Soccer thread 09/10 (contains spoilers)

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 1:10 am

10spro wrote:Credit to Giggs for finding Owen open, when most expected a cross.

Sorry but he had the ball in the middle of the park 30 yds away, no one was expecting a cross from there. Well except you .

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 1:45 am

Jimmydeicide wrote:
10spro wrote:Credit to Giggs for finding Owen open, when most expected a cross.
Sorry but he had the ball in the middle of the park 30 yds away, no one was expecting a cross from there. Well except you .

Spoken like a guy that knew exactly where the ball would end, on the 96th minute of a thriller derby. It was a sublime pass, the ball was still bouncing in front of him, not many players would have found Owen so open, and yes based on where the ball was bouncing in front of him I did expect him to cross/lob it to the penalty area, instead of that superb pass.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 3:14 am

RobVarak wrote:Purists be damned. The lack of a public, official clock in football is laughable.

Soccer is the only game even in England where there isn't one in top level competition...in both Rugby codes there is an official hooter (and there is little or no injury time in Rugby League at all, which might be surprising). Even in cricket, there is an official clock, usually on the pavilion...I was going to say that a day's play ended 'when it gets dark', but not now in the era of day/night games

Still, whether time is the same in the Fergie Zone depends on a number of variables...relativity, the 11th dimension, current score..

Breaking News from the Guardian - Scientific Proof of Fergie Time !

After the controversy over Michael Owen's winning goal in Sunday's Manchester derby, the Guardian has looked at all of United's league matches at Old Trafford since the start of the 2006-07 season and discovered that, on average, there has been over a minute extra added by referees when United do not have the lead after 90 minutes, compared to when they are in front. In 48 games when United were ahead, the average amount of stoppage time was 191.35 seconds. In 12 matches when United were drawing or losing there was an average of 257.17sec.

The average stoppage time added at Old Trafford in the period in question is below that given at Anfield, the Emirates Stadium and Stamford Bridge. United's is 205 seconds, compared to Liverpool's 210sec, Arsenal's 224sec and Chelsea's 229sec. But there is also evidence to support the suspicions of many managers, players and supporters that United get preferential treatment at home. When Owen made it 4-3 on Sunday the game was five minutes and 26 seconds into stoppage time. In total, the referee, Martin Atkinson, allowed almost seven minutes, even though the fourth official had signalled a minimum of four. Mark Hughes, the City manager, spoke of feeling "robbed". His sense of grievance will not be helped if he analyses the last three seasons.

In 2006-07, for example, United were winning 15 times on entering stoppage time and referees added an average 194.53sec. In the four games when United were not winning there was an average of 217.25sec. The following year the disparity was greater, Opta's figures showing an average 178.29sec added when United were winning and 254.5sec when they were not. Last season it was 187.71sec compared to 258.6sec.

The pattern has continued in the first three games of the season. In the two games United have led they have played an average 304sec of injury time. On Sunday, Atkinson allowed the game to go on for 415sec.

It's all on now...though this particular journalist may want to avoid Old Trafford for a while now he's on Alex's LIST. I wouldn't say that Fergie bears a grudge, but this is the guy who refused to speak to the club's OWN TV channel for 2 months after they broadcast one of Roy Keane's rants about his own teammates, which led to the yellow thug being dispatched to Celtic to play out his career there.

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 8:32 am

10spro wrote:
Spoken like a guy that knew exactly where the ball would end, on the 96th minute of a thriller derby. It was a sublime pass, the ball was still bouncing in front of him, not many players would have found Owen so open,

Spoken like a guy who thinks he knows more than he does then.
Any 8 year old kid is looking for that pass In that situation in England.
Im not saying it wasnt a nice pass im just saying it was an obvious ball to me.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 11:00 am

Jimmydeicide wrote:
10spro wrote:
Spoken like a guy that knew exactly where the ball would end, on the 96th minute of a thriller derby. It was a sublime pass, the ball was still bouncing in front of him, not many players would have found Owen so open,
Spoken like a guy who thinks he knows more than he does then.
Any 8 year old kid is looking for that pass In that situation in England.
Im not saying it wasnt a nice pass im just saying it was an obvious ball to me.

