan from Atletico de Madrid. Its another great name for Benfica and I'm not liking it. They're still looking for a center forward and I just hope its Espanhol's Luis Garcia, coz at this rate they'd hire Henry or Rooney eventually. Its undoubtedly the best transfer market ever for Benfica and this portuguese league may get interesting at last.

C.Ronaldo is staying with United for one more year, but he's reserved by Real Madrid for 1 July 2009. I dont know if this is something official, but anyways this may work wrong for Ronaldo. Imagine a CL final between Man U and Real Madrid :P I guess Ronaldo would have to dress half red half blanco

Epul

August 16, 2008, 11:15 PM

The EPL season finally starts!!!! :jbya
watched a few games yesterday.
Arsenal was impressive, but i feel they should have started with Van persie...... arsenal won 1-0 against west brom... should have scored more i think...
Middlesbrogh was awesome against spurs. They won 2-1
Liverpool...... they were boring! they won 1-0 but it's all thanks to torres.....

Imperium

August 17, 2008, 02:14 PM

Impressive is a bit of a over-statement. >.> Arsenal played well but they seemed jittery like in the CL qualifier against twente. Match sharpness, i suppose. The spurs match made my day, ahh, i suppose thats what happens when your team lacks balance. (2-1 was actually a compliment, the 1 goal they scored was a own goal in stoppage time). To be fair, i thought Sunderland deserved at least a draw against liverpool.

United drew with newcastle, i didnt watch the match so i dont know how well they did. But draw isnt bad at this stage but it might not give them the momentum they desired. As for chelsea....they...won...by a lot. >.>;;;

Transfer news, berbatov is very very close to going to united. And apparently robinho is also close to going to chelsea. Both good players. And wenger says he'll buy another player before the end of the window. But is not saying a word on who it is....*crosses fingers for cana >.>*

Mendes

August 17, 2008, 05:12 PM

I was mostly surprised with sunderland. They did very good against the reds. This is impressive coz last year sunderland sucked and they saved themselves from going to the second division almost like miracle. I didnt watch any other match, but I guess Chelsea is on fire. Deco is a great reinforcement and I can tell bosingwa will be as well.
Nasri had the perfect 1st match for the gunners. It just reinforces the idea that Arsenal is stronger than last year as long as the injuries dont accomulate

Imperium

August 18, 2008, 08:18 AM

Yea, Keane strengthened sunderland a lot. He got some good players from Tottenham, and he is hoping for a top ten finish. But its going to be difficult. There are some very good teams to get past.

England is playing on the 20th against the Czech's. It will be interesting to see how we do...hopefully becks doesnt play, and some playing time is given to the youngsters.

Mendes

August 18, 2008, 10:03 AM

Portugal will be playing with the Faroé Islands on wednsday. Its Queiroz's first match and the new is... no Ricardo xD Finally we'll have a competent goalkeeper :D

In Spain, the supercup between Valencia (cup winner) and Real Madrid (league winner) had a 3-2 for Valencia 1st hand result in Mestalla. I guess the second hand will get interesting, with the away goals very important for the decision. Nistelrooy keeps on fire with 2 goals for Real in the 1st official match.

Imperium

August 20, 2008, 03:07 PM

^ Other than his hesitations with crosses and corners, i always thought ricardo was a decent keeper. :p

We've signed silvestre....i dont know how to feel about it to be honest. (Half of me welcomes his experience and versatility but the other half is saying something along the lines of "GET THAT C*** OUT OF MY CLUB!!!" >.>). He's old, he's injury prone, and he's from the enemy...but i suppose he is a more attractive option for left back than traore. But please let this not be the signing wenger was speaking of.

And the England match is currently on, 1-1 atm. . 2-1 to the czechs, a good free-kick. And it also seems Italy is losing to austria 2-1. :p

Edit: Oh, god, he's been given cygans old number...i hope that isnt a sign of things to come. :(

Lohnt

August 25, 2008, 04:06 PM

So Rivaldo is leaving us and going to Uzbekistan, to that team that wanted Eto..
My club has seen better days, our president is also stepping down.

So how many days are left for Chelsey to buy Robinho? It seems like Real are finally willing to let him go, and they should, they treated him like trash.
[hr]
By the way, are there any news for Katsouranis to transfer out of Benfica? Because we're not getting a lot of news about him anymore here.

Ichimaru Gin n Tonic

August 25, 2008, 11:51 PM

There's no further news about Katsouranis moving out of Benfica. Is he still in trouble for his fight with Luisao?

AC Milan just completed the signing of their former star Andriy Shevchenko. Milan is also getting Philippe Senderos from Arsenal on a one year loan deal.

Dimitar Berbatov have been given the permission to move from Tottenham Hotspur. Where will he go? We'll have to wait. :D

Galatasaray managed to sign Milan Baros from Lyon on a three year contract.

Mendes

August 26, 2008, 12:54 AM

Katsouranis seems to have been convinced to stay at benfica. Its a huge player, but he's being playing at center back due to benfica's injury problem in that position. I guess things with his team mates have settled down.

Shevchenko is going back home to Milan. Lets see if he can revive his career. As for Berbatov, I'm pretty sure he'll go to manchester. Fergunson was relishing to get a striker like him or Villa among some others, and I see Berbatov as the main transfer in the premiership if he is to leave for the red devils.

I was also surprised with Senderos loan to Milan. I thought he was to be a 1st team regular for Arsenal, but I guess Touré's being played at his spot. I dunno how wise was this loan, as Arsenal's not particularly full of competent center backs imo.

Quaresma is being brought again for Inter Milan. I think he'll leave. Porto's not calling him up to the official matches (not even in the friendly ones) and Quaresma should have his initial transfer value (40M€) reduced to an acceptable level, or at least have it reduced with a change player. I'd love to see Pélé, the portuguese defensive midfielder, at Porto. Since we lost Paulo Assunçao we dont have any classy defensive midfielder. We could use a winger as well

Ichimaru Gin n Tonic

August 26, 2008, 01:23 AM

Sheva just need starting position for him to shine. He didnt get much playing for Chelsea, they usually opted for Drogba as their target man. I'm also curious about the shirt number for Sheva, since #7 and #21 is now assigned to other players (Pato and Pirlo). :D

Arsenal got a lot of good young players. I don't think Wenger will just loan out Senderos if he doesnt have any backup for the defender position.

rtyd1

August 26, 2008, 04:36 PM

Shevchenko is apparently going to wear the number 76 because its the year he was born, some reports say Pato has agreed to give up the number 7 to Sheva.
Not too happy about the Senderos move since he's so error prone for Arsenal and i'm sure there glad to get rid of him. But you know Serie A is played at a much slower tempo than the Premiership and that may suit him

goldb

August 26, 2008, 08:09 PM

yeah, but arsene wenger is pissing me off a bit to be quite honest, every year arsenal get a lot of money to spend in the transfer windows and he chooses to only spent like £20 million? yes we do have a lot of good young players, but that's the thing they are young and so they don't have a lot of experience.it's good loaning them out to get that experience, but we need players who have been there and done it and know how to win a football game. right now Arsenal need to strengthen the midfield and defence because any of hope of winning trophies depend on it...

I have to say right now Deco is looking like the biggest coup of the summer, the ways he's been playing the last two games has been amazing. he's the kinda player I wished arsenal got, we should have got him from Barca when we decided to sell Hleb( why did they sell Hleb?) because he's a very smart player...we should try and get Xabi Alonso and Gareth Barry, Ricardo Quaresma/Diego, it's not like we don't have the money to prize them away from their clubs, but i think the years which players opted for Arsenal instead of other clubs are coming to an end...if they're not careful...

ikcud

August 26, 2008, 10:56 PM

I think Arsenal is trying to find youth within the team for the long run. But then I think it's pretty stupid because, they can always leave the club from undisrupted arguments. Not 'all' will be faithful to the club. Seriously, what matter's is the quality of the player which can bring up the club with trophies. But I do really like Walcot and Nasri.

I think Chelsea gonna bag alot of things this year, they are flying.

Lohnt

August 28, 2008, 11:54 AM

Group H rocks, holy crap it rocks, too bad Atletico couldn't be in it I looked at the 3 remaining and I was like "HOLY SHIT ATLETICO" then I realized Real is also Spanish lol, but still, that group is amazing makes me drool just thinking of it.

goldb

August 28, 2008, 12:49 PM

Arsenal got a good group, we should qualify without too much problems...with the only trouble coming at Porto away...

here's the list of the groups:

Group A
CHELSEA
Roma
Bordeaux
CFR Cluj

Group B
Inter Milan
Werder Bremen
Panathinaikos
Anorthosis Famagusta

Group C
Barcelona
Sporting Lisbon
Basel
Shakhtar Donetsk

Group D
LIVERPOOL
PSV Eindhoven
Marseille
Atletico Madrid

Group E
MAN UTD
Villarreal
Celtic
Aalborg

Group F
Lyon
Bayern Munich
Steaua Bucharest
Fiorentina

Group G
ARSENAL
Porto
Fenerbahce
Dynamo Kiev

Group H
Real Madrid
Juventus
Zenit St Petersburg
Bate Borisov

*capital denotes british teams...

Mendes

August 28, 2008, 05:14 PM

We'll meet again, Arsenal fans! Both Porto and Fenerbahce seem equally matched for the 2nd spot in that group. Dinamo's always a tough team to deal with, specially on Russia's icy winter.

I look forward to watch group H, the closest to a 'death group' this year imo. Juve's back and Zenit reinforced the team that won them the UEFA cup. Borisov just met their doom...

My bet for the next round:
A: chelsea, roma
B:Inter, bremen
C:Barça, sporting
D: Atletico Madrid, Liverpool
E:Man Utd, Vilarreal
F:Bayern, Fiorentina
G:Arsenal, Porto
H: Real Madrid, Juve

ikcud

August 28, 2008, 10:04 PM

I still think d is kinda undecided. I haven't liked how liverpool won their last couples of games on the trot.

Mendes

August 28, 2008, 11:41 PM

Yeah that's about the most balanced group, but we know that Liverpool ends up on a roll in CL every time.

David Suazo joined Benfica... Ok, now I'm scared. They already bought Reyes, Aimar and now Suazo, among others. This'll be a tough league!

Pirulito

August 29, 2008, 12:33 PM

I think we can see surprises in group H.

My bet is the same as Mendes's bet, except in group G. I hope for Porto and Fenerbahçe though Arsenal is a great team.

rtyd1

August 30, 2008, 08:17 AM

I think Zenit will have a good chance after seeing them play Man U. They have shown even without Arshavin there a good team and signing Danny Alves as his replacement was a good idea too if he does leave. Juve arent that great and could be exposed since they lack world class defenders and midfielders

Lohnt

August 30, 2008, 04:32 PM

Just with Manchester? The massacre of Bayern last year? The Uefa cup? Russia's performance in the Euro.

Zenit is going through to the next round, I would bet money on it, in fact I think I will.

Imperium

September 01, 2008, 08:02 AM

Our group is quite hard, fernabahce and kiev will be tricky away. And porto is a world class, its hard but not impossible. But at least its not as hard as the other groups.

And as for my predictions.
A: chelsea, roma
B:Inter, bremen
C:Barça, sporting
D: Atletico Madrid, Liverpool
E:Man Utd, Celtic
F:Lyon, Bayern
G:Arsenal, Porto
H: Real Madrid, Zenit

he's the kinda player I wished arsenal got, we should have got him from Barca when we decided to sell Hleb( why did they sell Hleb?) because he's a very smart player...we should try and get Xabi Alonso and Gareth Barry, Ricardo Quaresma/Diego, it's not like we don't have the money to prize them away from their clubs, but i think the years which players opted for Arsenal instead of other clubs are coming to an end...if they're not careful...The only player we really need is a defensive mid. And Arsenal do not need diego or deco, because they mainly play in the same position as fabregas (through the centre). It would mean changing our formation to suit them, or dropping them on the bench (As I doubt they could displace fabregas). And its pointless paying a lot of money to have a player sit on the bench.

Buying Barry i believe would be stupid, we need a out-and-out defensive midfielder and he is not one. Then you would have the problems of wether or not he would fit into our playing style, Villa and England are not top drawer passing teams, so he might not gel with our style. Xabi on the other hand, is a player i really want arsenal to get, he could play as a holding midfielder and he is a very good passer. But we might not get him since he is cup tied. Quaresma we cant get since he has joined inter :oh

As for the sale of hleb, i actually applaud it. He was an excellent player but he was also what was wrong with us last season. We created chances but we didnt put them away, beautiful football but no end product. Our Midfield lacked goals. Only fabregas and rosicky (and sometimes flamini) would shoot. Hleb faced with an open goal would probably try to pass the ball =/ And the stats dont lie, he only scored 5 goals and assited 8 in 42 appearences. Nasri in only two home games has already scored twice. Flamini though was a HUGE loss...

and btw, isnt celtic a brittish team xDDDD

Mendes

September 05, 2008, 05:06 PM

Zenit sure is surprising with a victory in the Supercup over United. I'm not currently watching matches (non-football vacations :P) but I read they played very well and bought Danny for some impressive 30M€. I wasnt expecting that transfer between rival teams. He's on a roll and a new asset for the portuguese squad.
Still Î couldnt bet on them on a group with the super favorites Real Madrid and the former colossal Juve. I can actually see Juve on the latest stages of the CL as one of the favorites. One thing's for sure, it'll be the toughest group and the best to watch. I doubt BATE Borisov will even manage a single point in this group. Better luck for them next year...

The transfer market is off and Porto eventually sold Quaresma at the last minutes, by 18M€ (can reach 26M€ in 2 years from now I think) and we got ourselves their portuguese under 21 defensive midfielder, Pélé. Its a player I really enjoy and his talent and potential is huge. Lets see if he lives up to his expectations. He's replacing one of our best defensive midfielders ever, Paulo Assunção so its not an easy task. We ended not reinforcing the winger position that Quaresma left open... Lets see if the youngsters for that spot can shine. I dont see Porto stronger than last year. I think its about the same. Our most influent player, Quaresma, left, but we hired Christian Rodriguez for that position (former rival Benfica's best player last season xD) and so far he's being brilliant. Pele's on for Assunçao and the new striker, Hulk, is interesting. The side backs changed and I think we're weaker without Jose Bosingwa (Chelsea) at the right side.

Anyways... can someone tell me watta hell is City's new boss thinking? I heard the guy has 10 times the money Abramovic has, and he's willing to spend it all on his team in order to hire a team like those you only see in football managing games for pc... I only heard he spoke of Cristiano Ronaldo, Fabregas and Torres to join Robinho in January and he was convinced of it! Each of these player's transfer would mean a record transfer but the guy seem determined to build the strongest team of the world from almost scratch... and City already has a very good team

thsv

September 06, 2008, 12:00 PM

Whitey

September 10, 2008, 03:43 AM

Cool!Now that Man City got the financial power like Chelsea and also a good manager in Hughes, maybe the Manchester rivalry will become like the Madrid and Milan rivalry?I foresee a good prospect in the future for City if there more players of the calibre of Robinho...with a mix of local born players like Johnson,Richards and also quality foreigners such as the Brazilian trio(Elano,Jo and Robinho)..City will give the top four a real challenge( i hope not like Spurs,Villa..these clubs aren' consistently good lol)

Lohnt

September 15, 2008, 03:24 AM

Saintz0r

September 15, 2008, 08:27 AM

Why is Milan so tragically bad? They can't win at all in their first two games?

Something going on with Kaka and Ronaldhino?

Also I'm not really impressed by City's news, even if they do get another superstar they won't get far if they don't focus on players with substance to make a better team.

I didn't see the second game of Milan, but Kaka is returning from a injury and Ronaldinho... well he's fat, slow, he just stays into one part of the field and he doesn't seem eager to play anymore. I guess he fullfiled his dream of being the best in the world and now doesn't know what to do.

As for City, I think they made a mistake hiring Robinho... He stopped playing 'till Santos sold him to Real Madrid and now he said he wouldn't play happily (wtf?) if they didn't sell him, so next year it's very possible that he'll do the same thing to go for another club.

