The European/World Football Thread III
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Original post by jam277
Hopefully he does thiago and schweinsteigger. 
no holding midfielder and counter attacks galore. Hopefully the loss may put them down to earth. How did dortmund play?
I want dortmund to win the title but I still doubt it. But hopefully the title race is challenging.
no holding midfielder and counter attacks galore. Hopefully the loss may put them down to earth. How did dortmund play? I want dortmund to win the title but I still doubt it. But hopefully the title race is challenging.
Similar to in the CL, flew out of the blocks but this time they got their goal. Then sat back and soaked up the pressure very well before a crazy 3 minute spell put them 3-1 up. Rest of the game was just Gundogan bossing the midfield for them. Marco Reus was unbelievable though.
Bayern didnt look good at all though, reckon it'll be close this season with BVB getting the better in the head to heads.
Original post by jam277
Hopefully he does thiago and schweinsteigger. no holding midfielder and counter attacks galore. Hopefully the loss may put them down to earth. How did dortmund play?
I want dortmund to win the title but I still doubt it. But hopefully the title race is challenging.
no holding midfielder and counter attacks galore. Hopefully the loss may put them down to earth. How did dortmund play? I want dortmund to win the title but I still doubt it. But hopefully the title race is challenging.
Didn't watch the match, was playing cricket.
I think Pep is just tinkering with the team at the moment. I'm sure Schweinsteiger will drop into that advanced libero like position with Thiago and one other floating in front of him. So many options and so much depth in midfield. Pep's reputation will take a hit if he doesn't at least absolutely rip up the league this year.
Original post by Zürich
Draxler's assist for Raul tonight
was für diesen tekkers !
was für diesen tekkers !
Wait what, Raul? What match was this? (it was amazing though)
Original post by The Assassin
Wait what, Raul? What match was this? (it was amazing though)
S04 invited Raul back for a 'thank you match' since he left without getting a chance to say goodbye to the fans after winning them a German cup and CL semi final.
Says so much about the depth of quality in Germany that Draxler is not even close to being an international player.
Original post by Zürich
S04 invited Raul back for a 'thank you match' since he left without getting a chance to say goodbye to the fans after winning them a German cup and CL semi final.
Says so much about the depth of quality in Germany that Draxler is not even close to being an international player.
Says so much about the depth of quality in Germany that Draxler is not even close to being an international player.
Well he's still only 19 and has 6 caps for them which isn't too bad.
Original post by ra-ra-ra
...
Yo, so it's been a while...
Have you been keeping up with Porto's pre-season? I have with Benfica... watched pretty much all the games so far, and tbh, I'm not exactly filled with hope for a great season ahead.
To start off with, our defence has been really poor. We're conceeding too many goals too easily and of all the new defenders that we've bought, none of them come close to Garay.
He has only played two (I think) matches compared to the rest, and it's already extremely obvious that Garay is a class apart from the rest. I thought Lisandro Lopez would do a good job at replacing him, but he doesn't look similar to Garay (quick and easy on the ball) and is much more similar to Luisao (slow, but good positioning). I'm not sure having two slow defenders is gonna work :/
Still nothing on Garay's transfer, but I dread the news of that transfer a lot more now..
Cortez has been OK at leftback. Not sure what's going on with Melgarejo, he might be on his way out to Liverpool or something. Silvio finally adds some good competition for Maxi though.
In the midfield, it seems like we'll still be relying on Matic/Enzo and that Amorim, A. Gomes and A. Almeida will be their backups. I'm surprised Amorim is back now and he's a decent sub for Enzo, but we still don't have anyone good enough to sub Matic. If Matic goes, it's gonna be big trouble unless we get someone else.
On the wings, it still looks like Gaitan/Salvio will be the main choices (especially Salvio who actually looks even better than before), Ola John has been extremely disappointing (it's like he's scared of the opposition defenders sometimes) and Sulejmani hasn't shown a great deal yet. Would have preferred to have seen Pizzi stay at the club instead of Ola John tbh.. Pizzi is much better, but I guess he probably wanted to be playing week in week out because of the World Cup coming up.
And then we have the number 10 position, Djuricic and Markovic.
Djuricic has been improving with every game and definitely looks like he'll be a good successor to Aimar. Very classy player and good vision as well.. already has a bunch of assists (two assists tonight against Elche, first one was a good example of his quality).
And then there's Markovic. Oh, my, god. This guy is amazing.. he's extremely quick, hard working (always pressuring), very skillful and has an eye for goal. If he gets a good run in the first team, it'll be hard to drop him to the bench..
