We were discussing that. If it was full of water or whatever and was pegged at you then it’d properly hurt I guess.
Yeah I presume if it was full with water it would fucking hurt if thrown from a height.
Down in the folks’ house in Wexico so it’s a bit of a fight to watch the Spanish football.
Very interesting so far. 1-1 at half time after Ronaldonho scored a header from a Zambrotta cross. Then a great bit of skill from the Brazilian where he flicked the ball around the Sevilla centre back and went clean through into the box before the guy hacked him down for a pen and a red card. Ronaldinho then had his pen saved by the keepers’ shins. It was a poor pen - the keeper dived to the right but the ball was struck down the middle and he saved with his legs.
Even 11 v 11 for the first half hour Barca were well on top but the sending off galvanised Sevilla and Kerzhakov scored a neat goal to get them level; a nice turn and shot but terrible defending from Marquez. They’re missing Luis Fabiano a lot though and Renato had to go off injured.
Surprised to see Barca leave Eto’o on the bench. They changed formations again, this time to a 3-4-3 and their team is:
Valdez;
Oleguer; Marquez; Puyol;
Zambrotta; Iniesta; Xavi; Van Bronckhorst;
Giuly; Ronaldinho; Messi;
Deco is suspended after his sending off at Valencia 2 weeks ago and it’s a great battle between Messi and Dani Alves down their side. Alves is an awesome footballer.
2-1 to Sevilla in the end. I get very emotional when I watch football played like that.
Incredible 2nd half performance by them. Missed a really good chance to go in front after awful defending by Puyol early in the half but then Dani Alves banged in a free kick. Initially I thought Valdes should have saved it as the ball went high up in the middle of the goal and he appeared to dive past it but on the replay it may have flicked off Xavi.
Immediately after that Giuly was given a straight red card for absolutely nothing. A truly awful and bizarre decision. Sevilla were well on top at this stage and things went even more in their favour when Zambrotta was given a yellow for hacking down Puerta before mouthing off at the ref to make that a red.
It was already an open, end to end game but with 10 v 9 this was taken to another extreme. Eto’o was brought on then with 20 minutes to go and Saviola was given a terrific reception by the Sevilla support when he was introduced having been excellent on loan for them last season.
For the last 20 minutes Sevilla tore Barca apart. Their fast, attacking, free-flowing football was a fooking joy to behold. In the last 5 minutes alone they actually missed 5 incredible chances. Kanoute missed 2 one on ones and and then an open goal after an amazing run by Puerta. Then Alves, the right back, missed a one on one and then hit the crossbar after going by a shit load of lads before playing one-two with Kanoute.
It’s clear as day the way to beat Barca is to take the game to them. Puyol and Marquez have both been shocking of late and were again tonight. Their football in the first 30 minutes was brilliant though and Pool will be asking for trouble if they play cautiously on Tuesday.
Getting back to Sevilla; they showed some fighting spirit and quality to come back with 10 men. They’re now 1 point ahead but crucially they didn’t get a few more goals that their dominance deserved. In Spain if teams are level at the end iof the season then the head-to-head record is used to separate them and Barca won 3-1 at the Camp Nou. It’ll be a cracking end to the season now though.
Finally, Dani Alves’ performance tonight was one of the best I’ve seen in years. If Telfer does retire then we should prepare a bid.
Quality stuff.
Bad result for Barca tonight - beaten 2-0 at Villareal while Sevilla beat Athletic 4-1 and Real Madrid beat Valencia last night.
Leaves the league table looking like:
Barcelona 59
Sevilla 58
Madrid 57
Zaragoza 53 (Good news for Celtic’s CL seeding that they’ve overtaken Valencia)
Seven games to go.
Barca were awful tonight. That was Robert Pires’ debut for Villarreal too after doing his cruciate in pre season. Down at the bottom Real Betis had 3 sent off in injury time tonight! One player for a tackle that gave away a penalty and two more for foul and abusive language.
