The 2013-2014 Football Thread

[twietee]

Nah, it happens quite often. Am I missing something? We even have a saying for that in German, which goes like "that wasn't a penalty-worthy foul" implying it was a foul indeed (and hence a pen) but because we don't want the games to end 9-7 with 6-7 pens included they aren't given. Also quite liked by any sort of announcer is the good ol' "if that'd be a pen, we would have 5-6 each game". Mostly used within corner kick riots.

Just wanted to add this before the case is closed!

 

[Happybunny]

Just my 2 cents.

If it's a team that I support, and our player goes down in the box, it's always a penalty, ref are you blind.

If it's their player then, he is diving piece of ****, and should be given the Red Card, Ref are you blind.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

150 years ago today, a group of distinguished fellows had their first meeting to attempt to codify the rules of football and thus began the FA. Sensibly, they gave the job of compiling their definitive Laws of the Game to the only Hull-born chap in the room.

Quite possibly the first (and only) good idea the FA have ever had..

 

[Cox Orange]

@ Lord Blackadder:
on Sunday and Thursday, there will be a US-women's friendly against NZ (one in columbus). Not a special one, but if you are interested http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Womens...131017-US-WNT-vs-NZ-online-streaming-rel.aspx (it is announced to be streamed on ussoccer.com tomorrow). I stumbled over it and thought, I'd share.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

I've never watched a 4-1 win I disliked so much, and this game demonstrated why Liverpool will struggle to break into the top four. Liverpool were absolutely bailed out by their forwards today. Suarez was excellent, Sturridge was also excellent (perhaps there was a hint of his old selfishness today, but his chip was outstanding). Gerrard's service was world class and the rest of the midfield did their jobs well, though Henderson was sloppy on a couple occasions.

We have a title-winning front line, maybe a top four midfield, but only a midtable defense. Time and time again WBA fashioned chances that a top four club would have put away. Against Man City or Arsenal this would have been a 2-4 loss for the Reds, or maybe a 3-3 draw. Also, the weak second half syndrome rears its head. Liverpool scored two goals during that period, but their defending was downright poor at times. Mignolet put in a mixed performance; some good saves but some flapping too. Toure, Skrtel and Sakho found themselves beaten too often.

Man Utd manage a comeback at home against Stoke and now it's being hailed as a "turning point". That's as silly as claims that this Liverpool win makes us a contender. Man Utd has productive forwards bailing out the rest of the squad -a bit like Liverpool.

@ Lord Blackadder:
on Sunday and Thursday, there will be a US-women's friendly against NZ (one in columbus). Not a special one, but if you are interested http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Womens...131017-US-WNT-vs-NZ-online-streaming-rel.aspx (it is announced to be streamed on ussoccer.com tomorrow). I stumbled over it and thought, I'd share.

Thanks for the heads-up! I'll be traveling to morrow, but maybe I can catch the Thursday match. Glad they're streaming it.

 

[daneoni]

Toure, Skrtel and Sakho found themselves beaten too often.

Toure is old and past it, Skrtel seems to have forgotten who he is, Sakho looking to be hype over substance or just not up to the EPL game. Granted its still early days.

Man Utd manage a comeback at home against Stoke and now it's being hailed as a "turning point". That's as silly as claims that this Liverpool win makes us a contender. Man Utd has productive forwards bailing out the rest of the squad -a bit like Liverpool.

For United its a "turning point" or 'classic' United. For anyone else it would've been hailed as luck which would eventually run out. Comical really.

But the fact is they struggled at home against a Stoke side who until today had difficulty scoring in a match. Could've easily been 11pts off the pace. The aura really is fading/has faded from United.

As for us. The real so-called test(s) starts now. Chelsea, Liverpool, Dortmund & United.

Should be fun. At least this season i'm not as despondent as i'd normally be. On current form, those games are all; lose-able, more likely draw-able, and unsurprisingly...WIN-ABLE.

 

[Happybunny]

Well a further update from the league where the top teams refuse to win. The only good thing it keeps everybody guessing.


ADO Den Haag 3 FC Twente 2

After getting destroyed by PEC last week ADO came back to dent Twente’s leaders hopes this week.


Ajax 0 RKC Waalwijk 0

This can be seen as a Ajax loss as Waalwijk are the bottom team, and have already let in 24 goals.

Roda JC 2 PSV 1

This could be the curse of the Europa League, PSV were a shadow of the team Thursday night, and that team had played ****-awful.

PSV ended with nine men because Memphis Depay was sent off, then when their goalkeeper injured himself, and PSV had all really used all their subs. The match was stopped for more than 25 minutes, while the keeper was injured.

On the internet it was a twitter war between two players, all is not well in Eindhoven.

Feyenoord 1 Heracles Almelo 2

Feyenoord missed a major chance to narrow the gap at the top. Top off the disaster Graziano Pellè was sent off Feyenoord will struggle without him.

PEC Zwolle 0 AZ 67 2

After beating ADO last week PEC got handed reality by AZ today.

