Football

[red_ed]

On a quick review to the weekend, I think my teams faired quite well, but it could have been better.

Manure was extremely lucky against Arsenal (for how many times now). We just showed how to lose a game, when your opponent can't create anything on the field. Give them a stupid penalty, and an own goal. Nevertheless, it was obvious that Arsenal, even without Cesc, was a better team than ManU. Fergie's starting lineup was evidence that he was scared from us. I think it was a win-win for both teams.

Juve defeated Roma, displaying once again how to use the transfer period the right way. Our newcomers Diego, and Felipe Mello were the heroes of the game. BTW, for the first time there is a brazilian influx at Juve. Hope they'll fair good.

Valencia defeated Sevilla, to have a good start. Still early to talk though, but I'm excited.

Chelsea keeps on winning, but I don't know if they were really tested? Gotta admit the Drogba-Anelka duo looks scary.

Robben was awesome in his first game under Bayern jersey, scoring twice in the 3-0 victory over the reigning champs.

Milan lost badly against Inter. I hope they'll do better as the season goes on.

It's like going to Soccernet.com but only a few days late

Strange to see Eduardo get a two-game Champions League ban for what would have been a yellow card offence on the night

Also agreed. The whole thing is stupid. Then again, it's UEFA

That got me shocked. I didn't see the play, but it probably was an obvious flop from Eduardo, but even if so, 2 game suspesion is BS. I have never even heard of 2 game suspensions for goals scored with hands, leave alone a flop. <_<

Eduardo did dive but it was when Arsenal were 2-0 up and the game was clearly beyond Celtic's reach anyway. A 2 match ban for a yellow card offence is absurd and they're just setting a dangerous precedent. They're probably just out to get Arsenal to be honest

I saw the Rooney and Raul penalties a few days later and they were both very similar situations - a forward getting ahead of a goalkeeper and anticipating contact. All three were halfway down before being touched, Eduardo was just caught out because the Celtic keeper didn't make a rash challenge. Stuff like that goes on every week <_<

It's stupid that a penalty is awarded whenever a striker takes the ball away from goals and half the time the ball is not even in the striker's control because they hit it so hard. You'd hardly think the goalie was denying any sort of goal scoring opportunity there. Bring back the in/direct free-kicks inside the box I say!

/tangent rant

[Michael*]

I saw the Rooney and Raul penalties a few days later and they were both very similar situations - a forward getting ahead of a goalkeeper and anticipating contact. All three were halfway down before being touched, Eduardo was just caught out because the Celtic keeper didn't make a rash challenge. Stuff like that goes on every week <_<

It's stupid that a penalty is awarded whenever a striker takes the ball away from goals and half the time the ball is not even in the striker's control because they hit it so hard. You'd hardly think the goalie was denying any sort of goal scoring opportunity there. Bring back the in/direct free-kicks inside the box I say!

/tangent rant

Whether or not the ball was under the striker's control used to be taken into account when awarding a pen, but now that seems to have been lost in favour of giving them for any sort of contact. The old way must have been too sensible.

[red_ed]

I don't know why I didn't do this BEFORE the season started, but for anyone that plays Fantasy Premier League (), I've created a league there for BZ members. Frederick (remember him? His daddy owned the bar...) has also decided to grace us with his presence, so I implore you to join if you have not already. Laughs will be had.

clicky to go to Fantasy Premier League site

Code to join BZ League: 823073-353621

[eNe]

I went to the game when we played Chelsea a couple of weeks back. We got a good early goal from Darren Bent but apart from that we hardly got a kick. Their brilliance was lost on a lot of people that night because it looked like our players weren't trying to compete and close down, when in actual fact Chelsea were just moving the ball around quicker than we could even think.

There's no denying that Chelsea is one of the best teams out there. Ancelotti is a perfect fit for them, and IMO they are favorites to win the EPL, but still some of my Chelsea fan friends already started acting like they're destined to have similar success like Barcelona had last season. They have so many options, that they'll lose fairly little to the non-title contenders, but how will they fair against the top teams remains to be a question mark. (iirc ManU had collected only 5 out of 18 possible points from the games big 4 played against each other last season)

It's like going to Soccernet.com but only a few days late

Yeah, the thing is, for a couple of days I was just cursing Manure routinely in my everydaylife, so I had to wait a little in order to make a polite post.

Eduardo did dive but it was when Arsenal were 2-0 up and the game was clearly beyond Celtic's reach anyway. A 2 match ban for a yellow card offence is absurd and they're just setting a dangerous precedent. They're probably just out to get Arsenal to be honest

I saw the Rooney and Raul penalties a few days later and they were both very similar situations - a forward getting ahead of a goalkeeper and anticipating contact. All three were halfway down before being touched, Eduardo was just caught out because the Celtic keeper didn't make a rash challenge. Stuff like that goes on every week <_<

It's stupid that a penalty is awarded whenever a striker takes the ball away from goals and half the time the ball is not even in the striker's control because they hit it so hard. You'd hardly think the goalie was denying any sort of goal scoring opportunity there. Bring back the in/direct free-kicks inside the box I say!

