Soccer Thread 2011-2012

[Coffee Warlord]

Scandinavia looking good early on. Danes win, Swedes now up. Viking power!

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Scandinavia looking good early on. Danes win, Swedes now up. Viking power!

Well. So much for that part.

[stevew]

Pretty sweet run/header by the Ukraine.

[MIJB#19]

Awesome goal!

[cartman]

That header was a thing of beauty.

[stevew]

I love it when they talk about ancient soccer players and the guy is like a year younger than I am.

[stevew]

Holy shit

[whomario]

this is fucking nuts, Sheva with his 2nd goal Ukraine up 2:1

[MIJB#19]

Woaw!

[saldana]

Originally Posted by whomario

this is fucking nuts, Sheva with his 2nd goal Ukraine up 2:1

can sweden play any worse in terms of marking in the back...both of those headers were totally free

[cartman]

That was an entertaining match.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Regardless...a bad miss by him.

I agree it was a costly miss as it was ultimately the difference between a win and a draw HOWEVER ... it was an incisive run he made to get into position to receive the ball and he did take it past the keeper nicely .... all things we'll need if England is to progress further in the competition.

(remember he is NOT a huge goal scorer - the most goals he's ever scored in a season is a whopping 7)

[Coffee Warlord]

As they say in FM.

"Not the best start for Greece."

[Coffee Warlord]

As they say in FM.

"Greece have it all to do."

[SirFozzie]

And in a lame attempt at topical humor.. Is greece's national team expecting a bailout like their banks?

[bulletsponge]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

And in a lame attempt at topical humor.. Is greece's national team expecting a bailout like their banks?

ill show you lame!

Greece's euro hopes are about as grim as their economic outlook right now

[cartman]

Greece had better hope for a devaluation of Czech goals and massive inflation of theirs.

[Crapshoot]

Russia - Poland... today is apparently Russia day, and some Russian fans decided to march through the city, which does not seem like a good idea (given the wee bit of history of Russians in Poland). Seems like war on and off the pitch.

[cartman]

This is the first time in a while that I can remember Greece not bouncing a Czech.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by cartman

This is the first time in a while that I can remember Greece not bouncing a Czech.

Winner

[Coffee Warlord]

Alright, I find a bit of entertainment in the fact this match is Russia vs Poland, officiated by a German.

[MIJB#19]

Greece can still advance with a victory over Russia, combined with either Russia not winning today (2/3rd odds!) or Poland-Czech Republic not ending in a draw (even more 2/3rd odds!). So that gives them 2/3 + 1/3 * 2/3 = 6/9 + 2/9 = 8 in 9 odds... If they win.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Alright, I find a bit of entertainment in the fact this match is Russia vs Poland, officiated by a German.

Everybody hate Everybody !



The Ref is definitely not one to be rattled easily. He recently had a game with fireworks on the pitch, a mass of fans storming the pitch 2 minutes before the final whistle and getting punched by a player while waiting for the pitch to be cleared. So this should be a cakewalk

one underrated fact is that it´s about 30 degress celcius in the Ukraine trhoughout the evening while it´s just about 16-20 in Poland.

[whomario]

What a goal by Kuba ! 1:1 now in another pretty entertaining game. Seconds before Russia had a 4 on 3 that Arshavin botched (after an amazing run to set it up)

[MIJB#19]

First thought: Poland scored in a fashion how Russia usually scores.

[Icy]

This Poland vs Rusia is one of the most fun games in the Euro so far, attack and counters all the time.

[Coffee Warlord]

While I'm usually a fan of letting them play, there's been a couple questionable no-calls on fouls today.

[Coffee Warlord]

Starting to get a little bland in an otherwise fun match. They're both looking fairly gassed at this point.

[MIJB#19]

Grp A	Rus W	Rus = Gre	Gre W
Pol W	1.Rus, 2.Pol	1. Rus*, 2. Pol*	1. Pol, 2. Gre
Pol = Cze	1. Rus, 2. Cze	1. Rus, 2. Cze	1. **
Cze W	1. Rus, 2. Cze	1. Cze, 2. Rus	1. Cze, 2. Gre

* tie-breakers between Rus (5-2+) and Pol (2-2+) goal difference, then goals scored, then Russia with higher UEFA ranking
** tie-breakers between Rus, Cze and Gre based on hth results, currently being Rus (4-1+), Gre (1-2+), Cze (3-5)

All in all
1. Russia wins group with win, still wins with tie + Pol win, still advances with loss + Pol-Cze draw and providing they lose by 5 goals at most
2. Czech Republic advances with win and win group if Russia doesn't win, still advance with draw if Greece doesn't win, or if they lose and Greece wins by 6 goals
3. Poland needs a win over Czech Republic to advance, win group with win + Greece win over Russia
4. Greece needs a win to advance

[Big Fo]

It's so annoying to be in 2012 and still not have a World Cup qualifier on normal TV. I don't like this rule about the home team having the broadcasting rights in all countries. $30 to watch the game on ustream is an absolute joke.

