Football

[Tigranes]

 

 

[Pidesco]

Arsenal won 2-1?

 

WTF

[Gorth]

Hehe, just saw the CL summary on SBS this morning. It's not that Barca didn't try

[Tigranes]

Yeah, it's not that they weren't awesome as usual, I think the significance is that for once, somebody played open attacking football against Barcelona and won without controversial penalties, deflected unlucky goals or whatnot... with a 20 year old goalkeeper.

 

This probably means 10-0 in the return leg, though.

[Malcador]

Shame I missed that, will have to get to see it. But what a result!

 

 

 

 

 

Shame they'll end up losing it on the away leg

Edited February 17, 2011 by Malcador

[Volourn]

Thread title is a lie. This is a soccer thread. i'll let you soccer fans keep this thread, though, but remember this is an Amerikan company's board so let's keep things Amerikan thanks.

 

P.S. I did laugh at the celebration pic vid. L0L So that's something!

[Krookie]

Thread title is a lie. This is a soccer thread. i'll let you soccer fans keep this thread, though, but remember this is an Amerikan company's board so let's keep things Amerikan thanks.

 

P.S. I did laugh at the celebration pic vid. L0L So that's something!

 

Hey, it's an American company's board,, so let's keep the spelling American. It's spelled American in America.

 

On a related note, haven't been a big football fan, ever - but my roommate loves Arsenal and has got me into FIFA 11, so I've been playing that and slowly developing some interest in the sport.

Edited February 17, 2011 by Krookie

[I want teh kotor 3]

Football:

 

Soccer:

[Malcador]

God damn North Americans.

[Pidesco]

Football is the sport where you control a spherical object (AKA ball) with your feet. Seems reasonable.

[Guest The Architect]

Arsenal do the counter-attack so well.

[Nihilus5078]

I say we just call the thread "football/soccer" due to the continental differences.

Edited February 17, 2011 by Nihilus5078

[Guest The Architect]

I say we don't.

[213374U]

Yeah, it's not that they weren't awesome as usual, I think the significance is that for once, somebody played open attacking football against Barcelona and won without controversial penalties, deflected unlucky goals or whatnot... with a 20 year old goalkeeper.

 

This probably means 10-0 in the return leg, though.

I'm actually happy that Barcelona got taken down a peg, but this is simply not true.

 

 

Hello, last defender. There was also a pretty clear handball by Arshavin around 91', handing it over to his goalie. Still, Arsenal played brilliantly, they were able to neutralize Messi without getting any of their defenders sent off (Song was close, though), and their second goal was simply beautiful. Round 2 is shaping to be an awesome game, we'll see if Wenger really has the measure of Barca and can effectively destroy their ball circulation -and by extension their concentration- or this was just a fluke.

 

Also, can we please have the branding trolling/hijacking removed? BOR-ING

[Tigranes]

That one is a complete non-event: photos can make any 1-1 tussle look like a foul. Obviously there's a bit of bias in me but that was hardly afoul and Barca didn't complain either. Now the last minute handball, there is actually a case. Certainly accidental ball-meets-arm, but it could certainly have been given nevertheless in that situation. But I don't think any Barca fan would say they were robbed in this one.

 

Defending against Barca is always tricky because (a) they are awesome, and (b) their game needs them not to be pushed around, and they know this, so they dive like fish meets water every game. I can understand why, it would suck if their football was destroyed by thugs with big elbows (like sometimes happens in the EPL), but it just means Arsenal had to be careful to try and defend without setting that off. Song did well but he was definitely a time bomb and the sub was probably very wise.

 

re. football/soccer - a more pointless waste of time one can scarcely find.

[Bos_hybrid]

Go Gunners.

[Guest The Architect]

Van Persie's sending off was bull****. Even if you agree with the decision, he should never have gotten a yellow for his "foul" on Dani diving ****sucker Alves. By god I hate that prick, a vapour of **** just pours out from him. I sound like an Arsenal fan. I think it would've gone into extra time 11 on 11, I didn't think Barcelona were very good, they were a bit wasteful. Arsenal defended so well till they went a man down and the floodgates opened.

[213374U]

Yeah, Van Persie shouldn't have been sent off. You shouldn't red card a guy for something so silly, and most certainly not when there may be doubts that he's actually heard the offside being called. And I agree about Alves. Scrawny diving piece of **** is always the first to pick a fight after he fouls someone, and somehow he manages to get away with it most of the time. Bad calls on the ref's part for sure.

 

None of that however changes the fact that Arsenal did bugger all throughout the match. Nada, zilch, nothing. Their only goal was scored by a Barcelona player in the only corner kick they got. Maybe one or two shots on the goal. They chose to play cowardly, to live off the advantage they had from the first leg, and they paid for it. And rightly so, I might add. Messi's goal was just brilliant, and I'm a Real fan.

