Malenko

I don't really understand why people still bash chelsea. they dominated ALMOST every match i've seen from them and there are only two teams who can match them in terms of football quality, arsenal and man utd. Plus, they are the best as a TEAM from what i've seen. While Arsenal may have better individual quality (and even that is arguable), chelsea are much better as a whole. I admit i didn't enjoy very much the first games Chelsea played in the season, but at least since november they are pure greatness and non-biased people will have to agree, liking it or not.

Now, as in the tottenham thread,.. i thank english football for not stoping in the holiday season unlike the rest. :thumbsup:

That was one of the biggest mistakes i've ever seen from a linesman. In Portugal something similar happened a few months ago, but the ball nearly crossed the line (it isn't even possible to figure out if it really crossed after checking replays and pictures), and even though, everyone wanted to crucify the linesman. If that happened here there would be about 10 people arrested for corruption , but well...

as for what summers said, "The ref was far away. And the linesman was hardly in the best position. ",

that may be an excuse to the ref but not to the linesman. He is supposed to be allways well placed and expect this kind of moves when the goalie is outside of the area. then again, if you were just saying that was the reason why he didn't see it, that was probably it.

as for people saying man utd played awful, from an unbiased point of view since i'm not even english, i would have to say that's ridiculous. The only team who really tried to win was Man Utd. Tottenham were not playing to win, but not to lose (as you can see from the celebrations in the end despite the goal being dissalowed). tottenham have a great goalie IMO. That was my opinion before the match, and that is my opinion afterwards (great saves to a heinze free kick and a shot by alan smith come to mind).

To finish i would like to thank the English FA (or whoever arranges the league schedule) for being the only league not to stop on the holiday season :thumbsup:

Here is the draw:

Manchester Utd vs. AC Milan - Tight. Defensive. Boring.

Barcelona vs. Chelsea - Free flowing & exciting, and Mourinho can do no wrong.

Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal - Munich aren't a team who will come out all guns blazing, but they will wear Arsenal down. Munich are organised, and are good at set pieces.

Leverkusen vs. Liverpool - I don't really know why, just that Alonso and Gerrard are as good as anyone right now.

Real Madrid vs. Juventus - Italian defense too good here.

Porto vs. Inter Milan - Adriano vs Postiga? Hmmm...

Werder Bremen vs. Lyon - Another good German team, and Lyon are nothing special.

PSV Eindhoven vs. Monaco - This'll be tight. PSV to nick it though.

Match of the Round: Chelsea vs Barca

Most Boring Match: Man Utd vs Milan

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Here is the draw:

Manchester Utd vs. AC Milan

Barcelona vs. Chelsea

Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal

Leverkusen vs. Arsenal

Real Madrid vs. Juventus

Porto vs. Inter Milan

Werder Bremen vs. Lyon

PSV Eindhoven vs. Monaco

Discuss.

Glad Chelsea got Barca.

I am pissed off we didn't get Madrid.

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From a theoretical point of view, looks like the weaks will face the weakest and the strongs will face the strongest. A lot of semi-final type matches in there.

My Predictions:

Milan knocks out man utd in two close games.

Chelsea knocks Barcelona off unless barcelona gets a 2+ goals advantage in the first leg (I still think barcelona are currently the best team in Europe right now but chelsea may get the win tactically). Close one overall.

Arsenal beats Bayern Munchen at home to get their spot in the quarters. Also close one.

Liverpool eliminates leverkusen if they don't lose away in the first leg (although i think they have the chance of getting into the quarters even after losing the first).

Close one for a change

Real Madrid will eliminate Juventus if someone besides Figo decides to play the best he can (with ambition and determination). As i don't think that will happen Juventus are probably the ones that will come out on top.

Porto will eliminate Inter after two draws by away goal difference

Werder Bremen and Lyon will play a tight first game but Lyon will take an easy win at home to get them through.

PSV will be trashed by Monaco when playing away. Monaco goes through.

WINNERS:

MILAN

CHELSEA

ARSENAL

LIVERPOOL

JUVENTUS

PORTO

LYON

MONACO

Best Game: Barcelona @home vs Chelsea

Worse Game:Werder Bremen @home vs Lyon

But...The Ramones aren't crap. I know I've heard Shadows Fall and Dropkick Murphys, but can't think of what they sound like off the top of my head.

