Other Games 21/22: Talk about Actual Football

[Alex 30782]

I’ve always thought Rogers was a bit of a fraud like. Or maybe I just don’t want him to do well because he absolutely loves himself. I think he said he didn’t want the job here after Bruce although I’m not sure if he was even in the running. You wouldn’t have thought he will be in the future either 

[Howay 12496]

 he’s a right cock aye. That documentary they did while he was Liverpool manager is fucking brilliant purely because he comes off so badly. Had a massive mural or painting of his own face directly across from his front door iirc. 

Edited February 6, 2022 by Howay

[Tom 13915]

29 minutes ago, Howmanheyman said:

I wouldn't recognise him tbh.  

 

(Tom blatantly staring with stars in his eyes). 

 

 

[acrossthepond 711]

Egypt go for their record 8th African title today and as I've not got a podcast or a YouTube channel, I'm going to inflict my final thoughts on their campaign and on this year's AFCON in general on all of you poor suckers. 

 

Whisper it quietly but this year's African Cup was a particularly poor spectacle. Expanding the size of the tournament from 16 teams to 24 enabled a lot of what we'll politely call "also-rans" to get in, and despite the intrigue of having several newcomers compete, the group stages were drab and mostly boring. Very few games saw more than one goal, and soul-sapping humidity made the final 20 minutes of matches into a slogfest of tired legs repeatedly surrendering and regaining possession to no purpose. Next we'll get into the dubious structural decisions made by CAN and by Cameroon, starting with the decision to prohibit any postponements for any reason. I understand how difficult it is to postpone games during a knockout tournament, so the decision to expand squads to 28 players was an intelligent one, but forcing Comoros to play without a keeper during the round of 16 was particularly harsh and a bit of an embarrassment. One might argue that Comoros should've brought a fourth-string keeper as many teams such as Senegal and Egypt did, but we're already talking about a nation of less than a million people. Then there was the questionable decision to host group stage matches in a region plagued by separatist activity (luckily nothing went wrong) and of course the disastrous Olembe stampede. 

 

Moving past the tournament itself and on to Egypt's campaign, it was as soul-crushingly dull as any of the football we've played in the last decade. Hot off being the worst team at the 2018 World Cup and a truly calamitous round of 16 exit in Cairo in 2019, it seemed there were no further depths to slip to, although our first match against Nigeria forecasted nothing but further pain to come, and we were very close to elimination against Guinea-Bissau when their equalising goal was very softly ruled out by VAR. It's not a surprise. The weaknesses in our squad are plain for all to see. All but six of our squad members play their football in the Egyptian league, which is among the strongest leagues in Africa, but is no match even for second division European leagues. Most of our Francophone rivals were fully stocked with European-based players with much more experience at a higher level. The entire plan, as always since his emergence, seemed to be to get the ball to Salah and wait for him to perform miracles. But you just have to look at the mediocre players we've surrounded him with to see why that plan never bears fruit. Mostafa Mohamed has seemed incapable of getting a shot on target, while Mohamed Sharif does not even know what formation we're playing. All of our play comes down the wings, with either Salah or the ineffective Marmoush relied upon to get balls into the box. It's no surprise then that we have scored just 4 goals in the entire tournament. But for whatever reason, Quieroz sees fit to continue with Marmoush down the left wing when he has Trezeguet, a proven Premier League player, at his disposal. 

 

I would be remiss now if I didn't mention that we have conceded only two goals total, with one of them a penalty early on against Morocco. One benefit of our overly defensive play is that our goal is rarely threatened, which is just as well because our keepers have been at the wars. #1 El Shenaawy succumbed to injury during the round of 16, with his replacement Abou Gabal "Gabaski" having featured just once for Egypt in a 15-year career.  Gabaski himself then had to be substituted against Morocco, meaning our third-choice keeper Mohamed Sobhy had to come on for the greater portion of extra-time, and although Gabaski recovered in time to start against Cameroon he was visibly struggling with injury toward the end of the match, making his remarkable performance during the penalty shootout all the more incredible. It remains to be seen whether Quieroz will now rush back El Shenaawy, persist with Gabaski who has played heroically but is clearly not fully fit, or turn to our untested 3rd and 4th keepers. 

