Podolski is a weird one because his club form is average but he scores left right and centre for Germany.
Arsenal were just bent over and fucked by Messi for all the world to see . Walcott proves hes a suber sub not a full 90 minute player for either club or country for as long as he remains a winger. Looking at the runs he makes, just poor compare to Lennon who wants the ball more when he plays and is not afraid to run at players..Walcott seems only willing to run when its a break away and won't start one off like Lennon does for Spurs. Also Messi is good but he would score a lot less against many PL teams due to the fact that we allow tackling in our league, the ref was conned a few times in the 1st half by Barca players. Barca vs. Bayern final for me.
exactly, i would rather have a fit lennon and ashley young. rooney is ok, burst blood vessel in his ankle, gonna rest him agaisnt blackburn
An update on the UEFA coefficient battle between Germany and Italy: Germany is just .203 points behind Serie A right now. Each country's teams get 2 points for each win, one point for a draw and 1 bonus point for reaching advancing to the next round. Those points are divided by the number of participants in the European leagues (CL+EL). Since the EL isn't quite as important, points are halved during the EL group stage and there are no bonus points for reaching the round of 32 in the EL. The first three leagues get 3 teams directly into the CL and 1 into the CL qualification. The 4-6 countries get 2 teams directly into the CL and 1 qualification team. Long story short: Germany's Bundesliga is very close to passing Italy in the five-year ranking UEFA uses to determine who gets how many CL/EL spots. Serie A is .203 points ahead of the Bundesliga. Basically, Germany needs to score three additional points (say Bayern winning in Lyon and progressing to the final) if Inter loses in Barcelona and goes out. If they advance, things get more complicated depending on how they do it. In any case, this season promises to be a fine battle between Serie A and the Bundesliga for 3rd place. Next year, the results from 05/06 will be deleted and since Serie A scored 4.92 points more than the Bundesliga in that season, they'd have to do really well to retain their 3rd spot next year even if they don't lose it this year. I suppose Calciopoli really hurt Serie A here. In any case, while I'm not particularly a fan of Bayern or HSV, I wish them good luck for the remaining games.
Team of the season time and am going to do a PL and World XI... PL Team of the Season Hart Ivanovic Dunne Vermalean A.Cole Valencia Milner Fabregas Malouda Drogba Rooney World Team of the Season Casillas Maicon Vermalean Pique A.Cole Messi Fabregas Xavi Ronaldo Rooney Drogba
^ He should get kicked in the bollocks for that Well done to Fulham for reaching it to the final, I bet Zamora dosen't play until that date. However I wanted to talk about this... UEFA how is it fair that Liverpool get 90 minutes for an away goal but A.Madrid get FUCKING 120 Minutes, what a total bullshit rule when did that come into effect Madrid didn't score in the first 90 minutes the agg score was level, extra time should not have away goals in them its fucking stupid. How can UEFA bang on about fair play and all of that when there own rules are total bias to the team who are unlucky to be randomly drawn at home in the 2nd leg FFS only UEFA could do that
That's the way it works in the European Cup since as far back as I can remember. Playing the second leg at home has advantages and disadvantages, most people prefer it because you possibly have 30 more minutes of home support. But that's exactly the problem with not scoring an away goal in the first leg, losing 1:0 is just quite terrible in the EC. Btw. Atletico Madrid got into the finals by winning only two (2!) matches in the entire competition.
Who cares so long as Liverpool got knocked out? Seriously though, they're hardly the first team to fall to the away goals rule. Thankfully I won't have to suffer any AG-inspired trauma in the playoffs. And anyway, maybe they won't have had to play extra time if Liverpool had more than more striker to score goals for them. That was something like their 10th must-win game of the season, and they'd lost the previous 9. People like to wax lyrical about United being a one-man team, but at least in Rooney's absence the others step up and get the job done more often than not. Liverpool without Torres are little short of diabolical this season. Atletico have definitely got lucky if that's their record - Bayern had a shocking record as well, and they made the CL final. What a crazy season this has been. Since I've last been here loads of ups and downs have been decided (including Chelsea being champions after last night - as if Liverpool are going to turn up on Sunday!), so the only burning issue now is: Forest, Cardiff, Leicester or Blackpool? I know only one thing, and that's that it won't be Cardiff. I bought my season ticket this week after much agonising about timing/prices/leagues, so sod's law says it's another season in the 2nd tier even though we're going into the play-offs in excellent form. I can only dream! Jax I agree with your team of the year. Put Roy Hodgson in charge and it could win every trophy going!
