The Real Football Thread

[kingjr]

Re: Re:

Followed it via Goal Alert while watching Dortmund... can't wait for the highlights.

Just watched the highlights myself. Well done Barca, but to be fair to PSG, really, neither were a penalty and I would question at least one of Barca's goals for offside!! That said, that's sport, and as a big Barca fan, I'm happy I'm also a big Bayern fan (just like good football), so bring it on

The first was definitely a pen IMO, the 2nd looked like one at first glance and not so much after watching the replay, but I can see why the ref gave it.

 

[Põhja Konn]

Watched mainly the Dortmund game as I was sure the other tie is done after first leg. Apparently, PSG-s players thougth the same. Without that factor, Barca would not have pulled it off, regardless of how well they played. But there's no doubt, it was one of the greatest comebacks ever.

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

Followed it via Goal Alert while watching Dortmund... can't wait for the highlights.

Just watched the highlights myself. Well done Barca, but to be fair to PSG, really, neither were a penalty and I would question at least one of Barca's goals for offside!! That said, that's sport, and as a big Barca fan, I'm happy I'm also a big Bayern fan (just like good football), so bring it on

The first was definitely a pen IMO, the 2nd looked like one at first glance and not so much after watching the replay, but I can see why the ref gave it.

I think that with Suarez you have to assume it's a dive, unless really clear. That was a marginal at best call, which in replay was clearly not. The first one was just really unlucky for PSG, but a clear penalty. The first three goals in general were just very weird.

 

[jsem94]

Poor refereeing strikes again. Milan get a really soft penalty against them in the 96th minute. Juve score 2-1.

The Barca game was a farce too. Suarez clearly dived, but that match in terms of excitement and entertainment was the greatest I've seen in a long long time. Those European nights..

 

[Brullnux]

It was really harsh on De Sciglio. Rather it wasn't a penalty. Although in fairness Juve dominated and Milan were kept in the game by Gigio.

Today Arsenal play Lincoln, who'll probably think they are in with a serious chance of winning. And they're right. A loss here would end Wenger's reign.

 

[Põhja Konn]

Re:

Poor refereeing strikes again. Milan get a really soft penalty against them in the 96th minute. Juve score 2-1.

The Barca game was a farce too. Suarez clearly dived, but that match in terms of excitement and entertainment was the greatest I've seen in a long long time. Those European nights..

It was indeed soft and going in the way of the dominant team of the league didn't help, but in general I'm in favour of giving similar situations in favour of the attacking side. Football is, by design, a low scoring game, where defenders have the upper hand for most of the time. No need to cushion them even more.

My take on diving is that if a defender makes contact with attacking player, however slight it might be, he gives the latter an excuse to go down and referee an excuse to five a foul. Again, if the ref is not 100% sure of the opposite, an advantage should go to the attacking player. The whole polematic over diving and presenting it like the scourge of the game is the most idiotic thing I've seen in any sport in recent years.Having said that, in case of pure simulation (no contact involved), a yellow should be given. Two incidents involving Deulofeu last night are textbook examples. For one of them, he did get booked.

PSG didn't lose it because of Suarez' dives anyway. They lost because they thought the tie was over after the first leg and choked after realising it might not actually be during the second leg. Had they come to the second leg with right attitude, Barca would have had no chance to turn around that deficit.

As a fan, I want to see, at least at the top level of the game, that skill and quality overcome pure physicality and hard craft. In that context, "diving" is at worst a necessary evil, forcing defenders to approach the game in a different way. One, that is based more on anticipation and reading of the game instead of physical strenght and power.

 

[Brullnux]

Football isn't a non contact sport, there has to be some physicality else it will just be really weak, like watching some La Liga matches. Part of the beauty of football is the fight between strength and skill, mind and muscle. If nobody makes any contact with each other then it would be pretty pathetic.

 

[Archibald]

Leicester... still going...
pity Ranieri's gone

 

[Põhja Konn]

Monaco really is a pleasure to watch, and that first half was a treat. How much of it came down to City not being up to the fight is hard to say, but Monaco completely owned them. Still it doesn't change the fact that games of such importance should not be decided by something so arbitrary as an away goals rule. It is a pointless relic in modern game and often has a counterproductive effect on games.

