The Official Football Thread

[Dreamtale]

Where is your Barca now?

[kayote]

wow is all i can say.

first of all who needs Augro. when you come to our back yard you better be prepared. 2 losses in PL is going to hurt us but for now we're on the right track.

i did not see the game so i can only talk about what i have read but how did Barca lose at the Nou Camp to well not being rude the the opponent but, a team like barca does not lose at home to someone like Rubin.

then to put the icing on the cake for all those Glacticos losing to a team like like Milan who are quite weak ight now when compaired to the elite of europe. and again it was at there home ground.

one of the biggest things that you learn in English football is make your home your fortress. anyone comes to your ground they better be prepared to do battle.

with that being said it looks like the normal order of things have been resumed. English football is on top. alot was said in pre season that the rest of europe was going for the big honours and they were hear to take the mighty english clubs down but, again they have been proved wrong.

also Haha u loser reds. u bring shame upon the english game by losing to a team from the same country as platini. Shame

[Shinndou]

Milan may look "weak", kayote, but you seem to be forgetting that Milan is a completely different team when it comes to Champions League. They're not great in Serie A since they lack consistency every week, but in CL they usually transform since they're used to play big games. And their record of CL won proves it.

May I address you one thing? Don't take it personally. It's true that the English clubs certainly look like favorites as usual, but understimating your opponents is something you should never ever do. That's why for instance Milan always does well in this competition, regardless of the state of their team.

You're lucky you have Ancelotti as coach, he might not make you play the best football but he knows how to make a team become mature in terms of mentality, and that also means not taking lightly any opponent.

[Dreamtale]

Very disappointing draw... CSKA must won this match. But 1 pint on Old Trafford is good enough too, especially looking on the situation with the team

[Loniat]

English football fans are becoming quite snobbish lately.

[KiNA]

We are? Well.. I dont know for sure since you see.. Arsenal is a french club. Better ask the Pools

[Terrestrial Dream]

Originally Posted by KiNA

We are? Well.. I dont know for sure since you see.. Arsenal is a french club. Better ask the Pools

I thought they were Spanish .

Oh and Pohang Steelers has won the AFC Champions League, ending the two years of J-League dominance. It is about damn time that a K-League team won this trophy, two years is too long without having won it .

[Wing Zero]

Another simple win for Newcastle putting them back on top. Liverpool have had an awful past two weaks, though their fans still seem to be optimistic that they will get to the knockout stages of the champions league and get a top four spot league spot this season.

Chelsea vs United tommorow, should be a solid end to end game, though looking at chelsea's latest preformance I would tip them to win at home.

[kayote]

Chelsea 1 - 0 united

u don't come to our garden and think you can win.

giv props to Rubin 4 out of 6 points when they were exepected to get 0.

it's not "snobbish" it pride. english clubs. let me re-phrase that, before it was only united that were able to battle with the rest of europe during my time. i started to watch football in 96/97, all i saw was europian clubs dominate Cl and now that we are finally doing it and 3 out of 4 english clubs getting to the QF, SF and final and the rest of europe is not able to keep up.

for me PL is best leauge in the world. not just because of the fact that i'm british just because i see compleate football in England. when i watch Seria A, La Leauga, Bundsleauge, Dutch leauge, French Football League, all of those leauges are good but when i watch a match i see slow, defensive, attacking or just one type. for PL i see that all of that together.

[Shinndou]

You don't watch enough games of that, if you're opinion is that distorted.

It wouldn't hurt if you formed your opinion on what you watch for real than what you read/hear about an other country's league.

Honestly, it'd make much more sense to say "I prefer PL, because I am English". Can't argue with that, afterall I watch Serie A because, well, I'm italian?

But really, the whole "Serie A is slow and defensive" is such a false urban legend that everytime I hear it I can't help but thinking "does this guy even watch Serie A games at all".
I wish people who claim that would be able to back that up by citing the games they've watched recently. Most of the times they watch one game, and judge the whole league based on that.

You don't see me labeling Premier League, since I don't watch enough games to form an opinion on it. It would be educated if you and other people who think along your lines would start doing the same.