Vitesse 2 FC Groningen 2

Vitesse let this one slip away, they were 2 up and then went to sleep.


1 FC Twente 19
2 Ajax 19
3 AZ 19
4 PSV 18
5 Zwolle 18

 

[oscillatewildly]

Lord Blackadder and daneoni,

The media exaggerate good/bad; watched Saturday's MOTD today - see Hansen. Manchester United played some very good football, some below par, and the defence made two more mistakes; the last three goals have come from two poor clearances - Jones and Evans - and anxiety - Jones. The points are hanging in there points and they'll gain confidence from coming back. The next two weeks could see the gap to Arsenal widen to forget it or close to within a gnat's thingamajig.

Fair play to Moyes, the subs were positive; Januzaj had a big influence - not that you'd know from MOTD/Hansen.

Joe Hart and Michael Oliver

Cheers,
OW

 

[Cox Orange]

@ all
What do you think about the football court decision on the Leverkusen - Hoffenheim match? (If you are not familiar with the story: Kiesling had striked with his head and the ball fell into the box through a hole in the side net of the box. The goal was given. The court has now decided that the goal counts for Leverkusen and Hoffenheim has to pay the costs of the trial).

Lewandowski news (not so new). Not wanting to get on your nerves, you might already have heard of it and just shaken your head, but here is some more tabloid stuff

Remember Lewandowski said, he will be able to sign the contract with Bayern on January, 2nd.
Now, Lewandowski told the Telegraph (and the spanish AS), that they misunderstood him and actually meant to say, that he will be able to sign with any club in January. He also added, that he would love to play in the premier league.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ue-and-joining-Bayern-is-not-a-done-deal.html (citation under the "related article" interjection)
German -> http://www.welt.de/sport/fussball/b...-stellt-seinen-Wechsel-zu-Bayern-infrage.html

I wonder, if he has a plan we do not know about, or if he goes amok without the permission of his manager. I would not think that a manager would suggest doing something like that. Yes, on one hand, it is good to spread rumors, but if I were to buy Lewandowski I would ask myself, if one can count on him, when it seems as if he constantly changes his mind.

There have also been rumors, that Pep Guardiola has said, that he does not want Lewandowski, but that Rummenigge has decided that for him and he has to live with that (if Lewandowski finally goes to Bayern). Also a question is how well Guardiola could make use of Lewandowski.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

@ all
What do you think about the football court decision on the Leverkusen - Hoffenheim match? (If you are not familiar with the story: Kiesling had striked with his head and the ball fell into the box through a hole in the side net of the box. The goal was given. The court has now decided that the goal counts for Leverkusen and Hoffenheim has to pay the costs of the trial).

Slightly puzzled. It seems that the system is generally unwilling to reverse refereeing decisions even when they are clearly wrong - though there are some obvious exceptions. For example, if a ref mistakenly cards a players for a foul that was committed by another player, the card is usually rescinded afterwards. Why not do it with a goal that was clearly not a goal? Isn't the awarding (or non-awarding) of a goal a more important event than a booking?

If I recall, wasn't the final score 2-1? Would it be a bad idea to simply change the result to 1-1? There is no law of nature preventing the final score of a match to be changed in the face of indisputable evidence. I know there are many complications, but I am not at all convinced that the spirit of the game is being done justice here.

 

[twietee]

Kloppo signed til 2018. Great news!

 

[takao]

Slightly puzzled. It seems that the system is generally unwilling to reverse refereeing decisions even when they are clearly wrong - though there are some obvious exceptions. For example, if a ref mistakenly cards a players for a foul that was committed by another player, the card is usually rescinded afterwards. Why not do it with a goal that was clearly not a goal? Isn't the awarding (or non-awarding) of a goal a more important event than a booking?

If I recall, wasn't the final score 2-1? Would it be a bad idea to simply change the result to 1-1? There is no law of nature preventing the final score of a match to be changed in the face of indisputable evidence. I know there are many complications, but I am not at all convinced that the spirit of the game is being done justice here.

the football laws actually got changed over the years since in after the infamous Helmer "Phantomtor" incident: the referee's decisions have a bigger impact (german "Tatsachenentscheidung" ) to prevent any big further "green table" discussions, lawsuits and what-not

in 1994 the DFB only got away with a rematch because the linesman signaled "goal scored" despite the fact that he wasn't allowed to (opposed to today), and the referee went along with it against regulation

i think every football fan would rather see a rematch but on the other side i would rather prefer a discussion about if the rules should be improved to prevent such cases in the future:
-referees are required to check the nets before the game and after the break... why didn't they find the hole ?
-also the home team is required to provide goals fitting regulation, so hoffenheim as the home team also shares part of the blame

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Paul McShane is mint.

