*Official* English Football Season 2012-13

[sledger]

Oh yeah, I stand corrected.

The thing is...we were saying that we were moving in the right direction last year. I think the team has serious character/mental deficiencies. We're just a brittle side. I don't know what happened during Benitez's last season but since then we do not have the same character. Prior to that, I honestly believed (and we did often enough) that we could come back in 9/10 matches. Right now, as soon as we concede the second comes not shortly after.

Nobody who actually knew what they were talking about was.

 

[vic_orthdox]

PSG v Valencia, Celtic v Juventus or Leicester v Huddersfield...?

Town. Get in.

 

[Pothas]

Gillette Soccer Special, and it was an easy decision. Huge night in league One.

If all the results I wish for tonight come off then I am going to bet my February pay packet on the whites going up. Drinks on me in May.

How close is it now?

Don't know if I should be excited we are so close to automatic places or worried that we will most likely be out the play-offs by the time we next play.

Do rather wish Yeovil would stop winning every game though.

 

[wpdavid]

Whilst not generally sympathetic to Neil Lennon, he has a point about last night's nonsense. For me, the failure of referees to apply the laws of the game when defenders pull opponents all over the place at corners is the biggest blight on the modern game - far worse than diving, where at least the referees aren't deliberately turning a blind eye. I know there's a cultural element to this with the 'Latin' teams generally seeing it as part and parcel of the game. But the spinelessness of the officials is quite nauseating.

 

[marc71178]

Town. Get in.

Robins should serve you well.

 

[Uppercut]

Welbeck, HCSI

 

[Uppercut]

You really do get some seriously crap refs in Europe.

Good result, will be interesting to see how we approach the next game.

 

[The Sean]

Didn't get to watch the game but I'll certainly take the result. The general feeling on United-based interwebz sites seems to be that it was nice of Florentino Perez's son to step in as ref at the last moment. A modicum of truth, or was he just **** both ways?

 

[Uppercut]

Don't think he was biased, no. Di Maria had a decent penalty shout turned down in the first half and apparently blowing for full time at a corner is standard in Germany. Plus our goal came from a corner that shouldn't have been.

Not even giving a foul when Varane hacked down Evra as he was running through on goal was the worst decision of the night though.

 

[The Sean]

Fair enough, assumed there was probably some selective vision going on.

 

[Nate]

Not even giving a foul when Varane hacked down Evra as he was running through on goal was the worst decision of the night though.

That was appalling.

 

[Furball]

Whilst not generally sympathetic to Neil Lennon, he has a point about last night's nonsense.

Did he ****, half of Celtic's goals this season in the Champions League have come from set plays where Hooper just happens to get in the way of the goalkeeper. Juventus did their homework and countered it.

 

[wpdavid]

Did he ****, half of Celtic's goals this season in the Champions League have come from set plays where Hooper just happens to get in the way of the goalkeeper. Juventus did their homework and countered it.

That's all right then. We'll just pretend that the rules allow defenders to pull back opponents at set plays. Which is what the ref did all night, so I suppose you're in good company..

 

[BoyBrumby]

Come on chaps. Two wrongs = a right. This we know.

FWIW I think keepers get way too much protection and holding at set pieces is endemic. Unless the officials man the **** up and start giving pens it'll go on too.

It's also a good argument for a video official too, but it'll probably never happen. Far better to trust easily bribeable referees.

 

[wpdavid]

Come on chaps. Two wrongs = a right. This we know.

FWIW I think keepers get way too much protection and holding at set pieces is endemic. Unless the officials man the **** up and start giving pens it'll go on too.

And that's the point, isn't it. A smattering of penalties for this sort of thing would put an end to it, you'd think. But not many of the refs seem to have the balls to do that, whereas if a forward even looks at a defender in a funny way then it's a free kick.
Actually, there's a piece on the Guardian website about attitudes in different countries to this which includes footage from a Russia WC qualifier about 10 years ago where the ref warned the Russian defenders about this and then gave the curical penalty to their opponents in the last minute. He was English, natch.

It's also a good argument for a video official too, but it'll probably never happen. Far better to trust easily bribeable referees.

Or even having a 4th official behond the goal line to spot all this.

 

[wpdavid]

Perhaps they should take an idea from rugby union lineouts and allow a couple of attacking players to lift up the guy they want to actually head the ball.


More interestingly, last night's match sounds like an absolute classic. Not that I saw any of it, but I get the impression that RM would feel they should have won by loads but MU know they could very easily have won it as well, given the chances they missed in the last quarter. My fear for MU is that Ronaldo is now set to match his namesake's performance at Old Trafford all those years ago when he single-handedly saw off the challenge from MU and left the pitch to a standimg ovation. I hope I'm wrong though.

 

[Furball]

That's all right then. We'll just pretend that the rules allow defenders to pull back opponents at set plays. Which is what the ref did all night, so I suppose you're in good company..

Look, there's only been an outcry because it's Celtic Football Club, who never lose games unless the referee has had something to do with it.

I didn't see that much holding from Juve players - blocking yes, not holding - it was nowhere near as bad as what Chelsea (who usually aren t shy of having a moan) were subjected to at the hands of Mourinho's Inter Milan side.

 

[Cevno]

More interestingly, last night's match sounds like an absolute classic. Not that I saw any of it, but I get the impression that RM would feel they should have won by loads but MU know they could very easily have won it as well, given the chances they missed in the last quarter. My fear for MU is that Ronaldo is now set to match his namesake's performance at Old Trafford all those years ago when he single-handedly saw off the challenge from MU and left the pitch to a standimg ovation. I hope I'm wrong though.

As long as the end score of the game is the same, i'll take it.

A 4-3 win to United and a game like that will cause a few heart attacks, but we'll still go through.

 

[Uppercut]

Look, there's only been an outcry because it's Celtic Football Club, who never lose games unless the referee has had something to do with it.

I didn't see that much holding from Juve players - blocking yes, not holding - it was nowhere near as bad as what Chelsea (who usually aren t shy of having a moan) were subjected to at the hands of Mourinho's Inter Milan side.

Yeah I thought this too, there were a few arms strategically placed around the Celtic players' chest but no shirt-pulls or drags to the ground. Shouldn't be allowed but we've seen much worse. And in any case, it's pretty rich to complain that the Juve defenders were illegally interfering with their shameless attempts to obstruct Buffon.

I wasn't exactly supporting Juve but at least we don't have to listen to the media sucking up to Celtic fans as if they're all ****ing angels again.

 

[marc71178]

Red Clive was abysmal on Tuesday night I thought.