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A 90 minute borefest decided by a cheap shot…

5
Vote

by user Blocking Back

…welcome to soccer in the year 2007.

I know I bang on about the death of soccer alot but last nights UEFA Champions League ‘game’ (and I use the term loosely) between Manchester United and Lille was a brilliant example.

Is anybody talking about what the score was or who won today? The answer is no. Is anybody describing in painfully acute detail the winning goal? No again. In fact, the only thing that gets a mention from last nights game (and it only gets mentioned by those with absolutely nothing else whatsoever to talk about, like err… me…) is something that nearly happened. The Lille players nearly walked off the pitch after Ryan Giggs ’scored’ from a free kick.

I may be going against the grain of popular thought out there, but isn’t having the most important matches of the soccer calender decided by a cheap shot taken when the other team isn’t ready, just a little bit… well… sad?  (and by sad I mean ‘loser’ sad and not cry me a river, boohoo sad…)

The game itself was awful. Neither team ever looked like they particularly wanted the win (which is pretty much par for the course in top flight European Soccer these days), a lucky cheap shot was the deciding factor and at the end of the game, both sides claimed that Uefa should do something about the state of play in the sport (which Uefa will completely ignore of-course, as they do every week).

I only wish that this kind of game hadn’t become the type of stereotypical match we have come to expect week in and week out. Ahh forget it, I’m off to watch lawn bowls…

Check out the sports blog - Shot to Nothing


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Alex HolowczakHall of Famer
865 days ago
Score 0+-
Au contrare... The main issue last night was regarding the idiotic French policemen. The crowd in the standing section fell forwards. A woman hurt hefself. Everyone starting pushing (because they thought the stand was about to collapse - it has happened in the past). At which point they decided to climb over the fence to safety. However, le French Idiots decided to throw tear gas at them. They completely misunderstood the situation, and were completely to blame. Also, it's a the first leg of a two leg match. The idea was for the away team to play for 0-0, and the home team to go to try and win. But the home team didn't. So yes, Manchester United were playing tactically - draw the away match, win the home one. Whereas Lille were just trying not to lose. It was the tactic of the match. It is common, e.g. in chess, to try to win the white games and draw the black ones, i.e. you start without trying to win - it's part of the long term strategy.
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I am a cpcpMajor Leaguer
865 days ago
Score 0+-
Most people would say combining the terms "90 minute borefest" and "soccer" really doesn't constitute as news...
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MattWellsJV Squad
843 days ago
Score 0+-
I think it's got a lot to do with the fact that there are too many games in the "Champions" League and people are losing interest. It's set up to protect the big clubs and give them every chance of getting into the later stages, return it to knock-out games from the start and ditch the two-leg approach as well if you want people to actually be interested in it. It used to be a European version of the FA Cup, now it's just been raped by TV companies to make as much money as possible.
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This page was last modified 15:33, 21 February 2007. Content is available under the GFDL.

Categories: Opinions | Opinions by User Blocking Back | February 21, 2007 | Soccer Opinions | Champions League Opinions

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