2007/08 Soccer Thread - Euro Fever!

UCRC wrote:

btw: This season quarter-final pairs are decided by draw, yep? Could this time teams from the same country play against themselves or not?

yea I actually looked into that and Arsenal could draw another English team which would be a snooze. Really want to play someone from another league because thats what the competition is about. Maybe Olympiakos and Inter can get the job done so theres not 4/8 English teams in the quarters.

Wow, no comments regarding the Barnsley win? I guess you guys must still be in shock. Not that I blame you, I'm still trying to re-attach my jaw.

I only got to see the 2nd half, but it seemed like a pretty exciting game. Once Barnsley scored the goal you could just see the panic set in on the faces of the Chelsea players.

I forgot to tape it cause well who expected that to happen. Great final 4 now will not miss the semis and for sure will see the final.

I made sure to tape the Inter game in case something exciting happened and nope. Torres goal was great but man Inter really failed to finish their chances and get back into the tie.

Not sure when the draw for the next round is but I'm really hoping Arsenal don't draw another English team. Not that I'm afraid of them its just for me the CL is a chance to see the clash between leagues which Arsenal vs Pool/Chelsea/ManU really isn't. Wouldn't mind a Arsenal Roma or even Barcelona but I rather see them in the final for a rematch and re-union of Henry!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKzVx4c9kEQ

I'm still pretending the game ended after that.

jowner wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKzVx4c9kEQ

I'm still pretending the game ended after that.

This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by UEFA
Still, I'm pretty sure what you've posted That was probably the weirdest two minutes of season for Arsenal. And, for God's sake, if you want to give away penalty such as this, keep in mind that Arsenal hadn't one just like this one week before this.
Babel's last goal was just consequence of the mistake that referee made with penalty. There's no way of conceding something like this if you're defending a draw instead of chasing
it.
Well, next season maybe... (I'm oing back to FM)

Yea it was of the Walcott run which was just pure magic. Still in somewhat shock that it had to end like that. Doubt they can recover mentally for Sunday and Ronaldo is currently unstoppable. Bring on the summer transfer window I want some new starters and depth...

Whoof. I'm sorry, I've forgotten to post in a while. So, a wrapup.

ManU are the presumptive champions, after beating Arsenal 2-1 at Old Trafford and Chelsea drawing 1-1 with Wigan tonight. Liverpool probably have the 4th spot all wrapped up. I do believe that part of Arsenal's problem can be seen as part of their coach's mentality, which is that the minute something goes against Wenger, he has a whinge about it. From a neutral's standpoint, their attacking whimsy is something to behold, but when something goes against Arsenal, they've been seeming to just fold recently (the Liverpool game aside).

At the bottom, Fulham aren't dead yet (Huzzah!), and are four points off safety. Derby are incomprehensibly awful. And Bolton may just find a way to stay up. Should be an interesting end to the year.

Oh, and Ronaldinho to AC Milan. Sure, why not? I'm sure it's not like there are a bunch of clubs and an active nightlife in Milan that might distract him like it has done at Bar... what? Oh.

What the hell were Liverpool doing? Why didn't Benitez make another substitution?

Stupid... No way are we going to win at Stamford Bridge...

about time that Anfield luck dried up.

Riise shouldn't get any of the blame he was damned either way. The 2 guys at the corner sleeping on the job should get the stick!

Now that was a game! about time they gave us an entertaining one.

CL aside, more interesting for me right now (as I'm neither fan of MU nor Chelsea) is opening of transfer window. Unlike last two years there might be pretty big migrations, with Milan and Barcelona completely rebuilding their squads, Mourinho coming to Inter and doing some serious changes (if Drogba and Lampard come to Inter one of their strikers and one from Cambiasso/Vieira duo will have to go), Arsenal trying to add more depth to injury-ridden squad (with Flamini moving to Milan).
And yeah, I haven't even mentioned two biggest players around: Chelsea and Real. Of course they won't buy Messi, no matter what, but they'll look to spend their megamillion budgets anyways: with Lampard's, Drogba's and Shevchenko's departure they will surely splash their money on Deco and bunch of other players.
And let's not forget about other hotly debated moves: Henry wants to move somewhere where he could revive his career; Ronaldinho... well, we all know the story, Ribery - there should be whole bunch of club all over him, starting with Barca, Milan and English ones;
Also, I'd look closely at Zenit Petersburg. They have really talented players (look at Arshavin, it turns out that he's star not only in Football Manager ;]) out there and if Russia could produce something magical at Euro then I think we'll see some interesting moves to big European leagues.

