2012/13 Soccer Thread

Sanots comes on vs Liverpool and hes apparently the new Riquelme and every ball has to go through him.

We sign Monreal and he cant get more than a tap.

And yes I won't stop Female Doggoing until they win.

*Yawn* Stoke *Yawn*

LOL @ Giroud trying to get an open goal assist

Jesus, Stoke, just looking how they line up themselves. That's not even two banks of four, that's six defenders and three defensive midfielders. And Crouch.

I was initially excited about Brek Shea going to Stoke to get some experience. The more I think about it, we need him learning to be a creative winger, not another Jermaine Jones.

Wonderful refereeing to overturn the linesman trying to recall that goal. PODOLSKI!!!

Wow, foot up slide by Shawcross into Koscielny. That's a red. Somebody needs to take a lead pipe to that guy's kneecaps.

Wilshere needs to be named Captain. Arteta has a clean tackle on Owen and gets into a shoving match. First guy to get involved and get Arteta's back every time? Wilshere. The guy breathes Arsenal.

Edit: Sorry for all the spam

Haha, bunch of caveman. First time I've seen Wenger laugh after a final whistle in a long time. Loved how Arsenal players started hustling them close to the end of the game, finally some attitude.

Chelsea blow a 2-1 lead to lose 3-2 to Newcastle

Ohhh Rafa.

edit: and MoM Monreal for keeping Santos off the pitch ;P

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/0dOZ5mo.gif)

lol... f*cking Stoke

So much to like about this game. Not least Michael Owen and his 'Hold on, I'm a Stoke player now, I should elbow people now. But, no, wait, I'm Michael Owen. Help.' routine.

edit: jowner, if you look close enough you'll see that Arsene is murmuring "...and your baseball cap"

When City played Stoke in the Cup, the fans were singing to Pulis "You're wearing the club shop..."

Thoughts from watching Newcastle v Chelsea..

1. If Howard Webb is the Premiership's best referee, The Lord help us. Cisse should have been sent off (although to be fair, most people wouldn't discipline someone for grabbing Cashley round the neck). He missed a lot of snide little challenges and 'afters' from either side.

2. Benitez looks like a man on Death Row.

3. Juan Mata is an excellent player. Sissoko looks to be one as well.

4. Oscar. How incriminating must his photos of the Moneylaundering Peasant be for him to be in the first team. Lightweight and anonymous would be generous. Gutless and hopeless would be more accurate.

Told you that Sissoko is good!

Still basking in the glow of beating cavemen. God, they were so awful. Band of thugs barely understanding what football is.

I seem to remember saying as much a couple of weeks ago - and that was at their ground. Still, look on the bright side - at least you don't have to support them and actually try to defend Pulis and his antics (he really has never forgiven City for doing one on his Gillingham thugs in the 1999 League One playoff final - oh what a happy day that was...)

In other news, RM lost again at lowly Granada...given today's results, is anyone actually going to be betting against Mourinho returning to Chelsea in the summer ?

It's such a good fit - dickhead owner, dickhead fans, team full of pricks and a manager-elect who is roundly despised by all and sundry. Question is, will he be able to pull off any trophies when he can't just go out and buy every player under the sun...I'm thinking not.

Sad to see South Africa go out, but considering the turmoil in their home, all credit to Mali for advancing to the Semis of the ACN.

davet010 wrote:

Thoughts from watching Newcastle v Chelsea..

1. If Howard Webb is the Premiership's best referee, The Lord help us. Cisse should have been sent off (although to be fair, most people wouldn't discipline someone for grabbing Cashley round the neck). He missed a lot of snide little challenges and 'afters' from either side.

2. Benitez looks like a man on Death Row.

3. Juan Mata is an excellent player. Sissoko looks to be one as well.

4. Oscar. How incriminating must his photos of the Moneylaundering Peasant be for him to be in the first team. Lightweight and anonymous would be generous. Gutless and hopeless would be more accurate.

Plus the whole Colocinni booting Ba in the nose thing. Newcastle were very fortunate, but also played pretty well (the first half was the best I've seen them in a while).

I thought Lampard and Terry did particularly poorly on Newcastle's 2nd and 3rd goals. There is so much focus on Lampard probably leaving, but Terry heading out the door would probably help Chelsea as well if they brought in defender with a little bit of pace.

Wenger asked about Monreal's debut: There is no better culture shock than Stoke when you come from Spain.

UCRC wrote:

Wenger asked about Monreal's debut: There is no better culture shock than Stoke when you come from Spain. :D

aka "I think Tony Pulis and his team are a bunch of {sexist slur}s and wish they would go down"

I wish it was plausible but its a stretch with them already at 30 points. Just checked their schedule and its pretty light for the rest of the year also

Defoe went down in the Spurs game.

Really surprised they didn't buy a striker. Even a really cheap stop gap or even a loan player.

Wow, good job Reina. Alumiaesque.

UCRC wrote:

Wow, good job Reina. Alumiaesque.

Strange trot by him but still a damn near amazing goal by Aguero to actually hit that shot. Pretty sure he gives a little look to know Reina is running off his line or else I'd accuse him of not actually meaning to do it.

So match fixing was the news this morning....

It sounds like allot of games and shocking but at the same time I don't think there seems to be any 'major' games of importance involved yet.