Lohnt

September 15, 2008, 09:00 AM

I think he would play for Chelsey to be honest.. if only to show he's better than Christiano.

by the way the Mangahelpers league is officially created on UEFA.com (ch league)

Mendes

September 15, 2008, 10:45 AM

I think he would play for Chelsey to be honest.. if only to show he's better than Christiano.

by the way the Mangahelpers league is officially created on UEFA.com (ch league)

That's right! Any person who was in the former league will join the league, as long as they renew it in the 'leagues' menu. For those who want to join, the activation code is 72128-14258
For those who dont know watta hell we're talking about, its the UEFA Champions league fantasy league (http://en.uclfantasy.uefa.com/). Its a league where you're given a limited virtual amount of cash and you hire players to build a team. Your players will gain points depending on their real performances on the champions league this season. Scoring goals, assists, clean sheets, cards and many other things can influence the player's score on every matchday. The registration is free and you may gain prizes if you miraculously win the general league. Our MangaHelpersLeague is a particular league and we only play for beans here...

Lohnt

September 18, 2008, 02:37 AM

Ok, so I went to the only sports bar in the city which is way out of the way to watch ch league last night.. we sat by 3 tv's showing Juve-Zenit, Arsenal and Celtic...

What the #$@... I was so pissed, worst matches ever. Aside from the scores which were unfair and garbage in general, I was pissed.
I wasn't really watching the Celtic match but ffs, I saw Samaras miss like 5 good chances at a goal.
Zenit was playing like they're Roma (sorry Roma fans)
And Arsenal was.. pathetic if it wasn't for that last second goal. I wish they had the Porto match, but apparently the satellite didn't get that channel, go figure.

We got like 3 pitchers of beer in hopes the games would be better.. but nope.. then as we were walking out we noticed all these good looking women in the bar across the street. But we were too tired/wasted to care. Waste of a night =/

Mendes

September 18, 2008, 05:47 AM

Haha! You'd have more luck tuesday :P Also, be grateful they didnt show the Man Utd vs Vilarreal game. Seriously, United's got to start winning games, and the next week's match vs Chelsea isnt favoring this. Well, Ronaldo entered the match at the last minutes. He is 'recovering' from his injury too soon. He was supposed to be back in about 2 weeks... I wonder if he's really apt or if he's being played coz of United's lack of positive results and tough schedule.

I enjoyed Porto vs Fenerbahce. Porto had the 1st 25 minutes with insane amounts of opportunities. We only scored 2 goals within that time, and we relaxed. Fenerbahce started playing and the game was generally equilibrated. Lucho scored a beauty there!

Imperium

September 20, 2008, 01:45 PM

I think i joined the league but it seems i cant log in again :(

I didn't think we'd get £30 million for Berbatov from Manchester United, but we did. He went up to Manchester to attend a medical despite not receiving permission to do so. I would have loved for Man Utd to have failed to meet the asking price because they'd have been in so much trouble it wouldn't have been funny.
It would have been better for them to sell him before the season began, spurs might have gotten less money but at least a good replacement would have been found. Now they have to make do with campbell...And its not helping them from looks of the league table :D :D: :D

And Arsenal was.. pathetic if it wasn't for that last second goal. I wish they had the Porto match, but apparently the satellite didn't get that channel, go figure.
Yea, we were rubbish. But atleast we got the point.We played a very defensive 4-5-1, and we ended up playing not so well. >.> Anyway we got three today against bolton, which puts us comfortably at the top of the table. And we will stay there if chelsea dont win tomorrow, so heres to a united victory (i thought id never say that) or a draw (my preference).

Lohnt

September 20, 2008, 04:35 PM

Well I guess that depends on Christiano's health, because without him.. I can't really see it happening.
Then again Bremen dropped 5 on Bayern, which is also something I didn't expect, so you never know! (crazy match, but the German league has a problem with defense.. makes me wonder why Otto plays so much defense ^^)

And don't get me wrong, I know Arsenal will get their stuff together, unless there is a problem internally, Fabregas is one of my favorite players, hopefully he can become a leader like he was last year. And there's always Walcott (lucky 19 yr old =[ ) but.. as it to be expected he isn't as consistent as you would like in a starting player.

Oh by the way Mendes, any chance of Lino starting next ch. league match? >.< (fantasy has gotten me addicted again, hate it so much, can't even use the players I want due to crazy pricing price: 9 for schweinsteiger pfffft).

Mendes

September 21, 2008, 11:05 AM

Its Cristiano, not Christiano :P And the game ended with a 1-1 (lucky you, Imperium). The Bayern 2 - 5 Bremen was a totally unexpected result, and Bayern was loosing 5-0 at their own stadium. Curious that Borowski, former Bremen player, scored twice for Bayern.

As for Lino, the odds that he'll play in the CL are very very thin. He scored last match, but he got in as a replacement and even with that satus, he'll be very unlikely to play. Porto's starting side backs are Fucile/Sapunaru and Benítez. Since Fucile can play both sides, Lino's almost doomed to be the 3rd choice...

Lohnt

September 23, 2008, 09:11 AM

How do you think they'll do against Arsenal? Arsenal seems to still be seeking themselves in CH.L. but are doing fine in the Premier League.

Imperium

September 23, 2008, 10:46 AM

How do you think they'll do against Arsenal? Arsenal seems to still be seeking themselves in CH.L. but are doing fine in the Premier League.We have good home form in the CL (5th season undefeated at home), its usually the away legs that we end up messing up in xD.So i dont think we will lose it. Porto are having a slow start to the league, but they have simple opposition in the weekend which means some players might be rested. And its best we get some points of the table because two of our CL Fixtures are in the same week we play United/Chelsea.

And there's always Walcott (lucky 19 yr old =[ ) but.. as it to be expected he isn't as consistent as you would like in a starting player.I agree he was inconsistent before zagreb. The beginning of the season he was blowing hot and cold, man of the match one day, anonymous the next. But ever since Zagreb he has been amazing, he started the rout against blackburn, assisted in the goal against Kiev, he was rested against bolton but when he came off the bench, he destroyed boltons defence and in a couple of minutes and it soon became 3-1 (and if it wasnt for a good save by the keeper, he would have got a goal to make it four). But i just hope its actual development and not just a run of good form.

Oh god, I love ma Carling cup. Arsenal sent out their youngest team in their history with an average age of 18 years and 6 months. And they beat championship side Sheffield United, who former international Gary speed and james beattie 6-0!!!! xDDDD

Line-up: Lukasz Fabianksi (23).

Gavin Hoyte (18); Alexandre Song (21); Johan Djourou (21); Kieran Gibbs (18).

Jack Wilshere (16); Aaron Ramsey (17); Mark Randall (18); Fran Merida (18).

Nicklas Bendtner (20); Carlos Vela (19).

Five british teenagers, all but one came through the academy. Our future sure is bright xD

Mendes

September 23, 2008, 06:24 PM

I'm usually a faithful supporter, but this year I dont believe Porto can score points at Highbury. Porto is weaker than last year. Quaresma isnt there to deal with the games when we're less inspired, Paulo Assunçao was supreme in our defensive maneuver, and none of the 5 other options available are near his level. Bosingwa is still the player I miss both. One of the best offensive side backs I know, extremely useful in supporting the wingers on our 4-3-3.
Arsenal isnt any weaker than last season, so I dont expect Porto to get a result there. Porto's last game was so poor... the difference is too great.

Still, Imperium, since too many years from now I feel like Arsenal's got a huge future, sine you always manage to attract and evolve young talents. But future is always that remains every season ever since you won the premier league with a much more experienced team. Dont you think adding more experience than youth in a team would be the only way for Arsenal to succeed? Look at chelsea and united. Their base is made from experienced players, where they progressively add youngsters to fill in the older ones. Its not like Arsenal play worse than their direct opponents, but the results are made from more than that, and I cant help but feel like Arsenal's 'future' will take more time than the demanded from the club's reputation and financial power. So far gunners are running the league, but last year they just faded when the time to win came or when some injuries came up.

Imperium

September 24, 2008, 12:34 PM

Still, Imperium, since too many years from now I feel like Arsenal's got a huge future, sine you always manage to attract and evolve young talents. But future is always that remains every season ever since you won the premier league with a much more experienced team. Dont you think adding more experience than youth in a team would be the only way for Arsenal to succeed? Look at chelsea and united. Their base is made from experienced players, where they progressively add youngsters to fill in the older ones. Its not like Arsenal play worse than their direct opponents, but the results are made from more than that, and I cant help but feel like Arsenal's 'future' will take more time than the demanded from the club's reputation and financial power. So far gunners are running the league, but last year they just faded when the time to win came or when some injuries came up.I know what your getting at, it is usually the main reason pundits use to try and write our title challenges off. My view on experience on the pitch is simple. On the pitch i believe experience is only vital in central defence and in goal. Positioning and concentration is something honed through playing games. Its why you dont find many world class defenders or goalkeepers able to walk into top league sides at 19 or 20. And our defence is experienced. Almunia and Gallas are 30, Toure is 27, sagna is 25 and clichy 23. While clichy might seem young he has played more game and has more experience in the league than Evra and liverpools left back (Au-something, forgot his name xD).

In other positions while experience may be good is not vital IMO. You can have amazing striker/midfielders/wingers at a young age. Ronaldo won the world player of the year at 20. Messi and Fabregas just turned 21 and their some of the best players in their respective positions. Take United v Chelsea the other day, the midfield was based around Scholes and Mikel. And Scholes with all his considerable experience was vastly out-shown by Mikel. And we have youngsters in those positions in the first team, mainly. But maybe you are speaking about outside of the pitch that experience counts? Well in some ways you can compare our "collapse" in the race for the title last season, to the same one in 02/03 when we were coming into the closing stages of the title race we were 8 points ahead of our nearest rivals and we still didnt win the title. And our team than had experienced players in bucket-loads. So i dont actually think if we had more experienced players in the team we would have won something last season nor win something this season. But then again thats just my opinion :eyeroll

Anyway, the major concern after last season for me was not the experience, but the depth of the squad. While i doubt any of the other top four clubs could have fared any better than us with the injuries we had, it was still a concern. A lot of the squad players last season have developed amazingly, Bendtner started only three times in all competitions this season and has scored four. Denilson is outshining fabregas and is playing ridiculously good, as is song/djourou/walcott. And then there is diaby, nasri, silvestre, eduardo, rosicky all to come back, and they are all great players and will be fighting for a first team place (well maybe not silvestre). And then you have these kids who played in the carling cup, who im confident can rip apart the lower teams in the league. So the depth concern is slowly being dispelled with me, and im quite optimistic this season. :p

Mendes

September 24, 2008, 01:15 PM

Imperium

September 24, 2008, 05:41 PM

I'm not saying that every experienced team has success. The truth is, Arsenal's recent success at developing young super talents is incredible. If the team can stick together (we never know this, since millionaire people tend to contradicting the market rules... like man city's case) in the following years, they may build a superb team. The thing is, up till then, I only see Arsenal as a team with mid term future. Young players are hired to outshine the most experienced players in most teams. What happens in Arsenal is far different. The young players are hired more to evolve and its rare to find a player who's hired to fight for 1st team football right away in Arsenal. Nasri is exception, as he brought already some reputation with him and he's replacing Flamini. If Arsenal won the league with this super young team, I'd be proven wrong, but the truth is that Arsenal isnt even in the title race on the last matchday of the league and when it is, they loose (CL final against Barça i.e.). I feel like Arsenal's strategy will only produce main titles in 2 or 3 years, if the most influent players (even the young ones) can stay in the team for that time.

Also, I'm kinda o_o with city. I'm not sure how serious their new boss is when he speaks that he'll do the impossible to buy players like Ronaldo, Fabregas and Torres... Now they speak of Aguero, who's clause is 60M€. We know that money can buy anything but victories in football. Do you think this project can build a superstar team like Chelsea, but 10 times more expensive?The CL we were playing with ten men for most of the match (since 20 minutes), and barcelona only managed to score in a last minute comeback, so not a lot could be done about it. But for the rest, i suppose its your opinion and i cant fault you for it. :p

Manchester City is the only thing being talked about, but i dont know. As for the premier league clubs, they would rather kill themselves then sell a major player to a new rival. There is no minimum release clause in Britain so the clubs will just keep raising the asking price until it becomes ridiculous. Btw, City won 6-0 against portsmouth and now lost to brighton and hove albion tonight in the carling cup. With a very strong line-up (albeit no robinho). So their squad needs changes if they are to succeed. But it all depends on what their new owners expect. For example Abrahmovich wanted to win everything and spent accordingly, even though he hasnt seen a major return (money terms >.>). Will the arab owners continue to spend even if there is little financial return? Its a mystery which will only be revealed in time, i suppose. Though this whole foreign owners thins is becoming a farce. Only two clubs in the top ten last season were not owned by rich foreigners (Arsenal & Everton). But you see in the long run, in say 7-10 years a i doubt a lot of them will be here, including the new arab owners of City and many will leave the clubs in a bad state. But until then, it will defintely make the league more competitive which can only be a good thing :D

Mendes

September 25, 2008, 12:43 PM

I guess we'll have to wait to see what City does to money. You say most teams in premiership would rather kill themselves than allowing their biggest stars to leave, but Ronaldo was very close to Real Madrid with a record offer. If City pays the double (apparently they can) I dont think United would think twice and would sell Ronaldo right away. The same applies to every other club. No player is worth 166M€...

In the spanish league, Barça seem to be finding the results again. When messi reaches this kind of form-unstoppable. Last weekend, Barça gave guijon 6-1. The thing is, Real couldnt help but to say 'mine is bigger' and they just gave guijon 7-1. Vaart scored a superb hattrick. 3 beautiful goals. You should check out one of Raul's too. Speaking of beautiful goals, you gotta love Vela's play in his 2nd goal at the carling cup xD

ElUniversal

September 25, 2008, 06:52 PM

I just finished watching Boca Juniors vs. Newell's Old Boys (Argentinian 1st div.)....Boca's young guns are in a great form, they trashed the current Libertadores champion (l.america's CL-like cup) Liga de Quito last Tuesday, and 2 days later they beat the always-hard Newell's team in a match that had been postponed for quite some time.....while the "big ones" Riquelme, Palermo, Palacio, Battaglia, Ibarra, etc are not playing at their usual level, resting or recovering from injuries, guys like Noir, Viatri, Chávez, etc are making a lot of noise....there are already rumours of European clubs scouting them-_-;

Lohnt

September 26, 2008, 05:44 AM

Well, from what I know Boca is always being attacked by European clubs as it is a great place to get relatively cheap players before they turn into 20million euro players and step into European soil. But they beat Quito? Wow, good for them, even though I didn't even expect Quito to win the libertadores after all these years (I had an Ecuadorian roomate some years ago in Spain that was a huge Quito fan).

Speaking of Vander's amazing goals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKiJLvOlXpQ&eurl=http://sport24.gr/html/ent/370/ent.254370.asp
That was sick.

Also, since I brought up Arsenal: Isn't their biggest problem, that despite how good of a young team they create, they ALWAYS sell their star players in a year or two?? This is why they have a young team, not because they're trying to make a team that's been together for.. 4 years, but because they seem more interested in the market and selling off players than anything else.

ElUniversal

September 26, 2008, 09:23 AM

Arsenal had a great team when they had great veterans to carry the young guys and absorb most of the pressure (Vieira, Henry, Campbell, etc)...I think they are not as powerful as Chelsea or Man Utd anymore....they've gone from "great club with good youth scouting program" to "the place where young guys go before they're bought by a bigger club"

And about Boca....well, the whole Argentinian market is constantly raided by pirates in a suit who take away all those who are good...it's gotten kinda ridiculous, guys like Crespo, Almeyda, Aimar, Samuel had a great full year or more and then they were bought....but nowadays all it takes is less than 6 months of relatively good playing....seriously, Boca's Noir is already being scouted by more than 10 spanish teams and he hasn't even played 20 official matches (and no, he hasn't shown signs of being the next Di Stefano/Kempes/Maradona/Batistuta/Messi....he just didn't suck while replacing Rodrigo Palacio)

Lohnt

September 28, 2008, 04:55 AM

I've been noticing a lot of interviews about Gerrard, and Beckham and Lampard/Rooney etc lately, and I really think England is being set up to play in the Fifa final, unless something changes next year.
I don't know about winning, but Gerrard and Lampard have never been better, Rooney has been forced to step up his game due to complaints about his role last year in MU, and Beckham continues to be a part of the heart of the national team, and even on the bench, he inspires young players like Walcott with his words, even when they're outplaying him in his position.

