That's really strange to hear. I don't know what you consider to be atmosphere, but for me it's mostly vocal support and in italian stadiums it's on a different level if you compare it with spanish ones. Watched yesterday Pisa vs Empoli and you could hear more songs than in all round of La Liga. Maybe it has something to do with the streams you watch (or TV channels) because sometimes they somehow minimize the sound from italian stadiums and it's understandable that people who rarely watch italian football would think that the atmosphere is really poor. Little example for you from italian stadium: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaZAF6wIffQ"]YouTube - Lecce - Bari 2006/07[/ame]
I'll never understand why lighting so many flares that you can't see the pitch through the fog is considered good atmosphere... Still, Italian Ultras certainly know how to cheer. Unfortunately a lot of what they do is slighted by pictures like the one in 0:45.
Would Germany take over 3rd if Bayern and Bremen win the CL and UEFA Cup respectively and Udinese drops out losing to Zenit
I don't, but this clip has it all. Especially considering that Lecce is a city of about 90,000, and this is Serie B match (derby though).
if italy loses that 4th cl slot, milan are so ********ed, inter, juve, roma, fiorentina all more consistent over the past few years. and their rebuilding after maldini is to be done on zero budet if galliani is to be believed. how is this supposed to work? all the other four will spend some money and add to already decent squads. the only squad that needs rebuilding for the league is milan, the others only need more if they want to make an impression in europe.
Milan is probably going to sell Kaka to City or Real Madrid; they will use that obscene amount of money which is more than enough to rebuild. Milan need a keeper, full-back, at least 1 CB, wide midfielder and a clinical finisher at the moment. If they are really low on cash, they could spend the money only on a CB and a clinical finisher.
No, it wouldn't, at least not this season. It would make it possible next season and very likely the season after that, but even in the best case szenario (Bayern, Werder, Hamburg winning every single match, with Werder-HSV being the UC final) Germany can't overtake Italy this season anymore.
They would get an automatic 6 points simply for going so far, subtract the near 4 points advantage Italy has from the season 5 years that will no longer count, that is 10 points right there. Add to that the wins. That is why I hope Udinese meet Werder Bremen, win points and disqualify them. Kill 2 birds with one stone. Of coarse the match could go either way though, I trust Werder Bremen against quality opposition however.
i accept that for 7sisters (except napoli) ultras is dyin' slowly...a lot of modern ultras around..but you have no clue what athmosphere is like... go to any premier leauge match and then go to amateur italian league match... if football stops the life stops in italy... i respect german ultras and athmosphere...they r followin' our ultras mentality and good on it...
This is the ranking that determines CL berths in the next domestic season. http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method4/crank2009.html Italy has ~6 points more than Germany. After tonight, it's 1/8 pt more for Italy and 3/8 more for Germany, so ~5.75 points still to do. A win is 2 points, 1 point for reaching a semi, 1 point for reaching a final. It's max 5 wins for Bayern and Bremen, 4 for Hamburg and 3*2=6 bonus points. So a total of 34 points. These are divided by the number of German starters, which is 8, so it's 4.25 points in the country ranking. Italy would still lead by 1.5 points. Not that this will happen ^^
you need one more year of italian shambles and they will have given you a wonderful present. next year bl reps look like being bm, wolfsburg and hamburg in the cl, hetha, stuttgart and shalke or hoffenheim or dortmund in the el serie a is juve, ac, inter and fiorentina or genoa in cl/el, roma , and palermo in the el i think the serie a entrants look stronger. wolfsburg wont make any indentation in the cl, hamburg might get through the group stage but not certain.juve, ac, inter will all surely get through the group stages, maybe one will have a run. out of the el sides, none of the serie a sides look too shabby, and im sure it will become an issue in italy that the el sides take next year seriously as the coeff is at stake for the whole country. i remember palermo playing weakened sides in the uc group stages a couple of years back in order to stay fresh for league matches, the president said that the uc was a total ditraction and waste of money and players energies. i doubt they will say the same this year. roma will also look for a good cup run in el, and one of genoa or fiorentina, or probably both at some point, will be in the el with a good chance at gettting to later stages and some good points tally. so, i think next year will be tough for the bl to outdo serie a, even though it is entirely possible, if, like i said earlier, the italianss keeping playin like chit in europe
Serie A is much stronger and much more experienced in CL than German sides. We need one of Hamburg and Wolfsburg to make a quarter final spot, and the other either to make round of 16 or 3rd place to play in EL. In EL, I believe German sides are stronger, especially if Bremen win UEFA this season which means they are guaranteed next season in EL. We need the right teams in the competition though. We need Leverkusen to make the final of German Cup, Bremen to win UEFA this year and Schalke and Hoffenheim to make 4th and 5th place. This way, all 4 teams could be in EL and are all quality and all have potential to go to quarters (not all will obviously, but they have the potential to do so). Anyways, I hope Bremen beat Hamburg and win UEFA Cup now! We need them for points next season!
Agreed it is indeed going to be difficult considering that perennial clubs like Bremen and Schalke or even Leverkusen wont play in Europe next year. Nonetheless it remains to be seen how the respective clubs playing in Europe next year strenghten their squads.
strategically, you want as few sides in europe as possible next year. the coeff is worked out by dividing the number of point attained by the number of entrants to euro competitions. the prem almost always gets the most points in a year, but we also send insane numbers of clubs into europe, this season its up to 9, so our coeff is much lower that it would be if, say, we had left out portsmouth and everton. or in previous years sides like everton, millwall, ipswich, west ham etc reducing our coeff massively. these joke sides are one of the main reasons it took the prem so long to get number 1 spot in the coeffs, it is probably keeping germany from 3rd spot and might do mnext season.
Yep. Abysmal performances from Hamburg and Stuttgart in the CL in the last couple of years have definetly hurt us.
Yes, we know that. But it has some advantages of having more teams. For example: It doesn't hurt that much if you lose a team early (BVB this year), when you have many teams to back it up. Bremen would be a nice addition and we're used to play with at least 7 teams anyway. I hope for Bremen UC Winner 2009!
That only works if you can select your teams. Take England this season: The 9th team is not Everton or Portsmouth. It's ManCity, they only qualified via fair play. But without ManCity, the English coefficiant would be worse than it is. Werder Bremen as a 7th team via UEFA Cup title holder birth would probably be helpfull rather than hurting our coefficiant.
And btw. we don't want to become third, because it's the third place but because we would get MORE teams! So wishing for fewer team to get more teams is quite paradox. Getting 7 teams next season because Werder won the UC is what I want. Not seeing Werder losing so we stick with 6 teams.
i thought being higher in the rankings was the reward, and the extra cl slot, not just having more sides in the uefa cup. having extra cl slot means more money, better players and more presitge and more stability as there is not so much of a scramble for 4 slots as there is for 3.
If Werder finally fix the weak spots of their squad this summer, and it looks like we will, we will qualify for the CL again next season, and be ready for the CL, a force to reckon with. Werder is one of the few Bundesliga sides that can beat any team on the planet on their day, especially against the so called 'big sides', and that's exactly what the Bundesliga needs in the CL. UEFA team rankings, Werder is 10th currently, ahead of the likes of Inter and Real Madrid, with a fraction of their budgets: http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method4/trank2009.html For the sake of the Bundesliga, Werder has to qualify for the EL next season!
Ahahaha no you're not. You're alright, but you won't be a serious contender in the Champions League for a while. If ever to be fair.