Oh no! another football thread!

[AtomSmasher]

I guess that every football fan knows which teams won each league. Last weekend spanish league ended, with barça and real miles away from the rest. Barça 99, Real 96, Valencia 71, some years the champion had 66 points...
I would like to remark tthe extreme value of this league for Barça. It is not easy to make such a big ammount of points after last year's results, when they won everything. It is not easy to focus and to keep tension after to win everything, but they did. In big part it was thanks to Pep Guardiola, I must say I don't like him especially. But he has a great attribute. He is able to make the team focus in their target. He is not an strategic master at all, but he knows how to keep a player happy and a team united. This year the media, as every year, promote an anti-barça campaign, even harder than another years, blaming referees, federation and giving all the front pages to all the very little stupid CR9's fart instead of the Barça's achievments. Barça's enviroment press were always the worst ever, it was a kind of wannabe press, but now, the rest put theirselves at the same level. Even with that, Barça made its job. They could't repeat last year championships but...hell, it was unrepeteable.
Now everything is pointing to Villa and Fabregas as new players for Barça...hope so.

Well, I dont want to bore you with more barça's thread. Regarding all that about focus and tension keeping, now is World' Cup time.
Could you bet for any team? Here in Spain is the same story every edition. We are very favourite before start, we have won the cup after 1st phase, and after 1/4 or 1/8 we are on holidays. This year this could change a bit. Our coach Vicente Del Bosque, like Pep, is not an strategic/tactics master. Imo he is one of the most overrated coach ever. He had a lot of success with Real but...what the hell, he had Beckam, Figo, Ronaldo, Zidane, Iker, Roberto Carlos, Raul, Makelele...his job as tactic development was zero, but these players didnt need much more than their great quality. Even with this stars collection the enviroment seemed to be fine. Now with Spanish team seems to be the same situation. Our possible team could be:

Iker / Ramos, Piqué, Puyol, Capdevila / Xavi, X.Alonso, Iniesta, Silva / Torres, Villa.
Add them Albiol, Arbeloa, Fabregas, Monreal, Bojan, Pedro, and some more and Spain has an scary line-up.

It will depend on the mental condition to know how far we can reach this time, but this generation is different to the rest we had, and they are used to win, to win working, not talking. Last Euro we could see the best face of these group, at South Africa we could miss Marcos Senna's defensive epic job at Euro. But the rest is at the same level with some new blood.

Anyway I wouldn't dare to give a clear favourite for this World cup.
There are teams who dont need to play great to reach 1/2 or finals. They are always there by default aka "competition spirit mode:overdose"
Italy and Germany are the clearest examples. I wouldn't say they are favourites at all, but I know I will be wrong if I forget them.
England could be another favourite: Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney, Walcott and a lot of strong niggas and drunken whities with the push of Mr. Fabio Capello and his 1-0's (0'5-0 is also good for him) make of England an opponent to keep an eye on.
Brazil made an strange team, letting out Pato and Diego. Ronaldinho is easier to understand. They are always Brazil but I feel as they are not ready to face the strongest, this time. I can't compare Kaká+Luis Fabiano/Nilmar with Ronaldinho+Ronaldo. At the moment Brazil is an (?).
Argentina. Strange. Great collection of good, young and experimented players. But at the moment very bad teamplay. I can't see Maradona as their leader, he is missed. We'll see, their group, with Greece, Korean rep and Nigeria is not easy.
France: I don't know what they will do, but I see a very old team with a very bad coach. <3

World Cup is always full of surprises, I don't know if they will be Chile, Nigeria, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Ivory Coast, USA...who knows..

All in all, in my opinion world cup is a mix of quality, good form and mood. With a little bit of the magic element: luck.

For once, heart and brain say the same. My favourite team is Spain.

Which team is your favourite?

[naruto6560]

England here ^^ like always :p. and sure France, i know they are nub but , it's my country


and they team that i hate >>>>>Italy coz italy = simulations :p


anyway good luck to all teams

[Scialone]

and they team that i hate >>>>>Italy coz italy = simulations :p

You stop making headshots in other people's breast, and we stop simulating. ^____^

Anyway, back to topic, nice post and congratulations to Barca.

