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The 2013-2014 Football Thread
- Thread starter Jaffa Cake
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well was an easy draw even possible at this stage ?
Dortmund getting through with their injury list will be a miracle against pretty much all others squads unless had drawn manchester united.
Bayern, Atheltico, Real are all playing good in the league currently and all are rather balanced squads.
Chelsea with their playing style is a good match against technical,continental squads (strong defenders& keeper, fast paced dribbling attackers)
PSG and Barca are both very dependent on whether their star players (Ibra, Messi) play great. If they do though they are incredible dangerous.
takao said:
I think it was an easy draw - for the top sides. Of the eight, the four most likely to win it (Barca, Real, Bayern and Chelsea) each drew one of the four who could be considered a clear underdog. It almost seems fixed.
I would really have liked to see those four draw each other.
I was thinking the same thing, if you wanted the 4 (what most people would consider favourites) to have the best chance of reaching the semis, could you have rigged it any better?
Saturday, World of Sport before the final scores; an old blue rinsed woman moves ringside and slams her handbag down on the canvas, the crowd chant easy,easy,easy. Goodbye Bayern. 
No point being cagey/trying to contain - they will concede, especially with Buttner - attack them; they don't like it up 'em.
Are Barcelona favourites for their tie?
Welbeck adding some zip, and a midfielder who can pass showing some form and being allowed across the halfway line didn't hurt. Also, Valencia brought defence/physical - doubt Flanagan's tactic would've worked against him.
Cheers,
OW
No point being cagey/trying to contain - they will concede, especially with Buttner - attack them; they don't like it up 'em. Are Barcelona favourites for their tie?
Welbeck adding some zip, and a midfielder who can pass showing some form and being allowed across the halfway line didn't hurt. Also, Valencia brought defence/physical - doubt Flanagan's tactic would've worked against him.
Cheers,
OW
Fizzoid said:
Considering how corrupt FIFA/UEFA are, I would not be surprised to learn that the draws are all completely rigged. Old Jack Warner was in the news again, this time for taking a little £1.2m bonus from the Qataris after their 2022 WC bid won the day. It's just so sordid.
They've showed signs of resurgence lately and Messi is scoring again. I have to think they'll go through. Though, it's probably the closest of the four ties.
You may be right. I like Flanagan's physicality but he needs to learn to dial it down by about 10%. He has escaped a few cards this year by virtue of his youth. That forbearance on the part of the refs won't last. He's more than just a physical unit though, and if he keeps developing he could become a very solid defender.
He's probably the least handsome player on the team though. When he's angry he looks as rough as Ian Dowie.
Barca-Atletico:
AFAIK all 3 games this season were draws so far ... out of the last 6 games (including last season) 5 were draws in regular time.
getting matched against a squad from your own league often means that the opposition knows you in-and-out
this will be a close match-up
PSG vs Chelsea:
last year i would have agreed that PSG is the underdog. now with players playing together for more than a few months: a whole different story. PSG has a massive amount of great players: Alex, Thiago Silva, Pastore, Maxwell, Pastore, Cabaye,Lavezzi, Cavani, Motta ... that's some massive talent additionally to Ibra
this will be the game to watch. IMHO in my book it's a coin toss who will win it.
edit: the other two games are lopsided
my guess for chances:
Barca - Atletico: 55:45 perhaps 60:40
Real - Dortmund: 80:20 or even 85:15
Manchester - Bayern: 25:75 , perhaps 30:70
PSG - Chelsea: 50:50
oscillatewildly said:
...who looks better at 33 than he did as a teenager. But yeah, you got me on that one.
I agree, it should be close. Barca are still favorites IMO.
Mourinho's Chelsea has proven time and again that they can win with an inferior squad - even with inferior numbers on the pitch. Mou's ultra reactionary tactics nullify opponents' talent. I won't count them out until the moment they are actually eliminated. But, on paper, you are right - PSG should have enough talent to win the tie.
it really depends wether they have re-foudn their rythm or if those were just 1-2 good games because the opposition was too weak
atletico has been going from good game to the next and seems in good shape across the whole squad. they really play very compact so a lot will depends on Messi being at 100% ... if he has a 85% day it could very well tilt towards atletico.
agree that chelsea sure has the better, more expierenced defense in the back (and the better keeper) but i think players like hazard and oscar up front are not as good at working "defensivly" like the squad he had last time at chelsea. Also Chelsea lacks a little bit in the brutal goal scoring efficiency (like they had with Drogba or Real had with Ronaldo & Higuain) and need more chances
Good point. I'm certainly going to be cheering on Atletico. I think they might just be good enough to win the entire tournament, as long as they play their best and get a little luck on top of that.
Torres is a shadow of his former self and Eto'o is a useful poacher but not the kind of player who can crash through a good defense like Drogba. This means Chelsea lack penetration at the front and that will hurt them against top teams. But their defending is still very stout - they don't need many goals to win matches, so Mourinho will feel he has a decent shot.
