Football Fanats 2008

[Krys TOFF]

Romania has a completely impossible group! No quarter final for them.

Sure : Romania, Netherlands, Italy, France. If they manage to be 1st of the group, then we will be able to say that they may be potential winners of this Euro. But as they will end last of the group...

[Akoss Poo a.k.a. Zorromeister]

Italy is favourite I think - good players who also constitute a good team. France, Spain (let's hope this time they can appear to be a real threat to other teams) and maybe Germany are good contenders for a medal. Portugal, Holland, Greece can also fight for a medal with a fair chance. Croatia, Czech Republic, Sweden, and as they are the home nation, maybe Switzerland are ready to cause a surprise. Other teams, especially Austria, are outsiders.

[Chulk]

I'll give a favourite, and alternative and a surprise champion:

My favourite is Italy: Last World Cup winner, good players and probably the best as a team (A couple of substitutions don't change the performance much.
My 2nd option is Germany: They have a good team, they just lack that self-confidence every great German team had in history.
My surprise champion is Netherlands: Many talented players in top teams (Sneijder, Robben, Van Persie, Heitinga), a reliable GK (Van der Sar) and a killing CF (Huntelaar) can beat any of the top teams.

[CTG]

Faszszopó Újpest - Györi ETO FC 1-3 (1-1)

Two rounds before the end of the championhip:

1 MTK Budapest 60 pts (still "playing" with Sopron - the automatical 3-0)
2 Debrecen 60 pts
3 Újpest 54 pts
4 Györi ETO FC 52 pts
5 Fehérvár FC 48 pts
...

Remaining matches for top5 teams:

29th round

ETO - Vasas (10th): even if Vasas is so down on the table, they usually win versus ETO...

1: 30%, X: 35%, 2: 35%

REAC (12th) - MTK: REAC has really good offense and terrible defense, my pessimistic bet is a draw

1: 15%, X: 45%, 2: 40%

Fehérvár - Siófok (14th): will be a boring match with easy victory for Fehérvár

1: 45%, X: 35%, 2: 20%

Paks (11th) - Debrecen: there's a big pressure on the 3-times champion if they want to keep the title while Paks is in good shape at the moment

1: 20%, X: 30%, 2: 50%

Újpest - DVTK (14th): go Diósgyör!!! I'm afraid dicksucker purple monkeys are going to win (with a last minute penalty or lucky goal, as usual)...

1: 60%, X: 30%, 2: 10%

30th round

Debrecen - Újpest: prestige match for both teams, unfortunately I feel a bit better chance for Újpest

1: 30%, X: 35%, 2: 35%

ZTE (7th) - Fehérvár: might be a good last round battle for the two strong middle class team

1: 30%, X: 40%, 2: 30%

DVTK (13th) - ETO: ETO has a lot more chance to win by the paper (usually several goals in their game) but this time it will be very complicated

1: 25%, X: 40%, 2: 35%

"MTK - Sopron" (3-0): that's the only sure result

1: 100%...

If MTK is able to win versus REAC in the next round and Debrecen can't make at least +6 goals compared to MTK (which is quite unlikely), they are already champions. In a very good case ETO can catch podium and the right to play in UEFA Cup qualifiers (champion goes to Champions League Qualifications, the Cup winner and the silver medalist - or the second best "non-Cup winner" of the championship goes to UEFA Cup). All the things we need:

- overtaking Újpest in the championship (3rd place)
- MTK has to be the champion
- Debrecen has to win the Hungarian Cup versus Budapest Honvéd

DVTK, MTK and Debrecen are the keys of our success or failure... and of course our team itself.

[CTG]

I guess I was wrong wih the UEFA Cup qualification system... ETO can't be there.

[CTG]

Chelsea MU is going to win... 

Typical mistake at the penalties from an overstarred arrogant gay asshole, called C. Ronaldo. But still I hate MU a bit less than Chelsea.

[Duplode]

Aaargh... Copa Libertadores Quarterfinals, Fluminense v. São Paulo, away leg for us (São Paulo). With 20 minutes to go on the 2nd half Adriano scored the equalizer that would pull us through, as the home leg was 1-0. Then Fluminense reacts immediately and makes 2-1, but that was sort of fine as we would still win on away goals and we were solid enough not to allow Fluminense to make really strong pressure. But no, bloody right sideback Joilson (substituted in at halftime, BTW) makes his most significant contribution to the team in his six month spell by getting two freakin' yellow cards in five minutes and thus screwing up the balance of play and eventually leading to Fluminense's third goal at stoppage time... Oh, screw it! It's way too alike last year when we lost to another Brazilian team (Grêmio) in all too similar circumstances. Now the road seems open - yet again - to Boca, as I do not believe Fluminense (probably the only other remaining club really worth of attention) will stand up to them when the critical hour comes. And that trashing of Atlas sounded powerful...

