Thread The Football Thread

Sarcasmo

A Taste Of Honey Fluff Boy
Mar 28, 2005
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Actual football, not American football.

So Messi has 10 goals in his past four games, including consecutive hat tricks. If you didn't see the match against Zaragoza yesterday, look it up on Youtube. Edit: link posted below.

His 2nd goal was ridiculous. He would've had four if they hadn't hauled him down at the end for the penalty kick (which Ibra then scored on). That kid has the best ball control I have ever seen. It isn't evident in the highlight clip alone, but watching him game after game, minute after minute, is an absolute treat. He could have all 10 players on him at once and he'd still get through.

 
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Messi is like playing with a football player on a playstation, you can't touch the boy when he's on form.

Me and DJB were at Anfield last Thursday watching the Europa league match against Lille (3-0). :D

You bunch of amateurs can't beat Man U when Chelsea needs you to, though. :mad:
 
Actual football, not American football.

So Messi has 10 goals in his past four games, including consecutive hat tricks. If you didn't see the match against Zaragoza yesterday, look it up on Youtube. Edit: link posted below.

His 2nd goal was ridiculous. He would've had four if they hadn't hauled him down at the end for the penalty kick (which Ibra then scored on). That kid has the best ball control I have ever seen. It isn't evident in the highlight clip alone, but watching him game after game, minute after minute, is an absolute treat. He could have all 10 players on him at once and he'd still get through.



Yep I saw that goal and most of the match. The form Messi is in at present is insane..................best player since Maradona at least (some say he's even better). With him playing like that Barca are dead certs to retain the champions league. Shame for Rooney though as he's having a great season as well but will no way win european/world player of the year competing against Messi. What's scariest is, he (Messi) is still only 22.

Btw, I dreaded opening this thread as it was entitled "Football" but turns out it was the proper version rather than hand-egg.
 
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Barca better hope to God that kid stays healthy. I felt bad for Suazo last night. He's good too, but he (and most of his team) were invisible last night.
 
10 Stupid things that still exist in Football

Many things grind my gears about football. Most of them are completely inane. Some of them don’t bother anyone else and I seem like a complete mad person for getting so worked up by them, but some things are universally baffling. These are but a few of them.

1. Automatic bookings for stripping off – The passion, excitement and euphoria of football can often come to a head in the event of scoring a goal. Such is the feeling – that even school yard players know – that it can, on occasion, encourage footballers to take their clothes off before they’ve even gotten to China White. The passion is the greatest thing about the sport. Those who don’t understand it lament it’s ability to churn out suicidaly dull 0-0 draws at Bolton on a breezy February afternoon, but they fail to grasp that the waiting is just the thing that makes it. We can sit in rain and sleet and snow and watch the most appalling rubbish, transfixed in anticipation, knowing that at any moment, a goal may be scored to light up our experience. The very lack of constant scoring is what makes the act of scoring so emotional, and when said emotion explodes it’s a joyous and wonderful thing. So if a player gets so worked up by it that he finds the act of keeping his clothes on impossible to abide by, then at no point should that ever – ever – be punishable by anything. Except maybe cold nipples.

2. Three Minutes of Injury time – I can’t pin point the exact moment 3 minutes of injury time became compulsory, but I’m going to take a complete guess and say it was around 1997. No match ends earlier than the 93rd minute anymore, so we might as well just play 93 minutes. Even a suicidally dull 0-0 draw at Bolton on a breezy February afternoon gets 3 minutes. Why? When you add up the amount of time the ball is actually not in play it comes to about 20 minutes, but we don’t play 20 minutes injury time because that would be absolutely ridiculous – unless one of the big four are losing of course (only joking big four fans!…sort of) – So lets just play 93 minutes. And if you want to add 4, just add 1 instead. Simples.

3. The Idea you need a few naughties to get a top atmosphere/it’s just part of football – No you don’t/ No it isn’t. I eff and blind as much as the next bloke at a match, but in a vague and non-specific way. The odd expletive repeated 20 times in a row isn’t going to hurt anyone – probably – but you don’t need to add a racial or homophobic slur to the end of it. You really don’t. Nor do you need to throw a coin, or a bottle (or in one Liverpool fan’s case – your phone) on to the pitch to “improve the atmosphere”. That isn’t part of football, that’s just part of being a mong.

4. Diving – Get up you expletive expletive + homophobic insult

5. Autobiographies by players who are still playing – Surely the point of an autobiography is to reflect on your life’s work with the wisdom you’ve gained over the course of it? It should be an opus, not a serial. Writing an autobiography at 25 isn’t writing an autobiography, it’s writing a diary. Furthermore, if you’re not even going to write it at all, merely talk to some other bloke about it for a bit and let him write it down, then why make it a book? You aren’t going to read it anyway are you? Why don’t you just release it on tape or something? “Things I’ve thought of so far by Wayne Rooney”, for example. I wouldn’t buy it, but someone would. At no point does anyone still playing the game need to write an Autobiography, or have a biography written for them. And you don’t need more than one either, it’s supposed to be about your life. You only get one of those.

6. Sepp Blatter – I have no idea why Sepp Blatter still exists in football.

7. The “new George Best” – Or the new Zinedine Zidane, or the new anyone. No, they aren’t that. Stop it. And being fast and mixed race doesn’t automatically make anyone comparable to Thierry Henry.

8. Shot sleeves and gloves – Beanie and a vest? Pants and duffle coat? No.

9. Wearing a suit to pundit on television – Why do you need to wear a suit to talk about football on television exactly? Are you going to get booked if you take it off?

