Soccer thread 09/10 (contains spoilers)

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:22 am

How sad is it that our U-17 midfield controls the ball better than the regular national team?

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:53 pm

Nice run by Fabregas to break the game open.

miget33 · Post by **miget33** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 5:48 pm

That was a nice run, but Spurs weren't even trying to stop him.

Liverpool shoot themselves in the foot again.

And Gabby Obertan is gonna be something, which will signal the end of Nani at Manchester United.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 6:11 pm

Nice to see Rafa penning his resignation there. Not a full strength side, totally reliant on Torres, Benayoun stuck on the left instead of in the middle...hello disaster.

He knows that the RBS will be on the blower in the week if they go out of the CL at the group stage against Lyon, and 5 games lost already doesn't say much for next season, but it is astonishing how reliant on Torres Liverpool are. Mascherano looks disinterested, Carragher is past his sell by date (and should have gone earlier for his foul on Zamora), and if you have to start a game with Voronin up front, then you are really struggling.

As soon as Torres went off, Fulham just got a massive lift, because they knew that they wouldn't be stretched at the back. Benayoun's face was also a picture when he was swapped, while the game was theoretically still in reach, for a 19-yr old making his Premiership debut.

If Liverpool lose to Lyon in the week, all bets are off.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 6:31 pm

Yeah, Rafa really should play those injured players.

Gerrard, Agger, Skrtel, Aurelio, Johnson, Riera get off the f'ing treatment table and get in there. Aquillani, coming back from injury? Not an excuse, you get in there too.

We were crap and the injuries are no excuse but they are INJURIES and not Rafa deciding he's resting Gerrard for the last 4 games. But hey, don't let facts get in the way.

EDIT: Btw, Torres wasn't fully fit for the United game and ditto for today. But again, I'm sure most people would expect injured players to play the whole game.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 6:59 pm

You still lost to Fulham. I can losing those players and then losing 3 points to Arsenal, Man U, or Chelsea. But to Fulham, the subs should be able to get a victory out of team like that.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 8:16 pm

JRod wrote:You still lost to Fulham. I can losing those players and then losing 3 points to Arsenal, Man U, or Chelsea. But to Fulham, the subs should be able to get a victory out of team like that.

Fulham are a team we should beat for sure. Except Fulham beat Man U and Arsenal last year so they're not exactly mugs. But again, I agree, we should be able to beat them.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 1:37 am

Nice goals by Berbatov and Rooney

.

It's always tough when you have key injured players but I thought Liverpool's D was just pathetic this afternoon.

rhymes450 · Post by **rhymes450** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:22 pm

macca00 wrote

Torres wasn't fully fit for the United game

Makes the goal he scored in that game all the more remarkable. There were lots of things to admire in that goal but the way Torres stayed onside was absolutely brilliant IMO.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 7:54 pm

Roy Hodgson also acknowledged in a post-match interview that Torres wasn't 100% but again, that won't stop people criticizing Rafa for taking him off (and not even acknowledging Torres' fitness).

Again, Liverpool were crap, deserved to loose but the nature of the criticism of Rafa - in particular being blamed for tinkering when players are injured does my head in.

miget33 · Post by **miget33** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 4:01 am

This has been me for that past couple of weeks

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 4:17 pm

Watched a half of the Arsenal/Totham (sp?) soccer game over the weekend. I seem to recall the game was on in the morning on ESPN2 I think. That's the first time since the World Cup I've watched a soccer game. I must say I quite enjoyed it. Do they always show the games on weekend mornings? I'd love to watch again.

miget33 · Post by **miget33** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 4:22 pm

sportdan30 wrote:Watched a half of the Arsenal/Totham (sp?) soccer game over the weekend. I seem to recall the game was on in the morning on ESPN2 I think. That's the first time since the World Cup I've watched a soccer game. I must say I quite enjoyed it. Do they always show the games on weekend mornings? I'd love to watch again.

Yes, just about every Saturday morning on ESPN2 usually at 645am cst and sometimes at 900am cst

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:00 pm

Last year, they showed the knockout stages of the CL on ESPN2, usually around the middle of the day. So you can DVR those.

Next year of course, ESPN is all on the WC.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 9:00 pm

wco81 wrote:Next year of course, ESPN is all on the WC.

That's going to be hard to watch. When did the world cup get the rights to ESPN?

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 2:21 am

Tomorrow some great games...

Real Madrid - AC Milan, can't wait!!!

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:22 am

With Torres and Gerrard facing possible surgery, it would be wise for Liverpool to start searching for their next manager.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 4:05 am

10spro wrote:With Torres and Gerrard facing possible surgery, it would be wise for Liverpool to start searching for their next manager.

New manager isn't going to help unless he's a faith healer, and the Liverpool job isn't as attractive as it once was as they have very little spare cash.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 10:42 am

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

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:04 am

American bookies are taking action on CL games?

Didn't Liverpool falter last year and then had a good run in the CL and that took pressure off Benitez? In fact, their form carried over to the latter part of the EPL and they almost caught United.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:51 am

Interesting read by the excellent Richard Williams from The Guardian about Rafa selecting the injured Torres to play at Fulham:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... pool-press

Take care,
PK

rhymes450 · Post by **rhymes450** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 12:30 pm

It is an interesting read but I think the journalist is barking up the wrong tree, perhaps failing to take into account, that however good Benitez's English might be, it's not his native language and probably shouldn't be subjected to too much psycho-linguistic analysis. Rather than admitting that he picked Torres bacause he was afraid of what journalists might say or write (I really wouldn't buy that), IMO all he meant was that whether he picked Torres or not, the journalists were going be on his case (which I suspect might be true).

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:44 pm

Anyone know what DTV station Real v AC is on? I can't find it.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:56 pm

whatever your regional fox sports is.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 5:53 pm

MU never gave up but still tough, tough luck for CSKA. Akinfeev was awesome.