European Soccer Part XIII

[ColbyWMHB]

1) Arsenal
2) Chelsea
3) United
4) Liverpool
5) Aston Villa
6) Newcastle
7) Middlesborough
8) Charlton
9) Blackburn Rovers
10) Bolton
11) Southampton
12) Fulham
13) Birmingham
14) Manchester City
15) Tottenham Hotspur
16) Portsmouth
17) Norwich
18) Crystal Palace
19) Everton
20) West Bromwich Albion

Oh yeah...clubs coming up:

Leicester City, Coventry City, Sunderland

[FerrisLives]

1)Chelsea
2)Manchester United
3)Arsenal
4)Aston Villa
5)Liverpool
6)Birmingham
7)Newcastle
8)Middlesbrough
9)Southampton
10)Charlton
11)Bolton
12)Fulham
13)Blackburn
14)Tottenham
15)Norwich City
16)West Bromwich Albion
17)Manchester City
18)Portsmouth
19)Everton
20)Crystal Palace

Clubs coming up Leicester City, West Ham, Ipswich Town.

[3W]

A best guess for the Premiership picture:

1. Arsenal
2. Manchester United
3. Chelsea
4. Liverpool
5. Newcastle United
6. Tottenham Hotspur
7. Aston Villa
8. Chalton Athletic
9. Bolton Wanderers
10. Birmingham City
11. Southampton
12. Middlesbrough
13. Blackburn Rovers
14. Fulham
15. Manchester City
16. Portsmouth
17. Everton
18. West Bromwich Albion
19. Norwich City
20. Crystal Palace

Definitely a three-up, three-down year. Coming up, I like West Ham, Leicester and, what the hell, Cardiff City (beating Forest in the play-off final).

[FerrisLives]

How do y'all see Arsenal winning the Premiership without Viera? The Gunners don't have the depth of Chelsea, they can't just let Viera go and hope to replace him. And I haven't heard any talk of them getting anyone via transfer to replace him either. Picking Arsenal first seems overly optimistic.

And if Owen leaves Liverpool I'll be dropping them at least 4 spots.

[Bob Gray]

1. Arsenal
2. Chelsea
3. Manchester United
4. Liverpool
5. Newcastle United
6. Aston Villa
7. Charlton
8. Middlesborough
9. Fulham
10. Bolton
11. Birmingham
12. Southampton
13. Blackburn
14. Manchester City
15. Everton
16. Portsmouth
17. West Brom
18. Crystal Palace
19. Norwich City
20. Tottenham Hotspur

Coming up: West Ham, Ipswich, Wolves

[Bob Gray]

Originally posted by FerrisLives
How do y'all see Arsenal winning the Premiership without Viera? The Gunners don't have the depth of Chelsea, they can't just let Viera go and hope to replace him. And I haven't heard any talk of them getting anyone via transfer to replace him either. Picking Arsenal first seems overly optimistic.

And if Owen leaves Liverpool I'll be dropping them at least 4 spots.
Oh, come now, the lads haven't lost a match in their last 40 in the EPL! That alone argues they'll be hard to unseat. Arsenal has been without Vieira for significant periods before and has shown they can play without him at times. Last season he was out for most of November and December and they didn't lose in the league (of course!). He'd be a big loss of course, and there would be some adjustment, but Arsenal is a much bigger team than just Vieira. And they still have a great team chemistry even with Vieira gone, whilst Chelski once again have half a new team to try to integrate. That's probably the #1 reason Chelski shouldn't be picked over Arsenal. They simply don't have the squad chemistry due to sizable turnover. Chelski will be tough no doubt, and their new coach seems to be a winner, but it's tough to win things with such an unsettled squad. I'd give them more chance next season, assuming they don't buy another half squad of players again next summer.

