The Soccer Thread

[Ironsabb]

What i saw of England last night which was very little, continuing trial runs for A.Johnson & Young, fair play to the French they played some quality organised Footy, the Defence/gloves on the 2nd goal was piss poor, missing a quality Centre Half/Back !...

[Totentanz]

City are away at Fulham this weekend... I want City to win, obviously... but at least when Hughes (now Fulham manager) was in charge we retained that exciting element that City have always been about... over the years we've been hammered by, or sometimes crushed, the opposition.. always trying to be exciting, even when we're crap. Hughes was no great fit for City, but despite that his attitude was City-like.

..the money doesn't bother me, but Mancini's boring tactics really do, and have been giving me concern for a few months. Now we're dull in our approach and not really much better for it. It's more frustrating than some of our relegation battles tbh, we've had a few decent games, but it's time to go out and play to win..

[Ironsabb]

V Anfield tomorrow, last win for the ammers there was 1963 winning 2-1, goals from The Ghost & Thunderboots (aka Sir Geoff MA), Jim Standen saved a penalty from Ronnie Moran...Gerrard out, & Parker a doubt...poetic finish

[Totentanz]

..the money doesn't bother me, but Mancini's boring tactics really do, and have been giving me concern for a few months.

...it's time to go out and play to win..

Well it was nice of Mr Mancini to read my post and respond!

Away at Fulham, City won 4-1 in plenty of style... in the first half City were just about the most dominant I've seen anyone in the league so far this season. And despite our recent crappiness, this leaves us within 3pts of the top... I enjoyed today

[Ironsabb]

1963 nuff sed

[nunoni]

bloody hell, Mourinho ordered Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso to get a second yellow and red yesterday, so they have one game suspension but are sure to play the 1/8 finals. True sportmanship!

[Ironsabb]

West Ham V Wigan...then Motörhead @ Brixton, Another Perfect Day then...

\m/

[Sir Kenneth]

bloody hell, Mourinho ordered Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso to get a second yellow and red yesterday, so they have one game suspension but are sure to play the 1/8 finals. True sportmanship!

He's an odd one and I can't say I'm always impressed with his methods, but I suppose he at least always delivers.

Danish keeper Anders Lindegaard signed with Manchester United today. Good news for Danish football he'll probably be Van Der Sar's understudy for the rest of the season, but it seems like Fergie thinks he's a man with a future in the club.

[Ironsabb]

3-1, not a stellar performance, but 3 points nevertheless, ManU on tuesday, then the Black Cats (A)...

[nunoni]

this was something we had been waiting for a long time - to see Mourinho humiliated! And the bastard, without fuming in anger and blaming everyone else, simply said it was a defeat easy to swallow because it was undisputable that Barcelona had played much better and deserved to win by a landslide. He wasn't gracious in defeat, he simply took it as matter of fact, feathers unruffled.

[-E5150 StarWanderer-]

I'm extremely disapppointed on Real's performance. Losing El Classico is bad, but losing with that big of a margin is a total failure.

[Ironsabb]

4-0 to the Cockney Boys

[Totentanz]

4-0 to the Cockney Boys

I liked!


No world cup for us though

[Ady]

I liked!

No world cup for us though

I thought if we didn't get it then Spain/Portugal would.

[nunoni]

big mafia won against small mafia

[Ironsabb]

Had a hunch Russia would get it, so the 2018 final in Fulham then Lol!

But Qatar 2022...absolute joke, but then so is Blatter & FIFA !!! 'spose that final will be in Holloway Lol!

[Sir Kenneth]

Qatar winning the 2022 bid is a travesty. All stadia will be within 40 kilometers of each other, all visitors will likely have to come through one airport, and buying a beer is a beauraucratic nightmare that requires a signed letter from your boss. Imagine doing the World Cup under those conditions

It's no secret I was hoping Australia to take it, but failing that I would at least have liked some other non ridiculous bid to win. USA or South Korea for example.

Shame on you FIFA.

[Ironsabb]

I liked!

No world cup for us though

Good, so did i & that result was 84 years coming

Now, i don't know how far back you go, mine was standing on a non-league side's terraces in 1967, many games & many stories to tell up to the present day.