10. Anyone who says there’s no romance in the FA Cup anymore – Didn’t Portsmouth win it 2008? Didn’t Cardiff get to the final? Didn’t Millwall get to the final a few years back? Didn’t Leeds knock out Man Utd away this year? Didn’t Barnsley knock out Liverpool at Anfield two years ago? Didn’t a million other things happen or weren’t you watching? This goes equally for anyone who says “football’s rubbish now, it was better in my day” – which it probably wasn’t, but you were certainly less of a tool – and “The English League is the least competitive” – when in fact only 9 teams have ever won La Liga in it’s entire history, and only 5 during the PL era or more than twice. Only 8 have ever won Seria A more than twice and only 5 since the PL era too. 19 English clubs have won the top tier more than twice however, so even if the PL era has only seen 4 winners, it’s still all rubbish, and actually more in line with the rest of Europe than it ever was.
 
Few minor points Cas - the 'stripping off' rule is a fairly recent one, when I was a young lass taking off your shirt wasn't a bookable offense.

The match on Thursday had NO injury time at half time.

I swear like a motherfucker when watching football, and yes it makes it better.
 
Is it true they are trying to crack down on the homophobic slurs or is that just lipservice?
 
10 Reasons Liverpool is in Deep sh*t.

http://www.caughtoffside.com/2010/0...in-crisis-10-reasons-why-were-in-big-trouble/

How did this happen? We finished last term on a high but then a succession of errors have led us to a low that will take some work to dig ourselves out of.

Bad Transfer Decisions

Surely we should have improved our squad and not worsened it? I am pretty certain that most teams attempt on a season by season basis to move forwards and greater improve their line-ups. Oh no, not us. We lost Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa and brought in Glen Johnson and Alberto Aquilani. That’s not good. Whatever you say about the intention both Spaniards had to leave for Real Madrid it seems clear that Rafa had made his bed with both players. Alonso was probably rightly angered by Benitez pursuing Gareth Barry the previous summer and Arbeloa didn’t know where he stood when he returned from the Confederations Cup to see Johnson had been purchased.

Spending 20m on an injured player makes no sense and no one will convince me otherwise.

Getting Ahead of Ourselves

I think we all got a bit sure of ourselves about how we might just win the title after this seemingly endless barren spell. This feeling seeped through from the squad to the backroom from the board and was present amongst all us fans. We thought we had a good chance to keep up with the Jones’s but we were all wrong. We got ahead of ourselves.

George Gillett and Tom Hicks

A lot has been said about what the Americans are doing to our club. You have probably all heard me talk about it at length previously and I feel no need to further spell out my feelings towards Messrs Hicks and Gillett, they are both bad influences who will lead us further into the mire unless they are replaced. I would love to see us copy what the Old Trafford masses are doing (and whether you despise Man United fans or not you have to respect the way they are trying to overthrow the Glazers) and hopefully before too long the Yanks will be off.

Being Overdependent on Very Few World Class Players

Now we all know that Liverpool Football Club isn’t just Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard but that being said we do depend far too heavily on about four or five World Class players. This season has seen that pressure finally tell.

Not Enough Character Shown by Too Many Important Individuals

Big time players and usually mentally strong individuals have not pulled their weight this season. Steven Gerrard, up until a month ago, was a shadow of his usual self. Jamie Carragher likewise. Clearly we need the whole team to turn up week in, week out, but if the stalwarts of the team do not do so then expect the others to follow suit.

Bad Tactics

How many times have you watched on from your Anfield seat and stared in bemusment at the fan to your right or left in mutual confusion as Rafa Benitez once again does the exact opposite of what any sane or decent managerial mind would do. He leaves out players who show signs of good form, continually plays those who haven’t got a clue and then tops it off by making substitution decisions that appear to be the work of a crazed scientist.

Everyone Else Got Their Act Together

Perhaps the biggest factor in our downfall has been the continued improvement of those around us. Tottenham, Manchester City and Aston Villa have taken great strides towards the top four and whilst we have been expecting/hoping for them to experience a serious blip they have merely carried on regardless.

Let Off Field Issues Effect on Field Performance

Everyone knows things have been very chaotic behind the scenes. Rafa has little or no support from his superiors and the continuing attempts (reported attempts) of individuals trying to buy portions of the club as well as the massive debts that have been accrued by Tom and Jerry. All of this should have been ignored by the team and Rafa should’ve kept his players minds on the jobs, unfortunately this has not been the case. Umpteen players have spoken out about their own little irritations from Ryan Babel’s Twitter to Albert Riera having a good old moan to the Spanish press. Look at Man United, if you can bare to, they don’t look like a club who are financially crippled do they? They get on with the job in hand. As much as I can’t stand Sir Alex Ferguson at least you can respect the fact that he will not allow off field interferences impede efforts once the ref blows the whistle.

Bad Squad

I ask any Liverpool fan if they honestly think our squad is good enough to challenge for the title. Or even if its even worthy of a top four finish. Take a look in their eyes. Ask me to my face and I will tell you the truth. I have supported the club all my life and been a season ticket holder for most of that time as well and I can state with no fear of inaccuracy. This squad is poor. We have far too many players who are just not good enough. We were on the right road when we offloaded Andrea Dossena and Andriy Voronin, but there are at least a half dozen more names who should be scratched off our squad list. Look at the players the other sides in the top six or seven have to call upon outside their first eleven. Then look at ours.

Rafa Benitez

Sorry to say but Rafa’s time is up. I have supported our Spanish gaffer fully for almost all his tenure at Anfield but we are simply only going backwards under Benitez. His stubborn attitude, his inability to accept responsibility for his actions, his inability to motivate the team, his pretty average use of the transfer market, his at times woeful tactical decision making and most of all the way he appears to be losing the dressing room all point to a desperate need to look for alternatives this summer. I credit Rafa with enough backbone to leave on his own accord. He will always be remembered for Istanbul but if he stays around much longer even that night will fade into vague memory.