The Soccer Thread

[Sir Kenneth]

So is everyone happy with the way the Euro 2012 qualification panned out? I am assuming that nunoni isn't, but what about the rest of you? I'm very happy with Denmark coming out on top. We played a great game against Portugal and if it wasn't for some dubious Italian refereeing, I reckon we would have won by a larger margin than 2-1. Ronaldo's free kick was a thing of beauty (even though the basis for it was pretty thin) but that was about all Portugal had going for them last night.

[RLP4ever]

^ Great to see you back, Ken...and the soccer thread is the perfect place to find you.

I'm pretty content with the Euro 2012 qualification outcomes. Germany basically cruising through with some dominant performances along the way has made the qualifiers particularly satisfying for me.

As a double whammy, my beloved Bayern Munich is rampant this season; atop the Bundesliga, playing imperious football, conceding nothing thanks to the magnificent Manuel Neuer and a tighter, more confident back four in defense. I'm quietly certain that Bayern will push very far in the Champions' League, as well. Overall, just a wholly positive phase for me as a Bayern die-hard.

[nunoni]

So is everyone happy with the way the Euro 2012 qualification panned out? I am assuming that nunoni isn't

I have to say, I really don't care. I used to travel to see Portugal, England, Germany (and the Euro 2004 here of course), but, I simply can't stand CR as our captain. One way or the other, I don't care.

Anyway, if it weren't for the financial crisis that's hitting here really hard, I was planning to go to Poland next year if we qualified, I have friends living there so we could make it on the cheap, and it's close to my wife's fammily city. As it is, I doubt it's wise to do it.

[Totentanz]

I had to post about today's Manchester derby.

Man Utd had dropped only two points at home in the last 18 months, have won their last 19 home matches in a row - a truly great record.

Today's result:

Man Utd 1 - 6 Man City

And this after Ferguson saying Man U had "played all the big teams" this season

Utd's heaviest home defeat since the '30s leaves City at the top of the table 5 pts ahead of Utd, having now scored 33 goals in 9 matches, having won 8 and drawn 1. A long way to go this season, but certainly it sends a message and it's a good start.

I hope we can now start to find our premier league form in the Champions League, we know we haven't shown our true colours in that comp yet, hopefully it's not too late!

Anyway, a truly great day for City fans, the most satisfying league result I can remember.

[-E5150 StarWanderer-]

I had to post about today's Manchester derby.

Man Utd had dropped only two points at home in the last 18 months, have won their last 19 home matches in a row - a truly great record.

Today's result:

Man Utd 1 - 6 Man City

And this after Ferguson saying Man U had "played all the big teams" this season

Utd's heaviest home defeat since the '30s leaves City at the top of the table 5 pts ahead of Utd, having now scored 33 goals in 9 matches, having won 8 and drawn 1. A long way to go this season, but certainly it sends a message and it's a good start.

I hope we can now start to find our premier league form in the Champions League, we know we haven't shown our true colours in that comp yet, hopefully it's not too late!

Anyway, a truly great day for City fans, the most satisfying league result I can remember.

I don't have a favorite team in Premier League, but seeing "the little brother" give the older a brother an ass whooping in a classic derby is always nice

[nunoni]

money does wonders it seems!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

(Local Team: Portsmouth; Team I've supported since I was a kid: Liverpool)

Re: Manchester derby .... I notice the significance of the sending off of a United player when the score was 0-1 has been glossed over.

[Totentanz]

(Local Team: Portsmouth; Team I've supported since I was a kid: Liverpool)

Re: Manchester derby .... I notice the significance of the sending off of a United player when the score was 0-1 has been glossed over.

We were already cruising by then, and it was delightful to crush 'em. Sir alex has already described it as the worst day of his career as a player or manager. Enough said, no glossing over required.

---------- Post added 10-24-2011 at 12:01 AM ---------- Previous post was 10-23-2011 at 11:56 PM ----------

money does wonders it seems!

Apparently not, given all that Man Utd (and indeed the likes of Liverpool) have spent.