*anxiously awaits for Staind to appear*

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1. Black Sabbath

2. Live

3. REM

4. Mudhoney

5. The Pixies

6. Jimmy Eat World

7. Korn

8. The Doors

9. The Exies

10. Greenday

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I'm glad to see I'm not the only Exies fan on this board.

This is difficult, because I change my musical tastes insanely often so I find it hard to choose "favourites". I'll leave out Jonny & The Rats, a local band who would normally be fighting for the top spot

1. Jeff Buckley

2. The Smiths

3. The Cure

4. Sisters Of Mercy

5. Tori Amos

6. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

7. Johnny Cash

8. The Misfits

9. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

10. The Birthday Party

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The 2D match engine has definitely improved though. Now defenders don't run around like headless chickens.

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Henry should have won it.

He may be the best player ever to not win either of those awards if he doesn't.

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so... here it goes...

10-Dropkick Murphys

9-Ska-P

8-Propagandhi

7-Mad Caddies

6-Kemuri

5-New Winds

4-BlackFlag

3-Rise Against

2-Ignite

1-Rancid

This aren't supposed to be the best or most meaningfull... just the ones i like the most.

P.S. picking only 10 is hard as hell... can i edit this if i remember some bands i'm missing right now? i know i am...

EDIT: I checked my album list when i got home and i realized the list i did here didn't make much sense. To be accurate all I can say is these are CURRENTLY the bands i enjoy listening the most concerning the LA Punk/HC scene and the third wave, which are the styles i've been listening to more often these days... meh

So yeah I'm pissed off big time.

Twenty odd minutes in and the cuntface bloke puts on the Spanish football instead.

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What was the spanish game that was on? And what chances did it have to be worse than the italian league one? markism apart

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...and so Mourinho is World Soccer's Manager of the Year 2004...

how do chelsea fans feel for having him as manager?

now, before everyone starts jumping on how overrated he is, may i remind you he won 2 portuguese leagues, 1 portuguese supercup (league winner vs cup winner), 1 portuguese cup, 1 uefa cup and 1 champions league in 2 years while being the manager of a team that you people are the first to say "it sucks"...Plus he has Chelsea leading the premiership so far while being the manager of a team that you, non-Chelsea fans, are the first to say it's overrated..

I miss my NHL

I miss my Leafs being tormented at every turn

I miss making it to the play-offs and getting my hopes up only to be disappointed

I miss hockey fights

I miss beautiful goals

Most of all..

I miss Wade belak

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The hockey fights were some of the best ever. They make the NBA look like amateur boxers.

to the guy who asked their similarities to the Beatles: You've heard don't look back in anger, right? Shouldn't that let alone answer your question?

As to my favourite it would be Supersonic.

There was a time i couldn't stop listening to don't go away and all around the world.. but many people i know refer to them as cheesy songs. Whatever...

I can honestly say i like about 90% of their songs belonging to their first 3 records. I can also honestly say i'm not a big fan of their latest albums.

I can also honestly say they suck live cause the Gallaghers are a couple of assholes. That doesn't change my opinion on their music though.

Random Thoughts.

Definitely Maybe is great for a first album.

Acquiesce should have been an a-side, just like it says in the B-sides Album.

All songs picked as last songs on the albums are exactly what a pop-rock album last song should be IMO.

I haven't heard anything by the Oasis in the last couple of years. I think i'll listen to them when i get home today.

I blame you people

So yeah I'm pissed off big time.

Twenty odd minutes in and the cuntface bloke puts on the Spanish football instead.

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I usually don't bother with training, its just something that I've never really wanted to do ever since CM had the option to pass the buck to your head coach.

Lots of managers aren't directly involved with coaching anyway, so its technically not cheating, I just hope my assistant isn't shit, thats all.

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Hmmm could be true but I didn't hear or see a thing so I'm not too sure about that one. Carlos didn't have the best of games that's for sure, a little bit of his fault on the first goal if you ask me.

Anyone know what's happened to Saviola?(sp?) I always thought he was a quality striker which is why I would have much prefered to see him playing instead of Larsson.

Oh and cheers Malenko, I'll change some of the spelling in my first post now  :thumbsup:

Edit - Meh just found out Saviola doesn't even play for Barcelona anymore. I seriously need to catch up because I had no clue he'd left the club.

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i've seen it and it wasn't a great surprise to me. Barcelona are, not only in your eyes, the best team in spain at the moment and the one i enjoy the most watching, be it Spain or anywhere else.

Barcelona's midfield is great.. so much skill in such short space.

