The Ali Dia Football/Soccer Thread

the Masked Lapwing · Post by **the Masked Lapwing** » 18 Jun 2013, 11:21

We apologise for this interruption:

AUSSIE!!!!!

That is all.

andrew2209 · Post by **andrew2209** » 18 Jun 2013, 11:28

The BBC are providing some unique coverage of the Confederations Cup

David AGS · Post by **David AGS** » 18 Jun 2013, 22:55

the Masked Lapwing wrote:We apologise for this interruption:

AUSSIE!!!!!

That is all.

Yes we are. It didnt look goot a few games ago, but we looked a lot better, nicked a point in Japan and built from there. Was going crazy at the box when Cahill was subber out, for Kennedy but 'Jesus' stood up (literally) and scored.

Off to Brazil 2014!

Stramala, some big transfer moves starting to turn. Cassano and Silvestre on loan (option to buy for both) for half of Belfodil (worth approx 10m euros). I think could be a big win-win for both. Cassano we all know can play, but now could be re-united with Donadoni, while Silvestre can play regular football in a setted side (hopefully) with lower expectations. (Inter is still way way ahead of Parma in every aspect). Meanwhile Belfodil is an exciting talent, quick, strong, still just 21-22 so plenty time on his side. A big gamble for Parma seems to have paid off, considering he struggled in his time at Bologna a couple seasons back and rarely played for Lyon. (capped for Algeria)

The Dutch Bear · Post by **The Dutch Bear** » 19 Jun 2013, 13:27

andrew2209 wrote:The BBC are providing some unique coverage of the Confederations Cup

That's a prime example of an unfortunate cut off. Meanwhile I'll be rooting for Confederations Cup rejects Tahiti for their two remaining matches.
Their reaction after the goal against Nigeria was very heart warming to me. Somewhere in this world of schwalbes, affectation and trying get an opponent booked, there is some genuine enthusiasm and joy.

Ferrarist · Post by **Ferrarist** » 20 Jun 2013, 07:40

Maybe I should have stayed up, to watch Italy vs. Japan. By the looks of the highlights, it looked like an exciting match indeed. Also, the Japanese can also be pretty hammy football commentators: http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/it ... ighlights/

By the way, I really like how spectacular Italy (Of all the countries!) has played under Prandelli. Now they just need a couple of young players, and I see a good future for them (The Italian U21 seems to be decent after all).

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 20 Jun 2013, 16:09

Ferrarist wrote:Maybe I should have stayed up, to watch Italy vs. Japan. By the looks of the highlights, it looked like an exciting match indeed. Also, the Japanese can also be pretty hammy football commentators: http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/it ... ighlights/

By the way, I really like how spectacular Italy (Of all the countries!) has played under Prandelli. Now they just need a couple of young players, and I see a good future for them (The Italian U21 seems to be decent after all).

Yes, it was a really good game to watch. Because, clearly your comment about Italy shows you missed the game!

Italy were really quite bad compared to what they should be. Japan looked a million times better than they did against Brazil. They hit the woodwork about four times during the match I believe. In fact, their start was so bad, they hauled Aquilani off after only 30 minutes in the first half. Changed work tho, got back into the game a bit after that.

Still though, Japan definitely deserved something more than walking away with no points...

AdrianSutil · Post by **AdrianSutil** » 20 Jun 2013, 22:44

Agreed. As a 'neutral' fan of the Italy-Japan game, it was the best international match I've seen in years.

As for Tahiti, they got a standing ovation from the Spanish team and the 71'000 fans inside the stadium tonight, despite losing 10-0. Even the goalkeeper was distraught at the end, or it may have been because he just played 90 minutes against the best International team in the world and just realised what he had achieved. I'm hoping it was the latter.
Now, many have said that a team like Tahiti (who play their home games with an average attendance of 300) shouldn't have been allowed in to a tournament as prestigious as the Confed Cup. Which is total bullshit. Tahiti earned their spot by beating New Caledonian, who in turn beat New Zealand. They deserved to qualify and they deserve to play in massive stadiums against teams like Nigeria, Spain and in a few days, Uruguay. Good for them. It's a totally once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them so I'm hoping they're enjoying it.

