Real Football (Soccer to you Yanks) Thread

[Springsteen]

Brazil have been far far better. A true masterclass.

This is why Pearce didn't get the England job. Very overrated manager.

 

[Springsteen]

Bebe! Who needs Van Persie?

Seriously, an extremely poor player, but scored a pretty decent volley (albeit into an open net) in a 1-1 draw with Ajax Capetown. A lackluster display at times. The positives are that Kagawa looked good on his full debut, Powell showed promise. It's not a full team yet because half of them are either recovering from the Euros, at the Olympics or injured. Speaking of which Smalling is out for 10 weeks, which isn't good.

But a good game to watch, Ajax Capetown deserved at least a draw and the fans will go home happy.

Fuck the Vuvuzela's. I hated them during the World Cup and still do, horrible things. The guy who made them needs to be shot.

Thankfully China doesn't have them (we play Shanghai Shenua on Wednesday - who have Drogba and Anelka in some form or another, I forget) so that's another positive.

 

[Springsteen]

Beat Shanghai Shenhua 1-0 in the third pre season friendly. Not a very good game to watch given we haven't got the full team out yet, and Shenhua being halfway through their season and not playing their first team (including no Drogba or Anelka). They made it difficult for us to get through and create anything of note in the first half apart from a good chance from Powell which was spurned. The second half was a better display and the goal eventually came with 22 minutes to go when Bebe's run from the left was pulled back to Kagawa who helped himself to his first goal for us. Kagawa and Bebe were the best performers on a frustrating evening on the whole, but it was a better display than the ones in Africa. Up next is Valarenga in Norway on the 5th August, where we should have more first teamers back.

 

[Zorak]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4460430/Wycombe-0-Fulham-3.html

Hahaha, actually, Dempsey was at a local cinema watching the new batman film. I have eye witness testimony.

 

[Zorak]

I have a feeling that Jack Wilshire will never play football again.

 

[Springsteen]

(Via Twitter) Yesterday marked one year to the day that Jack Wilshere played a game of football, a bit part appearance against NY Red Bulls in the 2011 Emirates Cup.

It's a worry for him because the longer we hear "he's expected to be back in a few weeks" or something like that, it'll be harder for him to get back into football. Clearly he has a lot of potential and promise, and at times has looked great for Arsenal, but if it turns into a much longer thing (he'll have still had 14 months out of the game if he returns in October - that's a long time in any sport but football especially) eventually he'll age and it gets harder to return then.

 

[Springsteen]

Drew 0-0 with Valerenga in the first game of the European leg of the tour. A match where the ball just wouldn't go in, be it good defending, bad finishing, unlucky misses or mistimed passes. We were in trouble a time or two (including a Rooney clearance off the line) but other than that it was a pretty dominant display. But it was pleasing to see Vidic get an hour for the first time since last December because of his knee injury, as well as the European Championship players returning successfully. And also Kagawa putting in another good display, he should start against Barcelona on Wednesday.

 

[Springsteen]

Lost 2-0 on penalties to Barcelona after a 0-0 draw in Gothenburg. A game that went exactly as you'd expect, with Barcelona having more of the ball and looking more dangerous going forward, which is why it came as a relief to see Messi go off at half time in a crazy raft of changes. Rooney missed a penalty right on half time and that was the closest we got. Barcelona came closest went Messi's low drive was tipped wide by the excellent De Gea. The stadium announcer seemed to take delight in announcing everything, including the bookings handed out, and the attendance (an impressive 47,000 full house). Had it ended 0-0 and a draw was called a draw it would have been a fair result, but as there was a trophy at stake it went to a penalty shoot out, with a twist as it only had 3 penalties a side. We missed our first two (Nani hit the bar and Young hit it at Pinto) and Barca scored there's (Xavi and Pique) and that was that.

0-0 is a good result against Barcelona, the penalty shoot out was kind of an afterthought. It was a good workout, Vidic got another good runout, Scholes looked good, De Gea was excellent, Valencia did okay at right back (though we need a proper right back in there at the start of the season).

 

[Zorak]

Santi Carzola at 16-18 million seems a bit of a bargain.

(Jordan Henderson 20 million)

 

[Springsteen]

He's a very good player.

£20m for Henderson still makes me lol.

 

[Springsteen]

Rounded off pre season with a thrilling 4-3 win over Hannover. Found ourselves 1-0 down before Hernandez tapped in after the former United keeper Zieler had parried a Rooney shot. Should have scored at least twice more through Michael keane, when frankly it looked easier to score. Then in the second half Hannover came on strong and went 3-1 up. But then Rooney scored a great free kick to pull us back into the game and followed it up with a penalty after he was tripped by the keeper. Kagawa got the winner with a clever finish, and generally played really well, his performances in pre season have really impressed me. The players generally got a good workout, including Cleverley and Vidic.

