Goooooooooooooooooooooooooool

[sal]

Well, I can't deny the fact that I'm elated...a win against Liverpool is HUGE for Villa, especially after such a sluggish start to the new campaign. I'm very, very encouraged by the performance of Villa's defense, who got touches on practically every ball that came to them. Some moments of Liverpool's second half onslaught were downright scary, but the defense held it down and did great. This just made my week! I hope they can ride the wave of this and take out Fulham this weekend, as well as that club from Vienna in mid week Europa League play.

Sorry Cliff!

[sal]

Something is very wrong at Liverpool me thinks, none of the confidence of last season is there. Dark times ahead.

Well, I don't get many chances to see Liverpool play, and this may have nothing to do with what may be happening, but I remember seeing several Liverpool matches over the past couple seasons and Xabi Alonso was really a dynamic presence on the pitch. They don't look like the same team without him.

Of course, I know this probably doesn't have much to do with what you're talking about Cliff. There is probably something going on with the coaching staff/management or some locker room issues. But Xabi was, in a way, the glue that held them together. I'm sure his loss hurts the team.

[Cliff Englewood]

Something is very wrong at Liverpool me thinks, none of the confidence of last season is there. Dark times ahead.

Well, I don't get many chances to see Liverpool play, and this may have nothing to do with what may be happening, but I remember seeing several Liverpool matches over the past couple seasons and Xabi Alonso was really a dynamic presence on the pitch. They don't look like the same team without him.

Of course, I know this probably doesn't have much to do with what you're talking about Cliff. There is probably something going on with the coaching staff/management or some locker room issues. But Xabi was, in a way, the glue that held them together. I'm sure his loss hurts the team.

I think it's a bit easy to just say they miss Alonso, he is a great player but they have lost a lot of games that he played in as well remember. He was very good last season, but in the previous 2 seasons, not so much. In fact I think they became too reliant on him and it became very easy for other teams to target him and mark him out of a game, also he had very little pace and didn't score enough goals for someone with such great feet.

Considering that before they beat Stoke on Wednesday the bookies had stopped taking bets or at least shortened the odds on Benítez leaving tells it's own story, rumours were rife that he was going to quit last Wednesday when he stormed out of a training session, but he returned and Liverpool beat Stoke City 4-0. I think it may be dawning on him that without serious investment in the squad, money that the current owners are not going to provide as they seem to have lost interest, he has taken Liverpool as far as he can.

As I posted above, they are already worse off than they were for the whole of last season, they only lost 2 games during the whole of last season and haven't been beaten at home since December 2007, how long is it since Villa won at Anfield???

I shouldn't get to down about it because before the own goal Villa didn't do a lot and if Liverpool ahd scored earlier in the first half when Gerrard, Torres and Yossi all conspired not to score it would have been very different game, but credit to Villa they had a plan and they stuck to it well and I think the USA should give Friedel a recall, that guy is amazing.

[Van Basten II]

Not much to say about the second leg games held today for the Champions League. Little drama as every team that leading managed to qualify somewhat easily. The most intriguing story is probably the qualification of the Hungarian side which finally saw a team from that championship qualify for the big dance in 14 years.

Without cheating , anybody can say which was the last Hungarian team that qualified ?

[Cliff Englewood]

Atletico v Panathinaikos was a complete snore fest last night, I kept on switching over to "Swamp Loggers", Panathinaikos were shite, but Atletico could cause many team problems when the CL gets going.

Can Celtic perform a miracle tonight, I hope so, Wenger is just too smug. :g

[Van Basten II]

No miracle Cliff the Gunners went easily through

The best game of the second leg was between not ready yet for primetime but delivered plenty of thrills Apoel Nicosia of Cyprus who eliminated FC Copenhagen in what was an edge of your seat type pf game.

[Cliff Englewood]

No miracle Cliff the Gunners went easily through

The best game of the second leg was between not ready yet for primetime but delivered plenty of thrills Apoel Nicosia of Cyprus who eliminated FC Copenhagen in what was an edge of your seat type pf game.

Yea Celtic just aren't on the same level, plenty of heart but no real skill, although the Eduardo incident was cheating plain and simple.

I actually stopped watching that game and watched the second half of Fiorentina v Sporting, it was really good. Fiorentina brought on a young kid by the name of Jovetic at half time and he turned it around for them after they were a goal down and looked to be going out. However Fiorentina 's pitch was so bad, it looked like they had various forms of livestock grazing on it in the days leading up to the match. Hard to believe that a club at that level has a pitch that third world clubs would complain about.

[B. Goren.]

I'm waiting for the champions league draw (this evening).

Edited August 27, 2009 by B. Goren.

[B. Goren.]

Group A: Bayern Munich, Juventus, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa

Group B: MANCHESTER UNITED, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, Wolfsburg

Group C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Marseille, FC Zurich

Group D: CHELSEA, FC Porto, Atletico Madrid, APOEL

Group E: LIVERPOOL, Lyon, Fiorentina, Debrecen

Group F: FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, Dinamo Kiev, FC Rubin Kazan

Group G: Sevilla, RANGERS, Stuttgart, Unirea

Group H: ARSENAL, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos, Standard

Any thoughts???

[sal]

Holy crap, Barca and Inter in the same group.

