General Football Discussion

[SE6Ajacied]

(believe me - visiting some of the crap serving for facilities at English Division 3/4 level makes belonging to the 92 club here a real achievement!)

You're OBVIOUSLY reffering going to crappy old dumps like the "Shitty Ground" in a sleepy suburb of Nottingham called West Bridgeford and NOT reffering to the priviledge of setting foot in the hallowed "San Sirrel" located at Meadow Lane in the fair city of Nottingham....

I've not actually been to the City Ground (div 3/4 bias in action!) but I have been to the County Ground in 1997. 4 new stands from what I remember, certainly not a dump but not too memorable either.

I don't think grounds have to be 'modern' as such to be decent btw. The County Ground didn't make much impression on me as I said, had to check to confirm I'd actually been there otherwise I was writing about Mansfield Town with that huge old racecourse stand down one side - totally odd and old-fashioned but I liked that ground, old open away terrace and all.

[Manneken Pis]

(div 3/4 bias in action!)

That would include Fword then....

Actually I agree on Meadow Lane...it's rather generic, like so many other newer stadiums....but the way it looked before wasn't particularly idiosincratic (sp?) or charming.

BTW Fword have just announced they're movong to a brand spanking new stadium out of the city. 50,000 capacity( ).... "delusions of grandeur" I would submit....

[aveslacker]

(believe me - visiting some of the crap serving for facilities at English Division 3/4 level makes belonging to the 92 club here a real achievement!)

You're OBVIOUSLY reffering going to crappy old dumps like the "Shitty Ground" in a sleepy suburb of Nottingham called West Bridgeford and NOT reffering to the priviledge of setting foot in the hallowed "San Sirrel" located at Meadow Lane in the fair city of Nottingham....

I've not actually been to the City Ground (div 3/4 bias in action!) but I have been to the County Ground in 1997. 4 new stands from what I remember, certainly not a dump but not too memorable either.

I don't think grounds have to be 'modern' as such to be decent btw. The County Ground didn't make much impression on me as I said, had to check to confirm I'd actually been there otherwise I was writing about Mansfield Town with that huge old racecourse stand down one side - totally odd and old-fashioned but I liked that ground, old open away terrace and all.

I had a similar experience going to Stradey Park in Llanelli, Wales to watch rugby. Old ground, but an absolutely great experience to take in rugby there.

Also, the old Kensington Oval in Barbados was the same way. Which cricket fan wouldn't want to watch a match at a place like Kensington Oval or Arnos Vale? For that matter, the Wanderers Cricket Club in Barbados was right by my apartment. I used to go watch league matches there with a book and sit under a tree and read, occasionally pausing to throw the odd boundary ball back to the players. Good times.

Visiting baseball stadia in the U.S. has a similar set of fans. Some of the newer stadia (Camden Yards, Jacobs Field, Minute Maid Field) are really something, managing to be both new and reflect the unique character of the city they are in. Of course the old classics like Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium, Wrigley Field and Fenway Park are great.

[SE6Ajacied]

Visiting baseball stadia in the U.S. has a similar set of fans. Some of the newer stadia (Camden Yards, Jacobs Field, Minute Maid Field) are really something, managing to be both new and reflect the unique character of the city they are in. Of course the old classics like Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium, Wrigley Field and Fenway Park are great.

Yeah, I bought a secondhand book once about visiting the different baseball grounds. I'm not really at all interested in the game tbh but it was interesting to read about the old grounds/stands/fans and the old quirky traditions in different parts of the country. A good read for £1.00 if I remember rightly.

[English Eagle]

Got to say ive really enjoyed reading through the last couple of posts on this thread.For MP i must admit that ive not been to Meadow Lane as much as The City Ground(Palace seemed to play Forest in every cup for a spell about 15 years ago) but have been both as it is now & pre-development.I think in some ways County pioneered the way English clubs redeveloped their grounds,& while it does lack a bit of character, for the money that was spent on it its quite a good ground.

Aveslacker while ive only "done" two baseball stadiums,Tampa & (Texas)Arlington, i must admit baseball is my summer sport.Once saw 21 of Rangers home games one season while visiting my daughter in Texas & it became a bug that hasnt left me.Met some fab people in my trips there,most staggered by an Englishman on holiday in Texas,& still spend many hours watching Rangers games on MLB.com.Once met a group of four guys from Boston who were trying to get in every ground in Baseball & to compare stories of travelling to football in England was great fun. . . happy days.

[Kowalczyk]

Football grounds... Yeah.

You probably all know this fantastic website, which profiles on every league ground in England, Wales and Scotland:
http://www.footballgroundguide.co.uk

Bloody great stuff and the guy has now also published his ground profiles in the form of two books, one for England & Wales, one for Scotland. I ordered both of these books and they're wonderful. Highly recommended.

Maybe I should do something similar for The Netherlands... Hmm...

K.

[DanK]

Football grounds... Yeah.

You probably all know this fantastic website, which profiles on every league ground in England, Wales and Scotland:
http://www.footballgroundguide.co.uk

Bloody great stuff and the guy has now also published his ground profiles in the form of two books, one for England & Wales, one for Scotland. I ordered both of these books and they're wonderful. Highly recommended.

Maybe I should do something similar for The Netherlands... Hmm...

K.

That would be a brilliant idea...especially if you included bigger amateur clubs as well.

