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Official Football Thread 2007/2008 (Soccer)

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Looking at the Superliga standings, I can't believe how bad Chivas and Club America played!

Chivas at least had the excuse of using a reserve squad, but America was fielding a near-full strength team. Some Americanistas are blaming the loss of Blanco as the reason for such poor play, and seeing how he's transformed the Fire over a single weekend, I'm starting to believe that may be it.

I'm sure the event organizers are thrilled the 2 biggest draws are out already. :lol

I'm sure they are praying nightly that the Gals make the final and that Goldenballs is actually ready by that time.

What a bunch of great games we've had, the tournament's proving to be a success.
 

Mama Smurf

My penis is still intact.
Osorio said:
Jaaskelainen saved both of them so no. Plus they were bullshit calls.

No they weren't! I remember those penalty calls, they were definites. Which is why it was so funny that Kevin Nolan got sent off for protesting.

....it was less funny when we missed them.

So you picked the game which proves my point. They were playing the old system for this game, and it proved how inadequate it really was.

I don't know what you mean by I picked the game, I saw Lyon and Bolton were playing and watched it. I haven't even seen any other Bolton games available.

Who are these great wingers you've got anyway? Wilhelmsson? He's not that good. I don't even know who the other winger is.

You should try and buy Pedersen and Bentley, I hear they're great wingers!

Davies is an ugly striker. He still gets the job done when he needs to. He's just horrible as a lone striker and he won't have to do that anymore.

I thought his job was scoring goals.
 

psycho_snake

I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
Cornballer said:
I guess they could line up in a 4-4-1-1.
thats what i was meant to say, but forgot to include it. A 4-4-1-1 would work fine. hleb can play behind the striker, but then the problem with that is that who do you put on the wing? You could use walcott and maybe van persie or rosicky, but rosicky does better in the middle.

He's much happier and effective playing through the middle. If Wenger is going to put him out on the wing, he's wasted out there. It's almost not worth it.

I read this on an Arsenal blog this morning....

That a good article.

Watch this youtube compilation of him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fBkxo4XCS0

You see him play on the wing and through the middle. I wouldnt say he's a waste on the wing, but he's a better player when he gets to play through the middle. In that inter game hleb was a big threat throughout the whole game. On the wing he can dribble, but the problem is that his delivery isnt good. Not just that but he doesnt cut in enough and have a shot, If he's playing at the centre, then he can run directly at goal and take a shot, just like he did in that compilation.
 

Osorio

Member
I'm saying if you saw the other games in that tournament you would've seen differently. As for the wingers Wilhelmsson is better than you give him credit for and of course there's Diouf with Ricardo Vaz Te on the bench. Vaz Te turns out to be a much better winger than a striker . And Davies does score goals they're just always headers and rebounds and that's what I mean by him being an ugly striker.
 
psycho_snake said:
thats what i was meant to say, but forgot to include it. A 4-4-1-1 would work fine. hleb can play behind the striker, but then the problem with that is that who do you put on the wing? You could use walcott and maybe van persie or rosicky, but rosicky does better in the middle.
Walcott, Eboue, Eduardo, Clichy, or Gibbs(?). Walcott and Eboue are the natural choices, otherwise someone is sort of playing out of position and Gibbs is very raw. That's what I see as a problem for Arsenal this season - Rosicky and Hleb play better through the middle, but Arsenal are short on wingers and there's a lot of competition for spots in the center of midfield already.
 

psycho_snake

I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
i cant wait for the United vs Inter game tonight. fergie might rest key players for the community sheid, but I doubt he will. I think all the main players will play, but some of them might get taken off. The oldies like giggs wont play the whole game.

Mama Smurf said:
Looking forward to Man Utd - Inter tonight. Nani, Anderson and Hargreaves won't be playing, but it's still two champions of the big leagues facing off.
Well if thats the case, then our midfield will probably be carrick and fletcher in the middle with ronaldo and gigs on the wing. The upfront is going to be rooney, but I dont know who else he's going to put. Will he use smith even though it looks like he will leave?
 

