The Ultimate Football Thread 2013-2014 Vol. 4 EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A etc

[fear the ibis]

If you don't like it, you don't like but I think people are crazy when they say it's boring to watch.

I'm not a Jose hater, but ever since his spells at RM & now back at Chelsea, his sides have been god awful to watch. This game was more the by product of Chelsea & less of Atleti. Atleti has been fun to watch this year more so than last year.

Watching Jose's teams for me is like watching a little old lady whose never driven a stick & given a Lambo to drive. Its like watching the old lady constantly grinding the gears & stalling out.

If you want to talk ugly football, his sides have been terrible to watch a lot of times. That's my opinion though. :roll eyes

His sides have also set EPL and La Liga records for goals scored in a season. He works with what he has.

 

[chiva1908]

Damn bros you guys went in. Sold Out!

NT United

 

[Coupé It]

How is 80% possesion while the other team sits backs and counters Barca's fault? Im not even gonna debate this. Your a Real Madrid homer and Im a Barca homer so its no use. Winning is the only thing that matters so I guess it worked for the "exciting teams".

I'm not a Real homer at all. How's what Barca's fault? That Atletico ran over them like they were little boys?

Yea I'd say that's Barca's fault. Were they not the other team on the field?

 

[fear the ibis]

TEAMtalk ‏@TEAMtalk 24 mins
Mourinho on Sunday's game v #LFC: "I would play with the players that are not going to play Wednesday. I have to speak with the club."

So Jose is resting everyone vs Liverpool. Might as well hand them the trophy now

 

[ajiiiplatinum]

I'm not a Real homer at all. How's what Barca's fault? That Atletico ran over them like they were little boys?

Yea I'd say that's Barca's fault. Were they not the other team on the field?

 

[tpfltxl]

 

Damn bros you guys went in. Sold Out!

NT United

lol lowkey mad I was late to the party 

 

[AZwildcats]

 

TEAMtalk ‏@TEAMtalk 24 mins
Mourinho on Sunday's game v #LFC: "I would play with the players that are not going to play Wednesday. I have to speak with the club."

So Jose is resting everyone vs Liverpool. Might as well hand them the trophy now

Might as well, we have a better chance at winning the Champion's League than the EPL. I'd like to see him play a competitive lineup though

 

[ajiiiplatinum]

I can understand if people don't like watching tiki taka football. I find the complaints come from mostly younger footy fans though or old English stalwarts that hate any footy outside the UK.

There have been so many great iterations of tiki taka. The best variations of this in this modern time period has been Aragones & del Bosque's Spanish teams, Pep's Barca teams, & I'd even throw in van Gaal's Bayern team (when he first got there).

The skill & discipline needed to make this work is crazy to think about. If you can't see the beauty of this, then I guess we'll all agree to disagree.

Look at the build up to the goal. Spain has Venezuela looking like a dog chasing it's tail.






One of my favorite examples of winning the ball & keeping it. Look how silly RM looks trying to gain back possession.






If you don't like it, you don't like but I think people are crazy when they say it's boring to watch.

I'm not a Jose hater, but ever since his spells at RM & now back at Chelsea, his sides have been god awful to watch. This game was more the by product of Chelsea & less of Atleti. Atleti has been fun to watch this year more so than last year.

Watching Jose's teams for me is like watching a little old lady whose never driven a stick & given a Lambo to drive. Its like watching the old lady constantly grinding the gears & stalling out.

If you want to talk ugly football, his sides have been terrible to watch a lot of times. That's my opinion though. :roll eyes

Good post.

A new soccer fan told me the other day that Barca doesnt let the other team play so he hates them for that (Liverpool fan). I told him so Barca should just give the other team the ball to make it more fun for everyone. Thats like asking a boxer to take some punches instead of whooping and knocking his under matched opponent.

Soccer aint tennis. Some play it that way cuz they cant keep possesion.

 

[Coupé It]

Dude you make it seem like Barca just out of nowhere were upset by Atletico and have just had a few bad breaks go against them this year. Thats the way you're coming off right now, when thats the furthest thing from the truth.

