Who are ya? (The new football thread)

Real Madrid has signed a seven-year-old soccer prospect from Argentina, who also happens to go by the name Leo, just like his idol Lionel Messi.

Leonel Angel Coira signed with the Spanish club and will begin training on Sept. 6, Madrid spokesman Juan Tapiador told The Associated Press on Monday.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2011/08/08/sp-coira-realmadrid-contract.html#ixzz1USgdXDWE

Robbie Keane to L.A. Galaxy? I suppose that's where EPL stars go to die now. Will Keano finally be able to score against such heavyweights as Toronto FC?

Also: Cesc Fábregas has finally completed his move to Barcelona. And Samir Nasri looks set to move to Manchester City. Poor Arsène. No one wants to play for Arsenal anymore.

Wow, That is way better than the Jesse Owens story (no slight to him). 

I'll make a point of passing that on. THanks!

Owen Hargreaves, whose offer to play for free at Manchester United this season in an effort to prove he's finally fit was reluctantly refused, just signed a one-year contract at Man City. It's a gamble worth taking, but how many midfielders do City need?

Yes, well that makes one of us. Sitting last in the table wouldn't matter a fig if we didn't lose to Hearts last week at Gorgie Road. Ouch.

As for the 'Caps. there's always next year...

The game they reported on yesterday had no incidents of bad behaviour by the fans.

P.S. The EPL standings aren't looking quite so reosy to me these days, Catchfire.

I'd love to see them do that in the UK.  

Les's cousin Anton (and brother of Man Utd's Rio Ferdinand) was allegedly assaulted with a racial slur by no one less than John Terry, English National Captain and general classless person. The slur was caught on video (no sound) but Terry claims he was just repeating it because he was explaining to Ferdinand that he hadn't originally used it (!). This in spite of the fact that Anton had made no accusation (he plays for newly promoted QPR compared to Terry's Chelsea), which came from elsewhere and was entered into the referee's match report. So why would Anton accuse Terry of using it in the pitch, necessitating an explanation, and then remain quiet about it after the game?

This is all in the wake of Patrice Ezra of Man Utd accusing Luis Suarez of using a racial epithet several times over the course of the Northern Derby. Suarez adamantly and unequivocally denies the accusation.

The Guardian

WTTF

Hi Unionist, thanks for the welcome - and kudos for recognising what YNWA means!

And yes, unfortunately, footie has become casino capitalism with a ball attached. I could go on for hours about it, and I probably will...but will keep this one short.

Great stuff, M. Spector. I was lucky enought to see "Digger" Barnes play at Anfield a few times.  He was one of the greats and represented a huge kick in the arse to the racists that were so prevalent at the time.

One of the first books I read on the history of the game (can't remember the title - this was thirty-odd years ago) had an excellent section on the influence of socialism in the Soviet bloc countries - notably the "Mighty Magyars" - Hungary's brilliant team of the 1950s. Wish I still had that book.

I also remember watching Liverpool play Soviet teams such as Dinamo Tblisi during the seventies - they always got huge respect from the Anfield faithful.

Thanks, Caissa. I'll be reading that one.

It didn't take Christine Sinclair long to make her presence felt at the CONCACAF women's Olympic qualifying tournament.

Sinclair scored four goals and assisted on another as Canada opened the North American, Central American and Caribbean zone tournament with a 6-0 win over Haiti on Thursday night.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2012/01/20/sp-canada-haiti.html

Can somebody explain to me why there is an apparent media conspiracy to mispronounce "Costa Rica" as "Coas-ta Rica"?

Oh, and the really important news from last night is that Canada is now only a win away (against Mexico on Friday) from qualifying for the London Olympics.

Speaking of Cooba:

Two players were missing from Cuba's lineup for its game against Haiti at the CONCACAF Olympic women's soccer qualifying tournament Monday in Vancouver.

No immediate reason was given for the absences of forward Yezenia Gallardo, 21, and midfielder Yisel Rodriguez, 22.

Media reports suggested the players may have defected, something CONCACAF wasn't immediately prepared to confirm.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2012/01/23/sp-cuban-players-concac...

We'll see how we do. Feels like Maple Laffs, if we lose a big joke. These women played really hard and I'm very impressed.

People get suspended around here for calling women girls.

Were you pwd last night, RP? You seem to have disrupted a few threads with running consecutive posts.

PWD = Posting While Drunk; BWD = Babbling while drunk

No disrespect intended M. Spector but thanks for calling me on it. I call the men's team boys if that's any consolation. I've edited my post. I real am very impressed by the Women's National team and am very much looking forward to their semi-final match.

Apologies to everyone for disrupting the thread. Disrupting in the conventional norm that is. I'm just not a conformist. :( There is much that could be constituted spamming on babble but due to it's conformist discourse is not labelled as so.

And no, I wasn't drunk. I was manic. If you don't understand it, you should be relieved.

