The Beautiful Game Thread, 11/12

[Macca00]

Barca 2-0 up at halftime. That team is ridiculous.

Bellamy sends the Reds to Wembley (where I am terrified we will lose to Cardiff).

[10spro]

Give Real credit for fighting back as the home team kept looking at the watch, but in the end Barca deserved to move to the semis as they were the better team overall. Being down 0-2 was a bit unfortunate for the Merengues as pipa Higuain should have scored at least 3 goals himself in the first half. Ozil and Ronaldo missed clear chances too.. Beautiful assist from Messi to Pedro but in the end it was a case of too little too late for Real.

[RobVarak]

Ray Hudson's reaction to Ozil hitting the woodwork in the first half should go into the broadcasting hall of fame. I rewound twice because I was laughing so hard.

[fsquid]

Interesting project done between SI.com and Football Manager

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer ... =sc_t11_a1

[RobVarak]

Interesting project done between SI.com and Football Manager

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer ... =sc_t11_a1

Tons of fun reading that.

[toonarmy]

Interesting project done between SI.com and Football Manager

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer ... =sc_t11_a1

Fairly cool little piece. I was surprised to see Messi at number one and Pele at four. I certainly wouldn't pass, though, on taking Messi as my top choice when building a team. Messi is definitely a balanced and unselfish superstar, but one has to wonder if the other great players would have been as equally unselfish had they had the luxury of playing on a star-studded team such as Barca during the Messi years? Would Messi "seem" more selfish if he played on a lesser team that needed him to score more? And, would he score as much if he were not surrounded with ridiculous talent? I'm not saying the other players didn't play on good teams, but just pointing out that it's tough to judge a lot of these players when they did not play on teams as loaded as recent Barca teams. I'm a huge Messi fan and have been rooting for Barca since the early 1980s, btw. It's certainly a fun article to read and mull over.

[10spro]

From the names being thrown around in the article, some of those guys certainly bring some melancholy to me. This would be my all time team.

D. Zoff

Maicon Beckenbauer Passarella Maldini

Matthaus Figo Maradona

Cruyff Messi Pele

[Macca00]

Interesting project done between SI.com and Football Manager

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer ... =sc_t11_a1

Tons of fun reading that.

Indeed. Loved the season recap.

Mad props for Hongistein picking Messi first. Dude is only 24 and by the time he's done that won't be a controversial selection, it'll be a no brainer.

Few things that surprised me in that draft;

Cafu at #57 - one of the best right backs ever.
Zoff at #54 - madness
Matthaus at #31 - top ten material for me (even if he is a massive d*****)
Ruud Gullit at #112 - the ONE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH PICK!?! I know it's a draft not a true ranking but man....
Bryan Robson picked ahead of Bobby Charlton - Robson would get injured during the warm up...
Glen Hoddle ahead of Kenny Dalgish - for the latter they write 10 league titles; 3 European Cups, for the former - "88 goals for Tottenham"

(I'm sure NO ONE could have predicted me including that last one )

[RobVarak]

The GK selections were generally interesting.

I read something interesting this week in Phil Ball's book on the history and culture of Spanish football. While it's generally agreed that the modern athlete is generally superior to those of generations past, an argument can be made that keepers from an earlier era may have actually been better than their modern counterparts. Defenses were less organized, the keepers far less protected by the refs (and physical play was much rougher), the balls less uniform and the pitches less pristine.

[miget33]

Oh Liverpool fans, they are who we thought they were. Scum of the Earth.

[Macca00]

Oh Liverpool fans, they are who we thought they were. Scum of the Earth.

?

[Jimmydeicide]

Yeh , he means YOU Macca.

Any other Manchester teams want some? Get in...

[Macca00]

Yeh , he means YOU Macca.

Has he been talking to my wife?

"One lying bastard....there's only one lying bastard....." lol

After all the build-up and (hopeful) anticipation by the idiot press I'm glad both sets of fans behaved themselves and no Liverpool players set out to kick Evra - besides, if they had of taken him out then he wouldn't have been around to f@ck up on the winning goal!

[RobVarak]

Yeh , he means YOU Macca.

Any other Manchester teams want some? Get in...

+1

They weren't booing. They were saying "cun+"

Someday Scousers will hopefully be as classy as those Mancs singing about Hillsborough today.



Not pictured: Patrice Evra looking for someone to blame.

[Jimmydeicide]

Looking very similar to a certain "be a pro" Its Kuyt Bramble to the rescue.

[10spro]

Chelsea advances in the FA cup thanks to a PK that was wrongly charged. They'll miss Ramires with a knee injury for at least a month.

[10spro]

Oh Prince, you're so lucky. Curious enough, he hasn't performed well in my FUT tourneys either.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/904289 ... qus_thread

[toonarmy]

Huge win by the Magpies today. Cisse with his first goal at NUFC and Ba with yet another beauty. Now I have to hold my nose and root for ManU to beat Chelsea today. Fourth place is not far away.

[miget33]

Oh God, who decided Piers Morgan was a good idea?

[Macca00]

I think Piers Morgan is a huge d***** but the way he winds up Michael Owen on twitter is priceless.

Huge win by the Magpies today. Cisse with his first goal at NUFC and Ba with yet another beauty. Now I have to hold my nose and root for ManU to beat Chelsea today. Fourth place is not far away.

Ba Squared looks like a great combo.

[toonarmy]

Ba Squared looks like a great combo.

No doubt. The Dembas looked great out there together and were clicking. You can tell they feed off of each other and are very happy to be at the same club. I truly hated to see Andy leave, but I'll take these two up front in place of what used to be there any day. Very dynamic duo.

[toonarmy]

Holy f'n s***! What a gorgeous pass by Torres and finish by Mata to put Chelsea up by two.

[Rodster]

Now I know why XXXIV gets so pissed at the NFL refs. Two bullshit calls by the refs and 2 penalty goals from Rooney.

[RobVarak]

Congrats to Howard Webb and ManU for an epic comeback at Stamford Bridge. For a while it didn't look like United were going to be able to get Webb involved, but like all great players, he was there when his team needed him.

[Macca00]

Congrats to Howard Webb and ManU for an epic comeback at Stamford Bridge. For a while it didn't look like United were going to be able to get Webb involved, but like all great players, he was there when his team needed him.