2010/11 Soccer Thread - Hitting The Home Stretch

Roke wrote:

Finally, Fox explains soccer to American Football fans: http://www.twitvid.com/BGJ0Q

The minute I saw the pre-game analysys team, I muted it. I should've understood that, since it was on FOX, they were going to dumb it down, but wow.

Greater Manchester Police are now reporting that some Barcelona fans have broken into the Swamp and hung up a 'Man United 19 times' banner up - in commemoration of how many Fergie's outfit touched the ball.

And as for Berbatov, let's see if the papers make as big a deal out of that tomorrow as they managed to make out of Tevez skipping out of Monday's City parade around Manchester...even though he was actually there. Somehow I doubt it. And no matter how much his style wouldn't have suited, could it have been any less effective than Owen's mighty arsenal of 2 league goals this season ?

Roke wrote:

Poor Evra played a role in the first two goals. Pedro's goal he steps up to get closer to a possession-less Messi which allows Pedro the space to receive the pass and slot it home. Second goal Evra doesn't step up quickly enough and Messi has space to have a go at goal and put it home.

It wasn't a bad game and we didn't really see the scumbaggery of the endless Classicos. Not a bad way to end a season.

RE: Evra, actually, I think it's Park who's at fault for #2. He got sucked in by a pass, and didn't track down Messi like he had been all game.

RE: Clasicos - This game, and the way Barca played makes me think that the fans who I saw saying that Barca only played that way in the Clasicos because Madrid were employing some high-level thuggery might have a point. Although I still think Busquets racially abused Marcelo. Who puts their hand over their mouth to say "get on with it"?

Prederick wrote:
Roke wrote:

Poor Evra played a role in the first two goals. Pedro's goal he steps up to get closer to a possession-less Messi which allows Pedro the space to receive the pass and slot it home. Second goal Evra doesn't step up quickly enough and Messi has space to have a go at goal and put it home.

It wasn't a bad game and we didn't really see the scumbaggery of the endless Classicos. Not a bad way to end a season.

RE: Evra, actually, I think it's Park who's at fault for #2. He got sucked in by a pass, and didn't track down Messi like he had been all game.

After reading similar thoughts on Zonal Marking and you pointing that out, I think you're right.

Going back to Berbatov, I can't believe Ferguson named Owen as a substitute ahead of Berbatov. That would not have made sense 2 years ago did not now. It was unlikely that either player would have been subbed on in any situation, but Michael Owen? Really?

Allardyce--> West Ham apparently. About 6 months too late.

Newcastle's transfer strategy this summer seems to be (pretend to) raid France. Signed midfielder Mehdi Abeid (no, I had not heard of him before) who was out of contract with Lens, allegedly have agreed on a ~£5m deal for Lille's Yohan Cabaye, a bid for Kevin Gameiro and all sorts of other (some silly) rumours, including Demba Ba.

If the club can spend 2/3 of the Caroll fee to improve the squad (such as getting an actual striker) it should be a pretty good summer. Some of the players targeted seem out of reach though, and I reckon we'll end up with Carlton Cole instead of the likes of Gameiro and Gervinho. The silly season should be entertaining at least.

Looking at replays of Messi goal, this is shocking from United's defence. Two guys half-heartedly trying to mark Iniesta, Xavi and Messi, leaving them with almost 10 meters of open space in front of penalty area. It's not Park who's at fault, but Evra backing down to the edge of penalty area and just standing there, serving no purpose at all. Either him or Giggs should be on Messi in that situation. Van der Sar's positioning is unexcusable too.

All in all the whole second half was about gaps between defence and midfield. (edit: Which is pretty much saying "all in all the whole second half was about Barca being good")

Van der Sar was at fault for the first one as well (as was Evra, who'd lost positional discipline), and Little PeaBrain was at fault for the 3rd for giving the ball away in his own area.