I just think the team is one of the best at the moment, and the athletes are in top shape, I don't know much about the coach, but as long as he is a decent one and not a complete duche like Germany's (during the final at least) he can lead this team past even heavyweights like Argentina and Brazil (but S. America is still not in top form, I'm sure the two giants will get a decent team together by next year).

I dunno, just some random stuff I was thinking about.

Imperium

September 28, 2008, 06:40 AM

FUCK SHITE!!!! Our defence of set-pieces is horrible. We conceded three goals already! And gallas was fucking invinsible...for all three. So much for fucking experience. Now were back to fourth. Im fucking pissed!!!

*Breaths in and calms down*

@ Lohnt - With england, the thing is, on our day we can beat most teams in the world, but we can also lose to any team in the world (and i mean ANY team in the world). But i doubt we can get to the final...its been 40 years since we last won a world cup, and i honestly dont see it changing. But if we do qualify i think we might get as far as the quarters or semi's hopefully. Btw, i wanted to ask is diogo playing good for olympiakos. Because i was seriously shocked when i heard they got him, it was a coup. xD

ElUniversal

September 28, 2008, 10:37 PM

I believe England's national team is one of the top 6 national teams right now, along with Brazil, Argentina, Spain....and, of course, Italy & Germany (dunno how they do it, they're just always there)....England's midfield is, IMHO, the world's best (at least for now) with all-around players like Gerrard & Lampard, then there's Walcott, Joe Cole, Hargreaves, Beckham, Carrick, Wright-Phillips, etc...you can pick any of those and you'll most likely end up outplaying most teams. Also, Terry-Ferdinand is the best central defenders duo IMO.
England's weakness is the keeper....for some reason a Zoff-like keeper hasn't appeared yet. Another thing you could see as a weakness is the lack of a reliable centerforward to help Rooney...Owen is not in his best form.
But, in spite of any weakness England may show, they're currently in better shape than the rest of the "top contenders":
-Brazil is currently...well, playing like crap....Dunga's defensive style just doesn't fit such a team...players don't like him anymore...the press wants him gone....and the fans want him to be publicly executed. Still, they're always dangerous...if Ronaldinho returns to his real level and Dunga manages not to put Diego in matches anymore (seriously, he doesn't look like a brazilian "10"), they might be the best
-Argentina lacks a big centerforward to join our "shorties" Messi/Tévez/Agüero/Zárate/whoever we get in there....Crespo & Cruz are a little over the hill, maybe we should try Diego Milito, Higuaín or Cavenaghi for once. Other issues are how slow Riquelme runs the team and how bad our defense is (you'd think that guys like Demichelis, Heinze, Zanetti, Burdisso, Coloccini, etc could solve that problem...but so far thay haven't). I really want Basile to quit as the manager....he's just a lazy ol' bum
-Spain looks good but I think they'll (yet again) choke midway

Btw, sorry for such a long, uninteresting post;)

Lohnt

September 29, 2008, 01:18 AM

Btw, i wanted to ask is diogo playing good for olympiakos. Because i was seriously shocked when i heard they got him, it was a coup. xD

Yea, he's doing very well (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqpXoBGxQ-w&feature=related), but I think the problem is he isn't really meant for Olympiacos, which is why I don't see him sticking around past Christmas/Summertime. Olympiacos plays a counterattack gameplan mixed in with a 4-4-2 attacking diamond offense, depending on the game etc. Right now they have Kovačević who is also a strong footballer with a strong high game and Mitroglou (young, fast, killer instinct but not a superstar) as the alternative fowards.

Kova works better with Oly's best player for the past year as well as this year: Luciano Galletti, the man is a monster and I am jealous they have him. Not to say Diogo isn't scoring more goals, but they're mostly personal actions that he's won on his own. Last year they had LuaLua who is someone that can run around the offense and clear out the defense, now their game has to change in order for him to score more goals, especially when guys like Blanco score so easily with half a chance.

I think he needs time to get used to European football, Belluschi is playing great this season in comparison to last season. This will happen with the Uefa Cup if he gets to play, but for now he doesn't really fit into messy non-formatted Greek football where players kill each other to get the ball into the net. A player in his position can't afford to get injured just to win a game like other players on Oly's team, also it is very taxing on the players, because unlike other championships where you play more games, here players get injured twice as much with half a chance. Diogo not doing as well as expected is probably Valverde's fault. Well, actually it's their stubborn president's fault for controlling the team's play style more than their coach, but anyway it would probably be easier to ask an Olympiacos fan.

Aaaanyway, yea England needs a better goalkeeper and Argentina needs a better coach. Greece needs.. well I hate to say a new coach, but at least to have their younger players play.

gdperrin

September 29, 2008, 08:49 AM

I do believe england doesn´t have a good goalkeeper. The major teams in englad dont have english goalkeepers: Arsenal: Almunia (spain) and Fabiański (poland), Manchester united: Van der Sar (Holland) Liverpool: Reina (Spain), Chelsea: Cech (czech rep.) Eventually u have Robinson in tottenham but he´s playing like crap. and the top english GK are Green, James and Robinson. not one in a good shape. And not outstanding at all, i´ve heard Foster is the Future but so far nothing to be excited about.
Argentina needs to replace some players, the style of game is too slow!

ElUniversal

September 29, 2008, 09:57 AM

Argentina needs to replace some players, the style of game is too slow!
Almost everone with brains in my country can see that (about 35% of the population)...the rest are completely biased and want Riqueme to run the team just like he does with Boca....guess what, Riquelme: the international refs aren't gonna "take care" of you like the argentinian refs do! I'm shocked that some people still consider that turtle as Argentina's star....they need to know there's a little shy guy called Messi who can maybe do a bit better than this cold-hearted bastard who is currently killing any chance we have of a fast and effective gameplay:blink
Guys who need to be gone: Basile (coach), Riquelme, Heinze, Abbondanzieri (This is Carrizo's era, retire already!) and, until they play well again, Tévez, Cambiasso and Zanetti
OTOH, I like what I see for the future....Demichelis & Pareja/G.Milito seem like a reliable central defenders duo, Mascherano and Gago are doing great together, Di Maria, Jonás Gutiérrez, Maxi Rodríguez and Monzón give the team a different feel...and of course, we've got Messi, Agüero, Higuaín, Cavenaghi, etc. to attack

Mendes

September 29, 2008, 10:14 AM

Argentina sure is finding trouble replacing some spots. I dont think the problem is the attack, as Aguero and Milito are on top form, but I agree Riquelme should be replaced. In Portugal, I havent seen enough of Aimar to say he's back at the great old times, but Lucho Gonzalez is magic. He runs Porto's game with superb class. Our best player and goes better every season. Still, I was told he's not convincing when playing for Argentina. Aside from the problem finding an attacking midfielder, Argentina has top class defensive midfielders like Cambiasso, Banega, Gago or Mascherano. I wonder if Messi could play as a true number 10 in a classic 4-4-2:

Defense Mid: Banega
Right Mid: Lucho
Left Mid: Cambiasso
10: Messi

strikers: Aguero Milito
Something like this...
Messi likes to organize the play and to break trough the center with 1-2 combinations with the strikers, so I think it'd be worth a try

ElUniversal

September 29, 2008, 12:19 PM

The problem with putting Messi as a "10" is that he isn't prone to passing the ball too often...Cambiasso doesn't work as a left midfielder, we need a guy with high speed and/or technique (we used to have Kily González, Solari, Sorín, Gustavo López...too bad they're kinda old now) and Banega should never be in the national team as long as Mascherano, Gago, Cambiasso, Ledesma and Battaglia are alive.
Lucho had great matches with the NT when he wasn't paired with Riquelme. I'd give that guy a chance as the "10"....D'alessandro is coming back as a reliable option....Aimar is nowhere near NT level
IMO, the best team we can put together:
----------Carrizo----------
--Demichelis----Pareja-----
Zabaleta-------------Monzón
---Mascherano--Gago-------
Maxi R.--------------Di Maria
-----Messi------D.Milito-----

Mendes, are you a Porto fan? could you tell me how is Lisandro López playing? we don't get much portuguese football coverage except for UCL matches...

Lohnt

September 29, 2008, 03:01 PM

No, Aguero should be Messi's partner, I don't care how good Milito is performing, Aguero is an attacking demon and you're making a mistake if you disagree. It's like taking away Torres from Villa, do you really think Villa would score so many goals without him? or Ronaldo without Rooney?

Mendes

September 29, 2008, 03:11 PM

I am a Porto fan, and as far as I can tell, Lisandro is by far the best striker in the league. Our team is based on players from Argentina, but Lucho and Lisandro are clearly on a higher level. Lisandro is excellent at pressuring the opponent defense and he never grows tired. He plays as a striker but he's adept of going to the wings and he helps the defense. His technique and finishing evolved a lot last season and he finished the league as the top goalscorer and by a huge margin (double of the the second's I think).

As for Argentina's NT, Lucho can play the 10 position as well. Still, I think your midfield is too defensive like that. Mascherano and Gago are very defensive midfielders and I think Cambiasso could and should play a little further from his defense. I see alot of Inter's games, and Cambiasso is Not slow. He's got technique and I saw him advance with the ball forward at ease many times. More than Vieira.
Di Maria is still too young and he's not always option in Benfica's 11. In some years I expect him to be prepared for the NT Argentina, but not now. Messi could play at winger instead and let Aguero in charge of the goals at front. But now that you mentioned, where is Andres D'alessandro? He was playing at wolsburg and then changed to zaragoza... where did he go?

Saintz0r

September 29, 2008, 04:45 PM

But now that you mentioned, where is Andres D'alessandro? He was playing at wolsburg and then changed to zaragoza... where did he go?

Now he's playing in Internacional here in Brazil, and last game he totally pwned Grêmio ( one of the greatest derbys here ) scoring 1goal and making 3 assistances in Inter's 4x1 victory

About Riquelme:
I really like him, but you can either choose to play slowly, building your plays carefully and this way he's one of the best, or you can play a fast game and he'll be the worst one.

@Brazil
We stopped in time since 2006, 2 years without making any progress at all and Dunga's still there...

ElUniversal

September 29, 2008, 04:58 PM

We've tried that midfield and it turned out great....Mascherano and Gago play great defense together and they are the starting point of the offense (like Gattuso and Pirlo, there's one who's better at dribbling and passing the ball and the other is good at getting the ball from rivals)...Di Maria is not yet ready but I'd expect him to be important 2 years from now, the alternative to him is Jonás Gutiérrez, the human versión of the road runner...and about Messi playing as a wing with two forwards, I like the idea, and it's basically what he does in Barça with Eto'o and Henry.

Andrés D'alessandro was bought by San Lorenzo not long ago to help them win the Libertadores (other guys they bought for that matter include Diego Placente, Gonzalo Bergessio and most recently, Santiago Solari)....of course, they didn't. Andrés is currently playing for Porto Alegre's Internacional (who won the Lib. cup recently) and he's doing well. In fact, he's been called to join the NT again after Pekerman took him out of the team to make space for his beloved Riquelme.
He still has anger management issues but nobody can argue his talent...
[hr]

No, Aguero should be Messi's partner, I don't care how good Milito is performing, Aguero is an attacking demon and you're making a mistake if you disagree. It's like taking away Torres from Villa, do you really think Villa would score so many goals without him? or Ronaldo without Rooney?

I like Agüero, I just forgot to put him instead of Milito:darn...still, it would be nice to see the 3 of them together, with Messi in Maxi Rodriguez's position and Agüero-Milito as forwards...Higuaín or Tévez would be fine as well instead of Diego

Mendes

September 29, 2008, 05:09 PM

About Riquelme:
I really like him, but you can either choose to play slowly, building your plays carefully and this way he's one of the best, or you can play a fast game and he'll be the worst one.

I totally agree. Riquelme would be the perfect player for Italy. He's a similar type of player as Veron imo. Veron's best years were when he played in Italy and perhaps Riquelme could have given it a try if he werent in Boca like fish in water. But for Argentina's current NT, Riquelme is way off the offset.

As for Brazil, I said this before and I'll say it again: why not a foreign coach? Its always about a national coach and the foreign are ignored when its time to choose a new manager. Of course the pressure would be a little higher coz its very unusual to have a foreign coach in the 2 great potencies in south america, but I think its worth a try. There were always very good european coaches that can handle that kind of pressure and that can control and take the best out of superstar players. Right now, I'd suggest Rijkaard, coz he's unemployed (if i'm correct) and he proved himself in a huge superstar filled team as Barça. He has the player's respect and plays stylish offensive football
[hr]
Well between Gago and Cambiasso I guess its a matter of opinion. The fact that Argentina has so many talented center/defensive midfielders makes me wonder how would they do with one more player for that spot and one less defender. Remember Zanetti is playing at the center midfield alot recently and Argentina doesnt have much talented side backs aside from him imo. This would be a tough system to change to, but if Argentina does change the management (hazta Basile) a new coach could have success with only Coloccini, Demichelis, Milito i.e.

Lohnt

September 30, 2008, 04:35 PM

Well we had some nice games today.

Arsenal came out of nowhere, and had an incredible 4-0 game.
Manchester is back (granted they played a weak opponent)
Zenit once again.. makes me cry, I can't believe this is the same team, Arshavin's goal post miss was.. ugh.. that player deserves to be on a better team, like Liverpool or something, he really is amazing.
Bayern.. I can't say much, I expected their defense to be open, but in general the team even offensively didn't really do so well.

Also, I hate fantasy football again, but whatever, this is a normal part of the process...

Here's to tommorow, Inter - Bremen and Atletico - Marseille

Imperium

September 30, 2008, 06:04 PM

It was some bad defending from Porto and they gave Fabregas far too much space. In the league he usually isnt given so much time to look for passes. >.>; And if it wasnt for our inability to hit a empty net, it might have been more. But still our defence of set pieces needs a lot of work, i was terrified every time they got a corner. -_-''

As for the other games, Berbatov hit the net. Which is a bad thing (for me anyway), i was quite hoping he would flop like keane. But he hasnt and the goals will now come rolling in i suppose. xD The most surprising result though, is BATE drawing with juventus, they were winning 2-0 before juventus came back. Them and cluj seem to be major dark horses.

Lohnt

October 01, 2008, 04:23 AM

The thing about Bate is, they're in the hardest group possible, and they have nothing to lose. With Zenit messing up, and Juve having to worry about RM; Bate has a better chance at second than Zenit, and if Bate can win a single game without losing the rest (ties) they can theoretically pass. Albeit unlikely.

The other dark horse is Anorthosis, because Bremen apparently has a very weak defense, but a strong offense. Panathinaikos also has a weak defense, and a strong middle, decent offense. If inter just beats the other two, and don't care so much about the games with Anorthosis, Anorthosis can pick up a tie with Inter, and also theoretically pass if they win one of the other games..

Mendes

October 01, 2008, 05:10 AM

Congrats Imperium, Arsenal's evil. You guys were winning 4-0 and you still played with 3 center forwards : ( I miss Real, Inter and Liverpool... at least those knew where to stop!

Well, the reasons for Porto's defeat can be explained by our unbelievable lack of defensive concentration. Its very unusual for Bruno Alves to have so much flaws. Also, I've said this before: our side backs are terrible... I cant understand why Porto cant find a decent left back ever since I remember. Its like an accursed position for both Porto and Portugal's NT.
The fact that Porto gave Fabregas too much room is because portuguese teams play in a minor league where such players do not exist. The difference in quality and class between english and portuguese teams is devastating and the gap is increasing. I'm happy this didnt turn out a too humiliating result (still, I had to drink a lot yesterday :P ).
The good things to take from it, was a good performance in the first half by some Porto's players, creating some chances and thus a good match. Tomas Costa played very well (could have offered Rodriguez the 1st goal of the match) and Lisandro, with 2 superb opportunities to make the 0-1. Also, Fenerbahce's home draw with Kyev makes me rejoice. Its a perfect result for us.

