Football (Soccer)

[admin]

No Arsenal, no Chelsea? I think Barcelona may have a tough time beating Chelsea, the same vice versa, so it's a guess now to see who is going to come out of that fixture.

I think we will manage against Bayern Munich, who are not the same team they were when they won the Champions League. BM are probably one of the easier teams to play against in the competition, so if we can't beat them over two legs, then we don't deserve to win the CL.

I also think Juventus may come up top as well, because they have been so consistent (1-0 wise) and haven't conceded a single goal yet this season in the CL. Real Madrid is the exact opposite, so I think Juventus will control the games with an away draw (0-0 of course) and a small home win to go through.

AC Milan are tough as they beat Barcelona twice - with Kaka and apparently Europe's best player Shevchenko, it will be hard to contain them.

[admin]

A lucky win for Arsenal, but I'll take anything against Portsmouth (don't need to tell Man United, Liverpool or Newcastle fans about them I guess). Great goal by Sol Campbell though.

[Oriphus]

Kaka is pretty much an amazing player as well.

Yeah, not sure about Arsenal & Chelsea proceding to the next stage. Id much rather see Arsenal go through than Chelsea though. Barcelona are a very tough team when they are at their best.

Yeah, Campbell of all people for the Arsenal win. Did you see any of the United match. 5-2 really flattered CPA - we could and probably should have easily been atleast 6 goals ahead of them. Their Keeper was truely amazing on his day. He had about 5 top drawer saves, and a few other great stops. We were unlucky not to score more and to concede both of those goals. However, it was a good win.

More disappointing was the Seville Derby. Betis were hammered in the first 25 minutes, went 1-0 donw, it couldve been 2-0 down. Then we started to play a good bit better. Got it back to 1-1, but eventually lost 2-1. Its disappointing, but i guess we're still in 7th place, so we're not out of CL spot for next year yet lol - realistictly a UEFA cup place is all we can hope for. The goal we scored was created by Joaquin, so i really hope he doesnt go anywhere in January....
Luis Fernandez came on and got two yellow cards inside 5 mins lol.

[Oriphus]

Yet again all three teams at the top win. United are now up to 3rd though. 18 games left, all we need is 3 slip ups by chelsea and two from Arsenal and we're their. hope it happends lol

[admin]

A good win against Newcastle for us, and we're still not playing at our best. Interestingly, the last four out of five fixture (all won, all clean sheets) were all the ones we drew last season, so it's actually 8 points gained compared to last season. We did lose points compared to last season against Man U (1 pt), Liverpool (3), Chelsea (2) and Southampton (2). So this cancels it all out.

Plus, we won at Everton away (2 pts more than last season), but lost 2 against Bolton. We also beat Tottenham at WHL, which is 2 more points gained. We drew against Palace away, so this cancels it out. Last season we also drew Leicester (to a last second goal, literally), and this equals the West Brom draw this season.

Overall, pretty much exactly the same number of point compared to last season given the fixtures played so far, even though we played horribly towards the end of October and throughout November (only 1 win in 6 games, 6 points out of 18 earned). Looking at the league table, we are only 1 point less than this time last season - back then, Man United were top with 46 points, Arsenal 45 and Chelsea 42, so we did end the year second just like this year.

So Rooney gets a 3 match suspension - with RvN injured, it might be tough, but you have been getting your goals from midfield recently and from Alan Smith, so it should be fine for you. Here's hoping Liverpool can get something from Chelsea, for both our sakes.

[admin]

Chelsea 7 and 11 points ahead of Arsenal and Man United now. It's definitely their title to lose.

If Chelsea have a spectacular collapse like they always do, then Arsenal are still in with a chance. If they repeat what they did in the first half of the season, then it looks like it's all over.

[admin]

Just seen a clip of that "goal" in the Man United - Spurs game. And people complain about Wenger's eyesight.

[Oriphus]

haha - it was most certainly a goal - crossed the line by about 3 feet. In fact Carroll was in the back of the net as he tried to pick it out. God knows what happend him - it looked like an easy take.

It was a mightily disappointed match for me. With Ryan Giggs ont he pitch, we really looked like doing something. As soon as he went off and we brought on the sh*ttest player in the premiership, in fact, in all the English divisions, it went down hill. WHat i don't understand is why we continue to paly Bellion. What does he do? Anytime the ball is palyed to him, he runs away from it expecting it to magically appear at his feet. If he tries to take someone on, he loses it. he is as creative as a daytrip organiser for an old persons home. It sickens me.

It was disappointing also to have such a good squad, and yet still have problems with selections. Bellion wouldnt even get on the bench on any of the other top teams. We really need to bring in a super strong central midfielder. We need to get our 4 amazing strikers fit, only really got smith at the min, with Saha and RvN injured and Rooney suspended. Up front, Rio Ferdinand was excellent in the dying minutes, in fact he was amazing throughout.

I think at the end of that match we basically conceded the premierhsip title to Chelsea. 11 points is just too much. Chelsea dont look like loosing one game, let alone the four needed. We dont look like winning all of our games either. Second place is still up for grabs no doubt, Arsenal slipping a bit as well. We should have closed it to one point though......

Damn, we also should have had a penalty for Ferdinand going down inside the box, not outside as the referee thought. Ah well, all those even themselves up at the end of the season...

[admin]

I still think there may be a chance of a Chelsea collapse - if Arsenal can narrow the gap to 3/5 points by March, then there is still a chance. We have lots of injuries at the moment (Campbell, Lauren, Edu, Gilberto, Flamini, Bergkamp, Reyes, Aliadiere), so it's no surprise we may drop points. Most of these players should be back soon (Gilberto and Aliadiere excepted), and we should be able to put up more of a fight then. At least it's given the youth some opportunities - we had 3 teenagers in our starting lineup against city!!

[Oriphus]

Yeah, but i have a feeling we're gonna fitting it off for 2nd just, and chelsea are gonna run away with it.

[admin]

Haven't seen the match yet, but it didn't look like Chelsea are going to run away with the Carling Cup just yet

[admin]

Oh well, at least we still have 3 more meaningful games this season - 2 in the CL and 1 in the FA Cup. We have had too many injuries this season, but good for giving experience to the youth players though.

[Oriphus]

Hey, been a while lol, ive been really busy with uni. Another good win for United on Saturday, i was very pleased with the performance. Chelsea still going strong as is Arsenal. Its getting interesting....

[admin]

Good luck in the League Cup match against Chelski - hope you thrash them good and proper.

[MPS]

the return

hi there, i'm back :]
the work has really been very time-consuming lately and no time to play around on the forum of all forums

lemme just comment on the CL draw:
Real Madrid v Juventus
> Real probably advances
FC Porto v Inter Milan
> Inter by a narrow margin (like a 1 goal difference)
Barcelona v Chelsea
> sorry Blues, there's no stopping Barca btw, where's your GBP 88m?
Werder Bremen v Lyon
> dont underestimate Werder, Lyon's out
Liverpool v Bayer Leverkusen
> damn it! Jerzy Dudek vs. Jacek Krzynowek... a tough pick for a Pole, but I'll go with Leverkusen
PSV v Monaco
> allez Monaco!
Manchester United v AC Milan
> f..k Milan! :> (suckers lost to Bologna at home today ManU beat Villa 3-1, shame for Villa thou)
Bayern Munich v Arsenal
> good luck in the quarterfinals admin

news of the day: Vieira signs a 5yr deal with racing Lens... Jussie Ferreira Vieira of Brasil