Other games

[Asprilla 96]

Could this be the end of Abramovich's interest? He's won the one that he really wanted. Where can they go from here? Hopefully he fucks off out of the picture now.

That's what I was thinking....

[Asprilla 96]

On that note I fucking hate it how the media call him AVB

I think of him as A the VB as in 'all the very best'.

[Bizza 105]

Could this be the end of Abramovich's interest? He's won the one that he really wanted. Where can they go from here? Hopefully he fucks off out of the picture now.

 

We can only hope.

[2bias 3]

Still been worse than Spain this season kidda

we won the main cup

[ChezGiven 0]

I thought Bayern were poor tonight, agree about Ribery too, i think he's shit. The local was 80% kraut so it was funny them losing. I was happy with the result because it suited us having missed out on 4th and because it was the Germans. Happy for Drogba too but what an absolute bellend John Terry is.

[Kevin S. Assilleekunt 1]

Ribery is the most overrated player in world football.

[luckyluke 2]

Glad Chelsea won. Makes finishing fifth a lot less tragic plus makes Spurs less competitive.

[CleeToonFan 1]

we won the main cup

Yeah but you were just going on about the coefficients!

[Gemmill 44498]

I know it's not from last night, but:

 

 

Looks like something off Austin Powers ffs. What an absolute screamer.

[Sonatine 11329]

F365 sum "JT" up pretty well i reckon...

 

Look, we're not big fans of John Terry. There are very many reasons why, and there are plenty that disagree. However, the sight of him - in full kit no less - looning it up at the final whistle was unseemly at best. Chelsea won the Champions League in spite of him, not because of him. They won the semi-final against Barcelona after his utterly brainless knee on Alexis Sanchez, leaving his side with ten men to play one of the great sides of this generation, and also thus depriving the team of, in theory, their best defender. Yes, he played in the earlier rounds and thus contributed to this success, but not to the crucial stages. Not when his team should have been looking to him.

 

Being a leader is not just about shouting at your players and telling them what to do. A title like that demands something approaching dignity and responsibility for his teammates. If he really was a leader and a legend, as the banner at Stamford Bridge proclaims, he would have been available to start this game. Roy Keane was embarrassed at the 1999 final. He didn't strip off to reveal a number 16 shirt and take attention away from the players that won the thing. By putting himself in the middle of the celebrations, he made everything about him, when it was not at all. If Terry had any dignity, he would have been nowhere near the trophy presentation. Then again, I can hardly claim to be surprised on that score.

[Gemmill 44498]

Aye his patter in his interview about how he's played his part in earlier games. You nearly fucking blew it for your teammates in the semi, and you were consequently unavailable for selection in the final. I just hope the press points it out and don't just blow smoke up his arse.

[ChezGiven 0]

At one point last night I thought I'd understood the real reason Capello had stood down over the Terry racism incident but apparently he has denied that he is going to be the next manager. Still, he might have been under that impression 4 months ago but Di Matteo and the victory last. Night might have changed that.

 

Bad day for Germany all in all yesterday, put in their place on the football pitch and at Camp David. Good.

[Besty 4]

I know it's not from last night, but:

 

 

Looks like something off Austin Powers ffs. What an absolute screamer.

 

[Tom 14011]

John Terry sat behind him heading every ball...

[McFaul 35]

Lets get something straight here. John Terry is a rat. He's from a family of rats, and I say that in the same tone as Joe Pesci when he shoots the young waiter Spider, in Goodfellas.

 

However, nothing he did last night put him in a worse light than he already was. "Terry in full kit went up to collect the cup". He IS the club captain, what do you want him to do, not be part of it, or go up tjhere like a bell end in a suit?

 

As for the game. Cech had two decent saves to make, if you can't hit the target, and can't score one from 25 corners, when Chelsea score from one, then you don't have the quality of nerve to win it. Of course Bayern were the better side, but Chelsea have had a traumatic season and you can't expect them to play like Brazil 1970, it's a miracle they actually did it. Obviously there were only 7 English in the squad, but the players like Drogba who have been there for years, have bought in to the English bull dog spirit, and that's what won them the game. Chelsea never panicked once in the whole game, and Mikel's two best games for Chelsea have been in the last two CL games, he was outstanding, and even "Lamps" contributed. I won £225 as well so it was all good, and lovely to see those arrogant depressed kraut heads too.

