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Justice. Casillas was brilliant in the shoot out, guessed the right way every time just got beat on a couple great takes. Andy Gray was openly rooting for Spain. :) Russia-Spain should be good.

All of those were PK shootouts, too.

Except that no, it wasn't a fluke. It was terrible defending by Vidic and Rio. Vidic got a piece of the ball and it deflected off of Rio's back right into the path of Lampard, and that's not a fluke? That's just football. Goals like that happen all the time. Lucky, I guess, I just don't like people discounting them as if they shouldn't have happened. I was in a bad mood. Completely agree that that's just football, I'm not saying it shouldn't have happened just that Utd could've been 3-0 up early on, just like Chelsea could've been 3-1 up at FT. I understand your mood, re-hashing a CL final lost on PKs obviously isn't ideal. Thanks for the quick responses, I'm not on here daily and sometimes I feel like you guys are probably done talking about some of the things I come here to comment on.

Except that no, it wasn't a fluke. It was terrible defending by Vidic and Rio. Vidic got a piece of the ball and it deflected off of Rio's back right into the path of Lampard, and that's not a fluke? Typical Ronaldo arrogance thinking he can A) break the rules and B) continue with a terrible technique even though he has missed more pk's in a season than he should in a career. It's one thing for a keeper to get lucky and stone you, but to flat out miss 3 times in a season is bush league and entirely unacceptable for the world's best player. But yeah, go ahead and blame the pink shirt; I'm sure Ronaldo is. I thought you were talking about Ronaldo's arrogance but you seemed to have a shot at me there at the end. I was joking about Cech's kit, it's horrible but I'm not blaming it for Ronaldo's miss. Ronaldo flat out missed twice, not three times. However, I am going to admit that I was mistaken about one thing: Both of his misses were without the pause. I couldn't remember the technique he used and just assumed both were the stop-and-go that is more common for him. That's wrong, both were straight run-ups. The stop-and-go still makes me more nervous, though.

Great game yesterday. I watched it at a pub and spent the rest of the night celebrating. Definitely a game of two halves. Chelsea were lucky not to be down 3-0 at halftime, Lampard's goal was a fluke. They were just as unlucky in the second half, though, with the two off the woodwork. Vidic was immense. I thought he and Ronaldo were United's two best players, although everyone except Rooney and Carrick seemed to play pretty well. It looks to me like Terry slips after he hits the ball, hard to tell. I wish Ronaldo would just put his PKs in the side netting instead of his stop-and-go routine. However, of his 3 PK misses this year, two have been wide and only Cech (and his face, and possibly his tangerine pajamas) kept him out legitimately, so I can't be too bothered by it. I'm just glad that United got a chance to play Chelsea again and this time with their first 11. Definitely two of the best teams in Europe, but I do feel that the slightly better team won the championships. Oh, and fair play to MPC above for recognizing the embarassment of some of Chelsea's antics around the ref. I feel the same whenever Ronaldo starts pouting. No more club football for 3 months. :(

I wish Reed hadn't lifted his right knee up to brace his fall, it would've looked that little bit better if he was flat out. That said, great catch.

Great strike from Scholes. Man United's back 4 played very well. Great atmosphere at OT. Messi with the ball at his feet is unreal. That commercial was awesome. That is all.

I actually kind of dig it. Even if we end up even on points, their goal differential wins it. Now they have Superman rested for a critical, critical Barca match. I think it was actually pretty brilliant by SAF. He needs this second European title to put him level with Busby and he doesn't care if he gets the premiership based on goal differential because in the end all he cares about is breaking Liverpool's record of 19 top flight titles and given the choice, he'll take the Champions league over the premiership every day of the week. I'm of two minds on Ronaldo starting on the bench. 1. I agree that SAF wants the CL over the PL (this year). Of course he wants both, no point in getting this close in the CL and then sacrificing your best options just because you're still fighting for the domestic championship as well. Man Utd must believe that they can beat West Ham and Wigan, so SAF did have that little leeway. Aside from that, if Chelsea don't get a hand ball just inside the box on a long cross in the last 10 minutes, it probably ends 1-1 and United essentially seal up the title. If Chelsea don't save two balls off the line in extra time, it ends 2-2. 2. Ronaldo is 23. He's incredibly strong and fit, and he can probably play 3 full games in 6 days and be ok. (And he isn't exactly racing back to defend very often.) Still, I don't have a problem with starting him on the bench. He came on for a half hour, in theory his pace and rest might have been an advantage over Chelsea's players that started. Unfortunately, Ashley Cole pretty much owns Ronaldo. Cole played well again, Ronaldo had a game-tying shot saved off the line, that is that. Btw, Everton-Aston Villa with a goal-scoring frenzy at the end of their game this morning, ends 2-2. The race for 5th is still on.

Unfortunately for West Ham, Tevez is on the other side this year. Yes I know that West Ham beat United earlier this season, but West Ham isn't in the greatest of form at the moment. Hopefully Newcastle can steal something away from Chelsea, just like they did last year. ;)

Barca dominated possession (~65-35) but hardly worked Van der Sar all game. Henry came on with a couple decent long range efforts late. United played poorly in their own right, poor touches and passes and obviously couldn't keep much possession. The return leg at OT should be better, and I agree that if you can't win at home in the semis, then maybe you shouldn't advance. Although if United don't win, that's going to be the case anyway. It'll be interesting to see who SAF starts on Saturday at Chelsea. Scholes played 90 minutes today and Hargreaves hasn't started in back-to-back games since December. So it's probably Anderson-Carrick in CM. Early start to that one, too, gonna have to get up at 6:30 to watch it. Can't imagine the pain if any west coasters try it.

your still not going to get much playing time And if Zambrano starts, your in trouble! This still amuses me, 5 years later. Well done.