Overall a mixed pre season, the performances haven't always been there, but the aim of getting fitness for players has been achieved. We haven't always been at our strongest (particularly in Africa and Asia) but the younger players got a good runout which is obviously important. So in those respects, pleasing would be the word.

Also, Sir Alex hasn't been at the last two matches because of "club business". I like to think it's to do with Van Persie, and he's gone along because I believe he and Arsene Wenger do have respect for each other. Either way it's very unusual for him to miss games for reasons that David Gill could sort out alone.

 

[Zorak]

Thats definitely strange.

 

[porterjack]

Thats definitely strange.

What is ? SAF missing?

 

[Springsteen]

Yes, as far as I recollect he's only ever missed a couple of United games, and both were for family reasons. Never for club business.

 

[Zorak]

Even Sir Alex, who is probably more involved in the business side of the game than anyone else, has little reason to sit around and thrash out fees with clubs or contracts with agents.

 

[Springsteen]

City beat Chelsea 3-2 in the Community Shield. Torres scored the first before Ivanovic was sent off for a two footed tackle, definitely looked the right decision. Yaya Toure equalised in the second half before Tevez scored a great goal to put City in front. Nasri made it 3-1 with a nice finish from a cross from Kolarov. Ryan Bertrand pulled one back late on for Chelsea but it was too late. Overall a fair result. City looked quicker than Chelsea everywhere. Only Torres really looked good for Chelsea. The rest looked tired. Also, City have signed Jack Rodwell, because they need a central midfielder so much.

 

[Zorak]

I thought that Rodwell thing was a joke. Don't get me wrong, he's got some talent, but he cannot stay fit.

Arsenal looked very tidy today in a 4-0 victory over Koln. Carzola was class, and Podolski, Giroud, and Gervinho all played really well. I'm really liking the looks of this Arsenal team.

 

[Springsteen]

Had City signed Rodwell in 2010 (the season after he took us apart at Goodison Park) I would have been really bothered, because he's someone I would have liked to have signed. Last year? Not as bothered but still a little bit. This year not so much, he's extremely brittle boned and was actually being kept out of the Everton side by Darron Gibson. I mean he had just signed for Everton, but yeah. Don't get me wrong the kid has potential, but I wouldn't have been comfortable with spunking £15m up the wall on a player we don't really need and who isn't as good as Tom Cleverley ergo perhaps keeping Cleverly out of the side because we spent £15m on him. I don't think he'll play all that much, fit or not, because City generally play with two centre midfielders (Toure/Barry and have De Jong as backup, as well as Milner, who to his benefit his flexible, he played wingback today) and with those options it means Rodwell might find himself on the bench a lot. Sitting on the bench earning 4 times what he was at Everton, but still sitting on the bench.

I get the feeling this is somewhat of a stopgap signing by City to make Mancini put his dummy back in for a week, because it's no secret that he doesn't like how Brian Marwood is talking about City's transfer dealings. Marwood is worried about FFP more than anything and when he sees the wages of Adebayor, Santa Cruz (still City players remember) and Tevez, versus the proposed wages of Robin Van Persie, then he'll decide the wages of the first free must be cut from the wagebill before City pay the wages of someone like Van Persie. Don't get me wrong, City will sign players before the window's up, but they'll have to sell first and get those huge wages off the bill, it's unsustainable. They can't make a £190m loss again.

 

[Zorak]

Can they sell though? Who would take Santa Cruz, even if he took a 50% wage cut, he'd probably still be earning more than anyone could afford.
They've got around the FFP rules once with a stadium rebrand (that was cheeky), but eventually they do have to cut wages.

I'm really excited for the new season. I think it will be an incredibly close run affair at the top, every team has strengthened well.

Edit: Except Tottenham. l

 

[Springsteen]

I think someone might take Santa Cruz, he did well at Betis last season but they can't afford his wages (even with a pay cut) so it'd be elsewhere. He'd have to take a paycut as you say. Adebayor's wages are something like £100,000 a week, and I don't think he'd take that much of a paycut to join another club. He was getting half his wages being paid by City last season when he was at Spurs. I'm not convinced they can afford to send both out on loan again whilst subsiding some of their wages.

I'm looking forward to the season too. New players have arrived at clubs. It'll be interesting to see how different clubs move around (I don't think Newcastle will has as good a season as last for example) and others will surely improve.