LEN Teh Footy God's Footballodium

[johnhughthom]

plenty of foreign players have come to the League over the years, and many have failed to make a real impact due to the increased physical nature of our game compared to the continent.

And plenty have looked like they wouldn't be able to cope but were able to adapt, Pires and Ronaldo spring to mind among others. Messi would still be special in British football, the guys better than anybody I've ever seen play.

You'd be complaining if the likes of Busquets and Dani Alves were doing that stuff against your team, though

I'll let you know the next time Linfield play Barca.

[Jolt]

I have noticed that the all the English bitching about "diving" is normally directly related to an English team losing to a continental team....

I am sure this is just a statistical anomaly or something similar.. :P

Especially when a player the English hail as one of the best English players evar and of the Premier League - Gerrard - Is himself an epic pool diver, even though he seems to think that he is actually a very upstanding and fair player.

[johnhughthom]

Thank God I'm not the only person thinks that...

Though some of those comments are clearly April Fools.

[drone]

Caught the replay last night. Maybe my thought processes are just skewed by the recent Stanley Cup first round marathon, but egads! The diving wasn't that bad, but the whinging...

[The Stranger]

Did Mourinho reinvent football with Pepe? Seriously, for the past 5 games Pepe is a defender, a midfielder and a striker. Great work.

ye... and pepe also deserved to get red 3x in the last 3 classicos...

[The Stranger]

Last night was the first time I've ever watched an all-Spanish game, and I have to say that I found the whole affair to be a pretty damning representation of their style of football as a whole.

Why does every single decision made by the referee have to be contested by several players of both teams? It was similar to the Holland-Spain WC final, where Howard Webb couldn't move without being hassled at every turn; in the Premier League, you'd get a card for dissent or something, why doesn't that happen here?

In fact, why did the referee seem incapable of punishing Barcelona's players, even when many of them merited cards themselves? Dani Alves committed several poor challenges, Mascherano the same. Even Messi should have received a yellow card in the second half, yet didn't; there was just no consistency in the decisions and it was frustrating from a neutral perspective.

I've watched replays that show that the Pepe-Alves tackle made no contact whatsoever, and there's the Marcelo-Busquets situation where Sergio clutched his face after running into Marcelo... yet from the way they acted afterwards, it was as though both Catalan players had been shot.

I think that FA/UEFA/FIFA/whoever should retroactively punish players for disreputable behaviour and terrible challenges once they've seen post-game footage; they did just that for Wayne Rooney's swearing into the camera, with many people citing his language as a bad example to children hoping to get into the game... how is simulating injury any different? Watching a player go off on a stretcher, clutching his leg in sheer 'agony', only to merrily sprint back onto the pitch two minutes later?

It's just encouraging future generations to emulate this behaviour if they get away with it, and I think that both are elements that we shouldn't welcome into any sport, let alone football.

I guess my final point would be "what's the big deal about Messi?"; he's used to the protection that he's afforded by weak continental officials and his teammates arguing with them constantly... he'd be awful if he spent week-in, week-out playing in the Premier League, getting six shades of the brown stuff kicked out of him by the likes of Bolton and Blackburn while the referee doesn't pander to his every whim.

i dunno what match you been watching but alves actually got a card, and he didnt deserve to get it.

n pepe most definitly deserved a red card.

and if you say something like whats the big deal about messi... then im past arguing XD

i agree with the diving and the acting, that should be acted upon by the referees.

but i also think you are a little biased, why should a rough physical but relatively untechnical competition be better than a less physical but more technical competition? why would messi only be good if he outplays players whose only goal is to kick him to pieces? kicking six shades of brown out of people is football? cmon...

[naut]

in the Premier League, you'd get a card for dissent or something

*



*Disclaimer: Before you jump on me for not loving "More than a Club", "GREATEST TEAM EVAR IN THE UNIVERSE OF ALL TIMES", "BARCA-ORGASM-LONA FC", this image is not a representation of my personal views, my personal views are entirely separate and will not be disclosed here or elsewhere, I merely found it amusing and thought I should share it.

[The Stranger]

its indeed funny :P

[Secura]

but i also think you are a little biased, why should a rough physical but relatively untechnical competition be better than a less physical but more technical competition? why would messi only be good if he outplays players whose only goal is to kick him to pieces? kicking six shades of brown out of people is football? cmon...

I wasn't citing the Premier League as being better than La Liga, though I do think that it's definitely more competitive (particularly this season) than the one-horse race that Liga is; I'm not certain that you can call the EPL an 'untechnical competition' though, since not all the teams play the heavily physical game like Bolton do... case in point being Arsenal, who adopt a Barca-Lite approach to their football.

