Football/Soccer Discussion Thread

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I haven't seen the De Gea blunder yet, but apparently it was a long shot again, which is certainly worrying, however, a bit of magic by Young saved us.
I would have expected a dominant victory really, but at least the rest of the 'big' teams all failed to win. Only 3 teams won this weekend, pretty interesting static.​
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I've seen the whole 90 minutes, so I'll explain what went on.

For the de Gea "blunder," the press is making a total meal out of it. Mistakes are costly, and it did look like he fumbled a bit, but if he did save it it would've been deemed as a wonder save. He needs more time to settle and he needs to ignore the press trying to stress him. I'd say give about 5-10 more games and we'll see how he fares.

Injuries to Vidic and Ferdinand are unfortunate but we have young bloods who can fill those roles. I really don't hope they get injured also.

We were utterly dominant up until about 25-30th minute, then WBA started pressuring us then it was bit even. But in second half we lost some of the luster we had, and was admittedly lucky to lead late on with unfortunate OG from WBA. Young assisted both goals, and quite deserved MOTM, but WBA's Tchoyi and Long played really well too, with latter scoring. We had 65 percent possession, and could've led 0-3 before Long's goal but haven't made the most out of the dominance we had.
 
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So, first Clásico of the season, Madrid 2 - 2 Barça. It's a wonder that Madrid didn't win 5-2 or something, they made an incredible pressure, had most possession and shots on target, and created serious danger in a metter of seconds every time they recovered the ball off a weird and out-of-shape Barça squad. But they only managed to score 1, and then Villa got a wonder off his shoes, and Messi laughed all the Madrid defenders off for an unbelieveable 1-2 at halftime. Alonso managed to even things up shortly after the second half started, and the referee could have conceded a couple of penalties, one for each side, and shown a couple of cards to Pepe.

But, all in all, it's a wonderful result for Barça- playing away, after a bad training month, with some players like Alexis or Messi making their first appearance in the season, with Xavi, Busquets, Piqué and Pedro benched... and they still did not lose. With Cesc around next Wednesday, who knows how it will end.
 
Went said:
So, first Clásico of the season, Madrid 2 - 2 Barça. It's a wonder that Madrid didn't win 5-2 or something, they made an incredible pressure, had most possession and shots on target, and created serious danger in a metter of seconds every time they recovered the ball off a weird and out-of-shape Barça squad. But they only managed to score 1, and then Villa got a wonder off his shoes, and Messi laughed all the Madrid defenders off for an unbelieveable 1-2 at halftime. Alonso managed to even things up shortly after the second half started, and the referee could have conceded a couple of penalties, one for each side, and shown a couple of cards to Pepe.

But, all in all, it's a wonderful result for Barça- playing away, after a bad training month, with some players like Alexis or Messi making their first appearance in the season, with Xavi, Busquets, Piqué and Pedro benched... and they still did not lose. With Cesc around next Wednesday, who knows how it will end.
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Messi did not do that much -- Khedira basically offered him the assist, and with the confusion of three or four Madrid players, he managed to squeeze it out and score. Villa's goal was very well-executed.

Madrid deserved to be winners in this fixture, but they were reckless in both of Barcelona's goals. I was surprised at the great performance they displayed, despite Barcelona missing a few key players. Madird missed a lot of chances, something very much expected from them.

Pepe did deserve a card of course (always does), but so did Valdes -- you cannot deny (like most Barcelona fans) that he [softly?] elbowed Ronaldo at the penalty box, or attempted to (Ronaldo was off balance but you can clearly see how Valdes raised his elbow to obsturct him). Nevertheless, it was a indeed penalty. Pepe last season missed Alves and he got a red card -- of course, Alves' playacting helped the referee reach that verdict. Pedro, I think, also deserved a penalty.

And the tremendous irony I felt when reading this: https://www.goal.com/en/news/12/spa...referees-lack-character-at-santiago-bernabeu-

On a completely different note, Manchester City thrashed newcomers Swansea City 4-0 -- Aguero couldn't have asked for a better debut with two great goals and an assist.
 
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I watched City vs Swansea game. Impressive debut for Aguero. If he keeps that up then I guess they don't have to worry about Tevez anymore.
 
That is true, they won't need him at all, but let's not forget that Man City aren't the best team yet; they feel like a group of amazing players and not a amazing team.​
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Captain Fabio said:
That is true, they won't need him at all, but let's not forget that Man City aren't the best team yet; they feel like a group of amazing players and not a amazing team.​
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Agreed. They have the best players, but are missing a core element to become a strong contender for the title, which is team chemistry. World class players aren't the only thing required for a club's success.

Moving away from City, Chelsea is still a force to be reckoned with. They drew 0-0 at Stoke this Saturday, but I have to admit they were bit unlucky. I think Torres is starting to pick up his form and I think he will be a goal threat this season (lest he gets injured). With new manager Villas-Boas I think they still have chance to beat us this season, though I still think United is the strongest contender. Bit sorry to hear about Mikel's father being abducted in Nigeria though. Hope everything turns out okay for him.
 