I can see Djuricic having a hard time staying in the team if he's competing directly with Markovic for a spot in the 11. However, I can just as easily see Markovic playing as the main striker.. and in that case, we could have a Djuricic/Markovic combo up front
Striker wise. We're gonna miss Cardozo big time. We aren't scoring as easily as we normally would be, and many times we create chances but don't finish them off, the type of chances that Cardozo would probably finish if he was there.
Lima is good enough, and he's done well in the pre-season, but I wonder if he can keep up that form for a whole season considering that he's at his best when he plays with another striker (like how their partnership worked last season).
Rodrigo had been very disappointing up until tonight (hat-trick against Elche) so I'm hoping that he starts improving again. Rodrigo has an amazing chance this season to finally establish himself and I really hope he does because he can be very good when on form. If it hadn't been for tonight's performance, I'd have said he has lost it, because he had been really very bad up until now...
It looks like we won't be playing with two strikers up front this season (unless we buy someone if Cardozo leaves) so both of them should be getting a lot of playing time this season. Kinda wish we had kept Nelson Oliveira but hopefully he gets lots of minutes at Rennes because of the World Cup.
*That was quite a long writeup >_>*
So yeh.. how's Porto looking? I've seen that they've kept winning their matches... I saw a bit of the match against Celta Vigo, enough to catch Kelvin vs Nolito >_>, Quintero looked pretty interesting..
(edited 10 years ago)
Disgusting penalty given.
Original post by aa22
...
I find with friendlies it’s difficult to get the full picture so I wouldn’t worry too much about the defence right now. I mean in friendlies you get numerous of substitutes which disrupts the flow of the game and a lot of the time it is never that intense like you would get in a game that actually means something. With the defence I’d give them a few competitive matches before making a judgement on them but it will be difficult for them to come in and play to the standard Garay has pulled off in a Benfica kit anyway as he has been a very important defender for you. But as you said nothing yet on his transfer and I’m beginning to feel nothing will happen with him going. Maybe Fergie no longer being at United was a good thing as it’s meant the Garay story has gone all hush-hush.
I have to say the Melgarejo to Liverpool transfer story seems a bit of an odd one. I don’t know if I could get my head around him in a Liverpool top. It’s a bit like the Nelson Oliveira to Stoke story where it would have been quite odd seeing him in a Stoke kit. I’m not sure if Rennes was the best option for him and I actually would have liked him to stay with Benfica this season, but I hope this loan move works out for him. Again, the Matic rumours are ones that have gone all quiet now too. You might be surprised and you may actually hold onto him and Garay.
I don’t understand Benfica’s reasoning with signing Pizzi. I understand him wanting regular first team football so he wanted to go back out on loan somewhere so he could get it but why did Benfica actually sign him in the first place? I’m pretty sure the guy has spent the majority of his career out of loan. I like Pizzi but I don’t know if I could see him going back to Benfica and being a regular starter next season regardless of how it works out at Espanyol.
I have to say I haven’t watched enough of Benficas friendlies to see all these new Serbians in action. But going by what I’ve read and if Lima can continue with how he was last season then I feel those two will get you quite a few goals!
Cardozo may be on the verge of leaving but hey, Yannick is back!
I feel the Pizzi signing will be like the Yannick one though. Pointless. As for Porto’s preseason I haven’t watched much due to working. I watched the friendly against Marseille and then Celta Vigo the other day but that’s been it. Ha, that was a bit naughty by Kelvin but good job it was a friendly though otherwise he would have had a ban. I’m quite interested to see how much of a chance he will get this season. Again, I missed both the matches this weekend at The Emirates Cup but I see Quintero has managed to put in a good display. I still have that feeling that despite losing James and Moutinho I’m really looking forward to watching this team play competitively. Supertaça next weekend which means the Liga is close to returning!
In other news I like that Miguel Lopes has gone to Lyon, it’s a shame for Sporting but that’s a good move for him. I watched Estoril’s Europa League match on Thursday too. They had done well to not concede the away goal but they had so much of the ball but didn’t do much with it. They really should have scored though and I feel now they may struggle with the return leg. Hopefully not.
Ha, not quite as long as yours but still a pretty long reply!
Where is that guy who was repeatedly telling us that Robben's career was over?
Original post by ra-ra-ra
...
So the pre-season is over now. We lost to Napoli 2-1. They did put out probably their strongest team and they scored two fortunate goals. That said we were quite poor throughout, barely created many chances. Not too fussed about this match as it was good practice against a strong team.
The european qualifying draws have happened. Europa League-wise, Braga and Estoril should have fairly easy rides to the group stages (Estoril did well to get the away win in the previous round), but Pacos face Zenit in the Champions League playoff :/ That is gonna suck for them... but then again, any team in that draw was too strong for Pacos.
Cardozo has come out and said sorry.. a bit late now I think because he's probably on his way out. And we've apparently also signed Funes Mori, which is extremely disappointing because I've heard he is rubbish.