Osorio

Member
Outdoor Miner said:
Looking at the Superliga standings, I can't believe how bad Chivas and Club America played!

Chivas at least had the excuse of using a reserve squad, but America was fielding a near-full strength team. Some Americanistas are blaming the loss of Blanco as the reason for such poor play, and seeing how he's transformed the Fire over a single weekend, I'm starting to believe that may be it.

I'm sure the event organizers are thrilled the 2 biggest draws are out already. :lol

I'm sure they are praying nightly that the Gals make the final and that Goldenballs is actually ready by that time.

What a bunch of great games we've had, the tournament's proving to be a success.
I've watched almost every game (missed the Pachuca-Chivas game) and they've all been exciting matches. Next year should be even better because the entrants wouldn't be decided on invitation but on results.

Btw, I'm predicting a Houston and Morelia win tonight. (**** DC!)
 

Mama Smurf

My penis is still intact.
If you get Eduardo tomorrow, and I think you will, I don't think there's a problem playing Van Persie up front alone with Hleb behind, as he'll contribute enough from the wings. And it's not like he'll be atuck out there as a winge,r like Pires he'll be expected to get forwards into the box at every opportunity, and Hleb can cover him when that happens.

If you don't get permission for Eduardo, Rosicky and Walcott can still probably pick up a decent amount of goals from the wings.

Osorio said:
And Davies does score goals they're just always headers and rebounds and that's what I mean by him being an ugly striker.

He's scored 36 goals in 164 appearances for Bolton. That's a goal every 4.55 games. In footballing terms, we call that rubbish.

I think we've covered Bolton and Blackburn though. Who can we have a go at next who can't destroy us in arguments? Wes? Villa spent a lot of money to finish below us last year.Hmmm, probably won't work, they did beat us twice...
 

Mama Smurf

My penis is still intact.
psycho_snake said:
Well if thats the case, then our midfield will probably be carrick and fletcher in the middle with ronaldo and gigs on the wing. The upfront is going to be rooney, but I dont know who else he's going to put. Will he use smith even though it looks like he will leave?

I'd guess:

----------------Van der Sar--------------

Brown---Ferdinand---Vidic---------Evra

Fletcher---O'Shea---Carrick---Ronaldo

------------Rooney----Giggs-------------

Possibly Giggs and Ronaldo the other way round. Another one I just thought of:

----------------Van der Sar--------------

Brown---Ferdinand---Vidic----Silvestre

Ronaldo--Fletcher---Carrick-------Evra

------------Rooney----Giggs-------------
 
Good news if that buyback clause in Rossi's contract is true. I still think the little Italian has what it takes to play at the top, just never got a run at Man Utd. Hopefully he'll do as well as Forlan did there.

Oh btw Forlan > Torres
 
So is there anyway to watch Sopcast or myp2p on a Mac, or am I screwed? I suppose I could try to track down a copy of Boot Camp if it comes to that...
 

psycho_snake

I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
City are going to buy some guy called corluka! He's some defender from dinamo zagreb.

So they've bought bianchi, gelson, geovanni, bojinov and corluka. Is teher anyone I'm missing?
 

Mama Smurf

My penis is still intact.
psycho_snake said:
City are going to buy some guy called corluka! He's some defender from dinamo zagreb.

So they've bought bianchi, gelson, geovanni, bojinov and corluka. Is teher anyone I'm missing?

Petrov.

And Elano's likely to sign.
 

psycho_snake

I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
Pretty good business by city. Its a shame that they couldnt keep Disitn or barton though. Both of them have been such good players for city.

I wonder how biachi will perform. He did quite well in serie A, but not all people that succeed there will succeed in england. City desperately need him to be a frequent scoring striker because last yrar they really suffered by having a very poor forward line.
 
