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Official Football Thread 2006/2007 (Soccer)

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Arsenal are supposedly interested in buying Juergen Macho. Would be nice to see an Austrian at the club, but I don't think he's quite good enough. Good shotstopper, but he's got problems with high balls. Might as well get Manninger back then.
 
hadareud said:
Van Persie will not come back this season :(

Will we ever score goals again?
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I agree with the decision - if he's only coming back to play 2-3 games, there's no real reason to risk him. May as well shelve him until he's fit. Wenger has a spotty track record when it comes to rushing players back and getting them reinjured. Hopefully Adebayor and a fit midfield can put in some goals towards the end of the season. I've given up hope of seeing any goals from Alialialialiadiere or Badtista.
C'mon verbal curse! Prove me wrong!
 
This isn't going to affect many of you, but new TV rights for England and the FA Cup have been announced. The BBC have lost out to ITV, and Sky to Setanta (in terms of free to air and pay).

Basically the FA Cup will be split in a similar way to how it currently is, only across ITV and Setanta rather than the other two. In the current deal the BBC gets the better choice of games, but no word yet on who gets first choice amongst the new guys. I suspect Sentana as they're reportedly showing 25 FA Cup games compared to ITV's 16, whereas I'm pretty sure the BBC has been showing more than Sky recently which suggests Sentana got the better BBC deal. ITV have the FA Cup highlights.

As for England, ITV have the away friendlies and home qualifiers. Setanta will get the away friendlies (which is a bit of a blow as the BBC currently have home qualifiers and all friendlies) and for some reason there's no mention anywhere of away qualifiers. I don't know if Sky have held on to the rights for them, maybe their deal is longer than the others and no on can bid on them again yet, but it certainly isn't part of this deal.

ITV also have the FA Women's Cup Final and Setana have the England women's internationals, England Under-21 matches, the Community Shield, the Youth Cup, the FA Trophy and the FA Vase.

This all comes into place next year btw.

Quite the blow for the BBC and Sky. Sky have already lost a good number of their Premiership matches to Setanta and now with this deal they're on the verge of losing out entirely to them. Sky was built on football, when they got their Premiership rights things took off for them. They're ok right now, they still have the biggest pull in the most Premiership matches (92 matches to Sentana's 46) and half the Champions League games, but what happens the next time those rights come up for grabs (which I believe is next year for the latter)? Sky could see subscriptions plummit if they lose those.

As for the BBC...what are the left with? Premiership highlights and they're going to have to bid on UEFA Cup games. They'll be able to show other home nation internationals I'm sure, but they don't have nearly the pull of England. Of course, they still share the right to the main international tournaments with ITV, but that's only for a month every couple of years. I'm sure they'll do their best to get the FA Cup and England games back next time round, like they did with the Premiership highlights, but it looks like it'll be a barren few years. I'm not even sure if they're allowed to bid for the Champions League matches next year to get back at ITV. Due to the way the BBC is funded they're not allowed to advertise, but the CL always has sponsors attached to it by UEFA.

ITV are finally putting together a decent sporting line up, having been terrible for years. They have the CL, boxing, F1 and now the FA Cup/England rights. If they could grab test match cricket, rugby internationals, Wimbledon and the Olympics/Commenwealth games, then the BBC would pretty much just be left with Match of the Day and snooker.
 
Hey, Liverpool can't score either! maybe I should put money on a 0-0...

My actual fake betting:

Bolton v Sheff Utd 1.70, 62%, £7.00
Man Utd v Blackburn 1.36, 63%, £3.60
Newcastle v Man City 2.10, 61%, £11.00
Watford v Chelsea 1.37, 63%, £3.70
Tottenham v Reading 1.87, 56%, £8.70

£50 stake, possible profit £34, possible return £84
 
bud said:
FLAMINI TO THE RESCUE LOL
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flaminizi8.jpg
 
I'd have liked the FA cup to stay with the BBC, apart from Lawrenson their football shows are quite good.

The good news is that I should have sky back next month, so I am really not too bothered where they will show the games - I will subscribe to Sentanta. 14 pounds a month for Football and Ice Hockey is quite worth it for me. They are showing plenty of European football too, and if German football wouldn't give me eye cancer I could even watch that.
 
Wrapup on Euro qualifiers...

Some guy's blog said:
Group A
Poland's narrow 1-0 win at home to Armenia, combined with Finland's loss and a 1-1 draw between Poland's nearest rivals Serbia and Portugal, means that Poland look odds on favourite to be one of the qualifiers from this hotly contested group. Portugal have benefitted from the two shock results that saw Kazakhstan beat Serbia, and Azerbaijan beat Finland and are now right back in it. With Poland playing Azerbaijan and Armenia again in June, they might just be too far ahead for their challengers come September. It should now be two from Poland, Portugal and Serbia.