Group C might actually be the toughest. Marseille are always capable of a surprise, and FC Zurich is no slouch either.

[sal]

In other Europe news, Aston Villa crashed out of the Europa League group stages today. Hard to believe that last season, Villa was actually pushing for a Champions League spot, both through their EPL standing and the UEFA Cup, and this year they won't be contending in Europe at all. Crap

[Van Basten II]

Group A: Bayern Munich, Juventus, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa

Group B: MANCHESTER UNITED, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, Wolfsburg

Group C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Marseille, FC Zurich

Group D: CHELSEA, FC Porto, Atletico Madrid, APOEL

Group E: LIVERPOOL, Lyon, Fiorentina, Debrecen

Group F: FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, Dinamo Kiev, FC Rubin Kazan

Group G: Sevilla, RANGERS, Stuttgart, Unirea

Group H: ARSENAL, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos, Standard

Any thoughts???

Can,t say that the French team were lucky, Lyon seems to have the better deal, all Premier League teams should go through relatively easy. Group G is quite intriguing and well balanced

Edited August 28, 2009 by Van Basten II

[Van Basten II]

The Super Cup was anything but super, at least the result was enjoyable, can't say the same about the game.

Tomorrow Milanese derby and the debut of Los Galacticos V.2

[Van Basten II]

Never got to see the MU-Arsenal game gas was not available on my cable and never found a proper stream.

Watched the Milanese derby, horrible night for the home side, Gattuso red carded allowed 3 goals. Guess they were missing Beckham.

On the program today, yesterday's debut of Real Madrid and an intriguing matchup between Juventus and Roma.

[Cliff Englewood]

In other Europe news, Aston Villa crashed out of the Europa League group stages today. Hard to believe that last season, Villa was actually pushing for a Champions League spot, both through their EPL standing and the UEFA Cup, and this year they won't be contending in Europe at all. Crap

I don't think you get into the CL via the Uefa Cup, unless I'm very much mistaken, and if I was a Villa fan I wouldn't be too upset about going out of the Europa League. Have you seen how many games you have to play to get to the Final ??? I don't think O'Neill was that sad about it either, he knows that squad isn't big enough to compete on 4 fronts. It might mean they could have a good run in the domestic cups instead.

[Cliff Englewood]

Group A: Bayern Munich, Juventus, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa

Group B: MANCHESTER UNITED, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, Wolfsburg

Group C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Marseille, FC Zurich

Group D: CHELSEA, FC Porto, Atletico Madrid, APOEL

Group E: LIVERPOOL, Lyon, Fiorentina, Debrecen

Group F: FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, Dinamo Kiev, FC Rubin Kazan

Group G: Sevilla, RANGERS, Stuttgart, Unirea

Group H: ARSENAL, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos, Standard

Any thoughts???

Yes, I'm quite happy that Liverpool have a decent group, not too easy and not too hard, ( I hope!!! ) and it was nice to see Man U get a difficult group for a change. Whoever is playing them in the EPL after the away trips to CSKA Moscow and Besiktas has a good chance of causing them an upset.

All in all they look like some very interesting ties.

[Cliff Englewood]

Never got to see the MU-Arsenal game gas was not available on my cable and never found a proper stream.

Watched the Milanese derby, horrible night for the home side, Gattuso red carded allowed 3 goals. Guess they were missing Beckham.

On the program today, yesterday's debut of Real Madrid and an intriguing matchup between Juventus and Roma.

In the Milan derby technically they're both the home side as they share the same stadium but I know what you mean, but I hope that was a joke about Beckam. :g

I only saw the highlights of the MU-Arsenal game and it looks like United got away with it a bit, slightly dodgy penalty and an own goal. Watched Bolton v Liverpool, it was ugly but a win is a win, Liverpool had a bit more piss and vineagar about them which was good to see, but they still conceeded 2 soft goals. :angry:

[Van Basten II]

They do share the same stadium, but i guess the majority of fans are AC fans since it's a home game and they should have priority to get tickets. Of couse i was not serious about Becks, just could not resist it

[Van Basten II]

Watched the Real handle not without difficulties Deportivo. The talent is obviously there but they have yet to gel as a collective and offer a strong 90 minute performance, kudos to Deportivo who offered a spirited opposition.

[Van Basten II]

Why do most of my favourite players end up with Juventus Anyway great game for the former Bremen midfielder as he scored the goals of his team to lead his side to an away win over Roma.

[Cliff Englewood]

Transfer deadline day has been a bit, well shit, hasn't it. No last minute biggies really. :w

[sal]

I'm hoping Villa will finalize the Richard Dunne transfer.

[Cliff Englewood]

I'm hoping Villa will finalize the Richard Dunne transfer.

I think you'll be getting the "Honey Monster".

Richard Dunne is the Honey Monster;

Seriously though he's a good player, I wish he was the Irish Captain rather than that tosser Robbie Keane.

[Cliff Englewood]

Wow, an amazingly bad development for Chelski.

Chelsea banned by Fifa from signing players till 2011 over Gaël Kakuta

Could be a good thing in the long run though, for everybody else that is.

[B. Goren.]

Wow, an amazingly bad development for Chelski.

Chelsea banned by Fifa from signing players till 2011 over Gaël Kakuta

Could be a good thing in the long run though, for everybody else that is.

I doubt if Gaël Kakuta worth it.