Dolfan in NYC Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 New month, new thread. Apparently Sacramento is the new favorite to land an MLS team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Magnificent 7 Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Big game today. And I'm not talking about that charade in Arizona. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zheroen Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Say, that Özil fella isn't half bad. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Magnificent 7 Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 2-0 without having to get out of 1st gear. Not one shot on goal for them. Outclassed. Enjoyed all the physical battles as well as Broony laying out that hammer thrower Black at the end was quality. Hampden pitch was a disgrace. Thompson's decisions on not allowing advantage when Brown played Griffitsh through with all day to round Simonsen, Griffiths getting clattered in the box with nothing given, and Rangers getting a free kick near the end when Guidetti was fouled about 3 times in 5 seconds by Elbows McCulloch was hilarious as it was clear he was desperate to keep the score down. All in all a quite enjoyable day. Atmosphere electric, especially compared to the golf crowds you get in the Barclay's Bestest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StretchMediatedHypertrophy Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Interesting start to the newest Glasgow derby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 That whistle on Brown's pass for Griffiths was absurd. How does a referee at any nation's top level call that? Only through the first half but completely agree with your criticism of the pitch. So many crater-sized divots within the opening quarter of an hour. The one thing I was impressed with (other than that second goal) was Celtic's ball movement. Looked very crisp, with plenty of 1-2s in the middle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Magnificent 7 Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 LMAO http://vimeo.com/118440372 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Magnificent 7 Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Stuart Armstrong, MacKay-Steven, and Michael Duffy IN. Really happy about these, as you know what you're getting in the first two and the money stays in the Scottish game. Dundee United will reinvest that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Really not much action at the top of England. Chelsea bring in Cuadrado from Fiorentina and loan Salah out to Fiorentina in return. Salah was basically screwed at Chelsea from the second Fabregas got there, really. Cuadrado... well, the strong get stronger. Aaron Lennon loaned out from Spurs to Everton. Darren Fletcher from Manchester United to West Bromwich Albion. Crystal Palace sign "the next sure thing, no really, we mean it this time" Wilfred Zaha on a permanent deal after he was there on loan anyway. Not a hell of a lot else happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 With Fletcher gone, who's the most senior player in the team that came through their academy? Tyler Blackett? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 I have afriend who is a fan of Andre Schurrle. He is glad he never got around to buying a Chelsea kit this year, with him now off to wolfsburg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AxB Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Yesterday was 100 years since Sir Stanley Matthews was born. Friday will be 50 years since he played his last top-flight game. RIP to the greatest English footballer ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChesterCopperpot Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 'Arry is out at QPR - resigned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReiseReise Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Say, that Özil fella isn't half bad. Wait for him to have the inevitable volatile periods for everyone to declare him the worst player in BPL. That assist was amazing, though. Bundesliga is having what us Germans call "English week". Today matchday 19 starts with - among others - Bayern vs Schalke. Poor Schalke having to play the woken hounds. Wolfsburg play at Frankfurt , Schuerrle will not be in the line-up which is understandable since he´s been with Wolfsburg for roughly 30 hours as of now.. Tomorrow will have last place Dortmund hosting in-form Augsburg at home as well as Paderborn vs Hamburg, who both had a very negative trend dropping points to direct relegation rivals in their first match after Christmas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 What happened to Dortmund? I've seen you say a couple times that they are in the relegation zone this season. Did they sell off the whole team or massive injuries? As I've gotten more into European football it just seems weird that they aren't #1 or 2 much less potentially relegated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 They lost some scoring but I still think "they lost their players" is a poor excuse when you look at the guys they still have. It's really weird. The first half of the domestic season was like watching a golfer that has the yips. There's just a lack of confidence around them, and a failure to make the decisive play in the final third of the field. And yet they have been fine in Champion's League. I can't imagine there was a team anywhere in Europe happier to see the winter break than Dortmund. