Ultimate Football (Soccer) Thread (2011-2012)

[Isointania]

YOU'RE WRONG, ALL WRONG! I SEE ALL! FOOLS, FOOLS! HA HA HA!

[Cyborg Holland]

YOU'RE WRONG, ALL WRONG! I SEE ALL! FOOLS, FOOLS! HA HA HA!

Dafuq?

[The BlAAtschApen]

Why are you showing a video where a guy is getting flowers and there are big pieces of clothes saying "thank you" in Dutch and Hungarian. Hardly barbarian

The guy has hayfever and the damned Dutchies knew it.

Biological warfare

[Miasto Lodz]

Why are you showing a video where a guy is getting flowers and there are big pieces of clothes saying "thank you" in Dutch and Hungarian. Hardly barbarian

Yeah, expelling the poor Hungarians to Caucasus... Wilders is proud of you. ;P

[The BlAAtschApen]

Why are you showing a video where a guy is getting flowers and there are big pieces of clothes saying "thank you" in Dutch and Hungarian. Hardly barbarian

Yeah, expelling the poor Hungarians to Caucasus... Wilders is proud of you. ;P

Nah, considering that Wilders is married to a Hungarian, I doubt it

[Miasto Lodz]

Something's telling me that Balazs is going to have a company on his exile soon.

EDIT: so the title goes to... Śląsk Wrocław. I'm pretty happy about that. One of my fav coaches (Orest Lenczyk) won the league with the team which was supposed to end up in the middle of the table. Good job, Oro.

[Frisbeeteria]

YOU'RE WRONG, ALL WRONG! I SEE ALL! FOOLS, FOOLS! HA HA HA!

Knock it off with the giant garish spammy posts.

[Risottia]

JUVENTUS!

Cagliari-Juventus 0-2, Internazionale-Milan 4-2.
Ranking: Juventus 81, Milan 77, with only one match to play.

Juventus wins the Italian Serie A after 8 years since the last victory (the 2004-05 championship was annulled, and the 2005-06 was attributed to Internazionale because of the Calciopoli scandal).

[Cromarty]

Great news for Juve.

[Osarius]

JUVENTUS!

Cagliari-Juventus 0-2, Internazionale-Milan 4-2.
Ranking: Juventus 81, Milan 77, with only one match to play.

Now for the Coppa Italia.
Then at least if Agnelli doesn't see sense, Pinturicchio bows out on a fittingly high note.

Ci mancherete, Capitano :'(

[Fartsniffage]

Back in the day I had a friend with a really hot older sister. Said sister ended up marrying a guy who was a QPR fan. Being about 10 I decided that becoming a QPR fan for a bit was a good idea as it would most certainly give me a chance with the hot older sister.

Surprisingly I never had a chance with the older sister but I now seem to find myself in a similar situation.

Go QPR is all I can say.

[Valanora]

If United do manage to get the title, which is looking quite unlikely as of this afternoon, they will have earned it IMO. Sure they weren't able to knock off City in either of the league matches, but over the course of the season, they have gotten results when everyone was writing them off to succumb to old tactics and players with no imagination. And yet Fergie and United were still getting the results to be in a position to take it to the last matchday, where they will probably lose out to City on GD. Pretty damn good for one of the worst squads we've supposedly had in a decade if you ask me.

[Forsher]

I'ts just the generic way the Germans treat the immigrants:

(Image)

...but at least they're not as barbaric as the Dutchmen.

Why are you showing a video where a guy is getting flowers and there are big pieces of clothes saying "thank you" in Dutch and Hungarian. Hardly barbarian

What actually happened in that video? For some people Dutch is barbaric in the traditional sense, sadly.

Speaking of soccer I await the penalty shoot-out that will determine who is to win Friday's game. I let three goals in (could have easily ended up as five, maybe six) and it looked like we were doomed to defeat. So, we went to rush goalie for a brief moment, then chicked a spectating friend in and finally found a replacement. In the meantime we scored two goals (one of which was throw in from our half, I kicked it up, and our guy in their half scored the miracle goal) and by the end we were three all for the second day running. We would have had the shoot-out at the end of lunch if we would have got back in time and today, except we played held instead.

