Football (real)

[Trevor33]

So arsenal beats newcastle and chelsea beats liverpool. I saw a bit of both and for once chelsea wasn t a complete shit to watch. Hazard is just an awesome player, too bad for lille he didn t stay longer.
The holiday season is just a great premier league add.. There is absolutely no other championship going on and they get all the attention. In france, during the first week of january there is the first round with 1 st division teams of the french cup. Boring as hell. The pitches start to freeze. Welcome to the most boring 2 monthes of the season, where it s mostly about cups, ice, reprogramed matches because of rain/snow and waiting for the champion s league to come back in march...

CL comes back in Feb, no?

I still think the PL needs a winter break though, a couple weeks after the first round of the fa cup would be perfect. The problem probably is the FA cup though, all other leagues don't give a crap about their midweek domestic cup. Still think they could add a couple of extra midweek matches and keep the FA cup on the weekend.

I love Boxing day football, it's a bit like thanksgiving American football, they will never get rid of it. It is a bit bunkers how many games they play over the holiday season though. Look at Arsenal and Chelsea - Monday, Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday and then the FA cup on the weekend.

[betiko]

Well in france we have 2 cups (national cup ran by the french federation for absolutely all clubs, if you are a postman and you play football you ll play the first rounds lol, and league cup ran by the french league with only the pro clubs from 1st, second and very few from third). I m pretty sure it s the same difference between both english cups.
The french cup is way more popular and prestigious, it s the oldest competition and medias love to follow big underdogs that manage to go very far eliminating pro teams. There is always this small village you never heard of in the middle of nowhere were the postman, the butcher, the plumber have eliminated a couple of first french division team, that didn t tAke them seriously. You would never see this in other sports like rugby.. Anyways, i get sick of these shit team, those are not football matches, and they program the round of 64 on the first week end of january, so you always end up with nearly a 3 weeks break in the championship. Nevertheless, it s funny cause the EPL must be late, they just played day 19? That s where the french league stops, so you guys are like 3 games late by that date.
You prefer watching fa cup to premier league on week ends?? In spain the national cup is very important too, maybe more than the fa cup.. I think they have the best format with head of series and home and away games.

[Trevor33]

Well in france we have 2 cups (national cup ran by the french federation for absolutely all clubs, if you are a postman and you play football you ll play the first rounds lol, and league cup ran by the french league with only the pro clubs from 1st, second and very few from third). I m pretty sure it s the same difference between both english cups.
The french cup is way more popular and prestigious, it s the oldest competition and medias love to follow big underdogs that manage to go very far eliminating pro teams. There is always this small village you never heard of in the middle of nowhere were the postman, the butcher, the plumber have eliminated a couple of first french division team, that didn t tAke them seriously. You would never see this in other sports like rugby.. Anyways, i get sick of these shit team, those are not football matches, and they program the round of 64 on the first week end of january, so you always end up with nearly a 3 weeks break in the championship. Nevertheless, it s funny cause the EPL must be late, they just played day 19? That s where the french league stops, so you guys are like 3 games late by that date.
You prefer watching fa cup to premier league on week ends?? In spain the national cup is very important too, maybe more than the fa cup.. I think they have the best format with head of series and home and away games.

The Spanish cup is not more Important than the FA cup, the FA cup is the most viewed domestic cup on the planet.

I'd prefer to watch the league, I like the little teams with the non-pros but you can't beat the league. England has the same, first weekend of Jan the PL teams enter the FA cup at round 3, by that time (as they play about 9 prelims before round 1 starting in the summer) most of the non-league teams are out, odd time you get a couple though.

IMO England should put the league forward for one week and scrap the 'community shield'. They've been talking for years to scrap the league cup but money always talks and they don't. Then they talk about taking away the Europa league spot from it and money talks again and they don't. I think it's bonkers that it has a Europa league spot as most teams play their reserves. Looks like City and Utd will be in the final this year though so at least the league will get an extra European stop. Last year 6th wasn't good enough while some years the top 7 all get into Europe.

[Trevor33]

BTW what do you think of Anelka's celebration against West Brom?

[JoshyBoy]

Top of the league feels awesome! Long way to go though, and I honestly believe (like I did at the start of the season) that we'll finish 3rd behind Chelsea and City.

[iAmCaffeine]

BTW what do you think of Anelka's celebration against West Brom?

FA will punish him but I don't think it's warranted.

[chang50]

Top of the league feels awesome! Long way to go though, and I honestly believe (like I did at the start of the season) that we'll finish 3rd behind Chelsea and City.

