football thread No11

Haaland (actually not Håland)...

I'm using his father's proper name as a protest to everyone who has dropped/switched å,ä,ö & ø.

Phuk, I don't even remember all the useful alt+ codes anymore :(


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Speaking of Pool interestingly Keita isn't in the CL list of players. No mention of any serious injury though in Naby's case that's just a technicality and at best a week away at most. More likely he has pissed on Klopp's cereals or taken liberties with Ulla or something else to that effect. Ox is obviously out as well but he has a 6y deal in water running so that was expected. I've been expecting them to recruit a, preferably few midfielder actually capable playing once in a while but FSG apparently doesn't believe that sort of things.

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Speaking of Alf-Inge Håland I think his case for switching Håland to Haaland is pretty much the best case scenario as the pronunciation doesn't change and the å is pretty much interchangeable with aa as far as I can remember whether the reason is bokmål vs nynorsk or something totally different.

Whichever the case the youngster is a goal scoring machine as long as he's uninjured especially in Abu Dhabi City where an Immovable Object in 6y box will get tons of tap ins and outside of VvD there aren't many candidates to even try to move him or block him from going where he wants to be.
 
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Not really news but still; the revolving door of Stamford Bridge is not suffering from high energy prices and TT is sacked. I think it was only 3 weeks ago or so when both TT & the club announces contract renewal negoatiations are going on - Zagreb nights can do wonders and lately TT has been looking as miserable as unhappy Jose so I wouldn't be surprised if he did Cartman & went home. I really, really hope that Potter doesn't take job.
 
I think it was only 3 weeks ago or so when both TT & the club announces contract renewal negoatiations are going on
That is always the case - whenever the club execs back you you should start calling your loved ones.
 
Yeah, I can sort of agree with that as I don't think he's has been quite the former self after the Pickford-incident.

Yesterday's Napoli-Pool - one weird game. Taking nothing away from Napoli which was great but the first´half was the worst Pool I've seen in... hmm..ever. Milner could've been sent off in the first half, Gomez made Williams looking solid defensively, TAA has identity crisis but he knows he's not a defender, VvD is lazy but that happens often these days, Fabinho has lost 30% of his speed, Salah only hits a still ball, Bobby is on or off but based on his passing he can still remember who's on his side & who's not. Other than that it looked ok.
I think the team needs rest and this way they will get a lot of it later on. I mean defensive errors will happen and one or even two players can have a really bad day a la Gomez/Milner but others should still be able to pass & receive 2m passes without 27 touches. Diaz and with reservations Elliott must be really pissed at the moment. Matip was a clear improvement as he usually is, Jota was awful which is sort of good as he hopefully is not in the Portuguese squad in the next international break, Thiago was meh and Sir Charles is still clearly looking for more bones though if he came purely/mostly for a #9 the catering atm is so dreadful that Lewa would have hard time scoring.

Rangers is prolly out of the picture but Napoli-Ajax-Pool may became a very interesting 3-way battle.

Meanwhile PSG is still doing PSG stuff. Superb Mbop & co for 45mins & eff all. Still a win but not the style to get shiny jewellery in the spring. Might be even the season for Pep & Abu Dhabi.
 
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Yesterday I was back at Camp Nou for the first time since the pandemic (I think), and what a good night. I told my sis that Lewandowski would score a hat-trick, and by Jove he did. Glorious evening!
 
Meanwhile in South America, we again get an all-Brazilian final. It's just boring this way.

Of course, you cannot blame Brazil for being the biggest market and for simply not shooting itself in the foot as other regional powers have, but it's still boring. And, hey, just to imitate the UEFA, CONMEBOL has insisted on neutral-country finals until it finally convinced its members, so yet again there will be two Brazilian teams travelling to a neutral venue outside Brazil (with non-European distances) for greater pomp and display.
 
Thrilled about a Potter-led Chelsea, and want to see less glamorous signings from now on.
I liked it when it the past years it was the less formerly-known names who led Chelsea as a team.
 
@JohannaK I recently read that Mourinho winning the Conference Cup means that he's the only manager to have won the three (current) tiers of European football competitions.

So, naturally…


¡MOU, TRES! ¡QUÉ MODESTO ES!
 
I agree (or am afraid of) that Potter is good for Chelski. In general terms I think that there're way too many teams from London in PL so their loss is usually a welcomed one not that it's even remotely likely that one of 4(3) larger ones will be relegated on footballing merit.
For Potter though, I get that he took the job as those aren't that often available but I still think he's too nice of a man for the job. Who's willing to bet that he actually will be there for the whole 5y contract? Sacked in the morning is a bit premature especially with the quickly implemented royal pause but I'd be surprised if he's still at the job after 3 years.
Abu Dhabi City or KSA United will pick the EPL titles unless something miraculous happens in that time so there's only CL title available which could save his job and I don't see Chelski winning that either. TT's one was extremely lucky and still didn't last for long.

If I were Klopp I'd close the training center for a week & send the players to beach or wherever football is banned. Pool surely welcomes the unforeseen break not that Wolves is in top form either. Interesting next week in CL coming anyway.
 
Watching Espanyol-Sevilla. Lamela (SEV) off the outside of the left foot, between the keeper's legs at 0:46. Initially, I was in with Espanyol 'cause I like their jerseys, but ouch, dudes. Didn't anyone tell you there was a game on? :lol:
 
Wow. Espanyol are really bad.
 
Yes. They are. Now you know why they are the inferior Barcelona team by a wide margin.
 
And also the name… :mischief:
 
CL night again and for a change I'm extremely keen on seeing what has happened in a week so Pool-Ajax will be the focus Sporting-Tottenham offering a nice aperitive and speaking of Barca, I hope they'll get hammered in München - I generally hope they get hammered everywhere they play, though but that doesn't make me an Espanyol supporter either.

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And for those who don't already know it all CL games are available for free from Livescore with an Irish IP. Works like a charm as long as the expectation is not UHD. Registration is mandatory, playing or even transfering money is not.

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And the English teams continue to fail. In short Royal is a traffic cone, Richarlison still doesn't understand that there's offside implemented in the game though in less than precise manner & Conte has too small pockets in his trousers for his hands to fit in. I thought Lloris saved a point on the 90th minute but Sporting managed to score twice after that.
On the news department I saw Kane giving a good free kick - he passed the ball instead of trying to kick it off the stadium.
 
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Pool back in a winning streak, not with ease but still and the game occasionally looked like football again - not good, but football. Elliott-TAA is a defensive disaster waiting to happen and since the Reds can't score anymore disasters will happen. Now it looks like the seasons success or lack of it will be decided by the number of days Thiago will spend in water running.
I didn't see the whole Bayern-Barca game but based on what I saw 0-0 at half-time indicates that there're scoring issues outside Merseyside. I have always liked Matip and for sure he is better defender than Lewa but that he's better scorer as well came as a surprise.
 
Ze Djermans have started Oktoberfest halfway through September so maybe that's what explains Bayern Munich not winning two matches by three goals in a row.
 
The loss to Hungary still needs something further.
 
Oh yes, Ingerland keeps losing to the Italians.

Apparently an algorithm which its creator insists correctly predicted the outcomes of the last two world cups is now forecasting that this year the winners will be Argentina who will defeat Ingerland in the final. :rotfl:
 
Italy-England was a strange match. Except for Kane, it looked as if they didn't give a damn about the result.

I found Gar Southgate's choices especially baffling: he couldn't be bothered to make a third sub and at the end of the game expressed how satisfied he was... :confused:
 
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