The Football Thread

[biggyprox]

hay, weekend na naman and after losing 5 straight games, we were so lucky to get a point out of everton. Looks like newcastle brought a football team to play, finally.

 

Great game by both Manchester United and Chelsea but I got to say that Liverpool gave a thriller game. Good thing that Kuyt was in my fantasy football team. MAnchester City got to be feeling the pressure now. Surely if they dont show up next match, the arabs will be breathing onion down on hughes' neck. Hehehe!

[duchessXI]

after days of sluggish internet speed, i finally get to connect myself in this forum.

 

Torres with another double: with his form, he might get the EPL player of the year award

 

though we won the match with a dramatic comeback, we lost i would say one of our key players in skrtel. saw how he twisted his foot. experienced it before. that would take weeks to heal. you could see it on the look of his face. Agger to step up to the plate, if not, Hyppia.

[duchessXI]

1 Chelsea 7 5 2 0 14 3 2 2 0 8 2 3 0 0 6 1 11 17

2 Liverpool 7 5 2 0 10 4 2 1 0 4 2 3 1 0 6 2 6 17

3 Hull 7 4 2 1 10 11 1 1 1 4 8 3 1 0 6 3 -1 14

4 Arsenal 7 4 1 2 13 5 2 0 1 5 2 2 1 1 8 3 8 13

5 Aston Villa 7 4 1 2 12 10 2 1 0 6 3 2 0 2 6 7 2 13

6 West Ham 7 4 0 3 14 13 3 0 1 10 6 1 0 2 4 7 1 12

7 Portsmouth 7 4 0 3 9 13 3 0 1 6 3 1 0 2 3 10 -4 12

8 Man Utd 6 3 2 1 8 4 1 1 0 3 1 2 1 1 5 3 4 11

9 West Brom 7 3 1 3 7 7 2 0 2 6 6 1 1 1 1 1 0 10

10 Blackburn 7 3 1 3 8 14 1 1 2 2 7 2 0 1 6 7 -6 10

11 Man City 7 3 0 4 18 12 2 0 2 12 6 1 0 2 6 6 6 9

12 Middlesbrough 7 3 0 4 7 9 2 0 1 4 3 1 0 3 3 6 -2 9

13 Wigan 7 2 2 3 9 6 1 1 2 3 4 1 1 1 6 2 3 8

14 Sunderland 7 2 2 3 7 9 1 1 2 3 5 1 1 1 4 4 -2 8

15 Everton 7 2 2 3 11 15 0 1 3 4 10 2 1 0 7 5 -4 8

16 Bolton 7 2 1 4 8 10 1 1 1 4 4 1 0 3 4 6 -2 7

17 Fulham 6 2 0 4 5 7 2 0 1 4 3 0 0 3 1 4 -2 6

18 Newcastle 7 1 2 4 7 13 1 0 2 3 4 0 2 2 4 9 -6 5

19 Stoke 7 1 1 5 8 14 1 0 2 5 7 0 1 3 3 7 -6 4

20 Tottenham 7 0 2 5 4 10 0 1 3 2 5 0 1 2 2 5 -6 2

 

 

YNWA

 

1 duchessXI 538.50

2 FC Gadong United 470.50

3 chocolate_starfish 466.00

4 Love United 442.00

5 Team Damaso 429.50

6 blacknwhite 418.50

7 Giggsy FC 409.00

8 Mojo Gooners 407.50

9 Bungot 382.00

10 Bono's Banshees 361.00

11 Cornwall Cornhuskers 344.50

12 Supreme Socceroos 325.50

13 Roughneck Galacticos 313.00

[_eRon_]

EPL Results:

 

Bolton 3-1 West Ham United

 

Chelsea 2-0 Aston Villa

 

Man City 2-3 Liverpool

 

Portsmouth 2-1 Stoke

 

Tottenham 0-1 Hull

 

Everton 2-2 Newcastle United

 

[biggyprox]

hmmmm... the remaining games for this month looks mighty interesting, with all the top three clubs doing sort of a mini-round robin. That match featuring liverpool at chelsea will surely be the headlines in that coming week. Will be interesting how that top three positions would look like at the end of the month. All teams have their own unique situations that they are i right now. Yeah, hull in third, who would have thought.

