OT: soccer thread

[fatlever]

Cool........ now I have somewhere to spread the Liverpool love.............


I wish this was still true.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeJn8twZ08c

I think Rafael is on the way out. We never should of got rid of Xavi and Peter Crouch.... I wish he had also kept Momo Sissoko. The defense has been very average this year.

There is talk that Heskey maybe returning, but I hope not. We don't need another striker that can't score.

6 points off top spot, but it's a long season. It's nice seeing some other teams in the top 6 for a change. Tottenham spent very very well, and Man City loaded up, up-front in a big way......

waydown... i work with a die hard liverpool fan. as a result i know way more about liverpool than i want to know. he was crushed when xavi left. your team just doesnt look the same without him. if drogba stays in his current form i think liverpool will have a hard time catching chelsea. drobga is playing like a monster this year.

[WaydownSouth]

Drobga is soooooooo hot at the moment, everything he touches is hitting net. He's the form player at the moment.

I was absolutely crushed when Xavi left. He was our rock. Gerrard is the superstar, but Xavi made it all work.

Too be honest, I can't see anyone catching Chelsea. I though Arsenal had a chance but they seem to have dropped a peg or two. Fabregas has been great this season for them.

There is also talk about Patrick Vieira joining Chelsea in the Jan transfer window. Losing Shevchenko doesn't hurt them much at all. The whole Shevchenko thing never really worked out.

[fatlever]

as it stands now, chelsea probably wont be able to add any players in winter window due to that bs violation over signing the young french player a few years back. we are banned from signing anyone for 2 windows. we are appealing and it will hopefully get reduced to just one window. thats gonna hurt cause we lose essien, drogba, mikel and kalou for the african cup of nations in january. hopefully they will bring di santo back from loan in january. he is currently at blackburn and now starting as striker. the young kid has loads of talent.

yeah, sheva never worked. what a mess that was.

[WaydownSouth]

Forgot about the little butt-job the bigwigs decided to hammer Chelsea with. It's almost as bad as when Stern hammered the T-Wolves for that Joe Smith deal.

[SWedd523]

pretty much every games clint has played for US starting in June he has looked like crap out wide. and in almost every game he gets moved up top around the 70th minute and then he starts to play better. he is best in the middle of the field and around the basket. he's a great garbage man around the goal. clint doesnt attack wide, doesnt cross the ball well and doesnt seem to link up with the right backs much. he's hit or miss in terms of tracking back to help defensively.

Exactly right. Clint looks lost when he's out wide and doesn't seem to be able to handle a passive game. He needs to be either a attacking mid or up front as a striker. Now that Davies (sadly) is out with the car accident, I see Clint moving up and Torres shifting into the lineup in the open spot.



As for Euro Soccer..... IBRAHIMOVIC!!!

[fatlever]

swedd, u a barcelona fan? or simply a fan of ibrahimovic? he is swedish and your screen name is swedd.... hmmm... i since a connection here.

[Walt Cronkite]

I really think the Ladybugs can win it all this year!

[Fred Williamson]

Well, I'm also a big soccer fan.

Favorite team: Atletico Madrid, favorite players: Kun Aguero, David Trezeguet.

[SWedd523]

swedd, u a barcelona fan? or simply a fan of ibrahimovic? he is swedish and your screen name is swedd.... hmmm... i since a connection here.

Was always a Barca fan for their style of play, but have ALWAYS been an Ibra fan because he's just disgustingly dirty yet nobody knew about him until the Et'o transfer.

SWedd is just S from my first name and Wedd from my last name haha, no connection

[fatlever]

Well, I'm also a big soccer fan.

Favorite team: Atletico Madrid, favorite players: Kun Aguero, David Trezeguet.

dont find too many atletico fans. i'm a chelsea nut so you and i should have lots to banter about this week with the upcoming champions league clash coming. i'm hoping you guys make it out of the group over porto. and damn, we tried so hard to pry aguero away from you this summer.

[fatlever]

wow.... that USA costa rica game was insane. unbelievable finish. sucks we got down 2-0 but what a comeback. serves them right for all that ridiculous time wasting they were trying at the end. thats one thing that bothers me about the concacaf teams, they are all horrible time wasters and divers. i was happy to see honduras get in. and t&t with the draw vs mexico. amazing. torres with some solid play. he looked better than benny tonight. i thought jozy was fantastic all night, minus the one bad miss. casey came back to earth this week. any word on gooch? that injury looked nasty. well, its not like he was playing at ac milan. and great show of support from the team and fans for davies.

