The Official Football/Soccer Thread: 2017-2018 Season
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unclesox:
21st Century Paul:
for me the most underrated player ever is Raul...
I'm obviously not surprised to see this statement, but I still have to ask. Why do you consider him "underrated"? What would have to happen for you not to lable him as being "underrated"?
I'm not suprised you're not surprised. I consider him underrated cause he's the best striker I've ever seen and he's not considered that at all. He was 2nd in the FIFA world player and 2nd in the Golden Ball being... 21, I think. And nothing more after that, very weird for a player so young... Then he played in a different way, more egoistical, great to appear doing great things in the TV match highlights, only running when the ball was on his feet, but not as the "Other" Raul, constantly doing better what is best for the team. Now he does just what's need to be done every time he receives the ball (like Iniesta). He doesn't start dribbling when it's going nowhere, he doesn't shoot when it's no chance, he gives the right passes, he defends like no other forward, and he's the smarter of all the player in the attacking area. He's the best player in the world to beat a defence that's defending back, close to the goalkeeper. That uses to be the greatest challenge today for teams. And Raul is perfect to score that 1st goal. Others will score the 2nd, 3rd with more spaces... but he'll find the right place to score the 1-0. That's if he plays as striker, as today. Then he easily scores, 3 goals today. If not he can play as offensive midfielder, as playmaker, and he could be a great defender too. Sometimes he is the best forward, midfielder and defender of the match, (like Di Stefano). He never gives up, the motor after impossible things (like this mad pursue after Barça). He never had a red card, he prevents other players receive red cards (he was far from Pepe this time...). Yet, as he is not very "spectacular" as the one you'll enjoy a 5 second thing in tv highlights he's underrated. Real Madrid has signed all kind of players and all of them we're rumoured to make Raul go out of the starting team. Ronaldo, Zidane, Huntelaar, Van Nistelrooy, Owen, Anelka, Higuain, etc. And that's absurd, too bad he doesn't play always as the striker, cause there is some Van Nistelrooy or Huntelaar around, cause Real Madrid will be better. Actually Real Madrid is suddenly going well since Van Nistelrroy was injured, like happened2 leagues ago. What would have to happen? People rating them higher... and Fifa world players, golden ball and those things... Past seasons he was voted as one of the 3 best players in la Liga. For all the Liga coachers, than know him well, unlike who votes in Golden Ball, etc. that I think they only watch highlights and certain matches.
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Well, the "pursue of the Century" goes on. Barça is set to beat all records. And Real Madrid is set to pass Barça. Quite mad. Only Real Madrid would ever think of trying this. Real has got 52 of the last 54 points!. All matches won since the match with Barça, and a draw with Atletico. And now the "match of the Century" will happen. If Real wins Barça at Bernabeu they will be 1 point away only. Real is without Pepe
:... Robben and Sneijder... That takes away speed in attack and defense. In defense it forces to put the defense close to the goalkeeper having Cannavaro and Metzelder as slow center backs. But this there is Marcelo to substitute Robben in the speed in attack to threat counterattacks... unlike Drenthe... he scores them, as today. So will see next weekend. BTW, if Robben keeps playing that way, running and dribling all the time, he's only gonna get more of these injuries (just like happened to Messi since he started playing smarter). Today Huntelaar was not on the XI, with Raul as the real striker and scoring 3 typical Raul goals. And Miguel Torres as left back, much much better than Heinze. And it seems they'll play the same XI against Barça in the hottest Real Madrid-Barça I can remember.
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21st Century Paul:
Well, the "pursue of the Century" goes on. Barça is set to beat all records. And Real Madrid is set to pass Barça. Quite mad. Only Real Madrid would ever think of trying this.
It does help Real that they only have one competition to focus on.
I can't even remember the last time Real entered April still in contention for more than one trophy. They always get knocked of the European Cup and Copa del Rey in February/March.
: This could be one of the few instances when the best team does not end up winning La Liga.
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unclesox:
21st Century Paul:
Well, the "pursue of the Century" goes on. Barça is set to beat all records. And Real Madrid is set to pass Barça. Quite mad. Only Real Madrid would ever think of trying this.
It does help Real that they only have one competition to focus on.
Of course!
I can't even remember the last time Real entered April still in contention for more than one trophy. They always get knocked of the European Cup and Copa del Rey in February/March.
: This could be one of the few instances when the best team does not end up winning La Liga.
It certain could be.
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You know, 0-0. A match like the Barça worst matches. All the rival defending and Barça without making goals... All this season in Spain that has happened too... (the rival defending back, it's what I would do if I was a coach too). But Guardiola solved the thing adding players to attack. As Barça is full of fast forwards but no "smart one" (able to place himself in the right place, like Raul, except Bojan somehow but he doesn't play), they simply attacked with everyone... a la Manchester, with defenders like Puyol and Pique close to the other area... Guardiola said before the match yesterday: "The last thing we want is a counter-attack us, counter-attack them, over and over kind of match (usual in the Premier), we would have no chance then" Let me disagree with Pep.
