FINAL
Chelsea 4-4 Liverpool
Chelsea advances 7:5 on aggregate
Barcelona 1-1 Bayern Munich
Barcelona advances 5:1 on aggregate
SEMI-FINAL
Barcelona - Chelsea April 28, May 6
FINAL
Chelsea 4-4 Liverpool
Chelsea advances 7:5 on aggregate
Barcelona 1-1 Bayern Munich
Barcelona advances 5:1 on aggregate
SEMI-FINAL
Barcelona - Chelsea April 28, May 6
That was one hell of a game!! 4-4!!!!!!!!
Damn I thought it was all over at 3-2 and turned over.Originally Posted by jero
I hate Chelsea...
And then there is Cricket.
"I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. - Some come from ahead and some come from behind. - But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. - Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!" ~ Dr. Seuss[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Hillsborough - The Pain Lingers 20 Years On
Leppings Lane. Open the gates. Hillsborough. Say these words to any British football fan old enough to have viewed television on April 15th 1989 and you will receive in response, at the very least, a brief flinch. For once the images were seen, and seen live, they were never to be forgotten. These words, and these twitchy reactions, are the shibboleths of the worst football disaster of these islands in modern times.
The UK has an unhappy history of such tragedies, but none, perhaps, have haunted the imagination quite as much as that of Hillsborough. Nothing proves this more than the name itself. There is the aforementioned Valley Parade fire; there is the Ibrox disaster; and then there is Hillsborough. To Hillsborough, 'disaster' is an encumbrance. Hillsborough has become a noun to indicate not just a stadium, but a tragedy.
96 dead, 300 hospitalised, hundreds more injured - and countless lives changed forever.
What Happened?
Liverpool were drawn against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup semi-final, a match traditionally held at a neutral venue. Hillsborough, being a vast and (it was said) a relatively well-appointed arena in the north, it seemed to the Football Association to be an ideal venue for the cup semis. 1989 was no exception, as the Reds and Forest prepared to meet on April 15th.
Without going into exhaustive detail - such matters deserve more examination than I can give here, and the existing unofficial literature on the topic is extensive - 'bottlenecking' upon entry to the stadium, high fencing around the pitch, a lack of rescue coordination from ground-level police and the failure of the match commander to act in a manner commensurate with the seriousness of the situation saw overcrowding take place in the Leppings Lane end 'pens'. In essence, those who perished died of injuries borne of being crushed, as well as asphyxiation.
The old style of stadium was roundly criticised in the aftermath for being a factor in the disaster, but it took a while for the handling of the situation to come under similar scrutiny. Indeed, as we'll see, it is perhaps the herding in of fans that was as much to blame as anything else.
Pointing Fingers
The pictures of the disaster, broadcast live on the BBC, not only touched the nation but also shocked it, angered it. People wanted answers. This very human indignation, though, was not always channelled correctly. The Sun, one of the country's most influential and popular tabloids, capitalised on the disaster with one of the two most infamous front pages in its history. Editor Kelvin McKenzie gleefully recounted a litany of crimes committed by 'some' fans: attacking aid workers; robbing the dead and the dying; urinating on the police. The mood of the decade, one of stringent (and often justified) anti-hooliganism, was no doubt the motivation for these populist screams, but McKenzie had sorely misjudged his audience.
In fact, people were - for the most part, at least - far more interested in establishing a cause for the disaster, rather than gleefully rejoicing in alleged misbehaviour of 'some' fans. In any case, it later transpired that the allegations on the front page were perhaps one degree short of being complete and utter fiction, leaving the smirking, amoral figure of McKenzie with no option but to apologise.
(Years later, once the dust had settled, this squalid little coward once again displayed his true colours by sneering that he only apologised under duress, and that he was and is not sorry - he was just going on what he'd been told by a Conservative politician, who had been backed up by South Yorkshire's chief superintendent David Duckenfield, a man whose role in the tragedy will perhaps never be fully established, but whose initial dishonesty certainly has been. As for McKenzie, to this day his old newspaper remains barely circulated in Liverpool.)
Enough of him. He's had the attention that he craves. Anyway, he wasn't the only one to blame the fans.
