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Official Football Thread 2006/2007 (Soccer)

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Back from holiday. It's really time for the Premiership to start, I can't wait and I'm getting quite nervous now.

I hope that Cole and Reyes are both gone by Saturday, not that I hold a grudge now that they've turned their back on Arsenal but it's really distracting from what's really important.

I think it's a very good time to sell Reyes, we should be able to recoup what we've paid for him. I'm not so sure this would be the case in a couple of years time. He had a strong start, but he's never been one of my favourite players. His constant diving and stupid smirking will not be missed. He should be in a team with Christiano Ronaldo. Having said that, it's a shame that it didn't turn out the way it should have, he's very talented - but he obviously never enjoyed the premiership..

Alot has been said about Ashley Cole's departure. He's been excellent for us, so if the deal works out I won't be too pissed about him (I thought differently a few weeks ago though). In this case the shame is that he seems to think he is bigger than anyone or anything else. But whatever. I hope we don't step down from the 25 million. If Chelsea really want him they will pay it anyway.
 
England team for tomorrow (Ashton injured):

Robinson
Neville
Ferdinand
Terry
Cole
Gerrard
Lampard
Hargreaves
Downing
Defoe
Crouch

Sounded like Ashton would have been in there if not injured, probably for Crouch (though that wasn't said).

Gerrard on the right, which is interesting. We know he can do it, the question is, is the team stronger with Gerrard slightly out of position but in the team, or with him out of the team and a true right winger in there? I'm really happy to see a Hargreaves/Lampard central midfield anyway.
 
Sounded like Ashton would have been in there if not injured, probably for Crouch (though that wasn't said).
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Yeah it was

McClaren said: "The injury to Dean has really clouded the morning. It's always disappointing when a young player is injured and

"Yes, Dean would have started tomorrow - we did some work with him yesterday and were going to work on him again today. These things happen in football, though, it's very disappointing and we are all very sorry to see it happen."
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DAMN IT.

THIS CLOSE TO GETTING RID OF CROUCH!


*punches wall*


Better go fix up my fantasy league team if Ashton is gonna miss this weekend.
 
Hargreaves has basically said that he wants to move to the premiership. Hopefully fergie will take note, Hargreaves would be perfect for manchester United.
 
I meant it wasn't said that he'd be in for Crouch, just in. I only suspect it would have been him and Defoe, but it could have been Crouch and Ashton going to start for all we know.
 
Mama Smurf said:
Gerrard on the right, which is interesting. We know he can do it, the question is, is the team stronger with Gerrard slightly out of position but in the team, or with him out of the team and a true right winger in there? I'm really happy to see a Hargreaves/Lampard central midfield anyway.
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Im not too sure. Lennon is proving to be a very good player, but his only problem is that he lacks experience. Im not sure who I would rather see play on the right wing. Lennon is very quick and skillful, but gerrard has more creative, accurate passes and crosses along with better long range shots and he can also cut into the midfield to help the central guys out. Gerrard has also got the experience.

Despite all the criticsm lampard got during the world cup, I think he is an excellent player when he has got a defensive/holding midfielder playing alongside him like hargreaves. Unlike gerrard, lampard isnt as versatile, he can play an attacking midfield role, so gerrard wont be able to play in the middle with lampard if you want to get the best out of lamps, but its fine because gerrard can be taken out of his natural position without being put on the bench because he can play on the right wing.

Mclaren has got time, so the best thing he can do is to change and experiment to find out what works best. We have got a squad capable of winning the euro, its just a matter of the manager getting the best out of players. As long as he isnt scared of putting players on the bench in order to put together the team that plays the best football then we will have a real chance.
 
Quick, send up the Carlton Cole signal!

EDIT: Oh man, Yaya Toure has joined Monaco for a measly £3m. Wenger didn't even think he was worth that? I'd be pretty pissed off at some of the players getting away if I was an Arsenal fan.
 
Rooney and Scholes both banned for 3 games. Charlton, Watford and Spurs (eep).


yet again common sense goes out the window whenever the FA deals with manchester united.


