Barclay's English Premier League '05-06 Campaign

I have a pretty sweet Bayern Muenchen jersey that I wear every now and then. It's back from when Opel was the sponsor around 1999 and I was working there. Good times.

 

Alrighty then.

Hey SJC I been meaning to ask you if you know this guy Hleb from Stuttgart. From what I've seen so far he looks awesome but its hard to tell from clips and the short shifts he's been in so far.

 

Yeah a lot of people do not understand it. van nistelrooy is also great. i think the biggest problem makaay has had is that he never got much of a chance from our coach. First there was kluivert, and the only way makaay could play was on the right wing(and he was not good at it). And for some reason the right wing is almost the only spot on the team he gets a chance on. and that is just not his natural position. Now we have van nistelrooy. Even haisselbank(sp) got a chance before makaay did. i also do not understand it. I would love to see Makaay play some more on our team.

ps, i heard van der vaart played good last weekend? and that he was very fit(hasn't been fit in a long time).

I'm actually pretty mad because the dutch league games is not broadcasted this year by the same channel as it has been for the last 30 years or so. but by a new channel, and for some reason i cannot get that channel on my Tv. so i cannot even see dutch league games(i hope i will be able to receive this channel soon.)

 

I watched a bit of van der Vaart, and he looks like a very good player. He has a nice touch and shoots excellent free kicks and corners. Seems to have a good feeling for game situations, too. I think he scored on a nice free kick last weekend. Great to have him in the Bundesliga.

(Also, he has a hot wife.)

 

Rivaldo2181 i actually do not agree with you on this one(that might be the first in a soccer related discussion). makaay didn't get a fair chance IMHO. He and van nistelrooy didn't play good, that is true. however he didn't get to play the centre striker(not sure what the english term is). If we play with 2 wings and one striker it is alway van Nistelrooy. I have to say that i'm more upset with the older coaches then with van Basten, Advocaat never gave him a chance. And even when Kluivert played bad he was not replaced.(not even for a friendly). I understand that Van nistelrooy is the starting striker, however most of his career Makaay wasn't even the first striker comming from the bench. I believe he should be the first striker comming from the bench(ok maybe in some situation Van Hooijdonck)

SJC
Van der Vaart is a terrific talented player, he just got hyped up to fast with Ajax and they expected him to be a leader while he was just a child. He also got a little arrogant(playing style), and he is not good in physical games. But he can be a great player, and most dutch are glad he left Ajax and started playing in Germany, we all hope/expect that he will get his form back and he will play like he used to. Then he is the type of player the dutch team needs.

His wife was verry popular in holland in the beginning of her acting career, however she was the main person bashed by the supporters(mostly opponent supporters). The marage of those two was even on the dutch tv(yes pathetic i know). I believe she want to be on the german tv as a presentator. She used to do a lot of acting on the dutch tv

 

The MLS is very unlucky in the fact that they have way more competition in their own country from other professional sports than any other country in the world. The league is very much still in it's infancy but I think that over time they will prove to be a breeding ground of talented world class players and successful teams internationally.
The one thing that I find ironic about European leagues, specifically England is that their league is fun to watch and very popular, but it never translates over to their national side. The same thing with Spain.
Now take Brasil, their futbol leagues are the model of chaos, the players are underpaid,no one knows when the season ends, games can be tied up in the courts for months and yet they thrive on the international level.
So how do you go about measuring the strenth of a league? In a way it seems very subjective and open to constant debate.

 

For one, the best Brazilian players play in Europe, and other good foreigners are really important to making the European leagues as strong as they are. Secondly, it is certainly not true for Germany over the last 40 years (the Bundesliga has been in existence for 42 years) that the strength of the national league does not translate to the national side. Except 1978, 1994 and 1998, Germany always at least made the semifinals of the world cup since 1966, with world cup titles in 1974 and 1990, and further finals appearances in 1966, 1982, 1986, 2002. Even Brazil was not as consistent as that. Italy did very well with their national team in the World Cup during that period, too.

What you say is true, however, for Spain and England (since 1970). But especially in these two leagues, I think the foreigners are a big part of why these leagues are attractive, and perhaps their respective national football asscociation somewhat neglected paying attention to what made countries like Germany and Italy so consistently good in the world cup.

Brazil is just a special case because football is their religion and they have such a wealth of talent that it is unbelievable.

 

Actually, FSC is airing 20 Serie A matches this season.

Also, fill at their survey at survey.foxsoccer.com and request the rights to La Liga, Champions League, or any other league you want to see.

 

i watched some of this on saturday afternoon...the crowd sounded incredible. i was impressed with the goalie for Aston Villa...he fought off shot after shot.