The FOOTball thread

River Plate got relegated. :blink:
 
stevanford1 said:
River Plate got relegated. :blink:
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Happy days for Boca fans...



Is no one watching Copa America? Pretty lackluster performances by Argentina (1-1 against Bolivia) and Brazil (0-0 against Venezuela). Missed the Argentina game and only saw the first half of the Brazil game but I'll try to follow the games a bit more from now on. I want to see what Argentina can do now that Maradona's out of the way as well as Brazil without Dunga. First real chance to see some of Brazil's potential future stars in action, like Ganso and Neymar who just won Copa Libertadores with Santos. Both are very much wanted in Europe, Neymar especially, but Santos is holding on to them pretty tight.
 
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Whappeh said:
Wow, they must of had a fucking horrid season lol
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A bit longer than that, in Argentina's Primera Division the teams fighting for relegation are chosen by a three season average to stop the big teams being relegated because of a single bad season. Although I'm not sure if that's a three-year or a 1,5-year average since they have the Apertura/Clausura system so they technically have two seasons in a year.


Argentina still not going strong in the Copa America, 1-1 and 0-0 so far. Mexico has lost both their games while Chile has been pretty impressive beating Mexico and playing a strong game after Uruguay drawing 1-1. Brazil are going have their second game tonight against Paraguay and they better win after their first game ending 0-0
 
The Copa America is being disappointingly bad. I see someone like Costa Rica winning it this year, I dunno. I have no idea why they chose to hold it during winter, with that ever persisting fog and humidity that characterizes the argentine cold season. And also you can sort of tell that all players who play in Europe have vacation in their mind more than the actual games, Messi being a prime example. I love the guy but please... get your groove on.
 
Some pre-season friendlies played this weekend.

Sunday, 17 July 2011

Club America 0-2 Man City

Saturday, 16 July 2011

Hangzhou Greentown 1-1 Arsenal
Kaizer Chiefs 1-0 Tottenham
Malaysia All-Stars XI 3-6 Liverpool

Friday, 15 July 2011

Tampa Bay Rowdies 1-0 Bolton
 
mpicco said:
And also you can sort of tell that all players who play in Europe have vacation in their mind more than the actual games, Messi being a prime example. I love the guy but please... get your groove on.
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Suarez seems to be at the other end of the scale at least from the highlights I saw from the semi-final game last night. Uruguay seem to be the clear favorite for the cup at this point.

Also, qualifiers for CL are underway, but currently, only teams that nobody has ever heard of are playing, although they are producing a surprising amount of goals:

HJK Helsinki 10 - 0 Bangor City
Litex Lovech 3 - 0 Mogren Budva
Plzen 5 - 1 Pyunik
 
savamane said:
Also, qualifiers for CL are underway, but currently, only teams that nobody has ever heard of are playing, although they are producing a surprising amount of goals:
HJK Helsinki 10 - 0 Bangor City
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Hoping for HJK to become the first Finnish team in the UCL, but they have a tough opponent coming next (Dinamo Zagreb). If they win they still have the playoff-round to go, but at least they'd secure a spot in the Europa League.


Messi is getting a lot more criticism than he deserves, apparently he's useless to most people if he doesn't score goals. Countless great passes, especially to Higuain who was useless at finishing most of the time. Argentina as a whole was a huge disappointment though.
Pretty disappointed with Copa America this year. At least Uruguay played well against Argentina but Paraguay and Venezuela were definitely the worse teams against Brazil and Chile, couldn't care much less about their semi final game. I hope and believe Uruguay will win the tournament, they deserve it.
 
Are we going to do an EPL Fantasy League? http://fantasy.premierleague.com/ is up and ready to go, if someone wants to make a league.

Also, Orlando Pirates drew with Tottenham on an amazingly crisp goal from Happy Jele!
 
Congrats to Uruguay for winning Copa America. The final was pretty entertaining and fast paced, but as I expected Paraguay didn't really stand a chance. An "amazing" feat by them to make it to the finals without winning a single game though. Nice to see Forl?n back on target as well after his difficult season with Atletico. He makes a brilliant duo with Suarez. Cavani on the other hand was a bit of a letdown considering what he achieved in Serie A last season.
 
Whappeh said:
Are we going to do an EPL Fantasy League? http://fantasy.premierleague.com/ is up and ready to go, if someone wants to make a league.
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Could do. Is there enough interest? (Okay, sod it, I've created one. Apparently you need a code to join, which is 604562-158211.)



