Woohoo English Premier League is back

moe.ron · #1 08-16-2003, 08:41 AM

It's a good day. The soccer draught is back. I'll be at home in the coach all day. Watching Portsmouth vs. A. Villa right now. Portsmouth winning 1-0. After this Man Utd vs. Bolton Wanderers. Then the headliner, Arsenal v. Everton. Who's excited. I'm already drunk.

DeltaSigStan · #2 08-16-2003, 11:05 AM

Geee, whata ya know, Giggsy scores in the 34th minute to lead Man UTD over Bolton.

Damn, looks like another year, another premiership........I don't even want that anymore. They need to win the FA cup and more importantly, UEFA.

moe.ron · #3 08-16-2003, 11:30 AM

man, if Arsenal didn't need to buy a stadium, they would have been buying players. But it's a good investment for the future. I hope I get the tix when they open the new stadium.

I wonder how Veron gonna play tommorow. In fact, how the hell are they going to be tommorow.

DeltaSigStan · #4 08-16-2003, 12:45 PM

Chelsea? I'd say they'll finish third, behind a close "last weekend" race between Arsenal and Man U that has the Red Devils sqeaking by with the premiership.

ESPN did a story on Arsenal and their stadium. They predicted in a couple years that because they had to take a break in buying players, that they'll drop to mid range, with Spurs and Everton.

navane · #5 08-16-2003, 08:41 PM

Over here we're getting geared up for the new season! We're going down to the pub tomorrow for Liverpool v. Chelsea.

Hrm... we're thinking that the match might be an interesting one. The Reds will be missing Gerrard due to a rc suspension and there are also a handful of injuries. BUT they're a fightin' team and should do ok with Owen and Riise. On the other hand, Chelsea's players might not have had enough time to gel since the big spending spree. However, the team has something to prove now that they've got the new Russian owner.

So hey, it should be a cracking game!

.....Kelly

LFC Supporter

sigmanuzk · #6 08-17-2003, 01:24 AM

I HATE MAN-U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go LEEDS!

TriDeltaGal · #7 08-17-2003, 05:00 AM

HaHa! I love the English Premier League! My dad made me watch international soccer growing up to "improve my soccer game" when I played AYSO in elementary school

.

But then I got hooked when I studied abroad and have been a big Manchester United fan ever since. My sorority sisters thought I was crazy when I would take over the big TV to watch the games at like eight in the morning!

steelepike · #8 08-17-2003, 07:30 PM

I love the EPL as much as the next guy and I am a Manchester fan but this is crazy

On the same day Freddy Adu scored again to lead the U.S. to a 2-1 win over Sierra Leone at the U-17 World Championships in Finland, Sunday newspaper reports in England have Manchester United opening talks to sign the budding American soccer star.

The Premiership champions, who yesterday gave a competitive debut to their new U.S. international goalkeeper Tim Howard, are believed to be closing in on a deal that would bring the 14-year-old prodigy to Old Trafford.

Adu currently is leading the unbeaten U.S. squad with four goals in two games at the championships. This performance followed his impressive outings in pre-tournament preparations at Manchester United's Carrington training ground.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has been in contact with Adu's mother and with Arnold Tarzy, the family's adviser and the player's former coach, according to Sunday's Observer.

Adu recently agreed to a $1 million contract with Nike, who sponsors and provides uniforms for Manchester United.

As the buzz surrounding the gifted Ghanaian-born player increases, Manchester United is believed to have moved a step ahead of rivals for his signature, even though he would only be able to join the club's youth academy. Under English Premier League rules, Adu could only sign a professional contract at the age of 17.

Any deal with Manchester United would also depend on Adu's willingness to relocate.

"He may not be willing to do that, and his development may be better served at the moment by staying put," a United source said.

Adu and the unbeaten Americans worked hard to win the game at Lahti, about a two hours drive north of the Finnish capital Helsinki.

Sierra Leone put pressure on the Americans and fired no less than 25 shots, hitting the target 12 times, keeping U.S. goalie Phil Marfuggi busy.

But 14-year-old Adu scored the winner in the closing minutes, showing trademark skill with his feet as he took the ball behind the goalkeeper in the 89th minute.

