OT: soccer thread

[Tupik]

No mention of me (and my brother) kicking your asses in the fantasy game ?

[fatlever]

No mention of me (and my brother) kicking your asses in the fantasy game ?

im happy someone from france could actually win something soccer related this year ZING!!!

i finished 3rd in the pts race and narrowly lost to e4 by 2pts in the head to head world cup mode, 80-78, to finish in 2nd.

[fatlever]

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

until the mls teams take these extra competitions seriously, why should we, the fans, pay attention?

[Det the Threat]

Hey det,I don´t know if you speak Spanish but I think this article will be useful for you:

http://www.marca.com/2010/07/14/futbol/ ... 05136.html

It mainly says that your Bundesliga is the most economic league among the europeans.Followed by the premier and the French one.Our league sits on the 4th position.

Congrats for that!And thank you all for your congratulations ^^

Yeah, i know that article from a german paper as well.
Now we only have to find one in english so that our friends here are able to understand it(if they don't speak spanish or german) as well.

No mention of me (and my brother) kicking your asses in the fantasy game ?

Congrats, you da man.
I mean, at least there's something positive out of this world cup for you french guys.


BTW: I've got some new rumors for you.
First off, Michael Bradley's been linked to Everton, Fulham and Blackpool during the last couple days.
Here's a link talking about Blackburn, their interest in him and what Gladbach supposedly told that paper.
http://www.blackpool.vitalfootball.co.u ... p?a=519496

Right now i don't buy any of this, cause he's till under contract for two more years and they'll have to offer way more money, if they want to get him. We'd also need a replacement in hand if he were to go to the EPL.

As far as our guys from the German national team go:
This has been the topic of today's rumors.


Defensive midfielder Sami Khedira(only one year left on his contract at Stuttgart) is supposedly close to joining Real Madrid for a transfer fee of something around 10 mil euros. Though, Stuttgart has already shot that down and is said to only listen to offers starting at 15 mil euros. I think this is just negotiations and i could see him go to Madrid or even Chelsea, who're also said to be very interested in his services.

Mesut Oezil has been linked with about every big club and right now it looks like Manchester United and Barca/Arsenal(depends on where Fabregas will play) are the favourites to sign him. Though, there's also been a rumor out there yesterday that said Chelsea pulled out of the race because they believe Oezil will join Bayern Munich next season, which would be bad for Bremen, because they couldn't get anything for him then with his contract ending next year.

[e4Nf6]

Ugh.....

That's what happens when you start a couple of rookies in the back who haven't played all year against a Mexican team. The Fire should really have let the 10 or 20 spectators know that they weren't taking the game seriously before they sold them tickets.

No mention of me (and my brother) kicking your asses in the fantasy game ?

Uh....Given that the tournament on which the game is based is a tournament and not a league. I believe "World Cup mode" is the real competition.....Who won that part anyway?

I was doing horrible and was in 10th place after a couple of games, I recovered well to move up to 4th in the league. I feel pretty good about my performance.

[fatlever]

im curious to see just how madrid plans to get all these players on the field at the same time.

would love to see bradley make a move to EPL, just so i can watch him more often but only if he is still getting regular first team action. if not, stay put.

[Det the Threat]

im curious to see just how madrid plans to get all these players on the field at the same time.

Like him or not, but Murinho knows what he's doing and with every other defensive midfielder, besides Xabi Alonso, not really being his choice, i think Khedira's got a great chance at starting.

That team would probably look like this at midfield and attack.

-----------------------------Higuain---------------------------------------

--Ronaldo-----------------Kaka----------------------di Maria---------

-------------------Xabi Alonso-----Khedira---------------------------

would love to see bradley make a move to EPL, just so i can watch him more often but only if he is still getting regular first team action. if not, stay put.

I only want to see him go if they put enough cash on the table. If they don't then he'll stay, because we're in solid financial shape and don't have to sell players.
Though, with teams like Everton, Fulham or Blackpool(can't see them paying the price we'd ask for) in the hunt, it's pretty save to say that he'd play on a regular basis with them.

[fatlever]

i have no doubts mourinho will get that team on track. he loves the 2 defensive mids. your lineup looks about right, and painfully scary. i'll just give up it they add maicon to that attack.

[Thaliontil]

Sad day,Raul has left Real Madrid after 16 years playing for the club.

Even though i´m a Valencia´s fan this means a lot for me,he has been one of my idols since I was a child,I loved how he celebrated his goals,kissing his ring and pointing to the sky,he has been a legend for Spanish soccer and a legend for Real Madrid.

