football thread No11

Yup, it's a weird state of things we're in and without a sporting solution in foreseeable future while CL changes into even more stupid system. I miss the days of the original European cup competititons but some sort of CL is prolly unavoidable.
There's also a remote chance that (true) fans will take liking of the Thursday competitions over the plastic Mushroom League and leave that playground to the oligarchs, oil money & generally a-hole billionaires. UEFA will ofc put stop to that immediately as CL is & will be the cashcow.

Well, Danish league seems to now have UHD broadcasts so I'm sure I'll find a home somewhere.
 
So Pool is through to one more semi-final after mediocre performance against City's dismal one but Michael Oliver put up a decent show for the Russians to be selected as a judge when the war crime trials eventually start. Very few refs would've seen 22 men on the pitch at final whistle.
 
Yup, it's a weird state of things we're in and without a sporting solution in foreseeable future while CL changes into even more stupid system. I miss the days of the original European cup competititons but some sort of CL is prolly unavoidable.
There's also a remote chance that (true) fans will take liking of the Thursday competitions over the plastic Mushroom League and leave that playground to the oligarchs, oil money & generally a-hole billionaires. UEFA will ofc put stop to that immediately as CL is & will be the cashcow.
A Mushroom League would have appeal with Mario fans and/or meth-heads. We should get a focus group on that and sell the info to UEFA.

That said, the Champions League is effectively turning into an Atlantic Superleague.

Biiig game: former European champions and powerhouses Celtic or Ajax manage to go up 2-0 at home to Barcelona (or Athletic Bilbao v. Urited) and hang on for a 2-1 victory at fulltime. Might scrape into ⅛finals. And then lose.
 
Big thanks to At. Madrid for tenderising City before today's game. Bar the end it was a pretty poor show from the blues.
 
It's not that novel of an idea. Champions League has been called here Sieniliiga for ages and it's not flattering nickname. Convenient though in Finnish.

You should check http://futisforum2.org/ out if you already haven't. I'm not promising that conversation have more quality than Finnish football on the pitch but there's some genuine entertainment and even occasional valid analysis.
 
Yup, quite a contrast to the Cityzens on their best but who would've thought that City will be running into troubles with inadequate bench,
 
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futisforums2.org! Looks like a place for language practice.
 
I almost want Qatar to win the WC, so we can watch the meltdown (with ample supply of popcorn) and see how FIFA will try to defend referees scoring goals or whatever it takes.

The whole thing has almost become a parody of itself.

And let's just remind ourselves that Blatter, supposedly the problem of all the corruption, has been gone for many years already.
 
We seriously need a :troll: smiley. I'd be using it all the time. :mischief:
 
futisforums2.org! Looks like a place for language practice.

I was thinking that, too but keep in mind that there're few writing bad Finnish on purpose as to imitate popular local pundit, Keith 'Keke' Armstrong. The rest just suck at it by default.


Dynamic goals seem one possible solution. Sounds very modern and Blatter taught the disciples very well.
 
So we'll get a replay of Pool-Chelski in FA-cup final. I'm not expecting it to go to penalties but if it does TT's choice for a goalie will be an interesting one.


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Also gratz to PSV taking the Dutch cup title over Ajax. I only watched the latter half which was better than first half of Chelski-CP but that's not saying much. PSV seemed more than pleased in the end.

While atm I'd gladly see Klopp & co taking the 4 available titles this season generally wider distribution is preferable.
 
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Rooney sinks with Derby not that surviving in Championships was ever an easy task with 21 point handicap. Now he could take the ManU spot which is still extremely unlikely but if Frankie Jr will go underwater with Everton, or even if not, they could meet next season in Championship which would increase the attention of Champs if nothing else.
 
