Football (Soccer)

[admin]

Shows how good I am at predicting stuff

The Chelsea result is pretty good considering - they now have an away goal, so if they get one of the billions of 1-0's they have had at home this season, then they're through.

I wouldn't say Man United are out of the CL yet, as English teams often do well over in Italy (just ask Inter Milan and Roma about us). But poor goalkeeping though (just like Lehmann last season against Chelsea) - it seems Chelsea's reserve right back is a better goalkeeper than the four that Arsenal and Man United have.

Having read some of the interviews with the Bayern players, they seem really concerned about the goal they let in at the end. I think this could work to our advantage, and if we score first and early at home, it could really unsettle them.

[MPS]

what do you think about this FA's and Adidas idea to use microchips in the ball which will signal the referee when the entire ball crosses the goal line. nice huh? hope it works, cause video replay would suck, halting the game every 5 minutes.

[jmet]

[Oriphus]

Sorry guys, iv been really busy. Yeah Arsenal got a crucial goal alright, they are certainly not out of it yet. A 2-0 victory will seal it. It wasnt a particular good performance by Arsenal, in fact it was shockingly poor. Atleast Chelsea didnt win either, good old Barca.

As for United, well im very disappointed in both the game and the result. to me it felt like we didnt even come out to win that game. It was poor, very poor. Milan were playing very well, but that wasnt the reason they won. Have a look at our passing. We always always gave the ball away. It was out passing that let us down. Rooney and RvN when he came on, played well, but they just werent getting the service they needed. I just hope that we can up the anti a good bit and score 2 goals in Milan without conceding any. Id like to see both United and possibly Arsenal progress, but i would just love to see Barca destroying Chelsea....4 trophies, it wont even be 2 in a fortnight lol

[Oriphus]

oh....and i hope this thread never dies lol i will try to post more often, just been bogged down with work and my girlfriend had a seizure so been looking after her.... ok now though.



Nice to see you back MPS

[admin]

Good to have you back Oriphus.

So Reyes and Bergkamp get a combined 6 match ban for basically nothing. Sheffield United's Cullip challanges Bergkamp late, and then seconds later, deliberately stamps on Cesc's head (that's what the Sky analysts said at the end of the game, that Cullip deliberately changed the direction of his foot to kick a 17 year old in the head). And it's Reyes (touching someone's face with a gloved hand) and Bergkamp that gets charged, while Cullip goes free. So the FA thinks head stomping is okay, while tickling someone's face is a 3 match ban?

- Fine by the FA

- 3 match ban

On top of that, the ref rules out a perfectly good goal for Sheffield United, and then gives them a nothing penalty (it was ball to hand, not hand to ball) to make up for his mistakes.

MPS: I think microchips are the way to go. Video evidence is good only if it doesn't slow down the game - I can see a fifth official that looks only at video replays, and if he notices something that the ref has missed, he can speak to the ref through a ear piece or something (the ref can choose to ignore it, of course). In fact, if they can get computer/robot refs or something, that would be even better.

[admin]

And no player bans at all from this game:



Nice of the FA to use the same pic on their website

[Oriphus]

cheers Admin

Yeah consistency is a problem at the minute throughout the Premiership & English cups. We differ in that most other top flight elagues would give more free kicks for firm challenges or raised boots. I like it that we dont give as many, but we need something for consistency or its going to become a bit of a joke. I understand what you are saying in terms of Reyes 3 match ban in relation to Cullips kick in the head. I believe that the difference between those two incidents is that Cullips offence was committed while the game was still being played and thus can be demmed a professional foul, or slightly more in his case. Reyes was committed after the whistle had gone, so is immediately a problem if he raises his hand.

Your ideas on a fifth official arent a bad one. Realisticly though, not sure how that would work. It is interesting though.

Arsenal have a good game against Southampton today then. That should be interesting. A must win, in fact, every game is now a must win for both Arsenal & United....

Hopefully we'll do a good job against Portsmouth

[admin]

If it wasn't absolutely certain that Arsenal are out of the title race, it is now. What a bad luck season we've had - we now have the following suspensions and injuries for our next league match:

Bergkamp
Reyes
Pires
van Persie
Campbell
Edu
Gilberto

All of the above except van Persie are regular starters (one of Edu or Gilberto to start if fit), so that's 5 first teamers from the unbeaten season out (and Campbell, Pires and Bergkamp are part of the "spine" of the team as well) - I think any team will struggle in the same situation.

If we had some better luck this season, we would still be challanging for the title. But at least this season has shown that our older players (Bergy, Pires, Campbell, Lehmann, and Vieira who is not old, but isn't the same as before) are getting towards the end of their careers and can no longer be relied upon starting next season. So with supposedly 40 million to spend, we need a world class goal keeper, world class defender, a tough midfielder (doesn't need to be world class) to replace Vieira/Edu and a experience (again, does not need to be world class) partner for Henry that doesn't need a lot of skill, but can head the ball and score some tap-ins (someone like Andy "mad Arsenal fan" Johnson, perhaps). Basically someone that would have played yesterday instead of having to play a youth striker, but would not play if the youth strikers are doing well.

