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2010-2011 Football Thread

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Blue Velvet said:
Clearly. :D He must have debuted at an early age. I'm sure when Football Italia was still on Channel 4, he was a first team player for Juve then.

Policemen are looking younger these days too.
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He does seem to have been around forever.You should worry about policemen looking younger,every time there's talk of Fergie retiring my first thought is but he can't he's still a young man in the prime of his life.:eek:
 
Lord Blackadder said:
With the Mexican league's style of play featuring a much slower buildup than the Premier League's, it will be interesting to see how he does in league play, especially with fast counterattacks. He has obvious talent in front of goal though, no doubt about that.
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Recall that Chicharito was clocked as the fastest player at the World Cup. I think he'll do fine in counterattacking situations, my main worry is if he's physically strong enough to match up against some of those imposing Premiership center-halves.
 
Silencio said:
Recall that Chicharito was clocked as the fastest player at the World Cup. I think he'll do fine in counterattacking situations, my main worry is if he's physically strong enough to match up against some of those imposing Premiership center-halves.
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The physical battles will require a little adaptation, but there are smaller players with a good physical game (Tim Cahill is probably the best example). I certainly don't doubt his speed either, but I think Man United play a different style of game than is common in Mexico, and he'll need to adapt to that. I wonder how he will end up fitting in the pecking order of strikers at the club.
 
Ooo – the new New York Cosmos shirt, clearly inspired by the shirts worn by the previous team to use the name back in the 1970s...

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Of course, if they're accepted into the MLS in the future they'll have to use a bog-standard Adidas template shirt, but I'm liking this Umbro effort.
 
Just watched the Everton-Birmingham match. Everton were the better side going forward, but neither team could finish anything. Jerome and Yakubu - yikes, if either could muster a decent shot they would have scored (though both were under pressure) . That huge striker for Birmingham (Zigic) didn't get much service but just sort of stood around and didn't win any headers.

Good header from Cahill in the end after great work from Baines. That was probably the only good shot on goal in the game.

Hleb looks so out of place at Birmingham. The match reports make it sound like he had a bad game, but he made a number of decent runs, passes and crosses - but the rest of the squad just don't know how to play tap-tap-tap football, and Hleb becomes isolated. The rest of the squad needs to involve him more in the buildup and anticipate the through-balls and cutbacks.

Jaffa Cake said:
Of course, if they're accepted into the MLS in the future they'll have to use a bog-standard Adidas template shirt, but I'm liking this Umbro effort.
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Nice Cosmos shirt, retro done right. So far, MLS has been fairly quiet about the Cosmos. Obviously they'd have to be brought in as an expansion team after Montreal in 2012...on the one hand I'd like to see the Cosmos take to the pitch again, but there are a lot of other cities that could field an MLS team, and NY always gets two of everything...Detroit or Cleveland might be good candidates, and it would also be good to see another team located in a Latino population center like the Southwest or maybe Florida (although they've tried and failed there).
 
I'm preparing myself for yet another grim trip to west london... don't know why I keep on going!
 
XIII said:
I'm preparing myself for yet another grim trip to west london... don't know why I keep on going!
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I dunno how we are gonna manage this one. No Fabregas, no Varmalean, no Van Persie, no Walcott, Fabianski in goal and we're playing away. Hmmm...
 
Jaffa Cake said:
Really Blackpool, that's so 2008. :rolleyes:
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LOL. Actually, you can't give Blackpool credit for beating a "big" team. Liverpool are laden with debt, the owners are morons, the players are dispirited, the manager is trying to re-build to a new system. It's more like beating last season's Portsmouth.

Like I said before - all I care about this season is not getting relegated. I just can't see how we are going to climb out of this. The players just need to pull themselves together under Woy and get down to the business of playing football.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
The players just need to pull themselves together under Woy and get down to the business of playing football.
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Do you think Uncle Woy is still the man to take Liverpool forward though, or has he perhaps bitten off more than he can chew?
 
Fizzoid said:
Do you think Uncle Woy is still the man to take Liverpool forward though, or has he perhaps bitten off more than he can chew?
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I don't think Benitez would be doing any better right now. I think things will get worse before they'll get better, and while Hodgson is not a Mourinho/Ferguson level manager I think that he's good enough to get us back on track provided the ownership situation gets sorted out.

Sacking him would be foolish IMO. I think it will take some time for Hodgson to get the team playing his system first of all...and he stepped into a very difficult position in the first place. If we got rid of him, who would step in? I think most quality managers would run screaming from a Liverpool job offer because of the screwy ownership situation.
 
Blue Velvet said:
To visit me, of course. ;) How you doing, J? :)
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Well thanks BV :) How about you?

Once again west london was not very kind to me.. especially unkind this time I thought! MOTD pointed out defensive frailties (yawn) which are present, but weren't to blame for the goals we conceded. Firstly, there was a foul in the build up to the first goal, that passage of play shouldn't have been.. but still.. both that, and the Alex free kick, were 'wonder goals' ie. you can't really do much about them. Neither of them would be recreated over and over again, Drogba couldn't do that again, and neither could Alex! So it's quite hard to take.

Then we had Koscielny missing by backwards heading over the bar, not impressive.. Chamakh should've done better with a header towards the end, and finally.. there was a penalty I think on Chamakh. They didn't really focus on it on MOTD, but did show one replay - he pokes the ball away and has his feet clipped, pretty clear I thought from what I saw. Anyway.. very disappointed. We played exceptionally well.
 
