2012/13 Soccer Thread

Here's hoping - however Moyes usually gets Everton up for the Lescott Cup, as if getting £25m for a player who wouldn't even be in City's first XI but for injuries was somehow a personal insult to him. Maybe he should have spent more time geeing his players up for the real Cup ?

Dimmerswitch wrote:

Tim Howard out with broken bones from being constantly knocked down during that Oldham replay (still can't understand how nobody got ejected from all the barging into our keeper during that match), and without Jagielka, whose anklebone is still exposed after that rash challenge from Le Fondre in the opening minutes of the Reading match.

Tomorrow is likely to be a long day for Everton fans.

LONG DAY OF HAPPINESS!!!!!!

Enjoy. You beat a City side containing 4 players with no future at the club (Dzeko, Toure, Nasri, Kolarov) and missing the 3 best players in the squad. And still don't need to raid the petty cash tin for new supplies of Brasso.

Seriously, City didn't even get started.

I'm willing to say now that's pretty much the title. It'd take a historic collapse/comeback for this to get close again. That said, United still have City, Stoke, Arsenal, Chelsea and Swansea to play, but I just can't imagine them losing ALL of those games.

Well, yes, they will win the title, but it was a City side playing four players with no future at the club, so it's not a real title. etc. etc.

If I could have found an appropriate phrase in Wenger's 'Big Book of Excuses' I'd have used that, but I'd given up after page 850.

bigred wrote:
Dimmerswitch wrote:

Tomorrow is likely to be a long day for Everton fans.

LONG DAY OF HAPPINESS!!!!!!

True story.

I'm surprised there's not more grousing about the officiating (which I thought was poor, though fairly equally bad towards both teams).

Sorry that Lescott has joined the surprisingly-long list of Man City unworthies (I know you rated him more highly back in the 2008/09 Soccer thread). I'm a little surprised that Carlos "Dead to Me" Tévez isn't on that list, though.

Maybe zombie players who are in scoring form are given a pass?

I tease, and don't actually bear City any particular ill-will. I'm actually glad for their title win last year - as an Everton fan, I think I'm pretty much required to root for an underdog, however well-funded they might be.

Fair enough Dimmerswitch

Officiating - yes it was mediocre at best, but City weren't playing so badly because of the officiating.

Lescott has never really played his way into being an irreplaceable player at City - he's considerably worse than a 19-yr old in his first Premiership season (Nastasic), and his lapses in concentration were never better shown by his error in the last game of last season. If Richards or Kompany were fit he'd not get a sniff of a first team game. Unfortunately, he's got another season left on his contract and we'll never be able to shift him on the dollars that he's on.

I'd still really love to know the true tale of last summer's transfer policy - on the surface of it, City did nothing for ages then splurged on a number of players at the deadline, like a better-funded Redknapp. Did City really try to get van Persie, and if so why didn't they have another target in place. Was Garcia just a stopgap once they realised that Javi Martinez was off to Bayern ?

Unfortunately, the more I see performances like yesterday's, the more I see Mourinho in our future...and the less I like it.

davet010 wrote:

Did City really try to get van Persie

I think both van Persie and Macini said so in the autumn.

edit: Berbatov is a force for good in the world.

Prederick wrote:

I <3 Berba.

Meanwhile, in Greece...

IMAGE(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2013/3/17/1363524332644/Giorgos-Katidis-008.jpg)

Yes. Pointing to a team mate. Clearly.

In row Z

Proof at last

IMAGE(http://i4.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/article1753963.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/MEN_IMG_3921_5990501-1753963.jpg)

My favorite line:

AEK's German coach, Ewald Lienen, backed Katidis.

And a lifetime ban for his trouble. Glad to see a national federation take that garbage seriously.

Well-overdue, IMO.

I doubt anyone could legitimately claim that they made that gesture and didn't know what it meant. I also seem to remember that Greece was occupied by the Nazis in WW2 and suffered an extremely high death toll in percentage terms, as well as leading to a civil war, so I'm pretty sure it's not a gesture you would make lightly over there.

I would also have thought that if he was 'looking at a teammate in the stands', then his eyes would be looking in the same direction.

Shame his life ban is only from the Greek national side, though it remains to be seen what his club do with him.

Thank you Berbatov for denying the spurs points!

If only Chelsea could have fallen this weekend would be a huge victory for Arsenal. Still all in all a very good weekend.

Be very careful if you answer the phone to hear an Indian sounding voice...it may be Blackburn's owners looking for yet another manager.