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Can you not just feel the joy? https://vine.co/v/OFKdU3td1nU 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReiseReise Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 It´s a mix of losing important players to other teams and injuries coupled with stubbornness in re: their playing style and a false sense of security, I´d say. First the players: Of course they had some incredible bad luck with a lot of key players not being there for a majority of the pre-season. Some even suffer from the dreaded "Post-World-Champion-Syndrome", which is often seen in players every four years. Most of Borussia´s world champions didn´t even get to play much, but maybe this is the actual problem. Most of Bayern´s World Cup Players were starters, therefore somewhat "World Class". Dortmund had Hummels, who was playing on a high level during the summer, but never really got into that form. He was out with injuries a lot. Großkreutz, Durm, Ginter (who came from Freiburg) and Weidenfeller all didn´t play a single minute while officially being part of the "23 men roster that was best of the world". I know it is a shot in the dark, but especially Großkreutz struck me as guy who was there for his hard work and who might let this get to his head. He has been atrocious all season up until now. Durm and Ginter are young and have every right to be inconsistent, but they are already needed and with lots of defenders out or off in regards to form they are a liability. Reus, who could have been the guy hungry and motivated after the injury right before the World Cup, got the same injury three times before the winter, the final injury putting him out in a game against Paderborn that might even had turned things around. Gündogan came back in the middle of the season, no real preperation etc. Lots of other players had problems with injuries aswell (Mhkitaryan, Subotic, Kuba, Pisczek, Sahin) or were the "new guys" who were still learning the system and playing style (Immobile, Ginter even "rusty" Kagawa to an extent). Then, system and playing style: Dortmund still tried to play the football they played successfully since Klopp took over in 2009 and it backfired horribly. Fast paced football with high pressure and 90 minutes of running only works if all your players are at 100%. And if the players are used to it and have adapted it already (which might be a reason why Immobile and Ginter had so much trouble so far). For the first ten or so games they only seemed to lack the finish, and it seemed accurate to blame it on the loss of Lewandowski. But then they even started lacking in the creational department and had so many individual howlers. Here I´d like to say that DfA´s golfer analogy is quite accurate imo. They never got off the ground when it came to finishing / finishing off games in the league (prime examples would be games against Hannover, Hamburg, Paderborn and Wolfsburg where they weren´t able to score or even finish off opponents). Overall it seemed more fitting to blame their losing streak on lack of fitness and later on lack of confidence, which came after the beginning of a first long winless spell. The Champions League seemed to be the competition where they got a little extra mileage out of the tank. But when you play some midtable teams in the Bundesliga, it seemed like all the weariness took its toll. And once they got into a bad stride, then the club itself (all its coaches, players, fans) and even opponents stated that they are "way better than their current spot in the Bundesliga table". I think up until Christmas they still thought to turn stuff around with a good winning streak and make Top 7 at least, if not Top 3. Judging from the approach of the Leverkusen game last Saturday, they might have realized they are battling relegation and this realization came not a day too soon. Trying to be defensively sound is the key. They haven´t managed to come back from being a goal down for a win at any point this season and this is a big weakness. Next step would be to overcome the problem of scoring goals, which is of course easier said than done. All this, however, I only believe to have "figured out" in retrospective. It will be great fun when the match against Augsburg tomorrow shatters all my "profund analysis". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Thanks for answering my question DFA & Reise. I learn a lot from reading from you guys and I wanted to say I appreciate you guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Can you not just feel the joy? https://vine.co/v/OFKdU3td1nU I kind of feel bad for Aaron because on one hand he's been a very good servant at Tottenham. But on the other hand I also feel he's a guy that has reached a peak of his usefulness and the logical thing to do now is move him along and get what you can for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zheroen Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 As much as I admire and enjoy Dortmund's high-tempo "heavy metal" approach to football when it works, Klopp really doesn't seem to employ any sort of Plan B when the pieces aren't moving in sync (as they haven't really been this season). Having listened to/read about #wengerout idiots going on for a couple of years now about how Klopp is the ideal candidate to helm the Gunners due to Wenger's apparent tactical inflexibility and unwillingness to spend like Chelsea or City is kind of funny at this point, given their respective fortunes over the course of this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 ... And Dortmund are in stoppage time down 1-0 at home to ten-man Augsburg. My concern level has officially risen to "pack that survivalist bag, you might need it soon". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReiseReise Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Thanks for answering my question DFA & Reise. I learn a lot from reading from you guys and I wanted to say I appreciate you guys. Glad to help and contribute, these topics here are give and take, in a pretty relaxed atmosphere and it´s always good to give something back with so many mainstays contributing so much good stuff. The frightening thing is just how uninspiring Dortmund LOOKED actually. They didn´t seem to develope anything at all to create stuff from what I saw (bits and pieces of the simulcast aswell as the final ten minutes). Some of their at one point great players like Gündogan, Reus and Sahin looked terrible and like they are totally lacking confidence. I get the feeling creeping up on me - and I hate to say it for he has done a hell of a job for 6 out of the 7 years - that Juergen Klopp might not be the right guy for this job as of now. Just as Zheroen said, there just doesn´t seem to be a plan B to take a turn in a different and better direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChesterCopperpot Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Left it late there - 2 goals in the last 4 minutes. Bolton were lucky to be one ahead. Onto Palace in the next round now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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