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Official Football Thread 2006/2007 (Soccer)

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Outdoor Miner said:
Seems to me MLS have really improved their presentation. It's getting there. Announcers are still awful though.

Colorado up on DC 2-0.
O'Brien has gotten better and Foudy is just bad, but she's there because of Wynalda telling Jim Rome to suck his dick.
 
haha PSV lost again, 2-1 against NEC they were so bad NEC should have been 5-0 in front in the first half.

PRO_442324_holmanjuichtgomestreurt.jpg


If Ajax wins tomorrow we share the first place with PSV and 3 games to go. :)
 
Osorio said:
O'Brien has gotten better and Foudy is just bad, but she's there because of Wynalda telling Jim Rome to suck his dick.
is the guy announcing O'Brien? because i've definitely heard him announce for other major sports too. he's pretty good announcer imo, certainly serviceable. i was actually surprised to hear his voice when i switched over. the girl is awful though.
 
shpankey said:
is the guy announcing O'Brien? because i've definitely heard him announce for other major sports too. he's pretty good announcer imo, certainly serviceable. i was actually surprised to hear his voice when i switched over. the girl is awful though.

O Brien has been doing MLS for awhile. He does like every other sport as well. You'd think they could find some soccer specific anouncer, but he's not terrible. The only thing I dislike is his voice talks in baseball format.
 
Pretty decent opening match for MLS.

Got really testy there towards the end due to the clueless ref. But man, until the Emilio goal DC was getting DOMINATED. They certainly didn't look like title contenders today.


Can't wait for the Fire opener tonight.
 
that ref was a joke, he was letting really bad fouls go uncalled and when you do that, you get players that get pissed. the result is what we saw... everybody pissed off at everybody else. you see that colorado coach at the end? :lol
 
Mama Smurf said:
So the MLS season runs through the summer? That sounds...hot.
it's really the only time of year that it stands a chance here. fall/winter is American football and basketball on both the professional and collegiate levels, and once that's going it's all consuming.

it was really smart for them to try to capitalize on the somewhat dead summer (baseball and nascar are really the only competition, but both of them leave plenty of room for soccer, imo).

but what they REALLY need is to get more teams into states that don't have any professional sports teams in any league, like here in oklahoma, or new mexico, or arkansas, the dakota's, etc, etc. they could easily support an MLS team and sell out season tickets to them. people here are dying for a pro team of any sort and would go gaga to get them. it's really frustrating to see them not recognize this blatantly obvious fact. just look at New Orleans NBA team and how they sell out the Ford Center in Oklahoma City every single time they play there.
 
So you guys have all your best TV shows running Fall to Spring, and all your most popular sports outside of the summer too?

What do you do during the summer?! Like...talk to people?
 
Mama Smurf said:
So you guys have all your best TV shows running Fall to Spring, and all your most popular sports outside of the summer too?

What do you do during the summer?! Like...talk to people?
well, there's great summer shows like Monk, 4400 too. :)

but ya, it's all about the Fall thru Spring basically.
 
Hoo boy Chicago win 1-0 against the Revs, but the score was pretty deceiving. If not for a great game by our goalkeeper Pickens (my personal Man of the Match), it could have easily been 3-1 NE.

Back line looks vulnerable and our midfield completed more passes to Revs than Fire. They were completely unable to retain possession for any amount of time. Our forwards also played pretty disappointing.

I know it's just the first game, but we've had a pretty miserable preseason too.

REGARDLESS, we're at the top of the table for at least this week! :D
 
Congradulations to Pompey, they played well, but thats what is expected when we have richardson, fletcher and o'shea playing together. Yesterdays game and the game against roma goes to show just how important our wing backs have been this season. Evra and Nevilee have been superb at helping the wingers attack. Heinze and O'shea are not at the same standard at all.

Our performance was poor yesterday, but part of the blame has to go to Van Der Sar. He made exactly the same mistake he did against roma. The second goal we conceded was his fault too. Rio was clearly going to get the ball, so it was pointless for van der sar to come out of the goal.