I watched the 2nd half of Zenit vs Real. I almost didnt see Real cross to the opponents midfield, while Zenit were playing very well. When it wasnt the posts helping out Madrid, it was Casillas. Because Juve drew with BATE, I think the fight's on for the 2nd spot of tht group. I'd bet on Zenit now, coz they still have 2 games against BATE and they play at home against Juve, who'll now go to Santiago Bernabeu.

What to say of fiorentina's home draw with steua? This result is terrible when you're stuck in a group with Bayern and Lyon.

THE KING

October 01, 2008, 08:47 AM

Haven't been able to watch the champions league because of job making me go early to bed.Never really new a soccer thread existed here, hoping to get nice reviews of the games from this thread.

Lohnt

October 01, 2008, 06:35 PM

Wow.. I would hate to be a Shaktar fan tonight...

Messi just continuously proves he is the second coming of Maradona.

In related news: Gerrard is on steroids (http://videos.sapo.pt/LrvzZZVYLZDnlKd7WFqZ). Explain to me how he has a kick like something out of a soccer anime/movie where the ball goes through the net and leaves a firey hole?

thegreatest08

October 01, 2008, 10:35 PM

^^ agreeing wif u, messi played awesome for barca, coming of the bench and winning it for them, simply awesome.

Mendes

October 02, 2008, 03:16 AM

Yeah, and also the legendary Maradona's fair play seems to have been inherited by him as well...
Cluj keeps surprising, now with a home draw against Chelsea. I think Drogba will go back to injury. He's done if he keeps rushing into the fields.
Aguero keeps on fire and he's already the top goalscorer of the CL and the great surprise of the day was Anorthosis. 3-1 over panathinaikos (tough that historic 1st goal was laughable).

I saw the 1st half of Inter vs Bremen. I was enjoying the match, very open, mainly because Inter started with Balotelli, Zlatan and Adriano together. I'm very impressed with Adriano. I'd say he's back and if Inter can play with this tactic more often, he'll get and take his chances.

Lohnt

October 02, 2008, 06:14 PM

I wasn't surprised by Anorthosis to be honest, like I said they're a dark horse but Bremen and Panathinaikos have very weak defenses this season. If they just play well, and have Inter mess up against them, they will win the second spot.
[hr]
So Milan is building a dream team of sorts.
Apparently they recently set the record straight that they wanted Ibrahimovic 2 years ago, but Inter ended up with him. Now they're saying they want Sergio Ramos because they need someone for that position and his contract is apparently ending.

So.. if they get him and they get a really good goalkeeper as well as a crazy defensive midfielder.. they would be like the RM of 2003..

sk.nite

October 03, 2008, 10:09 PM

Almost everone with brains in my country can see that (about 35% of the population)...the rest are completely biased and want Riqueme to run the team just like he does with Boca....guess what, Riquelme: the international refs aren't gonna "take care" of you like the argentinian refs do! I'm shocked that some people still consider that turtle as Argentina's star....they need to know there's a little shy guy called Messi who can maybe do a bit better than this cold-hearted bastard who is currently killing any chance we have of a fast and effective gameplay:blink

You got that percentage too high, dude. I'd still take him when we play away in hot climate areas (for refrigerating purposes).

Argentina sure is finding trouble replacing some spots. I dont think the problem is the attack, as Aguero and Milito are on top form, but I agree Riquelme should be replaced. In Portugal, I havent seen enough of Aimar to say he's back at the great old times, but Lucho Gonzalez is magic. He runs Porto's game with superb class. Our best player and goes better every season. Still, I was told he's not convincing when playing for Argentina. Aside from the problem finding an attacking midfielder, Argentina has top class defensive midfielders like Cambiasso, Banega, Gago or Mascherano. I wonder if Messi could play as a true number 10 in a classic 4-4-2:

Defense Mid: Banega
Right Mid: Lucho
Left Mid: Cambiasso
10: Messi

strikers: Aguero Milito
Something like this...
Messi likes to organize the play and to break trough the center with 1-2 combinations with the strikers, so I think it'd be worth a try

Lucho? Milito (the bad one)? BANEGA? http://i45.servimg.com/u/f45/13/05/10/84/suicid10.gif

There ARE postitions that need to be filled, however. The lack of full-backs doesn't concern me particularly, since I think we can perfectly play with 3 in the back, as long as we get rid of dead weight like Jabondanzieri, Heinze, etc. In short, it would be a 3-3-1-3 like in the good times, and the lack of attacking power from the midfielders would be compensated by the wingers. The main problem with this strategy is that we lack a centerforward, and it's a big problem. So big that some 'wise' fellow countrymen suggsted that we play with PALERMO as a number 9. That made me laugh for days...

I totally agree. Riquelme would be the perfect player for Italy. He's a similar type of player as Veron imo. Veron's best years were when he played in Italy and perhaps Riquelme could have given it a try if he werent in Boca like fish in water. But for Argentina's current NT, Riquelme is way off the offset.

You definitely got this backwards. Riquelme is the worst kind of player for Italy, and his style differs a lot from JSV. First of all, HielelmeRiquelme tends to hold up the ball a lot, and you can rarely see him making a long pass (which is JSV's specialty and a counterattacking team like Italy's main attack style, btw). Also, in Italy, if you are a midfielder (even if you're a forward) you have to mark. Now tell me, have you ever seen him stealing ONE FUCKING BALL? I thought so. But I'd better stop critizicing him or otherwise Juan Román's mommy will get sick from the stress...

Mendes

October 04, 2008, 05:32 AM

Both Lucho and Diego Milito are on top form right now. Porto's football always goes trough Lucho, and we can see the difference when he's not there. He got into the Arsenal vs Porto match injured and he's in doubt for the classic, but you can ask any fan from the other rivals, they'd tell you Lucho is the best player in the league. I was told he isnt performing so good in Argentina's NT, but I think he'd do much better than Riquelme.

As for Diego Milito, he's in amazing shape. He's scoring every match and he's the 2nd best topgoalscorer already, even tough he's playing in a minor team as Genova. His characteristics differ alot from Aguero, and they may be a good double in Argentina's attack. I believe its better than having 2 strikers with similar characteristics like Aguero and Tevez.

Riquelme may be different since the days I watched him play for Vilarreal. He was actually on of the best when it came to long pass technique and he combined very well with Forlan. The fact that he holds up the ball alot is a characteristic of Italy's midfielders, not Argentina's (of course he doesnt hold the ball in a counter attack...) and the main problem with him is that no one has found the way of putting him retrieving balls. If he hasnt learned till now, its not now he's going to (unless someone points him a gun and makes him do it... oh no, then again, his mommy could get sick from the stress right? xD )

Lohnt

October 07, 2008, 05:03 AM

Hahah, holy shit Real was crazy tonight.

I really feel sorry for my fav player but still.. that real was insane. Too bad they don't play like this every night.
[hr]
I read today that Arshavin's manager is asking the president of Zenit to discuss a transfer to the Premier League, the only club to CURRENTLY have shown interest is Arsenal. Zenit won't let him go for less than 30, but I'm glad. It's going to be really good for his career, and he's a very charismatic player that I believe can help out certain teams in England enough.

For example I was recently discussing how well he would fit into Liverpool with a friend, and how I hope Chelsea doesn't go near him. As for M.U. .. they already have all the offensive spots filled, and he doesn't deserve to be benched, especially the way he's been performing lately.

So anyway, here's to hoping we see him in a team like Liverpool/Arsenal in January. It would at least (for me) make either of those teams a little more interesting.

goldb

October 07, 2008, 05:50 AM

who Arshavin? as an arsenal fan....i don't think he would bring anything that our team aint already got...

what we need is a center back and and a centre midfielder like diego from werder bremen or someone experience who can come in and do the job straight away...

we lost two of our best players this season(flamini and hleb) and we aint replaced them... so that's our priority i think, not another striker...

Imperium

October 07, 2008, 10:06 AM

I read today that Arshavin's manager is asking the president of Zenit to discuss a transfer to the Premier League, the only club to CURRENTLY have shown interest is Arsenal. Zenit won't let him go for less than 30, but I'm glad. It's going to be really good for his career, and he's a very charismatic player that I believe can help out certain teams in England enough.

For example I was recently discussing how well he would fit into Liverpool with a friend, and how I hope Chelsea doesn't go near him. As for M.U. .. they already have all the offensive spots filled, and he doesn't deserve to be benched, especially the way he's been performing lately.

So anyway, here's to hoping we see him in a team like Liverpool/Arsenal in January. It would at least (for me) make either of those teams a little more interesting.I doubt it is Arsenal. His agent is quoted as saying "It’s going to be a very big transfer. Zenit can afford not to sell him cheaply.” Wenger wanted to sign him, but bulked at how much they wanted (i heard sp*rs offered 20 milllion but it was still refused) which pretty much sums it up. Its either chelsea or liverpool. Ferguson already spent a lot of money and i doubt he will spend more to have someone on the bench. Chelsea are in desperate need of a striker/strike partner. Anelka is mis-firing on all cylinders, drogba is injured (again!) and is on the wrong side of 30, and the only other option is young di santo who has never scored in a competitive match for chelsea. While liverpool have decent amount of striking option, but benitez might try to bolster it.

Hahah, holy shit Real was crazy tonight.

I really feel sorry for my fav player but still.. that real was insane. Too bad they don't play like this every night.
You mean the barca-atleti match? I wanted to watch it but i couldnt in the end. After i heard the result i was so pissed off, i had to settle for highlights :(. But real is playing them next week so i might catch that one. Btw, is it me or does it seem like every match real plays next its the one that barca has just played...suspicious :ninja

what we need is a center back and and a centre midfielder like diego from werder bremen or someone experience who can come in and do the job straight away...

we lost two of our best players this season(flamini and hleb) and we aint replaced them... so that's our priority i think, not another striker...I actually see nasri as a good replacement for hleb. He has already scored two in about 6 appearences, while it usually took hleb a whole season to reach only 3. And he offers more pace, so he can take on the fullbacks and get behind them instead of only cutting in. But i agree with flamini. He left a huge hole to fill, Denilson is not a holding midfielder...he is too...creative. Already he is one of the top assitors in the league, but we really dont need that (that Cesc's job >.>). And it means were more vulnerable at the back, which then brings about the theory that we need a 7ft centre back...

Mendes

October 07, 2008, 10:21 AM

If you're looking for a center back, Porto's Bruno Alves should be an option for a big transfer next summer. Although he was completely out of it against Arsenal, he's still the best in our league and it was proven against Sporting this weekend (yes, Porto won 2-1 away xD). He was The reason we won that match. I can tell he didnt have much proposals because he's shadowed by Pepe and Ricardo Carvalho at Portugal's NT. He may use Carvalho's constant injuries to show himself with Portugal.

Concerning Arshavin, his style would fit in Arsenal perfectly in van Persie's position. Of course no team should give away 30M€ for a 30 year old player who would have to fight alot for his spot in the 11. I really dont expect him to be sold. Perhaps in 1 or 2 seasons, when his value decreases and if he keeps his amazing performances

Lohnt

October 08, 2008, 09:27 AM

He's 27 and I doubt it'll actually be 30M, probably 22M. But as for being worth the money, yea I'd say he is for a 5 year deal, especially when you consider the amount clubs give to forwards that can't even make a good pass/cross.

The reason he didn't go to other clubs that offered the 20M is because he stated he wanted to play in the Ch. League, otherwise he would probably stay in Zenit.
[hr]
So, an update on Milan wanting Sergio Ramos, now they want Fabregas also.. I'm really looking forward to the winter transfers..

Ichimaru Gin n Tonic

October 08, 2008, 09:59 AM

I doubt that Wenger will let Fabregas go, he's really awesome and letting him go to Milan is like giving up one of his prized investments. Arsenal doesnt seem to be in any financial trouble (unless the world's economy collapse reached the football world). :D

Lohnt

October 08, 2008, 11:40 AM

Imperium

October 11, 2008, 07:54 AM

Well, the football world is funded by investors, who no doubt had stocks in the Dow/Nasdaq..
Also M.U. is owned by an American Bank (Ronaldo sale) and England's economy is more closely tied to Wall Street, than Italy's. But who knows?

Honestly I was just saying Milan has a chance because Arsenal has a history of selling off it's star players since they are expendable (due to the bench being as good as the starters) and I dunno.. Milan could use the boost in morale since they aren't in the Ch. League this year. Still I think they should aim for a goalkeeper more so than a midfielder.Your right, the economic climate is definitely not helping our football. Less money for people to spend means lower attendances. The attendances are already dropping at some clubs, like the Sunderland - arsenal match at the stadium of light only got about 40,000 when the same time last season is was 47,000. Although it is affecting the lower leagues more.

As for the rumours, i would be more interested if the player would want to go? I honestly don't see Fabregas leaving for Italy. If he goes i would bet it would be for barca or madrid. And isnt Ramos suppose to be signing on of those life-time contracts? If he is, than i would doubt he is going anywhere. And true, milan dont need more midfielders. More like another top class striker, a good keeper, and decent defenders.
[hr]
I hate international breaks...just more injury misery. :( England's playing in a couple of hours and it would be interesting to see what the line-up is. Gerrard is fit so the debate on whether or not he can play with lampard could be settled, today. Anyway ING-GUUR-LAAAND!!

And portugal have sweden, while germany has russia. So good night for football (and a good thing no arsenal players are playing in those matches...they'll probably end up breaking something) :p

Lohnt

October 12, 2008, 12:35 PM

Great night for football, it is rare that I would be so proud, but I present to you: Greece's finest goals in a very long time. (http://ru.youtube.com/watch?v=N7D_2xjgYzg&eurl=http://sport24.gr/html/ent/551/ent.256551.asp) The first 2 at least, the first was brilliant, and was practiced by King Otto although I can't say it would have worked on a more experienced team.

The second was.. probably because Katsouranis has been doing well with Benfica. I've noticed if he plays well there, he is amazing with Greece, when he's mad and he wants to leave Benfica because they didn't lend him to Chlesea, he plays like garbage with Greece.

So Cassillas broke a record for minutes played without having a goal scored on him recently.. last goal scored on him was in the Greece match by Charisteas (even though we lost). Funny thing is, Greek people don't like Charisteas anymore, he's one of the reasons we think the team isn't getting ahead. But.. w/e.

Congrats to Argentina on the win! And to England for the 5 goals.. let's hope they keep it up past the group stages this time.

Mendes

October 12, 2008, 05:43 PM

Sweden vs Portugal was boooooring. Zlatan wasnt in the mood to send new videos to youtube, and when the press in Sweden pointed out the Swedish females as a major factor that could lead Cristiano Ronaldo to loose focus on the match, I was kinda hoping the stadium would be full of top less Swedish girls... but nop

Brazil won 4-0 against Venezuela. Katsouranis scored the goal of his life, but Kaka and Robinho were also very inspired

Lohnt

October 12, 2008, 07:13 PM

Mendes

October 13, 2008, 01:30 AM

Yea I was about to post about the Brazil game also. It looks like Argentina and Brazil are back on the right road, but Brazil was very impressive with Kaka, Adriano, Robinho. Maybe it is best they not use Pato and Ronaldhino, with this experienced and steady team they are more consistent than using just young players or depending on Ronaldhino as captain who at the moment, can't really do what Brazil needs.

Is there a reason Danny only played 4 minutes by the way? Does Queiroz not trust him?

Perhaps. I didnt quite understand the replacements he made, as we played without center forward starting on the 1st substitution at 60'. Danny is a player that had some impact on Sporting CP some years ago. That impact was enough for him to get transfered but not enough for Portugal's NT. Then he disappeared completely and only this past season he appeared and he did it with a bang, starting to unleash magic on the pitch and transfering for those huge 30M€ for Zenit. Its still unknown if his irregular side will appear and he stops playing like he is, but right now, he should be a 1st team regular or at least a joker in the bench... Its a shame Queiroz was satisfied with the draw

Lohnt

October 13, 2008, 05:37 PM

I mention him because other than the fact that Zenit was doing very well until recently, he's also been extremely dominant in his performances. I mean, the mastery of the midfielder position like Danny has had this season is a very rare sight and you just enjoy watching players like this play.

I don't like to make exaggerations but he could very well do what Zidane did for France, for Portugal.

Mendes

October 14, 2008, 03:34 PM

I don't like to make exaggerations but he could very well do what Zidane did for France, for Portugal.