I've noticed that everyone from the national newspapers right up to ESPN and SkySports have been describing the first leg as a disgrace (save for two moments of brilliance from Messi, of course); maybe this is just the British media's perspective though. My point is that, while Barca play the best football in the world by far, it's a shame that it has to be marred with Oscar-worthy theatrics and hounding officials.

[The Stranger]

i agree with you on that, perhaps you were a bit unlucky in formulating or i understood you completely wrong.

though im sure messi would do great in whichever league he plays. and to be fair i think that barca isnt overprotected by the officials, and definitly not as much as some people would make you believe. but thats my opinion.

and yeah that match, definitly the first half, was quite lame though i think this was more due to real madrid than anything else. barcelona tried to play but didnt want to give too much space for real to counter attack and all real wanted to do was keep barca from playing their game, which actually worked out well until pepe finally got the card hes been deserving for each of the last 3 classicos.

[johnhughthom]

Sigh.

I don't know why I still get annoyed by the refereeing in European matches after all these years, but why on earth was that goal disallowed?

[Strike For The South]

1 win in the last 11

What are we? Bolton?

[naut]

Sigh.

I don't know why I still get annoyed by the refereeing in European matches after all these years, but why on earth was that goal disallowed?

[Strike For The South]

lulz

I INJOY UR MEMEZ

[Louis VI the Fat]

Barça and Madrid have been disappointing. What a lot of miserable antics. Mourinho must be world sport's most ungentlemanlike manager, what a little pest. Madrid even put a fake video up on their website, with images cut out to make it appear Pepe didn't hit what's-his-name.
Barcelona was only marginally more honourable, what with all the diving and theatrics.

Pfff....

maybe this is just the British media's perspective though

This rubbish really wouldn't do in England. It would be unacceptable. Mind that the inventors of the game are still the world football's most honourable. England regularly tops international fair play rankings, both the national team and club teams.

Like so much else, Fair Play is quantifiable. Uefa compiles annual lists of fair play, the results are pretty close to what stereotype would have. It should be noted that the list is somewhat biased towards smaller nations.

Of the big countries/leagues, England wins in place two. Germany second in place five. Spain and France fortunately still make the top ten at place nine and ten, followed directly by the Netherlands at 11. Bad boys Russia at 18. Badder boys Portugal at 22. Pityfull Italy well in the lower half at 33. Shameless Turkey near the bottom at 41, slugging it out with neighbours Greece in 46 for the title of least honourable.
Owing to the working of the statistics, the microstates are at the very bottom.

http://en.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/D...7_DOWNLOAD.pdf

[Sarmatian]

I wasn't citing the Premier League as being better than La Liga, though I do think that it's definitely more competitive (particularly this season) than the one-horse race that Liga is; I'm not certain that you can call the EPL an 'untechnical competition' though, since not all the teams play the heavily physical game like Bolton do... case in point being Arsenal, who adopt a Barca-Lite approach to their football.

I've noticed that everyone from the national newspapers right up to ESPN and SkySports have been describing the first leg as a disgrace (save for two moments of brilliance from Messi, of course); maybe this is just the British media's perspective though. My point is that, while Barca play the best football in the world by far, it's a shame that it has to be marred with Oscar-worthy theatrics and hounding officials.

I didn't watch the game but last Barca Real game I watched was the 5:0 trouncing. In that game all that Real did was try to disrupt Barca play and make a counter. Later in the game, almost every tackle was dirty tackle, aimed at injuring Barca players. Against such a team, I would take advantage of that. Better than risk my players injured. Mourinho should resign from football management and save himself from future embarassment.

Interesting story, when he became an assistant manager in Barcelona, one of the first thing he'd done was to change home and away benches in Camp Nou. When van Gaal asked him why, Mourinho anwered that their bench will now be close to the linesman and he will be more reluctant to call players offside because of that pressure.

[Afonso I of Portugal]

Barça and Madrid have been disappointing. What a lot of miserable antics. Mourinho must be world sport's most ungentlemanlike manager, what a little pest. Madrid even put a fake video up on their website, with images cut out to make it appear Pepe didn't hit what's-his-name.
Barcelona was only marginally more honourable, what with all the diving and theatrics.

Pfff....

This rubbish really wouldn't do in England. It would be unacceptable. Mind that the inventors of the game are still the world football's most honourable. England regularly tops international fair play rankings, both the national team and club teams.

Like so much else, Fair Play is quantifiable. Uefa compiles annual lists of fair play, the results are pretty close to what stereotype would have. It should be noted that the list is somewhat biased towards smaller nations.