"I learned how tough I can really be, sometimes I get hit all he time and have to come out of games because it hurts so much, and today it was brutal,'' Adu said.

"But you had to dig deep, and go through it, and it ended with the winning goal.''

Adu to Man. U.

DeltaSigStan · #9 08-17-2003, 08:07 PM

Have you seen Freddy Adu play? I watched him as the U-17 MNT is playing in the U-17 World Championships in Finland I think. Freddy scored a hat trick as the U.S beat South Korea 6-1 and Adu scored the game winner in a 2-1 win over Sieraa Leone.

That doesn't even begin to describe how good this guy is. he's FOURTEEN, and he can just dribble by half the team from midfield and either set someone up or score. I've seen clips of him scrimmaging against MLS teams, and he effortlessly gets by people like second nature.

Of course, this leads to him getting pulled down and taken out a lot, but hey, once he gets to the top level, the level of play will allow him even more room to be even better.

navane · #10 08-17-2003, 10:03 PM

Ay yay yay....

I so did not want to see a loss to Chelsea today.

Though, it *was* a tough draw to have to play Chelsea at the opener (yeah, I'm sure it would have been easier to just win 4-0 over Bolton

). I thought Liverpool fell apart after Chelsea scored that first goal. Though, the Reds did seem to pull it back together a bit for the 2nd half. Owen's first pentaly shot miss was a shock! Though, he was incredibly lucky that the keep was caught off his line and they had to do it over. Of course, Owen didn't mess about the 2nd time and punched it over the top to equalise. Chelsea's winning goal was, at least, a proper goal unlike the first goal where they scored because Hyypia accidentally slipped and fell.

Though, most of us thought that Liverpool played better and deserved to win, they weren't able to pull it out and the game ended at 2-1 to Chelsea.

Liverpool sometimes gets stuck in a rut where they like to have a consistent but defensive style of play. This will help them stay in the top 5, but it won't win them the big silverware. The good news is that during the post-game interviews, Houllier talked a bit about putting more effort into attacking. (hooray!) We like what we saw in Kewell and we're also hoping that Houllier will put more play into Baros. We're still not convinced about Diouf, he can be good, but still too much of a liability - he gets too hot under the collar sometimes.

Ah well....on to the next fixture!

.....Kelly

navane · #11 08-17-2003, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sigmanuzk
I HATE MAN-U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go LEEDS!

I'm with you, sigmanuzk, you won't see any love for Manchester United at my house.

Though, I'm neither here nor there about Leeds - I guess it just depends on who they play. For example, for today's fixture of Leeds v. Newcastle, we were pulling for Newcastle. Sorry.

I guess we just feel that the two teams who deserve the premiership are Liverpool and Newcastle (LFC getting priority of course!!). At any rate, the Leeds v. Newcastle fixture ended up 2 all which is ok by me and I hope it's ok by you as well.

.....Kelly

DeltaSigStan · #12 08-18-2003, 12:02 AM

Phew, I'm glad I became a Red Devil fan two years before they won the Treble, otherwise I'd never hear the end of it.

BTW, I only say this because I am a Avalanche, Laker and Patriot fan, and at one point, all three teams held the major championship of their league. BUT I LIKED THEM BEFORE THEN!!!!

If anyone believes me, I ask you to come down and convince my brothers (loyal LA and Nor Cal

fans)

sueali · #13 08-18-2003, 12:09 AM

I know the majority of you are guys in this thread but are there any US women's Soccer fans on here. I just bought tickets to the world cup final at the home depot center in October.

sigmanuzk · #14 08-18-2003, 01:24 AM

A tie is always better than a loss, Kelly.

DeltaSigStan · #15 08-18-2003, 02:20 AM

sueali, I have gone to a couple Spirit games, and I watched most of the matches in 99 and probably will watch all of the ones this yr. But that's more of me being a soccer fan in general. I get a kick out of watching just about any match.

And if you have an extra ticket, I've wanted to see the Home Depot Center since they've built it.

Here's a question: What do you think of indoor soccer? I think it's fast paced and exciting, but a lot of people think it';s just a basterdized evrsion of the original game.