Chelsea defenders are slow... Barça forwards are fast... Barça defenders are fast, faster than the Chelsea forwards, so the best thing for Barça is a match like that. Another one: "This time we're not gonna attack with the defense too, but placing them back in case of counterattacks"
Not much chance to score for Barça then... I don't know what they're gonna do in London. Maybe Chelsea needs to attack more and gives Barça the space they need. In games like that I would line Bojan instead of Etoo (some will think I'm mad...). You already have Messi for making them go back to defense. But Bojan is more dangerous than Etoo with little spaces. Maybe Guardiola didn't want a hit and run game cause it's more exhausting than the one they did yesterday... And Barça has the HUGE match this Saturday.... on the other hand 4 days are enough to recover from any fatigue... I see you have 6 Man Utd players in Fantasy and I only have CR7, so I would have to go with Arsenal today.
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We talked about underrated. These are some I think they were or are underrated. Not by other great players of coaches that already have pointed to them as the best, but by media, majority of people, individual prizes, etc. Franco Baresi Paolo Maldini Frank Lampard Steven Gerrard Iker Casillas (yes, except this year...) Carles Puyol Pep Guardiola Michael Laudrup Raul Gonzalez David Beckham Andres Iniesta etc.
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21st Century Paul:
We talked about underrated. These are some I think they were or are underrated. Not by other great players of coaches that already have pointed to them as the best, but by media, majority of people, individual prizes, etc. Franco Baresi Paolo Maldini Frank Lampard Steven Gerrard Iker Casillas (yes, except this year...) Carles Puyol Pep Guardiola Michael Laudrup Raul Gonzalez David Beckham Andres Iniesta etc.
From this list I would only say that Iniesta is a bit underrated. But most know how valuable he is. Beckham has been very overrated since his mind wondered from football to glamour. I blame Posh for that.
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Man Utd. 1- Arsenal 0 Not many goals in the semifinals, and the only one was scored by a defender, not many points for my offensive team. But 2nd legs use to have more goals... Standings of the Macca Board Fantasy Football Champions League 1 Oliver Sanz's Team 21st Century Paul 38 499 2 Louisville United Daniel 53 475 3 FC Blaugrana unclesox 47 445 Btw, Almunia could be the goalkeeper for England national team. Yeah, it's weird but it can be, as he doesn't play with Spain and England seems not to have good ones.
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And obviously... EL CLASICO The Classic many times called... "the Match of the Century" this time it really is The present Barça is the best leader ever in the Spanish and Real Madrid the best 2nd ever by far. And they're only 4 points away when only 5 matches to go. If Barça wins the league is virtually over. If it's a draw is almost over. If Real Madrid wins will be only one point away with 4 matches to go. Barça won Real 2-0 in the first leg. And in Spain, if there's a final tie after the last match, the way of setting the champion is the results of the matches between the tied ones (Just like if it had happened a Champions League K.O. round). Even if Real Madrid is winning 2-0 it will be interesting to see if they score a 3rd one to win the advantage of winning a possible tie. Rumoured XIs Casillas Ramos Cannavaro Metzelder Heinze (some said Marcelo) Robben Lass Gago Marcelo Higuain Raul I don't like Heinze on the defense, that's 3 slow defenders, that defence is very vulnerable to long balls, I would have prefered Miguel Torres or Marcelo. Robben is quite unpredictable... he doesn't play for the team. I like if Huntelaar doesn't play cause Raul would be the striker then. As Real Madrid defense is gonna be slow they're supposed to defense near the goalkeeper... except all the team does big pressure trying to steal the ball. Sort of what they did past year in the 4-1. But I can't imagine Robben doing that job...
