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On to Athens!!!! (for ghhhooost)


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yeah. from what i've read looks like saha would be heading to tottenham in exchange for berbatov. manu is also keen on signing renato augusto from flamengo for 33 mill.

and yes, etoo is THAT good. he's hot headed though, but he's definitely a world class striker, no coincidence that ever since he got to barcelona 3 years ago, barcelona has won 2 spanish leagues and champions league last year. youtube him up and you'll see the quality finisher he is.

milan is rumored to be after him as well.

but imho, manu needs a defensive midfielder more than anything. the games vs Milan exposed their weaknesses from the midfield to the back. they are solid going fwd. but defensively i would not bank on brown, vidic, and ferdinand. maybe that trio is good enough for the EPL, but they get eaten alive against elite european clubs.

trhe only one in the manu back line that would make it anywhere would be heinze, aside from him, the defense is pedestrian.

i think hes gonna blow his whole $$$load on hargreaves and ettooo

and if they get etooo barca will go hard after THenry

that will make liv. chelsea and MU happy as well

Barcelona will make a fresh bid to lure Thierry Henry away from Arsenal if Sameul Eto'o jumps ship to join Manchester United.

Nou Camp officials were confident they would bring the French striker to the Catalan giants last year but the moved collapsed when he flipped his lid after the Champions League Cup final between the two teams in Paris.

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henry is staying in arsenal. he aint going anywhere. barcelona's cycle is about to end, ronaldinho might stay on for a couple of years and thats it. the future for barcelona is messi, iniesta, giovanni dos sanots and the other spanish kid who's parents are croats (cant remember his name).

he's better off staying at arsenal who, i think, is further along in the retooling of their squad.

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  • 2 weeks later...
nice. i hope he can adjust to playing in the EPL, but i saw both games between gremio and sao paulo in libertadores the last 2 weeks and the guy looks like a stud.

btw doom, i guess inter got caught up with the scudetto celebrations, they looked awful against roma.

and what about barcelona crashing out of the spanish cup? 4-0 loss at getafe. i got my $ that real will overtake them and win the title in spain.

We were horrible. Even though we won the scudetto, certain elements of the team have to be changed for next year.

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i think hes gonna blow his whole $$$load on hargreaves and ettooo

and if they get etooo barca will go hard after THenry

that will make liv. chelsea and MU happy as well

Barcelona will make a fresh bid to lure Thierry Henry away from Arsenal if Sameul Eto'o jumps ship to join Manchester United.

Nou Camp officials were confident they would bring the French striker to the Catalan giants last year but the moved collapsed when he flipped his lid after the Champions League Cup final between the two teams in Paris.

Hargreavs is good, but Bayern is going to get a sick amount of $ for him. I still don't think Carrick was worth his price tag at all.

Also Tottenham just pulled a coup, they got the captain of the French Under-21 team - a 6'4 central defender. Kid is a stud.

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Ferguson to go after Etoo for 27 mill neighborhood

is the guy that good?

i guess Sahas gone

Eto'o is a fucking animal. He isn't the calmest player in the game, but neither was Rooney when Fergie bought him from Everton.

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http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=310625

Confirmed Line-Ups: AC Milan - Liverpool

As expected, Steven Gerrard starts in the hole behind Dirk Kuyt for Liverpool; Kaka behind Inzaghi for Milan, both sides going in with a 4-4-1-1. Bolo Zenden and Paolo Maldini have both made the starting line-up.

Dida

Oddo, Nesta, Maldini, Jankulovski

Gattuso, Pirlo, Ambrosini, Seedorf

Kaka

Inzaghi

Liverpool

Reina

Finnan, Carragher, Agger, Riise

Pennant, Alonso, Mascherano, Zenden

Gerrard

Kuyt

-------------------------------------------------

No Gilardino or Ricardo Oliverea for AC Milan, and no Bellamy or Crouch for Liverpool. Both teams are going quite defensive.

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DOWN GOES LIVERPOOL!!!

non- champ milan now the champion of the champions league

Champions League final between nonchampions

By ROBERT MILLWARD, AP Soccer Writer

May 21, 2007

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- AC Milan is way off the lead in the Italian league and hasn't won the Serie A title in three years. Liverpool is far behind Manchester United in the Premier League and hasn't won the English championship since 1990.

Yet, Milan and Liverpool are playing for European soccer's biggest prize Wednesday, giving the Champions League a bad name.

It's not really the fault of Milan or Liverpool. The competition simply should be renamed. It's certainly not a league, and it's far from guaranteed a champion will win it.

The Champions and Nearly Champions Preliminary Round, Group Stage and Knockout Cup might be a more accurate description of a competition that has changed format repeatedly over the years.

When Europe's premier club competition started in 1955, it was called the European Cup and involved the champions of the major European domestic leagues.

Simple.

As it grew in stature and TV began to take a far bigger interest, however, European soccer's governing body, UEFA, tinkered with the format so teams that made it to the last 16 would play each other in four groups and then revert to elimination play.

But the format allowed for the possibility of big clubs getting knocked out during early rounds, and that was of no real interest to TV.

