The Ali Dia Football/Soccer Thread

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 11 Jul 2016, 11:03

Miguel98 wrote:Cried like a small baby. Incredible feeling. Aleluia!

A truly unbelievable feeling! Now, it's party time! :dance:

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 13 Jul 2016, 18:16

Let's not forget the real important stuff: Gibraltar's teams in European competition Lincoln Red Imps and Europa FC are blitzing the opposition! Both survived their first qualifying round, and in the second qualifying round, Lincoln beat none other than Celtic on home soil

They're stil likely to get a defeat in the return game, but its a good indication of just how deep Scottish football have fallen. Gibraltar has now overtaken Andorra and San Marino in the country coefficient ranking

watka · Post by **watka** » 13 Jul 2016, 20:43

This wrote:Let's not forget the real important stuff: Gibraltar's teams in European competition Lincoln Red Imps and Europa FC are blitzing the opposition! Both survived their first qualifying round, and in the second qualifying round, Lincoln beat none other than Celtic on home soil They're stil likely to get a defeat in the return game, but its a good indication of just how deep Scottish football have fallen. Gibraltar has now overtaken Andorra and San Marino in the country coefficient ranking

That's the Brendan Rodgers effect for you.

AdrianBelmonte_ · Post by **AdrianBelmonte_** » 23 Jul 2016, 05:11

I predict that "The Special One" (sic) will make David Moyes look like Johan Cruyff, and, of course, will get sacked before boxing day

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 25 Jul 2016, 03:02

I predict East Stirlingshire will continue to take the walloping in the Lowland League that they've become used to over the last decade or so in the Scottish Third Division.

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 26 Jul 2016, 23:39

Today I take a look in the CAF qualify groups for world cup. Group B: Nigeria, Cameroon, Algeria and Zambia. Just one is going to qualify to world cup. Talk about a death group!

watka · Post by **watka** » 30 Jul 2016, 22:19

Dj_bereta wrote:Today I take a look in the CAF qualify groups for world cup. Group B: Nigeria, Cameroon, Algeria and Zambia. Just one is going to qualify to world cup. Talk about a death group!

Easily the hardest group! I think Algeria have the firepower but Nigeria have the know how. Zambia have underperformed since their AFCON triumph and Cameroon have been poor for a few years.

Group A on the other hand has Tunisia, Libya, DR Congo and Guinea. So 3 teams that have never qualified for a World Cup and one other mediocre team in the form of Tunisia. I think DR Congo might take it.

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 31 Jul 2016, 15:16

dinizintheoven wrote:I predict East Stirlingshire will continue to take the walloping in the Lowland League that they've become used to over the last decade or so in the Scottish Third Division.

It can't be as bad as before, I highly doubt they'll finish with as few as 8 points, but you could be right.

EuroBrun · Post by **EuroBrun** » 02 Aug 2016, 11:36

This wrote:Let's not forget the real important stuff: Gibraltar's teams in European competition Lincoln Red Imps and Europa FC are blitzing the opposition! Both survived their first qualifying round, and in the second qualifying round, Lincoln beat none other than Celtic on home soil They're stil likely to get a defeat in the return game, but its a good indication of just how deep Scottish football have fallen. Gibraltar has now overtaken Andorra and San Marino in the country coefficient ranking

Being born in one of those countries (or whatever status Gibraltar has) should be amazing: even a normal person could be national champion and play in UCL or in the national team :shock:

Enforcer · Post by **Enforcer** » 02 Aug 2016, 21:59

So... 3rd round CL Qualifier 2nd leg.

Dundalk (semi-Professional team who nearly went out of business 4 years ago, from a nation who've never had one of their teams in the group stages) vs. BATE Borisov (fully professional team who've been in the group stages of the Champions League 4 times in a row). And BATE have a 1-0 lead from the first leg.

Foregone conclusion right?

Wrong:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngM3kyE2EDI

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 03 Aug 2016, 00:23

Enforcer wrote:So... 3rd round CL Qualifier 2nd leg.

Dundalk (semi-Professional team who nearly went out of business 4 years ago, from a nation who've never had one of their teams in the group stages) vs. BATE Borisov (fully professional team who've been in the group stages of the Champions League 4 times in a row). And BATE have a 1-0 lead from the first leg.

Foregone conclusion right?

Wrong:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngM3kyE2EDI

Nice by them, that means they're certain of Europa League group phase (only the second irish team to manageso). But you never know, if they have to face for example Celtic, they might even make it to the Champions League

Enforcer · Post by **Enforcer** » 03 Aug 2016, 22:49

This wrote:Nice by them, that means they're certain of Europa League group phase (only the second irish team to manageso). But you never know, if they have to face for example Celtic, they might even make it to the Champions League

I'm looking at the potential opponents and none of them are better than BATE Borisov. Proper chance here. Then again, Dundalk weren't supposed supposed to be better than BATE either, but they were last night.

