₦airaland Forum

StarBoard: That 2001 United side was just not good enough for Europe.The class of 1999 was more like it in terms of European adventures.
That season it was hard to live with United with Scholes in particular driving us forward.

This is debatable! There was hardly anything spectacular about United that season no one fancied United as favorites! Remember yall were not even the best team in England
If Scholes or Keane played they woulda been r@ped!

StarBoard: United met Bayern I the group stage of 98/99 season and I seem to remember Bayern escaping the home tie with a last gasp equalizer via an own goal at the Olimpiastadion.....that's where I'd like to focus on.

Naah its not about the scoreline! That doesn't tell the whole story!
My point is Scholes and Keane were never able to dominate Effenberg in 4 tries so expecting similar from Beckham is extremely optimistic

StarBoard: Becks has played for Madrid, PSG, Milan and LA Galaxy, yet I do not recall him doing a CM job in a regular basis for these sides, if at all... The point still remains that Hus "versatility" is hyped to mythical proportions.

Becks was used at CM quite a bit. At PSG,Milan and even LA Galaxy that was the only logical position he could play when the negligible pace he had was gone and he could no longer feature on the flanks

MRbrownJAY: Alonso is the best of the rest, no question about it, but even if he was qualifying on pole, it would NOT change the outcome of the race. that RBR is simply faster!

Sorry but Vettel's 4 WDC and higher number of race wins beg to differ!

Alonso is a shitty qualifier if he was half decent at qualifying the Ferrari's race pace would have helped him put up a better fight! Give Alonso that RBR and he would struggle to put it on pole and invariably struggle to win races

MRbrownJAY: i guess you are entitled to your opinion about what a competitive car is.......we all can see that there is absolutely NO competition. if you can see any, then you must be "special" like baba Ijebu, lol!

That's the beauty of it! I have seen Alonso in competitive cars and he has still failed woefully! He is driving a competitive and reliable car now and is still failing

MRbrownJAY: everyone knows that A) the RBR is modelled around SV driving style and B) Webber is a "ok" driver. put any top driver like Ham/Alonso/Rai in that car and you will see some real competition at the top.......

This is a phantom theory! Prior to Vettel's first title how was Red Bull to know he was going to be this successful to consistently model cars after him year in year out. Hahaha this is just hilarious

MRbrownJAY: At least we can all agree on one point: Alonso is a SOLID driver.

Of course he is a solid driver! I recognize his abilities do I think he's better than Vettel? Not in a million years

MRbrownJAY: any F1 aficionado knows that being on pole doesnt mean anything....a car can be fast on 1lap, and fail miserably during the race.......see Mercedes for an example of what i am saying. at the end of the day, if the Renault car was better than the rest, then that car would have won MOST of the races.....it is simple LOGIC.

Nonsense! Starting on pole gives you the best odds to win a race no matter how awful your car is! Mercedes won 4 races this year and almost all of their wins came from pole position

It was better than the rest but an average joe like Giancarlo Fisichella could not take advantage! Give that Renault to a Montoya and let's see whether they wouldn't have won more races! I have asked you a simple question you refused to answer!
Alonso has 22 poles in over 200 races! How is it that between 05/06 he was able to amass over half that tally with that Renault car? How did he win that many races?

All the greats Senna,Schumacher etc also had the most poles

El Guapo: ^^ That was actually a wrong info from my end, i read in an article that Croatia's gained 3 points against Macedonia never got into the record books - got taken away for reasons i dunno, that shoulda had them 3 points ahead of Serbia other than 6.

I get the memo dawg, so let it down here.

You were corrected not once not twice yet you kept arguing and arguing instead of honorably owning your error

El Guapo: As per the Luiz/Dante discourse, i think i've done the Chelsea's man reputation more harm by having his name in same sentence with a bloke that discovered his talent at 28.[/font][/color]

What does the player's age have to do with it? We are talking ability and current form you are talking about when his talent was discovered. Highly laughable

StarBoard: Bros,
I'm not taking sides in this matter.
But to tell me that Beckham was versatile and could playcentral midfield effectively is a pure lie on a Sunday
Effenberg was a beast no doubt but becks was deployed there as a stop-gap on the day due to suspensions to our preffered partnership of Keane and Scholes, not because of any abilities he might have had.
Plus, I think Effenberg might have had it a bit harder than the free ride he got that day if at least one of those guys was on the pitch.
That Becks plays in the midfield story is a myth, much like the fabled Indian soccer side.: remaining to ne seen.
The pro-becks camp should tell us another lie because nobody is falling for this one.Tony Valencia wins this area.

