The 2010-11 Football/Soccer Thread

[latinoheat]

Lets see how Robinho handles being on the bench, Ronaldinho has been fantastic playing on the left wing cutting in which is pretty much Robinho's prefered spot, i guess he is back up for injury prone Pato.

Milan have a really good chance at Serie A with that attack and Amelia who they brought in is a very decent keeper, but their slow defence isn't gonna cut it in the Champions league.

I think Birmingham did really well to get Hleb and Gudjohnson wasn't a bad buy for stoke.

Sunderland got ripped off though 13m for Gyan or basically one goal against USA at the world cup, he was never that special in the french league and for that much i reckon they could have stolen someone like Robbie Keane or Carlton Cole.

 

[Sy123]

Lets see how Robinho handles being on the bench, Ronaldinho has been fantastic playing on the left wing cutting in which is pretty much Robinho's prefered spot, i guess he is back up for injury prone Pato.

Milan have a really good chance at Serie A with that attack and Amelia who they brought in is a very decent keeper, but their slow defence isn't gonna cut it in the Champions league.

I think Birmingham did really well to get Hleb and Gudjohnson wasn't a bad buy for stoke.

Sunderland got ripped off though 13m for Gyan or basically one goal against USA at the world cup, he was never that special in the french league and for that much i reckon they could have stolen someone like Robbie Keane or Carlton Cole.

Excuse me?
Ronaldinho playing well?
I dont think so, Brazillian football lost its flair since Ronaldo went, Ronaldinho and Robinho act all big and hard, yet they cant play the damn game like Brazillians. When Ronaldo or Pele/Garrincha was on board, Braszil would pretty much nearly make it to the semis all the time. Brazil suck, Germany and Spain are now ruling the football world
Same thing goes with Argentina

 

[latinoheat]

Have you actually watched Ronaldinho in Serie A for the last year, last year he got the most assists and was pretty much the best Milan player and he was still fat. This season he has lost more weight and is basically down to his Barca weight and is faster and even better, he has been fantastic.

Also your crazy if you don't think Ronaldinho plays with flair at his peak he was better then Ronaldo, Messi and any other player on the planet in probably the last 10 years.

If we are going by World Cup's Brazil won the World Cup in 02 and Ronaldinho was a major part in that, he wasn't even in the 2010 squad so he can't be blamed for that and outside of Kaka the 06 team all played like shit including Ronaldo.

Pele played in a different era you can't compare him he was ahead of his time no doubt but most of the defenders were average, he would probably be considered a top 10 player if he played today.Lets not forget the fact that for his World Cup wins he was surrounded by a fantastic team its not like he did it himself.

 

[Lee]

anyone who says 'brazil suck' obviously didn't watch the world cup - up until their shock exit they were the best team in the tournament by some distance. spain just ground out 1-0s in every game (and lost to the swiss), germany and argentina always looked fragile at the back, holland were good I suppose but brazil were the most impressive. the media has twisted it and made people believe they were awful simply because they went out in the quarters. and shut up and about 'flair and playing the game like brazilians,' it's just embarrassing.

i'm not going to pretend i watch or keep up with serie a (always found italian football too defensive) but he did play very well against man utd in the champions league and a quick google search seems to support latino's claims that ronaldinho is back to his best.

http://www.tribalfootball.com/ronaldinho-ac-milan-have-made-me-happy-again-564661

The former Barcelona star is back to his very best under coach Leonardo.

see.

Lets see how Robinho handles being on the bench

probably the same way he handled it at man city. by throwing a hissy fit and seeking a move. his attitude stinks.

sunderland

i wouldn't write gyan off so quickly. i have to admit my first thought was '13 million!' but my second thought was 'yeah, that could be a good signing.' you see, as much as i hate the cunts, they have a habit of snapping up good strikers and turning them into excellent strikers. In kevin phillips and darren bent they helped create two of the most prolific strikers the premiership has seen (less so in bents case but he has a bright career ahead of him). big kev was a relative unknown when they found him - he went on to score 113 goals in 208 games (which is absolutely staggering when you consider he did it at a club like Sunderland) and win the European Golden Boot that one time. last season bent scored 25 goals in 40 games, once again a fantastic accomplishment at a club constantly labelled as relegation candidates. there's something about the mackems that just breeds good strikers. interesting signing for sure, apparently bruce has been after him for 2 years now.

 

[phalanx]

brazil dont suck... france however
some highlights from the euro qualifiers
England 4-0 bulgaria
france 0-1 belarus lol
portugal 4-4 cyprus

 

[tup]

I think Joe Hart has a chance of doing well for England in the future. They might have actually ended their talented goalie drought, but we still have to see. For France, I think Anelka's 18 match ban is just going a bit too far. You can already see it's effects on the national team now, without Henry and Anelka.

As for Gyan, 13 million might be a bit too much, but he definitely deserves 10 million or something. Sunderland have done well to get him. It'll be interesting to see him fare in the Premier League...

Also this might be old news but I'm a bit disappointed at Juventus's loss to Bari. I think Delneri didn't do much wrong in the transfer market except getting rid of Diego. Diego was the centre of everything in their matches, all attacking runs went through him. Krasic barely provides any cover for Diego's loss. Also I think it'd be better if they put Del Piero back in trequartista and put Quagrialella up ahead but that's just my thoughts.

