Football

So the most popular sport in the world known as football, soccer and various other things. Here's a thread to talk about the game which never stops, even now we have transfer window, pre-season, really early European qualification for teams like TNS (I think).  And only just over a month till the best league in the world starts on 17th of august the Barclay's premier league.

So in till it starts (and can talk about matches), maybe we talk about who we support, what players we like etc

Am pretty sure that at least the title is aimed at me and Athrun, but I'm not going to rise to the bait.  

I don't like football or many of the people who play it professionally. That is all and I now leave you to your discussion.

Never Balla  

My main team is Manchester City, but as I'm a football fan and have sky sports i also watch SPL where i cheer on Celtic in Scotland.

Some of my fav players, Silva, Yaya, Kompany, Aguero, Hooper, Ledley, Messi, Bale, i could go on

But here's my starting 11
                    GK Neuer,

RB Zabaleta  CB Kompany CB Pique LB Lahm (C)
 
RM Ronaldo CM Yaya CM Silva CM Muller LM Messi
                   
                      CF Ibrahimović

Yesterday I saw my team, Nottingham Forest, beat Blackburn Rovers on their patch. Justice was done as I reckon we should have won but it was very laboured, the second half in particular. Our one goal - 92nd minute! - was fortunate to stand, I thought (Mackie challenged the goalkeeper who subsequently dropped the ball; Henderson smashed it home), but it made the trip worthwhile.

Anyone else been to, or planning to go to, a match this season?

I'm going to go see my DAD's team Derby County play Yeovil (only 30 mins up the road) in 2 weeks time. As Yeovil are so close might go see them play now and again against some of the better championship teams or when I'm on holiday. Would love to go see Man City or Celtic at home but cost of tickets, travel etc just make it to expensive for me. So always hope City get a decent Cup draw with a team down around here, or could see them play Swansea, Southampton (Cardiff is the same weekend as derby v yeovil).

I will be going to Stan Petrovs charity match at Parkhead in September, really can't wait for that as its been a while since I've been, I really want to get to more Celtic games this season.

As for who we got in the Champions league play off, I still don't know what to make of it & would've preferred a better known team.

Will be at every game I can manage, working Saturday's makes it difficult and having to work late Tuesday's and Wednesday's isn't gonna help me go to midweek games either, could do with a job that revolves around really.

Premier League starts today.

Balladeer wrote:

Am pretty sure that at least the title is aimed at me and Athrun, but I'm not going to rise to the bait.  

I don't like football or many of the people who play it professionally.  That is all and I now leave you to your discussion.

Me neither and with that, like the wrestling thread, I will leave you to your entertainment  

Watford

(or Udinese Under-21 as they are now known).

Managed to combine football and AC.  

Yass! Absolutely buzzing with Celtic making the Champions League group stage, such a tense game to watch but we played brilliant with big Sammy being really important once again.  

Hail Hail

Quite exciting to watch, all abord for the draw tomorrow, expecting another group of death for City but you've gotta beat the best to be the best.

Yeah, good work from Celtic! I didn't watch the game - Big Brother comes above all else in the house these days - but what a great turnaround. Good luck with the draw!

What a tough group for Celtic. Should be an interesting watch though, hoping for some upsets.

Champions League Draw
Ranked 1, Ranked 2, Ranked 3, Ranked 4
Group A Manchester United, Shakhtar Donetsk, Bayer Leverkusen, Real Sociedad
Group B Real Madrid, Juventus, Galatasaray, Copenhagen
Group C Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain, Olympiakos, Anderlecht
Group D Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow, Manchester City, Viktoria Plzen
Group E Chelsea, Schalke, Basel, Steaua Bucharest
Group F Arsenal, Marseille, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli
Group G Porto, Altetico Madrid, Zenit Saint Petersburg, Austria Vienna
Group H Barcelona, AC Milan, Ajax, Celtic

So that's it I still don't how ranking is worked out Arsenal done nothing for years but ranked 1 where's Borussia finalist last year and won there league 2 seasons ago but are ranked 3rd.

I'm going for A Utd & Leverkusen, B Real & Juventus, C Benfica & PSG, D Bayern & Man City (yes finally getting to knockouts hopefully), E Chelsea & Schalke, F Dortmund & Napoli, G Porto & Zenit, H Barca & AC Milan

Loved that draw, sure its probably the toughest you could get but we thrive when playing the big teams, especially at home where we can beat anyone.

I'm confident we will sneak through.

EDIT: Also the final is in Lisbon so its fate, see you there.

Six games of Celtic playing ten men behind the ball and within twenty-five yards of their box doesn't excite me all that much. I loved the swashbuckling performance last night - Samaras was outstanding - but I was actually hoping for more navigable group.

If they win at home against Ajax and take something from AC Milan then I think third might be a shout. Ajax have just lost their best player (...no, not Derk Boerrigter...).

Ye can't blame us for setting up to play a counter attacking game when in champions league, as much as I'd like us to play our natural game I wouldn't want to be hammered because of it.

Also it isn't always boring to watch, last years game vs Barca is proof of that.

Blimey, good luck to Manchester City with that! It's beyond time that they got out of their group - you can't keep doing so well in the Premiership with so little to show from the Champions League.

Hopefully under the new manager we'll play our own style in Europe like we do in the Premier League, part of the problem in the Champions League in the last two years is that we adapted our tactics to fit each team, great teams don't adapt, they make the other teams adapt to their style of play.

England on tonight, I will watch but I find them boring to watch and were struggling to get out of the group. How are we going to cope if we do get to the world cup playing the likes of Germany, Spain, Holland, Brazil, Argentina, Ivory Coast just to name a few top teams.

International football on a whole is boring to watch, I'll still look for my countries results but I just can't get overly excited about the games. (no it isn't because Scotland haven't qualified for a major tournament since I was 14)

Few people seriously expect England to do well at the World Cup, I would imagine. I certainly don't - the team do not have the players or technique to quite challenge the best (he typed, whilst wearing his best optimism hat).

I'd personally say England has enough good players to do well but the selections are often terrible and the tactics under Hodgson are awful.

Just been to see Steve Harper's charity match at St James park. Great atmosphere and the place was packed, Di Canio was booed every time he touched the ball.

As well has seeing the likes of Shearer and Cole, Milan had some of their all time greats on such as Maldini!

Unfortunately this means I have to go back to watching the lacklustre performances of the Ameobi bros on a weekly basis.

Edit*

England will forever overestimate their aspirations and shower us with glorious bouts of ineptitude. Not trophies.