I think you're exaggerating. I hope you arent! :P

Saintz0r

October 16, 2008, 09:37 AM

Agrias

October 16, 2008, 09:47 AM

Yeah, incredible how after a awesome 4x0 we manage to suck that much just a few days later. Really disappointing.

ElUniversal

October 16, 2008, 11:20 AM

Ha! Another record broken by our dear Dunga...
He already had given us the happiness of the 5th position, and now for the first time in 94 years of history we're 3 consecutive games at home without scoring A SINGLE GOAL. Nice, huh?
It seems your Dunga and our Basile are two of a kind....last night we lost to Chile for the first time in the world cup qualyfiers history (and Chile's last -and I think only- victory before that was in 1970, or around that time):mad
It was pathetic, we could have lost 3-0 or more, thank God Chile can improve all they want but they're not used to shooting at the goal, therefore they scored only once.
This bastard (I refuse to call him by his name for the time being) set up a 4-man defensive line with 3 central defenders and over-the-hill-really-tired-to-attack Zanetti. That's not all, the midfield had 3 central/defensive guys (Cambiasso, Ledesma, Mascherano) and Messi as the gamemaker (nice, you put a guy who doesn't enjoy passing the ball to be your 10...wtf?) with Agüero as his only pass option (Diego Milito played too, but never got the ball because Messi only passes to Agüero, and viceversa)
I won't even try to comment on the "moves" he made to fix the situation...actually, I only remember one thing he did: smoke a cig (which is prohibited) and watch the NT break yet another negative record

Mendes

October 16, 2008, 03:39 PM

You guys can cry all you want, but your qualification is never placed in question. In the Euro Qualifiers its way worse. We've seen England out of the Euro already, and now I seriously fear for Portugal's capacity to qualify in a group with Denmark and Sweden where only the 1st goes trough. We won the 1st game, but we lost at home 3-2 with denmark and drawn away 0-0 with sweden. Yesterday we (snif... snif) we drew with Albania (0-0) :' (
Now I'm worried...

Lohnt

October 16, 2008, 05:17 PM

Yea, we lost also last night, but we deserved it the way we played. On the one hand I can't blame Papadopoulos for fouling and giving a penalty, but on the other I am so happy we have a 20 year old on the first squad.. I can't blame him for one mistake especially since the match wasn't absolutely necessary for us to win.

Anyway, Portugal.. I don't even know what the deal is with you guys last game. Not that Albania isn't a strong team, they've beaten us many times also, but.. this was not a game to lose. Isn't it the first two teams that advance..?

My condolences to Argentina and Brazil.. By the way, why is Lendesma playing he's garbage IMO. Last year at Olympiacos, he played maybe 1 or 2 good games in the Ch. League, but overall he was non-existant, there HAS to be a better DMF.

ElUniversal

October 16, 2008, 07:53 PM

My condolences to Argentina and Brazil.. By the way, why is Lendesma playing he's garbage IMO. Last year at Olympiacos, he played maybe 1 or 2 good games in the Ch. League, but overall he was non-existant, there HAS to be a better DMF.

Ledesma has been the best DMF in the local league so far, thus he was called (granted, Gago is injured....Battaglia is not in his best shape...and 5 other guys couldn't be called because of different reasons). He may have failed in the Greek league, but he's always been one of the best we have...great technique, excellent defense, nice temper

This just came in: BASILE QUIT!:D
It looks like Batista is going to be the coach (not the best but not thw worst either)....but it's too soon to be picking a replacement....Miguel Russo, Carlos Bianchi and Ramon Diaz seem like the best choices....in a second level, we have Batista, Simeone, Gallego and 20 other guys...
Dark horses: Maradona? Batistuta?

Lohnt

October 22, 2008, 03:42 AM

A night full of goals, and I still ended up seeing the lowest scoring matches. Real vs Juve was.. surprising to say the least, Amauri is a terrible forward and he was very lucky, in fact I would consider it an own goal, rather than award him with it. Casillas was playing.. as if he paid off =p

But, what surprised me the most is Villareal, with one of the strongest defenses evaaaar this early, scored 6 goals and accepted 3 from.. AaB.. how? I am happy Caperdevilla scored tohugh, I've always liked that player.
Arsenal and Bayern are back in form, and Manchester laid the floor with Celtic, it seems like Berbatov is the star forward this first half of the season. Perhaps Cristiano simply wants to under-perform in order to be transfered, but I doubt it, he probably still lacks full form from his injury.

Also I was right about Milan trying to make an all star team, they're saying they want Beckham on loan so that he can be ready for England.

Epul

October 22, 2008, 08:16 AM

It's gonna be hard for cristiano to repeat his awesome form last season... those kind of things happens once in a lifetime....
really looking forward to Chelsea vs. roma.....

Pirulito

October 23, 2008, 10:55 AM

Yesterday, God decided play "Winning Eleven" or "Pro Evolution Soccer" with Barcelona's team and He chose Basel's team on easy difficulty to play against to.

Networks

October 23, 2008, 11:55 AM

Mendes

October 23, 2008, 02:32 PM

Yesterday, God decided play "Winning Eleven" or "Pro Evolution Soccer" with Barcelona's team and He chose Basel's team on easy difficulty to play against to.

LOL so true... Barça is very similar to Arsenal... when they're on their day, its a football machine. Messi is unbelievable. If he doesnt win the best player award this year, he'll win the next for sure... unless something tragic happens, like Barça loosing in the 1/8 finals or he gets injured.

Why didn't the Portugueses still with Felipão? On the World Cup he gets an awesome 4th place.

Is true who Japan it's already disqualified for World Cup?

Scolari chose to quit Portugal in order to find a new challenge in Chelsea (or so to say... more money). I was never a big fan of him, but the truth is that he had good results. Now, the thing is, most people think us getting a 4th place in the World Cup is awesome... a 2nd place in the Euro Cup is great... Well I think its crap! I should remind you, we Never won a competition with the national team. As a small and not so developed country, its rare to find ourselves with so many star players on our team and if there's a time when we can win something, I feel like its now or never. But we keep wasting chances and as long as we have a powerful team, I'm not satisfied with anything less than a 1st place, for Once! :P

As for the champions league, it was a huge goal scoring matchday. I've never seen a CL matchday with so many goals! It was common to see a 6-3, 5-3, 5-2, 5-0 result... The bad thing-Porto lost. This home loss is devastating, it makes very unlikely for Porto to get the 2nd place. It would need wins over Fenerbahce and Kyev away (no, I dont consider the possibility of getting a result against Arsenal). Zenit is in trouble. No luck, no experience, whatever caused their poor results, the fact is, they'd need a miracle to go trough the 1/8

ElUniversal

October 28, 2008, 04:43 PM

Holy s**t! Maradona is Argentina's new coach!:blink

We're doomed!:darn:p

KnuckleheadedNinja

October 29, 2008, 12:01 AM

Diego Maradona as a coach? OMG, the world is coming to an end.lol. That like the last person you will be expecting to coach.

Pirulito

October 29, 2008, 08:30 AM

I loled when I knew Maradona is the Argentina's new coach.

Argentines want to use the mystique and respect for the player Maradona in an attempt to recover the mystique of their own team.

I don't put my hands on the fire if I was an argentine but the football would be thankful if this bet is satisfa

Lelo

October 30, 2008, 07:01 PM

Man U is kicking ass is the Champions league. Dimitar Berbatov is kicking ass. I watched 2 games and he scored 2 goals in each game. What an awesome start. Rooney is kicking ass too. He scored one in each game. GO Man U
[hr]

Holy s**t! Maradona is Argentina's new coach!:blink

We're doomed!:darn:p

LOL, hes probably going to tell them

"here, take this white powder, it'll make you play better. It helped me out."

KnuckleheadedNinja

October 30, 2008, 11:54 PM

Man U is kicking ass is the Champions league. Dimitar Berbatov is kicking ass. I watched 2 games and he scored 2 goals in each game. What an awesome start. Rooney is kicking ass too. He scored one in each game. GO Man U
<hr noshade size="1">

Yeah Berbatov had been impressive so far. He is the leading scorer so far with 4 goals. Rooney had beem impressive too. We are just waiting for Ronaldo to get back to been the Ronaldo of last year. GO MAN U. WE GOING FOR THE REPEAT.

Imperium

November 01, 2008, 05:28 AM

Im still in a state of disbelief, no title-challenging team loses a two goal margin in stoppage time to a team at the bottom of the league. Im despair, were dropping too many points. I doubt we will win anything this season. :(

Anyway, i suddenly developed a taste for football compilations, anybody know any really good ones i can watch? XDD

As for the champions league, it was a huge goal scoring matchday. I've never seen a CL matchday with so many goals! It was common to see a 6-3, 5-3, 5-2, 5-0 result... The bad thing-Porto lost. This home loss is devastating, it makes very unlikely for Porto to get the 2nd place. It would need wins over Fenerbahce and Kyev away (no, I dont consider the possibility of getting a result against Arsenal).We only need three points to reach the required 10, but we do have our next two cl matches (fernabahce & kiev) in the same week we have united and chelsea, so there is a good chance we might not get the points and we might need to go to the dragon stadium and try to get a win. But the most likely scenario is we do get the points , and wenger ends up resting players against porto (since we have a tricky away game to middlesbrough, in the same week), which means you can easily win.

Mendes

November 02, 2008, 05:42 AM

Dont forget Arsenal's reserves are far better than Porto's mains. As you pointed out weeks ago, Arsenal gave a 6-0 against sheffield united with a team with age average 17 or 18...

I just got PES2009 : D
[hr]

Arsenal lost once again and are placing themselves on a very tough position, being already caught by manchaster united. Tottenham is finally showing something. Their last 2 matches were impressive. After recovering the 2 goal disadvantage against Arsenal, they got the draw in the last minutes and this matchday they were loosing with Liverpool but they managed to turn around and Pavlyuchenko scored at 90' the winning goal. Chelsea keeps devastating most opponents for outrageous results. This time the victim was sunderland. I believe Chelsea is the strongest team in the league, and their goal average is very impressive: 11 games played, 27 goals scored and only 4 conceded. Liverpool has the same points as chelsea, but only 16 goals scored and 8 conceded

In Italy, Roma keeps disappointing. 17th place and they lost to Juve. Del Piero and Marchionni scored 2 great goals. Its usually a normal result to loose in Delle Alpi, but Roma did nothing to get a result there.
Inter got the win over Reggina only at 90', 3-2. Inter doesnt look as dominant as it would be expected from them.

You guys should take a look at the 'grass' on the Malaga vs Barça xD omg I've never seen such field! You almost couldnt see green in there. Holes everywhere! Still, Barça got the win, 4-1. Most goals were sequence of free kicks, as expected with the field conditions... A side note for Aguero. He keeps on fire in Spain and scored the 2 winning goals of Atletico Madrid. Valencia was surprised by Racing.

FC Porto is basically off the title challenge. At least if this unbelievable wave of terrible playing doesnt go away. After loosing to Kyev for the champions, we lost at home to Leixões and now we lost to Naval. The past 2 losts had no excuse and we're playing garbage now. I dunno what happened, but Porto's playing so much worse than the beginning of the season... very disappointing. I bet on Benfica to win this year's league

◆ T.D.A ◆

November 02, 2008, 07:07 AM

Imperium

November 02, 2008, 07:30 AM

Epul

November 02, 2008, 08:29 AM

there's already a demo of FM09!? :blink i didn't know that. So, anything new in FM09? FM hasn't grown much in the last 3 years.....

Man Utd 4-3 Hull

Man, what a game! I was biting my nail near the end... this hull team is really something......and not to mention some stupid defending from vidic and rio and evra.....

Did you guys watch liverpool against spurs? it was awesome! spurs won it 2-1. Spurs got the winner in injury time. Liverpool dominated the game but lost... their fans must be really disappointed :XD

Mendes

November 02, 2008, 11:34 AM

Sheffield united are in the championship. If you theink there better than your team you must be more depressed than i am.

Oh I must be, but I'm not saying Porto's worse than sheffield, but I dont expect us to loose 6-0 as well. The thing is, in Arsenal there's so much potential in the reserves that those players will use every chance to impress the manager. I'd think it'd be awesome to play the favorite of the group in the last matchday, but I dont think its such a big advantage against Arsenal.

I like PES much more than FIFA, but that's me. I'm loving the PES 2009

Lelo

November 03, 2008, 04:10 PM

Hehe, Ronaldo is getting back to his best, other teams are doomed, also Berbatov is playing better than Rooney and Tevez so far. Berba and Ronaldo kinda have a good partnership going, did anyone see Berba's trick against West Ham?

I think Maradona will do a good job, just being him means he'll get the best out of his players, he'll make them work their guts out, and he should promote attacking football as well.

ohh I saw, it was sick. Ur talking about the save and then assist to Ronaldo right? I just order the whole package with DirectTV w/ DVR, so I'm getting all the football games and recording them

Imperium

November 03, 2008, 04:46 PM

there's already a demo of FM09!? i didn't know that. So, anything new in FM09? FM hasn't grown much in the last 3 years....
)8 was amazing, but 09, Judging by the demo, i will not be buying it. :( The only main new thing is the 3d match engine which in itself is not THAT good. Although there are a couple of things that have been made better like the transfers/press confrences but it just feels like a update not a new game. To say im disappointed is an understatement :cry

ohh I saw, it was sick. Ur talking about the save and then assist to Ronaldo right? I just order the whole package with DirectTV w/ DVR, so I'm getting all the football games and recording themDo you get every football match?

Anyway, CL Tomorrow. :D

Lelo

November 04, 2008, 09:48 PM

^ yep, theres a bunch of different Fox Sports channels that play mostly English Premiere league and theres a couple soccer channels(some in Spanish) and ESPN plays most champions league matches. But all I pay attetion to is the English league.

Imperium

November 05, 2008, 11:21 AM

Major upsets, minor upsets, close upsets and a dash of english diving, pretty much sums up yesterday. XD I was watching the liverpool-atletico match, and i have to say i realized when it comes to foreign players we can so easily blame them for diving, but when the player is from these isles we so easily turn a blind eye. Atletico were robbed yesterday, simply put. The linesman must have been intimidated or just daft. Gerrard in the dying minutes, jumps into the defender and theatrically falls over with arms flailing, vid = http://videos.sapo.pt/Wrmuq4glM8ElzP22ZUU1. It woulds have made any of ronaldo/drogba/eboue proud. But what i found amusing was our commentators trying to find ways to justify it after the replay. God...Also inter almost lost by the Cypriot team. Which was dissapointing because im sure mourinho's reaction would have made my day week month. :p

Anyway, united play celtic at home, were they lost a couple years back. So it should be intresting. Real face juve, and fiorentina v bayern. So the arse do fuck up at the emirates tonight against fener, hopefully it wont make big news....

....who am i kidding. -_-;

thsv

November 06, 2008, 05:27 AM

United just scraped a draw with Celtic. Arsenal draw with Wenger complaining about the premiership workload. He seems to forget that both Liverpool and Man U have won the European Cup whilst dealing with 38 games against teams that were a lot closer to them in ability than Arsenal has to deal with now. And when Liverpool were winning it in the 70's and 80's they had a far smaller squad, less opportunity to know about their opponents and had to put up with far rougher tackling (two footed tackles rarely got free kicks given, let alone bookings)

Its going to be interesting in the UEFA Cup. Aston villa should walk it against Slavia Prague, considering that Tottenham have beaten them twice in the last two seasons and Arsenal nearly set a European Cup record against them last season. But you never know. Manchester City face FC Twente. At home they look unbeatable so FC Twente have got their work cut out for them. Then its Tottenham's turn against Dynamo Zagreb, who they paid £16 mil to for Modric this summer. Its a question of will the bubble burst or does the revival continue. I mean, come on, this is Spurs we're talking about.

Saintz0r

November 06, 2008, 06:14 AM

Wow, you should check this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nG14Rcp3xo) you won't have the chance to see something like that again xD
It happened yesterday, in Botafogo x Estudiantes for the Sul - Americana Cup lol

Pirulito

November 06, 2008, 06:49 AM

HILARIOUS!