But of course, Ferguson has to talk them up as the 'greatest team ever' because that makes the gutless surrender of a very ordinary MU side something that he can sell to the fans as their ST resubscriptions fall due. As well as talking up transfers that will never happen, and the creaking open of the legendary 'war chest'. You know, the one with the £75m receipts from Ronaldo (aka 'one years interest charge on our loans') and the £47m receipts from Tevez (who in actually was bought for £27m, none of which went to Man U as they never owned him in the first place).

Still, plenty of amusement in evidence today from the plankton of the sports press over here. Patrick Barclay managed 45 seconds on the CL final before having a go at City ('they don't bring players through their youth system, unlike Arsenal, Chelsea and United').

Number of United youth products on show last night - 0.5 (Sub appearance from Scholes, Giggs started off in City's youth system). Age of said 'youth product' - 38.

Name 1 Chelsea youth product who turns out for their first team.

Name 1 Arsenal youth product (other than Wilshere) who started in their youth system, as opposed to someone else's.

Still, at least I know what business I could go into after a lobotomy.

And now, to absolutely no one's surprise.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13590264.stm

How odd that FIFA have suspended Warner and Bin Hammam pending further investigation, and yet have already cleared Blatter ? How can that be the case ?

And of course, the election will go ahead on Wednesday...but who is going to vote for someone who is suspended ?

Those two will be quietly cleared in a couple of weeks, and go back to sticking their snouts in the trough like the rest of them. Chuck Blazer has had a brave try, but his career in FIFA is now over.

UCRC wrote:

Looking at replays of Messi goal, this is shocking from United's defence. Two guys half-heartedly trying to mark Iniesta, Xavi and Messi, leaving them with almost 10 meters of open space in front of penalty area. It's not Park who's at fault, but Evra backing down to the edge of penalty area and just standing there, serving no purpose at all. Either him or Giggs should be on Messi in that situation. Van der Sar's positioning is unexcusable too.

All in all the whole second half was about gaps between defence and midfield. (edit: Which is pretty much saying "all in all the whole second half was about Barca being good")

I agree. All of our goals were the result of players making errors under relentless pressure and possession of Barcelona as a collective more than any particular player's 'magic' imo. I still don't believe it was any one player from Barca (even Messi) that put the nail in our coffin. It was their entire team. Once we got worn out chasing them around, we just didn't have a chance.

That said, yea, Evra made a lot of mistakes that night.

davet010 wrote:

But of course, Ferguson has to talk them up as the 'greatest team ever' because that makes the gutless surrender of a very ordinary MU side something that he can sell to the fans as their ST resubscriptions fall due. As well as talking up transfers that will never happen, and the creaking open of the legendary 'war chest'. You know, the one with the £75m receipts from Ronaldo (aka 'one years interest charge on our loans') and the £47m receipts from Tevez (who in actually was bought for £27m, none of which went to Man U as they never owned him in the first place).

Still, plenty of amusement in evidence today from the plankton of the sports press over here. Patrick Barclay managed 45 seconds on the CL final before having a go at City ('they don't bring players through their youth system, unlike Arsenal, Chelsea and United').

Number of United youth products on show last night - 0.5 (Sub appearance from Scholes, Giggs started off in City's youth system). Age of said 'youth product' - 38.

Name 1 Chelsea youth product who turns out for their first team.

Name 1 Arsenal youth product (other than Wilshere) who started in their youth system, as opposed to someone else's.

Still, at least I know what business I could go into after a lobotomy.

Are you always this much of a prick?