I think Beckham can do a job there. Can he start there long-term I don't know but I do think he would hold his own in a match up that is not as lopsided against him as one against a midfielder who was probably top 3 in Europe circa 99-01

I still vividly recall Effenberg r@ping both Scholes and Keane at Old Trafford in the 01 season at the quarters so whether they woulda been able to do a better job than Becks is moot

StarBoard: Still chewing my popcorn and watching but the above is a very valid point.
David Beckham hardly did any CM duty at United or anywhere else for that matter. in fact one of the few times he did pull that stunt saw Steffan Effenberg dominate him silly in the 99 CL Final.
If John O'Shea does a better jobat CM than Beckham then the issue of versatility is squarely in Antonio Valencia's favour.

But Effenberg was a beast! One of the best and most powerful midfielders at the time! Who would he not have dominated? Put O'shea there and the results woulda been even more catastrophic

skyfall: I'm frigging tired of this "F1 is getting boring" whine. The guy works his butt out to win everytime and people talk as if he's being given any advantage.

Before, his crime was qualifying 1st, now that he's won from 2nd I wonder what they'll say again.

Abeg give credit to whom it's due.

Meanwhile Grosjean is doing a very good job. People were mocking when he was crashing last year but now he's come of age.

Its a load of BS if you ask me! Is he supposed to not win just to make F1 competitive? Its high time people started respecting consistency and greatness!

Its about time Grosjean matured he's been in F1 for a minute now
[quote author=baby-boy]I honestly can't believe he was surprised! RedBull had that lined up long before they told Mark - the call to Vettel that he was now racing Grosjean and not Webber.

He had 15 or so seconds over Vettel with 10 laps to go and they were lapping more or less on the same pace. They should have left him out till the end.

It would have been a gamble but at the very least he would have come 3rd, but pitting Webber Guaranteed that he'd be behind Vettel.

I'm not huge on conspiracy, but RedBull royally screwed Webber on that one![/quote]I'm sure you would have preferred Webber not finishing that race the difference was in tire strategy. Webber had to pit as early as the 26th lap! There is no way he woulda lasted till the end infact Webber only has himself to blame for staring at Grosjean's exhaust for that long! Vettel woulda passed him in a New York minute

[quote author=baby-boy]It wasn't that bad compared to the 2011[/quote]Are you talking of an era were Schumacher was winning more than half the races each season? I can remember back in 02 when Schumacher won 11 races out of 17 it was equally as bad if not worse

justwise: He is a much better driver than Vettel 4sure

Well he was not as good as Vettel at 26 that I can boldly say! He does have a much better mastery of wet conditions which certainly gives him the edge. I don't think anyone would argue that Schumacher is the G.O.A.T at the moment but there is ample time for Vettel to rewrite history! And I'm a massive Schumacher fan btw

El Guapo: [color=#0066ff]Ko easy Oga Smart, I had a wrong assertion of the teams for the Playoffs and you made a bigger goof by saying Serbia are 6 points adrift of Croatia.

From a different logical view, I'm right on the Serbs Leapfrogging Croatia for the Playoff place.

If they [Croatia] lose to Scotland, as their points gained against bottom placed Macedonia are taken away and Serbia goes on to win Macedonia in Zagreb, then its Ivanovic and co having the last dig on ya dawg Manduzkic.

Are you trolling or just plain blind? Croatia on 17pts and Serbia on 11! What is 17 minus 11? Did you go to school at all?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification__UEFA_Group_A

Do I have to speak in your native tongue before you understand that Serbia are OUT of contention?

If Serbia go on to win Macedonia in Zagreb? Is this dude for real? Please just drop it and stop exposing your ignorance any further! You shoulda just admitted your goof when you had the chance instead of dropping a bigger bomb here

El Guapo: And I find it unfathomable that a pundit would be describing a Club's rotation policy as less games had for a player - Luiz has been on the roll now, plays in a far competitive league and his multi-function makes him a way better option for Scolari.[/color]

Rotation policy indeed! Everyone knows Luiz has been riding the bench for sometime now and is not a surefire starter at Chelsea at present! Tell your competitive league story to the birds Thiago Silva's return would send him straight to the bench

90pts ahead! 4 races to go

El Guapo: [color=#0066ff]You're probably missing out on Selecao's games.

