The Official Football/Soccer Thread: 2017-2018 Season
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unclesox:
SurSteven:
Unranked Iowa just beat 3rd ranked Penn State 24 to 23 in College football!
24-23 ?! That's a lot of goals! Sounds like crap defending by both sides. And here I am talking about Eto'o scoring four in one half! Who says Americans are only known for their good goalkeeping?
Sorry, buddy! I thought this may have been a combination football and futbol/soccer thread when I first glanced at the title. I was a little ecstatic about the outcome of the game. Yes, 24-23 would be quite the sleeping goalies soccer score. Here's a funny 2 minute animation on goal defending I ran across last week that you may like!
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unclesox:
Scoring four goals in a match off tap-ins and penalties is okay (Higuaín). But to score four quality goals in one half... 13 goals in 10 league matches now. El Pichichi is on the way. Barcelona with a plus-26 goal differential after only ten rounds!
And yet still only a couple of points away
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21st Century Paul:
And yet still only a couple of points away
The way Real's defence has been looking of late, it seems a matter of time before they begin to drop back a bit. Should start to happen in December.
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unclesox:
21st Century Paul:
And yet still only a couple of points away
The way Real's defence has been looking of late, it seems a matter of time before they begin to drop back a bit. Should start to happen in December.
Yes, defence now is horrible. I think there's a lot of trouble between them... Sergio Ramos told it, but I again I think the problem is not telling but the problem itself, like when Etoo talked about Ronaldinho. Well, Schuster can use Torres and Metzelder. Anyway Barça is playing a LOT better than Real Madrid now. This Barça is the most scoring team after the match 10 since... Real Madrid 58-59! Di Stefano, Puskas, Gento... Barça, Real Madrid and the rest soon will face the "nitty-gritty", the famous row of matches between the favs. History repeated, In Casillas and Raul we trust.
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21st Century Paul:
Anyway Barça is playing a LOT better than Real Madrid now. This Barça is the most scoring team after the match 10 since... Real Madrid 58-59! Di Stefano, Puskas, Gento... Barça, Real Madrid and the rest soon will face the "nitty-gritty", the famous row of matches between the favs. History repeated, In Casillas and Raul we trust.
Iniesta will miss out on all these big matches coming up. Milito will hopefully be back. Pep has surprised me very much. What he has done best is kept the players fresh with constant rotation. He realizes the players want to play every match but he's smart enough to know when key players need to rest. Not one player played every match during the month of October. By rotating the lineup he also allows everyone a chance to play with others so that they all become familiar with each other. I was against his hiring simply because of his inexperience, but he's proving to be something special. And he was promoted from within (!), rather than a Mourinho or a Laudrup being brought in at high wages.
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Well, I don't believe much in experience but in talent, but I didn't know what kind of coach Guardiola could be, I only thought that he could be something similar as he was a player. Always directing everything, and seeing things clearly than everyone. Some nicknamed Guardiola playing here... The weak point, cause everybody has... is that is not so "cruel" to leave someone out of the team if it's needed or so. I don't see doing that. He would prefer anyone to play and join the party. But if there's no problem he doesn't need to do that. Capello, for instance, would have no problem of doing that... Well, you know. Real Madrid (shamely) out of the Spanish Cup, or the Cup of the King... by winning 4-3 in the Bernabeu after losing 3-2 against Real Union, a team of the third Spanish division, after the first and second one... They do many goals, this time Raul did a hat-trick, but well, if you receive 3... I don't know if people are gonna start discussing Casillas, not me... But as January is near the rumours of the Winter singings too.... And Real Madrid finished the summer signings with bigger sales that signings. Robinho gone, Cristiano not signed. And only Robben as a wing, now not even Robben. A big team without wings, And the rumours are Real Madrid is going after Arshavin (and that doesn't mean he's gonna get signed really cause you know what has happened all this time when Real has tried to sign great players)... But Arshavin is an offensive midfielder (yet another one), 28 years, great player, but unless he can play in the right wing doing crossings a la Beckham I think he is almost useless for this team. Arshavin as right wing? goals of today's match here
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come on the jambos
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21st Century Paul:
The weak point, cause everybody has... is that is not so "cruel" to leave someone out of the team if it's needed or so. I don't see doing that. He would prefer anyone to play and join the party. But if there's no problem he doesn't need to do that.