[Gemmill 44498]

Lets get something straight here. John Terry is a rat. He's from a family of rats, and I say that in the same tone as Joe Pesci when he shoots the young waiter Spider, in Goodfellas.

 

However, nothing he did last night put him in a worse light than he already was. "Terry in full kit went up to collect the cup". He IS the club captain, what do you want him to do, not be part of it, or go up tjhere like a bell end in a suit?

 

As for the game. Cech had two decent saves to make, if you can't hit the target, and can't score one from 25 corners, when Chelsea score from one, then you don't have the quality of nerve to win it. Of course Bayern were the better side, but Chelsea have had a traumatic season and you can't expect them to play like Brazil 1970, it's a miracle they actually did it. Obviously there were only 7 English in the squad, but the players like Drogba who have been there for years, have bought in to the English bull dog spirit, and that's what won them the game. Chelsea never panicked once in the whole game, and Mikel's two best games for Chelsea have been in the last two CL games, he was outstanding, and even "Lamps" contributed. I won 225 as well so it was all good, and lovely to see those arrogant depressed kraut heads too.

 

Not sure about Terry like. He didn't turn up for the flight to Munich in his kit , did he? He wasn't in the squad, so why even wear a kit. He's the club captain that let everyone down.

Edited May 20, 2012 by Gemmill

[Tom 14011]

People seem to be forgetting that the match day squad should be the only ones to get a medal. John Terry screwed it up for them by getting sent off for violent conduct. He bottled it if you ask me, his head just went.

 

Scholes & Keane sum it up - they missed the 99 champions league final and celebrated their team mates success in suits on the sidelines, Keane doesn't regard the trophy as one he's won.

 

John Terry - a grown man of 30 odd - changed out of a suit into a football kit & was one of the first to lift the trophy.

[The Fish 10779]

Lets get something straight here. John Terry is a rat. He's from a family of rats, and I say that in the same tone as Joe Pesci when he shoots the young waiter Spider, in Goodfellas.

 

However, nothing he did last night put him in a worse light than he already was. "Terry in full kit went up to collect the cup". He IS the club captain, what do you want him to do, not be part of it, or go up tjhere like a bell end in a suit?

 

As for the game. Cech had two decent saves to make, if you can't hit the target, and can't score one from 25 corners, when Chelsea score from one, then you don't have the quality of nerve to win it. Of course Bayern were the better side, but Chelsea have had a traumatic season and you can't expect them to play like Brazil 1970, it's a miracle they actually did it. Obviously there were only 7 English in the squad, but the players like Drogba who have been there for years, have bought in to the English bull dog spirit, and that's what won them the game. Chelsea never panicked once in the whole game, and Mikel's two best games for Chelsea have been in the last two CL games, he was outstanding, and even "Lamps" contributed. I won £225 as well so it was all good, and lovely to see those arrogant depressed kraut heads too.

 

Couldn't he have gone up in club tracksuit? rather than stripping down to look like he's been playing? it's the behaviour of a man who needs it to be all about him. Football Ramble nailed it when they discussing his sending off in the Semi. He apparently denied it initially, stating that he was confused as to why he'd been sent off, then he said after it was made clear that everybody could see it was an intentional vindictive foul, 'Oh well I'm man enough to admit I made a mistake'

 

Even then, when he should be showing contrition, or at least a little humility, he's try to make out he's a brave man for admitting he deliberately kicked another player with the intention of giving him a dead-leg, (or whatever)/

 

Same as Joey Barton in my eyes, everything has to be about them

[LoveTheBobby 1]

He did however stop short of rubbing mud on his knees before going up so he deserves some credit I guess .

 

The egotistical snake-eyed cunt .

