***The Official World Soccer Thread***

I love AC and not a fan of Inter but the standings show Inter as 1 and AC as 5. I'm assuming you basing it off history correct?

 

Juve?

 

Not Internationally, AC rules in that deparment, while the Vecchia Signora rules locally... having said that one can only wish Roma kicks them butts more often.

 

Ooo. Never new that. I have never even heard of Vecchia Signora. I'll check out them right now and see what I can get. Hopefully Wiki doesn't screw me over and give false info lol. Thanks for the education.

 

Try the official site instead, I'm pretty sure they have info in english.

 

I love italiano fudbal. I like because they focus on defense. Dont get me wrong, I like attacking teams but sometimes I rather watch a hard nosed nil-nil game.

 

I love it too.

The match fixing is second to none, the creative genius and imaginative acumen of most players is impressive, and the banana throwing, swastika saluting fans are sheer class.

 

Very true, I believe there are a few PL teams involved in match fixing.

 

Not only in Europe my friend. Also in latin america. I think the match fixing is all over the world because involves a lot of interests, but was a huge issue in Italy because is one of the top leagues in the world IMO.

 

BTW Alen, Thanks for the info about Ronaldinho & Sheva.

 

Anytime my friend.

That's the only reason you dont see it being discussed in the news about match fixing in LA, which is basically what you said lol. Yeah I didn't know about LA have match fixing nor do I care about their soccer aside from national teams.

 

Btw, we should get this thread title changed to " World Soccer Thread" ..... we talk about everything but Liverpool and Arsenal.

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/8036880/Queiroz-warns-Madrid-off-Ronaldo

Manchester United assistant boss Carlos Queiroz has warned Real Madrid that even £96million ($190million)would not be enough to lure Cristiano Ronaldo away. "We would not sell him for €120million," Queiroz was reported as saying in Spanish newspaper Marca. "You can offer all the money in the world, but there is no amount that can buy him."

Wow lotta money to bid and still a no.

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/8037308/Brazil's-Romario-retires---this-time-for-good

Romario Retires.........again but for good.

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/8035602/One-killed,-several-injured-in-fan-riots-in-Serbia

"NOVI SAD, Serbia (AP) - One person was shot dead and several were injured during a massive brawl between rival Serbian soccer fans, police said Tuesday."

Ah, reminds me of Bosnia as well as Serbia lol.

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/8037250/AC-Milan-owner-still-hopes-to-sign-Ronaldinho

"ROME (AP) - AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi is still hoping to sign Ronaldinho from FC Barcelona.

Asked on a radio talk show Tuesday whether there is still a chance for the Brazil midfielder to join the Serie A club, Berlusconi responded "absolutely, yes."

 

Note: This article is about Bayern entering race for Flamini's rights.

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/8036870/Bayern-enter-race-for-Flamini

"The Gunners are desperate to retain the French ace, but, as yet, the 24-year-old has not penned a contract extension and he has already been linked with the likes of Juventus and AC Milan."




http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/8032302/Flamini-catching-Old-Lady's-eye

Note: The article above is about Juve weighing offers for Arsenal's Flamini.

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/8037246/Reports:-Atletico-coach-turns-down-Mexico-job

"MADRID, Spain (AP) - Atletico Madrid coach Javier Aguirre turned down Mexico's vacant coaching job, Spanish media reported Tuesday."

I dont understand why. That is a good job to take imo.

 

Arsenal playmaker Alexander Hleb is a summer transfer target for Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona, according to his agent."

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/8035628/Euro-giants-in-hunt-for-hot-Hleb

I hope not. I dont want to see Hleb leave lol I am a fan of him.

 

Not for him... he already had it. He was celebrated as the best one to hold it and doing it again and failingw ould only make him loose into the eyes of thousands of fans. Also the guy has made Atletico reach Champions League qualification and would get to play the Champions next year.

I wouldn't take it.

 

Fans of Roma and Lazio are famous for displaying swastika and making fun of players of african descent by throwing bananas and making monkey noices when they are making plays on the field.

Lazio actually has the history of having been Mussolini's favorite team and if you see their crest it is a very Fascist looking one due to that history (not that they are alone in that, Real Madrid was Franco's favorite team for example).

