The Ali Dia Football/Soccer Thread

Post by **tommykl** » 05 Aug 2015, 05:55

This wrote:what region does Sprimont represent?

Bruh.

Ourthe-Amblève.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 05 Aug 2015, 19:11

tommykl wrote:
This wrote:what region does Sprimont represent?

Bruh.

Ourthe-Amblève.

I see, your supporters are mostly fish.

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 06 Aug 2015, 03:09

I can't believe River Plate won the Libertadores in this year. :shock:

The team were almost eliminated in the group stages (only a single win in the last game before the round of 16).

Biggest surprise of this year.

AdrianSutil · Post by **AdrianSutil** » 07 Aug 2015, 12:38

Back to English football now...

My main team, Arsenal, are looking very good for this year (before the inevitable injuries) after winning the Community Shield (which I went to). Next game is the beginning of the domestic season at home to WestHam (which I am going to).
Signing Petr Cech has been fantastic, especially as Chelsea wanted Oxlade-Chamberlian in part-ex and we told them to bathplug off. Everytime Cech got the ball in the match, we all cheered like it was a goal. Already a fan favourite...

As for my second team, Dartford, they will play in the Conference South (6th level of football) after being relegated from the Conference Premier after a pretty awful season. Went to several games last season and apart from the occasional flashes of good football (reached the 2nd round proper in the FA Cup), we were confirmed as relegated with still a handful of games left. Good news though, the financial side is very healthy and a majority of the squad has hung around for another year, keeping a balanced and familiar look to the team. Promoted straight back? Doubtful. More like midtable.

go_Rubens · Post by **go_Rubens** » 07 Aug 2015, 13:44

Very surprised River Plate won the Libertadores. Their group stage performances didn't suggest they'd win the whole thing, but they did. I thought the Brazilian teams would be better than Internacional in the semifinals, although they weren't terrible.

Back in Europe, here's to Frosinone, Carpi, Ingolstadt, and Bournemouth, newly promoted sides who have never tasted top flight football, to defy the odds and avoiding relegation in their respective leagues!

As for my club Sunderland, plenty of hope, but there isn't much there. I guess M'Vila on loan is a decent deal, and Lens seems to be a decent signing so far. Got rid of Wickham, but he'll actually progress at Crystal Palace instead of remaining stagnant at Sunderland. Chances are, it will be the same old escape from relegation, being saved by six points over Newcastle for the third season in a row!

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 12 Aug 2015, 01:04

Hooray! The United Counties League has kicked off for another season!

Remember the dismal record of Stewarts & Lloyds Corby from last season? No wins, one draw, 37 losses, goal difference of -137, and 22 points behind their nearest rivals. This season - played one, won it, so even in mid-August they've already got three times their points total from last season.

Meanwhile, Woodford United, whose catastrophic run of form Stewarts & Lloyds Corby took over, have lost their first game of this season 5-1 at home. Mind you, that'd have been an excellent result in those two seasons they were taking an Andrea Moda-esque pasting week in, week out...

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 12 Aug 2015, 12:23

dinizintheoven wrote:Hooray! The United Counties League has kicked off for another season!

Remember the dismal record of Stewarts & Lloyds Corby from last season? No wins, one draw, 37 losses, goal difference of -137, and 22 points behind their nearest rivals. This season - played one, won it, so even in mid-August they've already got three times their points total from last season.

Meanwhile, Woodford United, whose catastrophic run of form Stewarts & Lloyds Corby took over, have lost their first game of this season 5-1 at home. Mind you, that'd have been an excellent result in those two seasons they were taking an Andrea Moda-esque pasting week in, week out...

Reading about these teams, and to a lesser extent about Dartford make me feel a lot better about travelling 90-odd miles to see a narrow win over Bristol Rovers.

Nice ground, has an old-school feel to it unlike some of the soulless bowls that i've been tough *cough*Brighton*cough*

Dom_Wings · Post by **Dom_Wings** » 12 Aug 2015, 18:25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v4ZirKQJ6c

That is some top stuff to draw the game at injury time

tBone · Post by **tBone** » 12 Aug 2015, 18:29

Reject_Dom wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v4ZirKQJ6c

That is some top stuff to draw the game at injury time

Only in the Mickey Mouse League Eredivisie...

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 12 Aug 2015, 19:33

Reject_Dom wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v4ZirKQJ6c

That is some top stuff to draw the game at injury time

This guy is an incredible hybrid of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Jimmy Glass.

Post by **tommykl** » 12 Aug 2015, 20:18

Biscione wrote:
Reject_Dom wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v4ZirKQJ6c

That is some top stuff to draw the game at injury time

This guy is an incredible hybrid of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Jimmy Glass.

