2011/12 Soccer Thread - Because Vacations Are For Cowards

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-arc...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...

Lately he's been either deeply confused or there is something else going on behind the curtains or whatever the English expression is.

Interesting transfer - Roger Johnson to Wolves for 7M. I was surprised that bigger clubs weren't in for him.

UCRC wrote:

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-arc...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...

Lately he's been either deeply confused or there is something else going on behind the curtains or whatever the English expression is.

Interesting transfer - Roger Johnson to Wolves for 7M. I was surprised that bigger clubs weren't in for him.

I think this is Wengers last push. Honestly if he doesn't win this year how long can he keep this song and dance up that Arsenal are a big club without signing anyone and continually having their players linked with moves away.

Nasri has said roughly that
1. its not money.
2. as a footballer once you earn a certain wage more means nothing only your career and winning does.
3. he wants to win.

If Wenger can win this year he has a chance to keep Cesc and call Nasri's bluff that its not 180k in wages that motivates him but winning. Lose? Even RvP will probably throw in his transfer request as hes even hinting this year the club needs to go out and buy to compete.

Honestly the situation is grim IMO. We will see how the transfers end up but with Wenger saying things like no replacement for Clichy will be brought in has a repeat of every season panning out. I love Gibbs for the future but the poor kid has been injury prone as is. If Wenger honestly thinks he can go into this season with Gibbs, Traore and Vermaelen as the depth at LB you can imagine what he has planned for other positions depth.

blah.

I thought the same about the 'one last push' when I read the stuff about Arsenal keeping Nasri even if he won't negotiate a new deal. If you are willing to risk significant amounts of money and risk him walking away next summer for nothing, then it really is a 'death or glory' job.

Nice to see that Bayern manage to hold their noses long enough to agree a fee for the player they spent so long illegally tapping up. I would hope for a catastrophic loss of form for Boateng, be nice to see the Bayern customers get on his back, if they can tear their eyes away from their phones for long enough to notice.

davet010 wrote:

Nice to see that Bayern manage to hold their noses long enough to agree a fee for the player they spent so long illegally tapping up. I would hope for a catastrophic loss of form for Boateng, be nice to see the Bayern customers get on his back, if they can tear their eyes away from their phones for long enough to notice.

and this is why I don't mind the Chelseas and Citys in the game.

Its great seeing the historically big clubs get all whiney about the crap they have pulled their entire history once its used on them.

back to Nasri I'm not sure if there is even a 20m bid at all.

City like Chelsea had to be aggressive at first with their transfer policies. I think they are slowly closing the purse strings now that they have got the club to the level they are being taken seriously. Unless Mancini thinks hes the missing link to winning this year you can save 20m and by 'save' I mean spend it elsewhere and still have Nasri next year for free.

Also compared to American sports the amount of lazy journalism that goes around is hilarious. Pretty sure the Nasri story timeline was this.
Arsenal have hard time resigning him.
United supposedly are interested.
United supposedly have him tapped up for free.
United are going to make a 20m swoop bid to get him now.
Well if United are interested so is City and they have him tapped up at 180k double what Arsenal are offering.
Ooops heres the hitch Fergie says they are not after Nasri.
Ooops Arsenal say their have been no official bids. Are City even interested?

Same goes for the Snijder rumors. Fergie said they are not after him but every rumor mill has him going for 35m and the hitch is he wants 200k not 170k in wages..... not sure where they are getting 35m let alone 170k to pay him with the interest they are saddled with. After already spending close to 60m this window.

I would like very much for this and the Tevez saga to end within the next 72 hours please. Thank you.

Some chance - on the Tevez side, I suspect the Corinthians 'bid' was a stalking horse to force some European clubs to get a move on and bid.

Oh, and Carlos, if you are that arsed about moving closer to home, how about you chipping in some money to the Corinthians bid ? No ? Oh right, because both their bid and your 'going home for the kids' are complete works of fantasy ? Riigghhhttt, now I understand.

Argentina = OUT! Is Uruguay the best small nation in international soccer? I say yes.

I'd probably vote for Holland rather than Thugs 'r Us.