Hristo Stoitchkov, the maverick manager
The Bulgarian doesn’t do tactics, falls out with players and rants at officials. So why have Celta Vigo put their future in his hands?
Jonathan Wilson
April 26, 2007 11:40 AM
The one thing you can say about Hristo Stoitchkov is that he is honest. Not for him the subtle evasions, the half-truths and lacunae of diplomacy. In his first press conference after being appointed as manager of Celta Vigo, he was unequivocal. “I do not watch opposition games on video and neither do my players,” he explained. “It is boring. I do not believe in tactics.”
In this world of ProZone and dossiers, of meticulous analysis and ever more complex diagrams in newspapers, that is a refreshingly different approach; whether it can be successful, though, is a different matter. Stoitchkov’s arrival at Celta Vigo a fortnight ago was sufficient to inspire them to a victory over Deportivo la Coruna - their first home win in six months - but the weekend brought familiar failings and a defeat to Real Zaragoza. Celta remain outside the relegation zone, but only on goal difference.
If the impact of his personality has worn off already, Celta could be in real trouble, for the suspicion in Bulgaria is that Stoitchkov has little to offer beyond his charisma. His declared disinterest in tactics is no self-deprecating ploy; in a World Cup qualifier at home to Malta, Stoitchkov had his Bulgaria side line up in a 2-4-4 formation. They fell behind, at which he rapidly reverted to an orthodox 4-4-2, which brought a 4-1 win.
A similarly inept performance against Slovenia last September was also rescued by substitutions, leading Stoitchkov to highlight the difference his changes had made. Well, yes, the Bulgarian press replied, but what were they doing getting into trouble in the first place? Maybe if he hadn’t started with Georgi Peev, short of match practice after drifting out of favour at Dynamo Kyiv, or with the 33-year-old naturalised Serb Zoran Jankovic, winding down his career in China, they could just have won the game without the drama.
Even when Stoitchkov was appointed, there were those who looked beyond the euphoria and the “second coming” clichs to ask whether assistant coaching roles at DC United and Barcelona were really grounding enough for international football. In retrospect, handing Stoitchkov the reins looks to have been a desperate ploy on the part of Ivan Slavkov - whose questionable dealings as a member of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee were exposed by the BBC’s Panorama programme - to cling to his position as president of the Bulgarian Football Union.
Slavkov went after Bulgaria’s failure to qualify for the World Cup, but Stoitchkov was given a second chance by the man who replaced him, Bobby Mihailov, who had played with Stoitchkov at the 1994 World Cup. The general perception was that the former Reading goalkeeper wasn’t strong enough to dismiss him, but he was concerned enough to appoint the former national coach Dimitar Dimitrov to work alongside Stoitchkov. Out went the nave attacking style that had brought two comprehensive defeats to Sweden and a 3-1 reverse against Croatia, and in came a modish 4-2-3-1 that brought draws against Romania and Holland.
Tactics, though, were only part of the problem; there was also the matter of Stoitchkov’s temperament. The feisty unpredictability that gave him a certain wild charm as a maverick forward is unbecoming in a manager. For one thing there were the bizarre and slightly embarrassing rants against match officials, and, in one celebrated case that brought a four-match touchline ban, against the Uefa president Lennart Johansson; for another, there was his inability to get on with anybody.
The goalkeeper Zdravko Zdravkov, the centre-back Ilian Stoyanov and the Aston Villa midfielder Stilian Petrov all retired from international football following disagreements with Stoitchkov. Petrov has since returned, but he appears a diminished force - although, as Villa fans will attest, that is not necessarily a reaction to his national manager. Members of the media who asked awkward questions were immediately ostracised, and Stoitchkov would regularly change the time of training so as to avoid journalists.
The real anger in Bulgaria, though, is the way Stoitchkov quit his job. Having effectively used the national team as a coaching school, he is deemed to have left as soon as a half-decent offer came along, only informing Mihailov - the man who had shown such loyalty to him - after the contract was signed. “I decided to leave the Bulgaria national team because I cannot improve as a coach playing just one game a month,” Stoitchkov explained, which did little to soothe ruffled Bulgarian feathers.
