A silly little test to test ILP’s current populations predition abilities, from those who enjoy the beautiful game of soccer. Seems though nobody here seems to enjoy a tote-watching,-racing-post-studying-upside-down gamble on the sport of kings, second best will do.
Quarter-finals
Milan - Bayern
PSV - Liverpool
Roma - Man. United
Chelsea - Valencia
But who will win the whole thing? Reasons would be welcome.
My selection is Liverpool. They’ve got that whole ‘we will beat anybody in Europe’ thing going. But i dont think they could beat Man Utd. Then again… they’ve got that whole ‘we will beat anybody in Europe’ thing going.
I’ve gone for Liverpool as they’re the most European of the English sides left. I have a lot of faith in Benitez, particularly in European competition, and I saw both legs of the Liv-Barca tie and they comprehensively outplayed them.
Man U will need Rooney and Ronaldo to work out how to score in Europe if they’re to win it, and I don’t see that happening this season as Rooney’s been poor and Ronaldo spends the Euro games posted out on the wing.
No, but he has outgrappled Mourinho (who has won the CL), Rijkaard (who has won the CL), Ancelotti (who has won the CL) and of course, he’s won it before with a worse team than he has now. Man U are a very good team in the Premiership, but they’ve been poor in Europe for about 3 years, ever since Beckham and Veron left. Ronaldo has never scored in Europe (somewhat bizarrely, given his international record) and Rooney hasn’t scored in Europe since his debut. They went through against Lille due to a single moment of skill from Giggs and a good goal from Larsson, who has now left.
Liverpool are a better bet. But I’m not a gambling man.
Alot of people i know think its been Chelseas from the start. Now Barca’s out, that distractions gone, the ‘Messiah’ has also appeared to be keeping himself quieter than usual (that whole barca mess last year etc). Well, quite quiet anyways. Fergie definitely won the psychology battle this season, especially when he said of Mourinho comments on the referees that time: ‘Whats he [Mourinho] gonna complain about next, the weather, rain dancers?’ Mr Abrom clearly seems to put the Champions League as the priority, maybe there the ‘anti-dark horses’? Theres more going on there than the jealously rumours stirred up by the papers.
Also some think Milan. But i watched them against Celtic, and ok, Kaka’s knocking them in, but so is horse face in europe. They clearly miss Shev considering there entire team was apparently built around him.
Plus what do you think on McClaren?
Something i heard that i found amusing, from the genius Clougie.
Mourinho was appointed as manager in a classic English fashion - he chose the transfers, he picked the team, he ran the coaching. Now he has Frank Arnesen, an arrogant but very talented footballing man, who is in some respects his superior. The title ‘Director of youth development’ is what on the continent would be the ‘Director of football’, i.e. someone senior to the manager. Mourinho will probably be sacked. Not this summer if he wins the CL though. But eventually, I think he’ll be sacked.
Fergie’s a wily old goat and a top-class wind up merchant. His ‘mind games’ have reduced Wenger to a confused, paranoid conspiracy theorist…
Kaka is good enough to win the tournament on his own, but yes, Milan miss Shevchenko (and he seems to miss Milan), and I don’t think they are particularly good this year. Still excellent defensively, so it’ll take a good team or performance to knock them out, but I don’t see them winning it.
He’s a grade-A buffoon. We’re playing roughly as poor football as we were under Sven, but getting worse results. So we’ve gone backward. He needs to either find a means to getting more out of Rooney and Lampard or drop them and pick other players. He also seems to be unaware of basic football concepts like ‘movement’ ‘width’ ‘balance’. I’ve written lengthy posts on the subject of what’s wrong with the England team but I won’t bore you with that unless the mood strikes me.
I’m glad someone gave Keane a thump. If Clough was still alive then drunk or not, I’d give him the England job.