I hope they win their tie because it will help Liverpool in the league. It would be great to see turn up at Anfield later this season with a squad worn out by their European adventure.
Just please don't let them win the whole thing. I couldn't stand to see Brave John Terry prancing around triumphantly again.
John Terry will turn up and prance about regardless of who makes the final.Just please don't let them win the whole thing. I couldn't stand to see Brave John Terry prancing around triumphantly again.
And the winners are...
Bayern Munich, PSG, Real Madrid, and... Barcelona.
It is what I want Bayern to think.
Edit - Chelsea; up their game for the last 15 minutes of each half and the rest of the time wait for the opposition to shoot themselves in the foot.
Lord Blackadder; maybe Flanagan will grow into his face. On the football front, 25 or 26 years old for a full back to really get things going?
Cheers,
OW
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If you were only playing a one-off knockout with Bayern I'd have to give Man Utd a much better chance - anything can happen - a bad call in their favor, a flukey goal, a big mistake from Bayern; maybe some of those players would remember all the other stuff they'd won and up their game. But over two legs it's going to be really hard.
The best result for Man Utd would be a 0-0 at OT (or even a 0-1 loss for Utd) because it would keep Moyes' men in it but it might make Bayern a little complacent in the second leg. But you get that feeling that Bayern only really need to switch it on at the end and they could pull through anyway.
Realistically, Moyes just needs to hope for some sort of brave, glorious failure - nobody expects him to win this, so as long as the team doesn't get hammered he'll come out of it relatively unscathed.
If Flanagan works hard and becomes a regular starter, he'll start making a lot of money and can get some work done on that face. Maybe Rogers (no stranger to cosmetic improvement himself) can dangle that carrot over him.
EDIT: Word is that RVP will be out 4-6 weeks. no further info on what the injury is yet. EDIT 2: Apparently it's a knee sprain.
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Is there any chance of preventing the drop in the table by buying new players? I mean Socratis and Aubameyang have been a good buy (price- / performance ratio for a club like BVB). Though Aubameyang can not live up to the expectations of being a new Reus (well, that is to much expectation anyway).
OK and two new players wouldn't carry what six (or more) first row players would be able to do... But it leaves one a small hope that they have allready planned their spendings. So, maybe it will be the first half of the season they drop and then come back up.
last CL, I remember that a TV team had seen the rehearsals and the exact same drawings were shown that were later drawn live. The chance that this could happen was calculated as something like 1:4000 or so.
See post 1606 and so on https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1398259/
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Sokratis is a good center back who really grown on the challenge this season ... after i watched him last year at bremen i thought "why the hell did dortmund buy him" but he really developed well
Aubemeyang was the 2nd best scorer in the french leage 1 with 21 goals (only Ibra scoring more goals) and did cost 15+ million, which for the Bundesliga is still considered a high value transfer
Mikitharian (wasn't he 20+ million ?) is also excellent but he haven't found his goal scoring vibe yet
they need 1-2 transfers like Lewandowski (_4_ mil) or Kagawa(<1 mil) which were stunning price performance wise. Especially Lewandowski will be sorely missed next season.
Ramos (15 goals so far this season) from Hertha is said to be confirmed for 8mil euro in the summer but i don't know if he is good enough for the Champions league level
Manu vs Bayern just like Lord Blackadder said: if it were 1 game and not 2 legs Manu would have a good shot but over 180 minutes ? That's a lot of minutes against Bayern.
Manu will have to play with Giggs (without him they hilariously bad against Olympiakos in the first leg) who simply isn't that young any more
Oh, ok. Then I was wrong about the price performance thing. I didn't remember the price tag. I heard a talk about the transfers back then and the "experts" considered it good and fitting buys and I put that together with what I saw from Dortmund.
One thing that comes to my mind regarding french league records of Aubemeyang. He said in ZDF sportstudio, that he is not used to running so much and that this was new to him, when he came to Dortmund (and the Bundesliga in general) and that they would not run so much in french teams.
(Maybe I am not seeing it right, but I thought PSG for example does run a lot, too. He probably didn't mean it as a excuse, though, I think, he just was asked, what is different in the Bundesliga.)
PS (women's football): you might find it interesting, that in women's CL the Austrian SV Neulenbach got to the 4th final (I guess mostly due to luck in the draws, but still interesting, that they got so far. Given what role Austria plays in women football, though they are on the rise lately, I read). I do have to say though, I did not see any of their games and I do not know what their squad looks like either. After 7 times in the 8th final in the last years, it is the first time they get to a 4th final.
They meet the 1st of the Swedish league, I think it is likely they will be out then.
