Sports - Football/Soccer #116: The Season's Over... The Worrying Has Just Begun - Page 4

T · 06-09-2008, 11:48 AM

Aww, that's great

(though I won't be trying to pronounce his name any time soon

). I hope you get a striker who'll deliver next season - fingers crossed there.

goodnightboy · 06-09-2008, 09:49 PM

Yeah the other thread is insanely fast - I'll go take a look at it after this, if it's ridiculously fast then I might just post here instead

T: Yes it's at really bad times

unfortunately I still haven't quite adjusted meaning that I was sleeping through most of the Germany-Poland match, and I didn't hear my alarm for the Netherlands-Italy match. I did watch both the next day though, the repeats, so it was all good

Ronaldo - blah, already. And speaking of which, I hate my newspaper, I think they've had a piece on Portugal every day since the tournament began, I swear. I don't know why they keep harping on Portugal (they've backed Portugal to win) - it's probably due to the presence of wonderboy Ronaldo

sure, he's good but I don't think he's going to be as great as he was for United, the season must've taken a toll on him. I wonder how the other Portugal players must be thinking. Pepe scored and more newspaper column inches are devoted to Ronaldo missing.

Dan: Oh, congratulations!

I'm pleased for you. And I hope you get Elding as well. Anyone who scores for fun is a good addition

Lisa: Am a bit biased as I hate Chelsea and Drogba but honestly, if you have a player who's been as negative/destabilising/wantaway as Drogba has been all season, no matter how good he is, it just doesn't make sense to keep him - at least in terms of team morale. I know how you feel though, it's the same here with the Hleb situation (in the beginning at least - now I can't be bothered if he leaves or not, it's been dragging on for so long).

goodnightboy · 06-09-2008, 10:02 PM

OK I am officially scared off by the other thread. Seriously. The girls there are all lovely, but they just post at the speed of lightning and I cannot keep up. I think I'll post all my Euro-centric thoughts here as well, it's not like I'm being OT...

Anyway. From last night:

France 0-0 Romania: Only saw the second half (was watching Citizen Kane before that) but France really ought to be worried. Once again I have more reason not to respect Domenech - he sticks with the same people too much. I mean, he should have brought on Nasri (and not only so I could see him

) a lot earlier because Malouda wasn't really contributing much. France really should have won this, Romania were defensively sound enough but were just too isolated in attack to really have threatened France. Mutu was not bad though.

Netherlands 3-0 Italy: Wow. I did not expect that score. Italy were just outclassed, especially once the first goal went in (which was offside though). The Italian back line just looked a bit out of sorts without Cannavaro and the Dutch, in comparison, played perfectly - they were disciplined, tight in defense, incisive in attack. Their counterattacking was really good, they looked like they could score at every opportunity... amazing. That was a fine goal from Sneijder as well.

T · 06-13-2008, 08:54 AM

Aww, crap - I forgot to check this thread

. I got sucked in and chuck a few posts in to the other thread(s), but I'm not online enough to really stick to it. Damn work

. Well, actually just today I'd add a ton more expletives to that, but I'll restrain myself if I can..

Eh, I wish the timing could be so that it was live for all of us at a decent time.. So far I've only missed last night's matches (which reminds me, I need to download Germany's..) because we had a team thing at work and that after part lasted till 11. Can't really say I'm sad I stuck there even if it meant missing the matches because I'm still so new at this new place that it was nice to get to know people a bit more.

Oh, I'd love it if Pepe got some recognition, but eh.. what can you do. Im developing Ronaldo-blinders - just hoping Real's people would too

About France - yeah, I'm really worried about them

.

goodnightboy · 06-13-2008, 10:42 PM

Oh no it's OK. I mean, I'm watching the Euros because I enjoy the football, not because I have to or anything... so I don't have to comment on every match, you know? I don't have to report back after every match

Me too.

See, everything would be perfect if I lived somewhere in Europe, then Champions League and Euro matches would be at a decent time, but it's not

Still, I'm glad you're getting to see it. I'm seeing most of the ones I want to watch anyway, whether it's because I stay up to watch or if I watch it the next day.