UEFA faced a major problem in the 1990s when the top clubs -- mainly from Italy, Spain, England and Germany -- were unhappy they didn't make more money from TV revenues and commercial spinoffs. They began to make noises that they wanted to form their own breakaway competition on a league basis.

If they all pulled out, then the European Champions Cup wouldn't be much of a prize for those who were left. So UEFA came up with an alternative to stop the big clubs from leaving.

The competition would be reconstructed so the champions would be seeded directly into the group phase and play at least six lucrative games before the knockout round. But UEFA didn't stop there.

Not only did the domestic champions in the big leagues make it into the Champions League but so did the runners-up. Then the third- and fourth-place teams also got the chance to make it through the qualifying round and into the group stage.

The champions of the likes of Denmark, Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic were overlooked by the seeding process and usually met a powerhouse team early in the competition. The clubs from the Premier League, Serie A and the Spanish league would bulldoze their way to the final stages.

Three Spanish teams made it to the semifinals in 2000, with Real Madrid beating Valencia in the final. Serie A clubs AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus reached the same stage in 2003, resulting in an all-Italian final. Three Premier League teams -- Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United -- made it to this season's semifinals.

Look at the last 16 of this season's Champions League, when the competition reverted to the knockout format. England had four teams still going strong -- Liverpool, Chelsea, Man United and Arsenal. Italy had Milan, Inter and AS Roma. Spain had Barcelona, Real Madrid and Valencia.

Rival coaches have different thoughts on the merits of winning their domestic leagues compared with the Champions League.

"The Champions League is the most important for us," Milan's Carlo Ancelotti said.

Yet Manchester United's Alex Ferguson, Arsenal's Arsene Wenger and Chelsea's Jose Mourinho say they favor the Premier League because it is harder to win. Maybe they would change their minds if they won the Champions League more often.

So why not make the Champions League a true league?

Clubs that reach the final under the current format have to play at least 13 games -- 15 if they have to play in the qualifying rounds. So why not scrap the preliminary rounds and take the top 16 champions in Europe and let them play each other on a round-robin basis? It would fit into the same time format.

While it would justify the name of the competition, it probably would not meet with approval from the powerhouse teams favoring the current format. But UEFA's new president, Michel Platini, might go along with it.

He already has decided that the big leagues should have three, rather than four, teams in the competition. That would give the champions of the smaller domestic leagues a better chance of reaching the knockout phase.

Milan and Liverpool wouldn't be in Wednesday's final if it were a champions-only competition, even though the Italian club has won the European title six times and the English team five.

One of them, however, will still become champion of Europe.

Updated on Monday, May 21, 2

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Gerrard and Benitez were the two biggest factors why Liverpool lost. Gerrard was insipid, and missed a sitter. The more I see of him, the more he proves to be overrated. Besides his goal in the dying minutes, Kuyt also played poorly, as he was overwhelmed by himself up front for most of the match .Also, why didn’t Benitez bring in Crouch earlier? And if Pennant’s speed was giving Milan’s defense problems, he should have put in someone with pace, like Bellamy.

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boo!

here's my analysis:

************

Well desreved win by Milan.

I thought Milan was the better side 2 years ago, I thought Liverpool was the better side today, but for all the posession they did not shoot a lot.

Coming into the game everyone thought that Milan's midfield would overwhelm Liverpool, but overall, the contrary held true. Seedorf was taken by Alonso deep, and zone coverage virtually nulified Kaka all game long, both didn't really show up during the 90 minutes. Inzaghi, obviously, was the difference maker and like the poacher he's been his entire career, he delivered when it mattered the most.

However, Liverpool needed a big night from Gerrard but he didnt have his touch all game long and that was evidenced by the opportunity he missed in the second half. In addition, for all the praise on Benitez, I think he took too long making the changes in getting Kewell in for Zenden (even though Kewell did nothing), and Crouch who definitely changed the game once he went in.

As stated, possesion, possession, possesion was the name of the game for Liverpool but they never really threathened Milans defense. In retrospect, and hindsight being 20/20, while controling most of the game, the exclusion on Bellamy and his pace in the starting XI hurt them a lot.

Sport politics aside and the whole issue of Calciolopoli in the summer, Milan is a just winner of the event. They took on the best: Celtic, Bayern, ManU, Liverpool and beat them.

In a way, the squads are similar. Milan with an experienced side probably doesnt have the energy that it takes to run the Serie A marathon, while Liverpool still lacks the "difference-makers" that can take them over the top in the EPL, but competitions like the Champions League is where these teams shine the best.

In my almost 20 years of having the chance to watch Champions Cup/Champions League finals live, Milan has always been one of the toughest competitors out there and you can never take them for granted even if they are playing like crap.

As for Liverpool, new owners, new stadium coming up, and while Benitez is there, I feel Liverpool is under the direction of the correct man for the job and I bet that we'll lift the trophy for a 6th time before Manure lifts it up again. :D

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you couldn't find a pic from yesterday's celebration? :P

pic is from 2003, the advertisment on the shirt is different and gattuso still had hair.

:rofl: Yeah, I noticed after I posted the picture, and saw Tomasson in the background.

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