Haha - there is a long way to go, only achieved 3pts today. But it's extremely enjoyable.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

We were already cruising by then, and it was delightful to crush 'em. Sir alex has already described it as the worst day of his career as a player or manager. Enough said, no glossing over required.

Supporting Liverpool as I do, I'm always happy to see Sir Alex get a kicking, so I don't want you to think that I was trying to diminish City's achievements. Three goals in the last five minutes might suggest that the extra player may have had an influence on the final score as United tired, but the result was already assured.

Chelsea losing to QPR was also an unexpected bonus.

[Totentanz]

Sir Alex has a special unpalatable arrogant quality that makes it delightful to see him on the receiving end of this.

It is only one result, and in all honesty it wouldn't surprise me to see Utd bounce back and win the league,knowing them. But I had one of my happiest days in football yesterday, and I am savouring it

[nunoni]

Sir Alex has a special unpalatable arrogant quality that makes it delightful to see him on the receiving end of this.

It is only one result, and in all honesty it wouldn't surprise me to see Utd bounce back and win the league,knowing them. But I had one of my happiest days in football yesterday, and I am savouring it

I'm very happy for you - and that ManU lost although we have one soft spot for ManU, and that is called Peter Schmeichel, who left them having won everything to come to Sporting and win the league that eluded us 17 seasons before.

After three miserable years - miserable!!!! We saw good football twice a year, and that was when Porto and Benfica visited - and it was not our team playing good football. Anyway, this year things change. We have a whole new team, 15 or 16 new guys (I lost count), several of them wonderful players, almost all of them international in their own countries, and we are playing football again. And we won the last 8 games. We qualified for the next round of the Europa Cup after three games - no one had managed that before. If we win tonight it'll be 9 wins in a row, not bad. And we'll be 3 points clear of the top.

So the pleasure of watching football is slowly returning!

Only downside is that I have to pause buying lovely match worn shirts for a while, government cut my income by 1/3 (yups, that European financial crisis) and that's what I used for the hobby. Now it's back to basics until things improve! Bu ton the pitch which is waht matters, things improved immensely!

[Totentanz]

I'm very happy for you - and that ManU lost although we have one soft spot for ManU, and that is called Peter Schmeichel, who left them having won everything to come to Sporting and win the league that eluded us 17 seasons before.

Schmeichel's last season as a pro was with City in 02/03 - what a great keeper and a top bloke. Didn't lose to Utd that season (a rarity!)

Sorry to hear your shirt collection's temporarily on hold, hope you get back on track as soon as possible.

[Sir Kenneth]

I'm becoming a City fan because of Balotelli alone. Seriously, they need to make a sitcom about him or something.

[Totentanz]

Haha, you're right, he's comedy gold. When he pulled his shirt over his head to celebrate his goal against Utd my biggest worry was that he wouldn't be able to get it back off his head again, what with the bib incident and all

[nunoni]

9th victory in a row - and 6-1! After a bad start, we're now 3 points from top, but above all, we're playing beautiful football!

[RLP4ever]

I could NEVER tolerate Man Utd----especially its players and its manager----and its successes in recent years. So yea, that 6-1 trouncing by City the other day was an absolutely astounding thriller. As if Sir Alex and his team hadn't been humbled enough times already by Barcelona, but this abject abasement at crosstown rival City's hands is going down as truly historic and unforgettable. Totentanz and I need to meet and raise a toast to this.

Now, for the record, I don't like Chelsea or Liverpool at all. And although I've always liked Arsenal's game, I'm totally not allowed to even admit that, cos I'm an undying Spurs fanboy.

Meantime, as always, I'm tuned in to the Champions' League, every matchweek. Without getting foolishly too ahead of myself, I'm still hoping that I'd see Bayern win it before its home crowd at the Allianz Arena, next May.

