Football

I just added the sports forum a couple of days ago after a request. That is why its empty!

Ugh! Man Utd. You have terrible taste! 😉 (I am a Liverpool supporter). I guess you're talking about old booze-nose himself, Alex Ferguson?

I am enjoying the U17 world cup this week. Australia (my team) has a critical game coming up against Denmark - if they draw at least they should be through to the next round.

There are some big tournaments coming soon - u17 world cup, women's world cup, copa america, u20 world cup. I love watching the younger players, they don't have such a professional attitude to the game and they are more unpredictable.

I have never had too big an allegiance to any single club team. I'm from Serbia so it's always a matter of rooting for club teams where Serbs figure prominently. Manchester United (Vidic) and Inter Milan (Stankovic) are my two teams of choice at the moment, but that can change with just one transfer.

It's almost painful for me to admit it because I almost always have something against the dominant team in the world at the time, but Barcelona is playing the most skillful, entertaining football I have ever seen from a team in my life. It seems as though every other team pales in comparison - they were two leagues better than Manchester United in the CL final. It's hard not to admire Xavi, Iniesta, David Villa and, of course, Lionel Messi for their brilliance on the field.

FIFA does do a good job of filling in the odd-year, non-World Cup, non-European Championship summers.

CL-Ed: you forgot the Gold Cup! Great win by el Tri against the US in the final...

I am the odd American fan who enjoys soccer...to an extent. I can't stand watching MLS soccer matches here in the States and have to watch the odd hours (for me) of soccer on ESPN2 if I want to catch any UEFA Champions League or anything like that. World Cup is great because it gives me an opportunity to get my friends into soccer, even if it is only for a few weeks.

The big problem I have with soccer is the same reason I don't like basketball. The players dive and act like they have been shot if they are slightly bumped! This makes me angry because I also like contact games like U.S. football, hockey and rugby. I can't stand this and it turns me off to a lot of tournaments.

I am not a Manchester United fan, but I do like Chelsea and want to see some more games this year!

++ re Barcelona BB84. They really are the best I have seen too. I don't know why it is painful to admit though? I have played for almost 30 years, reached a fairly decent level where you get paid a little to play, I have coaching qualifications and I am in awe of the Messi, as well as Xavi and Iniesta. Fantastic players. I saw them play live once when I was in Barcelona a few years ago. Messi and Eto'o were brilliant. The speed Messi does things at is incredible, and you really notice it more when you see him live - even though he is clearly on another level, the TV still does not do him justice. That is how good he is.

What's wrong with the MLS slim? I thinks its actually a league that the Australian A-League can look up to. It started from almost nothing a relatively short time ago and it is getting better all the time. And the USA keep producing some very good players. If you like the game you should support it, its the only way it will grow and prosper!

barbadosslim93 wrote:

The big problem I have with soccer is the same reason I don't like basketball. The players dive and act like they have been shot if they are slightly bumped! This makes me angry because I also like contact games like U.S. football, hockey and rugby. I can't stand this and it turns me off to a lot of tournaments.

This is one of the problems the game has in Australia. It is competing for fans with games like rugby union, rugby league and Australian rules football which all have a more "macho" image. I don't think fans have a problem with players going down hurt when they get chopped while running at full speed, or a studs up tackle. People know it hurts. But its the diving and play-acting that is a real problem that FIFA and the referees need to stamp out, along with showing more respect for the referees and linesmen IMO. Bring in video evidence I say - if the player "does a Busquets" and has clearly dived and the referee missed it then suspend him for a few matches afterwards.

playborne wrote:

As for your taste... 😂 I can say the same about you LOL 😂 But one more thing i can say is that I am against all the discussions and arguments between different FC fans about who's the best! I think this all is useless..

Excellent point. I agree totally. I enjoy watching any team play as long as they are good. I support Liverpool, but I will watch Arsenal or Barcelona any day of the week. I really don't like Alex Ferguson though, he whinges too much and says a lot of irresponsible things (like most managers).

As for Australia in the u17 world cup ... we were losing 1-0 and the game was called off due to a lightning storm. So they get another chance when the game is replayed tomorrow. We need to avoid losing by 3 or more goals to progress to the next round.

