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2010-2011 Football Thread

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Lord Blackadder said:
The away goals won't help them much unless they are tied for second at the end of the group stage...Spurs are in a tough group. One assumes that Inter will top it, but Bremen and Twente are good clubs and I suspect Spurs will struggle to finish second.
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That's true, although I take heart from the fact that they gained a point from one of the teams that's expected to advance. If they can beat Twente while Inter and Bremen draw (which is a plausible outcome), then the away goals could become a big issue. But it also sucks to see them let a game slip away that they were on the way to winning.

On the third hand, I'm also an Inter supporter, so I'll soon be in a quandary.
 
Watching Arsenal tonight was wonderful. Like poetry in motion when they really turn it on. Their one touch stuff is fantastic.



In Leeds news, Grayson is very very angry. His post match interview consists of him muddling through sentences in his anger/confusion at what he's just seen. When asked if there would be changes for Friday v Doncaster, he might aswell have said "well obviously we were *****". Which is true. :(

Snodgrass potentially back on Friday, Nunez to come in, Paynter maybe, Clayton, McCormack & Somma could all start... I'm optimistic we'll beat Doncaster though purely because the appalling performances under Grayson in the past have always been followed immediately by a great one.
 
aloofman said:
That's true, although I take heart from the fact that they gained a point from one of the teams that's expected to advance. If they can beat Twente while Inter and Bremen draw (which is a plausible outcome), then the away goals could become a big issue. But it also sucks to see them let a game slip away that they were on the way to winning.

On the third hand, I'm also an Inter supporter, so I'll soon be in a quandary.
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Do away goals even come into it in the group stages at all? I have a feeling they don't - it's a mini league, and it's simply goal difference if two teams are tied..
 
Lord Blackadder said:
I'll bet you never thought you'd be cheering on a Rafa Benitez side. :D
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True, but it's less weird than hoping the Special One will lead you. :rolleyes:


XIII said:
Do away goals even come into it in the group stages at all? I have a feeling they don't - it's a mini league, and it's simply goal difference if two teams are tied..
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I looked it up on the PDF of the Champions League regulations from the website. Away-goals is the third tiebreaker in the group stage, after goal difference. It's unlikely to come into play, but like I said, if Werder Bremen and Tottenham finish with the same number of points behind Inter, then it might matter. As it is, all four teams have one point, two goals scored and two goals allowed.
 
Great performance by Arsenal, but before you get as excited as the English media and Wenger are, remember that they were playing Braga, a Portugese side that has never won its domestic league. Still, an emphatic win is a good result for the Gunners.

aloofman said:
True, but it's less weird than hoping the Special One will lead you. :rolleyes:
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I'd take him in a minute. People complain about his teams' boring style, but in the end he delivers trophies, plain and simple.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
Kind of shows the Champions League up a bit, doesn't it? :rolleyes:
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I understand the desire to open up the Champions League to new competitors, but I would rather see a real Champion playing - in other words, CFR Cluj is a more worthy side for the CL than Braga, even though Cluj is probably an inferior side.

I think it should be a real Champions League - i.e. only Champions of domestic Leagues (and perhaps the previous season's winner and Europa Cup winners) should be playing. That would really reduce the number of teams playing and eliminate the laughable qualifying stages that are just revenue generators anyway.

Try telling that to the people at UEFA and the clubs though...:rolleyes:

Jaffa Cake said:
And I wouldn't say no to Mourinho being our manager, either.
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One would be a fool not to. His record speaks for itself. The only thing you could say against him is that he'll probably be a journeyman for most of his career, because the combination of his ego and desire for new challenges, along with his "colorful" personality will prevent him from settling down like Ferguson or Wenger.
 
Wow, great start by Liverpool, and a FANTASTIC finish from Joe Cole. Hopefully they'll keep going and bag a couple more
 
It's very encouraging to see that kind of skill from Cole - we need it badly. Steaua Bucharest are a decent side though, I'm not expecting a Gunners-esque 6-0.

I'm pessimistic, but secretly hopeful. ;)
 
We are definitely laboring here, but have improved. N'Gog taking a penalty is a scary thought, but we are going to need him to produce for us this season, so it's probably a valuable confidence builder...we need another goal though.

Liverpool are really struggling to score goals this season.

EDIT: Lucas scores within a minute of coming on for Babel. Amazing scenes. Well, perhaps not "amazing", maybe "reasonably cheerful" scenes. ;)

EDIT2: The result was excellent, the performance less so. We played well in the second half, and N'Gog, Lucas and of course Cole each created quality goals, plus N'Gog confidently dispatched his PK.

