The Ultimate Soccer Thread 2011-2012. VOL 2 (EPL,LFP, SERIE A, BUND, ETC.)

[nawlinsjunkie]

Originally Posted by CryingFreemancoa

the whole Real Madrid team besides Ronaldo and Ramos was acting like goons

In the past I used to respect Real Madrid even though they were rivals. Nowadays it's just this classless nonsense that they bring to every match against Barca....

Were people really asking why Barca dives against RM last year? Maybe it has to do with all the thug @#$% RM does whenever the ref's not looking

Pepe, Ramos (today he wasn't bad), Carvalho, and Marcelo always get away with sneaky,dirty @##$ during a game. Now they even got two players I used to like in the past (Coentrao and Alonso) doing that @#$% too. Pepe makes me ashamed to be a Portuguese national team fan, and at least Carvalho got his @#$@% @#$ kicked off the squad. I used to hate Ronaldo with a passion, but he's been playing more maturely (less diving and antics) and put up a respectable performance in the first half today (even though his goal only went in because of Pinto's mistake).

Don't get me wrong, I hate Dani Alves and Busquets for their theatrics, but what I saw today was a @#$@$@ disgrace...also doesn't help that dudes on other boards are posting @#$% like "The Portuguese are the dirtiest players in the world" even though Pepe is Brasilian

I wish we could bench him for entire Euro 12 tournament. I don't care if we get our @#$ kicked as long as we play respectfully and fairly

 

[mastamind89]

Originally Posted by nawlinsjunkie

Originally Posted by CryingFreemancoa

the whole Real Madrid team besides Ronaldo and Ramos was acting like goons

In the past I used to respect Real Madrid even though they were rivals. Nowadays it's just this classless nonsense that they bring to every match against Barca....

Were people really asking why Barca dives against RM last year? Maybe it has to do with all the thug @#$% RM does whenever the ref's not looking

Pepe, Ramos (today he wasn't bad), Carvalho, and Marcelo always get away with sneaky,dirty @##$ during a game. Now they even got two players I used to like in the past (Coentrao and Alonso) doing that @#$% too. Pepe makes me ashamed to be a Portuguese national team fan, and at least Carvalho got his @#$@% @#$ kicked off the squad. I used to hate Ronaldo with a passion, but he's been playing more maturely (less diving and antics) and put up a respectable performance in the first half today (even though his goal only went in because of Pinto's mistake).

Don't get me wrong, I hate Dani Alves and Busquets for their theatrics, but what I saw today was a @#$@$@ disgrace...also doesn't help that dudes on other boards are posting @#$% like "The Portuguese are the dirtiest players in the world" even though Pepe is Brasilian

And the way Mourinho acts at times too

Being one twitter and following EPL players, majority of them were tweeting as the game was going 

 

sums up their reactions. Dudes are so grimey. I agree with Coentrao and Alonso, they were nice guys but are on the dark side now. Ramos was civil today, in past games....these dudes play for their respective national teams, well  good portion. So you think there would be some mutual respect

 

[nawlinsjunkie]

Originally Posted by Mastamind89

Originally Posted by nawlinsjunkie

Originally Posted by CryingFreemancoa

the whole Real Madrid team besides Ronaldo and Ramos was acting like goons

In the past I used to respect Real Madrid even though they were rivals. Nowadays it's just this classless nonsense that they bring to every match against Barca....

Were people really asking why Barca dives against RM last year? Maybe it has to do with all the thug @#$% RM does whenever the ref's not looking

Pepe, Ramos (today he wasn't bad), Carvalho, and Marcelo always get away with sneaky,dirty @##$ during a game. Now they even got two players I used to like in the past (Coentrao and Alonso) doing that @#$% too. Pepe makes me ashamed to be a Portuguese national team fan, and at least Carvalho got his @#$@% @#$ kicked off the squad. I used to hate Ronaldo with a passion, but he's been playing more maturely (less diving and antics) and put up a respectable performance in the first half today (even though his goal only went in because of Pinto's mistake).