Like magically if Barca was in the semi-finals right now "soccer would be better". When that is not true.

 

[dlo13]

That was what I expected. Draw is a good result, however they got it. Still confident for the second leg but the two injuries are a problem.

Looking forward to the comedy of Terry going from suit to warmup to full kit when they lift the trophy again.

Play the youth squad at Liverpool. That trophy is gone, forget about it.

 

[flyeed]

Barca at times was like the Floyd Mayweather of soccer. They'd bait the opponent before striking and did so with crazy discipline while being the absolute best at their peak.

My fam pays for every Mayweather fight, and I anticipate and watch because it's witnessing greatness...

But just like I didn't find those Barca sides supremely entertaining, I don't find Mayweather that entertaining.

Doesn't mean I don't appreciate and respect what it takes though.

 

[Gex the Damaja]

The tiki taka playing style isn't popular with a lot of people, not just specific groups.

 

[Kimchi Papi]

Maradona '86 30 for 30 espn on right now...

 

[tsamshox]

Lightweight mad I missed on the soccer pro sale but finally got another home mufc kit for $30 good looks NT

 

[adrian1221]

View media item 933029

 

[flyeed]

View media item 933029

 

[AZwildcats]

View media item 933029

 

[mastamind89]

Chelsea's heat map

 

[Kimchi Papi]

I hit my rep limit so I'll have to hit you guys back later... Good stuff...

Couldn't resist the WSS United home shirt deal. Got one for the 'lil guy with his name & number. Sucks they only offered basic name & numbering. Anybody know where to get Barclay's patches from? Do you have to get youth sizes?

 

[tsamshox]

WSS order got canceled ******* beasts

 

[mastamind89]

Vieira: Pogba ahead of me at same age
April 22, 2014
RECOMMEND7TWEET1EMAILPRINT
By Ian Holyman, France Correspondent
Patrick Vieira believes that Juventus prodigy Paul Pogba is more advanced as a player than the former Arsenal great was at the same age.

• Pogba 'flattered' by PSG link

Pogba, 21, moved to Turin in 2012 after failing to break into the Manchester United first team. Since then he has made good on the potential that made him one of Europe's most sought-after talents when he was a young player at Le Havre's youth academy.

Paul Pogba
GettyImages
Pogba has established himself as one of Europe's brightest young talents at Juventus.
Pogba has already established himself in the France national team, and his dynamic midfield displays for Les Bleus have seen parallels drawn between himself and Vieira, who was part of France's 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000-winning squads.

Vieira, a three-time Premier League champion with Arsenal who left the Londoners in 2005 to join Juve, said Pogba is a more complete player than he was at the same stage of his career, which coincided with his early years in England.

"He's more technical and more at ease with the ball than I was at the same age," Vieira told beIN SPORTS. "It's easier for him to go forward. I was more concerned with defensive duties. He's more attack-minded, and takes part more in the team's play."

 

[ROYGBiV]

 

Man someone get this man out of Serie A for Roma's sake. 

 

[flyeed]

WSS order got canceled ******* beasts

Saw that cancellation email in my inbox, thought my shirt wouldn't come in but then saw it was just the one I ordered for my nephew

 

[mastamind89]

From spectacular to scandalous: Maradona's World Cup legacy
Posted by Roger Bennett

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Part I: “A foot more like the paw of a cat”

Few have used a World Cup as a platform to enthrall the planet. Fewer still have used the same tournament to self-destruct and sully their own name. No man has done both to such radical extremes as Diego Armando Maradona, the Argentine icon who, in a career of excess, utilized the World Cup as the stage for both his greatest triumph and shattering humiliation.

In 1986, the strutting No. 10 delivered the most virtuoso performance a World Cup has ever witnessed, inspiring an otherwise unexceptional Argentine team to victory. Just eight years later, El Diego tested positive for ephedrine doping (or fell victim to his thirst for an innocent energy drink called Rip Fuel, depending on whether you believe FIFA or the player himself) and flamed out midtournament.

