Soccer Thread 2011-2012

[MIJB#19]

Looking at CL scenarios, Group F can turn into a complete mess if Dortmund beats Marseille and Olympiakos gets a draw vs. Arsenal...

[whomario]

Borussia Mönchengladbach takes over the Bundesliga lead for 1 night ! They were in last place at the 30th gameday last season

Tomorrow it´s the big derby between Dortmund and Schalke (and both are well positioned in 3rd and 4th place as well)

[Big Fo]

What an absolute farce. Possibly the worst call I've ever seen on that "penalty." I've gone back and watched the last incident a few times and it was a very close call on Hernandez as well. Maybe his elbow was an inch offside or something, I dunno.

We still should have won the game, we pissed away so many scoring chances in the last half hour.

[Coffee Warlord]

I'm happy Newcastle got a point there, but yeah...absolutely horrid penalty.

[Marc Vaughan]

Fantastic win for Brighton today; 2-1 vs Coventry ... keeps us in touch with the play-offs and should help our confidence a little

[Grover]

Newcastle should have never gotten that point. What an awful call on Rio's tackle to concede the penalty.

BUT, Tim Krul put in the best goalkeeping performance I've seen in a long time. He was outstanding.

[Coffee Warlord]

I daresay Newcastle has found a quite capable successor to Shay Given in Krul.

[Oilers9911]

ManU got screwed on that call. I love it!

[AlexB]

Just seen the Rio penalty - shocker!

[miami_fan]

The Welsh national team manger dead at the age of 42. Cause of death has not been confirmed.

[AlexB]

Seems he hanged himself - seems as if completely out of the blue. Very sad news.

[bhlloy]

fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck

devastating news

[Grover]

Absolutely terrible.

[Marc Vaughan]

Very sad, he was a great player in his day and by all accounts a very honorable and nice person outside of the game.

[AlexB]

He was apparently on Football Focus (BBC's lunchtime pre-game show) yesterday - Dan Walker, the host of the programme, has put up an entry on his blog.

BBC - Dan Walker: Gary Speed leaves a huge hole in football

You can tell he is shocked and puzzled by the turn of events. It's just so sad

[MIJB#19]

Euro 2012 group draw

Group A
Poland
Greece
Russia
Czech Rep

Group B
Netherlands
Denmark
Germany
Portugal

Group C
Spain
Italy
Rep of Ireland
Croatia

Group D
Ukraine
Sweden
France
England


Yay, another group of death!

[SirFozzie]

So Group B at Euro2012 is going to be fun

The Groups:

A
Czechs, Poland, Greece, Russia

B
Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal and Germany.

C
Italy, Spain, Ireland, Croatia

D
England, Ukraine Sweden, France

[MIJB#19]

There were two teams to avoid here for the Dutch (and everybody else not from Portugal and Germany) and we got them both. Should be fun...

[bhlloy]

Groups of death are way more likely when you make Poland and Ukraine two of the top four seeds.

Very shortsighted from uefa, those countries should both be happy they didn't have to qualify and leave it there. I guess hosts moving on does mean more dollars for everyone though

[SirFozzie]

MIJB: Think of it this way, at least now you can wonder if you'll go out in the group stage instead of losing a knockout round PK shootout

[Northwood_DK]

Thats brutal

[whomario]

Still no news on the draw being annuled ? (germany with a tough group is pretty much a first, at least i can´t remember one)

Not that i´m overly worried, but i won´t say this isn´t a very tough draw. The Netherlands at full strength are going to be much better than our last meeting, at least offensively they missed a few key guys.

The good thing is that the next oponent comes from group A and while Russia isn´t bad they really don´t scare me at all anymore without Hiddink.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

MIJB: Think of it this way, at least now you can wonder if you'll go out in the group stage instead of losing a knockout round PK shootout

Nothing new here, in 2008 we survived a group with France (3-0 win) and Italy (4-1 win). In 2006 there was that group with Argentina and Ivory Coast in 2004 it was Germany and the Czech Republic, in 2000 it was with France, the Czech Republic and Denmark. It's what comes after the group stages that counts.
Fun fact: The Netherlands haven't lost in penalty kicks in official matches since that horrible day in 2000, we actually won our last series in 2004 (poor Swedes)... Of course, in the last two tournaments reaching the kicks would have been better than losing in overtime.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by whomario

Still no news on the draw being annuled ? (germany with a tough group is pretty much a first, at least i can´t remember one)

Not that i´m overly worried, but i won´t say this isn´t a very tough draw. The Netherlands at full strength are going to be much better than our last meeting, at least offensively they missed a few key guys.