[Oriphus]

You would be doing extremely well to land the talented Johnson - what an excellent striker - the amount of goals he's scored is phenomonal considering his team, no disprespect meant of course. Yeah, we know how it feels to have problems with missing key players, we had our own bad luck....

Chelsea have won their first trophy then. Its a pity they did. Ah well, they might do a double, but they will never win the Champions League. Barca are going to win 2-1 at home to leave Chelsea out. We are of course going to beat Milan 2-0 lol - well i hope so Its a massive massive game for us. If Arsenal can wget a good 2-0 win as well, you will be doing well.

We had a good result against Portsmouth. Played ok, but not very well, and had the majority of the possession. In fact at one point of the game, about 15minutes went buy with a complete Man Utd onslaught of the Portsmouth goal. I have to say, Wayne Rooney showed why he is such a highly rated player. It was also a real pleasure to see RvN back playing well. He was amazing i felt, always winning balls and set up Rooney's 2nd perfectly.

I didnt see the Arsenal v Southampton match, what happened to your team?

Chris

[admin]

Well, for the Southampton game, we were missing these players through suspension or injury:

Bergkamp
Reyes
Cesc
Edu
Gilberto
Campbell

So our lineup was pretty inexperienced, with Henry and van Persie up front and Flamini in the middle. Toure moved to right back for the first time this season, while teenage defender Senderos had the task of marking the giant Crouch.

We started poorly, and Henri Camara was causing us lots of problems. The game changed when Prutton's late horrible tackle on Pires, and having got a yellow already for another late horrible challange, the ref consulted the linesman who was standing next to the incident when it happened, and Prutton was sent off. Prutton then tried to assault the linesman, and tried pushing the ref out of the way 3 times to get to the linesman (with a punching gesture) - eventually, Harry Redknapp and another coach had to drag Prutton away. If Prutton doesn't get suspended for 10 matches for that display, then I have no idea why Reyes and Bergkamp were suspended at all. van Persie also got booked for flinging out an arm.

So with Pires off, Arsenal were down to 10 (didn't make the substitution yet) and so were Southampton. It was already in injury time, but we managed to score a goal and everything looked good for us.

So the second half starts, and we were totally dominating - could have been 3 or 4 up already, but 10 minutes into the second half, van Persie loses the ball and tries to win it back and fouls someone - it wasn't a bad challange, and although it was a foul, any other game, it would not be a yellow. The ref went to even things up and sent off van Persie, and well, Arsene wasn't very pleased with van Persie at all, especially after he already told Robin to be careful of the ref.

We still dominated though, and had opportunities to get the crucial second goal. But Lehmann had to be stupid again and came out for a ball during a corner, and completely missed it (didn't even bother to jump to catch it), allowing Crouch to head it in (and it wasn't a good header either - it bounced on the groud first, went really high, and just above the head of the defenders on the line - Lehmann would have caught that easily if he had just stayed on the line).

We still pushed forward and had some chances to win it, but their goalkeeper had his game of the century (again, another 'keeper plays out of his skins against us). In the last second of the game (92 minutes 30 seconds, I think), Ashley Cole seems to have grabbed the winner with a header, but he was offside.

Lucky Lucky Arsenal again.

[admin]

And Henry is now injured as well. Lucky lucky Arsenal...

[Oriphus]

Yeah, Arsenal are having a run of bad luck at the minute alright. Their performance yesterday wasnt too hot either. They were unlucky at times not to score, but overall they werent very impressive.

Hope Chelsea dont get a win in their next match, would be sweet for us only 6 points behind and we both have to play them. Im confindent United & Arsenal can beat them....

[admin]

I thought we played pretty well with what we had yesterday. Quincy (Owusu-Abeiye) looked like an excellent player again, and Cesc (Fabregas) was outstanding, and even Aliadiere looked solid when he came on and played only 8 minutes. We've got the youth sorted now, we just need some experienced players now to give the young ones some time to grow.

If Henry is fit this Saturday, then I would like to see him partner with Quincy, just to see what could happen. It would be interesting to see Henry with Lupoli as well, as Lupoli really knows where the goal is (19 goals in 18 games in the reserves, a couple in the League Cup against Everton as well).

[Oriphus]

Lupoli was a good signing in my opinion. Still very young though, so he hopefully can only get better. Arsenal's performance wasnt terrible, but it wasnt great. You played a lot of possession football, but you just couldnt seem to finish it. How many times did Freddie get the ball inside or around the box and get it stuck at his feet wihtout being able to have a shot? Quite a lot if i remember correctly. There were a good few positives to take from the match, but all in all, its not a league winning performance by any stretch of the imagination. Of course, Arsenal now will find it very difficult to win the premiership.....

Looking forward to Ac Milan v United next Tuesday at 7.45pm Uk time. It should be a great match. I'll be gutted it we go out of it. I expect a lot from us in that game. I expect Rooney and RvN to start and hopefully get us 2-0 up by half time. Id settle for 2-0 at the end, or 3-1. We need to make sure we have Ferdinand back for it though, our defense never looks as strong without him. If we have this team starting, i feel we can win....

Carroll

G. Neville, Ferdinand, Silvestre, Heinze

Giggs, Keane, Scholes, Ronaldo

RvN, Rooney

With Saha & Smith on the bench in case we need to sacrafice a defender if we havent got the goals nearer to the end.