BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!

Subject: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 19 May 12 - 05:30 PM

Fantastic!!

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Leadfingers
Date: 19 May 12 - 07:30 PM

How many British Players in the team >???

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 19 May 12 - 07:43 PM

woke up it was a Chelsea morning....

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: gnu
Date: 19 May 12 - 08:02 PM

I hate shoot-outs but there it is. I was entralled with the header tie. Disappointed that it came to a shoot-out... er... penalty kicks as youse call it. In any case, it was exciting.

Yeah Chelsea!

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: michaelr
Date: 19 May 12 - 09:00 PM

Undeserved, I'd say. Bayern quite outplayed Chelsea, who could barely get out of their own half in the first 60 minutes and had to resort to nasty fouls to slow down their opponents. It was only luck and Petr Chech that saved their arses.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 May 12 - 12:49 AM

Leadfingers ~~ 4: Bertrand, Cahill, Cole, Lampard. More than usual; but agree the thing has got completely out of hand. '6&5' rule needs urgent implementation. My over-¾C support of Arsenal has become much more equivocal & muted of late: why support a foreign team who happen to play in London under a foreign manager in a stadium named for a Mid-East oil-power?

MichaelR; The 'luck' was that Bayern blew it themselves with their dire finishing. Should have been leading 4 or 5 nil at half-time but had forgotten to pack their shooting-boots ~ how many simple opportunities did they slice or misdirect? ~~ I lost count!. So Chelsea's victory was entirely down to Bayern's ineptitude, & shouldn't ∴ be grudged.

So muted & equivocal 'congratulations' to Chelsea; for a fine bringer of peace and joy to the GM household ~~ lifelong Arsenal myself [tho see above], but Emma supports Chelsea and ended day in highly euphoric state.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: michaelr
Date: 20 May 12 - 01:50 AM

I see your point, MGM - Bayern should indeed have scored on several of their many opportunities in the first half. But evaluating the overall performance, one sees that both teams' defenses worked really well, but Chelsea's offense did not show up much until about the 60th minute.

Munich throughout had a 2:1 edge in possession, corners, and goal tries - hardly to be called inept. The luck I'm talking about turned against them at the shootout, which I contend is a sorry way to decide a tournament and should be abandoned. Possibly along with the offside rule.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 20 May 12 - 01:53 AM

"4: Bertrand, Cahill, Cole, Lampard. More than usual"

You're quite right there were 4 English players from an English team and obviously had the club captain not been suspended it probably would have been 5. Plus there were a couple of Englishmen on the bench. Compare that with the Inter Milan team that won two years ago which had no Italians in the starting line up. Many of the big teams in the major leagues are multi-national. Plus the main English players in this side (Cole, Lampard, Terry) have been massive mainstays in the team.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 20 May 12 - 02:36 AM

It's called 'Globalisation'.
It's happening in every other facet of our existence - in industry and commerce we have "British" companies owned, run by, and staffed by foreign-johnnies, so why not football too? And the Chelsea side usually has a fair sprinkling of British players, more than some other Premier League sides, so I don't see it as any sort of problem.
I'm not a Chelsea-fan, but I'm happy for those who are. Well done!

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 May 12 - 03:23 AM

"Munich throughout had a 2:1 edge in possession, corners, and goal tries - hardly to be called inept."
.,,.,.

Disagree entirely, Michael. Failure to score in such circumstances is surely the epitome of ineptitude? Every one of those 'goal tries' was pitifully 'inept'! Sliced, off-target, wide, over the bar ~~ inept·inept·inept!!!!

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 20 May 12 - 03:49 AM

Every side has two elements - attack and defence (or, for the edification of our US-members, offense and defense). It's a matter of balance of play, if one side is constantly attacking and the other side's defence steadfastly prevents them from putting the ball in the net, I'd dare to suggest that the defending side is perhaps the 'better' performing side?

Whilst I agree with the old adage that the best form of defence is attack, and as a defender myself in my playing days, I have to say that there is a great deal of skill, organisation and courage required of defenders, and they often don't receive the same kind of praise that's heaped on attacking players of the ilk of Drogba, Bale and Rooney.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 20 May 12 - 04:03 AM

I didn't watch it - perish the thought, just listened to the penalty shoot out which was quite enough, can't stand the commentators' inane drivel.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: GUEST,Steamin Willie
Date: 20 May 12 - 04:08 AM

How many players with ginger hair? How many who prefer baked beans to mushy peas with their chips? How many players who can recite Knees up Mother Brown?

A team who play in London have won a huge trophy and the xenophobes are still not happy. You don't ask how many English people are employed at the local restaurant so why ask how many are employed at Stamford Bridge?