Im pissed off about losing yesterday, but its not a disaster. The way that the fixtures have been arranged and the points difference meant that we could afford to slip up once, but only once. Now we've got a hell of a lot more pressure to win every game from now til the end of the season. We could still afford to lose to chelsea as long we win win all our games before then, but we would be living very dangerously when we play west ham because itas going to be a must win game. Other than the chelsea game, Im concerned about playing 'brough at home and everton away. 'Brough keep casuing us problems everytime we play them, whilst evertaon are a tough side to beat. At the end of the day we cant complain about the position we are in. Our destiny is in our own hands. The only people that can **** up our chances of winning the title are us.
 
Mama Smurf said:
So you guys have all your best TV shows running Fall to Spring, and all your most popular sports outside of the summer too?

What do you do during the summer?! Like...talk to people?

Weeds, Entourage and The Wire are on during the summer.... I should be good.
 
Great opportunity for Sevilla to back top of La Liga tonight - Barcelona were beat 1-nil by Zaragoza last night.

Of course, it's also a great chance for Madrid to close the gap to just 2 or 3 points as well :D

Sevilla v Santander
Madrid v Osasuna

Should be 3 points for Sevilla, and *should* be 3 points for Madrid, but with Capello in charge you never know - I bet he doesn't even start Robinho.
 
Bruce Arena needs to get a proven striker as soon as possible. Yesterday was the most frustrating game to watch and if I wasnt at a bar singing with my fellow Red Bulls fans my night would've sucked. Columbus had about 1 good chance the whole game and possession was about 70/30. It shouldn't have ended 0-0. Who do we have for forwards? A 17 year old, and two guys that are over 30 that are trying to prove that they're not washed up. I'm hoping something gets done before the trade deadline on the 15th, or we're just going to get a lot of 0-0 draws.
 
Osorio said:
Bruce Arena needs to get a proven striker as soon as possible. Yesterday was the most frustrating game to watch and if I wasnt at a bar singing with my fellow Red Bulls fans my night would've sucked. Columbus had about 1 good chance the whole game and possession was about 70/30. It shouldn't have ended 0-0. Who do we have for forwards? A 17 year old, and two guys that are over 30 that are trying to prove that they're not washed up. I'm hoping something gets done before the trade deadline on the 15th, or we're just going to get a lot of 0-0 draws.

You guys should use your 2nd DP slot for Borgetti. :)
 
La Liga is really hotting up now :D - Madrid beat Osasuna 2-0 tonight, but Sevilla only drew with Santander 0-0.

56 pts - Barca
55 pts - Sevilla
54 pts - Real Madrid
50 pts - Valencia, Zaragoza

No room for any mistakes now! I still think Barca will grind it out though - they have far the easier run-in; both Sevilla and Madrid still have games against Valencia (Madrid at home though) and Deportivo (Madrid at home again!).

Next week:-

Barca v Mallorca
Santander v Madrid
Valencia v Sevilla

If it gets to the last game of the season, then it's as follows:-

Barca v Getafe
Madrid v Deportivo
Sevilla v Zaragoza

Zaragoza are now on the same points as Valencia, so there is tons to play for!
 
luckily I wasn't here to see the game on Saturday, but I was unfortunate enough to be able to listen to it on the radio.

Needless to say, I'm scared. The season is not over by a long shot and at the moment I have no idea how the team is gonna be picking themselves up after 2 weeks like that. One horrible, lackluster performance followed by a defeat in a game that by all accounts we should have won five nil is difficult to take.

Bolton is breathing down our neck and I have no idea who is going to score the goals that are gonna keep us in 4th place. I've seen the highlights of the game and I still can't believe that we didn't score.

If we can't pick ourselves up now it also isn't looking good for next season, this team desperately needs some self confidence and believe if we are to challenge for the title next year, we absolutely must finish this season on a high for that. Our schedule doesn't fill me with confidence.

And to top it all off there are strong rumours about a possible takeover. ****ing hell.

On the the good news:
Arsenal's 37-year-old goalkeeper Jens Lehmann says he wants to stay at the club but is still waiting to be offered a new deal. (Various)

at least we won't have to waste our money on a new keeper and can put it where it is really needed.
 
hadareud said:
And to top it all off there are strong rumours about a possible takeover. ****ing hell.

I'd think that would be a good thing for you, it would give you more money for transfers, and you could compete with the Man U, Chelsea (and Liverpool judging by the amount of money they spend next summer).

It's happen to all the clubs, I'd say it's only a matter of time Arsenal are taken over.

I reckon you will beat Newcastle today, about 1-0.
 
