Any REAL football fans here? (Page 73)

Yeah, I thought about you when I heard this. What an awesome career. Would be cool to see him play in the States. 

Also interesting about Lampard playing out the season at City and them giving NY the shaft. Understandable for sure, but not very well handled I think. They told NY that he'd start the MLS season, but he's playing well and City's in the hunt so sorry NY. 

This thread is dying on the vine....symptomatic of the site i guess

Lots of diving this weekend - Kane for Spurs, Ronaldo for Madrid and anyone who gets 'touched' falls over these daysGetting really sick of hearing the 'experts" say there was contact so they had ever right to go down...what a stupid thing to say...stay on your feet and see if you can score. Refs should just tell the teams in the tunnel that unless there is blood there wont be a foul called. Sick of hearing the Managers moan too about the decisions they didnt get and how that cost them the game....maybe dont defend with 10 men in your box and you might get a more positive result!

Wenger has lost the plot, Moaninho is lving up to his name and Man City seem to be rudderless....Bayern look good for the CL...

Hello friend!  Yeah, it is symptomatic of the site unfortunately.  It is so dead anymore.  Makes me sad.  Lots of good people here.  

This was also not a good weekend for the refs in general.  The Liverpool v Southhampton match was quite bad (potentially 4 questionable PK no calls).  And the Chelsea one is getting all kinds of press even without "The Special One" whining.  But I've really started to give the reffing crews much more lee way than I used to a few years ago.  I've become friends with an AR in the MLS over the past few years and he has helped me see the game in a completely different light.  First and foremost, they are human and having every single call scrutininzed at 1/1 millionth the speed with slo-mo really makes them look much worse than they are.

Now, that being said, yes, the diving is getting horrendous. Again.  Again again.  I get so sick of it.  But you can't do the "no foul unless there is blood" because then you get what happened to Matic at Chelsea yesterday.  He is lucky his leg is still in one piece.  

ok, maybe a little to gratuitous...but still - if they stop rewarding the diving then maybe they'll stop falling over. The pundits dont help..."he had a right to go down", "there was contact so he goes over to get attention of the ref" - basically its a dive....the need for retroactive sanction has never been greater....the poor ref at the Pool game - he was murdered by the TV experts yet it had to be an instant decision not a slow mo 10 times....i see Martin Atkinson is being told he needs a break...geez if they'd actually back the referee then maybe the scrutiny wouldnt happen

i like Rugby's philosophy...talk to me or dissent and you are penalized 10 yds, talk again and its a yellow card - dont know what's next because it never happens. They respect the refs, as do the commentators...they dont play devil's advocate...they go with the ref 90% of the time.

Someone at FOX or Sky needs to tell the idiots in the booth and studio to shut up and just comment on the game..they make a pigs ear of that as it is...leave the refs alone.

Did read that there is a dearth of refs coming through the ranks...not surprising - who would want to listen to the sidelines at lower league games, get berated by the managers and players and then if you make it, get pilloried by the TV pundits...sounds like a fun gig right?!

I would love to see this happen.  Just by lip reading, I can't get over what they are allowed to say to the refs.  I'm shocked there aren't more dissent cards given, frankly.  

Can you send that article?   I would love to see it.  And I agree with you.  I would love to also see the continued opening up to females as another pool for use.  

Real has the biggest diver on the planet - CR7!! And the biggest Ex-pat diver Bale...he was one of the worst in the EPL for it....

Its a shame we cannot get the Bundesliga since i think that Bayern may be the best team right now

I enjoy La Liga but only to root against Real :-)

Y

Yes it is a shame about Ronaldo and Bale, but that aside they are great to watch, regardless of whether they win or not.  I agree about Bayern - I can't see anyone else winnning the champions league this season.

Hope you don't mind getting the mickey taken out of you because most of us here are NOT MUFC fans.  

That being said, welcome!  This thread has lived a LONG life and started MANY moons ago.  

Now, back to our regularly scheduled discussion.  

Not to rub it in but here in the states I can get EPL, Mexican league, Serie A, La Liga, sometimes the Bundesliga (that contract is being renegotiated, from what I understand) and of course MLS.  We also get all of the cups (UEFA, Champion's League, CONCACAF, FA Cup, Capital One Cup, Copa del Rey, and sometimes Coppa Italia).  

I like La Liga to watch Messi.  

No problem at all

That's a good selection you have there.  I do find it somewhat annoying that the best place to watch the English PL is almost any other country other than England! 