Like I've said before, I'm not looking forward to this season... we haven't played well all pre-season, and it doesn't fill me with hope :/
Original post by aa22
So the pre-season is over now. We lost to Napoli 2-1. They did put out probably their strongest team and they scored two fortunate goals. That said we were quite poor throughout, barely created many chances. Not too fussed about this match as it was good practice against a strong team.
The european qualifying draws have happened. Europa League-wise, Braga and Estoril should have fairly easy rides to the group stages (Estoril did well to get the away win in the previous round), but Pacos face Zenit in the Champions League playoff :/ That is gonna suck for them... but then again, any team in that draw was too strong for Pacos.
Cardozo has come out and said sorry.. a bit late now I think because he's probably on his way out. And we've apparently also signed Funes Mori, which is extremely disappointing because I've heard he is rubbish.
Like I've said before, I'm not looking forward to this season... we haven't played well all pre-season, and it doesn't fill me with hope :/
The european qualifying draws have happened. Europa League-wise, Braga and Estoril should have fairly easy rides to the group stages (Estoril did well to get the away win in the previous round), but Pacos face Zenit in the Champions League playoff :/ That is gonna suck for them... but then again, any team in that draw was too strong for Pacos.
Cardozo has come out and said sorry.. a bit late now I think because he's probably on his way out. And we've apparently also signed Funes Mori, which is extremely disappointing because I've heard he is rubbish.
Like I've said before, I'm not looking forward to this season... we haven't played well all pre-season, and it doesn't fill me with hope :/
Yeah, both have passable ties. I'm made up for Estoril as it gives them a great chance to be able to play a few more matches in Europe. Their fans were great in the first leg so i would like to see a bit more of that and them in their European games. As for Paços it was always going to be tough no matter who they had out of the few teams they could have been given. It does mean Hulk returns to the Dragão (if he doesn't leave between now and then) as Paços will be playing at our ground so i imagine a few Portistas might pop along to that.
The apology has come pretty late from Cardozo but why apologise now and then leave? I seem to think he's going nowhere now.
We shall see by this time next week! It's back!
First trophy of the season for Porto. No problems in this game at all. First half we completely dominated whereas the second was a lot less exciting. Helton was hardly tested. Licá was great and worked very well with Lucho. Cracking atmosphere though, it's a shame Portuguese football isn't like that every week with a full house etc. Guimarães fans were still noisy despite being 3-0 down. I'm never normally too fussed with the Supertaça, it's nice to win it but that's normally it but this one felt a bit different to the other ones for some unclear reason. I like Paulo Fonseca and i love our current squad and how strong we look. You watch, one of the first times i feel confident about a Porto squad we'll win nothing else this season!
Heard about Quaresma? His downward spiral of a career continues. Terminated his contract with Al Alhi and Jorge Mendes. Where next for him?
It's two weeks into the new Eredivisie season already! 
And yet so many goals...
One of the games of the season already maybe? AZ 3-2 Ajax was incredible.
Highlights below...watch out for Eriksen's free-kick and the winning goal for AZ.
So far PSV have looked impressive, even with such a youthful side, apparently it was the youngest Eredivisie side ever that won against NEC 5-0 on Saturday...their oldest player was Georgiano Wijnaldum at 22...
Highlights for that game below, watch out for Zakaria Bakkali's hat-trick. He'll be one for the future, he's only 17!
However Feyenoord have been poor thus far, with no points to show after 2 games, some fans are already questioning Ronald Koeman (manager) after some poor performances (2-1 at PEC Zwolle and 1-4 at home to Twente). It is strange considering they have kept all of their stars from last season in Pelle, Clasie, Martins-Indi and De Vrij...however they look devoid of ideas and inspiration at the moment, with Ajax waiting for De Klassieker next Sunday...
Groningen and PEC Zwolle look like other sides to watch this season, they've already achieved 6 points out of 6 and scoring some goals along the way. However Vitesse have struggled, they lost 4-2 at RKC Waalwijk last weekend after being knocked out of Europe by some no-name Romanians in mid-week, although it's no surprise when their new manager is inexperienced in top of the table situations and Vitesse are Bony-less nowadays...the defeat all the more sour after RKC are still in need of replacements from losing so many players last season...However at Vitesse there's a new formation being used, the 3-3-4, with 4 strikers, something new manager Peter Bosz has created, who was known for his attacking football at Heracles in the past too. Also, he plays 2 wing backs in his back 3!
In Europe, PSV are through to the Champions League play-off round after seeing off Belgians Zulte Waregem 5-0 on aggregate. So they now have AC Milan in their way of reaching the group stages to join Ajax. Feyenoord have Kuban Krasnador of Russia and AZ have Atromitos of Greece respectively to beat to reach the group stages of the Europa League.