Luiz gives his all when dorning that yellow jersey. Having Dante on the bench during the Confed. Cup justifies that fact.[/color]

Because Luiz broke into the squad before Dante. I'm pretty sure prior to last season Dante would never have dreamt of playing for the Selecao! Now thanks to Dante's performance only Thiago Silva's injury is keeping Luiz off the bench

You haven't admitted your goof on Serbia. I'm waiting

Super driving from Grosjean today! He's been the driver of the race in my eyes

Sebastian Vettel wins at SUZUKA

Sublime pitting strategy from the Vettelmeister, this race is almost certainly in the bag now

justwise: Have to agree with MRbrownJAY, this season has brought my interest in F1 to zero, since 2008 when i started watching F1 this is the only season i felt pretty uninterested and i think many F1 fans feel the same.

Its a good thing you didn't watch F1 circa 2000 then cos I'm sure Schumacher's dominance would have also killed your interest

So much for being far and beyond the fastest car


Hamilton OUT!

Lool looks like Massa isn't obeying team orders hehehehe

El Guapo: Dante starting ahead of Luiz? Kokoma

Maxwell would probably get a max nod ahead of Marcelo.

Is it a Luiz that can barely get playing time that would start ahead of Dante? You better stop that glue you are sniffing

El Guapo: Serbia are already in the Play-offs with their last game on Tuesday been against Macedonia at home, Scotland and Wales have got no chance there.

Czech needs a win in Bulgaria to advance though.[/font][/color]

This is ignorance at its peak! I'm very keen on you explaining to me how Serbia are able to make the playoffs despite being 6pts behind 2nd place Croatia with only 1 match left! Simple maths is beyond you

Even if Czech beat Bulgaria they still have to hope Denmark does not beat Malta at Copenhagen

MRbrownJAY: bro, last yr was a truly wonderful yr and, as much as it was everything i said earlier, it was also agony for us....but at least there was a bit of both. there is nothing like being good or consistent today. the RBR is simply ABOVE the field, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

If Alonso was consistent he would qualify better and odds are the gap would not be as wide as it is right now. Consistency is the reason why Vettel is ahead of the rest of the field or else why isn't Webber winning races or in the title hunt if it was down to the car alone?

MRbrownJAY: the only way Alonso can win the WDC again, is if he drives a competitive car. we all know that you have been saying that the Ferrari is competitive this yr (i still wonder how you can say such stuff), simply because they are the second best in the field,

That car was competitive this year,last year and the year before! He also drove a competitive car at McLaren and yet he failed woefully! If he could not win a WDC then he would not win it now! Competitive car or not

MRbrownJAY: but the fact on paper remains that the RBR is in another league of its own. so, yes ferrari has the best car out of the rest, but CANNOT/SHOULDNT be compare to the supremacy of the RBR. that car is just too fast, and that has very little to do with the driver

So why is Webber not directly behind Vettel? Since the supremacy is so vast how are Alonso,Kimi and Louis ahead of Webber

MRbrownJAY: bro, i will copy and paste what i wrote earlier:
you say that the Renault car was better than the rest in 05/06 yet in 2005, Renault won 8races only, while Mc Laren won 10races, Renault finished 1st and 5th respectively in the championship, while Mc Laren finished 2nd and 4th.....and you dare say that Renault car was better? NONSENSE!!!!

in 2006, Renault won 8 races while Ferrari won 9 races, Renault finished 1st and 4th respectively in the championship, while Ferrari finished 2nd and 3rd........and you have the audacity to say that the Renault car was better? NONSENSE!!!!

The Renault car was faster than every other car on the grid!! Only an Alonso fanboy like you would argue otherwise! Put a solid driver as Alonso's running mate and let's see if they would not have swept the other races! That car had more pole positions than all the other cars out there!
If that car was not the best on the grid then tell us how Alonso was able to be on pole for 5 straight races at a point! That the Renault didn't win more races is purely an indictment on Giancarlo Fisichella's motor skills

He had 12 poles within that timeframe! How many has he had since? You are free to argue till you are blue in the face but the facts are there and irrefutable! A Raikkonnen or Schumacher would have won more races for Renault

MRbrownJAY: in my world, when a car is above the field, they win ALL (if not MOST) races, like RBR does.

Bullshit!! Why isn't Webber winning races then? He's won squat all season long

MRbrownJAY: and you have the audacity to say that the Renault car was above the field in 05/06? under what criteria do you base your claim, if i may ask?!

