The Official Soccer/Football/Futbol/Calcio thread

[Bubba - NJ]

Originally Posted by TheRiddick

The only mistake Freguson made was sub Macheda in the end in the hopes that Berbatov will score the penalty kick. Did I ever say here just how much I dislike Berbatov?

After that penalty kick , I can clearly see why you dislike Berbatov . And I state again that I'm no expert , I've only recently found these matches on live tv in NJ and I'm still trying to learn all the different rules for the many tournaments/Cups . I think I would rather miss the goal like Cahill did then hit a dribbler like Berbatov . It did seem to me that Everton were playing mostly defense with an occasional long ball attempt to Cahill .

[TheRiddick]

Berbatov is the direct opposite to what United stand for: he is lazy, doesn't try to get the ball back when he loses it, and with the exception of the Porto game doesn't track back to defend. I am simply tired of hearing people tell me that I "don't get Berbatov" and his play making ability, the fact is that with his arrival United went from top scoring team to barely scoring one, he was the only arival last summer and just much things have changed since. This season is on him and I can only be thankful to the defensive line that we are still on top of the league.

Isnt it scary when United youth academy brings the game to the 6th best team in the league? Fabio twins will be monsters in another season or two and Macheda will step up as well. I found it interesting that all of Macheda's passes were pinpoint on and had Wellback played better they would scored at least a couple. Wellback is OK, but once again showed he is a step too slow and a few pounds too light to play in EPL, at least for now. Too bad that Wellback could not reciprocate the precision of passes to Macheda, I'd love to see Macheda play for 90 minutes next to Ronaldo and Rooney.

Anyway, one down (Arsenal-Liverpool) and one to go (Chelsea-Everton), although I think Chelsea will win 2-0. United should be 2-0 as well, at least I hope they are.

Bloody hell! at the end of the match I was screaming DO NOT LET HIM HAVE THE EFFING BALL!!!!!!!!!!!! but NO one would listen to me... his screamers to the right side netting and his counter attack goals were spectacular... i wish they were against United, but good lord, Liverpool's defense has been shite the past 3 weeks.

[TheRiddick]

If you watch Arshavin's goals (YouTube, although you may need to search in Russian language) in the past 2 seasons of the Russian Premier League you'll see just how skilled he is, some are spectacular. His link up with Pogrebnyak was as lethal as anything I've seen in Europe and if Arsenal buy Porgebnyak they can easily get rid of Bendtner and the like. What is strange is that Liverpool defense gave him tons of space, that actually is coach's error, IMO, no matter how much Benitez wants to put it on players, I'd be calling a defender or a midfielder over after the first goal and giving them a "personal" assignmnt of shadowing the guy no matter where he is on the pitch.

[Bubba - NJ]

I did notice how settled Macheda and the Fabio twins were when in posession of the ball . Highly skilled youngsters .

[TheRiddick]

Interesting to see Berbatov missing from today's game, hopefully SAF had a good talk with him and explained the meaning of life for a United player to him and what it means to be one. Better yet, the rest of the players should explain it to him.

And with Carrick just scoring United's 2nd the game seems to be done with and Liverpool are back to second place. I'll be lighting up a nice cigar tonight.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by TheRiddick

His link up with Pogrebnyak was as lethal as anything I've seen in Europe

I was saying this very same thing talking with aldukes a day or 2 ago saying they looked lethal like Shevchenko and Rebrov at Dynamo Kiev. I always wonder about these kinds of dreamy partnerships, if you took them out of the machine they were playing in and plunked them, as a pair, into another team/machine/system, do they still perform dreamily? My pick of Russia in the Euros suffered big time when Progrebnyak went out injured right before the tournament, this much is certain.

Never got to see with Sheva and Rebrov but I second the motion to have Progrebnyak at Arsenal

[TheRiddick]

Pogrebnyak is a different player than Arshavin, style wise, but just as lethal. One is mostly a creator (AA), the other one is a finisher (Pogrebnyak).

And then there is Zhirkov, one of the best left wingers in the world today, only Robbrn can compete with him (when healthy).

[aldukes]

(I'm not sure ManU defense can deal with the Arsenal offense for 3 games in a row)

Good thing Arse plays no defense.

[TheRiddick]

Originally Posted by aldukes

(I'm not sure ManU defense can deal with the Arsenal offense for 3 games in a row)

Good thing Arse plays no defense.