Asking Questions
Initial police briefings, notes Phil Scraton, an academic who has extensively studied the disaster, were considerably and shamelessly 'revised', with initial statements heavily doctored in what must be assumed to be an attempt to cover tracks. It's easy to see why. Both official documents and a host of off-the-record police statements ran the gamut of fan blame, ranging from accusations of a vast conspiracy of fans to enter without tickets (in fact tickets were, despite officially being sold out on Merseyside, not hard to come by) or to invade the pitch (in fact the fence came down and the fans came streaming on in an attempt to escape death and injury.)
It took a while for these things to be established - in part, that is, for the true facts of the matter are still not 100% clear - and the police seemed to always be second to ascertain the facts... and to change their own. Even the much-lauded Taylor Report knew of these alterations, which slightly takes the shine off its condemning some aspects of the policing for the 'lack of control' on matchday.
The early clamour to blame the supporters, and to see the spectre of hooliganism behind every fan's eyes, was quietly shuffled aside. Instead, the blame went pretty much nowhere. Taylor's muted condemnation aside, individuals were not brought to task for their role in the tragedy, and the (more significant) institutional failures in South Yorkshire were discussed with no small measure of opacity. (The British citizen today may wish to draw comparisons between this incident and the official reactions to the death of a by-passer in the London demonstrations earlier this month.)
Changed Forever
Not just were lives irrevocably altered - and ruined - by the tragedy, but the sport as a whole saw the change, too. The abundance of all-seater stadia that followed the Taylor Report was the first and most obvious departure with the old; numerous more followed. I leave the examination of those to my Goal.com colleague, Zack Wilson, to reflect on in his excellent article here.
In the meantime, football will share a moment today reflecting on the 96 lives lost. It will do so not just in sadness, but also confusion and anger. The beautiful game should not - and, had things gone differently, could not - have been so hideous.
Courtesy Goal.com
Update
Halftime
Porto 0-1 Manchester United
C. Ronaldo 6'
Manchester leads 3:2 on aggregate
Arsenal 1-0 Villarreal
Walcott 10'
Arsenal leads 2:1 on aggregate
FINAL
Porto 0-1 Manchester United
Manchester United advance 3:2 on aggregate
Arsenal 3-0 Villarreal
Arsenal advance 4:1 on aggregate
Semi Finals
Chelsea-Barcelona
Arsenal-Manchester United
More proof that club football is now entirely about who has the most money.
The 6 out of the 8 quarter finalists were in the top 8 richest. The two that weren't, Villarreal and Porto are now gone.
Manchester United Declared The World's Richest Club Ahead Of Real Madrid - Report - Goal.com
Richest clubs: (€, 000,000's)
1 Manchester United 1,423
2 Real Madrid 1,030
3 Arsenal 913
4 Bayern Munich 845
5 Liverpool 768
6 Milan 753
7 Barcelona 730
8 Chelsea 609
9 Juventus 457
10 Schalke 04 388
11 Tottenham Hotspur 339
12 Olympique Lyonnais 322
13 Roma 290
14 Inter Milan 281
15 Hamburg 251
16 Borussia Dortmund 247
17 Manchester City 236
18 Werder Bremen 222
19 Newcastle United 217
20 Stuttgart 201
21 Aston Villa 183
21 Olympique de Marseille183
23 Celtic 166
24 Everton 158
25 Rangers 148
Last edited by Seshmeister; 04-15-2009 at 06:25 PM.
anyone saw Barcelona - Real madrid?
Yes I did. We were watching it at work and noone came close to predicting a 6-2 win for Barcelona.
More importantly, anyone watch Inter-Lazio? Big win for us, 4 games left and 7 points ahead of AC Milan
Amazing goal by Essien !!
1-0 Chelsea HT
HAHAHAHAHAHA 1st shot on target!
1-1
Go Barca!
Wow!!!! Iniestaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fuck you chelsea!!! No repeat final this year
Fuck the Russian gangster!
Too funny.
Hah!
Funny watching that cheat Drogba who has made a career of diving complaining about not getting penalties.
VS
WEDNESDAY, MAY 27
STADIO OLIMPICO (ROME, ITALY)
Hope Drogba comes to Inter
What about that overrated sack of shit Ballack screaming for the penalty. Yah, where were you all game pal!!
Damn I was away and just found out Fletcher is suspended from the final...
Oh well that means I support Barcelona.
Should be an amazing final. Hopefully it doesn't end in a penalty shootout.
I'm supporting Barca, as much as I hate Barca, I loathe Man U that much more.
Barca 2-1 Man U.
