Full Version: General Football Talk
Yeah, I'd say Xavi deserves some recognition after all this time. An award wouldn't hurt. But if Messi wins, well, it would be truly deserved as well. I mean, 31 goals in 33 league games (+18 assists) and 12 goals in 13 CL games is incredible stuff. And unlike Ronaldo, he won them both, which is crucial in such occasions.
QUOTE
"There is a moderate risk of heat injury to the players between 24C-29C but if you go above that you have high and extreme risk of injury. The one thing Fifa do say, although it is for guidance, is if it's 32C they will stop a match and play three 30-minute thirds rather than two 45-minute halves.
Ha...last week I played in 36C. Thankfully the ref broke the game up into 4 15 minute quarters. Of course, this is a beginners' recreational co-ed league and not the World Cup.
Also, wow @ Balotelli. The word imbecile was invented for people like him.
Balo is a bit of a nut, but he has this comedic value about him. I think I'll miss him when he leaves England. 
QUOTE (servbot @ Jul 26 2011, 07:01 AM) 
Ha...last week I played in 36C. Thankfully the ref broke the game up into 4 15 minute quarters. Of course, this is a beginners' recreational co-ed league and not the World Cup.
Also, wow @ Balotelli. The word imbecile was invented for people like him.
Also, wow @ Balotelli. The word imbecile was invented for people like him.
Well, World Cup qualifiers for Brazil 2014 was played in Kuwait two days ago ... Temperature at night was 45C
FIFA didnt stop the game
I'd be ridiculously surprised if Messi doesn't win it to be honest. The inaugral award of course they will give it the one they want to win as oppose the one whom should (I'm talking about Xavi by the way).
QUOTE (kurtsimonw @ Jul 26 2011, 07:48 AM)
QUOTE (Milan Are Brilliant @ Jul 26 2011, 02:55 PM)
I'd be ridiculously surprised if Messi doesn't win it to be honest. The inaugral award of course they will give it the one they want to win as oppose the one whom should (I'm talking about Xavi by the way).
Don't quite want to, but agree.
It's just the way it is.
Top European clubs to threaten breakaway from UEFA/FIFA
I wish some of these teams would have the balls to try it. It's funny because it wouldn't work at all. All of these teams are successful because they're always top and they rely on that success to make them a big name. So what happens when teams like Liverpool are finishing bottom every year and losing every week? I would like to get rid of United, Chelsea, Liverpool and City in England though. Spurs spend far too much, but they never win anything anyways and Arsenal are just very well run. These 4 ruin the league with their stupid spending.
I wish some of these teams would have the balls to try it. It's funny because it wouldn't work at all. All of these teams are successful because they're always top and they rely on that success to make them a big name. So what happens when teams like Liverpool are finishing bottom every year and losing every week? I would like to get rid of United, Chelsea, Liverpool and City in England though. Spurs spend far too much, but they never win anything anyways and Arsenal are just very well run. These 4 ruin the league with their stupid spending.
Thought this was an interesting read.
AVB: Football Philosophy
AVB: Football Philosophy
QUOTE
The career of Andre Villas-Boas was famously launched by an encounter with Sir Bobby Robson in the Porto apartment block they shared.
Encouraged by Robson, Villas-Boas would write out detailed scouting reports and leave them for the great man in his post box.
Robson started to invite him to Porto’s training and informal coaching clinics that included Jose Mourinho.
Two years ago Villas-Boas had his own encounter with precocity. On March 27 2009 he went to the Cafe Maiorca in his home town to be interviewed by Daniel Sousa, a 24-year-old student in the faculty of sport at the University of Porto.
“He interviewed me when I was at Inter, assisting Jose,”explained Villas-Boas.
“It was for his university thesis. When I got the club job with Academica back in Portugal I invited him to come and scout for me because from what I saw and heard during the interview it appeared to me that this boy could go all the way, in terms of scouting and in terms of management.” Sousa flourished.
