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The 2010-11 Football/Soccer Thread

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Why are there no English fans here showing as much passion and enthusiasm as Altaria? Isn't that meant to be our thing? :p

Anybody have any theories on why Capello left Kevin Davies out of the England squad but brought Bothroyd and C. Cole? Davies has been arguably the best English performer in the world this season so it doesn't make any sense at all. I'm also raging that Kevin Nolan, the Premiership's top scorer, didn't get a freaking look-in in the midfield but Jordan Henderson does? Give me a break.
 
Thank you, Lee!

Important about my match descriptions: I admit Ajax deserved to lose if they deserved, I am honest, instead of doing what others do: saying their club lost unlucky or blaming the referee (I tell it if a ref makes a mistake, most hate Ajax, but a lot of bad results were Ajax' own fault, even with an unfair referee against Ajax). It comes right out of the hard. Gopod is good and bad is bad, no nonsense.

I really love Ajax, but I hate a lot (not all) of the current players: they lack the "Suárez-mentality". They only care about money, not about Ajax. Suárez works for ninety minutes+injury time and gives hundred percent. A perfect example for others.

I do not complain about a coach if the results are bad: I try to find out what the problem is. In this case, the players. Most Ajax-supporters are complaining about what a terrible coach Martin Jol is on Ajax forums I visit.

Martin Jol is an awesome coach, and all English people here know that (Tottenham).

Angry Ajax-hooligans were standing near the Amsterdam ArenA (Ajax stadium) waiting for the player bus after the away match against AZ (2-0 loss)

Luis Suárez is unlucky: 12 times the crossbar in 12 matches (he played 12 of 14, missed two, suspension of El Schwalbo) in the Eredivisie (discounting cup matches, pre-CL playoffs and CL), hitting the post 6 times and scoring 7 goals. He also has 8 assists in those Eredivisie-matches.

Dutch supporters are fanatic and no less than English supporters. Look at FC Twente (FC Dutch Football Association) before the start of a match, more impressive than Liverpool on Anfield, or fanatic Ajax supporters.

The downside: we have hooligans misbehaving and for example, AZ-hooligans singing "Mounir, je moeder is een hoer" (Mounir, your mother is a whore) to Ajax striker Mounir El Hamdaoui (former AZ striker) and screaming "Demy is een kanker-Ajacied" (Demy is a cancer-Ajax-player) to Demy de Zeeuw when he came on as a substitute (Ajax-midfielder, former AZ player, his mother has cancer). AZ-Ajax and Ajax-AZ is a derby and they are rivals.

In England there are stricter laws for hooligans than in the Netherlands.
 
Finally a real title race in the premier league.
I think that arsenal with inform fabregas and van persie set to return really has a shot of overtaking chelsea this week, birmingham at home isnt an easy win. Chelsea has really been feeling the absence of michael essien on both defense and offense imo
 
Poor Chelsea... Lampard, Essien, Alex and Terry injured and loosing 3-0 at Stamford Bridge against Sunderland. At lease Man Utd didn't win, so it isn't that bad. Title race heating up!
 
I'm not sure why the absence of Essien would make such a huge difference to Chelsea when he was out for a lot of last season, especially when we have loads of theoretically top class midfielders (even without Lampard)

As to Capello's choices, apparently Bothroyd is on fantastic form in the Championship (he's certainly top scorer there by quite a way), although I don't really know much about him since I have no interest in the Championship (though I may do soon if we keep up our form in League One!). I sadly know even less about the others, so I can't really help you there either!
 
Michael Essien is an offensive threat and an amazing defensive mid. Chelsea has a lot of top offensive midfielders, but kalou and malouda aren't amazing defensively and lampard is out, ramires was shitty. Its kind of pointless conjecture, but as a top defensive mid, Essien could have been easing the pressure on a partially second string chelsea defense(no alex no terry) that was pretty miserable against sunderland (bosingwa looked like the only competent defender on the pitch). All of Sunderland's goals excepting gyan's (he was 1 on 1 with the keeper) looked preventable if the defense hadnt made errors. Essien is a pretty good pass interceptor too, so chelsea would have gotten more possession and more opportunities. I'm not saying that he wins games by himself, but he does play a key role in shoring up the defense.
 
Best 11 players on earth-please make your own squad.

4-2-3-1

----------------------------------------
-------------Z Ibrahimovic--------------
----------------------------------------
--L Messi------W Sneijder-----L Suárez--
----------------------------------------
-------------A Pirlo---Xavi--------------
----------------------------------------
--D Pranjic--G Pique--Lucio--B Ivanovic--
----------------------------------------
------------M Stekelenburg-------------
----------------------------------------

Reserves: I Casillas, N Vidic, S Ramos, A Iniesta, X Alonso, D Forlán and A Del Piero.