Can I be elated and gutted? My favorite team won (Fulham) to send down my second favorite team (Reading). Huzzaw crap.

Also, ManU are your Champions. In 10 days, they'll be going against Chelsea again for the biggest trophy in Europe.

I'd say happy. Fulham are a more realistic team to stay up next year and might have qualified for Europe in a strange way. Man City was set to qualify through the fair play table and managed to get a red card on the last day and lose 8-1... Fulham would probably not take Uefa seriously especially if they are fighting relegation again but still funny stuff that they went from as good as dead to staying up and maybe even in Europe.

Transfer season is already starting. Modric signed for Spurs a couple weeks ago for 16m and today its rumored a deal for Bosingwa of Porto to Chelsea for 16m is done also.

Wenger has promised to wrap up his signings in 2-3 weeks to give the fans something to cheer about. Hatem Ben Afra looks likely.

jowner wrote:

Transfer season is already starting. Modric signed for Spurs a couple weeks ago for 16m and today its rumored a deal for Bosingwa of Porto to Chelsea for 16m is done also.

Wenger has promised to wrap up his signings in 2-3 weeks to give the fans something to cheer about. Hatem Ben Afra looks likely.

Just a thought - they should go for Benzema. It would be a killer, and price should be pretty reasonable. If not - I wonder how good attack would Huntelaar-Adebayor duo do.

As for Modric - I've heard some fantastic opinions but never had seen him. Is he really that good?

UCRC wrote:
jowner wrote:

Transfer season is already starting. Modric signed for Spurs a couple weeks ago for 16m and today its rumored a deal for Bosingwa of Porto to Chelsea for 16m is done also.

Wenger has promised to wrap up his signings in 2-3 weeks to give the fans something to cheer about. Hatem Ben Afra looks likely.

Just a thought - they should go for Benzema. It would be a killer, and price should be pretty reasonable. If not - I wonder how good attack would Huntelaar-Adebayor duo do.

As for Modric - I've heard some fantastic opinions but never had seen him. Is he really that good?

Modric is hard to say because hes been playing in the Croat league so the quality level is abit off. Then again thats where Eduardo came from and he was looking like an ace until his injury but then again he was coming off a 34 goals (some penalty shot inflation) domestic season. We will see him at the Euro's so it will be interesting.

Huntelaar is a strange one hes already 24 and people start asking if hes as good as his goal record suggests why the hell is he still at Ajax then. For every Rudd and Makaay theres a Kuyt and a Kezman who really don't translate into super strikers in other leagues so who knows if hes the real deal outside of Holland. 34 in 38 games in the Eredivisise this year though is hard to argue with.

Benzema is just not available really unless someone broke the transfer record. He signed a new deal with Lyon this season and has pretty much pledged to stay there until they win the CL. Probably an overstatement to say the least but the facts are he doesn't want to leave right now and they don't need the money and its not like his value is going down. 1-2 more seasons of him at Lyon until he and the club decide to cash in I bet.

As for Ben Arfa I really don't know. Really haven't seen him play much but I read an article today quoting him saying he wouldn't be against a move to Arsenal and that he doesn't enjoy being used as a sub at Lyon. Only question I have then is if he doesn't like being a sub at Lyon will he like being a sub at Arsenal as theres no guarantee that a young player can walk into a squads first XI, especially Arsenals.

We will really know though by the 3rd week mark if Wenger has lost his marbles or if hes still a genius. His quote was,

I know what I want and I am very confident. I hope to turn that around in the next two or three weeks. They (fans) should be re-assured by what they see.

which is pretty straight forward and direct.

Its going to be a strange off season. With the Euro I thought it was more common for teams to wait for the tournament to end to finish all their moves but with Spurs, AC Milan and Chelsea today all making moves it looks like you better grab who you want fast or be left behind this year. And thats just for players, the albatross who is Mourinho is still circling to throw everything upside down.