Obviously the best kind of hybrid.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 13 Aug 2015, 12:30

"Romagnoli Laziale - your funeral soon"

The ultras of calcio really make me sick sometimes. Just because Alessio Romagnoli is a fan of Lazio while being a Roma youth product (who just left for AC Milan, for those unaware), they spray paint death threats on the house of his parents? Completely abhorrent and sub-human behaviour.

People like this stop Serie A from becoming a well respected league once again.

Post by **tommykl** » 13 Aug 2015, 14:15

Biscione wrote:
"Romagnoli Laziale - your funeral soon"

The ultras of calcio really make me sick sometimes. Just because Alessio Romagnoli is a fan of Lazio while being a Roma youth product (who just left for AC Milan, for those unaware), they spray paint death threats on the house of his parents? Completely abhorrent and sub-human behaviour.

People like this stop Serie A from becoming a well respected league once again.

Italian football fans gon' Italian football fan.

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 13 Aug 2015, 15:41

tommykl wrote:Football fans gon' football fan.

FTFY.

Aguaman · Post by **Aguaman** » 16 Aug 2015, 14:46

I wish Palace won but they are playing great football. Cabaye, man that was so worth 10m

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 16 Aug 2015, 20:59

Now KV Oostende has taken the lead, it's time to post this song, co-sung by KVO owner Marc Coucke.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJnOow4BSNg
Yup, that's the kind of team KVO is :roll:

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 21 Aug 2015, 21:18

And i'm a happy person now. After 18 times of failing to win against Genk home, STVV finally did it! Limburg is ours! It could become a pretty good year.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 29 Aug 2015, 12:56

History is written as FC Astana is the first Kazakh team to reach the Champions League group phase and Skenderbeu Korce is the first Albanian side to reach the Europa League group phase!
Also: Belgian teams are very very much screwed.

Aguaman · Post by **Aguaman** » 30 Aug 2015, 10:50

Good win for Palace.

go_Rubens · Post by **go_Rubens** » 01 Sep 2015, 22:42

Louis van Gaal, what the hell are you on? Well, besides signing Schneiderlin and Schweinsteiger, your transfer window had been an absolute mess. You got rid of Angel di Maria, because he was unhappy and you didn't know how to properly bring him into the side. He leaves for a decent fee of £44.3m, so what world class player will you bring in next? Manchester United needs to bring in world class talent and has the money to do so. Pedro Rodríguez would have been a decent deal; a proven top player for £21m. But no, you buy somewhat unproven young talent in Anthony Martial for £36m?! WTF? A good player, but a ridiculous fee to pay. You had the chance to get a top talent in Pedro or possibly someone else, and you overspend on Martial? Look at what Pedro has done for Chelsea already! He's more than good enough for £21m. If Louis van Gaal doesn't challenge for the title, he has only himself to blame for not getting the right players and getting the team to gel well enough and will deservedly get sacked. What an idiot. At this point, Manchester United are only going to become the new Liverpool.

AxelP800 · Post by **AxelP800** » 02 Sep 2015, 15:52

go_Rubens wrote:Louis van Gaal, what the hell are you on? Well, besides signing Schneiderlin and Schweinsteiger, your transfer window had been an absolute mess. You got rid of Angel di Maria, because he was unhappy and you didn't know how to properly bring him into the side. He leaves for a decent fee of £44.3m, so what world class player will you bring in next? Manchester United needs to bring in world class talent and has the money to do so. Pedro Rodríguez would have been a decent deal; a proven top player for £21m. But no, you buy somewhat unproven young talent in Anthony Martial for £36m?! WTF? A good player, but a ridiculous fee to pay. You had the chance to get a top talent in Pedro or possibly someone else, and you overspend on Martial? Look at what Pedro has done for Chelsea already! He's more than good enough for £21m. If Louis van Gaal doesn't challenge for the title, he has only himself to blame for not getting the right players and getting the team to gel well enough and will deservedly get sacked. What an idiot. At this point, Manchester United are only going to become the new Liverpool.

Since Ferguson stepped out from coach my dream of EPL no longer dominated by MU is realised

Now I'm the fan of MCity, Crystal Palace, Swansea, and Southampton. Being anti-mainstream (relatively here) sure is nice.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 02 Sep 2015, 16:45

go_Rubens wrote:Louis van Gaal, what the hell are you on? Well, besides signing Schneiderlin and Schweinsteiger, your transfer window had been an absolute mess.

*ahem*

Matteo Darmian

*ahem*

Oh, excuse me, that throaty cough of mine getting in the way yet again. Here I was thinking having world class fullbacks in a team was actually important! Silly me.