“My challenge will be to help,” Stoitchkov said on taking the Celta job. “I have to convince this team that it has quality. It’s important to rediscover their confidence and not to offer excuses, because there aren’t any” - apart, that is, from dodgy referees, a hostile media and conspiracy stretching to the upper levels of Uefa. “There’s no reverse gear. Football is everything and if we give everything then we can be happy and I’m sure we will be safe. I’m going to be close to the players every day.”
The problem is that his earlier career suggests the players may not want to be close to him.
Following from the pub the other night - is that a correct use of ‘disinterest’ in the 3rd paragraph?
No it is not Bandage. Good spot. It’s an Americanism.
Thanks rocko. I was pretty sure it was a cardinal error but didn’t have the self confidence to call it straight out. I will next time.
Real Madrid beat Sevilla 3-2 tonight to get back to within 2 points of Barca, who won last night. Van Nistelrooy got 2 with Robinho getting the other. Valencia won to consolidate 4th place ahead of Zaragoza who only drew (which isn’t good for Celtic’s prospects of being 2nd seeds in the CL next season). Athletic Bilbao are 3 points outside the relegation zone after a 0-0 draw.
Been watching the Spanish football tonight. Madrid are top after Barca conceded a last minute equaliser to Betis earlier. Madrid beat Espanyol 4-3 last night after being 3-1 down. Pandiani got a first half hat-trick for Espanyol but in the end Higuain’s 89th minute winner got them over the line. Tonight Barca were cruising in the first half and should have been 3 or 4 up. The keeper made a superb save from an Eto’o overhead kick. After half time they were nowhere near as fluent and started to panic - they were coming off the back of losing 4-0 to Getafe in the cup the other night - and gave away a terrible goal at the end. Shocking marking and concentration and then Valdes was beaten at his near post. Madrid and Barca are both on 66 points with Barca having a much better goal difference but in Spain head to head record is used to split teams and Madrid have taken 4 points off Barca this season so they’re top with 4 games to go. Sevilla are on 64 after beating Recreativo 2-1 last night. Valencia are leading Zaragoza 2-0 (it just about to end) in the battle of 4th vs 5th. They’ll move to 62 and will consolidate 4th which isn’t good for Celtic’s hopes of being 2nd seeds in the CL next season.
All the top 4 sides won this weekend so Real remain top on head to head record over Barca. It’s Real Madrid and Barcelona on 69 points with Sevilla on 67 and Valencia on 65.
Joaquin got an excellent winner in the last minute for Valencia at Mallorca last night. Tonight Sevilla won 2-1 at Deportiva La Coruna. They went 1 down just after half time but a Renato header and a cool Kanoute finish got them the points. A superb effort after their exploits in Glasgow on Wednesday.
They were briefly top before Real Madrid kicked off. They went 2-0 up and were cruising - a good Robinho header from a Beckham cross and then Ruud tucked away a penalty after Robinho was brought down by the keeper. They also missed some simple chances all through. Then Recreativo pulled one back from the spot themselves before Uche got a nice goal and it was 2-2 with 5 minutes left. Recreativo piled on for the winner but Higuain launched a counter attack from deep in injury time and it went through Beckham and Gago before Roberto Carlos appeared on the overlap to slot home. They celebrated as if they’d won the title.
Barca then responded by absolutely battering Athletico Madrid 6-0. Only saw the first half of this. It was a tight game before Messi got a superb goal on 39 minutes after a mazy run and a one-two with Eto’o. Then they added 2 more goals before half time to finish the game off with the keeper being at fault for both. They must have continued cruising after half time.
Still 3 games to go.