Malmö FC and Olympique Lyon (two of the few stronger women teams) have been kicked out by last years CL winner Wolfsburg and double CL winner Turbine Potsdam in the 8th final. Which a bit killed the fun of it, early (Interesting was to see, that the German teams had problems away at bad pitches in favour of the hosts, but were much better home at "state of the art" pitches). Speakin of fun killers and exspectations, this year's wins have not been as clear and ridiculous (like 7:0 wins) like the years before. Women's football is really getting more and more "professional" and has come a long way in a short time, like in the recent three years.
This is, what is left now (bold is, what I expect to win):
Tyresö FF - SV Neulengbach
ASD Torres Calcio - Turbine Potsdam
VfL Wolfsburg - FC Barcelona
FC Arsenal - Birmingham City
One thing that comes to my mind regarding french league records of Aubemeyang. He said in ZDF sportstudio, that he is not used to running so much and that this was new to him, when he came to Dortmund (and the Bundesliga in general) and that they would not run so much in french teams.
(Maybe I am not seeing it right, but I thought PSG for example does run a lot, too. He probably didn't mean it as a excuse, though, I think, he just was asked, what is different in the Bundesliga.)
PS (women's football): you might find it interesting, that in women's CL the Austrian SV Neulenbach got to the 4th final (I guess mostly due to luck in the draws, but still interesting, that they got so far. Given what role Austria plays in women football, though they are on the rise lately, I read). I do have to say though, I did not see any of their games and I do not know what their squad looks like either. After 7 times in the 8th final in the last years, it is the first time they get to a 4th final.
They meet the 1st of the Swedish league, I think it is likely they will be out then.
Malmö FC and Olympique Lyon (two of the few stronger women teams) have been kicked out by last years CL winner Wolfsburg and double CL winner Turbine Potsdam in the 8th final. Which a bit killed the fun of it, early (Interesting was to see, that the German teams had problems away at bad pitches in favour of the hosts, but were much better home at "state of the art" pitches). Speakin of fun killers and exspectations, this year's wins have not been as clear and ridiculous (like 7:0 wins) like the years before. Women's football is really getting more and more "professional" and has come a long way in a short time, like in the recent three years.
This is, what is left now (bold is, what I expect to win):
Tyresö FF - SV Neulengbach
ASD Torres Calcio - Turbine Potsdam
VfL Wolfsburg - FC Barcelona
FC Arsenal - Birmingham City
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while i think there is a speed difference (not as big as lige 1 -> premier league) i think the big factor here is Dortmund high intensity playing style. many other clubs in the Bundesliga are nowhere near that level.
PSG very likely plays different in CL and the national league, simply for the fact that many national opponents simply go for a defensive stance against the big clubs
price performance wise the best transfer this season though was Max Kruse which had a release fee around 2 mil euro ... which was a steal
sadly woman club football in austria gets as much coverage as austrian men baseball: none, some tiny article on page 15 once a month
also the ORF ignores it completely while prancing around their white elephant skiing: on weekends they sometimes have 10 hours of wintersport live coverage
we even get live coverage of _women ski-jumping_ but women football ? a 30 second report once per week
Arsenal generously boosting the GD of their rivals.
6-0 (Chelsea)
5-1 (Liverpool)
6-3 (City)
Based on the results, you have to say Arsenal haven't really improved from what they were last season in the grand scheme. Still the 4th place finish specialists they've been in the last 9 yrs.
Whatever you think of Mou, the guy has a point. Wenger appears to be tactically inept when it comes to the big games. And if you don't win the big games. You don't win a trophy.
And with that, its now a 3-horse race.
6-0 (Chelsea)
5-1 (Liverpool)
6-3 (City)
Based on the results, you have to say Arsenal haven't really improved from what they were last season in the grand scheme. Still the 4th place finish specialists they've been in the last 9 yrs.
Whatever you think of Mou, the guy has a point. Wenger appears to be tactically inept when it comes to the big games. And if you don't win the big games. You don't win a trophy.
And with that, its now a 3-horse race.
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Tut-tut.
On Welbeck, he should start on the left; use the league games to prepare for Bayern.
Why would they play Kagawa against Bayern Munich?
Welbeck Rooney Valencia
or
Rooney
Welbeck Kagawa Valencia ?
Nani as a late substitute. If Giggs plays, maybe Rooney fills in for him later. Of course it will be hard - Manchester United need to gel and Bayern Munich need to be around the level they were v Arsenal - but the first leg is on April Fools' Day.
That display by Marriner and his team.
Edit - think if there is improvement re Chelsea and Manchester City, it is slight - the latter added a bit more pace in midfield with Navas, but the defence is still dodgy. Manchester United have gone backwards and Arsenal are Arsenal. The only team looking like they have improved - despite the current 2 v 2 score at Cardiff City - is Liverpool, and it isn't an advance on Manchester United last season.
Cheers,
OW
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