/tangent rant

Whether or not the ball was under the striker's control used to be taken into account when awarding a pen, but now that seems to have been lost in favour of giving them for any sort of contact. The old way must have been too sensible

Wait, so Eduardo's penalty was similar to Rooney, and Raul penalties? Wow!!! Just WOW. I thought the goalkeeper was sent-off, and it changed the momentum of the game, or something. That's even worse than I thought. For example Raul's penalty wasn't a penalty neither (it was obvious from off-side camera that the keeper didn't touch him.) But I guess we won't see any action about that, because as Ed said, they're just out to get Arsenal.

:jimmy:

BTW, you guys know how italian teams have a routine at the beginning of each season, where they hold one night tournaments (i.e.: Berlusconi Cup), 3 teams play each other in 45 minute games, and if the teams tie, they go to penalties. In late 90's/ early 00's there there was Bari Cup, and if the temas tied, instead of using actual penalties, players were taking the ball from 30 meters away from the goal, and try to score within 7 seconds. It was way harder than to score on a regular penalty, and way more awesome. I agree that they shall take the difficulty of the situation into consideration. Sometimes a player just gets pushed a little in the corner of the box, and they get a penalty, while another player gets fould just outside of the box, in a 3 on 1 situation gets a freekick.

IMO there shall be degrees for penalties. <_<

[eNe]

Here's a quicker review this time:

I stayed late last night to watch Argentina-Brasil, and it was worth it. Brasil won 1-3, as Luis Fabiano scored a twice, while Kaka' had a flawless game. Brasil now officialy got their ticket to South Africa, while Argentina remains in the 4th seed, but now they feel the breath of Colombia, and Ecuador on their neck, as both teams are just 2 points behind.

Portugal tied late in the game in Denmark, but they are in a really bad situation, as Sweden won at Hungary with Zlatan Ibrahimoviçs last second goal.

It was a really lucky one.

Latvia won at Israel, and now they're tied with Greece at #2. I always liked them, ever since they managed to get to Euro'04, with only 1 professional player. I wish them luck.

France drawed with Romania at home, and they'll likely play play-off.

And last, but not least, Kaladze showed his apprecietion for all this years he has spend at Italy, playing for AC Milan, by scoring 2 own goals as Georgia lost 0-2 to Italy at home.

----------

P.S.: Ed, fill me in a little about the fantasy football thing, because I have never played earlier (which is a shame to admit, considering I'm really into the video games). I might join you guys, too.

[red_ed]

There's no denying that Chelsea is one of the best teams out there. Ancelotti is a perfect fit for them, and IMO they are favorites to win the EPL, but still some of my Chelsea fan friends already started acting like they're destined to have similar success like Barcelona had last season. They have so many options, that they'll lose fairly little to the non-title contenders, but how will they fair against the top teams remains to be a question mark. (iirc ManU had collected only 5 out of 18 possible points from the games big 4 played against each other last season)

Chelsea will lose Mikel, Essien, Drogba and Kalou for African Nations Cup in January won't they? It'll be good to see how they cope then, even if they have a lot of depth some injuries and suspensions could throw a spanner in the works.

Yeah, the thing is, for a couple of days I was just cursing Manure routinely in my everydaylife, so I had to wait a little in order to make a polite post.

Keep cursing them

P.S.: Ed, fill me in a little about the fantasy football thing, because I have never played earlier (which is a shame to admit, considering I'm really into the video games). I might join you guys, too.

Ummm.... basically you join up and you have a budget of $100 and you have to buy a squad of 15 players and you choose from teams in the EPL. Every matchday, your players get points according to what they did in the real match and how long they played.

So, here's the scoring chart:

Scoring

For playing in a game 1

For playing at least 60 minutes in a game (includes playing points mentioned above) 2

For each goal scored by your goalkeeper or defenders 6

For each goal scored by your midfielders 5

For each goal scored by your forwards 4

For each goal assist 3

For your goalkeeper / defender conceding 0 goals (must also play at least 60 minutes) 4

For your midfielder conceding 0 goals (must also play at least 60 minutes) 1

For every 3 shot saves made by your goalkeeper 1

For every penalty save 5

For every penalty miss -2

Bonus points for the best players in a match 1-3

For every 2 goals conceded by your goalkeeper or defenders -1

For every yellow card -1

For every red card (includes any yellow card points) -3

If a player receives a red card, they will continue to be penalised for goals conceded by their team.

And they award up to 3 bonus points for playing well (so, most likely players like Fabregas who run the team's play will get bonus points) and if you Captain a player, they will score double points.

Example 1 - You captained van Persie, who plays a whole game and scores 2 goals and provides 1 assist and gets MotM, but he also gets a yellow card. He would get:

90 mins played = 2 pts

2 goal = 10 pts

1 assists = 3 pts

MotM bonus = 3 pts

Yellow = -1 pt

Captain x2

Total = 34 points (which is HUUUUGE in one gameweek considering most teams average 40-60 for a whole team in one matchday)

Example 2 - You choose Nick Shorey from Villa, who concedes 2 goals, gets 1 assist but due to injury only plays 43 mins, he would get:

43 mins = 1 pts

Concede 2 goals = -1 pts

1 assist = 3 pts

Total = 3 pts.