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Well not replacing O'Shea is probably going to hit United hard now.

Vidic, Rio and Rafael all injured.

Man City are going to have a pretty good chance at the title this year.
 
2Cool4Mewtwo said:
Moving away from City, Chelsea is still a force to be reckoned with. They drew 0-0 at Stoke this Saturday, but I have to admit they were bit unlucky. I think Torres is starting to pick up his form and I think he will be a goal threat this season (lest he gets injured). With new manager Villas-Boas I think they still have chance to beat us this season, though I still think United is the strongest contender. Bit sorry to hear about Mikel's father being abducted in Nigeria though. Hope everything turns out okay for him.
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I agree to a certain extent that Chelsea can still be a serious title contender this season. However, I'm not particularly impressed with how they approached the game against Stoke -- the tactics Villas-Boas used are nothing different from last year with the 4-3-3 (or 4-1-2-3 or something like that) formation. The best player on the field was arguably Torres. The reason I agree that he might be fit again to display what he used to is Stoke's strong back-line. Coping with that defense is not easy at all.

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Madrid could have won, but again they were too reckless. Their unjustified tantrum was the reason they failed to walk out with the trophy. I felt Madrid played better overall in the two legs, but this is football -- you can't ever rule out Barcelona. Real are looking good for the upcoming season and they have a real chance at achieving glory this season.
 
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Arsenal are in for a world of pain this year. Just a feeling I have.

Also, Cesc must be happy- in 28 minutes played for Barcelona, he has already won as many titles as he did in 8 years for Arsenal.

(Also David De Gea, I heard that dude was good. If you don't mind losing his amazing abilities at stoping penalties, you can send him back to us, we won't mind.)
 
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I've expected us United to win (actually I couldn't even sleep properly because of MU vs Arsenal) because of their depleted side and all, but never like this. 8-2 is just stunning and unreal. Hope we can do this against other teams as well.
 
8-2 was a crazy result, I couldn't believe it.

Anyway, it's deadline day and I always love it. :D

Good news for Scott Parker, no massive transfer yet though.

Hoping Boro will nab a striker.
 
Meanwhile, here in Spain, 18 teams are criticizing the league and asking for more TV rights money, after Madrid trounced 0-6 the relegation prime suspect Zaragoza and Barcelona destroyed the Champions League team Villarreal 5-0 with just one defender on the pitch.

They say that the fact that both teams earn an extra €100 million a year more than the second best-paid team kind of unbalances the competition, and it's hard to deny their claims.
 
Went said:
Meanwhile, here in Spain, 18 teams are criticizing the league and asking for more TV rights money, after Madrid trounced 0-6 the relegation prime suspect Zaragoza and Barcelona destroyed the Champions League team Villarreal 5-0 with just one defender on the pitch.

They say that the fact that both teams earn an extra €100 million a year more than the second best-paid team kind of unbalances the competition, and it's hard to deny their claims.
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Is this seperate from the player strike?

One way or another Madrid & Barca will end up with more money anyway.
 
Yeah, the strike was to get some pay guarantees for some players- there are a bunch of team with serious economical problems that haven't been paying their monthly salaries.

But I think it's possible that some old teams try something to balance the TV rights benefits- in the PL, the difference between the best and the worst paid team is 20 million. Here, it's 135 million.
 
Whew, mini-bump.

Yesterday we won 5-0 against Bolton on their ground). Last season they gave us a hard game and we had to work to get a 2-2 result, but this time around we just steamrollered them. I'm hoping we can do this against Benfica and hopefully Chelsea also.

Spoiler:


On another note, Aguero is very good, but let's wait and see if City can continue to maintain their current form. Last season they folded over by January, so I'm expecting same to happen around this season, but you never know.

On a different note (lol, again), La Liga is in shambles. Barca and Real Madrid are basically on their own league while teams below struggle to catch up. Last season, points difference between Real Madrid (2nd) and Valencia (3rd) was 21 points. That's a huge gap. Not to mention TV broadcasting money (as Went mentioned). Barca drew against Real Sociedad at their ground, but I wouldn't be surprised if they win next 20 games or something (including against Real Madrid).
 
As a note, Barcelona have quite a strange habit of drawing and/or losing the first match of the season after the international games. Last year they lost at home against a now-relegated team this same week, so it's not that much of a surprise XD
 
Barcelona's defense -- without Pique and Pujol -- is absolutely pathetic. They should have signed a defender this summer. Also, Sanchez is facing a two-month (eight weeks) injury, so that will be an early slap on the face for Barcelona, albeit Pedro can do his part just fine.

The next fixture against Milan should be interesting but I expect a narrow Barcelona win.
 
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