XIII said:
Well thanks BV :) How about you?
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I'm OK, just getting on. Maybe see you at London Picnic 2011? :)

Followed the match on the BBC's site, sounded like the Gunners deserved a point from the match on effort alone. Like you say, can't do much on the training ground about wonder goals. I'm a Chelsea follower, not a hardcore supporter, allowed to be because that's where I live :D but I don't take pleasure in seeing you unhappy. Now if we're talking Man Utd. supporters, that might be another story... ;)
 
Nigel de Jong has escaped punishment for the tackle that broke Hatem Ben Arfa's leg, and once again I'm left wondering why the rule that protected him from a ban is in place. If the ref doesn't punish some on-field indicent that results in a demonstrably serious injury, and there is both photographic and video evidence that it resulted from a dangerous tackle, what good reason is there not to retrospectively punish the offending player?

I still haven't forgotten how he broke US international Stuart Holden's leg in the run-up to the world cup. The man is a menace.

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You can see how much even Tevez, his own teammate, is frightened of de Jong as he tries to avoid the scything tackle that crunched Ben Arfa's leg.

Blue Velvet said:
Now if we're talking Man Utd. supporters, that might be another story... ;)
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Indeed. :D

EDIT: Kevin Davies, England's 10th-best striker (I ranked him behind the 7-times-capped goal-machine Carlton Cole) is in the national side for the Montenegro match. Thoughts? If he pulls a hammy before the match does that give Dean Windass a shot at a shock call-up? :D
 
Jaffa Cake said:
Places I'm glad I'm not at this moment in time: the home dressing room at Anfield.
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Did you also escape 'The Stadium of Light - now incorporating The Dressing Room of S:eek::eek:te' ?

XIII - you missed the stamps; Chelsea 2 - Arsenal 1 (aka Sagna's Revenge). I disagree about the Alex free kick, Arshavin should have stood in front of/behind the Chelsea player who was on the end of the wall. Granted, there might have been a break in play to discuss whether a head in the back of the net counts double, but it's likely the ball would have been kept out.

Lord Blackadder - Liverpool is one thing, well, two, but what about tomorrow night?

Cheers,
OW
 
oscillatewildly said:
Lord Blackadder - Liverpool is one thing, well, two, but what about tomorrow night?
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Indeed, big night for the Crew tomorrow...

One thing that I find to be ridiculous about the Open Cup Final is that it is not played at a neutral ground - we have to play Seattle in their home stadium - which, by the way, is a plastic pitch, not appropriate for a final IMO.

Columbus are not playing well at the moment, we just drew 0-0 at home on the weekend against San Jose, a game we should have won. We have more strikers than ever now, with Renteria, Lenhart, Garey and Mendoza all healthy and available (not to mention Schelotto, who plays as a second striker) and yet we just can't find the back of the net anymore. Key center back Chad Marshall is again available, as is longtime injury absentee winger Robbie Rogers, but I'm not sure where those two players (critical to our success in '08) are going to be in terms of match fitness. With Kansas City's loss at the weekend we are officially in the playoffs, still second in the East and still in the running for three major trophies (we need a win in Trinidad & Tobago to advance to the Champions League quarterfinals), but the squad are off form and will need to really pick things up tomorrow in Seattle. We need a big game from everyone but the strikers in particular need to have a big performance.

Despite losing Freddy Ljungberg, Seattle are playing really well right now, and they will attack us in the final. We are going to have to hope that we keep it tight defensively and maximize our chances against the ageing but still excellent Seattle keeper.
 
The Xbox Pitch:eek: At home + plastic pitch = a nice advantage. Agree, why not two legs or neutral ground on a Saturday? Is Tuesday night better re crowd/viewers? Good luck.

De Jong has been dropped from the Netherlands squad:

Netherlands coach Bert Van Marwijk told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper: "It was a wild and unnecessary offence. I have a problem with the way Nigel needlessly looks to push the limit."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9058532.stm

Cheers,
OW
 
oscillatewildly said:
The Xbox Pitch:eek: At home + plastic pitch = a nice advantage. Agree, why not two legs or neutral ground on a Saturday? Is Tuesday night better re crowd/viewers? Good luck.
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I doubt it will draw many viewers, though in the future, as the league grows, it will get bigger. The Tuesday time slot is probably just to avoid league matches on the weekend. It kind of gets buried in league play, which makes me wonder if they should move the Open Cup final to after the MLS Cup final.

oscillatewildly said:
De Jong has been dropped from the Netherlands squad:

Netherlands coach Bert Van Marwijk told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper: "It was a wild and unnecessary offence. I have a problem with the way Nigel needlessly looks to push the limit."
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Fizzoid said:
But then, I guess if De Jong's branded as a criminal...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUQftFZKu6U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH4JjsK5xtc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3luuufaIFzY&feature=related
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Indeed. I think the question has little to do with the player's personality and everything to do with a pattern of behavior. Even if de Jong never intends to injure players with his tackles, the fact remains that he goes in wildly and recklessly and that behavior is first and foremost a danger to other players - and also a liability to Man City and the Netherlands because he becomes a major card risk.

Mark van Bommel should simply shut up, he's merely drawing further attention to his own dirty play. Credit to Bert Van Marwijk for sending the right message...hopefully its received by van Bommel.
 
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