How can Manchester United get win after win in the Premier League, by having players in their squad that, when 3-5 crucial main players are not playing, cannot inspire their team to even grabbing one point from teams like Galatasaray and CFR Cluj?!?
Yeah, okay, they're already qualified, but these East European teams are surely no better than Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, maybe even Newcastle. All of these English teams saw Man. U. leave the stadium in which they faced each other in the EPL with full points, this season.
So, then, how come Man. U. screws up such a small percentage of matches in the Premier League, and such a large one in the Champions League?
(In the last two years, in Europe's best inter-club competition, United failed to win 50% of their matches. They lost 25%. In the English Premier League, over the same period of time, they won more than 75% of their matches. Out of 53 matches.)
It's weird. Especially because Man. U. supposedly got an easy CL draw last year, and they got an easy CL draw this year.
I can't fully remember the last time a team got six wins out of six in the Champions League group stage. (Maybe I gotta look back to the PSG team of the early '90s, for that.)
But, anyway, why wasn't Man. U. interested in a record like that, considering the fact that they got to be in the crappiest group, and they could have won all six matches, potentially, if playing at full strength?
...Or could they?
Highlights from Man. U. - Cluj:
Showing posts with label CFR Cluj. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CFR Cluj. Show all posts
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
More About UEFA's Stupid Rule
Again, I just can't shut up about the stupidity of the people involved in making the decision that teams tied on points at the end of the group stage are to be separated first based on the direct results.
Chelsea fans will back me up in arguing just how stupid, dumb, imbecilic, senseless, absurd, foolish, idiotic, harebrained, etc., this rule proved to be. (CFR Cluj fans, too, would say the same thing, by the way. They go to Old Trafford, beat Man. U., have a better goal difference than Galatasaray, overall, but they don't go through because of just one goal scored by Galata in the 78th minute. Just stupid!)
Getting back to the Chelsea issue, which is even more outrageous, how the fuck was Shakhtar Donetsk more deserving of progressing than Chelsea?
Even the direct results showed that. 2-1 and 2-3. Now just why should this pair of results eliminate the team that did not score two goals in each match, I do not understand. Well, I understand it when there's direct elimnation involved, and the only other option is extra time + PKs, but this is a group, and there are way better and fairer criteria for separating teams that play the results 3-2 and 1-2 between themselves and are tied on points at the end.
Chelsea was overall better than Shakhtar, considering especially how Shakhtar performed in the last few matches, and deserved better. UEFA really screwed up.
More people should complain.
Highlights from Shakhtar - Juventus:
Highlights from Chelsea - Nordsjaelland:
Highlights from Manchester U. - CFR Cluj:
Highlights from Braga - Galatasaray:
Chelsea fans will back me up in arguing just how stupid, dumb, imbecilic, senseless, absurd, foolish, idiotic, harebrained, etc., this rule proved to be. (CFR Cluj fans, too, would say the same thing, by the way. They go to Old Trafford, beat Man. U., have a better goal difference than Galatasaray, overall, but they don't go through because of just one goal scored by Galata in the 78th minute. Just stupid!)
Getting back to the Chelsea issue, which is even more outrageous, how the fuck was Shakhtar Donetsk more deserving of progressing than Chelsea?
Even the direct results showed that. 2-1 and 2-3. Now just why should this pair of results eliminate the team that did not score two goals in each match, I do not understand. Well, I understand it when there's direct elimnation involved, and the only other option is extra time + PKs, but this is a group, and there are way better and fairer criteria for separating teams that play the results 3-2 and 1-2 between themselves and are tied on points at the end.
Chelsea was overall better than Shakhtar, considering especially how Shakhtar performed in the last few matches, and deserved better. UEFA really screwed up.
More people should complain.
Highlights from Shakhtar - Juventus:
Highlights from Chelsea - Nordsjaelland:
Highlights from Manchester U. - CFR Cluj:
Highlights from Braga - Galatasaray:
Thursday, 22 November 2012
Stupid, Retarded UEFA Rules!