Some of the decisions in that match were terrible - quite why Mascherano was sent off is a mystery. It did look as though the ref was keen to be the star of the show.

davet010 wrote:

I'd probably vote for Holland rather than Thugs 'r Us.

Some of the decisions in that match were terrible - quite why Mascherano was sent off is a mystery. It did look as though the ref was keen to be the star of the show.

I was thinking the same thing. The officials seemed quite interested in the outcome. Also, new drinking game, every time Suarez dives, take a shot. If you are alive by the end of the game you are lucky.

Let's go Team USA! Win it in extra time!

New rule: kick the ball at Abby Wambach's head, for it always seems to go into the goal.

Go team Paraguay, win it in extra time!

edit: haha, Angry Birds poster in Women's WC final, did you see that?

This match is like watching England play Spain - direct into-the-area type stuff versus slow deliberate buildup.

Big totem-like centre forward in white - check
Panicky defending - check
Some 'agricultural' challenges - check

But them nurses uniforms must have derived from Blatter's imagination, just as well they didn't go for the tight shorts as well.

Standard looks way higher than previous competitions, apart from the keeping which is still iffy.

Ooops, 2-2.

Drama!
edit: Two red cards and proper ten-men brawl in Brazil-Paraguay too. (Not sure what it was about, all of a sudden everybody got really excited about running into each other.)

Some shocking penalties there, apart from the final one.

So yes, America did take their lead from the England men.

Alexis Jordan! Pitch invasion! Cardboard! Almost makes me don't want to switch back to Copa America.

I'm glad I decided to watch the Women's final instead of the Copa America match, it was brilliant entertainment and much better than the Copa America matches I've watched so far.

Time for Brazil-Paraguay penalties... what did I miss besides woeful Brazil?

Those were some atrocious penalties.

Awful penalties by Brazil there. Long run-ups, slow run-ups,idiotic stuttering run-up.

Underdog through in the first three semi-finals in the Copa America.

Woeful Paraguay. Men punching each other. Referee making "I'm fed up with you lot" face.

edit: Dave, I hope you're watching this. You should really enjoy Elano penalty edit: Haha, they're making women look really competent. edit: Jesus Christ, they're making John Terry look half-competent.

I haven't enjoyed penalty shootout like that in a long long time.

Arf, interviewing Robinho now. Piss off, you soft arse.

davet010 wrote:

Arf, interviewing Robinho now.

"Can I go home now?" face

UCRC - I recognized the Angry Birds sign as well, and pointed it out to my family.

Congrats to Japan for completing an excellent, touched-by-destiny World Cup. I hope the US women hold their heads high and kick ass in the 2012 Olympics.

I wonder if Hope Solo's going to get thrown under the bus in the press tomorrow. From malcontent to media darling to whatever the heck was up with her in the PK shootout. She's certainly had an interesting month.

From malcontent to media darling to whatever the heck was up with her in the PK shootout.

Huh. What was wrong her PK performance? It was pretty normal. It was just that her dear colleagues delivered some pretty abysmal PKs. It was one PK save (US) vs two PK saves (JPN).

missed the Womens but got home just in time to see Brazil fallout apart in their shootout....

then watched Chile the new Copa America favorites... lose. 4 quarter final games and 4 upsets.

Spunior wrote:
From malcontent to media darling to whatever the heck was up with her in the PK shootout.

Huh. What was wrong her PK performance? It was pretty normal. It was just that her dear colleagues delivered some pretty abysmal PKs. It was one PK save (US) vs two PK saves (JPN).

And she's apparently been injured. Hope didn't balloon her penalty over the bar.

Very disappointed to see the women lose, but I can't hate on Japan. A literal fairy-tale story, congrats to them.

Also, I caught the Youtube video of those Brazil penalties. They were even worse than I'd read..

It looked like Solo got injured in the incident where the US #3 cleared off the line, but which resulted in the corner from which Japan equalised. If you wanted to be critical you could say that she could have got a stronger hand to the third one, but it was right into the corner.

She clearly was hurt; the US staff was working on her leg/ankle area prior to the PK. Just how bad she was hurt remains to be seen but seeing how she's a lightning rod for attention in the US media, all eyes are going to be on her...at least for the next week until the sports press has something else to focus on.