[Miasto Lodz]

Why are you showing a video where a guy is getting flowers and there are big pieces of clothes saying "thank you" in Dutch and Hungarian. Hardly barbarian

What actually happened in that video? For some people Dutch is barbaric in the traditional sense, sadly.

I'm just poking fun, don't take it serious. Anyway, I was referring to Przemek Tytoń (the PSV goalie) which has been accidentally kicked in the head by his teammate during the game against Ajax.

[The BlAAtschApen]

What actually happened in that video? For some people Dutch is barbaric in the traditional sense, sadly.

I'm just poking fun, don't take it serious. Anyway, I was referring to Przemek Tytoń (the PSV goalie) which has been accidentally kicked in the head by his teammate during the game against Ajax.

However, in the last minute of the video you can see some guy getting flowers.

Also, you can watch videos without sound

[Serrland]

Very nice win for Chelski in the FA Cup. Now they just need to go out and lose valiantly (I'm thinking losing 1-2 in extra time) in the Champions League final (so the Premier League gets a fourth team in next year).

[Osarius]

Very nice win for Chelski in the FA Cup. Now they just need to go out and lose valiantly (I'm thinking losing 1-2 in extra time) in the Champions League final (so the Premier League gets a fourth team in next year).

The Premier League would get four teams in anyway...

Its probably better for the Premier League in terms of coefficients if Chelsea win the Champions League and get to enter again next year, rather than the possibility of Newcastle being England's fourth team. I'd expect Chelsea to do better next season than Newcastle, to be honest. But hey... who knows?

Personally, I think UEFA should make it so the holders have to qualify as normal (like the World Cup). Doesn't seem fair that a team like Newcastle could now finish fourth and miss out on Champions' League football because Chelsea simply weren't good enough in the league this season (especially after Newcastle just beat Chelsea). Then again, I also think the Champions' League should be only for the Champions of each country, with none of this fourth place bollocks. But I suppose they wouldn't be able to drag out a group stage and all that shite if they did it that way, and there's always the chance one of the crowd-drawing teams could get upset early.

Ah well. Money talks, right? *shrug*

[Nazis in Space]

Very nice win for Chelski in the FA Cup. Now they just need to go out and lose valiantly (I'm thinking losing 1-2 in extra time) in the Champions League final (so the Premier League gets a fourth team in next year).

The Premier League would get four teams in anyway... :blink:

Its probably better for the Premier League in terms of coefficients if Chelsea win the Champions League and get to enter again next year, rather than the possibility of Newcastle being England's fourth team. I'd expect Chelsea to do better next season than Newcastle, to be honest. But hey... who knows?

Personally, I think UEFA should make it so the holders have to qualify as normal (like the World Cup). Doesn't seem fair that a team like Newcastle could now finish fourth and miss out on Champions' League football because Chelsea simply weren't good enough in the league this season (especially after Newcastle just beat Chelsea). Then again, I also think the Champions' League should be only for the Champions of each country, with none of this fourth place bollocks. But I suppose they wouldn't be able to drag out a group stage and all that shite if they did it that way, and there's always the chance one of the crowd-drawing teams could get upset early.

Ah well. Money talks, right? *shrug*

AFAIK, the champion qualifies in addition to, rather than instead of, the normally last-qualified team in the league, if the champion doesn't qualify regularly.

As for 'Champions Only'... No. Different leagues differ in strength, and this should be recognised.

Personally, I wouldn't mind killing the EL, and going with a 64 teams CL, adding in an additional knockout round.

[The BlAAtschApen]

Very nice win for Chelski in the FA Cup. Now they just need to go out and lose valiantly (I'm thinking losing 1-2 in extra time) in the Champions League final (so the Premier League gets a fourth team in next year).

The Premier League would get four teams in anyway...

Its probably better for the Premier League in terms of coefficients if Chelsea win the Champions League and get to enter again next year, rather than the possibility of Newcastle being England's fourth team. I'd expect Chelsea to do better next season than Newcastle, to be honest. But hey... who knows?

