Roiling football blather

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Phaedo

Well-known member
^ Another game at Wembley before that.

Was another of those games last night... Not sure if i can face watching football again for a bit lol. I was tearing my hair out in the second half, how Forest didn't score or get a penalty I don't know. And just to put the icing on the cake McGugan slipping and Pratley scoring from the halfway line....

Kind of annoyed I wasn't watching as a neutral.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
Oh, well, that's it then -- never going to happen. It's a Welsh football team, for fucks sake, be serious. I thought that was a bit too impressive.
 
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crackerjack

Well-known member
craner said:
Oh, well, that's it then -- never going to happen. It's a Welsh football team, for fucks sake, be serious. I thought that was a bit too impressive.
Click to expand...

If Cardiff beat Reading tonight, then it's them vs Swansea for a place in the Prem. Hold that dream.
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
fuck Reading and everything associated with it. i always knew it was a shithole, but this is just taking the piss.

please, please, please beat them Swansea. You may be a shit town too, but you have the Gower.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
Last night, the four stories Wales Today ran with were: the frustrating and slightly pathetic defeat of Cardiff City FC; a report on how Welsh Water authorities are the worst run in the United Kingdom (even worse than Northern Ireland); an expose on serious abuse in Welsh nursing homes; and a nice feature on the beautiful and globally unique tidal flows around Ramsay Island. Misery, defeat, physical abuse, inefficiency, and beautiful scenery: sounds about right.
 
Sectionfive

Sectionfive

bandwagon house
Snoop in Manchester

301385921.jpg
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
I honestly don't know - it's not as clear cut as everyone is saying to me. Two years ago everyone seemed to be bigging up United and I wasn't so sure, now it's the other way round. An early goal for Barce could still kill it though. Interesting to see the starting line-up for United and what they're gonna do. All the advice seems to be that they should press hard and high but I'm not sure about that. Morinho seemed to almost totally block them out (until the sending off) by doing the exact opposite. Doing that and hoping for a moment of magic from Rooney against the (in my opinion) vulnerable Puyol or snatching a goal from a corner or other set piece could be a viable tactic albiet a boring one that carries with it an embarrassing admission of inferiority which they may not be willing to make. And if you do that and lose then you're left with nothing, not even pride.
 
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crackerjack

Well-known member
Very surprised Berbatov wasn't even on the bench last night & can only assume that's the end for him at Utd.

Also surprised about Nani; even though he's faded quite badly last few months, surely it was obvious Utd were never gonna beat Barca on balance of play with that midfield, and their only hope was to trust in magic, a couple of special moments that Jung Si-Park or even the ageing Giggs aren't gonna bring you if they play all year.

Anyway, tactics schmactics, none of it was gonna make much difference. Barca are streets ahead. The only surprise was by how much. Question for the statheads here: would even the most retentive team in the PL (I guess that's Arsenal) expect to complete a match against any PL opponents with 67% possession to their name? And if not, does that mean the gap between Barca and the PL's best is bigger than between top & bottom of the PL?
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
Just had a quick look around at possession stats. Arsenal averaged 59-61% this season, depending who you read. In the win against Barcelona they managed 47%. In the win against Utd. they had 56%. 61% in the last two against City and Chelsea. And 67% in the LOSS to Villa. And this site shows them hitting 64-66% 6 times in 20 games in 2010.

Here we go. Possession rankings for Europe http://www.whoscored.com/Statistics
 
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Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Watched it last night. United looked shite for the whole of the second half basically, I know Barca are amazing but United's tactic seemed to literally just be 'punt it up to the strikers and hope they get something on it'. I suppose that's hitting them on the break, at least theoretically? Also I suppose Barca run after the ball so eagerly when they occasionally lose it that (as Roy Keane said on ITV) the pitch seems to get smaller...

Villa's shot for the third goal was fucking beautiful.

I feel like I could really get into football but it would intefere with my busy routine of music/self obsession.
 
bandshell

bandshell

Grand High Witch
United started well. They were all over Barca and I started to think if they kept it up they could win. It's hard to keep up that sort of intensity and pressure though, especially against a team like Barca.

Great game of football. Really enjoyed it.

All four goals were great tbh. Villa's was probably the standout though.
 
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paolo

Mechanical phantoms
This Barca side is certainly one of the best teams I've ever seen. However, I do think Wenger had a point when he called them 'sterile' (think that was the word he used?) It's almost like they're too perfect, like they've worked out the most effective way to play football on a computer or something
 
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