Soccer thread 07/08

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 6:33 pm

Who's supposed to be the bad guy at Anfield, Hicks, Gillett, or Perry. It's too hard to tell anymore.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 6:41 pm

JRod wrote:Who's supposed to be the bad guy at Anfield, Hicks, Gillett, or Perry. It's too hard to tell anymore.

David Moores is the bad guy for selling the club to those two clowns.

EDIT: No offense to actual clowns.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:27 pm

JRod wrote:Who's supposed to be the bad guy at Anfield, Hicks, Gillett, or Perry. It's too hard to tell anymore.

Seriously! They've each seemed to be the most villainous at one time or another.

I'm actually leaning toward Hicks actually being the best of the bunch, as unlikely as that seems. It seems that Gillett drove both the Klinsman meeting and the DIC negotiations. Hicks was the first to agree to pony up the money for the summer signings, and despite being a baffoon on the PR side of things seems to want to actually raise the value of the club. He's pissed that Parry hasn't managed to get a stadium deal done in the last 10 years and has let LFC lag behind the other big boys in other marketing as well.

Gillett wants to get out fast, and Parry really hasn't done jack in the last decade. Although I'd be happy to throw all the bums out, so long as it isn't at the cost of selling to DIC or another group looking to churn and burn.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:12 pm

RobVarak wrote:
JRod wrote:Who's supposed to be the bad guy at Anfield, Hicks, Gillett, or Perry. It's too hard to tell anymore.
Seriously! They've each seemed to be the most villainous at one time or another.

At first, I thought Gillette was the better of the two with Perry just caught in the middle. Now it comes out that Gillette had meetings with Klinsmann. then Hicks makes the competent point that Perry couldn't get the stadium done and has lacked behind other teams in terms of sponsorship.

You know that both Gillette and Hicks want to make as money as they can. But it seems now that Gillette though this would be short term deal where they borrow the money, raise the value of the club in a short time and sell with a hefty profit.

I still say that the person who was responsible for buying Kuyt should be permanently banned from football.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 11:50 pm

JRod wrote: I still say that the person who was responsible for buying Kuyt should be permanently banned from football.

Hey now! He's our best Right Back! Nothing has made me lose more respect for the Dutch league than that guy LOL

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 10:18 am

listening to these relegation 6 pointers on the internet are fecking nerve racking!

GB_Simo · Post by **GB_Simo** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:43 pm

fsquid wrote:listening to these relegation 6 pointers on the internet are fecking nerve racking!

Hell's teeth, fella...you're really coming back to my level next season, aren't you?

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:52 pm

looks like it. Next Sat. game at Leicester will tell it all

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 5:00 pm

RobVarak wrote:
JRod wrote: I still say that the person who was responsible for buying Kuyt should be permanently banned from football.
Hey now! He's our best Right Back! Nothing has made me lose more respect for the Dutch league than that guy LOL

Take it you've never seen the Greek goal machine that is Georgios Samaras in action...thankfully sent on loan to Celtic, where the fact that he's played 10 games and not got at least 10 goals gives an indication of just how shite he is.

Oh, and this is how smart he is....first game for Celtic, and he jogs onto the pitch in orangeboots. Cue stunned disbelief amongst the left-footing hordes.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 10:03 am

Toni scores two more to give Bayern the German Cup. Chump change baby!

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:01 pm

Another 3 points for the Sky Blues at home to Pompey.

Unfortunately, the other Sky Blues of 1860 Munchen are at the bottom end of Bundesliga 2 and won't be joining the big boys for at least another season. Could be worse though, Kaiserslautern, who were in B1 just 3 seasons ago, look like they are going to be among the founder members of Bundesliga 3, which starts next season.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:16 pm

Umm, I think you are reading that wrong. 1860 are 9 points clear with 5 to play.

The biggest story is that 1899 Hoffenheim was promoted from the regional leagues last season and may go up on the bounce.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:26 pm

Congrats Bayern.

The twin brother of Alemania Aachen's (Bundesliga 2) starting keeper, Thorsten Stuckmann, plays on my indoor soccer team. He's a big motherfu@ker....

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:28 pm

I meant that 1860 wouldn't be going back up to B1, not that they'd be going down.