I loled so much yesterday while i watched that. Although it was a very bad attitude of the player

goldb

November 06, 2008, 06:57 AM

man arsenal are annoying, we've lost 3 games in the league already and we ain't even played the top 3 yet...this season has been a shamble. arsene wenger needs to stop making excuses like " they use agressive tactics" and " my players are burning out" what!? burning out!? it's only november!!! i swear to God we best win against man utd or i'm gonna be cursing all over this forum!!

how da hell do we win AT fenerbahce and then we come home and DRAW!?

◆ T.D.A ◆

November 06, 2008, 04:19 PM

LOL that brazilian player was funny, no need to do that.

Mendes

November 06, 2008, 05:21 PM

For once, we beat the brazilians on something in football: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WIiaXWq1KHY
This was an under 21 match a long time ago :P

Epul

November 07, 2008, 09:17 AM

Correct me if I'm wrong Mendes. But isn't portugal national team is nick named 'The Brazil of europe'? I think I heard that long time back.... :XD

thsv

November 07, 2008, 10:20 AM

Correct me if I'm wrong Mendes. But isn't portugal national team is nick named 'The Brazil of europe'? I think I heard that long time back.... :XD

Are you Kidding? Apart from an 8 year period in the 60's Portugal haven't really had a national team worth worrying about until Figo and co emerged in the 90's.

Looks like I wasn't disappointed last night. Manchester City almost threw it away against the Dutch. Villa made it look harder than it was. Dynamo Zagreb got raped by a team at the bottom of the English Premiership. Darren Bent got a hat trick. Nice to see him paying back some of that £16 million we paid for him.

Lelo

November 07, 2008, 03:35 PM

Man U tied 1-1 against Celtic. Celtic went up 1-0 but in the 84 min Giggs scored the tying goal. The game was soo agressive though. They were punking Ronaldo soo much.

Imperium

November 08, 2008, 06:38 AM

United just scraped a draw with Celtic. Arsenal draw with Wenger complaining about the premiership workload. He seems to forget that both Liverpool and Man U have won the European Cup whilst dealing with 38 games against teams that were a lot closer to them in ability than Arsenal has to deal with now. And when Liverpool were winning it in the 70's and 80's they had a far smaller squad, less opportunity to know about their opponents and had to put up with far rougher tackling (two footed tackles rarely got free kicks given, let alone bookings)The liverpool team of the 80's played only a couple of knockout rounds and were through to the Quarterfinals, right? So its unfair to actually compare them to team of today. The current format is more demanding of the players, just look at the CL teams fixture list, this weekend is going to be the fourth consecutive week in which they played a average of a game every three days, and it seems to be affecting the other teams too. Chelsea lost, united and liverpool needed a late goal just to equalize in the CL this week. So he has a point.

Anyway, anybody know if the "1 billion people watch the arsenal v united" statements are true....

thsv

November 08, 2008, 09:31 AM

The liverpool team of the 80's played only a couple of knockout rounds and were through to the Quarterfinals, right? So its unfair to actually compare them to team of today. The current format is more demanding of the players, just look at the CL teams fixture list, this weekend is going to be the fourth consecutive week in which they played a average of a game every three days, and it seems to be affecting the other teams too. Chelsea lost, united and liverpool needed a late goal just to equalize in the CL this week. So he has a point.

Anyway, anybody know if the "1 billion people watch the arsenal v united" statements are true....

True, but back then all the teams they played were champions. And the gulf in quality wasn't what it is now. Thursday night was a great example. Spurs are bottom of the premiership and yet put 4 past a team that had qualified for the champions league. And as I said that Liverpool team had a squad of 16 players. That's it. No opportunity for wholesale changes if they were playing badly. What Arsenal And Tottenham for that matter need is a holding midfielder to do the dirty work of protecting the back four. We'd both concede a lot less goals if that happened

Imperium

November 08, 2008, 10:27 AM

What Arsenal And Tottenham for that matter need is a holding midfielder to do the dirty work of protecting the back four. We'd both concede a lot less goals if that happenedDont you haveZokora and Huddlestone? Huddlestone seems a decent player. We had to change our style after flamini left *Wengers words*. I think he is moulding denilson into a carrick type player. A deep playmaker who can break play up. But i would rather have an out and out defensive midfielder.

thsv

November 08, 2008, 12:40 PM

Dont you have Zokora and Huddlestone? But i would rather have an out and out defensive midfielder.
Huddlestone and Zokora are more central midfielders than defensive. More balance between defence and offense unlike Jenas who won't track back when we lose the ball. At least when we had Carrick we tended to keep the ball in midfield. Modric is starting to show why we paid all that money for him but I'd prefer it if he had a bruiser next to him.

Man Utd losing made me laugh. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7697409.stm) After their conduct over the Berbatov transfer I hate them more than anyone. I'd rather Arsenal or Chelsea won the title this season than have United profit from screwing us over. Although they aren't completely to blame. Commolli didn't think we needed a left footed wide player? After 3 seasons? Good riddance

Epul

November 09, 2008, 07:55 AM

Are you Kidding? Apart from an 8 year period in the 60's Portugal haven't really had a national team worth worrying about until Figo and co emerged in the 90's.

When I say a long time back, i mean during the Figo and co era. If I'm not mistaken, I heard that during euro... the commentator mentioned something about Portugal being nicknamed 'The Brazil of europe' :XD Oh well i could be wrong there.

I'm really sad that man utd lost to arsenal...... :scry United played well.... somehow rooney and ronaldo didn't have their shooting boots on.... or else united could have given arsenal more trouble..... Fergie should play Rafael more. He was great coming of the bench and he did really well in all the games he had played :thumbs

Mendes

November 09, 2008, 10:43 AM

isn't portugal national team is nick named 'The Brazil of europe'?

I honestly never heard that expression, but I suppose its because both Brazil and Portugal share the same language and, perhaps, a similar soccer style. In the portuguese league, almost half of the players here are brazilian and its being more and more common over the years the naturalization of Brazilian players into Portuguese nationality. Deco and Pepe are the most known cases, but Derlei and Liedson have recently naturalized and I have great hopes for the last. He's one of the finest strikers we had in the league in the last years, and we sure need one in the national team.

Arsenal vs Man Utd was amazing! An anthem to football!

Eto'o and Higuain are on top form. A poker for each in the spanish league this matchday. I'm very impressed with higuain this season. He's becoming a monster

thsv

November 09, 2008, 11:23 AM

And the Redknapp revival continues.

2-1 away from home against Manchester City. OK they had Fernandes sent off early in the game. But Tottenham teams in the past would have still ballsed it up.

Poyet been in the papers insisting that everybody at the club had to take some responsibility for Tottenham's bad start. Anyone want to point out that Harry Redknapp has taken 10 points in 4 fixtures that Ramos only managed 3 from last season?

Lelo

November 11, 2008, 12:50 AM

So Beckham is really going to Milan. Thats awesome, Im just happy hes going to play for England, hopefully he's ready.

Mendes

November 12, 2008, 04:26 AM

Carlos Vela must replace Bedtner on Arsenal...

Real Madrid is out of Copa del Rey. Despite the home win, they lost on away goals in the 1st leg.

goldb

November 12, 2008, 06:31 AM

carlos vela needs to get into the first team. nickals bendtner needs to leave...he's not good enough, he wastes so many opportunities in front of goal.

i heard about the real madrid match...raul scored a hat-trick, but their defense is horrible. can you imagine how much worse they would be if iker casillas wasn't their goalkeeper?

thsv

November 12, 2008, 04:42 PM

FIFA Rankings are out

The Top 100

1 Spain
2 Germany
3 Italy
4 Netherlands
5 Brazil
6 Argentina
7 Croatia
8 Russia
9 Czech Republic
10 Portugal
10 England
12 France
13 Turkey
14 Cameroon
15 Israel
16 Bulgaria
17 Paraguay
18 Greece
19 Romania
20 Ukraine
21 Egypt
22 Nigeria
23 Uruguay
24 USA
25 Mexico
26 Ghana
27 Switzerland
28 Côte d'Ivoire
29 Sweden
30 Serbia
31 Ecuador
32 Poland
33 Scotland
34 Denmark
35 Chile
36 Republic of Ireland
37 Australia
38 Japan
39 Guinea
40 Colombia
41 Lithuania
42 Northern Ireland
43 Morocco
44 Iran
45 Slovakia
46 Honduras
47 Tunisia
48 Finland
49 Mali
49 FYR Macedonia
51 Senegal
52 Saudi Arabia
53 Korea Republic
54 Norway
55 Belgium
56 Hungary
57 Costa Rica
58 Slovenia
59 Gabon
60 New Zealand
61 Burkina Faso
62 Wales
63 Algeria
64 Belarus
65 Latvia
66 Venezuela
67 Bosnia-Herzegovina
68 Angola
69 Congo
70 Peru
71 Zambia
71 Bolivia
73 Cuba
74 Bahrain
75 Iraq
76 Uzbekistan
76 Moldova
78 Qatar
78 Trinidad and Tobago
80 South Africa
81 Canada
82 Iceland
83 Jamaica
83 Uganda
85 Kenya
86 Albania
87 Rwanda
88 Libya
89 Panama
90 Gambia
91 Togo
92 Austria
92 Mozambique
94 Congo DR
95 Oman
95 Benin
97 Zimbabwe
98 China PR
99 Georgia
100 Barbados

FIFA rankings are a joke. Angola, South Africa and Wales should be higher up.

And in the League Cup Arsenal's youngsters yet again rape another premier league side, Tottenham have just beaten Liverpool 4-2 and Chelsea have been beaten on penalties by Championship side Burnley. At HOME!

Hayashida

November 12, 2008, 05:02 PM

FIFA Rankings are out

The Top 100

1 Spain
2 Germany
3 Italy
4 Netherlands
5 Brazil
6 Argentina
7 Croatia
8 Russia
9 Czech Republic
10 Portugal
10 England
12 France
13 Turkey
14 Cameroon
15 Israel
16 Bulgaria
17 Paraguay
18 Greece
19 Romania
20 Ukraine
21 Egypt
22 Nigeria
23 Uruguay
24 USA
25 Mexico
26 Ghana
27 Switzerland
28 Côte d'Ivoire
29 Sweden
30 Serbia
31 Ecuador
32 Poland
33 Scotland
34 Denmark
35 Chile
36 Republic of Ireland
37 Australia
38 Japan
39 Guinea
40 Colombia
41 Lithuania
42 Northern Ireland
43 Morocco
44 Iran
45 Slovakia
46 Honduras
47 Tunisia
48 Finland
49 Mali
49 FYR Macedonia
51 Senegal
52 Saudi Arabia
53 Korea Republic
54 Norway
55 Belgium
56 Hungary
57 Costa Rica
58 Slovenia
59 Gabon
60 New Zealand
61 Burkina Faso
62 Wales
63 Algeria
64 Belarus
65 Latvia
66 Venezuela
67 Bosnia-Herzegovina
68 Angola
69 Congo
70 Peru
71 Zambia
71 Bolivia
73 Cuba
74 Bahrain
75 Iraq
76 Uzbekistan
76 Moldova
78 Qatar
78 Trinidad and Tobago
80 South Africa
81 Canada
82 Iceland
83 Jamaica
83 Uganda
85 Kenya
86 Albania
87 Rwanda
88 Libya
89 Panama
90 Gambia
91 Togo
92 Austria
92 Mozambique
94 Congo DR
95 Oman
95 Benin
97 Zimbabwe
98 China PR
99 Georgia
100 Barbados

FIFA rankings are a joke.Angola, South Africa and Wales should be higher up.

And in the League Cup Arsenal's youngsters yet again rape another premier league side, Tottenham have just beaten Liverpool 4-2 and Chelsea have been beaten on penalties by Championship side Burnley. At HOME!

devastating news about Chelsea;

yeah i was looking at those rankings last night
wooo Australia heading the asian teams

Adelaide United were smashed by Gamba Osaka in the asian champions league last week/last night. well, im just stoked they made it to the final; very good for Australian football

goldb

November 13, 2008, 05:33 AM

i was absolutely gobsmacked that chelsea lost! i'm not a fan but still...the league cup without chelsea ain't the same...

krid77

November 13, 2008, 06:34 AM

goldb

November 13, 2008, 06:55 AM

France loses a rank...again u___u"
Pathetic...

Yay, baby gunners have beaten the Latics \o/
Nice chip by Vela (he made the same against Sheffield), Ramsey is incredible and Fabianski made a stunning double save...

Too bad for Chelsea ^^"

COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!!! that double save was amazing by fabianski, i was watching the match and i didn't think he was gonna get to that second shot by Zaki but somehow he managed to get there...

Carlos vela..what can i say? :worship

Saintz0r

November 13, 2008, 06:59 AM

lol, Brasil in 5th and Paraguai in 17 is a bad joke. Paraguai is playing much better since our dear Dwarf assumed the coaching
Also, Croatia in front of England and Portugal... I know it's most likely because of the Euro Cup, but still...
Spain deserves the 1st position though

As for Chelsea, I guess they really can't depend on the penaltyes anymore >< dunno if they think 'bout the Champions final everytime, but Felipão really needs to fix that

Mendes

November 13, 2008, 05:49 PM

Hayashida

November 13, 2008, 06:39 PM

yeah im glad he was giving more of the youths a run, even if they did lose. gives them experience on a bigger field and gives the regulars much needed rest

thsv

November 14, 2008, 04:44 AM

It was a surprise, but this things happen in elimination cups. Grant used to take this games more seriously, playing more first team regulars than Scolari does. Usually an early elimination in a lower cup will help the team in the future, due to a softer schedule when the time for the big decisions come.

Mouriniho won this cup twice with a nice balance of senior players and reserves. I think Scolari may have underestimated the opposition since Burnley are from the division below.

Imperium

November 14, 2008, 11:10 AM

yeah im glad he was giving more of the youths a run, even if they did lose. gives them experience on a bigger field and gives the regulars much needed rest But the funny thing is, he didnt play his youth (If your discount their current number 9, di santo). He played the older reserves. And one or two first teamers, and they STILL lost. Though full credit to burnley, who could become the new barnsley? I bet sky sports are kicking themselves for not showing it...

And good news on eduardo, he'll be back in around a month!

rabb

November 14, 2008, 11:15 AM

oh hey! in about 4 hours, im gunna be the starting right d, in the championship match of (admiral) Bowman Cup Soccer Tournament XD wish my luck!

Lelo

November 14, 2008, 03:27 PM

wow thats a wierd ranking. Im use to seeing Brazil and France higher.

thsv

November 15, 2008, 02:22 AM

wow thats a wierd ranking. Im use to seeing Brazil and France higher.
Well, you have to remember that it's been 10 years since France won the World Cup. Henry was in his early 20's at the time. Its a team of old men with little motivation and inexperienced youngsters. Brazil need to start developing defensive midfielders. They don't seem to be able to hold the ball in midfield like they used to.

Imperium

November 15, 2008, 05:07 PM

Well our inconsistency shows again. This team were bereft of ideas, they created zilch, they barely ran, fucking primadonna's. But our support is ridiculous too, why the hell was there boo's? at highbury you wouldnt hear such stupidity. The grove though, was a fortress last season, but now its just....im just hoping for a CL finish.

redcometfm

November 15, 2008, 05:57 PM

Got a question: Just saw Green Street Hooligans and was wondering if hooliganism is that bad in Europe (particularly England)?

◆ T.D.A ◆

November 15, 2008, 06:05 PM

Got a question: Just saw Green Street Hooligans and was wondering if hooliganism is that bad in Europe (particularly England)?

Not in England. There's still in Italy though.

