The Official Football Thread

[Saturn Beaver]

Originally Posted by kayote

best week of the season.

i love it when we prove people wrong. 2:1. love it. first beating Valencia and now ending City's winning run. AVB knows what he is doing and we all just need to Believe in him.

i have Believed and will continue tto Believe. Feel sorry for Lamps a little bit, but others need games to grow. i thank the man above that we got Romeu and Mikel is shown to be the hack that he is.

I think the problem is that Chelsea is unsuited to having a high backline (as AVB implements), and thus concedes a lot of goals from it. However, against Valencia and City AVB changes his instructions and have his players play deeper, in a more counterattacking style, and it works very well as the players are more used to the system (not to mention Terry and Ivanovic simply doesn't have the pace to keep up with it, which I feel is Chelsea's biggest problem as Balotelli's goal clearly show).

Also: yesterday I went to Subway and asks for the most expensive sub they have. The guy gave me Fernando Torres. Seriously, at this point I'm just feeling sorry for the guy.

[kayote]

true the high line does not work for us. we would need fast defenders and Terry, Ivanovic and luiz are not that fast. terry's strength is orgenising and cutting off attacking moves. it's worked for us in the past.

as for the new style it would be good if we keep it. some players are finding it amazing, Sturridge has been let loose, mata, Ramires and Romeu. possesion football with swift attacks and fast movements, building from our own half and going forward. it's the future for us.

i don't know what is wrong with Torres. i don't think it entierly about losing his confidence. it's something else. he is fully capeable but, i don't think he is adapting, IMO that's the problem. he doesn't feel at home and insted of being nice to him we need to give some harsh treatment. he is a world class striker and is fully capeable of scoring 30+ goals a season. he needs a little push insted of a hug.

i'm sure we might end up breaking him but, we can't have him go on like this. no one's gonna pay 50mil for him now. we'd be lucky to get 20. and i'd rather Drogba go free than Torres go for a loss of 30+mil.

[Blaat]

Originally Posted by Saturn Beaver

Also: yesterday I went to Subway and asks for the most expensive sub they have. The guy gave me Fernando Torres. Seriously, at this point I'm just feeling sorry for the guy.

I'm still debating whether I should give you negative or positive reputation for this joke.

[kayote]

read on sky sports that Mikel is having doubts. not getting enough games.

[viperdk1]

Originally Posted by kayote

read on sky sports that Mikel is having doubts. not getting enough games.

Mikel of the John Obi variety (rather than the Alonso variety)? Of course he isn't getting enough games for Chelsea, especially when Oriol Romeu is showing him how to do his job.

Wonder if he'll drop down to League One and give my own team (Huddersfield Town) a bit of help defensively...

[kayote]

^^ i am a Chelsea supporter so yes Jonn Obi. and trust me he is no good. he is strong and that's it. can't see danger coming and only reacts. can't tackle, as he has cost us many times and has a bad temper.

Romeu still needs time to grow. he's good but, i don't think he can command first team yet. though until Essien comes back he will have to grow up quick. for future he is the one. Romeu's not taht good at breaking up attacks and seeing danger but he'll get there. as long as he brings the game inot his strength of passing and spreading the ball he can improve the other aspects as he grows up and gets used to the Premier League.

as for getting Rowell i'll take Khedira over Rodwell. Rodwell is good but he's never played at a high level and just because he English the price is x2.(Andy Carroll) Khedira played in the world cup finals and he's played champions league football. he's a no noncence player.
Khedira steals the ball, passes to Romeu, who finds Mata. Mata picks out Sturridge (really wanted to say Torres) and he puts it in the back of the net. (in theory anyway)

as much as i would love to see Mikel at Huddersfield i doubt you can afford him. he's salery is close to 50k

[risingstar3110]

A Liverpool fan here, but my brother follows Chelsea so it's like my 2nd club. Glad that AVB got through the trouble earlier back at the last round of CL (and steal the first spot too), even when the recent two draws was kinda threw the momentum back a bit through. Torres will turn fine, or get sold. Especially with CAN (Cup of African Nations) coming soon, and Drogba probably will be a way for a while. Romeu probably will step up and turn to be quite a steal also


On Liverpool, kinda annoyed with the whole deal surrounding Suarez, too much football politics that is ruining my on-pitch entertainment. For those who don't follow, the guy is facing an 8-matches ban, for the charge of "using abusive language that refer to racial of an opponent", even when both the Football Association and the supposed victim clearly stated that "he's not a racist". In fact, the guy barely know English, was speaking in Spanish and using the term "negrito" which is much more neutral and commonly used in Uruguay (he's Uruguayan) than the term "negro" in English. He's in fact also a quarter black