I'm glad you're having fun meeting new people and all! Is the new job better than the old one? Are the people fun?

Ronaldo-blinders. Those are good

I wish I could have them as well, but I can't - there was yet another article in the papers about Portugal. Come on, enough about Portugal already. If this keeps up I'm going to just avoid the newspaper as well

Are you supporting France? I don't really like them but I'm quite surprised at how bad they were against Romania. I didn't see last night's matches (I had to wake up at 6.45am today - don't ask - point is, I couldn't watch football live and wake up so early), I'll be seeing them later. Maybe France will have improved against the Dutch, who knows!

Oh and Germany. I'm putting my thoughts in spoiler tags just in case you haven't seen the match yet:

Spoiler:

Oh, Germany! Nothing just seemed to work for them, did it? The Croatians were just so much better, I don't know why. Am a bit worried for Mario Gomez, he hasn't had the best tournament so far, I hope he gets a goal soon and gets going. And ugh, Schweinsteiger! How stupid was that. Sure, it's not fun to be 2-1 down with one minute to go but now that you're red carded that's not going to help the team (or yourself) at all now is that? Bah.

On a side note, I realised I am a true fan of Germany after all. Not at the level of Arsenal, obviously, but Germany were the first team I latched onto during Japan/Korea 2002 and recently I've wondered if I really liked them or if I just had a soft spot for them. Well so during the match I felt upset and worried and when Schweinsteiger was red carded I just looked on in numb horror. But the next day I went to Soccernet and Football365 and they were just talking about how Croatia were so good, how Germany was in trouble etc etc and I felt really irritated the way I get when I read about Arsenal losing on the internet and the (so called) repercussions... in short, the way I felt after Germany lost was the same (although a lot less devastating) as the way I feel after Arsenal loses, so yeah! I'm a proper supporter of Germany!

T · 06-14-2008, 08:33 AM

Naah, but maybe you should babble a bit after at least every other match

Yeah, it's been real good so far with the only exception being this last Friday

. It's just one project's that starting with the guy who I'm doing it with on a break and there's some timetable crap and not the most pleasant customers to deal with.. but beyond that, greatness

. And yeah, the people are pretty great - I certainly seem to have more to talk about with these guys than I did with the folk at old place. That was maybe a bit more clique-y.. (or maybe they were just even more antisocial that I were, heh).

Eh, I'm supporting Real right now

. That's to say I came into this thinking I'd be all for Spain and France with the everpresent soft spot for Russia with me too. But now I can't say I've liked much I've seen from France and it doesn't help that they don't currently have anyone in the starting 11s who I'd really like.. Plus there's Makelele who I still dislike severely.. And with the playing having been what it's been, I don't know... I know Il'l love it if they can manage to pull themselves together, but it's a bit eh at the moment..

So then there's Spain - with Iker as captain and that was a lovely thing, but still... they've got all of two Real players now (Iker & Ramos) and I can't quite seem to forgive the coach.. he just seems like too much of a hole of a certain kind..

And that brings me to Holland - they have three Real players and that makes not liking them right now hard - even if one of them is RVN

. I mean Snejder's and Robben's goals from the last much? Christ

.

And now I ust checked the "spoiler" bit and aww, there's something greatly mad about figuring stuff like that just like that - something bad has to happen before you fully realise it.

And now I'm going find some cover before I admit that... I quite liked the Croatia result

Next match starting soon and it's yet another hard one since of course I do want Spain to win, but I'd like Sweden to do well too - esp since I'll be watching it on Swedish tv

. Meaning I caved in and went and bought an extra channel package, so now I get 6 Swedish channels and among them is the one broadcasting the tournament. Loving the fact that I don't have to listen to the Finnish commentators anymore *g*.

ETA: jeez, that was long

goodnightboy · 06-14-2008, 08:51 PM

Alright then! And you do that as well, OK? So I won't feel so silly. I mean, I'd love to post in the other thread but that one goes so fast it's insane. I can't catch up. Plus they may not blab on as much as I do and I'd like to get some response to my comments, you know? But anyway. Here I am, blabbering on about the last matches I've seen:

The Netherlands - France: Wow. I really did not expect this kind of scoreline either. The Dutch really have reinvented themselves, haven't they? They're probably the early favourites and I can't blame them. The scoreline was a bit harsh on the French though, they had their chances as well. Ribery and Govou looked sharp (won't comment on who looked good for the Dutch as they all did!)