Don't get me wrong, I hate Dani Alves and Busquets for their theatrics, but what I saw today was a @#$@$@ disgrace...also doesn't help that dudes on other boards are posting @#$% like "The Portuguese are the dirtiest players in the world" even though Pepe is Brasilian

And the way Mourinho acts at times too

Being one twitter and following EPL players, majority of them were tweeting as the game was going 

 

sums up their reactions. Dudes are so grimey. I agree with Coentrao and Alonso, they were nice guys but are on the dark side now. Ramos was civil today, in past games....these dudes play for their respective national teams, well  good portion. So you think there would be some mutual respect

Yea I saw Wilshere and Rooney calling Pepe out

Earlier in the season, Casillas tried to create peace among the Spanish NT. He's friends with Fabregas, Puyol, and Xavi so he doesn't want things to get out of hand. Apparently this pissed Mourinho off

I respect the hell out of Casillas and am pretty sure that on the inside,  this isn't way he wants Real Madrid to represent themselves.
Some of my  Spanish friends are saying that Mourinho intentionally creates this hatred between the two sides to sabotage the national team so that Portugal can win in Euro 12

 

[MetalMario]

Gotta love my french players. Abidal real slick

First thought when I saw Marcelo was on the bench in the line up "I wonder who's gonna make up for his dirt to the game" Got my answer in Pepe haha

 

[mastamind89]

Originally Posted by nawlinsjunkie

Originally Posted by Mastamind89

Originally Posted by nawlinsjunkie


In the past I used to respect Real Madrid even though they were rivals. Nowadays it's just this classless nonsense that they bring to every match against Barca....

Were people really asking why Barca dives against RM last year? Maybe it has to do with all the thug @#$% RM does whenever the ref's not looking

Pepe, Ramos (today he wasn't bad), Carvalho, and Marcelo always get away with sneaky,dirty @##$ during a game. Now they even got two players I used to like in the past (Coentrao and Alonso) doing that @#$% too. Pepe makes me ashamed to be a Portuguese national team fan, and at least Carvalho got his @#$@% @#$ kicked off the squad. I used to hate Ronaldo with a passion, but he's been playing more maturely (less diving and antics) and put up a respectable performance in the first half today (even though his goal only went in because of Pinto's mistake).

Don't get me wrong, I hate Dani Alves and Busquets for their theatrics, but what I saw today was a @#$@$@ disgrace...also doesn't help that dudes on other boards are posting @#$% like "The Portuguese are the dirtiest players in the world" even though Pepe is Brasilian

And the way Mourinho acts at times too

Being one twitter and following EPL players, majority of them were tweeting as the game was going 

 

sums up their reactions. Dudes are so grimey. I agree with Coentrao and Alonso, they were nice guys but are on the dark side now. Ramos was civil today, in past games....these dudes play for their respective national teams, well  good portion. So you think there would be some mutual respect

Yea I saw Wilshere and Rooney calling Pepe out

Earlier in the season, Casillas tried to create peace among the Spanish NT. He's friends with Fabregas, Puyol, and Xavi so he doesn't want things to get out of hand. Apparently this pissed Mourinho off

I respect the hell out of Casillas and am pretty sure that on the inside,  this isn't way he wants Real Madrid to represent themselves.
Some of my  Spanish friends are saying that Mourinho intentionally creates this hatred between the two sides to sabotage the national team so that Portugal can win in Euro 12

N one is gonna want to

I totally forgot Casillas did that, yea major props to him. You would think others would be by his side, no club should want to represent themselves like that.

Coming from Mourinho that doesn't surprise me, I can see it happening

 

[jking0821]

Originally Posted by Mastamind89

Originally Posted by nawlinsjunkie

Originally Posted by CryingFreemancoa

the whole Real Madrid team besides Ronaldo and Ramos was acting like goons

In the past I used to respect Real Madrid even though they were rivals. Nowadays it's just this classless nonsense that they bring to every match against Barca....

Were people really asking why Barca dives against RM last year? Maybe it has to do with all the thug @#$% RM does whenever the ref's not looking

Pepe, Ramos (today he wasn't bad), Carvalho, and Marcelo always get away with sneaky,dirty @##$ during a game. Now they even got two players I used to like in the past (Coentrao and Alonso) doing that @#$% too. Pepe makes me ashamed to be a Portuguese national team fan, and at least Carvalho got his @#$@% @#$ kicked off the squad. I used to hate Ronaldo with a passion, but he's been playing more maturely (less diving and antics) and put up a respectable performance in the first half today (even though his goal only went in because of Pinto's mistake).