You played well but I think we deserved a point,if you do win the title you'll look back to 3 points at Newcastle as vital.I reckon City to shade Chelsea and Arsenal in a close finish and Utd to finish a poor 4th (that might be wishful thinking tho').

[betiko]

BTW what do you think of Anelka's celebration against West Brom?

FA will punish him but I don't think it's warranted.

here's the thing: I hate anelka, very very much. my most hated player even in front of cristiano ronaldo. I wish someone breaks his leg and he can't walk again each time he steps a pitch. I am also obviously against antisemitism.
Nevertheless, the french media are fucking idiots. they don't know what that gesture means.

Basically, the guy who does this is called Dieudonné. He is half Breton half from Cameroon, and he used to make a comical duet in the 90s with a jew guy. They split their way just before the 2000s, and they both stayed popular. Dieudonné even wanted to present himself for the 2002 elections for presindent, but obviously as a joke. Ever since, this guy has been pushing dark humour to the most extreme level. Most people would tell you that he is hilarious but that he is so fucked up in his politically incorectness... He is so politically incorrect that medias have started boycotting him, politics don't want him to perform any show or whatever.
I think that his problem is that when the good thinking society tells him not to do something, he will go 10 times further in that sense. He is an absolute loose canon. He is going so far in his crap that i do think he became an antisemite... but if you listen to his performances, he is just basically more i favour of anything muslim that anything jew. The guy is catholic, but he just proves how easy it is in our society to criticize muslim but that saying anything about the jews is totally taboo.
Basically, what anelka did has nothing antisemite. For dieudonné, each time he does this in his performances he is basically showing how far in the ass he is shoveling his fist or how bad someone got fisted... it's more of a "f*ck the system".
Since the media hate him so much, it became in their delirium an inverted nazi salute. they probably asked dieudonné, and like he is such a loose canon he said "yeah sure, it's an inverted nazi salute".
Anelka has always gone against the system and the media, so I guess he recognizes himself pretty much in the Dieudonné ideology. Is Anelka antisemite? I don't think so. He just wanted to bring a little attention on him since he knows he is so absolutely hated in france, and it could fuel the fire. It happened just when there is a big dilema in france to allow Dieudonné to perform or not. Is this a fucking democracy or not???? how can you forbid a comedian to express himself because he is too hardcore??? you can sue him for stuff he might say that lead to hatred, but simply not let him perform? this is ridiculous.

[sempaispellcheck]

Since the Nazi salute is anti-Semitic, wouldn't inverting it be pro-Semitic?

EDIT to clarify: This is not a rhetorical question. I would think it would be, but I don't know for certain, so I'm asking you guys what you think.
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[betiko]

Since the Nazi salute is anti-Semitic, wouldn't inverting it be pro-Semitic?

EDIT to clarify: This is not a rhetorical question. I would think it would be, but I don't know for certain, so I'm asking you guys what you think.
sempai

ha, good one! well it's actually seen as a hidden way to make a nazi salute without people knowing; but the almighty french media found out and are warning the entire world. Saw this in the brit and spanish press already...
A month ago or so Sakho, now playing for liverpool did that after scoring in the playoffs for the worldcup against ukraine. He said he was totally unaware of that second signification, that he was sorry and that he "took it back".
Sakho is a good guy that everybody likes in France, so no big deal... but Anelka doing that is another story

[Trevor33]

I suspected as much... but what's your beef with Ronaldo? Best goal scorer the world has EVER seen.

[betiko]

I suspected as much... but what's your beef with Ronaldo? Best goal scorer the world has EVER seen.

Well strangely i would say that when cristiano ronaldo makes the unthinkable, score 40 goals in one season of liga, while the legendary ronaldo "only" scored 34 the year robson coached barcelona (and mourinho was his second lol) there is this guy called messi who simply scored 50.
I am not questionning cristiano s footballer abilities, he is definitely one of the very best, i just hate how full of himself he is. I just can t stand the things he does and the things he says. It s like fernando alonso, i just can t stand this guy either.

So what s up in england with what anelka did, are people shocked or are they wondering what is all this french media bullshit about? You know that the french minister of sports wants to do something against anelka?

[sempaispellcheck]

what's your beef with Ronaldo?

Plays for the wrong side.

Best goal scorer the world has EVER seen.

No.

¡¡¡VAMOS BARÇA!!!

sempai

[betiko]

If you support barcelona, you would know that they don t say that, they say "visca el barça!" In catalan

[Pirlo]

Since the Nazi salute is anti-Semitic, wouldn't inverting it be pro-Semitic?

