2010/2011 Season Soccer Thread (incl. ECL and Europa League)

There have been some good international matches recently - Fat Frank scoring against Spain at Wembley, the Costa Ricans going 2-0 ahead against Spain (Campbell I think has signed for Arsenal) but sadly later drawing (fuck Barcelona), Germany stuffing Holland 3-0 in Hamburg, the Portuguese railing Bosnia like an old whore 6-2, Uruguay beating the Italians 1-0 in Rome (you know some Italians committed suicide after that match), Ireland qualifying for Euro 2012... Even Bafana Bafana managed a draw against Cote D'Ivoire - that really was a great free kick, considering S.A. are useless. The National Team's problem is finding strikers of sufficient international quality - Mphela is decent (scored 22 in 44 internationals) but you can't rely on one player to carry the team. Serero would be excellent, if Ajax Amsterdam would release him for more internationals (he was either injured or unavailable against The Elephants), but the National Team needs at least 2 more quality strikers to become competitive.

As for the Champions League, I think Arsenal are a lock for the next round if they can get a result against Olympiakos. Manchester United and Barcelona (cunts) are already through, as are Real Madrid I believe?

I still have my doubts about Arsenal's ability to keep their spot in the top 4 - I think they'll trail off like they usually do after March and fade to 7th. I don't think the team has enough depth in midfield and defense. Andre Santos does not seem to play particularly well in defense and should probably be moved to left midfield and a new, proper left back be acquired.

EDIT: The U.S. beating Slovenia 3-2 is also a great result - I thought the Slovenians were excellent last year at the WC.

 

Aaaand... Arsenal are really fucked if Van Persie gets sold. If he hadn't been on the field against Norwich, they'd have lost. Arsenal should be kicking a newly promoted side like Norwich into the weeds. Apparently, Chamakh is on his way out and Wenger is considering his future (both blurbs I saw on the national news - haven't looked too hard for info on it)

I think Wigan beat Blackburn on Saturday too? I think Wigan now have a better chance of survival than both Blackburn, Bolton and Norwich... Everton also seem to be coming right, since they also won on Saturday.

Pity about Newcastle losing to Manchester City, but City seem unstoppable at the moment. I think the real test for City will come when they get a few injuries...

 

I don't think you have to worry about Van Persie being sold. Wenger won't sell him unless they get offered an absolutely astronomical amount, he already said that he wants RVP to finish his career at Arsenal, and anyhow the guy is under contract until the end of the 2012-2013 season. Beyond that, Arsenal isn't doing all that bad this season. They've advanced to the knockout stages of the UCL and they are tied (in points) for 5th in the EPL and they are only 3 points out of an automatic qualifying spot for next years UCL, so it's not like he has a huge reason to bolt.

 

Exactly. Arsenal may be forced into selling Van Persie if he doesn't sign a new contract soon or run the risk of him being snatched for free by another club... Football agents are quite pushy and will obviously put pressure on any player to move because they make money from the transfer...

 

Oh great, once again Holland got stuck in the group of Death. For the fourth time in a row. I just hope Denmark manages to sneak in a draw against either Germany or Portugal. Maybe it's too much to ask for a repeat of 2008, when we crushed Italy and France. I think Germany and Portugal are stronger and more stable than those two countries.

 

I haven't had much of a look at the Euro Championships groups as of yet. However, I am thrilled S.A. failed to qualify for the Olympic Games next year in London - the teams being selected are not representative of S.A.'s demographics (there were no White or Indian/Asian players in the squad - the squads are composed entirely of Black and Coloured players) - everyone seems to forget that, in isolation, no-one was allowed to represent South Africa in any official capacity.

So Wigan and Newcastle got thrashed - I think The Toon's injury problems can be solved quickly in January if Mike Ashley pulls out his cheque book (Steven Taylor is out for a while due to Achilles Surgery and now Coloccini is down for a week or two also). I think Wigan now are as good as dead in the Premiership. Blackburn and Bolton will go with them I think, though Blackburn did win this past weekend with 4 goals by Yakubu...

 

Umm, what? I was always under the impression that a country's national team was made up of the best players from that country, not some demographically accurate representation of the population.

I don't know much of anything about S.A.'s team, so I have no idea if inferior black players were selected to the team in favor of more talented white/Asian players. But it's pretty telling that you didn't mention anything about their abilities.

