The Official Football (Soccer) Thread (v. It's starting again!)

[Nekov]

I know a few people that like Real Madrid. I never understand why.. I mean, during the time when they had Zidane, Ronaldo, Figo, that was a great team and was very enjoyable. But now with Mou, they play awfully. Go Barcelona!

[Dynia]

Best team in the whole world.

Excuse me? Even FCB fans admit that Real was MUCH better in both of the matches. Barcelona won - but it doesn't mean they are the best, as they were noticeably worse than Real Madrid. The football RM played in those matches was much more offensive and enjoyable than FCB's.
The first match had such an unfair result. The second one - not that much, but RM should have won anyway.

Also, while Real does play dirty from time to time, so does Barcelona. And in addition to that, they dive way too much.

[Arch Benemy]

First game of the season for Spurs, and a 5-0 victory away from home! The whole team played fantastic football, especially some of the younger players who got a chance with so many of the first team squad injured. On this showing, bring on United!

[Zantera]

I know a few people that like Real Madrid. I never understand why.. I mean, during the time when they had Zidane, Ronaldo, Figo, that was a great team and was very enjoyable. But now with Mou, they play awfully. Go Barcelona!

They don't.
I'll agree that they did play "pig"-football last year, but I take it you haven't seen the two games against Barca now, because during big parts of those games, Real outplayed Barca big time.

[Zantera]

This week's games, the ones in bold are the ones I'm watching myself, I'll also post what my thoughts on the end-results:

Saturday:

Sunderland v Newcastle (1)   
Arsenal v Liverpool (1)   
Aston Villa v Blackburn (1)
Everton v QPR (X)
Swansea City v Wigan Athletic (X)
Chelsea v WBA (1)

Sunday:

Norwich City v Stoke City (X)
Wolves v Fulham (X)   
Bolton v Manchester City (2)

Monday:

Man United v Tottenham (1)

[emindead]

Best team in the whole world.

Excuse me? Even FCB fans admit that Real was MUCH better in both of the matches. Barcelona won - but it doesn't mean they are the best, as they were noticeably worse than Real Madrid. The football RM played in those matches was much more offensive and enjoyable than FCB's.
The first match had such an unfair result. The second one - not that much, but RM should have won anyway.

Also, while Real does play dirty from time to time, so does Barcelona. And in addition to that, they dive way too much.

WTF!

I'm sorry, but how could you possibly miss the way Messi and Iniesta played the last match? Even Messi was really fat so I guess that would have helped you to catch him on camera. As heavy as he was, he's still the man who can associate himself perfectly with his team. Real Madrid was in their top game, they played the whole pre-season better than Barcelona did, had the whole team in better shape and still couldn't beat the fat, out of shape Culé players. THERE'S NO WAY REAL MADRID IS PLAYING BETTER. I'll give you this: Madrid is doing a better work at pressing and not letting Barcelona get the ball as much, but even with the out of shape Barcelona's left and right wingers (not taking into account that Piqué didn't play much of the first match due to an injury), Barca still outplayed them. Hey, I'm really surprised that Benzema could finally score a goal (what a terrible player!!!).

Let's wait for La Liga and the Champions to (really) start so we can see the players completely fit.

In other Spanish League news, Falcao García was transferred from Porto to the Atlético de Madrid (40 million Euros). Very mixed feelings about this, considering how bad Atlético is and how good is Falcao... only time will tell.

[John94]

Liverpool fan here, from their city too. Having watched the game, I must say that we deserved the win. Arsenal had some control but as soon as Frimpong got red-carded and the Liverpool changes were made then the game drastically changed. Excellent play and movement from Suarez and Mereiles. Downing impressed and so did Jose Enrique.

[Dynia]

Best team in the whole world.

Excuse me? Even FCB fans admit that Real was MUCH better in both of the matches. Barcelona won - but it doesn't mean they are the best, as they were noticeably worse than Real Madrid. The football RM played in those matches was much more offensive and enjoyable than FCB's.
The first match had such an unfair result. The second one - not that much, but RM should have won anyway.

Also, while Real does play dirty from time to time, so does Barcelona. And in addition to that, they dive way too much.

WTF!

I'm sorry, but how could you possibly miss the way Messi and Iniesta played the last match? Even Messi was really fat so I guess that would have helped you to catch him on camera. As heavy as he was, he's still the man who can associate himself perfectly with his team. Real Madrid was in their top game, they played the whole pre-season better than Barcelona did, had the whole team in better shape and still couldn't beat the fat, out of shape Culé players. THERE'S NO WAY REAL MADRID IS PLAYING BETTER. I'll give you this: Madrid is doing a better work at pressing and not letting Barcelona get the ball as much, but even with the out of shape Barcelona's left and right wingers (not taking into account that Piqué didn't play much of the first match due to an injury), Barca still outplayed them. Hey, I'm really surprised that Benzema could finally score a goal (what a terrible player!!!).