I will do my best Catchfire. Apologies again.

London Calling!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3DNfCaPv_0&feature=related

Pretty grim year's on order for the mighty Red Devils. And for Hibs for that matter.

The Mexico game was a little late on the East Coast. I watched the first half of the match against the US. Canada was fortunate to lose only 4-0.

England captain John Terry will stand trial after the European Championship over allegations he racially abused an opponent during a Premier League match, possibly clearing the way for him to play in the tournament.

England coach Fabio Capello has previously stressed that Terry is "innocent until proven guilty," meaning Terry could remain captain at the June 8-July 1 tournament.

The Chelsea defender is accused of shouting abusive comments at Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand during an October match. He did not attend Wednesday's first hearing into the case, where his legal team entered a plea of not guilty. The Westminster Magistrates' Court then set a trial date of July 9.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2012/02/01/sp-soccer-johnterry-tri...

FA could strip captaincy from Terry

Good riddance to bad rubbish, says I.

bekayne, that was awesome. Anfield Cat=legend (and a better instinct in the 6-yard box than Andy Carroll. Snap!)

Fabio Capello resigns over John Terry affair; 'Arry Redknapp favourite to replace

Ha ha ha ha

Now there's a song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpOdLIHsUSM

Poor Mick. He's a good coach. I don't know what makes Wolves think they'll find a better one -- it always seems to be the way with managers. One of Wolves's rivals will just pick up McCarthy in a few months and he'll have a crack at revenge. Not far off from Ancelotti--it cost Chelsea some 38-million pounds to fire him (a year after he won the domestic double!)--only to hire the new phenom who has them scrambling out of a Euro league position.

Menawhile, Suarez, who never denied using a racial slur against ManUtd's Patrice Evra--just that in Uruguay you can use racist language and it's not offensive--decided not to shake Evra's hand in their Saturday's match. "He could have started a riot," said Sir Alex Ferguson. "He should never play for Liverpool again." It sure was dumb--almost as dumb as Kenny Daglish's strained defence of the classless move after the match.

Oh, and apparently Carlos Teves and Man City's coach Roberto Mancini are set to make peace. Well that's nice.

ARRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

ETA: It is time to challenge the 10 point rule in the courts.

Football must be popular on Babble - at the end of many threads there's a plug for the CFL.

Christine Sinclair scored the 131st international goal of her career and Robyn Gayle added an injury-time goal Thursday to give Canada's women's soccer team a 2-1 victory over Italy at the Cyprus Cup.

Sinclair latched onto a long ball from Shannon Woeller in the 43rd minute, chipping it past Italy's goalkeeper. The Canadian captain is now alone in third on the all-time international scoring list, moving past American Kristine Lilly with her 11th goal of the season.

Gayle found the top corner in the dying seconds to give seventh-ranked Canada its second-straight win of the tournament.

One minute a fan was hurling a beer can down on David Beckham, the next minute the world-famous footballer was parlaying his anger into a goal for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Landon Donovan scored off Beckham's corner kick in the 89th minute to lift the Galaxy into a 2-2 draw with Toronto FC in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday.

That is quite a shock, considering how feeble Canada looked against El Salvador in the 0-0 draw on Thursday.

In other news, Christine Sinclair scored both goals for Canada in a 2-1 victory over Brazil in a women's soccer friendly Saturday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.  Highlights video

The only consolation is that the US won't be going. El Salvador scored the tying goal in the 95th minute on an amazing goalkeeper blunder.

Heart of Midlothian beat Celtic 2-1 on a dubious, late penalty in the other Scottish Cup semi-final. It's a capital affair for the final. A Cabbage and Jam Tart Derby.

Come on you Hibs!

It was only a matter of time before that team managed to sneak at least one league title away from Barcelona. Mourinho has a good record, but I wouldn't count this as one of his greatest challenges. Especially if, as I expect, Bayern Munich progress to the CL final over Franco's team.

Jonathan Wilson asked yesterday if any of Pep Guardiola's signings actually improved Barcelona. Certainly his tactics did, but if you have a team that perfect, how can you introduce another player into it?

Manchester City FC are champions of England. When they gave Sir Alex Ferguson the worst bollocking of his career, beating Manchester United at Old Trafford 6-1 in October (United's first loss of the season), it looked like they would waltz to their first top league title since 1968. But their early season form started to flag while Sir Alex's Red Devils (who had called Paul Scholes out of retirement) calmly, like champions, racked up a series of wins from January to March. City's league lead, which had seemed unattainable, gradually bled away until United led by a seemingly unsurmountable 8 point lead with six games to play.

Even with the second Manchester Derby coming up, United had a much easier schedule and it didn't seem possible for United to relinquish their advantage, not after their relentless, merciless play since January. Cue their collapse: a loss to relegation-threatened Wigan, giving up a 4-2 lead to Everton to draw 4-4. Then the second Derby, when a buoyant City won 1-0, handing the advantage back to City with goal advantage.

