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Official Football Thread 2006/2007 (Soccer)

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Aegus said:
It's amazing that Man Utd still really haven't found a true long-term replacement for Schmeichel after he left 8/9 years ago.:lol
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Because you cannot replace him. Arguably the best goalkeeper in the world for about 4-5 years. Brilliant at cross, shot stopping, coming for the ball etc, probably the greatest 1 on 1 keeper ever, nobody has ever matched his running out and smothering the ball technique. The game against Newcastle where he kept doing it to Ferdinand :lol

I could wax lyrical about big Peter all day long. Oh and the save against Rapid Vienna was better than Banks against Pele. Yeah I said it.


oh and Friedell for that save of the season gets my vote, Jussi Jääskeläinen runner up.

ps I've said before and I'll say it again, new threat should be created on the 1st August.
 
Schmeichel's the best keeper I've ever seen. Not necessarily the best ever, there are decades of football I've never seen, but if I was doing an ultimate all time team of players I've seen regularly, he'd be the keeper.

I like Arsenal's away strip, the white with maroon trim. Purely in aesthetic terms, but I realise Arsenal fans might not want their team playing in white.

There's talk of Bolton getting Cisse on loan for the season. If Liverpool do that, I think they're morons. If they can't sell him, send him somewhere else on loan, not to a club with a striker one of their main rivals want.
 
cybamerc said:
I don't understand why Alves is wanted by so many English clubs. Have they seen him play? Hell, have they seen him at all? He's tiny. He will get crushed. Maybe they will use him as a winger. Otherwise it doesn't make any sense.
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I know Benitez wants to use Alves more as a right winger than a right back, i think Chelsea want to genuinely use him as a right back though they've got plenty of wingers as it is.
 
Mama Smurf said:
There's talk of Bolton getting Cisse on loan for the season. If Liverpool do that, I think they're morons. If they can't sell him, send him somewhere else on loan, not to a club with a striker one of their main rivals want.
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Do you not remember Cisse? The guy cant score for buttons.
 
I think you misunderstood, I was saying that loaning Cisse to Bolton would make an Anelka sale much more likely. It's United who are the rivals, not Bolton.
 
!*%!^£$£&*%"£

Florent Malouda remains eager to join Liverpool, but says he still does not know if the club have made a bid.

The Lyon winger is looking to leave the French champions in order to test himself in another European league, and has made no secret of his desire to move to Anfield.

But the France international wants Liverpool to make their interest known to his club.

"There were contacts (with Liverpool)," he told France Football. "But I don't know if they have shown their interest directly to Lyon.

"Before being announced there, they should show interest! But Liverpool, why not? It is a great club."

However, Malouda admits he could be tempted to join any of Europe's top sides.

"People are used to making decisions based on the different leagues, but I would rather decide based on the clubs.

"Last term, the Italian season was not very exciting, but that didn't prevent AC Milan winning the Champions League."
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Come on Liverpool you slow....
cussing.gif
 
Apparently, Baptista played in the Pequeninos do Jockey youth team that won Gothia cup, 1993
(the world's largest youth football tournament for clubs). We played them in the tournament and they beat us by 16-0.
I don't know if that says more about my non-existant football career or Baptista's hunger for goals :lol.

I especially remember one sequence from the game where one of the Brazilian kids kicked the ball really hard and it hit our goalie’s, ahem, testicles.
He was lying there with pain and had to be carried of the pitch.
Perhaps it was Baptista who tried to score a goal ;)

4252194
 
I used to play against Bolton youth players (15, 16, 17) because when they were brought over from other countries or even just other areas of this country, Bolton would pay willing families to house them and my friend's family was one of them.

Needless to say they destroyed me, but I'm not sure I've seen any come through and this was a few years back. They could be in the lower leagues somewhere, I wouldn't know.

I've played against Paul Mariner and Mike Duxberry...but only after their careers were over when they were hired by my school to be our football coaches.
 
I nutmegged Matty Holmes (ex-West Ham). At one of those summer training camps, run by Martin Allen who my Dad was friends with.

Also at that camp we did this exercise where Martin threw the ball to you and said 'head' or 'chest' but you had to do the opposite (so he says 'head' and you chest it down). My friend got confused and just kinda thrusted his hips at ball, and he earned the nickname 'Willy-er' from Martin Allen.
 
I remember Holmes. He didn't play much for Blackburn, but I liked him. If I could be bothered I'd correct the wikipedia entry saying he played for Blackburn's championship winning side, he didn't join us until the summer after.

I've just been for an appointment with a new dentist, and she's German and hot. I have the best luck with that sort of thing, my doctor is hot (as was my past doc), my psychologist is hot, my dentist is hot and even the dental nurse was pretty cute. I mention her because I noticed she had a Hertha Berlin picture on her wall, so now I'm thinking hot woman, likes football, I speak German to a...well, not a good degree, a "get by" degree and I figure enough people over here are xenophobic enough about Germans that my odds improve.