 

[Põhja Konn]

For once, a really good draw in the Champions League. No easy passage to anyone, at least on paper. Well, maybe Atletico, as they are better than Leicester in every department, but the Foxes are certain to put up a fight regardless.

Two heavyweight ties, where, for once, both Spanish giants are slight underdogs. One can never underestimate Barca's and Real's ability to raise their game when having their backs against the wall, but Bayern and Juve have been the strongest sides in Europe this season, bar none. Still, its knock-out football and everything can happen.

Dortmund - Monaco will be a treat for neutrals. Dortmund has been more erratic, but their ceiling is higher.

My picks are Atletico, Bayern, Juventus and Monaco. Eventual title winners will be Bayern.

 

[Archibald]

Bad news for gooner... Wenger's up for another season

 

[The Hitch]

How the hell did Podolski become the 3rd most capped German ever? I'm assuming theres dozens and dozens of substitute appearances he got from being a good dressing room presence or something. I know he was good when he was young but he never reached his full potential I don't think at any point since, if ever, he will have been in the top 100 players in the world. I know Germany has also had a lack of strikers but they've certainly been able to produce some better than him.

Germany has had a few really lucky strikers - Podolski, Klose, Goetze and Schurle, who in recent years and particularly in 2014 fluked being on the best international team in the world, therefore winning caps, goals and even a world cup medal.

 

[Brullnux]

Video technology being used for France vs Spain. About bloody time

 

[Robert5091]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/31/sports/soccer/fifa-investigation-scandal.html
Nearly two years after a sweeping corruption case first felled top leaders of FIFA, the Swiss-based governing body for international soccer announced on Friday that it had cataloged its officials’ wrongdoing and delivered the results of a 22-month internal investigation to government authorities.

The investigation, undertaken by two prominent law firms in 2015, drew on millions of documents and interviews with current and former employees. Among those interviewed was Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s longtime president who stepped down amid scandal, his lawyer confirmed.

In recent days, FIFA said, the organization turned over the last in a series of inquiry reports — totaling 1,300 pages, with an additional 20,000 pages of supplementary evidence — to Switzerland’s office of the attorney general.

Swiss prosecutors, who have named Mr. Blatter and his former top deputy, Jérôme Valcke, as subjects of a criminal investigation, are expected to share the information with the United States Justice Department, which led international scrutiny of FIFA by charging dozens of soccer officials, businessmen and companies with racketeering, money laundering, wire fraud and bribery in 2015.

In its announcement, FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, seemed eager to turn the page on one of the darkest chapters in its history.

 

[Robert5091]

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/39603942
In the article, which has since been taken off the newspaper's website, former editor MacKenzie said:
◾Barkley is "one of our dimmest footballers", also calling him "thick".
◾His eyes make him "certain not only are the lights not on, there is definitely nobody at home", adding: "I get a similar feeling when seeing a gorilla at the zoo."
◾Men with similar "pay packets" in Liverpool are "drug dealers" and in prison.

Alongside the article, The Sun published adjoining pictures of Barkley and a gorilla on their website with the caption "Could Everton's Ross Barkley represent the missing link between man and beast?" The picture was later removed.

Just when you thought the Murdochs could n't get any worse ...

 

[Põhja Konn]

What an utter disgrace. Well done UEFA, well done Victor Kassai, your team won. Why bother playing the games, they should just give the trophy back to Real and be done with that. Everybody understands who is supposed to win it anyway.

All the while Zidane has actually done a great job at Real, but his achievements in CL will rightly be overshadowed by ridiculous amount of preferential treatment they have got. Last year had the joke of a draw, now when going got tough, referee ran to the rescue. I mean, Casemiro commited four separate yellow card offences alone (including the one leading to penalty) and still stayed on the pitch until the end, while Vidal's second yellow wasn't even a foul. And then the decisive goal was, naturally, scored from an offside position. An offside, that wasn't exactly close...

My initial impression is that last years version of Bayern was stronger than current one. Certainly Guardiola got much more out of Müller, Costa and Coman, and Bayern as a team were better off as a result. They had more weapons to hurt opponents offensively and weren't any worse defensively.
Typically for Guardiola's teams though they underachieved in knock-out competitions.

