UEFA competitions (CL, EL)

[aveslacker]

Here's what I hate about the Italian game: it is the Roma - Leverkusen CL game. Roma scores early and immediately begins time wasting. On one of the rare Roma forays near the midfield stripe, a Roma player is dispossessed of the ball. He falls down, grabs his shin, groans to the heavens and rolls over three or four times - a sure sign that he is faking it.

Do you mean a bit like Rosales @ Ajax . This goes on in every country, not just in Italy.

Well, to be honest, I haven't seen him play that much, so I can't comment. But he is Argentinian, which does put him in the "usual suspects" category. It is a good thing he isn't Mexican. :blah

[Over Pasanens Head]

Here's what I hate about the Italian game: it is the Roma - Leverkusen CL game. Roma scores early and immediately begins time wasting. On one of the rare Roma forays near the midfield stripe, a Roma player is dispossessed of the ball. He falls down, grabs his shin, groans to the heavens and rolls over three or four times - a sure sign that he is faking it.

Do you mean a bit like Rosales @ Ajax . This goes on in every country, not just in Italy.

Well, to be honest, I haven't seen him play that much, so I can't comment. But he is Argentinian, which does put him in the "usual suspects" category. It is a good thing he isn't Mexican. :blah

Why?

[Kowalczyk]

To be honest I don't think Rosales is that much of a diver... He's quick and he slips past a man easily, so he's mowed down from behind quite often. He's spends quite a lot of time on his arse, but he doesn't really make any drama, doesn't beg for yellow cards and is normally back on his feet soon enough.

In fact, we don't really seem to have any divers these days. Arveladze and Machlas were divers (Arveladze was a very shameless diver indeed). We do have a whiner, though: Sneijder.

K.

[aveslacker]

Why?

In my experience, having seen the Mexican NT play a lot (and having a genuine dislike for them, second only to my dislike for the German NT), Mexico is the worst of the shirt-pulling, playacting, momma's boy, crybaby teams.

And Argentina is probably in second place.

[jakobg]

He's quick and he slips past a man easily, so he's mowed down from behind quite often. He's spends quite a lot of time on his arse, but he doesn't really make any drama, doesn't beg for yellow cards and is normally back on his feet soon enough.
K.

Sounds like you're describing Ljungberg here. Not really a diver either, but on his arse most of the time.

[Per]

I just had the same thought as Jakob. Ljungberg is mowed 15 times a game because of the way he plays and runs.

About Italy.

Like to watch it nowadays. Used to love watching it when I was a kid. hated it for about 5-10 years. Now I'm softening again. I can't watch just anything but some top games and some of the players there are just pure class. It has a different kind of sophistication to it than the English "headless turkey" styleee...

On the flipside - hate, absolutely HATE, when we play Utalian teams. Then I can ge so wound up that I can't really speak in a normal pitch.

[jakobg]

About Italy.

Like to watch it nowadays. Used to love watching it when I was a kid. hated it for about 5-10 years. Now I'm softening again. I can't watch just anything but some top games and some of the players there are just pure class. It has a different kind of sophistication to it than the English "headless turkey" styleee...

Same here. Because of Zlatan's move to Juve I started watching a bit of Italian football again, and I must say some of the teams are really enjoyable. Especially attacking teams like Udinese and Lecce are really charming, and top games with Juve, Inter and Milan are great. But then there's also Juve/Milan 1-0 matches that you wonder why the hell you're watching. Perfect eample of this: Juve-Pool yesterday. I can't really remember when I saw such a boring game. It was just awful, but over two games Liverpool was the better team and deserved to go through.

By the way, can you imagine how the final between Chelsea and Milan will be? Two teams with excellent defences and with no weaknesses at all. 0-0 anyone?

[Per]

Yeah, Chelsea really is a no go team for me. It's just so effin uncharming when you know htat only dollars made them what they are. No development of youth, just buy and sell at convinience.

Milan has some character atleast. Like Maldini and Costacurta who both have played with them since before I was born....(not quite). And by default I like them a bit more because they have tradition of flair and winning. It doesn't hurt that van Basten used to play there either.

I don't really know which team I can stand the most to win this year. I guess I would find some kind of charm in Liverpool winning it. They also have great tradition and I kind of always liked them since I was young.

[SPL]

I used to watch Italian footy on CHANNEL 4 a few years ago, I have to admit I did like the great Argentinian goal king Batistuta when he was at Fiorentina.Channel 4 used to show a live game but on Saturday mornings they had James Richardson presenting a roundup and that finished about 5 years ago.( Sorry this will only mean anything to UK guys)

I have only had Sky this season and do not bother with Italian footy anymore.