I am a United fan for the past 16 years now, so what do I know? Without AA playing in the 2 CL games we should be fine, IMO, especially now that the entire defensive line is back with room to spare (Wes Brown coming back). I am still worried about the front line, though, we still create a ton of chances and yet can only convert a few. I do hope Berbatov rides the bench for the rest of the campaign, we need all 11 on the pitch in every remaining game.

[aldukes]

Originally Posted by TheRiddick

I am a United fan for the past 16 years now, so what do I know? Without AA playing in the 2 CL games we should be fine, IMO, especially now that the entire defensive line is back with room to spare (Wes Brown coming back). I am still worried about the front line, though, we still create a ton of chances and yet can only convert a few. I do hope Berbatov rides the bench for the rest of the campaign, we need all 11 on the pitch in every remaining game.

I'm not sure Rio is fit enough for the upcoming sched. Same with Wes Brown. I hate to say this, but Vidic is lost when Rio is out. Evra has been solid for pretty much the whole year- just a few bad games lately.

I think they should be safe in the Prem- but the CL should be interesting.

[TheRiddick]

Originally Posted by aldukes

I'm not sure Rio is fit enough for the upcoming sched. Same with Wes Brown. I hate to say this, but Vidic is lost when Rio is out. Evra has been solid for pretty much the whole year- just a few bad games lately.

I think they should be safe in the Prem- but the CL should be interesting.

Have to disagree on Vidic having been playing either center back or left back all my life. Like I said above somewhere, once you start thinking your partner is not up to par (Evans in this case) your entire game changes whether you like it or not since you now think for two people and expect to bail the other out. Evans has shown great ability and promise for the future, but as can be seen lately, physical and mental fatigue did him in eventually. Last game they did really well without Rio, not that Portsmouth was giving them much to think about (just 2 shots on goal in second half). If anything, I'll take Vidic over Rio, Rio has made plenty of mistakes over last 2 seasons. Rio started his career playing attacker, he is a converted center back, although a great one.

Rio is fully fit at this point. Wes still needs a game or two to get up to full speed. Evra played 2-3 poor games, but I expect him to be up to it for the remaining ones. Plus, Fabio seems to be healthy and should help Evra out in some games. At least Anderson is back and Fletcher is healthy (can't recall the last game United lost with Fletcher starting).

I am still worried about Spurs this weekend, United really need to start scoring like they did last season.

Aldukes, how is your spring season going? Team Pittman was barely beaten 2-1 by The Arsenal of Huntsville, two cheap goals from poor defending left the keeper (me) high and dry. One of my defenders gave me hell about it at half time, so I said "stud, here's the gloves go do better" and I went to take on my preferred position of Center Attacking Mid. Not only did We play much better with a bloody competent midfielder but actually had some attacking options and scored a goal. Did I mention I scored the goal?(I never score, so I'll give the wonderous details as it won't happen again) Picked the pocket of their midfielder right at half field, gave the ball to my R Winger who promptly returned it to me 10 yards up the pitch. Striker 1 called for the ball facing me. I played it to him and moved up he played me square and I turned my back to the goal to hold up play for the Dmid who was no where to be found, so as the ball comes to me from my left I flicked it past my left leg with my right foot and megged (luck) the Defender who was bodying up on me. I ran past him expecting to be run over by the right back(stupid fast) but he was running with striker 1 with his back to me... me n the keeper 30 yards of ground. Did my best fernando Torres impression of speed (which is laughable) keeper came out low, so I hit it high, goal. Grabbed the ball returned it to the spot. I was happy. My only other chance came when striker 2 took the ball down the left wing, and cut in and laid it back to me 23-24 yards out. Tried my best Steven Gerrard impression and it curled barely wide right. After all that running I subbed myself. managed 29 minutes total in the field after not playing there for 5 weeks, and being really out of shape. Problem is now I don't have a keeper as the defender who chastised me says he won't play it anymore... any ideas?

Current record for Misfits FC is 1-2-1 total of 5 points, out of 4 matches. With 7 Goals for 7 goals against. Next week, the first place Ta Sety Warriors who are currently 6-0-0.

