Football/Soccer Discussion Thread

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Went said:
This season is being very weird. Levante, the poorest team in the country (under administration) has comfortably been in the CL zone since day 3, Villarreal have died since they sold Cazorla to Málaga, Barça is playing relatively badly away (except in the Bernabéu, but that's their backyard in recent years) and Osasuna, after 5 years of surviving relegation right the last day, are now dancing in the Europa League places.

Oh, and there are rumours of Mourinho leaving for MU at the end of the season, being replaced by Joaquim Löw at the Madrid bench.
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Sounds like it has been a lottery like the Championship.

Had no idea that Cazorla had that much impact. Surely Nilmar and Rossi would still be good enough?

mondays suck said:
We wouldn't be too fond of Jogi Löw if he'd leave us for Real, trust me. Right now, after 2011 having been a very successful year for our national team, he's among the, if not the most popular person in the country - that popularity would suffer quite a lot...
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I don't Löw can take too much credit. Germany have been on the up for a while thanks to their youth revolution a while back. I fully expect them to win the world cup in 2014.

Liam Crawford said:
Anyone heard of a recent 36-point deduction to a Swiss team called FC Sion? Do read about it if you find an article. Irrelevant of the ongoing discussion but this was too surprising to ignore.

Back on topic, I also heard of Mourinho's departure but I'm betting this will pass as just a rumor, I guess. the last conference he said he is focused on Madrid now and leaving them throughout one of their best seasons would be unfair and cruel to Madrid. I just hope that if he leaves, someone as good as Löw would replace him.
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The Swiss FA were backed into a corner really because if they didn't punish Sion, the other Swiss teams would be banned from continental competitions.
 
Nuke said:
Sounds like it has been a lottery like the Championship.

Had no idea that Cazorla had that much impact. Surely Nilmar and Rossi would still be good enough?
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Well, they were seriously injured in the first month (and won't be back for a few months still)- they even had to play City in the CL with some players from the reserve team. That also affected a great deal.
 
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Nuke said:
I don't Löw can take too much credit. Germany have been on the up for a while thanks to their youth revolution a while back.
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...which was started at the end of the dreadful Rumpelfußball era in summer 2004, when Klinsmann (04-06) took over - and Löw became his assistant. Klinsmann admittedly was full of the innovative ideas we needed but only really excelled in motivation, so assistant was not an as negligible role as one might think. 7½ years, that counts as "a while back" for me.

Also, the good players that resulted from it aren't everything - look at Portugal for example. Maybe I'm overrating them, but I'd say individually their players are even better than ours - yet they never seem to have the great success such good players should lead to in international tournaments since as a team they just aren't working together as good.
 
I'm just saying a lot of managers could do a good job thanks to the players Germany have produced so I wouldn't rate Löw as one of the best managers based on his achievements as Germany manager.

Portugal are very good at producing wingers and, oddly, centre backs but other than that they don't produce too many brilliant players. Germany are much better individually imo.

On a local note, Boro drew today and threw away the chance to gain three points on West Ham and Southampton.
 
Manchester United has had ups and downs. We lost to a championship side and blackburn at home, and we fell out of champions league deservedly (not to mention our never-ending injury list), but we're a team in transition. Many of our squad members are getting caught up by age, but new ones with little experience but huge talents are being slowly blooded into our team. Being joint top (at least for couple days, maybe) with a team full of world-class mercenary footballers (obviously our neighbors) with little to no injury with overall solid season, I'd say is a very positive thing in itself.

But we do need to stop underestimating our opponents or relax during middle of the match, because we've lost fair bit of points from it.
 
Just watched the first half of the joke game India vs Bayern München, right now Bayern is leading 0:4 without the slightest signs of effort. I would watch the rest since it's fun, but unfortunately don#t have the time.
 
Well it was the 1st leg of the Carling Cup Semi-Final.
Liverpool 1 - 0 Manchester city.

To be honest, it was a boring match at best. City were shockingly bad, Liverpool simply scored one from the penalty spot and then did nothing.

More interestingly, I said to everyone of my friends that come Christmas and January, City would start to fall...​
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I should post here more often than, what, once half a year? =p

Anyone follow the A-league? (ie Australians as I doubt anyone else follows our league). I do (Central Coast is my location so naturally I follow them. We're also winning atm. =D)
 
So, the Spanish Cup has already hit the quarterfinals... we'll have two more Clásicos (next two Wednesdays, at 10 PM). I'm personaly rooting for Mirandés, a 3rd division team that have managed to make it this far defeating Villarreal and Racing Santander on their way, specially thanks to their star, Pablo Infante, a banker who works in a savings bank in the morning and plays football in the evening, and is currently the top scorer in the Cup this season XD
 
Captain Fabio said:
Well it was the 1st leg of the Carling Cup Semi-Final.
Liverpool 1 - 0 Manchester city.

To be honest, it was a boring match at best. City were shockingly bad, Liverpool simply scored one from the penalty spot and then did nothing.

More interestingly, I said to everyone of my friends that come Christmas and January, City would start to fall...​
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Since somebody else in this forum actually cares about English football (Yay :D), I'll just comment on those two teams. (which are both our deep-seated rivals)

Although Manchester City has started out brilliantly this season, their quality seemed to decline over the past month or two. They don't look the side that has been scoring 3-5 goals per game anymore.

Liverpool have been consistently average this season. Most of their signings have been useless so far (Downing & Carroll for 55 million quids... what a waste of money). Their defense has been pretty good in general, though. That being said, we still have to be careful when we play them soon in PL and FA Cup, though. They seem to always raise their game against us.

