Champions League Last 16.

chobochobo · May 24, 2007

Yes, difficult to say and the decision could have gone either way but it'd have been a brave referee to disallow the goal. In any case, it's all done and dusted and no point in debating it - just like Gigg's penalty/goal in the FA cup final.

I think the CL final was pretty much typical of most recent cups finals. Most entertainment comes in the earlier rounds before both teams are too nervous, and less likely to be decimated by injuries. I see the papers were mostly going on about Benitez's team selection and transfers which is a bit unfair because given what resources he has, he hasn't done badly to deliver cups to a Liverpool that is still living on past successes.

matadorpoeta · May 24, 2007

Originally Posted by romafan

Here's a question from a dumb yank: Is it a handball if the player (Inzaghi) is facing away from the ball (i.e can't see it coming and presumably doesn't know it's going to hit him) and has his arm down at his side, against his body and not at all extended, so that it is in effect part of his side?

if the arm really is flat against the body, it is not a handball. whether or not the player sees the ball has nothing to do with it.

i missed the game but just saw the goal on youtube. inzaghi's arm is definitely NOT flat against his body and if the ball did touch it the goal should have been disallowed. however, i can't tell from the angle i saw whether or not the ball touched his arm.

on another note, does anyone else find it lame that a team which is not even champion of its own country can now call themselves champions of europe?

chobochobo · May 25, 2007

Originally Posted by matadorpoeta

on another note, does anyone else find it lame that a team which is not even champion of its own country can now call themselves champions of europe?

Yes, it is a touch ironic. It's gotten a little worse now with some countries having 4 places. I'm not complaining that much, since ManU won in 1999 through qualifying. I guess it'd be more appropriate to call it a 'superleague', that turns into a cup competiton. I thought that changing the rules for Liverpool was a bit too much though.

rdawson808 · May 25, 2007

Originally Posted by matadorpoeta

on another note, does anyone else find it lame that a team which is not even champion of its own country can now call themselves champions of europe?

Yeah, like chobochobo said, with some countries getting so many entries, it is getting somewhat silly. Why not just 2 entries per country? Or even 2 for Italy, England, Germany, Spain, and then 1 for the rest? Really, how many teams should Isreal or Belgium have in it?

And it is weird (better word) that this year's "champion" qualified based on last year's performance and may be a much different team than last year's. But in the end, that's okay, we still get a great competition.

bob

romafan · May 25, 2007

Originally Posted by rdawson808

And it is weird (better word) that this year's "champion" qualified based on last year's performance and may be a much different team than last year's. But in the end, that's okay, we still get a great competition.

bob

How else would you choose the teams?

rdawson808 · May 25, 2007

Originally Posted by romafan

How else would you choose the teams?

That's my point, essentially: there is no other way to do it. You choose based on last year's performance. But conceivable, a team could sell off every single player and hire new ones between the end of their qualifying season and the beginning of the actual tournament. That's what makes it weird.

You could argue that only this year's champs get in and you play immediately following the season and get it over in a few weeks. But that'd be crazy.

I don't actually have any complaint, it's just odd. That's all.

b

benecios · May 25, 2007

This is just tooo funny! An Evertonian stumbles upon the Liverpool parade bus.

benecios · May 25, 2007

There's more....

matadorpoeta · May 26, 2007

Originally Posted by rdawson808

Yeah, like chobochobo said, with some countries getting so many entries, it is getting somewhat silly. Why not just 2 entries per country? Or even 2 for Italy, England, Germany, Spain, and then 1 for the rest? Really, how many teams should Isreal or Belgium have in it?

And it is weird (better word) that this year's "champion" qualified based on last year's performance and may be a much different team than last year's. But in the end, that's okay, we still get a great competition.

bob

it used to be one team (the champion) from each country, period. that's how it should be. anything else is a concession to commercialism.

matadorpoeta · May 26, 2007

Originally Posted by rdawson808

You could argue that only this year's champs get in and you play immediately following the season and get it over in a few weeks. But that'd be crazy.

it will never happen, but it would not be crazy. if the leagues would play twice a week once in a while, they could finish the season a month earlier than they do now and have the competition start the first weekend in june. one champion from each country would mean 32 teams enter the main draw. (they would have to weed out a few extraneous teams by having them play each other first, like macedonia v. estonia)

the tournament would then last a month, like the world cup.

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