Soccer thread (2014/15)

[TigerFan]

Pretty iffy red card for Arsenal gives Crystal Palace 25 minutes of being a man up to level this game. 

[mitlen]

I can't get used to Crystal Palace in the EPL.   

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Nor should you.  I'd love to see them stay up, but that's just not very likely. 

 

I can't get used to Crystal Palace in the EPL.   

[OldChelsea]

Nor should you.  I'd love to see them stay up, but that's just not very likely. 

 

...they're currently bringing up the rear in the Premiership with just 3 points. I'll be seeing them play Chelsea at The Bridge in December (assuming ticket orders go through properly).

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

That's going to be a great game.  OK, well maybe not a great game as such (though Palace did hold up pretty well to both Spurs and Arsenal for 45 minutes), but any London derby is going to be exciting. 

...they're currently bringing up the rear in the Premiership with just 3 points. I'll be seeing them play Chelsea at The Bridge in December (assuming ticket orders go through properly).

[OldChelsea]

That's going to be a great game.  OK, well maybe not a great game as such (though Palace did hold up pretty well to both Spurs and Arsenal for 45 minutes), but any London derby is going to be exciting. 

Thank goodness I'm in their membership scheme - just got my ticket to the Southampton match on 1st December and that fixture sold out within a week of its going on sale.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

DCU cuts De Rosario.  2014 could be ug-ly.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

You could have heard a pin drop during the Remembrance Day minute of silence at Old Trafford, straight to about 160 decibels as soon as the whistle blew.  Impressive. 

[OldChelsea]

Boy am I glad I'm a Chelsea member - tickets to the matches against Southampton (1st December) sold out a week after sales to members opened, and against Crystal Palace (14th December) in just two days - no general sale held in either case. But I'm a member and my tickets arrived last week, so I'm going!

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Wow, I guess that's what happens when you pack that much firepower into a tiny stadium in one of the world's premier cities.

Boy am I glad I'm a Chelsea member - tickets to the matches against Southampton (1st December) sold out a week after sales to members opened, and against Crystal Palace (14th December) in just two days - no general sale held in either case. But I'm a member and my tickets arrived last week, so I'm going!

[Natsinpwc]

You are quite lucky to be able to attend sporting events while jetting back and forth across the pond!
Enjoy!

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Aaron Ramsey is on fire. 

[OldChelsea]

You are quite lucky to be able to attend sporting events while jetting back and forth across the pond!
Enjoy!

Actually the three matches I'm attending are all during the samee three-week trip - and the first of these was today, a 3-1 Chelsea win over Southampton despite Saints scoring their goal just 14sec in. John Terry scored the go-ahead goal in the 62nd minute, just missing the 61st (I turn 61 today - not a bad birthday present all the same, especially given that this match was originally scheduled for yesterday).

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Happy B-day, OC! 

[mitlen]

I turn 61 today - not a bad birthday present all the same, especially given that this match was originally scheduled for yesterday.

Happy Birthday young man.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

It's nice having the Mancunian hammerlock over the EPL finally broken. 

[mitlen]

It's nice having the Mancunian hammerlock over the EPL finally broken. 

It's still early.   

[ronnynat]

It's nice having the Mancunian hammerlock over the EPL finally broken. 

I think City will catch them. Big game in 2 weeks (and in March).

City definitely need to buy a top CB in January to help them catch up, though.

[mitlen]

It's nice having the Mancunian hammerlock over the EPL finally broken. 

Was Sir Alex that big of a factor?

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

I guess counting chickens on the first day of December is not the best idea.  But the past 3 seasons were pretty much over for everyone but Man U and City by Christmas. 

I think City will catch them. Big game in 2 weeks (and in March).

City definitely need to buy a top CB in January to help them catch up, though.

It's still early.   

Was Sir Alex that big of a factor?

[ronnynat]

Read this on Liverpool's message board. Best rant I've read in a while. Hilarious.

Absolutely pathetic, insipid 'performance'.

And you know what? Some of us freaking called it. Every single season without fail there's a game like this. You can smell the freaking bastard in the air. You know it's coming. It only takes one or two injuries to make our squad and first team look utterly weak as piss and without a clue, and that's what we got this week. Look at that Hull side on paper and it'd be lucky to stay in the top half of the freaking championship let alone the premier league, and we just had to go and make them look like world-beaters.

This is why it's so freaking cringeworthy when you have to hear some people talk up our chances as soon as we get close to the top. We're just not that good. We're still a mile off from a title challenge, and yet some of you really can't help yourselves. It's like you've never seen us before or something. We do this ROUTINELY. It's not just a flash in the pan or a strange anomaly of a result which nobody could foresee. I freakING FORESAW IT. It happens all the time. If it's not Hull, it's Reading. It's Barnsely. It's Wigan. It's Watford. It's some other piece of freaking turd side who will be down in the bottom three come May. And it's 3 points others will get quite easily, routinely, while we come unstuck.

How can you start a freaking game with Agger AND Sakho on the bench while Toure (a free transfer who hasn't played the last two games) and Skrtel (someone you were desperate to be rid of ALL LAST SEASON) instead, with the inexperience of Flanagan, a freaking right back playing left back? Two left-sided CBs sit on the bench while you play a right-sided CB on the left side of defence. Really? freakING REALLY?

And how can you watch Moses and Sterling constantly give the ball away for 45 minutes, bring them in at half-time, and then START THE SAME SIDE AGAIN for the second half? Are you freaking high? Are you actually trying to lose a game of football? It didn't work. For 45 minutes, it didn't work. So, is it A) time to bin this and make changes in order to win the game, or B) play the exact same formation, players, and tactics for 20 minutes extra in some bizarre freaking hope that it magically starts working? Jesus tittyfreaking Christ, how much of a freaking c**t do you need to be to do that? What the living freak do you think is going to happen? Is your half-time team talk so breathtakingly inspiring that Victor freaking Moses is suddenly transformed into freaking Batigol? Are you that good? Is your voice like freaking honey? JUST TAKE THE c**t OFF. START AGAIN. DO SOMETHING.

I'll be honest, I'm freaking livid. Livid. Livid with spending £7m on a defender we never see, £14m on two players you don't use, and loaning in a player who's about as much use as a dildo freaking sandwich, while I have to watch Kevin freaking Strootman go for less money, to a side who aren't even in Europe, and boss the holy crapmunching freak out of Roma's midfield every pissing week. I have to watch that because apparently there isn't a single c**t on the scouting team who can find him playing for PSV, and would much rather our midfield was eaten alive by two Spurs rejects and a balloon's son. You freaking spastics.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Volkswagen is pulling their jersey sponsorship of DC United:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/soccer-insider/wp/2013/12/04/volkswagen-ends-d-c-united-jersey-sponsorship/?hpid=z6

[mitlen]

World Cup draw ...  1130 on ESPN2.

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/final-draw/draw.html

[cmdterps44]

wow USA is screwed.

[mitlen]

Rumble in the jungle (first round).    Good news is, it will be "winter"  ....