Bloody Football!

[robertlouis]

Will watch whatever I can, really do not care though and have no thoughts. Just hope our players come home in one piece, in the past players such as owen, gerrard, torres.... getting injured in internationals all the time..lmao

I do care about something though, so roll on August. No splitters!! Stand!!

Well, good news for Liverpool - and England - that twat Glenn Johnson has a knackered toe.

[Stavros]

Does anyone think that there is a better alternative to hung matches than a penalty shoot-out? Sepp Blatter has appointed a commisison headed by Beckenbauer to look into it. Am I right in thinking that a penalty is a part of a football match if a foul has been committed in the area? Is there something about a player being unable to score from a penalty so embarrassing that it must be scrapped? Or could it be that if you cannot score a penalty you shouldn't be on the pitch anyway? The penalty is a fascinating combination of footballing skill (also true of goalkeepers) as well as a psychological test, and that is why I think it should stay. Better than tossing a coin. The Daily Mail has suggeste 'rock, paper, scissors' whatever that it is, it doesn't sound very footbally to me though.

[robertlouis]

Does anyone think that there is a better alternative to hung matches than a penalty shoot-out? Sepp Blatter has appointed a commisison headed by Beckenbauer to look into it. Am I right in thinking that a penalty is a part of a football match if a foul has been committed in the area? Is there something about a player being unable to score from a penalty so embarrassing that it must be scrapped? Or could it be that if you cannot score a penalty you shouldn't be on the pitch anyway? The penalty is a fascinating combination of footballing skill (also true of goalkeepers) as well as a psychological test, and that is why I think it should stay. Better than tossing a coin. The Daily Mail has suggeste 'rock, paper, scissors' whatever that it is, it doesn't sound very footbally to me though.

When I was a lad we had this quaint thing called a replay - if you couldn't settle affairs within 90 minutes you came back next week and started from scratch. What the hell's wrong with that?

Oh yes, it doesn't fit with the TV schedules. Well, fuck 'em. Penalty shoot-outs might make for brief gladiatorial spectacle, but they're a perverse way to finish a football match, let alone the Champions' League or the FA Cup - even the World Cup, all too often. And they ruin careers. Remember Baggio in 1994, Waddle, Pearce, Southgate etc etc?

Play the game again FFS.

[Stavros]

A bit overwrought I think RobertLouis -in the first place, a penalty is part of a football match, and the core question is why didn't those players score a penalty? Why do some footballer faced with an open goal hit the ball over the bar? It is a critical moment psychologically, and there is some guy in Manchester I think who claims he can train players so that they never miss.

A replay sounds just, but what happens if the second -and the third- replays don't deliver a single goal or end 1-1 or 2-2 or even 6-6? How many times can someone from, say Liverpool make the trek from Birkenhead to, say, Istanbul for a football match? Finances are also a consideration, and for the fans.

[robertlouis]

A bit overwrought I think RobertLouis -in the first place, a penalty is part of a football match, and the core question is why didn't those players score a penalty? Why do some footballer faced with an open goal hit the ball over the bar? It is a critical moment psychologically, and there is some guy in Manchester I think who claims he can train players so that they never miss.

A replay sounds just, but what happens if the second -and the third- replays don't deliver a single goal or end 1-1 or 2-2 or even 6-6? How many times can someone from, say Liverpool make the trek from Birkenhead to, say, Istanbul for a football match? Finances are also a consideration, and for the fans.

Yes, of course there are limits logistically, but right now if I was a Sheffield Utd fan whose entire season came down to my team's goalkeeper taking a penalty against his opposite number and missing it, I'd be wondering if there was a better way to decide something so important. Don't forget that Sheff Utd finished 3rd by one point and gave way in the play-off final to the team that finished 11 points behind them.

[Stavros]

But that's the cruelty of football -if city had not scored in extra time in the last game of the season United would be champions -it is an accumulation of points from individual matches, not a general verdict on a season that wins titles -United in the past have scraped through loaeds of games 1-0 without playing well. This is why some argue Chelsea were not the better side in Munich, as if defending were a secondary part of football -its about winning. The core question remains: why didn't Sheffield United win during 90 minutes of play if they are that good?

[JenniferParisHusband]

I'm a believer in the "golden goal." Play your 90, do your overtime, then it's 15 minute periods until someone earns the win. If you had that, I guarnatee Munich would have the cup, and not the rent boys.

[Stavros]

Fine, but what happens if nobody scores? Can a football match last for, say, seven hours, or indeed, seven days? It may sound absurd, but the tennis match at Wimbledon a few years ago between Mahut and Isner which went in the last set to 70-68 games was noticeable for the steep decline in the quality of the play. It lasted that long because both players were playing so badly, and were equally matched in fatigue and lack of imagination. No, penalties are part of football, and they have the drama, comedy and tragedy that gives players an extra motivation to prove their worth.

[jimbo1974]

This is an interesting graphic. The graph showing wages spent vs League position is particularly telling. It shows how well Spurs, for example are doing, compared to their wage bill.

[SammiValentine]

check liverpools wage bill in the next set of books.