football: the beautiful game

[swisloc]

PSV... ouch!

polish mike, your team is wiping out everyone connected to RobbertJan!

things are looking good for Munich, too. 2 away goals will be tough to beat, despite the draw.

[polishmike]

i think he's already in pain but anyway...

PSV had the worse defense I've seen in this stage of Champions League. 2 last goals were after atrocious mistakes from defenders and goalie. He might be a good keeper in the future but that future is not near.

[nairb49]

that was a clacker!

anyone catch AC milan vs Bayern today? Won't say anything about it here in case you haven't watched it... but damnnnnn

[polishmike]

I think Bayern will take it at home.

[swisloc]

i think he's already in pain but anyway...

PSV had the worse defense I've seen in this stage of Champions League. 2 last goals were after atrocious mistakes from defenders and goalie. He might be a good keeper in the future but that future is not near.

i think it points to the huge disparity between the premiership and the other leagues (besides La Liga, perhaps). PSV had to play the perfect match to advance last round (plus Arsenal has some serious problems this year), their lack of quality caught up with them...

i would love to see a replay of that Milan/Bayern match...damn games starting at 3 in the afternoon for us on Eastern Standard Time...

[polishmike]

i would love to see a replay of that Milan/Bayern match...damn games starting at 3 in the afternoon for us on Eastern Standard Time...

half day at work is the way to go.

I think PSV wanted to play us just like they did with Arsenal. Defend a lot and hit us on the break or from set pieces. This worked on LFC few times this year with Villa, Portsmouth and few other teams that just defended and got a draw. It was also working fine till Gerrard scored and they had to chase in the second half. This just opened them up and we hit them with pretty much 4 strikers (Kuyt, Crouch, Gerrard and Riise). This game was definitely easier than I thought it would be.

hey Gomes, how many times did we fuck you?

oh yeah

[superdupersang]

list of favourites for the champions league

liverpool

chelsea

man u

[RobbertJan]

nah man, psv got slaughtered agreed, but it just shows the discrepancy in money. with alex and kone and kluivert injured, and then during the match farfan injured and cocu injured and mendez injured and no substitutions. psv can't replace those players, liverpool and the richer clubs have subs that are almost equal, psv had to put tardelli on who isn't good enough, kluivert who was half injured and had no subs for cocu and mendez who got injured during the match....

oh and please explain how any of the goals were gomez fault........

first one gerrard gets a free header, second one riise gets a free shot and third again a free header this one by crouch. none were even remotely gomez fault....

[evisu 2000]

forza roma!

[Tisswat]

When is this thread going to be moved to superculture?

[swisloc]

nah man, psv got slaughtered agreed, but it just shows the discrepancy in money.

true, but them's the rules. gotta pay to play in the european club game...but i agree with you. unless some sort of profit sharing is organized within european football, the rich will get richer and the poor poorer. every few years you'll get a porto going through, but by and large it's always the same clubs.

salary caps and profit sharing works for the us sports that do it, why not for european clubs?

[polishmike]

oh and please explain how any of the goals were gomez fault........

first one gerrard gets a free header, second one riise gets a free shot and third again a free header this one by crouch. none were even remotely gomez fault....

Kluivert came on and he didn't look injured to me, he just looked rubbish.

First goal wasn't his fault but second one he cleared poorly to the defender and he cleared to Riise. Third one was also a poor clearance that led to the pass to Finnan for the cross.

He had one good save from Carras header and few saves that went straight up in the air. I know he didn't play with his regular defenders but his commanding of the box was poor. He didn't attack any crosses and if Pennant would be playing Crouch might put few more in. He's a good prospect and I can see him playing for Brazil and in one of the top leagues but he's not ready yet.

[polishmike]

Silva has a goal of the season so far and the fat head ginger fucker off for ManUre. Great times

[Kasper]

true, but them's the rules. gotta pay to play in the european club game...but i agree with you. unless some sort of profit sharing is organized within european football, the rich will get richer and the poor poorer. every few years you'll get a porto going through, but by and large it's always the same clubs.

salary caps and profit sharing works for the us sports that do it, why not for european clubs?

that's a really interesting subject of discussion. my take is that it would never work for national league as the difference in income potential between teams is just too big. imagine the amount the big clubs in england (chelsea, man utd, arsenal, liverpool) would have to give the smaller to makes thing a little even. chelsea's weekly wage bill is probably more than the annual bill of a couple teams. the big difference between north american leagues and european ones is that the potential customers base are completely different. there's about as many ppl in the us + canada as there is in the whole of western europe. so when you look at the national leagues, the differences in size of the cities the clubs are from are so big that it would just be impossible to level the field like in the NFL for exemple. i mean, ALL the citizens of Wigan or Watford would just fit into Old Trafford...

in the long run, i think the smaller clubs are gonna lose their fanbase though. ppl who are already hooked are gonna continue to support their clubs, but there's gonna be problems finding new supporters. like seriously, who would decide to support a club that have absolutely no chance whatsoever to ever win any significant silverwear. the guardian ran a really interesting articles about the aging fanbase in england the problems in getting the new generation of supporters. anyway, my guess is that we'll see an european "superleague" sooner or later.