163fs753052.jpg


Caption contest! :lol
 

psycho_snake

I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
The latest story involving heinze is that he will be part of a swap deal that will see him going to Juve and chiellini comiong to United. That sounds like a good deal for United. I'd prefer to have chiellini instead of heinze. I dont think heinze can stay at United. He seemed desperate to move away from United and its even worse that he wanted to move to Liverpool. if he stays with us we cant use him because he doesnt seem to want to play for us and that will probably mean that he'll be sent to play in the reserves. If the deal between united and Juve can be done, then we sell heinze and then replace him with chiellini. Its better than selling him to liverpool or keeping him in the reserves.
 

Ryck

Member
How long till the Man U- Inter game starts?? Im on the damn west coast.


This whole Hienze thing is getting ugly why not just ship him off to spain for a few million pounds I really don't see what sticking him in the reserves is gonna besides waste his talent ( and our possible income)

Im glad about Rossi I really didn't want to see him go I guess we will sign him back in a few years when he's lighting up La Liga.
 

psycho_snake

I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
Ryck said:
Im glad about Rossi I really didn't want to see him go I guess we will sign him back in a few years when he's lighting up La Liga.
yeah that clause in his contract works well for us. If everything goes well with the tevez deal, then he wont get to play much because tevez and rooney will be our main partnership. He's going to spend most of his time in the bench. Now he gets to go and play regular football in la liga, so in a couple of years time, he could turn out to be really good.

I'm surprised that he ended up at Villareal. I expected him to go back to parma or another italian side. He can speak the language so it would have been easier for him to settle into the country.
 

Ryck

Member
psycho_snake said:
I'm surprised that he ended up at Villareal. I expected him to go back to parma or another italian side. He can speak the language so it would have been easier for him to settle into the country.
Me too! plus La Liga is a bit slower I would have preffered for him to temper his skills in a faster paced league. Serie A is no Epl but La liga teams tend to give you tons of space, transitioning back to EPl style might be difficult imo.

Cornballer said:
West Siiiiiiiiiiiide!

[/url]
*W*
 

psycho_snake

I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
Here is one of football365's funny features to keep you busy until the United - Inter game starts. Its the 50 things that they want to see happen that propably wont happen. Some of them are quite fuuny.

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,12994_2635768,00.html

1) Martin O'Neill and his lawyers to stop reading Football365.

2) Sheffield United to give it a bloody rest.

3) A Premiership manager to be evicted from the stadium mid-way through a fixture for flouting the smoking ban in the dug-out.

4) Chris Hutchings' case against Wigan for wrongful dismissal to be thrown out of court after the club's lawyers present a montage of Titus Bramble. The case creates worldwide headlines as it is thought to be the only time that Bramble has been involved in a successful defence.

5) Coleen to officially enter rehab suffering shopaholicism.

6) Sir to donate his wine collection to F365.

7) Jonathan Woodgate to tearfully confess live on TV that he made the biggest mistake of his career signing for Boro. He will now sign for anyone else...including Wigan.

8) Following legislation in Parliament that only 'fit and proper' persons can take charge of a professional football club, the government to confirm that they specifically had Bryan Robson and Peter Reid in mind.

9) On the basis that it would be more entertaining than the actual match itself, Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez to host a joint press conference ahead of Chelski's encounter against Liverpool.

10) Don King to lead calls demanding a re-match once both men are released from intensive care.

11) Avram Grant to plonk himself in Jose Mourinho's seat just before the match with Birmingham and then refuse to budge.

12) Peter Kenyon to be locked in a very small room with Jose's hungry dog.

13) In an inadvertent re-enactment of the Cold War between Russia and the United States, Craig Bellamy and Lee Bowyer to commit to a policy of their Mutually Assured Destruction following a row about parking spaces at West Ham's training ground.

14) Stanley Victor Collymore to make that long-awaited comeback.

15) In another long-awaited comeback, it becomes fashionable for footballers to wear moustaches again. Even better, a Premier League footballer confirms his real name is Albert. With a hard 't', not as in Alberrrr Luque.

