The FOOTball thread

Victoria said:
Yeah, the conversion season this year is a bit strange though. They're doing their standard 30-game schedule that runs March through November, but then after a winter break they are splitting the league into a top half and bottom half, and will play 14 more games (once at home and once away against eachh team in their half) to determine the championship and European spots (for the top half) and the relegated teams (for the bottom half). It is planned that the second phase will run from January through April, but has yet to be completely determined.
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Ah, thanks for that.
I sort of guessed they would do something like that, but still have a winter break like a lot of countries do. (RT Sports News didn?t explain the details.)

:)

PS.
I also found out how to pronounce the name CSKA Moscow correctly. (the letters CS, then ?ka? as a word. :rolleyes:)
 
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What does cska stand for anyway?
 
Somewhat. Of the four Cyrillic letters that make up what is transliterated in Latin as CSKA, the lst three are direct equivalents of S, K, and A. The first is a letter representing the 'ts' sound. It's an acronym itself for Tsentral'nyi Sportivnyi Klub Armii, meaning 'Central Sports Club of the Army'.

Edit: my post was directed at Heathrow, but it looks like I managed to answer TobiasG's question in the process of replying to Heathrow.

Also to add to it, while the name indicates that they are the club of the Russian Army, this is no longer the case and they simply retain their old name. However, the Russian Ministry of Defense is a major shareholder in the club, but not the majority shareholder.
 
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TobiasG said:
What does cska stand for anyway?
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Pretty much what Victoria said. There are several "TsSKA" teams in Russia and and the Moscow ice hockey team for example is still TsSKA Moskova. I don't know why they went with CSKA in the football team, maybe it's easier for foreigners or something since the team is a pretty big organisation frequently competing in the European competitions.



Nice one by Nice today, managing a 2-2 draw with Lyon despite being 0-2 down in the 90th minute :lol:

By the way, does anyone know where I can get EPL or Ligue 1 highlights from the games? Serie A and La Liga are always easy to find in Youtube right after the game but especially the EPL videos are all just fake videos pointing me to some dodgy URLs I'd rather not visit.

Edit: so I checked what's up with the CSKA name and it's still officially TsSKA Moskova, just like the ice hockey team. So the CSKA Moscow is just a translation.
 
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Since Japan pulled out because of the Tsunami, Spain has been invited to play in Copa America. It's somewhat cool to invite some weak teams from elsewhere but inviting the current World Champion doesn't make any sense to me. What a joke it would be if Spain were to participate and they'd win the tournament. They haven't yet decided, but I doubt the management of Barca and Real Madrid are very eager to send their players.
 
crookie said:
Since Japan pulled out because of the Tsunami, Spain has been invited to play in Copa America. It's somewhat cool to invite some weak teams from elsewhere but inviting the current World Champion doesn't make any sense to me. What a joke it would be if Spain were to participate and they'd win the tournament. They haven't yet decided, but I doubt the management of Barca and Real Madrid are very eager to send their players.
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There's an unwritten rule in international football that a team invited to another continent's championship (which, in practice for the last couple decades has been only the Copa America) will usually send a team of enough strength to not get destroyed but not contend for the title either. The North American championship had invited Brazil in the past, who would send their U-23 team. Mexico is a regular invitee to the Copa America, and usually gets into the knockouts but has only reached the final once (where they lost).

If Spain accepts the invite, I'd be shocked if they sent anywhere close to their full senior team.
 
Victoria said:
There's an unwritten rule in international football that a team invited to another continent's championship (which, in practice for the last couple decades has been only the Copa America) will usually send a team of enough strength to not get destroyed but not contend for the title either. The North American championship had invited Brazil in the past, who would send their U-23 team. Mexico is a regular invitee to the Copa America, and usually gets into the knockouts but has only reached the final once (where they lost).

If Spain accepts the invite, I'd be shocked if they sent anywhere close to their full senior team.
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Mexico and Brazil seem like pretty logical invitations but I don't see the point in inviting any of the major European teams to Copa America. Like I said I doubt Barca and Real Madrid would even "let" their key players to participate, but Spain can come up with a really strong reserve team considering the competition they'd be up against.
 
WTF? Terrorism in "Fitba"? (Scottish Football)

BBC News - Parcel bombs sent to Neil Lennon, Paul McBride and MSP
(MSP = Member of the Scottish Parliament)


Neil Lennon is the manager of SPL club Celtic and the two other intended targets are also well known Celtic supporters.
Celtic is a footbal club which has its suppport primarily from the catholic parts of Glasgow in Scotland.

This story has been media embargoed by the Police, since the first attack in late March.

This is unbelievable, football is a world game and is way better than this crap. :mad:
 
Barca played well, Real Madrid controlled the first half by pressing on like hell but their players completely ran out of breath after the first half. From then on it was Barca's game all the way but one counter-attack and Ronaldo scores, oh well. Could've gone both ways. Still looking pretty good for Barca in the UCL, looks like RMA can only control the game for 45 minutes max before they've exhausted themselves. The question mark is the Barca defense though, but at least we're getting Puyol back for the UCL games.
 
crookie said:
Barca played well, Real Madrid controlled the first half by pressing on like hell but their players completely ran out of breath after the first half. From then on it was Barca's game all the way but one counter-attack and Ronaldo scores, oh well. Could've gone both ways. Still looking pretty good for Barca in the UCL, looks like RMA can only control the game for 45 minutes max before they've exhausted themselves. The question mark is the Barca defense though, but at least we're getting Puyol back for the UCL games.
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So real won then? I had my tv set to record and because of the stupid way my cable provider handles the recording, if the game goes into extra time I wont be seeing the end of it.
 
