(UEFA) Football Thread - Football not Soccer

[HappyDayRiot]

^ Did Eduardo even start against Sunderland? Poor game from what I could gather. The Stadium of Light is becoming some kind of fortress.

I guess we should acknowledge Spurs 9-1 Wigan. Quite why that result makes them Champions League quality is beyond me but it sure didn't hurt Defoe's chances of being on the plane to South Africa did it? Very nice of the Wigan players to offer refunds to their travelling fans too - absolutely no obligation to do that at all, and let's be fair it's a totally freak result. Rare show of top flight football remembering its fans.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I wouldn't take the money. In fact if I watched my club take such a beating at an away game, I would be proud of that and wear it as a badge of honour, so whenever the team is playing terrible in the future and other fans are complaining I could point out "yeah, yeah, but where you at the White Hart Lane when we got thrashed 9:1? What they are playing now is nothing compared to that!"

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Haha well that's one way of looking at it. Could do that and still have the money for the famous Wigan pies though!

 

[Jax]

Liverpool out of the CL at the group stage since they were dumped out by FC Basel back in 2003. Liverpool won't win the Europ League either so with an awful EURO run and if they finish out of the top 4 ? surly the fans will call for Rafa to go in the summer ?

I love Carragher speaking about the Europa League "This is an opportunity not a failure"

 

[Roger Wilco]

I think Liverpool for sure has the class to win the Europa League, they have two months or so without European games after the Champions League ends for them, but I don't know how seriously they'll take that competition. It would be a very nice title to win, but I guess the league and keeping that CL spot is far more important to them.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Oh how I want a Liverpool v Everton final...

 

[Jax]

So what scores are we going for the big derbies...

Everton 1-1 Liverpool
Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea
Barcelona 3-1 Real Madrid.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

I said Liverpool to win 1-0, Chelsea to draw and Barca to edge Madrid. Two out of three not bad.

 

[Jax]

England have been seeded along with the normal giants bar France who join Portugal out of the top pot (there was speculation Holland was going to miss out). Now before I say this I HATE France national football team and they shouldn't be there BUT...

The seedings were going to be based upon WC 2002/2006 performance, how you Q/F and world ranking back in October 2009. Unless they changed this normally previous peformance and how you got there are the big ones and Holland missed out on 2002 and made it to the last 16 only in 2006. Yes they had Q/F unbeaten but well they had the easy group out of all 9 EURO Q/F zone groups. France group stage in 2002 and runners up in 2006. I would of assume despite the handball needed to get there the runner up spot ives you enough points to warrant top seeds pot.

Do you think France was left out on purpose to avoid as much protest as possible due to how they reached the 2010 World Cup. Portugal were always going to miss out despite 4th place finish in 2006 due to not being at 2002 and playoff spot to reach 2010 world cup.

My guess is England will get Portugal in their group for irony sakes.

 

[Shaytan]

Do you think France was left out on purpose to avoid as much protest as possible due to how they reached the 2010 World Cup.

No, everything was determined according the world ranking in October that's all. It's only logical.

 

[Jax]

your right just find it on google...

The criteria for the seeding was released on 2 December and was, in contrast to previous World Cup seeding criteria, based solely upon the

It was changed late on, to some protest. Is it me or should FIFA announce all rules before the tournament begins so they can't change stuff mid way like they did with the playoffs. I want to know how Argentina managed to stay in top 7 in world since they barely Q/F.

 

[Jax]

Got radio on at moment and Nottingham Forest (earnshaw x2) 2-0 Leicester City (HT) in the local derby that only the Leicester fans care about they made 2 subs already (only 1 for injury)

3rd place in the table as it stands, dam am going to love this while it lasts because its a rare thing that won't last.

 

[Starkers]

Forest v Leicester is a bit like Aliens Vs Predator...whoever wins, we lose!

I'm intrigued as to Billy's new strategy. His promotion season with Derby was all about being solid and grinding results out, quite defensive, whereas with Forest it's just about scoring more than the opp!

Well I thought the Derby West Brom game I went to Saturday had an exciting finish, then Everton v Spurs happened! What a weekend!

 

[Jax]

Its no surprise that Forest 11 game unbeaten streak is linked to Billy playing people in there proper positions and to keep the starting 11 fairly regular. Earnshaw is a striking god and with him and Blackstock we can score plenty of goals however to stay in the top 6 in January we need...

A classy winger capably of producing a moment of genius of out nothing, basically we need another Andy Ried or Kris Commons. Also we need to secure Nickey Shorey for the entire season on loan and forget this talk of Gareth Bale who cannot defend. There was a paper rumor that Redknapp is going to buy some defenders in January and Dawson would be shifted out with Michael wanting a loan deal till summer to secure 1st team football so he can get a good move to a PL side in the summer and he was looking at Forest for the loan...Would love it to happen but not going to hold my breath

best buy of season in Championship...Radoslaw Majewski what a midfielder.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Majewski is a damn good player - he ran the show against us last month. I doubt Dawson will be going anywhere after his recent performances though so you'll have to settle for Shorey, who would probably be a good acquisition for you. He's getting nothing at Villa and has little chance of playing outside of an injury crisis. Bale... you just plain don't want Bale. I've always seen him as being from the same school of defending as Glen Johnson and Jose Bosingwa - good attacker, average defender for 9/10 games.

Happily though, Billy D has consistently announced he doesn't want promotion this year, so we can overtake you again soon... maybe. Damn this clogged up division - I was hoping Watford would beat QPR last night... until I realised too late winning put Watford level on points with Cardiff! Honestly, how did that happen (other than City's inability to beat any teams lower than 15th)? Watford are 6th with a goal difference of MINUS 2!

I liked this open division better when we were top of it It's epic.

 

[Jax]

^ I'll be kind we'll have a Cardiff vs. Forest playoff final at Wembley

 

[Starkers]

Happily though, Billy D has consistently announced he doesn't want promotion this year, so we can overtake you again soon...

Ah but this was the same Billy Davies who had a 3 year plan for getting Derby into the prem then did it in year one. He doesn't know what he's talking about sometimes

I was annoyed about Watford winning, we play them Saturday and I was hoping they'd go into the game with dented morale!

I'll be suprised if Newcastle don't go up, but having seen WBA first hand it won't surprise me if they don't, or at least have to go via the playoffs. I do hope (every year) that at least one team that hasn't just come down goes up--whoever it is.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

I'm convinced Newcastle will fade at some point and their lead as it stands will vanish. Their squad isn't the biggest, so what effect will key injuries have? Can they afford to dip into the January sales? I may have been a bit insane predicting them to completely fuck up before the season began, but I still believe they could yet crash and burn.

WBA are going up - they are THE yo-yo club. And they'll probably swap places with Wolves at this rate. The other two promoted teams could be frankly be anyone.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Ha. No sooner do you speak, City beat WBA at the Hawthorns for the first time in 52 years and practically the entire top half of the table fails to win. What a league.

Oh and some Owen guy scored a hattrick. The third goal was very impressive. As was, I guess, Man United's performance without 15 regular squad members. Fletcher, Park, Carrick and Evra isn't exactly an ideal defensive force - and ironically, Evra, the only true defender, is probably the most attacking player out of those four. How the hell does Ferguson do it!?

 

[Jax]

If there was an ENG squad tommorow he would still not take Owen and thats one of a few reasons why we won't win the World Cup. Owen makes brilliant runs and if Fergie played him more then his goal tally would go up. Have to admit Owen looked rather quick yesterday especially for that 3rd goal, maybe his legs are not as gone as some pundits/critics would have you believe.