I also watched Man Utd vs. Bolton today. Still can't believe that Scholes is playing for us... :') (and I jumped like crazy too when he scored his first league goal for us in 17 months!)

P.S. - I'm predicting a 1-1 draw for Arsenal away next week.
 
Oh hey someone actually does! My expectations are exceeded. =p

Good on you for beating Heart, gives is a bit more breathing space with them. We need to play better than we did yesterday though...

Oh, and can you guys take McBreen back? Please? ;_;
 
Liverpool are now 7th after a narrow Newcastle win over QPR today. Good.

I have a question: do you guys think that Kompany deserved a red card against United in the cup clash? And if so, doesn't Glenn deserve that same card for a similar two-foot challenge on Lescott also in a cup (FA) clash?

People are saying that hadn't Nani jumped upon Kompany's tackle, he would have been seriously injured, so a red card is deserved. I agree to an extent. By that logic, had Lescott been a little faster, or even reached the point before Glenn, he as well would have been seriously injured. However, Liverpool fans I know are perpetually neglecting Glenn's tackle. That tackle was a blatant red card no matter how you perceive the situation. I'm guessing Rooney's exaggerating attempt to force out a card from the referee might have helped in Kompany's dismissal; nevertheless, City can be considered 'cheated out' of the cup. They actually were the better team overall, both in United's and Liverpool's games.
 
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Martins said:
Liverpool are now 7th after a narrow Newcastle win over QPR today. Good.

I have a question: do you guys think that Kompany deserved a red card against United in the cup clash? And if so, doesn't Glenn deserve that same card for a similar two-foot challenge on Lescott also in a cup (FA) clash?

People are saying that hadn't Nani jumped upon Kompany's tackle, he would have been seriously injured, so a red card is deserved. I agree to an extent. By that logic, had Lescott been a little faster, or even reached the point before Glenn, he as well would have been seriously injured. However, Liverpool fans I know are perpetually neglecting Glenn's tackle. That tackle was a blatant red card no matter how you perceive the situation. I'm guessing Rooney's exaggerating attempt to force out a card from the referee might have helped in Kompany's dismissal; nevertheless, City can be considered 'cheated out' of the cup. They actually were the better team overall, both in United's and Liverpool's games.
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2 footed tackle, off the ground, studs showing = Red card.

I haven't watched City vs 'pool, but I'd imagine it was a very boring game with City having just a bit more quality but were unable to convert those into clear cut chances.
 
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2Cool4Mewtwo said:
Since somebody else in this forum actually cares about English football (Yay :D), I'll just comment on those two teams. (which are both our deep-seated rivals)
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I always comment on English football. :(

Crystalized said:
I do, and I support Perth Glory. We start red hot, fall, and then may come back later. We beat Heart 2-1 today, and we are in the top 6 now.
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SHANE SMELTZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ that is all.

Locally to me like I usually post, Boro have signed Jutkiewicz which should help a challenge to get back in the premiership.

But more importantly, Darlington are very close to dropping out of existence. They sacked all the players earlier today and it's looking unlikely that they'll survive much longer.
 
Nuke said:
I always comment on English football. :(
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Oh, maybe I just don't see it... :cheeky:

In other news, Gary Cahill has finally moved into Chelsea... I wonder how well he'll partner with John Terry.

As for top 4, I think it'll be Man Utd/City (1st or 2nd either way), then Tottenham/Chelsea (3rd or 4th either way), if Arsenal fails to earn a point coming sunday.
 
I'm very depressed right now.

In the 85th minute, 3rd division Mirandés was beating Espanyol 0-2 in the Cup Quarterfinals. Then the locals scored the 1-2 with a gigantic offside, and then Mirandés crumbled down to 3-2 in 5 minutes. The referee also denied them a clear-cut penalty >_> It's just the first leg and a 1-0 at home will be enough for them to progress to semis, but... it was an incredibly unfair punishment.
 
I'm not as excited to watch the Clasico as before. Barcelona will win, but then what? People criticize Madrid, Barcelona say they deserve to win, Mourinho blasts the referee, some Madrid player says they were the better team, Mourinho says that there is a second leg and they can win there, Alves complains of the roughness of Madrid players, Messi says nothing, Pep expresses humbleness by saying Madrid are a great side, whatever. I don't get the hype anymore. Maybe it is just me, I don't know, but I'm seriously uninterested in watching the Clasico games anymore, especially how coincidence seems to tie them together in a fixture 4 times or more these couple of years.
 
Today's El Clasico truly sucked. It would be a great fixture if there isn't some sort of drama going on all the time. ;_; (It's also not a type of game that I could proudly show to people who don't know soccer)

Pepe in particular has been an absolute nutter. diving and stamping on Messi's hand... (not that I like Messi either, but that doesn't warrant getting his hand stamped). And of course half of Barcelona squad following the referee, biscuits acting like a sissy over the pitch as usual. Funny thing is, I managed to smile when Abidal scored. He's the only guy in barca team that I actually like (maybe aside from Xavi).
 
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Madrid plan:

- Have 9 guys defending and Ronaldo alone on the side, waiting for a counter
- Wait until you can deflect the ball and hope Ronaldo catches it.
- If this doesn't work, smack everything that moves until the ball is loose again.

Also Pepe should be banned from a pitch, forever. I remember the hilarity of the moment when Cesc brushed him away and he collapsed into the floor, covering his face and rolling around- but when he deliberately stomped on Messi's hand, that should be a ban for so many games.



Anyway, this was the first leg. Now Madrid need a 0-2 score or higher at the Camp Nou- pretty likely, you know. At least Mourinho (miracle!) didn't blame the referee, the weather, the luck or what-have-you- he took the blame himself! Maybe something is changing after all.
 
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