Football Thre... Errm... Soccer Thread

Well, Valencia isn't exactly Boro... I don't know, i don't feel very confident, i know they ain't going through the best of forms but we're at the worst of the last two years... It's gonna be 2-1 Barca.

Juve just proved that they are a very respectfull alfet(spell?) endeed... I watched a bit of their game against Inter, they had chances to equalize near the end with the old timers, but throughout the game, Juve was far superior. Del Piero is back, i tell ya, watch him in the World Cup...

 

David Villa is amazing. Watch out for him in the world cup. As for Juve they are on fire. Vieira has contributed loads to the team.

 

Yeah, i bet Wenger is still licking his wounds from head butting the wall for letting him go... What a player!

 

His last season with us wasn't his best. Im still annoyed he went though as he helped us so much.

 

OK, Let see, how can I put this without sounding like I'm taking sides, I'm of Ukranian American decent, where I lived back in Philadelphia, Pa. USA in the 50's and 60's all us mostly also UA we played soccer before we could walk, having UA fathers it was them that instilled the game into us, from novice to pewe to juniors league we dominated every year with a state championship, we than all went to the same high school, were we also dominated un-defeated and un-tied, after high school we went to the majors, that's one step before pro here, several of us had the God givin talent to become pro when we were 16 yrs. old and joined the Ukranian National soccer team here in Philadelphia.
We also were fortunate enough to win the US championship all 3 years that I played, all 3 years we wound up playing against the Armanian American soccer club from Los Angelas California, it was a great time.
But I will tell you about our 3 most memorable games of our young carriers, our second year as pro's we were visited by your Manchester pro team, we tied 1-1, our 3rd year we were visited by Newcastle, we won 1-0, a German team also came, I forget what they were called, I know they came from Frankford, we lost 1-0, my father use to house players in our home that came from differnt country's, some came here to find jobs, some for education, I became close to all of them, but my best friend who's name was Lawrence Oliver, he came from Newcastle, he lived in our home for 2 years, my Dad brought him from England and we played together, he was so excited when his home team came here and is was like a dream to play against them, what shocked me was that they ruffed him up so badly every chance they got, but he never showed any fear or pain, after that game I was at least glad that they did congradulate him after the game, they knew they punished him but he showed them he had spunk and I think they respected that, it was a big thing for him because back home during try outs Newcastle turned him down, he left us after the 3rd year and I'm sorry to say we never kept in touch, we moved to another house and I think he moved somewhere else in England so we lost touch, what I would'nt do to locate him again, it was a big mistake in my part, in the late 60's I went to England I had family there, my Uncle from Peterborough, he took me everywhere, plus many soccer games, I was so fascinated, the stadiums were huge, so many people, you see in America the most people that ever came to see us was a maximun of maybe 3 thousand people, so to me it was a big deal, and the sad part of our whole ordeal was that we were never regonized here in our own country, nobody really cared.
Anyway my 3rd year I tore up my knee and was never the same again, knee surgery was not as advanced as it is today, besides nobody here could not have afforded that kind of surgery anyway.
I went to Vietnam after that and when I came back because I could'nt play anymore my heart was not into soccer anymore, I could'nt even watch it, local games I mean, you never saw soccer games on tv back than, even the world cup games, the only way you got to watch them was if somebody brought film from Europe and we watched it from reel to screen, of course it's different now, I was born like 40 years to early.
That's when my love shifted from soccer to American football, to watch not play of course, and stayed the course ever since, my Dad always ribbed me saying how can you watch that crap, that's because he never took time to understand it, but no matter, he was my Dad.
Now to answer your question about rugby which I only played maybe 2 times here just for fun and once I played in England when my Uncle let me play in a neighboorhood in Peterborough, wow, was it ruff, and I was never big, but I can tell you this, you can not compare American football to soccer or rugby, don't forget, football players here are huge, and the hits are a lot different than soccer or rugby, I know it might not be easy to beleive unless you tried it, I never had any fear playing soccer or rugby, but believe me when I tell you, I would never play a football game without football gear, never, as a matter of fact I would'nt play football with gear, you have to be a totally different animal plus big of course, and when I say big, I mean really big, when you people see these guys on tv you have no idea how big they really are, and if these guys played without gear you would have half the team in the hospital during every game, and I am not making lite of this issue, I have experinced both worlds, love all 3 games, I think the best way I can explian this is if your rugby players played a game of rugby against an American football team, without gear of course, we all know as far as the finall score would go your guys would beat the pants of of us, but the downside would be your rugby players, half of them would be in a hospital, our football players would not hold back because no gear was worn, 50 years ago you people might not know, our players hardly wore any gear at all, there was no helmets, just a leather cap, shoulder pads was just a pieace of rubber, to many people wound up in hospitals or almost killed, and if your rugby players decided to play some American football, beleive me after a couple of games they would very fast vote in for playing with gear.
So to end it, beleive me, I admire and respect your rugby and soccer, but please try to understand what I had explained, I've experinced both worlds, sorry if this was to lenghtly, but it's the only way I could fully explain.
And by the way, when I was in England, I loved it, the people were great, the pubs were the best, I'll never forget my first lime and lougher, I hope I spelled that right, lol, and the green grass, wow, it was spell binding, and how every street was so clean and the parks immaculate, and I got a big kick from your mods and rockers, this was all in the 60's of course, plus I will be visiting my Uncle again, he's in his 80's now, so this summer I will be coming again, I just hope it's still the same England when I first saw it. Cheerio mates.

 

@ FredBun
Have you heard of Andrei Shevchenko?

 

@Fred

LOL Of course i know yank footy is rough... That was just a joke! You can't compare it to football, ops, soccer! LOL

Yeah, ever heard of Andrei Shevchenko, the best striker in the world?

 

Isn't it strange how some countries only produce one decent player but that player ends up being world class. e.g. Stoitchkov and Bulgaria

 

Yeah... I know... Do you remember Chapuisat from Switzerland?

 

Yeah he played for Borussia Dortmund in their 1996/1997 Champions League winning season.

 

Liverpool v Arsenal tonight. I reckon it will be a draw.

 

Weazel,
That game can end up anything. I hope we win so the big "catch up" can begin. Otherwise our chances for a champions league spot for next season..., I don't even want to think about it.

 

We need to win this game. But there's a difference between wanting and needing.

 

Well that's 4th place gone and our 9th defeat of the season.

 

well that'll make it harder for us to get into europe next year. who'd of thought this year we would be soooo bad. not gonna blame it on viera going but if arsenal dont get into champions league we'll be in a new stadia next season without henry... thats if he doesnt go anyway

 

Well, we are done for the season
Contrary to what everybody else thinks about Viera beiing the factor for the bad season, I blame it on the long list of injured players we had to deal with. IMO Ashley Cole was missed maybe even more than any other player in the squad.

 

Yeah missing Cole has contributed and Clichy being injured doesn't help either. I'm looking forward to the Madrid game.

 

Weazel,
At this moment I'm not really fond of that game Maybe because I don't like Real, Atletico fan here, and they just played and awsome game against Zaragoza, and we just not doiing good lately.

Lethal,
I know of that site, but I'm not realy into football websites, I watch the games The only site I visit is
http://home.skysports.com/football/

 

same here dr_no. soccernet.com is also another good footie site.