The Football Thread - Season 2011/2012 - Part 2

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TriggerHappy said:
Bendtner receives a one match ban and €100,000 fine for showing personal sponsorship on his underwear. FC Porto were fined just €20,000 for fans racially abusing Balotelli.
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The Croatian football federation was also fined 25,000EUR for the flares that were thrown into the pitch by their fans which caused the match to be temporarily suspended.

Goes to show where UEFA and FIFA's priorities are eh?
 
joescrivens said:
season fixtures have been announced. I always look at the first 5 games and the last 5 to get a sense.
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Away to Leeds Utd first game, then Barnsley at home.... how the mighty fall with such little grace.

Boy it's going to be a cr*p season! :'(
 
Well that was some of the most **** poor commentary I've ever heard from the BBC in the Spain v Croatia game. The number of mistakes was unreal. David Silva is now David Villa, Vida had a shot after being substituted, Fernando Llorente has won two titles with Italian side Borussia Dortmund. Simon Brotherton & Mark Bright were truly dreadful.

I just had a glance at twitter to see if I was the only one appalled and it seems not. Abuse is coming thick and fast for the duo, and rightfully so!
 
wibbly said:
Away to Leeds Utd first game, then Barnsley at home.... how the mighty fall with such little grace.

Boy it's going to be a cr*p season! :'(
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In many ways I prefer the Championship to the Premier League. Nearly every team will actually have a chance of winning it, unlike in the Prem. Leeds away, sounds like a great game.

You'll certainly win more games than last year! :)
 
TriggerHappy said:
Well that was some of the most **** poor commentary I've ever heard from the BBC in the Spain v Croatia game. The number of mistakes was unreal. David Silva is now David Villa, Vida had a shot after being substituted, Fernando Llorente has won two titles with Italian side Borussia Dortmund. Simon Brotherton & Mark Bright were truly dreadful.

I just had a glance at twitter to see if I was the only one appalled and it seems not. Abuse is coming thick and fast for the duo, and rightfully so!
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I find generally BBC and ITV commentary is terrible compared to Sky, and don't get me started on the 'pundits' who on the whole are paid a fortune but can't be bothered to even do any research into most teams :bang:
 
akr said:
I find generally BBC and ITV commentary is terrible compared to Sky, and don't get me started on the 'pundits' who on the whole are paid a fortune but can't be bothered to even do any research into most teams :bang:
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I hate the word analysis on motd :thumbsdown: I wish they would use something else
 
akr said:
I find generally BBC and ITV commentary is terrible compared to Sky,
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it's nowhere near as bad as TalkSport, Collymore especially!
how they get sponsorship for radio 'highlights' is beyond me :lol:
 
akr said:
In many ways I prefer the Championship to the Premier League. Nearly every team will actually have a chance of winning it, unlike in the Prem. Leeds away, sounds like a great game.

You'll certainly win more games than last year! :)
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Great point, in fairness the standard of the Championship is excellent and getting better.

It's just not the greed league is it… :)
 
wibbly said:
Great point, in fairness the standard of the Championship is excellent and getting better.

It's just not the greed league is it… :)
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But all the owners want to be in the Premier League so who are the greedy ones?
 
Spain have looked poor and if we play them next round, I am not worried at all, in fact i expect us to win!
 
cambsno said:
Spain have looked poor and if we play them next round, I am not worried at all, in fact i expect us to win!
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well, they looked poor last night, but I think it was because they only needed a draw. It will be a different story in the QF when it's a must win.

That said, I think I'd prefer this route to the cup:

spain, portugal, germany

rather than

italy, germany, spain/france

basically because I'd much rather face germany in a final than a semi final. You watch, we'll go and win the group now :lol::lol:
 
cambsno said:
Spain have looked poor and if we play them next round, I am not worried at all, in fact i expect us to win!
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I think your confidence is misplaced.

Spain have been 'poor' by the lofty standards we expect from them but they've still played better than everyone except Germany so far.

England haven't exactly been impressive yet either. The difference is we know there's more to come from Spain, but we have no idea if England are already playing at the top of their game or if they can go up a gear...I suspect what we saw so far is as good as it's going to get for us.
 
TriggerHappy said:
I think your confidence is misplaced.

Spain have been 'poor' by the lofty standards we expect from them but they've still played better than everyone except Germany so far.

England haven't exactly been impressive yet either. The difference is we know there's more to come from Spain, but we have no idea if England are already playing at the top of their game or if they can go up a gear...I suspect what we saw so far is as good as it's going to get for us.
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They play like Barca and has been shown by Madrid and Chelsea, can be beaten. Spain have loads of possession, and better players but nothing up top. You just need to look at many results last season - Arsenal v Norwich at home 3-3, Blackburn away to Man U 1-0 for example to show that often the weaker side can get through.
 
cambsno said:
They play like Barca and has been shown by Madrid and Chelsea, can be beaten. Spain have loads of possession, and better players but nothing up top. You just need to look at many results last season - Arsenal v Norwich at home 3-3, Blackburn away to Man U 1-0 for example to show that often the weaker side can get through.
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Of course, there's millions of examples of David beating Goliath throughout history, but they're rare events that occur against sizeable odds; hence why it's a Biblical story!