[Tom 14011]

 

That's how you do it I suppose, wait till everyone else has had a go.

[TicTacWoe 0]

What about the other suspended 3, Ramires, Ivanovic and Mereiles, did they have kits on too? Just wondering as I didn't watch the celebrations. All 3 contributed far more to Chelsea's success than Terry, particularly Ramires and Ivanovic.

[Andrew 4721]

What about the other suspended 3, Ramires, Ivanovic and Mereiles, did they have kits on too? Just wondering as I didn't watch the celebrations. All 3 contributed far more to Chelsea's success than Terry, particularly Ramires and Ivanovic.

 

aye, Mereiless was doing his best to be at the front of everything too, pillock

[Happy Face 29]

Yesterday’s Champions League final has not only been very embarrassing for Bayern Munich. When Bastian Schweinsteiger missed his penalty, I also met my Waterloo.

 

I had predicted earlier that Bayern would beat Chelsea because they were structurally the stronger team. I based my forecast on the fact that compared to Chelsea, the value of the Bayern squad is 30 percent higher.

 

My reckless claim was inspired by the German economic think tank DIW. Using the same method, they successfully predicted the winner of the Euro 2008 as well as the World Cups in 2006 and 2010.

 

Well, Saturday’s game showed that the economic approach to football has its limits.

 

However, the beauty of economics is its versatility. The dismal science not only explains why Bayern should have won yesterday. At the same time, the discipline is also able to point out why the team actually lost.

 

Potentially, the Germans faltered in the penalty shoot-out because they were playing on their home ground. This at least suggests an analysis by Thomas Dohmen, a German economist at the Univesity of Maastricht in the Netherlands.

 

In 2005, Dohmen analysed the performance of professional football with regards to penalties. He came to the conclusion that players of the home team have a significantly higher failure rate.

 

In his paper entitled “Do Professionals Choke under Pressure?”, Dohmen analysed all 3610 penalties that were awarded between 1963 and 2003 in the German Bundesliga.

 

The descriptive statistics of Dohmen’s data show how egregiously Bayern Munich failed yesterday. The German XI squandered 3 of their 6 penalties (this includes 5 in the shoot-out and one in the extra time). This failure rate of 50 % is twice as large as it is usually the case. As a rule, only about 26 percent of all penalty kickers do not score (19 percent of the kicks are saved by the goal keeper, 7 percent miss the target completely).

 

However, home teams have a worse track record than away teams: “Players are more likely to choke on a penalty kick when the action takes place at the home turf”, writes Dohmen.

 

This becomes especially clear with regard to penalties that are unambiguously missed due to the failure of the kicker because he either misses the goal completely or just manages to hit the woodwork.

 

This kind of mishap happens to the home team in 7.5 percent of all times. Away teams suffer this fate only in 5.6 percent of their penalties.

 

Dohmen argues that the high expectations of the home supporters paralyse the players. “They don’t want to disappoint their fans at any rate and try harder.” In some cases, the tremendous pressure and the high ambitions apparently turn into an obstacle and trigger chocking.

 

This is how Dohmen puts it in his paper:

 

“The finding, which is consistent with the hypothesis that positive public expectations or a friendly environment induce individuals to choke, has ramifications for questions of workplace design and performance measurement. The empirical result of this paper implies, for example, that workers who might feel being observed, especially by well disposed co-workers or spectators, perform worse than they otherwise would.”

 

Be it as it may. This won’t be any consolation for Bastian Schweinsteiger and the rest of the team.

[JawD 99]

So, have we concluded that Abramovich has puppet strings and someone on top of the stadium is yanking them when Chelsea are in possession?

 

Or, before every goal celebration does he do the macarena?

[brummiemag1 0]

I don't get what all the fuss is about with John Terry lifting the trophy. What we may think of him as a person is a different issue.

 

He's the club captain, he's an integral part of the team, he's spent his career there and he's adored by most Chelsea fans

 

If Alan Shearer or Kevin Keegan had done the same thing for Newcastle would anyone be complaining?