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Despite that late goal I'd say Fulham are favourites. These are decent, but not great, results for both English clubs. Would they meet in the semis if they both get through?
I was in Glasgow last year on a day when Celtic and Rangers both played at home but not against each other. Even that was enough to swear me off both teams. I decided I'd become a Partick Thistle supporter but I couldn't find any of their gear, not even in Partick. Ah well.
Too bad about Rooney and Fabregas. I prefer seeing teams at full strength for the stretch run. It doesn't help that Rooney will most likely be out vs. City but back in time, probably, for Tottenham. I'm starting to think Man City is going to sneak into that 4th spot.
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Hamburg/Standard Liege v Fulham/Wolfsburg, SF, L1, 19:45
Valencia/Atletico Madrid v Benfica/Liverpool, SF, L1, 19:45
2:1 is basically what I call the standard first leg draw. In the sense that the tie is perfectly balanced, basically its the most neutral result (a draw would be a good result for the away team).
Jesus, am I really dreaming about Europa League "glory"? How did it come to this.
Uh, if you think the Old Firm derby is a cause of sectarianism in the West of Scotland/Northern Ireland and not a symptom, I question whether you've ever been to the West of Scotland.
And stop acting like Rangers fans are saints. Singing of being knee deep in Fenian blood is at least as bad as singing IRA songs on Rememberance Sunday, especially considering the war was immensely unpopular in Glasgow and set in force the death blow to British rule in Ireland.
Absolutely. All things considered, 2-1 was not a bad result. If Babel doesn't get sent off, I bet Liverpool either grabs another or doesn't concede two.
Brutal red card (IMO), BTW. If anything, Luisao should have also gone off -- he made no effort whatsoever to play the ball with a blatant kick to the back of the knee. Benfica's penalties were both deserved, but for them to only finish with two yellows (IIRC) is inexplicable.
It will be interesting to see what Benitez does in the second leg. I imagine Benayoun will replace Babel, but who takes Insua's spot? Not that Insua is a key cog or anything, but both Aurelio and Kelly are also out. Kyrgiakos seems like a poor match-up for Benfica's forwards. Perhaps Mascherano moves back and Liverpool plays with only one holding/defensive midfielder?
That was the most compelling game I had seen in awhile. Not only was it a great game but the subplots, Fabregas against Barcelona, then getting the yellow eliminating the chance to play at Camp Nou, Pique and Puyol getting similarly banished from the return leg, made it as much theater as sport.
Barca has to feel devastated at giving away the 2-0 lead but they go home in good shape with the two away goals. Losing Pique and Puyol is bad but the pressure is going to be on Arsenal to score early so Barcelona should get some great counterattack chances.
It will be interesting to see how Arsenal comes out to play. They aren't going to win 1-0 so given that they have to score twice anyway they realistically can give up two free goals and as long as they get their two they get to penalties. They should be able to play pretty freely.
Aquilani is now supposedly out the rest of the season with an ankle injury, Riera is persona non grata, Benitez simply doesn't have many choices. If either Skrtel and Aurelio can get fit in time, that would change things, but for now I think it simply has to be
Reina - Johnson Kyrgiakos Agger Carragher - Masch Lucas - Kuyt Gerrard Benayoun - Torres.
It's hardly inspiring, but it should be enough to get it done.
I thought the first 30 minutes or so was the greatest display of football I've ever seen and one of the greatest in any sport.
IIRC, Mascherano got a start at left-back earlier in the season. You're obviously correct that he doesn't play there with any regularity.
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For the MLS fans out there, how big a deal is it that they're apparently adding a second (and third) Designated Player spot(s)? A somewhat related question -- I see on the press release that the DP's salary will be "count[ed] as $335,000". That's not necessarily what the club will actually pay the player, correct? As a hypothetical, let's say New York goes and works out a deal with Barcelona for Henry -- not even counting the transfer fee, they'd still likely pay him much more than that $335,000 figure, yes? And that is just the number that counts for salary cap/"budget" purposes?
EDIT: Moments after posting, I found my answer:
Landon Donovan, who made $900,000 a year until signing a four-year, $8 million contract in December, had been grandfathered in -- his salary, like Beckham's, counted as only $415,000 against the cap.
Thursday's announcement officially makes Donovan a DP. Their salaries will each count as $335,000 -- the new figure -- against the cap, which was raised to $2.55 million this season.
http://espn.go.com/losangeles/columns/soccer/blog/_/post/5048542
We don't have to go gung-ho about things. A calm, steady performance is going to be more than enough.
I think so. During that majestic opening spell, I can't remember any Arsenal players closing down and putting in a crisp tackle until Arshavin got booked for the challenge where he hurt himself in the process. Before that, I think Song was the only guy who even got within three yards of a Barca player.
Barca would/will have a much tougher time of it against a side that does a good job of denying time and space in midfield, e.g. United and Inter.
Ditto here. While I hate Inter's game, they would pose a big challenge for Barca.
Anybody see the incident, where HSV's Guerrero threw a bottle at a fan in the stands? HSV have apparently fined him 50k-100k, no suspension. Now, IIRC when Cantona assaulted a fan, the FA and FIFA combined to ban him for 8 months, he got sentenced to community service, and fined as well. I'm not saying these two incidents are analogous, and deserve the same punishment. But how the hell, is this being allowed to be handeled by the club only? Shouldn't the DFB, UEFA or FIFA have something to say about this? Smells of hypocricy...
And here's Cantona.
The fine (100,000 euro) was the largest in HSV's history, and German reports say that both the DFB and the league are considering taking additional action against the player. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he ends up being suspended at least through the end of the season. There isn't any criminal prosecution here because the fan (unlike Matthew Simmons) did not press charges.
That was my main complaint, the german report I saw did not mention this. It shouldn't be left up to the club, who have a vested intrest in not seeing the player baned.
