**OFFICIAL Association Football 2011/2012 Season thread**

[pieceofme]

Another loss for Liverpool

To Wigan this time

[jellyheadrobertson]

What a goal by Crouch.

[Hellsinkey]

Citeh draw. Now is the time to make a three point lead and even the goal difference. 4-0 on monday would even the goal difference. Here's hoping.

[MickeyG]

I know you guys tire of my seemingly endless links but this is a great article about the "Barcelona way". Yeah, I know . . . tiring subject of late but this is one of the best articles I've ever read about football.<-----Period.

http://www.miostadium.com/opinions/simo ... er-success
One of the seven points he makes

4. The “3-1 rule”
If an opposing player gets the ball anywhere near Barcelona’s penalty area, then Barça go Italian. They apply what they call the “3-1 rule”: one of Barcelona’s four defenders will advance to tackle the man with the ball, and the other three defenders will assemble in a ring about two or three metres behind the tackler. That provides a double layer of protection. Guardiola picked this rule up in Italy. It’s such a simple yet effective idea that you wonder why all top teams don’t use it.

I thought Barca have been playing 3 at the back for a while now. If you watch them, they seem to press in numbers all over the pitch, and then use their tiki taka or whatever it's called to pass triangles round you.

[MickeyG]

Just saw Suarez' goal. It was handball and shouldn't have stood. He's getting called a cheat all over for it, but I think many would have done just the same as him. It's not like he punched it in or anything.

[pieceofme]

Citeh draw. Now is the time to make a three point lead and even the goal difference. 4-0 on monday would even the goal difference. Here's hoping.

I'd be happy with just the win!

[Hellsinkey]

Citeh draw. Now is the time to make a three point lead and even the goal difference. 4-0 on monday would even the goal difference. Here's hoping.

I'd be happy with just the win!

It's good that there's games before, to catch up on goal difference. The thing is if Utd lose to Citeh, they could be ahead on goals. But there's time.

[Hellsinkey]

Citeh throw away another two points. Now the five point lead before their game is important.

[MickeyG]

Ay, big game on Monday now. United now play twice before City play Arsenal next weekend. This is it, hey-lads-hey time, no fucking around. No dodgy selections from Fergie. Play your best team from here on in. United could be 8 points in front of City before they play Arsenal. It's in Uniteds hands, fuck this up and...FERGIE OUT!

[Hellsinkey]

Watched the Newcastle game. Entertaining stuff. With Kenny, Liverpool are now a midtable team.

[MickeyG]

Things go from bad to worse for King Kenny at Klanfield. Only Wolves have had a worse league run since the start of 2012. 2 wins in 12 in the league, with only 2 draws as well. I hear Reina will be missing for the semi thanks to his headbutt. Perch went down easy, but you can't do what Reina did and stay on the pitch.

[Hellsinkey]

Kenny thinks Carroll wasn't fishing for a penalty. The funny thing is that he could have gone past Krul, but decided to dive. Carroll's from Gateshead, pretty embarrassing to try that against your former team.

[MickeyG]

I missed that dive as I only turned the game on at 19 mins in. It looks to me he was waiting for Krul to touch him, but he did well to pull out of it, so Carroll dived. Second goal was offside, but Newcastle could easily have had a few more.

[Hellsinkey]

Carroll was like half a metre from Krul. I haven't seen as blatant dive in a while. I think Liverpool's defender touched the ball a little, that's why the second wasn't an offside.

I hope there won't be as much talk about tomorrow's game. A win will do.

[pieceofme]

Things go from bad to worse for King Kenny at Klanfield. Only Wolves have had a worse league run since the start of 2012. 2 wins in 12 in the league, with only 2 draws as well. I hear Reina will be missing for the semi thanks to his headbutt. Perch went down easy, but you can't do what Reina did and stay on the pitch.

[jellyheadrobertson]

Klanfield.

Made me laugh. Not too much to smile about lately.

[Hellsinkey]

Phew. Great final ten minutes. Until then De Gea really saved the game.

[MickeyG]

Always do it the hard way, United. Results are most important at this stage though.