Yeah, I know! Sneijder and Robben's goals

why do you want to not like them though?

Spain - Sweden: Um, can't say quite much as I was falling asleep for parts of the match, but I thought the Spanish were just a bit better than the Swedes in finishing. Otherwise Spain weren't as good as they were against the Russians (probably due to the difference in quality between the Russians and the Swedes). Casillas could have done better with the shot from Ibrahimovic, but oh well. Villa is really a natural goalscorer, though. And why don't you want the Finnish commentators?

The French - yeah, I remember you kind of liked them pre-tournament. But I understand. There's no one there I particularly like - I always want Henry to do well, and I'd like Nasri to do well if he's really coming to Arsenal (damn Domenech for not putting him on against the Dutch) but other than that... eh. I mean, Gallas is at Arsenal and I could not care less about him - this is a bad sign

Ah, Spain. I like them but I wish Joaquin was in the team

What other Spanish players are in the Real team but haven't been called up/used? Aragones is a racist though, so I don't like him

it's OK. Honestly, I don't mind Croatia as well - I was happy when they beat England, of course, and then there's the Eduardo factor as well, so if they won the tournament it won't be like I'm gnashing my teeth, you know? But it's just that between Germany and Croatia, I prefer Germany. It's like when Arsenal plays against some other team I like (for example Villa or Fulham) - ordinarily I like them but against Arsenal I want them to lose. Same thing here. So it's OK, you don't have to hide

Aww, so glad to hear the people are nice, even if the customers may not be! Hey, you're going to be seeing more of your coworkers than your customers anyway, so it's good that the coworkers rock. So glad you've found a better job in (almost) every way.

And no, that wasn't long! I can be a lot longer than that (and I think this post is longer than yours anyway, eek!)

T · 06-16-2008, 11:03 AM

I shall

. I prefer the babbling too - the fast posts and such are fun at times, but when FF keeps having problems and the thread go so damn fast.. it gets a bit eh. Plus like you said, the blabbing is quite lacking there which is always a shame *g*. And answers are nice!

About Holland - I don't quite know, but I've never been a huge fan of theirs *shrug*. They're easier on me to like now that I've had to make do with RVN in Real, heh.

About Spain - Sweden - that Swedish goal had me cringing so bad

. Two Real players on the field then and one's one the ground letting the Swede past him and the other doesn't stop the goal... ouch *g*.. But yeah, it was a bit eh.. the match.

Yeah, I still like them, but I think at the moment it's more like I like the idea of the French team - a multicultural team that should be playing beautiful football - but it's pretty far from the truth right now..

Aragones is an idiot

. I'd love to have seen Raul (of course..), but especially Guti in the team. He's had a crazy season passing goals left and right -he's found the places and done it. Salgado I wouldn't pick- he's past his best. Then there's the younger players like Torres and Soldado, but I don't think they're necessarily ready..

Good about the hiding - never was any good at that

. and yeah, I get that - there's always some reason on some side that makes one think one to be better *g*

Aww, thanks!

. I think that project will work okay too, it was just that we had the kick off meeting today at 13:00 and the guy I'm doing the project with just came back to Finland from a week long vacation at 04.30 AM this morning and he lives a 2-3 hour car ride away from Helsinki

. Considering I'm still new to the company, I don't know all the stuff and didn't have any example docs or anything, it was a bit of a rock/hard place there this morning (hell, the entire weekend since I'd been sorta worried he wouldn't make it

)... because the meeting would've been really, really awful if I'd had to have been there and go "err, no, I don't know quite how we'll do this / that" etc

. But yeah, he made it, bull****ted the required parts (he hadn't had time to read anything about it or even be brieffed) and it went fine

.

I think considering I ahve even gone into last night's matches, I'm going to win this round

.

