2005-06 Soccer Thread

[SirFozzie]

Love to start it off with a story that just screams English Football Hooligans..

Hull City fans face lengthy bans after taunting QPR supporters with vile chants about the London suicide bombings. The FA last night promised to investigate reports that several Hull fans sang: "You're just a town full of bombers" and "Not enough Londoners dead" at Saturday's Championship match at the KC Stadium.

Ah.. footy fans.. bastions of taste and class.

Speaking of El Juego Bonito.. the ManYoo and Everton Champions League qualifiers are on Sentanta Sports this week. it should be fun!

[astrosfan64]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Love to start it off with a story that just screams English Football Hooligans..

Hull City fans face lengthy bans after taunting QPR supporters with vile chants about the London suicide bombings. The FA last night promised to investigate reports that several Hull fans sang: "You're just a town full of bombers" and "Not enough Londoners dead" at Saturday's Championship match at the KC Stadium.

Ah.. footy fans.. bastions of taste and class.

Speaking of El Juego Bonito.. the ManYoo and Everton Champions League qualifiers are on Sentanta Sports this week. it should be fun!

People think Eagles fans are bad....

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by astrosfan64

People think Eagles fans are bad....

Oh, they still are bad. But they're a bunch of prissy dancin nancy boys compared to a true group of 'ooligans, or an Ultra..

[Critch]

Interesting Hull City facts:

1. Hull is the biggest city in Britain to have never had a team in their nation's top division.

2. Hull City are the only team in the English league where you can't color in one of the letters.

Derby v Preston on Setanta this afternoon, two teams with a good chance of being in the running for a promotion to the Premiership at the end of this season. Setanta is finally worth the money, the Champions League qualifiers, the English and German games last weekend, and a great European World Cup qualifier schedule for the beginning of next month.

Very nice (and I'm not just saying that cos their showing Scotland live twice)

[Critch]

dola...

Chelsea v Arsenal yesterday afternoon:
Hleb looked great when he came on for Arsenal.
Gilberto made Arsenal look a good deal stronger in the middle in the second half, if they don't get Jenas, he'll have to replace Vieira on his own.
If Sol Campbell isn't back to his best when he comes back in a couple of weeks time, Arsenal can't win the league. Toure/Senderos isnt the middle of a championship winning defense.
Wright-Phillips for 21mil is an amazing amount of money for somebody who's probably not a regular.
Drogba looks ready to fight for his place.
Chelsea win the league (boring and easy prediction)

[terpkristin]

Almost makes Terps fans look good.
Looking forward to an Arsenal season!!!

/tk

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Almost makes Terps fans look good.
Looking forward to an Arsenal season of failure!!!

/tk

You said it, TK!

(grin, duck, RUN!)

[terpkristin]

Hmmm, SF, I may have to injure your OTHER shoulder....

/tk

[SirFozzie]

Eeep! Does it help that I only root for lowly Cambridge United?

And no hurting the other shoulder. How do you expect me to post with two bad arms..

Oh wait, FOFC would have a parade if that should happen

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Eeep! Does it help that I only root for lowly Cambridge United?

And no hurting the other shoulder. How do you expect me to post with two bad arms..

Oh wait, FOFC would have a parade if that should happen

Well, when I had each of my shoulder surgeries, I was using a piece of engineering software that required one hand to use the keyboard while the other used the mouse. Needless to say, with my arm in a sling, that was all but impossible, so I picked up the M$ Intellimouse that has buttons you can assign functions to. Best mouse I've ever used. And, it let me do my rotating and drawing of my designs (it was a 3-D CAD/CAM/FEA program).

Edit: And yes, you're somewhat let off the hook for rooting for lowly CU.

/tk

[MikeVick7]

I got up at 9am central, after going to bed at 4am, to watch the match live yesterday. Let's just say that I fell back asleep by halftime. That's not a reflection on the game mind you, just a reflection on how incredibly stupid I was for staying up until 4.

[GoldenEagle]

It looks like Owen to Man Utd is off. There is talks about Owen being loaned to Newcastle.

By the way, what are some sites that football fans use to get thier news? Any good ones out there besides Soccernet.

[SirFozzie]

football365, SkySports (if it's English, especially lower league)

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by Critch

Hleb looked great when he came on for Arsenal.

Some of the BigSoccer people are thinking of Hleb as Pires' successor but I think he's going to end up taking over for Bergkamp. Except maybe without the insane magic and finishing Bergkamp can pull out of his a, er, hat sometimes.