For the world championship, i could say something more appropriate after seeing the official rosters, anyway one thing i know for sure: Italy won't go far. For many reasons but in particular if u gotta let play boiled people like Cannavaro, Zambrotta, Legrottaglie and Grosso (maybe this last won't be called, luckily) it means we have some problems.

You say Spain? Well from the throne of the Euro Championship u may say that, only i hope your team won't have the usual problems of getting-together different players coming from different realities.

All in all, i see among the 4 semifinalists Argentina and Holland.

A winner? I say Argentina.

[Fard]

Good Job, Barca, my favourite club.

For the World Cup I can't rly say a favourite, but I think Spain will win, at least come to the finals. I'm sorry for all those germans, but with germany I'm not that patriotic, sorry^^. And sorry for Ballack's injury. I feel with him.
In my opinion france won't come far, but I wished it. Too bad almost all good players are very old, no Zinedine ( ) and very bad coach. I also hope that Italy won't come far xD .
Netherlands has good chances, potencial and is like a bomb, you don't know when they come. They always were soomething like "favourite", but never really came far, but I'm sure they are now more adult and won't play again like vs. Portugal in 2006 ^^°.
Portugal and Argentina also have good chances, ah, and I don't like England, never liked them, just the league, the best with spanish's.

Spoiler:

[™]

In my opinion the spanish league isn't the best, to get 99 points is a fantastic job, a matter of concentration in 38 games (!).
If I'm not wrong Barca lost only 1 game, against Atletico Madrid. The balance between Barca (1.) and Xerez (20.) isn't good.
Comparing this fact, I'd say the beloved Serie A is the best, unfortunately. The italian clubs were very risky in the past, take a look at Parma. But imagine Parma's sponsor, the damn cheese, wouldn't went into a crash. They would still form player like Amoroso/Buffon/Adriano/Thuram/... And nowadays Fiorentina is also doing a great job. A middle-class club got great talents like Jovetic for a lot of money. The balance in italia is kinda great, but don't get me wrong. AC Milan, Roma or Juve aren't at the top in europe, but all these clubs (+ Inter, Udinese with better coach, same for Lazio) got a high quality of player. Just take a look in the ranking of season 09/10, Sampdoria Genua made a big surprise with getting the last place for CL. Palermo... Naples (Hamsik!!!) clubs with a lot of potential.

Anyway I hate the italian league for several reasons. Empty stadiums, a natural wrong understanding of the offensive gaming, corruption, Berlusconi and another $-wanker.

Tbh I'm a fan of at least 4-5 clubs. Barca in spain, Parma in italy, Bayern in germany, Manu I in england and OSC Lille in france.
OSC Lille?! Yes ^^ I've family in france, in Lyon. With great white peach plantations and so on. In 1998 I was during the World Cup `98 in France and began to support OSC Lille because my uncle did so. Nowadays, after the "century Lyon", I'm supporting still this Club. I know every player and I try to watch every game. Eden Hazard... gosh, the best left winger after Ribery, Mata, Silva and Di Maria. Gervinho... the best right winger after Messi and Robben xD For me they are the french Bayern Munich. I also like Lyon. The latest rumours are crazy. They want to sell Kallström and Cissokho to buy Gourcuff and Sissoko. In case of this will happen, we'll see one of the best teams in europe. After all, the french league is the worst top5-league. The stadiums and atmosphere reminds me on Italy, sometimes full of spirit but empty stadiums. Another underrated league is Portugals one, or at least here for us in Germany. I guess the spanish ppl, which are closer to Portugal, will have another view. As I said, Di Maria is a great winger. David Luiz the next star in the centre back and Falcao won't play another year in Porto ^^