Group B
Scotland's challenge now looks to be over following their 2-0 loss in Italy, even if it is likely that they won't lie down until they're mathematically eliminated. Italy will be a point clear of them if they win their game in hand, and both France and Ukraine would be three points clear of them if they win their games in hand. It looks like it should be between France, Italy and Ukraine, with the former two World Cup semi finalists being the most likely to take the accolades come the end of the campaign.

Group C
Turkey's surprising home draw with Norway has only really meant that Turkey hasn't already run away with this group. It is still unlikely that they'll not be at the European finals next summer though because they're still six points clear of the Norwegians and Bosnians in third place. The Greeks kept right on the Turks' heels with a narrow win away to Malta.

Group D
The story of group D is that Ireland's surge has put them back in with a chance. Although they've played a game more than the Czechs, they're now level on points with them. In September the two meet in the Czech Republic and then we'll know if it's been too little too late for the spirited Irish team. The Germans should win the group if they manage to survive the away match to Ireland in and the home match with the Czech Republic in October.

Group E
Even though both Israel and England picked up three points tonight, they're still catching up to Croatia, and to a certain extent the Russians who both have a game in hand. England's next game is in June away to Estonia, and for that trip they'll miss their most talented forward, Wayne Rooney, who got himself suspended for that game tonight. Even though he hasn't scored for England since Euro 2004, he still remains the most likely with no other striker getting a regular run in the team. Only a change in management looks likely to give the English the impetus. Much like the Dutch in group G, there just seems to much pressure on their players to perform and that's really hampering their creativeness. You'd have to think that only the maximum number of points from now on will do if they're to make it next summer.

Group F
Who would have thought that in a group with Spain, Sweden and Denmark that Northern Ireland would be ruling the roost midway through the campaign. OK, so if Denmark win their matches in hand, and Spain and Sweden win their matches in hand their position may not look as rosy as it does now, they are still likely to have a major say in who qualifies from this group. Spain's maximum points from their two games should give them the impetus and I still think that come the last games in November that they'll be in the running along with Sweden for the two qualifying spots.

Group G
Bulgaria will be kicking themselves tonight after their home draw against Albania. With the Netherlands and Romania both winning, they're now effectively two points behind both Romania and the Netherlands if we assume the Bulgarians and Romanians win their games in hand. It now means that the Bulgarians will need a result in Amsterdam in September if they are to keep in the running. Judging by their current poor form, the Netherlands are still under a lot of pressure, especially now that they don't play another qualifier until that home match against Bulgaria in September. Before that their closest challengers Romania and Bulgaria play double-header home and away matches against Belarus and Slovenia respectively. Saying all that, it may just work the other way if the Slovenians put up as much of a challenge against Bulgaria as they did tonight against the Dutch. If Bulgaria don't manage to take the home and away points against Slovenia, the Netherlands will still be ahead of Bulgaria with a game in hand come September. It is two from three in this group, with Romania and the Netherlands now looking favourites.

It is noticeable not only how much better the bottom teams are getting, but how much more susceptible many of the traditionally big teams now are. Only eight nations remain unbeaten in qualifying, and many of those teams have lost points that they probably wouldn't have lost in the past. Gone are the times where a nation finishes all qualifiers without having lost. Remarkably, after such a terrible few years, the Germans seem to be the only ones who really stand out amongst the top teams, even if they lost a home friendly tonight against Denmark. That loss was effectively suffered by a 'B' team so we shouldn't dwell on that too much. In their last 20 games they've managed to win 15 games, and their only loss besides tonight's friendly was an extra time dissappointment against the World Champions Italy in the World Cup semi final. Would anyone bet against the Germans lifting the trophy next summer in Vienna now?
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More interesting stuff...

The same blog said:
2007-03-29 - UEFA Coefficients
Following tonight's matches, here's the latest UEFA coefficients that will probably be used to determine the seeds for the 2008 European Championship, and the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign.

1. Germany - 2.60
2. Netherlands - 2.56
3. Croatia - 2.47
4. Sweden - 2.40
5. Poland - 2.35
6. Portugal - 2.28
7. England - 2.25
8. Czech Republic - 2.22
9. Italy - 2.20
10. Ukraine - 2.18
11. France - 2.13
12. Romania - 2.12
13. Turkey - 2.12
14. Serbia - 2.06
15. Russia - 2.00
16. Greece - 1.94
17. Spain - 1.93
18. Denmark - 1.81
19. Israel - 1.81
20. Switzerland* - 1.80
21. Slovakia - 1.78
22. Ireland - 1.76
23. Norway - 1.67
24. Bulgaria - 1.60
25. Scotland - 1.56

* Switzerland and Austria are seeded as hosts of the 2008 European Championship.

