The Official Football Thread

[Mithfalath]

Finally! Adebayor is with us!!! Now let's get rid of Modric quickly so we can find a creative player in the middle of the park. Maybe Sig can drop there so Rafa can start up front?

[risingstar3110]

Sahin ended up to Liverpool it seems. The guy was bouncing 3-4 times back and forward between Arsenal and Liverpool within the last few days

[Elo the Blue]

Originally Posted by Azuma Denton

@elo the blue
But Arsenal still needs the pure DM role...
At the current moment, only Frimpong fits the description...

Not true. Coquelin can play fill that role, as can Diaby and Arteta. Still, I'm hoping M'Vila can be signed.

[Azuma Denton]

Coquelin is still too young to hold that position.

Currently Arteta is holding that position. While Diaby is an AMC alongside Carzola. And after tonight's match, i cant see him holding that position. Has too many body slam with Stoke's players, and guess what, he falls off too easy...


Another goalless draw...
I dunno what is wrong anymore with Arsenal.

[Merilyn Mensola]

Originally Posted by Azuma Denton

Coquelin is still too young to hold that position.

Currently Arteta is holding that position. While Diaby is an AMC alongside Carzola. And after tonight's match, i cant see him holding that position. Has too many body slam with Stoke's players, and guess what, he falls off too easy...


Another goalless draw...
I dunno what is wrong anymore with Arsenal.

I saw the match..for me, Arsenal need a striker, a striker that is able to protect a ball, and good at shoot.

I saw my Milan Yesterday...man,no personality,no ideas,no determination..nothing.. my girlfriend that is Juventus already started laugh at me..

[Elo the Blue]

Originally Posted by Azuma Denton

Coquelin is still too young to hold that position.

Currently Arteta is holding that position. While Diaby is an AMC alongside Carzola. And after tonight's match, i cant see him holding that position. Has too many body slam with Stoke's players, and guess what, he falls off too easy...

Another goalless draw...
I dunno what is wrong anymore with Arsenal.

Coquelin isn't a first-choice player but he held his own at the position last year and he's likely only going to get better.

Arteta isn't at his best as a DMF but he's much more disciplined than Song, which counts for something.

Not that I'm not concerned, but it's been two games against teams that were clearly playing for a draw. Too early to say something is wrong with the club.

Originally Posted by Merilyn Mensola

I saw the match..for me, Arsenal need a striker, a striker that is able to protect a ball, and good at shoot.

I saw my Milan Yesterday...man,no personality,no ideas,no determination..nothing.. my girlfriend that is Juventus already started laugh at me..

Giroud say hello. It's been two games, no where near enough time to determine whether he'll be successful in Premiership.

[Blaat]

I feel sorry for Ajax I really do, what an insane group.

[Bri]

Yup, Ajax can't seem to get a break in the group stages: Champion of Spain, Champion of England and Champion of Germany. *sigh* Broadcast schedules really screw up the seeding in favor of the big league teams.

Not too mention Real Madrid third year in a row. Would have preferred Barca, Ajax have never played against them in a European Cup match before.

At least it will be a good learning experience for the squad, the oldest player is like 26. Same really for Dordmund, which makes it an interesting match up: two of the worlds top youth academies versus the best football money can buy.

For the rest:

Group A: Porto, Dynamo Kiev, Paris St Germain, Dinamo Zagreb

Group B: Arsenal, Schalke, Olympiakos, Montpellier

Group C: AC Milan, Zenit St Petersburg, Anderlecht, Malaga

Group D: Real Madrid, Manchester City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund

Group E: Chelsea, Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, FC Nordsjaelland

Group F: Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lille, BATE Borisov

Group G: Barcelona, Benfica, Spartak Moscow, Celtic

Group H: Manchester United, Braga, Galatasaray, CFR Cluj

Man U getting their usual easy group, Porto can't complain either.

[solomon]

How does the TV affect the draw? I thought it was random?

Speaking of TV, anyone hear about that new channel called Bein Sport? They're sister station to Al Jazeera apparently. They snatched up the rights to La Liga, Serie A AND Ligue 1 in the US. But not only that, they got all road qualifiers for the US teams road to Brazil 2014.

Leagues are only gonna be watched by hardcore soccer heads anyway, but if you want to build momentum for soccer in the country, then putting team USA on a little known (and carried) sports channel is sort of counter intuitive don'cha think?

(I thought about this as soon as I pop on to TV Asahi's website where they have this BIG ASS ad for the Blue Samurai's prelim match against Iraq)

Well, at any rate, it'll be nice to see Ligue 1 finally get some media attention. It'll be interesting to see what PSG and Lille do in Europe.

On Ligue 1, does anyone see any other club worthy of investing in to break up the forthcoming PSG (or Q$G) monopoly? Cause that's the only way I see it broken up. I honestly don't know what the heck the Dryfus family is doing at L'OM and Aulas's working of the transfer market had it's limits with OL.

[Bri]

Originally Posted by solomon

How does the TV affect the draw? I thought it was random?

Teams from the same league can't be seeded in the same group. This is to max TV-revenue as more matches can be broadcast to a particular geographic market.

Most teams want to avoid the strongest teams from the Spanish, English, German, Italian leagues to maximize the chance to progress. This benefits the teams from top leagues as they are guaranteed to avoid at least 1 and up to 3 more top teams in the draw regardless of seed rank. Over the years these better odds in turn will affect the UEFA coefficient.