The good thing is that the next oponent comes from group A and while Russia isn´t bad they really don´t scare me at all anymore without Hiddink.

You've probably burried it very deep. In 2000 there was this group with England, Germany and Portugal. It was Romania that joined Portugal in advancing to the next round, as Germany got destroyed 3-0 by the Portugese backups in the 3rd match whilst England chocked into losing 3-2 for the second time.

Anyway, there's a clear top3 in Europe (Spain, Netherlands and Germany, the World Cup medalists). Portugal is the team we (the Dutch) hate to play the most, because of their playing style. And given the current state of the Danish and German teams, Portugal has the advantage of being different than the rest.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Groups of death are way more likely when you make Poland and Ukraine two of the top four seeds.

Very shortsighted from uefa, those countries should both be happy they didn't have to qualify and leave it there. I guess hosts moving on does mean more dollars for everyone though

In the rare situation of every match in group play finishing 0-0, Poland and Ukraine will be last in the group based on the seeding order tie-breaker, as they rank 28th and 15th, below all 14 qualified teams (fwiw, contrary to FIFA rankings, the UEFA ranking doesn't penalize teams for not playing competititve qualifying matches, these two really are that 'bad' at the moment).

It makes sense to give them a special treatment, but it does create the freaky situation that the #2 and #3 teams in both the fifa and uefa ranking system are clashing in the group stages, whilst in theory they shouldn't be able to meet before the semi's.

The truly screwed team would be 7th seeded Croatia, facing 1st seeds Spain and 4th seeds Italy in the group phase. And as Group A may seem weakest, Group D may take the (cup)cake, with the 5th, 10th, 12th and 15th seeds. None of those 4 reached the quarterfinals in 2008 (although three of them were losing quarterfinalists in 2004).

At the same time, this does add to the interest of the group stages, with three interesting opening round of games with Germany - Portugal, Spain - Italy and France - England.

[MIJB#19]

And to quadruple dola, anybody interested in my fill in Excel sheets, I made one for this tournament as well as for the previous ones since 2002.

[SirFozzie]

For those people who complain that FM somehow fixes draws so you play your rivals more often in cups, they drew the third round of the FA Cup today.. and in the undisputed glamour tie of the round, Manchester City will play.... Manchester United.

[Grover]

Wow. What a farcical sending off for Jay Spearing against Fulham. Gets 100% of the ball, sure his studs were showing, but Dembele came in and over the top high against him. A yellow at best. Nearly as bad a decision as it was to send Rodwell off against Liverpool earlier in the year.

[DaddyTorgo]

Awesome win for Juve this weekend against bottom-dwellers Cesena. Controlled the game the whole time, although they didn't break through until midway thru the second half.

Top of the table, and the only unbeaten team in Serie A.

[Grover]

Clint Dempsey breaks the deadlock! Danny Murphy curved in a nice shot from the left, Reina simply dropped it and Deuce does his usual right place, right time routine.

[MIJB#19]

Trying to copy paste scenarios from Excel, but, uhm, having trouble to get it to work...

[MIJB#19]

Alright, then I'll do it the old fashioned way. Here are scenarios for tonight's games:

Group E	.	Genk	.	G = L	.	Leverkusen
Chelsea	1	Chelsea	1	Chelsea	1	Leverkusen
	2	Leverkusen	2	Leverkusen	2	Chelsea
	3	Valencia	3	Valencia	3	Valencia
	4	Genk	4	Genk	4	Genk
C = V	1	Leverkusen	1	Leverkusen	1	Leverkusen
	2	Valencia	2	*A	2	*A
	3	Chelsea	3	*A	3	*A
	4	Genk	4	Genk	4	Genk
Valencia	1	Valencia	1	Valencia	1	Leverkusen
	2	Leverkusen	2	Leverkusen	2	Valencia
	3	Chelsea	3	Chelsea	3	Chelsea
	4	Genk	4	Genk	4	Genk

*A if 0-0 or 1-1: 2nd Valencia, 3rd Chelsea
if 2-2 or higher: 2nd Chelsea, 2nd Valencia

