football: the beautiful game

[RobbertJan]

We don't really have one good thread about soccer,so i figured i'd start one.

Just a general thread to discuss favorite teams/players/ latest matches etc. etc.

i'll start, favorite team: FC Barcelona. Favorite players: Ronaldinho, Messi, Eto'o, Deco from Barca and Henry, Van Persie, Vd. Vaart, Aissati, Aguero, Higuain, Gago, Rodrigo Palacio, Cesc, Davids, Ibrahimovic, and many more

Barca drawed against Osasuna yesterday, terrible match, hardly any goal attempts, and no ronni, leo, but eto'o finally back! In holland we had a great weekend, with psv-az and ajax-feyenoord, first one was a great and exciting match, with az winning with some luck. ajax-feyenoord bit disappointing cause ajax just waaay to good.

and is anyone into streetsoccer? if so check out www.voetbaltruc.nl for some great videos of players. other soccer sites www.voetbalprimeur.nl, vi.nl

anyway discuss your soccer favorites!

[seraphim]

It is not 'soccer'. It is football.

[RobbertJan]

who cares, and this way american people will not think it's about american football

[evisu 2000]

i support the geordies but my favorite player ever however is cantona. sas best strike partnership in the history of england... holla!

[Tisswat]

4-1

pwned

[mis]

SAS= Shearer and Sutton?

I watch Soccer but i very much prefer playing street soccer. And Brazil/Holland have the best players imo.

-M53-qcoLAM

[tedsu]

havent been playing soccer for few years now and i dont have the stamina anymore ... usually i play futsal nowdays ...

[Tisswat]

I wonder if Beckham will have any effect on the popularity of football/soccer in the US. I was hoping for Freddy Adu to take the sport to the next level in the US, but so far it's been awfully quiet around "the new Pele/Maradona/God". Shame.

[Roulette]

Favorite Team: Juventus

Favorite Players: Mohamed Zidan, Diego, Zambrotta, Thuram, Ribery.

[cHr]

I wonder if Beckham will have any effect on the popularity of football/soccer in the US. I was hoping for Freddy Adu to take the sport to the next level in the US, but so far it's been awfully quiet around "the new Pele/Maradona/God". Shame.

Well...the way Adu played at the one big event in Europe (WC under 21) where he had the chance to prove the profecy it's logical that it's so quiet. The noticable thing he did after that was the stage at ManU which wasn't too helpful for his career. Well it made his manager say that Ajax was a good club to start his european career. I think we'll never hear of him again. At least not on a wordclass level.

The way i've experienced football in the usa is that it's a chick sport. A lot of good looking girl practice it which definitely isn't the case in the Netherlands..haha Don't think Beckham will change anything. Playing at Galaxy is (most likely) just the stage before he moves on to Hollywood where he'll make a couple of horrible movies.

My favorite club nationwide is Ajax. I also like Genoa and Barca. Favorite players are Zlatan, Davids, Maldini, Pirlo, Eto'o, Sar, Buffon and (for his crazyness) Barthez.

I hope the dutch league will continue to be undecided untill the end. My bet is on Ajax. In england I hope ManU will become champion. Italy is facing another dramatic time for football which is horrible. In Germany everything is still open just as it is in Spain. I like that.

[swisloc]

how about champions league?

anyone think Lyon can do anything or was the domination of Real in group stage a fluke? I tend to think they ARE really good, but they get so little competition week to week in such a crappy league, that they are bound to be rusty coming into the second round.

Barca is overrated this year, unless they are just biding their time. we'll see, but they haven't played great so far. i like chelsea's chances in champions league as well. Drogba is on a mission to prove he can perform without diving.

also, how about Arjan Robben going from godsend after one good match (really one good half) against Serbia in the World Cup to a bench player that barely makes an impact this season with Chelsea.

[RobbertJan]

^lyon actually lost 2 in a row to low ranked clubs, so bit of a crisis there, and although yes they've got a good squad they still miss a great striker, i mean baros.....come on.

barca is not overrated in any way, but they haven't been on top form i agree, but still there 1st in the rankings and now with messi and eto'o back they will win la liga and the champions league!

hmm drogba is on good form this season, but imo chelsea is the ugliest team in the world so will never support that. robben has had a lot of injuries so don't be to hard on him.

for the holland league, i still think psv will win, though great that davids is back with ajax:)!!

oh and about the streetsoccer, my fav. players: vaantje, djuric, issy, falcao,

[Darkadious]

who cares, and this way american people will not think it's about american football

It is not 'soccer'. It is football.

i thought it was futbol.