QuickYoda41 · Post by **QuickYoda41** » 20 Jun 2013, 23:03

I don't know how it is in your country, but the Hungarian television decided not to air Tahiti's matches because no one would be interested... Outragous if you ask me...

AdrianSutil · Post by **AdrianSutil** » 21 Jun 2013, 00:48

QuickYoda41 wrote:I don't know how it is in your country, but the Hungarian television decided not to air Tahiti's matches because no one would be interested... Outragous if you ask me...

In England we have every game, with no adverts, on either BBC One or BBC Three. I watch it for the players who I rarely see like Neymar.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 21 Jun 2013, 10:53

AdrianSutil wrote:
QuickYoda41 wrote:I don't know how it is in your country, but the Hungarian television decided not to air Tahiti's matches because no one would be interested... Outragous if you ask me...

In England we have every game, with no adverts, on either BBC One or BBC Three. I watch it for the players who I rarely see like Neymar.

Couldn't give a toss about Neymar tbh. I'm far more interested to see if Paulinho really is the real deal.

Also really confused as to why Felipão selected Jô instead of Luis Fabiano as Fred's backup for striker. Another thing I find perplexing is his insistence of starting Hernanes from the bench. I know that kind of goes against my whole Paulinho statement, seeing as they'd pretty much be competing for the same spot on the team, but still, he's the best midfielder they have and he's being under-utilised.

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 21 Jun 2013, 23:32

AdrianSutil wrote:
QuickYoda41 wrote:I don't know how it is in your country, but the Hungarian television decided not to air Tahiti's matches because no one would be interested... Outragous if you ask me...

In England we have every game, with no adverts, on either BBC One or BBC Three. I watch it for the players who I rarely see like Neymar.

I must say, Neymar has impressed me so far. I mean, before the tournament, I thought he was hugely over hyped, and Barcelona had been ripped off big time, but he's played well so far. I know the teams Brazil have played aren't up to Champions League standard, but he's gone up in my view

Post by **Londoner** » 23 Jun 2013, 21:16

The shite has hit the fan in Brighton tonight...

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 23 Jun 2013, 21:48

East Londoner wrote:The shite has hit the fan in Brighton tonight...

Stay classy Brighton. Stay classy.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 23 Jun 2013, 23:11

After Eden And Thorgan, White Star Brussels has signed another Hazard Brother: Kylian. Well, let's see if he's as good as his brothers. If he is, then it is quite some remarkable family.
Makes you wonder how many talented sons a family can possibly have. (apperently, they have at least another one)

Meanwhile i have no rejectful news, things are getting quiet in the off season. Other than some expected transfers, not much happens.

Post by **tommykl** » 24 Jun 2013, 05:51

This wrote:After Eden And Thorgan, White Star Brussels has signed another Hazard Brother: Kylian.

How do they come up with those names? :lol:

David AGS · Post by **David AGS** » 24 Jun 2013, 10:10

Slightly off topic, but in Aussie Rules (Australian footy!)

we currently got Adam, Troy, Scott and Joel Selwood, all very talented but the latter arguably the better. There mother got 'Mother of the Year'!

Also, years ago Chris, Neale, Terry and Anthony Daniher all played in the same Essendon side! Anthony's son, Joe curently plays for Essendon too.

Apologies for off topic, but soccer/football news a bit on the quiet side.

Still hopeing that Pazzini joins Parma, while Arsenal is 'close' to signing Higuain. (We were close to signing Jovetic too!) while Tomas Ince closing in on a move to Cardiff!

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 24 Jun 2013, 12:09

David AGS wrote:Slightly off topic, but in Aussie Rules (Australian footy!)

we currently got Adam, Troy, Scott and Joel Selwood, all very talented but the latter arguably the better. There mother got 'Mother of the Year'!

Also, years ago Chris, Neale, Terry and Anthony Daniher all played in the same Essendon side! Anthony's son, Joe curently plays for Essendon too.

Apologies for off topic, but soccer/football news a bit on the quiet side.

Still hopeing that Pazzini joins Parma, while Arsenal is 'close' to signing Higuain. (We were close to signing Jovetic too!) while Tomas Ince closing in on a move to Cardiff!

What...Pazzini and Cassano front line for Parma?! Looks like Amauri will be spending next season on the bench!