[pieceofme]

[Rageman]

Here's my set-up . . . it's ghetto and temporary as I'll be moving in about three months but I get to footy out on the weekends.

[Hellsinkey]

I recommend downloading Sopcast. You can find a lot of different games there. The picture quality varies and commentary language. At best the picture can be tv quality and commentary in English. I watch all of my PL games there.

[MickeyG]

Heh, heh, cool set up, rageman.

I use this site when Fox soccer or ESPN isn't showing what I want.

http://www.firstrowsports.eu/sport/football.html

There's a bunch of other sports they show too.

[Hellsinkey]

Heh, heh, cool set up, rageman.

I use this site when Fox soccer or ESPN isn't showing what I want.

http://www.firstrowsports.eu/sport/football.html

There's a bunch of other sports they show too.

Thanks!

[Rageman]

Heh, heh, cool set up, rageman.

I use this site when Fox soccer or ESPN isn't showing what I want.

http://www.firstrowsports.eu/sport/football.html

There's a bunch of other sports they show too.

Yep . . . I may have even linked that same site a month or two back either that one or this one . . .
http://www.vipbox.tv/

That one is my back-up in case the other one is down.

I try to watch Premier League Darts every Thursday at 2:00 pm Eastern or 10:00 am Alaskan time. Just watched Adrian Lewis "controversial" defeat of James Wade before I typed this up . . . they showed lots of commercials for Eric Cantona's movie, Switch. Now watching Phil "The Power"Taylor v Andy "The Hammer" Hamilton with Bilbao v Schalke and Hannover v Atletico Madrid in the background

I also try to check out Aussie rules football . . . very interesting game. I would love to attend a match sometime.

[Rageman]

There are 8 teams left in European competitions and 5 of them are Spanish.

Champions League
Barcelona
Real Madrid

Europa League
Valencia
Athletic Bilbao
Atletico Madrid

Only Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Sporting Lisbon stand in their way. EPL may be the most popular but La Liga has been the best overall league for a few years now. True story.

[MickeyG]

I used to love watching Darts back in the day. Phil Taylor in his pomp was like a machine. A nine dart checkout in darts is similar to a 147 break in Snooker for me. You don't see them often, but both are great to witness. Not being able to see those 2 sports on regular tv as well as rugby league are some of the things I miss from living in the UK. It's not the same watching them on the net.

[MickeyG]

There are 8 teams left in European competitions and 5 of them are Spanish.

Champions League
Barcelona
Real Madrid

Europa League
Valencia
Athletic Bilbao
Atletico Madrid

Only Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Sporting Lisbon stand in their way. EPL may be the most popular but La Liga has been the best overall league for a few years now. True story.

Yep, it's been that way for a while now. Spain not only has the money and draw of Real and Barca, but their lesser teams have tons of Spanish talent. Spain really is producing the amount of talent in Europe that the likes of Brazil and Argentina do in South America.

[Hellsinkey]

What makes Bilbao's success even more impressive are their limitations, as they will only hire Basque players.

[jellyheadrobertson]

I used to love watching Darts back in the day. Phil Taylor in his pomp was like a machine. A nine dart checkout in darts is similar to a 147 break in Snooker for me. You don't see them often, but both are great to witness. Not being able to see those 2 sports on regular tv as well as rugby league are some of the things I miss from living in the UK. It's not the same watching them on the net.

Darts is on quite a bit here in Canada. Love it. watched it from being a kid back home( the Bristow/ Lowe era) Sad that Jocky Wilson died last week.

[MickeyG]

I used to love watching Darts back in the day. Phil Taylor in his pomp was like a machine. A nine dart checkout in darts is similar to a 147 break in Snooker for me. You don't see them often, but both are great to witness. Not being able to see those 2 sports on regular tv as well as rugby league are some of the things I miss from living in the UK. It's not the same watching them on the net.

Darts is on quite a bit here in Canada. Love it. watched it from being a kid back home( the Bristow/ Lowe era) Sad that Jocky Wilson died last week.

Yep, my earliest darts memory I think is the Bristow/Deller World final in 83 I think it was. I really wanted Bristow to win, the crafty cockney, but Deller stole it. I remember watching it at my Nan's. Good times.