[nunoni]

we now won the last 10 games, and none was a friendly! Fantastic. Came from many points behind to only 3 from the top, and we qualified for the eliminating rounds of the Europe Cup in only three games, no one ever had made that before. But this month is going to show whether we can make it to the top or not: first an away Europe League game, it does not matter if we win or lose, but we want to win and losing would be bad for moral; then a home League game against a weaker team; then come two defining games, against Sporting Braga who were last year's defeated Europe League finalists, and then benfica in their stadium. If we win that, we'll be title contenders, if we lose, well, it becomes hard.

[nunoni]

Porto drew on Saturday, Benfica yesterday and they were lucky, the first half of their game lasted 80 minutes because it kept being interrupted by power outages, then we won so we're third at 1 point from the top! And next game is against Benfica, in their turf, if we win we'll be either 2nd or 1st depending on what Porto do against Braga.

It's up for grabs

[Ironsabb]

Still pushing the leaders (Saint's) after the 0-2 win @ Hull with our Menace swiped MK Dons - COYI

[Sir Kenneth]

This weekend we got the Euro 2012 groups:

Group A
Poland
Greece
Russia
Czech Republic

Group B
Netherlands
Denmark
Germany
Portugal

Group C
Spain
Italy
Ireland
Croatia

Group D
Ukraine
Sweden
France
England


As a Dane I am not all that stoked about ending up in the group of death, and I think going home with anything more than 0 points would be decent enough. If the stars align correctly and we go to the tournament with our best possible squad fit for fight, we could surprise. The Netherlands and Germany are obviously favourites to advance from group B though, but one can always hope I'm picking Germany to take home the trophy.

[Ironsabb]

and if it wasn't for some dubious Italian refereeing

Precisely that !

Platini was a great player, now he's one of Blatters yes men to the corrupt world of Football @ UEFA & FIFA. More so it's officials on the Park. The World Cup > Quatar another farce & The Thierry Henry incident > France V FAI.

Group A - The Group of Debt

Seen a fair few England games over the years @ Wembley, sort of lost interest when Trevor Brooking stopped playing & we started missing penalties Lol!

---------- Post added at 08:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:51 PM ----------

Back level on points with The Saint's, even though we are playing crap & the Strikers are struggling to find a path to the rear of the net. Suspensions & injuries have eased off Allardyce looking to strengthen where the weakness's are > has 25 players on his list, sounds about right.

Well it's West Ham innit !

[Ironsabb]

Pompey Away tomorrow - January transfer window brings 24 year old George John, Central Defender from the MLS/FC Dallas, on loan until March with an option of permanent deal. George was due to sign for Blackburn last season but the move failed to materialise. West Ham have also been looking at Huddersfield Hotshot Jordan Rhodes, 27 goals in 24 games & who scored 5 goals in their last game V Wycombe Wanderers, 2 offers went in, but the Udders stood firm as a key player in their push for promotion (fair play TBH).

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^ We should have an easy home win then ....

[South7Hools]

i am supporter of Olympiakos Piraeus. Our organized club is called 'GATE 7' and we have chapters in every city of Hellas and a lot in european cities (In London too). Because our hate about Panathinaikos and PAOK fans is big, goverment created a law that forbid us to go in away games. They are not giving us tickets. This is unfair, so sometimes we are going without tickets, police tries to avoid us and we have a war in the middle of the street. We have brotherhood with supporters of Red Star Belgrade (Serbia) and respect about the KOP, Liverpool FC. Any other fan that is an 'Ultra' here ?

[Ironsabb]

^ We should have an easy home win then ....

TBF you deserved a point out of the game @ least - If Kitson had the form he had @ Reading, you'd be higher in the League. I'd give ya 'Freddie Flickiton' if i could

Irons \M/

[Ironsabb]

> Ricardo Vaz Tê (Barnsley), Maynard (Bristol City), Morrison (ManU), George John (FC Dallas) & Joey Dixon (Gray's Ath.)

Oh, & a 5-1 spanking by the Tractor Boys up the Portman Frog

Millwall on Saturday Come On You Irons \m/

[Ironsabb]

Beat Millwall 2-1 with 10 men, drew with Saint's 1-1 with 10 men > Blackpool Away Tues. night with 10 men ??

