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Football/Soccer Discussion Thread

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Ivysaur

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Either Manchester United or Barcelona.

Both are effectively one point away from winning the league. :P

I could have added that they both won with two goals, but I was afraid someone would say that MU had conceded one or something XD

Just a fun coincidence.
 
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Congratulations to Manchester United and Manchester City (not a united or city fan though) for winning the Premier League and FA Cup respectively.
I don't support any teams but I really hate Chelsea a lot. Especially the owner, Roman (something?).
 
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Big day in English football today; the relegation battle.

There are 5 teams that could be relegated with three having 39 points and two having 40. It is going to be very, very interesting.​
 

bobandbill

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Indeed it is - quite a lot at stack (well, mainly in terms of $$$ but hey!) for the clubs - always interesting to see how that turns out.
 

Ivysaur

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La Liga already ended- these are the results:

Winner: Barcelona (96)

CL Group Stage: Real Madrid (92), Valencia (71)
CL Play-off: Villarreal (61)
EL Play-off: Sevilla (58), Athletic Bilbao (58)
EL Qualifying: Atlético Madrid (58)

_____________

Relegation: Deportivo La Coruña (43, after 20 years), Hércules (35, right after promotion), Almería (30, after 5 years).

Yesterday 6 teams were fighting to avoid the last spot, but Valencia quickly beat Depor (Aduriz, min. 4) and set everything straight pretty soon, and becoming the first team to ever get relegated in Spain with 43 points. It will be a pleasure for Madrid since Deportivo had only lost to Madrid at home twice in the last 20 years.

Promotion to La Liga: Betis, Rayo Vallecano. The last spot will be decided after a play-off round.
 
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Well, that was one hell of a final ending to the Premiership. Results on the final day are:

Aston Villa 1-0 Liverpool
Bolton 0-2 Man City
Everton 1-0 Chelsea
Fulham 2-2 Arsenal
Man Utd 4-2 Blackpool
Newcastle 3-3 West Brom
Stoke 0-1 Wigan
Tottenham 2-1 Birmingham
West Ham 0-3 Sunderland
Wolves 2-3 Blackburn

As it finishes in the league:

Champions: Manchester United with 80 points.
CL - Chelsea and Manchester City
CL Playoff - Arsenal

Relegations: Blackpool (39 points), Birmingham (39 points) and West Ham (33 points).

Sad times! I really wanted Blackpool to stay up because they are really fun to watch, however, I can't be sad that Manchester United won the League by 9 points.​
 

Weeaboo Name

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Sad times indeed, I was looking forward for the trip to Blackpool next season. Using family to get cheaper football tickets is wrong.
 
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Its a shame for Blackpool, I can honestly say I wanted us to lose today so they stayed up.

It was a crazy day though, in about 5 minutes the teams in the relegation zone changed completely. I'm glad Wolves stayed up but as I said I wish Blackpool had too.

Even crazier is the fact that we may have two europa league representatives playing in our second division next season, Birmingham (Carling Cup) and Blackpool (possibly through fair play league although Fulham may have won it).

Anyway, a great season for Manchester United and today Owen looked like he might still have something left in him.

The CL Final to look forward to next. :D

EDIT: Also the spanish league must have been even more of a two team league this season.

38 points between 1st and 5th, to put that into perspective, there are 38 points between 1st and 16th in the EPL.
 
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That sloppy back-four they call a defense cost Blackpool another chance in the EPL. I seriously hoped Manchester United lose today just for Blackpool to stay up, despite the very low probability of that happening - 55 points out of a possible 57 at Old Trafford is remarkable for United. Oh well, let's hope they can emerge back from the Championship next season.

As for West Ham, they simply were the weakest team this season. Despite the decent Winter signings to reinforce the squad, they failed to escape relegation. Birmingham, the Carling Cup champions, were another victim of the relegation battle. To win a cup against Arsenal then get relegated is utterly unacceptable; adding to that a possible Europa League place next season. On the other side, it's good for them to get relegated. Why? So they can learn how to attack properly, and that happens against lesser sides in weaker leagues.