The fabio brothers came through the reserves/youth program (Purchased when they were 15-16, and came through our 17-21 team ranks). Considering both Scholes and Giggs put in important contributions, I don't see how it's valid to rule them out just because they weren't dumped already for over-priced foreigners like someone else (Ireland). And seriously? You're gonna bring up Giggs's time with City's program from 12 til f*ckin 14 years old. Seriously? You're gonna argue that holds any relevance here? All his VITAL footballing enrichment came from age 12 til 14? Right. Also, on a side note, our youth program most definitely had a role in nurturing the team that clinched the 19th. O'Shea and Fletcher also youth program products who helped us clinch the 19th. Gibson put in a fair share of solid performances. Evans also chipped in a fair share whenever Rio/Vida were out. We also had Welback who does give us some hopes of refreshing the front line when he comes back from his successful loan spell next year. And our youngsters won the FA Youth Cup this year, potentially promising more to come. On top of this, a lot of our players were purchased before their prime/peak and in their youth.. Smalling, Nani, Anderson, and Chicharito, all purchased before they became over-priced 25+ year old players.

Of all people, I didn't expect a City fan to try a jump on our backs about f*cking youth programs of all things. YOu've churned out Hart, Richards... and? Stephen Ireland? Whom you dumped in the ditch like a dead stripper when your sugar daddy came along?

We're about blink of an eye away from sealing the deal on De Gea which alone will be 17 million, and there's zero question we need some experienced/proven players to fill in the gaps in the midfield and it's been stated so by the Manager. Assuming the De Gea deal gets finalized, I can't see us spending any less than 30-50 million this year on 2-3 players. I know that's the kind of cash you like to spend on a weekly basis during the windows, but that DOES count as heavy spending believe it or not. Sure we're kinda being f*cked by being acquired by pricks who used loans to buy us. That said, when financial fairplay rules really kick in, have fun laughing about our financial woes. Most of our current deficits come from our profits being redirected to pay off the club OWNER's debts (much of it which has been paid off), rather than sh*tty operating costs and transfer market overspendings. There's no way the Glazers would continue to funnel the club's profits to paying off their debts when it impairs the club to be profitable (the pricks are more likely to sell once that becomes the case), or be allowed to stay if they do. Where as there's specifically a rule in place to keep City from deluding the market no matter how many of the Seikh's other operations are dragged in to provide 'sponorships'. Nevermind the fact that Seikh owns/is involved with the 'sponsors' and fail to meet the requirements, you'd fail on account of 'true-market' value alone. What's your average attendance again? You really think buying your way to Europe qualification will buy you more fans?

Name one team that can beat Barca right now. It was dirty, but Real Madrid with cash and Mourinho fell short, Italy's drew blanks (ever since Jose left), I would have laughed at any other club from England to even try against Barca in a one-off match, Germany's highest achievers in europe were one of their lowest achievers, and it sure as f*ck aint the 'real' club of Manchester nor will it ever be. Manchester United lost to the best team in Europe. I know the concept of consoling yourself after losing something like the Champions League final is foreign to you (and will probably continue to be), but really, lay off.

Enjoy your FA Cup, I hope it was worth evreything poured into the money sink.

Pikey26 wrote:

-boring stuff-

Enjoy your FA Cup, I hope it was worth evreything poured into the money sink.

Arf.

Pikey26 wrote:

-boring stuff-

Enjoy your FA Cup, I hope it was worth evreything poured into the money sink.

Arf. You should try stand-up. O'Shea, Fletcher and Evans - oh, how you missed them.

Can I ask if we could get through next season without the kind of needless tribalism and vitriol I could get in cesspits like ESPN.com?

Prederick wrote:

Can I ask if we could get through next season without the kind of needless tribalism and vitriol I could get in cesspits like ESPN.com?

+1

I like lurking in the shadows here, but I would really prefer a 'look at those guys having fun'-lurk to a 'OH NO HE'S GOING TO KILL HIM!'-lurk.

Plus, we all know that the only objective way to judge a team is by the number of Belgians playing. The more important that Belgian is for the team, the awesomer that team is.

/reactivates stealth mode

Prederick wrote:

Can I ask if we could get through next season without the kind of needless tribalism and vitriol I could get in cesspits like ESPN.com?