About the german Bundesliga, worse than Primera Division, stronger than Premier League. A very balanced league, although my words seems funny/stupid if you've seen the last game vs Werder Bremen. The 18. in our league is the best club from our capital, Hertha BSC! A strong club, with players like Arne Friedrich or Kacar. Or remember Pantelic. Then there's Köln/Cologne. Podolski, Maniche, Petit or Zoran Tosic.. fantastic player and they were 13. in our league. Wolfsburg - Similar to Atletico Madrid. Aguero - Dzeko, Simao - Misimovic. They were 8. in the last year. Hamburg won't play international in the next year, with player like Petric or Ruud van Nistelrooy. And so on... I want to say that we have a very balanced league, our problem is the money and the head of several presidents. Sometimes they should choose the risky way, buying better player instead of always forming talents. There's only Bayern Munich what is able to buy stars like Ribery or Robben.
Why Bundesliga is better than Premier League? I guess I'll be alone with this opinion but for me it's a very low league, only the "Big 4" + 1 stupid crappy club called Manchester II aka Manchester City. Wigan, Wolverhampton, Portsmouth (lol), Hull City... :S At least they have all great stadiums, 99% greats fans and 1% crazy hooligans and the "Big 4" are definitely one of the best teams in the world. Probably the Big 4 won't stay together, after this summer Liverpool will be another club. Without Benitez, without Torres, without Mascherano (?).

My ranking of leagues:

7 - Portugal (Falcao, Moutinho, David Luiz, Di Maria / Porto, Sporting, Benfica)
6 - Holland (Suarez!, Affelay, Dzudzsak / Ajax, PSV Eindhoven)
5 - France (Gourcuff, Lloris, Lisandro, Hazard / Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille)
4 - England (Drogba, Rooney, Vidic, Torres / Chelsea, Manu I, Arsenal, Liverpool)
3 - Germany (Ribery, Robben, Lahm, Dzeko, Özil / Bayern, Bremen, Leverkusen)
2 - Spain (CR, Messi, Villa, Aguero / Barca, Real, Valencia)
1 - Italy (Eto'o, Pato, Buffon, Diego / Milan, Inter, Roma, Juve)

About the world cup. I agree that Spain is the favorite. Nothing else to add, Atom made the line-up. It's just:
It's distortion of competition!

My hope goes to Holland, great team. Or at least great offensive ^^
The french team will play a bad tournament. Ribery as right winger is a miscast, Benzema player only a semi-good season but what shall I say? Look at germany, Gomez - Klose. Our best forward player and they don't play even 10 minutes in Bayern munichs game. Greece is Italy 0.01, what a defensive team. Ivory Coast will be the best african team, maybe 1/2.

About germany, I'm not a supporter of this team unless Louis van Gaal will be the coach ^^
Our coach is a pussy, when it was Bundesliga-time he always decided to visit the nearest stadium of his home xDD (Freiburg, bad team)
I remember games Dortmund vs Schalke and he was in Freiburg vs Hannover. A lazy idiot, I hope it will be his last competition as coach.
Germany got some great fans, at the last world cup we had tv-quotes of about 33.000.000. (~ 75% of tv-owner)
But this time we have doubts, Ballack injured. Podolski out of his mind, same for Gomez and Klose. Our keeper Rene Adler is also injured.
With good teamplay and luck we can reach 1/4.

Neuer - Badstuber, Mertesacker, Westermann, Lahm - Schweinsteiger, Khedira, Özil, Kroos - Müller, Klose

Good team, with great talents. But not enough for bashing the best teams of the world.
My favorite: Spain

[AtomSmasher]

Benzema played only a semi-good season but what shall I say? Look at germany, Gomez - Klose. Our best forward player and they don't play even 10 minutes in Bayern munichs game.

Benzema won't be at World cup

[™]

Benzema played only a semi-good season but what shall I say? Look at germany, Gomez - Klose. Our best forward player and they don't play even 10 minutes in Bayern munichs game.