I hope he gets minutes in Germany and he can show his haters how good he is,even with his age.

Pure effort,intensity,heart,passion and love for the game.Raúl González Blanco,a superstar,a legend.

Amunt Raúl!

[fatlever]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/s ... itter_feed

tick tock tick tock.... time is running out. the massive financial collapse of barca and real is coming soon... tick tock tick tock

500 million in debt, yet they keep spending like nothing is happening. hey, here's an idea, why not sell some of those superstars instead of spending 50 million on david villa and chasing torres, ozil and every other big name player in europe.

[Fred Williamson]

Manchester city spend about 100million euros this summer, and they aren't done yet...

[Det the Threat]

Sad day,Raul has left Real Madrid after 16 years playing for the club.

Even though i´m a Valencia´s fan this means a lot for me,he has been one of my idols since I was a child,I loved how he celebrated his goals,kissing his ring and pointing to the sky,he has been a legend for Spanish soccer and a legend for Real Madrid.

I hope he gets minutes in Germany and he can show his haters how good he is,even with his age.

Pure effort,intensity,heart,passion and love for the game.Raúl González Blanco,a superstar,a legend.

Amunt Raúl!

Yeah, he just joined Schalke 04 on a two year deal.

http://www.schalke04.com/news/single-vi ... halke.html

And he surely will get his minutes, because they won't pay him those rumored 6 mil euros a year, just to use him as a mascot.
They also lost their top striker Kevin Kuranyi to some russian team this summer.

Though, he'll have to get used to a lot of running, being coached by Felix Magath, who's going by the nickname of Quaelix. That, for the non Germany speaking guys here, means that fitness is the most important part to him and that every preperation for a season will hurt, a lot.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/soccer/07/27/barcelona.audit.ap/index.html?eref=twitter_feed

tick tock tick tock.... time is running out. the massive financial collapse of barca and real is coming soon... tick tock tick tock

500 million in debt, yet they keep spending like nothing is happening. hey, here's an idea, why not sell some of those superstars instead of spending 50 million on david villa and chasing torres, ozil and every other big name player in europe.

Yeah, but i doubt that there'll be any problems for them, cause just like Real, they're being viewed as something you aren't allowed to touch and they'll get by with it, being given help by some bank or so.

Manchester city spend about 100million euros this summer, and they aren't done yet...

That's something totally different.
They're owned by some Sheiks from arabia who're paying for it and are doing everything to finally make it to the Champions League.
They'll only get in trouble if those guys lose their interest, leave the club and they're forced to work like a real company/club again, thanks to those crazy contracts they're handing out.


BTW: Mesut Oezil is still being chased by a lot of teams in europe, but it might also possible that he stays for another year in Bremen. The club will play CL qualification and the only way they'll sell him is if they're able to get more money then what qualifying for the CL(which is about 12 mil euros) would net them.
If he does leave then Manchester United seems to be the frontrunner, as of right now.

Also, central defender Per Mertesacker(Bremen) is being linked to Arsenal London, as they're searching for a replacement for William Gallas, who wasn't given a new contract. Though, their first option seems to be Everton's Phil Jagielka, if he's available for the price(15 mil euros) their willing to pay.

[fatlever]

eventually that bubble is going to burst for real and barca. banks wont always be lining up to loan them money that wont get paid back.

[Det the Threat]

eventually that bubble is going to burst for real and barca. banks wont always be lining up to loan them money that wont get paid back.

Doubt that.
They've been in debts for quite some time now and nothing happened yet.

I mean, even here in Germany, were we've got a solid financial system in place that either allowes teams to participate in the 1st or 2nd Bundesliga or not, there are teams that have a bigger lobby and get by with stuff.
Bayern Munich would get away with a lot of stuff as well.
There's been Borussia Dortmund, who normally could've been relegated into the 3rd division because of their financial problems, but they've been given a lot of time and help to stabilise again.
Right now, Schalke 04(the team who signed Raul) is in quite some bad financial shape, but they keep on buying players as well. Sure, they've got rid of some of their highest paid guys, but they still seem to sign players left and right.

So given their history and meaning to spanish football and european football, i doubt that Barca will have problems to loan money from banks.

[Thaliontil]

I agree with Det in the part of the finantial stuff.The banks would never let Madrid and Barça "die" because soccer is,as the romans said,"Panem et Circenses" (Bread and Games),when we won the eurocup or the World cup no one spoke about the real problems of the country like the momeless ot those 4 million people without a job.Barça,Madrid and the national team are the responsibles of that so they won´t let them sink.