[fatlever]

http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_i ... endon.html

gooch with a torn patella. says he'll be out 3-4 months. thank god qualifying is done. i dont think we would have made it w.out davies and gooch.

[doc.end]

I guess soem of you guys may not know this interesting site http://www.eloratings.net/ - it provides more accurate rankings than the official FIFA one.

[e4Nf6]

It looks like we lost two starters for 2010 in about 48 hours....

That said, what a game....

[RichBoy923]

It looks like we lost two starters for 2010 in about 48 hours....

That said, what a game....

What is the prognosis for them? Onyewu will certainly be back for WC 2010, right?

[SWedd523]

It was a fantastic game. Fats, I told you Torres deserves more PT Unfortunately, now with Davies out for the next year or so, we'll probably slide Dempsey up top and (hopefully) put Torres in his place. He's far too technically gifted to not be in the middle of the field somewhere making plays.

It realllly sucks that Gooch is out, but his injury should only keep him out 3-4 months barring any difficulties so he's going to be ready to go for the WC. Who do you think we'll put back there now?

[e4Nf6]

3-4 months can quickly turn into 6 months which can turn into never.....

In theory there is plenty of time for Gooch to get better and get back in shape for the WC, but the nats have had a ton of guys who never quite got all the way back from serious injuries. John O´Brien, Cory Gibbs, Bobby Convey, etc. Jermaine Jones may be another one without ever actually playing for us.

Hopefully Gooch gets sold to a team that will play him in the Winter transfer window and is in top shape for the WC.....

[fatlever]

i love torres. with adu on the outs, torres is now my new fav player on the team.

nothing against benny, but i think torres is better in that same role. sure there will be games where we might need clark's defense in the middle, but mostly i would prefer to see torres paired with bradley jr in the middle. torres seems to calm everyone down. he's one of the few players we have that can hold possession.

i think dempsey moving up top next to jozy is the best idea.

shame jermaine jones keeps having set-backs. i am dying to see what he can do. hopefully he will be ready to go by june. also, would love to see edu get healthy and fit. we should have lots of options at center mid. and when will castillo get a look at left back? now that bornstein is the king of honduras, we might not see castillo for a while.

loving the fact that adu is finally getting some minutes at belanenses (sp?). from what i've read he's been pretty decent so far in limited minutes. i am really hoping he can regain is form from summer of 2008 (or hopefully better) and get on that plane to south africa.

as for gooch... ugh. now he's never gonna see the field in ac milan. no team is going to sign him/loan in the january window if he is still hurt, right? and he'll probably not make it back into the ac milan rotation by the end of the year. so even if he is healthy is form may be way off. hopefully demerrit can get back on track.

i thought dolo looked sharp last night also. has he taken back that job from spector?

[e4Nf6]

I actually was off work all week and watched Adu´s last Belanese game. Even though the ball still sticks to his foot like it always did, he didn´t look great. (although, I´ve heard he looked better in his other games) Mostly because of how bad Belanese is, If Adu is spending the whole game chasing aimless long balls you´re using him wrong. He needs players in front of him making runs, and I don´t know if He is going to get that at his current club.

I´m hoping Gooch can somehow catch on with a bottom of the table English or Italian team in January... Unfortunately I think some team that is hemmoraging goals and looking at relegation is going to want a sure thing, not a guy coming back from an injury.....

I´ve always like Cherundolo better than Spector, the guy has been a fixture on a Bundesliga team for a million years and there is a reason why....

Torres looked fantastic against CR, I dont know how much was him, and how much was a tired, bunkering opposing team. It´s easy to forget with how easily we walked the ball down the field in the last 10 mins, but we were down a man!

[fatlever]

yeah, i read that adu's first two games when he came in as a sub he played very well, but the game he started he didnt look as good. i know he got hurt during that first half. not sure if that was a factor. you're right about long ball and adu. it doesnt suit his style. he needs to get the ball and be allowed to create for people in front or on the wings. i think thats one of the reasons he didnt look at sharp at the gold cup. we had him playing too high and no service from the midfield.

i think a lower level english team would be ideal for gooch. maybe he should have stayed at standard. who knows. hard to turn down AC milan offer.

yeah, i want to see torres play against a lot of midfield pressure and see how he holds up. i think he would do better than anyone we have in terms of passign and holding possession though.