Soccer thread 09/10 (contains spoilers)

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 4:37 pm

Not sure why Berlusconi is up for it, AC Milan recorded a 65m loss last season...so much for breaking even.

As i type, I'm watching them get splattered by Inter 4-0, could be plenty more. Leonardo looks clueless as coach, his inability to get a sub ready to take Gattuso off cost him a player as the latter picked up his second yellow while the AC bench was still arsing about. Pato looks like their only good player, and the LB has had a complete mare...he'll be having nightmares about Maicon for weeks.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 5:23 pm

Does he own the media which has the broadcasting rights?

Maybe it's a loss-leader for now.

Also, no CL last year.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 5:23 pm

Robben scores twice in his Bayern debut.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 1:37 am

Arsenal deserved a better fate. Arshavin was awesome, but his good play was spoiled by a dubious penalty to say the least, and the unfortunate own goal by Diaby. Second half was great to watch.

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 10:56 am

When a keeper makes that much contact with a striker in the box, it's a penalty. Nothing dubious about it - Almunia has only himself to blame.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 12:02 pm

Feanor wrote:When a keeper makes that much contact with a striker in the box, it's a penalty. Nothing dubious about it - Almunia has only himself to blame.

Oh there was contact, no doubt, it's just that Rooney never had control of the ball and it became a who's getting to the ball first. So if you call that one, you should also definitely call the one foul on Arshavin a minute or two before his goal.

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 3:51 pm

It was deffo a pen on "Arseshavin" but justice was served when he hammered it home.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 6:09 pm

10spro wrote:
Feanor wrote:When a keeper makes that much contact with a striker in the box, it's a penalty. Nothing dubious about it - Almunia has only himself to blame.
Oh there was contact, no doubt, it's just that Rooney never had control of the ball and it became a who's getting to the ball first. So if you call that one, you should also definitely call the one foul on Arshavin a minute or two before his goal.

At Old Trafford, where Man U went something like 11 years without having a penalty awarded against them - oh aye, dead likely.

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 7:37 pm

Yeah, Fletcher cleaned Arshavin out and that should have been a penalty. I just don't agree with the talk I've heard from a fair few gooners comparing Rooney's penalty to Eduardo's.

dougb · Post by **dougb** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:44 pm

Fifa ban Chelsea from signing new players for two years

Apparently result of illegally poaching young French player.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009 ... ansfer-ban

Best wishes,

Doug

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 5:10 pm

dougb wrote:Fifa ban Chelsea from signing new players for two years

Apparently result of illegally poaching young French player.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009 ... ansfer-ban

Best wishes,

Doug

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:06 pm

Not surprising at all. Abramovich has already admitted to corruption by way of payoffs and protection money. And I am sure Chelsea is not he only team. But base on appeal, the ban will be shortened, I am sure...

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 3:37 am

United next over some kid from Le Havre.

Be interesting to see if FIFA investigate the Barcelona signing of Lionel Messi when he was 13 (they moved his entire family over to Spain and paid for medical treatments which Newell's Old Boys wouldn't/couldn't do - ooo, that's not an inducement is it ?), or both Spanish clubs using their media arms ('As' and 'Marca' newspapers) to induce players to leave their existing clubs.

And as for Real and the ladyboy...in what way is signing a contract (in summer 2008) with a player who is already under contract until 2013 with another club allowable ? A contract that promised to bring him to Real or pay him money ?

Much as I hate Man U (and Chelsea aren't far behind), FIFA and UEFA are rotten to the core. Oh, and 10'spro, I'm not aware that Abramovich has admitted anything of the sort.

Going by the Roma decision of 2005 when they were banned from transfers after the signing of Philippe Mexes, the ban will be cut to one window, ie Jan 2010.

Pity UEFA couldn't spend some time investigating that horror tackle in the Standard Liege v Anderlecht match at the weekend instead of the ludicrous 'diving' witch hunt as well. Let's see if anyone elsegets picked up for it...after all, they would only have to tape one Serie A or La Liga game to have enough work to keep them going for months.

Also wonder if UEGA will investigate the 'plus-valence' transfers in Italy in 2000-05 that were basically fraudulent misstatements of the financial positions of 9 different clubs, which landed them with tax debts that required an act of parliament to stop them going bust ? Or the true scale of Juventus' and AC Milan's match-fixing ?

Oh yeah - they're not English. So that answers that, then.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 9:10 am

Shut up Big Boss!

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 11:22 am

Not long ago, Roma was fined then for similar actions. My memory of Barca courtying someone is more with C. Fabregas. In regards to Abramovich, if it wasn't for his filthy payoffs, he would have been prosecuted in Russia long ago.

He and his employees have laundered billions through offshore British Virgin Island slush funds. Abramovich is neither fit nor proper to run a legal business and FIFA should do more justice to other teams caught under similar acts. If not for Abramovich's bag man relationship with Putin, he would have suffered the same fate as Berezovsky.