[damaso]

football tidbits:

 

* manchester city = samba city?

 

man city is being linked to another brazilian: 32 year old ronaldo. "the phenomenon" has reportedly recovered from his knee surgery and will be back to match fitness next month. he will be training with flamengo, but the word on the campfire is that he'll be joining his fellow countrymen robinho, jo, and elano at manchester city soon. ronaldo is currently a free agent after being released by ac milan in the summer.

 

 

* best club in asia?

 

fc bunyodkor of uzbekistan wants to the barcelona of asia. they had negotiations over the summer with samuel eto'o and andres iniesta, and have landed brazil and barcelona legend rivaldo. and now joining rivaldo is another brazilian legend, coach zico. since the arrival of the two, they have not lost (rivaldo with 6 goals in 5 games) and are through to the semi-finals of the asian champions league. japanese sides must be alarmed.

 

 

* skrtel out for the season?

 

big blow to my team, liverpool. scans revealed that skrtel damaged the cruciate ligament in his right knee and it will take months for him to recover.

 

 

* scolari targets sevilla hitman

 

with injuries to both drogba and anelka, scolari found himself fielding 19 year old franco di santo! so according to reports, top of scolari's shopping list is the current first choice striker for the brazilian national team, luis fabiano. fabiano is contracted to sevilla till 2011 but his buy-out clause is a mere 30m euros. peanuts for abramovich.

 

 

* is messi an alien?

 

anyone who watched barcelona's destruction of atletico madrid over the weekend must have thought: is messi human? without a doubt, he is the best player in the planet at the moment. the supposed messi vs. aguero battle became a farce.

 

 

* league with most goals

 

ever wonder which domestic league had the most goals per game? here's a rundown of the big leagues and their goals per game average (data compiled from last season 2007-2008):

 

1. eredivisie (holland) - 3.12

2. bundelsiga (germany) - 2.81

3. campeanato (brazil) - 2.75

4. la liga (spain) - 2.68

5. premiership (england) - 2.63

6. serie a (italy) - 2.55

7. apertura + clausura (argentina) - 2.54

8. ligue 1 (france) - 2.28

[duchessXI]

1. eredivisie (holland) - 3.12

2. bundelsiga (germany) - 2.81

3. campeanato (brazil) - 2.75

4. la liga (spain) - 2.68

5. premiership (england) - 2.63

6. serie a (italy) - 2.55

7. apertura + clausura (argentina) - 2.54

8. ligue 1 (france) - 2.28

 

and i thought defence wins championships.

defense being the best offence

 

this is how i would rate the diff leagues according to entertainment

1. la liga

2. prem

3. seria a

4. ligue 1

5. the diff leagues in south america (parepareho lang naman mga un)

[redshirt]

i have to disagree with you. sevilla a couple of years ago were a great team. too bad that 3 of their key players are gone: dani alves, keita and poulsen.

 

kanoute and luis fabiano are a great strike tandem, and they had arouna kone (currently out for the season with an injury) and free kick specialist chevanton as their other attacking players . they were great on the wings, with brazilian fullbacks alves and adriano paired with spanish rising stars diego capel and jesus navas as wingers. keita, poulsen, maresca and renato added steel to the midfield. i watch a lot of la liga and i was very impressed.

 

even with their personnel loss, i think they would challenge real madrid and barcelona for the la liga crown this year.

 

 

 

is hull for real? they win again and are now third in the epl!

 

I believe I did not make myself clear. I should have said that Zenit were lucky to be in the group stages of the UCL.

 

Sevilla were good domestically but they were as well lucky to be in the Group stages of the UCL. I am not at all convinced that Sevilla has what it takes to reach the finals of the UCL or even win it. Even if they feilded the team that won back to back UEFA cups.

 

 

 

It's World Cup qualifying weekend right?

[duchessXI]

yes its the international break.

 

hopefully skrtel recovers soon.

[biggyprox]

and i thought defence wins championships.

defense being the best offence

 

this is how i would rate the diff leagues according to entertainment

1. la liga

2. prem

3. seria a

4. ligue 1

5. the diff leagues in south america (parepareho lang naman mga un)

 

swerte naman..u get to watch all those leagues? ako kuntento na epl...hehehe!

