His best season in a long time imo.
CL Semi-Finals 13/14 - April 22,23,29,30
- Thread starter Invictus
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I don't think I ever met a young German who didn't speak English fluently, and I've interacted with plenty. I've never met a professional German footballer though, so make of that what you will.
Pepe and Ramos are world class. Sure, they are comedy at times, but most of the time they step up in the really big games. And btw I can't remember either of them making any mistake in internationals. And there they have played against quality opposition.
A bit like the majority of the British public think about John Terry as well I'd imagine.
Every team has had a few thundercunts.
I know nothing about Pepe's private life but as a player he annoys me pretty much every time I watch Madrid. On the pitch, Terry is nowhere near Pepe, he's not even the worst at Chelsea (I'd say Ramires or maybe Luiz).
I know nothing about Pepe's private life but as a player he annoys me pretty much every time I watch Madrid. On the pitch, Terry is nowhere near Pepe, he's not even the worst at Chelsea (I'd say Ramires or maybe Luiz).
Going by todays standards they would have to be considered world class imo.
Yeah, we have Alves and Biscuits. Chelsea have Terry and Ramires. Real Madrid Pepe and Ramos. Bayern have Robben and Ribery. Atletico have Costa, and on and on it goes... This "I hate this team because X is playing for them is rather childish...
Pepe was immense several times when marking Messi. Ramos has not put a foot wrong with Spain and has been a mainstay for Real for a decade now. People on this forum severely underrate them.
I like Keane's comments after CL games, the only pundit that makes any kind of sense. Intelligent person.
I think most players knowing a little bit of each major language(English, Spanish, German, Italian, French) to get by on the pitch.
What's wrong with Luiz?! He's a really sweet kid.
People on this forum underrate a lot of defenders. People in general underrate a lot of defenders. Its easy to criticise a defender than an attacker as every mistake they make is costly
Has any of your player every made himself as big as cnut as Terry at Nou Camp 2012 when he got himself sent off for a snide kick at opposition player? I would have thrown him out of the club for that reason alone. Leader indeed.
Terry didn't kick anyone, he was sent off for a sly little knee which would have never hurt anyone seriously. Ramires as done a shitload of flying, straight legged, studs up, two footed assaults which could have ended careers.
That's great! Love Keano
Garbage. Terry knew what he was doing and was rightly sent off.
Not even more costly than a mistake made by an attacker. Just more visible. A goal is more memorable than a non-event.
A couple of brain farts by a defender in two high profile games in a season will have most who are not fans of his team underrating it. If it's an attacker people will just say he had a bad game as long as his productivity in the remainder of the season is the expected.
Garbage? What are you on about? He didn't kick anyone, I'm not lying, there's a million vids of it online.
I'm not arguing the red card at all but it was a knee to the back of someone's thigh, you can't possibly think it was as bad a some of Ramires' shockers.
Attacking players get plenty of stick here. There is a reason why Zlatan is underrated here. People make fun of Benzema, call Cavani overrated etc
I just went though the pre-match and intra-match comments 
People seem to completely underrate how tough is to win one CL, let alone two on the trot. Currently, in Europe, we have at least 2, maybe 3 (even 4) English teams that are to varying degrees, formidable and on their day can beat anyone. There are also the two standard giants from Spain, with now a third contender who are doing impossibly well. You also have two very powerful German teams, plus PSG, plus Juventus (who for some inexplicalbe reason got themselves knocked out from an easy group
) This fact alone, makes the CL a Russian roulette. If something goes wrong for a team (wonder-goal, own-goal, injuries to key players, missed chances) then the possibilities of you going out rise exponentially.
People saying Bayern were negatively affected by winning the league very early are clutching at straws imo. Wake up people! They were facing Real Madrid, not Eintracht Frankfurt! An opponent with a far stronger defence than any club they faced at home this season, at least as strong (if not stronger than the English teams that gave them serious trouble) and an attack of Benzema, Di Maria, Ronaldo and Bale who can easily twat you on the counter many times over. The possibility of losing against them, and even losing badly, is there for everyone.