Personally, I think UEFA should make it so the holders have to qualify as normal (like the World Cup). Doesn't seem fair that a team like Newcastle could now finish fourth and miss out on Champions' League football because Chelsea simply weren't good enough in the league this season (especially after Newcastle just beat Chelsea). Then again, I also think the Champions' League should be only for the Champions of each country, with none of this fourth place bollocks. But I suppose they wouldn't be able to drag out a group stage and all that shite if they did it that way, and there's always the chance one of the crowd-drawing teams could get upset early.

Ah well. Money talks, right? *shrug*

Yeah, it is the money.

But think of it, with about 48 national competitions we could do the following. The champions of the best 16 leagues get in automatically. The other 32 play two qualification matches (and 17-32 always play against 33-48).

Ofcourse, since we probably have slightly more than 48 competitions, perhaps the last few 46-50 have to play another qualificiation round before it.

Then again, this would make us watch a match of the champion of Estonia against FC Barcelona at some point.

[Miasto Lodz]

Then again, this would make us watch a match of the champion of Estonia against FC Barcelona at some point.

Million of Estonians watching Flora against Barca could still be worth more than few hundreds of thousands of people watching teams from better leagues which got there by accident like Sedan, Auxerre or ...Gladbach (forgive me, NiS).

[Central Lothian]

AFAIK, the champion qualifies in addition to, rather than instead of, the normally last-qualified team in the league, if the champion doesn't qualify regularly.

Nope: if the Champions League winners don't qualify through the league, they qualify and the team that finishes in the lowest qualifying position goes into the Europa League. I think this came in after the fuss caused in 2005 when Liverpool won the CL but finished fifth in the PL.

[Nazis in Space]

Huh. Recent change, then.

Well, yes, that's silly. Screw the champion. Not like they ever actually defend the title, anyway.

[Osarius]

As for 'Champions Only'... No. Different leagues differ in strength, and this should be recognised.

They still can. Seeded-entry knockout tournament, for example, like the FA Cup. For the record, I'm pretty sure the European Cup operated on a "Champions only" basis, and its not like all European leagues were equal back then. I mean, enroute to becoming European Champions, Villa beat Valur (the Icelandic champions) 7-0 over two legs.

UEFA could still have a group stage if they really wanted to (they'd only need 32 nations to enter their champions for a decent set up). But the important thing would be that all the teams would be national champions. I just don't like that the Champions' League winner need not even be champions of their own country. Its stupid. How can it be a champions' league -- as in, a league of champions -- if half of the teams in it don't meet that criterion?

Like I said though, money talks. Clubs from smaller nations simply don't have the fan backing to match even mid-table sides from bigger nations, meaning a champions only tournament simply isn't profitable (enough) for UEFA.

[Nazis in Space]

The Champions League is suppose to determined the best team in Europe.

A Champions-Only setup would see the runners ups (Stand today) like the AC Milan, FC Barcelona, Manchester United eliminated while factually weaker teas like, say, Partizan Belgrad stay in.

Now, Partizan Belgrad should be in (Qualification, anyway). No question there.

I just don't think that teams that, would they play in the Serbian League, would rock it like the 2011 tsunami rocked Japan should stay out because they're playing in a stronger league.

Incidentally, an enlarged champions league, which would distribute funds to more teams, would actually help parity a little bit, as the number (And variety) of teams participating in it would increase, allowing them to reduce the staggering gaps between the high-end clubs and the smaller ones. While the financial disparity of today certainly isn't monocausal - domestic TV profits and their distribution, stadia size, global marketing all play a role, obviously -, it would nonetheless help reducing it a bit.

[Forsher]

The Champions League is suppose to determined the best team in Europe.

The best team changes radically any time the players swap around. The last time I played soccer when we were 2 -1 up we gave the other guys one of our players, there were no more goals until then end of lunch when we scored another two. That 3 all game I mentioned earlier, we scored nothing until a friend of mine switched teams.

I know that my friends and those randoms that I play with aren't professionals or playing eleven a side matches with formations but we're still an illustration of the effect a single player can have. Today's 4-1 result could also have easily been 4 all, one moment's action can change the course of the entire result as well. I'm pretty sure we would have conceded a second if another friend hadn't randomly appeared to keep for us, especially given that they had a guy from the first XI...

It really has to assume that the strongest leagues have the best teams and so those leagues should contribute more teams than weaker leagues.