Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

2008-09 Football Thread - The Second Half

Status
Not open for further replies.
garybUK said:
Again dominated by English clubs which can only say good things about the Premier League.
Click to expand...
Given that the four same clubs have been our representatives in the Champions League for years (along with Everton in 2005-06 after Liverpool's European win the previous season), it doesn't say many good things about the Premier League so far as competitiveness is concerned.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
Given that the four same clubs have been our representatives in the Champions League for years (along with Everton in 2005-06 after Liverpool's European win the previous season), it doesn't say many good things about the Premier League so far as competitiveness is concerned.
Click to expand...

They all won games to get there and got there on merit.... what else do you want them to do?
 
garybUK said:
Who's betting they 'totally randomly' draw us against L'Pool :p
Click to expand...

United will get Porto or Villareal, which is basically a bye to the semis.

Jaffa Cake said:
...it doesn't say many good things about the Premier League so far as competitiveness is concerned.
Click to expand...

Being a Liverpool supporter, I'm torn. Liverpool hasn't won a league title in quite a while, but they've had a lock on Champions League football for years. Even while I support Liverpool I also find myself cheering on Aston Villa's attempt to break the "big four" hegemony (especially since it doesn't risk my own team's place in the table :eek:).

The Premier League will be a contest between the big four for the foreseeable future, even if Aston Villa nips in there for a season or two. In that sense the Premier League is a league of four. Good times - if you support one of the big four. For everyone else, you can only hope for a consistent mid-table finish, perhaps a cup run or two and the remote possibility of a UEFA cup (or Europa cup or whatever).
 
Arsenal just through by the skin of their teeth. Kind of a dreary match, it was more like two subpar teams grinding it out for the spot and the luckier not better side snatched it

Either Barca or Man U will win it...probably Man U due to a better defense
 
daneoni said:
Either Barca or Man U will win it...probably Man U due to a better defense
Click to expand...

I thought the same, but Barca have come off the boil a bit, and United are still winning.

But I would not rule the other three English clubs out yet. Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal are all finding better form these days, even if Man United is the logical choice on paper.
 
garybUK said:
They all won games to get there and got there on merit.... what else do you want them to do?
Click to expand...
My point is that the 'big four' enjoy a domestic dominance funded by their perennial adventures in the Champions League – it gives them a financial muscle the rest of the teams in the division can't match.

The Premier League isn't a competitive league in so far as the title is concerned – year in year out you can predict quite comfortably that the same four teams will occupy the top four places in the table. They do so due to the calibre of their players, attracted by the twin carrots of wages that few outside the 'big four' can compete with and the almost certain guarantee of playing in the Champions League.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
They do so due to the calibre of their players, attracted by the twin carrots of wages that few outside the 'big four' can compete with and the almost certain guarantee of playing in the Champions League.
Click to expand...

Witness Man City's attempts to buy every top player out there - no title, no Champions League...no thanks.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Witness Man City's attempts to buy every top player out there - no title, no Champions League...no thanks.
Click to expand...
There's also the fact that during the January transfer window the blue half of Manchester weren't that far away from the relegation places – come the end of January they were tenth, but only five points clear and fifteen points short of fifth place and Europa League qualification – and twenty points behind fourth place.

If you're a top player, you want to go to a club who you know will be playing in Europe next season – especially as at the end of the next campaign the World Cup takes place. As you say your Lordship, City can offer a hefty wage packet but then again you're not exactly going to be struggling to make ends meet if you go to Arsenal or Real Madrid instead are you? The difference is, you know with almost complete certainty that those clubs are going to be playing in top European competition next season.
 
Can someone explain to me why UEFA doesn't grant the UEFA Cup winner entry into the following season's Champions League? It seems like such an obvious idea. They're a Champion, so they deserve it, plus it immediately would improve the profile of the UEFA Cup.

And now for something completely different......

Why don't they just have a European FA Cup, every team in the top division of every league in a knockout cup. That way, everyone gets a shot. :)
 
swiftaw said:
Can someone explain to me why UEFA doesn't grant the UEFA Cup winner entry into the following season's Champions League? It seems like such an obvious idea. They're a Champion, so they deserve it, plus it immediately would improve the profile of the UEFA Cup.
Click to expand...
In recent years we've seen the likes of Millwall, Ipswich Town and Portsmouth all compete in the UEFA Cup. Can you imagine if a team such as one of these actually won the UEFA Cup and got into the Champions League the following season? It's enough to bring Platini out in a cold sweat...

The Champions League is to all extents and purposes a more or less closed off cash cow for Europe's biggest clubs. The power ultimately lies with them and there's no way they'd be happy to let teams outside of their cosy little club get their snouts in the trough alongside them. It's also why we'll never see the winners of the FA Cup getting a Champions League place... imagine a lesser Premier League club or – heavens forbid! – a non-Premier League club winning it and claiming the Champions League spot. You can almost hear the teeth grinding and hand wringing now...
 
