The season opens up tomorrow morning here in the U.S. (afternoon in England) with a triple header on Fox Soccer Channel (FCS) - Channel 110 on Time Warner Digital Cable. I have become a big Man U fan over the years, mostly because of Ruud Van Nistlerooy and now they have another Dutchman in Edwin Van Desaar as goalkeeper. I am hoping they will do well this season and Nistlerooy can reach 30+ goals again. Who do you think will win the EPL this year? I hope Man U does but it’s going to be tough to beat out Chelsea cause they are LOADED!!! Arsenal is also very good so it will be interesting. I am also interest in seeing Edgar Davids (one of my favorite players ever) in the EPL at Tottenham, hopefully he can regain top form and be a part of the World Cup squad in ’06. It should be another exciting campaign with lots of great matches. Check out FSC for schedule of games. Peace.
Unfortunately, I think Chelsea will win again, with the aquisition of Del Horno (love that name, great defender though), they just add more depth. Then they go and buy Wright-Phillips, and along with Robben, Duff, and Cole they are loaded on the wings. And here they are still going for Essien, looking at Shevchenko .. Of course, you can never trust the English Media, but you never know. IMO, Arsenal is going to suck, because they haven't replaced Viera yet, and have purchased Hleb, who in the Community Shield, got owned by Chelsea, and Fabregas, who will get owned by any Physical Midfielder (Keane, Davids, even Gerrard and Lampard). Henry tried and failed against Chelsea in the Community Shield, he got muscled up, he definitely needs help from behind him. For Manchester United, grabbing a keeper was a good thing, especially Van Der Sar, though he is kind of old, he is still a good keeper. We still need depth in midfield, ahem .. Ballack, and pray to God that Ruud doesn't get injured again. But landing Cicinho would help our cause a lot more. If you saw the Confederation's Cup, he absolutely owned. Brazil sees him as Cafu's replacement, and many say he's a better dribbler and crosser of the ball. He's a great crosser of the ball, I do hope United land him. They say he's a better dribbler and crosser than Cafu is. That being said, some say his defense is lacking. It's great if we get him, but what happens to Gary Neville?
I don't want him, in our system we need solid defenders at full back, we have plenty of attack in the squad already. We've also been linked with American defender Oguchi Onyewu today. My prediction for the top 5: 1. Chelski 2. Man United 3. Liverpool 4. Arsenal 5. Tottenham
Come on you reds, come on you reds Just keep your bottle and use your heads For ninety minutes we'll let them know Who's Man United, here we go Man United, here we go Man United, here we go
I think Arsenal will be fine, they have way too much talent not to be. Viera is really good but I think a bit overrated. I think it will come down to Chelsea, Arsenal and Man U vying for the top. Ballack is still under contract for one more season at B. Munich and it doesn't look like they will sell him. Man U needs to go after a younger replacement for Keane. Is there no one in their youth system coming through the ranks? It seems Arsenal has lots of young prospects. Chelsea is spending so much money (they are like the Yankees of soccer).
In terms of replacing Keane, there are three names that have been mentioned within the squad, Alan Smith, has all but been named the replacement by Fergie. We also have David Jones, who will spend this season on loan at Preston and Floribert N'Galula, who is still a couple of years away, but a great talent. United has a ton of young talent coming through including American/Italian striker Guiseppe Rossi, American defender Jonathon Spector (on loan at Charlton), defenders Gerard Pique and Paul McShane (on loan at Brighton), and wingers Kieran Richardson and Chris Eagles (on loan at Sheffield Wednesday) to name a few.
Nah, the sound coming from the great guns of Arsenal will damp any hopes of a United win at the Premiership...
Baseball is boring...I would rather watch grass grow. Soccer is the MOST POPULAR sport in the WORLD, far MORE popular than Major League BoringBall and it ALWAYS will be. The entire world loves soccer, the U.S. is the only one that doesn't, what does that tell you about "americans". Americans bash soccer b/c they say it is boring but support "bass fishing competitions", "Neckcar", Baseball and golf -> 4 of the most BORING things in the world. I went to an Astros game 2 weeks ago cause my gf likes it and boy was it torture. Nothing happens. The pitcher stands there and grabs his nuts then spits, looks in all directions and 10 minutes later throws the ball and sometimes it gets hit and sometimes doesn't, repeat that for 4 hours...a real yawner
Yes it was, but still .. to say soccer is a boring sport, is a generalization in itself (IMHO). In soccer, there are no time-outs, no breaks (other than a 15 minute ((in most cases)) halftime). The only time players get water is when someone goes down injured. It's a very demanding sport, and the fact that a flurry of goals can come out of nothing, is exciting. In baseball (not to generalize), if the bases are loaded, no outs, and the pitcher is down in the count 0-3, you could "assume" that a run would be scored. Of course, that doesn't always happen. I used to hate soccer with a passion, I thought it was a girly sport. But when you see something special, it really changes your mind. Even though I find baseball some-what boring, I can watch games, I have been to 3 Astros games, know most of their players, and their pitching rotation. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
Ah sorry, I was just reading posts and decided you were the closest to the end, so I would reply to you. Apologies.
Hleb is going to be a big success in the EPL I think. I don't think he got dominated at all in the Charity/Community Shield and a couple of his runs looked like a peek of things to come. Also not sure about why you think everyone is dominating Cesc Fabregas - he's not the holding mid anyway - Gilberto is. 1. Chelsea 2. Arsenal 3. Liverpool 4. Manchester United
Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal and Liverpool. I'm wondering if the club/country problem will work out for the benefit of the players this time. Has anyone heard if there will be a significant rest period before next years WC? I will also be following FC United's play considering that I'm a confused Manchester United fan at the moment. You have to give it up to the true die hards. They really showed how much their team meant to them, it's a shame things ended the way they did though. Hopefully ESPN will get it's head out of it's arse and show more CL games this year. Once a week is not enough. Who on earth wants to watch repeat after repeat of WSOP and strong man competitions.
I really wish ESPN would just let another station grab the CL contract so they could do it more justice, it's just being wasted over there. A station like FSC would torture the viewers with multiple repeats for alot of those games.
Ruud opens up the season's scoring. 1-0 United at the half. Damn, it's wierd seeing Phil in another jersey. I know alot of people don't like him, but he is a true professional, and I think he is one of the more underrated players in England when played in a holding role. He will be missed.
I think Sentanta Sports has the main CL contract and ESPN only gets some games. It would be so much better if you could get a package like direct tv NFL or MLB.
Can you believe that newly promoted Wigan were within minutes of holding the reigning champs to a draw. I wonder if Kenyon still thinks it will be a one horse race. Another thing that pisses me off about the soccer programming, is that ESPN Deportes is not always available in some areas or costs extra.
