If you have seen a game in another league (or in Dutch Eredivisie where there is no thread for) from another club team and you feel compelled to talk about it, go ahead and use this thread to post it in. It's not a rigid thing, just general other games that you like to mention and talk about. Cheers
Re: The Other Cub Teams Thread Thanks. As I posted on the other thread, I think today's Dortmund/Stuttgart match has to be in the running for match of the season. Down 2-0 at 70 minutes the game went back and forth before finally ending up at 4-4. Lots of missed chances in this game which is why the Bundesliga and Eredivisie are the two greatest leagues in Europe for spectators. Both managers realized that this was something special and went out on the pitch at the end of the match not only to congratulate their own players but also the opponents. Don't think I've quite seen anything like this in almost 50 years of watching football.
Nice to see Bjorn Kuipers officiating the Barca/Milan match today. I though he did a good job in calling the second penalty on the pull down of Busquets on the corner kick. They didn't give it last week when Puyols was yanked down. It's in the rule book and should always be called. Barca on to the semifinals of the CL now.
Or Barca vs Milan, Bayern vs Marseille. Or simply Pohang Steelers vs Adelaide United. This is the place.
The double pain for the fans is the bad press the club gets for playing un-Dutch as the only team in Eredivisie according to some. That means no compassion if they get relegated. If they would attack and go down despite that, more sympathy would go their way.
in three and a half hours Toronto FC plays Santos Laguna in the CONCACAF Champions league semifinals. Unfortunately we'll be without our captain, Torsten Frings (hamstring), and striker Danny Koevermans (yellow card accumulation), and could very likely get crushed (Mexico ain't exactly the friendliest place to play, not to mention the high altitude, and the fact that Mexican teams can spend a lot more money) but it could also be a very good game. Last week we managed a 1-1 draw that could have easily been 3-1 BTW, Aron Winter is TFC's manager
Speaking of...I'm going to see Toronto play Montreal up at Olympic Stadium on Saturday. Bigtime rivalry right?
When they lost Frings--they lost the cohesion at the back--the next few games were just like the old TFC--truly awful They had managed to take out LA Galaxy to ge to the semi with him and I could not believe my eyes--TFC looked good --but without Frings its just chaos at the back--since he may be gone for 6 weeks I'm thinking they may look to buy someone who is available in Europe --but teams are busy until mid-May which is about when he comes back
2-2 at half time--3-3 on agg. TFC has 2 away goals so Santos has to get one more unfortunately they will--TFC has to keep scoring--both Santos goals were over the D-line softies
when you play in central america, the refs are always against you now 4-2 for Santos off of two penalties Edit: 5-2
we can't sign anyone from Europe till July(or june?). And even if we could, we have no salary cap room. The only way we sign someone from Europe is if we sell that joke-of-a-DP-who-lost-us-that-game-De Guzman. I'm honestly completely against using a DP spot on the back line. Other MLS teams manage just fine without putting a DP back there. If we can get a couple decent center backs (Harden is way below average) we'll be fine if the midfield is good. without a good midfield the back line is left exposed no matter who you have back there.
unfortunately my internet was acting up all night, so I only got to see the last 20, but from what I gather it all started when De Guzman needlessly gave away a penalty to make it 3-2. Then one of our defenders (Aceval) handled the ball in the box 4-2. Not sure how the fifth goal happened, but the sixth goal was in injury time, and it was pretty much because the players just didn't give a shit anymore and just wanted the game to be done. Our keeper didn't even bother moving.
Great video, no annoying lousy editing: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onm16nLmPaY&feature=player_embedded"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onm16nLmPaY[/ame]
Sour grapes from Benfica about the match officials in yesterday's Chelsea/Benfica match. They are asking the Portuguese FA to intervene. Well, if I remember correctly we had a set of Portuguese match officials for the return match with Madrid and they were nothing to write home about disqualifying two legitimate goals. I didn't see FdB complaining to the Dutch FA!
They did get screwed though. IMO both the penalty and the red card shouldn't have been given. Chelsea sucks so hard. It's incredible. They've invested 100s of millions and this is what they come up with? Their team would have a very hard time winning the Eredivisie. Goes to show that money isn't everything.
Yes, Chelsea are really not a very good team and were out played in both legs by Benfica. The 2nd Chelsea goal by Meireles was a thing of beauty though.
De Guzman isn't the only problem--he's a disaster and paying big bucks as DP for him was really stupid-- -there is a complete disconnect between the back line and the midfield when Frings is not there in the second half--and I only watched until about 80th--5-2--TFC was terrible- the killer was Santos could have been had last night---they were nothing special and TFC stayed with them for the 1st half--giving up another softie right at half time did not help had they come out determined they may have taken this I stopped going and watching TFC in 2010---just too painful and awful --last year when they brought Frings and Koevermans in I sat up and watched them grow--but without either one last night I had no reason for optimism They seem to be picking up good attackers--Plata, Silva, Johnson, Koevermans---so when they tighten at the back they are fun to watch but they get scored on far too easily -they could have paid the refs $5 mil and they would not have won
I don't see how you can claim the red card and penalty were undeserved with a straight face, unless you're wearing a tin foil hat. Even the Benfica fans seem to admit as much. This trend of the losing team blaming the ref is starting to become really annoying.
Here is a a take from goal.com on the second penalty: Referee broke the law in awarding second Barcelona penalty against Milan, and here is the picture evidence
-BARCELONA'S SECRET TO SOCCER SUCCESS- Pressure on the ball The “five-second rule” More rules of pressing The “3-1 rule” No surprise The “one-second rule” By Simon Kuper
Thanks for posting this. I think the really important rule is #5. A lot of teams do 1-4 but not 5 (e.g., Ajax).