Group F	.	Dortmund	.	D=M	.	Marseille
Olympiakos	1	Arsenal	1	Arsenal	1	Arsenal
	2	Olympiakos	2	Olympiakos	2	Marseille
	3	*A	3	Marseille	3	Olympiakos
	4	*A	4	Dortmund	4	Dortmund
O=A	1	Arsenal	1	Arsenal	1	Arsenal
	2	*B	2	Marseille	2	Marseille
	3	*B	3	Olympiakos	3	Olympiakos
	4	*B	4	Dortmund	4	Dortmund
Arsenal	1	Arsenal	1	Arsenal	1	Arsenal
	2	*C	2	Marseille	2	Marseille
	3	*C	3	Olympiakos	3	Olympiakos
	4	Olympiakos	4	Dortmund	4	Dortmund

*A if Dortmund wins 3-0 or by 4 goals or more: 3rd Dortmund, 4th Marseille;
if Dortmund wins by 1 or 2 goals, or by 3 with Marseille scoring: 3rd Marseille, 4th Dortmund

*B if Dortmund wins by 1 or 2 goals: 2nd Marseille, 3rd Olympiakos, 4th Dortmund;
if Dortmund wins by 3 goals: 2nd Olympiakos, 3rd Marseille, 4th Dortmund;
if Dortmund wins by 4 goals: 2nd Olympiakos, 3rd Dortmund, 4th Marseille;
if Dortmund wins by 5 goals: 2nd Dortmund, 3rd Olympiakos, 4th Marseille

*C if Dortmund wins 3-0 or by 4 goals or more: 2nd Dortmund, 3rd Marseille;
if Dortmund wins by 1 or 2 goals, or by 3 with Marseille scoring: 2nd Marseille, 3rd Dortmund

Group G	.	Porto	.	P=Z	.	Zenit
APOEL	1	APOEL	1	APOEL	1	APOEL
	2	Porto	2	Zenit	2	Zenit
	3	Zenit	3	Porto	3	Porto
	4	Shakhtar	4	Shakhtar	4	Shakhtar
A=S	1	APOEL	1	APOEL	1	Zenit
	2	Porto	2	Zenit	2	APOEL
	3	Zenit	3	Porto	3	Porto
	4	Shakhtar	4	Shakhtar	4	Shakhtar
Shakhtar	1	Porto	1	APOEL	1	Zenit
	2	APOEL	2	Zenit	2	APOEL
	3	Zenit	3	Porto	3	Porto
	4	Shakhtar	4	Shakhtar	4	Shakhtar

Group H	.	Viktoria	.	V=A	.	Milan
Barcelona	1	Barcelona	1	Barcelona	1	Barcelona
	2	Milan	2	Milan	2	Milan
	3	Viktoria	3	Viktoria	3	Viktoria
	4	BATE	4	BATE	4	BATE
B=B	1	Barcelona	1	Barcelona	1	Barcelona
	2	Milan	2	Milan	2	Milan
	3	Viktoria	3	Viktoria	3	Viktoria
	4	BATE	4	BATE	4	BATE
BATE	1	Barcelona	1	Barcelona	1	Barcelona
	2	Milan	2	Milan	2	Milan
	3	Viktoria	3	Viktoria	3	BATE
	4	BATE	4	BATE	4	Viktoria

[MIJB#19]

Tomorrow's stuff

Group A	.	Villarreal	.	V=N	.	Napoli
Man City	1	Bayern	1	Bayern	1	Bayern
	2	Man City	2	Man City	2	Napoli
	3	Napoli	3	Napoli	3	Man City
	4	Villarreal	4	Villarreal	4	Villarreal
M=B	1	Bayern	1	Bayern	1	Bayern
	2	Napoli	2	Napoli	2	Napoli
	3	Man City	3	Man City	3	Man City
	4	Villarreal	4	Villarreal	4	Villarreal
Bayern	1	Bayern	1	Bayern	1	Bayern
	2	Napoli	2	Napoli	2	Napoli
	3	Man City	3	Man City	3	Man City
	4	Villarreal	4	Villarreal	4	Villarreal