Unfortunately, I have no choice but to brand your post as rambling, incoherent nonsense. There seems to be little awareness as to market forces, about how much players can dictate their final destination. Look no further than Inter's new talisman Geoffrey Kondogbia - A.C. Milan offered Monaco a higher transfer fee, but Kondogbia preferred to go to Inter, and so got his wish.

Also, such lack of faith in your management? What exactly has Louis van Gaal done to deserve chants for his sacking? He has identified key parts of the team that required strengthening (with RvP gone, there was no longer a quality out-and-out CF, which is why Martial has turned up). Given the role he has been brought in to play, in theory he is somewhat likely to be a success.

Or are you simply so used to winning, that having to occasionally work hard and take risks for success are a foreign concept to the average Manchester United "supporter"?

Aguaman · Post by **Aguaman** » 03 Sep 2015, 11:55

Poor B'desh

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 07 Sep 2015, 01:23

Netherlands :facepalm:

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 07 Sep 2015, 08:45

Biscione wrote:Unfortunately, I have no choice but to brand your post as rambling, incoherent nonsense. There seems to be little awareness as to market forces, about how much players can dictate their final destination. Look no further than Inter's new talisman Geoffrey Kondogbia - A.C. Milan offered Monaco a higher transfer fee, but Kondogbia preferred to go to Inter, and so got his wish.

Also, such lack of faith in your management? What exactly has Louis van Gaal done to deserve chants for his sacking? He has identified key parts of the team that required strengthening (with RvP gone, there was no longer a quality out-and-out CF, which is why Martial has turned up). Given the role he has been brought in to play, in theory he is somewhat likely to be a success.

Or are you simply so used to winning, that having to occasionally work hard and take risks for success are a foreign concept to the average Manchester United "supporter"?

I agree that Van Gaal has done nothing to deserve sacking chants. His only issues in my view are some trouble with some good players. However, it is true that after those good signings early in the transfer window, the rest of his activity was made to look completely shambolic in those times when it did not look simply amateurish. Sure Ed Woodward may be only learning, but he could've done his learning at other clubs where the pressure is not so big. I blame him for wasting time in trying to sign overly ambitious targets that no one has any chance of signing instead of buying a much needed center back and a center forward in due time. He then gets picky over Pedro for a few pounds and ends up paying so over the odds for an unproven youngster that he most likely condemned him to failure thanks to the sheer amount of pressure to succeed that comes with that price tag (people who see the French league already told me he is quite good at missing open goals). We also should not forget how the De Gea file was badly handled.

AdrianSutil · Post by **AdrianSutil** » 07 Sep 2015, 23:26

EURO 2016 looks to be a bit different this time around. Netherlands probably won't qualify, Iceland have, Wales certainly will. It's good to see a shake-up of the old order these days.

Heck, even the Faroese have picked up two wins in their group and SAN MARINO legit scored a point.

England will still go out on penalties in the second round, if we get that far...

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 07 Sep 2015, 23:40

AdrianSutil wrote:EURO 2016 looks to be a bit different this time around. Netherlands probably won't qualify, Iceland have, Wales certainly will. It's good to see a shake-up of the old order these days.

Heck, even the Faroese have picked up two wins in their group and SAN MARINO legit scored a point.

England will still go out on penalties in the second round, if we get that far...

It helps that there are 24 spots from this upcoming tournament onwards, but nevertheless, the rise of Wales in the past few years has been nothing short of sublime.

We probably will reach the second round, provided we finish at least 3rd out of 4, we have a chance. The inevitable penalty shootout loss will not be fun though.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 08 Sep 2015, 00:53

FullMetalJack wrote:
AdrianSutil wrote:EURO 2016 looks to be a bit different this time around. Netherlands probably won't qualify, Iceland have, Wales certainly will. It's good to see a shake-up of the old order these days.

Heck, even the Faroese have picked up two wins in their group and SAN MARINO legit scored a point.

England will still go out on penalties in the second round, if we get that far...

It helps that there are 24 spots from this upcoming tournament onwards, but nevertheless, the rise of Wales in the past few years has been nothing short of sublime.

We probably will reach the second round, provided we finish at least 3rd out of 4, we have a chance. The inevitable penalty shootout loss will not be fun though.