Kenyan Arsenal fan hangs himself after Man Utd defeat
An Arsenal fan in soccer-mad Kenya hanged himself wearing his beloved team’s shirt after their defeat to Manchester United in the Champions League.
Like elsewhere across Africa, Kenyans pack bars for English Premier League and Champions League matches, especially those involving Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool.
Suleiman Omondi, 29, was found hanged at his home in a middle-class Nairobi estate shortly after leaving distraught from the pub where he had watched Arsenal lose 3-1 in their Champions League semi-final at the Emirates on Tuesday.
“He took some drinks and broke down in tears within the final minutes of the match,” a fellow bar patron, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
Police said they were called to Omondi’s house on Wednesday morning. “What we are gathering is this suicide is related to the Arsenal and Manchester match,” local Embakasi area police chief David Bunei told reporters.
Bar attendants said they had to intervene after Omondi lunged at a man who suggested Arsenal would not recover from conceding two early goals. They also lost the first leg 1-0.
Brawls are common in Kenya during football matches and there have been other related suicides reported in the past.
That ref........
Who? This guy?!?!?!?
I heard he was sneaked out of the UK today! And not in a bodybag
Hey Jero could you have a word with your guys and let us win tomorrow?
Makes no difference to you...
That should be no problem!
Hey Jero could you have a word with your guys and let us win tomorrow?
Makes no difference to you...
I'm really sorry man!
Last night was a nightmare.
I don't think I can support Holland in the World Cup while Robbens and Kuntz are playing.
What are your options? Germany? England?
I'm too hungover to make a decision at this point...
Brazil???
BTW Argentina, considered by most people the best team in the world is almost out of this World Cup.....that would be really funny....hehehe
But that coach can snort coke like a worldchamp!
LMAO!!! With no doubts, in that category Maradona is already the biggest champion.....
In 1986 he won that World Cup loaded, 1990 he was loaded on coke too. I'm suprised he wasn't caught before, cause he already admitted he was snorting the white powder since 1982 while playing in Barcelona.
Appointing Maradona was complete madness.
I see in a poll of Argentinians 87% wanted him sacked.
Football is huge there and they will go crazy if they don't qualify.
that guy IS huge
He'll be sacked in a matter of days.....I saw their game last night, the team was playing without heart, they were indifferent, I never saw Argentina playing like that...
Plus Maradona fought with the best player of this team, Roman Riquelme, a few months ago and never called him back in their national team. All argentinians were already pissed with that!! If they want to qualify to this cup they need a new coach!!
The final World Cup Qualifiers begin this weekend and will wrap up the middle of next week. So far, 11 of the 32 spots have been filled, and we'll likely see most of the 21 filled on Saturday evening. Some key matches in Europe:
Denmark vs Sweden - Denmark can qualify for the World Cup with a victory
Portugal vs Hungary - Portugal will be eliminated with a defeat to Hungary and Sweden W
Switzerland vs Luxembourg - Swiss can qualify for the World Cup with a victory
Slovenia vs Slovakia - Slovenia can still automatically qualify, Slovakia are guaranteed at least a playoff. Not looking good for Czech and Poland
Russia vs Germany - Both are through, but who qualifies automatically is still up for grabs
Bosnia vs Estonia - Bosnia looking to qualify for a playoff spot with a W and Turkey L,D
Ukraine vs England - Ukraine hopeful of playoff with a W
Italy vs R. Ireland - Italy needs only a D to qualify directly, Ireland need a D for a playoff
Let's hope Portugal fucks up
UEFA Second Round Draw was held today in Zurich:
2 Legs (November 14,18)
Republic of Ireland v France
Portugal v Bosnia
Greece v Ukraine
Russia v Slovenia
Okay you guys, let's get the party started again this summer:
Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
Group B: Argentina, Nigeria, Korea Republic, Greece
Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana,
Group E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
Group F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
Group G: Brazil, Korea DPR, Côte d'Ivoire, Portugal
Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile
Why do England always get such incredibly easy groups?
It's ludicrous.
The general rule is that European teams always win when it's in Europe and South American teams win when it isn't. Slight complication this time as it's in Africa and Argentina are a bit shit.
The other thing that struck me about the draw was that North Korea are in it. WTF I didn't know they were allowed out.
Also the World Cup is of course completely racist against European teams. There is no way all these joke teams of South Africa, Korea, Algeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Paraguay, New Zealand, Korea DPR, Honduras or Côte d'Ivoire would be in the finals if it was done based on how good your team is.
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