The criteria that had Alonso amassing over half his total number of poles despite being notoriously poor at qualifying!
The criteria that has Fisichella winning his only pair of GP's within that timeframe

afrodoc: short passing-------beckham

long range passing------beckham

crossing-------beckham

shooting-------beckham

goals-------beckham

free kicks--------beckham

football intelligence-----beckham

speed--------tony valencia

I think this is a fair assessment

Valencia being compared to Beckham? Lele ooo chineke!

MRbrownJAY: ^^^bro, we all have to be realistic here..... last year was great, there was a fight, there was some excitement about F1, there were skills, you looked forward to the next race knowing that "anything" could happen on the day.......now what you have is this (obviously) faster car being in front, and just going, without being challenged by anyone.
whats the bloody point!

Fight! Excitement! Lool maybe for you guys sha! Last season was agony this season is more like it for me. Absolute crushing dominance is what I expect from Vettel! The rest of the field has not been good or consistent enough and this is the simple truth

MRbrownJAY: i have accepted defeat, i have accepted that the RBR car is the best out there by a LONG shot, i have accepted that Alonso may not win another WDC (unless he moves to RBR), i have accepted that Vettel may win the next 5yrs in a row, i have even accepted that many believe that this is F1 racing while i believe that this is NOT......but i will never accept that Vettel is the greatest driver out there, N E V E R!

You don't need to accept anything really the beauty of sport is the fact that opinion is usually not unanimous. Some people would still argue that Ali was not the greatest,MJ was not the best baller and so on and so forth
There is no guarantee that a poor qualifier like Alonso would win anything with an RBR by the way

MRbrownJAY: as to the champion who won without the greatest car, i have already shown you....just go back and re read my answer!
if a team wins 10races in a championship, while another is only winning 8, there is NO WAY you can tell me that the one who only won 8 was better, had any advantages or better car than the field (it is not mathematically possible).

I'm waiting for you to show me that champion without one of the best two cars on the grid! We argued this ad nauseaum and you failed to show me proof of anyone who accomplished this feat not even your darling Alonso did that
Your example is an awful one as everyone knows Juan Pablo Montoya was a faaaaar better driver than Giancarlo Fisichella its not a coincidence that the only legit GP's he ever won was with that Renault car that Alonso succeeded with. This should tell any neutral observer that the Renault of 05/06 was arguably the best on the grid

El Guapo: [color=#0066ff]Dante, Martinez, Kroos/Gotze would probably be steaming the bench in their teams.

Excluding Cech and Ivanovic who'd both get involved in the play-offs, everyother member of Chelsea's first team has qualified for the Grand Mundial with their respective teams. [/color]

Odds are a wasteman like Luiz would not start ahead of Dante
Kroos and Gotze are also integral parts of Die Mannschaft

You must be on premium gbana if you don't know that Ivanovic and Serbia have zero chance of making the playoffs. Czech Republic also have a 25% chance of making the playoffs, Terry retired. So carry your misinformed self comot for here

El Guapo: [color=#0066ff][font=Lucida Sans Unicode]Lmao!

A-40 your Oga na werey o - Be like say the fella neva pay up em electric bills to dey watch telly
[/color]

Who be my oga? E be like say craze dey worry you or maybe na you dey worry craze

MRbrownJAY: dear F1 Aficionados, MBJ doesnt watch F1 any longer as it has become very boring to watch...... and if any of you were watching F1 for the same reasons as i did, then you would feel the same. Last yr was a great season and i enjoyed it fully (even though Alonso didn't win) because we witnessed some superb racing, but now it can't even be called "RACING", to me.

Sadly yes, Vettel will probably win this one again (all hail the RBR car) and the yr after and after and after.......but that in no way will make him (imho) a great driver.....even if he wins the next 100 championship.

i have been away from NL for a while, and wouldnt want to come back with arguing on the subject of Vettel being a great driver or not (to each their own opinion), so i hope you guys "enjoy" the chase tomorrow.

Awww man! I'm not happy seeing you sounding so defeatist! It was much more fun when you were so buoyant last year but I did tell you the Vettelmeister made things more interesting last year this year he would be back to beastmode

Vettel is a great already! I'm waiting for you to show me that champion that won without a great car. Prost,Senna,Schumacher,Villeneuve,Hill,Hakkinen,Alonso,Hamilton,Button I'll wait

Webber on pole at Suzuka.

Vettel 2nd

Hamilton 3rd

Grosjean 4th

Massa 5th

Rosberg 6th

Alonso 8th

El Guapo: [color=#0066ff]Still wouldnt match the figure that'd be of Chelsea's persuasion.

