Soccer thread 09/10 (contains spoilers)

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 1:43 pm

It's all Greek to me ...

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:37 pm

Henry's handball was so blatant that Tim Donaghy would have called it a carry even if he had money on France.

Take care,
PK

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:48 am

So some people are comparing this to the most crooked and blatant things the NBA has perpetrated.

The Swedish media have blasted the Swedish officiating crew but it sounds more like they just missed the call -- Irish claim there were 4 violations on the play, 2 French players offsides and Henry touching the ball twice.

The result certainly feeds into suspicions that FIFA wants the big countries to go to the WC -- the playoff seeding being a prime example. There will be no replay and the French football federation doesn't have the character to support the FAI's request, as evidenced by them keeping on Domenech, according to a French journalist on BBC.

In the case of the NBA though, it was often in the conference finals or semifinals, in other words, one of the last 4 or 8 teams vying for the championship. In this case, it was a playoff match to get into a 32-team field. Sure the WC is a much bigger deal than the NBA playoffs but neither France nor Ireland is a real threat to win the WC.

Maybe some of it is sympathy for the underdog, small country, which doesn't get a chance to go to the WC as often as the big countries.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:34 am

wco81 wrote: EDIT: Oh and I'd cut the Irish a bit of slack for their schadenfreude since they were colonized by the English.

I think the word you were looking for is 'civilized'.

French press are really going to town on this as will, but as almost every one of the pieces has a quote from Domenech about being glad they are through, the subtext is clear - "Get Rid of This Guy Before We Go to South Africa !'

FIFA have also announced there will be no reply....so there was obviously a load of consultation and discussion about that.

rhymes450 · Post by **rhymes450** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 10:28 am

I'm Irish and ever so slightly upset at the way things turned out. Mind you, if FIFA decided to replay the match, I think they'd look even more stupid. It'd be like saying, "of course we don't accept video evidence during the match 'cos that'd be far too logical. What we prefer to do is wait till the match is over and then order a replay using the same video evidence that could have prevented such a moronic eventuality in the first place." And then there's the whole retrospectivity problem that would arise. Even FIFA officials are probably not stupid enough to go down that road...unfortunately.

Oh well, to take my mind off things, I might just open a thread on the World Tour Tennis Finals. Hawkeye anybody?

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 10:53 am

The seeding of the playoffs offended me more. Blatant attempt to get the big teams through.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:43 pm

fsquid wrote:The seeding of the playoffs offended me more. Blatant attempt to get the big teams through.

Spot on....interesting that it was only changed with 2 games to go. Obviously the corporations that are lining Sepp's.....er, sorry, lining up to sponsor the tournament were getting worried that Showpony, Terry Henry and the other stars they neither know nor care much about might not be available to tout their crap.

Thierry Henry has also now come out in the media to say that it would be fair to replay the game. Pity he waited until FIFA had publicly ruled that out, but I can see why it might take him 36 hours to come up with that one sentence. It would also have been easier to have told the ref to disallow it at the time, after all collaborating with foreign authority figures does come naturally to the French

miget33 · Post by **miget33** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:22 pm

I enjoyed this video/interview,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...ls/8370327.stm

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:31 pm

Hmm, would the French not have watched the WC if their team didn't make it?

They probably wouldn't have traveled to South Africa.

But nations who don't make the WC or the Euro surely watch the games even if their teams don't make it?

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:43 pm

Van Gaal will be coaching for his job on Sunday against league leading Leverkusen. That should be fun to watch.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 10:59 am

Lucas [cue scream]!

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 11:13 am

If City hadn't started with such a negative lineup, we'd have taken you. Didn't help that we lost organisation at the back after Toure as well...or that Bridge is shite.

Sky had best player as Steve Ireland, which shows how clueless they are. Nigel de Jong for me, by a mile.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 1:07 pm

If you can't put 3 past a defense with Kyrgiakos in the back 4, you don't deserve 4th place.

Totally agree on De Jong. I've long been a fan, and he and Mascherano were putting on quite a show today. When Tevez came on they were able to bypass Masch with longer balls to the Argentine, who is just such a beast holding players off! Glad he wasn't out there for the full 90.