In terms of transfers, there have been some interesting developments...
Twente have lost Chadli, Mihaylov, Douglas and Fer, key members of their squad with Dusan Tadic expected to leave too, a season of struggle ahead perhaps for them even with out Steve McLaren...
Ajax still have key players Eriksen, De Jong and Alderweireld around with no bigger fishes seriously interested at this time...
PSV have signed Ji-Sung Park, hopefully to add some know how to such a youthful squad.
And yet so many goals... One of the games of the season already maybe? AZ 3-2 Ajax was incredible.
Highlights below...watch out for Eriksen's free-kick and the winning goal for AZ.
Spoiler
So far PSV have looked impressive, even with such a youthful side, apparently it was the youngest Eredivisie side ever that won against NEC 5-0 on Saturday...their oldest player was Georgiano Wijnaldum at 22...
Highlights for that game below, watch out for Zakaria Bakkali's hat-trick. He'll be one for the future, he's only 17!
Spoiler
However Feyenoord have been poor thus far, with no points to show after 2 games, some fans are already questioning Ronald Koeman (manager) after some poor performances (2-1 at PEC Zwolle and 1-4 at home to Twente). It is strange considering they have kept all of their stars from last season in Pelle, Clasie, Martins-Indi and De Vrij...however they look devoid of ideas and inspiration at the moment, with Ajax waiting for De Klassieker next Sunday...
Groningen and PEC Zwolle look like other sides to watch this season, they've already achieved 6 points out of 6 and scoring some goals along the way. However Vitesse have struggled, they lost 4-2 at RKC Waalwijk last weekend after being knocked out of Europe by some no-name Romanians in mid-week, although it's no surprise when their new manager is inexperienced in top of the table situations and Vitesse are Bony-less nowadays...the defeat all the more sour after RKC are still in need of replacements from losing so many players last season...However at Vitesse there's a new formation being used, the 3-3-4, with 4 strikers, something new manager Peter Bosz has created, who was known for his attacking football at Heracles in the past too. Also, he plays 2 wing backs in his back 3!
In Europe, PSV are through to the Champions League play-off round after seeing off Belgians Zulte Waregem 5-0 on aggregate. So they now have AC Milan in their way of reaching the group stages to join Ajax. Feyenoord have Kuban Krasnador of Russia and AZ have Atromitos of Greece respectively to beat to reach the group stages of the Europa League.
In terms of transfers, there have been some interesting developments...
Twente have lost Chadli, Mihaylov, Douglas and Fer, key members of their squad with Dusan Tadic expected to leave too, a season of struggle ahead perhaps for them even with out Steve McLaren...
Ajax still have key players Eriksen, De Jong and Alderweireld around with no bigger fishes seriously interested at this time...
PSV have signed Ji-Sung Park, hopefully to add some know how to such a youthful squad.
Original post by boumavilla
So far PSV have looked impressive, even with such a youthful side, apparently it was the youngest Eredivisie side ever that won against NEC 5-0 on Saturday...their oldest player was Georgiano Wijnaldum at 22...
Highlights for that game below, watch out for Zakaria Bakkali's hat-trick. He'll be one for the future, he's only 17!
.
So far PSV have looked impressive, even with such a youthful side, apparently it was the youngest Eredivisie side ever that won against NEC 5-0 on Saturday...their oldest player was Georgiano Wijnaldum at 22...
Highlights for that game below, watch out for Zakaria Bakkali's hat-trick. He'll be one for the future, he's only 17!
Spoiler
.
Thanks for the update man.
****ing hell, that was some hat trick from Bakkali. 17 years old, home debut, crazy incredible ****. Two curlers from the edge of the area, one with his left, one with his right, both after beating his man inside, and the other a rocket from an acute angle after beating his man on the outside. Not to mention he looks fast as hell.
Original post by Straight up G
Thanks for the update man.
****ing hell, that was some hat trick from Bakkali. 17 years old, home debut, crazy incredible ****. Two curlers from the edge of the area, one with his left, one with his right, both after beating his man inside, and the other a rocket from an acute angle after beating his man on the outside. Not to mention he looks fast as hell.
****ing hell, that was some hat trick from Bakkali. 17 years old, home debut, crazy incredible ****. Two curlers from the edge of the area, one with his left, one with his right, both after beating his man inside, and the other a rocket from an acute angle after beating his man on the outside. Not to mention he looks fast as hell.
You think those were good?! Have you seen this rocket he scored in midweek in the Champions League?
This is all from this 17 year old that even I hadn't heard about until this season...
[video="youtube;K5TSWk0daOo"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5TSWk0daOo[/video]
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