Official FOOTBALL Thread

[Amplifier]

Chelsea have confirmed that both Joe Cole and Michael Ballack will be departing from Stamford Bridge at the end of the month.

The two midfielders' contracts are set to expire and they have not signed new deals.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/9/england/2010/06/09/1966475/chelsea-confirm-joe-cole-michael-ballack-to-leave-club-at-end-of-

Inter president Massimo Moratti has confirmed the club have agreed a contract with former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez, confirming the Spaniard will be officially unveiled as the club’s new coach tomorrow at a press conference in Milan.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italy/2010/06/08/1965631/massimo-moratti-confirms-rafa-benitez-will-be-presented-as

[Amplifier]

Germany international Michael Ballack has inked a two-year deal at Bayer Leverkusen after his release by Chelsea, the club announced today.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/15/germany/2010/06/25/1994882/breaking-news-ex-chelsea-star-michael-ballack-signs-two-year

[daigong]

lol Henry. Have fun with the Red Bulls

[sh15uya]

under 19 , spain-italy ...

[Tuffty]

So Liverpool have sold Benayoun to Chelsea and got Joe Cole plus £5 mil for him? They basicially just got the same player but with bigger wages and dodgy knees

There's a youth football tournament starting this week here in N.Ireland called the Milk Cup. Love it, it's where teams, both clubs and international, send their youth divisions over to play. David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney all got a run over here, so it's good to see any prospecting players and Man Utd always come over so it's a good chance to see who they've got their eye on. And it's not just teams from Europe but also from S.America and for the first time starting this year, from Asia. Best thing about it all is that games are played in the stadium about 5 mins from where I live and it's dirt cheap.

So starting tomorrow I'll go take a run out and see USA v China, and on Tuesday I'll go watch Mexico v Japan. And also for the first time, the final for both international and club level teams are held where I live as well, so I'll definately go.

[helldom]

^

Personally, I find Joe Cole to be a superior player to Benayoun(not that benayoun's not good).

Joe cole has that few yards more in terms of pace and let's be honest, liverpool's not very fast overall.

Also, joe cole being a good 3 years younger sure doesn't hurt.

[Tuffty]

Premier League seasons starts today! : Man City v Spurs in 10 mins, Chelsea v West Brom on at tea time, Liverpool v Arsenal tomorrow and Man Utd v Newcastle on Mon. Gotta love it

Who do you guys think will win it this season?

[sh15uya]

^
too early to guess for me
can't wait to see Arsenal tho

I heard about the new rules for premier league, the 25 pro players and everything ; what do you think about it guys ?

[Tuffty]

25 players, 8 of which have to English. Man City apparently are almost going to have a fire sale and have to release 11 players apparently they can afford to let Adebayor go. Can afford to! How many other clubs can say that? lol

Well I'm biased so I'm gonna say Man U I'm most curious about Everton. They had a bad start last season due to a number of injuries, but came back big time to do well in the latter half of the season. With no such problem this time, I wonder how they will do. Interested in Arsenal to see how well they can play or how interested Fabregas is in playing for them. And also interested in Man City to see if £100 mil in the transfer market equates to a good team or a collection of highly paid individuals.

[Tuffty]

Champions League Draw!

Group A
Inter Milan
Werder Bremen
Tottenham
FC Twente

Group B
Lyon
Benfica
Schalke
Hapoel Tel Aviv

Group C
Manchester United
Valencia
Rangers
Bursaspor

Group D
Barcelona
Panathinaikos
FC Copenhagen
Rubin Kazan

Group E
Bayern Munich
Roma
Basle
CFR Cluj

Group F
Chelsea
Marseille
Spartak Moscow
MSK Zilina

Group G
AC Milan
Real Madrid
Ajax
Auxerre

Group H
Arsenal
Shakhtar Donetsk
Braga
Partizan

Fixtures to be played on: September 14/15, September 28/29, October 19/20, November 2/3, November 23/24 and December 7/8.

Happy enough with our group, I predict a riot when Rangers fans come to visit Manchester though

[shurastriker]

rofl once again HENRY


that deserved a yellow at least

[Tuffty]

Dimitar Berbatov Watch the critics suddenly praise Berbatov as the new Cantona even though they labelled him as United's most expensive failure ever last season. I always kept the faith that he would come good, a player with that skill, in a team like Utd, is always bound to shine eventually and after spending time to gel in the team, maybe now his quality will make a distinct impression on the team as it did today.

[Tuffty]

Lot happened since I last posted here! Man Utd still can't continue to hold onto a lead and are stupidly throwing away points But hey, least we aren't Liverpool.

So now they have new owners in New England Sports Ventures, who also own the Boston Red Sox. In doing so, they force out Hicks and Gillette, personally losing £160 mil or so, and any debt Liverpool had was completely wiped off with this new deal. So, at least now they can't use off-pitch problems as an excuse for shockingly poor performances this season. Today, they lost 2-0 to Everton in the Merseyside derby and they were just so bad. There's too much criticism levelled at Torres when he can't exactly score goals if the players around him, the ones meant to be providing the ball to him, are complete and utter gash. Liverpool fans have to be optimistic with him though, cause his replacement is N'Gog, who doesn't inspire any bit of confidence in anybody, only indifference. Liverpool now sit 19th in a 20 team league. Even I considered it unthinkable. Feel bad for Hodgson cause again, the players he inherited are poor. I don't think for one minute that Liverpool will be relegated but they don't exactly do themselves any favours.