I cannot emphasise how fooking astounding the La Liga scenes were last night. Utterly compelling viewing and amazing stuff. Got into the pub after the Wexford-Dublin game to see the last 10 minutes of Real Madrid at Zaragoza. We saw the Royalists were losing 2-1 but were absolutely battering the Zaragoza goal but were missing chance after chance after chance.
Meanwhile at the Camp Nou Barca were beating Espanyol 2-1 in the derby and themselves had missed a series of chances to extend the lead. It was only during the highlights afterwards that we saw that Messi, not content with replicating Maradona’s 2nd goal against England from the '86 World Cup a few months back, had got Barca’s first goal with a ‘Hand of God’ effort. He also scored the second with a neat finish.
So as things stood Barca were all set to go 3 points up with only the last game to play. Then in the last minute at Zaragoza Ruud Van Nistelrooy bundled home an equaliser after the 'keeper initially had made an excellent save. Almost simultaneously at the Camp Nou Raul Tamudo rolled in the equaliser for Espanyol and like RVN it was his second of the game. When the Madrid bench realised Espanyol scored they celebrated like mad fooks. Then when the final whistle went in their game all their players were jumping around like loons even though there’s still another round to go. Just saw on the news there earlier that there was a big off the cuff street party in Madrid last night after the way the football ended. Barca must be absolutely kicking themselves - they’ve thrown this title away totally. Some drama though.
Messi’s Hand of God goal last night:
Watched most of that soccer last night but unbelievably missed the last couple of minutes by mistiming a trip to the Chinese and off-license. Enthralling stuff though. Before the game everyone was saying that they can’t see Real slipping up and it was theirs to throw away. Little did we know that Barca would do that instead. Having surrendered their healthy lead in the table the title was virtually handed back to them last night and they messed up.
Fixtures for the final day:
Athletic Bilbao v Levante, 20:00
Celta Vigo v Getafe, 20:00
Espanyol v Deportivo La Coruna, 20:00
Gimnastic v Barcelona, 20:00
Osasuna v Atletico Madrid, 20:00
Racing Santander v Real Betis, 20:00
Real Madrid v Mallorca, 20:00
Recreativo Huelva v Real Zaragoza, 20:00
Sevilla v Villarreal, 20:00
Valencia v Real Sociedad, 20:00
The bottom of the table looks interesting too with:
16 Real Betis 37 4 9 6 17 22 3 7 8 17 27 -15 37
17 Athletic Bilba 37 5 4 9 17 28 4 6 9 25 34 -20 37
18 Celta Vigo 37 3 6 9 19 30 6 3 10 19 28 -20 36
19 Real Socied 37 6 4 9 20 24 2 6 10 9 20 -15 34
and 'Nastic already down. Not sure how they are faring on head to heads with eachother.
Really doidn’t think Madrid would get the goal with the way Cesar the madman was playing.
Smashing goal from D Militio after the most amazing run from Aimar, happy enough to be honest, as a Zaragoza fan, to see the qualiser go in, with the UEFA Cup pretty safe everyone thought they’d roll over with all sorts of allegations getting bandied about and pleased to shut the likes of Eto’o up, calling Zaragoza a ‘Madridista fortress’ in the past, wanker. ::o That Bar$a fucked up their own game really made it worthwhile.
I’m no Madrid fan, would love to see Sevilla win it, but as I’ll be in Madrid for the forrseeable, I’ll join in the celebrations in Plaza de Cibeles if they do it next week!
:drink:
!Puta Barca y Puta Cataluña!
It was a sensational goal for Militio alright - brilliant run from Aimar.
Are Zaragoza holding on to D’Allesandro and has he done much for them? Also is Ewerthon any use?
I heard they were letting D’Alessandro go a few weeks back but it wasn’t definite.
I see Betis sacked their manager at the weekend after losing 5-0 at home. They’re 1 point outside the relegation zone ahead of the last game!
What a goal that was, fantastic stuff all round. Vamos Zaragoza :o
[url=http://www.d1g.com/video/show/?id=1075301]http://www.d1g.com/video/show/?id=1075301