In a way I'd almost be glad for Vieira to be gone, as all the speculation is a nuisance for the team and letting this thing drag out so late means Arsenal will have little time to make moves if he does leave this month. But Fabregas looks like with a little seasoning he could be a major factor, and Flamini could be a good contributor this season. No replacement for Vieira, but the Gunners have a lot of nice young players to plug in, as shown by sunday's thrashing of ManU's youngsters. And there is talk that Arsenal might move for Mascorono from River Plate, who is a regular in the Argentinian midfield.

[Don King]

Originally posted by Husky1
I was also at the ManU-Bayern match. I was in the area on business and figured i'd take in a game. Soldier Field is a great place to catch a game, particularly on that day when the temps were in the 70's and the sun was out.

If Don King still reads this thread regularly he will probably fall out of his chair after reading that I actually went to a soccer (or is it football?) game. Of course, I had no idea which team was which, and when I asked the guy near me with the Irish flag who was who at the start he looked like he was going to be sick. :D

That said, I enjoyed the game despite the utter lack of scoring, and found myself watching the AC Milan match today while waiting for my plane at Midway.

Nathan, if this continues you might actually have someone else to talk soccer with at our hockey games. :eek:

Holy crap, man, what even possessed you to take in a soccer game? Just so that you know: ManU is evil. Bayern is evil. If you're going to be a soccer fan, these are the kind of things you need to know.:)

Notes from the Community Shield, which was on live at the outrageous time of 6:30am out here:

-- Vieira leaving might not be an awful thing: at least we'd (hopefully) get to see more of Cesc Fabregas's outrageously great flowing mullet. It was a thing of beauty. :) Fabregas himself, of course, was merely brilliant.

-- Jose Reyes is talented, but I still think that Bergkamp and Henry is the best combination upfront for Arsenal (as long as it's near the start of the season and Bergkamp's moving like a 22-year-old instead of an 82-year-old.)

-- Robin van Persie is... tall. That's about the best thing I could say for his time on the pitch.

-- Though the Sky Sports guys loved the way Jermaine Pennant played, I can't say I was particularly impressed.

-- ManU's defense was absolutely terrible. How many times did two of them trip over each other during that match? Eight? Ten? If Arsenal hadn't pulled three or four Diego Forlans, it could have been much worse.

-- Speaking of Forlan, how is it that a guy who screws up nine times out of ten when he touches the ball still playing for United? Even Tottenham wouldn't put up with him. And that hairdo... yikes.

[Bob Gray]

Pennant had some good moments, but also some not so good moments.

I thought Van Persie did pretty well and had a couple nice runs on the attack.

Forlan is like that one kid in elementary school who no matter how slowly you rolled the kickball in to him, somehow he always managed to miss it. My only fear is the with RvN, Saha, and Smith, that our Forlan sightings on the pitch will dwindle. I still can't help but think of Bo Derek when I see his hair!

[3W]

Why do I think the Gunners will win? Default, really. Chelsea will probably play like Chelsea, 11 stars with no cohesion, like they've been doing for years and Man United has no defense and I'm convinced that SAF is losing it, Woody Hayes-style.

[BW0683]

1) Chelsea
2) Arsenal
3) Liverpool
4) Manchester United
5) Middlesborough
6) Newcastle
7) Birmingham City
8) Aston Villa
9) Tottenham Hotspur
10) Charlton
11) Portsmouth
12) Bolton Wanderers
13) Fulham
14) Southampton
15) Manchester City
16) Blackburn Rovers
17) West Bromwich Albion
18) Crystal Palace
19) Everton
20) Norwich

Up from League Championship:
Leicester City (Champions)
Sheffield United (Runners up)
Wigan Athletic (Playoffs)

[ColbyWMHB]

Originally posted by FerrisLives
And if Owen leaves Liverpool I'll be dropping them at least 4 spots.

On that topic, Michael has started today's Champions League play-in against Graz AK on the bench. That'll add fuel to the speculation that he'll be sold.