Think Rooney and the players have done an incredible job this season, from exceedingly difficult circumstances. With the season they've had, they would have been safe by a good distance, but of course a 21-point handicap is very hard to make up, and even more so when you can't buy any players, a whole host left in the summer and January, and they could only get in some on frees. Incredible effort by all involved really, and hadn't they lost so many players in January too, plus some injuries, maybe they could have pulled off the impossible. They actually were within spitting distance a month or so back, but then got a string of defeats while the teams ahead of them started winning.

Will be interesting to see if he takes the trip down with Derby, or looks for a different club now. I suspect the latter tbh, but we'll see.

The situation also shows the unfairness in football. Derby gets hit with a 21 point penalty, while big clubs like Chelsea and City can keep doing what they do year in, year out. Well, until a country "we" don't like do something naughty, that is. Without that, Chelsea would have kept cooking the books and living WAY beyond their means. Small clubs, however..? No go. You get extremely harsh penalties, practically ensuring you get relegated.

Fair? Not quite.
 
Indeed. I've been rooting for them for months now for no other reason than the treatment they got. A valiant effort which in the end wasn't enough. It looked possible a month ago but like today scoring goals in away games would've been helpful.
 
Eh, I remember Portsmouth also going down. And, of course, Rangers. And Southampton!
Between Wikipedia and the rsssf I get:

In April 2009, Southampton's parent company was placed in administration. A ten-point penalty was imposed, but as the team was already being relegated due to finishing second from bottom of the Football League Championship this points deduction had to apply to the 2009–10 season.
Southampton were 10 points deducted for financial reasons two rounds before the end of the season; the penalty will become effective in 2008/09 should they finished above the relegation zone (condemning them to relegation) and in 2009/10 should they finish among the bottom 3.​

It's not just in the Premier League, but the same disparity is seen the world over.
 
…the whole point is to get the team in red to win, right?
 
That was one weird game. Pool played 10mins, 1-0. Pool went cruising 10mins, 2-0. Pool lowered the temp to what's is commonly seen on the playgrounds with their kids until 50mins later Robbo decides to run a bit for a change and Mane puts 3-0. Few changes & Jota wants some action, too & 4-0. Even Mo finds the target, twice. There shouldn't be this wide quality gaps anywhere within a single league but in theory ManU is closer to the top than relegation. If Pool's title were dependant on scoring a dozen today they would've made it.
Only outstanding ManU player was Fellaini copy Hannibal The Terrible. Not much of a footballer but deep in battle mode from the get go. Bruno The Rat was in his usual form totally useless until luckily dodging a christmas card in the end.
I'm happy - this is the ManU I like to see.

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After some browsing on RedCafe I think this is the gist of it today.

- Only four. Progress.
- Players' social media teams drafting apology insta posts as we speak.
- Mejbri MOTM from our sorry lot. Kid showed more passion in 10 minutes than those wasters have all season.
 
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There is definitely a good footballer too in Mejbri, but he was probably over-fired up yesterday. At least he tried, which isn't much, but still better than the other lot.

Strange to see United so far adrift, given where they were under Sir Alex Ferguson. A lot is to blame on the owners of course. They've taken well over a billion pounds out of the club, and even under SAF the club wasn't really allowed to replenish players. Then it all came crashing down (when SAF left), and they splurged tons of money on all the wrong players. Now they're looking at yet another rebuild. Things may improve with ten Hag coming in, and a more sensible sporting structure, but they still have the same vampiric owners, so who knows if anything will truly improve.
 
Whether it'll be ten Hag or someone else the transfer market will be interesting. The only one with a safe spot seems to be de Gea which is interesting as he was doomed to be a back up two tears ago and impressive as he has basically started his caree again without being a youngster or local lad like Rashford. His career seems now more than a bit iffy and I don't think he quite ready to run a homeless shelter soup kitchen full time.
Greenwood's case is much easier to understand than Rashford's current status. He didn't seem like a guy who'll get screwed by all the bling which comes with money. There has been cases were improperly dealt injury has been a career ending one and Rashford played long before the operation but I haven't seen anyone claiming the operation being anything but a success.
 
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