Any REAL football fans here? (Page 10)

Spokes,

You are a little late to that discussion.  Happened on page 1 I think.

So Liverpool won yesterday against Real.  But Man U drew 0-0 on Tuesday.  Good for us.  I guess.  Chelsea won, but not surprise.  I also saw that Barcelona squeaked one out with a late Henry header. 

Any Champions League predictions as the final 16 go into the second leg of play?

Thanks to modern technology I was able to watch 4 games....summary:

Inter / Manure - Manure should have won handily..they missed a lot of chances. Inter looked less than impressive..is the Serie A over rated? - Plus Moaninho was at it again blaming the refs....just STFU Jose....-second leg - 3-0 Manure ( that was hard to type!)

Chelsea / Juve - I'm a little bias since Juve is my Italian favourite - that said - it should have been a tie at least..a precarious 1 goal lead for Chelski....I think they go out..Juve 2-0 second leg 

Real Madrid / 'pool - a good on the job interview for Rafa..good away win - not much quality on either side - second leg - 1-1  pool advance

Last - the Barca game vs Lyon - thought Barca would kill them but Lyon looked ok - Future Manure player Benzema ( isn't that for acne or psriorsis? ) was greedy and could have passed to get his team in a 2-0 lead - TH14 scores...1-1 - second leg - Barca kills Lyon - Christians vs Lyons in the Nou Camp..4-0

Only solace is EPL - was 2-0-1 against Serie A....BUT its only half time!

Nice review.  I didn't get to see any of 'em.

How the bloody fcuk do we beat Real Madrid, at San Siro, but then LOSE to FCUKING MIDDLESBORO!!!!!  They hadn't won a match in 14 attempts. 

&(*^ HGFP&()*^F  !!! &^%#%!!!!!!!

CRAP!  AND NOW CHELSEA IS SECOND!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I watched the Atalante v. Houston CONCACAF Champions League game last night.

Talk about MLS teams being at a distinct disadvantage.  Their season hasn't even started yet and the Mexico is already well into their second month. 

And it showed.  Houston was lethargic.  Passes were not crisp.  Defense was almost non-existant.

Are there other leagues/conferences where this happens? 

Doubt there is another way to clean it up, but is there?

Seems as if MLS will always be at a disadvantage with the current system.

But its the MLS's choice to play when it does.....I understand the reasoning but it is still their choice..they could synch calendars with the rest of the world....but those Chicago Fire games in November - March would be a little nippy!! - if not impractical....but I digress...

The only example that is close I can think of is the Scandinavian teams in the UEFA cup....they have a prolonged break and then have to come back and play.....thats why you see the US play MNT games against Sweden / Denmark etc in Jan-Feb

Wouldn't just be Chicago.  Columbus, DC, New York.  All of them would be cold as a well diggers azz.

And I know that Russia has the same league schedule as us because of their weather. 

I think Canada does too, come to think of it.

I guess it is just something they are going to have to deal with. 

Thinking outside the box, I'm wondering if those clubs that do qualify for the CL from the MLS should attempt to play as many matches as they can in their "off season".  In other words, try to stay as close to match fit as they can.  Then again, if they did that they would never have down time, BUT it might make them a better team in the long run in the regular season. 

HA.  I'm talking in circles.

Anyway, it was obvious that Houston hadn't been together very long.  Easy passes were difficult.  Difficult passes were impossible.  Impossible passes..... well..... they just didn't happen.  In the first half (I fell asleep in the second) Houston had one nice build up.  The rest of the time they were on their heels.  And this is a team I think is quite good, year in and year out.

Interesting you raise the off season - I was watching the Carling Cup at a local pub with a friend and his son - some of the son's team mates showed up and the father of one happened to be the GM of the Rapids...as luck would have it (or not for him)....we sat next to each other and spent a lot of the time talking about the habits of the MLS players, pay structure, training methods and attitude....

One point that really struck me as poor was the lack of voluntary practice players put in....they train in the morning and most then go home....they also shun weights...it was very interesting. There is also not much emphasis on tactical sessions....for instance they dont train hard in the morning and come back in the afternoon to do tactical work...slow paced or walk through....I was shocked...

Anyway - it was an interesting conversation to say the least... maybe its just the rapids way of doing things....but having seen EPL teams do something similar it may be more prevelant

That IS interesting, but the EPL season is also significantly longer than the MLS season, is it not?  By something like 2 months?  AND they also play quite a few more matches (not counting the cups and tournaments) than they do in the MLS.

