Official Football Thread

The Canadian hosted tournament Under 20 World Cup has been under way for a couple of days now.  The Canadian team lost and lost bad to the Chilean team (0:3).  The South Americans have controlled the whole game play, passing and attacking; the Canadians reacted.  The Canadian one and only shot on net came around the 60-something minute.  After watching this game I was really impressed by the Chilean team's ball control.  Other game highlights and the highlights of other games were not as spectacular.  I can definitely see the youth and the obvious wet-behind-the-ears signs on many of the players.  On some level, the young players are ridiculed by yours truly when I watch, but I know that even in my prime I could not do what these guys do. 

In other news, Japan beat Scotland 3:1; Spain and Uruguay tied 2:2.

Further news...
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/fifau20/
 
Thanks mate!

It's not broadcasted here, unfortunately.

Most unbelievable news is that Poland won from Brazil!  :blink:
 
Wednesday, 16th May. Defending U.E.F.A. Cup holders Sevilla won the same cup again for the 2nd time when it beat fellow Spanish club Espanyol 3-1 on penalties after both sides drew 2-2 during extra time in the Final held in Glasgow, Scotland. Sevilla became the first side to win the competition two years in a row since Real Madrid achieved this feat in 1985 and 1986.

Saturday, 23rd June. Sevilla wins the King's Cup (Copa del Rey) for the 4th time after beating Getafe 1-0 in the Final held in Madrid.

Forostar, maybe you are right. If I remember the news correctly I simply post them. Next time I'll post the latest news to this thread. Just be patient.

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thousand_suns said:
Forostar, maybe you are right. If I remember the news correctly I simply post them. Next time I'll post the latest news to this thread. Just be patient.
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Yeah, Forostar, just be patient.  :bigsmile:

In more recent ( :smartarse:) news, World Cup U-20 brings us a Mexican win over Gambia (3:0).  Both teams played well and had great chances, but the Mexicans had a higher chance of penetrating the 18 yard line.  The Gambians had a couple of awesome far-away shots on net and few close counts.  The most entertaining Mexican goal was the second one where the Gambians defended the attack 3 times in a row before the Mexicans finally got the ball in.  It was an entertaining game.

Also Portugal beat New Zealand 2:0.

Watch the rest of the highlights at FIFA.com.  I especially recommend the Mexico vs Gambia highlights, whose game I enjoyed.

http://www.fifa.com/u20worldcup/index.html
 
Saturday, 26 May. Lyon made history when it was crowned French champions for the 6th time in a row after beating Nantes 2-1 at home. French league president Frédéric Thiriez presented the new championship trophy called Hexagoal to the champions, which replaced the original two-pronged trophy. Can Lyon win the French title for the 7th time next season? The answer remains to be seen....

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30. April 1945. Adolf Hitler is found dead in his bunker in central Berlin. Next to him lie his wife, Eva Braun, and his two German shepherds. Hitler commited suicide by shooting himself. In his last will, Hitler appointed Admiral Karl Dönitz his successor.
Will Dönitz manage to turn the tide of the war? It remains to be seen...



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This will be my last news regarding past football leagues because after this I'll be posting the latest news on football elsewhere.
Sunday, 27th May. Inter Milan was crowned Italian champions for the 15th time after beating Torino 3-0 at home. I even heard rumours saying that Portugal's Luis Figo is set to leave Inter while Argentine star Carlos Tévez is rumoured to join the Italian champions from English side West Ham United and lastly let us hope that Inter wins the Serie A title for the 16th time next season.

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thousand_suns said:
Argentine star Carlos Tevez is rumoured to join the Italian champions from English side West Ham United.....
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The rumour in the UK is that Tevez is set to join Man U and as gone as far as agreeing personal terms (details here).

As a side note, Colchester (yes, little old Colchester) has signed up ex-England international Sheringham. I must admit, that is a good buy for them - despite his age.
 
Well, here is the run down for the Fifa World Cup U-20 in Canada.

