The Official Football/Soccer Thread: 2017-2018 Season
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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.
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21st Century Paul:
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.
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Just 20,000 tickets for each team in Rome .... what a joke
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20,000, that should be enough......if you exclude the glory hunters worldwide, the fairweather types and the prawn sandwich munchers that's one for every real fan Manchester United have......
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Oh dear. Poor old Chavs got beat in the last minute....
.....what a shame....
The behaviour of some of their players particularly Drogba the diving cheat was a disgrace and should hopefully lead to a massive ban....but probably won't as Roman will pay someone off. As for Barca.....
: ......if they play like that against Manchester they'll get annihilated. They need to wake up and smell the coffee.....the team they'll face in Rome in three weeks will not be a La Liga side.....they'll be a tough, fast, aggressive and skillful unit with depth on the bench and if Barca play like they did against Chelsea they'll be beaten 4-0 or worse. They have to turn up, they have to watch what Liverpool (and Fulham at Craven Cottage) did to United at the Old Toilet a few weeks ago and they have to roll their sleeves up and play hard ball if necessary and not try and walk the ball into the back of the net.....try maybe taking a shot from outside the area when the opportunity presents itself. If you get in their faces and then play the incisive stuff they're vulnerable. On behalf of all football fans everywhere they have to stop United from winning the Champions League. Like I've said before they are not as good as they like to think they are and most football fans have had enough. So for the sake of football......GO BARCA GO!!!
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Chelsea lost. I am so sad...
The Norwegian ref did a good job helping Barca in this game by not awarding Chelsea two penalties. Ballack was not very happy: http://www.vg.no/uploaded/image/bilderigg/2009/05/06/1241644541350_269.jpg I agree, David. For the sake of football --- Go Barca!
I have had enough of Man U winning trophies.
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Svenn:
The Norwegian ref did a good job helping Barca in this game by not awarding Chelsea two penalties.
He did his best for Chelsea by sending off Abidal. Barcelona may not have played at its best (far from it) but Chelsea supporters should blame Hiddink more than anyone else. 11 against 10, he subs out Drogba for Belletti instead of going for the jugular. Anti-football at its worst. Both goals were goalsos, btw.