On another note, congratulations to Manchester United for the 19th title. In my opinion, they did not play the best football [Arsenal did], but they were definitely the most consistent, most ebullient, and dominant among the teams.

Manchester City also made history by achieving third place, with the same points as Chelsea who took second place [by goal difference]. City might be a serious title contender next year. Tottenham entered EL, while Liverpool lost to Aston Villa, which I was thrilled about. I am not a fan of Liverpool, at all. West Brom made a remarkable comeback against Newcastle. That was ironic.

Looking forward to next season. I'm anticipating an even more interesting EPL.
 

Ivysaur

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Even crazier is the fact that we may have two europa league representatives playing in our second division next season, Birmingham (Carling Cup) and Blackpool (possibly through fair play league although Fulham may have won it).

That is certainly going to be strange XD I'll keep an eye on them.

EDIT: Also the spanish league must have been even more of a two team league this season.

38 points between 1st and 5th, to put that into perspective, there are 38 points between 1st and 16th in the EPL.

To be honest, after the Barcelona 5 - 0 Real Madrid, it was more of a 1-team league. Madrid never seemed any threatening, and they have ended just four points away because, after qualifying for the CL final, Barcelona have been playing with their reserve team (literally, most players in the last matches were from the Second Division Barcelona B team), collecting a bunch of draws and even a defeat that made the final result look closer than the 9 points it was after the Bernabéu match that pretty much closed up the competition.
 

Ivysaur

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That makes it sound worse than the SPL. :D

Mourinho's team should have gelled for next season and give them a little more of a challenge though.

Actually, most of his problems came from Mourinho's mismanagement and random issues... he played a handful of matches without a single striker because he wanted to get a new one (Adebayor), leaving Benzema on the bench, he got a few draws without Xabi Alonso even though he was perfectly fine, and the killer defeat was against Sporting Gijón, a team he had insulted previously in the season for "not attempting to play against Barcelona", in a match they lost 1-0 at Camp Nou, so they were specially angry when they arrived in Madrid. Not to mention the 5-0 disaster against Barcelona, either.

Last year, Pellegrini put up a better challenge on the league. It's true that the other competitions were a disaster, though.
 

Hiche..

 
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The criticism surrounding Mourinho is getting ridiculous. First off, the so-called Barcelona legend Johan Cruyff cannot seem to keep his mouth shut about Madrid and Mourinho's tactics and 'antics'. We all know Mourinho's ferocious comments and lack of sportsmanship if we can call it that, but that doesn't justify the fact that Cruyff keeps criticizing Mourinho. No one is denying the wrongdoings of Mourinho sometimes, but this is starting to get on my nerves really. Cruyff waits for a chance to comment on Mourinho; I don't know why, but people are really starting to ridicule him.

And what's more funny is now Allegri, AC Milan's coach, also attacked Mourinho and labeled him as pathetic and arrogant. Where did that come from? And since when does he talk?

Bottom line is that Mourinho's misconducts aren't going to stop anytime soon, or ever. He always had this nature in him.
 
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The hype is starting to build up a bit more for the final and I'm getting excited. :D

I'm still trying to guess United's team, Fergie has a lot of choices to make for the final, I'm guessing it will be fairly simple for Guardiola.

RB - Go for one of the attack minded twins or reliable O'Shea?

CM - First of all, use two or three? Then the ultimate choice between Carrick, Anderson, Park, Giggs, Scholes and Fletcher. Each with their own little conundrums such as whether to consider Fletcher so soon after his return from that mysterious illness.

Then the wingers, he'll want to play Nani & Valencia but is it a good option against a team that will have the majority of the possession? Giggs will have to be considered if he doesn't get a Cm role as well.