[Terrierbyassociation]

Originally posted by ColbyWMHB
On that topic, Michael has started today's Champions League play-in against Graz AK on the bench. That'll add fuel to the speculation that he'll be sold.

It's more about the fact that Owen refuses to sign a deal before seeing what happens with the deal, and Liverpool wants him to sign the deal right now. As good as Owen is, and he's been my hero since 98, if he goes, then maybe he can become a better player wherever he goes, including RM. Also, he gets hurt all the time, and it's scary to say this, but if he doesn't return to his European Footballer of the Year form, I think keeping Baros would be more important than Owen. Owen is often marked doggedly and has a lot of trouble creating his own opportunities. If he really wants to go to RM, then by all means, go ahead. But I don't even know if you're guarenteed first team football at RM...

Charlton has swooped in and came away with Danny Murphy, and Franny Jeffers. Great, great buys. Di Canio is returning to Lazio apparently, but Jeffers is more than an adequate replacement for the crafty old Italian.

[Bob Gray]

Owen has spurts of greatness, but he's rather inconsistent and does get injured a lot. Baros hasn't proven himself in the EPL though (and come to think of it neither has Cisse, but Cisse hasn't had the chance to), so I think losing Owen would impact Liverpool. Further, Owen is so associated with Liverpool that I think it would be a psychological blow to the club to have him playing elsewhere all of the sudden.

[Terrierbyassociation]

Baros was amazing today. Utterly amazing.

Liverpool 2-nil winners over Graz. It could have been 10-0 for all of the chances. Now Liverpool must avoid losing 2-0 or worse at Anfield.

[BadgerAlum@WMU]

Man U is missing 8 players vs Dinamo Bucharest.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer--injury
Ruud van Nistelrooy--injury
Gabriel Heinze--Olympics
Cristiano Ronaldo--Olympics
Rio Ferdinand
Kleberson
Louis Saha
Wes Brown

Jonathan Spector has made the trip. It would be nice to see him get some time!

[Terrierbyassociation]

Ole is out for the season, and possibly might retire.

[x-cheque]

Originally posted by Bob Gray
Owen has spurts of greatness, but he's rather inconsistent and does get injured a lot. Baros hasn't proven himself in the EPL though (and come to think of it neither has Cisse, but Cisse hasn't had the chance to), so I think losing Owen would impact Liverpool. Further, Owen is so associated with Liverpool that I think it would be a psychological blow to the club to have him playing elsewhere all of the sudden.

As much as I like Michael Owen, he has been injury prone and inconsistent of late. As much as I bloody HATE Real Madrid, it's rumored that if Owen goes there, Liverpool will get somewhere between 10 to 20 million pounds IN ADDITION TO Fernando Morientes, a brilliant striker in his own right. Baros, Cisse and Morientes is a formidable striking triumvarate, and the cash gleaned from the deal could be used to shore up the midfield and the goalkeeping. Too bad about D.M., fewer were better from the spot for the Reds. ONWARD LIVERPOOL!

[x-cheque]

BBC seems to indicate that a move to the Premiership for Owen Hargreaves is in das bag, with Spurs as the front-runners. Personally I would love to see Liverpool sign him, especially now with Danny Murphy at Charlton. Kewell-Gerrard-Hargreaves-Hammann? I'd take that midfield four any Saturday of the year, and maybe on Wednesday a few times too :).

Oh, and Zinedine Zidane retired. YAWN.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/3558010.stm


edit - He retired from France, that is. I hope I gave some Real fans a heart attack.

[ColbyWMHB]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/3560576.stm

Viera stays, according to the BBC (not to mention the man himself!)

[Bob Gray]

So Vieira is staying and it looks like Michael Owen is now on his way to Real Madrid. Yup, just what the galacticos need, another striker! Nice to see them still not shoring up the defense the way they need. Glad to see Vieira staying, though he sure took his time to announce that he wants to stay. So that should mean Arsenal are about set for players at this time.