Real Football (Soccer to you Yanks) Thread

[Zorak]

Players can do deals where City will pay a proportion of what is left on their contract after a transfer for the duration.
e.g: Adebayor earns 100k, Tottenham offer 70k, Adebayor wll accept a move if Man city pay him 30k extra for a few years.

Not ideal, but you get some transfer fee and a larger chunk off the wage bill.

 

[Springsteen]

Hmm, they might go down that route then. Spurs only actually have two forward players at the moment I think, Defoe and Dos Santos.

 

[Zorak]

Yeah they must bring Adebayor in soon. He really tied their team together. *hope they don't and he rots at man city*

 

[Zorak]

I'm also not too fussed about Barca snatching Song. As long as we can bring in someone like M'vila. Lose a bit of creativity. But gain more discipline.

 

[Springsteen]

Apparently M'Villa's said he's only leaving for a club who's playing Champions League football. Handy.

Haven't seen a lot of him (next to nothing) so i can't judge his ability that well (not at all)

Song says he's happy at Arsenal, but I don't think he'd turn down Barcelona if they came in for him, and I think Arsenal would like the offer Barca would come in with (around £16m) but I think they want them to come in now if they're going to, because Arsenal don't want a last day thing like last year. Admittedly that was more to do with them not qualifying for the Champions League until August 24th, but still.

 

[Springsteen]

(The joke is, the guy in the picture is Isaac Cuenca. Well done ITV)

 

[Zorak]

I doubt Liverpool would notice the difference. They're not exactly on the ball. (Shit, let's buy Stewart Downing. He looks wicked good on this youtube video)

 

[Springsteen]

England beat Italy 2-1 in Berne. Good game to watch in the first half, not so much in the second. De Rossi gave Italy the lead. Jagielka scored the equaliser from a corner before Defoe scored a really good goal to give England the win. But a good win for Hodgson.

 

[Zorak]

Carrick played well. Took a while to settle with a few misplaced passes that were unnecessary, but then he was for the most past composed.

 

[retro]

We won! We won! We won!

First ever win for the US against Mexico in Mexico. :woohoo:

 

[porterjack]

We won! We won! We won!

First ever win for the US against Mexico in Mexico. :woohoo:

In soccer yes
Congrats

 

[Springsteen]

Barcelona beat Real Madrid 3-2 in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup (it's like the Charity Shield but it's played over two legs). Not a lot happened in the first half other than Barcelona dominating possession and Messi having two good chances. Ronaldo scored against the run of the play early in the second half before Pedro equalised straight away. Messi scored a penalty after Iniesta was tripped before Xavi scored a third after a wonderful pass from Iniesta. 3-1 was a great result to take back to the Bernabeu but then Valdes dealt with a backpass too cleverly and proceeded to give Di Maria a tap in. Second half was wonderful to watch, first half not so much.

Rafa Benitez was in the studio for the game, sitting next to Guillem Balague. It looked like a before/after shot of a guy's weight loss. No need to tell you who was before.

 

[Springsteen]

Two interesting games in La Liga tonight. Barcelona just won at Osasuna by 2 goals to 1. Wasn't a great performance by Barcelona in truth but Osasuna started well and always maintained a high energy. they took the lead and took advantage of some of Barca's sluggishness. Messi scored two goals in the second half to give Barcelona the win. A hard earned one at that.

Real Madrid lost 2-1 away at local rivals Getafe. Took the lead through Higuain before two goals from Getafe in the second half from Valera and Barrada. Real plugged away and tried to score but couldn't quite get the goal. Getafe played to their maximum.

Last night Malaga fans went to the game in their pajamas to protest at the late kick off time (11pm k.o time in Spain), luckily they look to be ending after this weekend. The reason was that the Spanish FA didn't want the players playing at midday in the hot sun and causing heatstroke so they moved the games to late at night (so late in fact a player can score on two different days) but it's not popular at all.

 

[CaptainTurtles]

We (Swansea) beat Barnsley in the league cup tonight, 3-1 and through to the next round! Congrats to Swindon on beating Stoke away!

 

[Springsteen]

Real Madrid win the second leg 2-1, so the late second in the first leg was crucial as it was an additional away goal. 4-4 but Real won on away goals. A great game where Real dominated in the first half in terms of chances and got two goals from Ronaldo and Higuain from defensive errors from Mascherano and Pique. Adriano got sent off in the first half for preventing a clear goalscoring opportunity. Messi pulled a goal back with a great free kick in first half stoppage time. Real really should have had it won by half time. Second half was more Barcelona who did well with ten men in the second half. It really should have ended about 8-6 to Real Madrid considering the chances in the game.

Some people seem to think El Clasico is getting boring and repetitive. Please watch these two matches if you are of this horrible mindset.

I also find it funny that Modric has won more trophies in one match than he did in 4 years at Spurs.

The Champions League draw tomorrow by the way could have the group of death to end all groups of death.

Potential

Barcelona
Manchester City
PSG
Borussia Dortmund

 

[Springsteen]

Champions League draw in full

A

Porto
Dynamo Kiev
PSG
Dinamo Zagreb

B

Arsenal
Schalke
Olympiakos
Montpellier

C

AC Milan
Zenit
Anderlecht
Malaga

D

Real Madrid
Man City
Ajax
Borussia Dortmund

E

Chelsea
Shakhtar Donetsk
Juventus
Nordsjaelland

F

Bayern Munich
Valencia
Lille
Bate

G

Barcelona
Benfica
Spartak Moscow
Celtic

H

Manchester United
Braga
Galatasaray
Cluj

I'll take our group, looks decent enough and we should get through. Man City have a very tough group, they might get through but they might not. Chelsea have a passable group, they should win. Arsenal could walk through their group backwards and blindfolded.

 

[skyblue]

H

[/B]Manchester United
Braga
Galatasaray
Cluj

looks like the brown envelopes have been out again

 

[Springsteen]

Shut up, troll.

Being in the Champions league final in 3 of the last 5 years helps.

 

[porterjack]

Braga good team

 

[Springsteen]

They have this stadium which only has two stands, one side of which is facing a cliff.

I don't know a great deal about them other than them being Portugese (so fast counter attacking style) and getting a victory over Arsenal in the 2010 Champions League.

We just can't mess around this year, we got way too complacent last year (especially against Basle at home) and it cost us.

City can qualify from that group. Real Madrid will most likely win the group but while I think Dortmund are a good side, they were in an easier group last year and flattered to decieve, and they'd fancy being Ajax in a head to head.

So truth be told I'd expect all English sides to qualify. Celtic haven't got a prayer.