I could buy that UNC/Duke argument if you were not a Chelsea fan. You're practically the same beast.

3/16/2010 6:04:23 PM

they're both gay

Liverpool baby, Aquaman's going to restore the club to all its glory, didn't you see him ball up Pompey yesterday

OH WE BACK

3/16/2010 6:04:37 PM

^^^^yeah i understand you not liking them. ive heard the yankees claim a bunch and sometimes unc but i dont know how you can say duke...united have been a great club comparatively a lot longer than duke has been good at anything...im also sorry that your russian billionaire owner cant buy you any meaningful silverware


^haha.

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 6:06 PM. Reason : j]

3/16/2010 6:05:36 PM

ACC/Premier League

UNC/United
Duke/Chelsea
State/Liverpool
Wake/Arsenal

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 6:14 PM. Reason : damnit]

3/16/2010 6:12:12 PM

nc state would be more like aston villa...maybe.

3/16/2010 6:21:15 PM

haven't done shit in 20+ years, living in the past, they get that one awesome player who makes them decent but it's not good enough, their fans have gotten to the point of expecting disappointment while at the same time talking about how they're just about to turn the corner

not perfect but close enough

United and UNC is obvious - the one team any casual person can identify

Duke and Chelsea - everybody fucking hates them and half of them don't have any idea why they're supposed to hate them other than because they're Duke or Chelsea

Arsenal/Wake - I was just rounding out the top 4

3/16/2010 6:25:19 PM

ehh liverpool have won a champions league and a UEFA cup recently. that would be like saying the won the acc tourney and the ncaa tourney pretty much....been a while for state on both of those. plus going with the number of titles and such, aston villa has 1 or 2 uefa trophies i believe and a handful of top flight wins. seems about right with state. liverpool, comparatively have done way more than state prob have done and ever will do with just their past

though this is all hypothetical

3/16/2010 6:29:15 PM

yeah, I was limiting the comparison to domestic titles

league title = acc championship

fa cup = old spice classic champions


then the Liverpool-NC State comparison is perfect

3/16/2010 6:34:13 PM

lol old spice

3/16/2010 6:36:39 PM

Quote :

"Duke and Chelsea - everybody fucking hates them and half of them don't have any idea why they're supposed to hate them other than because they're Duke or Chelsea"

there's something to this...I don't mind Arsenal or Man U, but honestly I can't stand Chelsea and I'm not sure why

I think a lot of it is that I can't stand Didier Drogba

not a big fan of Eto'o, either, but Drogba-aversion trumped Eto'o-aversion today

3/16/2010 7:44:53 PM

NC State = Tottenham

3/16/2010 7:49:04 PM

NC State = Portsmouth



you people.




and what the fuck is this United = UNC shit


I don't know ONE bandwagon United fan. NOT A SINGLE ONE.


Barca is the biggest bandwagon team in the world.


Manchester United isn't the Yankees, or UNC, or any of those teams. We have a consistent title-winning gait that is unmatched in any sport. Manchester United sets the standard for what every single club on the planet should aspire to be.


am I mad?


you goddamned right I'm mad. GTFO of here with that UNC bullshit.

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 7:57 PM. Reason : .]

3/16/2010 7:52:46 PM

C'mon guys....Liverpool? Villa? Tottenham?

What Portsmouth is going through is epic NC State shit.

At best we're West Ham.

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 7:54 PM. Reason : ^ LOL you beat me to it, but it's the fucking truth.]

3/16/2010 7:53:58 PM

I've always been a big Frank Lampard fan, but i've only been following soccer closely enough that I watch consistently for a few years so i'm not really an obnoxious Chelsea fan because i'm not really as knowledgeable as some... that being said...

fuck Sam Eto'o

3/16/2010 7:54:12 PM

Quote :

"We have a consistent title-winning gait that is unmatched in any sport. "

sorry to be a pedant, but

Real Madrid vs. Manchester United
Domestic titles: 31 vs. 18
Domestic cups: 17 vs. 15
Champions League/European Cup wins: 9 vs. 3

one could perhaps make a case that your claim could be justly applied to Real Madrid...but not to Manchester United.
but it was a very bold claim, to be fair.

3/16/2010 9:25:56 PM

Quote :

"Manchester United isn't the Yankees, or UNC, or any of those teams. We have a consistent title-winning gait that is unmatched in any sport. Manchester United sets the standard for what every single club on the planet should aspire to be."

And UNC and the Yankees aren't consistent-title winning clubs?

The term "bandwagon" has a different meaning when we're talking about Americans following soccer teams. We're not talking about somebody randomly walking into Wal-Mart picking up a Manchester United jersey because that obviously can't happen. But "bandwagon" in the sense that a lot of soccer fans that pick a favorite soccer team from England end up picking United because that's the team that wins the majority of the time and has the most recognizable name, just like the Yankees, Lakers, and UNC. It's easy being one of those fans - they're the safe choice. Also, those fans are typically snobs (no offense to TWW fans intended)

And I've seen a lot of those types of United fans. I'll give you Barca being a bandwagon team too, but I was just talking about England.