Technically, I could watch every single EPL match live through the Internet via the NBC Sports App.  It has almost gotten me in trouble last year during the Liverpool V Crystal Palace match that I was watching on my cell phone.  I was in a very serious council meeting for work when they started to give up the 3 goal lead.  When it was one goal, I was ok.  The second one went in and I almost screamed out loud so I turned off my phone.  Which was a good thing because just a few minutes later my phone vibrated with an alert about the 3rd goal.  Had I been watching I probably would have lost it and gotten some very odd looks.  

I was on board until i read the bolded font above....having lived in England for over 2 decades - that statement made me convulse in laughter!

Moving on - Arse lived up to that name yesterday. How can the professor still play the BFG? He's so slow, cannot jump and a liability....2 out of 3 goals he could have prevented and that does not include the one he chested in for Monaco. Lazy players drive me mad too....Giroud, Ozil are just that...I'd play Rosicky and OX over them any day. Without either removing Wenger and/or a defensive revamp Arse is doomed to compete for the 4th place trophy for the next decade.

Since you are a Manuxx fan, what do you think of LVG? Seems a bit of an angry dutchman to me....not sure todays superstars like a firm hand...but we shall see...

I think LVG is doing a fairly decent job.  We have had some really poor results but are only a point off third place.  At least the games are more interesting to watch than they were with Moyes.  People expect us to still be challenging for the title, which is ridiculous and underestimates the affect Fergie had on the club.  I like the fact he seems to be a firm hand - the players need to be kept in check and not pandered to.  I hope that he is given time to build the team and I think that will happen as long as we qualify for Europe.

Moyes was put in a no-win situation, with an aging squad (why do you think Fergie left?) and a front office that either didn't work with him or just flat out ignored him.  He was never going to succeed in the situation he was placed.  Which is a shame.  Even though he was coaching on the wrong side of Liverpool, I still respected him.  It is a shame he wasn't given the same amount of time LVG is going to get.  

I would have liked Moyes to have succeeded and yes, he was not left the best of teams.  The difference is that LVG has managed to attract some quality players.  From what was in the press it seemed like Moyes did not really have some of the key players on side and the squad didn't really have much faith in him.  Of course this might not be true but I suspect there was some basis for those rumours.

Looks like 4th place in the table is going to come down to the ManU v Liverpool match on the 22nd.  

Well it should be nothing short of an epic match on Sunday.  It will almost certainly decide 4th place for the season.

How things change...  United look good for at least third place now and I reckon they will take second.  Catching Chelsea is probably just out of reach but you never know.

I don't wanna talk about it.  

Awwwwww FLIBERDYGIBBIT!!!!

Rogers is taking a lot of heat from the talking heads on TV and Radio. Steve Nichol was monday morning QB'ing the game and it was totally unwarranted. He thought Rogers should go and bring in Klopp...the same Klopp that made a Champions league finalist into a near relegated Bundesliga team..the Sirius folks, Beyond the Pitch i think they are called...the one with the unintelligible Irish guy....were bemoaning the signing of Joe Allen and others - believing that they dont have the quality needed to compete at the CL level or for the league....may be true, but i think i trust Rogers more than a couple of talking heads.

Its interesting to see how the managers take the heat for poor performances...yet Moanhinho takes no heat for an insipid display at home...because he won....giving up 70% possession when your team is full of expensive talent would be unacceptable to me if i were a Russian Oligarch.

The league is over, CL looks interesting....La liga is tight so the end of the season should provide some good viewing

I'm going to talk about the CL.  And the insanely sick dribble and then assist to Neymar from Iniesta in the Barca v PSG game going on right now.  Good lord it was beautiful.  HORRENDOUS defense, but beautiful ball handling.  He probably couldn't believe it was that easy.

I'm interested to hear reaction to the FIFA corruption crackdown. I'm hopeful that it will be a big positive in the long run. Hopefully it will put the fear of God into those remaining and they'll realize that they are not operating in a vacuum where all of their corruption is invisible and they're not un-touchable. Did they really think that they could choose Qatar and anyone would believe that was anything but corrupted? I know the investigation goes back further than that decision, but that was pretty glaring. 

It will be interesting to see if Blatter is re-elected. It would seem a reasonable reaction for them to vote him out. 

Very good article from the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/sports/soccer/fifa-officials-arrested-on-corruption-charges-blatter-isnt-among-them.html

They sure seem to have the goods on these db's. Again, it will be interesting to follow.