Let's wait for La Liga and the Champions to (really) start so we can see the players completely fit.

In other Spanish League news, Falcao García was transferred from Porto to the Atlético de Madrid (40 million Euros). Very mixed feelings about this, considering how bad Atlético is and how good is Falcao... only time will tell.

They were better in both of those matches. Much, MUCH better in the first match, and slightly better in the second. The only thing RM lacks at the moment is someone who's able to execute all the occasions to score a goal. Other than not being able to execute them, they pretty much outplayed Barcelona. They controlled the game for most of the time. They just had lots of bad luck and lacked a good offensive player.

[Zantera]

Some interesting results today in PL that I hadn't expected, right now W.Brom are leading 1-0 away against Chelsea, keep it up! 

[John94]

Doing a bit of plugging; any other British (citizens) signed the Hillsborough petition? Being a Liverpool fan, it was more or less a certainty to do so, but if you haven't then have a look on the e-petition site and it shouldn't be too hard to find. Spread the word to other football fans too but if the signatures aren't British then they will not count.

I'm sure football fans are aware of the Hillsborough disaster and I hope you see how important it is to get justice.

[Arch Benemy]

Well that game didn't go to plan. Thought Spurs played well in the first half, but United outclassed them in the second. Still, we're only one point behind the gooners eh?

[Zantera]

Yeah, Man United did a great second half.
The second goal especially was amazing, Man United has really improved their play this season, I feel like they've glanced a bit at Barca's way of playing football, lots of position-changes, fast attacks and a lot of va-va-voom football. (or whatever you wanna call it)

On Wednesday I'll be watching Udinese-Arsenal, but can't wait for the next PL-round this weekend.

[Zydar]

Another great victory by Man United

[Zantera]

So Arsenal just beat Udinese, no big surprise there.

[ariich]

After our shaky start to the season, it was good to see that we were a bit more solid! Still going to lose to United at the weekend, but at least we're in the Champions League, so now we just need to sign a couple of good players who can go straight into the team and we're set!

[climberboy]

i say come on the mighty pilgrims (Plymouth Argyle  )

but i do also follow Man u

[Zydar]

I'm watching the draw for the Champions League groups now. Let's see which teams Man United will face against.

[emindead]

Group A:

    FC Bayern München
    Villarreal CF
    Manchester City FC
    SSC Napoli

Group B:

    FC Internazionale Milano
    PFC CSKA Moskva
    LOSC Lille Métropole
    Trabzonspor AŞ

Group C:

    Manchester United FC
    SL Benfica
    FC Basel 1893
    FC Oţelul Galaţi

Group D:

    Real Madrid CF
    Olympique Lyonnais
    AFC Ajax
    GNK Dinamo Zagreb

Group E:

    Chelsea FC
    Villarreal CF
    Bayer 04 Leverkusen
    KRC Genk

Group F:

    Arsenal FC
    Olympique de Marseille
    Olympiacos FC
    Borussia Dortmund

Group G:

    FC Porto
    FC Shakhtar Donetsk
    FC Zenit St Petersburg
    APOEL FC

Group H:

    Barcelona
    AC Milan
    FC BATE Borisov
    FC Viktoria Plzeň

[Zydar]

United got a pretty boring group. Group H seems to be the highlight with Barca against Milan. It will be interesting to see how Manchester City will be doing in their group, that looks pretty tough too.

[emindead]

A is the death group.

Messi was voted the best player in Europe 2010-2011.

He's D10S.

[Zantera]

United got a pretty boring group. Group H seems to be the highlight with Barca against Milan. It will be interesting to see how Manchester City will be doing in their group, that looks pretty tough too.

Isn't that a good thing?

Can't say much about the draw, right now I'm more excited about this weekend and the game on Sunday.

[Zydar]

United got a pretty boring group. Group H seems to be the highlight with Barca against Milan. It will be interesting to see how Manchester City will be doing in their group, that looks pretty tough too.

Isn't that a good thing?

Yeah sure, if you want smooth sailing out of the group. I'd want at least one other "big" team in there so there could be some exciting games in that group.

[ariich]

I swear United always get the easiest groups, except last year (or was it the year before?) when Arsenal had the easiest group and we still nearly managed to screw it up.

The Arsenal draw is decent though, we should be able to progress really.

[emindead]

How is Arsenal supposed to win any game if they already sold their few good players?

[Nekov]

How is Arsenal supposed to win any game if they already sold their few good players?