[Amplifier]

So how about the Ballon D'or shortlist?

Who will claim the FIFA Ballon d’Or and the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year awards for 2010? Who will be the first to win the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football award and the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football award? FIFA and France Football have today announced the names of the players and coaches on the shortlists for these awards (see below), and the final decisions will be made by the captains and head coaches of the men’s and women’s national teams as well as by international media representatives selected by France Football.

The winners will be revealed at the first FIFA Ballon d’Or gala as part of a televised ceremony at the Zurich Kongresshaus on 10 January 2011, during which the FIFA/FIFPro World XI and the FIFA Puskás Award for the most beautiful goal of the year will also be announced for the second year running. The FIFA Presidential Award and the FIFA Fair Play Award will also be presented during the gala.

The lists of 23 male and ten female candidates, as well as the two lists of ten coaches, have been drawn up by football experts from the Football Committee, the Technical and Development Committee and the Committee for Women’s Football and the FIFA Women’s World Cup™, as well as by a group of experts from France Football.

The alliance between FIFA and the Amaury Group to create the FIFA Ballon d’Or was signed in Johannesburg on 5 July 2010. The award is a combination of the FIFA World Player of the Year award and the France Football Ballon d’Or.

Meanwhile, the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football award and the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football award will be presented for the first time.

On 6 December 2010, FIFA and France Football will announce at a media event in Paris the names of the three men and three women, as well as the three men’s coaches and three women’s coaches, who have received the most votes.

Shortlists for the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala 2010

The following 23 men (in alphabetical order) are in contention for the FIFA Ballon d’Or 2010:
Xabi Alonso (Spain), Daniel Alves (Brazil), Iker Casillas (Spain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire), Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Diego Forlán (Uruguay), Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Andrés Iniesta (Spain), Júlio César (Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Maicon (Brazil), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Thomas Müller (Germany), Mesut Özil (Germany), Carles Puyol (Spain), Arjen Robben (Netherlands), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands), David Villa (Spain) and Xavi (Spain).

The following ten coaches (in alphabetical order, first nationality and then team) are in contention for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football 2010:
Carlo Ancelotti (Italy/Chelsea FC), Vicente del Bosque (Spain/Spain national team), Alex Ferguson (Scotland/Manchester United), Pep Guardiola (Spain/FC Barcelona), Joachim Löw (Germany/Germany national team), José Mourinho (Portugal/FC Internazionale Milano and Real Madrid CF), Oscar Tabárez (Uruguay/Uruguay national team), Louis Van Gaal (Netherlands, FC Bayern Munich), Bert Van Marwijk (Netherlands/Netherlands national team) and Arsène Wenger (France/Arsenal).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_Ballon_d'Or
http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/releases/newsid=1323915.html
http://www.goal.com/en/news/2724/ballon-dor/2010/10/26/2183592/fifa-ballon-dor-shortlist-announced

If Schweinsteiger & Sneijder don't top the votes this year, it'll be a crime.

[Amplifier]

Inter pulled the 1-0 against Genoa outta their asses for sure. Had to sub out Cambiasso and Cesar One hell of a mistake by Genoa's keeper to let Muntari get that goal. If Inter's passing had been better they probably would have won by a larger margin.

Have some goals:


Also: Bayern

[Tuffty]

Chicharito 

[Tuffty]

Wow, that's probably the most bizarre goal this season. So uh, let me try and set this up for you.

United are winning 1-0 against Spurs. 85th min, Nani runs into the box and is brought down/dives and perhaps most importantly in this whole thing, handles the ball as he's down, meaning the ball never goes outside of play. So Gomes picks it up, assuming it's a free kick, but when Gomes put it down, the referee gestured that the ball was in open play. So Nani just runs up, pauses, sees the ref calling it, and hits the ball into the goal, making it 2-0. The linesman definately did not want it to stand, the ref disagrees. Crazy

[Amplifier]

Dat Champion's League

I really can't stand Barcelona anymore. Shameful performances, shit like this:


Like, what the fuck.

Not surprised that Inter was rocked. Can't say any of the results we're really surprising. Here's hoping Bayern and Basel pull out wins Think I'll watch the Madrid - Milan game, though.

[Amplifier]

Bayern with a glorious 4-0 over Cluj, perfect run so far in the CL. Now if Robben could get back to fitness..

Madrid-Milan was alright, Madrid got real lucky. Disappointed Basel couldn't beat Roma, though

Also: Arsenal

"Maicon's Day":

[Tuffty]

^

Bale just added another £10 mil onto his player value based off that performance last night. I predict a lot of people buying him in Football Manager

I knew this would happen. Rumours are growing that Mancini will be given the sack pretty soon after players aren't happy with training methods and his 'harsh' guidelines of not drinking alcohol. I don't think it will happen even if we beat them in a week's time, but perhaps before or just after Christmas, City will be looking for a world class manager left in their stocking.