Not only Wales, but somehow Northern Ireland is leading its group too. Altough somehow hey ended up in a what looks like a very weak group, with no serious opposition other than Romania. Seems a succesful year for the British Isles, with Ireland still having a chance of qualification too. Scotland seems to be the exception to the rule, but to be fair, they're in a strong group.
As it stands, even Albania and Estonia make a chance of getting their debut. In case of Albania, it looks a very realistic one. In case of Estonia, the draw against San Marino seems to have inspired them to get their shite together.
Reject of the qualifiers candidates are Greece (who lost twice against Faroer) or Serbia (who managed to get in negative points at a certain point), altough my vote goes for Andorra, as they are the only of just two teams not to have scored any points yet. Seeing they have to play against Wales and Belgium, it's unlikely they will cause a surprise. The other one that hasn't scored points is Gibraltar, but considering it's their debut in official competition, we won't be too harsh on them.
Not only did San Marino score a point an Faroer won 2 games. Malta scored 2 points, Liechtenstein 5 points and Luxembourg 4 points. As it stands now, Liechenstein can still theoretically qualify with 2 games to go. Don't we all want to see Liechtenstein beat the likes of Russia? Support them!

Meanwhile in Belarus The Luxembourg national team got food poisoning from Spaghetti Bolognese, and will probably have to cancel their game today. Research has proven that the Spaghetti wasn't the problem, but the bolognese. Never trust Belarussian bolognese!

And oh, Samoa has progressed to the second round of the Oceanic qualifications for the World Cup 2018, congratulations!

AdrianSutil · Post by **AdrianSutil** » 08 Sep 2015, 22:40

Well, after today's Euro 2016 matches, Austria are the next team to confirm their qualification. They've had a blinder of a group, winning 7 and drawing 1. Good luck to them.

Wayne 'How's yer gran?' Rooney becomes England's all-time top goalscorer and San Marino nearly grabbed a 1-1 draw with Lithuania.

Also just found out that Qatar (who are hosting the 2022 World Cup) smashed Bhutan 15-0 in their qualifying match a few months ago!

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 09 Sep 2015, 04:17

Meanwhile the Central American zone produced no upsets in the third round.
So in the Fourth round, there's the usual suspects + St. Vincent and the Grenadines. However they only had to eliminate Curaçao to get there.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 09 Sep 2015, 08:57

This wrote:Meanwhile the Central American zone produced no upsets in the third round.
So in the Fourth round, there's the usual suspects + St. Vincent and the Grenadines. However they only had to eliminate Curaçao to get there.

In Asia, I find nothing short of amazing how Syria is still topping their group despite of whats happening down there. Sure there is still a couple of matches to be played against Japan but even so...

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 23 Sep 2015, 21:54

Serie A 15/16 in a nutshell;

Enforcer · Post by **Enforcer** » 23 Sep 2015, 22:38

You know, I never really believed in one man teams until now.

But I'm now officially attributing Liverpool getting within 2 points of the league title solely to Luis Suarez. Because everything Brendan Rodgers has done since then has told me that his input was basically irrelevant. Either that or he ate some sort of permanently mind-altering mushroom over the summer of 2014. Needing pens to get past a League Two side with a near first choice side is just the latest chapter.

Roy Hodgson was in charge of Liverpool for 20 Premier League games, and scored 25 points, and that was deemed so bad he was sacked. Rodgers has spent £290m on players, had three years in charge, and over the last 20 games, Liverpool have scored 31 points. Only 6 points more. Fairly dreadful return on the investment, imo.

Post by **Ataxia** » 13 Oct 2015, 21:10

The Euro 2016 group qualifying round is over, and we have no fewer than five first-time qualifiers; Northern Ireland won their group, whilst Iceland, Wales, Albania and Slovakia also make it into the competition proper. One of the biggest surprises has to be the Netherlands getting dumped out of the competition, and watching Turkey also qualify as the best 3rd-placed team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden and Ukraine are going to duke it out to become the final four teams to make it in.

The Frank Sinclair award for own goals must go to Watford's Giedrius Arlauskis, who managed to help two shots into his own net...

tBone · Post by **tBone** » 13 Oct 2015, 21:39

Ataxia wrote:One of the biggest surprises has to be the Netherlands getting dumped out of the competition

Yup, our male football team may be the ROTR this year for ALL sports... Just awful

Alextrax52 · Post by **Alextrax52** » 13 Oct 2015, 21:43

Ataxia wrote:The Euro 2016 group qualifying round is over, and we have no fewer than five first-time qualifiers; Northern Ireland won their group, whilst Iceland, Wales, Albania and Slovakia also make it into the competition proper. One of the biggest surprises has to be the Netherlands getting dumped out of the competition, and watching Turkey also qualify as the best 3rd-placed team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden and Ukraine are going to duke it out to become the final four teams to make it in.

The Frank Sinclair award for own goals must go to Watford's Giedrius Arlauskis, who managed to help two shots into his own net...