England will never hold the World Cup for the forseeable future IMO, politics etc stand in its way & i really don't know why we bother wasting 15m to put our case forward, even though the cause would've supposedley generated 3.2b.

The game is corrupt, dishonest whatever one wishes to call it, not only on the park but off it, we should have held it years ago & when players had a passion & an English manager...if & a big if, we got it in 2026, i will be 66 Lol!

[Totentanz]

My first game was back in '77. Never seen a world cup, never seen City win a major trophy

I'll be 56 in 2026, but to be honest I don't reckon it'll ever come back here.


*looks at Fergie-pic above*


...ah well, it's not all bad

[nunoni]

England is too expensive - low quality hotels and food for extortionate prices (or good quality for impossible prices) - and the English are too full of themselves when it comes to football - "Football's coming home", what the hell was that, we all know where it was invented, why rub it in our faces like saying "this is our game you keep yourhands off". That is, the world loves England, visiting London is one of the "must do" in everyone's list, but not when it comes to football!

I've seen England 1998 (I was living there), Portugal 2004 (I was living here), Germany 2006 (travelled).

[Sir Kenneth]

I was actually thinking that they would go for something a bit on the conservative side for 2018 (England for example) but I am kinda intrigued by Russia as hosts. Football has really taken off over there in these last 10 years or so and it seems like a lot of new state-of-the-art stadia will be built. Should be interesting!

[Ady]

London 2012 - Mayor cancels FIFA's London 2012 rooms
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/051220...012-rooms.html

London Mayor Boris Johnson has revoked FIFA's free hotel rooms at the city's exclusive Dorchester hotel during the 2012 Olympic Games.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his team had been in line to benefit from the rooms during the two-week sporting extravaganza in the city.

However following the controversy of the 2018 World Cup vote, which saw England knocked out at the first-round stage with just two of a possible 22 votes from the FIFA executive committee, Johnson has decided that they should not receive the freebie.

He is yet to comment on the decision, which was taken after he met with Sebastian Coe, chairman of Olympic organising committee LOCOG - the body responsible for handing out the accommodation.

Russia was awarded the tournament and tiny gulf state Qatar the one four years later, which has led to a chorus of disapproval in the football world - and especially in England.

After the humiliation, Johnson - who lobbied for votes in Zurich alongside prime minister David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham - said the result was a "big blow and tremendously disappointing".

"We put together a cracking bid, our technical specification was top-notch and our stadiums would have been packed to the rafters," he added.

Also angry at the awarding again of the tournament to nations relatively lacking in facilities are the USA, Australia and Spain/Portugal.

England's loss has been blamed by members of the FIFA committee on two media investigations into corruption within the organisation, while the Sunday Times has published further claims of 'World Cup votes for sale', quoting a "whistleblower".

FA chief executive Alex Horne has said he will push for reform in the World Cup bidding process.

[Sir Kenneth]

It's probably time to acknowledge that FIFA is utterly corrupt. Some countries have started lobbying for letting all member nations decide on where tournaments should be played rather than just the executive committee. That to me would be a good place to start.

Another problem with the current system is that too many of the powerful men in football are wearing either too many hats or wearing them for too long. Hassan Al Thawadi, the CEO of the Qatar bid, is also on Fifa's executive committee and president of the AFC.

[nunoni]

talk about sore losers! This sort of action is exactly what puts people against the English football rulers - they think they have the right to win, they dismiss everyone else's efforts, and assign all their own failings to other people's lack of understanding of how amazing they are.

[Totentanz]

talk about sore losers! This sort of action is exactly what puts people against the English football rulers - they think they have the right to win, they dismiss everyone else's efforts, and assign all their own failings to other people's lack of understanding of how amazing they are.

it's petty, but it's funny

after all what is the point in spending millions organising and submitting the lowest-risk, highest-earning, biggest-legacy bid... for it to have no chance at all from the outset?

it's not because the English football chiefs lack understanding of their own failings, but rather if they'd known the total pointlessness of it all from the outset, the millions could have been spent on something worthwhile instead.

Their foolishness was believing that the people who had promised their support and votes along the way were honourable people who would stick to their word.