But to back to the job bit, that's actually the reason why last night's kinda few past me (i'm not usually the type to panic, but there I was pretty close *g*). So while I did watch the Turkey match, I managed to fall asleep before the big comeback - I'm actually waiting to see the clips from the match now. Can't say I'm all that crazy about it, but I'm not exactly heartbroken either. Kinda sorry for the goalkeeper

And of course I didn't notice last night that our Finland's Swedish channel was showing the other match, so I didn't get to see the hosts beat Portugal. That I'm happy about - would've been really sad if their last match had been crappy for them too.

goodnightboy · 06-16-2008, 09:19 PM

Exactly.

OK, yay then! This is more fun, in my opinion. Oh you know I was talking about Germany with you and realised I was a proper fan and all (yeah, bad times do make you realise what you're a fan of and what you're not), so I thought I'd show my allegiance. Hence the icon change and the Nationalmannschaft in the sig

ooh, you changed your sig! Where is it from?

Ah. I'm the opposite, it's funny - I've always kind of liked them, even though my sister hates them (she was the one who got me liking Spain). I guess I like them because they play nice football, you know? It's crazy, I don't even mind van Nistelrooy in the Oranje but in Man Utd?

He doesn't seem like such a cheating diver in the national team, for some reason.

Yeah, that's true. Surprisingly the French are the most multicultural team I've seen in the Euros - they've got a lot of mixed and black players. I mean, teams like Spain? All of them look exactly the same from far away

And this is not being racist at all, merely an observation, but Baftemi Gomis has got to be the (literally) blackest player I've ever seen

Aww yeah I didn't realise it was Sergio Ramos who had not stopped the Swedish player... well, as Cech showed no one is invincible. Kind of pity Cech really, he's had horrible injuries and as a result he's had a rather bad season. Still, as it was his howler that led to the Arsenal goal (and our win) in the Arsenal-Chelsea match this season I can't be too too sorry for him

I didn't see the Turkey-Czech Republic match but wow, that was some comeback! I don't really care about either team though, so OK, whatever. And Switzerland-Portugal, I'm glad the Swiss won at least one match

And that Portugal lost. Heh heh. Even if it was a second-string team.

Guti, huh? And he's not even in the team

oh well. And congratulations about the presentation and that you weren't required to talk about things you didn't know

eh, don't worry about falling asleep. I was watching the Germany-Austria match and I fell asleep during most of it

I'm finding it very, very difficult to watch matches at 2.45am, even if I nap before that. I'm going to watch the repeat today though, see what I missed

Did I win this round?

*checks* No, I didn't.

**|so alive|** · 06-17-2008, 05:22 AM

Kinda OP, but I know there are some Rooney fans here and I just wanted to share with you he's coming to Israel tomorrow in order to celebrate his recent marriage or whatever

goodnightboy · 06-17-2008, 05:37 AM

For his honeymoon or what? Well I guess he's got to find a way to fill up his time since England aren't in the Euros!

**|so alive|** · 06-17-2008, 06:41 AM

Yeah, I don't think he's honeymooning here since his wife isn't coming with and he's having a private party with Fredinand and 30 girls

goodnightboy · 06-17-2008, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by -Chemical Wonder- (View Post)

Yeah, I don't think he's honeymooning here since his wife isn't coming with and he's having a private party with Fredinand and 30 girls

I've got a question, though: which team do you support? I don't know if there are true Rooney fans here... I support Arsenal, personally.

T · 06-17-2008, 11:32 AM

I have to admit I especially like having more than a moment to write - I tend to start five sentences at once and then finish them in some sort of weird order that has nothing to do with the order in which they'll be in the eventual post

.

Aww, stop it - you'll make me want to want them to do well too, if I'm not careful

. I don't like Ballack and I was hoping Poland would do well rather than Germany, but then the german language lends itself so well to swearing that I can't quite not like that

. That probably made no sense at all, but that's nothing new

Yeah, I don't know quite why I never really liked them all that much before (eh, I admit it - Snejder's made a world of difference, the other two Real players are just an added bonus

*g*) because it's true that they do usually play quite positive football. Might be all that talk about them not getting on with eachother. Who knows..

About France - they're definitely multicultural. As a contrast: I don't think the Finnish national team has ever had a black player - hell, anything other than white player - in it

. The Eremenkos (Russian origin) and Kuqi (Albanian origin) are about as "multicultural" as we get.. So whiter that white bread usually

.