"Let me see those horns Hammerhead" Lol




COYI

[Ironsabb]

> Blackpool Away Tues. night with 10 men ??

Spoke too soon didn't i

Still, 4-1 to the Iron's Palace on Sat. > umm with 11 men surely Lol

COYI

[Totentanz]

Cool fixture: City v Sporting in the Europa League - any thoughts nunoni? I'll probably go to the home leg of that one.

I took my dad and my nephew to the game against Blackburn last Saturday, we met Ricky 'The Hitman' Hatton - he's a really down to earth guy and dedicated City follower, top bloke. And City were awesome on the day, seem to be getting back to that early season form (although it must be said Blackburn were poor).

[nunoni]

well, back in 1964 we were beaten 4-1 by ManU in the away leg. In Lisbon we won 5-0 - we may just pull one such this time round, but I doubt it very much. We have a completely new team (I can't remember how many new players, is it 16 or is it 20), many of them young guys with a lot of potential but not very experienced yet. So I reckon we're going to be thrashed.

But who knows... there might be a surprise in the making. We'd need to play two perfect games. As they say, the ball is round, there's 11 men to each side and the game lasts for 90 minutes so anything could happen.

[Totentanz]

Just sitting down to watch it on TV. I've got my ticket for the 2nd leg, looking forward to welcoming Sporting to the Etihad. No matter what happens, I hope both teams do themselves justice and we get an entertaining tie

[Totentanz]

Haha, so much for entertaining, City were awful tonight!

Credit to Sporting though, I thought they looked more up for it than us and they deserve their lead. Hopefully we can turn it around in the second leg

[nunoni]

well, how to say this - fucking arrogant City players!!! Who is that fucking bosnian who says he does not know any Sporting player? Doesn't he remember playing against Portugal in the qualifying rounds of the Euro, what an arrogant asshole.

1-0, we played very well, got some undeserved yellow cards and City got a couple pardoned ones and one yellow should have been a red right at the end. Spannish ref, what to expect. Anyway, it is a sweet result, probably not enough to get us through - oh Wolfie and Pereirinha, HOW could you miss those two chances!!!

Anyway, 1-0 is much better than being thrashed! So today and for one week, we are happy.

[Totentanz]

A 3-2 victory last night, but out on away goals. Well at least it finally got entertaining. We deserved to get knocked out because we only really turned up for the last 30 minutes of a 180 minute tie - in the first half last night we were particularly awful. But in those 30 mins when we sorted ourselves out we comprehensively battered Sporting, got 3 goals and looked like the fourth was coming too.

This could've been disappointing, but in the end was ok. Quite happy to go out as Man Utd had been knocked out earlier in the day and I'd hate to be trawling round europe in this competition whilst they were focusing on the league. It'll be difficult enough to keep up with Utd looking at our respective run-ins.

If I'm honest I see Man Utd as title favourites now - a lot is being made of the game between us 3 games before the end of the season, but I can't help thinking it might not matter by then. I can easily see us beating them on the day, but it being too late by then anyway.

[nunoni]

Arm went out of the socket, and he still played well after that!

Totentanz, what happened, you didn't make it to the stadium? There weren't any City fans there, were they? Because on the telly, all that was to be heard was the Sporting chants.

Oh, after the 3-2 we did hear the City crowd - seems you only support your team when you're winning. When we're losing we sing this:



UNTIL WE DIE - SPORTING ALLEZ

Watch to the end, you'll learn something. (and you'll se me somewhere there ) If you want a video of what we sing when we win, I can arrange that as well.

In case you wonder, we did win that game, and played magnificently, but it was the last game of the seaon and were 1 point below Porto, if they drew we would have been champions, they won. This chant started after Porto scored 3-1 10 minutes from time. It's the first time we sang it. So it's a song for moments of defeat. Do you have one? Seems not.

Fans who let the visitors block dominate the stadium, and fans who only support their team when they are winning, are soulless and heartless.