Another thing. When you win the CL in a dominant fashion, the everyone else starts taking you very seriously and everyone suddenly becomes ultra-prepared before facing you. They study every facet of your game, your strengths and you weaknesses. It becomes impossible for you to surprise anyone after your initian triumph. Just ask Barcelona for the past few years. The level of opportunism and motivation displayed by your opponents becomes nightmarish.
As for tonight's game, and unlike the game in Spain a week ago, I thought that Bayern Munich were inexplicably sluggish tonight, which is bizarre since they have been resting players for some time now. They looked slow in virtually every passage of play. Ribery was again atrocious (him winning over Ronaldo/Messi, seriously people?) and Kroos/Schweini/Muller offered very little, if anything. They also looked off the pace. Maybe this is a case of exhaustion after almost 2 years of extreme excursion in trying to win everything and also playing for their country at international level, this is another problem that Barca have been dealing with.
People seem to completely underrate how tough is to win one CL, let alone two on the trot. Currently, in Europe, we have at least 2, maybe 3 (even 4) English teams that are to varying degrees, formidable and on their day can beat anyone. There are also the two standard giants from Spain, with now a third contender who are doing impossibly well. You also have two very powerful German teams, plus PSG, plus Juventus (who for some inexplicalbe reason got themselves knocked out from an easy group
) This fact alone, makes the CL a Russian roulette. If something goes wrong for a team (wonder-goal, own-goal, injuries to key players, missed chances) then the possibilities of you going out rise exponentially. People saying Bayern were negatively affected by winning the league very early are clutching at straws imo. Wake up people! They were facing Real Madrid, not Eintracht Frankfurt! An opponent with a far stronger defence than any club they faced at home this season, at least as strong (if not stronger than the English teams that gave them serious trouble) and an attack of Benzema, Di Maria, Ronaldo and Bale who can easily twat you on the counter many times over. The possibility of losing against them, and even losing badly, is there for everyone.
Another thing. When you win the CL in a dominant fashion, the everyone else starts taking you very seriously and everyone suddenly becomes ultra-prepared before facing you. They study every facet of your game, your strengths and you weaknesses. It becomes impossible for you to surprise anyone after your initian triumph. Just ask Barcelona for the past few years. The level of opportunism and motivation displayed by your opponents becomes nightmarish.
As for tonight's game, and unlike the game in Spain a week ago, I thought that Bayern Munich were inexplicably sluggish tonight, which is bizarre since they have been resting players for some time now. They looked slow in virtually every passage of play. Ribery was again atrocious (him winning over Ronaldo/Messi, seriously people?) and Kroos/Schweini/Muller offered very little, if anything. They also looked off the pace. Maybe this is a case of exhaustion after almost 2 years of extreme excursion in trying to win everything and also playing for their country at international level, this is another problem that Barca have been dealing with.
Alves and Busquets have embarrassed us on several occasions. I don't know how much you have watched Barcelona in 2008/9/10, but those two were serially diving at every single opportunity. There was an Alves dive against Bilbao at the San Mames in late 2009, when the Basque player was literally 5 meters away from him. If I find the video on youtube I will post it.
But to answer your question, as per the Terry example, I think that no. The only somewhat similar incident I can recall, was when Busquets handled the ball with no great reason in the middle of the park against Real Madrid in the first Clasico of 09/10 before the hour mark, which resulted in a 2nd yellow. We still won that game 1-0, but I was enraged at him either way. The most frustrated I felt about one of our own, was towards our God-Messi in the recent Atletico CL game. I really don't know what went wrong with him there, his worst ever performance in a Blaugrana shirt, and by some distance. But a stupidity like that of Terry's I cannot recollect.
I really like him. Has he ever tried to become a manager btw? He seems more level-headed and intelligent than at least 90% of them. Does not repeat the same old banalities/platitudes.
you don't follow English football much?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Keane
currently he is Assistant Manager for Ireland
Managed at Sunderland and Ipswich couple/several years back. Didn't do so well at both clubs.
I follow the top English teams very closely, can't tell you much about Fulham or Sunderland though. Thanx for the info btw.