IIRC correctly, Simmons had been shouting some preyy vile things at cantona. Not that that is much of an excuse. The chatter at the moment seems to be that the insult towards Geurrero seems to have been along the lines of "why don't you go back to Peru". Now that isn't not a particularly nice thing to say, but I have a hard time believing that most players don't hear much worse on a regular basis.
EDIT: nice aim though
EDIT2: On a baseball tangent: Goalie Ros said "the Yankees would probably like to sign him"
Fletcher also didn't seem to close down as much as he usually does -- Chelsea had tons of space in the middle of the park.
The second goal was definitely offsides, but overall I think Chelsea deserved the result they got. Berbatov worked his butt off but for long stretches United just seemed to lack the attack edge they have with Rooney.
I think at this point Chelsea are the champions.
Guererro had already been looking for reasons to leave HSV, and had even claimed to have developed a Denis Bergkamp-like fear of flying over the winter break. I would be shocked if he ever plays for them again.
Incidentally, do you really need the consent of the victim to press charges in Germany? In England you certainly don't.
Inter win 1-0 in Moscow and are the first team through to the semi finals of the Champions League.
It was a shame about the offside given against Bendtner at 1-1 when he was clean through on goal. Only saw one not very good replay, but he didn't look offside from that. At 2-1 Arsenal, maybe we actually get a game...
Messi is in another world.
It really has been quite poor. I still think they just need to introduce a gamesmanship council. Wanna dive - you miss the next game or two. Rolling around on the pitch for 2 mins holding your ankle, then jump up and run off like nothing happened - have fun watching the next game.
You can't fault players for gaming the ref, when they know they'll get away with it. The solution is to stop them from getting away with it.
Messi adds insult to injury.
Back to the football - Barcelona vs Inter in the semis, right? I don't much like Inter or Mourinho, but there's nothing I'd like more than to see them knock out those idiots.
I'm definitely not a fan of all the diving Barca does, but I am very much a fan of watching Messi play, so I'd still prefer for them to win.
And yeah, that Messi fellow can be a decent player.
If he picks up an injury here that keeps him out of the WC there is going to be a sh!t storm of apocalyptic proportions...
And now more poor defending from Bayern lets Nani stick another one in.
Sneijder and Robben are shaping up nicely for the World Cup.
Inter definitely have a chance of frustrating Barcelona (not to mention the Ibrahimovic/Eto'o factor) and Bayern look to have "their name on the cup"; only a series of shocking refereeing blunders got them out of the quarters. Barca will certainly be favorites, but they aren't the Cards in the NL Central.
For the top clubs in Europe, it's like having a pennant race AND the playoffs at once. Brilliant.
Toss in the fact that in the middle of various league tables you have teams battling it out for European places, and at the bottom you have clubs battling to avoid relegation.
And, of course, once you get to this stage of European and cup competitions, all the games are massive.
How can you be offside from a corner!
EDIT: And that's game over.
Quick question -- does the Europa League winner get a bid into the subsequent year's Champions League? That's what the announcer made it sound like, but that seemed wrong. A quick Google search revealed both a yes and no answer.
You get to defend your trophy (if you haven't otherwise qualified for the CL) and play in the SuperCup in Monaco.
*AKA the first important UEFA decision to ever favour an english team
EDIT: I'm fairly certain though that you did get to defend your title, when it was the old European Cup, with one country one team, although I was about 10 when they changed the structure, and too lazy to look it up...
*AKA the first important UEFA decision to ever favour an english team
UEFA changed that rule and you now get to defend your trophy. You used to be able to defend your trophy in the European Cup, so it's a little weird they ever changed the rule in the first place.
The mind truly boggles at Clough's greatness.
Having the holders not win their domestic league was the only way you ended up with two teams from the same country in the old European Cup. The year that Forest won their first (1979-80), they eliminated Liverpool (in the competition at holders) in the first round (there was no seeding). The next year, Liverpool went out to a very good Dynamo Tblissi team before they could meet Forest again.
Clough also lost a European Cup semi-final while at Derby County to Juventus under rather suspicious circumstances.
Gordon had a shocker. Was lucky to still be on the pitch at half time...
Also thought Terry was lucky to get off with a yellow card. Though the commentators seemed to recon he was being hard done by with the yellow. Studs up, foot about a foot off the ground, straight into the other guys leg - in my book that's a red.
Amazing what Neil Lennon said about his players today. They may have to make him manager permanently because I wonder if anyone else will want that job. And with Rangers and Hibs being basically broke, this is a really bad time for Scottish football. Walter Smith has basically said that the SPL is lower than the Championship as a league, which is really sad.
*A book/movie would, in fact, lie to me
Much, much easier. Given the goal difference, they're basically five points clear of the drop. That's not insurmountable, but it a hell of a lot with four/five games left.
We're dropping down to one CL spot too, which is disgraceful.
The comparison between SPL and Championship is kinda problematic though. I think Celtic & Rangers are better than the top Championship teams* - they'd probably slot in somewhere mid-table in the EPL - but the Championship is much deeper than the SPL.
*although you wouldn't know it from the last year in Europe, but generally speaking before that, they've always been pretty respectable in Europe...
Re: the real life game...Xavi's passing is pretty insane.
1- Show Barcelona who's boss ;-)
2- Get myself acclimated to the tactics in this version.
3- See how my computer handles a large database with many leagues loaded, before starting a journeyman save (which is how I really enjoy the game).
Portsmouth are looking exhausted, but Spurs really haven't created many chances - just that Crouch shot at the end. It would be amazing if they could pull this off.
You do realize that to make up 4 points with one game in hand, you have to make up at least 2 goals in the process? Not that I disagree with your larger point, it's definately City's place to loose right now.
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