Football Fanats 2008

[Chulk]

Argentina's 21 players for playing against Catalunya on 24-05-08.

GK: Oscar Ustari - Nicolás Navarro - Sergio Romero
DF: Pablo Zabaleta - Federico Fazio - Cristian Ansaldi - Jonathan Maidana - Gabriel Paletta.
MF: Fernando Gago - Lucas Biglia - Ever Banega - José Sosa - Diego Valeri - Damián Escudero - Augusto Fernández.
FW: Lionel Messi - Gonzalo Higuaín - Lautaro Acosta - Sergio Agüero - Ezequiel Lavezzi - Angel Di María.

[Chulk]

Czech Republic will never have the lower odds in matches vs France or Holland, nor would matches like Greece - England have lower odds for Greece.

You have a good point there, but remeber this ranking is not a Head-to-Head comparison between teams, it's about their latest results against any team. Besides, remember Czech Republic kick Germany's ass in Euro Qualy and Greece will play Euro 2012 while England won't...

[CTG]

From now I'm not following the matches of UEFA Champions League. Why? There was only one national champion from the last 8 teams, 4 of them from England. Now see the quarterfinal results and the possible finals: Chelsea/Liverpool vs Barcelona/Manchester Utd. That's what real football fanats never want to see: 4 "bought" team with hundreds of million dollars playing versus eachother, without really good home players (except maybe Rooney in MU), no surprise team (like Porto was few years ago). This is disgusting!

I think Chelsea and Manchester will play the final ---> 1-1 after 90 minutes, MU wins in extra time with C. Ronaldo's goal (how I hate that arrogant gay!).

[Akoss Poo a.k.a. Zorromeister]

From now I'm not following the matches of UEFA Champions League. Why? There was only one national champion from the last 8 teams, 4 of them from England. Now see the quarterfinal results and the possible finals: Chelsea/Liverpool vs Barcelona/Manchester Utd. That's what real football fanats never want to see: 4 "bought" team with hundreds of million dollars playing versus eachother, without really good home players (except maybe Rooney in MU), no surprise team (like Porto was few years ago). This is disgusting!

I think Chelsea and Manchester will play the final ---> 1-1 after 90 minutes, MU wins in extra time with C. Ronaldo's goal (how I hate that arrogant gay!).

I had already said that to myself before the quarter finals, in the last weeks, I was rather focusing on the UEFA Cup. English football doesn't deserve such strong clubs, their national team was too weak to make the ECH qualifications, I saw them on tv struggling against the Swiss on a friendly... this is a very sad story. I hate rich English teams as much as I would cheer for even a German team which are playing against them.

[Krys TOFF]

Chelsea/Liverpool vs Barcelona/Manchester Utd

I wanted to see AS Roma vs Arsenal and it will be Chelsea vs Liverpool...
Now, I hope to see Barcelona win (so they will loose as each time I have a favorite they loose ).

[Akoss Poo a.k.a. Zorromeister]

United key players

van der Sar/NED
G. Neville/ENG
Hargraeves/ENG
R. Ferdinand/ENG
C. Ronaldo/POR
Tévez/ARG
Rooney/ENG
Giggs/WAL
Carrick/ENG
Scholes/ENG
O'Shea/IRL
Silvestre/FRA
Saha/FRA
Park/KOR

Liverpool key players

Torres/ESP
Voronin/UKR
Hyypiae/FIN
Finnan/IRL
Gerrard/ENG
Riise/NOR
Xabi Alonso/ESP
Kuyt/NED
Babel/NED
Mascherano/ARG
Carragher/ENG
Crouch/ENG
Skrtel/SVK

Chelsea

Cech/CZE
A. Cole/ENG
Makélélé/FRA
Essien/GHA
R. Carvalho/POR
Shevchenko/UKR
Lampard/ENG
Drogba/CIV
Ballack/GER
Pizzaro/PER
Terry/ENG
Anelka/FRA
Malouda/FRA
Wright-Phillips/ENG

Arsenal

Lehmann/GER
Diaby/FRA
Fábregas/ESP
K. Touré/CIV
Senderos/SUI
Da Silva/CRO
Gallas/FRA
van Persie/NED
Hleb/BLR
Flamini/FRA
Gilberto Silva/BRA
Clichy/FRA
Adebayor/TOG
Walcott/ENG

No comment... Manchester squad is okay, it's half English, but the others...

[BonzaiJoe]

But this is club football, not national teams...

[Krys TOFF]

No comment... Manchester squad is okay, it's half English, but the others...

For these 4 teams, here is the overall nationalities repartition :
ENG   14
FRA   9
NED   4
ESP   3
POR   2
ARG   2
IRL   2
UKR   2
CIV   2
GER   2
WAL   1
KOR   1
FIN   1
NOR   1
SVK   1
CZE   1
GHA   1
PER   1
SUI   1
CRO   1
BLR   1
BRA   1
TOG   1

Apart from nationalities, I prefer watching Arsenal football than Chelsea football.
AS Roma and Arsenal (both eleminated sadly) have the most interesting football these days : movements, attacks, technical, .... Barcelona used to be that kind of team too but they decline this year. They were lucky to get qualified, it will be very hard for them versus MU if they don't find back their football style.

[CTG]

But this is club football, not national teams...

Main goal of clubs should be to find young local talents, give them chance to improve. Of course there is no problem with buying star players - in a moderate way. Long time ago there was a rule about maximum 3 foreigner players in a team. Now... rule changed and teams found the possibilities for bypassing it.

[Akoss Poo a.k.a. Zorromeister]

AS Roma and Arsenal (both eleminated sadly) have the most interesting football these days : movements, attacks, technical, .... Barcelona used to be that kind of team too but they decline this year. They were lucky to get qualified, it will be very hard for them versus MU if they don't find back their football style.

I also like Roma's football very much, despite I'm a Juve fan. It's a pity that they are eliminated now...

[Chulk]

Barcelona [...] were lucky to get qualified, it will be very hard for them versus MU if they don't find back their football style.

It depends if Messi can or cannot play. Remember he is Argentinian and 3 of MU defensive players (Carrick, Neville and Ferdinand) are English! 

PS: Hargreaves is Canadian (born 20 January 1981 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada)

[BonzaiJoe]

He plays for the english national team though, so he must have citizenship.

[Chulk]

He plays for the english national team though, so he must have citizenship.

He does, as many other players on many other National Teams (Trezeguet in France, Camoranesi in Italy, Zidane in France, Kuranyi in Germany, Odonkor in Germany, Hargreaves in England, Da Silva in Croatia, Podolski in Germany...)

[Akoss Poo a.k.a. Zorromeister]

He plays for the english national team though, so he must have citizenship.

He does, as many other players on many other National Teams (Trezeguet in France, Camoranesi in Italy, Zidane in France, Kuranyi in Germany, Odonkor in Germany, Hargreaves in England, Da Silva in Croatia, Podolski in Germany...)

Pisont in Hungary... 

[BonzaiJoe]

Haha, I left the live update of Getafe - Bayern München at 112 minutes, 3-1, Bayern München victory at odds 8.00

Then I see the news 10 minutes later and Bayern won... That's a bit sad, but seems well deserved.