Benzema won't be at World cup

Ye I know, I forgot to continue my post. I mean that I can't understand Domenech. Klose played always great in the World Cup but the most time he's on the bench @ Bayern Munich. Same with Gomez. And Benzema played an even better season for Real Madrid like Klose in Munich. Still bad but good enough to play for Domenech's team. Remember what he did for his former club Lyon in the last year

/Same with Wes Brown in England. Why Capello didn't invite him? ^^

[Pantalon_Neys]

Slovakia will win the world cup.

[DianeSimmons]

hehe.. since we dont have such a topic in our forum and i have some time, ill do a post here =)

starting with the leagues:

Imo spain has the best top teams starting with barca real valencia and so on... ( athletico deserved the europe league title for sure )
and im sometimes jealous of the football they play there.

england has the big 4 top teams .. of those allways 3 of the 4 last years 3 were in the semi finale of the champions league. but the other teams arent that good
to compare with them, what usually makes the league a little boring maybe.
still great player in england, nice stadiums and awesome fans.

france: im not that interested in that league... last ten years were really one-sided... lyon dominated. was nice to see bordeaux winning last year,
but they arent really a top team in europe imo. ok they kicked real in cl, but a deserved win in sth different .. and real allways has it days,
when they suck cuz they are a team mixed of stars that dont fit. when they played against munich u saw the difference when they play against a
harmonized good team.
the fans dont impress me neither that much.

italy: im a big opponent of italian football. not just the way they play (which as it seems just italians and greece see as good football )
their stadiums are empty too and their fans often behave in a really bad way. (racism or "flaming" their own player for example ).
i still have to admit that they play effective football with good teams which deserved somehow to win/reach finales of the champions league.
(just remembering the finale liverpool - milan which makes me really happy :p ).
another good point is the balance in the league.

germany: for sure the best league in my eyes ..
well munich is the only team that can compare to the top teams in europe. bremen or leverkusen for example can beat every team too on a good day,
but .. normally they are on lower lvl.
what i love on the bundesliga, are the stadiums... allways full and great atmospheres. (even in the 2nd league my hometeam, fortuna düsseldorf, had 30.000 viewer each game )
another point is the balance... sure bayern munich is the total number one in germany, but like in the last 10 years stuttgart, wolfsburg, bremen, dortmund won the league too and
schalke and leverkusen just lost it on the last day. so there were nearly 7 different champions in the last 10 years what makes the league very
exciting.
as someone said before we dont have many "big stars" what will probably change i guess. its about the money formalities we have here.
nearly no team in europe would get a license for the bundesliga.. we arent allowed to have too many depts.
as the fifa wants to force the license rules in each league, probably the bundesliga will benefit from it =)

so heres my ranking:

1. spain, england, germany (cant decide )
2. italy close behind
3. france far behind.

world championship:

as everyone says spain is the total favorite, theres no doubt.
i dont see any team even nearly to their lvl.. they have awesome player and harmonize perfect as a team...nice to watch them too, so they would deserve it.

semi favorites ( players which arent surprisingly nominated in rackets)

germany: (frings)
well without ballack ( i'd like to kill boateng) , germany isnt the same.. it will be a surprise how theyll play now and who takes the responsibility.
klose, gomez, podolski totally out of form, but germany always made it to play a good tournament even though they were underdogs.

neuer- lahm, mertesacker, westermann, aogo - özil, schweinsteiger, khedira , podolski - klose, gomez

netherlands ( nistelroy, u never do anything wrong with him even though hes on the bench and waiting.)

allways one of the favorites, but never win anything. guess it will be this time happen again.
no doubt about their skills, but they allways suck the important games.

italy ( totti, materazzi haha)
dont see them that strong this year..guess they will reach the semi finales again but then its over.
are they getting older each tourney?!

argentina (Zanetti, cambiasso, gago maybe)
strong team... but worst trainer maybe... guess thats there reason why they wont win.

england (brwon)
again a strong team that allways fails =)... quarter maybe semi finales and then its over.. allways the same story and it wont change

france ( benzema, nasri, vieira)
maybe one of the weakest french team for a long time imo. maximum quarter finales in my eyes.