Two things I am happy about from this last season -- America FC staying out of the Champions league -- after their last few games where they started just looking gritty a la West Ham last year (even though it was Tevez, Tevez, and more Tevez -- the man is a midget caveman god of football), I didn't figure Portsmouth would put up the necessary effort to keep them down. I'm glad I was right about that.

I'm really happy about West Ham's season as well -- 10th wasn't too bad considering that their entire starting 11 seemed to be in the injury room from the get-go. Unfortunately, their last really good game came against Man U over the hoilday break when Ferdinand terrorized them. They played with a complete lack of consistency and, without Green manning the sticks, they'd would have been hovering around the bottom again. Kudos to Ashton looking good by the end of the year and rounding back into form. Now if they can keep him...

It will be a interesting off season for West Ham to say the least. Some people are theorizing that their financial backing will be weak considering their Icelandic owner might be in some trouble with interest rates at 15% or something but I haven't seen any articles floating around confirming hes in the red.

Personally I don't rate the manager or signing guys like Dyer but yea all things considering West Ham survived another year that really could of been ugly considering the injuries they carried.

speaking of money Man U likes to borrow it. Or at least the Glazers do. http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/sports/man+united+face+mounting+debts/2117947

765m Pounds yes pounds in debt. Funny part is it grew from last year from 666m but might be better off now considering they might of swapped some of the old debt which was high interest hedge fund debt to some more reasonable stuff but still they are running a balancing act.

jowner wrote:

Huntelaar is a strange one hes already 24 and people start asking if hes as good as his goal record suggests why the hell is he still at Ajax then. For every Rudd and Makaay theres a Kuyt and a Kezman who really don't translate into super strikers in other leagues so who knows if hes the real deal outside of Holland. 34 in 38 games in the Eredivisise this year though is hard to argue with.

Well, as for Kuyt - I don't think that he was supposed to be such player, guy is more of a supporting forward. And Huntelaar is completely different story - this man is a real striker, natural target man with talent for producing goals in though situations. I think that he would really be of use for Arsenal, because he's player with really great intelligence and vision in penalty box. With such a congested football that Arsenal plays in the final third, he would be really efficient in all situations where Adebayor fails miserably sometimes.

Benzema is just not available really unless someone broke the transfer record. He signed a new deal with Lyon this season and has pretty much pledged to stay there until they win the CL. Probably an overstatement to say the least but the facts are he doesn't want to leave right now and they don't need the money and its not like his value is going down. 1-2 more seasons of him at Lyon until he and the club decide to cash in I bet.

It seems that I'm few month behind on the news ;] Well, it's pretty sad to hear this, because he would fit in perfectly, I think that the guy would be Henry-size diamond in Arsenal.

As for Ben Arfa I really don't know. Really haven't seen him play much but I read an article today quoting him saying he wouldn't be against a move to Arsenal and that he doesn't enjoy being used as a sub at Lyon. Only question I have then is if he doesn't like being a sub at Lyon will he like being a sub at Arsenal as theres no guarantee that a young player can walk into a squads first XI, especially Arsenals.

Ben Arfa - well, he's surely a great talent, but I have few doubts about him. Only place he could possibly play as a first team player is left winger/left attacking midfielder (especially when Hleb leaves). But then again, do you really want to use 21yr old player on playmaking posiition? And still, they already have Walcott. To sum up - I really admire his talent, but I can't see him fit in the squad they already have. But hey, it's Wenger's job to make him ;]

We will really know though by the 3rd week mark if Wenger has lost his marbles or if hes still a genius. His quote was,
I know what I want and I am very confident. I hope to turn that around in the next two or three weeks. They (fans) should be re-assured by what they see.

which is pretty straight forward and direct.

Well, this quote made me feel a bit unsure. I admire Wenger mostly for patience and vision he had when it came to building some formations from scratch. I think that being hasty in changing my opinion of him isn't too wise, as he's already proven to me that most of his transfer decisions are part of bigger picture.

jowner wrote:

It will be a interesting off season for West Ham to say the least. Some people are theorizing that their financial backing will be weak considering their Icelandic owner might be in some trouble with interest rates at 15% or something but I haven't seen any articles floating around confirming hes in the red.