I started noticing how great barcelona was starting to be midway through last season and this season new players only improved even more the squad, mainly in the goalscoring ability.

I agree barcelona are the main contenders to win the spanish league this season but you never know. As for the CL is hard to tell, cause as you know, once the playoffs start is only a matter of having one good game. e.g. Imagine this game was for the CL... this score would almost eliminate Real Madrid, but imagine two of the chances were squandered... a 1-0 deficit is not that hard to come back from.

Just to correct some of your spelling: It's Barcelona, Ronaldinho and Eto'o.

Some people are confused with the spelling of Barcelona, cause BarcA is short for BarcElona. And you don't read barca, but something like Bar-sa

But, PLEASE, stop acting like victims, English fans are as bad as any other. Unless you have allready forgotten about what happened in Euro2004.

You seem very anti-English. We are no where near perfect, but the cases of racism in English football are very slim compared to this. This was just a disgrace. You get racists in England, but you get racists everywhere. It's just tonight, we saw it on a large scale. So why can't we feel upset? I read The Times today, and they talked about the racism, but they made a bigger claim about the shambolic display we put on. Many English people are not trying to make themselves victims. I certainly am not. But I see racism like that, and I will demand action. Quite frankly, if FIFA or UEFA do nothing, it'll will be nothing short of immense stupidity.

We are not wallowing in a "victim status", as a great admirer of Liverpool once said . We just expect action. Nothing wrong with that.

Diving in the modern game can actually be traced back to 1958. Pele burst on to the international scene and was a revelation. 4 years later he was even more skilled, but defenders simply kicked lumps out of him. In 1966, right here in England (Waits for Foley-style pop...but it doesn't arrive), Pele was pummeled by defenders, to the point of injury. He vowed never to play in the world cup again (he did though).

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I didn't see the game but if that really happened don't worry.. Spain will be punished, either being fined or getting a suspension that won't allow them to play in Spain in their home games for an undecided amount of time.

As i said, i didn't watch the game, as i have no way to do it, so i don't know the intensity of the spanish fans acts.

But, PLEASE, stop acting like victims, English fans are as bad as any other. Unless you have allready forgotten about what happened in Euro2004. I'm not judging the whole bunch for the actions of a few. I know most english supporters aren't like that, but a few are, just like a few of other countries are too. I hate racism as much as you do, damn, i get annoyed even in little "funny" (to them) racist remarks, I have huge discussions out of it that end up with people telling me to lighten up. Yes.. i hate it as much as you do, but just don't say it like english people are some sort of saints cause they aren't. There are (unfortunately) racist people everywhere, not just Spain.

As for the diving... i have to agree latin players dive all the time (not all but most of them), so without watching the game, i will believe in the monkey molester's words until proven wrong, which i believe i won't be. The huge amount of dives in Portugal, Spain, Argentinian and Brazilian players mostly comes from the fact that their midfielders and forwards are usually very skilled players, with very limited physical condition. They started using this technique to avoid some defenders who couldn't play so just tackled and kicked legs all the time (this back in the 70's and early 80's). FIFA then established a rule to be applied since the 90's, which resulted in bookins on every hard tackle, and sent offs on tackles from behind (most referees aren't that harsh although the rules clearly state they should do so).

Unfortunately, those skilled players had found a way to win free kicks near the penalty area, or even penalties (although referees are usually more suspicious about these ones), and continued doing so. Most of those dives are actually fouls, but its understandable that after seeing a player throw himself to the grass 3 times in a row, the fans get furious and start yelling at him for everytime he falls, even if he really gets fouled!

A solution to that, IMO, would be to have a 5th referee outside the field with access to a tv to warn the referee about possible mistakes that really would influence the result of the game (this was allready suggested to the FIFA but wasn't approved), but who cares for what i think?

btw, what was the final result?

It's been pretty well documented that the strikes shoot wide alot.

Unfortunately when King Ellis said that he played Man Utd and that only 6 were on target from 22, that perhaps Van Nistelrooy was shooting from out of his range. So 7 yards plus...

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I hope they do something about the shooting. Maybe it's just me but most players seem to shoot over/wide constantly. For example Leeds vs Man U League cup semi final first leg, scraped a 1-0 win for Leeds after Man U had a massive 22 off target shots only getting 6 on target. This was with a proper first team out as well.

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what time does it shows?

I don't think i've watched it yet. I'll probably do so now.. just to check.

PS- it's 5 hours + than in NY here