Well, you've just said it. There are no problems so there's currently no need for Pep to bench anyone. A lot of the media were talking about Pep having problems with Yaya because he wasn't playing him, but he was injured at the time. Now that Touré has recovered, Pep has been including him in fairly often. Keita also back from injury, but Iniesta could be a significant loss. Milito should be back soon. I'm not sure why Manchester United supporters were sorry to see Piqué leave because he really hasn't impressed much. He looks too nervous more than anything. I'd like to see Pep give Cáceres a go ahead of Piqué. Barcelona paid 16 million euros for him and he hasn't seen much action.
21st Century Paul:
Well, you know. Real Madrid (shamely) out of the Spanish Cup, or the Cup of the King... by winning 4-3 in the Bernabeu after losing 3-2 against Real Union, a team of the third Spanish division, after the first and second one... They do many goals, this time Raul did a hat-trick, but well, if you receive 3... I don't know if people are gonna start discussing Casillas, not me...
There's no need to discuss Casillas because he didn't play. Dudek was in goal as he usually plays during the Copa del Rey matches. But it was the whole defence that looked terrible... again. Hard to believe this is the same Cannavaro who lifted the World Cup for Italy. 6 goals conceded in two matches against a Segunda B side. Not the stuff champions are made of. It was great to watch.
21st Century Paul:
And the rumours are Real Madrid is going after Arshavin (and that doesn't mean he's gonna get signed really cause you know what has happened all this time when Real has tried to sign great players)... But Arshavin is an offensive midfielder (yet another one), 28 years, great player, but unless he can play in the right wing doing crossings a la Beckham I think he is almost useless for this team. Arshavin as right wing?
With the Russian league playing a calendar year schedule, their league ends this month and Arshavin has let it be known that he wants a move away from Zenit in January. So all the clubs - not just Real Madrid - are lining up hoping to sign him. I'm just wondering if Arshavin would still be willing to go if Zenit can somehow advance ahead of Real Madrid in the Champions League. From what I've seen of him at Zenit and with Russia he can play either wing quite well. He's also an admitted Barcelona supporter. Not sure if they want him though. I'm content with what the team has for now. Hleb is a curious one. He plays well but he seems to have a fear of shooting at goal. Too often passes up an open shot in favor of giving it to a teammate instead. I don't know if it's lack of confidence or what but he needs to grow some balls and take a shot every once in a while.
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unclesox:
21st Century Paul:
Well, you know. Real Madrid (shamely) out of the Spanish Cup, or the Cup of the King... by winning 4-3 in the Bernabeu after losing 3-2 against Real Union, a team of the third Spanish division, after the first and second one... They do many goals, this time Raul did a hat-trick, but well, if you receive 3... I don't know if people are gonna start discussing Casillas, not me...
There's no need to discuss Casillas because he didn't play. Dudek was in goal as he usually plays during the Copa del Rey matches. But it was the whole defence that looked terrible... again. Hard to believe this is the same Cannavaro who lifted the World Cup for Italy. 6 goals conceded in two matches against a Segunda B side. Not the stuff champions are made of. It was great to watch. Dudek, okey, I didn't know. Anyway on the league and champions league it's similar. Well if you have no wings you must attack by the center... and if you really want to score you have to push your defend forward and everyone leaving space behind. If not is like when Barça attacked by the center with the defense back and it was 0-0 again and again... Sometimes the defense is bad cause the attack is bad... and this time you'll need fast defenders (as Real Madrid usually needs). Cannavaro is not that, Heinze either, Metzelder either, they all are very good with the defence near the area, but Real Madrid needs now Sergio Ramos and Pepe especially.
21st Century Paul:
And the rumours are Real Madrid is going after Arshavin (and that doesn't mean he's gonna get signed really cause you know what has happened all this time when Real has tried to sign great players)... But Arshavin is an offensive midfielder (yet another one), 28 years, great player, but unless he can play in the right wing doing crossings a la Beckham I think he is almost useless for this team. Arshavin as right wing?