[Totentanz]

well, how to say this - fucking arrogant City players!!!

Well how to say this - "fucking arrogant Sporting supporter!!??" (you, nunoni - not the ones at the match, who seemed just fine! )

Totentanz, what happened, you didn't make it to the stadium? There weren't any City fans there, were they? Because on the telly, all that was to be heard was the Sporting chants.

Oh, after the 3-2 we did hear the City crowd - seems you only support your team when you're winning. When we're losing we sing this

In case you wonder, we did win that game, and played magnificently, but it was the last game of the seaon and were 1 point below Porto, if they drew we would have been champions, they won. This chant started after Porto scored 3-1 10 minutes from time. It's the first time we sang it. So it's a song for moments of defeat. Do you have one? Seems not.

Fans who let the visitors block dominate the stadium, and fans who only support their team when they are winning, are soulless and heartless.

Seriously dude, you need to check your facts before posting such arrogance - perhaps you mean it light-heartedly, but it comes across as patronizing in the extreme to presume to be able to give a lesson on support.

Here's a fact for you - in one season in our proud 118-year history we were relegated to the THIRD tier of English football (1998/99). THIRD tier. Support? Our average attendance that year was 28,261. I understand that this is larger than Sporting managed last year whilst in your top division.

Don't believe everything you hear based on the position of a TV microphone. Yes, I was at the stadium. And yes we are very experienced at supporting our team through adversity. Yesterday evening wasn't real adversity though, it was a fun diversion, plenty of songs were sung about losing at Swansea and losing to Sporting before we scored. Some may have left disappointed, but very few.

You can teach the best fans in the world nothing about finding humour in adversity or about supporting this beautiful club.

You clearly know nothing about us: We are the only club to be English champions one year and then be relegated the next. We are the only English club to be relegated from the top division whilst being that season's HIGHEST scorers in the division. This is the City way, always has been. I suspect you have far, far to go before you can even imagine or understand what it really takes to support a big club through the genuine depths (and supporters of smaller lower league clubs will understand it even better than I).

And we are still happy to laugh about it all. Good luck to you in the Ukraine

[nunoni]

Well how to say this - "fucking arrogant Sporting supporter!!??" (you, nunoni - not the ones at the match, who seemed just fine! )

Don't believe everything you hear based on the position of a TV microphone.

And we are still happy to laugh about it all. Good luck to you in the Ukraine

what can I say - fair enough about the mike position, it certainly came across there were only Sporting chants, but I take your point.

sorry for being arrogant - but then again, doesn't the underdog have the right to brag a bit when he wins the fight against a much superior side that despised us even before playing? Take any two of your players - ANY two - and they're worth more than our entire squad. Take any of your top 5 players, same story, any of them makes more than all the 21 players we took to Manchester together.

Then your fucking Dzelko what's his name said before the first leg he didn't know the name of any of our players - fucking arrogant rich prick. That got us in a mood, and anything we say now, you deserved.

One last bit of history: no, we've bever been relegated. In fact, we are the only team in the any major league in the whole world that never finished lower than fifth. We came close last year, and this year isn't looking very bright either, so winning against a team 10 times bigger is something we feel we deserve some bragging rights.

It was a good night and we were till 4 am waiting for them in the airport

[Totentanz]

Additionally if you want to learn about what being a City supporter is all about you could read this article on Wikipedia which covers the topic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manches....C._supporters


Contents
1 Demographics
1.1 Mancunian stereotype
2 Manchester City supporter traits
2.1 Inflatables craze
2.2 'The Poznan'
2.3 City humour
3 Rivalries
3.1 Manchester United
3.2 Other rivalries
4 Supporters' groups and affiliations
4.1 Online supporter presence
5 Songs and chants
5.1 Anthems
5.2 Fan songs and chants
6 In popular culture
7 Quotations
8 Famous fans
9 Famous fans (footballers)
10 References
11 External links

I looked for a similar topic on Sporting supporters, but alas could not find one on the site. Just a tiny paragraph on the club page with no real anecdotes or stories. Oh well.. maybe a passionate fan like you could learn from us and write one?