I must say, it seems to me that UEFA decision makers are getting dumber and dumber. And no, I'm not talking about the decision to have the next Euros comprise of 24 teams.
I'm talking about having the main tie-breaking criterion between teams tied on points in the Champions League be the direct results between the teams in question.
How moronic is that?
How idiotic is it, huh, Mr. Platini?
Let's look at it, group by group.
Group A is, surprisingly, unaffected by this rule.
In Group B, Schalke can even lose, no matter by what scoreline, as long as Arsenal does not win in the other match, and still win the group. So, a team that might get crushed - it will not happen, by I'm just saying - 7-0 by someone as weak as Montpellier could still win that group. Stupid!
In Group C, Malaga has already won the group, courtesy of their better head-to-head record against AC Milan. So, then, both Malaga and Milan have nothing to play for in the last matchday. Very stupid!
Luckily, as far as the struggle between Zenit St. Petersburg and Anderlecht goes, their direct encounters ended 1-0 and 0-1, so that will be decided by goal difference. They will have to show up and play, if they wish to finish third and continue in the Europa League. Thank God (for almost nothing)!
Group D also has a decided winner, Borussia Dortmund, because of their better record against Real Madrid. Not that Borussia was not the best team of the group so far, but if they lose at home to Manchester City, on the last matchday, nobody would then say that they were, pound-for-pound, the best overall team if Real beats Ajax and gets the same number of points. (You gotta play well all your matches to be most appreciated!...)
Man. City, likewise, cannot not win their last match, if they want Europa League play, even if Ajax loses 200-0 in Madrid.
Extremely dumb!
But Group E is the worst.
You know, someone watching Juventus - Chelsea (3-0), and not having been aware of these fucked-up UEFA rules, might have thought that Juventus kept pressing, even at 2-0 and with 10 minutes left, because they knew every goal would count on the last matchday and Chelsea would have played Nordsjaelland (a team that is very likely to lose 6-7--nil). Actually, though, NO!
Thanks to any kind of win over Chelsea, and with a point in Donetsk in two weeks ' time, Juventus can then be assured of progressing over Chelsea, last year 's winner.
Even a 1-0 victory for Juventus would have been enough to secure that advantage.
3-0 was a result that brought Juventus no more benefits than a 1-0 would have.
And another unfortunate result of this obvious lack of intelligence from UEFA officials is the fact that Shakhtar Donetsk is already in the round of 16. Yes, they have secured their place, because of their direct results over Chelsea (2-1 and 2-3, away-goals rule) and now Chelsea can only at best tie Shakhtar on points.
So, Shakhtar has only first place to play for, on the last matchday, and clearly a draw in their direct match would satisfy both Shakhtar (who would win the group) and Juventus (who would go through, leaving Chelsea out).
How much do Chelsea fans hate UEFA for these senseless rules?
So, so retarded!!!
In Group F, Bayern leads over Valencia, even though Valencia has a better goal difference. (The two teams are tied on points, yes.) And all Bayern needs to do is match the number of points that Valencia gets on the last day, to win that group.
Also, Lille cannot go to the Europa League, even though they are clearly better than BATE at the present time, even if they win their last match by an astronomical score, and BATE loses theirs by an astronomical score, too, to boot. Why? Well, because stupid UEFA said 1-3 and 2-0 means the team that scored the three goals in that one match will beat the other team, no matter what else happens, if they're tied on points at the end.
Also, retarded!
In Group G, Benfica needs to match Celtic's result, but luckily for the surprising Scottish outfit (who beat Barcelona) Celtic plays Spartak at home while Benfica has to take on Barca away.
Group H contains another team that might be seriously screwed by this deficiency in thinking clearly exhibited by UEFA officials: CFR Cluj.
