Official Football Thread

England 2-1 Ukraine. A good test for England tonight - 1-0 up, then pegged back to 1-1 only to get a late winner from the captain. A heavy sigh of relief could be heard from all that is English.

So, that is 5 wins out of 5 and they now match the Dutch - but still one behind the Spanish who have 6 out 0f 6 (but they are the reigning European Champs, so no surprise they have started well). Surely they can't bugger this one up.
 
Spain, England, Holland and Germany all look safe now, and need major fuck-ups not to get to South Africa.

Norway played a quite lousy game against Finland today, but won 3-2, the winner being a nice volley from Blackburn's Morten Gamst Pedersen deep into injury time.  He taunted the crowd a bit, after they had booed him earlier (for some reason, our usual home crowd seems to have chosen him as a scapegoat when the team performs badly). I really take his side today, he was certainly not our poorest player and he didn't deserve to be booed. Booing individual players is generally a disgrace unless they have done something really stupid. But then again, we have a large portion of shit fans on our home games.

Scotland's win against Iceland was something I expected, and it's quite evident we need to win 4 out of the remaining 5 games to get 2nd place. We probably don't need to beat Holland away (but I'm a bit afraid Holland may have nothing to play for when they go to Glasgow, so Scotland will have a better chance to get anything than we have). We can't afford to fuck up a single game now.
 
I was quite surprised with the Scottish victory, the coach suspended two of his players because they drank too much after the game vs Holland.
 
Scotland are usually not bad at home. And Iceland are not that much to write home about. OK, they got a draw against us in Oslo, but last year was our worst year since 1978 - Scotland are a better team than we were half a year ago. I just hope Mr. Olsen can get more out of the players - if they all play at their best we can beat anyone, we beat Germany just a month ago.
 
Lets face it, Scotland are shit.They were even shit when we allowed their star players like Archie Gemmill, Graeme Souness etc, play in the old English first division.

I would like to see Celtic and Rangers in the Premier league though.
 
This is a little bit ridiculous, Scotland has banned for life two keys players for a) having a post-match drink and then b) making gestures at the press as they sat on the reserves bench for the Iceland game.
_45626765_fergusonmcgregor_snsb226.jpg

I mean, come on. If England took that same stance, there would be no Gascoigne, no Sheringham, no Merson, etc. A little petty if you ask me.


As for Gascoigne and mocking the press because of a drink - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0NT6aUwN8c
 
national acrobat said:
What a goal!!

5 out of 5 for England, but in the only group with 3 sides in the FIFA top 20, so England are doing the best right?
Click to expand...
Next two for England: Kazakhstan away and Andorra at home - surely that has to be 7 out of 7? And considering Croatia is ranked higher than us as well!

@Foro: For life indeed. They may soon regret it if they fail to qualify because they showed no fight away to Norway or at home to a spirited Macedonia. I'm not saying that Ferguson, for example, is the be all and end all of Scottish hopes, but he is a player that has been there and done it. You need players like that in a tight game in Oslo.
 
Forostar said:
Newcastle - Chelsea
Fulham - Liverpool (Fulham defeated Man U yesterday)
Manchester United - Aston Villa (Liverpool obliterated Villa today)
Click to expand...

Newcastle - Chelsea: 0-2
Liverpool did what Manchester couldn't do:
Fulham - Liverpool: 0-1
Man U - Aston Villa: 3-2

Meanwhile in Germany, another former Eastern Germany club is doing remarkably well:

Hertha BSC        1 Boruss.Dortmund   3
VfL Wolfsburg     5 Bayern München    1 !!!!

Super!

1. Wolfsburg       26 15  6  5  51  58-32
2. Hamburger SV  26 16  3  7  51  40-36
3. Hertha BSC     26 15  4  7  49  40-32
4.  Bay. München 26 14  6  6  48  54-36
5. Stuttgart        26 13  6  7  45  46-37
6. Hoffenheim      26 12  8  6  44  52-35


In the Netherlands it looks like there'll finally be a champion who is not a member of "The Big Three" (PSV-Ajax-Feyenoord) who have ruled since 1982. I am talking about AZ (Alkmaar) who were the last other club to win the title, back in 1981.

AZ are in a comfortable position (check these amazing stats in the table below) while the other three are struggling. Especially Feyenoord is low but compared with last year the others are doing way worse, especially PSV.

1. AZ                  29 23  4  2  73  60-15
2. FC Twente    29 18  8  3  62  54-26
3. Ajax             28 18  4  6  58  61-29
4. Heerenveen   29 16  7  6  55  60-49
5. PSV              29 15  7  7  52  57-30
6. FC Groningen  29 14  4 11  46  48-33
7. NAC Breda     28 12  6 10  42  41-43
8. FC Utrecht     29 10  9 10  39  35-32
9. NEC              29  9 11  9  38  34-32
10. Feyenoord    28  9  8 11  35  40-36
 
Either someone pulled my leg and I fell for it big time, or Wolfsburg used to have a manager called Wolfgang Wolf.  :D

Even though there's the possibility now of Liverpool winning the title, it must be a lot more exciting following a league like Germany's where the top 4 isn't predetermined. Also, I've nothing against Bayern, but it's nice to see them not doing so well.
 
They did. And then he shocked the country when he changed to Nuremberg. :D

Oh, btw, Foro... erm, Wolfsburg is in Western Germany. Barely, but it still is (and so is Hertha, but I think you know that already ;)).
 
Do Hertha play at the Olympic stadium? I think they've built a roof over it now, but when I went there, you could go up an Observation tower and look into the ground - very cool.
 
Yes, they do. There's no roof over it, only panels over the stands. I'll be going to see Hertha's match vs Schalke (their last home game this season), and it's sold out. Imagine a stadium that fits 70000 people sold out... that should rock.

I think I've watched Hertha play there five or six times, I'm not sure. And I've been there to see the Rolling Stones once. Say what you will, it's a really special stadium.

EDIT: Here's what it looks like now:

highlights01.jpg
 
Pretty spectacular. That's what I meant, a roof over the stands, I think they only had a couple small sections of it up when I saw it. I presume the gap is there still for the tower. Shame about the running track though, never good in a football stadium.
 
Yeah, but at least the running track is in blue and white. ;)
It's in extensive usage though, the stadium hosts a lot of national and international track and field events.
 
About Wolfsburg, I seriously never had that impression. It's deep into Germany from my perspective.
I have been there (making a little side step to visit Ad Sluijter who was recording his guitar tracks for the latest Epica album) on my way to Braunschweig to spend the night in a motel. And then the next day to Krakow.
 
Well, Wolfsburg is an awful and terrible city, so that could have contributed to that "Eastern German" impression of yours. ;)

Currently, there is only one club from former Eastern Germany in the first Bundesliga, Energie Cottbus. Another one is in the second Bundesliga, Hansa Rostock. Then, in the third Bundesliga, there are five: Dynamo Dresden, Union Berlin, Carl Zeiss Jena,  Rot-Weiß Erfurt and Erzgebirge Aue.
 
Normally I would say 3-1 up from the away leg is a ticket to the next round - but after this weekends results, I would not be surprised if Liverpool turn this tie around in their favour.

Liverpool 4-0 Blackburn
Chelsea 4-3 Bolton - But Chelsea were 4-0 up and but for a goal line clearance in the last few minutes, they may have dropped two points.

Personally, I would say that only Barcelona has more or less secured their passage to the semis. All other ties hang in the balance. Good stuff, aint it?
 
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