David AGS · Post by **David AGS** » 27 Jun 2013, 23:20

Stramala wrote:
David AGS wrote:Slightly off topic, but in Aussie Rules (Australian footy!)

we currently got Adam, Troy, Scott and Joel Selwood, all very talented but the latter arguably the better. There mother got 'Mother of the Year'!

Also, years ago Chris, Neale, Terry and Anthony Daniher all played in the same Essendon side! Anthony's son, Joe curently plays for Essendon too.

Apologies for off topic, but soccer/football news a bit on the quiet side.

Still hopeing that Pazzini joins Parma, while Arsenal is 'close' to signing Higuain. (We were close to signing Jovetic too!) while Tomas Ince closing in on a move to Cardiff!

What...Pazzini and Cassano front line for Parma?! Looks like Amauri will be spending next season on the bench!

Ooops my bad,you know what I meant.

Sorry, just Cassano and Silvestre!

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 09 Jul 2013, 00:45

Monday morning

Monday afternoon

Post by **Londoner** » 10 Jul 2013, 15:42

Coventry City slide even further into the toilet...

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 10 Jul 2013, 19:22

I saw this on GTPlanet few days ago - what the Sam Hill is they are doing?

:evil:

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 10 Jul 2013, 20:31

East Londoner wrote:Coventry City slide even further into the toilet...

Football in the West Midlands is not good at the moment, unless you're West Bromwich Albion.

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 11 Jul 2013, 00:11

FMecha wrote:I saw this on GTPlanet few days ago - what the Sam Hill is they are doing?

I think they misunderstood the concept of a "header".

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 11 Jul 2013, 11:17

FMecha wrote:I saw this on GTPlanet few days ago - what the Sam Hill is they are doing?

And I thought the violence that usually kicks off when Wisla Krakow play Krakowia was bad. Or even the worst of the Old Firm violence when the two sets of fans fight over who their imaginary friend likes more. Or the three-way war in Istanbul.

This, though... this really puts the biscuit crumbs in the bed. Plus some biting insects, a few slices of mouldy toast and some sharp shards of glass. Plus a few other undesirables that Tracey Emin left behind.

girry · Post by **girry** » 11 Jul 2013, 12:28

@This, you're the only Belgian football expert I know (plus handily a Sint-Truiden fan too.), and I need to solve a flamewar, therefore I'd be pleased should you give an insight. How good is your second level football? Would the teams playing there survive in, say, League 2 - is the level better or worse compared to Dutch 2nd level? Also a view on STVV's current striker situation would be appreciated. Danke.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 11 Jul 2013, 23:54

giraurd wrote:@This, you're the only Belgian football expert I know (plus handily a Sint-Truiden fan too.), and I need to solve a flamewar, therefore I'd be pleased should you give an insight. How good is your second level football? Would the teams playing there survive in, say, League 2 - is the level better or worse compared to Dutch 2nd level? Also a view on STVV's current striker situation would be appreciated. Danke.

-League 2 of which country do you mean? Ligue 2? In that case, no, they wouldn't.
-Dutch 2nd level is indeed similar to Belgian second level, altough Belgian second level has a few amateur teams between them. Financially though, Belgian's second level is very troublesome. The dutch one is however a lot more professional. Belgian second level is in a contradictory situation that generally third level is of higher quality than second level, or at least very similar. I think you can compare the level to first division in countries like Poland etc. acceptable, but not spectacular.
The only second level team i see surviving in other countries is Antwerp, because they have lot of supporters, and are very creative in surviving despite hundreds of court cases going against them for the last 3 decades. Most teams however are small local clubs (like Dessel for example) that live by the grace of a few local investors, so i don't possibly see these teams survive somewhere else.
-Well, i'm not aware of much of the transfer news of STVV enough (i stopped caring for transfer news in general, i only keep following results), but what i do know is that they are not willing to spend much money. They're taking cost-cutting to an extreme level right now. As far as i remember they bought some finnish-italian guy, and there's defenitely going to be half a dozen of Standard B-players again this year (but it is not decided which ones). They do have a good trainer though (Yannick Ferrera, who coached Charleroi previous year) Personally though, i think they're in for a very average season.