Kaiserslautern is quite a big story, after all they won the Bundesliga as recently as 1999. They are even below a team who I've had the dubious pleasure of seeing in action in their horrible violet kit, VFL Osnabruck.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:29 pm

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:34 pm

Was back in 1997 when I saw them, their kit was a lot cheaper and nastier looking than that one.

Post by **Jared** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 4:39 pm

Wow...Kaiserslautern are only 3 points from the relegation zone. I had no idea. Their stadium is fantastic...I was there for the USA-Italy game, and it was my favorite World Cup venue. Great support too...it would be a shame if they dropped into the 3. Bundesliga.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 4:55 pm

Just watched Valencia get splattered 5-1 by Athletic Bilbao...question is whether the board will pull the trigger on Koeman now or wait til the end of the season.

They're only 2 points off relegation...If Recreativo Huelva could scrape a couple of wins, Valencia could go down (and in all likelihood go bust, as they currently have debts of about 180-200 million Euros.)

And even more enjoyable relegation-based japery in France, where Paris St Germain look in danger of heading to the second division for the first time. The fans decided to help the players concentrate their minds on the task in hand with some inspirational decoration of the training ground walls. No, not with the usual management-speak nonsense, but with a more direct approach.

"PSG in Ligue 2 = riots"

"If we go down, we'll shoot you down"

See what you lot are missing with your crappy franchise systems ?

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:31 pm

All of Keegan's prior sins this season are forgiven: The Magpies won the derby!

Take care,
PK

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 8:08 pm

davet010 wrote:Just watched Valencia get splattered 5-1 by Athletic Bilbao...question is whether the board will pull the trigger on Koeman now or wait til the end of the season.

They're only 2 points off relegation...If Recreativo Huelva could scrape a couple of wins, Valencia could go down (and in all likelihood go bust, as they currently have debts of about 180-200 million Euros.)

And even more enjoyable relegation-based japery in France, where Paris St Germain look in danger of heading to the second division for the first time. The fans decided to help the players concentrate their minds on the task in hand with some inspirational decoration of the training ground walls. No, not with the usual management-speak nonsense, but with a more direct approach.

"PSG in Ligue 2 = riots"

"If we go down, we'll shoot you down"

See what you lot are missing with your crappy franchise systems ?

Didn't you once like an NFL football team, the Bengals? If we had relegation, the Bengals would have been in Pop Warner.

Read an article on King Kev in the Guardian, talking about how his tactics have help Owen because Allerdyce play route one football, which suited the Owen of that past. Keegen moved Owen outside, so instead of playing long ball, Owen would be allowed to use space instead of speed.

Maybe the write was drunk when he wrote this article. I don't know.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:28 am

JR

Yes, for my sins I still follow the Bengals, as I have done since 1983.

At least promotion and relegation would spice up the leagues, moreso with those which have a large number of games in a season. You could probably look at most of the MLB divisions at the end of April and identify teams which have no chance of challenging, yet still have about 120 games to play. I can't imagine that I'd be hurrying down to the ballpark, if that were the case.

Contrast that to, say, English League One, where someone worked out a couple of weeks ago that with 40 of 46 games gone, 22 of the 24 teams could either make the playoffs for promotion or were capable of being relegated.

That's probably why The Championship (second tier of English soccer) now has the fourth highest aggregate attendance of all European leagues.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:38 am

The difference between relegation and playoffs in the Championship is 16 points right now. That's bizarre.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:16 pm

Can someone explain to me what's a Derby match? I hear that when watching EPL Football matches on Fox World Sports. Is a derby match something like a intercity rivalry, i.e. Mets vs Yankees?

GB_Simo · Post by **GB_Simo** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:35 pm

Rodster wrote:Can someone explain to me what's a Derby match? I hear that when watching EPL Football matches on Fox World Sports. Is a derby match something like a intercity rivalry, i.e. Mets vs Yankees?

Yes, Rod, it is. Liverpool vs Everton, for example, is a derby match between two teams whose grounds are separated only by a park. It can be regional too - the three Premiership clubs from the north-east of England, my neck of the woods, are on the banks of three different rivers (Newcastle on the Tyne, Sunderland the Wear and Middlesbrough the Tees) but the meetings between these clubs are thought of as derbies even though Middlesbrough and Newcastle are some 50 miles apart. You get a fair few derbies in the Premiership because London, the Midlands, Lancashire, Merseyside and the north-east region all boast multiple Prem teams.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 8:18 pm

its no Steel City Derby though. We took 4 points from the swine!