Originally Posted by Critch

Gilberto made Arsenal look a good deal stronger in the middle in the second half, if they don't get Jenas, he'll have to replace Vieira on his own.

It's a suggestion that's been tossed about a few times but I agree with it: Gilberto was a bigger loss than Vieira or Edu was last season. He does the little things that covers a less-than-impressive defensive unit. My concern with him is how many games will his back hold up for and how many multiple-games-per-week weeks can he handle? Flamini is a hustler and a player of some talent but he can't provide the same protection as Gilberto can. I have a feeling Song is going to be groomed for this spot to replace Vieira. The other alternative is Fabrice Muamba, who is said to be highly rated by the club.

I don't think Wenger will do it, but I personally think Lauren should be given a look here as well since he's an experience midfielder. And he's kinda scary.

Originally Posted by Critch

If Sol Campbell isn't back to his best when he comes back in a couple of weeks time, Arsenal can't win the league. Toure/Senderos isnt the middle of a championship winning defense.

I think it's going to take longer than expected for Campbell to come back. He's more brittle than a Detroit Lions wideout and he's getting up there in years. He's not been able to do much preparation work in the preseason because of the same calf issue. [Yet, amazingly, he's whining about playing time. Gah.]

It's going to be a struggle with Senderos/Toure in the back, especially since, y'know, that leaves Cygan withing striking distance of playing time. Ugh. Ugh. And ugh. But I think they can get it done. Maybe not beating Chelsea will be out of their capability but at least they can keep Mourinho from being more smug.

If that's possible.

[Katon]

Originally Posted by Critch

Wright-Phillips for 21mil is an amazing amount of money for somebody who's probably not a regular.

That's the problem with buying at the top of the market - you don't have enough alternatives to keep the price down. Chelsea really needed a right winger and the only other player on the market who could match Wright-Phillips for talent was Joaquin, who didn't fancy moving to England at all. Add in the normal "young English player" tax (Crouch for £7M? Jenas for £15-20M?) and you get a silly fee. He'll be as much of a regular as anyone, though. Chelsea play about sixty matches in a season. Injuries permitting, I'd expect all four wingers to wind up with about thirty starts. It's too demanding a position not to rotate, especially when your backups are as good as Cole and Wright-Phillips. Last year Damien Duff had to start 42 games and he was dead on his feet by the end of the season. I don't think Mourinho will want to repeat the experience.

Drogba looks ready to fight for his place.

Definitely. As a Chelsea fan, that's one of the things I'm most looking forward to about this season: just how much improved our forward situation ought to be from last year. Drogba settled in and with some actual competition for his spot, Crespo replacing Kezman, even Carlton Cole coming in for Mutu should help. Wish I was going to be able to see more of it (I'm going off to the US for college, which obviously makes it a bit more difficult to get to matches).

[terpkristin]

As for websites, I second the recommendation for SkySports, and if you're a fan of EPL, the BBC's coverage isn't bad.

/tk

[AlexB]

Bloody stupid game anyway, you wait for three months for the new season and what happens? After being the better team for 75 minutes you get beat 4-1

Good job our manager concentrated on tightening up the defence over the summer isn't it? And then proceeded to take off one of the defence, that was looking decent up to then, to play a new signing, only for the team to concede three goals in 15 minutes

Another season of pure unadulterated joy for Leicester fans then...

Yes it is only the first game, and we did look half decent for 75 minutes, but I needed a rant

[MikeVick7]

I'm starting to dig http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer for coverage.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

Bloody stupid game anyway, you wait for three months for the new season and what happens? After being the better team for 75 minutes you get beat 4-1

Thanks to Setanta US, I got to see this game. The penalty that put Sheff Utd 2-1 up and blew the game open was a joke. Good luck with Bob "The Builder" Douglas in goals, I used to love him when he played for Celtic and I'll miss him now he's gone.

I mainly use the BBC website for updates, The Times has some good articles, and soccernet for their weekly updates on German and Spanish soccer. Phil Ball (their Spanish reporter) and Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger (their German reporter) are both good writers, if you can find Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger's book on the history of German soccer ("Tor!"), it's a great read. Other than that I keep to my own team''s boards for update, and TalkSport can be worth listening to.

[GoldenEagle]

Katon, where are you going to school at?

Where I go I live off campus and get a digital cable package which includes Fox Soccer Channel. I get two live EPL matches a week. This channel is everywhere but you probably can not get it on campus.