He now does the job Villas-Boas did for Mourinho at Chelsea, working as the opposition scout. Sousa has prepared the dossier on Stoke City that Villas-Boas will have used in preparation for his first competitive game in charge of his new club.
This Cafe Maiorca interview is the most comprehensive expression of Villas-Boas’ football philosophy. In it Villas-Boas explains his theories about how the game should be played and gives a fascinating and detailed insight in what to expect from his Chelsea team.
GLOSSARY
Circulation: the retention of possession by passing from player to player without taking risks.
Vertical: Up and down the pitch, from goal to goal.
Horizontal: Across the pitch, from touchline to touchline.
Transition: When possession is regained, the opportunity to counter-attack.
Low block: A team that defends with two deep banks of defenders and midfielders. Mourinho’s succinct term for it was “parking the bus”.
A FOOTBALL PHILOSOPHY
AVB: There are more spaces in football than people think. Even if you play against a low block team, you immediately get half of the pitch.
And after that, in attacking midfield, you can provoke the opponent with the ball, provoke him to move forward or sideways and open up a space. But many players can’t understand the game.
They can’t think about or read the game. Things have become too easy for football players: high salaries, a good life, with a maximum of five hours work a day and so they can’t concentrate, can’t think about the game.
Barcelona’s players are completely the opposite. Their players are permanently thinking about the game, about their movement, about how to provoke their opponent with the position of the ball.
DS: Does a top team need to dominate possession to win a match?
AVB: Not necessarily, for a simple reason. In Portugal we have this idea of match control based on ball circulation.
That’s what we in Portugal want to achieve in our football: top teams that dominate by ball possession, that push the opponent back to their area.
If you go find the top English teams pre-Arsene Wenger they tell you how to control a match in the opposite way without much ball possession, direct football, searching for the second ball.
Maybe now, controlling possession is the reference point for a top team, but that happens because they have much more quality players than the other teams, so it would be wrong not to take advantage of those individual skills.
DS: One thing Louis Van Gaal says is that you can control a match offensively and defensively but you must keep in control defensively you can also determine where your opponent will play on the pitch.
AVB: Yes, I agree. In that sense, yes. But the idea we now have in Portugal of match control is about having more ball possession than the opponent.
DS: Exactly, but match control has to result in scoring chances. That’s the only way it makes sense. There are teams that have like 60 per cent ball possession and that results in nothing at all.
AVB: That’s it. Match control always has to have a purpose, a main goal.
DS: And in that concept of match control, are there any sectors of the team more important than others?
AVB: Well, that depends on the mechanisms you want to use defensively and offensively. Let me give you an example.
Top teams nowadays don’t look to vertical penetration from their midfielders because the coach prefers them to stand in position (horizontally) and then use the movement of the wingers as the main source to create chances.
So, you, as a coach, have to know exactly what kind of players you have and analyse the squad to decide how you want to organise your team offensively. And then, there are maybe some players more important than others.
For instance, many teams play with defensive pivots, small defensive midfielders.
And, except Andrea Pirlo and Xabi Alonso, and maybe Esteban Cambiasso and one or two more, they are players that are limited to the horizontal part of the game: they keep passing the ball from one side to another, left or right, without any kind of vertical penetration.
Can’t you use your defensive midfielder to introduce a surprise factor in the match? Let’s say, first he passes horizontally and then, suddenly, vertical penetration?
THE INFLUENCE OF JOSE MOURINHO
AVB: There has been an evolution in football language and football analysis since Mourinho started to coach. There’s a different way of looking at a match, a different way of doing technical analysis.
People have started to look beyond the formation, and started talking about the dynamics within the team and how they’re more important than the team’s formation.
TALKING TACTICS
DS: What’s the difference between playing with three or four midfielders?
AVB: Rafa Benitez created a 4-4-2 much more dynamic than the usual English 4-4-2. Because he introduced speed in ball possession, he gave it variation between vertical and horizontal passes.
The usual classic English 4-4-2 is more basic: a penetrating midfielder and another one that stays in position; a winger who moves inside and another one who stays wide; a full back who overlaps and another one who covers the defence.