I don't really see it this way, because Arsenal have chosen a different policy. Bringing young players through with one or two high quality signings each year should actually keep us in the fight. And with the new stadium we should have enough money to do that.

It might me a strange thing to say, considering I'm not English myself, but I really want the club to stay English. It's not about where the players come from for me, it's who leads the club, the history. So I would personally be very sad to see it happening. However, the 2 main shareholders have gone on record in the past to say that they are not interested in selling their shares and that a takeover "would be very unwelcome indeed" (Peter Hill Wood). So we'll see.

I am scared of the Newcastle game, I shall watch it in the pub with plenty of beer.
 
They could just be searching for more money.

I think you'll be fine, you have too much quality not to hang onto that Champions League spot. That West Ham game was a fluke, even though you did actually miss a lot of good chances, you also hit the woodwork twice and Green made a number of saves which, on any other day against any other goalkeeper, would have been goals. It's undeniable that you're missing your two best finishers, but you can't keep making as many chances as that without scoring.

Wenger's said he's happy with his squad and Arsenal fans seem happy with the way he does things too, but if next season you're 20 points off the lead again, something has to change. There are only so many seasons we can say youngsters just need to get more experience and new players need to get used to the league.

The more I see Arsenal, the more I think they actually have more problems than they'd care to admit. Some more crucial than others, but things which I think need sorting if they're going to challenge again.

I don't think finishing is as big a problem as people are making out. Take away the top two scorers from almost any side and they'll have a problem. I mean, you guys almost have as many goals as Chelsea as it is. Take away Drogba and Lampard and you take away over half of Chelsea's goals (obviously players taking their place would score, just not as much). That's not to say you couldn't improve on that, I just don't think it';s the main worry.

Anyway, here's what I think Arsenal need to sort out:

- New goalkeeper. Ok, Lehman might be staying another year, but he's off soon and you don't want to be stuck scrambling for a keeper when he goes. If a young enough, good enough keeper is available, snap him up. The last thing you want is to be like United between Schmeichel and Van der Sar.

- A tall, good centre back so Gallas can play at right back. This covers a few problems...strength in the air generally, strength in the air when both attacking and defending corners, and Eboue's defensive frailties. Eboue will be a fantastic reserve right back, and earlier in the season he looked like he'd make it for the first team, but recently I've not been convinced, I haven't even seen him bomb forwards as much as he used to and that's his strength.

- This is a minor one and maybe not necessary, but a left back. Clichy is good, better than Eboue, but I just don't see absolute top quality from him, not like I did when Cole played there. Now if every other player in the team is awesome then a good left back is good enough, but if there's someone world class available, it's a position which can be improved. I think the other big 3 teams all have better left backs, frankly.

- An experienced central midfield hardman. I think everyone here knows I don't rate Gilberto Silva all that highly, though I do think he's a good player. I just don't think he provides the cover that the Arsenal defence needs and he's certainly not a hardman, which Arsenal generally seem to lack, apart from mad Jens. You want someone who makes the crunching tackles, who the opposition are intimidated to go up against. Now I know there's Diaby and Denilson etc coming through and maybe one day they'll be two of the best players in that position in the world, but it's one of those positions where experience rules.

- A goalscoring winger. I've said finishing isn't too much of a problem, but it's rare nowadays to see a top side not having a midfielder who racks up the goals. United have Ronaldo, Chelsea have Lampard, Liverpool have Gerrard, Milan have Kaka, Barcelona have Ronaldinho, Lyon have Juninho etc etc. Now normally, I would just say a goalscoring midfielder, but you can't really do much to your central midfield in that way. You can't drop Fabregas, though he doesn't get many goals, and you can't play Fabregas as a defensive player so you need one of those alongside him. So really, there's no choice but the wings. It doesn't have to be a Lampard or Pires number of goals, about 8 league goals a season would be good enough to support the strikers, but someone needs to do it. Maybe Walcott will come on in his game and become that guy next year, maybe you'll have to buy. Ribery's probably the most heavily linked, but he's not really a goalscorer himself.

- An attacking central midfielder...sort of. For some reason Arsenal have a lot of defensive central midfielders, but Fabregas seems to carry the attacking threat alone from that area. Fran Merida might come through next year and that should be fine, but if not, buy the winger and move one of Rosiscky and Hleb over. These guys weren't wingers before they came to Arsenal, I don't understand what Wenger has against playing one of them in the middle when he thinks Fabregas needs a rest.