As only the top team in this list will be seeded, it looks like the honour of heading the rankings will go to one of the four, namely Germany, Netherlands, Croatia or Sweden. As was pointed out previously, it might be better to miss out on being seeded as Austria, Switzerland (both as hosts) and Greece (as holders) are already seeded for the finals, should Greece qualify of course. My money is on Germany to stay where they are, although because only their 2008 European Championship qualifying matches count towards the ranking (having not had to play in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers), any points they lose will affect their ranking more than the teams behind them.

For the 2010 World Cup qualifying seedings, Spain and France still have to keep on winning if they're going to be top seeds for that campaign. If they don't make it, they'll be the biggest headaches for the teams that will be seeded. Italy are now on the way up again, but England look like they will only drop further meaning they may well also end up in the second seeding group. The top three or four already look sure of being seeded unless they suffer a complete disaster from now on.
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Premiership Fixtures for today:

12:45- Liverpool vs. Arsenal
15:00- Bolton vs. Sheffield United
15:00- Charlton Athletic vs. Wigan
15:00- Fulham vs. Portsmouth
15:00- Man Utd vs. Blackburn
15:00- Newcastle United vs. Man City
15:00- West Ham vs. Middlesbrough
17:15- Watford vs. Chelsea

Tomorrow:

16:00- Tottenham vs. Reading

Monday:

20:00- Aston Villa vs. Everton

Team news for the Livefpool Arsenal match will follow in a couple of hours. My prediction is nothing other than a draw, I very much believe it'll be a 1-1 draw today.
 
Oh my. I think I like all the Arsenal fans who post here, so try not to do anything stupid
like support Arsenal
.

Crouch + Owen England partnership ftw.

EDIT: Should probably mention the score, 4-1, Crouch hat trick. It'd be hard to pick out an Arsenal player for praise, to be honest, but I thought Adebayor did a decent job. Didn't get much service.
 
HUAHUAHUAHUA

Go on Liverpool, one of our best performances of the season, I'm relieved as our performance against Aston Villa was atrocious.

Blackburn are up 1-0 up against Man U.
 
Mama Smurf said:
Blackburn beat Man Utd.
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Bit early.


Still we've started terrible, Rooney can't score when he has an open net, Vidic off with dislocated shoulder (another 1 argh) and then Blackburn score. Fabulous
 
Obviously happy, though I thought we were better before we scored, United have upped the urgency since.

What the hell was going on in the two boxes? One was at a corner when all the Blackburn players started yelling at...Scholes? Might have been Heinze, I couldn't tell who was being yelled at. The other was in the other box with Derbyshire.

Admittedly I'm watching it with poor quality, but even on replays I couldn't see anything with either. And I'm not yet up on my Mandarin to tell what the commentators are saying. Except "handabull".
 
That was a great goal. The bastard.

We're going to lose based on how the half has gone so far. Our midfield is too far away from our attack.
 
Karma's a bitch, Blackburn.
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Karma for? 94-95?

That goal is really annoying. We've already been caught out from a short corner and AGAIN we only sent one man out to mark two of them. I was yelling at them as it happened and, low and behold, it resulted in a goal.

Giggs's miss was...something else.

Blackburn are playing very negatively, it's no wonder really.
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I agree we're too far back, but let's be fair, we have't touched the ball for the last 20 minutes, we can't attack without it.
 
For wasting time.
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Oh hardly, everything looks like wasting time when you're losing. I don't think we were taking an unfair amount of time, just the maximum allowed, which makes sense when you're so under the kosh. Besides, time wasting makes no difference, the ref just adds time wasted onto the end of the match. If teams don't time waste, their opposition has less added time.

Don't believe in karma anyway, and never understood timewasting, unless it's the last few minutes and you're keeping it in the corner. Not only is time added on, you're just as likely to find yourself down and all you've done is potentially waste your own time to come back.
 
Mama Smurf said:
Blackburn beat Man Utd.
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Mama Smurf said:
Blackburn beat Man Utd.
Click to expand...

Mama Smurf said:
Blackburn beat Man Utd.
Click to expand...

Mama Smurf said:
Blackburn beat Man Utd.
Click to expand...

Mama Smurf said:
Blackburn beat Man Utd.
Click to expand...

Mama Smurf said:
Blackburn beat Man Utd.
Click to expand...