Hleb is a curious one. He plays well but he seems to have a fear of shooting at goal. Too often passes up an open shot in favor of giving it to a teammate instead. I don't know if it's lack of confidence or what but he needs to grow some balls and take a shot every once in a while.
from what I know is just that he can't shoot, not lack of confidence, but I don't know the player well...
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21st Century Paul:
History repeated, In Casillas and Raul we trust.
Last week: Barcelona 6-0 Valladolid Today: Valladolid 1-0 Real Madrid And the player you trust failed when put through with only the goalkeeper to beat.
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unclesox:
21st Century Paul:
History repeated, In Casillas and Raul we trust.
Last week: Barcelona 6-0 Valladolid Today: Valladolid 1-0 Real Madrid And the player you trust failed when put through with only the goalkeeper to beat.
Yes, even Raul fails now (who scored his goal #300 in the team recently, now only 7 away of the main scorer ever in Real Madrid, Di Stefano...)... just like Casillas fails too... but they're not to blame... it's just the depressing feeling of the team... they haven't run out of wings or fast strikers. Robben, Robinho... they tried with Cristiano Ronaldo (that can do both jobs), Villa, Cazorla, etc. I can't imagine how they can win now.. is like running out of centre backs and try to defence... maybe Drenthe would do a wing job, or even Sergio Ramos... yeah, not a big thing, but someone's gonna do it... at least till January. And Schuster can't do a thing either... there's no way to play with the players they have now. Other teams should take some points of advantage now . And it doesn't look well for the Champions League either, it's a similar moment like when they played against Roma. Hopefully they'll find someone in the young team, there must be someone. Real Madrid is the number one provider of players of all the European leagues, I mean players in the Real Madrid "cantera", similar to "La Masia" in Barcelona, that is the 2nd one... Mata, Negredo, Soldado, etc. left very recently and they would have done that job.
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Julen Guerrero suggests a thing that Real Madrid already used in the Del Bosque era. 5 defenders with 2 very ofensive right/left back.. there's no wings in the team but Sergio Ramos and Marcelo can attack. So something like ...........................Casillas....................... ............Pepe.....Cannavaro....Heinze....... S.Ramos.............Gago.....................Marcelo ..................Sneijder...V.D. Vaart............... ..................Higuain....Raul..................... with lots of space for Ramos and Marcelo... quite in an old fashioned German way.... or whatever, cause as things are now I don't think Real Madrid is gonna qualify for the knockouts of the Champions League . I signed Raul to my team, cause Van Nistelrooy can't play anymore this year, and that favours him... but I didn't expect this... And the news about De La Red (Real Madrid's president tonight on the Real Madrid), by the way Schuster not fired, is that he had "a heart-attack or so", and medicians don't find anything strange after lots of tests. So he's supposed to maybe play again in the future, only if he's not risking his life doing it. But how will they know?
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Another fine performance by Spain, this time over Chile 3-0. In 2008 Spain played 16 internationals during the calender year and won 15 of them. The only blemish was the 0-0 draw against Italy at EURO 2008. Along the way Spain scored 33 goals while only conceding 5. Overall Spain are now unbeaten in their last 28 international fixtures. Their last defeat came in November 2006 against Romania. The days of Spain not making an impact on the international scene are long gone. Next on the hit list... England! February 11th at the Mestalla.
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unclesox:
Another fine performance by Spain, this time over Chile 3-0. In 2008 Spain played 16 internationals during the calender year and won 15 of them. The only blemish was the 0-0 draw against Italy at EURO 2008. Along the way Spain scored 33 goals while only conceding 5. Overall Spain are now unbeaten in their last 28 international fixtures. Their last defeat came in November 2006 against Romania. The days of Spain not making an impact on the international scene are long gone. Next on the hit list... England! February 11th at the Mestalla.
umm.... Mestalla? so it's not Madrid... I was discussing with my Dad the chance to see a match of Spain, now they're playing better than anyone... Valencia is not so far... Other possiblity would be seeing, yes, Barça, now they're playing great again, but there's no way of getting tickets for their matches at home, maybe the one against Espanyol. Edited... the game against Espanyol already happened... maybe there's some possibility for the Champions League matches.