Yeah, Red Dreams was kind enough to provide me with the link. Yeah, management is also a roulette. So many things have to fall into place for you to succeed. Several of them, outside your control. Anyway, Roy Keane is probably the only pundit that does not make me want to throw an ashtray on the TV screen. Really level-headed comments. The cool way he reacted to the Bayern annihilation without feeling the need to treat it as a either a massive shock or as something that has to be examined by several prosecutors, medical experts and the like, shows to me that he knows what he is talking about.
Amen brother
Keane...you love him or hate him. United supporters loved him as a player but most have fallen out of love after he left us. I may not always agree with him...but I like his honesty or directness if you like.
He will never be a great manager....because not many can handle his brutal 'honesty' if you want to call it that.
He really fell out with Sir Alex...that will always put him in most United supporters bad books.
Yes, I am well aware that he had fallen out with SAF, but I don't know the details of that story. I clearly remember what a great player he was back in the day, and the fact that United have never really been able to truly replace him at midfield. But I just like it to hear him comment right after CL games when all other pundits go into the stereotypical nonsense and platitudes, he comes up with very balanced and sensible comments. Probably a product of his brutal honesty (my favourite trait on a man's personality) which does not allow someone to just go with the flow.
He didn't do too bad at Sunderland to be fair. Won the Championship in his first season, avoided relegation which they failed to do the time before and averaged about the same points/game as Ricky Sbragia who replaced him. He is a hard ass and a bit mental so players looking to slack off aren't going to get on with him. He's a bit like Di Canio like that. He has a decent win % at both clubs as well for lets face it were some shite fecking teams.
Hmm. I like people like that. I have several times stated on this forum that managers have little effect on results and I stand by that. But the little thing they can offer, is to keep the players in line and on their toes. That would have been my modus operandi if I were a manager. And a shit team, can only go so far, no room for magic in football, especially in the long run.
I think you mistook my remark. It is not about a single act, I was talking in terms of the context of that red card and sly kick. You have United fans still reciting stories about Keane lifting the whole team in Turin against Juve when he knew he won't be playing the final. And here you have your captain getting sent off because he wanted to knee someone. Then he had the audacity to lift the trophy in full kit.
Re watching the match right now and what the hell was Neuer was doing for most of the match? Ronaldo, what a warrior, but the face on the Dante challenge, which could have been a red (When you think Nani got a red for nothing) was hilarious. Some brilliant play and breathtaking bitching from both players.
Double teaming Ronaldo on set plays - good, leaving every other player aside - bad.
Double teaming Ronaldo on set plays - good, leaving every other player aside - bad.
That was shit. Not sure what went wrong there, we really deserved a smashing. Dante and Ribery could have been sent off, Neuer had his worst game in ages. God, we were shit and then Sergio fecking Ramos scores the first two goals, what a shit night. Felt like everyone was drunk, I certainly was at the end of the game, probably still am.
Credit to Ancelotti and Real though. They were awesome again, they clearly are a significantly better team than any of Mourinho's Real sides were. Alonso will miss the final, right? Thought he was excellent against us, despite having not that great of a season before. Best player on the pitch in the first leg.
Credit to Ancelotti and Real though. They were awesome again, they clearly are a significantly better team than any of Mourinho's Real sides were. Alonso will miss the final, right? Thought he was excellent against us, despite having not that great of a season before. Best player on the pitch in the first leg.
What was with the ridiculous high line? Was Pep drunk when he was mapping down the tactics?
Like I said, it felt like everyone was drunk, that of course includes the manager. The high line is one thing, our organisation when defending set pieces was another. We had about a million corners in the first leg and didn't create anything dangerous with it. Yesterday Real scored twice from set pieces early in the game and it was game over. We can discuss the high line vs defending deep vs whatever tactics for hours. If you feck up the basics in a CL semifinal, you can't win
.I bet Madrid to go through, I was unconvinced about Bayern in the tie against us. As shite as we have been (and that is SHITE) we could have knocked them out. Football is a funny game sometimes.
It's been a few hours since the end of the match and I still can't believe Bayern got their asses handed to them.
Are you saying it wasn't just a bad dream and it isn't Tuesday morning? feck, that sucks