Soccer Thread 2010-2011

[cthomer5000]

MIJB - thoughts on the Celtic - Utrecht draw?

Happy/Unhappy?

[MIJB#19]

What´s the Roster for you guys ? Are you taking U21 guys or "real" 3rd tier players ? (since your U21 "only" have to play Liechtenstein)
German team has the disadvantage that the U21 has a must-win game in Iceland the day before. While Iceland aren´t world beaters, games there are allways tough (and they have gotten 13 points of 6 matches including a draw in Germany)

Our team is loaded based around the #24 through #30 guys from the pre-World Cup squad. Then filled out with a bunch of other guys, but not the U21/U23/other youth groups players, it's mostly players who would make the squad if a bunch of A-list players get hurt, none of them are very obscure names. It's basically a bunch of Ajax, FC Twente, PSV, AZ and FC Utrecht players, which is different than the usual foreign-based majority. Most of them would have been selected at least once or twice before had Van Basten's a brand new player every game style still been around the national team.

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

MIJB - thoughts on the Celtic - Utrecht draw?

Happy/Unhappy?

I think a little bit of both. FC Utrecht was unseeded, so it was either drawing some not too exciting at best a same caliber opponent, getting the dream-draw vs Liverpool or the in-between option they got now: Celtic.

From a performance point of view this is a tough draw, since it's an opponent that should win 8 out of 10 times; it's basically a big road block en route to the group phase. At the same time, it's an opponent with a big name, which could draw a sold out stadium and a great experience boost for the young Utrecht lineup, since winning would be much more prestigious than beating Levski Sofia or some such. This would have been a great draw for any round after the qualifying stages.

[Big Fo]

I've been reading that Ronaldinho is likely to return to Brazil and join Palmeiras if he leaves Milan this summer.

[MrBug708]

I read a yahoo article in which the Milan front office said that he was staying this year and they plan on keeping him til he retires.

[sovereignstar]

What a pretty little picture!



On another note, there was a lot of translating going on at the press conference today!

[Big Fo]

Maybe the Galaxy's mystery signing will be Freddy Adu.

Los Angeles Galaxy Close to Signing Freedy Adu

That would cool imo, I am not a Galaxy fan but would like to see Adu getting regular playing time and maybe he could there. He hasn't come close to living up to the hype and probably never will but he's only 21 and could still become a decent to good player.

[MrBug708]

Doesnt sound like the best move for the Galaxy, but it would be a good move for Adu. It makes sense with the removal of Gordon

[Blade6119]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar

What a pretty little picture!



On another note, there was a lot of translating going on at the press conference today!

They blend into the picture just like Man City in the mid-table

[sovereignstar]

NOT NO MORRRRRRRRRRRRE

WE'RE COMING WE'RE COMING

[SirFozzie]

Second verse, same as the first little bit louder, little bit worse:P

[PraetorianX]

Somebody ought to tell City, just to be sure, that they are supposed to fill those seats with actual fans instead of £20m signings.

[Big Fo]

Puerto Rico Islanders > Real Madrid

[MrBug708]

Chicarito's goal was great

[bhlloy]

O'Neill quits Villa. Probably still hurting over having his best players sold out from under him (with Milner deal probably being completed in the next couple of days).

Big loss for Villa, one of the best managers around IMO

[PraetorianX]

Bad for Villa. I don't see them doing too well with anybody else that might be available.

Bad for Spurs, as who else is going to accept their rubbish.

On the good side though, maybe Villa will sign a manager that is less boring.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

MIJB - thoughts on the Celtic - Utrecht draw?

Happy/Unhappy?

I'm a little bit more optimistic now, as Ronald Waterreus actually thinks Utrecht has a shot here. And he should know from his days of playing Celtic 10 times per season.

[Big Fo]

In case I have never stated my love for Patrice Evra in here, I love Patrice Evra.

His latest in a number of great quotes over his career, in response to Lilian Thuram:

Patrice Evra strongly criticises Lilian Thuram in Le Figaro after he called for Evra to be banned from playing for France.

