Soccer thread 07/08

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sat May 17, 2008 3:37 pm

Well, the final was duller than dull.

However, both League 2 playoff semifinals were excellent.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Sat May 17, 2008 9:43 pm

I have the two league 2 matches on the DVR will watch them tonight.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Sun May 18, 2008 9:43 am

Dave,

LFC are being linked with Albert Riera. I recall he did a stint with City at some point, no? Any thoughts?

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Sun May 18, 2008 11:48 am

Zlatlan showed up and Inter won the title on crappy soggy pitch at Parma.

I love watching Italian football fans mug their own players after a championship is won - Zanetti looked like he was going to s*** his pants with 50 fans charging at him.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sun May 18, 2008 5:01 pm

RobVarak wrote:Dave,

LFC are being linked with Albert Riera. I recall he did a stint with City at some point, no? Any thoughts?

Had a few good games for City, scored a goal or two, but final product seemed to be an issue.

Problem for Liverpool is that he played very well in helping Espanyol have a great start to the La Liga season, but really tailed off after Xmas (though the rest of them did as well - finishing outside the UEFA places), and he made it into the Spanish national side for the first time. City could have had him permanently for about £4m, I suspect Liverpool would have to pay double that now, and I don't think he's worth it.

Do they really need another left winger ?

On the subject of Spain, Real Zaragoza went down on the last day, they were tipped for a top 4 place at the start of the season. How on Earth does a club with Pablo Aimar, Ayala, Milito and D'Alessandro (at the start of the season) get relegated - I waltzed La Liga with them in FIFA 08

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Sun May 18, 2008 5:02 pm

by the way Dave, I know you don't like Mr. Kahn, but I thought it was class that at the final whistle yesterday he exchanged jerseys with of all people, Markus Merk.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Sun May 18, 2008 5:47 pm

After they lost the derby to Milan a few weeks back, pretty much everyone was starting to root for Roma as Inter conitnued to struggle, ahem choke their way to the title. But they came thru in the last game, Z. Ibrahimovic did al the scoring after coming back from a lenghty injury. He had a great game. This is as exciting as I witnessed the 'Serie A' in awhile without all the corruption (maybe) in Italy.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Mon May 19, 2008 3:33 am

Sad that Parma went down, I always had a soft spot for them in the days of Crespo, Zola et al. They were never the same after Parmalat, their main sponsor, imploded in a mass of frauds.

Squid, I never said that I didn't like Kahn, just that I didn't think he was as good as he obviously thought he was. The man's a positive saint when compared to the doyen of German goalkeeping, Harald Schumacher. He must be the only person I've ever heard described on an official FIFA video as ' a disgrace'.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Mon May 19, 2008 7:44 am

The ref awarded a goal kick, he was right there

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Mon May 19, 2008 8:44 am

Now now, Squid - you and I both now that it was a premeditated assault during which Schumacher did not look at the ball for a single second

It deprived us of having a final with at least one team not involving a cheating get (Paolo Rossi, of course, having somewhat precipitously being let off a ban for match fixing in Italy).

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Mon May 19, 2008 9:31 am

You can see the keeper put his hands up to make a play on the ball. I know that the ball was behind him already, but he just didn't have the greatest of reflexes.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Mon May 19, 2008 11:29 am

fsquid wrote:You can see the keeper put his hands up to make a play on the ball. I know that the ball was behind him already, but he just didn't have the greatest of reflexes.

".....and that, Your Honour, is the case for the defence..."

In which case, his body position is a very awkward one as the ball was going sideways rather than up. And let us not forget his little contretemps with Dominique Rocheteau earlier in the same game.

You must admit that the 82 W Germany side was, apart from K-H Rumennigge. one of the most athletic but workmanlike sides ever...just watching those clips last night was like a rogue's gallery of dirty gets - the Forsters, Hans-Peter Briegel, Ule Steilike, Manny Kaltz and that big CF..Klaus Allofs ?

Still, the only game that was really memorable from that WC was Italy-Brazil, with a very passing nod to N Ireland-Spain. England just bored everyone to tears, but went out without losing a game due to the odd 3 team group second stage.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Mon May 19, 2008 11:53 am

1982 German side is not spoken of in my family to be honest. The loss to Algeria combined with the farce that was the third match just puts a black eye on that team despite the fact that they were good.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Mon May 19, 2008 3:35 pm

By the way, what is happening at Gretna? They laid off everyone today.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Mon May 19, 2008 4:01 pm

Classic tale of 'too far, too fast'. Very small club belonging to a town just inside the border with England in SW Scotland, bankrolled by a local tycoon. They blazed through the bottom divisions (which are pretty much part timers in Scottish 2 and 3) and got promoted last year.