[nunoni]

it's petty, but it's funny lowest-risk, highest-earning, biggest-legacy bid...

not true: lowest risk is probably Spain/Portugal - we could organize a World Cup next month if needed be, including finished stadiums, enough hotel rooms, and no matter what the financial situation is; that's how it works here, first political decisions are taken, and THEN, only then, do we look at cost (which is low anyway, because everything is already built). In England it's the accountants that make the decisions, and they might decide to make it on the cheap, or not at all. And, we actually know how to defuse hooliganism before it starts. A major tournament in England is absolutely NOT low risk.

Second, highest-earning, could be, at the cost of extortionate costs for the travelling fans - am I seeing 200 quid a night for a dirty B&B? Maybe 300.

Third, biggest legacy: no way, the legacy in Russia (and Qatar) will be bigger, since they will build all those fantastic stadiums.

[Totentanz]

not true: lowest risk is probably Spain/Portugal - we could organize a World Cup next month if needed be

A major tournament in England is absolutely NOT low risk.

It was judged by FIFA's assessors to be equal top of FIFA's own technical assessment of the four bids. It was also top of an independent assessment of the best commercial bids.

Second, highest-earning, could be, at the cost of extortionate costs for the travelling fans - am I seeing 200 quid a night for a dirty B&B? Maybe 300.

Well done for randomly inventing some prices and bad conditions! Personally if I stay anywhere I do a bit of research first and make sure I get good value in good accommodation, it's easily done ...just saying. Good luck with getting all travel (and excellent accommodation) cheaply to/in Russia!

Third, biggest legacy: no way, the legacy in Russia (and Qatar) will be bigger, since they will build all those fantastic stadiums.

Legacy is about far more than a few stadia, I'll be interested to see all the other good causes massively supported from the Russian bid.

[nunoni]

Legacy is about far more than a few stadia, I'll be interested to see all the other good causes massively supported from the Russian bid.

A World Cup is about football, not good causes.... separate things. I donate 0.5% of my taxes to a charity of my choice (the maximum that my Government lets me!), but when I buy a football ticket that's all I want to buy.

I lived three years in England, 2 in Germany, 6 months in Belgium, 6 months in Switzerland, 3 years in France, and accomodation and food in England cost double for half the quality. Russia I believe you, it's going to be hard... anyway, it's something new, which is good.

[Totentanz]

it's something new, which is good.

I think new is good too - I'm sure it will be great when it comes round.

Ultimately the bid quality/risk/legacy isn't so important for me either, I'd just have liked to be able to go to Birmingham or Manchester and see some World Cup! On a completely selfish level that would have given me excellent accommodation (i.e. my house) at very reasonable cost

[nunoni]

yeah - it was terrible to realise that the group stage of Portugal in Germany 2006 were in cities far away from my German family, so I could take the train to only one of them, it was airplane for the other games! For the Euro 2004 I only had to go to Porto once, and the best of it was when we sent the Spannish packing in my team's stadium Euro 1996 was a lot of car travel.

[Ironsabb]

1-0 loss @ Stadium of Light, should've got @ least a point from the game, January should be interesting as we have 7 fixtures @ the minute

Already have the ticket for Brum 1st leg & should get an Away ticket, last Away LC semi's i went to were Luton (A), Oldham (A), the last LC Final i went to was '81...

[Totentanz]

^^ our lot down at your lot this weekend, potential banana skin for us, as ever dunno what to expect

We're massively over-reliant on your brilliant-but-suspended old boy Mr Teves, question is, can we score without him?

[Ironsabb]

^^ our lot down at your lot this weekend, potential banana skin for us, as ever dunno what to expect

We're massively over-reliant on your brilliant-but-suspended old boy Mr Teves, question is, can we score without him?

Tevez is out (i think replaced by Mario Balotelli), awesome player, & the WELCOME TO MANCHESTER hoarding gotta laugh mate

Pretty even over the years, hopefully a good game in good spirits as both have much to play for !

P 90 W 35 D 15 L 40 F 136 A 138

First game 26 Apr 1924 (H) 1-2 ~ Last game 09 May 2010 (H) 1-1

[nunoni]

We were eliminated from the CUp 2-1 against a much weaker team, whose manager is one of our all-time stars, our second best goal scorer ever, and the third with more games in our history.

