crackerjack
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fucking hell
Roiling football blather
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- alan smith 17 arsene the glum aesthete basic schoolboy errors benitez the sad clown borderline rivaldo shithousing bromley spiritual healer chelsea :facepalm: dracula and his war council henry does an adam smith i am a holding midfielder of your face. jumpers for goalposts lads it's tottenham large samuel ole's at the wheel serie a epic fail shearer yawn shed ted square balls the special one traffordish waving imaginary cards
crackerjack
Well-known member
crackerjack
Well-known member
My first team sacked their manager on saturday. A few hours later they won away against a team with unsavoury far-right connections.
Omen or straw?
Omen or straw?
crackerjack
Well-known member
crackerjack
Well-known member
Now that's how you play away in Europe. Smother the fuckers, silence the fans, wait for everyone to drop off, nick a goal.
Fuck your fancy football, we'll see you in the next round, maybe
Fuck your fancy football, we'll see you in the next round, maybe
IdleRich
IdleRich
Good performance. Have to say I'm surprised at how lacking in inspiration Real were - you look for them to have some flair and imagination but they just seemed to be playing a similar game to Liverpool but slightly less successfully (caveat - I missed the first thirty minutes or so). Not what you expect of Real in Madrid is it? It's pretty hard to see them overturning that in the next leg unless they conjure up some guile but which of their players is going to provide that?
mos dan
fact music
big up slackk going all the way to madrid for the game, glad you got the result mate, i can't quite imagine* what it'd be like going to an away game in europe and losing.. pretty shitty journey home presumably!
btw here's a fever pitch-esque testament to the irrationality of supporting your team: on tuesday night i chose a free ticket for arsenal vs roma, 15 mins down the road from me, over making the four hour round trip for afc wimbledon vs worcester city.
which seems sensible, right? watching two of the best teams in europe, in a huge palace of a stadium, round the corner from your house, rather than travelling on your 1s for hours and hours to stand in a dump in norbiton and watch afc comfortably (but unremarkably) dispatch with a very mediocre blue square south side.
you can see what's coming i'm sure: i've regretted the decision ever since, basically.
*part of the reason i can't imagine this is because wimbledon were denied the two opportunities they would've had to play in europe cos of the ban
btw here's a fever pitch-esque testament to the irrationality of supporting your team: on tuesday night i chose a free ticket for arsenal vs roma, 15 mins down the road from me, over making the four hour round trip for afc wimbledon vs worcester city.
which seems sensible, right? watching two of the best teams in europe, in a huge palace of a stadium, round the corner from your house, rather than travelling on your 1s for hours and hours to stand in a dump in norbiton and watch afc comfortably (but unremarkably) dispatch with a very mediocre blue square south side.
you can see what's coming i'm sure: i've regretted the decision ever since, basically.
*part of the reason i can't imagine this is because wimbledon were denied the two opportunities they would've had to play in europe cos of the ban
crackerjack
Well-known member
And them coming in on the back of nine straight wins too.
The Spanish bloke on Sky's Revisita La Liga said with absolute certainty at the time of the draw that all 4 English teams would go through. Obviously all these ties are still in play (and Juve supposedly looked good last night) , but he's looking a shrewd judge.
can't believe how easy it was last night - not the winning part, just the not losing. Are big Euro clubs scared of english teams now? Inter looked that way
crackerjack
Well-known member
*part of the reason i can't imagine this is because wimbledon were denied the two opportunities they would've had to play in europe cos of the ban
I've always suspected the ban was a premptive strike against the crazy gang dirtying the eyes of euro-fans
waiting in a moscow airport for 4 odd hours, 600 chelsea fans packed into a room that fits about 200- two people have asthma attacks, eventually the plane comes and it's already half-filled with diverted passengers, so only 150 of you can get on. and it's pissed down with rain since 11. and you've lost. to the scum. on penalties. that was bad.
if i hadn't have been at the front i'd have had to wait another 6 hrs in there too, apparently. :slanted:
boombox
...
