A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

GOD DAMN IT, Arsenal lost again. We are so coming 4th. What a crock of shit.

In other news, West Ham got relegated thanks to a 3-2 loss at Wigan, with Charles N'Zogbia scoring a 94th minute winner which Rob Green flubbed in pretty incredible fashion. It's nice to see him returning to his derptastic ways on the big stage once again.

Blackpool, Wigan and Birmingham are all on 39 points, with Blackburn and Wolves on 40 and playing each other next week. Last day of the season is going to be nerve-frying if you're a fan of any one of those teams.

edited 15th May '11 11:35:01 AM by Saeglopur

^ Watching Arsenal, I'm always vividly reminded of an occasion a few years ago where a buddy tried to get me to stop supporting Chelsea and throw my weight behind the Gunners. Back then, I felt insulted. But now? I get to have the last laugh practically once every month.

Carling Cup final? Lost to Birmingham, thanks to some pretty botched defending. Champions League? Blew their aggregate lead against Barca at the Camp Nou in a game where the Gunners never made a single recorded shot (and I'm not talking about shots on goal; I mean any shots at all). And now the Gunners are blowing 4-0 leads against Newcastle and losing to Aston Villa?!?

Damn.*

^{Though, on the plus side watching what the club has been putting its fans through has made for some pretty entertaining viewing.}

Elsewhere, sad to see West Ham go under (Though I can't say it's a surprise). At least Carlton Cole can now play at a more appropriate level.

Here's hoping that Wigan and Wolves can finish the season on a high note.

edited 15th May '11 12:37:08 PM by SeanMurrayI

Welp, we're down. Went 2-0 up against Wigan and then let in three. Story of our season. I am entirely unsurprised. We have been awful. It's what we deserve.

For once, I think this may do us some kind of favour. For the love of god, Gold and Sullivan, use this opportunity to offload some of the damn deadwood clogging up our wage bill, and come back with a team who aren't a bunch of past-it, overpaid has-beens. Although the sad thing is that there's absolutely no way we'll be keeping Scott Parker and I'll be damn sad to see him go. He is a terrific player.

You can wave goodbye to Demba Ba as well, he's heading for the big time. The rest of the squad are completely expendable though.

Word is that Avram Grant was fired immediately after the game either in the Wigan Athletic boardroom or in the tunnel as he was walking back to the visitors dressing room at the DW.

And yet he still had to travel back to London on the team bus afterward. That must've felt pretty damn awkward.

edited 16th May '11 8:30:53 AM by SeanMurrayI

To be fair, he deserved to be sacked, he's an incredibly useless manager. Apparently being even vaguely associated with Chelsea gives you immediate and eternal managerial credibility, even though he's sucked everywhere else he's been.

Avram Grant wasn't good, but he wasn't Glenn Roeder. So long as you're not Glenn Roeder there will always be worse.

edited 16th May '11 12:10:23 PM by SunshineWerewolf

Yeah, Roeder was pretty crap. Better at Newcastle than he was at West Ham, but still. Worst Premier League manager ever = a tough competition between Howard Wilkinson at Sunderland in 2003 (13 defeats in 20 games) or Jacques Santini's 11 game stint at Spurs in 2004.

edited 16th May '11 12:27:59 PM by Saeglopur

"Mr. Relegation" they call him now, isn't that right? It was obvious that Grant was gonna get the boot. I just can't imagine how embarrassing it must be to have been fired immediately following an away game before the team even left the stadium. Yeah, if I was running West Ham, I'd have fired him after the game, as well, but I'd at least wait until the team bus got back home first. Perhaps I'm just too damn nice a person... Though, shit, if I fired him immediately following the game, he could've taken his severance pay and taken a fuckin' cab!

And speaking of God-awful managers... Alas, John Sitton, where are you now?*

^{Apparently, he's now a Driver of a Black Cab. No, really.}

edited 16th May '11 5:49:14 PM by SeanMurrayI

Porto win the Europa League. Andre-Villas Boas becomes youngest manager ever to win a European competition. Match was slightly scrappy. And not a single fuck was given (except in Portugal) that day.

Well... Porto did have to play Braga... (And one of them had to play Benfica in the semis before that...)

Soccer is one of the few team sports that I can get remotely interested in with women players not involved.

It's alone being an American with my tastes.

Edit: Actually, I've noticed why this probably is. The sports I seem to like best, just on mechanic, seems to be ones that I think require grace and footwork. I like sports that focus on the feet the best. The liking female sports is only a factor because I find male sportmen typical and boring, while part of the reason I like women's sports is swooning over sportswomen, which is less than honourable, and maybe objectifying at worst.

But in plain mechanic, without darker and less proud desires. I like the mechanic of footwork and focus, especially a graceful one. Which explains why I prefer things like skateboarding and soccer(the real football) to things like Basketball and American football. I like most Eastern Martial Arts to boxing because boxing, that which isn't kickboxing, seems to be all about the arms, while leg focused sports are more interesting to me. I don't know why, but America seems to be all upper body, with focus on American football, Basketball, Baseball, Boxing, and all that. The rest of the world seems more varied. It's embarrassing, but I suspect that many Americans think that using one's feet/legs is "too girly", which is stupid, really.

edited 18th May '11 4:57:07 PM by Ukonkivi

HELL YEAH! AFC Wimbledon will be playing in the the English Football League next season.

So, uh, will anybody care about the Women's World Cup this summer?

YEEAAAAH! Far more important than Celtic winning the Scottish Cup Final. Go AFC Wimbledon!

I'll keep an eye out for it. I really don't understand why women's football gets such bad attendance and viewing figures. The attacking play is just as good as the men's game, but the less said about the defensive play, the better. At least it's entertaining, plenty of high-scoring games. England have been shaping up well for it with friendly wins over the USA and Sweden, so my hopes are higher than they usually are for the men's team, I'll be honest

edited 21st May '11 5:22:31 PM by Saeglopur

So Wolves and Wigan pull one hell of an amazing magic act, and both manage to avoid the drop! Birmingham City and Blackpool will be joining West Ham next season in the Championship League.

It's a shame, I freakin' loved Blackpool, and Ian Holloway is a legend. They didn't deserve to go down, and it's telling that they've scored the most goals of any team ever to be relegated, and in 10 games they scored 2 goals and still didn't win. That is a novel and entertaining approach for a newly promoted underdog side to take, and it should be applauded.

edited 23rd May '11 12:17:00 AM by Saeglopur

The fact that Blackpool were even at one point up 2-1 against Man U before blowing the game, I think, sums up the microcosm that is Blackpool's first Premier League season in a nutshell.

A lot of people are gonna miss how Blackpool played this past season, which is a lot more than what one can usually say about most relegated teams.

Ok, so is something happening this week?

I heard two no-name teams from Spain and England are having a friendly match, not much else.

Gotcha; I haven't been playing much attention to all of that; busy doing fun stuff.

I lol'd.

And here I thought that this thread was about rugby.

Maybe it's a bit late to be discovering this thread now, but I was directed here through the newbie introduction thread. I'm kind of a recent convert since the 2010 World Cup, but I've been making an effort to follow the EPL (and to a lesser extent MLS) ever since.

I got FIFA 2011 and I was replaying the 2010 matches; US v Czech.