Of the big countries/leagues, England wins in place two. Germany second in place five. Spain and France fortunately still make the top ten at place nine and ten, followed directly by the Netherlands at 11. Bad boys Russia at 18. Badder boys Portugal at 22. Pityfull Italy well in the lower half at 33. Shameless Turkey near the bottom at 41, slugging it out with neighbours Greece in 46 for the title of least honourable.
Owing to the working of the statistics, the microstates are at the very bottom.

http://en.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/D...7_DOWNLOAD.pdf

Considering the number of games of each nation that's a very, very subjective ranking...and this ranking is based on what criteria?

[edyzmedieval]

Barça and Madrid have been disappointing. What a lot of miserable antics. Mourinho must be world sport's most ungentlemanlike manager, what a little pest. Madrid even put a fake video up on their website, with images cut out to make it appear Pepe didn't hit what's-his-name.

I'm having doubts whether it being fake or not. There's two things with the Pepe foul - Pepe didn't complain about the red card, Daniel Alves the moment he set foot on the sidelines he returned running to the pitch.

Considering those two things - Pepe thought he hit him, so that's why he didn't complain. Daniel Alves however wasn't hit, it was clear by his over exaggerated antics and by the fact he ran back to the pitch the next minute.

As for Barcelona, Mascherano should stay on the sidelines for a couple of matches.

[Ronin]

Considering those two things - Pepe thought he hit him, so that's why he didn't complain.

maybe even a little more than that....Pepe was pretty obviously trying to hit him on that move.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Considering the number of games of each nation that's a very, very subjective ranking...and this ranking is based on what criteria?

The ranking is imperfect, but of much use nevertheless. It is perhaps the most complete survey of fair play in football.

The amount of games played loses most of its statistical relevance for the big countries. 80 or 100 games, that doesn't change the score any great deal. Of the other criteria, perhaps the most troublesome is 'positive play', that is, trying to score goals, stalling for time etc. Invariably, the stronger team will get more points than the weak team in this criterium. The goal of the weak team is to prevent goals, to stall for time, to play defensively. The big team tries to win, plays with an attacking formation, etc. Thus Welsh teams will always end up with lower scores than English teams. Therefore it is best to compare the big leagues with one another, or leagues of comparable strength.

Ranking

All representative teams from a football association are responsible for the score of the fair play ranking of that association. This includes matches of all national teams and all clubs in all UEFA competitions. The ranking is composed from 1 June until 31 May the following year. The criteria for the ranking is Fair Play.
Criteria

Teams are judged on the following criteria:

• Yellow and red cards: If no cards are shown the score will be 10. Every yellow card will deduct this total by 1. A red card will cost a team 3 points in the ranking. If the red card is the result of a second yellow card the deductions of the second yellow card will be ignored. But if a player gets a direct red card after he got a yellow card earlier, the yellow card will be counted as a deduction. This score could become negative
• Positive play: e.g. attacking tactics, acceleration of the game, efforts to gain time, and continued pursuit of goals. A team can score a maximum of 10 points and a minimum of 1 point
• Respect to the opponent: e.g. returning the ball to the opponent at a throw-in, helping an injured opponent: maximum 7 points, minimum 1 point
• Respect to the referee: maximum 7 points, minimum 1 point
• Behaviour of the team officials: maximum 6 points, minimum 1 point
• Behaviour of the fans: maximum 5 points, minimum 1 point

The total number of points will be divided by the maximum number of points, 40 (or 35 if there are a negligible amount of fans), and multiplied by 10 which will result in a score between 0 and 10. The score is calculated to two decimal points and not rounded up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Fair_Play_ranking

[Afonso I of Portugal]

Europa League:

Villareal 3 - Porto 2; two more blue torpedos put Villareal's yellow submarine even deeper...
Braga 1 - Benfica 0; Has i predicted!

FINAL: Porto Vs Braga

Porto is favourite but in football we never know...as this season Braga already knock out Celtic, Sevilla, Liverpool and now Benfica. In the CL group stages they also beat Arsenal, so i think we'll have a good final. Braga's career is amazing for a small, historic but proud club. They never won anything, league ou cup, as far as i can remember...
Porto will probably make the "Triplete" by winning the League, the Cup and Europa League...

[Afonso I of Portugal]

The ranking is imperfect, but of much use nevertheless. It is perhaps the most complete survey of fair play in football.

The amount of games played loses most of its statistical relevance for the big countries. 80 or 100 games, that doesn't change the score any great deal. Of the other criteria, perhaps the most troublesome is 'positive play', that is, trying to score goals, stalling for time etc. Invariably, the stronger team will get more points than the weak team in this criterium. The goal of the weak team is to prevent goals, to stall for time, to play defensively. The big team tries to win, plays with an attacking formation, etc. Thus Welsh teams will always end up with lower scores than English teams. Therefore it is best to compare the big leagues with one another, or leagues of comparable strength.

