General Soccer Thread

[thrill]

I'm thinking Ghana is a gimme

That's crazy.

On another topic, and why I clicked on this thread: F Jose Mourinho. Calling Wenger a "specialist in failure" is utterly absurd.

It's what he's been doing for 12 years, dude. Why is this a surprise?

Mourinho has never built a club himself, just coached what someone else has built, usually with an incredible amount of talent that's bought with an incredible amount of money, not developed.

If this is true, why would you acknowledge this:

Yeah, Mourinho won a UEFA CL title with Porto.

HE'S NEVER DONE ANYTHING EXCEPT WITH MONEY AND EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE EXCEPT THAT ONE TIME WHEN HE PULLED OFF AN AMAZING UPSET AT A TINY CLUB THE LIKES OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN IN MODERN FOOTBALL BEFORE OR SINCE.

Huh?

Wenger is a legendary manager but a lot of the criticism aimed his way is deserved. Of course it's not his fault that players are going to leave when they have offers they can't refuse, but as long as Wenger fails to win with his dated (albeit fiscally wise) philosophies and declines opportunities to take over clubs with the kind of budget that Jose runs, Mourinho's opinions will always have some validity. He's conservative, he lacks ambition and he hasn't won anything in 9 years.

[33anda3rd]

He didn't build that Porto club, though. He was there for a very short time when they caught lightning in a bottle and ran out CL champs after beating one good team. They weren't even one of the 10 best clubs in Europe that year.

His longest tenure anywhere is 3 years. Which clubs of his have been as good in his last year as they were in his first? He jumps on big money teams with shiny new toys and leaves the club a little worse off in a few years. Let's see him go to Valencia or Juventus now and turn them into an Arsenal kind of team that's in the last 16 of UEFA darn near every year, and finishing top 4 every year in a competitive league. I don't think he has the mettle to do that

[thrill]

He didn't build that Porto club, though. He was there for a very short time when they caught lightning in a bottle and ran out CL champs after beating one good team. They weren't even one of the 10 best clubs in Europe that year.

His longest tenure anywhere is 3 years. Which clubs of his have been as good in his last year as they were in his first? He jumps on big money teams with shiny new toys and leaves the club a little worse off in a few years. Let's see him go to Valencia or Juventus now and turn them into an Arsenal kind of team that's in the last 16 of UEFA darn near every year, and finishing top 4 every year in a competitive league. I don't think he has the mettle to do that

Mourinho clearly wears out his welcome because he's an abrasive personality and a serial self-sabotager. He and Wenger are very different, obviously, but just because they don't get along doesn't mean you have to take sides and dismiss the other. They're both two of the 5 best managers of their generation.

[33anda3rd]

Arsenal is the sports team I probably have the highest emotional investment in, even though they make me miserable every year around now.

So I can't help but take sides.

Beeeeeee caaaaaause there's only one Arsene Wengerrrrrrr.

[33anda3rd]

Wow, two missed penalties in 40 minutes.

And Szczesny getting sent off brings terrible memories flooding back of Jens Lehman seeing red v Barca in the final in 06.

Ugh.

[thrill]

Wow, two missed penalties in 40 minutes.

And Szczesny getting sent off brings terrible memories flooding back of Jens Lehman seeing red v Barca in the final in 06.

Ugh.

I caught the first half on my lunch break. That was an extremely harsh red. Yellow and PK would have been more than enough.

[33anda3rd]

That sucked. 1-0 I could have lived with, but now it will take 3-1 away or better to get through.

[thrill]

Bayern isn't fair. Tomas Muller as your late-minute, fresh-legs guy?

[33anda3rd]

I mean, yeah, Munich, they're a hell of a team. But @ Muinich last year was a bellweather game for Arsenal and one of those that felt like the old Vieira/Henry teams: you bring the fight, we'll out-fight you; you come to play, we'll out-play you. Those games have been few and far between since the undefeated season a decade ago. This is a better Arsenal than last year, and Munich isn't any better.

I should never never never do this, but the opening minutes of the game, the way they were controlling the ball, with Munich looking a bit rusty maybe from having their 2-week winter break, up to the missed penalty from Ozil (who was so glaringly absent from the game after that you could have put his pic on a milk carton) I was like "oh man they're going to win this thing 2-0." AO-C was showing his pace on the right side, beating Alaba down the pitch to everything and creating chances. Every ball in the air early in the game in the Munich end seemed to find Mertesacker or Koscielny's head. Sanogo was giving them a spark up front with his speed. They looked great, perfect even for 9 minutes. And after the missed penalty they were flat. Wenger said after the 5-1 disaster against Liverpool "when we crack, we crack" and this was the dictionary definition. After the red card they were just trying to keep up with a world class club, and that never ends well for any team.

It was a rough one. It wasn't the emotional roller coaster that Barca 06 was--feeling good, Lehman getting sent off and feeling awful, going up 1-0 despite being at 10 men and feeling ecstatic like they were about to achieve the impossible, the game getting tied, then losing. That was one of the worst games of my life as a sports fan. The anti-Milan-08. This wasn't that bad. But it was pretty depressing.

[33anda3rd]

Wigan topping Man City today means just Wigan and Hull City and Sheffield United are in the way of Arsenal breaking their trophyless run.








Which inevitably means Wigan's gonna win like 2-1 in a game that Arsenal has 65% of the possession and fails to strike when opportunity arises despite roundly outplaying them for 90 minutes, leaving me sad.