Rooney's wasn't even a booking, Schole's should have been a 2nd yellow aka 1 match ban.
 
psycho_snake said:
Yeah I knew you wasnt around last year, when i meantt you didnt post here last season I meant at gaf. I doubt you would have liked me to take the piss out of villa, but you understand why. They were pants last year, but things look good for you. You do have a decent squad, but new manes need to be introuced and they have got two weeks to do so. Have Villa even been linked with any player?
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O'Neill is very interested in bringing midfielder Stilian Petrov from Celtic to Villa. And with this snippet I found it should be quite possible:

some newspaper said:
Randy Lerner has promised Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill a £50m transfer kitty and a five-year contract if the American billionaire takes over the club.
Click to expand...

Although with a long takeover that money may only be available around Christmas or Summer next year. However we should still have the funds to bring in one guy this summer anyway, even if the takeover wasn't taking place.

Now we just need Villa to take 3 points away from Arsenal at their new ground on opening weekend :D
 
Mama Smurf said:
Quick, send up the Carlton Cole signal!

EDIT: Oh man, Yaya Toure has joined Monaco for a measly £3m. Wenger didn't even think he was worth that? I'd be pretty pissed off at some of the players getting away if I was an Arsenal fan.
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With all the gems Wenger's managed to unearth the last 9 years for mere pennies, it's hard for me to get pissed at him. That said, you'd think Yaja would've been an easy buy if he'd offered the same coin. Guess he just didn't have total belief in him. Or maybe he's saving up his ducuts for one big signing...who knows?




MrPing1000 said:
Rooney and Scholes both banned for 3 games. Charlton, Watford and Spurs (eep).


yet again common sense goes out the window whenever the FA deals with manchester united.


Rooney's wasn't even a booking, Schole's should have been a 2nd yellow aka 1 match ban.
Click to expand...

I suppose the FA doesn't wanna look like they're playing favourites. But from all accounts Rooney's booking was bullshit. Give him a game if you wanna appear to be fair, but giving him the full three is just ridiculous.

Meanwhile England's U21 team tied 2-2 against a country I'd never heard of before this week in Moldavo. My boy Theo Walcott not only started, but scored 3 minutes in with a header. He didn't see too much of the ball in the first half apart from that as the service was pretty shakey. In the second half he played more on the wing and helped setup a couple of decent chances. I thought Routledge looked outstanding in the match as well...great pace, and a willingness to cut inside and take it in deep. Still, you'd like to think that England's biggest youngster squad could beat ****ing Moldavo, which sounds more like a female body part then an actual nation. Couple bad defensive miscues lead to the goals, and they were lucky to hang onto the tie in the end. To be fair though most of the England squad have only played a handful of matches since last season (I assume Moldavo's had their season going for a while, as their passes looked a lot crisper). Anyway, it was great to see Theo scoring...hopefully hhe suits up for the Gunners in their second leg CL match next week.

71688.jpg
 
Match fitness. Chelsea was only playing their third game of the preseason sched, while the MLS players were in mid-season form. It makes a world of difference.































That's not to say I didn't laugh out loud at the result. :lol
 
Shinobi said:
Match fitness. Chelsea was only playing their third game of the preseason sched, while the MLS players were in mid-season form. It makes a world of difference.




That's not to say I didn't laugh out loud at the result. :lol
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Not saying I disagree with you completely, but that excuse is given wayyyyyyy to much weight. Like most of Chelsea's players weren't just in a World Cup the month before.
 
radicalbunny said:
Not saying I disagree with you completely, but that excuse is given wayyyyyyy to much weight. Like most of Chelsea's players weren't just in a World Cup the month before.
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To be honest with you, I've heard this "match fitness" term thrown around more often in the last three months then the rest of my entire life combined. So yeah, I think it has been given a bit more weight then it's really worth.
 
Shinobi said:
To be honest with you, I've heard this "match fitness" term thrown around more often in the last three months then the rest of my entire life combined. So yeah, I think it has been given a bit more weight then it's really worth.
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Has the same excuse been given for Barcelona (1-1, 4-4 and 4-1) or is that considered a good run?
 
jamesinclair said:
Has the same excuse been given for Barcelona (1-1, 4-4 and 4-1) or is that considered a good run?
Click to expand...

Of course...same with Real Madrid.