Coach: L Van Gaal.
Free kicks+corners right-footed player: L Suárez.
Free kicks+corners left-footed player: L Messi.
Penalties: L Suárez.
Captain: L Suárez.
 
Wow that's and interesting lineup, hmm mine would be

------------Messi---------------
Robben -- Sneijder -- C. Ronaldo
---------Essien - Xavi----------
Lahm - Pique - Vidic - Dani Alves
-----------Casaillas------------
 
--------------Messi----Gyan-----------
--------Sneijder-----C. Ronaldo---------
-----------Essien-------Xavi---------------
------Bale--------Ramos--------Lucio-----Vidic
----------------Cassiallas------------

so many spanish mids that deserve a spot but were not included.
 
When you make a lineup, you'll always not use good players deserving a spot. I had that too.

@The Chaser, why not changing EGOnaldo and Robben from position? Robbens best position is the right wing, while Ronaldo is doing well on the left wing now.

@Myzozoa, why Gyan? He is a mid-table striker (Rennes and Sunderland). And you should swap Vidic and Ramos from position.

Sorry for my (annoying) nitpicks.
 
--------David Villa -- ---------------
Messi -- Sneijder -- C. Ronaldo
--------- Xavi ----------
----X. Alonso -- Schwensteiger --
---Lahm - Ramos - Maicon---
---------Casillas------------

maicon and lahm are complete beasts that give you offense and great defense, and with ramos in the center offenders rarely will get past your last line.

Only 3 defenders opens path to use two recovery men, so xavi alonso takes the spot because of his insane attitude and sacrifice when recovering, and schwensteiger can easily play besides him as evidenced in the world cup in which he did a more defensive job.

xavi behind sneijder to serve him in order to get the offense working, with sneijder acting as classic 10 and messi / ronaldo attacking on the sides.

lastly villa as lone striker as this "team" is based on a villa finish, and if you saw him play with valencia and then play with barcelona, you can easily distinguish how much better he is when the team plays for him, rather than for someone else, as is the case in barcelona which plays for messi.
 
National friendlies today...

China - Latvia
Montenegro - Azerbaijan
Botswana - Tunisia
Russia - Belgium
Slovakia - Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatia - Malta
Finland - San Marino
Estonia - Liechtenstein
Hungary - Lithuania
Togo - Chad
Albania - Macedonia
Argentina - Brazil
Bulgaria - Serbia
Egypt - Australia
Israel - Iceland
Denmark - Czech Republic
Luxembourg - Algeria
Switzerland - Ukraine
Austria - Greece
Netherlands - Turkey
Poland - Ivory Coast
Romania - Italy
South Africa - U.S.
Sweden - Germany
Northern Ireland - Morocco
Republic of Ireland - Norway
Slovenia - Georgia
England - France
Portugal - Spain
Chile - Uruguay
Colombia - Peru
Ecuador - Venezuela
Jamaica - Costa Rica
Panama - Honduras
 
China - Latvia 0-2
Montenegro - Azerbaijan 1-0
Botswana - Tunisia 1-1
Russia - Belgium 0-1
Slovakia - Bosnia and Herzegovina 1-1
Croatia - Malta 6-1
Finland - San Marino 4-1
Estonia - Liechtenstein 1-0
Hungary - Lithuania 2-0
Togo - Chad 0-0
Albania - Macedonia 0-0
Argentina - Brazil 4-3
Bulgaria - Serbia 1-2
Egypt - Australia 0-2
Israel - Iceland 2-2
Denmark - Czech Republic 3-2
Luxembourg - Algeria 0-3
Switzerland - Ukraine 0-0
Austria - Greece 1-0
Netherlands - Turkey 4-0
Poland - Ivory Coast 1-2
Romania - Italy 0-3
South Africa - U.S. 2-3
Sweden - Germany 2-4
Northern Ireland - Morocco 1-4
Republic of Ireland - Norway 2-2
Slovenia - Georgia 3-1
England - France 1-1
Portugal - Spain 0-2
 
I don't think it's fair of you to condemn Gyan just because he isn't at a big club. He was nominated for World Player of the Year 2009-2010 which is a huge achievement for somebody who played for Rennes at the time (note that only 3 players in your starting 11 recieved the same honor and they were at Inter or Barca at the time).

To be honest, I find it far more impressive that Gyan has scored 5 goals in 10 games for the mackems this season (he has only started 3 times; 7 were sub appearances) because the service isn't as good as it would be if he were at Chelsea or Madrid. He's at an average club but he's still bagging goals against the likes of Chelsea and Tottenham and that's a sign of this guy's quality. He's worthy of any list IMO (and this is coming from a Geordie).
 
---------Drogba/Villa---------

Ronaldo----Sneijder----Messi

--------------Xavi----------

--------Cambiasso----------

A.Cole-Puyol/Lucio-Vidic-Ramos

---------Casillas------------

Villa and Drogba i consider 1a and 1b in terms of best strikers in the world, i would probably pick Villa for this team as he already links up with Messi really well at Barca as well as Xavi.