The Romanians have to go to Old Trafford, needing to beat Manchester United. And, even then, they have to hope that Galatasaray does not defeat Braga in Portugal. (And Braga cannot even finish third anymore. They will be bottom, and might only be playing for pride, if even that.)
Potential scorelines Man. U. - Cluj 0-5 and Braga - Galatasaray 2-3 would allow the Turkish team to qualify. If that happens, wouldn't that be fucked-up, retarded, and unfair to Cluj?
Realistically, all the Transylvanian team can hope for is for them to get a point in Manchester, and for Galatasaray to lose to Braga.
They could score, and score, and score, in England, and still get kicked out. Thanks to some serious incompetence from UEFA!
I'm talking about having the main tie-breaking criterion between teams tied on points in the Champions League be the direct results between the teams in question.
How moronic is that?
How idiotic is it, huh, Mr. Platini?
Let's look at it, group by group.
Group A is, surprisingly, unaffected by this rule.
In Group B, Schalke can even lose, no matter by what scoreline, as long as Arsenal does not win in the other match, and still win the group. So, a team that might get crushed - it will not happen, by I'm just saying - 7-0 by someone as weak as Montpellier could still win that group. Stupid!
In Group C, Malaga has already won the group, courtesy of their better head-to-head record against AC Milan. So, then, both Malaga and Milan have nothing to play for in the last matchday. Very stupid!
Luckily, as far as the struggle between Zenit St. Petersburg and Anderlecht goes, their direct encounters ended 1-0 and 0-1, so that will be decided by goal difference. They will have to show up and play, if they wish to finish third and continue in the Europa League. Thank God (for almost nothing)!
Group D also has a decided winner, Borussia Dortmund, because of their better record against Real Madrid. Not that Borussia was not the best team of the group so far, but if they lose at home to Manchester City, on the last matchday, nobody would then say that they were, pound-for-pound, the best overall team if Real beats Ajax and gets the same number of points. (You gotta play well all your matches to be most appreciated!...)
Man. City, likewise, cannot not win their last match, if they want Europa League play, even if Ajax loses 200-0 in Madrid.
Extremely dumb!
But Group E is the worst.
You know, someone watching Juventus - Chelsea (3-0), and not having been aware of these fucked-up UEFA rules, might have thought that Juventus kept pressing, even at 2-0 and with 10 minutes left, because they knew every goal would count on the last matchday and Chelsea would have played Nordsjaelland (a team that is very likely to lose 6-7--nil). Actually, though, NO!
Thanks to any kind of win over Chelsea, and with a point in Donetsk in two weeks ' time, Juventus can then be assured of progressing over Chelsea, last year 's winner.
Even a 1-0 victory for Juventus would have been enough to secure that advantage.
3-0 was a result that brought Juventus no more benefits than a 1-0 would have.
And another unfortunate result of this obvious lack of intelligence from UEFA officials is the fact that Shakhtar Donetsk is already in the round of 16. Yes, they have secured their place, because of their direct results over Chelsea (2-1 and 2-3, away-goals rule) and now Chelsea can only at best tie Shakhtar on points.
So, Shakhtar has only first place to play for, on the last matchday, and clearly a draw in their direct match would satisfy both Shakhtar (who would win the group) and Juventus (who would go through, leaving Chelsea out).
How much do Chelsea fans hate UEFA for these senseless rules?
So, so retarded!!!
In Group F, Bayern leads over Valencia, even though Valencia has a better goal difference. (The two teams are tied on points, yes.) And all Bayern needs to do is match the number of points that Valencia gets on the last day, to win that group.
Also, Lille cannot go to the Europa League, even though they are clearly better than BATE at the present time, even if they win their last match by an astronomical score, and BATE loses theirs by an astronomical score, too, to boot. Why? Well, because stupid UEFA said 1-3 and 2-0 means the team that scored the three goals in that one match will beat the other team, no matter what else happens, if they're tied on points at the end.
Also, retarded!