 

[sharkz]

Brazil played perfectly fine at the world cup...they just stumbled vs Holland and of course, Felipe Melo's red didnt help.
13m for Gyan is a bit too much, should have been around 10 or 11 but w/e, he's a good player and I think he has the ability to do well.
No new keeper for Arsenal and we're stuck with Almunia and Flappianski, gah.
lol at France

 

[Nosferalto]

It's nice to see teams like international teams like England, France (<3) and Italy back in their winning ways. I felt sorry for those three teams at the world cup. It's also interesting to note how useless Portugal are without C. Ronaldo fit.

 

[Christian]

AC Milan have made excellent transfers this summer, probably the best IMO. Boateng, Ibrahimovic and Robinho are all excellent additions to the Milan squad. I expect big things from AC Milan this year.

Also, even though I'm not a Chelsea fan, I have to admit that Chelsea is the team to beat at the moment.

that is correct :)

 

[phalanx]

nope...
well england beat switzermand 3-1
no upsets apart from portugal losing to norway though and scotland nearly drawing to a country with less people then the capacity of thier stadium

 

[Havak]

England were good in both qualifying games so far, especially with under strength sides. I have to stress that Shaun Wright-Phillips should be nowhere near the International team anymore, though. He is just terrible. He's not better on the wing than Aaron Lennon, Theo Walcott, James Milner, or Adam Johnson. Hell, he's not even better than Ashley Young or David Beckham. He needs to be cut from the squad, but Capello always seems to pick him.

The England squad should probably look like this, in all honesty:

Joe Hart, Robert Green, Ben Foster

Glen Johnson, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Ashley Cole
Micah Richards, Michael Dawson, Phil Jagielka, Joleon Lescott

Aaron Lennon, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, James Milner
Theo Walcott, Michael Carrick, Gareth Barry, Adam Johnson

Wayne Rooney, Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch, Darren Bent

Micah Richards isn't amazing, and Joleon Lescott has struggled since he moved to Man City. But both of these players would be needed as cover for the full back positions as we have literally no one else other than Leighton Baines for Left Back. Jamie Carragher was shocking at the World Cup, Hargreaves is never making it back, and Wes Brown retired from International football. So I think those are our only options right now.

Then, with two spaces left: Bobby Zamora, Ashley Young, David Beckham, Leighton Baines, Joe Cole, Matthew Upson, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Jermaine Jenas, Scott Parker, Stephen Warnock, Ryan Shawcross, and Tom Huddlestone can fight for them. Unless Capello thinks it's time to bleed in youth such as Jack Wilshere, Jack Rodwell, and Kieran Gibbs.

 

[Uncommon Madness]

AC Milan just got Ibrahimovic and Robinho, the Champions League is close!

 

[les gets]

I am very excited about Robinho and Ibrahimovic joining AC Milan, and I can't wait to see how they do. I also think picking up Boateng was a good move too, I hated seeing him play for portsmith.

 

[sharkz]

League starts again in 30 mins, go ARSENAL

 

[phalanx]

lame everton :(
blackpool up to 4th now O.O

 

[Pablo]

Chelsea pretty dominant right now, although they had the easiest league start by far so it'll be interesting to see if they can keep this up against the bigger teams. Evertone reaping points off Man U is awesome though!

 

[sharkz]

4-1 ARSENAL YEAH

wow at Everton and Man U

West Ham are gonna be the relegation boys this season if they keep this up...Avram Grant is on a timer here...

God my fantasy squad can't cut it >_<

 

[Raikage]

Holy fuck 21 points because Alex and Malouda (captain!) were subbed in with what 8 minutes to go?

Dismal...

 

[phalanx]

dismal?
no lampard? no rooney? zamora got 1 point.. because of leg break
19 of those points came from kalou and vidic.. although autoswitch captain will go to kalou as well i guess
i got 25 points with hardly anyone

 

[Raikage]

Having no Lampard and Rooney is better than getting Alex and Malouda subbed in to play what 7 minutes? At least you get automatic subs, my guys got points lol...

 

[Zoro]

only got 10 points lol.. probably shouldnt have totally randomed my team

 

[Havak]

Even though I'm really disappointed that Everton managed to pull it back to 3-3, it was an amazing game of football. Really enjoyable for the neutral and a great advertisement for the Premier League and football in general. Man Utd really should have held on, though. Still, it's 2 more point so far than Man Utd got last season, we've just go to win our home games, improve concentration and try to do in the bigger teams this time.

 

[phalanx]

not a bad haul in the fanatsy football, although it seems emergancy captain (form) went to zamora for some unknown reason i can not fathom

of course people forget man utd start poorly, we are in the top 4 already (with the usual chelsea and arsenal, and a random blackpool :D)

 

[Altaria]

FC Twente - Internazionale 2-2

Twente deserved to win. Awesome goal from Theo Janssen. Awesome match.

 

[Erazor]

Owen Hargreaves is going to return to training next week! Apparently he's made a full recovery. :)

This is great, I've missed him.