So in 6 months time at my next check up, I am going to be in there.
 
Hah, damn my good teeth, I've never had anything done to them :( Maybe I should get into a fight and get a tooth knocked out, then I'll seem all manly too. Germans like getting into fights rig- NO! Bad Mama Smurf (I do like Germans, really, promise).
 
Looks like Barton's going to sign for Newcastle, he's at St. James' Park right now (and arrived in Sam Allardyce's car, so...)
 
don't worry, things can change quickly. I didn't have a filling in over 10 years, only went to the dentist to have my teeth cleaned. This year I had 3 fillings and one root canal! Great stuff.
 
Mama Smurf said:
Hah, damn my good teeth, I've never had anything done to them :( Maybe I should get into a fight and get a tooth knocked out, then I'll seem all manly too. Germans like getting into fights rig- NO! Bad Mama Smurf (I do like Germans, really, promise).
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ftowers1.jpg
 
I heard some funny joke about the England Squad today....

Alan Smith is expected to be selected in the starting line-up partnering Owen against Estonia.

Edit:

Oh bloody hell Rafa stop talking about the Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher re-signings and talk about NEW players. >_<
 
Estonia are a poor, poor team. But like any team (well, who aren't San Marino or Luxembourg etc), if they put 10 men behind the ball they can make things hard.

For that reason I think Dyer at right back is quite a good idea. We'll have 3 actual defenders in the team for the small amount of threat Estonia should pose on the attack, and with Dyer's pace overlapping and Beckham's passing accuracy we should cause them a lot of problems. Better than Carragher out there, who has neither the pace nor the passing ability to worry any team.
 
I think you're right, it is a good idea against a team like Estonia.

Quite a bold move by McLaren though, I wouldn't expect things like that from him.
 
If Bridge is fit to start, we should have plenty of width from the full backs going forwards. Which begs the question, why is McClaren still looking at Smith starting and not a tall man like Crouch?
 
I really don't understand why he would want to play Smith tomorrow.

It made sense against Brazil. Not that it worked in any way
 
I dont even understand how Smith got picked for the squad. He's shown no signs of former glory this season imo.
 
true, he never looked the same.

you do have a big problem up front though. Owen is able to play a game every other year, Rooney doesn't perform to his best in the England team, and is not a prolific scorer to start with. Crouch is Crouch and the rest is not good enough.

edit: I meant to say that Rooney is a decent goalscorer, but not prolific enough. not like Owen for instance.
 
No doubt we are severely lacking upfront, I dont see how you can solve the problem by picking a player who wasn't good enough for england BEFORE breaking his leg (that's smith not owen btw).

I think Johnsons injured, but him, Bent or Nugent would be a better gamble than Smith. Though i'd agree the first choice to partner Owen has to be Crouch
 
I didn't disagree, I don't think that Smith is good enough for England either. But I see what McClaren wanted to do against Brazil, with 2 quickish players upfront.

Of course he didn't take into account that Smith can't keep a ball for longer than 3 seconds. So it didn't work and Smith was the worst player on the pitch together with Lampard.

Against Estonia it would make little to no sense to play Smith, in my opinion
 
No chance this is a smokescreen of some sort? I've never been able to figure out why the roster for England tends to leak days before the matches - seems to give their opponents something of an upperhand as they know what to expect.
 
I love how Peter Crouch is probably thinking that he's finally done enough to justify being the third striker behind Owen and Rooney, but now again it seems he's stuck behind Smith.

What are the odds that after a move to one of the big four, Darren Bent leaps above Crouch in the pecking order?

Honestly, he's like the anti-Heskey or something. There was that period of a few years where, no matter what, Big Em would always be picked. Crouch is the opposite. Good thing he seems to be a quiet and hard working sort of guy -- he has good reason to bitch and moan about the lack of appreciation he gets at club and country, but never does anything of the sort.
 
I don't really like the guy, but Milan say they'll sell Gilardino if anyone offers £16m for him.

He has a good goalscoring record, in Serie A he's started 129 games (176 with subs) and has scored 82. That's 1 goal every 1.6 games from starts, 1 goal every 2.1 from all, and if I (dodgily) count each sub appearance as half a match, 1 goal every 1.9 games.

Even since he's gone to Milan where people might say he hasn't impressed as expected, he's still scoring 1 goal every 1.8 games from starts and 1 goal every 2.1 games from all apearances.

So he's probably a good buy for £16m, even if I don't like him. I imagine the only team that would interest him in England, has that much to spend on a striker and might actually want him is Liverpool.
 