[SirFozzie]

Critch: You watching the two Champ League qualifiers on Sentanta today?

ManYoo live, and Everton on tape delay..

(one of my friends is grumbling, seeing as Man Yoo should coast easily and Everton has a tough matchup.. "it's like CBS showing Duke vs the Campbell fighting camels where there's a tough 8-9 matchup to show.")

[GoldenEagle]

Well at least we are getting five EPL matches and the PDL final. FSC is worth every penny.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Critch: You watching the two Champ League qualifiers on Sentanta today?

Yeah, planning on it. TiVo set, I'll probably end up watching the Everton game first, won't be home til then. Just means I've got to get through the afternoon without finding out the result of those games, which means I won't be able to go to all my usual websites that get me through an afternoon at work..

[Katon]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

Katon, where are you going to school at?

Where I go I live off campus and get a digital cable package which includes Fox Soccer Channel. I get two live EPL matches a week. This channel is everywhere but you probably can not get it on campus.

I'm going to Williams. No idea what the TV situation's like, but I'd guess you're right about the chances of getting Fox Soccer Channel on-campus. I'm sure I'll work something out, though. If nothing else, I can usually find highlights of Chelsea matches on the web.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by Critch

Thanks to Setanta US, I got to see this game. The penalty that put Sheff Utd 2-1 up and blew the game open was a joke. Good luck with Bob "The Builder" Douglas in goals, I used to love him when he played for Celtic and I'll miss him now he's gone.

Tbh I'm one of the few City fans that didn't mind the 2nd penalty decision (the 1st was a no brainer): even though I didn;t see it until the replay, the ref was in the right position, and if it was the other way round in the same circumstances I would have been hurling abuse at the ref for being a muppet! (which he was for the vast majority of the game, but I think he did get this one right)

What was worse was the way we collapsed afterwards.

And Rab made a shaky start, the 1st and last goals were without doubt his fault. I;ve not seen a lot of him, but am hoping that as he was Celtic 1st choice for a few seasons he must be half decent...

How desparate have I become, holding out hope on a Scottish goalkeeper? I need a drink...

[ice4277]

I just got around to watching the Community Shield today. I thought it was a pretty entertaining match, considering its the first game of the year. I think it should be an exciting season in the Premiership, but I also think Chelsea have to be far and away the favorites to take the title. The more interesting aspect to me will be how they perform in the Champions League, and it will be interesting to see how Liverpool copes with a massive amount of matches, especially so many early in the season.

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

Tbh I'm one of the few City fans that didn't mind the 2nd penalty decision (the 1st was a no brainer): even though I didn;t see it until the replay, the ref was in the right position, and if it was the other way round in the same circumstances I would have been hurling abuse at the ref for being a muppet! (which he was for the vast majority of the game, but I think he did get this one right)

Ahem.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

And Rab made a shaky start, the 1st and last goals were without doubt his fault. I;ve not seen a lot of him, but am hoping that as he was Celtic 1st choice for a few seasons he must be half decent...

I think the fact that I said I loved him and was sad to see him leave Glasgow Celtic should give you a clue. I'm a Glasgow Rangers fan.

He's prone to terrible, terrible mistakes, he can be having a good solid game then suddenly fumble a long shot into the net, never a dull moment.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Katon

I'm going to Williams. No idea what the TV situation's like, but I'd guess you're right about the chances of getting Fox Soccer Channel on-campus. I'm sure I'll work something out, though. If nothing else, I can usually find highlights of Chelsea matches on the web.

Fox Soccer Channel seems to be springing up on more and more cable systems, so you should have a good chance of getting it. Judging by last year, FSC will cover around 50% of the Chelsea games live. Add in the ppv games at $20 a time (or $300 for the whole season with directv, not sure if all cable companies offer the package) and you should be able to see virtually every Chelsea League game for the season.

For the FA Cup, it'll be on ppv. Last season 2 out of the 3 of the Chelsea FA Cup games were covered, they skipped the 3rd round tie v Scunthorpe. So basically it'll be on as long as it's not Chelsea v somebody lower league that they should crush.

For Champions League, some games will be on ESPN2, some won't.

If you can spring for it, Setanta would be a good idea. Currently it's only available on DirecTV, they'll cover any Champion's League game that ESPN skips, plus they have Carling Cup coverage, and also show a good deal of the Chelsea TV coverage including tape delay of all the Chelsea games.

Basically, the games should be available if you're desperate enough.

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by Katon

Jenas for £15-20M?