And then the most ridiculous final day in living memory. For United to win the league, with goal difference out of reach, they need to better City's result. Both City and United score early, which seemed to settle the result. But City's opponent, QPR, themselves fighting relegation, equalized, incredibly. When QPR captain Joey Barton (who has done jail time for assault) was red carded for elbowing Carlos Tevez, it seemed inevitable that City would score again. But, again incredibly, it was QPR who scored again. United saw out their 1-0 lead, and seemd poised to take the title one more time.

Cue more unbelievable scenes: Eddie Dzeko heads in from a corner at 91 mins, and City player of the season, Sergio Agüero, at the death, took a touch from Mario Balotelli, danced around a QPR sliding tackle and slotted it into the corner. Pandemonium. Pitch invasion. The title, finally. Vincent Kompany, Man City captain: "Please, please. Never again like this."

I bet Liam and Noel Gallagher are pleased as punch right now.

Okay, I know zero about football, but I was watching a match on Saturday between Manchester U and Sun Somethingorother, and this guy on the Sun team goes down, looking for all the world like he's in total call-911-agony, limps off the field.  Not ten minutes later he's back on, no sign of injury.

What's with the extreme faking?  I've seen this a lot in pro sports, but when it comes to football, it's Academy Award performances.  Please, someone explain this to me.

ETA: I played soccer in school, and stood on the sidelines watching my daughter play.  That's about it for my footie knowledge.

While I may be biased (although I wasn't too broke up about the title, to be honest) and I really like Vincent Kompany and Sergio Agüero, I think any day a team wins the title simply because they bought every good player available and more (they were paying Wayne Bridge £100 000 a week to sit on Sunderland's bench) is a bad day for football. Even if it was the most exciting final day in ages, maybe ever.

Yeah, obviously this diving stigma is something that gets attached to football whenever it's discussed in North American contexts. My first answer would be that I just don't think it's as wide-spread as many would-be commentators say it is. They hear the reputation, see a dive, and that confirms their prejudice. As a point of comparison, I'd hate to think what first-time hockey spectators would think if they watched Mike Ribeiro or Maxime LaPierre play.

Second, we tend to apply moral value to the culture of the sports we like. For example, most soccer players would be aghast at the "finishing your check" ethos of hockey, which looks to them as an excuse for slower players to hurt more skilled players on purpose. Every single one of those checks would be rewarded with a yellow card on a football pitch. Going down when you're fouled in soccer, even easily, is just part of the game. It doesn't have a moral connotation. This is especially true in footballing cultures like Spain or Brazil which prize skill more than brute force. If you've fouled someone, it means you're too slow. I find it interesting that Don Cherry (the high priest of the Canadian good ol' boys hockey religion) always accuses 'Europeans" of cheating and diving, who also tend to prize skating and hand skills over the rough stuff.

Third, getting tackled hurts. Aside from shin pads, there's no equipment and central defenders are hard men. Getting spiked on your achilles, having someone tackle through the ball while you're running full tilt, or knocking heads is painful, and walking it off is the only way to recover.

There are other strategic things too that may not be considered strictly sportsmanlike, but occur in every sport--time wasting, getting your breath back, irritating your opponent, whatever. It's not the brightest part of the game, but I don't think it warrants the ire usually afforded it by North American sports fans. For example, the best player in the world, Lionel Messi, probably gets kicked in the ankles more than any other player and you can't get him to go down with anything less than a tire iron to the kneecaps.

The worst man in football, John Terry, has been selected for England's Euro 2012 squad, despite facing a hearing next month for allegedly racially abusing Anton Ferdinand (see above). Anton's brother, Rio Ferdinand, who used to partner Terry in defence, was not selected--for "footballing reasons" according to the new England manager, Roy Hodgson. But of course everyone is speculating that Hodgson couldn't have selected both, since they have an irreperable relationship after Terry abused Rio's brother (and hasn't apologized or even admitted it). He could have (and should have) not selected either of them.

This coming off the fact that Terry almost jeopardized Chelsea's Champions League hopes by stomping on a Barcelona player, unprovoked. He was red carded and will miss the final (see also above). Terry also cheated on his wife with the long-term partner of former Chelsea teammate, Wayne Bridge, and then allegedly mocked him for being a cuckold. All-round class act, that Terry.

John Terry is a disgrace to football and it's a disgrace to pick him for England's squad.

Thanks for the context Catchfire.  I'm completely ignorant about pro football.  Then again, I understand the rate of injury -- when I played soccer in school I had an array of bruises (most of them from the knees down) for the entire season.  Adolescent girls are ruthless in organized sport!l

Dirty, cheating jambos.

Bayern had 3 chances to win. Up late in regulation, a penalty in extra time and the lead in penalty shots right from the start with Chelsea missing their first. They mus feel snakebitten.