Ha. Not much to mention about late in the game. Um..Niang had a really nice shot, that Leo Franco managed to save. Mamad looked good the whole game, which was nice. Maxi Rodriguez nearly pulled off an awesome backheel goal. Zubar did better than Erbate...yea. That's about it. I thought a draw would have been a fair result, but things definitely haven't been going our way lately. Which isn't completely luck, of course. That's just about it for this competition, I guess. The next couple games against PSV will probably determine who gets third, and the UEFA Cup spot. If we win both, and Liverpool (or Atletico, I guess), can win both of the other games, then we'd have a real shot at second. Is it bad when a game against Caen is huge? Because this weekend's game against Caen will be really important, I feel.
So, apparently the police caused problems with the travelling supporters. Apparently it was basically unprovoked, but then again I'm reading about it from pretty heavily biased sources. We'll see what all comes out about this in the coming days. And another incident of racial abuse towards players from a small minority of the Atletico support.
I think it was racially motivated when the ball when out of bounds and the Atletico manager had the ball and the black OM player asked for the ball and the manager wouldnt give it to him he just threw it away. I dont have much sympathy for someone like Florent Sinama-Pongolle who'd rather take the money to play in a racist country rather than play in France.
He made some nice comments about OM before the game, though. So all is forgiven. (Why didn't we try really hard to sign him? Didn't he go cheap? Sob.)
I thought L'OM played a good match. Came close in getting an equalizer. Still 4 matches left. Still can see some magic from this side.
^Higly unlikely. Getting 6 pts from PSV is asking for too much. PSV arent push overs. The best you can hope for is a win at home vs them and a draw on the road.
assuming liverpool and atletico lose or draw?????? the only safe way is to win all remaining games, i know its fan dreaming but you got to try
L’UEFA vient de communiquer les sanctions prises par sa commission de discipline envers l’Atlético Madrid suite à la saisine de l’OM. Ces sanctions sont les suivantes : - Le stade Vicente Calderon est suspendu pour trois matches de Champions League dont un avec sursis avec une période d’observation de 5 ans. Les deux matches de suspension seront purgés lors de Atlético-Liverpool le 22 octobre et Atlético-PSV le 26 novembre. Ces matches devront être joués dans un stade se situant au minimum à 300 kilomètres de Madrid. - L’entraîneur de l’Atlético Javier Aguirre, est suspendu pour les deux prochains matches de Champions League (Atlético-Liverpool le 22 octobre et Liverpool-Atlético le 5 novembre). - L’Atlético Madrid est condamné à payer une amende de 150.000 euros pour conduite incorrecte de ses supporters (comportements racistes) et mauvaise organisation. http://www.om.net/fr/Saison/101003/...es_sanctions_de_l_UEFA_envers_l_Atletico_font
it's no use spaniards trying to claim their country isn't racist. it is. but even if more prevalent it"s a different and imo less dangerous racism than what can be found in france (or in the states). racists never have any good excuse, but in countries with lengthy histories of race relations there are none at all. if based on race a californian hates mexicans, an alabaman blacks or a lyonnais arabs, there is true evil. but when someone in connemara is upset about pakistanis there is above all ignorance. the case in madrid is between the two. when we were in madrid, people were amazed to find that we were staying in lavapiès. actually a very nice neighborhood, but to hear people in salamanca district you'd think it was michigan avenue! simple ignorance, and inability to accept the XXI century.
The only negative of this solution are the Liverpool fans who are whining and complaining about having to cancel their travel plans.
Seriously, how did they become the biggest victims in this? I realize it does kind of suck for them, but I've been avoiding English language articles on the situation because that's all they focus on.
It seems like Madrid are now turning in the biggest victim. They are the victim of a plot between the head of the UEFA and the french clubs. We all know that Platini is doing his utmost to help the french. It's not like he argued with Thiriez or Laporte or was jealous when France won the WC. Plus, Taiwo is a dumbass he has heard monkey chants while he should have understood "kun kun kun". Not to mention the fact he deserved it because he played rough. In all seriousness, the attitude of spanish media, politicians...is pathetic. How to defend this kind of behavior when you have high responsabilities ? They just legitimize those acts when they are denying it. I guess Taiwo was in the stadium and he misread the banner.
Le supporter olympien Santos Mirasierra a été condamné vendredi à trois ans et demi de prison par la justice espagnole, après les incidents survenus en marge du match Atlético-OM. Son avocat espagnol a d'ores et déjà décidé d'interjeter appel de cette décision. http://www.om.net/fr/Saison/101002/Actualites/37917/Santos_condamne_a_3_ans_et_demi_de_prison Reactions and such are all over om.net, as well as a variety of other places. Horrible news.
That's shocking. The Spanish press is horrible. Propaganda, misinformation, I thought it was only reserved to countries like China or Russia. Seriously, what has he done to deserve more than three years in jail ? It's not the spanish justice who judged him, that's the lobbying of their politicians, and media. They used him to avoid the responsabilities of their police and they used nationalism to focus on the demonish Santos who pushed a police cop who beaten his mates. It's easier to blame a plot of the French than looking their own responsabilities. Is it normal that police cops beaten Marseille fans with no reason ? The banner with a skull printed on it is a laughable reason. Be careful, in Spain, if you wear a skullcandy headphone, you are a nazi. It's not because they are police cops that they have the right to do whatever they want! If Santos deserves 3.5 years in jail, what about them ? OM fans reacted to the violence of those police cops. Not to mention, that claiming that there were fake retarded people among OM fans is a disgusting insult. I don't think they are too happy of being retarded so why do they have to insult them ? They have no pride, no dignity, to insult retarded people. By the way, what are the French politicians doing ? When it was those less beings of l'Arche de Zoé who tried to kidnap childs in Darfour, Sarko helped them even though they were far from deserving it and it wasn't free for our country...(Sigh). When that's Betancourt who was kidnapped, she had support. My bad...Betancourt is from a rich family and even though she took senseless risks, it's still better than a football fan like Santos. Anyway, l'OM are in a difficult situation. The fans are upset and if something happens, Marseille will get suspended and don't expect the sanction the UEFA to minimize the sanction. If there are troubles, the spaniards will also use it to avoid their faults during the first match and will say : "look at their behavior, that's the proof that we were right". That's so predictable...
Great post, Nicolas. A few thoughts/responses: The absolute only thing I've seen that they have is that he pushed a police officer. This wasn't unprovoked, of course, and he's obviously defending someone else. That's the 6 months, apparently. And the other 3 years..I have no clue what they're using to justify that. It's ridiculous. The fact that the whole thing seems to have been initiated by the police has been overlooked, and the Spanish media (as well as the higherups at Atletico) just point toward the video where our supporters are responding to the actions of the police. The fact that it's assumed by some that the Spanish police acted correctly simply because they're police is infuriating. I mean, I'm about as non-violent as it gets, but if something was initiated by the police...are our supporters expected to simply take it? I'm in complete agreement with you about Sarko. I mean, I figure that if something could eventually make its way to Zapatero, I think that would help Santos immensely. Pape Diouf gave a good speech before the game today, saying essentially what you did, that if anything happens from here on it will be used to paint the supporters as animals. So, any action from now on has to continue to be non-violent, in the form of marches and signs at the games and such. I've read about the ultra groups discussing possibly not entering the stadium at all on Tuesday.