General Football Discussion

[jamcocteau]

Don't know if any of you have read about this but yesterday in Scotland, the Motherwell captain Phil O'Donnell collapsed after being substituted and died shortly afterwards. He was 35 years of age. O'Donnell played for Motherwell, Celtic and Sheffield United during his career and was capped once by Scotland.

I seen him play many times against my own club Partick Thistle both for Motherwell and Celtic and remember him scoring twice against Thistle on his Celtic debut. A fine player who would have made a far bigger impact on the game if not blighted by injury.

Tragically he leaves behind a wife and 4 young children.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/footbal ... 164150.stm

[DanK]

Don't know if any of you have read about this but yesterday in Scotland, the Motherwell captain Phil O'Donnell collapsed after being substituted and died shortly afterwards. He was 35 years of age. O'Donnell played for Motherwell, Celtic and Sheffield United during his career and was capped once by Scotland.

I saw this on BBC World this morning. Its always a shock when an athlete goes down as you always expect them to be fit and healthy. Terrible for the club, fans, football, but most of all his family and friends. RIP.

[Dubbel]

CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS 2008

Boys '91 New Mexico 1 • Cal South 2
Girls '91 Cal South 7 • Washington 0
Boys '92 Cal South 3 • Arizona 0
Girls '92 Cal South 3 • Colorado 1
Boys '93 Cal South 2 • Arizona 0
Girls '93 Colorado 1 • Cal South 2
Boys '94 Cal South 5 • Oregon 2
Girls '94 Utah 0 • Cal South 3

Look how strong our region is compared to the rest of the West. Mind you these are the results of the finals, a bunch of other teams were present. Cal South has the best soccer youths in the land. No wonder that Bayern wanted our coach Nick!

[Kowalczyk]

Guess what...

Newspaper Het Parool presents a series of public interviews at the Parool Theatre in central Amsterdam. On Tuesday 19 February I'll be in attendance for an on-stage interview with... our very good mate and favourite Dutch referee Roelof Luinge.

*LOL*

Can't wait. He's a real nutter. I hope the audience can ask questions.

K.

[Jeroen126]

Guess what...

Newspaper Het Parool presents a series of public interviews at the Parool Theatre in central Amsterdam. On Tuesday 19 February I'll be in attendance for an on-stage interview with... our very good mate and favourite Dutch referee Roelof Luinge.

*LOL*

Can't wait. He's a real nutter. I hope the audience can ask questions.

K.

Have heard about this, wasn't the original idea "regular" people interviewing people they like? Tell me this isn't true and you didn't pick Luinge

[SE6Ajacied]

Interesting statistic from vi.nl

"Clubs met meest gebruikte spelers in dit Eredivisieseizoen

Club Aantal
Ajax 30
FC Utrecht 28
Excelsior 26
Sparta Rotterdam 26
Willem II 26
FC Groningen 26"

(Clubs with most used players in Eredivisie this season).

I'm surprised at this tbh, didn't realise we'd played quite that many and certainly not that we would be top of this particular league. I suppose this is down to HTC's signings - Delorge etc who no longer play and also the fact that Koster has promoted several of his old charges from the Youth team.

[gordonvandekamp]

Interesting statistic from vi.nl

"Clubs met meest gebruikte spelers in dit Eredivisieseizoen

Club Aantal
Ajax 30
FC Utrecht 28
Excelsior 26
Sparta Rotterdam 26
Willem II 26
FC Groningen 26"

(Clubs with most used players in Eredivisie this season).

I'm surprised at this tbh, didn't realise we'd played quite that many and certainly not that we would be top of this particular league. I suppose this is down to HTC's signings - Delorge etc who no longer play and also the fact that Koster has promoted several of his old charges from the Youth team.

Honestly it doesn't seem that surprising to me with so many first teamers out with injury in the first half of the season (Davids/Leonardo). I think just trying to find the best combination, that isn't the first team selection due to injury, and experimenting with the line-ups because of that by ten Cate/Koster. It happened all over again when Stam retired trying to find an adequate solution in defense. Add those to all the summer transfers, and players who left after the season started (Sneijder, Maduro) and I think it makes sense.

Of course, I think all the instability has played a major role in the results and our current situation and I'd be eager not to repeat it.

[SPL]

Wasn't sure where to post this.

World Soccer March issue has a very good article on our 1995 team and how it was destroyed by Bosman.

[Van basten]

The ex doctor of Brasilian federation of football Bernardo Santi stated, that the reason for Ronaldo recent years injuries is the fact that he was talking anabolic steroids when he played at psv. psv of course denied that http://english.psv.nl/web/show/id=58980/contentid=22707

[carcajou]

The ex doctor of Brasilian federation of football Bernardo Santi stated, that the reason for Ronaldo recent years injuries is the fact that he was talking anabolic steroids when he played at psv. psv of course denied that http://english.psv.nl/web/show/id=58980/contentid=22707

Well, that makes sense since he packed like 40 pounds in one year at age 17, I always thought there was something fishy about all this.

In other news, Cruyff was on spanish TV last night and said that Van Basten could be the man for Barca, even though he reaffirmed his faith in Rijkaard.

[Manneken Pis *]

Don't know if anyone caught the Liverpool v Inter game last night, but what was a finely balanced and interesting game was ruined by the Belgian ref.

I know Materazzi is a dirtbag, but he barely deserved one yellow, and certainly not two.