I hope Raúl can get minutes too,i bet he scores at least 15 goals this season.

Yesterday Valencia lost against an eslovenian team,it was a nice match from Tino Costa,who came from Montpellier and I also liked Pablito Hernández and Paco Alcácer (he is just 17 years old)..But we lost.

And Det,why don´t you have a powerful "capital" team among the leaders of the Bundesliga?I mean,here we have Madrid as one of the top two teams.In England Chelsea belongs to London,isn´t it?In Italy the Rome was the second tier this season but in Germany?The "capital" team is Hertha of Berlin I think...Do they have economical problems too?

And I hope the UEFA admits Mallorca in their lists,they deserve it.

[Det the Threat]

I hope Raúl can get minutes too,i bet he scores at least 15 goals this season.

If they're paying him the kind of money they're rumored to pay him, then he'll play.
Especially with them not really having any real strikers outside of him right now.

The only way Raul won't get minutes is if he's out of shape(won't happen with Magath as the coach), injured or if he's playing absolutely craptastic.

Given all those factors, i think he'll be a starter for them in most of their games(even though they're said to be interested in buying another striker) during those two years.

And Det,why don´t you have a powerful "capital" team among the leaders of the Bundesliga?I mean,here we have Madrid as one of the top two teams.In England Chelsea belongs to London,isn´t it?In Italy the Rome was the second tier this season but in Germany?The "capital" team is Hertha of Berlin I think...Do they have economical problems too?

It's not as easy as with those other countries.

Germany has been devided for over 40 years and the city of Berlin has been devided during this time as well, because of the Berlin Wall.
Because of that, the city of Berlin isn't all that rich and the financial capital of Germany is Frankfurt, while Munich's a pretty rich city as well.

Also, Hertha Berlin isn't all that important, because even though they've got a huge region they could generate fans from(which includes a couple states and reaches from Berlin to Saxony, with no other Bundesliga clubs there), they aren't even that important in their own city, with Union Berlin(2nd Bundesliga) and BFC Dynamo Berlin(5th Division) being more important the many of the soccer fans in the capital.

The region they're in also isn't all that great financially and they've been in depts for quite some time(thanks to trying to take the 3rd step before the 2nd one), which showed last season, when they couldn't retain their best players and had to let them go. Thanks to that, they did go from playing for the title in 08/09 to being relegated into the 2nd Bundesliga during the 09/10 season.

Given all those factors and the fact, that those other capitals you've mentioned are mostly the main financial fixtures as well, you can't really compare that.

[fatlever]

im not suggesting the banks would let those teams die. barca and madrid could probably use their youth squad and still finish high enough to qualify for the champions league. but maybe, somewhere down the road somebody with some clout might eventually suggest to barca and real that they should consider selling some players and not spend like crazy, at least for a couple of years, while they try to slow down the bleeding.

[doc.end]

[fatlever]

saw that last week. hilarious stuff. if that happened in the NFL they would have received about 9 penalties.

2 more weeks til PL starts. cant wait. chelsea has looked AWFUL in their tuneups so far. cech is out and our 2 backup (turnbull and hilario) are clowns. did you guys see the keeping mistakes those two have made so far? hilarious.

[Det the Threat]

2 more weeks til PL starts. cant wait. chelsea has looked AWFUL in their tuneups so far. cech is out and our 2 backup (turnbull and hilario) are clowns. did you guys see the keeping mistakes those two have made so far? hilarious.

Yeah, can't wait as well.
The season in Germany starts next WE as well, with the first leg of the German Cup.

We've also just had the fan fest and celebrated our 110th birthday this weekend with a friendly against Liverpool.
Both teams fans have a friendship, dating back to those european clashes of the 70's as well as our fans collecting money for the families of those 96 fans that died in that Hillsborough tragedy nearly 21 years ago.

We've won that game 1-0 in front of a nearly sold out stadium(nearly 54.000 attented the game) thanks to an 8th minute goal by Karim Matmour.

Michael Bradley did play 45 minutes and was solid, even tough he had a couple bad passes as well.
There's also some rumor still flying around which has him joining Galatasaray Istanbul for something around 5 million euros.

BTW: As far as rumors goes.
Right now it looks liek Mesut Oezil will stay at Werder Bremen for the next season. He won't sign a new contract and might still transfer somewhere else, but it looks like he'll play the final year of his contract and will leave Bremen then. It's been rumored that there's already an agreement in place with Real Madrid for next summer.