Personally I don't rate the manager or signing guys like Dyer but yea all things considering West Ham survived another year that really could of been ugly considering the injuries they carried.

speaking of money Man U likes to borrow it. Or at least the Glazers do. http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/sports/man+united+face+mounting+debts/2117947

765m Pounds yes pounds in debt. Funny part is it grew from last year from 666m but might be better off now considering they might of swapped some of the old debt which was high interest hedge fund debt to some more reasonable stuff but still they are running a balancing act.

Yeah, I agree they reached quite a bit with a few of their signings, Dyer in particular and Lundberg less particularly. Bellamy, after watching what few games he actually participated in looked like he fit the oft-erratic attack of West Ham and I think if Scott Parker will get his ass healthy, they'll be alright up front and in the midfield, especially now that Etherington has decided its best not to boot the ball into the stands every opportunity he has. Now their backline... whew.

Any predictions for tommorow?

Yea me putting money on the 2.15:1 Chelsea to win no draw bet and getting burned.

So far it looks like they're having fun out there, both D-lines got completely lost in couple of situations.

Great save from Cech, though.

I just can't stand to see both sides rolling around on the floor like little girls.

jowner wrote:

Yea me putting money on the 2.15:1 Chelsea to win no draw bet and getting burned.

I can tell the future but I still ignore it.

Anyways I think this was a perfect example why soccer hasn't and wont pick up in the U.S. With so many entertainment options todays final was an acquired taste for real soccer fans. You can knock other sports for their obvious faults all you want but really in the last 2 CL finals have been pretty bleh and the 2006 WC final was a pretty big bleh also.

Carlos Bocanegra has been released from Fulham. Hope he has a good three matches with the US National Team so he can find another place to play. With his above par free kick abilities, he should be able to find some place to land.

Does anybody else than me cares enough to make separate thread for Euro 2008 finals? With only week away it seems to be the right time.

UCRC wrote:

Does anybody else than me cares enough to make separate thread for Euro 2008 finals? With only week away it seems to be the right time.

I honestly don't think many people care besides me and you, all a bunch of dirty England fans I bet!

I'll be watching/taping the majority of the games. Cheering for Portugal but I'll honestly take any winner as long as they play positive football (so yea the opposite of Greece) and are not Germany, France or Italy.

As for non Euro news Mourinho has landed at Inter and goddamn I can't wait to see him in CL press conferences next year!

jowner wrote:
UCRC wrote:

Does anybody else than me cares enough to make separate thread for Euro 2008 finals? With only week away it seems to be the right time.

I honestly don't think many people care besides me and you, all a bunch of dirty England fans I bet!

I'll be watching/taping the majority of the games. Cheering for Portugal but I'll honestly take any winner as long as they play positive football (so yea the opposite of Greece) and are not Germany, France or Italy.

As for non Euro news Mourinho has landed at Inter and goddamn I can't wait to see him in CL press conferences next year!

I. too will be watching -- I'm also following Portugal because they tend to play pretty football and not the typical defensive nastiness that the Italians and Greece is known for. I will be interested to watch how the German team does play though, especially now that they had some experience and did quite well at the World Cup with such a young squad.

Oh yeah, I'll definitely be watching as well.

Unfortunately I'll be at work during most of the games. But that's not too big of a problem. It just means my DVR will be putting some serious hours to record all of the action. The hard part will be not finding out any scores before I get home and watch that days games. I predict no internet surfing, and a lot of walking around the office, fingers in ears, while chanting "La-la-la, I cant hear you!"

I'm just hoping Ronaldo doesn't start thinking he needs to carry the rest of the team, and at the same time the rest of the team plays well enough, so that Ronaldo doesnt end up being the only playmaker.

Nice one for all Portugal fans :>

Crap, it seems that I'm not the only one with bunchload of work in these days to do. Worse yet, I don't have any recorder at home, so I guess I'll have to find some torrent tracker with games uploaded, as I know that some folks share their recorded games.
And Poland - Germany is this Sunday. Please, keep your fingers crossed