Barbados - I completely understand where you're coming from about trying to be a soccer fan in the United States. I grew up there and lived there most of my life. Not only do you have the time zone problem to compete with when watching games in Europe, but there's also the issue with the (lack of) television coverage. I can count too many instances where I would try to tune in to a Champions League knockout game that featured a great match-up like Bayern Munich - Real Madrid to only find a lower-tier college football game between two teams nobody had ever heard of like Northern Iowa vs. Eastern Michigan. Just completely incomprehensible.

About Barcelona, what I guess I was trying to say was that I always have something against the team that's overwhelmingly the best in the world, be it on the national or club level. I think it makes things less exciting knowing that there's one team out there that realistically has a greater than 50% chance of winning and is leagues better than the others. I also like rooting for the underdog I suppose 🙂

I completely agree with what you said about Messi. I saw him play live for Argentina in a World Cup qualifier in Buenos Aires and it really does look like he's playing a different sport than everyone else on the field. It's hard to describe....it simply looks like he isn't trying as hard as anyone else and yet....he's the best one out there!

Sounds similar to growing up in Australia as a football fan. But there is one big difference. We have a public tv channel called SBS that was created many years ago to cater to migrants. It shows a lot of foreign produced and foreign language programs and shows tons of soccer. People call it SBS - Soccer Bloody Soccer or Soccer Broadcasting Station.

And because of those guys I grew up watching all kinds of weird and wonderful leagues on the World Soccer show. I could name half the players in Serie A in the 80s and 90s as a kid. I got to see Maradona play for Napoli, I saw Boca vs River classicos (can you believe River just got relegated for the first time ever!), Ajax win the champions league, games from Portugal, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Denmark, Scotland etc. The weird thing is when you go overseas, particularly Europe, everyone thinks Aussies know nothing about soccer (and a lot don't). But people who grew up watching SBS got to watch more variety of games than just about everyone else because everywhere else mainly watched their own leagues, and our own league was poorly run and had a lot of problems and no-one was interested in it (a lot of people would say the new A-League has similar problems!)

Ok lets talk Copa America. Argentina 1-1 with Bolivia was a bit of a shock. The Bolivians led from a backheeled goal off a corner kick (the Argentinian on the goal line totally stuffed up there) until late in the match when Argentina equalised.

I'll get out my crystal ball and share my tips for the next few matches. Odds in brackets are the best I could find on Bet365 or Betfair right now...

Colombia (1.4) / Draw (5) / Costa Rica (11)
Costa Rica are in disarray. They were invited into the tournament late after Japan withdrew after the earthquake and tsunami. They were pretty average in the Gold Cup recently and they are sending a weakened under 23 side to the Copa. And to top it all off one of their defenders died in a car crash last week!

My tip: Colombia to win. if you want better odds than the 1.4 on offer I'd take the Asian handicap of Colombia -1.5 at around 2.3 (Colombia has to win by 2 goals or more for the bet to win).

Brazil (1.2) / Draw (8.2) / Venezuela (22)
Brazil against one of the minnows of South American football. The obvious pick is Brazil but Venezuela aren't the pushovers they used to be - for instance in their last match they beat Mexico 3-0. The last time these two sides played they drew 0-0 in Brazil.

My tip: Brazil, but at those short odds I wouldn't bet on it. Venezuela or even the draw at such big odds are far more attractive bets from a value perspective.

Paraguay (1.88) / Draw (3.7) / Ecuador (4.9)
I think these teams are more evenly matched than the odds suggest. Paraguay are a solid, if unspectacular team and Ecuador are a consistent performer these days. They drew 1-1 last time they played in 2009. Ecuador have drawn their past 4 internationals and Paraguay have drawn 2 out of their last 4. And in a group where everyone will be counting on 3 points against Venezuela and hoping to get a point against Brazil, a loss here could be devastating to their chances of progressing.

My tip: You guessed it... draw. The Asian handicap of Ecuador +0.5 at 2.1 is a lower risk option (your bet wins if its a draw or Ecuador wins).

I bet $10 on all three matches.

Colombia 1-0 Costa Rica: -$10 - I took the Asian handicap on Colombia at -1.5
Brazil 0-0 Venezuela: +74 - I got the draw at 8.4!
Paraguay 0-0 Ecuador: +27 - I got the draw at 3.7
Total for the day: +$91 ... nice!