On the flip side, we conceded an equalizer at a terrible time in the match, and the winning goal was scored off a dodgy penalty call. It could very easily have ended 1-1. Kyrgiakos was a donkey today, and Steaua got behind us too often.

Overall I think it's about as much as we can hope for. Steaua are a good squad but we'll need to play like we did in the second half with more consistency. Stll a work in progress at Anfield, but Hodgson can at least hope to build on it.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
I'd take him in a minute. People complain about his teams' boring style, but in the end he delivers trophies, plain and simple.
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He clearly has some kind of skill for blending players into a team and knowing his side's strengths. And I didn't say I wasn't happy to cheer him on, just that it was less weird. :p
 
Lord Blackadder said:
I think it should be a real Champions League - i.e. only Champions of domestic Leagues (and perhaps the previous season's winner and Europa Cup winners) should be playing. That would really reduce the number of teams playing and eliminate the laughable qualifying stages that are just revenue generators anyway.

Try telling that to the people at EUEFA and the clubs though...:rolleyes:
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Ahh the good old days of the European Cup. When winning it meant something.

But like you say, will never happen again because it would mean three of the "big four" would miss out on all their money. Which would cripple them. I'd prefer it if Man U/Chelsea/Arsenal/Man City buggered off and started a European Super League with Barca/Real/Bayern/Inter etc etc and left the Premiership a bit more of a level playing field.
 
Middle East Yorkshire. Heh. :D

Isn't denying that a bid has been made the same as giving a manager a vote of confidence, i.e. he means the opposite of what he says?

Two interesting (amusing) bits of news:

If you haven't already seen them, this pair of gems by Ibrahimovic makes Nicolas Anelka look like the definition of sanity. What a headcase!

Thierry Henry somehow managed to avoid a second yellow for kicking Dallas' keeper during (another player's) goal celebration. I hope the refs aren't too awed to punish him. Beckham picks up lots of cards for rash tackles, but few refs seem willing to issue reds to the designated players.

EDIT: Tom Hicks is, somewhat improbably, clutching at straws in his attemps to maintain ownership of Liverpool, and rumors even suggest he's planning to reinstate his Tommy Boy-esque son as director. <shakes head> I sincerely hope the scousers (or rather the RBS) send that hillbilly packing with a light wallet.
 
pachyderm said:
stoke and west ham on espn...

espn game.... feh!
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<rant>

I just bought an HDTV and I'm looking at the (one) local cable provider here in Anchorage, and the TV package distribution of football matches is a disgrace. I have to pay extra to get FSC, and the basic ESPN channels I get don't include, for example, the Man U - Liverpool matches. This is all vaguely par for the course in the US, but the time difference here makes it worse, especially when many games are not replayed at a reasonable hour for west-coasters. Not to mention that Fox Soccer Plus, which carries some of the biggest matches, isn't even offered up here. :rolleyes:

Fox and ESPN, you can go sit on a corner flag and rotate. :mad:

</rant>
 
Pah, "4 minutes of added time" = Sunderland scoring the equaliser in the 5th minute.
 
FFS!...i knew it. Bound to happen.

Also am i the only one who thinks Rosicky has just not found form for Arsenal in like...ever?
 
daneoni said:
Also am i the only one who thinks Rosicky has just not found form for Arsenal in like...ever?
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In his defence, I have it on good authority from XIII that the foppish Czech has lovely soft hair, so he at least has that in his favour.

I also have it on good authority that XIII knows this because he basically smothered his face in it, but I won't embarrass him by mentioning that. :p
 
awmazz said:
Pah, "4 minutes of added time" = Sunderland scoring the equaliser in the 5th minute.
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I mocked 'Time Added On To Let Man Utd Win' until two weeks ago when Scotland scored in the 7th minute of 5 added on.:eek: I'm taking an increased interest in footie in the NE of England, my house mate is a big Sunderland fan and one of my work colleges... well here's a picture of him with his son! I note that Wheater scored today.

Great result for Rangers today, Dundee Utd can be right difficult sometimes. P5 W5 (I think that's 5-0-0 in American speak).

LB if you have a decent broadband connection I have found there are ways to watch footie without such subscriptions, as long as you have the relevant cables to connect a laptop to the TV (not quite HD though...)
 
Jaffa Cake said:
In his defence, I have it on good authority from XIII that the foppish Czech has lovely soft hair, so he at least has that in his favour.

I also have it on good authority that XIII knows this because he basically smothered his face in it, but I won't embarrass him by mentioning that. :p
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Haha! Funny story... :D

Rosicky has actually played very well every time I've seen his this season, and indeed did today. Just because he took a crap penalty doesn't mean he hasn't played well..
 
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