 

We now come up against a star-studded Senegal side who have scored 9 goals while conceding just 2. They can boast Chelsea, Liverpool, PSG, and Bayern among the clubs their starters play for (not to mention Palace, Leicester, and Napoli) and have the best keeper in Africa in their ranks, meaning our strategy of boring the opposition into submission then beating them on penalties with our superior keepers is not going to have the same effect as in earlier rounds. That's not even bringing up the fact that Egypt have played extra time in our last three matches, while Senegal have hardly been troubled on their path to the final. I'm no master tactician, but I'd say our best chance of winning this match is in 90 minutes, and that we'll have to present more of a threat going forward from BOTH flanks if we hope to see anything other than Salah being marked out of the game and a dire 0-2 or 0-3 loss. Therefore I would swap Marmoush for Trezeguet and start the match with Zizo in CM in order to freshen up a tired lineup, and try to play an attacking game with Elneny sitting in front of the back four and spraying long balls out to Salah and Trezeguet. 

[Howmanheyman 27569]

Colback has come on for forest and his hair is looking very Mick Hucknell. 

[Tom 13915]

Leicester fans are scum mind.

 

 

 

[wykikitoon 17074]

1 hour ago, Alex said:

I’ve always thought Rogers was a bit of a fraud like. Or maybe I just don’t want him to do well because he absolutely loves himself. I think he said he didn’t want the job here after Bruce although I’m not sure if he was even in the running. You wouldn’t have thought he will be in the future either 

Most overrated manager in the Prem. 

[Monkeys Fist 39176]

6 minutes ago, Tom said:

Leicester fans are scum mind.

 

 

 

[acrossthepond 711]

Horrifying penalty from Mane, no quality or finesse to it, simply blasted down the middle and easily saved by Gabaski. That said the cracks are there, Abdelmoneim is there for the taking and he's now on a yellow from the 5th minute. If we try to sit back this match will turn into a disaster. 

[Howmanheyman 27569]

5 minutes ago, acrossthepond said:

Horrifying penalty from Mane, no quality or finesse to it, simply blasted down the middle and easily saved by Gabaski. That said the cracks are there, Abdelmoneim is there for the taking and he's now on a yellow from the 5th minute. If we try to sit back this match will turn into a disaster. 

According to Sky sports it's basically Mane's Senegal v Salah's Egypt. Everybody else are just props.

[Dr Gloom 20160]

and IT’S LIVE

[sammynb 2934]

2 hours ago, acrossthepond said:

Egypt go for their record 8th African title today and as I've not got a podcast or a YouTube channel, I'm going to inflict my final thoughts on their campaign and on this year's AFCON in general on all of you poor suckers. 

 

Whisper it quietly but this year's African Cup was a particularly poor spectacle. Expanding the size of the tournament from 16 teams to 24 enabled a lot of what we'll politely call "also-rans" to get in, and despite the intrigue of having several newcomers compete, the group stages were drab and mostly boring. Very few games saw more than one goal, and soul-sapping humidity made the final 20 minutes of matches into a slogfest of tired legs repeatedly surrendering and regaining possession to no purpose. Next we'll get into the dubious structural decisions made by CAN and by Cameroon, starting with the decision to prohibit any postponements for any reason. I understand how difficult it is to postpone games during a knockout tournament, so the decision to expand squads to 28 players was an intelligent one, but forcing Comoros to play without a keeper during the round of 16 was particularly harsh and a bit of an embarrassment. One might argue that Comoros should've brought a fourth-string keeper as many teams such as Senegal and Egypt did, but we're already talking about a nation of less than a million people. Then there was the questionable decision to host group stage matches in a region plagued by separatist activity (luckily nothing went wrong) and of course the disastrous Olembe stampede. 

 

Moving past the tournament itself and on to Egypt's campaign, it was as soul-crushingly dull as any of the football we've played in the last decade. Hot off being the worst team at the 2018 World Cup and a truly calamitous round of 16 exit in Cairo in 2019, it seemed there were no further depths to slip to, although our first match against Nigeria forecasted nothing but further pain to come, and we were very close to elimination against Guinea-Bissau when their equalising goal was very softly ruled out by VAR. It's not a surprise. The weaknesses in our squad are plain for all to see. All but six of our squad members play their football in the Egyptian league, which is among the strongest leagues in Africa, but is no match even for second division European leagues. Most of our Francophone rivals were fully stocked with European-based players with much more experience at a higher level. The entire plan, as always since his emergence, seemed to be to get the ball to Salah and wait for him to perform miracles. But you just have to look at the mediocre players we've surrounded him with to see why that plan never bears fruit. Mostafa Mohamed has seemed incapable of getting a shot on target, while Mohamed Sharif does not even know what formation we're playing. All of our play comes down the wings, with either Salah or the ineffective Marmoush relied upon to get balls into the box. It's no surprise then that we have scored just 4 goals in the entire tournament. But for whatever reason, Quieroz sees fit to continue with Marmoush down the left wing when he has Trezeguet, a proven Premier League player, at his disposal. 

