Discussion The Football/Soccer Thread

[Imperium]

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]

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]

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..

 

[thsv]

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]

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

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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

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]

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]

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]

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.

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]

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.

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

 

[thsv]

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

 

[Imperium]

We have to go 'oop norf' to the land of trolls, gremlins and big northerners with crunching tackles. 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

 

[Mendes]

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]

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]

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.

 

[goldb]

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]

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]

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]

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.

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]

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!

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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]

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