As soon as we can agree that ARSENAL IS THE ONLY TEAM IN ENGLAND PLAYING THE RIGHT WAY THANK YOU

How about best/favourites of the season?

Swansea, eh! We could use more Welshness.

UCRC wrote:

How about best/favourites of the season?

Will note when I get home.

Also, the sponsors have to make the big move first to unseat Blatter. His arrogance, his douchetacularity, it's astonishing he's running the game.

Prederick wrote:

Swansea, eh! We could use more Welshness.

I'm really angry at myself right now because for past two days I was fixing to see it at pub in the afternoon and then... simply forgot. UC, you silly boy.

It's The 2011 Preds!

Best Performance By A Player Who Was Useless in FM: Clint Dempsey. By all means had a PotY season (club PotY, of course) this year, leading the club's goalscoring charts and generally earning the right to start the "better than Landon Donovan" argument as best US player ever. But sweet lord, in my FM game, the only way he wouldn't send the ball into low orbit when shooting was if he was six inches out.

Charlie Sheen Award For Most Erratic Behavior By A Player Who Isn't As Great As They Think They Are: I think this one's pretty obvious. Mr. Balotelli, here you go.

The Virtual Boy Award for Ideas Doomed to Failure: Woy Hodgson at Liverpool. He wasn't wanted, and had the sword of Daglish hanging over him his entire time.

XBox 360 Award For Playing So Ludicrously Well You'd Think It Was A Video Game: Leo Messi, obviously. He's literally pulled off sh*t I couldn't do in FIFA. On easy. Against Aldershot.

The "I'm Rich Biatch!" Award For Least Sane Use of Money: The tempting answer is Fernando Torres or Andy Carrol, but again, there's only one real answer.

IMAGE(http://music.ninemsn.com.au/img/blog/michael_jackson_statue_630x420.jpg)

Oy.

King Leonidas Award for Bravery in the Face of Utter Annihilation: Scott Parker. Also Manuel Neurer v. ManU.

Best Norks Award: I won't link to it directly, but scroll down and you'll see. NSFW, of course.

The "Seriously? Are You Really That F**king Stupid?" Award: Everyone trying to defend Messrs Gray and Keyes by claiming "It's PC gone mad!" No, if I was at work, and slagged off someone's ability to do their job solely based on the fact they have a vagina infront of other people and I got fired, I'm a dumbass.

Dumbest Transfer Rumor: "INSERT PLAYER to Man City!"

C-SPAN Award For Toiling Away in Continuing Unimportance: Sunderland. The most boring 47-point finish i've seen in years.

Game of the Year: Arsenal 4-4 Newcastle.

Team of the Year: Barca

Pleasant Surprise of the Year: Borussia Dortmund.

Unpleasant Surprise of the Year: Noone being good enough to prevent AC Milan from winning Serie A.

Manager of the Year: I'm going with André Villas-Boas. Sure, the Portugese League isn't top-level competition, but an undefeated season and the UEFA Cup? Not bad at all.

I will post mine later because I'm lazy.
In meanwhile ponder on this: Sampdoria, Wolfsburg, Deportivo and Monaco all got relegated this season. It is amazing how fast you can go from being club with European cup ambitions to second tier football.

Just happy its all over. United win with 80 points which wouldn't of been good enough in the last 10 (and why its also not surprising Barca handled them easily). League is honestly open next year for City to sneak in and win the whole thing.

The Arsenal transfer saga should be a joke this year. Apparently already put in a 8m bid for Samba (they want 12) and Bendtners agent (father) says hes worth 12m and Arsenal should have no problem getting that fee for him. Do both deals, why not.

Welp, one year of Mark Hughes, and he's gone. Maybe Al-Fayed was demanding he pay "tribute" to our club's "spiritual leader" statue.