In hindsight, the SPL should have refused them promotion to the top tier, as they fail most of the criteria. Their ground is a relic of their non league days, so they ended up having to groundshare with Motherwell at Fir Park....and that's 75 miles away.

To top it off, their benefactor is now seriously ill, and his immediate family have pulled the plug on further monetary help. Their gates were so poor that the administrators came in just after Xmas and started shedding staff, and for wages the players were reliant upon the SPL advancing the club its year end payouts - plus going into administration is an automatic 10pt penalty, which condemned them to going down.

As of today, the club's administrators have sacked all staff, which pretty much means that Gretna is a dead club unless someone comes in and buys the club, which seems unlikely given that they have one asset (the ground, valued at about 850k) and about £4m of liabilities...and no staff.

Obviously a pity for the staff and supporters, but let's face it, if you get a home crowd of 431 for a game in the top flight, you are not exactly set up for that level of football. The SPL should have held them in Div 1, as they have done with other clubs in the past, until Gretna got their own ground to standard, as an 150 mile round trip for a home game is a bit of a joke.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Mon May 19, 2008 6:26 pm

fsquid wrote:You can see the keeper put his hands up to make a play on the ball. I know that the ball was behind him already, but he just didn't have the greatest of reflexes.

LOL

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Tue May 20, 2008 9:47 am

News just in - Joey Barton gets 6 months in stir to contemplate his wrongdoings.

I'm not sure that Fabio Capello will appreciate his Boxing Day training regime, a mere 10 pints of lager washed down with....5 bottles of lager.

Lovely lad, shame we cashed him in before his troubles

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Tue May 20, 2008 10:29 am

davet010 wrote:Well, the final was duller than dull.

However, both League 2 playoff semifinals were excellent.

I thought the Rochdale semi was very good and a fun match to watch. The stockport-weymouth one was ok, but I will say that I enjoyed the ref letting them play a good bit. I wish we'd see that more at the higher levels.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Tue May 20, 2008 10:53 am

Dave:

The Barton family tradition of incarceration for bodily attacks continues. Isn't his brother in the klink for a long time for murder?

Take care,
PK

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Tue May 20, 2008 11:46 am

Your routine racially-motivated axe murder. Just boys being boys.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europ ... index.html

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Tue May 20, 2008 1:06 pm

Naples39 wrote:Your routine racially-motivated axe murder. Just boys being boys.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europ ... index.html

In a slightly British 'fair-play' sort of way, I feel duty bound to add that Barton and his half-brother hadn't lived together since he was 12, and that Barton did make an appeal on the local TV for his brother to give himself up when he want on the lam.

Still, if you read that article without knowing the background, you might almost think that Barton was getting ready for a career in the NFL or NBA.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue May 20, 2008 7:46 pm

So who's watching the finals? I think Chelsea will finally win this Cup and Ronaldo will be playing his last game for the Red Devils. To do so, Lampard and Ballack will have to control the midfield and Drogba play an inspired game. Lot of complains on the grass surface.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Tue May 20, 2008 8:05 pm

I'm not buying any of the Christiano Ronaldo transfer rumors, particularly since most are coming from the gas factory that is La Liga.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Tue May 20, 2008 8:49 pm

10spro wrote:So who's watching the finals? I think Chelsea will finally win this Cup and Ronaldo will be playing his last game for the Red Devils. To do so, Lampard and Ballack will have to control the midfield and Drogba play an inspired game. Lot of complains on the grass surface.

I'm taping it so I don't have to watch the whole bore fest

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Wed May 21, 2008 3:41 am

10spro wrote:So who's watching the finals? I think Chelsea will finally win this Cup and Ronaldo will be playing his last game for the Red Devils. To do so, Lampard and Ballack will have to control the midfield and Drogba play an inspired game. Lot of complains on the grass surface.

I'm hoping that there is a catastrophic (but limited) landslip and that the whole stadium subsides into a 20 mile deep pit. The elimination of Chelsea (and their bandwaggoning fans), MU (and their gloryhunting southern fans) and a huge number of freeloading UEFA 'VIPs' (mincing fairy Michel Platini at the front, hopefully with Sepp Blatter's hand up his backside as usual) would be the right result all round.

On the unfortunate chance that this does not happen, I'm willing to accept Chelsea winning 1-0 by a disputed penalty in the 6th minute of injury time, which would surely see the Scots Drunk explode in a red faced mist.