Not with Lehmann in goal. :wink: Actually, how do the Arsenal fans feel about Almunia? I've read some not-so-favorable opinions of him and Wenger's choice to stick with him.

United looked much better once Anderson and Tevez came on for Scholes (who was not good) and Park. Van der Sar had several good saves throughout the game but looked responsible for Adebayor's (handball) goal. Arsenal definitely did not capitalize on their opportunities, though. Should be a good battle at Stamford Bridge in two weeks.

I can't believe how many people in this thread are impressed by this. Must be young'ins. I do enjoy positional tomfoolery as well but I didn't think it was that uncommon as to not have happened in the last 15 years. Was he allowed warm-up pitches? I don't see why he shouldn't be.

If your son is an Illinois resident they're not going to let him buy beer. I turned 21 over 2 months ago but was told at Wrigley that I couldn't buy beer because my ID says "Under 21 Until January 31, 2008". When I explained that it says UNTIL a date that has already passed, the manager told me that while "there was no denying" that I'm 21, it's the policy of the house not to sell to anyone who has "under 21 until" on their ID. It's probably the dumbest policy I've ever heard of -- in place no doubt to prevent the morons who check IDs from getting "confused". The result is that now I either need to go to the DMV to get a license that isn't expired, get someone to buy me beer, or use a fake -- which are never sniffed out. This happened to me in my hometown grocery store. I was outraged. This happened to me in my hometown grocery store where I had formerly worked. I was also outraged.

All this fake doom and gloom is just as annoying as the real doom and gloom.

As usual, pure class - love the boldfaced part above. If I had to choose an entrance song, I'd go with the evil guitar riff from Led Zep's "In the Light". Perfect complement to noise from the fans. He came out to TNT by AC/DC today. I wish they wouldn't do it at all, but if they do why pick AC/DC over Pearl Jam?

Was at the game. Fukodome was awesome. More and more fans bother me every time I go. There were boos after the top of the 9th, boos after the top of the 10th, and a group of girls got to their seats behind me in the 8th inning (!) then left after the Brewers scored 3 with one of them stating "Well, we lost." Many fans left after the top of the 9th, but a fair amount even left after the 8th. I don't expect all fans to stay for every inning, but it's Opening Day with Lee-Ramirez-Fukodome coming up! Booing Kerry Wood after one inning and after everything he has meant to this team is despicable.

I can't wait until they start promoting Opening Month. I hate most changes at Wrigley, but I kinda like the warning track look.

I think we're seeing one of the greatest players ever, without exaggeration. I think he will need to win a Euro and a World Cup to be in the Zidane/Pele/Beckenbauer/Maradona grouping, but I think he'll do it. He is an unstoppable force of nature: the speed, the power, the finesse, the shot, the hair, the abs... :lol: That backheel goal was great, you could tell even Ronaldo thought so because he actually smiled during the celebration, instead of his now common pure arrogance. His flick to Rooney for Rooney's first was also superb.

Hate to admit it, but I wish United had signed Torres instead of Tevez. Not that Tevez hasn't come up huge in some games (at Anfield, at Lyon) but Torres leading the line and Rooney playing off him would be devastating.

I just happened to miss that game and recorded it for when I get home so I have been watching that game over and over all season long waiting for the new season to start. Hah. I've told this story a million times but I was on I-55 northbound driving back to my parents because I was going to the game the next day (which they lost, of course). My girlfriend was asleep in the passenger seat and I was listening to the game on the radio. When Aramis hit that ball, I screamed so loud that she shot up because she thought something was wrong. This emoticon is a perfect representation of what I did when he hit that: :yahoo: I was going north on US 61 by myself and when he hit it I started honking my car horn like crazy. I got some strange looks :oops: I was backing into my garage and slammed on my break so hard I about gave myself whiplash. My neighbor across the street was walking out to his car and gave me a look like I should be in a psych ward. I was driving home from a round of golf, having passed on tickets to the game. #-o Sweet video though.

I read from another forum that rules state that the same stadium cannot be used on consecutive days. Since AC Milan's game at the San Siro was Tuesday, Inter couldn't use it today. Liverpool played their make-up game with West Ham instead, and Gerrard negated most of Torres points for my fantasy team. :mad:

And it was a different situation. Whistles are blown based on context, it's just the way it's done. Webber was trapped in a corner by UNC defenders and stopped to motion for the time out. In doing so, he could've gained an advantage and gotten out of the trap. The Arizona player called it as time was clearly about to expire, and gained no advantage in doing so. Context shouldn't matter. The rules are black and white. It's all the contextual interpretations and application hat give us the awful reffing we see in every single Big Ten game. If you applied the rules without regard to context, you would cut down significantly on overly physical play, there would be more turnovers, and much higher scoring games. And, by the way, by your example, Pruitt gained an advantage for Illinois tonight (albeit a very slight one) when he prevented White from shooting. So, then, the foul should have been called. Because, after all, there's no way for the ref to know if that ball is going to go in -- despite the distance. Right? I can't believe you're arguing that the foul on Pruitt should have been called, to decide a hard fought tie game going into double overtime. I'm an Illini fan, and if the situation were reversed I'd be embarrassed to win a game that way. Sorry to butt in on the argument but unless a guy gets physically decked to the ground in that situation that should never be called.

I can't imagine why any true Illini fan would not want to watch this game. It's going to be one of the most memorable atmospheres in the history of Assembly Hall, the Illini played IU tough in Bloomington, and the team is going to incredibly pumped by the fans. What kind of fan would not want to watch this game just because the team is struggling this year?