[SPL]

I was in town today and noticed abook about English league grounds so
there must be a market for Dutch clubs.

[SE6Ajacied]

Football grounds... Yeah.

You probably all know this fantastic website, which profiles on every league ground in England, Wales and Scotland:
http://www.footballgroundguide.co.uk

Bloody great stuff and the guy has now also published his ground profiles in the form of two books, one for England & Wales, one for Scotland. I ordered both of these books and they're wonderful. Highly recommended.

Maybe I should do something similar for The Netherlands... Hmm...

K.

Yeah, there are several football ground books on the market for the British leagues. My favourite I must admit is the excellent Aerofilms guide which is updated yearly. It has pretty basic information on the grounds (which you can get of the internet anyway) but includes full colour aerial photo's of the different grounds. I've got last seasons and also one from about 10 years or so ago and it's fascinating to see the redevelopment that's taken place in that time.

A bit out of date now but I can thoroughly recommend the excellent series of books by Simon Inglis for anyone interested in the history and development of footie grounds. You can usually find plenty of copies on Ebay.

This is a good selection of the other books available btw (from Amazon)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h ... =11&Go.y=8

[Ayman]

YES!!!!!!!!!!! Iraq won the asian cup.............


IRAQ 1 SAUDI ARABIA 0

[ZoefdeHaas]

Good job Irak!

Let's hope this will end some of the fighting and bring in some unity. And to beat Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Australia...wow

[Ayman]

Zoefdehaas said:

Good job Irak!

Let's hope this will end some of the fighting and bring in some unity. And to beat Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Australia...wow

Thanks a lot Zoef

[Manneken Pis]

YES!!!!!!!!!!! Iraq won the asian cup.............


IRAQ 1 SAUDI ARABIA 0

:hupajax.gif: :hupajax.gif: :hupajax.gif:

This is fantastic...

It's stories like this that make football such wonderful sport.

Well done Iraq.

[DanK]

My hat goes off to Iraq. Brilliant, brilliant result. Played well through the tournament as well.

By the way, Australia were absolute shite in the Asian Cup. In all honesty I have never seen them play so poorly, and thats saying something.

They totally overrated themselves, and worst of all underrated the opposition. They didn't prepare for the heat, and totally played the wrong tactics.

It was a good wake up call though, at least now (I hope) we will be more prepared come the WC qualifiers.

Australia's Asian Cup reminded me of Holland 1990. One of the favourites, shot themselves in the foot and then only got good when it was too late against Japan.

Anyway, take nothing away from Iraq. Great result.

[SE6Ajacied]

YES!!!!!!!!!!! Iraq won the asian cup.............


IRAQ 1 SAUDI ARABIA 0

:hupajax.gif: :hupajax.gif: :hupajax.gif:

This is fantastic...

It's stories like this that make football such wonderful sport.

Well done Iraq.

I didn't see any of the Asian Cup, not sure if it was shown here, but well done to Iraq. It's certainly nice to see all the people of that country out on the streets for positive reasons, celebrating together....

[DanK]

This should be taken on as a standard across the globe:
SFA to clamp down on cheats - PA Sport
The Scottish Football Association have revealed ground-breaking plans to clamp down on cheats by handing out retrospective bookings for diving.

http://www.theworldgame.com.au/home/ind ... &cid=92761

[SE6Ajacied]

This should be taken on as a standard across the globe:
SFA to clamp down on cheats - PA Sport
The Scottish Football Association have revealed ground-breaking plans to clamp down on cheats by handing out retrospective bookings for diving.

http://www.theworldgame.com.au/home/ind ... &cid=92761

Yes, but http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6928105.stm

A good idea but looks like FIFA are already puting a block on it....

[aveslacker]

I have long said that FIFA are not interested in stopping diving. Sepp Blatter admitted to doing it when he was a player, and said that he didn't think it was a big deal.

So why would FIFA be that concerned about it? There are plenty of countries where people think of diving as just another way to do business.

I'd be mighty surprised if FIFA ever got around to ratifying a rule change like this.

[AjaxPDX]

For all of you that get to watch a lot of other teams in the league, what are your opinions of RUUD KNOL (former Vitesse defender, 26 years old, left Vitesse at the end of last season, is currently out of contract, and is a free signing)?? I only ask because my team in England is Southampton, and Saints currently have Knol on trial this week, but I don't know much about him or know if he's any good. Would he be a good signing for a second division club trying to get back to the premier league?

[peter]

He's quite powerful and not very easy to beat in the air. He's quite allround, but he lacks the acceleration. The guy lacks any speed at all. I think he would do OK in the Second Division, however.

[FlaFlu]

He's very injury prone as well. Or at least he used to be.

[SE6Ajacied]

Interesting Article this....all about pre-season training and the routines involved in preparing for a new season. Talks about Premier League Bolton and Thrid Division Bristol Rovers but pretty universal I expect.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6919549.stm

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

Interesting Article this....all about pre-season training and the routines involved in preparing for a new season. Talks about Premier League Bolton and Thrid Division Bristol Rovers but pretty universal I expect.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6919549.stm

"The biggest thing is injury prevention,"......ajax dont think the same ...i believe

[SE6Ajacied]

Interesting to note that Leeds are already boittom of Division 3 with minus 15 points.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 937521.stm

[Manneken Pis]

Interesting to note that Leeds are already boittom of Division 3 with minus 15 points.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 937521.stm

Couldn't happen to a nicer team....