So i think i can't answer everything, as i wouldn't call myself an expert. (i could say i know a lot about Belgian stadiums, and a bit about history, but when it comes to players, i find it more difficult to remember)

Post by **tommykl** » 12 Jul 2013, 06:57

This wrote:-League 2 of which country do you mean? Ligue 2? In that case, no, they wouldn't.

He was talking about the English League 2 (so named because it's the fourth level of English football), in which case I'm inclined to say that a couple of teams might survive there.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 12 Jul 2013, 09:02

This wrote:As far as i remember they bought some finnish-italian guy

Lauri Dalla Valle. Was in the Inter Primavera way back in the day. But then he went back to Finland again after that I think.

girry · Post by **girry** » 12 Jul 2013, 17:14

yea he was the reason i asked about it, my friend used to play in the same team with Lauri thus I've been somewhat interested in following his career. Some 5 years ago Dalla Valle was hailed as a wonderkid here, went to liverpool as a teenager, but failed to break through and now his career seems to go lower and lower to divisions we have no idea of, thus it becomes more and more difficult to rate his level too lol. Thanks anyway.

TheBigJ · Post by **TheBigJ** » 12 Jul 2013, 20:19

giraurd wrote:@This, you're the only Belgian football expert I know (plus handily a Sint-Truiden fan too.), and I need to solve a flamewar, therefore I'd be pleased should you give an insight. How good is your second level football? Would the teams playing there survive in, say, League 2 - is the level better or worse compared to Dutch 2nd level? Also a view on STVV's current striker situation would be appreciated. Danke.

Certainly the Dutch 2nd division is better than Belgium's, in the sense that it is far more stable these days. I think that's one reason Dutch football is in a better state than Belgium's, as it has way more competitive teams across the board. In Belgium, there are 6 big clubs, then pretty much nothing.

I very much doubt the bottom half of the belgian 2nd division would survive in League 2 in England. Saint-Trond are the exception though along with aa handful of others.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 12 Jul 2013, 22:14

TheBigJ wrote:
giraurd wrote:@This, you're the only Belgian football expert I know (plus handily a Sint-Truiden fan too.), and I need to solve a flamewar, therefore I'd be pleased should you give an insight. How good is your second level football? Would the teams playing there survive in, say, League 2 - is the level better or worse compared to Dutch 2nd level? Also a view on STVV's current striker situation would be appreciated. Danke.

Certainly the Dutch 2nd division is better than Belgium's, in the sense that it is far more stable these days. I think that's one reason Dutch football is in a better state than Belgium's, as it has way more competitive teams across the board. In Belgium, there are 6 big clubs, then pretty much nothing.

I very much doubt the bottom half of the belgian 2nd division would survive in League 2 in England. Saint-Trond are the exception though along with aa handful of others.

Hm, the difference between Belgium and Holland are that Belgium has a more defensive, physical style, while Holland has a more offensive technical style. That's why Dutch teams very often buy Belgian defensive players, and why strikers that can score very easy in Holland, usually fail to make it in Belgium. Similarly when Dutch coaches try to manage a Belgian team, they often fail (Van Den Brom at Anderlecht being the exception to the rule), but not many Belgian coaches have managed to get results in Holland either. (I think only Preud'Homme recently got succesful in Holland)
Also i don't think Sint-Truiden would survive in the League 2, because of their more technical playing philosophy (altough they don't have the right players to do this succesfully). But i think teams like Antwerp or Aalst would do very well, and could do even better than League 2 on the long term. Other than these 3, i don't see enough teams with sufficient fanbase. (Well, Club Liège has a sufficient fanbase, but they're in 4th belgian division right now, and well, eh, Beerschot, sort of, perhaps Rc Mechelen and Berchem (both third division) could fit in well too). Mouscron could do well do with their connections to Lille. Whilst any team from Brussels should in theory be able to survive too, 't is that they prefer to destroy each other, rather than do anything useful. The main reason these teams would not survive is the lack of commercial possibilities, rather than the sporting level, which i think is decent. I'm not really sure how good League 2 is, but any belgian second division team could take on scottisch premier league teams with remarkable ease. (didn't Glasgow Rangers threated to go to Belgium once? :lol:

)