If you talk about a 4-4-2 diamond, that’s totally different. You play with two pivotal midfielders, one defensive and one offensive, so it creates many more problems for your opponent.
Defensively, though, you take a great risk of ceding too much space because you are very central and you lack width. You have to create compensation mechanisms.
Me, I’m a 4-3-3 fan, not 4-4-2. I don’t see how a classic 4-4-2 could work in the Spanish league, where every team plays 4-3-3 and the superiority of the midfield has become crucial.
What Mourinho did with Chelsea with his 4-3-3 was something never seen before: a dynamic structure, aggressive, with aggressive transitions...and then there is Barca’s 4-3-3, which wouldn’t work in England, because of the higher risk of losing the ball.
If you have midfielders like Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard you don’t want your forwards to come and play between lines, because Lampard and Gerrard have a large field of action and very often move in to those spaces.
Lampard was often irritated with Didier Drogba because Drogba wanted to receive the ball there but then, amazingly, his first touch was poor, so he lost the ball and we were exposed to a transition from the opponent.
So we had to limit Drogba from going there and ask him to play deeper.
BARCELONA’S TACTICAL MASTERPLAN
DS: Is good ball circulation essential in the attacking organisation of a top team?
AVB: Well, it’s essential to every team. Every team want to score. That’s the purpose of the game. Barcelona play horizontally only after a vertical pass. See how the centre backs go out with ball, how they construct the play. They open up (moving wider), so that the right or left-back can join the midfield line.
Guardiola has talked about it: the centre backs provoke the opponent, invite them forward then, if the opponent applies quick pressure the ball goes to the other central defender, and this one makes a vertical pass.
Not to the midfielders, who have their back turned to the ball, but to those moving between lines, Andres Iniesta or Lionel Messi, or even directly to the striker.
Then they play the second ball with short lay-offs, either to the wingers who have cut inside or the midfielders, who now have the game in front of them.
They have an enormous capacity not to lose the ball, to do things with an unbelievable precision.
Another thing about Barcelona, there is always a full-back who arrives earlier in the attack, the other stays in position initially but then progressively joins the attack, as the ball circulates on the other side of the pitch, so he can be a surprise element. When you least expect he arrives. He chooses the perfect timing for the overlap.
DS: Louis Van Gaal says a vertical pass is not a risk, but a horizontal pass is because when you make a horizontal pass you are much more open, more exposed in case you lose the ball.
AVB: Yes, that’s right. And there are differences between a horizontal pass and a slightly diagonal pass.
Something that used to happen a lot in England, when teams played 4-4-2, was that the central midfielders exchanged the ball between them in parallel passes so what we did with Lampard, or Liverpool did with Gerrard, was to try to cut into that space between the two midfielders with fast movement from Lampard.
If they got the ball there, there were already two opponents eliminated in the attacking transition.
DEALING WITH DEFENSIVE TEAMS
DS: How do you attack a team that plays with an ultra-low block?
AVB: Let’s see. Juventus play with an ultra-low block, they don’t put any pressure on you high up the field. Nowadays most teams don’t. It can limit you because they control the space behind them with perfect offside timing.
They limit your vertical passes as well because they are all grouped within 30 or 40 metres, completely closed in two lines of four plus the two forwards.
So you start constructing “short”, begin the attacking process with your centre-backs of full-backs carrying the ball forward to the midfield area but then you want to pass the ball to the midfielders and you don’t know how to do it, because there is an ultra-limited space, everything is completely closed.
DS: So what to do?
AVB: You have to provoke them with the ball, which is something most teams can’t do. I cannot understand it. It’s an essential factor in the game.
At this time of ultra-low defensive block teams, you will have to learn how to provoke them with the ball. It’s the ball they want, so you have to defy them using the ball as a carrot.
Louis Van Gaal’s idea is one of continuous circulation, one side to the other, until the moment that, when you change direction, an space opens up inside and you go through it.