Closest is apparently a CL fixture that took place in England as the marquee OMG a game was fixed.

The rumor is

http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/the-fixed-champions-league-game-was-liverpool-1-debrecen-0-sept-2009/

Apparently the fix was to make sure over 2.5 games and Liverpool were so poor the goalie couldn't even help them pull that off

I'm betting loads of CL group games in round 6 are hooky where there is no impact on the table.

And how sh*t are these betting syndicates ? They've fixed a load of games in Germany and only made £7m ? How much did they lose - soccer is a notoriously difficult game to fix, as the clowns involved in the Totonero scandal in Italy in 1980 would tell you.

And the US starts the CONCACAF Hexagonal with a poor-form 2-1 loss to Honduras.

Some very odd choices by coach Klinsmann, including no Bocanegra, and putting Jones out on the right wing, where he was completely ineffective.

That second goal we conceded was, quite frankly, embarrassing.

Dimmerswitch wrote:

And the US starts the CONCACAF Hexagonal with a poor-form 2-1 loss to Honduras.

Some very odd choices by coach Klinsmann, including no Bocanegra, and putting Jones out on the right wing, where he was completely ineffective.

That second goal we conceded was, quite frankly, embarrassing.

will have to catch the highlights...

Watched England Brasil.

Neymar meh. Ronaldinho hah.

Wilshere looked great... with acres and acres of pitch to just do as he pleases which is the caveat. Walcott was same as always. Looking deadly with his speed but its always a coin flip if he makes the right decision or not.

and who will Mourinho be managing in 2013/2014 season? Maybe Portugal.

Portugal lose to Ecuador. Was never sold on the current coach and some more average results and Mourinho jobless hinting at the job would pretty much seal the deal. I could see him also enjoying a break from club football and constant media barrage it brings. The national team would be a vacation in comparison.

Interesting, German and Italian media talking more and more often about Lewandowski having signed for Bayern already. (I think he has a year and a half left on his Borussia deal and they haven't been able to make him extend it.)

UCRC wrote:

Interesting, German and Italian media talking more and more often about Lewandowski having signed for Bayern already. (I think he has a year and a half left on his Borussia deal and they haven't been able to make him extend it.)

saw it via twitter bunch days ago and lots of peoples instant reaction was the it was being reported via Sky Italia which is notoriously bad for transfer news.

Messi's wage in his new contract at Barcelona is close to £265k per week.

Welcome to 2013 football Wenger. Wake the f*ck up.

jowner wrote:

Portugal lose to Ecuador. Was never sold on the current coach and some more average results and Mourinho jobless hinting at the job would pretty much seal the deal. I could see him also enjoying a break from club football and constant media barrage it brings. The national team would be a vacation in comparison.

Can't see that at all, for a number of reasons.

- Mourinho is a classic narcissist. The Portugal job would not bring him the level of international coverage that he craves. A bigger country. maybe ?

- International football means you are pretty much stuck with what you have in terms of talent levels. Mourinho likes to splash other people's cash for quick fixes. I'm not sure the two can be reconciled.

- Mourinho actually has a very poor record at bringing people through the ranks and at player development. Not too useful when that is what you need to rely on.

jowner wrote:
UCRC wrote:

Interesting, German and Italian media talking more and more often about Lewandowski having signed for Bayern already. (I think he has a year and a half left on his Borussia deal and they haven't been able to make him extend it.)

saw it via twitter bunch days ago and lots of peoples instant reaction was the it was being reported via Sky Italia which is notoriously bad for transfer news.

True. A lot of German newspapers picked up afterwards, though. We'll see, but I reckon it would be silly for him to leave Borussia, they're a good club where he can count for a lot of patience and goodwill if his form drops.

All non applicable reasons even if they are true.

No bigger stage then the WC especially in Brazil next summer.

If he took the job it would be a short term stop gap if he doesn't like the jobs this summer. It's also assuming he wants a lower profile job. Between Italy and Spain I think he's ready for a hiatus from the media.

Talking about a Portugal team that took Spain to penalties and honestly were flawed in game besides their formation of clogging things up. Tactically Mourinho wins that game.
As for the player development no big club does anymore besides Barca really.

edit: to clarify points 2 and 3 and pretty much every single manager at a modern big club.

You buy big expensive signings because you have a transfer budget. That doesn't exactly lend well to the development of youth players. If a club wants to develop youth players I don't think they look towards managers. They build a ridiculous youth academy (Barca) or setup a hierarchy above the manager to handle the majority of player signing decisions (Bayern?).

UCRC wrote:
jowner wrote:
UCRC wrote:

Interesting, German and Italian media talking more and more often about Lewandowski having signed for Bayern already. (I think he has a year and a half left on his Borussia deal and they haven't been able to make him extend it.)

saw it via twitter bunch days ago and lots of peoples instant reaction was the it was being reported via Sky Italia which is notoriously bad for transfer news.

True. A lot of German newspapers picked up afterwards, though. We'll see, but I reckon it would be silly for him to leave Borussia, they're a good club where he can count for a lot of patience and goodwill if his form drops.

Just seems strange as even though Bayern have people above the manager to handle signings you think they would be communicating with Pep what he potentially wants.

If I was Pep my #1 and only target if it was a striker would probably be Falcao.