Sneijder, Van der Vaart and Saviola. They were on the bench - injured presumably.
People go mad about Ibrahimovic because he can conjure up a bit of genius - a back-heeled goal, an outrageous dribble, a spanking shot. He does it in Serie A quite regularly. I thought that in the second-half he consistently had the beating of O'Shea and set up one or two good chances. When they play the long ball up to him, his control is fantastic.
Laziness and arrogance are a problem though. He thinks he'll be given all the time in the world on the ball because of who he is - a big name player.
Once Inter matched United for energy and pace after 30 minutes, the game was evenly matched. There aren't many teams that get 50% possession against United, if any. I think Serie A teams still get caught on the hop by the pace and physicality of Premier League teams. Once they'd adapted themselves, and brought on Cordoba for Rivas, the game was tight, with Cambiasso and Zanetti outplaying Fletcher and Carrick in the 2nd half.
Did you watch the Milan derby? That was a great technical match - Pirlo, Ronaldinho, Pato all on top form. I remember watching Milan play Empoli last season. Milan dominated but Empoli scored from the only two shots they had. Lesser teams in Italy have the ability to seriously punish you if you're not on your game.
Overall, Serie A is still more technical. The first touch and pass of players even in the relegation zone is very impressive. The strength in depth of the Premier League is woeful. Wigan and Fulham are in 7th and 8th and they can barely string one pass together. The FA Cup matches I've seen this year have been embarrassingly poor. The Premier League is basically the top five and then 15 average teams who could get relegated.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Just another example of how horrendously unfair that was. It's ok for Liverpool who committed the sin, they've had plenty of opportunities in Europe since the ban expired but Wimbledon missed the only chance in their history.
Or Robben I guess. How old is Saviola now?
He beat O'Shea once in the first half with a good bit of skill and whipped in a half-decent ball but don't remember much from him before or after that. I've never seen him do anything at Champions League or top international level. His goals in Serie A just seem like more evidence of its decline to me.
Eh? Inter had a good spell after the break but after that United's class slowly began to be asserted once again and really there was only one team that looked like doing anything. I go with La Repubblica
"United gave the impression of being superior in every area"
and
"there was overwhelming evidence of the technical and tactical superiority of the European champions"
You could be right - there was a period when Inter looked like rabbits in the headlights. And in Liverpool's case with due cause, they always seem to knock Spanish clubs out.
crackerjack
Well-known member
Saviola's irrelevant these days isn't he? They were supposedly trying to offload him to Liverpool as Keane replacement.
No arguments there. At least the Prem is now a top 5 (top 6 really - Everton are too good for relegation), which is an improvement on previous years.
Perhaps the interesting question is why Italian & Spanish teams with superior technique are consistenly beaten by English clubs. How can a side with Kuyt, Lucas (even as sub) and no-passing centrebacks beat Real Madrid and look pretty comfortable doing so?
boombox
...
That's been baffling me for a while. I think they do have a certain mental block at the moment.
Saviola's 27. I wouldn't call him irrelevant. I'm sure he's still got the talent he always had. He's one of those players who managers find difficult to fit into their team - he's more a striker than a play-maker / winger by nature but he's 2'6" and pretty weak.
Except finishing.
crackerjack
Well-known member
With apologies to Dan, and while in no way trying to downplay Liverpool's special responsibility, UEFA had no choice.
Hooliganism was a national problem. All the biggest clubs had previous in Europe and if the ban had been selective, allowing the likes of Wimbledon or Norwich (who tried taking the issue to court, I think) to compete, those clubs would've suddenly found themselves taking more fans to Europe (most of them with suspiciously non-local accents) than they were getting for home games.
The ban was bad luck on some, but it served its purpose.
crackerjack
Well-known member
Man, it's Wimbledon we're talking about here. Every last one of their players was a registered hoolie.