Its basically attack minded or defence minded and either team would give huge opportunities for Barca.

Now for my personal opinion on how we should play,

First of all, 4-5-1/4-3-3 (depends how you look at it), if we play 4-4-2 then it just says to Barcelona 'Go ahead, controlling the game, tear us apart.'

Who Should Play -

GK - VDS - Obvious really.

RB - O'Shea - I expect we'll be on the back foot for most of the game so it makes sense to use the defence minded full back. Rafael or Fabio would probably have a high risk of getting sent off anyway.

CBs - Vidic and Ferdinand - Again obvious.

LB - Evra - Obv.

RW - Valencia - Whether we go out attacking or not, Valencia will probably play as he does track back, he should provide a good threat on counter attacks and to be fair, he doesn't have much rivalry for his position anyway.

CM (Probably more a DM really) - Carrick - Maybe a bit of a risk as he has had a bad season but he has been pretty good in the cl and he is more reliable than most other options. Good ball-winner as well.

CM - Park - Simple, if we're going to be ball chasing why not pick the guy who works 110% hard for 90 minutes?

CM
- Anderson - Carrick is far from attack minded and Park is an all-rounder so you have to have some sort of attacking threat, these days only Anderson can really provide that from CM so he is another obvious choice for me. Scholes' passing ability will be missed but if he tries anything like in the Fa Cup Semis then he'd be off soon anyway.

LW - Nani - I know Giggs will play whether its CM or LM but no matter how much of a legend he is, he simply shouldn't. He isn't really quick enough anymore for a match of this calibre and at CM (were maybe his speed wouldn't be as neccessary) he isn't as good as the other natural CMs. Not to mention the whole affair thing going on for Giggs. Nani therefore gets the spot by default (and because in a slightly defensive team, he provides an attacking outlet)

ST - Rooney - Obvious really and also he can drop deep to help the midfield if they are in real trouble.

Scholes and Giggs can close the game out for the last ten minutes if we are winning. If we are losing, stick Hernandez and Rafael on and just go for it.

I think that would be a fairly strong gameplan and we could actually get more than 30% possession if so. If some of the Barca players are unfit (unlikely) then Giggs probably could play.

/random long post

Probably tl;dr but whatever. :D

Any opinion on the Barca team from Spain, Went? Or will it be generally the same as usual?

EDIT: Hi Wenty
 
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Ivysaur

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Ohai Nuke- sorry it took me a while to reply, I was watching an interview with an ols Spanish player- he was talking about the match, and he pretty much agreed with my thoughst XD

The only questions here are about Abidal and Puyol, both are back after rather long and serious injuries so one of them could be replaced by Mascherano and the other one could be on the bench waiting for the other one to ask for a sub. Otherwise, everything is the same you'd expect: same team, same plan.

-------------Valdés
Alves - Piqué - Mascherano/Puyol - Mascherano/Abidal
-----Xavi - Busquets - Iniesta
-----Pedro - Messi - Villa

They'll need to put some pressure on Manchester to prevent them from playing the ball easily- that's what they do best, and if they don't, they'll have to stand another long wave of attacks, as it already happened in Rome. Their strong point is that they know perfectly what to do and how to do it, so it's up to the other team to stop them. Mentally, that's alwaays a good moral boost.
 
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I wasn't even aware Mascherano played centre back.

Is Maxwell injured or something, surely he could be considered for left back?

Also, no comment on the link?? We're stealing your player. :D Its a shame its not Aguero.
 
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It's a good signing by Manchester United. I hope he does not disappoint, though. He's still young and to 'guard' the back of the net of the Red Devils isn't easy. Aguero, as reported by Goal.com, is heading towards his city rivals and that was confirmed by some teammate of his, yesterday. A big mistake that would be unfortunately. I'd much rather see him in the likes of Chelsea or Arsenal or even Tottenham, albeit the only teams that can actually afford his buyout clause without any money shortages afterward are Real Madrid and Chelsea - maybe Arsenal if they sell some players.