Any regrets? After all he seemed to improve as season went on and ended up finishing high enough, especially given that Bobby was out for so long.

edit: Whom should Arsenal buy this summer? Give me names. For all of Wenger's recent shortcomings he is speaking a lot of sense now about new signing (looking for experience, improving average height, brining in defenders and one really strong attacker).
I'd like to see Benzema, at around 20m it sounds like bargain given his age, talent and reasonable form he's been in for Real this year.
But most of all, Scott Parker.

See if Phillipe Mexes is available. Also, try and grab Scott Parker, he may not have the technique, but lord is he ever the kind of head Arsenal desperately needs. He could arrive and be captain immediately. I'd also put in a vote for Sebastian Kjaer.

I'd be wary of Kjaer, he was terrible at Wolfsburg from what I hear.

Really interested how well could Taarabt do in Premier League:

Nasri
Bendtner
Denilson
Fabregas (Not yet, but probably will start it up again soon)

With all of the listed above allegedly whining and talking about wanting to leave, are any of them gonna be missed barring Nasri for the sake of his potential after growth (despite the Tabloids I really doubt he's gonna come to Utd btw)? I don't know much about Denilson, but Arsenal without Bendtner is an Arsenal I'd fear more as title contenders tbh.

ps. Really enjoyed reading RvP tell peeps to stfu, looks like he's sort of Arsenal's Rooney, minus the affairs with whores and reallly really disgusting contract negotiation tactics.

pps. I dont know if Benzema wants to leave Real though. IF he does go to Arsenal however, he could turn out to be one of Arsenal's best acquistions in the past 10 years.

Rooney, Chicharito, and possibly this guy up front....

Mmmm I like.

Erick Torres is an absolute beast in FM when you consider he's usually transfer-listed in the first year and available for £80k. That is the extent of my knowledge of the player... or all of soccer really.

Bendtner probably "has too much ambition" (thinks too highly of himself and would want too much in wages) for it, but he would be a nice striker for a mid-table side week in and week out. Couldn't be worse than Ameobi, Lovenkrands, Best, and Ranger. I still can't fathom how Newcastle managed to perform well in the 2nd-half with that group of strikers.

I agree with Prederick on Parker, just what Arsenal need in the midfield. Bonus points for Parker being the player that made me decide to follow Newcastle when I started following the Premier League a few years ago (my only rule in picking a team at the time was "Anyone but Manchester United and Chelsea"). Great player.

eawr

Roke wrote:

I agree with Prederick on Parker, just what Arsenal need in the midfield. Bonus points for Parker being the player that made me decide to follow Newcastle when I started following the Premier League a few years ago (my only rule in picking a team at the time was "Anyone but Manchester United and Chelsea"). Great player.

Although with Wilshere playing in exactly that role (and having definitely more potential) I wouldn't necesarilly see Parker as first team regular. Also, Lansbury (tireless central midfielder, good loan spell with Norwich) and Ramsey are two players who can make their breakthroughs next season, but that also means they might benefit much more from someone older playing in that formation.

If Cesc leaves I wonder if Arsene will be tempted to revert to 4-4-2.

Bendtner would be good signing for any Premier League team below Tottenham.

UCRC wrote:

Although with Wilshere playing in exactly that role (and having definitely more potential) I wouldn't necesarilly see Parker as first team regular. Also, Lansbury (tireless central midfielder, good loan spell with Norwich) and Ramsey are two players who can make their breakthroughs next season, but that also means they might benefit much more from someone older playing in that formation.

I gotta admit, I don't really have faith of any kid who came through the youth System being the kind of "they don't like it up 'em" hardman/leader-type Arsenal have been dearly missing since Viera/Silva left. It's not insomuch about Parker's technique, it's that Parker is the kind of character the team so obviously and desperately need.

Y'know who'd be perfect? Stefan Effenberg. Arsenal could use a total a**hole in midfield.

Martin Jol. I don't even know how I feel as I'm so blindsided by the acquisition. I have no idea if he's the correct man for the job, but he's the one we've got now.