At least Chelsea eventually lost to MU, so as to not make today's results completely negative...

[Krys TOFF]

Chelsea MU is going to win... 

MU could have killed the match at 1st half. They missed easy opportunities and could have led 3-0. But they let Chelsea come back into the match and it was finally 1-1 at the end of 1st half.
Then 2nd half was mainly Chelsea domination, 2 shots on the goal bars (not sure of the english name) and finally no new goal. During extended time, the players were obviously tired and nervous, Drogba got a stupid red card and nothing changed.
Then it was penalty lottery. I don't like when titles (world cup, champions league, ...) are won after penalty sessions, I would prefer the match to be re-played. I never though fair such penalty sessions. Chelsea would have won as Ronaldo got his shot stopped by Chelsea's goalkeeper, but then Chelsea captain shot on the goal bar because of the slippery terrain. It's so based on luck/unluck those penalty sessions...

[Akoss Poo a.k.a. Zorromeister]

English, be proud of your shameful football... is it worthy for them to buy world class players in 4 clubs to win everything in Europe? 5-10 years ago they wasn't the strongest in the Champions' League (MU won the trophy with big luck in 1999, in the SF and in the final game, too), but at least they had a good national team. Well, English, be happy with your CL trophy, and sit and watch Euro 2008 without you. I won't miss the English squad.

[BonzaiJoe]

Krys: the one above is the bar and the ones on the sides are the posts.

I didn't really like Manchester United or Chelsea, so didn't follow the match. However, I felt a bit happy with the MU win, so I must have some sympathy left for them.
Akoss: yes, it's a money sport. It's club football, the clubs are corporations, it's just the way it is... Watch national teams for the national football

[CTG]

No comment...

[CTG]

Hungarian Championship, 29th round:

Paks - Debrecen 2-2
Györi ETO - Vasas 2-1
Nyíregyháza - Budapest Honvéd 3-0
Tatabánya - Kaposvár 2-6
Fehérvár - Siófok 1-0
Újpest - Diósgyör 2-2
REAC - MTK Budapest 0-3
Sopron - ZTE 0-3

One round before the end of the championship:

1 MTK Budapest 63 pts (+41) - already champions
2 Debrecen 61 pts (+38)
3 Györi ETO 55 pts (+27)
4 Újpest 55 pts (+20)
5 Fehérvár 51 pts (+14)
6 Kaposvár 48 pts (+7)
7 ZTE 46 pts (+18)
8 Budapest Honvéd 40 pts (+6) - incredibly deep crisis in the spring, they were leading the championship after 14th round
9 Nyíregyháza 40 pts (-1)
10 Vasas 38 pts (-6)
11 Paks 36 pts (0)
12 REAC 30 pts (-12)
13 Diósgyör 28 pts (-18)
14 Siófok 26 pts (-13)
--------------------------------------
15 Tatabánya 10 pts (-56)
16 Sopron 0 pts (0)

Qualified from second class: Haladás, Kecskemét

Possible change: rumours say Ferencváros (suffering in second class for two years) is going to buy the license from REAC to start in first class.

International cups:

MTK is already the champion ---> UEFA Champions League qualifications, 2nd round
Debrecen is the silver medalist and possible cup winner ---> UEFA Cup qualifications, 1st round
Honvéd is cup finalist ---> UEFA Cup qualifications, 1st round (even if they lose versus Debrecen in the cup final)
Fehérvár is the winner of "League Cup" ---> they can start in UEFA Intertoto Cup but they cancelled it (due to the high cost of the trip to the opponent in Kazahstan) - one of the 3rd-6th place teams can take their place

Edit: few years ago ETO played two good matches versus Racing Santander (ESP) in Intertoto Cup. Let's hope we can start there again, beating the kazah opponent and play versus better teams. Who knows, maybe we can also enter UEFA Cup qualifications... Sweet dreams!

[Chulk]

About MU win vs. Chelsea, Carlos Tevez has won (almost) every important title a player can win...

With Boca Juniors he won 4 championships: Apertura 2003, Libertadores 2003, Intercontinental 2003 & Sudamericana 2004.
With Corinthians he won Brasileirao.
With MU he won Premier League and UEFA Champions league.
And he also won the golden medal in Athens 2004 and was the top scorer there.

If he goes to Spain as rumors say, maybe he can add another trophy...

[CTG]

About MU win vs. Chelsea, Carlos Tevez has won (almost) every important title a player can win...

The most important is still missing... maybe in 2010, South Africa...

[Chulk]

Yes, I know. But many great players never won a World cup. For a start, none of the great Dutch player did, neither did Laudrup...