Soccer thread 09/10 (contains spoilers)

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 6:11 pm

Entertaining first half between RM and Milan. Sloppy play ruled the 2nd half and I don't know what the ref saw in Pato's disallowed goal. Blown call IMO. Nice save by Dida at the end of the game, denying Raul.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 10:32 am

fsquid wrote:I just put $100 on Bayern to win. I have a feeling.

feck me in the ass

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 4:10 pm

Now Mike Ashley and Newcastle have gone at least 3 weeks without making tits of themselves, so now it back with a bang.

Fresh from announcing the sale of naming rights for St James Park next season (fair enough, though the Geordie faithful are not exactly pleased about it), they have now announced that the rights for this season have also been sold...to Ashley's Sports Direct chain of shellsuit floggers. Notwithstanding the fact that this won't actually bring any new money into the club, it's the name itself that amuses. Wait for it....for the rest of the season, the official name of the stadium will be

sportsdirect.com@ St James' Park Stadium

You really couldn't make that up.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 10:53 am

Dave, this have any chance of passing?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009 ... n-gartside

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 11:10 am

fsquid wrote:Dave, this have any chance of passing?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009 ... n-gartside

Sounds like an attempt to prop up more clubs than may be sustainable. The teams which play in the CL every year are just on a whole different plane than the lower-rung teams. It also sounds like other top leagues are in a similar situation, a handful of big-time clubs which are among the most profitable sports franchises in all of sports around the world vs. a large number of small-town clubs which shouldn't be competing on the same plane.

Kind of like the Yankees vs. the KC Royals.

Someone was joking about the Yankees being an exemplar of capitalism vs. the socialistic revenue-sharing model of the NFL (although there are big-revenue clubs which want to shelter more of the revenues from sharing with other clubs).

If you let capitalism take its course, these leagues as we know them would shrink drastically because many of the teams function as little more than the Washington Generals.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 5:54 am

Gartside is always plugging this, primarily as a means of providing his small town outfit (Bolton W) with a safety net for the happy day when they drop out of the Premiership. I'll have an even bigger party the day that Wigan and their rent-a-quote chairman Dave Whelan drop back into obscurity where they both belong, but there you go.

Back to Squid's original question, and the article has it pretty much right with its breakdown...it'll only be those clubs who spend most of their time looking down at the bottom of the Prem who go for it.

As for the recruitment of Blue Bigot and Green Bigot FC from Scotland, the only ones pressing for it are the two of them and the desperate who believe that those two would maintain their levels of support when they are getting humped every week, rather than running away with the league as usual. Based on what I've seen of them this season, Rangers would go down and Celtic wouldn't be too far behind.

So, the answer would remain as 'No', I believe.

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 3:56 pm

Drogba got a yellow card for being kicked in the chest by Evans in today's game. One of the craziest refereeing decisions you'll ever see.

miget33 · Post by **miget33** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 7:14 pm

Drogba deserved that kick, maybe not the yellow.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 7:15 pm

Atkinson lost it in the end, how Valencia remained on the pitch is beyond me. Rooney definitely had his chances especially in the second half shooting wide on the edge of the penalty area after a fine pass by Valencia. Drogba appeared offside in the goal.

Don't know who can stop the Blues now.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 10:46 am

Feanor wrote:Drogba got a yellow card for being kicked in the chest by Evans in today's game. One of the craziest refereeing decisions you'll ever see.

miget33 · Post by **miget33** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 5:40 pm

Liverpool getting the home ref advantage, possible saving Rafa's job in the process.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 6:46 pm

miget33 wrote:Liverpool getting the home ref advantage, possible saving Rafa's job in the process.

Typical of Liverpool, if you can't beat them, dive.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 7:09 pm

JRod wrote: Typical of Liverpool, if you can't beat them, dive.

I'd say it's no more typical of Liverpool than of a team like Newcastle...except that I don't waste my time taking in much lower league football these days.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:18 pm

Carlsey deserved it....because he`s a c***.

Anyway, with 2 new injuries (Riera and Benayoun) today I'm fully expecting Stephen Hawking to be rolling down the left wing next match. To be fair, he might be an improvement over what we already have.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:22 pm

Some hilarious stats from today's game;

Shots:

Liverpool 35
Birmingham 5

Shots On Target:
Liverpool 7
Birmingham 2

lol

Insert joke about banjo and donkey's backside. Maybe we should get Emile Heskey back.....

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 5:09 am

RobVarak wrote:
JRod wrote: Typical of Liverpool, if you can't beat them, dive.
I'd say it's no more typical of Liverpool than of a team like Newcastle...except that I don't waste my time taking in much lower league football these days.

I guess this would make more sense if I was a Newcastle. Way to kick PK in the shins though.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:35 am

Their fans didnt kill anyone last night either, so that is a plus.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 10:55 am

JRod wrote:
I guess this would make more sense if I was a Newcastle. Way to kick PK in the shins though.

My mistake. It's been so long since I've seen you do anything but piss on everybody else's teams I've lost track of the team that you do support. LOL

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 5:02 pm

There are reports that Germany's #1 has committed suicide. Horrible.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 5:27 pm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 353733.stm

Was this the Enke who played for Barca as well ?

The article talks about him losing his daughter a few years ago..and when you read 'hit by a train', you usually assume the worst.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 6:19 pm

RobVarak wrote:
JRod wrote:
I guess this would make more sense if I was a Newcastle. Way to kick PK in the shins though.
My mistake. It's been so long since I've seen you do anything but piss on everybody else's teams I've lost track of the team that you do support. LOL

Other teams...you have me mistaken with Dave.

I only take the piss out of Liverpool.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 6:19 pm

Yes, same guy at Barca.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 11:46 pm

davet010 wrote:http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 353733.stm

Was this the Enke who played for Barca as well ?

The article talks about him losing his daughter a few years ago..and when you read 'hit by a train', you usually assume the worst.

Very sad. He was to star for Germany in SA too, investigation continues.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 4:36 am

JRod wrote:
RobVarak wrote:
JRod wrote:
I guess this would make more sense if I was a Newcastle. Way to kick PK in the shins though.
My mistake. It's been so long since I've seen you do anything but piss on everybody else's teams I've lost track of the team that you do support. LOL
Other teams...you have me mistaken with Dave. I only take the piss out of Liverpool.

Just think of me as football's own Bill Hicks..

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:22 pm

Interesting discussion on 5 Live about proposals to restructure the EPL.

Ideas include bringing in Celtic and Ranger (lot of EPL fans don't want their sectarianism), salary cap, more equitable revenue-sharing, an EPL2 so that relegation isn't so economically punitive.

Even talk of a draft.

Wigan supposedly spends 90% of their "turnover" (revenues?) on player salaries. Other marginal EPL clubs are overspending and getting deep into debt, not to compete for the title but to avoid relegation. So getting into debt to settle for mediocrity.

Other big clubs in Europe such as Roma are struggling because they can't count on CL revenues.