I'm hoping for Paolo di Canio - a perfect disaster waiting to happen.

Because we all need a laugh: apparently, Jan Mucha was named to a European Team-of-the-week.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/dAuiu5X.jpg)

This, in spite of the fact that he seemed like more of a boxer than a keeper for large stretches of the Man City game (Mucha punched away balls that looked like they'd be trivial to catch, even).

Still, credit to him for keeping only our fifth clean sheet of the season, I guess.

Ferdinand ? Against Reading, who had 3 shots on goal none of which were on target ?

Piss-take, surely. Almost as much as Zoidberg thinking he's still good enough for England.

Wait, I've just seen the list of the central defenders who ARE in the squad ? Jeesus, who are these people ? Caulker ? Who hell he ?

Mucha is interesting. Trivia: He was goalkeeper at Legia Warsaw before coming to Everton. Before him? Fabiański. And before Fabiański? Boruc, current Southampton goalie. That means three Legia goalies played in weekend fixtures.
Szczęsny also came to Arsenal from Legia system.

davet010 wrote:

Ferdinand ? Against Reading, who had 3 shots on goal none of which were on target ?

Well, he's a defender not a keeper, so I guess that would be the point.

It was Reading, not Real Madrid. Would any Premiership defender worth his salt struggle against a relegation-doomed team with no manager fielding a lone striker who has played 21 games and scored...wait for it....twice. TWICE !!

Apparently the FA are now saying that they can't go retrospective on McManaman's lunge because one of the officials DID see it....presumably the assistant and not Halsey. If so, then they are saying that challenge wasn't a foul. They are, however, charging Newcastle's coach with attempting to 'have a word' with McManaman at half-time. I can see the point about not retrospectively refereeing matches, but would very much like to know what the official who apparently did see the challenge made of it from the angle he was at.

Also nice to see that the personality-free zone known as Michael Owen has announced his retirement...timed in an international week so that he might believe that some people outside his own family give a sh*t. The FA have announced that they want him to function as 'an ambassador'. Why's that ? It's not as if he was mega-popular anywhere...any lingering love (and it wasn't that much to begin with) that the Scousers had for him was consigned to the bin when he signed for Man U as a rent-a-quote trophy whore, and his only achievements for England were over a decade ago.

I haven't been following the USMNT all that closely, but it sounds like things have gotten fairly precarious, and that Coach Klinsmann has apparently lost the locker room.

Makes this next round of matches seem pretty fraught.

Dimmerswitch wrote:

I haven't been following the USMNT all that closely, but it sounds like things have gotten fairly precarious, and that Coach Klinsmann has apparently lost the locker room.

Makes this next round of matches seem pretty fraught.

I think this is overblown. If you listen to the redhead big head podcast they address it relatively well.

Also, I want to add what a class act Bocanegra is and his response to being left out.

Leo Messi has 60 goals this season. Anyone who says that he's not the best player ever is simply hipster contrarian by now.

UCRC wrote:

Leo Messi has 60 goals this season. Anyone who says that he's not the best player ever is simply hipster contrarian by now.

Which really makes you wonder how dysfunctional the Argentina national team is.

My excuse for Portugal is that Ronaldo actually isn't in the best ever discussion let alone best right now.

Yes I'm still bitter about the Euro.

and.... Portugal are pretty much eliminated from the WC already. Down 3-1 to Israel in Tel Aviv.

Guess I can stop dreaming about attending in 2014.
edit:
3-2 Sigh

Have faith, young jowner, it finished 3-3

No posts about the blizzard game on ESPN? Wow.

U S A ! U S A !

Fedaykin98 wrote:

No posts about the blizzard game on ESPN? Wow.

U S A ! U S A !

Well they are protesting the match, although I do not see why. How is it different then playing in a driving rainstorm?

Zaque wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

No posts about the blizzard game on ESPN? Wow.

U S A ! U S A !

Well they are protesting the match, although I do not see why. How is it different then playing in a driving rainstorm?

someone showed me a picture last night as it was happening and I just for some reason assumed it was the Germany Azerbaijan game.

Then I remembered US was playing in Colorado.

Fair to the US. They obviously wanted some homefield advantage with it being chilly and got a whole lot more than they could of hoped for lol. Not sure with that much snow anyone has an edge though hah.

davet010 wrote:

Have faith, young jowner, it finished 3-3 :)

Its the hope that kills me.