The origins may be local players representing their area in front of their area's crowd but in case nobody noticed, the millions who watch football are able to see showcases of excellence due to the globalisation of the sport. And out of interest, there are at least two dozen local teams around Chelsea in pub and Sunday league if the Alf Garnett within you needs sating.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 20 May 12 - 04:31 AM

You football supporters are soooooo boring! Why is this crap thrust down the throats of all of us who find football totally irrelevant every time we open a newspaper or switch on the telly - and now log in to Mudcat?

Modern football: An grossly over-hyped spectacle in which a handful of rich cretins kick a ball about for the diversion of a multitude of poor cretins!

Meanwhile hardly any football supporters seem to actually play football themselves any more; apart, that is, from a few louts who spend a few Sunday afternoons a year running about swearing at each other and leaving a mountain of litter behind them.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 May 12 - 04:43 AM

Shimrod ~~ Who twists your arm to open the newspaper at those pages and then forget to turn over? Who screws your thumbs to force you to open Cat threads on football?

Just piss off, you masochistic prescriptive bullying booby, and shut your face. regulars will know this is exceptionally strong language coming from me.

And you are a GUEST, it sez. How about a bit of courtesy to your hosts? If you don't like the material that members post, go and crash your unwelcome self somewhere else. We don't want you and your abuse of our hospitality here, thank you very much.


~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 May 12 - 04:47 AM

Bonzo -- one of my minor talents is the ability to exclude the 'inane drivel' [agreed] of the commentary. "That was a daft thing to say, wasn't it?" Emma will say. "What was?" I will reply. I just manage not to hear it. Try just turning a deaf ear to it.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Acorn4
Date: 20 May 12 - 04:47 AM

Bayern had 20 corners Chelsea 1, which Drogba scored from.

Abramovic seems to have won the Champions League by accident almost.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 May 12 - 04:52 AM

Chelsea didn't win so much as Bayern lost. They defeated themselves.

However, slice it as you will, the fact remains that Chelsea are European Champions and Bayern Munich aren't!

Teehee!

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 20 May 12 - 05:56 AM

Typical yobbish behaviour of football bores! Taste of your own medicine?

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: banjoman
Date: 20 May 12 - 06:06 AM

As a supporter of a club that has won five European Championships I say well done to Chelsea. Ok they may have ridden their luck but isn't that what winning is all about.Its great that the trophy is back in this country. Commiserations to Spurs who now miss out on CL

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 20 May 12 - 06:11 AM

I found Neuer's comportment very arrogant, and sad to say I crowed with delight when Didier Drogba did it! So did my husband, who is an Ivorian too!

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 May 12 - 06:39 AM

What's with this Shimrod? What "own medicine"? What God gave The·Great·Shimrod universal rights of judging what is interesting to post threads on and what is merely the realm of 'yobish boringness'? I mean ~~ I don't open threads on The Desert Song, Green jello, Guantanamera, Erie PA, all of which are available at the moment, because they are not topics to attract my interest. The idea of opening them just to denounce their content as tedious and their contributors as in some way misguided strikes me as absurd.

But that is precisely what Great-Judging-God-Shimrod is doing here.

I put it to the community at large ~~ just who is behaving yobbishly and boorishly and boringly here?

I don't think it is the bona fide posters to this thread...

Do you?

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 20 May 12 - 07:00 AM

I tend to agree, MtheGM, it seems daft to me to open a thread whose title indicates it's about football, then complain bitterly (and offensively) that the posters seem to be very interested in football!

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: alanabit
Date: 20 May 12 - 07:25 AM

Getting back to the game, I watched it in a bar in Dormagen. Usually, the locals would not want Bayern to win against anyone. It was the European Cup Final though - so of course the Germans had to win. I largely agree with Michael R's comments and to some degree those of MtheGM. I think that football is exciting because the lesser side can still win with a bit of luck. Chelsea must have used up a decade's worth of luck last night. As Sascha and I were due to play after the game, Chelsea's win bloody near scuppered our gig! Chelsea's win and the manner of it caused a lot of disgruntled fans to leave early. I also thought that a couple of the Chelsea defenders were lucky to be allowed to complete the game. It was a sickener for the Germans. I have a sneaking regard for Chelsea's stamina and concentration, but it is not hard to understand why the Germans feel so aggrieved! As an afterthought, I wonder how Chelsea can even consider offering anyone else the job as trainer now that Di Matteo has just put two trophies on their sideboard in a fortnight - after a difficult season?