Out of curiosity, how well do you rate him? Not so much in terms of monetary value but as a player. I've read about him plenty but have never seen a full match with him.

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by daedalus

Out of curiosity, how well do you rate him? Not so much in terms of monetary value but as a player. I've read about him plenty but have never seen a full match with him.

My opinion is that he's overvalued because he's English. Hard to tell in the garbage environment he played in, but I think it's telling that no major team outside England has come in for him.

[Katon]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

My opinion is that he's overvalued because he's English. Hard to tell in the garbage environment he played in, but I think it's telling that no major team outside England has come in for him.

Agreed. I don't watch all that many Newcastle matches, but the impression I've always had is of a good-but-not-great player. He's only getting this much talk because of the English press's habit of assuming that a big team will naturally go after the best English player at a given position.

[MIJB#19]

Here's some interesting soccer news from the Netherlands.

The (to me) local amateur club Excelsior Maassluis has knocked out professional team FC Den Bosch in the first round of the Amstel Cup (the national cup competition) with a 2-1 victory at home. In the second round they play a home game again, this time versus another first division (second level) team in VVV-Venlo. It is extra cool to me because two of the players in the Excelsior M. selection are 'kids' I used to play soccer with on the grass all around the neighbourhood when I was in high school.

[andy m]

northampton 1 v 2 barnet

[Critch]

Originally Posted by daedalus

Out of curiosity, how well do you rate him? Not so much in terms of monetary value but as a player. I've read about him plenty but have never seen a full match with him.

He's a good player, he won Young Player of the Year a couple of years ago, but he seems to have gone backwards since then, prone to disappearing from a game. Nobody realizes he's playing til he gets subbed. A move might be a good idea for him, kickstart him.

15mil for him seems a lot though, there's even been hints that he's no longer a first teamer at Newcastle with Emre and Parker coming into their midfield, and one of his reasons for leaving is the pressure of playing for Newcastle. Doesn't sound like the guy that Arsenal can rely on to me.

[Northwood_DK]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ed/4196760.stm

England striker Michael Owen has agreed to join Newcastle from Real Madrid. Good for him. After the show Robinho put on in his first game for Real Owen would have spend a LOT of time on the bench again this season.

[moriarty]

Originally Posted by Northwood_DK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ed/4196760.stm

England striker Michael Owen has agreed to join Newcastle from Real Madrid. Good for him. After the show Robinho put on in his first game for Real Owen would have spend a LOT of time on the bench again this season.

Damn, damn, damn. I was really hoping 'pool would take him back and go with a more enterprising approach than our boring 4-5-1/pray Morientes can score more than 5 goals in a season.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Northwood_DK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ed/4196760.stm

England striker Michael Owen has agreed to join Newcastle from Real Madrid. Good for him. After the show Robinho put on in his first game for Real Owen would have spend a LOT of time on the bench again this season.

So do the signings of Luque and Owen mean that Shearer ends his career at Newcastle on the bench?

[Critch]

Originally Posted by moriarty

Damn, damn, damn. I was really hoping 'pool would take him back and go with a more enterprising approach than our boring 4-5-1/pray Morientes can score more than 5 goals in a season.

Look on the bright side, at least Owen going elsewhere probably means that Cisse won't be leaving Doubt he'll be allowed to go to Marseille now.

For the Champions League in two weeks time it looks like Betis v Liverpool and Chelsea v Anderlecht will be on Setanta and ESPN2 gets the pick of the day with Lyon v Real Madrid. According to soccertv.com anyway.

[Northwood_DK]

Originally Posted by Critch

So do the signings of Luque and Owen mean that Shearer ends his career at Newcastle on the bench?

I don’t really understand why Real Madrid and Liverpool could not agree on a deal. The price was around $30mil but as I understand Real have still not made all the payments on the original deal.

Alan Shearer will still have a role to play in Newcastle. The team have only 1 pint after 4 games and have still not scored a single goal. They need all the firepower they can get.

[Ajaxab]

This move would seem to open up a space for Shearer in the manager's seat. With the signings of Owen and Luque, the Magpies now have some strikers they didn't have a couple of weeks ago. Bye bye Sounness, hello Shearer?

[moriarty]

Originally Posted by Critch

Look on the bright side, at least Owen going elsewhere probably means that Cisse won't be leaving Doubt he'll be allowed to go to Marseille now.

Unfortunately, Rafa insists on playing Cisse out of position on the right wing. Sigh.