Quote :

"honestly I can't stand Chelsea and I'm not sure why"

It's always been Terry for me and Cech's rugby helmet

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 9:40 PM. Reason : chelsea]

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 9:41 PM. Reason : cech ]

3/16/2010 9:32:03 PM

kiljadn, you're delusional if you don't think MAN U has tons of bandwagon fans. I don't give a shit about that either, it just means your team consistently kicks ass.

3/16/2010 9:45:30 PM

Real Madrid hasn't been consistent in the past 20 years. They haven't even been stable for the past 10. Also ignore the fact that they are one of two big dogs in a very tiny dog league.


UNC has only won 4 titles since 1982. Compare that to Kentucky, or UCLA, who both won strings of titles in their heydays. As a result, they don't factor in this argument. You can't compare them at all.


Seriously, the UNC comparison is lame. UNC doesn't dominate shit the way United does. Neither do the Yankees. Just because you hate them both doesn't mean that UNC is anywhere near the level that United is.

3/16/2010 11:17:40 PM

ehhh the yankees have like as many titles as liverpool and manchester united combined...i could be wrong about that but it seems like the yankees have a shit load.


well i was wrong. yankees have 27 world series titles in 40 appearances.

i guess united and liverpool combine for 36 titles?

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 11:21 PM. Reason : f]

3/16/2010 11:19:33 PM

i'm a man u fan, and i'm a snob.

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 11:22 PM. Reason : and]

3/16/2010 11:21:03 PM

I can't wait for Everton to be relevant again so I can join this conversation.

3/16/2010 11:54:40 PM

^^^^
well if you want to talk consistency, United didn't win the league for full-on 25 years, never in the 70s and never in the 80s

and say what you will about the duarchy of La Liga, it's hard to argue that a team with 9 European championships is historically inferior to a team with 3

in the past 10-15 years, United have probably been better, on the whole, than Real Madrid...I would perhaps even give them my vote for best team over that time span (although Madrid won more European cups even in that stretch)...United are (in a very broad, slow, historical sense) hot right now

and there's no question that over the past few seasons, what the rise of Ronaldhino's and then Messi's Barcelona, that Real Madrid have not been as legendarily good as they were in the past

but if you want to talk about long-term consistent excellence, United cannot touch Madrid...maybe in another 15 years such a case could be made, but not now, for me

3/17/2010 12:06:42 AM

i think you missed the fact that la liga is either barcelona or madrid. they have been consistently the only two great teams out of that league. so they are gonna split a lot of titles.

real madrid would maybe have half the titles they have playing in the premiership/first division. there have been more great teams in englands league and imo, is harder to win than any other league in the world (especially now that italy's league is shite. cause they used to have 4-6 good teams per year in that league).

3/17/2010 12:17:55 AM

JeffreyBSG states facts and you counter with assumptions.

3/17/2010 12:38:31 AM

ok you want stats. here is how 2 teamed la liga is. since its inception which appears to be 1928, real madrid or barcelona have failed to be in the top 2 only 10 times in 80ish years. outside of some 1930s dominance by atletico madrid and bilbao, that number would prob be 3 or 4 i think...there is no assumption about it. la liga is 2 teams and that is it

actually it was bilbao that did well in the 30s with atl madrid never really having any great runs, just winning in mostly random years



There are 23 different winners of the top flight in england. just 9 in spain

[Edited on March 17, 2010 at 12:55 AM. Reason : f]

3/17/2010 12:51:07 AM

Quote :

"and say what you will about the duarchy of La Liga, it's hard to argue that a team with 9 European championships is historically inferior to a team with 3"

This.

[Edited on March 17, 2010 at 12:57 AM. Reason : f]

3/17/2010 12:54:59 AM

they won the first 5 that were held...so i wonder how legit that is in terms of the competition. im curious to know what it was like back then and who they played and format and such. im gonna try to look that up since i dont know much about the middle 50s with real madrid


im not sure how much was affected...but youve gotta wonder how many great players or fathers of possible great players were killed from other countries during WWII...that had a lot of affect on several countries, and if my memory is correct, i dont think spain really sent any troops, if any at all to either side in that war


though the latest 3 are definitely legit with the galacticos of the late 90s and early 2000s

according to wiki it started off as an exhibition tournament...so you gotta wonder how many teams took it seriously. sounds almost like friendlies. but im gonna do some more research



It apparently started because Wolverhampton had declared themselves champions of the world at that era and i guess the press wanted to find out or some people. so whichever organizations were prominent back then organized this european tournament that sounds like it started off like the 2nd stage of the modern CL goes with the knockout round. but the first year they didnt even have any english teams in it...which seems weird to me and makes me think a lot of teams didnt care about this at the time, but i dont know

[Edited on March 17, 2010 at 1:11 AM. Reason : f]

3/17/2010 12:57:59 AM

They won 5 Euro Cups in a period when no other teams were really that good to begin with.


