Real Football (Soccer to you Yanks) Thread

[Peter Parka]

He hasn't said a wrong thing, we have provided the most players in the years previous, yet the FA treat us like shit. It's true, they absolutely do. Let's see how shitty England would do without our players. They're awful now, I daren't think.

You mean the players that you buy from West Ham and other teams after the've done the hard work of training them up? :24:

 

[Springsteen]

Yeah, but at the time of playing they are Manchester United players, so we provide them as in releasing them for International duty. It's not our fault some teams are just feeder clubs for some big teams.

 

[Springsteen]

Here's the England squad for the upcoming camel ride to Bulgaria and the game against the worst team in the world, Wales.

Goalkeepers
Joe Hart (Manchester City)
Robert Green (West Ham)
David Stockdale (Ipswich)

Defenders
Micah Richards (Manchester City)
John Terry (Chelsea)
Phil Jagielka (Everton)
Gary Cahill (Bolton)
Joleon Lescott (Manchester City)
Chris Smalling (Manchester United)
Phil Jones (Manchester United)
Ashley Cole (Chelea)
Leighton Baines (Everton)

Midfielders
Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
Tom Cleverley (Manchester United)
Scott Parker (West Ham United)
Gareth Barry (Manchester City)
James Milner (Manchester City)
Ashley Young (Manchester United)
Stewart Downing (Liverpool)
Adam Johnson (Manchester City)
Theo Walcott (Arsenal)

Strikers
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
Darren Bent (Aston Villa)
Andy Carroll (Liverpool)
Jermain Defoe (Tottenham)

In theory they should line up

----------------------------------------------Hart------------------------------------------------

Smalling---------------------Jones------------------Cahill------------------------------Baines

Downing--------------------Cleverly----------------Parker----------------------------Young

----------------------------Rooney---------------------Bent-----------------------------------

In practice I'd be stunned if Capello were that smart, but on form, that's as good an England side as you're going to get at this time. Yeah, I'd drop Terry, and I'd give Rooney the captaincy.

Germany vs Austria on Friday, get in.

 

[Springsteen]

Barcelona beat Villiarreal 5-0 at the Nou Camp in the first La Liga game. Scarily great at times from Barca which shouldn't come as a surprise. Goals came from Thiago, Fabregas, Messi twice and Alexis. Villarreal will play champions league football this season and are a good team, but Barca completely outclassed them. On a side note Barca played 3-4-3 which may be the way to go. At their strongest the side should be....

---------------------------------------------------Valdes------------------------------------------------

---------------------Pique--------------------Puyol-------------------------Abidal--------------------

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

-------------------------Fabregas------------------------------Iniesta-----------------------------

---------------------------------------Sanchez-----------------------------------------------

---------------Dani Alves------------

---------------------------------------- Messi----------------------------Villa----------------------------

Plus there are players like Mascherano, Thiago, Pedro, Busquets who can play too. This is why they are the best team in the world.

 

[Springsteen]

Good night of football. Germany beat Austria 6-2, better game than it sounds contest wise, Austria weren't really out of it until the last period, but that's what happens when you give Germany a 3 goal head start. They pulled one back before the break before Germany made it 4-1, Austria pulled one back but then Germany ran away with it and won convincingly. Germany then become the first side to qualify for the 2010 Euro's.

England won easily against Bugaria 3-0. Little bit dodgy in possession at times but the pitch wasn't the best but a better team would punish that. Rooney got two goals continuing his great run of form. Cahill got the other. England will win the group and qualify with a win against Wales on Tuesday.

Holland beating San Marino 11-0 amuses me greatly.

 

[skyblue]

wales beat montenegro which will give them confidence

 

[Springsteen]

If England can't beat Wales they should be disqualified from qualifying.

 

[skyblue]

If England can't beat Wales they should be disqualified from qualifying.

jimmy greaves...its a funny old game

 

[Springsteen]

Watching England for brief periods earlier I will say the 4-3-3 is a lot better because the action flows faster and therefore better. I mean the flexible 4-3-3 has been used for ages by other teams and works out successfully (4-4-2 is very outdated these days), now I know above it looks like a 4-4-2, but it isn't because Rooney is that man who can drop deeper and help out and allow the wingers to move on, so you're essentially looking at a 4-3-3 again. That's what England have needed to embrace for a long time, and as long as the next manager continues with it, it'll be fine.

 

[skyblue]

i wonder if the bulgarians will get punished for the monkey noises the fans were making

 

[Springsteen]

UEFA are making a decision today on that. They won't take action against the chants England were fans were making about Bulgaria's poorer districts as Bulgaria didn't lodge a complaint. I Imagine they'll be made to play a game behind closed doors.

In other news, Steed Malbranque has retired from football to care for his kid who has been diagnosed with cancer. Awful reason to have to retire but very much understandable, class act.

 

[skyblue]

UEFA are making a decision today on that. They won't take action against the chants England were fans were making about Bulgaria's poorer districts as Bulgaria didn't lodge a complaint. I Imagine they'll be made to play a game behind closed doors.

In other news, Steed Malbranque has retired from football to care for his kid who has been diagnosed with cancer. Awful reason to have to retire but very much understandable, class act.

he has his priorities right:thumbup:nod:

 

[Springsteen]

Hmm.