For Iceland and Albania it's their first tournament at all as the other 3 mentioned there have all been at the World Cup before. I think it's a combination of the expanded tournament and the fact that some teams are just a lot better than previously.

Watching Italy vs Norway I have to say with more experience Norway might have seen it through. They were organised, compact and snuffled out everything Italy had for 70 minutes until the awful mix up in communications between goalie and full back. Still it creates some interesting ties in the playoffs with Sweden and Denmark there too

Poor Holland. There haven't been many player developments the only real change being LVG leaving the manager post. The primary theory of this failure is the reversal back to Holland's traditional 4-3-3 role which doesn't seem to suit this current team like LVG's 5 man defence. I also think they need some new talent as the likes of Snjider RVP Huntelaar and Robben aren't getting younger. A fresh impetus should be near the top or the drawing board

Post by **Ataxia** » 13 Oct 2015, 21:52

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:Poor Holland. There haven't been many player developments the only real change being LVG leaving the manager post. The primary theory of this failure is the reversal back to Holland's traditional 4-3-3 role which doesn't seem to suit this current team like LVG's 5 man defence. I also think they need some new talent as the likes of Snjider RVP Huntelaar and Robben aren't getting younger. A fresh impetus should be near the top or the drawing board

The thing is, there isn't really anyone who's emerging at the current moment. Memphis will become a top player, there's no doubt about that, and Anwar El Ghazi looks good...but after that I'm struggling. When the bulk of the squad players are hanging around teams like Newcastle, QPR and Sunderland, that can't be conducive to a strong international team.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 13 Oct 2015, 22:13

Holland DNQ and Belgium becomes #1 on the FIFA-ranking. Strange world we live in today.
Seems Netherlands have now adopted Iceland as their team to support already.
Meanwhile the whole of Britain qualified, except for Scotland and Gibraltar. Scotland, what are you doing?

Meanwhile, it's not longer mathematically possible for Bhutan to qualify for the world cup 2018 and Guam seems to be unable to capitalise on their early form. Syria's still much in the running though. When looking for sympathetic underdogs, i stumbled upon Comoros who eleminated Lesotho. Let's give them thumbs up for the next qualifying round!

Meanwhile in Belgium, White Star Brussels fight with 4th division team RWDM with sarcasm. (used google translate)

"Striking twist in the Stade Edmond Machtens. RWS Bruxelles has decided to change his name and move. Starting today, we go through life as FC Waterschei we move to KRC Genk and we will start in fourth class.

With the move we demand from KRC Genk and its President Mr. Houben we stand one of the Cristal Arena can deploy and we want to occupy the field when it suits us. We rely on the support of the former suppo parameters of FC Waterschei to follow us in our comeback in 'our' stadium. We are Waterschei!

We carry the mayor of Genk to respect our basic number (or at least, we do appear), and also to find a new legal concept that in no court is known: 'partial solution'. In order KRC Genk to oblige us to their land (where their professional team trains every afternoon) to provide loan will we three times a week at 19h show up for training.

We also ask them to deny the youth of the main field on Saturday and Sunday, because we will play our games as well. What makes us play from where the youth of KRC Genk, as we can take a room in the stadium. And the safety of the opponents KRC Genk, which makes us even less.

We will however ask the mayor to the municipal workers to have to withdraw from the stadium as long as we did not get the key. So we make the working conditions for youth KRC Genk impossible. From the moment we took our move into the stadium, then they obviously the stadium again maintained solely in the interests of our club: FC Waterschei. We are Waterschei!

Youth players from KRC Genk are nothing compared to the return of our mythical club. After all, we were already in the stadium before KRC Genk. The club with no past and no future. We will! And what about the 600 young players? Nothing. The future of the youth makes us a ball out, because that would be an obstacle to the return of our basic number. Nobody should tell us the way that we will be the only amateur club in Europe who will share the stadium with a professional club. We are indeed a glorious club with a rich history and that gives guarantee of success.

It's not that we have already gone bankrupt in 2003, 2005 and 2014 ...

Who last come, last served basis.

Welcome to the absurdity. "

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 17 Oct 2015, 17:56

Meanwhile in Belgium, Standard has reached the last position after a defeat against Westerlo (who were last until today).

I predict a riot. A big one. It's not going to be pretty.

Post by **tommykl** » 17 Oct 2015, 20:55

This wrote:Meanwhile in Belgium, Standard has reached the last position after a defeat against Westerlo (who were last until today).

I predict a riot. A big one. It's not going to be pretty.

I am so glad not to be in the immediate vicinity of Liège at this moment in time...