Ah, Brussels, that's the Meanwhile In Belgium this summer months give us, because all the action is in the legal battles between WS Brussel (formerly WS Woluwe) and RWDM Brussels (formerly FC Brussels), mainly being arguments over player contracts of previous season, but also former WSW manager turning up at FC Brussels, despite the feud both managers had... This could only end in tears, so i'm looking forward to it.
Also former Antwerpian mayor Janssens has joined the Wilrijk-Beerschot team. Probably not a wise thing to do for a politician. Or is it? As De Wever has burned his reputation with intervening in football recently, (the Zulte Waregem thing) and at least people knew for ages that Janssens was a Beerschot-fan, so that's hardly a surprise. Still, politicians getting involved in football in a city with a historic rivalry can and will only go wrong for any involved. At least it's better than the dozens of politians supporting Club Brugge or Standard, just to be popular.
Also, AA Gent are becoming the Red Bull of belgian football with their new stadium, except that Gent has never won a title. But their misplaced arrogance is getting anoying. Yeah sure, you are the only team that has a modern stadium. That doesn't make you a top team. In fact, Sint-Truiden's new stadium (to be finished in 2014) will be a lot more modern and radical. (the damn thing even features toilets with view to the playing field, now that's revolutionary! :lol:

)

Warren Hughes · Post by **Warren Hughes** » 16 Jul 2013, 16:34

So, Emanuele Giaccherini is a Sunderland player. My life just got a whole lot better. And he only cost £6.5 million, which is less than Blackpool are asking for Thomas Ince.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 16 Jul 2013, 21:15

So it seems like Zulte Waregem isn't falling apart after all. Their main transfer so far is managing to keep Thorgan Hazard (who i think might be better now than his brother when he was at the same age), that is probably the signal other players need to stay or join. They will not become champion and will not qualify for the CL, for sure, but a top 6 and getting into the EL group phase would still be a succes for them.

Anyway, the last team i would want to see champion is Gent, their arrogance is getting worse and worse, so i hope they'll get a reality check as soon as possible. And it says a lot about your team a lot when i would rather see Anderlecht or Genk become champion than your team. Yeah, the STVV fans still aren't over the loss of the title in 1965-1966 against Anderlecht, i wasn't even born and my parents were still teenagers back then, but i'm still dissapointed about that, as it was the closest they'll ever get :lol:

But taking a gamble on who's going to win this year: Club Brugge. It looks like all the pieces are finally falling together for them. But then again, Standard, Genk and the inevetible Anderlecht look all closely matched. Of course, in Standard, things aren't going well behind the scenes, the owner promised to sell the team, but he's now signing a lot of players to get a higher selling price. Also, he never ever told he was going to sell the stadium too, (and knowing him, he won't) so the fans are still screwed. Also Anderlecht were caught by surprise, as they didn't expect that Club Brugge would actually pay the transfer sum they wanted for De Sutter, so now they sold a few key players, but currently, most of their replacements are unproven yet. Then of course, selling their star players gives them some budget, and they still have time. In Genk, there seems to be no news at all, but a lot will depend on if they can keep Vossen or not. And if Gent will be able to play for the title will depend on if they can keep Mboyo or not. In the midfield, i can make no predictions, but i assume the usual suspects Waregem, Lokeren, Mechelen and Kortrijk will be the strongest. That Leuven, Mons, Charleroi, Waasland, lierse and Cercle will be average and that Oostende will have a difficult time.

watka · Post by **watka** » 16 Jul 2013, 23:31

Who do you support This (I'm guessing STVV by your post)? I vaguely follow Belgian football as a Cercle Brugge supporter. I don't know what happened last season, but we just about managed to survive despite an awful season! Such a disappointment after just missing out on the Playoffs 1 the season before! It's good that the Sporting Lisbon connection has been maintained for next season though.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 17 Jul 2013, 00:15

watka wrote:Who do you support This (I'm guessing STVV by your post)? I vaguely follow Belgian football as a Cercle Brugge supporter. I don't know what happened last season, but we just about managed to survive despite an awful season! Such a disappointment after just missing out on the Playoffs 1 the season before! It's good that the Sporting Lisbon connection has been maintained for next season though.