[RainMaker]

Yeah, that's disappointing. Is it these other countries federations holding it back? Or just no one wanting to put it on TV? Can't imagine that Fox Soccer or ESPN2 couldn't put this on and get some ratings.

[Big Fo]

It's kind of complicated, US Soccer put up a FAQ: World Cup Qualifying Television Rights

0-0 so far, no chances for either side, chippy game with lots of fouling so far.

[Big Fo]

Just a minute after Howard made a fine save to deny Carlos Ruiz, Fabian Johnson passed to Dempsey on the edge of the area and then Dempsey dribbled past two defenders and scored.

[kingfc22]

US had been putting in a mediocre effort at best, but a nice save by Howard leads to a goal by Dempsey who made a nice cut in the box to create space for the finish.

[RainMaker]

Howard is keeping them ahead. Team looks really bad. Have no business picking up 3 points.

[Big Fo]

Donovan is having a bad game. Edu still can't pass well.

Howard's only made like two saves that were anything more than routine, it's not like Guatemala is carving us open. Well not in the creating chances sense, perhaps in the committing fouls sense.

[kingfc22]

Hmmm. US should be up 2-0 as the ref decides to call a foul instead of letting the US play advantage which was Altidore 1v1 with the keeper.

[Big Fo]

Great free kick goal from Pappa to tie it up.

[kingfc22]

Watching the US tonight after watching almost all the Euro 2012 games makes it very clear how far this team is from competing at the highest levels.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

Donovan is having a bad game. Edu still can't pass well.

Howard's only made like two saves that were anything more than routine, it's not like Guatemala is carving us open. Well not in the creating chances sense, perhaps in the committing fouls sense.

Feels like they've had way more opportunities. Tough break on the Altidore play, but the only real chance they had all night was the one Dempsey put in.

[Big Fo]

Of the five games recently, the team really only played well for about three halves (the whole Scotland game and the second half against Brazil). It's been disappointing.

I'd like Holden to get healthy again and see what this formation looks like with him playing alongside Bradley with Jones sitting further back where Edu has been.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

In non-Liverpool news:

Glasgow Rangers are fucked royally.

The club's administrators have realized they need to save 4.5 million pounds in costs by the end of the season.

First, they asked the players "Would you mind terribly if you played the rest of the year for free?"

The players of course, minded. A lot.

They instead offered to defer 50-75% of their salaries to help get the club back on financial footing. The administrators disliked this because it could deter people from buying the club

The administrators counted with "How about we cut 11 of you (making them unsecured creditors, meaning they wouldn't see a dime until all the tax bills are paid, meaning they'd be lucky to get 2 pennies on the metaphorical dollar), and force the rest of you to take 50% pay cuts?"

Things are bad and going to get worse. Not to mention the effect of cutting 11 first team players.

So anyone have a LLC tactic for Rangers in FM 2013?

[saldana]

i will admit that i dont watch alot of la Liga games during the season, so i am sure i am missing some highlight reel footage, but i remain unimpressed by Cristiano Ronaldo...based on what i am seeing in this match, he is a far cry from Messi in every regard.

[saldana]

dola, and he just reinforced my opinion again

[cartman]

Great cross and header from Denmark to tie the game up!

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by cartman

Great cross and header from Denmark to tie the game up!

Fun fact - Bendeter may be a giant pain in the ass as far as Arsenal fans are concerned, but Portugal does not like him much either - he has scored in every game (this is the 5th) he's played against them.

[cartman]

Great recovery by the Portuguese player, who whiffed on a cross, but composed himself and rifled in a goal.

[Coffee Warlord]

Great match.

[MIJB#19]

Dang, I can't believe that we had to root for Portugal. :o

[whomario]

Originally Posted by saldana

i will admit that i dont watch alot of la Liga games during the season, so i am sure i am missing some highlight reel footage, but i remain unimpressed by Cristiano Ronaldo...based on what i am seeing in this match, he is a far cry from Messi in every regard.

well, Messi for Argentina has been a far cry from Barca-Messi as well (although at WC10 he imo was good until the germany game, just didn´t score)

There are hardly any really dominant/utterly spectacular players in theese international games, especially at the Euro (1 throough 16 the teams are very close in ability). There just isn´t a lot of space and team play and doing the little things is much more important than in normal league play.