Jaffa Cake said:
In recent years we've seen the likes of Millwall, Ipswich Town and Portsmouth all compete in the UEFA Cup. Can you imagine if a team such as one of these actually won the UEFA Cup and got into the Champions League the following season? It's enough to bring Platini out in a cold sweat...
Click to expand...

Aston Villa getting in would have the same effect. I think UEFA doesn't mind giving the Premier League four Champions League spots - as long as it's Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd that fill them. Once another team break into the club, UEFA will start whining.
 
I think the occasional Champions League adventure for the likes of Villa and Everton isn't too big a problem for UEFA once in a while, but ultimately what concerns them is TV revenue and exposure. This is why the system is set up so it ensures the nations who get the most entrants into the Champions League are also the nations with the largest TV audiences – their sponsors and advertisers pay good money for their brands to be paraded before as many watching eyes as possible.

But Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool are good box office, and their continued involvement alongside the other European heavyweights keep folk watching.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
But Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool are good box office, and their continued involvement alongside the other European heavyweights keep folk watching.
Click to expand...

Well, it's business as usual this year, as all four are through to the last 8 once again...and the odds are pretty good that it could be an all-England final once again.

What a league the English Premiership is - shame about the national side. :D;)

It reminds me about Major League Baseball...we invented the game, and yet once we come up with a World Baseball Classic, all these other countries start beating us...not fair. :eek:
 
How Soccer is Ruining America

Any sport that limits you to using your feet, with the occasional bang of the head, has something very wrong with it. Indeed, soccer is a liberal’s dream of tragedy: It creates an egalitarian playing field by rigorously enforcing a uniform disability.

Everyone knows that soccer is a foreign invasion, but few people know exactly what is wrong with that. More than having to do with its origin, soccer is a European sport because it is all about death and despair. Americans would never invent a sport where the better you get the less you score.
Click to expand...

;)
 
Those damn pinko commie soccerballers! I think we can safely blame them for most – if not all – of America's ills. Sort it out, your Lordship. ;)

Blimey... he's criticising the sport because we don't get to use our opposable thumbs, obviously he's never seen Mr M Riley (West Yorkshire) using his to dole out his red cards. :p

...soccer mimics the paradigmatic feminine experience of childbirth more than the masculine business of destroying your opponent with insurmountable power.
Click to expand...

Clearly, he's never seen Deano play...
 
Jaffa Cake said:
It's also why we'll never see the winners of the FA Cup getting a Champions League place... imagine a lesser Premier League club or – heavens forbid! – a non-Premier League club winning it and claiming the Champions League spot.
Click to expand...

as happened in Scotland last year with Queen of the South (OK they didn't win but they got the UEFA cup place as Rangers had already bagged a CL place.)

Lord Blackadder said:
It reminds me about Major League Baseball...we invented the game *, and yet once we come up with a World Baseball Classic, all these other countries start beating us...not fair. :eek:
Click to expand...

* it was invented by the French and brought to America by Brits and Irish.
Good to see you now invite other countries to share your 'world series' :p

Jaffa Cake said:
My point is that the 'big four' enjoy a domestic dominance funded by their perennial adventures in the Champions League – it gives them a financial muscle the rest of the teams in the division can't match.
Click to expand...

Wise words, it's exactly the problem we've got up here with a duopoly bagging the CL spots every year, the resultant cash makes it more likely to qualify the following year. The likes of Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs and of course the mighty 'Frew don't have a look in.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
Those damn pinko commie soccerballers! I think we can safely blame them for most – if not all – of America's ills. Sort it out, your Lordship. ;)
Click to expand...

I'll get right on it. :D

Fuzzy14 said:
* it was invented by the French and brought to America by Brits and Irish. Good to see you now invite other countries to share your 'world series' :p
Click to expand...

I knew someone was going to bring that up. True of course, but the game as it exists today is an American sport.

We still only allow MLB teams to compete in the world series; it remains a domestic league except for the odd Canadian team. The World Baseball Classic is designed to be a World Cup of Baseball, if you will. I think it's a good idea, but as yet Americans aren't paying much attention to it, since we aren't winning. :rolleyes:
 
I don't know if it's true or not, I found it on Wikipedia :rolleyes: while trying to find some evidence to link it to cricket!

By the way, first trophy in Scotland up for grabs this weekend.
Co-Operative Insurance Cup Final - Rangers v Celtic
Venue: Hampden Park Date: Sunday, 15 March Kick-off: 1500 GMT
Coverage: Sportscene, BBC One Scotland, Sportsound, BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Sport website.
Click to expand...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back