I'll feel better if we use the money we would have spent on Owen on actually getting a decent right winger and another central defender (the thought of Josemi getting more playing time gives me heart palpatations).

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Northwood_DK

I don’t really understand why Real Madrid and Liverpool could not agree on a deal. The price was around $30mil but as I understand Real have still not made all the payments on the original deal.

The story so far is that Owen chose Newcastle over Liverpool because Benitez couldn't guarentee him a starting position, he'd have to challenge Morientes for the 1 in Liverpool's 4-5-1.

[moriarty]

Originally Posted by Northwood_DK

I don’t really understand why Real Madrid and Liverpool could not agree on a deal. The price was around $30mil but as I understand Real have still not made all the payments on the original deal.

Alan Shearer will still have a role to play in Newcastle. The team have only 1 pint after 4 games and have still not scored a single goal. They need all the firepower they can get.

I'm not sure that Real and Liverpool didn't agree to a deal ... but rather that Rafa wouldn't guarantee Owen playing time where Souness did. (edit - critch beat me to it).

Owen will get some goals for Newcastle, but they're still not a good team IMO. The best thing they can do is replace Souness as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for them, this transfer might ensure he stays for a while.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by moriarty

Owen will get some goals for Newcastle, but they're still not a good team IMO. The best thing they can do is replace Souness as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for them, this transfer might ensure he stays for a while.

I think they're a better team than you're giving them credit for. They've started the season with a tough run (other than the West Ham game, which was their one truely terrible performance so far. Not that they were great at Bolton either). Their problem is that they arent creating anything from midfield, they haven't scored a goal yet because they arent creating chances, not because of striker problems.

Once Parker settles and Emre shakes his injury, they'll be in a far better position to show how good they can be. Emre has looked great in his brief appearances so far.

Souness's biggest problem is that his midfield is still stocked with underperforming big names on big contracts that he didn't sign, Dyer, Jenas and Bowyer. If there's a more over-rated player in England than Bowyer, I don't know who it is.

[moriarty]

Originally Posted by Critch

I think they're a better team than you're giving them credit for. They've started the season with a though run (other than the West Ham game, which was their one truely terrible performance so far

I think they're a good team (i.e. they have talent) but will underperform with Souness. Maybe he'll prove me wrong, but I suspect he'll be gone after this season.

Agreed on Bowyer though.

[Butter]

So, what's the deal with FSC carrying a Serie A game this past Saturday? I thought the Italian stuff was only on GolTV. I must've missed something.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

So, what's the deal with FSC carrying a Serie A game this past Saturday? I thought the Italian stuff was only on GolTV. I must've missed something.

Italian teams are allowed to sell their home games individually, FSC picked up the rights to 4 teams that GolTV didn't get. So FSC has the rights to Lazio home games and three relegation candidates home games (can't remember who, I think Messina is one of them). They're planning on showing 20 Italian games this season.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by moriarty

I think they're a good team (i.e. they have talent) but will underperform with Souness. Maybe he'll prove me wrong, but I suspect he'll be gone after this season.

Oh yeah, I agree with you there, Souness isn't a great manager and he's not going to turn them into challengers. I think the problem seems to be deeper than just the manager though, Newcastle have underperformed for year.

[Icy]

Ahh guys, saw Robinho past Sunday in the R.Madrid game vs Cadiz, he is the magic. The match was really boring, as past year, R.Madrid has no midfield, just the defensors passing long to the mid attackers (Zidane mainly) to make a fast pass to Ronaldo or Raul (Well i know Raul played that match because he was listed in the lineup, not because he touched the ball once, well he did once, scored a goal but Ronaldo gave it to him, hew could have scored himself). Then when Cadiz tied the match and was dominating it, Robinho entered in the game and the magic explosion started. What a change in the game, he gave the speed, the fast passes betwen lines, the weird stuff with the ball until he past the ball deep to Ronaldo, Ronaldo used his great speed to give the death pass to Raul to only push the ball to score.

I really enjoyed that 20 minutes and all the press in Spain says the same, this year is going to be really nice to watch R.Madrid with Robinho, now let's see how Luxemburgo can handle as much stars in the team. He needs to replace somebody, Raul is named by everybody including me after the last 2 or 3 years where he is not the player he used to be, and even more after this first game where he didn't appear until he scored (and he is not like Ronaldo who can sit for a hole game and then score).

Try to look for the images from Robinho in that game from past Sunday, it will show you how beautifull can soccer be.