Some things I've noticed:
* Canada sucks ass!  I mean real ass, not fake imitation ass, but real donkey ass!  They are the only team NOT to have scored a single goal in the tournament and its on their own soil!!!  Even the New Fuckin' Zealand Kiwis managed to score a goal against the favourites of Mexico.  Before you point to Panama and say at least the Canadians did not receive 8 goals, let me say that I'd rather they received 20 goals and at least scored one.  But they're no good!  They were supposed to have a decent team to impress everyone for the World Cup after South Africa 2010, but hell at this rate they'll be losing against Bahamas or some island with a rock and a tree and a couple of natives.  They could not even qualify as a pitiful third team.  They suck!  Totally!
* Our neighbours, the USA, on the other hand, were really impressive and I was rooting for them.  They have a couple of real up and coming stars: Danny Szetela, Freddy Adu, and Josmer Altidore, all three of which are in the top five scorers.  These guys and the rest of the team was really impressive against the Poles and the Brazilians beating both (6:1 and 2:1, respectively).  They're going to make USA go real far in the next world cup and the one after, I think.
* Despite all their flash, both Brazil and Portugal lost two games and won a single game.  Luckily, for them 4/6 best third placed teams go on to the sweet sixteen. 
* Scotland is the only European team not to go on.
* Mexico is the only team to have won all of their games!   :ok:
* Group D was the proverbial "Group of Death" and it shows in the teams stats.

Here are the stats (from fifa) (http://www.fifa.com/u20worldcup/standings/index.html)

The knock-out round is here (http://www.fifa.com/u20worldcup/matches/index.html)

My predictions are as follows -- the winners will be:

Austria vs USA

Spain vs Japan

USA vs Spain (for the semi-finals)

and on the other side...

Chile vs Nigeria

Argentina vs Mexico

Nigeria vs Mexico (for the semi-finals)


If you have an opportunity to watch any of these games, even highlights, do so.  A lot of these players are rising stars.  While I can see plenty of rookie mistakes, some of them are only 16; they can only improve.  (Which probably means I should take back everything I said about Canada).  But I won't, this country is pretty apathetic when it comes to soccer.  I'd think with so much multiculturalism here we'd have people from whole bunch of nations that make up a pretty good team.  But the Canadians do not have the flair, ball skill or confidence to be even as good as the worst in this tournament (New Zealand, Panama).
 
Genghis Khan said:
* Scotland is the only European team not to go on.
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Now there's a surprise. :D

I have to admit that what happens to these players is that they fail to live up to their early promise - and that can happen so often. A good example was the FIFA Youth World Cup that took place in 1993 - England were 3rd that year, but by looking at the squad they had only 1 player made it as a regular full international - Nicky Butt. One or two had a couple of games and one or two had a few more than that (Nicky Barnby was one such player - and he really did have a lot of promise back then) - but the rest just became Premiership squad players.
 
Thanks Genghis ! :)

Freddy Adu was already a phenomenon a few years back. I guess we'll hear a lot of him still!
 
Genghis Khan said:
* Mexico is the only team to have won all of their games!   :ok:
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That's because this squad kicks major ass :D This same squad won the sub-17 World Cup. In other Mexico news they just passed to the semi-final in the Copa America against Argentina after beating Paraguay 6-0 :yes: woohoo!!! I see a bright future for Mexican football :D
 
Here are the teams that will be competing in the Bundesliga next season:
1. V.F.B. Stuttgart (Champions)
2. Schalke 04
3. Werder Bremen
4. Bayern Munich
5. Nuremberg
6. Hamburg
7. Bochum
8. Borussia Dortmund
9. Hertha Berlin
10. Hannover 96
11. Arminia Bielefeld
12. Energie Cottbus
13. Eintracht Frankfurt
14. Wolfsburg
15. Karlsruhe (Promoted)
16. Hansa Rostock (Promoted)
17. Duisburg (Promoted)


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Here are the teams that will be competing in the English Premier League next season:
1. Manchester United (Champions)
2. Aston Villa
3. Blackburn Rovers
4. Wigan Athletic
5. Bolton Wanderers
6. Chelsea
7. West Ham United
8. Everton
9. Fulham
10. Liverpool
11. Manchester City
12. Middlesbrough
13. Newcastle United
14. Portsmouth
15. Reading
16. Tottenham Hotspur
17. Arsenal
18. Sunderland (Promoted)
19. Birmingham City (Promoted)
20. Derby County (Promoted)



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