The Soccer Thread

[Guest]

Well that sucked. Tottenham straight up dominated Man U for 60 minutes but couldn't score and Man U took advantage of the couple chances they had against the run of play.

 

Oh well. Tottenham's hardest game left is at Chelsea and that's their only game against the top-7 remaining. They've got eight games against 11 through 20 so they should still be in good shape for third because Arsenal still has City, Chelsea and Newcastle at home. And Chelsea has a brutal schedule left with home games against Tottenham and Newcastle and road dates with City, Arsenal and Liverpool and Fulham. So even if Tottenham drops behind Arsenal, they should still finish ahead of Chelsea.

 

The top of the table should be interesting also since Man U has a cake schedule left. Their only game against the top-7 is at City, while City still plays host to Chelsea as well as at Arsenal and Newcastle.

[Guest]

Game on at the Emirates as Arsenal gets two goals in the first 26 minutes.

[Guest]

And now it's 3-0 Arsenal in the 43rd minute after a van Persie penalty kick.

 

This is amazing.

[bukie]

As long as they keep Milan off the scoreboard, there's a chance.

[Guest]

As long as they keep Milan off the scoreboard, there's a chance.

 

That's the key now. What Milan does in the second half will be interesting. They obviously don't want to give up another goal but a goal for them would be incredibly valuable.

 

The other game going on now is good also. Benfica leads at home 1-0 at half so the tie is 3-3 on aggregate. Should be a very exciting last 45 in both matches.

[shnsajax]

This match would go very far towards next season if they can pull it off.

[Guest]

Milan holds on to advance. They're in the quarters for the first time since winning the CL in 06-07.

 

Benfica also moves on and advances to the quarterfinals for the first time since the 05-06 season.

[wolf stansson]

Good article on the mutual love affair between Michael Bradley and Italian football: http://blogs.thescore.com/footyblog/2012/03/06/bandini-how-michael-bradley-became-chievos-captain-america/

[SpongeWorthy]

Messi scored 5 goals against Leverkusen

[shnsajax]

Messi scored 5 goals against Leverkusen

 

I think he is starting to lose his form.

[shnsajax]

Jozy had two assists today and both ManU and City lost in the Europa League.

[Guest]

Arsenal gets yet another injury time goal to get a win. That's three in the last four EPL games.

 

Tottenham now only up one point on Arsenal and four on Chelsea.

[Guest]

Inter gave up no goals during the first 90 minutes of each of the two legs against Marseille. However they gave up goals in the second half injury time in both legs and were eliminated on away goals.

[jersey cubs fan]

chelsea with a fun finish

[Guest]

Man U loses to Athletic Bilbao 2-1 today an 5-3 on aggregate. City is about to start.

[Guest]

City gets bounced also. They were down 2-0 today (3-0 on aggregate) but came back with three goals. They won 3-2 today but went out on away goals.

[USSoccer]

TFC bounced LA last night in the CCL, and SSFC got violated repeatedly in Mexico against Santos. Herc scored twice.

[wvcbxl]

CL draw:

 

APOEL Nicosia v Real Madrid

Olympique Marseille v Bayern München

Benfica v Chelsea

Milan v Barcelona

 

I like that last match-up.

[Guest]

CL draw:

 

APOEL Nicosia v Real Madrid

Olympique Marseille v Bayern München

Benfica v Chelsea

Milan v Barcelona

 

I like that last match-up.

 

Balanced draw also. Three good teams on one side, two on the other and each of the three weaker teams (APOEL, Marseille, Benfica) have to play one of the big teams.

 

If the favorites win, the semis of Real-Bayern and Chelsea-Barcelona should be amazing. I'd love to see Chelsea have to chase Barcelona around for 90 minutes twice in the span of a week.

 

On a related note, has anyone looked at Chelsea's fixture list the next few weeks? They have no weekend off dates the rest of the year and midweek games the next four weeks. If they advance in the FA Cup, they'll have the April 14 game against Newcastle to make up and if they advance in the UCL, they'll extend that midweek game streak to six straight weeks. Starting Sunday, they're guaranteed nine games in the next 29 days and if they advance in the UCL, it will be 13 games in 43 days.

[Guest]

A Bolton player, Fabrice Muamba, collapsed on the pitch today against Tottenham and the match was abandoned early in the first half with the score tied 1-1. No word on exactly what happened but the announcers used the word resuscitate a couple times during the delay.

[Mark Priors Calves]

A Bolton player, Fabrice Muamba, collapsed on the pitch today against Tottenham and the match was abandoned early in the first half with the score tied 1-1. No word on exactly what happened but the announcers used the word resuscitate a couple times during the delay.

It looks awful.

[shnsajax]

Sounds like a heart attack, said to be in critical.

[mul21]

City gets bounced also. They were down 2-0 today (3-0 on aggregate) but came back with three goals. They won 3-2 today but went out on away goals.

 

I watched this game at a pub in Bath, England. Not that anybody cares.

[Guest]

It's incredibly frustrating watching Tottenham right now. They usually play really well and control the game but just can't get the results they need.

 

They dominated Stoke today at White Hart Lane but needed an injury time goal just to salvage a point. Stoke's goal also came during a five-minute span where Tottenham had a 92-8 (not a typo) possession advantage according to FSC. That's three straight EPL games where they deserved at least a point, if not three, and they've gotten one point total.

 

Arsenal beat Everton 1-0 on the road today and jumped Spurs for third. Fortunately Chelsea lost to City so Tottenham is still five points up for the race for fourth.

[bukie]

A good read about the Fabrice Muamba incident: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7718919/fabrice-muamba-how-athletes-fall