"I called him to ask for an explanation. He didn't respond. I then left him a strong message and he sent one back pretending he didn't understand. He is free to say what he wants, but he should have tried to have a chat with me first. In an interview later on he repeated his remarks and said that he had tried to call me and that I had not replied. This is false.

"He sullied my name without knowing what happened. Lilian thinks he's the new coach, president of the FFF and president of France.

"He said that Les Blues are contributing to increasing racism. It is time that Lilian stops playing a role that isn't his to play. Walking around with books on slavery in glasses and a hat does not turn you into Malcolm X."

So awesome.

Chicarito's goal was great

Yeah, that was hilarious. The first of many to come I think, though not quite like that.

[sovereignstar]

Yikes. Sucks to be a Villa fan.

[Big Fo]

Bob Bradley is the favorite to be the next Villa manager. I don't get it. Because the owner is an American?

Aston Villa Specials Next Permanent Manager Betting Odds - oddschecker.com

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by Ryan S

FOFC Fantasy Premier League is open for business.

Head over to Fantasy Premier League - a Fantasy Football Game for the Barclays Premier League to sign up, and use the code 86215-29694 to join the FOFC private league. If you were part of the FOFC league last year you should automatically join the league when you sign up.

Probably a good time to bump this.

[Blade6119]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

Bob Bradley is the favorite to be the next Villa manager. I don't get it. Because the owner is an American?

Aston Villa Specials Next Permanent Manager Betting Odds - oddschecker.com

Apparently he is more highly thought of abroad then he is here, and is is supposedly friends with Sir Alex which no doubt plays a factor. Upsetting Spain in the Confed Cup won him a LOT of respect over there, and while I wasnt really happy with how our WC played out people in the UK think he did well.

[NorvTurnerOverdrive]

usa brazil starts in a bit fwiw.

[Big Fo]

Not sure if we'll be in a 4-5-1 or the typical 4-2-2-2.

Starting lineup: Howard, Bornstein, Spector, Gonzalez, Bocanegra, Edu, Bradley, Bedoya, Feilhaber, Buddle, Donovan.

Brazil:
1 - Victor
2 - Daniel Alves
3 - Thiago Silva
4 - David Luiz
6 - André Santos
5 - Lucas
8 - Ramires
10 - Paulo Henrique Ganso
7 - Robinho (captain)
9 - Alexandre Pato
11 - Neymar

[bulletsponge]

robinho is captain!?

[miami_fan]

Well deserved goal by Brazil. They have been putting pressure on the US defense

[Big Fo]

Bornstein smh

Great cross by Andre Santos though. Good header too.

[whomario]

English football : Joe Hart is aparently the new NO1 and the backups for the Hungary game are Scott Loach and Frank Fielding, neither has played a single premier league game to date.

It´s incredible how there never is a world class keeper from England and most years they have trouble finding 1 (let alone 3) somewhat competent options there.
Heck, the 10th best german keeper would propably have a shot at being No1 most years

Diego (Juve) is close to coming back to the Bundesliga Wolfsburg the favourites right now, Schalke also in the hunt (if he goes to Wolfsburg it´s a good possibility that in turn Misimovic goes from Wolfsburg to Schalke as they tried to get him all summer and him an Diego play the exact same position)

Carvalho from Chelsea to Real Madrid.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by whomario

English football : Joe Hart is aparently the new NO1 and the backups for the Hungary game are Scott Loach and Frank Fielding, neither has played a single premier league game to date.

It´s incredible how there never is a world class keeper from England and most years they have trouble finding 1 (let alone 3) somewhat competent options there.
Heck, the 10th best german keeper would propably have a shot at being No1 most years

Diego (Juve) is close to coming back to the Bundesliga Wolfsburg the favourites right now, Schalke also in the hunt (if he goes to Wolfsburg it´s a good possibility that in turn Misimovic goes from Wolfsburg to Schalke as they tried to get him all summer and him an Diego play the exact same position)

Carvalho from Chelsea to Real Madrid.

I like Diego and I like Melo, unfortunately they weren't utilized properly last year at all - mostly because Juve lacked the personnel to truly make Diego a dangerous attacking option, and Melo I think was probably asked to try to do too much.