---------- Post added at 08:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:47 PM ----------

sorry for being arrogant - but then again, doesn't the underdog have the right to brag a bit when he wins the fight against a much superior side that despised us even before playing?

Yes, you have every right to celebrate and brag, but please don't question our support! haha, I don't mind us playing shit, getting beaten or looking stupid, and getting criticised for it, that is all fine. But our support is world class! That is the only thing that made me react.

Dzeko is a good guy who was eaither badly quoted and twisted by media, or he chose some unfortunate words... so yes, if he really said it in that way I can understand you'd really enjoy the victory. But criticism of our support I cannot take

The Sporting fans I met before the game, both in the City and at the stadium were just fine, we always welcome and appreciate good support from other teams.

[nunoni]

I looked for a similar topic on Sporting supporters, but alas could not find one on the site. Just a tiny paragraph on the club page with no real anecdotes or stories. Oh well.. maybe a passionate fan like you could learn from us and write one?

Dzeko is a good guy who was eaither badly quoted and twisted by media, or he chose some unfortunate words... so yes, if he really said it in that way I can understand you'd really enjoy the victory. But criticism of our support I cannot take

On dezco: http://www.tribalfootball.com/articl...y-them-2820601

Dzeko has unwittingly upset some Sporting players by saying after City’s last round win at Porto that he didn’t know any of the players he will face.

Sporting’s Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patrício said: "I know Dzeko very well. I’ve played against him and thank God I’ve beaten him when Portugal beat Bosnia 6-2 last November. We are Sporting and tomorrow he will know better Sporting players, for our will and fight."

That last sentence made us proud, and that last save as well!


Writing on Wikipedia? Oh please. I write on the Sporting Wiki together with some more people, and it is quite enough a job, with over 3800 pages by now. One page for each of the 734 A team players so far, with full biography for each, one for each president, for each member of each direction in fact (we're still working on that; we don't know much say about the 2nd secretary of the fiscal council back in 1912), one for each everything. And we're not a football club (we're the second European club with more trophies overall in all sports, after Barcelona, in terms on international trophies we're third (after Barcelona and Real), but with trophies won in 4 sports (Real only in two). Over 100 of our players and athletes have participated in the Olympics while being with us (a lot more who have been there but while in other clubs). So there's plenty to write about. In Portuguese, with a very few pages in English when we see there is an interest, like this one about the guy that dzeko didn't know:

Rui Patricio

We also have one page for each supporters' group, but no, no anedoctes or stories there, what we're doing is the history of Sporting, and we're not English, so we keep it factual, checked, double checked and cross-checked, and pretty much humourless, which may be a pitty, but we're the biggest and most accurate resource for knowledge about Sporting, and I doubt any club in the world has anything as thorough. And it's growing, we're now going through Atletics, making biographies for every single athelete who won anything since 1906, and one page per season like in football.

Oh, I also collect Sporting shirts, see my beautiful site (in english as well, although the Portuguese version has a bit more text)

[Totentanz]

I wasn't trying to put down the Sporting support, it is plain to see you are all proud of your club (and I know specifically that you are a certified Spoting nut), my point is only that we City fans are just as proud of our club, and it's very easy to find evidence of our passion and humour. Don't forget you implied we were 'soulless' in your earlier post, which is like saying the one thing Iommi can't write is riffs. i.e. demonstrably ridiculous, it's what he's known FOR.

People think we 'have no history' and think we are all super-rich like the owners. But we have lots of history, ups and downs all the way back to 1894 (and even 1880 under our previous name), and the fans in the ground are the same as they always were. Fans who've been there well before the money arrived and who will still be there long after it disappears.

I didn't like the Porto fans after their monkey noises at black players (I saw a video taken inside their fans, they were pretty pathetic) - that is the only time I can remember disliking visiting fans before they got here. The Sporting fans were colourful and noisey, and we like that. No-one here despised your club before the start, that just isn't our way (unless you are Man Utd!).