World Football Thread VII

[reds4ever]

At least Arsenal are 6 and 0 going into the playoffs. Do you reckon Liverpool will get a wild card place?

[duke o' york]

Well I think The Liver Birds will get a decent draft this year. Hopefully a good wide receiver who can score them some points (because they insist on playing Cissé at wide receiver, when he clearly should be in the centre center), but not as many as the Newcastle Magpies.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by duke o' york
Oh, and Imran, you obviously forgot that Chelsea scored a penalty "in overtime".

Silly Euros... overtime is a seperate period.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Wonder if the players will get free drinks.

Only the ones who can top-end the sphere into the goal-bag.

[alva]

Next Round:

Arsenal - Juve

[alva]

Quarter-final draw

ARSENAL v Juventus

Lyon v AC Milan

Inter Milan or Ajax v Villarreal

Benfica v Barcelona

Semi-final draw

ARSENAL or Juventus v Inter Milan/Ajax or Villarreal

Lyon or AC Milan v Benfica or Barcelona

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/4790144.stm

[Lawrence of Arabia]

barcelona has got the easy way to the semi finals.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
barcelona has got the easy way to the semi finals.

- but a tricky semi final. The winners of Juve v Arsenal must fancy their chances of getting to the final.

Vieira back at Highbury - woooooah!

[C0ckney]

excellent, can't wait

[MikeH]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


What might surprise you even more is that after Chelsea and Liverpool, whose defensive strengths are not questioned, Arsenal have the third best defensive record in the PL. Most of the defeats have been 1-0 to PL clubs hoofing the ball up for Phil Senderos to misjudge, or get muscled off the ball. The remaining teams in the CL don't play that kind of game.

It is true that (Morinho's) Porto & Liverpool were / are more defensively oriented sides than Arsenal, but both sides last night proved that attacking play doesn't automatically mean poor defending. If Arsenal fail to progress beyond the QF's, I expect it to be down to missed opportunities at the front rather than inherent weakness at the back.

Fair points.

This article pretty much sums up why I find it hard to back Arsenal in Europe... they might be based in England but they are hardly an English team.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/4792270.stm

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Phillipe Senderos will tear it up in June. hes gonna shut down henri, morientes, ronaldinho, rooney, and then riquelme in that order.

[MikeH]

[Lawrence of Arabia]

btw, did you see him get burned in the game against scotland on their only goal?

i was watching the replay, and im thinking to myself ' how did that guy get so wide open' and then the camera angle shifts to the behind the goal angle, and there he is, phillipe senderos, running at full steam 20 yeards behind

[Cort Haus]

We keep hearing about the campaign to kick Racism out of Football. Well, Pardew deserves a good metaphorical kicking for this racist crap. So does Graham "Ethnic Quotas" Taylor. It's disgusting.

We'll just field Cole and Campbell in wheelchairs against Juventus then, just to shut these wannabe Enoch Powells up. We'll send our 16-year old on too, just to please the national purity brigade.

Pardew & Taylor will get plenty of support from the liberal press too, I've no doubt. What amazes me is the way they wouldn't dream of telling foreigners to sod off out of the country "coming over here and taking our jobs" etc. yet when it comes to footballers - particularly those at Arsenal, it's "bloody foreigners, coming over here and taking our jobs".

Can you imagine if there were racial laws introduced across the economy so that any employers must hire fixed quotias of good Aryan, oops, English, stock. This is basically what this latest round of arsenal-bashing is about. What next, demands for minimum numbers of white players in Arsenal shirts?

Pardew is just a little tosser, who thinks Teddy Sherringham should be playing for England (alongside Harewood, not doubt) but Taylor's comments, given his official role, were a real disgrace. He talks about "resentment at foreign players if England don't win the world cup." Is that a threat. Mr Taylor? It sounds like a polite version of the "rivers of blood" speech that got Powell kicked out of the conservative party.

The facts :

1. English players are ridiculously overpriced and overpaid. Sam Allardyce knows this, and Bolton owe their success to Sam's overseas acquisitions.

2. Arsenal would love to have signed the likes of SWP or Michael Owen or Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard if available - these are top, top, players, but we can't afford them, because we're not as rich as Chelsea & Man Utd.

3. Chelsea bought SWP for the sole purpose of denying him to other clubs, and the poor kid's career faces a stalemate. Chelsea also have pushed up the prices of players generally, especially the English ones.

4. For one Rio Ferdinand you can buy over a dozen Kolo Toure's. For one Wayne Rooney you can buy several Alexander Hlebs.

5. Arsenal's youth policy has seen English talents like Upson, Pennant & Bentley go forth and prosper for other PL clubs, and perhaps eventually to England.

6. It's the foreign players who have raised the standard and profile of the English game. If English players are to play in the PL, it should be because they are good enough, not because of their national origin.

7. For all the moaning about "killing off the English game", England are heading off to a World Cup with the best team on paper for over 35 years. How can this be if our game is being choked by foreigners?

8. FWIW, Arsenal are an English club, with English owners and largely financed by English fans. Chelsea are owned by Russia, and Man Utd are owned by the USA. Hmmm...

9. These stupid demands for ethnic quotas can only benefit the richest clubs who can afford the inflated transfer fees and wages for English players.

[alva]

Not that I'm disagreeing with you but you can't really compare footballers in top leagues with regular workforce imo.

And while it isn't really destroying the big leagues, it certainly has it's effect on smaller countries, where players are brought in because they are cheaper, not because they are better.