So, he provokes the opponent with horizontal circulation of the ball, until the moment that the opponent will start to pressure out of despair. What I believe in is to challenge the rival by driving the ball into him.
That’s something Pep Guardiola believes is decisive. And that’s something that Henk ten Cate also took to Avram Grant’s Chelsea. He took it with him form Frank Rijkaard’s Barcelona. We did it differently at Chelsea under Mourinho.
Our attacking construction was different, with the ball going directly to the full-backs or midfielders. With Ten Cate, play was started with John Terry or Ricardo Carvalho, to invite the opponent’s pressure. Then you had one less opponent in the next step of construction.
Encouraged by Robson, Villas-Boas would write out detailed scouting reports and leave them for the great man in his post box.
Robson started to invite him to Porto’s training and informal coaching clinics that included Jose Mourinho.
Two years ago Villas-Boas had his own encounter with precocity. On March 27 2009 he went to the Cafe Maiorca in his home town to be interviewed by Daniel Sousa, a 24-year-old student in the faculty of sport at the University of Porto.
“He interviewed me when I was at Inter, assisting Jose,”explained Villas-Boas.
“It was for his university thesis. When I got the club job with Academica back in Portugal I invited him to come and scout for me because from what I saw and heard during the interview it appeared to me that this boy could go all the way, in terms of scouting and in terms of management.” Sousa flourished.
He now does the job Villas-Boas did for Mourinho at Chelsea, working as the opposition scout. Sousa has prepared the dossier on Stoke City that Villas-Boas will have used in preparation for his first competitive game in charge of his new club.
This Cafe Maiorca interview is the most comprehensive expression of Villas-Boas’ football philosophy. In it Villas-Boas explains his theories about how the game should be played and gives a fascinating and detailed insight in what to expect from his Chelsea team.
GLOSSARY
Circulation: the retention of possession by passing from player to player without taking risks.
Vertical: Up and down the pitch, from goal to goal.
Horizontal: Across the pitch, from touchline to touchline.
Transition: When possession is regained, the opportunity to counter-attack.
Low block: A team that defends with two deep banks of defenders and midfielders. Mourinho’s succinct term for it was “parking the bus”.
A FOOTBALL PHILOSOPHY
AVB: There are more spaces in football than people think. Even if you play against a low block team, you immediately get half of the pitch.
And after that, in attacking midfield, you can provoke the opponent with the ball, provoke him to move forward or sideways and open up a space. But many players can’t understand the game.
They can’t think about or read the game. Things have become too easy for football players: high salaries, a good life, with a maximum of five hours work a day and so they can’t concentrate, can’t think about the game.
Barcelona’s players are completely the opposite. Their players are permanently thinking about the game, about their movement, about how to provoke their opponent with the position of the ball.
DS: Does a top team need to dominate possession to win a match?
AVB: Not necessarily, for a simple reason. In Portugal we have this idea of match control based on ball circulation.
That’s what we in Portugal want to achieve in our football: top teams that dominate by ball possession, that push the opponent back to their area.
If you go find the top English teams pre-Arsene Wenger they tell you how to control a match in the opposite way without much ball possession, direct football, searching for the second ball.
Maybe now, controlling possession is the reference point for a top team, but that happens because they have much more quality players than the other teams, so it would be wrong not to take advantage of those individual skills.
DS: One thing Louis Van Gaal says is that you can control a match offensively and defensively but you must keep in control defensively you can also determine where your opponent will play on the pitch.
AVB: Yes, I agree. In that sense, yes. But the idea we now have in Portugal of match control is about having more ball possession than the opponent.
DS: Exactly, but match control has to result in scoring chances. That’s the only way it makes sense. There are teams that have like 60 per cent ball possession and that results in nothing at all.
AVB: That’s it. Match control always has to have a purpose, a main goal.
DS: And in that concept of match control, are there any sectors of the team more important than others?
AVB: Well, that depends on the mechanisms you want to use defensively and offensively. Let me give you an example.