[whomario]

the strange thing was that Diego started out playing great to amazing early in the season, then the coaching staff seemingly tried to change things a bit and as the team played worse and worse Diego´s play started to lack as well. But up into october i thought he was a real bright spot from what i´ve seen of Juve ...

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

I like Diego and I like Melo...

But which is better? There's only one way to find out...

[Big Fo]

Instead of signing attacking midfielder Mesut Özil who was an impressive performer in the World Cup, Man Utd today announced the signing of attacking midfielder/striker Bébé, who once impressed while playing for Portugal in the Homeless World Cup. For a similar amount of money (£7.4m for Bébé, I've seen fees of £8-12m mentioned for Özil due to him being in the last year of his contract) too. He was recommended to SAF by former Man Utd assistant and current Portugal manager Carlos Quieroz. IIRC the last time this happened we wound up with Manucho.

I am just surprised by this. The guy has never played at a higher level than the Portuguese third division. This summer he was signed by first division club Vitória de Guimarães and he was so impressive in preseason that we paid his release fee five weeks later? What the fuck. And I've read that he was on the front page of Marca today linked with Real Madrid. Such bizarre news to come home to.

[sovereignstar]

I love the quote in his wiki entry:

"Despite not representing Portugal at full international level, Bébé has represented Portugal at the Homeless World Cup.^[3]

[sovereignstar]

I'll pay someone 100 bucks if they can find any link of this kid to Real Madrid or Mourinho BEFORE today.

In other news, Manchester City was snubbed by 20 different players today.

[Katon]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

I am just surprised by this. The guy has never played at a higher level than the Portuguese third division. This summer he was signed by first division club Vitória de Guimarães and he was so impressive in preseason that we paid his release fee five weeks later? What the fuck. And I've read that he was on the front page of Marca today linked with Real Madrid. Such bizarre news to come home to.

If he was being linked with Real, then he has to . . . well, all a striker really needs in order to be linked with Real is a pulse, but he's clearly on the rise. Still, it's an interesting signing - a lot more money than you usually see going on someone this unknown, but given the Quieroz connection and the amount of success United have had with young Portuguese attackers in recent years you have to give them at least a little bit of the benefit of the doubt.

[sovereignstar]

He's listed as a defensive midfielder in FM 10. lol

[whomario]

That one sure is going to be a hard sell to the ManU Fans, to say the least.

As far as Özil is concerned : For all the talk about him changing clubs, there has been very little activity/statements from his agent, Özil or his club Werder Bremen. They don´t desperately need the money and i wouldn´t be shocked if they sit this one out and take their chances about Özil resigning or letting him walk for free.
I wouldn´t be surprised if they agree to re-up the contract for 2 more years and then collect a bigger fee next summer. After all, if he plays another good year the big clubs won´t say "but we only take you if you are a free transfer".

I actually like it that finally a few younger national team players go to other leagues while in return some older "stars" go to the Bundesliga (if it stays in balance of course), helps "spread the word" on how there´s good players coming out of the german youth system, gives the clubs some financial security and another incentive to develop young players.

the german U21 team played an embarassing game in Iceland yesterday, loosing 1-4 . Ouch ... Of course you can´t expect a U21 team to be great when the best 6 or 7 eligible players aren´t available due to playing the world cup and most of the players weren´t in peak shape yet and had yet to play a meaningfull game this year (whil the icelandic league is in mid-season), but still it was highly depressing to watch ...

The senior NT played a pretty good friendly in denmark, 2-2 in the end after being up 2-0.
One of the big winners was Hitzlsberger who after playing 9 of 10 qualifiers missed out on the WC due to not playing in his club(s) for much of the year now goes back to England (West Ham) and had a pretty good game yesterday while also being the captain.

For Denmark, they have an 18 year old kid named Christian Eriksen who looked stellar. Only been a professional since January i think (plays for Ajax Amsterdam), but allready went to the WC (youngest player for all teams) and yesterday even played as the main playmaker in the first half and looked super impressive.