I'm pretty sure they have great young players waiting for their chance in the first team. They should try to retain players for longer periods though. I think the only thing Arsenal lacks is experienced players.

[emindead]

How is Arsenal supposed to win any game if they already sold their few good players?

I'm pretty sure they have great young players waiting for their chance in the first team.

Good one. Please, they don't have La Macía.

[Zantera]

How is Arsenal supposed to win any game if they already sold their few good players?

Fabregas - injured 50% of the season, the other half he had about 70% missed passes out of all passes he did, add to that that he was by far the worst captain Arsenal has had in the last 15 years, and the fact that his heart wasn't in the club.

Nasri - one of the most overrated players in later years. Can do a few good games during the fall, but then do 20 shitty games during the spring where he's completely invisible.
Despite the huge praise he got last season, as a playmaker he only managed to get ONE assist, that's right.. ONE lousy assist, Denilson probably even had more then that.
He didn't have his heart in the club as well, money talks as they say.

So yeah, Arsenal got rid of two of their more overrated players, to make room for other players.
The only "weak" link they have left as I see it is Arshavin, who hasn't made that many good games since the 4-4 against Liverpool a few years ago when he scored all, now he mostly misses all of his passes, and don't really do much.

Arsenal with Wilshere and Ramsey as their heart and soul will be much better then Fabregas and Nasri, hands down.

[ariich]

Plus it'll be kinda nice to have some British people in the middle of the pitch for once!

Yeah Arshavin is a bit of a weak link. He always just runs past everyone and then hits it into the side-netting.

[Zantera]

Yeah that.
The thing in this case, is that all the people saying all "this is the end of Arsenal, loosing Nasri and Fabregas is the end" are people with no clue whatsoever.
People that probably play way too much Fifa or Football Manager, I think that most Arsenal-fans that follow them intensely would agree with me on what I said, selling Nasri and Fabregas at this stage was the best thing to do.

[ariich]

Yeah Fabregas is a shame but he was injured half of last season anyway. Nasri has been looking better and better, but he appears to be greedy and just wants more money, and it's been obvious for weeks that he wants to go, so all my Arsenal-supporting friends have been keen for him to just go so we can get some money in and buy some players that actually want to be here!

[Nekov]

So, Barcelona wins yet another tournament. And responding to Zanteras and Ariichs comments on him, Fabregas scored the second goal 

I enjoy watching them play so much, but I think it's becoming a little boring now. They don't seem to be able to lose.

[Zantera]

They met Porto, a team that has lost their best goalscorer and their fantastic coach that took them so far.

Honestly though, Real Madrid has a much better team on paper then Barcelona has, both in terms of quality and a wider squad.
If Barca get's an injury on Messi or Xavi, I think it will be fairly easy to notice in their gameplay, meanwhile Real has much more cover for that.

Anyhow, I think Real will win the Spanish league and might win CL, it all comes down to if Mourinho does his thing again.

[Nick]

I can't believe no one has changed this back yet.

[Zantera]

This weekend's games in Premier League: (as always, bold ones are the ones I'm seeing myself, I'll add what I think about possible results after each game)

Saturday:

Aston Villa - Wolverhampton (2)
Wigan - Queens Park Rangers (X)
Blackburn - Everton (X)
Chelsea - Norwich City (1)
Swansea - Sunderland (X)
Liverpool - Bolton (1)

Sunday:

Newcastle - Fulham (1)
Tottenham Hotspur - Manchester City (2)
West Bromwich Albion - Stoke City (1)
Manchester United - Arsenal (1)

Comments about this round:

Today I will try to catch Villa - Wolves out of the first games, I am a bit interested in seeing Wolves after their first two victories in two games, which I think is pretty impressive by a team like them, so I am interested in seeing how they play.
Then out of the middle games, Chelsea felt like the obvious choice to see, maybe Mata will be on the bench today, maybe not.
I'll also try to see Liverpool - Bolton afterwards, it has some potential to be a good game.

Tomorrow I'm seeing the two obvious games, Spurs - City has the potential to be something special, but the game I'm really looking forward to is Man U - Gunners.
I have a good feeling that Man U will get a good result, but on the other hand I think people are exaggerating Arsenal's situation, and I would honestly be happy with 1 point, though 3 points would be even better. (obviously)

[Arch Benemy]

I'm working all this weekend so I get to watch no football at all   Hoping for a Spurs win (obviously) but after the Man U game I'm not so confident. This game is at home but City are looking very very strong, plus we can't play Adebayor against them so we need a good game from VDV and Defoe. Hopefully Modric will play too! And I'm sure Man U will get a result against the Goons, hopefully by more than 3-0 to spare Spurs blushes!