General Football/Soccer Talk

Damn Chelsea, what a demolishing.

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/sn ... 9570.story

RIP Robert Enke

Holy shit. Poor guy. I knew of him from when he played for Barca.

New Zealand are World Cup bound

RIP Enke. I was so excited with the Chile - Germany friendly, but no one could play after a member of the squad just died a couple days ago.

Depression sucks. Must have been pretty bad for him to leave a wife & kid without a father

France 1 - 1 Ireland, everyone sure knows about Thierry's huge touch with his hand... twice. The ball was coming too fast and he couldn't control it... he said that he DID touched it with his hand and then told the referee himself, but this guy said to him: "You're not the referee." I think the most fair scenario would be, play the whole game or the extra time again... I don't want Henry to stay as the villain in the movie.

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Thanks for that video Jae. Good to see a different perspective. I'm more over it now. Keane was right in a lot of respects that players dive all the time & cheat wherever. I can imagine any striker in the World would've done the same, part instinct, part strong desire to win. The Irish did stop defender. I get sick of seeing players just throw their hands up waiting for linesmen & referees making the call. Occasionally they will miss it & the team will score.

Keane always had a steel pair.
Always been a fan of 'quit bitching and move on' mentality.
Though if what Henry said is true about the ref's statement, the initial reaction would be to fire the ref, but can't blame the refs, imo. It's like the refs also have their hands tied because of the rules or lack of it (regarding video replay) just to confirm the play, which reminds me of an NBA incident that happened last season (Denver, playoffs?)

I think Henry told referee after the game, not when it happened, so probably just made the referee feel terrible rather than anything else

Henry does look to me like a douchebag.

Surprised no one said anything about the World Cup Draw.

A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
B: Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, Greece
C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana
E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal
H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile

Interesting: E and G.

Surprised no one said anything about the World Cup Draw.

A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
B: Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, Greece
C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana
E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal
H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile[/b]

I thought about posting but frankly I seemed to be the only person interested.

I am reasonably happy with New Zealand's draw. Granted I would've preferred Group B or C but we have a chance to get a result or two, most likely against Slovakia. We are highly unlikely to advance unless we can pull out a win in opening game against Slovakia & steal a draw against Paraguay & hope other results go our way.

Group G is clearly the toughest group. Imagine how tough that would've been if it was Australia instead of North Korea And the prize for scraping to the 2nd spot is a 2nd Round matchup with Spain I'm hoping Ivory Coast & Portugal advance from that group but I know Brazil obviously will advance.

Very early random predictions:

POOL STAGES FINAL STANDINGS
A: France, Mexico, South Africa, Uruguay
B: Argentina, Nigeria, Greece, South Korea
C: England, USA, Slovenia, Algeria
D: Ghana, Germany, Australia, Serbia
E: Netherlands, Denmark, Cameroon, Japan
F: Paraguay, Italy, Slovakia, New Zealand
G: Ivory Coast, Brazil, Portugal, North Korea
H: Spain, Chile, Switzerland, Honduras

2ND ROUND
France defeat Nigeria
Germany defeat England (penalty shootout)
Netherlands defeat Italy
Ivory Coast defeat Chile

Argentina defeat Mexico
Ghana defeat USA
Paraguay defeat Denmark
Spain defeat Brazil

QUARTER FINALS
Germany defeat France
Netherlands defeat Ivory Coast

Ghana defeat Argentina
Spain defeats Paraguay

SEMI FINALS
Netherlands defeat Germany
Spain defeat Ghana

FINAL
Netherlands defeat Spain


If Brazil can win their Group then they could advance far. As always, it's all crap-shoot at this point.

I agree with you X in almost every prediction, but in what universe, Ghana will defeat us?

I think The X is a bit of a closet Ghana fan

Group A: France, Mexico, Uruguay, South Africa
Group B: Argentina, Greece, Nigeria, South Korea
Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D: Germany, Serbia, Ghana, Australia
Group E: Netherlands, Cameroon, Denmark, Japan
Group F: Italy, Paraguay, Slovakia, New Zealand
Group G: Brazil, Portugal, Ivory Coast, North Korea
Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Chile, Honduras

France v Greece
England v Serbia
Germany v USA
Argentina v Mexico
Netherlands v Paraguay
Brazil v Switzerland
Italy v Cameroon
Spain v Portugal

Netherlands v Brazil
France v England
Argentina v Germany
Italy v Spain

England v Brazil
Germany v Spain

Brazil v Spain

Brazil

I don't rate the Netherlands or Argentina at all, but I think Serbia could be a surprise packet. If they could get through and beat England I wouldn't be shocked, they were really good in qualifying. Argentina are lucky as hell to have the draw they got, their group isn't really that strong and their first match would be against either Mexico or France. I can't see France dropping any group games so I'm guessing it'll be Mexico, South Africa or Uruguay in the next round for Argentina and that's not really a huge challenge. I like Chile alot but I don't know how they'll cope playing against Switzerland.

Potential surprise teams: Paraguay, Serbia, Algeria, Chile
Most likely to fail: Argentina, Netherlands
Player of the tournament guesses: If Spain wins, Casillas or Cesc. If Brazil wins maybe Hulk or Kaka.

Just looked back. Can't believe I picked Dutch to win. I must've been tired I hate the Dutch I like Spain's chances though if they can get past 2nd Round. When I made my picks, it was kind of like doing a March Madness bracket. Not a whole lot of thought, just gut calls & go for a couple of bolters

As for my lovefest with Ghana, I don't know, I just think one African team will make the semi finals. Maybe a bit sentimental of me. It's between them & Ivory Coast. Maybe Ghana will make it no further than quarters

Champions League draw:

Stuttgart v Barcelona
Olympiakos v Bordeaux
Inter v Chelsea
Bayern v Fiorentina
CSKA Moscow v Sevilla
Lyon v Real
Porto v Arsenal
Milan v Man U

Some great match-ups there, particularly Bayern/Fiorentina, Lyon/Real, Porto/Arsenal and Milan/United. If I had to guess I'd say:

Barcelona
Bordeaux
Chelsea
Bayern
Sevilla
Real
Arsenal
Man United

I don't care much for this national team we have. The coach plays a scared formation with people in the wrong positions and the players themselves care more about their ego than playing well together. Will still watch the games.

I hope bayern to do well. I am fond of their coach.

Olympiakos has many possibilities to pass over Bordaux.
Maybe Bordaux is one of the best teams in Europe right now, but if we play well and with a good transfer,we have possibilities

Scary stuff for the Togo National Team:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100109/ap_on_sp_so_ne/soc_togo_bus_attacked

I was gonna post it here Mofo, and totally forgot.

In this 3 days there have been 2 U-turns by the Togo squad First they were going back home, then they said they were going to play the tournament anyway "for the memory of those who passed away" and now it looks like they are going back home. There were pics of the players at the airport.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=723537 ....... http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=723265

From one of the links in that article:

CAF has muddied the waters somewhat by pointing the finger at the Togo side for opting to travel by bus in the first place.

They claim there was a meeting, which Togo did not attend, that forbade the use of ground transportation into Angola. But if they were not at the meeting then how were they to know and, more importantly, who was meant to tell them?

Finger-pointing ftw.

Yeah, apparently 15 of the 16 national teams went to Angola by plane. Only Togo went by ground.