So true about the Spaniards looking pretty much all the same - on a good day they'll have Torres on and he's noticable enough because of the hair. Ramos too occasionally - but at times even he seems to blend in the dark haired mass

Hee, I'm definitely with you on the Austria - Portugal result

Yeah, no Guti

. And thanks (about the work thing)

.

Aww, but you have a good reason for falling asleep then! For me it's only something like 11 and I'll be nodding off

. And I suck with the repeats - I'm actually not even sure we get them

. I usually leave for work a bit after 7 and get home at 16.30 or so and if they do air repeats, I miss them by a wide margin. But at least there's torrents

.

About last night's matches: Meh... Would've wanted Austria to win

. And Poland

. Neither were matches I was that into and I might have kinda been watching a movie on my comp at the same time, so my attention was divided between going aww at the movie (Shelter) and going meh and hmfp and grrr, arggh at the matches. It was all very eloquent of me

. So not happy with the results, but not exactly devastated either.

And I think this is a bit longer than it needed to be too - whoops

Eep, and I almost forgot a few things:

1) -Chemical Wonder- - Err, not much (read: at all) of a Rooney fan eihter, but maybe we have lurkers who are - so tahnks for the news

2) Gwen - yep, surprised myself and changed the sig

. The quote's from The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks. It's scifi, but in a way it's way beyond your avarage action in space kinda of scifi which I'd pretty much classify Star Wars as. Kinda hard to describe, but definitely worth reading even though it's kinda hard to get into. I'm curently in the middle of another of his books and I'm planning on getting them all one after another after another. Which is pretty rare of me since pretty much the only other wirter whose all works I want to read is Terry Pratchett.

goodnightboy · 06-17-2008, 10:43 PM

Really? I tend to just reply in the order that you've structured your post, although sometimes I combine things if doing that helps me to save space. But anyway. I understand you well enough in your final posts anyway, so how you get there doesn't matter!

Oh, you know you love the Nationalmannschaft

I don't love Ballack especially either but his freekick was really the best I've seen so far, I have to say. Plus he's been one of the players who hasn't quite disappointed so far in the German team. I'm a bit afraid of the Portugal-Germany match, most of the German team have been off-form (especially the strikers) and Portugal have been quite decent. And I hate the Portugese, so losing to them... yuck. But that's for another day. How does the German language lend itself to swearing, then?

True. Well my sister has always hated them because... well, who knows? But they do play nice football so that's a plus point at least. Really?

Yeah, France are multicultural. Well they do import a lot of their players, so maybe that's partly why

I just found out that Senna, Spain's one black player, is a naturalised Spaniard... so otherwise the Spain team would have no multicultural elements at all. Well, not so surprising considering Aragones is racist

But you forgot Puyol! His mass of hair makes him quite recognisable... and Torres too, and Ramos' stupid long hair (sorry, I think he looks silly) - but other than that they all look the same, they do.

Ah, yeah. Well the only reason why I watch repeats is because it's the holidays now and I haven't been able to find a temp job

still, it means that I can watch football in peace, so that's good.

Aww, well I was obviously happy at the Austrian result because it meant Germany got through to the quarterfinals, but yeah, I felt bad for the Austrians. Croatia do look good though!

As for France-Italy, which I watched (and didn't fall asleep in, amazingly): France really are rubbish, aren't they? Italy aren't much better but they had luck on their side. I felt terrible for Henry, if he hadn't stuck his foot out the freekick would have gone out. Still, I think Italy were the more threatening side - the French defense couldn't get near Luca Toni at all. The referee kind of spoilt the match though, he kept blowing for fouls so it was very stop-start. And man, Nasri - I've never seen a sub get substituted! Poor boy. Well, no matter. It's Italy vs Spain in the quarterfinals, right? That should be interesting.

Don't worry about the length of your post and I won't either

Oh, I see. Well I don't tend to read sci-fi but good on you! Do we really have lurkers here though? I always thought it was just you and me and then sometimes people like Dan, Lisa, Cat, Leeann drop by