I don't like Maxwell. I'd trust Abidal on the left back - he's got pace and a hell of cross. That will be needed if he's up against Valencia or Nani from United.

Another interesting tidbit I read from Goal.com the other day is the immediate sacking of Ancelloti after their loss at Everton. Why that happened is beyond me. The Russian owner hungers for Champions League glory, and that won't be achieved under this kind of money-spending hierarchy.

And a question: is Pedro set to leave Barcelona? Villareal's Rossi seems to be on his way to the Spanish champions, as reported. With Bojan trying to squeeze his way into the first team, I don't see Pedro continuing to play for Barca if Rossi were to be signed.
 
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Ivysaur

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If I had to choose between the World Champion who gave Barça 2 titles alone and Bojan, well, uh... I wouldn't doubt it for a second. Still, nothing is known about Rossi yet other than rumours, so yeah.

And I didn't see that link before, but I knew David was leaving for MU. Good luck to him, and it's not stealing if you pay €20 million for him :P

About Agüero though, our president is doing his best to boycott his transfer to Madrid, by the simple method of charging them the taxes, effectively doubling the price. If they are ready to pay €75 million to have a 6th/7th striker on their team, it's all theirs. Otherwise, I'd rather see him abroad.
 
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It's a good signing by Manchester United. I hope he does not disappoint, though. He's still young and to 'guard' the back of the net of the Red Devils isn't easy. Aguero, as reported by Goal.com, is heading towards his city rivals and that was confirmed by some teammate of his, yesterday. A big mistake that would be unfortunately. I'd much rather see him in the likes of Chelsea or Arsenal or even Tottenham, albeit the only teams that can actually afford his buyout clause without any money shortages afterward are Real Madrid and Chelsea - maybe Arsenal if they sell some players.

I don't like Maxwell. I'd trust Abidal on the left back - he's got pace and a hell of cross. That will be needed if he's up against Valencia or Nani from United.

Another interesting tidbit I read from Goal.com the other day is the immediate sacking of Ancelloti after their loss at Everton. Why that happened is beyond me. The Russian owner hungers for Champions League glory, and that won't be achieved under this kind of money-spending hierarchy.

And a question: is Pedro set to leave Barcelona? Villareal's Rossi seems to be on his way to the Spanish champions, as reported. With Bojan trying to squeeze his way into the first team, I don't see Pedro continuing to play for Barca if Rossi were to be signed.

Ancelotti's sacking wasn't really immediate, it had been coming a long time but I believe Abramovic was just delaying it until the end of the season to keep some stability. Still a bit unfair on Ancelotti but to be fair he has led the best squad in the division to second (and nearly third), someway off first.

As much as I marveled at Bojan's tricks when he was seventeen, he hasn't really proven much since.

If I had to choose between the World Champion who gave Barça 2 titles alone and Bojan, well, uh... I wouldn't doubt it for a second. Still, nothing is known about Rossi yet other than rumours, so yeah.

And I didn't see that link before, but I knew David was leaving for MU. Good luck to him, and it's not stealing if you pay €20 million for him :P

About Agüero though, our president is doing his best to boycott his transfer to Madrid, by the simple method of charging them the taxes, effectively doubling the price. If they are ready to pay €75 million to have a 6th/7th striker on their team, it's all theirs. Otherwise, I'd rather see him abroad.

De Gea's agent has said he hasn't agreed anything and the president has said that he hasn't heard about it from De Gea or United so perhaps it isn't on after all. Seems a bit odd that Fergie would say he is coming if he isn't though. Perhaps, the president is just trying to keep these deals under wraps, I doubt it is good for him to let the fans know two good players are leaving.

Agüero could go to Man City for that kind of money, their strikers haven't been firing on all cylinders and Tevez & Adebayor have already said they want to leave. I wouldn't be too shocked if it happened.
 
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