Official Football Thread

Liverpool is playing pretty bad for some time now. Arsenal beaten them 3-0, and the goals were scored by two defenders and a midfielder. I have little understanding for Benitez's tactics, I must say.

Had anyone watched Ronaldinho's stunning performance in the win against Saragosa. That free kick of his will go down in history. Barca was one goal down in the early stage of the game, but he was fired up from the start nevertheless.
People were saying how his form is down badly since the world cup, but in the last couple of games he showed that he still is the best in the world.
 
I've just been to see Newcastle vs. Celta Vigo, which was a pretty dire affair. The Toon won 2-1, which means they've qualified for the next round of the Uefa Cup, and they did pretty well considering the injuries they have. Tickets were £20 and they only had an attendance of 25,000. I'm sure that if they'd made tickets just £10 they would have got 40/50,000 fans in, which would have made a much better atmosphere (almost non-existant tonight) which in turn would surely have helped the team. After all, 'extra' games such as these in Europe shouldn't have been considered when working out pre-season budgets and what-not, so any money they make is a bonus.

P.S. QPR for playoffs and Premiership, and John Gregory for a knighthood. :bigsmile:
 
But a major contributing factor for the lack of interest (as well as the price of the ticket) stems from the fact that the UEFA Cup has been so devalued of late with 4 teams from the Premiership (for example) going to the Champions League. The dregs of the Premiership (and more often than not, the FA/League Cup loser) are sent to fight this almost meaningless trophy. Should Southend get to the League Cup final and face Arsenal and Arsenal finish 4th in the Premiership, Southend (regardless of the fact that they may be playing League 1 football) will be in Europe. A looser of a domestic devalued trophy would be sent to Europe to compete in another devalued trophy.

Back in the days when only the current Champions of their domestic league and the European Cup (as it was so called) would be the only teams, the UEFA Cup had so much more prestige and games like the above would have been a sell-out - even at £20 a throw.

And you went all the way up to St James for that match?
 
Albie said:
But a major contributing factor for the lack of interest (as well as the price of the ticket) stems from the fact that the UEFA Cup has been so devalued of late with 4 teams from the Premiership (for example) going to the Champions League. The dregs of the Premiership (and more often than not, the FA/League Cup loser) are sent to fight this almost meaningless trophy. Should Southend get to the League Cup final and face Arsenal and Arsenal finish 4th in the Premiership, Southend (regardless of the fact that they may be playing League 1 football) will be in Europe. A looser of a domestic devalued trophy would be sent to Europe to compete in another devalued trophy.

Back in the days when only the current Champions of their domestic league and the European Cup (as it was so called) would be the only teams, the UEFA Cup had so much more prestige and games like the above would have been a sell-out - even at £20 a throw.

And you went all the way up to St James for that match?
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St James Park is 15 minutes on the train from where I live during the academic year (Durham). ;)

You're right about a lack of interest in the UEFA cup, but my point is about the ticket prices. In past years Newcastle have sold out 55,000 every week in the Premiership, but not this season because they've been playing awful and the ticket prices are just too expensive to watch rubbish football. Besides, who knows, maybe Man. U and Barcelona will be in this year's UEFA cup?
 
national acrobat said:
Besides, who knows, maybe Man. U and Barcelona will be in this year's UEFA cup?
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:D
I think Barca are the most likely of the two to face the indignity of the UEFA Cup as a Champions League reject (Man U will do enough to get the point they need, I reckon). But yes, some fixtures need more interest and a reduction in the ticket price will generate this interest. A packed out St James is far better than at half full.

To have the UEFA cup as it used to be will also generate the interest also, but that will never happen - not with the money involved in the Champions league.
 
Well Manchester United threw it away (again!) today with a 1-1 draw with Chelsea.  After dominating almost the full match and creating much better chances which were squandered, Chelsea managed to get a draw.  I'm not going to criticise any individual player on the Manchester United team because I thought they all played well enough on thenoght but the integrity of some of them has to be questioned.

If I was offered a draw before the match, I would have taken it but now I feel disappointed  because a chance to go 6 points ahead of Chelsea has been lost.  Fair play to Saha who came back after the disappointment of the Celtic match to score a fantastic goal and proove his critics wrong.
 
I was disappointed that Man U didn't win; from what I saw on MOTD they deserved to. Good to see Rooney playing so well too.

