The Official Football Thread

[2H-Dragon]

Bayern in the Finals nothing surprising there. Olic was the star with 3 goals. Don't get what Muller is about though he's shockingly average from what I've seen.

Lol at madrid though. Would love to see Sneijder in the finals as well. Selling 2 players on the cheap that got their teams so far.

Originally Posted by germanturkey

arsenal are actually not that affected, but other teams will be.

england doesn't produce good technical players. its not the way they're brought up. they're great athletes, but average footballers at best. its the same with the US. Walcott is probably the best example of this. whereas in spain and netherlands, you get the best of both worlds.

Yeah, but England have the advantage that young players can sign pro contracts. The physical approach has to do with the way the prem is set up. Still overall I'd rate the players in the prem a lot higher then player from the other league's.

Meh Netherlands for youth is degrading since the bigger league's buy all the talent away. :/

It's sad Ajax has pretty good scouts(Messi was actually walking in Amsterdam ArenA, since he had trouble getting a work visa in Spain), but that just isn't enough.

[germanturkey]

Is Ribery banned for the final too? since it was a straight red.

i wouldn't rate many english players higher than other players in other leagues. are Gerrard and Lampard better than Xavi, Iniesta, Sneijder or (insert Real's main midfielder here)? Is Rooney better than Villa, Ibra, or Eto'o? the only position i'd even consider england having better players is in defense.

and it is pretty sad that most dutch clubs have become farm clubs for the bigger leagues.

[2H-Dragon]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

Is Ribery banned for the final too? since it was a straight red.

i wouldn't rate many english players higher than other players in other leagues. are Gerrard and Lampard better than Xavi, Iniesta, Sneijder or (insert Real's main midfielder here)? Is Rooney better than Villa, Ibra, or Eto'o? the only position i'd even consider england having better players is in defense.

and it is pretty sad that most dutch clubs have become farm clubs for the bigger leagues.

Yeah, but come one it's only absolute top that there is a debate possible, you are just ignoring all the other players. I'd rate Rooney & Drogba higher then Ibra and Eto'o. Villa wouldn't know haven't seen matches of him in a while. I think Csec would give Sneijder a run for his money. It's pretty unfair when comparing league's that you only choose the absolute best, as I said I'd rate the Prem overall higher.

Ribery should be banned from the final, they tried to appeal, results of that should be released soon.

[germanturkey]

oh, i was just talking about english players. i know there are foreign players in the premiership that are definitely comparable to the top players of other leagues.

i also read about the Ribery thing today. 3 match ban. that sucks for him. i think it'll be overturned. there was no maliciousness and the guy ended up playing on.

[cloak_and_dagger]

Can someone enlighten me as to why Pepe Guardiola refuses to play Thierry henry as of recent? Even Bojan gets precedence over him; and he's not that impressive.

[Saturn Beaver]

Originally Posted by cloak_and_dagger

Can someone enlighten me as to why Pepe Guardiola refuses to play Thierry henry as of recent? Even Bojan gets precedence over him; and he's not that impressive.

Whatever the reason may be, it probably has cost him dearly. Barca's relentless attack can only produces one goal and Inter Milan will be facing Bayern on CL Finals!

[germanturkey]

go Bayern!!

[cloak_and_dagger]

Originally Posted by Saturn Beaver

Whatever the reason may be, it probably has cost him dearly. Barca's relentless attack can only produces one goal and Inter Milan will be facing Bayern on CL Finals!

Well they produced two, but the ref decided to call a non-existent hand ball after Bojan scored. Game's done, so I'll try not to complain haha. I call Inter winning the CL Final.

Guardiola is showing inexperience to me now. The first leg, he brought on Abidal for Ibrahimovic, the lone striker; and put Pique to strike :S. No Henry. I wonder if because of the trade rumour about him going to the MLS, but even then Henry was barely getting played a while before that. Wonder if it's a fall out between the two...

[alamarco]

Pique showed this game why he was called on to strike last game.

Inter are awesome and I love Mourinho. I loved how he celebrated after the match. You could just see how ecstatic he was. He is the greatest coach of all time. Even before he came to Inter I loved the guy. His arrogant attitude and the way he uses psychology is just great. He knows how to build a team.

I can only hope we play with the same confidence in Madrid. To take out Bayern would be a dream come true. Being an Inter fan for years I never dreamed they would of won Serie A. They always seemed unlucky when it counted most, but these years they seemed to have changed that. This year like most I thought we had no chance at the ECC and now we're on our way to the final. I can't wait, I'm so excited. Just wish I could be there.

[2H-Dragon]

Originally Posted by alamarco

He is the greatest coach of all time. Even before he came to Inter I loved the guy.

The guy is class but come on let's not go overboard.


This final is too much goodness.
In Santiago Bernabue, with Sneijder and Robben who weren't "good enough" for Real.
Also van Gaal and Jose old colleague's from Barca.

[justavisitor]

just managed to watch the first half...

Wow who would have thought Barca would fail to advance??