[swisloc]

^^

agreed. and watching from an outsiders perspective, it seems to already have begun (a transition towards a super league via champions league). There is much more interest among fans who haven't grown up in europe supporting specific sides for champions leaugue matches than for man u or barca kicking the shit out of some crappy team like watford or bilbao. it may be interesting to those who grew up as supporters of these clubs, but as someone with no real affiliation, just rooting interest for sides i find intriguing, i'd much prefer to watch champions league matches where both sides are decent (even though there is still some spread amongst those sides).

given that major clubs already treat some of these lower teams as their feeder program by loaning them players, it's really not that far off from being a major/minor league already...

[polishmike]

I think you guys underestimate the small clubs. There are many clubs with great traditions in lower leagues. They might not fill up bigger stadiums but they still have many supporters.

I must say the last Watford - Chelsea game was keeping me on the edge till the last minute so it's not all that bad. I like EPL just how it is right now. It works now and it worked for many years.

[evisu 2000]

hahahaha@the fuzz running after him.

[therealcas]

Man U. They fucking destroyed Roma. 7-1 geez.

[tweeds]

well fuck me now...i stay up to watch a match (it's 5am now) and this is one of the most magical european nights in ages

4-0 going into half time

7-1 at the end

and this is against an italian defence

i feel kind of sorry for roma though--and totti

de rossi's goal was a beauty too

but six united gems (and one funny evra shot) is a game worth staying up for

the only downer is chelski are through too, though they certainly played well enough to deserve it.

[superdupersang]

evra's was threaded through a needle, between tyhe goalkeeper and the near post.

was scuffed though.

but smith. i admit, i was one of the doubter. how can a player ever recover from such a horrific break?

probably still not back to hgis very peak, but played his socks off, nice goal.

the thing about united this year is that every time they have had a dip, or a loss of an influential player, they have managed to come back even stronger.

down to ferguson.

i just hope he manages to stick a big fuck you up abramovich's arse, so he fucks off back to russia.

[tweeds]

smith has always been a bit of a ruffian

but no lack of heart--him and solskjaer look completely different

they're probably more similar than they can imagine

i can't imagine (possibly) having to play chelski thrice in a single season--premiership, europe and FA cup??

if you think about it, this way either side can win the treble

[superdupersang]

either team as in chelsea or man u?

[Guest itsmeJT]

take that you stupid italians

invasion repelled.

[apu]

i hope man united signs torres, somehow....

[mis]

Someone post the highlights video if its out please

[apu]

r u talking abt the manU roma match on the 4th APril?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-R6yNszCAg

[mis]

nono, the recent trashing

[Guest itsmeJT]

theres a lot of videos of the match on dailymotion

http://www.dailymotion.com/videos/relevance/search/manchester+roma+/1

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1oiq8_manchester-united-1-0-roma-carrick

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1oiux_manchester-united-2-0-roma-smith-go

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1oix7_manchester-u-30-as-rome

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1oj5z_manchester-united-4-0-roma-ronaldo

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ojg0_manchester-united-5-0-roma-ronaldo

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ojmh_manchester-united-6-0-roma-carrick

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ojrg_ucl-man-utd-v-roma-de-rossi-goal

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/manchester%2Broma%2B/video/x1ojbh_manchester-u-roma-resume-1st-half-4

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/manchester%2Broma%2B/video/x1oku2_manchester-71-roma-2nd-half-part3

[Kasper]

take that you stupid italians

invasion repelled.

yeah, u hate man utd, but i'm so glad they thrashed roma, the man police should have kicked the italians ass. can't fucking believe A LOT of them had the nerve to show up with knifes and show them. we should ban all italian teams from uefa and fifa, no more cheating, diving, match fixing, police beating of fans etc.

[mis]

vt4X7zFfv4k

I had to post this for 1.57

LiatUjDlROs

And this for the owls

NKuwygt3-h4

And the flying teammate