16) Gary Neville to prove he has a self-deprecating sense of humour by growing a beard...an undertaking that takes a full season.

17) Jermaine Jenas to 'do a Scot Gemmill' and personally phone Football365 to exclusively reveal: "I'm not the worst player in the world."

18) Martin Jol to look at either the camera or interviewer rather than the floor during a post-match interview, leaving us free to do something other than count his chins.

19) More than 15,000 football fans to be detected in the area of Wigan.

20) Steve Coppell to speak with a semblance of emotion.

21) A cup of coffee to be purchased inside an English football stadium for less than £2.

22) Fairy Liquid to be unveiled as Blackburn Rovers' new sponsors on the basis that it's the only way they won't be filthy every week.

23) Michael Owen to say something interesting.

24) The BBC to stop harping on about John Motson's bloody coat on the weekend of the third round of the FA Cup.

25) Steve McClaren to undergo a facelift which removes that ridiculous grin.

26) Fulham Northern Irish to move Craven Cottage lock, stock and barrel to Belfast and then begin playing in green.

27) Only prawn sandwiches to be sold at Old Trafford when Roy Keane makes his long-awaited return with Sunderland.

28) Jamie Redknapp to be replaced by Louise Redknapp in the pundit's chair.

29) Roman Abramovich to finally speak in public...with a high-pitched squeaky voice which makes David Beckham sound masculine.

30) David Beckham to return home from America after just one week because "it's sh*t, and George Bush is making me look clever".

31) Robbie Savage to finally realise that nobody gives a sh*t whether or not play he plays for Wales again.

32) An Arsenal player (any Arsenal player) to admit that "the win's more important than the performance".

33) Sven-Goran Eriksson to slide on his knees across the Eastlands turf after a crucial Citeh goal.

34) Robbie Keane to learn how to do something more impressive than a glorified roly-poly.

35) Pedro Mendes to go through a whole season without being the victim of some terrible injustice/GBH.

36) Leslie Grantham to publicly withdraw his support from West Ham on the grounds that they've gone "a bit too sleazy".

37) John Terry to take to the pitch actually wearing goalkeeper's gloves.

38) David Moyes never to send Alan Irvine to be interviewed by MOTD on the grounds that even he couldn't give a monkey's what he thinks.

39) An electric shock to be automatically administered to any pundit who says the words "he'll be disappointed with that".

40) Adrian Durham to go down to Anfield and call Jamie Carragher a bottler to his face.

41) Brian Swanson to finally come home after spending the last year stalking David Beckham.

42) West Ham to announce the signing of Ian Brady, Charles Bronson and Chris Langham. Just to add a bit of 'bite' to their midfield.

43) Leeds United to go a whole season without going bust. Yes, Ken, administration counts.

44) The seats in the press box at Middlesbrough to be ripped out and replaced with beds. If you're putting us to sleep, at least make us comfortable.

45) The same to be done for the rest of the Riverside after a petition from the fans.

46) Andriy Shevchenko to return to Milan...and score 30 goals.

47) A new feature-length special of Rio Ferdinand's wind-up show to be commissioned, aimed specifically at merking Sir.

48) The new mellow Jose to appear in the dug-out wearing Bermuda shorts, drinking malibu and toking a fat one.

49) Thaksin Shinawatra to open a permanent office for Amnesty International at Eastlands.

50) The phrase "And the Carlos Tevez saga has finally come to an end" to be said on Sky Sports News.
 

psycho_snake

I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
Ryck said:
Me too! plus La Liga is a bit slower I would have preffered for him to temper his skills in a faster paced league. Serie A is no Epl but La liga teams tend to give you tons of space, transitioning back to EPl style might be difficult imo.
But la liga is probably the most technical league, so he will certainly learn something from there. I'm not that bothered about his decision to go to la liga. I'm just happy that we have a clause to buy him back after a few years when he's been playing first team football.
 