Originally Posted by solomon

Leagues are only gonna be watched by hardcore soccer heads anyway, but if you want to build momentum for soccer in the country, then putting team USA on a little known (and carried) sports channel is sort of counter intuitive don'cha think?

Developing the league and club culture is essential for the future of the sport in the US, but giving team USA less media attention doesn't help anyone.

On Ligue 1, does anyone see any other club worthy of investing in to break up the forthcoming PSG (or Q$G) monopoly? Cause that's the only way I see it broken up. I honestly don't know what the heck the Dryfus family is doing at L'OM and Aulas's working of the transfer market had it's limits with OL.

OM and OL have the largest revenue of the other teams but I can't see any team compete against oil money for long.

[solomon]

Oh i see, it gives the big boys a relatively easy draw, so that leads to better results (wins) which boost the UEFA coefficemts right?

When I say leagues there I mean non-EPL leagues, which have less widespread popularity (Latino following of La Liga not withstanding). I like soccer but paying a higher sports tier just to watch Team USA is stupid.

Anyways, City got the group of DEATH (although some are sleeping on I-yaks), should be fun.

[Azuma Denton]

Well, try to look for Barca and MU's history (group stage) in several last years, and you will know the trend of UEFA Championship group draws..

[Bri]

Originally Posted by solomon

Oh i see, it gives the big boys a relatively easy draw, so that leads to better results (wins) which boost the UEFA coefficemts right?

Yup

Originally Posted by solomon

Anyways, City got the group of DEATH (although some are sleeping on I-yaks), should be fun.

Aye, the group of 4 champions. Their league victory hymns just seem to sett the stage:

The Majestic Great White:

The Scorned Challengers:

Working Class Pride:

The Underdogs:

[Shinndou]

We got a group with Chelsea, Shakhtar Donetsk and Nordsjaelland. Tricky group, besides Chelsea being the obvious favorites, Shakhtar isn't exactly an easy team to play against. I know nothing about the danish team though, no idea if they can be a threat or not.

Looking forward to face Chelsea, it's good to be in the CL again.

[risingstar3110]

Final transfer dateline in EPL, and the situation Liverpool got in was hilarious

I can't stop smiling right now, because i think i will start crying if i do. On another note,some fans apparently broke their television set approaching the end of the day. On slightly positive look, at least we got 1 point last weekend, so another 37 to guarantee staying up. Hopefully can get all 3 from Arsenal tomorrow, because seriously guys, we need those 3 more than you do

Good thing, i have GW2 + lots of anime series to take my eyes of football for the new few months

[Blaat]

Falcao, best striker in Europe at the moment? Unbelievable how easily Athletico Madrid managed to win against Chelsea.

Originally Posted by Azuma Denton

Well, try to look for Barca and MU's history (group stage) in several last years, and you will know the trend of UEFA Championship group draws..

Pretty much, although it has to be said easy groups leads to complacency and complacency leads to the EL. Like what happened to ManU last year.

Originally Posted by Shinndou

We got a group with Chelsea, Shakhtar Donetsk and Nordsjaelland.

Juventus were lucky to avoid Barcelona though there was a literately 1 on 2 chance of Juventus ending in that group.

[Shinndou]

Even if we got Barca it wouldn't have been much of a difference, it's going to be a tough match anyway.

[Bri]

Originally Posted by Blaat

Falcao, best striker in Europe at the moment? Unbelievable how easily Athletico Madrid managed to win against Chelsea.Pretty much, although it has to be said easy groups leads to complacency and complacency leads to the EL. Like what happened to ManU last year.
Juventus were lucky to avoid Barcelona though there was a literately 1 on 2 chance of Juventus ending in that group.

Maybe, but Chelsea showed the same vulnerability in open play as ManU did last year against Bilbao. I think they'd perform a lot better when sitting deep and waiting for the chance to break.

Juventus will be interesting to watch this season, I'm curious how their 3-5-2 will hold up in the CL. With Milan and Inter rebuilding their squads, wonder which other teams will challenge for the title in the Serie A this year.

[Shinndou]

Originally Posted by Bri

Juventus will be interesting to watch this season, I'm curious how their 3-5-2 will hold up in the CL. With Milan and Inter rebuilding their squads, wonder which other teams will challenge for the title in the Serie A this year.

Inter is actually not that bad, they got rid of some of the old players, got back Coutinho from his loan spell, signed Guarin and Alvaro Pereira from Porto, Palacio, Gargano and got Cassano who despite his poor physical fitness can still be a key player.

But to be honest the teams that I fear the most this season are Napoli and Roma. Napoli because they're the same team as last year but with the addition of probably the best young prospect of the whole country (Lorenzo Insigne), Roma because of Zeman, which despite being not exactly a pleasant character is definetely a cunning coach and you can tell Roma is playing better under his wing. Roma's games will all likely be plentiful of goals, he's probably the most attacking-minded coach I've ever seen, the teams he coaches score a lot and concede a lot since all he cares for his team is to score more goals than the opponent. A tactic that doesn't always produce the right results though, but you can't blame him for sticking to this philosophy for his entire career as a coach.

Fiorentina could be the cinderella of this season, their midfield is looking pretty damn solid too (with the exception of Aquilani who I regard as a complete wuss), and Jovetic is on his way to become a world class player provided that he doesn't get injuried again.

[Elo the Blue]

Great win for the Gunners today! Diaby and Arteta were immense (praying the former remains healthy) in all facets, Cazorla continues to shine and Podolski played well too. Hopefully, Giroud can get on track in time for the City game.