Anyway my previous post was deleted which means people were annoyed with it. It was absolutely not my intention to insult anyone, I simply don't know enough about sensibilities in the Antipodes, that's why I asked, I wanted to prevent going on line with something offensive to someone somewhere. Anyway, since I couldn't get help here, I asked a couple of friends who are native speakers (one Irish, one English), and they said I'd be better off with this:

Continental European shirts
English shirts
Irish, Scottish and Welsh shirts
South American shirts
North American shirts
African shirts
Shirts from Asia
Shirts from Oceania

Which I did! The day I get one from a pinguin team, I'll make a new section for "South Pole shirts"

EDIT: shit I'm stupid, yesterday I posted my question in the wrong thread, it was not deleted! It was "RLP or other Australians here, can you answer one thing for me please? The foreign teams section of my website verdebranco.net is becoming too large, it takes long to load with a slow connection, so I want to split it by territories; I have many from the UK, many from Europe, few from the Americas, 1 from Africa, very few from Asia and exactly 3 from Australia. Do you think I can make a section "Asia and Oceania", or is that a no-no, do I have to split?"

[Ironsabb]

1-3 gave them a good game, but as usual couldn't find the net !, blatant penalty shout (handball) & could've been 1-1 making the rest of the 90 mins interesting, sloppy goals >1-3, Toure the diff. their players drop to the floor easily when challenged to con the ref for the set pieces, & they're not exactly small players as most are over 6' 2, unfortunatly that has crept into the game, subdued West Ham faithful, Cole was invisible once again & Piquionne only wins the ball in the air, i don't think he has feet !.

Bad luck, underachieving by certain players will see us playing Millwall next season ()...

[Ironsabb]

1-1 V Rovers > 1 point & should've got more out of the game, went over Fulham yesterday & a 3 point pick up, Toffee's @ home on Tuesday but will be tougher, then a six-pointer V Wolves, a bit of confidence restored in the side, & will see what the January transfer window produces...

[Ironsabb]

1-1 V Toffees, well fought point, could've gone either way though, good side Everton, Howard Webb's 'man in Black display' was abysmal tbh, Cole's missed sitter from a Sears inch perfect cross enough to warrant a sell on imo, however, East End beggars can't be choosers...

[Totentanz]

The recent home defeat by Everton was typical comedy gold, we had 33 shots to their 4, 11 corners to their 0, 3 handballs turned down (1 was obscured from the ref, but the other 2 seemed clear cut pens), 70% possession, and after an hour or so they had a man sent off.... and yet we still lost 2-1. What was worse is that somehow, despite all of this and hitting the post, we never really looked capable or convincing.

I'm really pleased therefore that yesterday we finally got a decent victory at home, beating Geezer Butler's beloved Villa 4-0.

As a City fan, I find it incredible that so far we've got the best away record in the league; over the years we've always built teams with reasonably strong home form that travel absolutely terribly. All of a sudden we're awesome away from home but seem to struggle to break teams down at Eastlands.

[RLP4ever]

I'm pretty pleased with, and purring about the way Spurs are currently placed (and are playing) , in both the Premier League, and in the Champions' League. But it sure sucked to see them have a man sent-off, for the second successive time, last night. Anyway, I'm just hoping Tottenham can be consistent enough, from here on end, unlike some of their other title-chasing rivals, and push up to the 'top 2' (and hopefully remain there) in the dying days of the current campaign. I don't wanna get too carried away, but I'm seriously longing for triumphant, trophy-lifting Spurs, come May.

Good to see Chelsea's woes continue, though I hardly want to see Arsenal get too much joy (and too many 3 points) either. . I'm still waiting for Man Utd to taste their first defeat of the season; these drawn matches are small consolation to me. As always, a desperately struggling Liverpool is no sorry sight, as well. Lol

On other fronts, happy to see Bayern Munich making a return to winning ways, but sad to realise that their title-winning aspirations, in the Bundesliga this season, are all but quashed. Great to see Barcelona rampant in La Liga. I'm stoked to see how both Bayern and Barca fare in the knock-out rounds of the CL, in February. It would be fabulous to see them face off in the Final. But hey, I want Spurs to get there, too.

[Ironsabb]

Six pointer V Wolves New Years Day, should be knockin' around the Queen's 1-ish, if the battle is won, we strengthen with a couple of signings in the window, the return of injuries sooner rather than later, we stay, if not work to be done @ Wall