Top teams nowadays don’t look to vertical penetration from their midfielders because the coach prefers them to stand in position (horizontally) and then use the movement of the wingers as the main source to create chances.
So, you, as a coach, have to know exactly what kind of players you have and analyse the squad to decide how you want to organise your team offensively. And then, there are maybe some players more important than others.
For instance, many teams play with defensive pivots, small defensive midfielders.
And, except Andrea Pirlo and Xabi Alonso, and maybe Esteban Cambiasso and one or two more, they are players that are limited to the horizontal part of the game: they keep passing the ball from one side to another, left or right, without any kind of vertical penetration.
Can’t you use your defensive midfielder to introduce a surprise factor in the match? Let’s say, first he passes horizontally and then, suddenly, vertical penetration?
THE INFLUENCE OF JOSE MOURINHO
AVB: There has been an evolution in football language and football analysis since Mourinho started to coach. There’s a different way of looking at a match, a different way of doing technical analysis.
People have started to look beyond the formation, and started talking about the dynamics within the team and how they’re more important than the team’s formation.
TALKING TACTICS
DS: What’s the difference between playing with three or four midfielders?
AVB: Rafa Benitez created a 4-4-2 much more dynamic than the usual English 4-4-2. Because he introduced speed in ball possession, he gave it variation between vertical and horizontal passes.
The usual classic English 4-4-2 is more basic: a penetrating midfielder and another one that stays in position; a winger who moves inside and another one who stays wide; a full back who overlaps and another one who covers the defence.
If you talk about a 4-4-2 diamond, that’s totally different. You play with two pivotal midfielders, one defensive and one offensive, so it creates many more problems for your opponent.
Defensively, though, you take a great risk of ceding too much space because you are very central and you lack width. You have to create compensation mechanisms.
Me, I’m a 4-3-3 fan, not 4-4-2. I don’t see how a classic 4-4-2 could work in the Spanish league, where every team plays 4-3-3 and the superiority of the midfield has become crucial.
What Mourinho did with Chelsea with his 4-3-3 was something never seen before: a dynamic structure, aggressive, with aggressive transitions...and then there is Barca’s 4-3-3, which wouldn’t work in England, because of the higher risk of losing the ball.
If you have midfielders like Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard you don’t want your forwards to come and play between lines, because Lampard and Gerrard have a large field of action and very often move in to those spaces.
Lampard was often irritated with Didier Drogba because Drogba wanted to receive the ball there but then, amazingly, his first touch was poor, so he lost the ball and we were exposed to a transition from the opponent.
So we had to limit Drogba from going there and ask him to play deeper.
BARCELONA’S TACTICAL MASTERPLAN
DS: Is good ball circulation essential in the attacking organisation of a top team?
AVB: Well, it’s essential to every team. Every team want to score. That’s the purpose of the game. Barcelona play horizontally only after a vertical pass. See how the centre backs go out with ball, how they construct the play. They open up (moving wider), so that the right or left-back can join the midfield line.
Guardiola has talked about it: the centre backs provoke the opponent, invite them forward then, if the opponent applies quick pressure the ball goes to the other central defender, and this one makes a vertical pass.
Not to the midfielders, who have their back turned to the ball, but to those moving between lines, Andres Iniesta or Lionel Messi, or even directly to the striker.
Then they play the second ball with short lay-offs, either to the wingers who have cut inside or the midfielders, who now have the game in front of them.
They have an enormous capacity not to lose the ball, to do things with an unbelievable precision.
Another thing about Barcelona, there is always a full-back who arrives earlier in the attack, the other stays in position initially but then progressively joins the attack, as the ball circulates on the other side of the pitch, so he can be a surprise element. When you least expect he arrives. He chooses the perfect timing for the overlap.
DS: Louis Van Gaal says a vertical pass is not a risk, but a horizontal pass is because when you make a horizontal pass you are much more open, more exposed in case you lose the ball.
AVB: Yes, that’s right. And there are differences between a horizontal pass and a slightly diagonal pass.