Probably the same thing that happened to Westerlo the year before, namely transfers that weren't good enough for the midfield, and then everyone in the club panicking, because they haven't anticipated playing against degradation. Cercle managed to stay in first after surviving 2 degradation play-offs, but not until their third trainer of the season. And changing trainers during the season is very unlike cercle. So let's just attribute this to panic, rather than incompetence. It would surprise me if they get into this big trouble again this season, but it would also surprise me if they'd do really good, probably a relatively grey season.
The uncertainty over the Sporting Lisbon connection wasn't exactly what they needed at that moment too, but it looks like they negotiated a new deal. Then of course, Cercle is one of the teams with the smallest budgets, and altough they never do any stupid things, they will probably get relegated one day or another. But probably they would eventually be able to get back, because again, they never do anything stupid. Altough it must be said, cercle is the favoured team by the city of Bruges, which helps them survive. Might i ask you what got you into this team? As generally, the opinion about Cercle is 'oh, i almost forgot that team exists!', really nobody really cares about them outside of Bruges :lol:

(but on the other hand, nobody (except Club Bruges fans, obviously) hates this team, so you will never get into trouble supporting them. Altough it must be said that there is a Cercle+Antwerp vs. Club+Beerschot rivaly existing. But that's hardly the fault of the Cercle fans. Cercle fans are generally known to be unnoticeable. Not really F1 Rejects stuff though, Cercle is more like the Sauber of Belgian football, if we would talk in F1 terms.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 17 Jul 2013, 01:00

Which leads me to the idea: trying to compare F1 teams to Belgian teams! Don't ask me again why i picked which team, i already forgot. It was kind of hard with all these random second division teams.

Division one:
Mons - Caterham
Cercle Brugge - Sauber
Club Brugge - McLaren
Gent - Toyota
Genk - Red Bull
Kortrijk - Ensign
Kv Mechelen - Lotus
Oostende - Marussia
Lierse - Honda
Oh Leuven - Force India
Anderlecht - Ferrari
Charleroi - Andrea Moda
Lokeren - Arrows
Standard - Benetton/Renault
Waasland Beveren - Brabham
Waregem - Brawn
Division 2:
Antwerp - Williams
Aalst - Ligier
Sint Truiden - Toro Rosso, formerly Minardi
Westerlo - Larousse
Tubize - Merzario
Heist - Forti
Boussu Dour - Life
Roeselare - Onyx
Lommel - Jaguar
RWDM Brussels - Lola
Eupen - Zakspeed
Visé - Coloni
WS Brussel - ATS
Dessel - Osella
Mouscron - Prost
Hoogstraten - Pacific
Geel - HRT
Virton - Connew

Other 'traditional' teams that still exist nowadays:
Union SG- Tyrrel
RFC De Liege- Alfa Romeo
Racing Mechelen- Hesketh:
Leopold Uccle- Gordini
Dender- Eurobrun
Berchem-Jordan
Patro Eisden- Simtek
Traditional teams that sort of exist:
Beerschot-Mercedes
Traditional teams that don't exist anymore:
Daring Brussels: BRM
Racing Brussels: Cooper

David AGS · Post by **David AGS** » 17 Jul 2013, 03:38

giraurd wrote:yea he was the reason i asked about it, my friend used to play in the same team with Lauri thus I've been somewhat interested in following his career. Some 5 years ago Dalla Valle was hailed as a wonderkid here, went to liverpool as a teenager, but failed to break through and now his career seems to go lower and lower to divisions we have no idea of, thus it becomes more and more difficult to rate his level too lol. Thanks anyway.

Yes, he went to Fulham in exchange for Paul Konchesky and a bit of cash IIRC (one of Hodgsons first signing at Liverpool). Dont know where hes at now!

watka · Post by **watka** » 19 Jul 2013, 13:10

This wrote:
watka wrote:Who do you support This (I'm guessing STVV by your post)? I vaguely follow Belgian football as a Cercle Brugge supporter. I don't know what happened last season, but we just about managed to survive despite an awful season! Such a disappointment after just missing out on the Playoffs 1 the season before! It's good that the Sporting Lisbon connection has been maintained for next season though.