I certainly expect Stephen Kenny to show up Rodgers' tactical ineptness if they draw Celtic.

watka · Post by **watka** » 05 Aug 2016, 12:17

So Dundalk have drawn Legia Warsaw. Seeding structure means they will play at home first unfortunately and I don't think that defending a lead (if they have one from the home leg) will be easier, better to be chasing the game. But here's to hoping and either way, they'll remain in European competition whatever the result!

Also, I think it would be hilarious if Manchester City were to fail to qualify for the Champions League group stage, what with Guardiola being considered the continent's best manager. English teams have always made it through though; the last failure I can think of was Everton mid-noughties.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 06 Aug 2016, 23:52

watka wrote:So Dundalk have drawn Legia Warsaw. Seeding structure means they will play at home first unfortunately and I don't think that defending a lead (if they have one from the home leg) will be easier, better to be chasing the game. But here's to hoping and either way, they'll remain in European competition whatever the result!

Legia Warschau now has Hasi as trainer. And if yo looked at the system Anderlecht plated in during his time... you'll indeed find out there was nothing but randomness.That guy's not tactical master. Go Dundalk!

On our new national trainer: meh Shoul've been better,coul've been worst. Everyone gets the teeling of 'let's not spend too much on this guy and dump him when Preud'Homme is ready'.

AdrianBelmonte_ · Post by **AdrianBelmonte_** » 07 Aug 2016, 01:00

This wrote:On our new national trainer: meh Shoul've been better,coul've been worst. Everyone gets the teeling of 'let's not spend too much on this guy and dump him when Preud'Homme is ready'.

Still better than ours :roll:

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 07 Aug 2016, 22:52

Well, on the first leg of division 1B, we had this situation that every single team drew. :roll:

It's only 8 teams, but still. I find this division already more interesting than 1A.

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 08 Aug 2016, 04:23

Deja Vu in the Rio Olympics. Brazil drew with Iraq (0-0) and now needs to defeat Denmark to qualify and avoid another shame in this year (after getting eliminated by Peru in the Copa América). 0 goals in 180 minutes against two reject teams (South Africa and Iraq).

EuroBrun · Post by **EuroBrun** » 09 Aug 2016, 14:52

Is anyone of you excited about the new Champions' League format?

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 09 Aug 2016, 15:17

EuroBrun wrote:Is anyone of you excited about the new Champions' League format?

What's new about the format, then?

EuroBrun · Post by **EuroBrun** » 09 Aug 2016, 18:55

This wrote:
EuroBrun wrote:Is anyone of you excited about the new Champions' League format?

What's new about the format, then?

What I heard from the news.

- team allocation: 16 clubs for the 4 top League, with qualified teams determined also on clubs' recent history; 3 or 4 league with two teams, 5 leagues with one team and the remaining determined with playoffs.

- knockout phase: in the last-16 group winners won't necessarily face runner-ups, but the 8 team with the best UEFA Club coefficient will be seeded and will face one of the "unseeded" teams.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 09 Aug 2016, 22:26

If i interpret this correctly, it's mostly the subtop countries suffering from this and the top country teams benefitting from it, whilst for the smaller countries, nothing changes.
Can't see what's exciting about seeing more big clubs. The amount of people who want to see more clubs is vastly overrated. Even the media is already largely ignoring the latter stages of the CL, so this is only going to worsen.
Also using seeding is another way of protecting the big teams against a potential upset from smaller teams and a way to avoid randomness.

Commercial lesson #1 people need their own team to be there or to have a realistic chance to be there in order to be able to relate to the championship. Alienating clubs who are good enough by not giving them a chance to be there is counter-productive on the long term.
My counter suggestion would be enlarging the amount of teams to 40 or even 48 (5 or 6 teams poules). This would give us a few more countries and not give us a shitload of crap teams, because you only start to find crap teams outside of the top 30 of the EUFA-ranking. Another thing i'd probably suggest is: more teams in CL equals less teams in EL.

The information i could find on it seems to suggest it's more of an idea that the big 4 country leagues suggested, rather than an official proposition. I can't imagine that leagues like France or Russia are just going to let this happen, as they would hugely suffer from this reforms.

AdrianBelmonte_ · Post by **AdrianBelmonte_** » 14 Aug 2016, 15:51

So Jürgen Klopp's signings on the whole summer got exposed... in only 45 minutes... by Arsenal... well done, Kloppo :facepalm:

watka · Post by **watka** » 14 Aug 2016, 21:03

EuroBrun wrote:
This wrote:
EuroBrun wrote:Is anyone of you excited about the new Champions' League format?

What's new about the format, then?

What I heard from the news.