I'm fairly happy with what would superficially be a poor result. Given that we dropped two players in the first 15 minutes and were already a seriously depleted side, I thought the response was great. N'Gog seems to be finding a bit of comfort and confidence up front that bode well for the long term. Very heady play to get the shot off that opened up the equalizer.

But oh, that Lucas header!! I feel like I've written that before. LOL

Arsenal fall to Sunderland in an interesting twist.

Edit:

I'm amused to see that this placental therapy that's all the rage is being referred to as the "Belgrade Treatment."

I was under the impression that the Belgrade Treatment involved burning down civilians' homes and indiscriminately murdering women and children.

vanburen · Post by **vanburen** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 11:13 am

I was hoping arsenal being out of forwards could be remedied by solid attack from midfield, but it didn't look that way saturday. sunderland was lucky to score, but still, this had a scoreless draw feel to it.

a big missed opportunity.

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 12:11 pm

I thought Fabregas was going to be all over Sunderland, from open play and from dead ball situations since Van Persie is out. So I changed my FPL captain from Dunn to him.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 3:27 pm

Anyone here support Wigan? That was surreal.

dougb · Post by **dougb** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 3:52 pm

Macca00 wrote:Anyone here support Wigan? That was surreal.

Holy crap the keeper's going to need treatment for neck strain from turning to watch the ball go into the back of the net. Good grief that's pitiful.

Best wishes,

Doug

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 5:15 pm

Wigan looked like us during one of our FIFA club games LOL

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Sun Nov 22, 2009 9:35 pm

Macca00 wrote:Anyone here support Wigan? That was surreal.

I read soccernet...then tivo'd the game on FSC. My goodness that was horrible. I have only seen games like that in Football Manager.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 4:31 am

Can't wait for Dave Whelan's next appearance on Sky Sports, where he'll be telling everyone how to run their clubs again, as well as his usual fearsome display of arslikhan towards Sir Alex.

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:27 pm

Donovan's penalty miss last night was Baggio-esque.

miget33 · Post by **miget33** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 5:38 pm

Enjoy the Europa League, Liverpool

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 4:23 am

The scene : Liverpool Chief Execs office, 9.01 am

"Mr Puslow, I've got the Royal Bank of Scotland on line 1...."

Scene 2 : Liverpool FC management accountants office.

"Right, so we strip out this line marked 'CL income' and change it to 'Brownshoeuropa League...then discount the figures by 75%". Still, there's only about 10 games to go and we're in the final...

Scene 3 : Liverpool FC treatment room

"Right doc, what we need to do with Stevie and Fernando is get them to a point where the insurer and purchasing club medics will pass them"

Fin

vanburen · Post by **vanburen** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 10:36 am

Feanor wrote:Donovan's penalty miss last night was Baggio-esque.

he had been so money for team usa, especially during qualifiers, so that was shocking.

which was more pressure: one of what ended up being 7 in a MLS final shootout, or all the ones he hits during open play in world cup qualifiers?

I'd vote the qualifiers, so he's not a choker. he also has 3 mls rings, I believe.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 11:16 am

vanburen wrote:
Feanor wrote:Donovan's penalty miss last night was Baggio-esque.
he had been so money for team usa, especially during qualifiers, so that was shocking.

which was more pressure: one of what ended up being 7 in a MLS final shootout, or all the ones he hits during open play in world cup qualifiers?

I'd vote the qualifiers, so he's not a choker. he also has 3 mls rings, I believe.

I wouldn't say Landon is a choker in general, but I would say he choked here.

I saw a stat that said he was 21 for 23 lifetime in MLS PK's. I suspect he never missed the frame on any of them.

A few years ago, in the final of the first year of the Superliga, Donovan was the Galaxy's final kicker. If he converted they would have won, but he had a relatively weak attempt saved. So that's twice he's failed on key shootout attempts in the past few years.

I wouldn't call the MLS Cup final a very well played game, but it ended being a fairly engaging affair.