Maradona’s career was always built on brilliance, blurred boundaries and spectacular overindulgence. Squat, impudent and omnipotent, the player was part urchin, part prince. Though just 5-foot-5, his low center of gravity made him one of the greatest dribblers in the game. A French broadcaster once described his inimitable control by suggesting his “foot was more like the paw of a cat.” Almost impossible to knock off the ball, Maradona knew his opponents would attempt to boot him off the field, yet he would always quickly dust himself off and demand the ball again, drawing strength from the knowledge he was draining defenders of their energy.

Part II: A Taste for Deceit

Maradona’s 1986 campaign is oft-celebrated, and for good reason. The firestarter propelled his team to victory by all means necessary. In a roiling quarterfinal against the English, played at the Azteca in the shadows of the Falklands conflict, he scored twice to seal a 2-1 victory. The first goal, when he used his left fist to reach over 6-foot-1 goalkeeper Peter Shilton and punch the ball into the net, became known as the "Hand of God" in Argentina, after the peacocking player poetically told reporters it had been scored "a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God." In England, it was referred to as the "Hand of the Devil."



Allsport
Maradona's spectacular individual effort vs. England was one of five goals he scored at the 1986 World Cup.
Four minutes later, while the English were still reeling, he scored a goal that even a deity would struggle to replicate. A spectacular 60-meter display of the gambetta, the Argentinian art of dribbling, in which the player propelled himself “like a little eel” (listen to this remarkable English radio commentary) past six England players, the last two of whom desperately tried to take out the man rather than the ball. After witnessing the feat, the startled Argentinian commentator could only proclaim, “Good god! Long live football! Cosmic Kite, what planet do you come from?”

Maradona's teammate, Jorge Valdano, would aptly later tell journalist Marcela Mora y Araujo that there are two elements to the art of the gambetta: “The first is ability: to show that I, with my foot, have the skill to do anything; the second is feinting, I have to deceive my opponent, make him believe exactly the opposite of what I'm going to do. This is also very Argentinian, the taste for deceit.”

Part III: “They will see the real Diego at the World Cup”

After Argentina were beaten in the final in 1990, Maradona’s 1994 World Cup was all about a taste for deceit: chaos begat by chaos. He had already worn out his welcome in Naples, the city that had embraced him like a deity after his 1984 eye-popping $11.8 million arrival delivered long-suffering Napoli fans their first Serie A titles.

The man Southern Italians hailed as “El Pibe De Oro” had ultimately fled Europe with his career imploding and personal life in meltdown. A 14-month ban earned in 1991 after testing positive for cocaine was the least of his problems. The player had been charged with smuggling $840,000 worth of the drug into Rome’s Fiumicino airport in 1990, and his reputation was further pockmarked by rumors of paternity suits, tax charges and intimate connections to Naples’ Camorra crime family.

A beleaguered, corpulent Maradona returned home to Buenos Aires in search of sanctuary. As he arrived, the notion the player was physically or mentally ready to lead the national team to the World Cup appeared as believable as a storyline from a Philip K. **** fantasy.

Within three weeks of Maradona’s return, the Argentinian media were summoned by police to rubberneck as the fallen icon’s home was raided. After being arrested for taking cocaine, he was ordered to kick the habit under medical supervision.

No writer, musician, artist or public figure in Argentina could match his international status. His myth-soaked life narrative proved it was possible to emerge from the poverty and trauma of the barrio to become globally revered. Back in 1990, President Carlos Menem had leveraged the player’s popularity amongst the Argentinian masses by appointing him the nation’s "ambassador to all the world of sport." Maradona used the diplomatic passport that had accompanied this symbolic role to walk free.

If a playing comeback was on, it began badly. A rehabilitation spell with Newell's Old Boys in the Argentine league ended prematurely after the now-bloated star failed to turn up for training. Maradona’s most accurate shots were those he fired from an air rifle at journalists doorstepping his home.

Though he had been ignored by the majority of pundits in the buildup to USA 1994, the star resurfaced sensationally on the eve of the tournament, having somehow shed 26 pounds in a month. His message was one of redemption. "I am tired of all those who said I was fat and no longer the great Maradona,” he proclaimed. “They will see the real Diego at the World Cup." The icon did not know how true those words would prove to be.