Mama Smurf said:
Blackburn beat Man Utd.
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:lol :lol :lol... SO um what was the scoreline in this imaginary world? cause it was 4-1 in the real one
 
You know I was just joking along with hadareud right, in our dreamland where Arsenal didn't play and Blackburn beat United? You can check my fake bets for an actual prediction, where I have United to win 'cos I'm not insane.

I think that was probably the best half of football I've seen from any team this season. Shame it was against Blackburn, but there you go. Ran us ragged.

Man, I wish I did believe in karma and could blame it on some cosmic force, sounds much better than saying we were completely outplayed :(

Decent first half though, that gets you points right? Right?
 
Mama Smurf said:
You know I was just joking along with hadareud right, in our dreamland where Arsenal didn't play and Blackburn beat United? You can check my fake bets for an actual prediction, where I have United to win 'cos I'm not insane.

I think that was probably the best half of football I've seen from any team this season. Shame it was against Blackburn, but there you go. Ran us ragged.

Man, I wish I did believe in karma and could blame it on some cosmic force, sounds much better than saying we were completely outplayed :(

Decent first half though, that gets you points right? Right?
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Ya I know ... but come on you talk the talk you gotta walk the walk mama.. you know this.:)


Mama Smurf said:
Decent first half though, that gets you points right? Right?
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:D If you guys play two halfs like that against Chelsea we will surely meet again....
 
But that's the point, I didn't talk the talk. It's a joke that only if I ignore reality like hadareud with "did anything happen today?" would Blackburn beat United, it's actually down on Blackburn, not talking us up. I rarely shit talk unless we're playing a big rival and that's really more of an England thing as Blackburn's big rivals aren't in the Premiership. I do jokey ones like that and claiming Blackburn will beat Arsenal 7-0 and stuff, but I hope you guys get them and don't think I mean it. I pride myself on being a realist.

This is getting silly though, I expected us to lose though hoped we wouldn't, but not quite in that manner.
 
Mama Smurf said:
But that's the point, I didn't talk the talk. It's a joke that only if I ignore reality like hadareud with "did anything happen today?" would Blackburn beat United, it's actually down on Blackburn, not talking us up. I rarely shit talk unless we're playing a big rival and that's really more of an England thing as Blackburn's big rivals aren't in the Premiership. I do jokey ones like that and claiming Blackburn will beat Arsenal 7-0 and stuff, but I hope you guys get them and don't think I mean it. I pride myself on being a realist.

This is getting silly though, I expected us to lose though hoped we wouldn't, but not quite in that manner.
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Yeesh Im sorry mama I figured it was in good nature, as was my little joke... I know you don't talk shit which is what made me think it was just good fun. Unfortunatly it's hard to read through text sometimes...anyway no hard feelings eh?
 
Mama Smurf said:
Oh hardly, everything looks like wasting time when you're losing.
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I agree with that and shan't argue any further since we won anyway. Second half was awesome though it did looked like we were only going to end the game with a point when Giggs missed that shot.
 
'course not, it was just a bit of a lose-lose situation for me. I either let it go and looked like I couldn't take it after shit talking, or I kept going on with my point and look like someone who can't just let it go.

And I'd prefer to look like an ass for something that's true, hence going with the latter.
 
Ghost said:
In other news Charlton are now only 1 point from getting out of the Relegation zone.

Pardew5.jpg
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:lol

even west ham aren't completely out of it now. At least there will be some excitement at one end of the table.
 
Chelsea are completely sucking it up against Watford right now, I hope they score in the second half or the title race might as well be over.
 
I cant be bothered talking about the games in detail, so I'll just say something quickly

:lol :lol :lol @ arsenal
 
Bollocks. Chelsea scored nin the 91st minute against watford. I had some hope that watford could hold chelsea to a drtaw but I ****ing knew that Chelsea would score in the last minute once again. 8 points clear at this stage of the season would have been a ****ing luxury.
 
****ERS!!!!!!! God I hate those lucky bastards.....


psycho_snake said:
Bollocks. Chelsea scored nin the 91st minute against watford. I had some hope that watford could hold chelsea to a drtaw but I ****ing knew that Chelsea would score in the last minute once again. 8 points clear at this stage of the season would have been a ****ing luxury.
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I was sitting there with my wife watching the game and as the game entered injury time I told my wife " I don't know why I am watching this they are gonna get a lucky goal and win" and sure enough not even a minute later they score....she then got up and left the room so I could properly kick and scream on the floor....
 
Man that was close. Good for the race though, from a neutral's point of view.

It's effectively 7 points Chelsea need rather than 6 really, there's no way Chelsea are going to score 17 goals more in the remaining 7 games.

21 points left to get and that was Chelsea's easiest remaining game. It would take a monumental collapse for United to lose it now.
 
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