The football thread!

Man Utd 4 points clear at the top of the table but hearing the news of that Muamba guy was shocking, he had a heart attack at his age? I've heard he plays for the under 21's and other stories saying he's 23, not sure which it is but if he's 23 he's pretty much a year and a half older than me, i couldn't imagine how scary that must have been for the poor guy :/
 
http://www.bwfc.co.uk/page/FirstTeamPro ... 40,00.html

Bolton Wanderers' own site list his date of birth as 06/04/1988 making him 24 this April (Wikipedia lists the same details as well).

Hope we hear more good news about him today.

As for Under 21 rules, Wikipedia says that players have to be 21 or under at the start of a tournament, so by the end of it some may be 23 years old,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Europ ... ampionship

The age limit was reduced to 21 for the 1978 championship and it has remained so since. To be eligible for the campaign ending in 2011, players need to be born in or after 1988. Many can be actually 23 years old by the time the finals tournament takes place; however, when the qualification process began (late 2009) all players would have been 21 or under.
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http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/8 ... ns-victory

On a side note it wa a good day/bad day for Kilmarnock yesterday. They won the Scottish League Cup for the first time in their history after beating Celtic 1-0 (and stopping Celtic's treble hopes) but the victory was marred win the news that Liam Kelly’s father died of a heart attack after watching the match.


After a such a weekend at least Liverpool won in the FA Cup. Depending on replays/rescheduled matches there could be a Mersey semi-final as well as a London semi-final.
 
A mouth-watering clash between West Ham and Reading later today. Who wins that will be going up automatically, even with a few games afterwards it really is that crucial.

I see West Ham winning :(
 
Max Takeshi said:
A mouth-watering clash between West Ham and Reading later today. Who wins that will be going up automatically, even with a few games afterwards it really is that crucial.

I see West Ham winning :(
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Same! I've got a bit of hope though. With their fans starting to have a go at Big Sam and our recent form I'm hoping that will give us a bit of momentum. That and a certain Mr Kebe and his socks...

Bitterly disapointed that I can't go today. Had the opportunity but really can't get the time. Such a shame. Will be going back to the old fashioned method of listening via the radio!
 
Max Takeshi said:
MercenaryRaiden said:
Bitterly disapointed that I can't go today.
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And now you must feel REALLY gutted :wink:

What a game!
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Hahaha yes! It was rather tense listening to it all come in though, especially after they scored their first, but what a result! The West Ham fans reactions were also akin to something similar to the end of the world. Amazed that they're giving Big Sam so much flak to be honest!

And then Blackpool did us a HUGE favour! I don't think today could have gone any more perfectly. Leeds on good friday is going to be very interesting, although it always is when Warnock comes to town...
 
MercenaryRaiden said:
Hahaha yes! It was rather tense listening to it all come in though, especially after they scored their first, but what a result! The West Ham fans reactions were also akin to something similar to the end of the world. Amazed that they're giving Big Sam so much flak to be honest!

And then Blackpool did us a HUGE favour! I don't think today could have gone any more perfectly. Leeds on good friday is going to be very interesting, although it always is when Warnock comes to town...
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Expectation plays a big part with West Ham. Gotta be in the Prem if they're to adopt the Olympic Stadium after all!

But yes, it sounded like a war at times; and a fifth disallowed :evil:

I'll be at the Leeds game with my buddy... right next to the Leeds fans :(
 
Mutsumi said:
When something is referred to as being "on aggregate", what does it mean?
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The match is played over 2 legs (home & away). The winner over the 2 legs wins 'on aggregate'. An example for instance,

1st leg: Team A 2 - 0 Team B
2nd leg: Team B 2 - 1 Team A

The 'aggregate' score here is 3-2 with Team A being the winner.

Knock out rounds played in Europe and some rounds on the English league cup are examples.
 
Max Takeshi said:
I'll be at the Leeds game with my buddy... right next to the Leeds fans :(
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I would be exceptionally interested into what they had to say about a few decisions during that. What a bunch of thugs! How the first half ended with them only on ten men I'll never know.

As part of my illness lately I was told that I need to relax and not stress out. That was NOT the game to do that! I think that the most frustraiting game I've been too since we were in the premiership. But what a result and I'm going to enjoy being top of the league for as long it lasts :)
 
MercenaryRaiden said:
Max Takeshi said:
I'll be at the Leeds game with my buddy... right next to the Leeds fans :(
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I would be exceptionally interested into what they had to say about a few decisions during that. What a bunch of thugs! How the first half ended with them only on ten men I'll never know.