 

I would be remiss now if I didn't mention that we have conceded only two goals total, with one of them a penalty early on against Morocco. One benefit of our overly defensive play is that our goal is rarely threatened, which is just as well because our keepers have been at the wars. #1 El Shenaawy succumbed to injury during the round of 16, with his replacement Abou Gabal "Gabaski" having featured just once for Egypt in a 15-year career.  Gabaski himself then had to be substituted against Morocco, meaning our third-choice keeper Mohamed Sobhy had to come on for the greater portion of extra-time, and although Gabaski recovered in time to start against Cameroon he was visibly struggling with injury toward the end of the match, making his remarkable performance during the penalty shootout all the more incredible. It remains to be seen whether Quieroz will now rush back El Shenaawy, persist with Gabaski who has played heroically but is clearly not fully fit, or turn to our untested 3rd and 4th keepers. 

 

We now come up against a star-studded Senegal side who have scored 9 goals while conceding just 2. They can boast Chelsea, Liverpool, PSG, and Bayern among the clubs their starters play for (not to mention Palace, Leicester, and Napoli) and have the best keeper in Africa in their ranks, meaning our strategy of boring the opposition into submission then beating them on penalties with our superior keepers is not going to have the same effect as in earlier rounds. That's not even bringing up the fact that Egypt have played extra time in our last three matches, while Senegal have hardly been troubled on their path to the final. I'm no master tactician, but I'd say our best chance of winning this match is in 90 minutes, and that we'll have to present more of a threat going forward from BOTH flanks if we hope to see anything other than Salah being marked out of the game and a dire 0-2 or 0-3 loss. Therefore I would swap Marmoush for Trezeguet and start the match with Zizo in CM in order to freshen up a tired lineup, and try to play an attacking game with Elneny sitting in front of the back four and spraying long balls out to Salah and Trezeguet. 

 

It would be nice if both Salah and Mane had to play the full 120 minutes and then they both tear a hammie/acl in the penalty shootout as Liverpool are half the team they are when they are not playing.

[acrossthepond 711]

27 minutes ago, Howmanheyman said:

According to Sky sports it's basically Mane's Senegal v Salah's Egypt. Everybody else are just props.

 

The way Egypt play, I think that might be true. Senegal on the other hand are the real deal, if we win this it'll be daylight robbery. 

 

Mission: Bore the opposition into submission is 1/3 complete, only the second half and extra time to go until we, er, contend a penalty shootout against the world's best keeper. 

[Ayatollah Hermione 12899]

The kind of utilitarian first half performance that sneaks you cup final wins at times tbf. Bit of good fortune with Mane bottling the pen as well. You might be alright yet

[acrossthepond 711]

I hope you're right. Trezeguet and Zizo being readied to come on now so Quieroz has figured out we'd not score with this lineup in a hundred years. I imagine Mostafa Mohamed must know some pretty influential people in either the Egyptian FA or government because he is about as useless a footballer I've seen in red in many years. Marmoush as well, I'm not sure an Egyptian has even touched the ball on the entire left flank so far. Atrocious. 

[Wardi 92]

Nile Ranger on as sub for Borehamwood in their shock victory at Bournemouth tonight.  I really thought he had run out of chances!

[trophyshy 6443]

5 hours ago, Tom said:

He’s about 5ft. Like a haunted child.

He pleas fled people. All the time. 

[acrossthepond 711]

Mission 2/3 complete. 

[ohhh_yeah 2795]

3 hours ago, Tom said:

Leicester fans are scum mind.

 

 

[Gemmill 35526]

49 minutes ago, acrossthepond said:

Mission 2/3 complete. 

 

[ohhh_yeah 2795]

 

 

That trophy size is ridiculous. I would be missing penalties also. Fuck, lifting that.

 

[acrossthepond 711]

Got what we deserved, which was nothing. A dour, wretched performance lacking in any sort of ambition. Horrendous game. Gabaski can hold his head up high; I'm not sure too many of his teammates have distinguished themselves. Certainly none in the attacking third. 

[acrossthepond 711]

That's the second penalty loss in a continental final in a year as well for me, fucking Jonah. Ugh. 

[ohhh_yeah 2795]

 

It is a party in Dakar.

 

 

[acrossthepond 711]

20 minutes ago, ohhh_yeah said:

 

It is a party in Dakar.

 

 

 

The caption says "Dakar is a party and it's all because Senegal have brought home their first continental title. It's been a pretty poor African Cup as far as spectacle goes, but that hardly matters when you're the champions." 

 

And congratulations to them. They were by far the better team on the day and throughout the entire tournament, and I was pleased that if someone had to win it besides us, it was Cisse, because it's good to see African coaches succeed.