They won 5 Euro cups by pioneering the approach of taking foreign players and making them work in the system before anyone else.


Admittedly it was still Latin players - Argentines and such, but that was a huge coup. No English nor Italian teams had foreign players, or had even considered it.



So they won because they stacked the deck in their favor, or, if you want a better analogy, because they were playing chess against 5 year olds.

[Edited on March 17, 2010 at 1:10 AM. Reason : aha not cheese]






and also, at no point did I make the argument that Madrid were historically inferior to United.

if anything they're on the same level. I was more concerned with the bullshit United = UNC comparison.

[Edited on March 17, 2010 at 1:12 AM. Reason : .]

3/17/2010 1:09:57 AM

i wasnt going to get into the fact that they had much better players yet, but he right^


haha the 2nd year they invited chelski when they won the league in england but they backed out. manchester united entered, being the first english team in the competition



actually chelski didnt play the first year it was held. united were the league champions for the 2nd year

[Edited on March 17, 2010 at 1:14 AM. Reason : f]

3/17/2010 1:12:02 AM

I don't won't to go all Big4Country on you guys, but that doesn't change the fact of 9 > 3.

3/17/2010 1:14:02 AM

i would honestly say its 4>3....from what im reading no one took this tournament seriously at first...but you obviously cant take away their wins since it was official


plus the munich air disaster struck during the 3rd year of the champions league and united were heavily favored to give real madrid a run for their money...but we all know (at least most) what happened with many united players from that tragedy

[Edited on March 17, 2010 at 1:18 AM. Reason : f]

3/17/2010 1:15:25 AM

Fair enough.

3/17/2010 1:16:03 AM

i am actually enjoying reading up on this history. i didnt even think about the fact that that disaster may have allowed madrid to win a few more...interesting stuff.

[Edited on March 17, 2010 at 1:19 AM. Reason : didnt take into account the years of madrids first 5 and the munich disaster]


for anyone who wants to read up on CL history, im reading from this site: http://www.europeancuphistory.com/

along the left column it talks about each year

[Edited on March 17, 2010 at 1:21 AM. Reason : f]

3/17/2010 1:19:25 AM

Quote :

"http://www.europeancuphistory.com/"

sweet

3/17/2010 2:15:05 AM

man I hope United gets Inter next round

3/17/2010 8:43:17 AM

since it's the same group of people in any soccer thread... is anybody going to the RailHawks-Revolution game Saturday? It's supposed to be really nice weather

3/17/2010 10:00:45 AM

From what I gather, six of us will be at a game with much more dire consequences.

Hibernian FC v Sporting Raleigh

3/17/2010 10:09:42 AM

Quote :

"plus the munich air disaster struck during the 3rd year of the champions league and united were heavily favored to give real madrid a run for their money...but we all know (at least most) what happened with many united players from that tragedy"

Help me brush up on some history here. Can you explain what happened?

3/17/2010 12:14:47 PM

United plane crashed taking off from Munich in 1958. 8 players, 3 staffers, and a bunch of journalists killed.

3/17/2010 12:24:02 PM

3/17/2010 1:21:13 PM

messi what what

3/17/2010 4:06:31 PM

first goal was fantastic

I didn't even think he was gonna keep the ball, let alone stick it in the back of the net

3/17/2010 8:58:51 PM

yeah, it looked like he was trying to find somewhere to pass it the entire time and at the last second, he was like, "oh fuck it I'm good, let me hit this"

3/17/2010 9:25:43 PM

dont tell kiljadn any of this....he liable to get MAD AS HELL

3/17/2010 11:54:16 PM

Quote :

"I don't know ONE bandwagon United fan. NOT A SINGLE ONE."

Only because you hate them, and wouldn't want to know them.

3/18/2010 2:42:02 AM

Inter-CSKA
Barca-Arsenal

ManYoo-Munchen
Lyon-Bordeaux


United gets a break avoiding Inter/Barca until the finals but Bayern is still a hard draw considering their form. That Barca/Arsenal tie will be very entertaining.

3/19/2010 7:53:22 AM

eh, i kinda wanted united to play inter this round. pretty sure they couldve handled them easily. inter will be without both starting center backs in the first game.

most likely gonna see either park or fletcher (most likely park) harass robben in both games. one would think that the winner of that game should make it to the finals....but real madrid should also be in this round too so you never know.


i dont see arsenal beating barca at all. and inter were basically given a freebie to the semi-finals.


amac got his all french dream finals....in the quarterfinals

[Edited on March 19, 2010 at 8:33 AM. Reason : lol]

3/19/2010 8:30:27 AM

Quote :

"Barca-Arsenal"

my, my, this will be delectable

although Arsenal will quite possibly just get cut to pieces

3/19/2010 4:42:52 PM

No way Arsenal advance.



Barca will beat Inter and end up in the finals.



United should beat Bayern and whichever French team to get there, as well.

3/19/2010 6:35:04 PM

I get the impression that y'all think getting past Bayern is a given.

If they draw in OT watch the fuck out.

3/19/2010 6:54:10 PM