Steed Malbranque's representatives have dismissed reports the former Fulham, Tottenham and Sunderland midfielder has retired from football to care for an ill family member.

Reports emerging from France over the weekend, and repeated in a number of British publications, claimed that the 31-year-old, who joined French outfit St Etienne this summer, had decided to quit as his young son was suffering from cancer.

But in a statement released to Press Association Sport by solicitors working on the instruction of Malbranque's agent, Sebastien Boisseau, it is made clear that the Frenchman does not have a son and that no member of his immediate family is in ill health. "Steed has read with concern the recent stories currently circulating about him and his family," read the statement which as issued by London-based solicitors Thomas Cooper.

"He would like to reassure all of his friends in England and throughout world football that these stories are wholly without foundation.

"Steed does not have a son and his immediate family are all in good health. Steed does not know the origin of these stories but would like to stress that they are without merit.

"He trusts that they will now cease immediately."

Malbranque's switch to St Etienne last month ended a 10-year stay in English football, during which time he made a total of 336 Premier League appearances.

After impressing at Lyon following his debut for the club in 1998, Malbranque secured a move to Fulham in 2001 and went on to make over 200 appearances for the west London club.

Malbranque transferred to Tottenham in the summer of 2006, going on to make over 60 appearances, before joining Sunderland in 2008.

It's probably some sicko making up a story with too much time on his hands.

 

[Springsteen]

Watching England now. Well firstly I ought to be given a medal for having to endure it, it was turgid shit for 90 minutes. Predictable gameplan and lineup which has to change if England are ever to do something more than qualifying easily but doing fuck all the the tournaments. Very poor game to watch for the most part where Wales with better finishing would have won. if England are this bad in 9 months time, they'll be out in the group stage. That said 2 wins out of 2 is passable, but the performance was never there. It wasn't on Friday really, there was just 3 goals. The only bright spot was Young continuing his fine run of form.

 

[retro]

The US go down to Belgium... the Belgians got fairly lucky with their goal, but it should've been better defended. Once again the US gets screwed by shoddy officiating though... had our equalizing goal taken off the board for an unknown reason. The announcers couldn't come up with why it happened. But still, we showed a lot of things, and Brek Shea is really coming on as a potential star player, as is Agudelo.

 

[Peter Parka]

Watching England now. Well firstly I ought to be given a medal for having to endure it, it was turgid shit for 90 minutes. Predictable gameplan and lineup which has to change if England are ever to do something more than qualifying easily but doing fuck all the the tournaments. Very poor game to watch for the most part where Wales with better finishing would have won. if England are this bad in 9 months time, they'll be out in the group stage. That said 2 wins out of 2 is passable, but the performance was never there. It wasn't on Friday really, there was just 3 goals. The only bright spot was Young continuing his fine run of form.

Drove past the stadium while it was going on. Wembley looks fantastic with the lights on at night. Scrappy match but at least we got 3 points. Highlight wasn't even on the pitch - John Hartson wearing a West Ham tie and getting it spot on about Fabio talking in riddles.

 

[Zorak]

The US go down to Belgium... the Belgians got fairly lucky with their goal, but it should've been better defended. Once again the US gets screwed by shoddy officiating though... had our equalizing goal taken off the board for an unknown reason. The announcers couldn't come up with why it happened. But still, we showed a lot of things, and Brek Shea is really coming on as a potential star player, as is Agudelo.

Doesn't surprise me. Belgium will be a real force in the next 10 years.

The USA don't have the same array of quality that Belgium has now: Hazard, Vermaellean, Kompany Dafour,Van Buytn are all top class, and it looks like in a few years Lukaku will be one of the very best.

 

[retro]

The sad thing is that we pretty much outplayed them the entire game... they didn't have much in the way of scoring opportunities, and their goal was shot through traffic and somehow magically avoided everyone's feet on its way through. Belgium is definitely talented though, I was impressed by Lukaku and Mertens; both seemed to be immensely talented.

I think we're going to be getting better and better as Klinsmann implements his system and gets some younger players involved. Like I said, Brek Shea is super talented and I'd expect him to be playing up front for us for years to come. Plus Klinsmann seems to be far more willing than Bradley was to play both Donovan and Dempsey in the middle in playmaking roles.

 

[Springsteen]

Champions League kicks off tonight, few tasty games to look out for, Arsenal go to Borussia Dortmund, Chelsea entertain Bayer Leverkusen. But I will be watching Barcelona vs AC Milan, should be a good game. Won't miss a goal from any other game though thanks to the wonderful goal alert.

 

[Springsteen]

Drew 1-1 with Benfica in the opening Champions League game, not a bad result at all given it was our hardest game in the group and we didn't really play well until the latter stages of the first half. The passing was too extravagant at times and we got punished. But Giggs showed calmness and excellent finishing to finish really well before half time. Second half was mainly us but I don't think either side will be too unhappy with a draw, and the meeting in November should be the group decider. I don't think Man City will be altogether happy with their draw at home to Napoli. They equalised after gonig 1-0 down though and it's only early in the group,and I'd still expect them to qualify.