So now in one side, we have the English media applauded a great victory toward racism. On another hand, LFC, the Uruguay Football Association through Uruguay Embassy in London showed support to the players. The British media suspect the Uruguayan (or the whole Uruguay country) still backward on dealing with racism, and showing unacceptable racial insensitivity. The Uruguay national newspaper fire back accusing English FA "arrogant", "hypocritical" and "overreacted"

More on the case here, but basically it's a mess. Personally i feels extremely unfair that a guy who is a quarter black, have history on charities to promote anti-racism in football, now being torched by the media to be racist. Just like Terry, captain of the possibly most racial diverse club in the whole league, got questioned on the same charge

[Kyuu]

Hey... SOCCER people....

Spoiler:

From the American point of view -- that red card was total BS. And it was smart of the manager to just outright order the team to walk off the field -- and call it the end of the game.

That kind of situation was dangerous. Any random person running up the field like that towards an athlete... all sorts of crap could happen. If you want a reference, refer to the Monica Seles stabbing. With that in mind, the goalie had every right to defend himself. And keeping the bastard down like that until help arrives... that was the right thing to do.

So, to give him a red card for it - that was... ludicrous. It was security's fault for allowing anything like this to even happen.

• Having said that -- what has been the talk about this incident days after?
• Does the referee get reprimanded for making such an ill decision? (Which I doubt)
• Will the game be replayed?
• Overall, where's the justice?!

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by Kyuu

Hey... SOCCER people....

Spoiler:

From the American point of view -- that red card was total BS. And it was smart of the manager to just outright order the team to walk off the field -- and call it the end of the game.

That kind of situation was dangerous. Any random person running up the field like that towards an athlete... all sorts of crap could happen. If you want a reference, refer to the Monica Seles stabbing. With that in mind, the goalie had every right to defend himself. And keeping the bastard down like that until help arrives... that was the right thing to do.

So, to give him a red card for it - that was... ludicrous. It was security's fault for allowing anything like this to even happen.

• Having said that -- what has been the talk about this incident days after?
• Does the referee get reprimanded for making such an ill decision? (Which I doubt)
• Will the game be replayed?
• Overall, where's the justice?!

I find this extremely unfair for the goalie also (as one mentioned, who know what is that fan is carrying, stunning gun,knife, bomb....), but it seems this decision was not a mistake, and was written somewhere in their little rule book.

I remember that a similar incident was happened in a smaller league. The player jumps up to tackle the troubling fan. He got the red card. The opposing club found the decision so unjustified that they decided to take of a player too. That's fairplay

Kinda envy the more open mind in US-dominant sports. International football with FIFA is extremely narrowly mind on technologies, hence all important decisions were decided by ref running on the pitch. And trust me they literally can change the outcome of the match if they want to (or their decision can be affected by players' reaction or the crowds). With all of the cameras in high profiles games that can capture all of the angles and replay them within less than a second, there should be only 2 refs. A guy (or two)monitoring from above with all of the camera angles, and one guy running down on ground to solve the dispute and pass the message. Pulling shirt and clear diving should face penalty after the match (financial or a match ban if serious)

[Blaat]

The red card was just by the rulebooks, but luckily the Dutch FA retracted the red card. I do think the goalkeeper went too far by kicking the "supporter" while he's down but that's me thinking about it rationally. The truth is most of us would have done the same thing in similar situations.

[Bri]

Originally Posted by Kyuu

From the American point of view -- that red card was total BS. And it was smart of the manager to just outright order the team to walk off the field -- and call it the end of the game.

[...]

So, to give him a red card for it - that was... ludicrous. It was security's fault for allowing anything like this to even happen.

• Having said that -- what has been the talk about this incident days after?
• Does the referee get reprimanded for making such an ill decision? (Which I doubt)
• Will the game be replayed?
• Overall, where's the justice?!

Fans have been in two minds about it. Players are not allowed to harm anyone on the pitch this explicitly includes fans. They are well paid professionals who should know to leave this type of matter to security, on the other hand the goalie got taken by surprise and his anger is a normal human reaction.

*The match will be replayed from start without an audience and Ajax will be fined.