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 20 May 12 - 11:48 AM

Bayern were at home and as often happens the home side had the bulk of the game. They had a lot of possession but Chelsea defended well and Bayern failed to score until quite late in the game. They then took off an attacker and put on another central defender basically trying to shut shop. The only needed to defend for a few minutes and manifestly failed to do so. A team can create as many chances as it wants but in the end it is about putting the ball in the back of the net. They both did that only once. Chelsea may have ridden their luck but they won fair and square.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 20 May 12 - 12:03 PM

Chelsea...1st in Europe    6th in the premier League.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Bill D
Date: 20 May 12 - 12:05 PM

A comment from someone in the US, who now gets football/soccer games on one cable channel. (Including many of the European leagues). I am just beginning to learn how the game works and appreciate some of the 'finer' points, though I cannot possibly keep up with the socio-political nuances of the entire scene.
Also, there are a HUGE number of teams, leagues, players,etc. to keep track of BBC sports sometimes gives rundowns of the latest action, and I can't imagine how anyone can follow the details.

I did watch about half of the game, having discovered it was being re-run late, and thus I knew who the winner was to be as I watched.

Several points:
1)I also hate to see serious games and major championships decided on shoot-outs, as many of these are simply the goalkeepers 'luck' in deciding which way to move. Unfortunately, in a sport in which scores are relatively low, ties are common, and playing extra time until a sudden death goal could take all day. (In the US, baseball has 'extra-innings', and there ARE games which take an extra hour or two...but the players are not running constantly). I see no easy solution except to have more goals scored...perhaps by making the net wider??- but I doubt that would be popular.
2)I DO wonder why, in such a sport, championships are decided by single games. In baseball, football, basketball, hockey, top teams in various leagues play a series where there are 5-7 games. If one team has a bad night, they 'can' redeem themselves. It is still possible for the final games of a 7 game series to be decided by one lucky bounce, but it is also possible for a top team to win a series 4-0 or 4-1 and leave little doubt.
3)About fouls. I remember in the World Cup a few years ago, when one of the Baltic teams (Serbia?) played like ...well... like some fans, with the intent of being as dirty as they could get away with. I like the idea of football/soccer better than I like many of the ways it is expressed. (I do not watch hockey at all because hitting & fighting are treated as part of the routine, and seldom watch American football because 'hitting' is WAY too much of the action, and injuries are often intentional.) In soccer/football, it is inevitable that some contact happens, but the sport is supposed to be about kicking/heading the ball, not each other, and I don't comprehend blatant fouls OR stupid attempts at 'tackles' where a player makes a leaping slide at a ball where little gain can be expected! Possession changes rapidly anyway...why risk a card or injury when the odds of success are so small?
4)Offsides: I barely understand how they are determined. I do see that it is treated as 'cheating' to have a player sneak downfield, but might the attitude be changed to make that 'strategy'? Surely defenses could be altered to fit. This 'might' be one way to increase goals and have fewer shoot-outs.
5)About 'ethnic diversity' in teams. That seems to be the way all major sports are going. Even cycling teams are 'assembled' using money to get the best result, and ONLY in the World Cup can pride in football be expressed about one's countrymen.....and even then, we see players who have changed citizenship. (I gather Drogma is changing teams after this season?)

(It's a good thing we don't have a Cricket channel....yet.... that sport is TOTALLY incomprehensible to me! ☺)

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 20 May 12 - 01:23 PM

Cricket has the same effect on me - but it is very much part of English village life and in fact we drove past 2 games this afternoon on our way home from an excellent lunch at our polo club.

English as tuppence, still as canal water.........

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 20 May 12 - 01:51 PM

I opened this thread because I saw it as an opportunity to protest at the way this silly and trivial game has come to dominate the media and our national life (along with 'celebs', the 'Free Market' and other such garbage).

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 May 12 - 04:55 PM

I wonder if Shimrod realises quite what a fool he is making of himself.

No need for shootouts, or even extra time. The match should be given at full time, in event of a draw, to the team which has had fewer free-kicks awarded against it. Various refinements [offside freekicks not to count; yellow-card offences to count double, red-cards treble, for example]. But surely some system could be worked out on this basic premise, which could have al sorts of beneficial effects in addition to doing away with necessity for shootouts, extra-time, sudden-death, and all such paraphernalia.

Has no thought ever been given to some such system? Surely wouldn't be particularly difficult to effect?

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Bill D
Date: 20 May 12 - 05:07 PM

Michael... that sounds very sensible-- which means it hasn't much chance!

And the added benefit of such a system might be a greatly reduced number of offenses! Sadly, fans would probably rather see overtime, shootouts and arguments rather than be presented with a bookkeeping ending.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: gnu
Date: 20 May 12 - 05:11 PM

MGM... excellent idea!