Now this is a great videoBut Real needs to win, and they're not gonna accept a draw, you know, they can't wait for a counter-attack even having Marcelo and Robben that are good for it (unlike Drenthe in the 2-0, fast but he can't shoot...) It's a weird XI, I don't think it will be the real one. Probably Robben won't play and Huntelaar or Van der Vaart will play with Raul as midfielder. Valdes Alves Puyol Pique Abidal Xavi Toure Iniesta (or Keita) Messi Etoo Henry (or Iniesta) Without Marquez Barça is supposed to have problems for playing the ball all the way to Xavi and Iniesta, and I guess Real would attack (they must
) that. Raul could do the main pressure to the Centre Backs if he play as forward and if he plays as midfielders he will try to stop Xavi, kind of what Chelsea did. But even if they have problem any long ball or counterattack is ultra-dangerous with these players. Xavi/Iniesta-Etoo/Messi connections. Real Madrid can wait but it would be boring and maybe a 0-0. Or can go for the ball and then there will be a lot goals and there will a spectacular match. Like the 4-1 past season. Or that 4-3 the other one. Real Madrid has horrible problems to pass the ball from the defenders to the midfielders, that's why his playing is ugly (not "bad" but ugly :wink
. But I don't Barça is going to do pressure, they don't have the right forwards for that, except Etoo. They look too tired to do it, or too satisfied with the 0-0. And defenders would play long balls to Raul or Hunterlaar heads then. "In Iker and Raul we trust" Guardiola has just said today about Raul: "He's the best player in the Spanish football history, in the behaviour aspect too. It's a pleasure that he still plays and I wish he will play some more years" Pep doesn't underrate Raul... maybe even overrates him"in the Spanish football history" (over Di Stefano?, Cruyff?). At least I feel less alone in my opinion, I guess he means the best football player born in Spain, then I agree. Or maybe Cruyff and Di Stefano were not so good.
Raul has scored 15 goals to Barça. And here's the video. Included the one when he did the famous gesture of "sshhhh... Shut up" to the Camp Nou, the only time when Raul has been somehow not correct in his ways on the field. He was critized and underrated then too, anybody has a limit, you know...
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Now the interview's on Juande Ramos, Madrid's coach. "I don't know the shape of the Barça players. If they're allright I would line the best ones in Bernabeu, but if there's no guarantee they'll be absolutely recovered for the Chelsea match, I would rotate (line some substitutes to give rest to the usual players in the XI)" "If they lose in Bernabeu, they will be leaders anyway, but if they lose against Chelsea they will be out of the Champions League. The Chelsea match is more important cause if they lose againt us they still will hold chances of winning la Liga" Asked about how Madrid plays (defending back of going for the ball with pressure) "Valencia used a different way than Chelsea and it worked out. Both ways are valid. You must wait 24 hours to know it" About this there is something missing. One of the core values of Barça is that the most important thing is Real Madrid failure. If some year finishes 2nd at la Liga and Barça 5th, that's ok. If Real finishes 1st and Barça 2nd, that's not ok at all. As Real is already out of the Champions, for Barça the league is much more important than the Champions, the possibility of Madrid winning la Liga is less wanted for Barça core values that Barça not winning the Champions League. And winning the Barça-Madrid game is seen often as enough to justify one season, as winning some championship. So from this Anti-Madrid point of view Barça could win 2 cups this Saturday, the direct match and La Liga.
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2 hours to go
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2-6
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Well, it was meant to be. Heinze, Cannavaro and Metzelder, all of them very slow, and defending like 40 metres away from Casillas... Long balls from Xavi and co. did what they were supposed to do. No Pepe or Marcelo in the defense. But well, unlike any other team, Madrid took the risk because they needed to win. No matter if they score 6, 7 or 13. A 0-1 was as bad anyway. Like some people are afraid of ridiculous. So they never try ambitious things. I'm glad they did that, a 0-0 like the Chelsea one wouldn't have been what Real Madrid is all about. After the match, I went to the core of Barcelona city. And it was like the day Spain win the Eurocup. You know, Real Madrid would never celebrate this way winning Barça but Barça does. It can sound strange but the league is not over.
Losing 2 matches and draw are enough. Anyway like Juande says every time Madrid plays against big teams (Juventus, Liverpool, Barça) they lose. It's a team that's kind of a specialist in winning all the rest of the teams but not good for the big ones. Still great then for the Spanish League but not for Europe. Or for a strange year like this when Barça does so many points.
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unclesox:
![](http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/332/rofl2oi7.gif[/img] [img]<a href=)http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Laughing/hahaha-024.gif[/img] [img]http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Laughing/lol-054.gif"/>
: The most surreal moment was when Sergio Ramos was substituted for a midfielder. Then the team was a 3-4-3 with Metzelder, Heinze and Cannavaro as the defense in the half of the field. Even Raul would have scored in a counter-attack or a long pass... you know the line "... and we'll keep on fighthing till the end" Let's see how Chelsea plays. And how Barça plays too.
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Arsenal 1 - Man Utd 3 I didn't see the start of the match, so I didn't see the first 2 goals. When Man. Utd scored the 3rd goal I though it was gonna be like Madrid-Barça, with Arsenal desperate and Manchester scoring with long balls, but Arsenal didn't risk so much. So well, Manchester United is the 1st finalist.
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as you may guess, the day after losing against Barça, rumours about Real Madrid signings hit the press
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CR7 (the captain today of Daniel and me), Kaka, Villa, Cesc, Silva, Xabi Alonso... Yeah, the funniest thing is that all of the players above were rejected for Real Madrid in the past, claiming the price was too high.