*The KNVB (Dutch FA) has overturned the red card. The goalkeeper will not see any sanctions and will be allowed to play in the rematch.

*The FA emphasized that the referee took a formally correct decision but they felt that the mindset of the goalie strongly influenced by conditions and was fully excusable.

*No sanctions for AZ for refusing to continue the match. This is the most controversial part of the decision as Verbeek took his players of as a protest against the red card, not as later claimed as for security fears. Which is strictly against FA rules. This might influence future decisions by coaches in case of incidents in trying to profit from circumstances. AZ was trailing 1-0. KNVB points to the special circumstances of this case.

*The hooligan has been sentenced to 6 months in jail on assault charges. He had already has a 3 year stadium ban but a season-ticket holder had given him one of his tickets for cup matches. The ban has been extended to 30 years and Ajax will take both fans to civil court for incurred damages. After leaving jail the hooligan will have to report to the police on match days for both Ajax and the national team for the next two years.

*Fans of both teams who attended the match do not accept the replay without an audience and supporter unions have taken the FA to court as the want their money back. FA rules prohibit any refunds but fans deem this to violate their consumer rights.

* Justice was not immediate but seems to have been done in due course.

[Saturn Beaver]

So anyway, for those of you following the transfer news, the Arsenal Legend Thierry Henry is coming back to his old club for a short loan, and he's playing his first game back today against Leeds united. Ten minutes after he's substituted, this happens:

Spoiler for Thierry Henry:

The King is back, Long live The King. But seriously, that first touch, and that shot...I'm not even an Arsenal fan but that puts a wide smile on my face.

[germanturkey]

Father my children Thierry.

[Saturn Beaver]

I just realized something - In the year two-thousand and 12, Henry comes back to Arsenal wearing shirt number 12, it's his 12th appearance against Leeds and he scored his 12th goal against them, 12 minutes before injury time.

[Terrestrial Dream]

Originally Posted by Saturn Beaver

So anyway, for those of you following the transfer news, the Arsenal Legend Thierry Henry is coming back to his old club for a short loan, and he's playing his first game back today against Leeds united. Ten minutes after he's substituted, this happens:

Spoiler for Thierry Henry:

The King is back, Long live The King. But seriously, that first touch, and that shot...I'm not even an Arsenal fan but that puts a wide smile on my face.

Jesus christ, Henry returns, Scholes return, what next are Roy Keane and Vieira going to start playing again?

[risingstar3110]

And i thought you guys talked about Messi winning the third Ballon d'Or (the highest reward from FIFA).

Japan got three awards among the 7 (there might be more but i'm not sure), for the best female player (Homare Sawa), best female team coach (Norio Sasaki ) and FIFA Fair Play award (Japan Football Association)


On Henry, it's simply class on his side. Just a slap on the face toward those media outlets claiming he can no longer be fit in English PL

[Saturn Beaver]

^Yeah, I know that Messi wins Ballon D'Or again, third time in a row - at this rate it's simply to be expected, so no one is surprised anymore and hence not much discussion. Congratulations to Japan though, now when can we get a female football anime?

[Elo the Blue]

Originally Posted by risingstar3110

And i thought you guys talked about Messi winning the third Ballon d'Or (the highest reward from FIFA).

Japan got three awards among the 7 (there might be more but i'm not sure), for the best female player (Homare Sawa), best female team coach (Norio Sasaki ) and FIFA Fair Play award (Japan Football Association)

On Henry, it's simply class on his side. Just a slap on the face toward those media outlets claiming he can no longer be fit in English PL

There are so many quality strikers who don't have blazing speed but still get by on other qualities. Barring injury, Thierry should be effective during the loan-spell.

Wenger still needs to spend more though.

[justavisitor]

i knew this thread would have got revived when Henry decided to re-join Arsenal XD

But is it a bit too late? Arsenal is pretty much out of the contention in english PL...maybe championship league...but only 6 weeks..

anyway, it's good to see great player comes back to english PL..and if Scholes can play, then Henry will definitely have no problem (just to clear I don't hate Scholes at all before all Man U fans come to slap me XD)

[germanturkey]

out of contention to win the league yes, but they're 1 point out of the top 4. given their start, that's amazing.

as for messi winning, meh. take messi in a vacuum and ronaldo in a vacuum, and ronaldo wins every time. its just that messi has the spanish national side backing him up. you put ronaldo in any above average side, and he will make them much better. you put messi in any above average side, and he'll he just be an above average player. see: argentina.