Good luck trying to tell that to City, who after spending 40 million still can't defend, and at that particular stage of the game they just can't leave Owen smelling for blood.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 11:04 am

I'm still in hiding after the Steel City Derby.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 11:12 am

RobVarak wrote:Purists be damned. The lack of a public, official clock in football is laughable.

I agree.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 11:13 am

10spro wrote:
Jimmydeicide wrote:
10spro wrote:
Spoken like a guy that knew exactly where the ball would end, on the 96th minute of a thriller derby. It was a sublime pass, the ball was still bouncing in front of him, not many players would have found Owen so open,
Spoken like a guy who thinks he knows more than he does then.
Any 8 year old kid is looking for that pass In that situation in England.
Im not saying it wasnt a nice pass im just saying it was an obvious ball to me.
Good luck trying to tell that to City, who after spending 40 million still can't defend, and at that particular stage of the game they just can't leave Owen smelling for blood.

Yeah, the level of sophisticated defending from a group who've played together a massive 3 times was simply startling.

It might also interest you to know that the defence actually cost £58m, which is slightly more than Utd's £42m, unless I adjusted Rio Ferdinand's £30m for inflation. Of course, Man Utd still owe that money to the bank, which may or may not interest M.Platini.

Makes you wonder why Fergie's Wizards needed the extra time, really.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 2:03 pm

If anyone cares, the U-20 World Cup starts this week. USA games will be on ESPN Classic.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 3:09 am

fsquid wrote:If anyone cares, the U-20 World Cup starts this week. USA games will be on ESPN Classic.

I never really understood the point of u-20....I mean, there's an U-21 World Cup (and European Championship), and there are U-19 tournaments, so I'm not sure what this one is about. Not heard of any Premiership managers bleating about losing players either, which one would expect.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 8:51 am

davet010 wrote:
fsquid wrote:If anyone cares, the U-20 World Cup starts this week. USA games will be on ESPN Classic.
I never really understood the point of u-20....I mean, there's an U-21 World Cup (and European Championship), and there are U-19 tournaments, so I'm not sure what this one is about. Not heard of any Premiership managers bleating about losing players either, which one would expect.

Apparently some nations put their resources into different tournaments. For US Soccer, the youth teams are U-17, U-20, U-23 for the Olympics. There are no US U-21 or U-19 squads or matches. On the flip side, in the U-20s I've seen I've never noticed England's participation so maybe England doesn't even field a team at that level.

I'll check out the USA games to see if the USA makes any noise, even the US team has no name players this time around.

miget33 · Post by **miget33** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:46 am

England is in this U20 WC.

Oh and here's an article highlighting potential stars,

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id ... al&cc=5901

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 11:16 am

FIFA only sponsors a U-17 and U-20 World Cup. Not really interested in the U-17 version as those guys are usually a ways away from club football and a good portion don't make it. U-20 is always a bit fun to watch. Last time Sergio Aguero, Giovani Dos Santos, Altidore were fun to watch.

Plus, it was also funny to see Howard Webb being called a racist.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 11:58 am

fsquid wrote:FIFA only sponsors a U-17 and U-20 World Cup. Not really interested in the U-17 version as those guys are usually a ways away from club football and a good portion don't make it. U-20 is always a bit fun to watch. Last time Sergio Aguero, Giovani Dos Santos, Altidore were fun to watch.

Plus, it was also funny to see Howard Webb being called a racist.

This was a great match. Too bad the US team laid a turd in the knockout stages. Adu and Altidore are technically still available for selection (it would be Adu's 4th appearance at U-20s

) .

<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EmExheyGwKs&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed>

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 1:12 pm

That Marcelo has some serious talent.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 1:54 pm

fsquid wrote:FIFA only sponsors a U-17 and U-20 World Cup. Not really interested in the U-17 version as those guys are usually a ways away from club football and a good portion don't make it. U-20 is always a bit fun to watch. Last time Sergio Aguero, Giovani Dos Santos, Altidore were fun to watch.