I don't write it off totally has an excuse...but it has become a bit of a crutch lately. At some point superior talent should be able to conquer all.




Mama Smurf said:
Moldova
Click to expand...

The only reason why I'd care to get the spelling correct is because it's the team Walcott got his first England goal against. :lol
 
Bruce Arena is being very vocal about the US Soccer Federation since he took the job at Red Bull New York. He had an interview with Grant Wahl for SI.com Since it's ****in' huge I'll just post the link

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/grant_wahl/08/15/arena.qa/index.html

I guess this was pretty interesting:
The national training center [at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.] is a joke in terms of a national training center. It's an amusement park. That has to be the foundation of that organization, which it won't be...Everything running through it, from the X Games to tennis to this to that. That's not a national training center. Which is a shame, because there are resources to do that right. It's always been a sticking point. So what I'll do is, I'll try to demonstrate with this club how you do that stuff.
Click to expand...
 
Arena is a joke. I hope his tenure at RBNY is short and sweet (sweet for his haters that is).

That last page is comedy gold. His comments about the USMNT make him look reallly bitter.

Yeah Bruce, your 8 years with the team will be a long-standing "golden age" in American not to be surpassed for decades.
 
Ummm I wouldn't mind if he stayed if he created some good results for the team. But I agree that he is not humble and doesn't try to be so he will get people to dislike him. Is that bad though? This league needs some character.
 
Well he certainly succeeds in getting peeps to dislike him. :lol

Despite his high-opinion of himself, I'd still take him over what we have in Chicago right now. :(
 
I hope it happens, would love to see him in the EPL, even it is with the Red Devils. Maybe this news will help sell some of the 30,000 unsold tickets for today's game. :lol
 
MrPing1000 said:
Hello hargreaves :)
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What a great signing that would be. If it's already got through to the stage where Hargreaves is considering it, can we assume Bayern have accepted whatever United have offered? I'm surprised they'd be willing to let him go after losing Ballack already, but maybe they want the money to buy elsewhere.

Shinobi said:
Maybe this news will help sell some of the 30,000 unsold tickets for today's game. :lol
Click to expand...

This reminds me of the days when England used to play all their friendlies at Wembley. If we were playing a big side it was fine, but as soon as you got out of the top sides in the world, attendances came nowhere near capacity.

Then England went on the road. And it was brilliant, because it was full capacities everytime. Partly it was down to the reduced stadium sizes, but I firmly believe it was mainly down to fans from around the country getting the chance to go and see their national side on their doorstep. No one in Newcastle was going to make an hours long journey both ways on a Wednesday night with work the next day to see England play the Ukraine in a friendly, especially when it's on TV, but they'd love to go see them at St. James' Park.

Places all around the country got the chance. It was brilliant! St James' Park, Old Trafford, Anfield, Villa Park, the Walkers Stadium (Leicester), Portman Road (Ipswich), the City of Manchester Stadium, the Stadium of Light, St Mary's, Elland Road, Pride Park (Derby), White Hart Lane...so many fans had the chance to go to games.

Now though, TheFA seem to have forgotten about this. The last 5 home games have been in the north-west, 4 of which were at Old Trafford. The friendly at Greece is at Old Trafford. The two qualifiers in early September are at Old Trafford! They're just targetting fans who've had plenty of chances to go see England recently and, if they want to see them, they'll pick a game that matters like one of the qualifiers rather than some friendly against a middling side. It wouldn't even have been so bad somewhere else in the NW, they could have probably just made capacity at somewhere like Anfield, but Old Trafford's capacity is so huge now that I don't know what they were expecting.

Blablurn said:
bayern said no. so: forget it my friends ^^.
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Is that like when they said how Van Nistelrooy wanted to join them?
 
**** yes! This is great, Harhgreaves he is just what we need. Ever since the world cup ended Iv always wanted to see carrick play for us. He is just what we need. There is a little problem at the moment because Bayern have said that they wont sell him, but all teams say that when their players are linked with another team. He said that he wants to go earlier in the week so there is little point in bayern trying to keep him.
 