Don't get me wrong, I hate Dani Alves and Busquets for their theatrics, but what I saw today was a @#$@$@ disgrace...also doesn't help that dudes on other boards are posting @#$% like "The Portuguese are the dirtiest players in the world" even though Pepe is Brasilian

And the way Mourinho acts at times too

Being one twitter and following EPL players, majority of them were tweeting as the game was going 

 

sums up their reactions. Dudes are so grimey. I agree with Coentrao and Alonso, they were nice guys but are on the dark side now. Ramos was civil today, in past games....these dudes play for their respective national teams, well  good portion. So you think there would be some mutual respect

I am ashamed to admit I am a Real Madrid fan after this game.  I would just pass it off as "frustration" before.  Kept telling myself. "You keep losing to the same team no matter what you do, it must drive you insane".  But seriously Pepe?? Seriously?? there is no excuse for what he did.  Stepping on Messi's hand was one of the most bush league things i have ever seen. 

Anyway.....good game by barca....once again proving they are the best team in the world hands down....as if this needed any more proving.

 

[dlo13]

Barca scored on a corner?! Abidal scored?!

Weird Clasico, typical result.

 

[eiddyfouw]

Originally Posted by trunks206

Why the %%%* do I even watch football!? My day is *@$%%*# shot. Smh. I can handle losing if you give 100% but we didn't and we were COMPLETELY outplayed and out hustled for 95% of the match. Just not good enough. Credit to Swansea though.

This article answers this question perfectly...

It was the silence that did it. A nanosecond of silence between his first touch which killed the ball and his second touch that stroked it into the left hand corner of the Leeds goal. The silence was white noise, a breathless gasp as a perfectly written script played itself out on a cold Monday evening in January. Soon it gave way to a vociferous roar that sent audible fireworks crackling into the North London sky. Back on the pitch, pandemonium. Thierry Henryis beside himself. He’s primal, visceral, pounding his chest, his heart, his body now a slave to adrenaline and emotion. And we remember. We remember why it is we love this game. Why it is we toil with the insipid mundanity, the sickening partisan hatred, the monotonous controversy. It’s for moments like this one.

When explaining to a non-believer why we give a large portion of our lives to football it’s often hard to find the words. Football is, of course, a visual game. One which can’t be translated onto the page without losing some of its rawness. The arguments against football are endless; How can we watch twenty-two men chasing a ball for ninety minutes? How can we pay footballers hundreds of thousands of pounds a week for that? Where is the fun in standing in the rain for ninety-minutes watching a 0-0 draw?

And there’s not much we can say in our defense. We can try to stumble through a riposte, try to rationalize the obsession, but it all ends up sounding like the misguided ramblings of a mad man. So instead we just shut up and on Saturday morning we wake up once more, hopeful that today is the day our team does something that vindicates us.

As fans of a team we are patient. We wade through perpetual mediocrity and disappointment. We are always waiting. Waiting for our next fix, waiting for the next time something happens that stirs redolent thoughts of childhood, of being bereft of cynicism and the darkness that swells around the game all too often. After months of hearing aboutLuis Suarez, John Terryand the one-eyed tribalism that inspires myopic hatred, we need moments like last night.

Remember David Beckham’s free-kick versus Greece? Solskjear’s last-minute winner against Bayern Munich? Stan Collymore scoring the fourth goal against Newcastle? Michael Thomas charging through on goal at Anfield? How about Wembley in 1966? These are the reasons we watch football and the rarity of them are the reason they are special.

Football, you see, is a leveler. In its purest form it encapsulates everything good and bad about the human condition. During ninety minutes we are hopeful, nervous, angry, insulting, cruel, disappointed, hurt, bemused, excited, thrilled. And at its most powerful we are heartbroken, crushed, awed, and ecstatic. We are all these things, but we are never detached. We are alive. We are existing at a heightened level of feeling. Not many things in life can provide you with experiences so rich with colour and this is why we come back for more. It’s easy to stand in the rain on a cold Saturday afternoon watching a 0-0 draw play itself out before your eyes if you retain the hope that next week something might happen, that something glorious is coming soon.

So we wait. And people tell us it’s just a game and that it doesn’t matter. But we know it does matter.

Anything that produces such highs and such lows matters. It’s easy to get bogged down in the mud, to see footballers as overpaid, inarticulate buffoons. To see football itself as a business where fans are commodities and the game is a ##*@#. To see the hatred it inspires as something which outweighs anything else it can offer. But we carry on regardless. Because we know that one day soon it’ll be a cold Monday evening in January andThierryHenrywill return to the club he loves and score a 78th minute winner against Leeds. And it will matter.

http://the4thofficial.co.uk/2012/01/10/thierry-henry-reminds-us-why-we-love-football/

Btw...