Cold Fussion said:
So real won then? I had my tv set to record and because of the stupid way my cable provider handles the recording, if the game goes into extra time I wont be seeing the end of it.
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Yep, Ronaldo scored a header from a counter-attack in the 103rd minute. The trophy didn't last long as Ramos dropped it under a bus while celebrating :D

Interesting to see what the coaches come up with for the UCL games. For saturday's La Liga game Mourinho apparently wouldn't let Bernabeu's field be mowed in a week or so to let it grow longer and slow down Barca's passing. And now on wednesday at Mestalla he didn't allow the field to be watered as it requires agreement from both coaches.

Asad said:
http://www.101greatgoals.com/
http://www.tvgolo.com/
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Thanks, 101greatgoals looks pretty decent.
 
Yeah, I imagine it is going to be quite tricky for the team managers due to both team encountering each other quite often within a limited period of time. I think Mourinho as a great tactician might know better what to do than Guardiola.
 
Mourinho definitely has the edge against Guardiola. Barcelonas and Guardiolas attitude about not changing the concept, ever, might both be their greatest strenght and their greatest weakness. Mourinho knows what he is up against, and if there's anyone who can accomodate a team for a specific opponent, it's him.

Barcelona did outplay Real in the second half of the 2nd game, but it was pretty damn obvious that the Barcelona defence was vulnerable. Di Maria, Adebayor and Ronaldo were all consistently outrunning Pique and Mascherano! So the goal wasn't really that surprising :) It is surprising, however, that Barcelona haven't been able to score an outright goal in 210 minutes of play.

I'm gonna put my money on a draw or a 1-0 victory for Real at Bernab?u, but I still believe Barcelona to progress to the final. It'll all be settled at Camp Nou :)
 
Buktu said:
Mourinho definitely has the edge against Guardiola. Barcelonas and Guardiolas attitude about not changing the concept, ever, might both be their greatest strenght and their greatest weakness. Mourinho knows what he is up against, and if there's anyone who can accomodate a team for a specific opponent, it's him.

Barcelona did outplay Real in the second half of the 2nd game, but it was pretty damn obvious that the Barcelona defence was vulnerable. Di Maria, Adebayor and Ronaldo were all consistently outrunning Pique and Mascherano! So the goal wasn't really that surprising :) It is surprising, however, that Barcelona haven't been able to score an outright goal in 210 minutes of play.

I'm gonna put my money on a draw or a 1-0 victory for Real at Bernab?u, but I still believe Barcelona to progress to the final. It'll all be settled at Camp Nou :)
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Barca has been about the "beautiful game" since Cruyff and Guardiola's not going to change that. We've seen coaches being sacked from Real Madrid as well for not playing beautiful enough, but after recent Barcelona dominance they're willing to play whatever Mourinho wants as long as they win something. Pretty sure he's going to play defensive and rely on counterattacks again. Guardiola also has much less options of play especially now that there's a lot of injuries. There have been rumors about Iniesta possibly missing tomorrow's game and Puyol's shape is a bit uncertain. Most of the second choice players are injured (Adriano, Maxwell, Bojan, Milito, Abidal). Mourinho has lots of excellent options on the bench so he can change his tactics much more.

If Iniesta and Puyol are both in shape the first leg can go both ways I think. If either of them is out it could spell trouble for Barcelona. I also hope Albiol is going to play, he's a complete fuck-up. I too am pretty sure there won't be many goals tomorrow and that the match that matters will be fought at Camp Nou.
 
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BBC News - Wayne Rooney 'contacted by phone-hacking police'

BBC News said:
England footballer Wayne Rooney has been contacted by Scotland Yard detectives probing phone hacking in the wake of the News of the World scandal.

Rooney wrote on Twitter: "Scotland Yard detectives came to see me earlier and showed me some documents. Looks like a newspaper have hacked into my phone."

Scotland Yard said it was unable to confirm a meeting had taken place but that it was "up to him" what he wrote.

The paper has admitted phone hacking celebrities between 2004 and 2006.

Rooney also tweeted: "Gonna get my lawyers to deal with phone hacking until end of season. So I can focus on helping MUFC win trophies. Thx for all ur support."

Rooney's wife Coleen said on Twitter: "Newspapers hacking into phones!! Desperate and Disgusting!!!!"

more on link above
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This is an ongoing story, which would usually get posted in the FG Political Forum, concerning Rupeert Murdoch's newspaper (scandal-sheet) the "News of the World".

Thought it had better to post this here, as most of the politcals on FG may neither know nor care who he and his wife are.

Murdoch has admitted responsibility for about eight of the 200 plus celebreties and politicians involved and offered max ?100k in compensation, with conditions.

Yeah, good luck with that Rupert, NOT.

:)
 
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Yiiiiiieeeeeeehaaaaaah!!!

Ahem. Erm.

Heja BVB!


Sorry. Just came home. :D


For those who don't already know: Borussia Dortmund secured their seventh German national title today. :)
 
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