Shimrod... what part of "you are making an ass of yourself" do you not understand? Sorry, but I am not so polite as the others, so stop being such a twit and sod off.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 May 12 - 08:15 PM

Chelsea were missing their best player - Ramires - not to speak of Terry, superprat though he be (you wouldn't mind him next to you on a battlefield, though, eh?). They were up against a superb midfield led by Schweinsteiger and a devastating attack led by Ribery and Robben. They played an overlapping defence formation that kept its shape and its cool for the whole match - genius, though, admittedly, not always great to watch. They frustrated the Bayern attack, and that, coupled with the wastefulness of the latter and the constant threat of a Chelsea counter, added up to a brilliant tactical victory. Very intelligent stuff from Di Matteo. On the night his resources were pretty limited for a squad of Chelsea's quality but he used them to perfection. Absolutely not a case, as has been said, of Chelsea "riding their luck."

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser)
Date: 21 May 12 - 03:03 AM

Seeing the picture in the 'Observer' of George Osborne grinning in the background while Chelski lifted the trophy said it all for me.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: beachcomber
Date: 21 May 12 - 05:26 AM

With Terry missing from the central back position wasn't it strange that Ribery and Robben continually tried to cut inside ? Surely a stream of crosses for Gomez, the big German centreforward (who is a player rather in the old English no. 9 style ?) would have meant another goal at least for Bayern ? Robben in particular was very inaccurate with his crosses even when he did go outside. Taking off Muller for sub Van Buyten meant that the Bayern defenders had their pattern and concentration broken. The result was that Drogba was able to come from a withdrawn position with great power for that magnificent header. Schweinsteiger looked "shagged" in the later stages of the second half and leaving him to control midfield alone after Muller was withdrawn seemed like another wrong call.
On the basis that Bayern used mistaken tactics I would definitely agree that the victory was deserved by the team who outsmarted them by sticking to their own plan. WELL DONE CHELSEA.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 May 12 - 06:11 AM

Agreed, beachcomber. And I'm a Liverpool supporter, by the way. I don't know why I just said that.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 21 May 12 - 06:36 AM

Steve Shaw's post 20/5/12 8:15pm - absolutely spot-on Steve, couldn't agree more.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 21 May 12 - 06:58 AM

We had an interesting gig as a result of "The Game"
Poor organisers had to contend with everyone watching it on their mobiles
The charity auction had to be rearranged for half time
Food consequently delayed
...and after the penalty shoot out we finally got underway at 10.40pm but had to finish at 11.30 !!!
They had also booked 2 mechanical bucking broncos and various other cowboy games (no doubt at great expense ) and actually all they needed was a TV

Oh dear ! - still we got paid !

Sarah

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: MikeL2
Date: 21 May 12 - 10:59 AM

hi

I make these comments as a supporter and regular watcher of Manchester United.

First I give my congratulations to Chelsea for winning what is judged to be the most difficult trophy in the game of football.

Of course they had some luck, but please don't forget the heroic efforts put in by a very over-worked defence. They were to a man magnificent - much weakened mid-field too!!!

You can't blame Chelsea for Bayern's inadequecies. Chelsea just kept going and while they did not have many attacking chances I always felt that they looked likely to score if they got the chance. The chance came and Drogba took it magnificently. This man has played in nine cup finals and scored nine goals!!!

So well done Chelsea with whatever nationalities turned out. At the moment they can play as many as they wish - so they did nothing wrong.
I agree with MtheGM - something should be done to limit the number of foreign nationals in any team.

Bayern were disappointing to me. I watched them dump Manchester United out of the competition last year. This team were not a shadow of that team. The two players that destroyed Man United that day were for me the worst two players against Chelsea. Ribery and Robben after the first ten minutes were abysmal. Most of Bayerns' many corners were taken by Robben and most never cleared the first defender!!! Ribery ( as Ribery often does ) spent too much time diving and trying to claim penalties. By the end Ribery was substituted and Robben - after his penalty miss in extra time was too upset to even take one in the shoot out. He's Bayern's regular penalty "king". Of course he is an ex Cheslsea player !!!

Well done Chelsea.......Did any one else spot George Osborne their along with "top table"?????

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: Musket
Date: 21 May 12 - 11:07 AM

Chelsea didn't win the cup based on the one game with Munich of course, they won it on merit of never having been beaten throughout the competition. That's how and why cup knockouts are fair, not because Munich played below par or Chelsea were lucky.

Subject: RE: BS: Chelsea are champions of Europe!!!
From: The Sandman
Date: 22 May 12 - 08:18 AM

shame, they dont play particlarly riveting or attractive football, I would not say they are boring, but there are other more exciting teams to watch.Drogbas header was very good