Something that used to happen a lot in England, when teams played 4-4-2, was that the central midfielders exchanged the ball between them in parallel passes so what we did with Lampard, or Liverpool did with Gerrard, was to try to cut into that space between the two midfielders with fast movement from Lampard.
If they got the ball there, there were already two opponents eliminated in the attacking transition.
DEALING WITH DEFENSIVE TEAMS
DS: How do you attack a team that plays with an ultra-low block?
AVB: Let’s see. Juventus play with an ultra-low block, they don’t put any pressure on you high up the field. Nowadays most teams don’t. It can limit you because they control the space behind them with perfect offside timing.
They limit your vertical passes as well because they are all grouped within 30 or 40 metres, completely closed in two lines of four plus the two forwards.
So you start constructing “short”, begin the attacking process with your centre-backs of full-backs carrying the ball forward to the midfield area but then you want to pass the ball to the midfielders and you don’t know how to do it, because there is an ultra-limited space, everything is completely closed.
DS: So what to do?
AVB: You have to provoke them with the ball, which is something most teams can’t do. I cannot understand it. It’s an essential factor in the game.
At this time of ultra-low defensive block teams, you will have to learn how to provoke them with the ball. It’s the ball they want, so you have to defy them using the ball as a carrot.
Louis Van Gaal’s idea is one of continuous circulation, one side to the other, until the moment that, when you change direction, an space opens up inside and you go through it.
So, he provokes the opponent with horizontal circulation of the ball, until the moment that the opponent will start to pressure out of despair. What I believe in is to challenge the rival by driving the ball into him.
That’s something Pep Guardiola believes is decisive. And that’s something that Henk ten Cate also took to Avram Grant’s Chelsea. He took it with him form Frank Rijkaard’s Barcelona. We did it differently at Chelsea under Mourinho.
Our attacking construction was different, with the ball going directly to the full-backs or midfielders. With Ten Cate, play was started with John Terry or Ricardo Carvalho, to invite the opponent’s pressure. Then you had one less opponent in the next step of construction.
QUOTE (kurtsimonw @ Aug 14 2011, 04:40 PM)
Thought this was an interesting read.
AVB: Football Philosophy
AVB: Football Philosophy
Brilliant find kurt
Can you please site the source ?
It was from The Telegraph?.
Thank you
TVGOLO - Best Goals of the Week: http://youtu.be/P0InsK9EOKE
QUOTE (Jack Bauer @ Aug 26 2011, 04:31 PM)
TVGOLO - Best Goals of the Week: http://youtu.be/P0InsK9EOKE
Awesome. Thanks! The 1st one is really cool.
Good read,thanks Kurt.
Not sure if anyone posted this before - crazy Thai keeper
QUOTE (Fillipo Simone @ Aug 30 2011, 11:45 PM)
Not sure if anyone posted this before - crazy Thai keeper
The player's reaction though was worth the "Sergio Busquetes" honor.
He could have really hurt, I mean, it's not like he had to sell it... he could have stood up and walked away, the ref would have still given the goalkeeper a red card.
10 years ago today.
Doesn't seem that long ago at all, where's 9/11 seems forever ago and that was more recent! One of the greatest England performances of all time, Owen was magic and even Heskey scored! Can't imagine the Germans get beat like that in their own back yard very often.
Doesn't seem that long ago at all, where's 9/11 seems forever ago and that was more recent! One of the greatest England performances of all time, Owen was magic and even Heskey scored! Can't imagine the Germans get beat like that in their own back yard very often.
I remember it,...what a tragedy.
Yeah, well, that was the most horrible German team since Siegfired and Roy. Janker, old Linke, Wörns and even Marco Rehmer. That was a dark age for German football. But we made the necessary changes and are back on our feet again. Unlike the English team 
Hey, we've won just as much as you since then!
At least we made it to every Euro since then
We just decided to watch from home rather than go and fail. It made watching you lot lose in the Final better since our failure had been long forgotten. 