As part of my illness lately I was told that I need to relax and not stress out. That was NOT the game to do that! I think that the most frustraiting game I've been too since we were in the premiership. But what a result and I'm going to enjoy being top of the league for as long it lasts :)
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Aye, sadly I think that will be tomorrow :(

The Leeds fans were actually okay. Some profane banter, but there was a lot of humor in their chants. Back and forth play with the others around us. Best one? The Leeds fans kept chanting: 'Dirty Leeds.' :lol:

But yes, some serious foul play there, a rhythm just couldn't be found. And Warnock had the cheek to say Reading were playing dirty!

'Are you watching Southampton?' ended the Reading supporters chants as the game ended.

An experience, oh most certainly. Hope you get better soon, Raiden.
 
Chelsea fan coming in peace here!

I'm having mixed feelings about this season, I don't like the instability caused by Roman Abramovich's chopping and changing of managers. I thought Ancelotti should have been kept on and I thought AVB might have been given more of a chance. But Robbie Di Matteo has clearly made a difference and the mid season meltdown showed that there really was something off with AVB's approach to handling the dressing room.

Having said that, I have to admit we were bloody lucky yesterday. Ivanovic really was way offside for the goal, even I have to admit the officials ballsed that one up! Still a win's a win, all I can do is hope that the others drop points so we can sneak into 4th, but I'll be happy with 5th considering the season, next season can be used to rebuild. Of course there's always the off-chance that we could win the Champs League but I highly doubt that :p Still I'd like nothing more than to knock Barcelona off their high horse and get some payback!

When it comes to the title I'm of the "Anyone but Man United" brigade, so I'm hoping that City win today...which will also stop Arsenal from opening up the gap between us ;) I also hope that one day, AFC Wimbledon will get promoted into the same league as MK Dons just for the fireworks any fixtures will have!
 
Ath said:
Chelsea fan coming in peace here!

Having said that, I have to admit we were bloody lucky yesterday. Ivanovic really was way offside for the goal, even I have to admit the officials ballsed that one up! Still a win's a win, all I can do is hope that the others drop points so we can sneak into 4th, but I'll be happy with 5th considering the season, next season can be used to rebuild. Of course there's always the off-chance that we could win the Champs League but I highly doubt that :p Still I'd like nothing more than to knock Barcelona off their high horse and get some payback!

When it comes to the title I'm of the "Anyone but Man United" brigade, so I'm hoping that City win today...which will also stop Arsenal from opening up the gap between us ;) I also hope that one day, AFC Wimbledon will get promoted into the same league as MK Dons just for the fireworks any fixtures will have!
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Chelsea were very lucky yesterday. I watched Match of the Day and it showed that not only the first goal but the winner was offside as well.

The fact that Man Utd's first goal today was a penalty which resulted in a red card for QPR when the Man Utd player was offside shows that the standard of officals is as poor in the Premier League as it is in the lower leagues. I watched the Reading vs Leeds match the other day on TV and Leeds could (and should) have had 3 players sent off as opposed to the 1 player that did get a red card (the worst challenge was by Danny Pugh).

As for the "anyone but Man Utd" brigade I'm also hoping that Man City pull off a miracle and deny Man Utd another title (although I think it's getting beyond them as City have the worse fixture run-in and currently even winning the local derby will not be enough).
 
Max Takeshi said:
But yes, some serious foul play there, a rhythm just couldn't be found. And Warnock had the cheek to say Reading were playing dirty!
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I'll say. Jem has a broken ankle and is now out for the season, which could end up being a huge blow for us. Still, I feel our season is going to be defined by this week. Brighton and Southampton away. Not just against rivals at the top, but pretty much what we could call local derbys...

I have no patience for Warnock. He is a foul man who always seems to play disgustingly. I can't remember a time when he brought a team here that didn't have a sending off...

mangaman74 said:
The fact that Man Utd's first goal today was a penalty which resulted in a red card for QPR when the Man Utd player was offside shows that the standard of officals is as poor in the Premier League as it is in the lower leagues. I watched the Reading vs Leeds match the other day on TV and Leeds could (and should) have had 3 players sent off as opposed to the 1 player that did get a red card (the worst challenge was by Danny Pugh).
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I think this week specifically has really shown off the level of ineptness of officials, although this could be because my club were in the middle of it. I don't want to quickly blame the refs though, because whilst shocking I've noticed far more time and time again that the linesmen are actually more at fault. Not for actually calling wrong offside decisions, but because they don't have the spines to actually MAKE decisions. Far too often I see them wait for the referees decision before raising their flags. I think Ref's need some protection yes, but I feel that they vastly need more help from their other officials because linesmen do such a poor job at the moment.
 
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