So that being the case, I can almost see it as being more acceptable in the EPL than in MLS.  MLS finished in, what, October?  November?  It is now March and they really don't start till April.  EPL starts in, what, August?  September?  And they finish in May?

I don't know.  Maybe Becks has it right.  Trying to play year round.  Maybe MLS can put together some kind of Winter League (like MLB) in the future, down south.  Doubt it will catch on right now, but that would be interesting.  At least getting the guys up to speed and match fit a little faster.

But those kind of workout sessions you outline, I find to be quite lacking.

I'll soapbox for bit.....

Youth sports in the US seem to be measured by quantity not quality...take youth soccer..my daughter is entering the last season of rec...so she can go competitive in the fall. They want 3 practices a week for U11!! - thats over 4.5 hrs a week...of work. I lean towards quality not qauntity so 2 practices a week should be fine - with voluntary "homework"...you want to get better?....work on it....

Most coaches dont spend time on tactical issues or "shadowplay" etc...I've found them very effective since kids are visual and actually seeing what they need to do as opposed to be told resonates better....

ok..stepping down of the box.....

Heh.  Kind of like that ESPN article we were talking about a page or two back.

There were some blow outs yesterday in the CL.  Mercy.

4-0 Liverpool

7-1 Bayern Leverkeusen (sp?)

someone else was 5-1 I think I saw.

It was a day for offense, that is for certain.

I "worked" from home so was able to see the Pool game and the Chelski game -

1st - Pool vs Real Tottenham....er Madrid - geez, how the shine has gone from Ramos!..Real was exposed as slow, uncohesive and lacking attacking edge....and someone tell Schneider he doesnt have to shoot every time he gets the ball!!

Pool were fliud, pressured the ball welll and infinitely faster than RM....Torres looked good....SG took a dive but did finish his goal nicely - key call...was NOT a penalty...hit Heinze on the shoulder...

Overall Pool were much the better side...

Chelski were fortunate..Juve injuries  like Nedved - a player sent off for a good tackle - and then the usually Lamplard deflected shot for a tap in...enabled them to progress....mercy though....this game was of poor quality for most of it.....

And how can Sporting Lisbon be allowed into the CL next year!!!  - 12-1 on aggregate..embarrassing

Roll on today......

WHAT A MATCH! 

I LOVED IT!

4-1 OVER MANURE!!! AWESOME!

Yes, what a great result for LFC--too bad it wasn't available for me to watch. The lead is only 4 now. Who knows? That sure makes the end of the season more interesting.

I did happen to catch the Hull/Newcastle match this afternoon. Ended 1-1 and was an interesting game. Hull started so strong this season and then did a free-fall.  

Odd game - old Red Nose thinks his team was the better one....but they lost 4-1 - the score flattered 'Pool but they just about edged it overall. SG seemed to dive on his penalty..was on his way down before Evra got there....still heats up the race and should be interesting the remainder of the way

Dont see Manure giving it up at this stage though....

Villa are in free fall - The Arse are gaining momentum and Hiddink is just a strange dude!

Unfortunately, Man U has a game in hand still.  Which doesn't help.  At all.

You mean the "dive" that got Vidic booted?  The one that even the Old Trafford Press Reporter said was "rugby style?  That "dive"? 

Got it.  That was a different one.    And I agree, he has done a few questionable dives lately.  Which bugs me. 

I caught First Take on ESPN this morning and they had Drew Carey on the show. I didn't know it, but he's part-owner of the Seattle Sounders. Drew was on the show promoting the upcoming season and he gave a great interview. He told how he got into soccer--he was living in LA and ended up going to a Galaxy game only to see the new stadium. He fell in love with the game and has been to games all over--including Europe. He loved the game so much he wanted to be part of it and that's how he came to be part owner of the Sounders.

He ended the show debating Skip Bayless about the relevance of Soccer/American Football and Drew represented very well. He really stressed that if people would just go to a professional game in person they would appreciate the sport a lot more.  It's motivated me to catch a Sounders game this year--it's not a long drive from Spokane and I have family there.

Yeah, Drew really was the driving force behind the Sounders birth. 

Supposedly, they have already sold up to 20,000 season tickets.  More power to them.

Bayless is an a$$ - typical bigoted American sports reporter...they just cant see why Football not throw ball is so popular...my daughter likes soccer and gets into these debates with the 4th grade boys - i tell her to quote the facts - more people watch one soccer game ( WC final ) than watch all the superbowls combined....more people wtach Cricket than American Football....even "league" games aka Pool / Manure are watched by over 500 million people...so which sport is better? ...the world has spoken!

...and Jim Rome is another one.......idiot