Genibus Nitito Canus [/color]

Alaba is probably the only one without a shot at making the World Cup finals in our starting XI you can't say the same for Chelsea

Havilah93: Nigeria 4-1 Belgium

Beijing 2008 Men's football semi-finals.

Jan Vertonghen, Kevin Mirallas and Moussa Dembele all played in that game. Vertonghen played as a midfielder, wearing the number 10 shirt

How many players from that tournament are in the SE as we speak? Smh

CFCfan: ^^
Sidney Sam put a dagger in Keshi's and NFF's hearts

Colombia will be making a 1st world cup appearance since 1998, when a certain Valderrama was still playing for them.

Chile can qualify if they draw with Ecuador on Tuesday. A draw would also send Ecuador through.

We wouldn't miss Sam too much! For me the one that got away was David Alaba

Havilah93: Yeah!


I hope Sidney doesn't lose his Germany spot. If the Eagles qualify, na to just dey watch both Nigeria and Germany for him home, various thoughts going on in his mind

If Reus and Podolski stay injured then he has a very good chance of going to the WC

Its quite ironic that this was the Robben we all thought would get bounced playing arguably the best football of his career

There is rumors of Alaba on the verge of extending till 2019 and looking at a €6m euros salary

Shaq,Pizarro,Robben all on target at the WC Qualifiers

Germany
Holland
Switzerland

All through to the WC looks like Bayern would be ably represented for the most part

RIP Maria De Villota

Pretty sad story! From the crash that took out her right eye barely a year ago to passing on today

www.usatoday.com/story/sports/motorsports/2013/10/11/formula-one-maria-de-villota/2964675/

omodapson: Exactly my point. A victory for SV after Japan, and there will be nothing more to watch. Let it go down to the wire please... Can anyone hear me?

Loool down to which wire? You mean the series? I told you guys that Seb just made things interesting last year and that this year he was going to crush all opposition where is MrBrownJay he can testify

Seb dominant in practice and so are the RBR. Alonso way down in 10th it would be interesting to see if the rest of the field can launch some sort of a fight tomorrow

toba: Gotze could fail at Bayern like Podolski, says BVB legend Raducanu

The owner of a football school in Dortmund fears his former pupil could face an uphill battle to succeed with the German champions
Former Borussia Dortmund star Marcel Raducanu believes that Mario Gotze will struggle to make an impact at Bayern Munich and fears the 21-year-old could face similar problems to those experienced by Lukas Podolski in Bavaria.

Podolski joined the German giants from Koln in the summer of 2006 as one of the most highly-rated youngsters in European football, but failed to live up to the high expectations at the Allianz Arena and returned to his boyhood club three years later.

I dont think he could fail, but i know he would fail like podolski. Bayern never needed to sign the chap but Hoeness and he stupid pride of 'i am the boss' and Bayern must always weaken other Buli teams tactics made him sign Gotze.

Except if Ribery and Robben suddenly loses form, thats when Gotze would have a chance. He could have stayed at Dortmund jeje.

Lool stop playing god! Can you bet on it? Thing is Gotze was signed with an eye on the future. Ribery would be 31 next year,Robben would be 30 in my eyes we have learned from our mistakes of 2001 where we didn't adequately strengthen and replace our stalwarts

Besides Dortmund would never have been able to keep Gotze so better the BuLi retains his talent than losing him to another league. Bremen sold Ozil for peanuts,same way Dortmund did with Sahin and Kagawa! Those band of ingrates should be thanking Bayern for improving their finances

pickabeau1: Im a fan of SV but even me... ive sort of lost interest

The fun is in qualifying

Once he starts well on race day... its over

Well its up to the rest of the field to try and stop him! Every Vettel win is cheered with glee by me regardless of the circumstances

www.whoscored.com/Teams/87

He's had the highest match rating of any Juve player so far this season and he's been MOTM twice! Based on form over the last two seasons Pogba is definitely better than every Man U midfielder bar Carrick

www.whoscored.com/Teams/87/Archive/Italy-Juventus

montelik: abeg what is all this over hyping of pogba. because he shows flashes everynow and then, playing in a packed juventus midfield, where the likes of Vidal and marchioso e.t.c cover for his failings and pick up his slack.

Lool which Marchisio are you talking about? Cos Marchisio has been awful for a minute now

Based on last season I can easily tell you Pogba played a bigger role in Juve's success than Marchisio did.

omodapson: There is no excitement left in this year's championship race. It's all about one master genius. I just hope next year will be more competitive.

For the non-Vettel fans you mean? We at Team Vettel are buzzing with excitement