Imperium

November 15, 2008, 06:46 PM

Got a question: Just saw Green Street Hooligans and was wondering if hooliganism is that bad in Europe (particularly England)?Its worse. If i remember correctly (watched green street ages ago) they only showed a couple of scraps in that film. The last derby i went too (Villa vs city), there was riots with the police, a lot of people got arrested, fans were battering each other. Its hardly ever reported, though. The only ones that are reported are when they are huge (or when the england away fans do something stupid abroad...) like last summer's rangers (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nNa0ptNWwxg) riots in manchester. And I remember a steward getting killed a couple of years back after there was a fights between QPR and villa. But, its much better than it was in the eighties/seventies (Judging from what i've been told...). And much better than in other countries (*cough* Italy *cough*) >.>;

Edit: Its also bad in South America and Africa, not only europe. In fact, i read a article about Manchester united fans and chelsea fans rioting and attacking each other in africa after the CL final. O_o'

◆ T.D.A ◆

November 16, 2008, 06:17 AM

Its worse. If i remember correctly (watched green street ages ago) they only showed a couple of scraps in that film. The last derby i went too (Villa vs city), there was riots with the police, a lot of people got arrested, fans were battering each other. Its hardly ever reported, though. The only ones that are reported are when they are huge (or when the england away fans do something stupid abroad...) like last summer's rangers (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nNa0ptNWwxg) riots in manchester. And I remember a steward getting killed a couple of years back after there was a fights between QPR and villa. But, its much better than it was in the eighties/seventies (Judging from what i've been told...). And much better than in other countries (*cough* Italy *cough*) >.>;

Edit: Its also bad in South America and Africa, not only europe. In fact, i read a article about Manchester united fans and chelsea fans rioting and attacking each other in africa after the CL final. O_o'

LOL yh but they aren't English fans, just saying so no one gets mixed up. :p
There isn't much Hooliganism, there is some around occasionally but better than 20/30 years ago.(In England)

Networks

November 16, 2008, 12:39 PM

Edit: Its also bad in South America and Africa, not only europe. In fact, i read a article about Manchester united fans and chelsea fans rioting and attacking each other in africa after the CL final. O_o'

Yeah, i never seen it, but it's frequently this kind of news in TV, espacially in brazilian classics.
_____________

You.. in Europa, watched the brazilian championship as us who seen the england/italian/spanish championships?

Saintz0r

November 16, 2008, 09:33 PM

Also, in this saturday, a group of Palmeiras fans attacked their coach ( Luxemburgo ) and injured his arm...
didn't make a good effect since they lost today by 5x2 to Flamengo ^^

Mendes

November 17, 2008, 01:40 AM

You.. in Europa, watched the brazilian championship as us who seen the england/italian/spanish championships?

I honestly dont... with the time gap between America and Europe, every game there is played at about 1-3 AM here.

As for the premier league, Anelka is on fire. I doubt this time Ronaldo can surpass him in the goalscorer sheet. What do you think of Jose Bosingwa? I dont think Porto will ever have a side back like that again...
Great win for MU. Arsenal will have to change this bad result sequence right away or they're out of the league title challenge. And what to say of Tottenham! After some huge wins, they loose against Fulham. Why cant they get regular results with such a good team?

Epul

November 17, 2008, 07:13 AM

thsv

November 17, 2008, 10:03 AM

Wait mendes, I think you're being to harsh on spurs. The lost against fulham is the first under the new boss. Spurs has been a lot better since Harry took over. They starting to look like the team they ought to be. The real inconsistent team I feel at the moment is Arsenal. They can be brilliant in one game and then lose the next. Oh yeah, did you guys see the howler Gomes made in goal? I'm starting to think that all spurs keepers are cursed..... :XD
Actually I knew this was going to happen. Especially after the way Spurs dealt with Liverpool. That's the reason why Arsenal have been laughing at us for the last 45 years. The funny thing is Ramos got rid of Paul Robinson and brought in Gomez after seeing him over two legs in the UEFA Cup last season. The clown has cost us at least 5 games this so far.

◆ T.D.A ◆

November 17, 2008, 11:46 AM

Ronaldo is back to his best!

Imperium

November 19, 2008, 11:43 AM

England face germany today, and england have lost 3 starting defenders, 4 midfielders, and the two starting strikers. In fact only three players in the usual starting XI are expected to play. The whole situation is laughable. -_-;

thsv

November 19, 2008, 02:51 PM

What Imperium didn't know when he posted is that John Terry is fit enough to play. Its half time, England are 1-0 up and all over Germany.

Lets hope this post doesn't come back to haunt me....

Lohnt

November 20, 2008, 02:11 AM

There are some crazy things going down in Greece right now with some clubs, but everyone's been talking about Pablo Garcia punching Diogo during a game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ubJ8txPgXk&feature=related), sadly it looks like Olympiacos will win the league again. The irony is, now Diogo may actually want to stay in Greece till the end of the season in order to get some payback.
But on the plus side, Aek has the mafia president again, and Dusan Bajevic as the coach which always got great results, even through dirty tactics.
Also Greece - Italy 1-1!!! yay defensive football. Sadly I missed the match because I work 13 hours a day nowdays.. 7 days a week, that's my news.

Grats to Maradonna for his debut as coach.

Mendes

November 20, 2008, 03:42 AM

Also Greece - Italy 1-1!!! yay defensive football. Sadly I missed the match because I work 13 hours a day nowdays.. 7 days a week, that's my news.

:O that's hardcore! I hope its temporary...

Portugal had a shameful 6-2 loss in Brazil. I feel like killing our left back Paulo Ferreira. At least 5 goals were created trough that free-way. We so need to find a decent one...

goldb

November 20, 2008, 05:00 AM

Portugal had a shameful 6-2 loss in Brazil. I feel like killing our left back Paulo Ferreira. At least 5 goals were created trough that free-way. We so need to find a decent one...[/QUOTE]

6-2!!!? i aint seen da match yet, im gonna c it nw...damn dats shameful...i woz happy bout england boi!!! great win, despite missing the majority of their regulars, the ones who came in did a good job...

Saintz0r

November 20, 2008, 01:19 PM

Hahahaha, THAT was a good game.
Can't Dunga see that the team gets so better when it's not defensive? I mean, Anderson on the bench and Josué playing as regular is a bad joke
And though Mendes thinks that Pepe is a good midfielder he was completely owned by Robinho in our first goal :P

Also gratz to Maradona, i really hope he can suceed coaching

ksfst

November 20, 2008, 02:01 PM

I really didn't see that coming! When Portugal scored I was like "I knew it, of course we're going to lose, we can't even win against weak teams so how can we win against Portugal?"
I turned off my TV, some time later my friend told me "WOAAH, are you watching the game? Brazil is playing really well" I was like "No shit, stop kidding me", so yeah, when I turned on my TV I was like "WTF?!?! What's Cristiano Ronaldo doing? Why Portugal hasn't scored more goals?" yet I saw 3x1 Brazil, I was LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Mendes

November 20, 2008, 04:09 PM

Well, Pepe is a defender, not a midfielder, and we cant forget that he's a real madrid regular. Its just that the whole defense had the Christmas spirit too soon... and Robinho on top form wouldnt forgive that flaw... The thing is, Pepe had 1 flaw... Paulo Ferreira had f*ckin 4 flaws! On both Maicon and Elano's goals it was laughable. They had time to look into the area, to choose between an unblocked cross or an unblocked shot and then execute perfectly.

If I ever see P.Ferreira play as Portugal's left back I'll have to drink alot to handle it.
Then we have the amazing C.Ronaldo's show! Wohooo World's best player!......... If I didnt watch MU's games, I'd tell you that was impossible. He cant play in Portugal coz he thinks he's The superstar. Its Ronaldinho's syndrome, and it should be cured the same way as the brazilian. Put him in the bench, put him out of the nominees and he'll eventually start playing in our 11, and not in a 10+Ronaldo team. The sad but true thing here is that he was named captain instead.

If nothing is changed, I fear that Portugal will be out of the World Cup

Lelo

November 20, 2008, 08:28 PM

YAA, England beat Germany nice. It was a pretty good game.
[hr]

Well, you have to remember that it's been 10 years since France won the World Cup. Henry was in his early 20's at the time. Its a team of old men with little motivation and inexperienced youngsters. Brazil need to start developing defensive midfielders. They don't seem to be able to hold the ball in midfield like they used to.

they were just in the World Cup finals, I know Zidane and whoever left but still. I think Im just getting too old, the new generation in every sport are taking over

thsv

November 21, 2008, 05:26 AM

YAA, England beat Germany nice. It was a pretty good game.
[hr]

they were just in the World Cup finals, I know Zidane and whoever left but still. I think Im just getting too old, the new generation in every sport are taking over
Yeah but they fluked their way to it. They struggled to get out of their group. They should have been exposed by Spain in the second round and got past a Brazil team lacking steel. They finally got it together in the semis against a Portuguese side which just doesn't convince me they can win anything only to got done over by the Italians.

I'm sure most of you have heard William Gallas bitching about the divisions in Arsenal's dressing room. Based on what he is supposed to have told BBC Sport (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/7739830.stm) I reckon its either Eboue or Adebayor

Imperium

November 21, 2008, 10:35 AM

It is me or am i the only one who thinks that england needs to start scoring from open play, more. But its a very good win, and shows we do have some solid back up.

I'm sure most of you have heard William Gallas bitching about the divisions in Arsenal's dressing room. Based on what he is supposed to have told BBC Sport (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/7739830.stm) I reckon its either Eboue or AdebayorAde is too young. Since the person is 25, its either sagna, Van persie or eboue. Out of those, my bet is on Van persie, he can really lash out and is the temperamental type. What is the motivation behind his rant, i wonder? althoughi doubt he will be stripped of his captaincy. Other than the fact that there are hardly any better choices (Cesc is too young, Clichy is too quiet, Toure is either unfit or on the bench, the rest are just not upto it), Wenger always sticks by his players and shows them a lot of loyalty so it will be intresting to see if he sticks by gallas after this.

Well, Pepe is a defender, not a midfielder, and we cant forget that he's a real madrid regular. The way madrid is leaking goals, thats hardly a compliment. :p

Edit: Bloggers and talksport are saying gallas has been dropped as captain. Nothing from the club yet. So it could be all bullocks.

thsv

November 21, 2008, 11:19 AM

A dutchman fighting with his team-mates? Surely not?

....

How did I miss Van Persie? I don't even think Eboue played against Spurs that night. Seriously Arsenal are starting to remind me of Chelsea pre-Abramovich. Able to screw over top of the table teams then fuck up against lower opposition. And that doesn't bode well. Although they had to deal with Leeds and Newcastle being good enough to finish in the top 4. I think it might be a bit too much for Aston Villa this season, but we'll see.

Portugal losing 6-2 to Brazil? Some of you might be aware of the curse of the World Cup Semi-finalists. Since 1986 one of the semi-finalist failed to get to the next tournament. France in 86 went out to West Germany, missed 90 and 94. England in 90 missed 94. Sweden in 94 missed 98. Holland in 98 missed 2002. And Turkey in 2002 missed 2006. My money was on France and I still feel they're the most vulnerable of the four. But Portugal are looking a possible bet as well.

Imperium

November 22, 2008, 12:42 PM

We're sinking with no sign of resistance. ._.

The most scary thing is that we havent scored since the united match! Thats not normal, and now we have chelsea at stamford bridge. Oh, boy.

goldb

November 22, 2008, 02:03 PM

oh shit man....we've lost 5 GAMES!!!! and we've only played 1/6 fixtures against the top four, simply not good enough...

Lohnt

November 27, 2008, 04:44 AM

thsv

November 27, 2008, 05:46 AM

Inter.. thanks for the points. I love how they didn't even care about the game up until Anorthosis scored, and then both teams started running like idiots around the field until Sariegi got lucky with his goal.
Inter's defense was terrible
Panathinaikos in general was terrible
But in Football the final score is what matters, and for ten times the budget in players and Mourhino's, Inter did not win.

This is what happens when teams don't take other teams seriously. Chelsea also dissapoints me, much like Zenit I had high hopes for them this season, but they continue to look silly, not to say Bordeaux isn't a strong team, but it wasn't expected.

Now I await my psychotic Olympiacos cousins to tear up the city if Benfica loses..
I lol'd at the Chelsea result. Usually by now they've qualified for the next round. It's going to be interesting because all three of Roma, Bordeaux and Chelsea could still get bumped down if any of them f*** up in their final group game. I thought Zenit might put up a better fight.

The UEFA Cup hasn't looked this good since they allowed certain leagues to have 3 teams in. Just look at some of tonights fixtures;

Club Brugge v St Etienne,
Deportivo La Coruna v Feyenoord (European Cup Winners),
Dinamo Zagreb v Spartak Moscow,
Hamburg (UEFA Cup Winners) v Ajax (European Cup Winners),
Olympiacos v Benfica (European Cup Winners),
Partizan Belgrade v Standard Liege,
Portsmouth v AC Milan (European Cup Winners),
PSG v Racing Santander,
Rosenborg Trondheim BK v Valencia (Cup Winners Cup Winners),
Sampdoria (Cup Winners Cup Winners) v VfB Stuttgart,
Schalke 04 (UEFA Cup Winners) v Man City,
NEC v Tottenham (UEFA Cup Winners),

Mendes

November 27, 2008, 04:39 PM

And Porto ended going trough the next round, and we actually have a good shot at the 1st spot, just like last season. I hope this time we dont screw up even with a lucky draw like last time...
In the end, there probably wont be no real surprises in the 1st 2 teams of every group, but there were some that real put up a fight. I dont think there was any team in any group with less than 3 points
[hr]
I just checked, and there were some teams with less than 3 points, but aside from BATE and Steua who were to be expected, there were some very disappointing teams. Celtic has only 2, and 3 points behind surprising Aalborg. Fenerbahce has only 2 as well, in a group where they were supposed to fight for the qualification. Fiorentina isnt much better, although they had a tough group. Anorthosis was the biggest surprise up till now. They may not qualify, but they depend on themselves to go to the next round. I hope they do and that they're scheduled to play with Porto in the draws :D

Oh, and Benfica lost to Olympiakos. 5-1 xDDDD LOOOOOOL oh boy :') I know I should cheer for the portuguese team... but I just cant. Like it or not, I cant help but smile (and rofl) when I check this results. So much for their super dream team! Hahaha

Lohnt

November 29, 2008, 05:59 PM

Olympiacos put in a lot of money for Greek standards this season, and they also have Diogo and the heavily underated Galletti, who should be playing for a far better team in Spain/England. Also the team leader Djordjevic was back so.. overall the team has tied together nicely. I would say they are the most together team in Greece right now, they have the best starting lineup, all they need is the return of Neri Castillo and they would have an all star cast for the second half of the season. Benfica disappointed me, I always considered a serious team.

I was surprised by Milan and Portsmouth to be honest.. I guess Portsmouth is a very strong team, but honestly I can't really compare them with Milan in my mind.. Milan is just.. Milan, they should be winning every game they play with ease,

I want the group stages to end in the Ch League because I am getting wrongfully excited about the weak teams gathering points, and the truth is once they're in the knockout faze, their path will end very quickly.

thsv

November 29, 2008, 11:47 PM

Thats the thing about Portsmouth. They have a very solid all round team. Before he left to manage my club Harry Redknapp produced a very balanced side. They're not the best by any means but they do regularly cause their opponents trouble.

The UEFA Cup gave me some idea of the quality of the English Premiership in comparison to some of its European contenders. Tottenham put out what was almost a youth team and still won. Manchester City couldn't score against 11 whores away from home this season yet they won 2-0 at Schalke and we all saw what Portsmouth did.

Todays going to be great. Tottenham vs Everton, Manchester City vs Manchester United and Chelsea vs Arsenal.

Imperium

November 30, 2008, 12:46 PM

Arsenal 2 Chelski 1. Now watch us lose to Wigan athletic. -_-;

The spuds lost, and tony adams won. Looks like someone is going to be watching MOTD. :smile-big

I was surprised by Milan and Portsmouth to be honest.. I guess Portsmouth is a very strong team, but honestly I can't really compare them with Milan in my mind.. Milan is just.. Milan, they should be winning every game they play with ease,That wasn't Portsmouths starting XI. There was no campbell, no diarra, no defoe, no kranjcar, no davis, no utaka. And they still should have won that game. It would have been intresting to see if their full starting XI played.