Btw, did anyone see Ronaldo's miss two saturdays ago? Hilarious! Almost as funny as seeing him try to spit on the ground afterwards but only finding his chin/shirt. :lol:

P.S. congrats to Celtic getting through: they could go quite far if a nice draw comes out.
 
national acrobat said:
I was disappointed that Man U didn't win; from what I saw on MOTD they deserved to. Good to see Rooney playing so well too.

Btw, did anyone see Ronaldo's miss two saturdays ago? Hilarious! Almost as funny as seeing him try to spit on the ground afterwards but only finding his chin/shirt. :lol:

P.S. congrats to Celtic getting through: they could go quite far if a nice draw comes out.
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1.  Sympathy for Manchester United? :huh: I suppose it was Chelsea they were playing :P
2.  Indeed that was quite hilarious.
3.  I think Celtic are one of, if not the, most feared team in Eurpe now ;)
 
Conor said:
3.  I think Celtic are one of, if not the, most feared team in Eurpe now ;)
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If they were to play all there games at Celtic Park, then yes they would be - but they don't travel too good.
 
Speaking of Celtic, Henrik Larsson will go on loan for Manchester United. Seems they can't manage with only Rooney and Saha. I wonder if Henke will be able to make a difference for ManU. He did for Barca, but he's no spring chicken.
 
Natalie said:
Speaking of Celtic, Henrik Larsson will go on loan for Manchester United. Seems they can't manage with only Rooney and Saha. I wonder if Henke will be able to make a difference for ManU. He did for Barca, but he's no spring chicken.
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A fantastic acquisition, in my opinion. Having a player like that to come off the bench every game could seriously make the difference between 1st and 2nd place. And obviously two strikers is not enough for any club, regardless of their quality.
 
national acrobat said:
A fantastic acquisition, in my opinion. Having a player like that to come off the bench every game could seriously make the difference between 1st and 2nd place. And obviously two strikers is not enough for any club, regardless of their quality.
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The thing that everybody is forgetting however is that Manchester United have 4 perfectly good strikers before Larsson will some to the club.

Louis Saha
Wayne Rooney
Alan Smith!!!
Guissepi Rossi (on loan at Newcastle Utd but he could be recalled)

I don't see the need for Larsson to be honest and I just think it's a PR stunt.
 
I think that's beside the point Albie.  Alam Smith is a striker and no amount of tampering on behalf of Fergie will change that.  If Saha or Rooney got injured, it wouldn't be too difficult for Smithy to play up front as he has done for the majority of his career ;)
 
That's a fair point Conor, but whether Fergie sticks him in the middle or up front, is he fully fit from his broken leg?

Larsson is a good player who has come in for some stick in England, so now he could prove his critics wrong (or right - but I favour the former).
 
Alan Smith has played in a few Champions League minutes this season and is progressing quite well (or so ManUntied.com like to tell us :blueangel:)  and he should be fit by January, when Larsson will come along anyway.

Don't get me wrong though, I want Henrik to do well just as much as the next man but I see the loan move unnecessary.
 
Well bugger me, Southend won a league game. Wonders will never cease.

Anyhow, anyone fancy a little prediction on the game today Chelski V Arsenal? Wenger has removed his gloves and is having a dig at a little smug comment from the Chelsea chief exec. That said, I fancy Chelsea to win this one as Arsenal have yet to maintain a winning streak (which is why they are only 7th in the table) and that would really be the only result Man U would not want. A draw or Arsenal win will keep Man U 8 or 9 points clear of Chelsea - a nice place to be in the run-up to the Christmas schedule.
 
Well, I would hope that Arsenal wins or at least draws, but seeing as its Chelsea I'll make the prediction that Chelsea will win, but not by much.
 
Albie said:
Arsenal have yet to maintain a winning streak
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They were on a seven game winning streak at one stage.  A few results later and they find themselves 15 points behind.  Arsenal haven't done too much wrong, it's just almost impossible to keep up with Manchester United and Chelsea this season.

The match finished 1-1 anyway, which I thought was a fair result.  Flamini's goal went against the run of play and Michael "doesn't score enough" Essien produced an absolutely fantastic strike.  The result suits neither of the teams really as Arsenal probably feel as though the game was theirs to take and they slipped up near the end (without a few of their big players).  The only real benefactors are Manchester United :yey:
 
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