[kayote]

fine lets play facts.

i watched Inter roma thsi weekend and that was a bore as well as quite a lot inter games that i have watched. i've given up on them. then AC milan vs Real firly boring, same with the parma and chievo games. they had some spark for the times they get the goal then the rest of the time there is no flair. i have been watching fairly consistntly cause we finally get coverage now in England of the games. nearly all of them have no spark. all they do is probe again and again, it's like they are afried of actully comitting and just wait for gaps.

the only decent match i watched was genoa vs napoli a month or so a go. in saying that i have not watched Juve games this season.

i watch enough spanish games to know that they don't really defend. they have a lot of flair but, not a lot of orgenisation at the back.

[Shinndou]

I may say the same thing about yesterday's game Chelsea vs United, then. I personally didn't find it that entertaining. Is that enough of a reason to label a whole league? No.

So you missed Cagliari's games, Juve's games (most recent ones were 5-2, 2-3, an other 5-2) which certainly didn't lack flair, Bari's, Samp's and so on. But of course, you can't follow all their games so I can't expect you to form a complete judgement on Serie A, which is why I am suggesting you to just avoid labeling a league that you don't follow not even remotely closely.

That's why I can't help but think that you are probably just too quick in judging an other league based on... a few games. I'd never do that.

As I said, it's more than sufficient for you to simply say "I prefer the EPL because I'm british" because that's simply the most fine and normal thing to say.
Rather than trying to play down the other leagues with a distorted opinion when you barely watch their games. :\

Don't be surprised that a lot of foreigners think of british EPL supporters as "snobs", when you read these opinions based mostly on the usual urban legends it's hard not to think like this. :\

Besides, if you really want to brag about your team how come only Man U has won the CL in the past four years? You may reach quarter finals or semifinals but only the winners are the ones that get remembered. If you are so obsessed in stating "english dominance" you guys should atleast win the CL a couple of times. Getting at semis or a quarter finals doesn't win you anything at all. :\

[boggart]

Originally Posted by Dreamtale

Where is your Barca now?

Don't worry... we're still here. The results against Rubin Kazan are merely a hiccup along our way.

[Mithfalath]

Barca 1 - 0 RM. Wow, great El Clasico match. The energy in the stadium is rocking in every single play! Ibrahimovic is a good deal. If it was Eto'o, I don't think he could finish that Alves cross as nifty as Ibra did. But Sevilla.. T_______T Just a draw. ><

[boggart]

Yeah baby! Puyol is still pure class at 31 years of age.

[Blaat]

So what do you guys think of the world cup groups?

Lucky England and Italy. Poor Brazil and Germany though, both have tough groups.

[Terrestrial Dream]

Originally Posted by Blaat

So what do you guys think of the world cup groups?

Lucky England and Italy. Poor Brazil and Germany though, both have tough groups.

Lol, aren't usually those two the ones that get a easy group.
Group G and D(literally stands for death at this point) seems to be the toughest. As for my countries group B I don't think it is that bad for South Korea, Argentina will be tough but hopefully that Maradona will still be the coach in the summer , though most likely we won't win. Greek seemed beatable, we beat them once in 2007 but don't know much about them so I can't much. Nigeria does have some good players in Europe but I think we could aim for a draw and possibly a win but it will still be tough. Only thing that I could really hope is that our young players improve by that time (and possibly Messi getting injured ) By the way I feel sorry for North Korea, but then again Jong Tese, the North Korean striker for Kawasaki, wanted this so I guess he got what he wished .

[Haak]

Originally Posted by Terrestrial Dream

Greek seemed beatable, we beat them once in 2007 but don't know much about them so I can't much.

If I recall they won Euro 2000, much to everyone's surpise.

[boggart]

Group G looks more "Group of Death"-like than our own Group D. Germany will hold us off, but hopefully we'll get some points off of Ghana and Serbia. Here's praying!

I too think that Italy and England have the easiest routes. However, England v USA will be interesting to watch. As will Brazil v Portugal.

Can't wait for South Africa!

[JRendell]

Come on City!!!