The first half was incredible. Three sparkling goals from Chelsea to start, then a semi-controversial handball and goal of the match from Ronaldinho to put them back in the driver’s seat for moving on. Peter Cech was probably MotM with lots of great saves to keep Chelsea ahead. In the beginning of the second half Barca dominated and it looked like it was over, but they couldn’t keep it up and eventually Terry scored the winner.
The only really bad part were the hack ESPN commentators, but you probably didn’t have to deal with that.
Nope, just the ITV commentators reminding those viewers with the memories and mathematical abilities of goldfish that “as it stands, Barcelona will be going through” every 2 minutes or so. At least until Terry’s goal anyway.
So we have three teams from Italy (assuming Inter see off Porto in the last kick-off - would that Spurs had the same problem ground-sharing with your North London neigbours, eh, Owl?), two from England, and one each from Holland, France and Germany.
What a difference it makes to have knockout matches at this stage rather than those dreadful groups. Full marks to German ref Markus Merk, who handled the incidents that led to the two dismissals in the Juve-Madrid game superbly. I hope the Italian twat at Highbury and all refs in La Liga get sent the video by Lennart Johannson.
Next round it would be fun to see Munich draw Eindhoven. I just hope Chelsea and Liverpool avoid each other. Milan for the title.
Don’t dismiss my tips so quickly - I won a tenner on the gee-gees tonight.
We could soon have our own rather unique version of this problem. The FA have asked us to consider being tenants at Wembley (they’ve buggered their sums up as usual), so we could soon be playing cup finals at “home”. (We’re also tenants of choice for the Olympic Stadium - if it’s ever built.)
I’m going to miss Tottenham High Rd though with it’s endless kebab shops, betting shops and shops selling second hand washing machines.
So Keegan’s out of Man City. I really hope that when Big Sam signed his new contratc a couple of months ago, they included a whacking great fee to be paid to Bolton if he’s poached.
Also, it’s a relief to hear that Henry is out of contention for tomorrows semi-final.
I should think you have nothing to worry about on that score. City are £50m in debt and that’s not going to go away. He’s much better off at Bolton, at least they have some dosh to spend, and they also are happy to be where they are - city have delusions of adequacy.
England-USA friendly in Chicago, March 28th. So should we plan, Yank and Brit (and anyone else), to get together for a mini-SDMB Football Dope? I am actually considering going.
I really can’t tell you how little this idea appeals.
A Sven subathon against the yanks is as far from real football as a Harlem Globetrotters game is from netball.
Any players who are still in Europe (Terry; Lumpalard; Gerrard etc) will be “injured” and anyone who’s season isn’t dead in the water will only play 45 minutes.
Also there’s a distinct chance we’ll lose - we are hopeless in meaningless games, and no doubt all the tea-dodgers will leap on this as proof that the USA is a major force in world “soccer”.
(A simple rule of thumb is that if a country calls it “soccer” it isn’t very good at it!).
Cheeky monkey. minor public school my arse. Founded 1379 don’t ya know mutter mutter…
I can see several replays - and I’m not at all confident about the boys against Newcastle.
God bless the USA for it’s aspirations - but this “game” is a farce. England will put on a half hearted game and the yanks will tear around like pit bulls on methamphetamine and may well win. That will give them unrealistic ideas about their place in the grand scheme of things.
We might as well play them at cricket for all that it matters.
You certainly did get it from us - it was coined at those very same minor public schools. However we binned it - as did every other major footballing nation.
And I’m not making excuses - it’s quite simple: We don’t give a toss about results in friendlies - and in any case some of our players may have bigger fish to fry. You lot however, starved of meaningful opposition as you are, will take it seriously - that’s why there’s every possibility you will win. That’s what happened when we played the Aussies, they won (and haven’t shut up about it since, bless them)
If it was a meaningful game we would hand you your hats,you know this I know this, everyone knows this.
Bad luck owl. Looks like both games were close though, although Leicester were never going to beat us with that negative attitude. I don’t remember the last time I saw a defense play that deep outside of an England international.
Yeah, because the US didn’t end up in the Quarterfinals of the World Cup last time, and were a referee’s mistake from tying the game. The British arrogance is astounding. They still haven’t dealt with the fact that they aren’t good enough to win a World Cup, so they have to try to take down up and coming squads.
Re the upcoming friendly: What I’m trying to get into your addled colonial craniums is this: England don’t take friendlies seriously - we don’t need to.
We have ongoing meaningful competition all the time with European and WC qualifiers and, hopefully the finals. Sven in particular sees them as exhibition games. If he could, he would literally play two totally different teams in both halves (he used to do this when it was allowed). THis means that we underperform in them - particularly if the other team take them seriously.
I expect that the USA will take these games seriously as the only competition games they play are against cricket playing islands (and some WC games every four years), so this will be a welcome opportunity for them. Given that, they may even get a result against England.
However if you think that the USA would get a result out of any of the top 8 teams in the world (as measured by people who watch football - not them bloody silly rankings) I have a very nice bridge I would like to sell you.
Re the FA Cup. Bugger. You can’t beat twelve men. Two good penalties and a perfectly legal goal turned down. The filth made heavy weather of Bolton - although I was impressed by Ponderos (or whatever he’s called). Man Utd didn’t break into a sweat.
Our season now turns on Wednesdays game with Charlton - a real six pointer in terms of Europe.
England do not take friendlies seriously (unless they’re against France).
As a result, we will play a third-string side. Hell, I could probably get into the squad for an England friendly if i asked Sven nicely!
The USA team will take it seriously because it will be a “big” match for them. I don’t mean that in a patronising way, its simply because England are a high-profile side.
The USA will win (cf. Australia) and the majority of merkins who take an interest in it will see it as a great victory (because they won’t know the England team well enough to know that its a third string side).
We won’t care. As we’ll know it was just another Sven Sub-A-Thon.
Now the day that we play each other in a World Cup Game is the day that we can really argue about who’s better