As well as your failure in 2010? 
Oh well, refs doing you a favour was going to get us beat eventually. Though it back-fired in '66 and earned Sir Geoff his hat-trick, so I'll take that.
QUOTE
Fifa President Sepp Blatter has revealed he will present detailed anti-corruption reforms in October.
Blatter promised to clean up world football when he was re-elected unopposed in June to get a fourth and final four-year presidential term.
His former election rival Mohamed bin Hammam withdrew from the race amid bribe allegations. The Qatari is currently appealing a life ban.
"I will announce a road map of where we go and when we go," Blatter announced.
"It was a very difficult year. Now I am working on different items and I will present to the executive committee of Fifa during the meeting."
The bribery scandal also exiled Fifa vice president Jack Warner, as the Trinidad and Tobago government official resigned rather than face football's justice.
Fifa is also investigating 16 Caribbean officials for allegedly accepting $40,000 cash payments and has warned that more cases could follow.
Blatter chairs the 24-man panel which can change some anti-corruption rules, though altering Fifa's statutes must wait for approval from 208 national members at its Congress next May in Budapest.
Blatter promised to clean up world football when he was re-elected unopposed in June to get a fourth and final four-year presidential term.
His former election rival Mohamed bin Hammam withdrew from the race amid bribe allegations. The Qatari is currently appealing a life ban.
"I will announce a road map of where we go and when we go," Blatter announced.
"It was a very difficult year. Now I am working on different items and I will present to the executive committee of Fifa during the meeting."
The bribery scandal also exiled Fifa vice president Jack Warner, as the Trinidad and Tobago government official resigned rather than face football's justice.
Fifa is also investigating 16 Caribbean officials for allegedly accepting $40,000 cash payments and has warned that more cases could follow.
Blatter chairs the 24-man panel which can change some anti-corruption rules, though altering Fifa's statutes must wait for approval from 208 national members at its Congress next May in Budapest.
Does this mean you'll step down then?
QUOTE (kurtsimonw @ Sep 1 2011, 04:28 PM)
Hey, we've won just as much as you since then!
Did you? Germany has 1 WC silver and a Euro silver + 2 WC bronze medals. Maybe you don't count it, but I do
QUOTE (Fillipo Simone @ Sep 1 2011, 08:24 PM)
Did you? Germany has 1 WC silver and a Euro silver + 2 WC bronze medals. Maybe you don't count it, but I do
Of course they count. Germany has been really good in the last decade in terms of achievements. England has been absolute rubbish.
EDIT: I'm not going to get into this again.
Let us enjoy our historical results dammit!
Let us enjoy our historical results dammit!
You suck! A bunch of nobodies with limited footballing ability won a gold in 2004!
And a German coach
Rehhagel . Probably the biggest thing a coach ever achieved. Limited defensive football, but it worked.
. Probably the biggest thing a coach ever achieved. Limited defensive football, but it worked.
Tv money comparison:
No wonder La Liga looks like Scotland.
They should learn from other top leagues.
No wonder La Liga looks like Scotland.
They should learn from other top leagues.
^ Where's Serie A in there?
Jesus, that's awful.
Why don't the la Liga teams just refuse to play until there's some sort of parity? Though La Liga would probably be happy to have Barca-madrid every week.
Why don't the la Liga teams just refuse to play until there's some sort of parity? Though La Liga would probably be happy to have Barca-madrid every week.
QUOTE (X-Offender @ Sep 2 2011, 08:52 PM)
^ Where's Serie A in there?
In Italy there's a different system: 40% of the total revenue divided between all 20 teams, 30% divided on the basis of fan base size, the remaining 30% is split on sporting merit rated over a number of years, by judging on the teams performance in the league.
The grand opening of Kiev stadium (will host the finals of EURO 2012) yesterday after the end of reconstructions.
All EURO 2012 Stadiums: http://youtu.be/71Uqd6EkSzI
All EURO 2012 Stadiums: http://youtu.be/71Uqd6EkSzI
Mouthwatering. Epic is the word for it, I just love modern stadiums. Architectural marvels.