In Group G, Benfica needs to match Celtic's result, but luckily for the surprising Scottish outfit (who beat Barcelona) Celtic plays Spartak at home while Benfica has to take on Barca away.
Group H contains another team that might be seriously screwed by this deficiency in thinking clearly exhibited by UEFA officials: CFR Cluj.
The Romanians have to go to Old Trafford, needing to beat Manchester United. And, even then, they have to hope that Galatasaray does not defeat Braga in Portugal. (And Braga cannot even finish third anymore. They will be bottom, and might only be playing for pride, if even that.)
Potential scorelines Man. U. - Cluj 0-5 and Braga - Galatasaray 2-3 would allow the Turkish team to qualify. If that happens, wouldn't that be fucked-up, retarded, and unfair to Cluj?
Realistically, all the Transylvanian team can hope for is for them to get a point in Manchester, and for Galatasaray to lose to Braga.
They could score, and score, and score, in England, and still get kicked out. Thanks to some serious incompetence from UEFA!
Saturday, 12 May 2012
Chaos, Confusion and Corruption in the Romanian League
A very interesting incident happened on the 31st matchday of the Romanian Liga I. (There are 34 matchdays in this league, by the way.)
CFR Cluj, the leaders (by three points, at that time), were playing Universitatea Cluj, their local rivals, on the stadium of Universitatea.
Now, there should be no surprise that football teams from the same city, in Europe, generally hate each other. Because CFR won two league championships recently, in 2007-2008 and 2009-2010, after being promoted in the early 2000s, on top of being a local rival, while U. Cluj hasn't won any title, ever (despite being in the first league for way longer), and probably never will, the Universitatea radical fans have a deep, criminal hatred of anything CFR.
So, 25 minutes into the match, CFR gets a penalty, transformed into a goal by Cadu, a Portuguese defender. Cadu has the bad, for him, and for the match, idea to go and celebrate in front of the most fervent Universitatea supporters. He goes and does a little cheering right behind the U. Cluj goal, under a torrent of objects raining down from the stands.
The Universitatea goalkeeper, Bornescu, a big guy, significantly bigger than Cadu, sees what the Portuguese is doing, after scoring on him, and goes berserk.
So, he runs after Cadu, and starts beating him up.
After a while, some players hold him aside, while he keeps shouting he wants to kill Cadu, and that he'll beat him up later.
The referee, Alexandru Tudor, gives red to both players, and stops the match.
As the players go in the tunnels, a few more people, including somebody clearly from Universitatea's technical team (who would later be fired), again brutally attack Cadu, hitting him even from behind.
On that day, Cadu ended up in the hospital, and the entire CFR Cluj team had to be evacuated in the gendarmerie van.
This happens on Tuesday, May 8. The decision as to what would happen with this match belongs to a specialized football commission, which is to get together on Friday (yesterday) and decide.
A big confusion then ensues, as to what official decision could be made to fix the conundrum.
The rules in the Romanian league apparently can be interpreted in many ways, because here are four realistic options, all supposedly legitimate decisions that this body could take regarding the match. (And yes, the referee had decided that he wanted no more part of the match, on that night.)
1) CFR Cluj wins 3-0, because the way in which Universitatea organized the match put them in danger.
2) The game is played to the end, on another day, from minute 27 and 1-0 for CFR, which perhaps to a mild-mannered spectator seems like the most reasonable decision. (That is, if Universitatea Cluj should not be held accountable for the criminal attacks against Cadu.)
3) The game is played on another day, from 0-0, an option which seems really weird, but just wait and see why it was included.
4) Both teams lose by the score of 0-3, if it is determined that both teams broke the rules of the game.
But there are other factors here. There are powerful people who do not want CFR to win the title.
Four other teams, FC Vaslui, Steaua Bucharest, Rapid Bucharest and Dinamo Bucharest, are trailing CFR, with some chances at the title.
For decades, before the mid-2000s, the second and fourth teams mentioned above manipulated the Romanian league like their own pockets. This goes back into the Romanian communism days, as a matter of fact, to when one team was the army team, and the other was the police team.