Looks like he could be a star.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by whomario

For Denmark, they have an 18 year old kid named Christian Eriksen who looked stellar. Only been a professional since January i think (plays for Ajax Amsterdam), but allready went to the WC (youngest player for all teams) and yesterday even played as the main playmaker in the first half and looked super impressive.

Looks like he could be a star.

Yeah, you're not far off there. I think he got called up for the Danish A-squad after just one or two appearances as a sub for Ajax. I looked it up, his actual debut was indeed in January, in the starting eleven). Last weekend he was in the Ajax starting 11 for the 6th time since his debut in a league match. Granted, he's got 10 appearances as a substitute on top of those starts, but he was already playing his 6th cap for the Danes. Let's hope he won't take the 'what happened to that child star?' route.

[sovereignstar]

Get in.

[Blade6119]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar

Get in.

Oh the joys of selling your teams soul

[Ajaxab]

Balotelli = Anelka 2.0?

[Big Fo]

From the treble winners to a club that hasn't won anything for 34 years. But I guess he'll be making some fat loot.

[whomario]

from a hopelessly screwed up situation to a fresh start would be another somewhat appropriate description, considering that he likely wouldn´t have been starving from what he made or would have made at Inter (if they wanted him). Seriously, there was no way that situation would have ever been properly resolved . Now i´m not saying nothing was his fault, but just looking at how the situation worsened over the course of last year i´d say he was better off pretty much everywhere else (well, not Lazio perhaps ...)

[MIJB#19]

I was browsing Yahoo!'s sports section and apparently they haven't followed the news in Dutch soccer. Eredivisie side NAC Breda got a 1-point reduction going into the competition for bad financial management. Six of eighteen clubs in the second-level league overhere start the season with a reduction as well. Would be a good idea if other leagues adopted these kind of rules to get started on getting rid of the unequal competition. Anyway, Yahoo! lists NAC a bit too high in the standings, without that reduction.

[sovereignstar]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

From the treble winners to a club that hasn't won anything for 34 years. But I guess he'll be making some fat loot.

Shouldn't you be busy finding out information on Bebe? Has there been physical confirmation that he actually exists?

[Big Fo]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar

Shouldn't you be busy finding out information on Bebe? Has there been physical confirmation that he actually exists?

[AlexB]

You can't tell me this is not more entertaining than the WC. Pace, passion, excitement, atmosphere, the odd mistake - and this is from a 0-0 game.

It's the also the reason we'll never win the WC, but hey ho.

[PraetorianX]

Very disappointing match for me as a Spurs fan. 18 shots on target and nothing to show for it.

Spurs desperately need to bring in a classy forward that can finish. Crouch is fine off the bench and in Europe, Defoe is good when on form but very streaky, Keane is old but can still have a few moments and Pav is okay all around but wastes too many long shots.

None of them are good enough to be that start striker needed compete at the top of the table.

All of that said though, we played City off the park and look like we could compete for that 4th spot again this year. It'll be very important to not only get into the CL proper (and pref. the 1st Knockout Round at least) but get into it again next year.


Still, the football is back! Woohoo! Way better than the WC.

[miami_fan]

Robert Green is in WC form!

[Bearcat729]

Not that I think that anything will really come of this.


FIFA to considers doing away with draws at World Cup - ESPN


BERLIN -- FIFA president Sepp Blatter says soccer's governing body will consider eliminating ties in all World Cup games.

Blatter said Saturday on Germany's Focus weekly that the dramatic change would make the tournament more interesting. He says the change could involve going to a shootout after 90 minutes of regulation or adding sudden-death overtime.

Sudden-death overtime was used in the knockout rounds of the 1998 and 2002 World Cups. FIFA then reverted to its previous rule of having teams play a full 30 minutes of overtime if tied at the end of regulation in the knockout rounds.

First-round games always have ended in draws if tied at the end of regulation.

[AlexB]

IMO it's not the draws that are the problem - it's the continual stopping of the game at that level for nothing-fouls, dives, pretend injuries. Get rid of those, play much more advantage, get the games flowing again and the atmosphere & excitement will follow.