- team allocation: 16 clubs for the 4 top League, with qualified teams determined also on clubs' recent history; 3 or 4 league with two teams, 5 leagues with one team and the remaining determined with playoffs.

- knockout phase: in the last-16 group winners won't necessarily face runner-ups, but the 8 team with the best UEFA Club coefficient will be seeded and will face one of the "unseeded" teams.

I will call this "the Leicester City rule".

EuroBrun · Post by **EuroBrun** » 16 Aug 2016, 18:51

Pep Guardiola on tonight's game: "We are going to try to score goals and try to convince the players how important it is to play in the Champions League and how beautiful it is and we are going to try and win it"

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 18 Aug 2016, 01:03

Brazil vs Germany in the finals of Rio Olympics 2016. The repeat of story from 2014 world cup in Brazil. Like in that year, the German team defeated Portugal by 4-0 and the Brazilian team defeated Colombia in the quarterfinals. We will see another 7x1 or the Brazilian team will finally redeem itself?

Post by **Londoner** » 30 Aug 2016, 19:29

Meanwhile, there's a mass boycott of the EFL Trophy taking place tonight, with fans up in arms at the fact that Premiership/Championship B teams have been allowed into the competition. Plenty of tweets tonight showing empty grounds.

The whole competition looks totally farcical, surely they're gonna have to change back to the old format.

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 30 Aug 2016, 22:11

East Londoner wrote:Meanwhile, there's a mass boycott of the EFL Trophy taking place tonight, with fans up in arms at the fact that Premiership/Championship B teams have been allowed into the competition. Plenty of tweets tonight showing empty grounds.

The whole competition looks totally farcical, surely they're gonna have to change back to the old format.

Another reason to be eternally grateful for Paul Caddis saving us from relegation to League 1.

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 02 Sep 2016, 00:36

Gold Medal and now an outstanding victory against Ecuador by 3x0. Looks like the Brazilian team is back to the business and looks like Tite is the real deal.

RonDenisDeletraz · Post by **RonDenisDeletraz** » 02 Sep 2016, 02:06

The Socceroos beat Iraq 2-nil just before. Good.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 02 Sep 2016, 03:46

Belgium disentigrating even further - still better than the Netherlands though

Transferperiod in JPL basically been 'let's sell all the players!'

tBone · Post by **tBone** » 02 Sep 2016, 13:35

This wrote:[...] still better than the Netherlands though

It is unbelievable that this squad made it to the World Cup finals 2 years ago...

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 02 Sep 2016, 15:06

Netherlands will qualify to world cup. Sweden without Ibra is nothing. In other hand, I'm wondering if Japan will qualify, after losing in home soil to UAE.

Alextrax52 · Post by **Alextrax52** » 04 Sep 2016, 15:08

Dj_bereta wrote:Netherlands will qualify to world cup. Sweden without Ibra is nothing. In other hand, I'm wondering if Japan will qualify, after losing in home soil to UAE.

There's still France in that group. Play off at best for Holland

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 04 Sep 2016, 15:49

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:
Dj_bereta wrote:Netherlands will qualify to world cup. Sweden without Ibra is nothing. In other hand, I'm wondering if Japan will qualify, after losing in home soil to UAE.

There's still France in that group. Play off at best for Holland

Oh yeah, I completely forgot. This group will be a cakewalk for France.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 06 Sep 2016, 21:39

Dj_bereta wrote:
Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:There's still France in that group. Play off at best for Holland

Oh yeah, I completely forgot. This group will be a cakewalk for France.

Ummmm......

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 06 Sep 2016, 21:42

Nevertheless, history is written again, as Kosovo scored a point in its first official competition match. (against Finland)

Also Faroe Islands started off their campaing with a point. Will they be inspired by neighbors Iceland?

watka · Post by **watka** » 08 Sep 2016, 21:04

Unfortunately, Luxembourg were denied a draw in a thrilling game against Bulgaria. Heartbreaking, but you've got to admire this finish: http://www.skysports.com/football/news/ ... -qualifier

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 18 Sep 2016, 18:05

We won? We won! Wow. I absolutely did not believe it could happen. But Inter played Juve off the park. Thank goodness they rested Evra for Asamoah - he was useless today and gifted us so many chances down the left.

AdrianBelmonte_ · Post by **AdrianBelmonte_** » 19 Sep 2016, 05:30

And somehow, Valencia maged to make it worse: they're currently DEAD LAST

Also, a major kudos for Las Palmas, they made a great start of the season that put them third, only just in front of us, wow

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 19 Sep 2016, 22:51

Biscione wrote:

We won? We won! Wow. I absolutely did not believe it could happen. But Inter played Juve off the park. Thank goodness they rested Evra for Asamoah - he was useless today and gifted us so many chances down the left.

Was about time someone won against them, Italian competion's been getting a bit boring at the top lately.... Almost as predictable as the Liechtenstinian Cup.