 

[2020mike]

MLS news out of Chicago, after failing to reach the play-offs Head coach Frank Kloppas and President of football operations Javier Leon "step down" from their positions I.E. got fired. Best news all season IMO.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

i think every football fan would rather see a rematch but on the other side i would rather prefer a discussion about if the rules should be improved to prevent such cases in the future:
-referees are required to check the nets before the game and after the break... why didn't they find the hole ?
-also the home team is required to provide goals fitting regulation, so hoffenheim as the home team also shares part of the blame

I agree. Regardless of what the rules say, this isn't fair. Everyone knows that, even the people who are enforcing the rules. Perhaps it's time to make some changes to the rules.

Paul McShane is mint.

So is Cleveland's Brad Friedel. But once again Spurs had to rely on a penalty to win. That should be a little worrying for Spurs fans. They need more goals from open play.

MLS news out of Chicago, after failing to reach the play-offs Head coach Frank Kloppas and President of football operations Javier Leon "step down" from their positions I.E. got fired. Best news all season IMO.

I'd like to be smug about it but Columbus' season ends in failure to make the playoffs as well. I still maintain we had a playoff-quality squad and with a better manager we's be in the playoffs. We still don't have a permanent manager either; Technical Director Brian Bliss stepped in for the last 8 matches and posted a 4-4 record. Not bad, but we have new owners now and there's no telling what they will do.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

So is Cleveland's Brad Friedel.

Well, both scored for us last night. Heh.

But once again Spurs had to rely on a penalty to win. That should be a little worrying for Spurs fans. They need more goals from open play.

In the past week we've played two matches against Spurs. That's 210+ minutes in total against an expensively assembled side with genuine top four ambitions and who some are tipping as an outside bet for title challengers. In the end all that separated us was a penalty that shouldn't have been in the first match, and a shoot-out in the second. We're bloody ace at the minute.

 

[2020mike]

Announced this morning Frank Yallop is the new coach and president of soccer ops in Chicago. I don't know how I feel about this.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

We're bloody ace at the minute.

You aren't being hyped or patronized very much in the media at the moment, so that's the best possible scenario.

Announced this morning Frank Yallop is the new coach and president of soccer ops in Chicago. I don't know how I feel about this.

MLS is still a musical chairs game when it comes to managers - so many of the managers currently in charge of MLS teams have been fired by another team at least once. There are few foreign managers coming in, and even fewer MLS managers going out and managing elsewhere. The league has been modestly successful at importing player talent, but not so much at attracting new managers. The few "new" faces we see are usually either retired MLS players or college coaches.

Speaking of MLS, David Beckham™ appears poised to exercise the clause in his contract that allows him to buy a new MLS expansion franchise on the cheap. It will apparently be set up in Miami. Setting up a football team in Florida is historically about as likely to succeed as invading and occupying Afghanistan, so it's a reasonably bold move I suppose.

 

[2020mike]

You aren't being hyped or patronized very much in the media at the moment, so that's the best possible scenario.



MLS is still a musical chairs game when it comes to managers - so many of the managers currently in charge of MLS teams have been fired by another team at least once. There are few foreign managers coming in, and even fewer MLS managers going out and managing elsewhere. The league has been modestly successful at importing player talent, but not so much at attracting new managers. The few "new" faces we see are usually either retired MLS players or college coaches.

Speaking of MLS, David Beckham™ appears poised to exercise the clause in his contract that allows him to buy a new MLS expansion franchise on the cheap. It will apparently be set up in Miami. Setting up a football team in Florida is historically about as likely to succeed as invading and occupying Afghanistan, so it's a reasonably bold move I suppose.

MLS won't let Beckham FC fail, if he were to put the team in Nome Alaska MLS wouldn't let it die.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

MLS won't let Beckham FC fail, if he were to put the team in Nome Alaska MLS wouldn't let it die.

They'll certainly do everything they can to make it work. Perhaps the time is finally ripe for a Florida-based MLS team.

Let's hope they don't put it in Nome. Take it from me, it wouldn't work. Not even David Beckham, Sepp Blatter, and all of Qatar's money could make that succeed.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

The Arsenal - Liverpool match is actually on network TV in HD, for free, in my area.

On the downside, the signal is weak and the feed can be a bit jumpy. But it's better than an internet feed, and I can sit on my couch rather than crouching in front of my 23" display.

 

[cambookpro]

What's happening?!

 

[Kariya]

Good game.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Yuck. Liverpool played like a 6th placed team.

Terrible call from the ref in the first half on Liverpool's disallowed goal, but it didn't change the result. Our defense was laughable. The mistakes we got away with against West Brom cost us here. The worst part was having to listen to Lee Dixon's color commentary for 93 minutes.

Despite Liverpool's bad performance, I am surprised Arsenal kept us from scoring. Sturridge was pretty quiet. Coutinho was rusty. Suarez came within a hair of scoring but we managed few good chances. I thought Arsenal looked a little shaky in defense at times. But Liverpool never pressured them hard enough.

Kolo Toure looked horrible.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

What's happening?!

We loaned them Fryatt, that's what's happening.

Meanwhile, Gus Poyet is bleating that Paul McShane could have killed Keiren Westwood this afternoon. Pah. Had McShane wanted him dead, he could have killed him with a single glance.