Ryck

Member
16) Gary Neville to prove he has a self-deprecating sense of humour by growing a beard...an undertaking that takes a full season.
:lol :lol


psycho_snake said:
But la liga is probably the most technical league, so he will certainly learn something from there. I'm not that bothered about his decision to go to la liga. I'm just happy that we have a clause to buy him back after a few years when he's been playing first team football.
Yeah that really is the most important thing... I guess I'll be happy as long as he doesn't develop a fear of rain.
 

h0pper

only Fernando's ripe melons are good enough for me
Glad to see Adu move on somewhere where his game will be elevated. He's a good player. Not the best but a step up from the talent we usually see being exported out of America.

I actually played against a team in a U23 league this summer which consisted of all native Portuguese guys, but they had moved here a few years ago. They were all rocking Benfica, Porto, and Sporting Lisbon gear. The Portuguese seem to be welcoming him so maybe this could form a nice bridge for the two countries in some way.
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
O happy day for Americans with Dish Network as it has started carrying Setanta as of today on channel 406. And the best part is we get a free preview for the month of August. They're showing the ManU-Inter game right now.
 

psycho_snake

I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
I want rio to read that list of 50 things that we want to see happen so he can get the idea of making a show where just merks sir. he should also include a special section for gary neville, he looks like the type of guy that could get tricked quite easily.
 

Ryck

Member
Guileless said:
O happy day for Americans with Dish Network as it has started carrying Setanta as of today on channel 406. And the best part is we get a free preview for the month of August. They're showing the ManU-Inter game right now.
Oh damn I might have to get that for the office.... wait the game is on right now? I thought it was at 8pm uk 12noon us (pst) :(
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Well it was the ManU TV feed and they may be doing a preview show before it actually starts, but I saw the intro just a few minutes ago before I had to leave and come back to work. I don't know how long the preview show will be before kickoff. It started out with a Star Wars crawl, it was pretty cheesy.
 

Blablurn

Member
53skjug.jpg


from yesterdays match cologne vs. bayern munich. bayern lost 3:1 but the team consisted almost of youngsters. it was funny though! but next time i wanna see ribery and co!
 

Zoolaga

Member
Guileless said:
O happy day for Americans with Dish Network as it has started carrying Setanta as of today on channel 406. And the best part is we get a free preview for the month of August. They're showing the ManU-Inter game right now.

We just started getting Setanta for free on Virgin Media in the UK. They aren't showing the United-Inter game though.
 
Guileless said:
O happy day for Americans with Dish Network as it has started carrying Setanta as of today on channel 406. And the best part is we get a free preview for the month of August. They're showing the ManU-Inter game right now.
Definitely good news. I'm a DTV guy, but allowing Dish Network people to view Setanta is great for a lot of people here in the US.
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Setanta has different channels for the UK and North America with different content. The NA version airs ManU TV. FYI Ryck they're reairing the game tonight at 7:30 central so you can watch it then if you avoid all info and scores.
 

Karakand

Member
Outdoor Miner said:
What a bunch of great games we've had, the tournament's proving to be a success.
Since the CONCACAF Champion's Cup is pretty meh I'm really excited about the future of the SuperLiga after what I've seen.
 

h0pper

only Fernando's ripe melons are good enough for me
Man U should destroy Inter. It's funny. Inter has a good lineup, but they cannot compete anywhere outside of Serie A.

I'm even questioning how good they'll be in Italy this coming season.
 

Ryck

Member
Guileless said:
Setanta has different channels for the UK and North America with different content. The NA version airs ManU TV. FYI Ryck they're reairing the game tonight at 7:30 central so you can watch it then if you avoid all info and scores.
Thanks for the info Im trying to get a stream here hopefully.
 

psycho_snake

I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
starting line up for united is:

Van der sar
Brown
Vidic
Ferdinand
Evra
Eagles
Carrick
O'shea
Ronaldo
Giggs
Rooney
 
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