The ref killed the tie.

After the Roda game two weeks ago (also a belgian ref) I'm developing as strong dislike for these incompetent jerks.

[Philippe]

I agree with you : the ref murdered inter with this undeserved red card.

[aveslacker]

Don't know if anyone caught the Liverpool v Inter game last night, but what was a finely balanced and interesting game was ruined by the Belgian ref.

I know Materazzi is a dirtbag, but he barely deserved one yellow, and certainly not two.

The ref killed the tie.

After the Roda game two weeks ago (also a belgian ref) I'm developing as strong dislike for these incompetent jerks.

Who is this Manneken Pis * who is logged in as a guest? Is he the same as the other Manneken Pis?

[Arthur]

I don't know but it's funny that the 'real' Manneken Pis (the statue) is from this guy's favourite country Belgium.

[Ramona]

Don't know if anyone caught the Liverpool v Inter game last night, but what was a finely balanced and interesting game was ruined by the Belgian ref.

I know Materazzi is a dirtbag, but he barely deserved one yellow, and certainly not two.

The ref killed the tie.

After the Roda game two weeks ago (also a belgian ref) I'm developing as strong dislike for these incompetent jerks.

Who is this Manneken Pis * who is logged in as a guest? Is he the same as the other Manneken Pis?

One and the same...
Something went wrong by changing his password, so he created a new account...
I changed the password and deleted his second account...
That's all...sorry... :)

[Manneken Pis]

Jeez...I was in a hurry and didn't think anyone would notice...I'm touched....

Yes, I live in Belgium, but that only increases my prejudice against their refs here.

My son plays every Saturday morning, and I've seen the standard of refereeing at grass roots level ... it's not difficult to understand where the problem starts....

[carcajou]

Nike just offered 42.6 million euros to be the brand of the french national team. That's a LOT of money (more than Italy or Brazil or Germany).

[SE6Ajacied]

I don't know if anyone else has read this. Paul Gasgoigne has been detained ("sectioned") under Mental Health legislation and is currently undergoing treatment.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7257612.stm

Very sad this, he was a great player but had so many demons in his life as well. I wish him well in his latest battle.

[ofey]

Anyone see the horrid tackle on the Arsenal forward Eduardo?

I don't think he'll actually be able to come back from that.
Personally, I doubt Taylor had any intent but was simply too slow. No matter about intent, he's probably ended Eduardo's career. I don't care what any Brummy supporter says about Taylor. If he's too slow to keep up with the pace of premiership forwards and wants to put his big frame into a tackle, I think he shouldn't be playing Premiership footy.

You should never go studs first into any tackle... regardless of your level.

[Van basten]

Anyone see the horrid tackle on the Arsenal forward Eduardo?

I don't think he'll actually be able to come back from that.
Personally, I doubt Taylor had any intent but was simply too slow. No matter about intent, he's probably ended Eduardo's career. I don't care what any Brummy supporter says about Taylor. If he's too slow to keep up with the pace of premiership forwards and wants to put his big frame into a tackle, I think he shouldn't be playing Premiership footy.

You should never go studs first into any tackle... regardless of your level.

The wiew is shocking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO4jzap6rOU

[SE6Ajacied]

Anyone see the horrid tackle on the Arsenal forward Eduardo?

I don't think he'll actually be able to come back from that.
Personally, I doubt Taylor had any intent but was simply too slow. No matter about intent, he's probably ended Eduardo's career. I don't care what any Brummy supporter says about Taylor. If he's too slow to keep up with the pace of premiership forwards and wants to put his big frame into a tackle, I think he shouldn't be playing Premiership footy.

You should never go studs first into any tackle... regardless of your level.

The wiew is shocking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO4jzap6rOU

Wenger made a lot of statements immediately after the game about Taylor and that he shouldn't be playing any more after that tackle but then retracted them all later in the evening.

It's a terrible tackle but as has been said, no intent and Eduardo was just too fast from him. Considering their palyer had just been sent off it says a lot for the Birmingham City supporters that they gave Eduardo a standing ovation as he was eventually carried off the pitch.

[DanK]

The wiew is shocking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO4jzap6rOU

You Tube shows:
This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Arsenal Football Club

Pfft. Copyright. Arsenal might as well join the RIAA.

[Cedric]

Ajax already did the same for a number of videos if I remember well...

[DanK]

Ajax already did the same for a number of videos if I remember well...

I have no issues with 'owners' wanting to make sure they get money for their 'product', but sometimes companies go a little far imo.

Why Arsenal would take this off for copyright reasons is beyond me. How would they lose money by having a choppy / small / poor quality clip on YouTube? No one is going to sell the clip, and surely Arsenal aren't thinking of releasing this clip on a DVD as 'Arsenal's greatest leg breaks' or something.

I guess it is possible they had it removed to respect the player and family, but my bet thats not the reason.

What ever happened to fair use???

I am all for protecting data owners, but sometimes it just goes a little too far.

Rant over - thanks for listening

[SE6Ajacied]

I guess it is possible they had it removed to respect the player and family, but my bet thats not the reason.

I've absolutely no idea why it's taken down and I agree with you that the "commercial" reasons are usually extremely petty with the sort of grainy footage on You Tube but this was an away game, so the copyright would presumably normally be owned by the home team, in this case Birmingham City. The fact that it's Arsenal copyright in this case makes me think the reasons for taking this down might be slightly more honourable than usual.