Tomorrow we have the following two games:

Uruguay (1.4) / draw (4.4) / Peru (11)
Its hard to go past Uruguay here. The world Cup semi-finalists have the attacking fire power of players like Suarez, Forlan and Cavani. However, Peru have only conceded 3 goals in their last 11 matches and as we have seen with the other games, the smaller sides are keeping things tight in the hope of sneaking through to the knockout stage in 3rd position in their groups. The last time these teams met Peru won 1-0 at home in world cup qualifying in 2009 (though the time before that Uruguay won 6-0).

My tip: Uruguay.
Other decent bets: Uruguay 1-0 (6.4), under 2.5 goals (1.82). I have taken the under 2.5 goals on this one as it covers either side winning 1-0 or 2-0 plus the 0-0 and 1-1 draw.

Chile (1.6) / draw (4) / Mexico (7)
At first glance you might wonder why the long odds on Gold Cup winning Mexico? The answer is they have sent a youthful u23 side to the Copa and will be without almost all their first team players including stars like Manchester United's Hernandez. Chile on the other hand are at full strength and I expect them to win this one.

My tip: Chile

Time for me to toot my own horn again. I took $10 on the under 2.5 on the Uruguay vs Peru game and it finished 1-1, so I rolled over the $18.20 and put it all on Chile at a bit less than the odds I saw yesterday. And they made me sweat... 25 minutes to go and they were losing 1-0 but they came back to take the game 2-1!

So $18.20 @ 1.5 = 27.30
Total for today: +$17.30

The next game is Argentina vs Colombia on Wednesday afternoon local time. Argentina has to win after their draw first up, and Colombia can guarantee advancing to the knockout round if they win.

Bloody hell if you don't mind me saying, you're on a bit of a roll there.

I've been disappointed by the Copa America so far - not many goals and most games have been very tight. I was hoping to see "the beautiful game".

I'll be keeping an eye on your tips from now on though..

I agree Chelsea. To be honest I have been more entertained watching the women's world cup. Lots of goals, very little diving and carrying on, some crazy refereeing hijinks and some very good play too.

I'll post my next Copa tips later today. Don't bet your life savings on them though - I have been very lucky so far! And there's no way I am going to try to predict what happens in the women's world cup, its too unpredictable for me to bet on.

Ok today there is only one game:

Argentina (1.4) / draw (4.7) / Colombia (11.5)

Tournament host and contender Argentina suffered a shot first round draw against Bolivia that has left them trailing Colombia in the group, who were first up winners against Costa Rica. It is obvious then that Argentina desperately needs to win this one. On the other hand a point would be a very good result for Colombia as it would leave them probably only needing another point, if that, in their final game against Bolivia to progress. So I expect this to be a tight game once again.

My tip: I think Argentina will win it, but 1.4 aren't thrilling odds and most games in this tournament have been tight so far.
Colombia struggled to score against a weakened u23 Costa Rica team with only 10 men. So today I am going for Argentina to win without conceding a goal at odds of 2.16.

Hmmm.. almost an hour into the game and its still 0-0. Colombia apparently missed the easiest chance ever with an open goal. Come on Argentina!

The under 2.5 goals bet I was going to place instead of Argentina winning to nil is looking better with every minute! Shoulda coulda woulda...

I know it's a little bit off topic, but I can't help but share this link that a friend of mine sent me today: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/8621726/World-Cup-in-2022-coul...

This left me a bit speechless, but would anyone else care to comment? I mean I don't even know where to begin when it comes to the fools at FIFA...

Aaagh! You know what, I had the under 2.5 goals bet ticked and ready and at the last minute I changed my mind and went for Argentina to win to nil instead. And it ended 0-0. Always trust your first instinct!

So -$10 on that bet.

Don't get me started on Qatar BB84. What a joke of a process that was. It has been in the news here a lot due to Australia bidding to host the same tournament. Mohamed Bin Hammam is now in trouble for bribing people to try to win the FIFA elections. I can't imagine that he would have used bribery for that but not for the world cup bidding process as well.

As for the "game of three halves" thing, that article seems like pure speculation to me. The most concerning thing is that apparently only now we are hearing that the super solar cooling stadiums won't be able to get the temperatures below 30 degrees during a match. Surely this was already known at the time of the bidding? There was after all a report that said Qatar posed the highest risk of all the bidding nations to the health and safety of players and fans, and it was seemingly ignored. The more you hear about it, the more the whole thing stinks of corruption.

By the way I went for the under 2.5 goals on Bolivia vs Costa Rica as well. It was 0-0 at half time so that one is looking good.

Here's a good Copa America question to throw out there: why isn't this tournament taken more seriously and why doesn't it get more fanfare?