Cornballer said:
No chance this is a smokescreen of some sort? I've never been able to figure out why the roster for England tends to leak days before the matches - seems to give their opponents something of an upperhand as they know what to expect.
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If ENGLAND have to resort to hiding their true line-up for the game against ESTONIA, they're ****ed.
 
Fowler said:
If ENGLAND have to resort to hiding their true line-up for the game against ESTONIA, they're ****ed.
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Fair enough. It just seems an odd strategy to hand your opponent the team sheet a week before the match. Then again, my national team (the US) is a team that's forced to react on the international stage rather than act (as England can since they typically have the talent advantage.)
 
Cornballer said:
No chance this is a smokescreen of some sort? I've never been able to figure out why the roster for England tends to leak days before the matches - seems to give their opponents something of an upperhand as they know what to expect.
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Their training sessions are spied on, as it gets closer to the match McClaren (obviously) has to keep together the team he's thinking of playing and we can get a good idea of what the line up will be.

I imagine you could do it with any team, but I don't know if many countries have as insanely an obsessive and invasive media as England do.
 
Mama Smurf said:
Their training sessions are spied on, as it gets closer to the match McClaren (obviously) has to keep together the team he's thinking of playing and we can get a good idea of what the line up will be.

I imagine you could do it with any team, but I don't know if many countries have as insanely an obsessive and invasive media as England do.
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On the football board that I post that focuses on the US team, people can typically sort out most of the starting lineup a few days before matches based on the teams during scrimmages. However, it's not as if the papers pick up on this and publish the lineups, but at the same time it's not as if there's any demand for that sort of coverage over here...
 
they could train behind closed doors if they wanted, some teams choose to do so.

But it's pretty normal with internationals that you have a pretty good idea who's starting.
 
Just to illustrate the all-pervasiveness of media coverage nowadays, Barton is currently having a medical at Newcastle. We've had a news report of him arriving at the ground, now we knowm he's having a medical...I mean, in 5 years time I wouldn't be surprised to see satellite's tracking player's cars on the motorways to see what direction they're heading.
 
Oh god not Gilardino okay he's got a better goal scoring record than most of our strikers but he did the most outrageous dive in the CL this season that would make Arjen Robben blush and made me physically sick.

And btw he was ten metres at best from anyone when he hit the dirt.
 
whitekit1.jpg


This picture brings balance to the universe.

Wow, I went to bed and this thread went nuts.
 
Cornballer said:
Fair enough. It just seems an odd strategy to hand your opponent the team sheet a week before the match. Then again, my national team (the US) is a team that's forced to react on the international stage rather than act (as England can since they typically have the talent advantage.)
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Fair enough. Just to clarify though, I wasn't slamming you for bringing it up, more slamming the thought of McClaren trying that tactic.

I agree in general though that it's something that should be hidden more often at the top level from the opposition.

Mind you, sometimes you can do the opposite to devastating effect. Before the Champions League Final in 1999, Bayern Munich manager Ottmar Hitzfeld named his team days in advance. Rather than give Ferguson the time to prepare for the eleven that Hitzfeld would send out, Ferguson over-thought things and almost crippled his team, flipping things around so that Beckham played in the centre (and not where he had been so devastating that year on the right), played Ryan Giggs out of position on the right, and put Jesper Blomqvist (remember him?) in Giggs' natural position on the left. Bayern ended up dominating most of the game... but as we all remember, Ferguson's substitutions righted the ship and won the game in the end. Doesn't change that he fumbled the initial gameplan, though...
 
Fowler said:
Fair enough. Just to clarify though, I wasn't slamming you for bringing it up, more slamming the thought of McClaren trying that tactic.
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No worries - I didn't think you were. :) I just find it interesting that so much information is readily available to fans and media these days.

hadareud said:
great stuff, thanks Cornballer
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Yeah, he did a fun writeup. Some of my favorites...

Best sausage-related incident
The VIP lounge of second division Offenbach's Bieberer Berg had to be evacuated after a sniffer dog became very interested in a suspect package. In a classic Germanic twist, the box turned out to be full of sausages and a bit of ham.

Best form of dissent
Willy Sagnol to referee Markus Merk: "Ref, we'll substitute."
Merk: "I don't see your sub."
Sagnol: "No, we're substituting you."

Most profound analysis
"We've rarely lost a game when we kept a clean sheet" - Oliver Kahn.

Most appropriate question
With Bayern 2-0 down at Schalke after 45 minutes, Felix Magath shouted at his players: "There is no effort and no tactical discipline." Mark van Bommel shouted back: "Tactics? What tactics?"

van Bommel is hilarious - he has 2-3 great quotes in there... :lol
 
good links today Cornballer, saves me looking stuff up myself.

Also includes the Ferdinand own goal. What I really loved about it is that he tried to blame Van der Saar for it. Shows you the kind of guy he is
 
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