No. Those are very conservative choices. Those two have been the dominating teams over the last 4 seasons. Real is stacked like no other team and Bayern only suxored (well, quarter finals only, that is) last year b/c their playmaker Effenberg was over the hill and Sergio suxored, too. Now they replaced those by the amazing Michael Ballack and Ze Roberto, which means they're in the running again. Arsenal has done...what so far? I mean, have they ever made the semis? Not that it's impossible, nobody would've placed a bet on Leverkusen a year ago, but I think the one who's going out on a limb is .. you!
Uh, that was sarcasm. Obviously since Real WON last year and BM is always in it, those are not risky choices. That was my point. Well, we beat ManU four times last year. We smoked Leverkusen last year in the Champions League and would have advanced if Deportivo had not so stupidly WANTED to get ManU in the next round, resting NINE starters against Leverkusen. We went UNDEFEATED away from home in the Premiership. What other team IN THE WORLD did that last year in their home league? We won our home league and the FA Cup (a domestic 'Double') while neither Bayern Munich nor Real won their own leagues last year. Undoubtably the Arsenal have underperformed in the Champions League in the past, but that will change this year.
I second that. I went to my first Rugby League match between the Auckland Warriors and first place (and salary cap busting Bulldogs from Australia and I found it really exciting. A bit faster pace than rugby union and very compelling.
OK, Hayes, winning the Premiership is fine and dandy, but the CL is when it really counts. And I hope that Arsenal will face Bayern this year, so I can force you to sing the praises of Scholl, Ballack, Elber, Santa Cruz, Deisler, Lizarazu, Ze Roberto, Hargreaves and Kahn
And Hayes, doesn't Arsenal still have Seaman as goalie????? How are you going to win the CL with THAT????
Don't you worry about ol Safe Hands, now SF. I assume you're talking about the WC goal, and I think you can look at it one of two ways: either it was a fantastic shot from Ronaldinho or it was a mi**** cross. Either way is wasn't nearly as big a gaff as its been made out to be. And you can say the CL is where its at, and to a point I agree. But to lose your domestic Cup and your domestic league while concentrating on the CL lessens the accomplishment, IMO. EDIT: HEY, SINCE WHEN IS MIS-HIT A BAD WORD.
Bayern Munich will win the Champions League this year again, plain and simple. There is no team in Europe, Real with Ronaldo (if they get him) included, that is better than Bayern. Bayern got the two best players of last year's Champions League finalist Bayer Leverkusen and kept their core. Goalie: Kahn (best in the world, despite his mistake in the world cup final) Left side: Lizarazu, Ze Roberto - there is simply no better left side tandem in the world Right side: Sagnol, Salihamidzic - Salihamidzic is still a very underrated player, he routinely outperforms Roberto Carlos when they are matched up against each other Central Defense: 2 out of 3, Linke, Kuffour, R. Kovac - all three solid defenders Midfield: Ballack (superstar), Scholl (one of the most entertaining and creative players in the world), Jeremies, Hargreaves, Deisler, etc. - take your pick, they are all great Forwards: Elber (it's a joke that he was not nominated for the world cup), Pizzarro, Zickler, Santa Cruz. Nobody can beat that team. Real does not even come close.
Arsenal is just spreading their wings. REUTERS - English champions Arsenal have been given the go-ahead to build a new 60,000-seater stadium after a court ruled against objections from local residents. Last season's premier league and FA Cup winners can now go ahead with their plans to move to the new Ashburton Grove site in time for the 2005-06 season. The new stadium will be just a mile away from Highbury, which has been Arsenal's home for 90 years. The club has been hampered by Highbury's 38,500 capacity which cannot be extended because two of the grandstands are listed. The case was brought by local residents against Islington Council who had granted planning approval for the new stadium. After a three-day hearing at the High Court in London, Mr Justice Duncan Ouseley said plans for Arsenal's new stadium had "been put through a demanding legal audit" and stood up. Referring to the objections to the stadium he added: "I have concluded that these applications must fail. Most of the points raised are unarguable". Arsenal director Ken Friar said the club were delighted with the outcome of the hearing. also, support your local MLS team. the games are on espn on saturday at 4 pm some really good games if yoiu can ignore the often shoddy pitchs' they play on
Yep. Once they (almost) double capacity, they are going to be able to compete financially with ManU/Real et al, and with Arsene Wengers UNREAL transfer record, everyone else is going to be in big trouble.
Hey, you guys need to get real. A 60000 seat stadium in itself guarantees nothing, there are probably about 50 or more clubs in Europe with equal or greater size stadiums. And whatever club plays in the Maracana (is it Flamenco?) would still be about 3.3 greater than Arsenal by that calculation And while Arsenal has a nice team, I don't think there's anything unreal about it and winning the pemiership once every 5 years is not exactly a world-beating record. The only true world-class thing Arsenal has going for it is Fever Pitch, and well, that was more of a present by Hornby, so they didn't really earn it...
red star belgrade. awww man i cant belive you just dissed my team. o well. ever since yugoslavia split up our soccer has sucked. but before that do you remember how far red star got? it was like, champions league finals i think.
red star belgrade. awww man i cant belive you just dissed my team. o well. ever since yugoslavia split up our soccer has sucked. but before that do you remember how far red star got? it was like, champions league finals i think No, I was talking about the Maracana in Rio. The one with a capacity of 200,000 fans. And yes Red Star was great. They were in the "CL finals" before the CL existed (no group stage at the time). Somewhere I read that Red Star had an average of only 4,000 fans per game last season, and half of that average came from the game against Partizan. That must suck for such a storied club like red star. Btw, Bayern Munich played in Belgrade last week, against Partizan in a CL qualifier (first leg, Bayern won 3-0 iirc). Unfortunately, the fans were quite a disgrace. They constantly threw stuff (mostly coins) on the pitch and actually hit Kahn and the assistant ref with coins.
Doubling the capacity of your stadium means more money. More money means leveling the playing field as far as transfers with clubs like Real and ManU. Compare Wenger's transfer record with ANY other managers and it is awesome for the money he dishes out and the money he gets back, and the players he gets. More money will only multiply that advantage. Actually its two Doubles in the last five years. The Premiership is one of the best leagues in the world, so it certainly counts for something. And as I pointed out neither Real nor Bayern won their own leagues last year. In fact, did Bayern win ANYTHING last year?
How could this soccer thread go this far with no one pointing out that there are no pick n rolls in soccer? I'm disappointed in you soccer experts. Picks in basketball ("blocking") were illegal in BBall until the '30s. And what we consider the modern pick was called illegal until the mid '60s. Only when the NCAA officiating finally agreed to a uniform definition did modern picking begin, and that is when Bobby Knight exploited the new definition and devised his Passing Game. Soccer has many similarities, but I'd compare it to Hockey and Ultimate Frisbee before BBall, based on the picking rule.
