[ Closed ] The C-Zine 2011/12 Football Season Thread (Page 36 of 61)

Hail_Of_Bullets wrote:

N.G STATE OF MIND wrote:

As World Cup winners, weren't Spain one of the lowest scoring teams ever?

When it comes to football, I find it exciting when teams create lots of chances and score lots of goals. Spain only scored something like 7 goals in the whole tournament. Compared to a team like Germany, who scored twice as many goals, playing a much more exciting style (in my opinion).

So yes, I think it's perfectly reasonable to describe Spain as boring; regardless of how effective their tactics proved to be.

Obviously, but like I said, there are a variety of ways of playing the game. Their way was the most successful in that tourny regardless of how many goals they scored. Do you think their supporters were bummed out because they didn't score 5 goals a game? Would you rather England got knocked out in the semis as long as they were entertaining on the way there or would you rather they won a competition for once by only scoring 7 goals, hell, even only creating 7 chances?

Yeah I think the point I was trying to make has shifted somewhat from the rant about Swansea...

You know when certain teams play with a route-one percentage football approach, and win a lot of games by a narrow margin; they receive widespread criticism for doing so? e.g Stoke, e.g Derby under Billy Davies, e.g Sheff Utd under Warnock / Blackwell. A team grabs a goal from a set piece and then defend for the remainder of the game? We hear phrases like 'negative' or 'anti-football' and that it isn't 'the right way'.

Yet, we have Swansea (to whom my original rant related to) who produce equally few chances, and produce equally low goal tallies, and spend just as much time in their own half.... but somehow the general consensus from much of the footballing community is  that they are 'a pleasure to watch' and 'they do things the right way'. That blatant hypocrisy is what's bollocks, and that's what I disagree with.

Added: 12-04-2012 13:29:24

Hail_Of_Bullets wrote:

Obviously, but like I said, there are a variety of ways of playing the game. Their way was the most successful in that tourny regardless of how many goals they scored.

Well yes, they won the tournament so there is no way anybody can argue they weren't the best team. Would people still hype over their style of play if they hadn't have won? Yes, I think they probably would.
Just like the armchair fans say Arsenal play the "best football" despite the fact they haven't won anything for the best part of a decade. They spent the first half of the season kicking the ball around the half-way line and being boring as hell to watch, yet people still make these ridiculous statements about their style of play and how good / righteous it is.

It is hard not to feel sometimes that out of this platinum-hulled technical excellence Barcelona have created a strain of football for people who don't really like football. Most teams play like Barcelona once a season for about five seconds. Barcelona play like Barcelona all the time. It is a continual popping of champagne corks, a kind of BMW 5 Series football: undeniably high-spec, wondrous production values, devoid of ragged edges. Barcelona deliver every time at a pitch of homogenised consumer perfection. There is no need for faith, despair or sullen leering hope. This is a church where the miracles are on tap, where levitating pensioners come as standard, cadavers are reanimated, crutches hurled away daily.

mirieth- wrote:

this is brilliant:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog … rney-ronay

It is hard not to feel sometimes that out of this platinum-hulled technical excellence Barcelona have created a strain of football for people who don't really like football. Most teams play like Barcelona once a season for about five seconds. Barcelona play like Barcelona all the time. It is a continual popping of champagne corks, a kind of BMW 5 Series football: undeniably high-spec, wondrous production values, devoid of ragged edges. Barcelona deliver every time at a pitch of homogenised consumer perfection. There is no need for faith, despair or sullen leering hope. This is a church where the miracles are on tap, where levitating pensioners come as standard, cadavers are reanimated, crutches hurled away daily.

ha.

barney ronay is so good; i have to say that i still enjoy watching both spain and barca - however i think if i was a supporter of a spanish league team i would probably find their moral highground and the above really grating; as it is i watch probably 7 la liga games and similar in champions league and enjoy everything but sergio "biscuits" and dani alves play acting; though this is balanced out by pique, iniesta, xavi, messi et al... i can only imagine how unbearable it must be for an espanyol supporter

PS- funny stuff about mark halsey above; i'm pretty sure he has officiated blackburn on severall occasions (and sent players off); whilst i found it funny i don't think he should be able to ref any team from north west really

QPR are extremely well versed in the hold Manchester United seem to have over referees in this country: in 1996 Eric Cantona equalised at Loftus Road during the second reading of the classified football results and the final whistle was then blown immediately after the ball hit the net, the season before at Old Trafford Clive Wilson had been sent off with the time still in single figures and Kevin Gallen had what would have been his first ever goal for the club incorrectly ruled out for offside, the season before that Rangers dared to take the lead on this ground so Cantona was again permitted to equalise despite a blatant foul on Darren Peacock in the build up and so it goes on and on and on and on and on and on for QPR and every other club that plays Alex Ferguson’s team. Last week it was Fulham, conned out of a draw by a disgraceful decision not to award a last minute penalty kick, and this week it’s us.

Lee Mason was our referee on Sunday, miserably failing throughout to uphold the one basic of officiating in any sport – remain fair and impartial. Mason was neither.

Now that’s quite an allegation to make so let me pick out two incidents you may have missed during this encounter to back myself up. Take, for instance, the irrelevant and non consequential throw in awarded to Manchester United in the sixty fifth minute. A block tackle, a loose ball, a 50/50 throw in decision up in the air. The linesman, Ceri Richards, who’d already erred horrendously when United took the lead, stared blankly at a dreadfully positioned referee without a clue between them of what should happen next. There they stood, staring at each other, for five seconds or more. Faced with a situation where they genuinely had no idea what to do they awarded the throw to United. And that was the default setting for the afternoon: if in doubt give it to Manchester United.

This was the second occasion this little guessing game had gone like this. Earlier in the day Adel Taarabt swung over a free kick that deflected away from Clint Hill at the back post and out for a corner on the far side. Except Mason, incorrectly positioned again, hadn’t seen the flick and apparently neither had Richards. So they stood and looked at each other and did nothing again, and then when it was clear neither knew what had happened they awarded a goal kick to Manchester United. If in doubt, award the decision to Manchester United.

Incidentally Lee Mason is from Bolton, lives in Bolton, is chairman of the Bolton Referee’s Association, has a younger brother who used to play for Bolton and has been spotted by Bolton fans going to support Bolton Wanderers when he’s not refereeing. Bolton, you may recall, are one place and one point above Queens Park Rangers with just six games left to play this evening.

I mention this simply because somebody at the FA believes that all these Bolton connections mean that Lee Mason should not referee Bolton matches, just as QPR-supporting Mark Halsey never gets any of our games. Somebody somewhere clearly believes that he would either be incapable of refereeing Bolton Wanderers fairly and impartially, or at the very least appointing him to one of their games would leave him open to such allegations, so they don’t give him their matches. Why, you have to wonder, is it therefore acceptable for him to referee the games of the teams immediately around Bolton at this stage of the season?

Neil Lennon up to his usual shenanigans. Horrible little scrote.

even so, you don't run onto the pitch to berate the referee like a psychotic parent at an under 10s game. the man has no dignity.

But I'm certainly thinking about leaving off my own back if this is what THE CBOARD has to say about football. Very disappointing.