[RobbertJan]

voetbal, soccer, football, futbol (spanish), it's all the same thing....

[superdupersang]

for all you people unaware of cantona.

excellent article in last months GQ (i know..)

basically, durnig a match, some fan shouted abuse at Cantona.

so he turns around and does a flying kick into the fan's face. then punches hiim again.

oWYpX6SIe9Q

resulting in a 1 year ban. onhis return he scores this goal

yfHald21x4I

[RobbertJan]

Who btw in u're opinion is the best player in the world right now?

Mine without doubt Ronaldinho. In him i see so many great players from old times combined. Like the one brazilian commentator noted: he's got the unpredictability of garrincha, the speed of romario, the intelligence of zico etc. etc.

and he is like that. he decides matches almost every week, he's got a unbelievable technique (who else could've scored that goal against chel$ki!) he's got the creativity, he can score with his head, he's fast etc. etc.

==> he's right up there with pele, cruijf, maradonna, best imo. and the best thing: the smile, it just makes you laugh when u see the guy play or talk or whatever, that huge pleasure in living, amazing:)

so enough with the love song there......

on the adu thing: one big media hype. soccer in the us will never be big i'm afraid, it's just something they don't get, there's no history and in soccer history is everything.

[evisu 2000]

i choose nedved, but only because i like him. although 2 (or 3 or 4) seasons ago when he won the european footballer of the year it was well deserved imo.

[dumadiscount]

liverpool

kewell

socceroooooooooooooooooooos

[RobbertJan]

i choose nedved, but only because i like him. although 2 (or 3 or 4) seasons ago when he won the european footballer of the year it was well deserved imo.

yeah very good player and i liked how he stayed loyal to juve after the relegation.

[Tisswat]

For the CL, I'm putting my money on an Italian side this year. It's just a hunch though.

[swisloc]

Who btw in u're opinion is the best player in the world right now?

Mine without doubt Ronaldinho. In him i see so many great players from old times combined. Like the one brazilian commentator noted: he's got the unpredictability of garrincha, the speed of romario, the intelligence of zico etc. etc.

and he is like that. he decides matches almost every week, he's got a unbelievable technique (who else could've scored that goal against chel$ki!) he's got the creativity, he can score with his head, he's fast etc. etc.

==> he's right up there with pele, cruijf, maradonna, best imo. and the best thing: the smile, it just makes you laugh when u see the guy play or talk or whatever, that huge pleasure in living, amazing:)

i disagree, sorry, although i completely agree he is a great talent of his generation, but SO FAR he fails to perform on the big stage (Champions League, World Cup, etc. often trying to do way to much). he's the most beautiful to watch, but IMO that doesn't always translate to being the best player.

i think it's a weird time in world soccer with no single dominant player who can be pointed to as "The Best". the last ten years were dominated by Zidane (like him or not, he was THE dominant player of his generation), but i think its yet to be determined who the next is. for my money, i'd bet on Messi, the poise he shows at this age is phenominal, and i still feel if Pekerman had brought him in during the germany game we would be talking about argentina having just won their third world cup.

as far as chelsea, i can't root for them either, just saying they are playing well in CL.

[tweeds]

It is not 'soccer'. It is football.

exactly. no one believes me when i tell them that.

also...giggsy and scholes are two of my favourite players - oldie but goodie.

i'm a united fan, have been since i was a little kid.