Dinamo and steaua are supposed to be bitter rivals. But here's a picture of Steaua's owner, Gigi Becali, some kind of gangster who dreams of ruling the country and openly says he'll pay smaller teams that face his team's direct opponents (to take points away from said opponents, thus helping his team), and Dinamo's chief, Cristi Borcea, on the left, a guy who talks a lot but doesn't do enough, a published picture which surely does not help to support the theory that the two teams hate each other. (These guys should not go too close to each other, am I not right? Do you see Alex Ferguson putting his arm around, and posing for a nice picture with, Roman Abramovich, for example? What the hell?)
Anyway, these characters may just help each other to see that CFR loses as much ground as possible in the last matchdays. And surely they still have some connections inside these official federations commissions, certain relations stemming from the days when they were winning everything big.
So, what is the decision of this damn commission, already, you may ask?
Well, this well-oiled, know-it-all commission ends up deciding that referee Tudor should not have stopped the match, that the Universitatea goalkeeper and the CFR goalscorer are both equally guilty (because they both get suspended 2 matches), and that the game should be replayed from 0-0, before the end of the season. (And this would mean CFR would have to play 4 games in 9 days, including two major derbys.)
However, there are games scheduled every day, until May 19, with the exception of Friday, the 18th. But that's just 24 hours before CFR is supposed to play Steaua, at home, on the last matchday, a game which could decide the title.
So, the games (most of them, at least) of the final matchday are then postponed to Sunday, and the decision comes that U - CFR will, indeed, be played again on Friday, the 18th.
Naturally, the CFR organization feels that they were horribly wronged here, and they will appeal as far as the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.
After all, why shouldn't they? In any other league, there is little doubt that CFR would win the match, 3-0, based on what Universitatea, as the organizing club, permitted to happen. But this is Romania, where corruption still has deep roots, despite a few fairly honest seasons lately in Liga I.
However, the thing is, is there time to make these appeals before the replay? (That's in 5 days.) Or before the end of the championship (in 7-8 days)? And, if not, and the game is already played, will the Court of Arbitration mess with the internal organization of the Romanian league after the official closure of its 2011-2012 season?
(About 10 years ago, Rapid threatened to do that, in order to get the title away from steaua, but nothing materialized. If CFR loses this title, courtesy of what happens in the new game at Universitatea, can they get it back at Lausanne?...)
You could not see a scandal like this in any other league in the world, folks!
Only in Romania!...
CFR Cluj, the leaders (by three points, at that time), were playing Universitatea Cluj, their local rivals, on the stadium of Universitatea.
Now, there should be no surprise that football teams from the same city, in Europe, generally hate each other. Because CFR won two league championships recently, in 2007-2008 and 2009-2010, after being promoted in the early 2000s, on top of being a local rival, while U. Cluj hasn't won any title, ever (despite being in the first league for way longer), and probably never will, the Universitatea radical fans have a deep, criminal hatred of anything CFR.
So, 25 minutes into the match, CFR gets a penalty, transformed into a goal by Cadu, a Portuguese defender. Cadu has the bad, for him, and for the match, idea to go and celebrate in front of the most fervent Universitatea supporters. He goes and does a little cheering right behind the U. Cluj goal, under a torrent of objects raining down from the stands.
The Universitatea goalkeeper, Bornescu, a big guy, significantly bigger than Cadu, sees what the Portuguese is doing, after scoring on him, and goes berserk.
So, he runs after Cadu, and starts beating him up.
After a while, some players hold him aside, while he keeps shouting he wants to kill Cadu, and that he'll beat him up later.
The referee, Alexandru Tudor, gives red to both players, and stops the match.
As the players go in the tunnels, a few more people, including somebody clearly from Universitatea's technical team (who would later be fired), again brutally attack Cadu, hitting him even from behind.