brasil ( ronaldinho, diego, pato, rafinha, adriana lost^^)

dunno what to expect from this team... still many good players but also not that constant to win sth this year..many weak points in my eyes,
but really dunno how to judge them, i let them surprise me =)


as a summary spain (bojan missing oO) is the only complete team... all other teams have their weak spots so i cant tell another favorite.
praying and supporting for germany as much as i can, but its gonna be hard =)

wow this post got long oO
thx for reading if anyone did

[AtomSmasher]

I didn't expect from everybody that spain would be your favourite too, but as we all should know, to be favourite is so ethereal...one fail and you are out.
Diane, I don't know the rest, but I always read every cm² of this forum. how do you know that Bojan is out? And don't forget to add Pato as Brazil loss.

Tabu, even if we are very close to Portugal, we only know about Portuguese league the "european" teams: Porto, Benfica and Sporting, the rest are banana republic teams.

Here the groups, I would say that no one will have a pleasant 1st phase. Hard fight.




Official news: Villa finally joined Barça

[DianeSimmons]

how do you know that Bojan is out? And don't forget to add Pato as Brazil loss.

ive read the names of the 30 players del bosque nominated and of whom he chooses 23 for wc and bojan wasnt one of them.... am i wrong ? is he in?or what do u mean ?

didnt know about pato ... some coaches make some weird decisions

Official news: Villa finally joined Barça

40 mio more depts for barca ..well good transfer anyways.. nice player and fits to barca.. they shall sell ibra now and buy adler or neuer for their weird goalkeeper and i begin to love that team

[™]

See, that's the difference of Germany and the rest of the leagues.
In germany the newspaper are full with the newest transfer, a truly great transfer.

Welcome in the Bundesliga Afellay! Hamburg is gonna buy him for 9.000.000 and in our country it's like a sensation xD





About Villa, isn't true with 40 mio more depts. Have you heard about the CR-tactic of Perez? He already got the majority of 94 mio by selling trikots. A matter of marketing and I'm sure Villa will be the transfer-coup this season. So, get ready Barca-fanshops. Moreover the calculated 7 mio a' year for Villa is fish food. My question, is Villa able to play the left winger position?

[DianeSimmons]

ya i heard of the great tactic earning the 94 million by tricots and so on... =)
problem is .. everywhere u read " real earned 100 mio due tricots sales" .. its allways newspaper like "bild" or whatever.. real sold 1,2 mio CR tricots ~90 euro each ...
but theres a difference between sales and profit (umsatz/gewinn dunno the right english termes ) .. they earned like 20 mio i guess in total.
real sold 1 mio beckham tricots each year and earned about 15 mio in total. so that wont work if u add 94 mio + 13 mio yearly income -20 mio salleries (will be less every year)
(other points to add would be the interests on the 94 mio real has to pay cuz they didnt pay with their own money + the interests of their ~450 millions depts they have to pay
+ if u buy a CR trikot u wont buy another trikot probably which u would have bought anyways like a kaka tricot or sth....and so on and so on..this will never work )

another point in the villa case is ..he isnt the biggest star in the team.. hes a world star for sure.. but there will be more messi tricot buyer anyway.. he will have a little sallerie boom at the beginning .. but after some time he'll just sale as much as a xavi messi ibra iniesta and so on ...

well we will see

[™]

Ribery signs a new contract until 2015, 10 mio a' year. It's official now.
pedrin, remember our bet ^^

Ribery, who will miss the Champions League final against Inter Milan in Madrid on Saturday due to suspension, was expected to leave Bayern at the end of the season, eager to play for a major club in Spain or England.

Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United had reportedly shown interest.

The newspaper, citing club sources, said the new deal would be signed on Saturday when the 27-year-old Frenchman returns to Madrid from the French national training camp.

[ViCeN]

Real Madrid doesn't want Ribery since the prostitute scandal xD

[AtomSmasher]

Real Madrid doesn't want Ribery since the prostitute scandal xD

No, now they want the prostitute.

@pedrin --> delete a char

[pedrin]

no, it isnt official:
"The newspaper, citing club sources, said the new deal would be signed on Saturday when the 27-year-old Frenchman returns to Madrid from the French national training camp."