- A tall striker, a targetman. Basically, a player who doesn't really fit into Arsenal's style of play. the sort of player who can be thrown on with 20 minutes to go in matches like PSV, Blackburn, West Ham, when for some reason Arsenal's passing way just isn't working, and the ball can be swung into him, either to score himself or cause panic in the defence Crouch style so someone else is left free. Can score from those corners too.

So that's quite a lot of things. The buys would be a goalkeeper, tall centre back, possibly left back, hardman defensive midfielder, goalscoring winger, tall striker.
 
Pompey managed to beat us on saturday, but now they're losing 4-1 to ****ing watford. Looking at that result just makes me even more annoyed about saturday. Pompey only won 2 games in 2007; it should have been a relatively easy victory, yet we ****ed up.
 
A tall striker, a targetman. Basically, a player who doesn't really fit into Arsenal's style of play.

I always thought they saw Adebayor in this sort of role. They seem to go through phases of long balling it to him but it just never seems to work so he ends up trying to pick the ball up in midfield.
 
Lakitu said:
As much as I hate to admit it, Liverpool have got a team thats built for the champions league. In 2005 there was some luck involved in winning it, but they still played well in their games. However this year they look different; there's a greater sense of confidence within the team. In 2005 you were the underdogs, but this year Liverpool like like a big threat. I wouldnt be surprised if they won it.
 
Adebayor is tall (though only an inch taller than Henry, I mean tall like Crouch), but his strength seems to be along the floor, he has a lot of pace and skill.

Watford > Man Utd
 
celestial body said:
I always thought they saw Adebayor in this sort of role. They seem to go through phases of long balling it to him but it just never seems to work so he ends up trying to pick the ball up in midfield.
He's not been as good as they hoped. I like adebayor, but he's too inconsistant and in recent weeks, he has been dropping back into midfield or on the wing and he isnt really suited to that role. If trezeguet is available in the summer, then arsenal should really consider buying him. He's a lot like ruud; he wont work as hard as the rest of the team, but he knows how to get into good positions and he's an incredibly good finisher.
 
Mama Smurf said:
Watford > Man Utd
Bloody s****horpe are better than a united team with fletcher, richardson and o'shea playing at the same time.

Pompey looked like a different side today. They looked like they couldnt be bothered. Primus was arguably man of the match against us, but today he played like tit**** bramble.

EDIT: The second word of my post is meant to be scun'thorpe without the apostrophe , but it got censored :lol
 
Alan Hansen on Valencia - Chelsea:

"So while I think I'd rather be in Valencia's position, I would never count out Chelsea pulling through."

He thinks he'd prefer to be in Valencia's position? A draw away from home with a precious away goal and the home leg to come? He only thinks he'd prefer to be in their position? Of course you'd prefer to be in their position! They're basically winning, it'd be like halfway through a normal game saying "I think I'd prefer to be the side 1-0 up". There's no question, of course you'd prefer to be there.

EDIT: I think Arsenal are going to tear Newcastle apart today. 3-0.
 
Glad I missed the Arsenal game on Saturday - sheesh. Just when you think it can't get any worse. Here's to a reversal of form today against Newcastle. Come on you Gunners...

Onto MLS action. Goff of the Washington Post wrote up a summary of what happened on the weekend:

Steven Goff said:
MLS, Week 1

Some observations:

*Considering the weather conditions in much of the country, opening-day attendance was decent with an average of 16,109. The game-time temperature for matches in Colorado, Columbus and Chicago averaged 30, while the announced turnout was around 15,700. The one I am puzzled about is Houston, where 16,404 showed up to see the defending champions against a marquee opponent (Los Angeles) on a cloudy, 53-degree evening. I would have thought the advance sale would have approached 20K. D.C. United officials are expecting between 20K and 22K for their home opener this Saturday against Kansas City.

*Don't ever say Commish Don Garber doesn't care. He was in Denver for the Rapids' opener in their new stadium Saturday afternoon, then headed to the airport for a flight to Los Angeles for Toronto's debut at Chivas USA that evening.

*Will Chang, one of United's lead investors, is really getting into this soccer thing. He was in Guadalajara for the Champions' Cup match Tuesday, reappeared in Denver for the club's MLS opener and will be in Washington Tuesday for the annual kickoff luncheon.