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Here we go again... Statement from the club's medical officer: "Leo Messi acabó el entrenamiento de esta mañana con molestias en el cuadriceps de la pierna derecha. Después de realizarle diferentes pruebas se ha descartado una lesión muscular. A pesar de eso, la participación del jugador en los próximos partidos dependerá de la evolución clínica de estas molestias para no entrar en ninguna situación de riesgo". (loosely translated) "Leo Messi finished training this morning with discomfort in the quadriceps of his right leg. After performing various tests a muscular injury has been ruled out. Despite that, the player's participation in upcoming matches will depend on the clinical evolution of his discomfort not entering a risky situation."
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Well, you know Messi is meant to live that again and again, just like Ronaldo. Messi spent the match doing nothing except when he has the ball, then his activity is like twice the one of a normal player, you know. Their legs actually hurt when he does that so he stops again waiting for the next similar thing. He doesn't move to defence and neither when the team has the ball, and those "explosive" or "egoist" players are meant to have injuries and to retire sooner than the "normal" ones. Raul is not gonna have these problems cause he's the opposite, always moving you know, for instance. But Robben is not so different... and Ronaldo was almost... well... he was just the same. These kind of players retire earlier cause their way of playing is worse for their bodies... or start their decline earlier... Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, even Maradona declined soon, Savio, Robben... but don't worry I don't think Barça needs Messi at all, I don't think he's so important.
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Well, not a big show, but the first half was good. Finally there's a wing who did a good crossing. That's the only thing that Raul needs... but lately there isn't much of it in the team. Yet another decisive Raul-goal by Raul. Real Madrid qualified. Villarreal 0-0 Man. United AaB 2-1 Celtic Villarreal and ManU qualified, first place undecided yet Bayern 3-0 Steaua Fiorentina 1-2 Lyon Bayern and Olympique qualified and the first place depends on the last game Fenerbahçe 1-2 Porto Arsenal 1-0 FC Dynamo Kyiv Arsenal and Porto qualified with Arsenal first but Porto has a chance of finishing first if they win Arsenal in Porto next matchday Zenit 0-0 Juventus BATE 0-1 Real Madrid Juventus and Real Madrid qualified, the first place is for Juventus unless they lose with BATE and Madrid wins Zenit. No surprise and all the big teams go to the knock out rounds, than look they're gonna be harder than ever Villareal ManU Madrid Juve Lyon Bayern Porto Arsenal...
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Bordeaux 1-1 Chelsea CFR Cluj 1-3 Roma Cluj out but none is qualifyed yet Internazionale 0-1 Panathinaikos Anorthosis 2-2 Bremen Inter qualified, Bremen out FC Shakhtar Donetsk 5-0 Basel Sporting 2-5 Barcelona Barça will be 1st and Sporting 2nd Atlético 2-1 PSV Liverpool 1-0 Marseille Atletico and Liverpool qualifyed qualified Anorthosis or Panathinaikos Inter 2 out of Bordeaux, Chelsea and Roma Barça Sporting Lisboa Liverpool Atletico Villareal ManU Madrid Juve Lyon Bayern Porto Arsenal Champions League on the Macca Board after Matchday 5 1 Oliver Sanz's Team (55 this matchday) 206 2 Louisville United (52) 199 3 FC Blaugrana (39) 180
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well, this is so bad that it's me who's got to post it Getafe 3- Real Madrid 1 the same Madrid again... 2 good crossings in all the game and no more... that's enough to win Bate Borisov, but not go far in the League. And impossible for the knockouts of the Champions League... if you're supposed to play against... Arsenal, Chelsea, ManU, Liverpool, Inter, Roma, Lyon or Bayern... there's a lucky thing for Real Madrid... the knock out rounds are on February, and maybe then they have signed someone... or there are injuries recoveries...
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Sheff Wed 3 - 2 Norwich 43' 1 Sammy Clingan (pen) 51' Tony McMahon 1 55' Leon Clarke 2 62' 2 Leroy Lita 72' Marcus Tudgay 3 81' John Kennedy Sheff Wed 8-4-8 GOALS 6 Tudgay 4 Clarke 3 Esajas 2 Sodje 2 Watson 1 McAllister 1 Spurr 1 Small 1 Burton 1 McMahon