[aldukes]

Team Dukes is actually playing well this season. You wouldn't know it by our record, but we've improved drastically over last fall. We're -6 in goal diff- but thats because we've scored 5 goals in 4.5 games. Yes theres a half there. The friggin lights shut off in the middle of the game- we were leading 1-0 at that point, about 50 min in. The league is making us finish up the last 31 min.
Our keeper was out for a few games, with kidney stones, but he will be joining us this week. First game of the season was a draw against the team that won 2 years ago and placed second last year. Our last game was against the best team in the league. I had the pleasure of marking some dude that came up in the youth system for a very famous team in Spain (think RM). We came back from 1-0 and 2-1 but the dude scored from about 25 out with 4 min left.
We have a tough stretch for the next three weeks, but we should gain a point. Oh, and our right mid had to go back to Italy due to visa issues.

record- *1-3-1 *the game that isnt finished
own goals- none, but an assist
wide open goals missed- 2
free kicks send over the fence from 45 out- 1
times I fouled the dude from RM in one game- 14
drunk refs- 1 dude kept time on his cell phone, didnt have cards, referred to a goal kick as a "kick ball"

[TheRiddick]

Aldukes, where in Brooklyn do you play? I used to play for the corporate league, years ago, all major companies in Manhattan had a team back then. And usually weekends (both Sat and Sun) on Brighton Beach with a bunch of Russians, those wer epretty tough games ability level wise.

Originally Posted by aldukes

\
drunk refs- 1 dude kept time on his cell phone, didnt have cards, referred to a goal kick as a "kick ball"

damn! I thought my refs were bad.

[reggiebuckeye]

ManU can really ruin a day. Things were looking great around 1:30 when it was 2-0 to the Spurs. 5-2? Come on. They can't put it on the penalty. That was one stinking goal. They just gave up when they still had the lead. Then a sub at 85 minutes? Why? Horrible. All I need now is for the draft to make my day even worse. I need a good smoke.

[TheRiddick]

Well, I thought it may be one of those days for United, plenty of ball and game control and some really good chances in first half with nothing to show. First goal was all Rio (no wonder I said above how much I prefer Vidic to him), second was all Rafael leaving Modric in acres of space (and he paid the price by being subbed, needs to concentrate more plus Modric owned him a number of times today).

Penalty? Only someone not playing the game can claim it was not, the only question was a red card or yellow. Gomes FIRST tripped Carrick and only then barely touched the ball with his finger tips, had it been in reverse (touch the ball first) we would not be discussing this at all as there would not be a penalty.

Nani will probably be gone this summer, have no idea how someone with so much talent can't make a simple pass. Berbatov actually crossed a few times into his own half to defend, a miracle! Ronaldo did so consistently after SAF's ripping him a new one last week, second game in the row now. Evra is playing the worst stretch of games (4 now?) in his carreer, have no idea what's going on in his head. No wonder United just bought a 17 year Brazilian for that spot, should be interesting next year.

Chelsea, although in full control of the game, got lucky in the end. Liverpool had an easy game, as much as I like Hull's spirit they were no match at all.

Bring on the Gunners!

[reggiebuckeye]

I'm not arguing whether it was a penalty or not. He did get the player first. My point is Tottenham stopped playing after that happened. They still had a 2-1 lead after that. They just gave up. Giving up 5 goals in a half is ridiculous.

As an Arsenal fan, I'm looking forward to seeing ManU this week.

[TheRiddick]

Spurs had what, 3 chances on goal in the first half? Converted two of them and only due to blatant mismarking by Rio (too lazy to take another step towards the ball and simply waiting for it to come to him) and then Rafael (leaving Modric all alone and doing I have no idea what in the middle of the box when Vidic was already there). United were in full control all game long with just a few exceptions, at least in the game I watched. Spurs didn't "give up", they were simply outplayed and out muscled, you can only play defense for so long and then your legs get tired eventually. Most of the play took place in Spurs half all day long, especially after the 2nd half started and they had 9 men behind the ball for 15+ minutes, why did anyone expect that pressure not to produce something once United plugged one of the outlets for Spurs' attacks (Nani's bad game) and then the other (Rafael)?

Keane was really quiet all game long, that should say something about the game in general and lack of opportunity in front for Spurs (Bent did have great effort on goal in the second half). Evra presented a few opportunities to Spurs, but that's about it, both goals came from his side of the pitch. Have no idea if Pavlyuchenko would have altered the game or not, but he wasn't even on the bench today, that was stupid, IMO. Tells me they came to play defense and take their chances, the result is exactly the one they deserved for the strategy selected, IMO. Italians are masters at that, but this is not Italian league.

If Gunners create just 4 chances next week, as they did with 'Pool, I am all for it At least Ade and Van Persie should be back, although defense is still very suspect.