I don't understand, why would Hargreaves say he's considering a great offer if Bayern haven't accepted one? You're not allowed to talk to another team without another club's permission, so they've either let him and are lying, he's been tapped up and was pretty stupid to say it, or he never actually said that and the paper just made it up.

Ghosts Gaudy Misfits - Ghost
ThugsWithSkill - Mama Smurf
Chicago Crúz - radicalbunny
The Wajiros - Osorio
Notvery Athletic - MrPing1000
Great King Bowsers - Great King Bowser
FC United - jey_16
Killbot Utd - Newbie
Teenage Armchair Honved Fan - DCharlie
Ryck Fc - Ryck
Wax Free United - Wax Free Vanilla
mo's ho's - psycho_snake
Evolution Buff Horns - seanoff
Crys Carlos - Crys
Melbourne United - tracky_dacks

I figure this might be it for the fantasy football league, and 15 teams is a good number. There are some regular and semi-regular posters missing though, if anyone still wants to join better make it fast.
 
jamesinclair said:
Has the same excuse been given for Barcelona (1-1, 4-4 and 4-1) or is that considered a good run?
Click to expand...
The American tour was just for marketing purposes...Add to this the fact that Barça players had to face a lot of matches in a few days and in different places...


BTW, I would like to join this league ;P
 
Timbuktu said:
Bayern is telling Hargreaves to forget it

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/4798403.stm

"Owen has a contract until 2010 and he will complete it. The issue is closed."

:(
Click to expand...

I figure they weren't going to give him up when he's tied up for so long. Bayern have been pretty vocal regarding the current state of affairs in Bundesliga, losing top names and having trouble attracting top talent. I'd imagine losing out on Van Nistelrooy further hardened their stance on the issue.
 
So who do we think will take England set pieces now? Will it be like United after Beckham left, everyone taking it in turns because there's no clear choice (probably solved now Carrick is there)?

Hargreaves can take corners, I don't know if he still does for Bayern as I haven't seen him play for them for so long, but he at least used to be their first choice for that. And he's too short to be any use in the box and doesn't exactly have much of a longshot on him, so I'd be surprised if he doesn't get that role. Maybe along with Downing.

Inevitably Downing will get crossing free kicks where a left footer is best, other crossing free kicks will probably be Lampard. I don't much like Lampard's free kicks to be honest, but Gerrard's taller more use in the box from that sort of situation (not that Frank isn't decent in the box too). It could of course always be Downing so Gerrard can go into the box and Lampard can hover on the edge ready for any balls that come out.

As for actual chances to shoot on goal...can't really see how it could be anyone but Lampard or Gerrard (currently, Rooney will have a claim when available). I'd really, really prefer Gerrard, Lampard either seems to sky free kicks over the bar or get a lucky deflection the few times he does score from them. Can't really see either of them curling it in like Beckham did though, they're kind of power all the way.
 
Tonight, the final match of Copa Libertadores 2006.

Last week, International beat Sao Paulo 2-1 in Morumbi. Tonight they play in Porto Alegre.

The away rule is not in effect for the final.

I believe the game is at 9:45, like all the other games (8:45 EST)
 
Select results from todays finished games:

Euro 08
Faroe Islands 0 - 6 Georgia

Under 21
Greece 0 - 2 Ireland
Hungary 5 - 0 Finland

Friendlies
Finland 1 - 2 Northern Ireland
Norway 1 - 1 Brazil
Czech Republic 1 - 3 Serbia
Ireland 0 - 4 Holland
Italy 0 - 2 Croatia Italy sucks
Bosnia-Herzegovina 1 - 2 France
England 4 - 0 Greece
 
Not a very good second half. At least Greece were better and tested us, but god we suck at defending corners.

I just don't know why we're so bad at it. We have tall players, it used to be one of our strengths....we've got to get that sorted. Better teams will punish us for that (and they nearly did anyway, Cole cleared two off the line).

Didn't think we closed down fast enough second half, though I realise it's early in the season so maybe we weren't fit enough, and I didn't understand bringing on Richardson and Lennon for Downing and Defoe, that left us 5 in midfield with only Crouch up front, and he likes to come and get the ball so most of the time we had no one up there. Please don't suck at subs too, McClaren.

Oh well, first half was great.
 
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