[RobbertJan]

@swisloc

you're right about zidane, genius as well, man that guy had it all to, but he had kind of a boring personality, which is in one way good, because he was never involved in any kind of scandal, but still i'd much rather see a ronaldinho with the smile, he's just a more likeable guy. and about him not performing on the biggest stage, come on in champions league he's as dominant in as in la liga, he pretty much gave barca the champions league. best example the goal against chelsea, although the (undeserved) got eliminated by chelsea that year. and on wc 2002 he was very young, but scored the free kick against england! and wc 2006 that idiot coach put him on as a sort of defensive midfielder who has to divide the play like pirlo, instead of putting him on in the free attacking role like barca, that's his best position imo.

messi will be a legend as well, 18 and being able to play like that....made argentina under 21 world champion on his own, greatest talent atm.

tisswat, i doubt an italian club will win, and i definetly hope not. i think italian football has been seriously pathetic in recent years, i watch in every week and the teams pretty much suck, there's noo quality left except for inter and a few good players at milan. just look at the transfers of the past 3/4 years, every good players went from italian league to spain (zidane) and every great talent didn't want to go there. and now milan buy the 5th striker of real madrid to help them out.....it's just sad. and there's even more bad news, i mean the death of the police guy last weekend and all the troubles with the ultra's and organised crime '' supporter'' groups. and if you look at the matches, there's never any one attending, delle alpi is always 75% empty and is going to be reduced in capacity. italy is a football nation in crisis at the moment and the premier ligue and primera division will rule football from now on.

[ordo]

Guus Hiddink is brought in to take over the Russian national team, (essentially by Roman Abramovich) as a holding job until Abramovich can get rid of Jose Mourinho. Abramovich is of course disliked for his general evilness (Chelsea association) and the fact that he is almost singlehandedly destroying the economy of football in Europe (throwing around "pornographic amounts of money" as he is wont to do, according to Sepp Blatter).

So just when it seems like Mourinho is on his way out and Hiddink is ready to be moved in, Dutch prosecutors hit Hiddink with tax evasion and are calling for a 10-month jail sentence. Maybe Abramovich has made some enemies somewhere?

[swisloc]

@swisloc

you're right about zidane, genius as well, man that guy had it all to, but he had kind of a boring personality, which is in one way good, because he was never involved in any kind of scandal, but still i'd much rather see a ronaldinho with the smile, he's just a more likeable guy. and about him not performing on the biggest stage, come on in champions league he's as dominant in as in la liga, he pretty much gave barca the champions league. best example the goal against chelsea, although the (undeserved) got eliminated by chelsea that year. and on wc 2002 he was very young, but scored the free kick against england! and wc 2006 that idiot coach put him on as a sort of defensive midfielder who has to divide the play like pirlo, instead of putting him on in the free attacking role like barca, that's his best position imo.

i disagree with you about ronaldhino and champions league. the reason barca won last year was because of Eto'o. without him, they lose. and referencing that 2002 goal against england does not count as playing well on the big stage IMO because, while it was a well struck ball, it scored mainly because the England keeper (was it Seaman back then? I think so) was way out of position. Now, granted, someone still ahs to notice this and hit it there, but when i think of great world cup free kick goals, this is not one of them. I don't know, maybe he'll prove me wrong this year, but until then we may have to agree to disagree on this one.

totally agree about the italian clubs bombing out of the 2nd round in CL though. I think both Roma and AC Milan are going out quick, and perhaps Inter soon after.

[evisu 2000]

that ronaldhino goal was nothing compared to this.

[123ok]

one of the things that did it for me was zidanes personality. always very silent and calm and more like a gentleman (except when he got mad heh), an opposite to alot of the other big star players. he just oozes something that most others like ronaldhino, ronaldo, beckham etc etc simply don't.

[swooc]

lol i love watching goals where seaman is involved.

i agree with every thing swisloc has said. i also would like to add 96-98 ronaldo just cause he was such a monster at scoring in between these years.

[RobbertJan]

^ yeah but ronaldo back then had the moves as well, he still scores a lot, i mean scored like 104 in 180 matches for real, that's a lot. but nowadays he's just waiting for a chance to come to him cause he's to fat to move...:S

that charge those bastards are trying to put on hiddink is outrageous...

watched netherlands -21 last night against russia, we're gonna win the ec again this summer(H) and yeah mourinho is definetly going, he's one of the best, maybe the best managers in the world though, as long as he's not going to madrid he'll do fine again with a new team:)

[nairb49]

man did I love zidane. Also loved ronaldinho, espeically back in is PSG days.

as for best right now, I don't think I could pick someone out that really deserved that title right now.

As i mentioned in a different thread, aaron lennon is someone to watch. With the right team and players, I think he's going to be phenomenal. He's already so composed with the ball, he has so much potential.