Ranking

All representative teams from a football association are responsible for the score of the fair play ranking of that association. This includes matches of all national teams and all clubs in all UEFA competitions. The ranking is composed from 1 June until 31 May the following year. The criteria for the ranking is Fair Play.
Criteria

Teams are judged on the following criteria:

• Yellow and red cards: If no cards are shown the score will be 10. Every yellow card will deduct this total by 1. A red card will cost a team 3 points in the ranking. If the red card is the result of a second yellow card the deductions of the second yellow card will be ignored. But if a player gets a direct red card after he got a yellow card earlier, the yellow card will be counted as a deduction. This score could become negative
• Positive play: e.g. attacking tactics, acceleration of the game, efforts to gain time, and continued pursuit of goals. A team can score a maximum of 10 points and a minimum of 1 point
• Respect to the opponent: e.g. returning the ball to the opponent at a throw-in, helping an injured opponent: maximum 7 points, minimum 1 point
• Respect to the referee: maximum 7 points, minimum 1 point
• Behaviour of the team officials: maximum 6 points, minimum 1 point
• Behaviour of the fans: maximum 5 points, minimum 1 point

The total number of points will be divided by the maximum number of points, 40 (or 35 if there are a negligible amount of fans), and multiplied by 10 which will result in a score between 0 and 10. The score is calculated to two decimal points and not rounded up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Fair_Play_ranking

Just as i thought...very subjective. The number of cards are the only objective criteria. However, i do agree with rankings about fairplay. Thanks for your explanation.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Braga looked strong. Good defense, barely budged an inch. Cool tense game. Looking forward to the final!

I shall have to root for Braga, just because everybody I know is from Lisbon and consequently hates Porto.



@Afonso - Fair Play by its nature is subjective, a matter of taste and of values. The one other qualm about the criteria that later dawned on me, is 'attacking tactics, acceleration of game, pursuit of goals'. This would favour kick-and-rush over catenaccio. But why should that be the case? Arguably, catenaccio is far more refined, more tactically difficult. Defense is as much a part of the game as offense.
Does Italian football get the credit it deserves? One may not like it, but an honest look at Italian teams troughout the years reveal why these guys conquered the whole of Europe. What great discipline, what tactical maturity. Is it fair for people to simply dismiss classic, indomitable Internationale as playing 'less fair' than, say, naive Scottish kick-and-rush?

[Afonso I of Portugal]

Braga looked strong. Good defense, barely budged an inch. Cool tense game. Looking forward to the final!

I shall have to root for Braga, just because everybody I know is from Lisbon and consequently hates Porto.



@Afonso - Fair Play by its nature is subjective, a matter of taste and of values. The one other qualm about the criteria that later dawned on me, is 'attacking tactics, acceleration of game, pursuit of goals'. This would favour kick-and-rush over catenaccio. But why should that be the case? Arguably, catenaccio is far more refined, more tactically difficult. Defense is as much a part of the game as offense.
Does Italian football get the credit it deserves? One may not like it, but an honest look at Italian teams troughout the years reveal why these guys conquered the whole of Europe. What great discipline, what tactical maturity. Is it fair for people to simply dismiss classic, indomitable Internationale as playing 'less fair' than, say, naive Scottish kick-and-rush?

I agree with you Louis.

I shall root for Braga too as i always support the smaller teams, except when they play against my own club of course...

[Secura]

I found that the second leg of the Barca-Real semi-final restored my faith in Spanish football; there were still some theatrics (I don't recall Mascherano play-acting like that at Liverpool...), but in all the game felt alot cleaner, there were less stoppages from players crowding the referee and so on.

I would love to see Nemanja lifting the trophy on May 28th, but I can't help seeing this as Barca's fourth European Cup. Gah!

[Louis VI the Fat]

So things are working out well for Bordeaux and the French football tea


Those cheeky Glory Seekers:

Manchester United supporters have begun a campaign on fans' forums and on Twitter to get the Paul Hardcastle song 19 to No1 in the charts for this Sunday, when United may have already been crowned champions for the 19th time by beating Blackburn Rovers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...-song-19-title

Much as it pains me so, I got a good laugh out of that one.

[edyzmedieval]

AJAX AMSTERDAM, Kampioen Eredivisie 2010-2011!

After 7 grueling years, Ajax finally won the championship.

[The Stranger]

AJAX AMSTERDAM, Kampioen Eredivisie 2010-2011!

After 7 grueling years, Ajax finally won the championship.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT GLORIOUS! XD

the two title candidates, twente and ajax played each other on the final match day for the championship. ajax won 3-1. was a good match tbh.

[johnhughthom]

Do they still have the play off in Holland? Or is that only for the Champions League place?

[The Stranger]

no only for uefa cup places. 1st n 2nd go to champions league 3 goes to uefa cup. 4-7 play for 2 uefa cup places if im not mistaken.