That is conditional, there is still a little hope. If newspapers are like in Spain = would be signed=welcome to real madrid

[Soulja]

He will be signed there is no doubt, u think Ribery cares about Bayern ? Ribery cares about Monney my friend, 10 millions a year are 10 million reasons why he should sign with Real

[Soulja]

ya i heard of the great tactic earning the 94 million by tricots and so on... =)
problem is .. everywhere u read " real earned 100 mio due tricots sales" .. its allways newspaper like "bild" or whatever.. real sold 1,2 mio CR tricots ~90 euro each ...
but theres a difference between sales and profit (umsatz/gewinn dunno the right english termes ) .. they earned like 20 mio i guess in total.
real sold 1 mio beckham tricots each year and earned about 15 mio in total. so that wont work if u add 94 mio + 13 mio yearly income -20 mio salleries (will be less every year)
(other points to add would be the interests on the 94 mio real has to pay cuz they didnt pay with their own money + the interests of their ~450 millions depts they have to pay
+ if u buy a CR trikot u wont buy another trikot probably which u would have bought anyways like a kaka tricot or sth....and so on and so on..this will never work )

another point in the villa case is ..he isnt the biggest star in the team.. hes a world star for sure.. but there will be more messi tricot buyer anyway.. he will have a little sallerie boom at the beginning .. but after some time he'll just sale as much as a xavi messi ibra iniesta and so on ...

well we will see

As i see you don't really know anything about Real Madrid, i think u forgot that Real is the richest club in the world, u forgot that Real have gotten so manny Champions league pokals that they don't need to worry about monney the next 200 years, real is still the club that is earning the most monney on Soccer Jerseys, and suviniers and they and barca even have their own ''chips'' so they sell so much they don't know what they should do with their monney, so ofc. they give a lot of monney for the worlds best players, and building the worlds best team (As it still is today).

[™]

It is official >_>
Or you had doubts about Villa <-> Barca after the president said these words in the radio? At least for me it was official, even if there was no entry in the homepage of Barca that Villa joins. Anyway, 2 days later it was published.

But unfortunately I'm not sure about Afellay, he's waiting for the new Hamburg-coach. Otherwise he will go to Sevilla.

[pedrin]

great nike, again
https://www.youtube.com/nikefootball

Well my favourites are Spain and England, but that means nothing.
Most of times Spain has great teams, everybody here is excited and then --> crash and go home soon. Its also true that several things have already cahnged, mainly our football players´mind. Now they think they can win, and most of them are in winner teams,( yes atom, sadly it goes mainly for BarÇa xd). imo we have the best team, far aways to the second, but italy, germany and brasil need almost 0 to be really dangerous teams.
My other favourite after Spain is England, Mr.capello is a great coach and they have also a good team, a pitty that lampard cant be at the end

Argentina forwards are also incredible: aguero-milito-messi-tevez-higuain, wth.But somehow they dont scare me so much

It ll be a great world cup, lets enjoy it

[ViCeN]

If we don't win this time, we won't do it never xD WE HAVE A FUCKING GOOD TEAM!!!
Casillas, Puyol, Piqué, Capdevila, Ramos, Xabi Alonso, Xavi, Iniesta, Silva, Villa and Torres. OMG xD

[ramix]

At first, Diego Milito the best!! I also have to name mourinhos work, he's a hard worker.
About the spanish league this year i think the revelation team is mallorca. When they started, they haven't buy any footballers and the footballers who were in the team had to earn less money to play because the club didn't have any money to pay them and they've finished 5th!!! IMPRESIONANT.
It's been a good football year.

[™]

Mourinho confirmed that he goes to Madrid in the german TV.
Gratz pedrin, there's no better coach for Madrid than Mourinho. He fits perfect to the club.

I'm scared that he will buy the lost son Robben xD

[ramix]

yes,mou is the perfect trainer to R. madrid. I can't explain it, but the styles fit each other perfectly.

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