On that day, Cadu ended up in the hospital, and the entire CFR Cluj team had to be evacuated in the gendarmerie van.
This happens on Tuesday, May 8. The decision as to what would happen with this match belongs to a specialized football commission, which is to get together on Friday (yesterday) and decide.
A big confusion then ensues, as to what official decision could be made to fix the conundrum.
The rules in the Romanian league apparently can be interpreted in many ways, because here are four realistic options, all supposedly legitimate decisions that this body could take regarding the match. (And yes, the referee had decided that he wanted no more part of the match, on that night.)
1) CFR Cluj wins 3-0, because the way in which Universitatea organized the match put them in danger.
2) The game is played to the end, on another day, from minute 27 and 1-0 for CFR, which perhaps to a mild-mannered spectator seems like the most reasonable decision. (That is, if Universitatea Cluj should not be held accountable for the criminal attacks against Cadu.)
3) The game is played on another day, from 0-0, an option which seems really weird, but just wait and see why it was included.
4) Both teams lose by the score of 0-3, if it is determined that both teams broke the rules of the game.
But there are other factors here. There are powerful people who do not want CFR to win the title.
Four other teams, FC Vaslui, Steaua Bucharest, Rapid Bucharest and Dinamo Bucharest, are trailing CFR, with some chances at the title.
For decades, before the mid-2000s, the second and fourth teams mentioned above manipulated the Romanian league like their own pockets. This goes back into the Romanian communism days, as a matter of fact, to when one team was the army team, and the other was the police team.
Dinamo and steaua are supposed to be bitter rivals. But here's a picture of Steaua's owner, Gigi Becali, some kind of gangster who dreams of ruling the country and openly says he'll pay smaller teams that face his team's direct opponents (to take points away from said opponents, thus helping his team), and Dinamo's chief, Cristi Borcea, on the left, a guy who talks a lot but doesn't do enough, a published picture which surely does not help to support the theory that the two teams hate each other. (These guys should not go too close to each other, am I not right? Do you see Alex Ferguson putting his arm around, and posing for a nice picture with, Roman Abramovich, for example? What the hell?)
Anyway, these characters may just help each other to see that CFR loses as much ground as possible in the last matchdays. And surely they still have some connections inside these official federations commissions, certain relations stemming from the days when they were winning everything big.
So, what is the decision of this damn commission, already, you may ask?
Well, this well-oiled, know-it-all commission ends up deciding that referee Tudor should not have stopped the match, that the Universitatea goalkeeper and the CFR goalscorer are both equally guilty (because they both get suspended 2 matches), and that the game should be replayed from 0-0, before the end of the season. (And this would mean CFR would have to play 4 games in 9 days, including two major derbys.)
However, there are games scheduled every day, until May 19, with the exception of Friday, the 18th. But that's just 24 hours before CFR is supposed to play Steaua, at home, on the last matchday, a game which could decide the title.
So, the games (most of them, at least) of the final matchday are then postponed to Sunday, and the decision comes that U - CFR will, indeed, be played again on Friday, the 18th.
Naturally, the CFR organization feels that they were horribly wronged here, and they will appeal as far as the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.
After all, why shouldn't they? In any other league, there is little doubt that CFR would win the match, 3-0, based on what Universitatea, as the organizing club, permitted to happen. But this is Romania, where corruption still has deep roots, despite a few fairly honest seasons lately in Liga I.
However, the thing is, is there time to make these appeals before the replay? (That's in 5 days.) Or before the end of the championship (in 7-8 days)? And, if not, and the game is already played, will the Court of Arbitration mess with the internal organization of the Romanian league after the official closure of its 2011-2012 season?
(About 10 years ago, Rapid threatened to do that, in order to get the title away from steaua, but nothing materialized. If CFR loses this title, courtesy of what happens in the new game at Universitatea, can they get it back at Lausanne?...)
You could not see a scandal like this in any other league in the world, folks!
Only in Romania!...
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