I hope this is just a start but like you were saying Davet, other teams must be shaking their booties as well. And I am sure that City is innocent in all of these, especially the past two seasons.

But in the unlikely event that Lescott is fined now maybe £8m for breaking his contract and City meeting 2 players Terry and Lescott in some luxurious Dubai hotel. That would be considered just pure coincidence, isn't it?

Players should be fined the equivalent to the difference of their old contract to their new one so. Because when they do move it is purely for footballing reasons.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 11:43 am

10spro wrote:Not long ago, Roma was fined then for similar actions. My memory of Barca courtying someone is more with C. Fabregas. In regards to Abramovich, if it wasn't for his filthy payoffs, he would have been prosecuted in Russia long ago.

He and his employees have laundered billions through offshore British Virgin Island slush funds. Abramovich is neither fit nor proper to run a legal business and FIFA should do more justice to other teams caught under similar acts. If not for Abramovich's bag man relationship with Putin, he would have suffered the same fate as Berezovsky.

I hope this is just a start but like you were saying Davet, other teams must be shaking their booties as well. And I am sure that City is innocent in all of these, especially the past two seasons.

But in the unlikely event that Lescott is fined now maybe £8m for breaking his contract and City meeting 2 players Terry and Lescott in some luxurious Dubai hotel. That would be considered just pure coincidence, isn't it?

Players should be fined the equivalent to the difference of their old contract to their new one so. Because when they do move it is purely for footballing reasons.

I think we are talking about slightly different things with Lescott. City officially approached Everton and made a formal offer, which they refused. City upped the offer twice, and Everton eventually decided to take the money as they felt that Lescott had been 'unsettled'. The public nature of that arose because Moyes kept running off to the press every 5 minutes, hoping that Lescott's transfer would deflect attention away from the fact that they'd been beaten 6-1 at home, the club are skint and that for all his 'good young manager' credentials, he's won nothing and not gotten into the top 4 in the 8 seasons he's been there.

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 12:51 pm

davet010 wrote:The public nature of that arose because Moyes kept running off to the press every 5 minutes, hoping that Lescott's transfer would deflect attention away from the fact that they'd been beaten 6-1 at home, the club are skint and that for all his 'good young manager' credentials, he's won nothing and not gotten into the top 4 in the 8 seasons he's been there.

Everton were 4th in 2004-5.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004%E2%80 ... ier_League

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 2:17 am

I sit corrected...their spectacular progress to the 3rd qualifying round in the 05-06 CL should also be added then to Moyes voluminous list of achievements.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 8:09 pm

U.S. vs. El Salvador live now, with Spanish commentary:

http://www.justin.tv/salvatruchostv

Take care,
PK

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 8:53 pm

Brazil-Argentina. Should be a fine match. The Blues need a positive result after some recent mediocre play. Whether it's the qualies, a friendly or Cup play, these two SA teams just don't like each other.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 9:18 pm

It's also on ESPN360.com

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 9:29 pm

For the South American qualies try: livesportHD.com

Not looking good for Maradona's squad.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 1:12 am

Can't believe that Maradona experiment hasn't worked out, given his otherwise impressive managerial pedigree.

As for the US...quite a game. As exciting as the lineup was, that makeshift back 4 and the Bradley/Feilhaber midfield was just unable to control the game to the extent they needed to. For a player involved in so many tough challenges and rough plays, Bradley is curiously ineffective at actually breaking up attacks and holding the ball. He ran like a dog box to box, though.

Bornstein was horrendous!

Donovan was immense in the first half. Really on top of his game, moving well, passing beautifully and driving the attack.

That game was like a fight between two pure punchers. Even when they had the lead, the toothless midfield denied the US a jab to allow them to control the pace of the fight. And their lack of a good defense meant that they were always a slight slip away from armageddon.

Happy to have 3 points that I don't know that we totally deserved.

Oh, and great CONCACAF officiating once again. I did love the justice of scoring deep into stoppage time that only existed because of the Salvadoran GK's bull$hit histrionics.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 5:13 am

10spro wrote:For the South American qualies try: livesportHD.com

Not looking good for Maradona's squad.

Can't imagine they'll have any trouble qualifying out of a group of 10 where 4 qualify and 1 goes into a playoff with the 4th team from either the Asia or Oceanic group (can't remember which)..so that'll be 5 then.

Post by **Jared** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 11:05 am

South American #5 plays against the CONCACAF #4, which will be either the USA, Mexico, Honduras, or Costa Rica. Of those, Costa Rica is probably the poorest, but they're still a solid squad. Honduras is dangerous, Mexico is now back on form, and the US can beat Spain....or play a lackluster game against El Salvador.

(Saudi Arabia/Bahrain winner plays New Zealand)