I find it odd that the world's second best (some would argue best) continent's national team tourney is not as big a deal in international footballing circles. I mean any tournament that has to fill in gaps by calling in a junior Mexico team clearly is not worth taking seriously.

If one had to rank footbaling continents by overall skill level, in most people's minds Europe is #1 and South America is a runaway #2. The quadriannual European championship is definitely the world's second most watched and followed tournament after the World Cup and even the African Cup of Nations and Gold Cup are, from what I can gather, taken more seriously and receive more attention than the Copa America.

So, what gives....or am I missing something?

Honestly, I'd just like to have a great football tournament to watch during the odd numbered summers when there aren't World Cups or European Championships to watch 🙂

I guess it all depends on where you live. It might not be highly regarded in Europe but it is massive in South America. Apart from Mexico and Costa Rica, every other team has sent their top players. Remember both are only there by invite as they are in another confederation and just played their own championships in the Gold Cup a few weeks ago.

Brazil and Argentina finally came good and got a win to go through to the next round. The fact that teams full of stars like those two have struggled says a lot about how high the standard of the competition is.

Indeed - good work by Uruguay to drop Argentina in the quarters. Its looking like that Tevez fellow will be consigned to a career that people will always look back on and discuss what could have been instead of what was. Maybe he has been perpetually over-hyped and overpaid, but it seems as though he will never live up to his true potential. It also looks like the same can be said of the current Argentina squad.

I have not been following the tourney in detail but here are my picks for the remaining quarterfinals:

Brazil over Paraguay
Chile over Venezuela

Also nice to see Peru advance. They're normally near the bottom of any South America qualifying table, but it looks like that might not be the case for Brazil 2014!

In a turn of events relative to the last round where all it was all underdogs in paper, Uruguay won to advance to the final. I love the unpredictability of the whole thing, which is so unusual for football, a sport that is in my opinion very predictable (or I've become worse at predicting it!).

The favorite is Paraguay against Venezuela in the other semi, but it's hard to put too much faith in a team that advanced on penalties. It should be a good one.

FYI - the final is Sunday at 16:00 local time or 17:00 US EST or 19:00 GMT. This is a fairly viewer-friendly time for those in Europe, Africa and the western hemisphere.

CL-Ed....you were completely right and I was a bit misinformed. The Copa is a great tourney after all. It turns out it is just a lack of coverage that keeps it from being bigger outside of the host continent.

What do people think about the backheel goal pulled off by the UAE player against Lebanon where he backheeled a penalty kick for a goal?

If you haven't seen it, it's at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcSY-MVE6ZU

Is this a disgraceful move by the penalty taker, or was the goalkeeper's lack of reaction more shameful? I tend to think the goalie was more at fault here because he could have very easily saved it and made the opposing player look ridiculous, but I certainly would not condone the move by the shooter either....

Uruguay seems like a deserved winner of the Copa America. Someone finally beat Paraguay in normal time!

Is Uruguay now the team to beat in South America? Given their semifinal run at last year's World Cup and this triumph, one would have to at least put them in the argument with Brazil and Argentina.

Sorry for not following through with more tips but I have been sick for the best part of a week and I haven't wanted to do anything except lie in bed and recover!

I saw the backheeled penalty and I agree, the goalkeeper should be ashamed. I don't understand the backlash against the guy for doing it. He pulled it off and scored, so who cares how he did it? Then again he could have turned out like Mario Balotelli who was immediately pulled off the field for doing this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JPbSWeeoR0

I am glad Uruguay won the Copa America final. Forlan and Suarez are deadly. It would have been ridiculous had Paraguay drawn again and won the tournament on penalties. Its a damn shame about Larissa Riquelme though...

True, but because Paraguay made it all the way to the final at least we got to see as much of her in the stands as we could, right?.....eh, forget it. You're right. What a shame 😉

Players like Balotelli are why I love sports and football in general. What a character, huh? He could turn out to be one of the better talents ever. Have you seen him play when he's on form? The guy is an animal! Or, he could go end up going the route of Ryan Leaf or someone along those guys. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Leaf#cite_note-ArgumentESPN-24

Speaking of Ryan Leaf, some quick wikipedia work got me to this article of biggest ever sports flops in American sports (the articles dates from 2004): http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/espn25/story?page=listranker/25biggestflops

Words fail me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck0DWfgDvho