Epic is the word for it, I just love modern stadiums. Architectural marvels.
KEY
Bundesliga
Serie A
La Liga
Premier League
Ligue 1
More long balls = more goals? Goes a long way to explaining why Germany score so many I suppose.
I wonder if there was a stat for how many goals on average are conceded too.
QUOTE
International qualifiers will be played across six days between Thursdays and Tuesdays from 2014 to maximise TV coverage and broadcast income, UEFA have announced.
The move will see national teams having just a two-day break between matches in World Cup and European Championship double-headers, in what is being dubbed The Week of Football.
Teams will play either Thursdays and Sundays, Fridays and Mondays, or Saturdays and Tuesdays. Most double-headers are currently being played on Fridays and Tuesdays - leaving the weekends without football.
UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino told the Leaders in Football conference in London: "You can play every three days - it's what happening in club football all year long so that's not a problem.
"This has been unanimously supported by all 53 national associations.
"If we leave the weekend to other sports then in the medium and long-term it will be damaging."
The move coincides with UEFA selling TV rights collectively across Europe and providing national associations with guaranteed income.
Infantino said there would be no clash with the clubs - and that there would in fact be fewer international breaks overall.
He added: "This is an important step to promote national team football and the whole of football will benefit.
"It is within the framework of the international football calendar, so no additional dates will be required whatsoever.
"If you do not have national teams playing on Saturdays and Sundays then it's a pity. If England are playing on a Friday then fans can watch Spain, France or Germany at the weekends."
Infantino said there would also be a proposal to lose the August friendly date, and combine the November and March friendly dates into one double-header.
Mirror Football
The move will see national teams having just a two-day break between matches in World Cup and European Championship double-headers, in what is being dubbed The Week of Football.
Teams will play either Thursdays and Sundays, Fridays and Mondays, or Saturdays and Tuesdays. Most double-headers are currently being played on Fridays and Tuesdays - leaving the weekends without football.
UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino told the Leaders in Football conference in London: "You can play every three days - it's what happening in club football all year long so that's not a problem.
"This has been unanimously supported by all 53 national associations.
"If we leave the weekend to other sports then in the medium and long-term it will be damaging."
The move coincides with UEFA selling TV rights collectively across Europe and providing national associations with guaranteed income.
Infantino said there would be no clash with the clubs - and that there would in fact be fewer international breaks overall.
He added: "This is an important step to promote national team football and the whole of football will benefit.
"It is within the framework of the international football calendar, so no additional dates will be required whatsoever.
"If you do not have national teams playing on Saturdays and Sundays then it's a pity. If England are playing on a Friday then fans can watch Spain, France or Germany at the weekends."
Infantino said there would also be a proposal to lose the August friendly date, and combine the November and March friendly dates into one double-header.
Mirror Football
In theory it could be a decent idea.
I think the biggest criticism of International football is the lack of games at weekends as mentioned in the article. This will certainly go some way to give people football to watch. Personally I back the idea. I rarely get to watch other European nations plays as they likely play the same time as England. the idea of possibly being able to watch England, Italy, Spain, Germany, etc. every International week sounds pretty decent.
This is one idea that's all about money that I can accept.
I'm hearing in a Bucharest game, a fan ran onto the pitch then punched a player? Then the players on that team caught up with him before the stewards and started kicking him to the floor? WTF?
Plus someone got hit by a firecracker?
Edit: Here's some video
Plus someone got hit by a firecracker?
Edit: Here's some video
Welcome to the Balkans
QUOTE (Fillipo Simone @ Oct 31 2011, 12:03 PM)
Welcome to the Balkans
Amen.
That's horrible 
Oh look, Eastern Europe trying to wipe out something they dont want in their country..
QUOTE (kurtsimonw @ Nov 13 2011, 02:45 AM)
Oh look, Eastern Europe trying to wipe out something they dont want in their country..
What?
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