Probably the same thing that happened to Westerlo the year before, namely transfers that weren't good enough for the midfield, and then everyone in the club panicking, because they haven't anticipated playing against degradation. Cercle managed to stay in first after surviving 2 degradation play-offs, but not until their third trainer of the season. And changing trainers during the season is very unlike cercle. So let's just attribute this to panic, rather than incompetence. It would surprise me if they get into this big trouble again this season, but it would also surprise me if they'd do really good, probably a relatively grey season.
The uncertainty over the Sporting Lisbon connection wasn't exactly what they needed at that moment too, but it looks like they negotiated a new deal. Then of course, Cercle is one of the teams with the smallest budgets, and altough they never do any stupid things, they will probably get relegated one day or another. But probably they would eventually be able to get back, because again, they never do anything stupid. Altough it must be said, cercle is the favoured team by the city of Bruges, which helps them survive. Might i ask you what got you into this team? As generally, the opinion about Cercle is 'oh, i almost forgot that team exists!', really nobody really cares about them outside of Bruges (but on the other hand, nobody (except Club Bruges fans, obviously) hates this team, so you will never get into trouble supporting them. Altough it must be said that there is a Cercle+Antwerp vs. Club+Beerschot rivaly existing. But that's hardly the fault of the Cercle fans. Cercle fans are generally known to be unnoticeable. Not really F1 Rejects stuff though, Cercle is more like the Sauber of Belgian football, if we would talk in F1 terms.

I'm an avid collector of football kits and I pretty much follow a football team in every country. For Cercle, I love Bruges as a place and whilst I was there, there were plenty of shops selling Club Bruges merchandise but none selling Cercle, and I like an underdog! I wanted to go for the people's team rather than the one everyone had heard of. Plus their kit is nicer.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 19 Jul 2013, 22:01

watka wrote:
This wrote:
watka wrote:Who do you support This (I'm guessing STVV by your post)? I vaguely follow Belgian football as a Cercle Brugge supporter. I don't know what happened last season, but we just about managed to survive despite an awful season! Such a disappointment after just missing out on the Playoffs 1 the season before! It's good that the Sporting Lisbon connection has been maintained for next season though.

Probably the same thing that happened to Westerlo the year before, namely transfers that weren't good enough for the midfield, and then everyone in the club panicking, because they haven't anticipated playing against degradation. Cercle managed to stay in first after surviving 2 degradation play-offs, but not until their third trainer of the season. And changing trainers during the season is very unlike cercle. So let's just attribute this to panic, rather than incompetence. It would surprise me if they get into this big trouble again this season, but it would also surprise me if they'd do really good, probably a relatively grey season.
The uncertainty over the Sporting Lisbon connection wasn't exactly what they needed at that moment too, but it looks like they negotiated a new deal. Then of course, Cercle is one of the teams with the smallest budgets, and altough they never do any stupid things, they will probably get relegated one day or another. But probably they would eventually be able to get back, because again, they never do anything stupid. Altough it must be said, cercle is the favoured team by the city of Bruges, which helps them survive. Might i ask you what got you into this team? As generally, the opinion about Cercle is 'oh, i almost forgot that team exists!', really nobody really cares about them outside of Bruges (but on the other hand, nobody (except Club Bruges fans, obviously) hates this team, so you will never get into trouble supporting them. Altough it must be said that there is a Cercle+Antwerp vs. Club+Beerschot rivaly existing. But that's hardly the fault of the Cercle fans. Cercle fans are generally known to be unnoticeable. Not really F1 Rejects stuff though, Cercle is more like the Sauber of Belgian football, if we would talk in F1 terms.

I'm an avid collector of football kits and I pretty much follow a football team in every country. For Cercle, I love Bruges as a place and whilst I was there, there were plenty of shops selling Club Bruges merchandise but none selling Cercle, and I like an underdog! I wanted to go for the people's team rather than the one everyone had heard of. Plus their kit is nicer.

Just remember to never ever call Cercle a football club, they'll kill you if you ever mention the word club to describe them

Some coaches and trainers have made this mistake, and Cercle usually punishes tthem by giving them a star role in their yearly christmas musical. The closest that their rivals Bruges ever got to this was making Christoph Daum sing the line 'everyday i'm shuffling' in a video. I prefer the Cercle-musicals, though.

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 25 Jul 2013, 18:00

Anyone remember Pascal Chimbonda? The guy who played himself into a squad that came within a penalty shoot-out of the World Cup whilst at Wigan, and the man who established himself as one of the top fullbacks in the UEFA Cup? Well, last night, the big man himself made his debut for.....Market Drayton Town!! All the glitz and glamour of the Uni-Bond Division....