Example 3 - You bought Reina and he kept a clean sheet and made 4 saves and a penalty save, and was the second best player on the pitch for that performance (behind Gerrard )

90 mins = 2 pts

Clean sheet = 6 pts

Penalty save = 5 pts

4 Saves (which is > 3 saves but <6 saves) = 1 pt

Bonus = 2 pts

Total = 16 pts

JOIN JOIN JOIN! You can also tinker with your team by making transfers each week and putting on your subs if you want. All the rules are on the site if you want to know how it works Otherwise just pick a team and watch the points stack up (and watch me kick ass )! It makes those boring EPL games much more exciting to watch too

[red_ed]

You better join M* :persuazn:

[Michael*]

I just did

[Michael*]

There's no denying that Chelsea is one of the best teams out there. Ancelotti is a perfect fit for them, and IMO they are favorites to win the EPL, but still some of my Chelsea fan friends already started acting like they're destined to have similar success like Barcelona had last season. They have so many options, that they'll lose fairly little to the non-title contenders, but how will they fair against the top teams remains to be a question mark. (iirc ManU had collected only 5 out of 18 possible points from the games big 4 played against each other last season)

Chelsea will lose Mikel, Essien, Drogba and Kalou for African Nations Cup in January won't they? It'll be good to see how they cope then, even if they have a lot of depth some injuries and suspensions could throw a spanner in the works.

They will, but I think they'll cope by appealing against their transfer ban past January so they can use the next window to buy a job lot of players

[red_ed]

They will, but I think they'll cope by appealing against their transfer ban past January so they can use the next window to buy a job lot of players

lol true.

I don't see the original transfer ban being upheld at all. It'll probably just end with Chelsea paying an enormous fee. At worst it'll probably be a ban for 1 transfer period <_<

I just did

yay!

[azgirl]

Can someone please explain to me how a game can end in a tie. Who wins?

[astronomer]

azgirl, are you referring to the rules of football in general? A tie is worth 1 point, less than a win which gets 3 points so a tie is still worth something when point totals are counted.

[red_ed]

Can someone please explain to me how a game can end in a tie. Who wins?

In a league competition, where teams play each other in a round robin, head-to-head, home and away (so two times each season) a tie is accepted as an end result. Both teams are awarded 1 point each, whereas if a team wins, then they get 3 points and the other team is awarded nothing because losers are fail. Ultimately, the winner of the competition is determined by which team can amass the most points by the end of the season.

In the knock-out stages of a cup competition, games are played home and away with the aggregate score being taken into account at the end (in Europe at least). Cup finals are normally only one-leg, played in a neutral, pre-designated stadium in most cases. In cups games, if there is a tie after both legs are played, the match first goes into Extra Time (two halves of 15 minutes, with the game played as normal). If a winner is still not decided by the end of Extra Time, the game enters the dreaded (and cruel) Penalty Shootouts, where players on the field from each team take turns shooting the ball into the net from 12 yards out against the opposition goalkeeper. So if you think in basketball terms, you'd have 2 legs (instead of 7) and at the end, they would go into 2 periods of OT, then take turns taking free throws.

Hope that helps

[Michael*]

Who knew Emmanuel Adebayor could run that fast? He certainly never used to when he played for Arsenal...

[US_Rover]

Not an Arsenal fan but watching that got a rise out of me Was wishing that Flamini was still a Gunner so that he could fly in with one of his patented two-footed tackles

[red_ed]

Ade lulz!

Kuyt, the world's best vampire. Take that RPatz!

[SympathysSilhouette]

Well that sucked... :|

I counted at least two chances that Samuelito would've burried with his eyes closed that Zlatan somehow fecked up.

[red_ed]

How did Barca not manage to score?

and SS, join fantasy football! :persuazn:

[gigiriva]

P.S.: Ed, fill me in a little about the fantasy football thing, because I have never played earlier (which is a shame to admit, considering I'm really into the video games). I might join you guys, too.

Ummm.... basically you join up and you have a budget of $100 and you have to buy a squad of 15 players and you choose from teams in the EPL. Every matchday, your players get points according to what they did in the real match and how long they played.

So, here's the scoring chart:

Scoring

For playing in a game 1

For playing at least 60 minutes in a game (includes playing points mentioned above) 2

For each goal scored by your goalkeeper or defenders 6

For each goal scored by your midfielders 5

For each goal scored by your forwards 4

For each goal assist 3

For your goalkeeper / defender conceding 0 goals (must also play at least 60 minutes) 4

For your midfielder conceding 0 goals (must also play at least 60 minutes) 1

For every 3 shot saves made by your goalkeeper 1

For every penalty save 5

For every penalty miss -2

Bonus points for the best players in a match 1-3

For every 2 goals conceded by your goalkeeper or defenders -1

For every yellow card -1

For every red card (includes any yellow card points) -3

If a player receives a red card, they will continue to be penalised for goals conceded by their team.

(N)

the italian version is waaay better