 

[ham city]

Pepe disgust me

Xabi Alonso was on one yesterday too.

 

[thatpersianguy]

Pepe is trippin with that.

 

[gridebounca11]

bush league stuff by madrid. looked like their gameplan was to hurt messi. but that's what you get when your the king. its just peasants throwing rocks at the throne.

 

[champcruthik]

^ Mourinho's game-plan recently has always been to get physical with Messi, thus the reason for three holding midfielders in the starting 11 (Xabi Alonso, Lass, and Pepe). Pepe's actions obviously crossed the line, but the intent to disrupt Leo's rhythm and comfort level is actually smart. 
Nawlins, let's be honest you can't honestly justify Barca's diving tactics, last year in particular. As I posted above, Mourinho's very clear strategy is physical challenges to disrupt Barcelona's smooth passing and dominant control of possession. At first (CL first leg and Copa Final), I saw absolutely nothing wrong with Madrid's tactics. No other club or manager has discovered or established a game-plan close to Mourinho's in limiting Barca's effectiveness on the ball. Dani Alves' pathetic acting job in the first leg after Pepe's questionable challenge only heightened the intensity and rivalry. After that I feel Guardiola's players began diving more and selling calls per Pep's instruction as a direct counter to Mourinho's strategy. I'll also be the first Madrid fan to admit that our challenges have gradually become more rash and cynical. I won't even begin to defend Pepe's stomp on Messi's hand on Wednesday. Not that it's justified, but every football fan knows Pepe is perhaps the most hot-headed player on the pitch and constantly lets his temper get the best of him both for club and international duty. 

I can't agree with you about Xabi Alonso, if you watch carefully it seems both him and Cesc Fabregas were guilty of questionable reactions to events that occurred on the pitch throughout the match. 

I don't know exactly what Fabio Coentrao is thinking but I can imagine his behavior can be explained by a "group think" mentality. He's a new player on the squad finding his way into the starting 11 and probably just wants to earn the respect of his teammates. It's no different than a new pitcher retaliating against another team and hitting a batter. 

Valdes might have done better on Ronaldo's left footed shot, but I don't think he's saving it regardless. I'm glad you're one of the few to recognize Cristiano's new-found maturity and growth. He rarely dives and certainly complains about referee's decisions less than in the past.

I have no respect for the antics of Dani Alves, Sergio Busquets, or Pedro, given their past tendencies and record of diving against Madrid. 

Overall the Clasico has been more mild because of concerns over the Spanish NT. 

 

[dlo13]

De Gea to get Lasik surgery in order to stop looking with a putz on shots from distance.

 

[champcruthik]

^ Despite all the heavy criticism I believe De Gea has done quite well to handle the pressure at Old Trafford in only his first year at the ripe age of 21. Obviously he's made some youthful blunders but it's not like Fergie's defensive organization has been up to the standard Manchester United expects this season.
The scary thing is De Gea may be good even a world-class keeper one day, but Thibaut Courtois will be even better. 

 

[drewdioxin]

I wasn't sold on De Gea, the EPL is a different beast and if you don't adapt fast, you don't make it. As a keeper it's even more so, and Fergie doesn;t have a great track record of keeping underperforming keepers between the sticks. In all honesty, Lindeegard is our best bet.

 

[Sinner]

Whoa... 

 

[drewdioxin]

are those training tops? if those are jerseys Nike has finally lost their minds LOL. No way those ever release.

 

[imasoleman18]

 

[Sinner]

Rumored to be their kits for next season... Rumored.

 

[dlo13]

!!! is that?

 

[nawlinsjunkie]

No way in hell. Please, PLEASE don't let those be real. Getafe Burger King kits>>>>those

 

[thatpersianguy]

They would probably look better in real life cause it just looks like a cheap Photoshop gradient lol. But keep the same ones as last year with minimal change.

 

[imasoleman18]

bayern

 

[boys noize]

Nike has lost the plot with those kits. The ones on the right could be okay but those photoshop gradient ones?

 

[engoi]

Originally Posted by IMASOLEMAN18

bayern

Beaten 3:1 by a last season nearly relegated Gladbach.

Lucien Favre is a great coach, they don't play that attractive but they get their points.Looks like Greece 2004.


And the Tevez-saga continues.
Tevez refused to sign a contract with PSG for 10mil Euros/yr.
He prefers Inter or Milan.