UEFA Champions League 2010/11

[WireMan]

Good laugh at the Higuin 'goal'. Another strike for a ref in a Barca game. Still there were enough calls the other way, and Real didn't look like they wanted to win the game so i'd say the best team went through. The fact that they are all cheats is a shame.

Still there ugly brand of football can go up against the Beauty of a United attack (thats what you meant yeah penny? ) and it will be an interesing game.


United have got zero credit anywhere for making the final. We beat the champions of France and England to get there, and Shalke mullered the current holders in a previous round as well as knocking out Spains third team so they were no mugs. Not really any byes there.


3 finals in 4 seasons. Bring it on!

 

[pennywisealfie]

trollolol

 

[pennywisealfie]

cant wait for the final tbh, wanna go to a bar for the game but then again since we are in oz, it will be filled with man u fans. wish brisbane had a spanish club that was centrally located like sydney.

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

The Spanish club is a dump, Spanish Tapas on Glebe pt road is where it's at.

 

[Tommy Smith]

lol are you serious? Mascherano goes down immediately after contact but anyway Ronaldo ran straight in to Pique looking for the foul. Ronaldo wasn't even trying to pass the ball he had nothing on his mind but taking contact, going down and getting a free kick in a good position.

I love the EPL fans are jumping on the Barca cheat bandwagon.

And that's one area where Messi is miles ahead of Ronaldo.

Whereas Ronaldo doesn't have the ability to dribble past multiple defenders - hence why he always looks to go down - Messi can get bumped and hacked to shreds but does his best to stay on his feet 90% of the time.

And that's because he knows he's good enough to beat two or three defenders and score. Case in point when he got hacked by Diarra for about the 5th time...Ronaldo would have gone down for certain but Messi managed to stay on his feet and continue his run.

 

[Ridders]

So if I walk up to a player from the other team and push him into someone from my team, he has commited a foul too by hitting my player?

Imo you'd be penalised for causing the initial foul.

I just don't see how play-on is a possibility from that incident. Either you penalise Pique for fouling Ronaldo or (if you believe that there was no foul by Pique) you penalise Ronaldo for fouling Mascherano.

 

[Ridders]

And that's one area where Messi is miles ahead of Ronaldo.

Whereas Ronaldo doesn't have the ability to dribble past multiple defenders - hence why he always looks to go down - Messi can get bumped and hacked to shreds but does his best to stay on his feet 90% of the time.

And that's because he knows he's good enough to beat two or three defenders and score. Case in point when he got hacked by Diarra for about the 5th time...Ronaldo would have gone down for certain but Messi managed to stay on his feet and continue his run.

Am I crazy in thinking that that hasn't always been the case?

I remember back when Ronaldo first came onto the scene that he was incredibly light-footed and could run rings around defenders.

In recent years though I agree.

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

And that's one area where Messi is miles ahead of Ronaldo.

Whereas Ronaldo doesn't have the ability to dribble past multiple defenders - hence why he always looks to go down - Messi can get bumped and hacked to shreds but does his best to stay on his feet 90% of the time.

And that's because he knows he's good enough to beat two or three defenders and score. Case in point when he got hacked by Diarra for about the 5th time...Ronaldo would have gone down for certain but Messi managed to stay on his feet and continue his run.

Agreed. Ronaldo beats a lot of players on the outside or in open space through sheer place but rarely gets between the defence like Messi does. If Ronaldo wasn't as good at taking free kicks I dare say he wouldn't go down as much in good areas.

 

[Tommy Smith]

Yep, and that's what makes Messi, and Maradona before him so amazing (George Best, the real Ronaldo circa his Barca season too).

They have that astonishing and most rare of all football qualities, which is to dribble past countless defenders directly towards goal. Whereas Ronaldo like you said will almost always find himself being pushed wide with his run coming to a halt and ending in either a dive or a few step overs.

Dont get me wrong, Ronaldo is still an amazing player. And along with Xavi and Iniesta is clearly the next best in the world after daylight (who is behind Messi).

And ive always viewed Ronaldo that way, Ridders. But over the last 4 or 5 years he's had much more of an end product on the end of his runs. We never see it against Barca because he's invariably one of only two players on a counter attacking move; but when he has a few options available to him and is running at defenders (which puts the defender in two minds) he's absolutely lethal.

But yeah, not even close to Messi IMO.

 

[pennywisealfie]

The Spanish club is a dump, Spanish Tapas on Glebe pt road is where it's at.

daaaaamn when i lived on Glebe pt rd for a month, I never went there nice area tho.

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

Sif! Awesome place dude, great food at a reasonable price and the sangria keeps on coming. Flamenco dancing with the girls there tops it off.

Yep, and that's what makes Messi, and Maradona before him so amazing (George Best, the real Ronaldo circa his Barca season too).

They have that astonishing and most rare of all football qualities, which is to dribble past countless defenders directly towards goal. Whereas Ronaldo like you said will almost always find himself being pushed wide with his run coming to a halt and ending in either a dive or a few step overs.

Dont get me wrong, Ronaldo is still an amazing player. And along with Xavi and Iniesta is clearly the next best in the world after daylight (who is behind Messi).