 

Oh well.

[Guest The Architect]

True, they pussied out, but it was working. I thought they were a real shot till they went down a man.

 

I thought you were a Barca fan for some reason.

Edited March 9, 2011 by The Architect

[Tigranes]

Barcelona are an unbelievably awesome team. I'm an Arsenal fan but you have to take your hats off and marvel at just how good they are. At the same time, the extent to which they roll around clutching their arses is equally remarkable. It's sad how blatantly incompetent refereeing has become so common, though, that we've all become desensitised - refs to truly stupid things every bloody week but now they do it so often you can't help but shrug and move on.

 

That said, I'm not so sure that they chickened out. I think the plan wasn't to sit and defend for 0-0, the plan was to defend well and then play some counter-attacking football. The problem was that the Arsenal midfield was injured/unfit and the Barca midfield were just too good - they couldn't get something going, and then the ref made it worse by sending off the striker for having a bloody shot. It's pretty amazing how close it was, though. If Bendtner didn'th ave the touch of a mule in that last minute chance Arsenal could still have gone through.

[HoonDing]

Arsenal is no Inter.

[Humanoid]

I'm a Spurs supporter through and through and thought it was a ridiculous decision, so yeah. That said, zero shots on goal (not just zero on target) for them shows it was not an unfair result in the end.

 

As awesome as Barcelona are though, I find I can't respect them at all. They're probably the most chemically enhanced team ever seen in professional football.

[Tigranes]

Barcelona definitely showed once again how incredibly good they are, no question about that.

 

Curious thing is, though, in the first half, they dominated possession, but only had 1 real chance (Adriano's shot) before extra time when Fabregas committed ritual suicide. As good as they were they couldn't penetrate the Arsenal defense - and given how useless Arsenal have been at defending at other points in the season, that's amazing. It was only after the red card they ran rampant. Barca were great and deserve to go through - at the same time, without the ref's idiocy Arsenal could easily have gone through, helped by their first leg display.

[213374U]

They're probably the most chemically enhanced team ever seen in professional football.

I know about Messi's HGH treatment, but other than that...?

[Humanoid]

They're probably the most chemically enhanced team ever seen in professional football.

I know about Messi's HGH treatment, but other than that...?

 

Putting aside the manager's token punishment for his positive during his playing days for a moment, this, to be fair dates back a few years. First of all I should probably stress that if anyone insists on evidence that would stand up to the standards of criminal law, no, it isn't presently available and is not something I'd argue about.

 

 

Now, my background is cycling. Yeah, that sport that's a whipping boy for doping everywhere. You may have heard of Operacion Puerto, a Spanish police investigation into the actions of Dr Eufemiano Fuentes, a gynaecologist who was consulting a suspicious number of male athletes. When police investigated him, there were hundreds of bags of blood with codenames, and a lodger linking those codenames to some of Spain's (and Europe's) top athletes. Fuentes himself did not publically name names but stated that his clients came from all sports, including cycling, tennis, and yes, football.

 

Now over the next months, all manner of names started leaking, some officially some not. Some of the biggest names in cycling were the first to go - you might have heard of Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso and Alejandro Valverde. Predictably, the latter of the trio, the only native, was provided the thickest fog of obfuscation and protection. The investigators seemed to pick and choose which names they would confirm from the unofficial leaks. Lots of lawyers and appeals flew around.

 

Then some other names came up via the unofficial leaks. Team doctors for a number of Spanish football clubs, including the big ones - Real and Barca. Then another, arguably even bigger - Rafael Nadal. Very quickly, the investigation was declared closed in the courts, amidst rumours of political pressure. The investigators were unhappy but powerless - the whole affair had been swept under the rug. Fuentes understandably kept quiet publically - he was receiving an increasing number of death threats as details about the affair were exposed.

 

 

Anyway, it's just a summary off the top of my head and there's a lot of detail that I'd have missed. There are still some aftershocks felt four years on - last year saw another police operation, Operacion Galgo, pick up some of the dropped pieces of the original investigation. The issue remains the absence of any political will within Spain to clean up. Just last month we saw Prime Minister Zapatero unequivically claim there was no way disgraced Tour de France champion Alberto Contador would have doped, in spite of any evidence or lack thereof. Spain is in the middle of a sporting golden era and woe betide any politician willing to prick that swelling bubble of national pride.

 

 

EDIT: Any old google search should bring up a healthy amount of information, even more for those who can read Spanish and/or French. First hit for Fuentes Barcelona Puerto for example: http://www.ergogenics.org/484.html

Edited March 10, 2011 by Humanoid