I would cheer for Inter simply because I think Mourinho deserves to win it one more time...he has beaten his old club and the seemingly unbeatable Barca..let's hope he will go all the way

[Terrestrial Dream]

Originally Posted by KiNA

Haha.. YNWA indeed this week eh .. The ultimate evil united us for once

Btw.. anyone else wanted to comment on next year enforced rule for EPL? Arsenal are safe.. but not so much for the other team .

Max 25 players per team must be registered (compared to 30 now) and 8 must be under 21 AND home grown! (that leaves only 17 players above 21 per team)

Might actually effect Man Utd a lot because they have been relying on squad rotation for past few seasons.

Originally Posted by 2H-Dragon

The guy is class but come on let's not go overboard.


This final is too much goodness.
In Santiago Bernabue, with Sneijder and Robben who weren't "good enough" for Real.
Also van Gaal and Jose old colleague's from Barca.

Would have been more of a goodness if Barca went to the final and won in Bernabeu, but oh well bit happy that the tradition of not winning CL twice in a row will keep going on.

Thought on the match, wonder why Pep subbed out Ibra? Wasn't he suppose to be the plan B for Barca? On the match where their usual way wasn't going anywhere attempting on different approach with Ibra might have ended in different result.

[germanturkey]

when i saw mourinho standing there with his hands pointed up, i couldn't help but laugh.

to be fair Pique was off sides for his. but there wasn't a handball for Bojan's.

[justavisitor]

so the result is still fair

[Terrestrial Dream]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

when i saw mourinho standing there with his hands pointed up, i couldn't help but laugh.

to be fair Pique was off sides for his. but there wasn't a handball for Bojan's.

For Toure there was .

Anyhow thank god Maradona is the coach for Argentina because with Samuel and Zanetti Korea would have a zero chance against Argentina.

Also

[fertygo]

LOL, that Busquet act spotted so brightly make my day

Short comment about the match itself, wow I never expect will ever see one team will use 9-0-0 as their formation >_>

[justavisitor]

I feel so bad for the referee after seeing this acting/diving/cheating...
about this 9-0-0 formation, well can't blame them, after all they got the lead in the first leg...and the red card doesn't help

[Blaat]

Originally Posted by 2H-Dragon

This final is too much goodness.
In Santiago Bernabue, with Sneijder and Robben who weren't "good enough" for Real.
Also van Gaal and Jose old colleague's from Barca.

I'm sorry to say but you're exaggerating this by a factor of one million (give or take) I think the 'other' final would have been much, much worse for Real fans: Lyon vs Barca. The team that knocked them out vs their biggest rival? Oh boy now that would have been funny.

Originally Posted by Terrestrial Dream

Thought on the match, wonder why Pep subbed out Ibra? Wasn't he suppose to be the plan B for Barca?

Ibra was awful last night, and on top of that he covered less ground than Valdes... a goalkeeper.

Originally Posted by germanturkey

when i saw mourinho standing there with his hands pointed up, i couldn't help but laugh.

Mourinho = Tomodachi?

Also did anyone else notice the sprinklers of Camp Nou were on at the spot where the Inter players were celebrating? Talk about sore losers.

[KiNA]

Totally unrelated to UCL discussion right now, but anyone who love football and tactic in this thread should try and watch the current running Giant Killing series. I, for one, are addicted to the series .. while not too addicted like mangatron to Ushiro Dai Maou , an addicted none the less. The author of the series seems to have a firm grasp on tactic and strategy and while it still early (ep 4 currently), it holds a lot of promise. The presentation are also different compared to most other football anime as this time the main character are the manager, not the player.

You may now resume to Moaningho worshipping

[2H-Dragon]

Originally Posted by Blaat

I'm sorry to say but you're exaggerating this by a factor of one million (give or take) I think the 'other' final would have been much, much worse for Real fans: Lyon vs Barca. The team that knocked them out vs their biggest rival? Oh boy now that would have been funny.

Originally Posted by Terrestrial Dream

Would have been more of a goodness if Barca went to the final and won in Bernabeu, but oh well bit happy that the tradition of not winning CL twice in a row will keep going on.

Nah the amount of man tears that where cried made me think of the day FF13 went multiplat. I'm pretty much neutral mind you, but seriously people acted like Barca was the best side ever. The amount of arrogance that Barca could easily win the CL 2 times in a row was amazing. Here they are the "best footballing side" incapable of beating 10 men.

Originally Posted by KiNA

Totally unrelated to UCL discussion right now, but anyone who love football and tactic in this thread should try and watch the current running Giant Killing series. I, for one, are addicted to the series .. while not too addicted like mangatron to Ushiro Dai Maou , an addicted none the less. The author of the series seems to have a firm grasp on tactic and strategy and while it still early (ep 4 currently), it holds a lot of promise. The presentation are also different compared to most other football anime as this time the main character are the manager, not the player.

You may now resume to Moaningho worshipping

Yeah that is a cool manga. I like how they stick to the Japanese competition. Instead of the Japan team beating the rest of the world making no sense what so ever.

edit: Noticed there is an anime for it. :O I'll pick it up after more eps are released.