Part IV: “A lunatic, flying on a cocktail of adrenalin and every recreational drug known to man”

Even the U.S. Department of State turned a blind eye when it came to El Pibe. "There are certain agreements with the World Cup," an official said. “Now that doesn't guarantee anyone a visa, of course, but it does pretty much say we'll do what's within our effort to allow participants for the World Cup to come here.”

Age 33, the little warhorse prepared to drag his tattered body into battle one more time, and his fourth World Cup would begin against Greece at Foxboro Stadium. A light aircraft buzzed above the field pulling a banner that proclaimed "Maradona -- Prima Dona" ahead of the game, and the star lived up to his billing. In the 60th minute of the 4-0 victory, he received the ball in the box, jinked to his left, and rifled the ball into the top corner before celebrating the achievement in hopped-up style, grabbing a sideline television camera and pressing his maniacal mug against it. Tight-lipped after the game, Maradona would only declare “I'm letting my actions speak for themselves."


Diego Maradona
AP
Maradona faces the cameras following his positive drugs test at the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
Four days later, the player was selected for random drug testing after a 2-1 win against Nigeria, and FIFA quickly announced the Argentine had tested positive for five variants of ephedrine, an ingredient of over-the-counter cold medicines. "Maradona must have taken a cocktail of drugs because the five identified substances are not found in one medicine," said Dr. Michel d'Hooghe, a member of FIFA's executive committee.

The Guardian would later note the way Maradona had celebrated his goal against Greece was as conclusive as any drugs test: “Broadcast around the world, his contorted features made him look like a lunatic, flying on a cocktail of adrenalin and every recreational drug known to man.”

Part V: "The king is dead, we play on."

Faced with the disgrace of being expelled from the tournament, Maradona first sought pity on Argentinian television. “They killed me” he said. "They have retired me from soccer. I don't think I want another revenge, my soul is broken." He then proceeded to appeal to his nation’s easily fired-up paranoia, adamantly declaring, "They didn't beat us on the pitch. We were beaten off the pitch and that is what hurts my soul."

As the team moved on to meet Bulgaria in Dallas' Cotton Bowl, Maradona loyalists in the Argentine media seized on the idea of a conspiracy theory. FIFA dispatched Sepp Blatter, the organizations' general secretary, to smother any doubts. "The king is dead, we play on," he declared.

A shattered Argentinian squad mustered the requisite soundbites about "winning it for Diego." Yet leaderless and disoriented, they proceeded to wilt against Bulgaria -- losing 2-0 -- and were dispatched in by Gheorghe Hagi, Ilie Dumitrescu and the elegant Romanians in Round of 16.

The Independent newspaper injected a sense of rationale into the drama, opining, “What is surprising about the demise of Diego Maradona in this year's World Cup is not the discovery that he was caught using drugs and banned from the tournament ... The astonishing thing is that given the seriousness of the charges and convictions related to his drug habit in Italy, Maradona got to play in the World Cup in the first place.”

Even at his peak, painkilling injections had to be administered before he could take the field, and his untreated addictions were known to all.

Yet he could never be confined by reason. Back at the World Cup, when a suspended Maradona walked into the broadcast booth to watch his teammates take on Bulgaria, the stadium around him stood up in ovation. In contrast to Pele, the sports’ first human billboard whose well-documented imperfections as noted by The Guardian newspaper were airbrushed out so he could act the global pitchman, Maradona’s enduring popularity lay in his flaws, not despite them.

As the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano wrote, “He was a filthy god. A sinner. The most human of the deities. Anyone could see in a him a walking synthesis of human weaknesses.”

 

[mastamind89]

 

Man someone get this man out of Serie A for Roma's sake. 

Looks like some Juve fans, they don't want him to leave but they understand that the club could sell him for a large price. With that money, they could really reinvest in the squad. So for Roma's sake, lets hope that he has a really good WC and that PSG, Real or etc come through with a great offer