[_eRon_]

daming may ligament damage ah: scholes for manutd, drog for chelsea and skrtel for pool..tsk tsk tsk injuries suck hehe..

 

the premiere league for me is still the most entertaining league; bundesliga, ligue 1 and eredivisie are boring; la liga is too soft; serie a i think is second to the prem league

 

i hope england beat kazakhstan this weekend

[damaso]

i would rate the premiership and la liga as the most entertaining. the bundesliga, believe it or not, is a close third. kaya lang, over here, the bundesliga is shown early morning on saturdays and sundays, so i watch the premiership instead. midday and afternoons, its a choice between la liga and serie a. i find serie a boring - there's only 2 watchable teams: the milan teams. even my juventus is boring. so my weekend mornings are spent watching the prem, afternoons are spent watching la liga.

 

the argentine leagues are exciting to watch too. pero their players are always getting poached by european teams. the commentators suck also.

 

the french league nobody watched, so all the futbol channels over here dropped it.

[redshirt]

The prem is the BEST league in the world. Atleast for me. In terms of starpower,entertainment, picture quality and commentary.

 

La Liga would be a far second. It used to be fun,exciting and uber entertaining. Gone were the days when fans threw pig heads in the pitch. LOL

 

Also, the commentary sucks. The picture quality is poor and their website sucks.

 

 

 

 

All other domestic leagues, I find them boring. I would have watched Serrie A if Jose was up with his antics but I can always check out youtube for that.

Edited October 8, 2008 by redshirt

[redshirt]

yes its the international break.

 

hopefully skrtel recovers soon.

 

Damn, that means UCL wil be pushed back a week as well!

 

Any news regarding the ENG lineup? Did Becks make it?

 

 

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!

[damaso]

luckily, i have 3 futbol dedicated tv channels over here (fox soccer channel, setanta sports and goltv) plus espn so i am able to watch all the big leagues. (goltv, by the way, has the best sports commentator in history: ray hudson - the funniest and most over the top personality in tv).

 

we can safely say that there are 3 big domestic leagues: the premier league, la liga, and serie a. the rest are second-tier at this moment. i believe there are fundamental differences in how the game is played in each of the these leagues. and each of us would prefer a league based on how we like our football.

 

so this is a humble opinion (with help from a website) on how football is played in each league (disclaimer: this is a generalization of the leagues. some individual clubs may play differently.) :

 

 

the premier league

 

the premiership is undoubtedly the most watched league in the world. but thats because they have the best hype and promotion. they have so many shows throughout the week i cant keep up. they actually promote it better than the nba! but it is also without a doubt, very exciting. premier league clubs play fast football based on quick counter-attacks. it seems like the best tactic is get the ball to the opposing half as quick as possible. the best qualities for a player here are pace, aggression and commitment. its end to end fast football which makes it sooo entertaining.

 

 

la liga

 

spain's domestic league is almost the complete opposite. instead of power and pace, they value flair and technical skills. a lot of probing and intricate passing. you would see teams often pass back to their keeper or their sweeper and rebuild the attack. sometimes playing lovely passing football is more important than winning! (real madrid is the perfect example, where they get blasted by their own fans for winning but not winning pretty). there is also much more reliance on individual skills. however, eRon is correct in saying it is soft. i can already see a team like bolton just manhandling atletico madrid. but their goals are often a sight to behold.

 

 

serie a

 

italy is all about tactics. football in italy is like a game of chess. players are often controlled rather than set free. you can see midfielders just patrol an area and stick to it. organization and defense is an art form. a lot of passing to find open spaces, and then trying to hold that gain in territory. numerous adjustments of positioning throughout the game. it would actually be interesting to watch serie a games from a top point of view, to see the tactics. biggest problem though, is the decline in star power. in the 90s, all the stars wanted to play in serie a. that is not the case anymore.

 

 

 

so which league is most entertaining?......it depends on your taste, on how you like your football. i say we just enjoy the variety.

Edited October 8, 2008 by damaso