General Football Discussion

[souras84]

juventus (almost) eliminated from the CL : how sad

And they still havent lost!! OMG what the hell...

[Philippe]

Arena : additional seats after the winter break, close to the pitch.

[Philippe]

They did not know it was impossible so they did it. (Mark Twain)
Celtic 2 - Barcelona 1.
Scotland Home of the Brave !

(So much for the "big leagues" fairy tale )

[Manneken Pis]

They did not know it was impossible so they did it. (Mark Twain)
Celtic 2 - Barcelona 1.
Scotland Home of the Brave !

(So much for the "big leagues" fairy tale )

Even Rod got emotional!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2 ... lona-video

[Philippe]

Amazing video. A real fan, I presume.

[Manneken Pis]

Amazing video. A real fan, I presume.

Rod Stewart?
Yes, a real Celtic (and Scotland) fan.
Just born in London and living in California...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Stewart

[Philippe]

I went to Glasgow a few months ago, and the Celtic have even got a shop inside the airport. I think the Rangers will be missed though, by scottish football in general.

[SE6Ajacied]

Franchise FC (aka MK Dons FC) are 3-1 up against Ryman League Cambride City in an FA Cup 1st Round replay right now so are surely through to the 2nd round. At home to AFC Wimbledon....

This could be the grudge match to beat all others - there's a fairly muted history of AFC here http://www.afcwimbledon.co.uk/club/history/

Trust everyone will be an AFC Don for the day.....

[Manneken Pis]

Dutch linesman beaten up and killed at a Sunday league match...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20583970

Jezusss.....

(SORRY OBVIOUSLY I POSTED THIS IN THE WRONG SECTION. COULD ONE OF THE MODS MOVE IT TO "GENERAL FOOTBALL DISCUSSION"? THANKS.)

[666]Done.[/666]

[Van basten]

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/03/sport ... -football/

Shocking.

[ajaxusa]

Shocking.

I'll say it is... I spent the whole weekend, 23 hours in all, in a referee training clinic. I gave up my entire weekend to learn and improve so that I can referee more advanced matches, and then this. Makes me want to give it up.

I just hope his poor kid is able to recover, eventually. So fucking sad.

[Manneken Pis]

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/03/sport ... -football/

Shocking.

The Royal Belgian Football Asscoiation have also advised all clubs to hold a minute's silence before games this week-end.

[SPL]

Just reading that jupiler league team AGOVV Apeldoorn may go bankrupt on Tuesday as they owe 400000 euros to the tax man . And they are struggling to pay their wages. Looks like they could fold . This is KJH's old club I believe they have named a stand after him so wonder if he wants to help them out!!

[Tom_]

It seems Rio Ferdinand was struck by a coin in the Manchester derby at the weekend. I'll be interested to see what the English FA does about it—I suspect with the hysterical British media on the case the outcome will be a little bit different to when the same thing happened to Toby at Twente last season.

[Orange14]

Leo Messi broke Gerd Muller's 40 year old record for most goals in a calendar year yesterday with two against Betis. I doubt that we will see something like this happen again in our lifetime as it requires someone with terrific skills who also stays free of injury.

[rjf1]

25 years from now, when they talk about the legend that was Lionel Messi, everyone and his aunt and uncle will be talking about how they were there in the stadium when he scored the record setting goal.

I can remember watching Gerd Muller on TV back in the day -- I'm glad that it was someone of the personality and football attitude of Messi that broke the record. Not to mention any names (ahem), but it would have been really disappointing if it had been someone of the show-off prima donna persuasion.

[Orange14]

Agree with RJF1 on Messi's special nature. From the penalty spot, free kicks, with his left foot, with his right foot and with his head, you can see in the 10 minute clip on YouTube all 86 goals with commentary in English, Spanish and even Russian. To be fair a significant number were penalty kicks but look as some of the amazing free kicks. I've never seen a player quite like Messi in all the years I've been following the sport and this is just an amazing feat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU80TSIgOFs

[SPL]

Messi will end up one of the all time greats .An amazing player.

[paladinby]

Didn't know where to post this.

It looks like we are opening a youth academy in Moscow in 2013 summer. May be it's another silly internet rumour but if it actually happens it will be very interesting project.

[SPL]

AGOVV have been given another 4 weeks to avoid bankruptcy . I wish them well as its not nice to see any club go out of business.

[aveslacker]

Great article about Frank DeBoer's evolution as a manager.

http://jouracule.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12 ... er_12.html

[Orange14]

^The article is interesting but flawed. Ajax really don't press in the same manner as Barca as they don't get the ball up into the offensive third as often. When they give the ball up there you see the full backs often retreating rather than pressing (of course FdB doesn't have the same level of talented quick players that Villanova has). I also take issue with the build up from the back. Often times the team seems clueless about how to create space in the middle third of the pitch necessitating back passes to Vermeer. This is the reason Vermeer has such a high pass completion rate and in some matches is the fourth highest recipient of passes. In contrast Valdes goes for long stretches of the match without even touching the ball.

Those quibbles aside (plus the questionable player selections, such as de Jong in the midfield) FdB remains an interesting manager who continues to move the club in a positive direction.

[rjf1]

Another aspect where Ajax falls short of Barca's style is that when Barca circulates the ball it isn't aimless in the way that Ajax' is. With Barca they don't pass it back just because they don't see where to go with the ball going forward -- they circulate the ball with the purpose of maneuvering the defenders into particular positions -- like moving pieces on a chessboard -- to the point where they create a pre-planned vulnerability -- then they go and attack it. They also have 3 or 4 players moving around the box when they attack -- Ajax rarely has more than one -- and sometimes not even one.

Barca, also, rarely passes back as far as the back line -- it's always probe - half step back - probe again - half step back - probe again. They never give the opponent the luxury of being able to stand around and rest while the ball circulates meaninglessly around the back line. This is my biggest gripe with the way Ajax circulates the ball -- they take all the momentum out of their own game, and give the opponents every opportunity to get themselves sorted out and take on the momentum for themselves.

Still in all, I, too, like Frank de Boer as a manager and the direction he's taking the team in, and hope he stays our manager over the long term.

[paladinby]

The biggest change I've managed to see in De Boer management is a switch to some more long balls during away game against Roda and following games. Which brought some results. May be he finally understood that blindly replicating Barca's playstyle makes no sense given the difference in quality of players and the fact that Ajax is constantly rebuilding their squad during each midseason while losing some of the best players in the process.

[aveslacker]

The biggest change I've managed to see in De Boer management is a switch to some more long balls during away game against Roda and following games. Which brought some results. May be he finally understood that blindly replicating Barca's playstyle makes no sense given the difference in quality of players and the fact that Ajax is constantly rebuilding their squad during each midseason while losing some of the best players in the process.

It would have been a lot easier to play like Barca if we hadn't let Anita get away.