Also, likening England to either Madrid or Chelsea is silly. England have neither the talent nor the cohesion to play in the resolute fashion Madrid and Chelsea can. Regardless, in the last 8 El Classico league clashes Barca have won 6, drawn 1, and lost 1. And that's against a side far better than England.

I'll be very happy to eat my words if we cause an upset, though :D

Oh, and don't forget Arsenal beat Barcelona too! At their own game, no less! :D
 
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TriggerHappy said:
England have neither the talent nor the cohesion to play in the resolute fashion Madrid and Chelsea can.
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are you sure about that ....... we put on a defensive masterclass in this match

[YOUTUBE]Nb36OBuFIuE[/YOUTUBE]
 
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joescrivens said:
are you sure about that ....... we put on a defensive masterclass in this match

[YOUTUBE]Nb36OBuFIuE[/YOUTUBE]
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That was an exceptional game but it's not exactly a performance we can rely on. I just googled the match stats to see how dominated we were...

Possesion 29 - 71
SOT 2 - 2
Shots 3 - 21
Corners 1 - 6
Fouls 18 - 9

We rode our luck in that game, I'm not sure it's a repeatable performance!

Will your money be on England in and England v Spain game?
 
TriggerHappy said:
That was an exceptional game but it's not exactly a performance we can rely on. I just googled the match stats to see how dominated we were...

Possesion 29 - 71
SOT 2 - 2
Shots 3 - 21
Corners 1 - 6
Fouls 18 - 9

We rode our luck in that game, I'm not sure it's a repeatable performance!

Will your money be on England in and England v Spain game?
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I think if you looked at all the games where the underdog defended 99% of the game and scored 1 goal you'll see similar stats. It is a method you can use to win a game. It's not pretty, but it can work with the right tactics. I think if we play spain in the auter finals we'll have a repeat exactly of the game at wembley with stats just like what you posted.

Whether we win it or not is all down to what happens on the day - but it is entirely possible. Against spain, yes I think my money would be on us, it's against portgual and germany where I think we are more likely to lose to be honest.
 
As the footy drags on . . .

Spacecartoon19.jpg
 
erm! All this talk of spain! I thought there was a little matter of a half decent side, hosting the tourn, who will have a huge percentage of supporters baying for English blood at every kick of the ball. I'm fricking nervous about this one, considering!
 
Vantage said:
erm! All this talk of spain! I thought there was a little matter of a half decent side, hosting the tourn, who will have a huge percentage of supporters baying for English blood at every kick of the ball. I'm fricking nervous about this one, considering!
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exactly!

we drew with France.. but we were on the ropes for long spells. We fought back against Sweden with a battling performance but not outstanding... and now all of a sudden i'm hearing... right well i'd rather play Spain now than meet them in the final etc.. etc..

I think we will beat Ukraine, but they aint gonna lie down that's for sure.
 
Spain haven't looked as good as they've done in recent times. Italy have looked pretty solid and up for a battle. There's pro's and cons to facing either and whatever form each of them have - it can all change by the next game.

I'll just be happy if we qualify for the QF

As for tonight - I'm just looking forward to the game now. It remains to be seen what impact Rooney will or won't make but I've no doubt it will all his fault if he has a poor game and England crash out LOL. I'm quietly confident that we should enough to get a result though.
 
I don't think Spain have been playing particularly well or indeed trying too hard as of yet.

In their first game against Italy they were pretty defensive, against Ireland they did what they had to do, and last night so long as they avoided defeat they knew they were going through. The fun for them starts now.

As for England well, let's get past Ukraine tonight and then discuss what happens from there. We all know what can happen with England just when we don't think it can! :D
 
This could be the end of the road if we continue like this :(
 
Good result so far!
 
Ukraine started like a rocket as predicted and they've flopped later on in games so whilst it's still 0:0 things are still in our favour.

Just need to keep their heads and the central midfield need to get in control.
 
tiler65 said:
But he is not good enough to start.
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He was on Friday. Let's see if Roy has the balls to take Rooney off at 70 mins if he keeps playing like this. Get the big Geordie back in and lets hold the ball up a bit and get welbeck in the box.
 
I'm sure some changes will come as and when required.

The more game time he can get whilst the score is suitable the better.

Certainly no need to panic at 0:0

Possesion and Midfield in general play is more of a concern to me just now than a missed header.
 
GET IN!!!!!!!
 
Even my nan would have put that header in the work was all done by some very poo goal keeping.

Now let's keep this going!
 
Rooney you loser!!! How did you not score that? No pace.

Having said that. Carroll wouldn't have scored that either. Ha!!
 
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