Has the potential to be a very interesting playoffs! Be nice if you did make it, because I like Dave Jones and eventually someone else will snap him up. Blackpool would be an incredible turnaround, actually so would Leicester. Forest have to be the favouries though. Is the line up set yet? Is a Forest/Foxes final possible? Who would I want to win! Well done Fulham, I really hope they win it now!
I'm convinced the team that wins the play-offs is the team who see off Forest. We and Forest are guaranteed 4th and 3rd respectively, whereas Leicester are only guaranteed to finish 5th or 6th. Blackpool will be 6th if they win on Sunday, Swansea will get it if they win and Blackpool don't win. My ideal scenario is Forest v Blackpool, with Blackpool sneaking it at home. Forest are likely to stomp on them at the City Ground, so Bloomfield Road will be decisive even though it'll be the first leg. I'm happy enough we can beat Leicester over two legs, home leg second. As DJ says, it's not about playing home/away that wins through, it's the team going into the games in form. That's us, regardless of Sunday's result at Derby where most of the first team will be rested. Do Derby have anything to play for? Nothing that stops it being a good run-out for our fringe players and those returning from injury like Hudson and Ledley. Blackpool and Leicester are on good runs though - Forest are weakest but only because of their away form in the last couple of months. It's really too tight, but realistically I can see Cardiff v Forest at Wembley where anything could happen. Forest/Foxes is possible but hopefully it won't happen. If I'm losing, I'm losing at Wembley, not the Walkers! Rest assured though, Cardiff, Blackpool or Leicester will be going straight back down. We in particular have no money to buy anyone except the most bog-standard Stoke cast-off Still, one season in the PL is enough these days isn't it? TV money, parachute money... With solid foundations and sensible spending, it's perfectly possible to become a yo-yo club like WBA. I'd be perfectly happy with that, but let's see what May brings... ETA you'll note I'm dismissing Swansea before it's settled - I really don't want to play them again this year, especially not at Wembley? Can you imagine losing the play-off final to your most-hated rivals?!
Confirmed - Blackpool took 6th spot. They only drew, but Swansea had a martch-winning and playoff-securing goal disallowed in the 92nd minute for handball. Laugh? I as good as burst a lung. Bring on Leicester! Oh, and let's all raise a glass. We don't have to watch Liverpool in any way, shape or form again until August!
Forest away from in 2010 in AWFUL so I think we will lose it in the 1st leg not too mention 1 win in 4 games against Blackpool and 0 this season. My Prediction Blackpool 2-0 Forest Forest 1-1 Blackpool I just don't see us winning the playoffs. My money is on Cardiff.
Blackpool isn't a great place to have to go and get a result, but that doesn't mean you won't turn them over at the City Ground. How'd Cardiff do on the final day of the season by the way, HappyDayRiot (oh go on let me enjoy it there haven't been too many great moments this year! :Lol: )
FFS! First Enke has his personal problems, and now Adler can't play in the WC due to a broken rib. At least we have plenty of other good goalkeepers right now. In fact, I'd say we had 5-6 good ones, but no outstanding goalkeepers like Kahn or Lehman a couple years ago. I really wonder who Löw is going to pick now.
I almost kind of like the German national team this year, but with Löw as manager I just can't root for them. I fucking hate that guy.
I almost feel the same way, but I can't bring myself to root against the team just because I think the manager sucks.
Great? That was our reserves you beat! Not a first XI on the pitch, although Hudson is staking a claim for his place back from Blake (good luck - Blake has excelled and Hudson is and always will be average) I'm sure you'll do better next season. Fingers crossed we'll be taking your worst Prem team ever record off you so we won't have to play you for another few months Fingers crossed we won't have to play Hull either - if we go up we'll cross them on the way, and if they come down they'll have ceased to exist by Christmas. I wonder if Bullard fancies a move to South Wales? Jax, surely this play-off adventure can't be as bad as that year you got turned over by Yeovil?
2 playoffs in our history and they have this familar pattern...LEADING BY TWO GOALS. 2003 Championship Playoff against Sheffield Utd was the first we ever had. 1-1 at the City Ground and then in the 2nd leg we lead 2-0 at half time (3-1 agg) only to concede 2 goals to take it to extra time (3-3 agg). We then conceded another 2 included an own goal and went out 5-4 on aggerate. 2007 League One Playoff against Yeovil Town saw us take a 2-0 lead from the 1st leg. it was 1-1 at the City Ground with about 10 minutes left so the aggerate score was 3-1. We ended up losing 3-1 after 90 minutes taking us into extra time and lose 5-2 if memory serves right so that was... 5-4 agg patterns ey. If we go 2-0 down then I might fancy our chances