His a perpetual ‘Yes’ man, a phony - he never had such a brilliant white smile at Middlesborough, a replica Sven. In a way. Sven had my vote after the 5-1 and still had that extra ‘***’ something… not ‘care’ or ‘passion’ of course, or love of England and there success. But at least he could win teams we should win; maybe the players we’re trying to second guess him and saw the passive apathy as brilliance at one time. But McClaren, he couldn’t win us a marbles competition. If he manages to scrape us into whatever championship this is for - european - we wont win. Its simple. Same old story with Cloughie though, FA big-wigs get the nod on who and what suits them. Big Sam wanted his own management team brought in and a new system put in place, FA picked the ‘yes’ man instead. Or at least that how ive saw it. The football on the other hand…
At least Sven managed to get results, albeit by playing the percentages all the time. I assume you read Massimo Maccarone’s comments about McClaren being the most two-faced man he’d ever met…
No, but he could probably win us a competition if all he had to do was smile and say ‘cracking’ a lot. He’s good at that. I’m starting to think thaT Man U’s extremely successful period was in spite of the fact that McClaren was assistant manager, rather than because of it.
Of course, they went for a manager who would pick the eleven most famous players (i.e. keep the Premiership hype machine running and generating even more money - note that the FA have sold some TV rights to ITV and Setanta for record sums, announced today). If they’d pick Big Sam they would have a manager who’d happily drop underperforming players and be able to pick an eleven based on a tactical plan rather than an appeal to the tabloids.
You are underestimating soccer players, Imp. First off, Ali could never move faster than a goalie. Secondly, if a goalie can grab a ball flying at 100+ mph, he can sure as hell dodge a punch going slower than that. Thirdly, and finally, a goalie’s kick to any part of the body guarantees a fracture, while Ali’s gave rounds of punches to just get a broken nose, or something.
Ali would dance around, but not as fast, and he could hit, but not as hard as a goalie. If I had to bet, I’d put my money on Ali dancing with a limp within the first 30 seconds, and going down within the minute.
I’ve sorta changed my mind about Man U now, after their game yesterday. They lost Vidic (their best defender) to an injury, went behind early on, but came back to win 4-1. And this guy:
is really showing his worth. I first saw him in the 2002 World Cup, where I think S.Korea won themselves a lot of fans, and Park in particular. He was a big reason why PSV Eindhoven got to the Champions League semi-final a couple of seasons back, and was the best player on the pitch in the two games against AC Milan. He’s never been a great goalscorer, but he’s now got 5 since he came back from injury and seems to be playing more aggressively than before. He’s a damn fine player, and one who is made for CL football. There’s still a stigma attached to East Asian players in the Premiership, with the constant accusation that they are bought to boost shirt sales and the club’s reputation in lucrative market growth areas. I think that’s nonsense, particularly concerning the likes of Park Ji Sung, Shunsuke Nakamura and Sun Jihai.
Anyway, with Park on form Man U might have found an extra spark for their European campaign. The league is all but wrapped up, and they deserve it.
Jumping ship? So your going for the favourite, they usually win. I watched the Blackburn game too, it was an impressive display to see the character of Utd’s come back against a tricky battle hardened team like Blackburn. In the third quarter Man U just applied wave after wave of attacks against which few sides could repel. Egg fried rice, i MEAN Ji yan pin pam Park (couldnt resist) has been banging them in. Whats it: 5 in 5 or 3 in 5? Or something. Scholes breaking the dead-lock was vital and then Ronaldo showed how untouchable his football currently is. Rooney = still poor. Utd is a good bet. Reliable players all over the park that play as a team. What else can you say about them, unless Ronaldo got injuried there favourites. Man U vs Chelsea match later on would be very interesting though, Liverpool wouldnt beat Utd. But who knows in football. I still fancy Liverpool.
West Ham won again! [woohoo horse] But there still going down. Best thing for them too, as it might help them get rid of some of the bad blood and allow Courb’s to build his team in a way he did so successfully at Chalton. I even think Tevez would stay. His a great worker and despite the controversy that surrounded him at the start of the season, he seems loyal.
So, Liverpool teach PSV a lesson (don’t clear the ball to a position infield of yourself, pretty basic stuff), Milan need one of the worst penalty decisions I’ve seen all year to get a 2-2 against Bayern, Chelsea tie is finely balanced, Man U had a shocker and aside from Rooney and Ronaldo don’t look like going through. Still, it’s only one goal and they’ve got a home leg, so they’ll be putting a positive spin on what will be a very difficult game.