EDIT to clarify: This is not a rhetorical question. I would think it would be, but I don't know for certain, so I'm asking you guys what you think.
sempai

ha, good one! well it's actually seen as a hidden way to make a nazi salute without people knowing; but the almighty french media found out and are warning the entire world. Saw this in the brit and spanish press already...
A month ago or so Sakho, now playing for liverpool did that after scoring in the playoffs for the worldcup against ukraine. He said he was totally unaware of that second signification, that he was sorry and that he "took it back".
Sakho is a good guy that everybody likes in France, so no big deal... but Anelka doing that is another story

Why is Europe over-sensitive about racism? I know discrimination sucks, but doesn't media exaggerate it too much?

[nietzsche]

my most hated player even in front of cristiano ronaldo. I wish someone breaks his leg and he can't walk again each time he steps a pitch.

Why?

Cristiano Ronaldo is hated a lot and I don't understand why. The dude is such and example on and off the field, unlike Messi. The only thing interesting in Marca.com are the user comments, and you can read very often that Azulgranas really admire Cristiano's dedication and professionalism as well as his work off the field. And they admit Messi behavior leaves too much to be desired.

Since you like Zlatan, I'll tell you that what people dislike about Cristiano is pretty similar to what some people dislike about Zlatan, a very big confidence in himself. But these players use that confidence to improve themselves every day. Cristiano was expelled from school because a teacher disrespected him and he threw a chair to him. Most of us would've just taken the insult. He was also very poor growing up.

I see Cristiano and I'm humbled by how much can one accomplish by a strong confidence and dedication.

I see Messi and see steroids and growth hormones.

[betiko]

Since the Nazi salute is anti-Semitic, wouldn't inverting it be pro-Semitic?

EDIT to clarify: This is not a rhetorical question. I would think it would be, but I don't know for certain, so I'm asking you guys what you think.
sempai

ha, good one! well it's actually seen as a hidden way to make a nazi salute without people knowing; but the almighty french media found out and are warning the entire world. Saw this in the brit and spanish press already...
A month ago or so Sakho, now playing for liverpool did that after scoring in the playoffs for the worldcup against ukraine. He said he was totally unaware of that second signification, that he was sorry and that he "took it back".
Sakho is a good guy that everybody likes in France, so no big deal... but Anelka doing that is another story

Why is Europe over-sensitive about racism? I know discrimination sucks, but doesn't media exaggerate it too much?

Because we have people from various origins cohabitating in the same countries, and acumulation of details make some ethnic groups uncomfortable. I still think that we are much less politically correct in europe compared to north america regarding this matter.
Nevertheless, this case is interesting because even if you disapprove humour that goes too far, the fact of going too far shows you were the limits are for the society. And in fact, it is not tolerated to make hard core jokes about jews the way you could with any other ethnic group.

[betiko]

my most hated player even in front of cristiano ronaldo. I wish someone breaks his leg and he can't walk again each time he steps a pitch.

Why?

Cristiano Ronaldo is hated a lot and I don't understand why. The dude is such and example on and off the field, unlike Messi. The only thing interesting in Marca.com are the user comments, and you can read very often that Azulgranas really admire Cristiano's dedication and professionalism as well as his work off the field. And they admit Messi behavior leaves too much to be desired.

Since you like Zlatan, I'll tell you that what people dislike about Cristiano is pretty similar to what some people dislike about Zlatan, a very big confidence in himself. But these players use that confidence to improve themselves every day. Cristiano was expelled from school because a teacher disrespected him and he threw a chair to him. Most of us would've just taken the insult. He was also very poor growing up.

I see Cristiano and I'm humbled by how much can one accomplish by a strong confidence and dedication.

I see Messi and see steroids and growth hormones.

Lol the only thing you see is marca from thousands of kilometers and you buy the shit you want to hear.

A big difference between cristiano and zlatan; zlatan is full of humour. Zlatan will tell you that when you talk to him you are speaking to god and whatever nonesense, and a few seconds later he will die laughing. He is like this, but he also makes a lot of jokes about himself. The other day, there was a girl asking him for an autograph. He looks at her and he says "hey you look like me!" The girl goes "really?" Yeah you have the same nose!! And everybody around couldn t stop laughing.
Same thing when he is on the pitch. He is pissed all the time at the ref, his teammates, his opponents.. And the next second he just starts laughing and joking with them. He is partly giving himself a bad boy image, and partly just kidding with everyone. He is a show, a true entertainer not just because of his football.
Cristiano is so in love with himself that it makes me sick. He just spent quite some money to make a museum about himself, with statues of him ( a bit taller than the original) and his trophies. So many attitudes on the pitch towards his opponents and teammates that were really unacceptable.
Are you thick? You admire a brat for throwing a chair at his teacher and getting kicked out of school? That is such a loser attitude, not what a real man would do. A brat is what he is and always has been.