As for the style of play... it is boring and it should be outlawed... more specifically the 4-5-1 should be outlawed. (screw Rafa Benitez for making it so darn popular)

 

Personally, I am a fan of the more defensive oriented games. I think they are more intriguing to watch because of the physicality.

 

I hear you... but they are not. If I want to watch physical sports I watch American Football, what I want to do when I watch Football is watch beauty... they call it the beautiful game for a reason.

Lemme ask you this, would you rather sit and watch through game tapes of Pele's team in 1970 or The clockwork Orange in '74, or the '86 Argentinian team? or would you rather watch France and italy in the 2006 WC? Hands down you want to watch all the other teams. And why wouldn't you? A team who is predicated in removing the creativity of the game should not be commended, it should be insulted.

Catenaccio should be illegal.

 

Honestly, I couldn't answer that due to the early years of those games. But I will say there was a lot of scoring just because Pele and Maradona were involved. I am just a fan of a good defensive game. Dont get me wrong, I like watching games that have high scoring such as the Liverpool - Arsenal game that resulted with a 4-2 Liverpool win but I am a fan of defensive games that result in draws with no goals being scored. Fudbal to me is a beautiful game if its played defensively 90 minutes with a nil-nil draw or 5 total goals in 90 minutes, which is why it is my favorite thing to watch.

 

So the Italy Germany Semifinal was boring? That game had constant action on both sides.

What about Juve vs. Milan this past Saturday?

Italian teams take the pace out of the game when needed to. It's called being efficient and effective. Sure, there are going to be boring games that involve Italy and Italian teams. i.e. Juve Milan CL final in 2003, but then again there will be very exciting games like the WC semifinal, Milan Liverpool 2005, Milan Manchester semifinal last year, etc. Do you remember the Chelsea liverpool CL ties in the past few years? YAWNNNN How about the Valencia Madrid final of 2001? Yawnnn. That Brazil Germany final in 2002 was far from exciting. I could go on and on, but still people feel the need to knock Italian teams and call them defensive when they've moved far away from that in the past 5 years.

When it boils down, winning is winning, and if an Italian team can make an exciting team look boring, then they succeeded. When Milan made C. Ronaldo look ordinary and boring in last years CL semifinal, I thought that was beautiful.

And finally, this catenaccio talk has spun out of control. It rarely, if ever, takes place anymore.

Roma are one of the most exciting teams to watch in the world lately.
Inter have become a team full of superstar attackers and play a fast paced game.
Milan only produced the world's most exciting player in 2006-2007. The introduction of Pato and pursuit of Ronaldinho display what direction and style they'd like to play.
Juventus has posted 4-5 goal thrillers in almost every game the past 2-3 months.
Fiorentina are in the semi's of the Uefa cup and the Mutu Pazzini combo are scoring prolific goals at a breathtaking rate.

 

I give you that at the club level it is not the same. Inter was one of the nicest clubs to watch mid year and I am a Roma follower after all... but the national team is still utterly boring unfortunately and still plays catenaccio... I am just against that (for that matter I also hate how Liverpool plays, and have great disdain for Luis Felipe Scolari's Portuguese teams which are also boring as can be).

Its not about scoring goals, one of the best games I ever saw was the Juve-Real Madrid finals of the Champions league when Real had its first batch of galacticos. And the result was 1-0. I just want a game that is meant to be forward, a revolutionary thinking that is not about taking away the pace but dictating a pace.

I am against 5-4-1's and 4-5-1's I'm of the dutch school of thought, you send a 4-3-3 and you attack attack attack.

 

I agree with the bold, thats what I was trying to state in my last post ( the one above yours).

 

I guess we have different tastes in soccer or something lol. You do make good points though but to me, soccer is beautiful no matter how the game is played. Again thats just my opinion.

 

Oh I agree, it is the most awesome game out there, Nothing beats playing it, and only American football can be as good watching it.

BUt I swear I much rather watch Brazil-Argentina than Italy-France

 

I agree with your comments in the first line. In the second, to me its fine either. If I had to choose, I would likely go with the same pick as you because I love watching both Brazil and Argentina play, and I'm not as big of a fan of France as I am of Brazil and Argentina.

 

I guess some italiano fans are like bosnian and serbian fans in fudbal. The fans in the front rows tend to have racial slurs toward the opposing teams players. I believe that "swastika" is throughout Europe. All fans unfortunately seem to disrespect others due to their race which is completely unnecessary.