Btw, it looks like its Chelsea's turn to be in "crisis". Its going around in a cycle, it started with Newcastle, then went to tottenham, and after the draw followed us around a bit, and now its firmly settled at the bridge. XD

goldb

December 01, 2008, 05:33 AM

[QUOTE=Imperium;1129498]Arsenal 2 Chelski 1. Now watch us lose to Wigan athletic. -_-;

The spuds lost, and tony adams won. Looks like someone is going to be watching MOTD. :smile-big

yeah same thought here! its no good for us to beat man utd and chelsea then lost to fulham, hull, aston villa, who else? oh yeah man city, and stoke!!! being an arsenal fan these days reall keeps you on ur toes...very unpredictable...

i watched MOTD yesterday for the 1st in a loooong while...started to 4get how it looked like :p

thsv

December 01, 2008, 09:19 AM

Ah well, at least we've got an "easy" one at Watford on Wednesday

Imperium

December 02, 2008, 07:40 AM

We have to go 'oop norf' to the land of trolls, gremlins and big northerners with crunching tackles. :p Our (even younger) kids will be in for it though, it will be really hard. Burnley are one of the best in the championship. But i also found a weird thing, everytime our kids do good in the carling cup the first team follow it up by being absolutely awful. So....i wont be too dissapointed if we lose :p

Mendes

December 04, 2008, 05:00 PM

And you did loose. Burnley is being outstanding in this carling cup. Who's the next giant they'll hunt?

Huntelaar joins Real Madrid for 20M€ (can reach 27M€) to replace the flying dutchman while he's absent with the injury. The transfer will go trough in the winter market in January. Speaking of Real Madrid, their recent results in the spanish league have been embarassing and they're loosing field to Messi Barça. I guess they've been very unlucky with the injuries, but I dont know if that'll hold Bernd Schuster in los merengues as an excuse

goldb

December 09, 2008, 07:10 AM

arsenal got moved to by burnley boy! damn dat was embarassing, i thought our kids woulda done better....

@mendes: is the huntelaar deal confirmed? coz i dunno, i heard bout it but dats it...

Imperium

December 09, 2008, 08:14 AM

And you did loose. Burnley is being outstanding in this carling cup. Who's the next giant they'll hunt?Well its Tottenham.

@mendes: is the huntelaar deal confirmed? coz i dunno, i heard bout it but dats it...The Huntelaar deal is confirmed. And they are apparently after a winger too. But i have to say i think they paid a too much money for him. And for other things Madrid related, schuster has been sacked after they lost in the weekend and they hired ramos. I find the whole situation stupid, they are about to play the biggest game of the season, the club is in dissaray, they made stupid signings, they have a whole host of injuries and so they decide to sack the coach? But i suppose thats how madrid go about buisness.

And CL today, i will be watching the chelsea game and cheering for cluj like a proper Romanian. Fingers crossed that this time tomorrow chelsea will be out of the CL (will easily be the funniest thing to happen this season, even more than Tottenhams relegation plight).

Btw, mendes, Arsenal - porto. :p

goldb

December 09, 2008, 08:39 AM

yeah, thats why they haven't won the CL in nearly 6 years or so:) i'm gonna be cheering for cluj today aswell!! i forgot bout arsenal vs porto, hope we get a good result there!

Imperium

December 09, 2008, 09:17 AM

yeah, thats why they haven't won the CL in nearly 6 years or so:) i'm gonna be cheering for cluj today aswell!! i forgot bout arsenal vs porto, hope we get a good result there!The 18-man squad thats going to portugal has been announced. Adebayor, Van persie, Cesc, Clichy etc will not be travelling. In fact only 5 players in the 18-man squad did not play in this seasons carling cup. Just a hint to how young the squad is, and how seriously wenger is taking it -_____-;

And the Uefa team of the year shortlist was announced, its naturally very biased towards the players who done well at the euro's but surprisingly england has more players nominated then teams that did qualify like italy, germany, france, portugal and holland etc. Its nice to know that were not as shit as we think we are xD

Mendes

December 09, 2008, 05:54 PM

You're definitely Not shit... and its normal to have english players in any awarded prize.
Btw you can vote for that team in uefa.com if you search carefully the site (I couldnt believe how hard it was to find the poll).

I'm glad Arsenal's taking the game non seriously, coz Porto will surely take it with everything we've got. Its only natural that Arsenal spares the most used players as the physical exigence of our internal competitions is far below yours, and a single win in the CL awards the club very useful money and the pertuguese league gets points for the uefa ranking (we lost a spot in CL recently, and we're trying to re-earn it in the portuguese league). Of course this doenst mean we'll win... I just hope we dont get humiliated as before...

Schuster left Real not just for the bad results (tough I feel for him... having about 10 important players injured at the same time makes the results hard to come, even for RM) but also coz he said his team was so much weaker than Barça's that this saturdays game at Camp Now was lost from the start and he would just play for spirit and to put up a decent show... that would be a resignation letter from any coach!

As for today's results in CL: Roma and Chelsea both didnt flack, so they get the 1st and 2nd spots, respectivelly. Inter had a shameful 8 points, as they lost the last game, but still won the 2nd spot, panathinaikos goes with the 1st spot. Liverpool finally untied with Atletico Madrid, getting the 1st spot. As barça had the 1st spot and sporting cp the 2nd in their group, I'm starting to wish for Porto to loose the 1st place... since we cant get sporting in the 1/8 finals, we may be doomed to face Inter, Chelsea or Atletico Madrid... adding the sweet of the other set of groups, we could face as well Real/Juve or Lyon/Bayern. Vilarreal would be imo the less tough opponent, and even so, stronger than us. The lack of real surprises in the group stage final spots will turn this CL into a monster-filled elimination stages!

thsv

December 09, 2008, 06:20 PM

And CL today, i will be watching the chelsea game and cheering for cluj like a proper Romanian. Fingers crossed that this time tomorrow chelsea will be out of the CL (will easily be the funniest thing to happen this season, even more than Tottenhams relegation plight).

Btw, mendes, Arsenal - porto. :p
Not as funny as the fact that after our worst start to a season ever we're only 4 wins off a Champions League place. After seeing the results today its just futher proof UEFA have set things up to let its elite swallow up all the tv revenue the champions league represents. Pity neither Roma or Chelsea were bumped down to the UEFA Cup.

Lohnt

December 10, 2008, 04:11 PM

Hey, guess what, first round's over and group B was the hardest of the groups.. worst still a Greek team came out first.. for shame Europe! I'm looking at you Italy and Germany!
[hr]
Lyon Bayern was a rough match, I thought the ref was unfair to Lyon, but the game was incredible none-the-less. Young Arsenal didn't live up to expectation.

Hayashida

December 16, 2008, 06:07 PM

chelsea need to pick up their home form
good to see zola doing well though

Mendes

December 19, 2008, 03:52 PM

Atlético Madrid - FC Porto
Chelsea - Juventus
Sporting - Bayern Munich
Real Madrid - Liverpool
Internazionale - Man. United
Villarreal - Panathinaikos
Lyon - Barcelona
Arsenal - Roma

Very interesting. The teams I picked as the most accessible for the portuguese teams got matched between them (Vilarreal - Panathinaikos). Still, we can consider ourselves 'lucky' coz none of the favorites came as well... but its obvious to me that panathinaikos, porto and sporting are the outsiders in this round.
I'm delighted with man utd vs Inter. It'll be a wonder to watch for sure. Juve Chelsea and L'pool vs RM also catches anyone's eye. Barça vs Lyon is yumm yumm too.

My bet:
Atlético Madrid - FC Porto (yes, this is just faith... some1 take aguero out of atletico in january pleeeease!)
Chelsea - Juventus - (chelsea's getting very regular in the CL's latter rounds in recent years, and Juve isnt That strong)
Sporting - Bayern Munich -(hope not, but I dont see Sporting's average defenders stopping the ultimate attack double Klose & Toni)
Real Madrid - Liverpool -(L'pool>RM in CL for the last decade, and I dont see signs of a turn around on this RM's terrible season)
Internazionale - Man. United - (I feel like this is Inter's time to bright. For too long they havent won a thing on this level)
Villarreal - Panathinaikos -(Villarreal is clear favorite imo)
Lyon - Barcelona - (unless Messi gets injured on the meantime)
Arsenal - Roma (hard to tell, but if we see Arsenal on a day yes it's doom for Roma)

thsv

December 20, 2008, 10:06 AM

Bloody Shaktar Doneskt...... we drew Shaktar Doneskt

Imperium

December 20, 2008, 11:11 AM

Not as funny as the fact that after our worst start to a season ever we're only 4 wins off a Champions League place. And sunderland that is in a relegation place is one win away from beating you on points. :p

Atlético Madrid - FC Porto
Chelsea - Juventus
Sporting - Bayern Munich
Real Madrid - Liverpool
Internazionale - Man. United
Villarreal - Panathinaikos
Lyon - Barcelona
Arsenal - Roma

Very interesting. The teams I picked as the most accessible for the portuguese teams got matched between them (Vilarreal - Panathinaikos). Still, we can consider ourselves 'lucky' coz none of the favorites came as well... but its obvious to me that panathinaikos, porto and sporting are the outsiders in this round.
I'm delighted with man utd vs Inter. It'll be a wonder to watch for sure. Juve Chelsea and L'pool vs RM also catches anyone's eye. Barça vs Lyon is yumm yumm too.

My bet:
Atlético Madrid - FC Porto (yes, this is just faith... some1 take aguero out of atletico in january pleeeease!)
Chelsea - Juventus - (chelsea's getting very regular in the CL's latter rounds in recent years, and Juve isnt That strong)
Sporting - Bayern Munich -(hope not, but I dont see Sporting's average defenders stopping the ultimate attack double Klose & Toni)
Real Madrid - Liverpool -(L'pool>RM in CL for the last decade, and I dont see signs of a turn around on this RM's terrible season)
Internazionale - Man. United - (I feel like this is Inter's time to bright. For too long they havent won a thing on this level)
Villarreal - Panathinaikos -(Villarreal is clear favorite imo)
Lyon - Barcelona - (unless Messi gets injured on the meantime)
Arsenal - Roma (hard to tell, but if we see Arsenal on a day yes it's doom for Roma)Im just happy we did not get Barcelona. So im happy with drawing roma, but winning all depends on what team shows up, like you said. And having the second leg in rome, doesnt help.
[hr]

Bloody Shaktar Doneskt...... we drew Shaktar DonesktYou got a tough draw, doneskt have some really good players. Srna, the brazilians, rat etc. And then if you win you might face villa, which should be intresting.

Lohnt

December 22, 2008, 02:45 AM

Atlético Madrid - FC Porto : Atletico plays kind of like Bremen, whoever scores more goals wins and Atletico has the superior offense IMO
Chelsea - Juventus : Juve is very strong this year, and although they don't necessarily impress me, I think Chelsea lacks steady results, they'll probably flop under the pressure
Sporting - Bayern Munich : I don't really know.. I would guess Bayern, but last year they should have lost to Getafe and did lose to Zenit.. also they should have tied with Lyon, so I don' know.. they aren't as good as I thought, they just play beautiful football.
Real Madrid - Liverpool : Gerrard deserves a Ch. League, especially this season.
Internazionale - Man. United : Cristiano's form keeps improving with every game, and Rooney is phenomenal, they will win this.
Villarreal - Panathinaikos : I can tell you after I see what players Panathinaikos buys.. honestly, if they both play moderately and defensively I will choose Villa, but if they play offensively because they underestimate Panathinaikos, Villa will lose, I swear by it. Karagounis is having the season of his life in Ch. League matches, he's better than he was in 2004 and he's a good enough leader to push them past an opponent like Villareal, but probably not past the next opponent, unless it's an Italian/German club =p.
Lyon - Barcelona : Another tough match, Benzema is phenomenal.. and Messi is a God.. I don't really know how this match will unfold, but I believe this will be another match where the one who scores more goals will win.. so maybe Barca because of the stronger offense. Then again they lost to Celtic last season..
Arsenal - Roma : Roma. Arsenal is full of casualties of war and Roma is such a duchey team.. but Roma is playing smart, until they face MU (7-2) in the semi-finals, they'll probably advance.

thsv

December 22, 2008, 09:42 AM

And the season just gets tighter and tighter in England. Eliminate the top five from the running and there is only a 12 point gap between 6th and 20th. And the biggest gap between any two teams? 2 points.

And what the hell are Adebayor and Wenger complaining about. Firstly the tackle was well over the ball (He wasn't far off from making contact with his knee). After what happened to Eduardo you'd have thought they'd both know better. Secondly, irrespective of how easily Arbeloa went down its an elbow to the face. Its a red card offense. Its assault if he does it out on the street. He should thank god he did it on the pitch.

Imperium

December 31, 2008, 03:26 AM

And what the hell are Adebayor and Wenger complaining about. Firstly the tackle was well over the ball (He wasn't far off from making contact with his knee). After what happened to Eduardo you'd have thought they'd both know better. Secondly, irrespective of how easily Arbeloa went down its an elbow to the face. Its a red card offense. Its assault if he does it out on the street. He should thank god he did it on the pitch.They were complaining because they felt it was soft, something you cant say about Taylor's tackle. The first was definitely a yellow card because his studs scraped down insua's boot but the second he went to shield a loose ball and succeeded. If you go about yellow carding every trailing arm that hits an opponent then their would be some serious problems with the game here. But having said that, i doubt the high arm is what webb gave the yellow card for, i personally think he saw ade's high boot, arbeloa go down, and thought it was the same thing that happened with insua and gave a yellow card. But that still doesn't explain why players like lucas who were continuously fouling and were hardly warned. In my view its a similar situation as your fullbacks red card on sunday. In fact, if it was say rooney or gerrard who done the same thing i doubt they would have been carded.

And speaking of assualt...

*Wipes a tear of laughter*

Lohnt

December 31, 2008, 06:52 AM

I saw the tackle and since I don't have any vested interest in either team(Actually I am an avid fan of Arsenal), I would say it was a card... I would have given the card personally..

So.. Mendes is Benfica going to screw over Katsouranis again? Last year Chelsea wanted him on loan and they refused, now Milan wants him to replace Gatusso (he even confirmed it), will our little boy finally grow up in a big club or will his career end in a Greek club next year?

Hayashida

January 05, 2009, 07:50 PM

the draw for the AFC will be drawn tomorrow, can't wait. hoping we pull beijing guoan and kashima.

goodluck to jedinak on his move to turkey; hope he does well, though he'll be hard to replace he's our was best player :sweat)

does anyone know any sites that stream the fa cup live? they show like, two game a round down here...

Mendes

January 06, 2009, 05:55 AM

So.. Mendes is Benfica going to screw over Katsouranis again? Last year Chelsea wanted him on loan and they refused, now Milan wants him to replace Gatusso (he even confirmed it), will our little boy finally grow up in a big club or will his career end in a Greek club next year?

I dunno... havent heard much of him in the past weeks, since Benfica is screwing up on every competition and that's been the main focus of the media. With the year of the crisis just beginning and their huge investment on this team, if they win nothing it'll be catastrophic, and for now Porto surpassed them on the lead of the league :P

the draw for the AFC will be drawn tomorrow, can't wait. hoping we pull beijing guoan and kashima.

goodluck to jedinak on his move to turkey; hope he does well, though he'll be hard to replace he's our was best player :sweat)

does anyone know any sites that stream the fa cup live? they show like, two game a round down here...

I usually watch the games live on a site, but its not nearly perfect. It usually shows only the man utd match and it's rare to get an image on the whole 90 minutes...

thsv

January 06, 2009, 01:36 PM

They were complaining because they felt it was soft, something you cant say about Taylor's tackle. The first was definitely a yellow card because his studs scraped down insua's boot but the second he went to shield a loose ball and succeeded. If you go about yellow carding every trailing arm that hits an opponent then their would be some serious problems with the game here. But having said that, i doubt the high arm is what webb gave the yellow card for, i personally think he saw ade's high boot, arbeloa go down, and thought it was the same thing that happened with insua and gave a yellow card. But that still doesn't explain why players like lucas who were continuously fouling and were hardly warned. In my view its a similar situation as your fullbacks red card on sunday. In fact, if it was say rooney or gerrard who done the same thing i doubt they would have been carded.

And speaking of assualt...

*Wipes a tear of laughter*
Akottu is always doing stupid stuff. As weak as it was he was due a sending off.

Was at White Hart Lane on Friday night to see us steal a berth in the fourth round (Bloody Manchester F***ing United. Again! Same round, same venue as last year). We were terrible. I hope they get it together for tonight.

And speaking of White Hart Lane. When they redevelop the ground lets hope they take into account fans over 6 feet tall struggle for leg room at the current ground.

And would it kill them to make getting to the upper stands easier?