( My 15 year old Arsenal 'sad' son watches Real Madrid and Barca games every weekend and just about every other game but even he is not a fan of Italian footy)

As for diving Robert Pires is the king here but it seems they all try it on , they learnt it from Italians in the first place!

PS The only time I will ever cheer on an Italian side is when they play the scum ,Moan u. Yes I was cheering on Milan last month.

[Blind3]

Glad AZ is thru.Maybe they will finally do el foldo and Ajax can sneak thru.Sad to think of Ajax like I would a burglar in the night ,but so be it.

[Philippe]

this season semi-finals :

2 clubs only from serie A
2 clubs from Eredivisie
2 clubs only from England
1 from Portugal
1 from Russia

Now let them tell us more fairy tales about the so-called "big leagues" ;)

(none from Spain -what a waste of money-, none from Germany, none from France)

[Kowalczyk]

this season semi-finals :

2 clubs only from serie A
2 clubs from Eredivisie
2 clubs only from England

Which is not a normal thing for Holland (we won't have two semi-finalists every season), but I just wish the Dutch press would stop writing (in bad seasons) that it's no longer possible for Dutch clubs to win a European trophy... They've written that like 20 times in the past thirty years, but really nothing's changed: if you have a good team and a good season, you can win something. Simple as that.

Ajax proved it many times, Feyenoord proved it in 2002, PSV and AZ are proving it now.

K.

[Philippe]

Exactly.

And obviously, the more direct elimination, the bigger the chance for "small" countries.

If there had not been that ridiculous CL format for the past years, probably we would not have gotten so much of unreal Madrid and friends

[Eric]

this season semi-finals :

2 clubs only from serie A
2 clubs from Eredivisie
2 clubs only from England

Which is not a normal thing for Holland (we won't have two semi-finalists every season), but I just wish the Dutch press would stop writing (in bad seasons) that it's no longer possible for Dutch clubs to win a European trophy... They've written that like 20 times in the past thirty years, but really nothing's changed: if you have a good team and a good season, you can win something. Simple as that.

Ajax proved it many times, Feyenoord proved it in 2002, PSV and AZ are proving it now.

K.

I stopped taking so called "sports journalists" serious a long time ago.

[Philippe]

I hope that television channels will lose billions of euros on an AZ-Moscow final. :eusa_pray:
When they will stop investing ridiculously huge amounts of money, we will have an healthy sport again.

[Eric]

shouldn't there be the UEFA ruling related to the Inter Milan-incident today?

[carcajou]

shouldn't there be the UEFA ruling related to the Inter Milan-incident today?

4 games without supporters. Which is pretty cool.

[Eric]

ridiculously mild punishment... :pukey:

maybe a big club would be banished from the fields for a season if the hooligans kill the referee or one of the players?

[jakobg]

4 games without supporters. Which is pretty cool.

It will cost the some money, of course, but what the f*ck! Why doesn't UEFA show that they don't tolerate this kind of behaviour!?

Inter should have been banned a year from International football.

[SPL]

Quite agree with ERIC above. Sadly I think we will have to await a tragedy in Italy before UEFA ban any Italian side.

[Manneken Pis]

"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it" - George Santayana

Are we talking football or politics here.... ;)

[Blind3]

Typical windbaggery in action. They have a chance to make a statement for the good of the game .Instead they prove once again that they'll bury their heads until this goes away.4 games is meaningless.Inter will probably tour some foreign land or increase kit or other merchandise prices to re-coup the loss.Or, be extended another in the umpteen lines of credit.

[SPL]

Talking about Inter at my local game today we all agreed they should have been banned for a year . We did agree that if that had happened at Chelsea they would have been chucked out of the competition.

[Philippe]

UEFA have not guts when it comes to deal with Serie A clubs; just think about the juventus drugstore :pukey:

[Kowalczyk]

Just so that we know what our destinations for the next two season are... :yes: The UEFA decided today where the Champions League and UEFA Cup finals of 2006 and 2007 will be played.

2006
Champions League: Stade de France, Paris, France (capacity 80,000)
UEFA Cup: Philips Stadium, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (35,000)

2007
Champions League: Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece (58,800)
UEFA Cup: Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland (52,000)

Whichever final we make it to next season, it will only be a short car ride! :xyxthumbs:

K.