Do people really care about international football following the FIFA shenanigans (and I will leave it at that)?
 
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NoNeedForAChestWig said:
* snip EPL FL *

Do people really care about international football following the FIFA shenanigans (and I will leave it at that)?
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The FIFA organisation is pants, the 2014 World Cup is different, with little they can do to fuck it up.

Alasondro Alegr? said:
The qualifying draw for the 2014 World Cup is tonight. I heard France isn't a seed in Europe, so that could lead to a very tough group.
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Yup, someone is gonna get boned ..

h-p said:
2014 UEFA qualification groups have been selected: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(UEFA)#First_round

Spain and France? FFFUUUU....

And every match counts, because less teams than other groups? FFFUUUU... x2
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.. oh, its Finland. Bonus with Spain too, double boned .
Bad luck guys. :p

2014 World Cup Qualifiers - EUROPEAN ZONE DRAW
Group A: Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Scotland, Macedonia, Wales

Group B: Italy, Denmark, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Armenia, Malta.

Group C: Germamy, Sweden, R of Ireland, Austria, Faroe Is, K'stan.

Group D: Netherlands, Turkey, Hungary, Romania, Estonia, Andorra.

Group E: Norway, Slovenia, Switzerland, Albania, Cyprus, Iceland.

Group F: Portugal, Russia, Israel, N Ireland, Azerbaijan, L'bourg

Group G: Greece, Slovakia, Bosnia-H, Lithuania, Latvia, Lichtenstein

Group H: England, Montenegro, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, S Marino

Group I: Spain, France, Belarus, Georgia, Finland
 
Ugh, another idiotic defensive lapse to blow a lead by Arsenal. We need a new CB or two and a LB.
 
Jacobfox said:
Ugh, another idiotic defensive lapse to blow a lead by Arsenal. We need a new CB or two and a LB.
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Did Thierry Henry play against his old mates and a draw with Arsenal is pretty good for New York RBs.
(Don't think Vermarlen will be back for a while yet, so you still need two centre backs.)

Also, who did USA get in the 2014 World Cup draw?

:)
 
It's not like Finland had any realistic chances of qualifying no matter what the opposition, really.

Some stuff of what's been going on in the pre-season:

-Audi Cup, highly entertaining match between AC Milan and Bayern Munchen who both fielded pretty much their best teams. 1-1 after 90 minutes, Bayern to final through penalties (no extra time in the Audi Cup. Barca went to finals through Internacional, 2-2 after 90 minutes and Barca won on penalties. Missed the final because of work, but Barca won with two goals from Thiago. Pretty Barca B heavy team, Xavi was recovering from injury and Copa America players Messi, Alves and Mascherano were resting.

-Action packed French Supercup game between Ligue 1 champions Lille and Cup winners Marseille. 4-5 for Marseille with a red card, two penalties and five goals in the last 10 minutes:


-Another action packed game in Brazilian Serie A between Santos and Flamengo. Santos screwed up a 3-0 lead and Flamengo went on to win 4-5. Stunning goals by Neymar (2:36) and Ronaldinho (13:00), who went on to score a hat trick.


Things to look out for upcoming season:

-Malaga and PSG have been spending a ton of money this summer building up pretty interesting teams, both under new Qatari ownership, surprise surprise. Malaga's bought van Nistelrooy, Toulalan and Santi Cazorla to name a few. PSG has spent over 80 million euros and bought 8 new players, definitely the biggest news being Javier Pastore from Palermo for 45me. Another interesting deal is last season's second best Ligue 1 scorer Kevin Gameiro from Lorient for 11me.
 
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UCL Qualifying Round

Tuesday, 16 August 2011

Arsenal v Udinese, PO, L1, 19:45
BATE Borisov v SK Sturm Graz, PO, L1, 19:45
FC Copenhagen v Plzen, PO, L1, 19:45
FC Twente v Benfica, PO, L1, 19:45
Lyon v Rubin Kazan, PO, L1, 19:45

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

Bayern Munich v FC Zurich, PO, L1
Dinamo Zagreb v Malmo, PO, L1
Maccabi Haifa v Genk, PO, L1
Odense BK v Villarreal, PO, L1
Wisla Krakow v Apoel Nicosia, PO, L1

* * *

This is the "punishment playoffs" before the UCL main competition begins. For all those naughty teams who finished fourth in their leagues.


Arsenal, I am looking at you. Playing without a proper defence, means an early return from the beach holidays.

:lol:

(I will put up the UCL seaason thread after this lot has been sorted out.)
 
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