Plus, it was also funny to see Howard Webb being called a racist.

Judging by England's U-20 squad and the fact that no one seems to be moaning about it over here, there's a fair number of them not going to make it either.

What's the issue with Webb - he's one of the better referees over here, was he doing that USA - Brazil game ?

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 5:11 pm

The Nigerian team in the 2007 U-20 World Cup said that his calls against them were racially motivated. Don't know what the end result was, probably got that coach a hefty fine.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 5:36 pm

fsquid wrote:The Nigerian team in the 2007 U-20 World Cup said that his calls against them were racially motivated. Don't know what the end result was, probably got that coach a hefty fine.

Maybe the accusations were to deflect attention from the fact that most players on the Nigerian team were in fact 45 years old.

FIFA recently started doing MRI's to test players ages for the upcoming U-17 tourney, and 15!! Nigerian players failed. LOL

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 6:49 pm

Naples39 wrote:
fsquid wrote:Last time Sergio Aguero, Giovani Dos Santos, Altidore were fun to watch.
This was a great match. Too bad the US team laid a turd in the knockout stages. Adu and Altidore are technically still available for selection (it would be Adu's 4th appearance at U-20s ) .

Wow Freddy was good in that match. He, Bradley and Altidore were really good. What has happened to Freddy since then? The other two seem to be progressing forward. Maybe Freddy will get some playing time this season.

We didn't crap the bed entirely; that game against Uruguay was a difficult win and I think it just took too much out of them. We should have beaten Denmark, but yeah, played really poorly in that game from the start. And it was a shame because who knows when we will get such a tournament so close to home where supporters can travel to so easily again.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 9:44 am

US lost to Austria.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 11:34 am

Found this funny:

A Burnley fan who lives near rivals Blackburn Rovers’ ground has been told he will have to make a 50-mile away trip to Ewood Park for Saturday’s Lancashire derby.

Jason Taylor is the victim of tight restrictions on the movement of away fans following the violence at the recent West Ham and Millwall game. Despite living four minutes’ walk away from Ewood Park, but has to go on a four hour car and bus journey to link up with fellow Clarets fans.

He said: “I’ll be getting up at 7.30am for a game four minutes away. I’m very frustrated at these measures which are totally over the top. I’ll spend the day in the car, the coach and on the motorway.”

Jason will travel to Turf Moor to get a coach back to his own doorstep. And after the match - with his house just four minutes away - Jason will be herded up with the other Burnley fans and put on a coach back to Turf Moor where he can collect his car and begin the final 13-mile drive home!

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 1:24 pm

You wouldn't if you'd ever been to either town...Burnley itself is like something out of Charles Dickens. Those clubs...no, the TOWNS, absolutely despise each other, and Lancashire Police have this as a class 'A' fixture, on par with a Manchester derby for trouble potential.

A mate of mine who lives in Burnley has bet me £500 that I wouldn't go out in Burnley on a Saturday night in a Blackburn shirt....I considered it for about 5 seconds. It's like proof that evolution can go backwards as well as forwards.

miget33 · Post by **miget33** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 6:12 pm

Milan loses at home to Zurich.

How long before Leonardo is shown the door.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 3:36 am

You have to feel for Alan Wiley - a few weeks ago he tries to get in Sir ExLax's good books by looking the other way when 2 extra minutes of time are added and how does he get repaid today? By red nose calling him out of shape!

Some people, eh?

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 2:22 pm

Liverpool's bad form continues!!

Man City has two games in hand and if they win both of those could be tied for top of the league. That's a bit shocking. To win the league this year, I don't think you are going to need all that many points.

And if tottenham can keep this up, they and City might be able to push into the top 4. Though I bet both teams crash in the final 2-3 months. Tottenham probably finishes 5. Though I have a feeling it's Arsenal's year to miss the Champions league!