*Maybe it was the chill in the air, but goal-scoring was certainly not plentiful -- 10 goals in six matches and a pair of scoreless ties. Not a good start for a league that has failed to average three goals per game over the course of a season since 2002.
Via the link, there's also a youtube compilation of all the goals from the weekend. Some nice one's in there, and those american football lines on the pitch still look awful.
 
That goalmouth scramble :lol

Really can't catch a break at the moment Arsenal. I do love a goalmouth scramble though when, somehow, the ball doesn't go in.
 
Baptista is playing just for shits and giggles, he's done nothing. Also, it's sad that Gilberto Silva had the biggest chances in this game and the last game...

Bolton is probably going to draw too which means that the next game will be interesting.
 
Mama Smurf said:
That goalmouth scramble :lol

:lol :lol :lol As a Gooner all I could do is laugh...our goal scoring drought has simply become comical now.

Here's some perspective on just how bad it's gone for us...our last two goals were from an own goal against PSV, and a fluke deflection off a Baptista shot from Diaby.

The last proper goal we scored in a game? Theo Walcott in the Carling Cup final. :lol

We are so ****ed...at this point I'm beginning to make UEFA Cup plans for next season. And even that might be optimistic. :lol
 
bud said:
Baptista is playing just for shits and giggles, he's done nothing. Also, it's sad that Gilberto Silva had the biggest chances in this game and the last game..
I didnt notice baptista was on until the camera zoomed in on him. He was useless.

Mama Smurf said:
EDIT: I think Arsenal are going to tear Newcastle apart today. 3-0.
Its good you didnt put money on that.
 
Cornballer said:
Come on! <-- vid of the ridiculous goalmouth scramble. This is ridiculous.
Solano is a legend. The first block was lucky, he was at the right place at the right time. The clearance off the line was good.
 
Seriously depressed right now...... I don't remember ever being this dissapointed with arsenal in my entire life...... At this point I'm saying we HAVE to bring in someone else who will give us goals other then Henry and Van Persie because without them we are showing there isn't exactly many in us...... SO horrid.
 
It'll be good to get Bendtner back, but I'm not expecting him to pitch in too many goals next season. Being in the Premier League for the first time is going to take some adjustment. Hopefully he'll prove me wrong, but I think asking for 10-15 goals from him is overly optimistic.
 
I don't know if anyone cares about the Championship, but it's a pretty interesting race.

Birmingham are throwing their promotion chances away at the moment, losing their last two games against nothing teams. They were poised to win the thing, not just get promoted, now neither's guaranteed. Here's the top of the table:

1 Sunderland--------42---24---79
2 Derby--------------42---16---78
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
3 Birmingham-------41---21---74
4 West Brom--------42---20---70
5 Wolverhampton--42---/-1---69
6 Preston------------42----9----68
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
7 Stoke--------------42---19---67
8 Southampton-----42----20---66
9 Colchester--------42----16---65
10 Cardiff-----------42----8----63
11 Sheff Wed-------42----3----62

The gaps are automatic promotion, play offs, and the rest are the ones who could realistically still make the playoffs.

There are 12 points left for most teams (Birmingham 15), so I'm gonna say only Sunderland, Derby or Birmingham can actually win it. I suppose a few of the other teams could make the automatic promotion spots, but it would take an almighty **** up from at least two of the three teams already up there to do it, so it's unlikely.

As for the playoffs...we could have Colchester in the Premiership next year :lol

Here are the remaining fixtures for Sunderland, Derby and Birmingham (and the positions of the teams they're playing, as you might not know at a glance who's good or not):

Sunderland

H QPR 18
A Colchester 9
H Burnley 17
A Luton 24

Avg: 17

Derby

A Ipswich 14
H Luton 24
A Crystal Palace 12
H Leeds 22

Avg: 18

Birmingham

H Southampton 8
A Leicester 19
A Wolves 5
H Sheff Wed 11
A Preston 6

Avg: 9.8

Keano's back baby! I don't know who's going to win it, Derby have slightly easier fixtures but Sunderland are a point ahead, but they're both well on track to make it.

Birmingham seem to be screwed though. Much harder fixtures, behind even if they win their game in hand...they might well have to go through the playoffs and the playoffs are HARD.
 
I have to applaud Roy Keane for completely turning around that Sunderland side. Going from last to first in a span of a season? Incredible.
 
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