As for Euro 2012, here are my picks to advance:
Group A: Russia, Czech Republic
Group B: Netherlands, Portugal
Group C: Spain, Ireland
Group D: England, Sweden

 

Yeah, I should've written a better post. What I was trying to say was I'd like to see some more White and Indian players in the national teams (including age group sides) - not a single White or Indian player (and just 2 Coloured players) has been called up in ages. An example is Matthew Booth, by far the country's best defender at the time, who is white, was picked for the 2010 World Cup and didn't even get on the pitch once, despite being the only white player in the squad - very sad, considering he'll be too old for the next World Cup (he's 33 or 34 now). Racial profiling is alive and well for SAFA it seems. I have no idea of the talent of White and Indian players at International level - they almost never get picked for the big teams (the exception being the captain of Ajax Cape Town). The way the national teams have been playing (i.e. terrible), shouldn't different players get a look in? SAFA keep preaching equality and yet never give other players a chance (even the under 23 coach, Ephraim Mashaba, said we "need better players"), but continuing political interference will scupper that idea. Politics and sport should be kept separate. I wish players were selected on merit here but that simply isn't the case.

 

Back to the important stuff (the English Premier League).

Manchester City 1 Arsenal 0. Both teams could've won, but City did. I think City may just win the Premier League, and possibly the Europa League if they get their act together. At least Arsenal didn't embarrass anyone, considering the makeshift nature of the defense (Koscielny at right-back? Jesus). I just hope that loss doesn't completely kill their confidence.

As for other teams, Man United strolled out and beat QPR 2-0 at Loftus Road and Chelsea drew away at Wigan which, to me, was hilarious. Liverpool beat a lacklustre Aston Villa 2-0 at Villa Park (Randy Lerner needs to invest some money in Villa or sell it, and they need to fire McLeish, and soon, because the team is playing dull football and is very inconsistent)...

 

So in EPL news, Suarez catches an eight game ban for apparently being racist, keep in mind he only was banned for seven games when he actually bit another player. Unless this ban is cut down to something like 3-4 games, I think that Liverpool can count themselves out of any Euro competition next year. In my opinion Suarez is a bitch, he dives nonstop while making some pretty rough fouls himself and the whole hand of God 2.0 in the WC was, while smart in some ways, total bullshit.

In other news, Landon Donovan is back in Everton for 2 months. I get that you want to grow MLS popularity, but how about you get to be a better player and try and catch on with European team for a year?

 

Well, Suarez' teeth get in the way of his face, so there's that. However, he is an excellent team player. ALL South Americans dive though - it's the footballing culture there and takes a long time in Europe to unlearn that sort of shit. Fuck, lots of European players dive too (I'm looking at you, Cristiano Ronaldo, and half of the Spanish national team). I was thrilled with his Hand Of God move because I dislike the Ghanaians - especially that arrogant cunt Asamoah Gyan (note: I like the Ayew brothers and Kevin Prince Boateng - they're fantastic players).

Liverpool have signed some 16 year-old kid from Wycombe - he looks pretty likely to get some game time along with Andy Carroll, due to Suarez' lengthy suspension. Although, Evra has said he is not entirely sure what Suarez has said and has said repeatedly that Suarez is not a racist, so I think the suspension then is bullshit. How can you convict someone of something when the plaintiff is clueless as to whether an offense was actually committted??!! I think this is more a ploy to keep Liverpool out of European competitions.

I saw Everton squeaked a home win out of Leon Osman. Arsenal also won, too - thank you Benayoun. Newcastle contrived a home loss to fucking W.B.A. (really? Fucking West Brom??!! Jesus.). Stoke lost 3-0 at Manchester City (no surprise there). Sorry about Fulham getting used as a fuck puppet by Manchester United, though - I was hoping they'd get a draw or at least not an embarrassment like that result.

 

In relation to Suarez ban I think the investigation was poor:

1) Suarez is also mixed race, his grand father was black.

2) Evra has on two accounts claimed he has been racially abused (Steve Finnan and a steward), twice dismissed.

3) Only Evra gave evidence - no other players, match officials provided evidence.

4) He has played with black players and mixed with their families whilst with the Uruguay national side and was captain at Ajax Amsterdam of a team with a proud multi-cultural profile

5) From Evra at the investigation: Patrice Evra himself in his written statement in this case said ‘I don’t think that Luis Suarez is racist’

WTF! I am not a supporter of either clubs but this is just crazy!

 

I realise that by responding to this, there's a big chance this thread will head down to an inferno. The thing is; you don't have to be a racist to make a racist remark. Just like you don't have to be a misogynist to make a sexist remark, or an anti-semite to make a joke about the Holocaust. I also don't believe that Suarez is a racist and wears a white cap at home, but that doesn't mean that he wouldn't say something racist. "No, no, it's cool, some of my best friends are black."

As far as I know, the evidence is kind of flimsey. It's basically Evra's word against Suarez'. But there's probably some more evidence around, or else the FA wouldn't have takes this action and just dismissed the case. As it stands now, Suarez is arguably not a racist, but just an incredibly stupid asshole who tried to mindfuck his opponent out of the game. And failed miserably.

 

... and back to some football.

Newcastle United playing in a more familiar manner again, but against Fulham. For fucks sakes. One penalty should not mean the opposition comes back and scores THREE MORE GOALS (at least - the match is still ongoing).

At least Stoke are currently losing.