[nietzsche]

my most hated player even in front of cristiano ronaldo. I wish someone breaks his leg and he can't walk again each time he steps a pitch.

Why?

Cristiano Ronaldo is hated a lot and I don't understand why. The dude is such and example on and off the field, unlike Messi. The only thing interesting in Marca.com are the user comments, and you can read very often that Azulgranas really admire Cristiano's dedication and professionalism as well as his work off the field. And they admit Messi behavior leaves too much to be desired.

Since you like Zlatan, I'll tell you that what people dislike about Cristiano is pretty similar to what some people dislike about Zlatan, a very big confidence in himself. But these players use that confidence to improve themselves every day. Cristiano was expelled from school because a teacher disrespected him and he threw a chair to him. Most of us would've just taken the insult. He was also very poor growing up.

I see Cristiano and I'm humbled by how much can one accomplish by a strong confidence and dedication.

I see Messi and see steroids and growth hormones.

Lol the only thing you see is marca from thousands of kilometers and you buy the shit you want to hear.

A big difference between cristiano and zlatan; zlatan is full of humour. Zlatan will tell you that when you talk to him you are speaking to god and whatever nonesense, and a few seconds later he will die laughing. He is like this, but he also makes a lot of jokes about himself. The other day, there was a girl asking him for an autograph. He looks at her and he says "hey you look like me!" The girl goes "really?" Yeah you have the same nose!! And everybody around couldn t stop laughing.
Same thing when he is on the pitch. He is pissed all the time at the ref, his teammates, his opponents.. And the next second he just starts laughing and joking with them. He is partly giving himself a bad boy image, and partly just kidding with everyone. He is a show, a true entertainer not just because of his football.
Cristiano is so in love with himself that it makes me sick. He just spent quite some money to make a museum about himself, with statues of him ( a bit taller than the original) and his trophies. So many attitudes on the pitch towards his opponents and teammates that were really unacceptable.
Are you thick? You admire a brat for throwing a chair at his teacher and getting kicked out of school? That is such a loser attitude, not what a real man would do. A brat is what he is and always has been.

I guess we see what we want to see. I see a player that plays every match and every minute with all his effort. (Granted, he just missed 3 matches because of an injury, which is very rare for him). Regardless of what they say, not every top player does this. I see him improve himself year after year. He, for instance, works on his jump for the headers, with exercises gymnasts do. (That header against Man. Utd. where he's like 2 meters above Evra isn't a fluke.

He doesn't have any special natural talent like Maradona, Zidane or Ronaldo Nazario, but he works at it.

The guy is nice to people who come close to him. His teammates report is a very nice person and a good teammate. The incident with a chair I take it as a effect of the amount of self respect and self love, which to me, it's good. I'm surely biased against teachers because most of them (in Mexico) make kids feel less. You see him as a brat, ok, but if I had a child I wouldn't want him ever to take shit from anyone.

I don't see what's there to hate. You are not Mexican, why would you need to put humbleness on a pedestal?

[sempaispellcheck]

If you support barcelona, you would know that they don t say that, they say "visca el barça!" In catalan

I don't speak català - though I wish I did.
Hell, I barely speak Spanish, beyond that.

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[betiko]

If you support barcelona, you would know that they don t say that, they say "visca el barça!" In catalan

I don't speak català - though I wish I did.
Hell, I barely speak Spanish, beyond that.

sempai

Barça supporters don t speak spanish either!
But it really sounds wierd to say "vamos barça", it s just not the saying. It s always "visca el barça", like "hala madrid", "amunt valencia", "aupa athletic", "viva er betis manque pierda", "puxa sporting" ect... They all use their regional language.

[Trevor33]

what's your beef with Ronaldo?

Plays for the wrong side.

Best goal scorer the world has EVER seen.

No.

¡¡¡VAMOS BARÇA!!!

sempai

One lucky year, so what?

They're both really good I admit but Messi has played with better players, for Bacra and Argentina. More goals doesn't been a better goalscorer. Ronaldo score with us weaker foot and his head more often that Miessi.

[chang50]

For me it has to be Messi,he might turn out to be the best ever if he avoids serious injury.I just love his attitude,no matter how much defenders kick him he just gets on with it,Ronaldo would do well to learn from him and I kind of understand why he is disliked as a prima donna.

[betiko]

For me it has to be Messi,he might turn out to be the best ever if he avoids serious injury.I just love his attitude,no matter how much defenders kick him he just gets on with it,Ronaldo would do well to learn from him and I kind of understand why he is disliked as a prima donna.

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