 

[Brullnux]

Wait for Barca today. A penalty or two here, a red card there, a couple of disallowed goals and some nonexistent goals and voila! 5-1

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

It's really disgusting how both Barca and Real needed the ref to win their matches.....

Hopefully Barca gets humiliated again tonight.

 

[Brullnux]

Defensive masterclass from Juve. They've only conceded two goals in 10 Champions league matches. Compare that with Monaco (16) and Real (15). Atleti on 5 so far. Attack however, Real have scored 28, Monaco 21, Juventus 17 and Atletico 13.

If Italy can find some decent fullbacks or a system which doesn't need them then they will be really good next year, world class players in every position, as long as Belotti and Immobile can keep this up.

 

[ToreBear]

I think the Dutch ref helped Juve. Not overtly or intentionally. I watched a little dutch football lately and also Spanish football.

The dutch refs let things go a lot further than the Spanish refs. So from what I'we seen the dutch games tend to be more slogging, while the Spanish games are more technical and in my eyes entertaining.

Juve being a great defensive slogging team were able to out physical the Barca players. And also they Barca players used a lot more time complaining about the refs.

I think I now understand why they were complaining so much.

 

[Jagartrott]

Re:

What an utter disgrace. Well done UEFA, well done Victor Kassai, your team won. Why bother playing the games, they should just give the trophy back to Real and be done with that. Everybody understands who is supposed to win it anyway.

Although the refereeing was bad, it was bad throughout.
The penalty awarded to the flying Dutchman wasn't one to begin with. Very well done by Robben, for sure, but no penalty. If the referee was truely biased, he wouldn't have awarded it.

 

[Põhja Konn]

Re: Re:

What an utter disgrace. Well done UEFA, well done Victor Kassai, your team won. Why bother playing the games, they should just give the trophy back to Real and be done with that. Everybody understands who is supposed to win it anyway.

Although the refereeing was bad, it was bad throughout.
The penalty awarded to the flying Dutchman wasn't one to begin with. Very well done by Robben, for sure, but no penalty. If the referee was truely biased, he wouldn't have awarded it.

I actually agree with you on this. I was more than a little pissed when writing the post you quoted and the part you signified was sarcastic rather than a serious accusation of premeditated favouritism. I don't believe those conspiracy theories that are circling right now too much. Referee not sending off Vidal early in the second is proof enough that he was not solely out to carry Madrid through. The timing and gravity of his biggest mistakes unfortunately and inevitably ask for the conspiracy theories to be made. Real having a rich history of favourable calls doesn't exactly help either.

Having said that, I respecfully disagree with your assessment on a penalty call. There was not too much of a contact there as Casemiro was almost able to avoid it. But almost is not enough and in situations like this the benefit of the doubt should always go to the attacking players. And if the referee decided that it was foul and a penalty then there was no excuse for not giving a yellow for Casemiro.

 

[mixedmartial]

My favourite club is AC Milan.

 

[Brullnux]

Copa America 2019 to have six non-South American teams because wonga. I would prefer it if the European countries declined any offer out of principle and it became only open to more North American sides, but I somehow doubt it. A lot of European teams could see it as an opportunity to give some more inexperienced players a bash against very good opposition in a tournament which is of little to no interest to them. They'll be offered quite a bit too I imagine. It would be a disgrace if a European side entered it and won it, though. It's just a totally unnecessary inclusion.

Hopefully the invites just get given to Honduras, USA, Jamaica, Canada, Mexico, El Salvador etc.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Re:

Copa America 2019 to have six non-South American teams because wonga. I would prefer it if the European countries declined any offer out of principle and it became only open to more North American sides, but I somehow doubt it. A lot of European teams could see it as an opportunity to give some more inexperienced players a bash against very good opposition in a tournament which is of little to no interest to them. They'll be offered quite a bit too I imagine. It would be a disgrace if a European side entered it and won it, though. It's just a totally unnecessary inclusion.

Hopefully the invites just get given to Honduras, USA, Jamaica, Canada, Mexico, El Salvador etc.

Wonga means money?

I agree.

But lets be honest. USA concacaf have little talent. Not even close. I understand your opinion and agree.

I wish CONCACAF was disbanded and those teams were forced to play against CONMEBOL because that would eventually force the central and north american players to gain talent.

The level of play here in the USA with our "pro league" and Mexico's "pro league" is a joke.