Ronaldo is a prick but still a great player, Messi doesn't need an explanation.

For attacking mid there is so many great players that could go here Sneijder/Ozil/Iniesta went with Sneijder in the end, i still don't think Ozil is proven at absolute top level and Iniesta can have bad patches of form.

Xavi is the best midfielder in the world imo

Cambiasso as a holding midfielder there isn't many great ones around but he is very good and among the best, this team wouldn't work without a holding midfielder.I guess Essien or Alonso could go here but they are not as defensively sound.

Left Back - This could be A.Cole or Lahm.

S.Ramos is the best RB in world football when he plays there, he is better then Maicon.

Puyol/Lucio - Vidic for the CB Partnership, Lucio is up there but if were talking about working together he goes forward to much to work with Puyol who isn't that good at dealing with through balls over the top . Puyol can also be caught out in the air which Vidic deals with.

Casillas is still the best keeper in the world though his form has been inconsistent at times.
 
I do not say Gyan is bad. But during the World Cup, he made three goals, two of them were penalties (Gyan also missed one against Uruguay, but hitting the crossbar is bad luck and not a lack of sharpness). I do not say he is bad, but I think he is overrated. But if he keeps scoring that much for Sunderland, he proves me wrong. We'll see at the end of the season. But as far as I know (WC+Premier League start), he is not world-class like Messi, Pirlo, Sneijder, Ibrahimovic etc.

However, I used the wrong word. I take "mid-table striker" back. A better description for now on (my opinion) is "overrated".

Sorry.
 
Yes, I can finally write my comments here about a game everyone is interested in!!! (My english is only acceptable when it comes to football)

PORTUGAL - 4
SPAIN - 0

1-0 Carlos Martins 44'
2-0 Hélder Postiga 49'
3-0 Hélder Postiga 68'
4-0 Hugo Almeida 92'

The game started with 30000 on the stadium (about half of the maximum capacity) and Nani was the author of the first good shot. He shot with his left foot but San Iker saved Spain with a great save.

Iniesta replied minutes later by dribbling one of our defenders and shooting also with the left foot but the ball passed inches away from the post.

Spain controlled the match from 10 to 30 minutes with David Silva missing the only chance during this period when he couldn't score with his head alone inside the box.

When we were 15 minutes away from the break, Portugal began to show its main weapons with Ronaldo and Nani being the main stars but some of the rookies (João Pereira and Carlos Martins) were also very well.

At the 40th minute Ronaldo showed why he's one of the best in the World: on a magical moment, he dribbled Piqué (who was literally lied down) and attempted a lob over Casillas that wasn't goal because Nani decided to touch the ball and the referee said it was before the line (it wasn't, the goal was clear and Ronaldo was pissed off).

After that, Piqué cleared a shot from Carlos Martins on the line and on the 44th minute, Ronaldo dribbled Busquets and shot, Casillas saved, the ball went to Carlos Martins who made the first goal on the match!

After the break, Portugal kept playing very well and Hélder Postiga scored a beautifull goal after a good play from the team. I'm sounding repetitive but Portugal scored again with João Moutinho making a great assist to Hélder Postiga that scored again.

When the result was 3-0 both teams replaced many players and the game lost some of its quality. However, after the 90 minutes, Hugo Almeida scored after a good pass from Pepe.

MVP: Hélder Postiga (Sporting Clube de Portugal - MY CLUB!!!) because he showed he can be the striker Portugal so desperatily needs by scoring 2 goals and being a good target man.

The result may sound surprising but believe me, it could have been much heavier because Portugal crushed Spain! I still think it's a shame that goal from Ronaldo wasn't validated because it would be magical (Ronaldo was replaced on the break so Portugal showed we are not dependent of him, which is always nice).
 
it wasn't offside, in order for nani to be ruled offside, he'd have to influence the play, which he didn't, because he headed the ball after it crossed the goal line, and besides, there was a dude putting him onside

one of the most beautiful goals, badly nulled
 
hah spain got smashed
Netherlands 1-0 Turkey btw


and other sillyness
Romania 1-1 Italy
Sweden 0-0 Germany
Hong Kong 0-7 Paraguay

hong kong has a team O.O
 
I watched Argentina vs. Brazil which ended 1-0 with Messi scoring in injury time. Overall, a very entertaining match despite the fact that there wasn't many goals scored. Spain losing to Portugal 4-0 is really surprising! Wish I could've seen the match :P
 
A lot of top matches this weekend.

SATURDAY

Ajax - PSV (Eredivisie)
Schalke 04 - Werder Bremen (Bundesliga)
Bayer Leverkusen - Bayern München (Bundesliga)
AC Milan - Fiorentina (Serie A)
Villareal - Valencia (Primera Division)

SUNDAY

Arsenal - Tottenham Hotspur (Premier League)
 
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