And ive always viewed Ronaldo that way, Ridders. But over the last 4 or 5 years he's had much more of an end product on the end of his runs. We never see it against Barca because he's invariably one of only two players on a counter attacking move; but when he has a few options available to him and is running at defenders (which puts the defender in two minds) he's absolutely lethal.

But yeah, not even close to Messi IMO.

Yep, good post but fmd the continual step overs kill me. Sometimes it is as though he intentionally runs down to the corner flag to do them.

 

[WireMan]

Yep, and that's what makes Messi, and Maradona before him so amazing (George Best, the real Ronaldo circa his Barca season too).

They have that astonishing and most rare of all football qualities, which is to dribble past countless defenders directly towards goal. Whereas Ronaldo like you said will almost always find himself being pushed wide with his run coming to a halt and ending in either a dive or a few step overs.

Dont get me wrong, Ronaldo is still an amazing player. And along with Xavi and Iniesta is clearly the next best in the world after daylight (who is behind Messi).

And ive always viewed Ronaldo that way, Ridders. But over the last 4 or 5 years he's had much more of an end product on the end of his runs. We never see it against Barca because he's invariably one of only two players on a counter attacking move; but when he has a few options available to him and is running at defenders (which puts the defender in two minds) he's absolutely lethal.

But yeah, not even close to Messi IMO.

Ronaldo when he started was a winger. He could get past players for fun. He often looked to take on one player to many hence his final product wasn't always the best. He still went round Spurs players for fun in the previous round so he still has the skill.

However he has really bulked up since then and become a more power based player. Where he lost his ability to take on players with a rapid change of pace or direction he gained an ability to score goals and be a much more direct player. In his major goal scoring season at OT he was the finisher to moves that Tevez and Rooney worked on. He was the right sided forward, not a winger. Doesn't sound like much, but it was a really big difference.

He is not a worse player, he is a different player. For every goal that Messi scores that Ronaldo couldn't, there is one Ronaldo has scored that Messi couldn't.


The goal should of stood, he was fouled by Pique after he had skinned him and that brought Masche down (well actually it was the sniper in the crowd). Play on or free kick to Real. Definately not a free kick to Barca.

 

[aqua_duck]

Ronaldo beats players with pace and acceleration, he use to beat players with fancy dribbles but I think his tricks and step overs have become less effective over time because coaches and opponents now know his moves, his tendencies and his strengths alot better than when be first came on to the scene.
Messi beats players with sharp acceleration, sublime close control and his quick feet, he's always one step ahead of the defender, he's also an amazing passer

 

[Mad Dogg]

While I think that there's barely any contact between Pique and Ronaldo, hypothetically let's say that Pique did foul Ronaldo and that caused Ronaldo to fall into Mascherano's legs. Shouldn't that just be called back for the foul by Pique. Isn't falling into someone's legs a foul? Why should the foul on Mascherano be ignored?

To be honest, I don't know what the rulings are here. The thing is that it's not a separate foul, as that would obviously be bought back. It's contact that is directly and immediately caused by being knocked over from a foul, so I'm tempted to say why shouldn't the advantage be played. The foul from Pique caused it, so too bad.

As I said, if it happened someone else on the field where it wasn't a direct goal-scoring opportunity, I'm almost certain the ref would wave play on. I tend to think that should carry over into this situation as well. I don't know what the correct ruling going by the rule book would be though.

 

[Mad Dogg]

Am I crazy in thinking that that hasn't always been the case?

I remember back when Ronaldo first came onto the scene that he was incredibly light-footed and could run rings around defenders.

In recent years though I agree.

Definitely.

Many Utd fans consider 06/07 to have been Ronaldo's best season. That was the first season where he became the best in the world (even if Kaka got the award :roll, and it was the season that sort of sits in between the two different parts of his career so far. Before that season he was a skilful dribbler with amazing tricks but quite inconsistent and little end-product. After that season he became the goal-scorer extraordinaire, setting records that would be held in amazement if it weren't for the little genius at Barca doing even better. But he's no longer the excitement machine who would skin players for fun.

But that 06/07 season he largely had the best of both worlds. He still had the fantastic dribbling and could destroy teams from deep, but he'd gotten the consistency and end-product and scored 23 goals which was considered an amazing amount for a winger at the time.

The only problem in 06/07 was that he he still had a tendency to sometimes struggle against the top teams. It wasn't until the following season where he scored 42 goals and led us to the CL title that he took that step up where he would often be the difference in the big games. That's why I hold 07/08 to be his best, although 06/07 was definitely the most fun to watch.

 

[Twizzle]

2 Portugal teams playing off in the Europa Final

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-new...rtuguese-final-with-porto-20110506-1eaq5.html

How long since we've seen a final with no EPL, Spanish, Italian or German teams in a European final

 

[anjado]

Zenit St Petersberg vs Rangers
Porto vs Monaco
Porto vs Celtic

Off the top of my head this past decade, So it isn't really so rare to be honest Champions League is pretty rare but there have been at least 2 finals in the uefa cup not involving teams from the big 4 leagues.

 

[Tommy Smith]

Point being none of the clubs from the major leagues particularly care about the Europa League.

It's like the Carling Cup - kind of pointless.

 

[Twizzle]

well just like the Carling Cup, you wont convince me that teams go out there to lose

how many teams have no hardware in the cabinet that would be happy to have a Europa Cup

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

Spurs would be one of them.