Group B	.	Lille	.	L=T	.	Trabzonspor
Inter	1	Inter	1	Inter	1	Inter
	2	Lille	2	Trabzonspor	2	Trabzonspor
	3	Trabzonspor	3	Lille	3	Lille
	4	CSKA	4	CSKA	4	CSKA
I=C	1	Inter	1	Inter	1	Inter
	2	Lille	2	Trabzonspor	2	Trabzonspor
	3	CSKA	3	Lille	3	CSKA
	4	Trabzonspor	4	CSKA	4	Lille
CSKA	1	Inter	1	Inter	1	Inter
	2	Lille	2	CSKA	2	Trabzonspor
	3	CSKA	3	Trabzonspor	3	CSKA
	4	Trabzonspor	4	Lille	4	Lille

Group C	.	Basel	.	B=M	.	Man Utd
Benfica	1	Benfica	1	Benfica	1	Benfica
	2	Basel	2	Man Utd	2	Man Utd
	3	Man Utd	3	Basel	3	Basel
	4	Otelul	4	Otelul	4	Otelul
B=O	1	Basel	1	Benfica	1	Man Utd
	2	Benfica	2	Man Utd	2	Benfica
	3	Man Utd	3	Basel	3	Basel
	4	Otelul	4	Otelul	4	Otelul
Otelul	1	Basel	1	Man Utd	1	Man Utd
	2	Benfica	2	Benfica	2	Benfica
	3	Man Utd	3	Basel	3	Basel
	4	Otelul	4	Otelul	4	Otelul

Group D	.	Dinamo	.	D=L	.	Lyon
Ajax	1	Real M	1	Real M	1	Real M
	2	Ajax	2	Ajax	2	Ajax
	3	Lyon	3	Lyon	3	Lyon
	4	Dinamo	4	Dinamo	4	Dinamo
A=R	1	Real M	1	Real M	1	Real M
	2	Ajax	2	Ajax	2	Ajax
	3	Lyon	3	Lyon	3	Lyon
	4	Dinamo	4	Dinamo	4	Dinamo
Real M	1	Real M	1	Real M	1	Real M
	2	Ajax	2	Ajax	2	*A
	3	Lyon	3	Lyon	3	*A
	4	Dinamo	4	Dinamo	4	Dinamo

*A if Lyon overcomes the 7-goal difference gap: 2nd Lyon, 3rd Ajax; if Lyon doesn't overcome the 7-goal difference gap: 2nd Ajax, 3rd Lyon

[miami_fan]

I am starting to take a liking to AVB. He is still a wee bit whining but I like his style of play and at least so far he has not allowed himself to be back into a corner by the press.

[Grover]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

I am starting to take a liking to AVB. He is still a wee bit whining but I like his style of play and at least so far he has not allowed himself to be back into a corner by the press.

I think the issue with his system has been that some of the older players are a bit slow. It's pretty tough to play such a high line defending with John Terry at the back. If he can survive through two years, weed out the aging players and bring in more of his own style players, Chelsea will be closer to winning a title again.

[SirFozzie]

ManYoo to the Europa League? Unless they score in the next 45 minutes, they're OUT of the Champions League and Man City are hoping that Napoli do not score.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

Napoli scores.

[SirFozzie]

and goodnight, Man City. Napoli up two.

If you told me that NEITHER Manchester team was going to make the knockout stage before group play started I would have taken wagers on it.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

Basel up 2.

Manchester-free knockout stages.

[SirFozzie]

2-0 Basel. it's ovah

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

ManU gets one back....

[SirFozzie]

Wow. Lyon had to win, hope Ajax lost to Real Madrid.. and make up a total of seven goals in Goal Differential

Lyon 7-1 Dinamo Zagreb
Real Madrid 3-0 Ajax

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

Basel wins.

[Oilers9911]

Today's results are a dream come true.

[miami_fan]

Can Manchester United and Manchester City just forfeit their Europa League matches and move the tournament along or do we have to go through an idiotic charade similar to Spurs' Europa League run?

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Can Manchester United and Manchester City just forfeit their Europa League matches and move the tournament along or do we have to go through an idiotic charade similar to Spurs' Europa League run?

City will probably play weakened teams, but we do have something to gain in that our coefficient is still pretty terrible.

[MIJB#19]

With the current from in the Premier League, people tend to forget that Manchester City has 0 experience at the Champions' League level.

In other news, the UEFA denied bribing rumours surrounding the absurd Dinamo Zagreb - Olympique Lyon game. Please, please, please let this be legit scores, soccer doesn't need yet another bribing scandal.