Tonto

Interesting comment from Rafa on this: "We've seen the trick they played on the videos but we did not react," said the manager. "No one picked up their man and that is disappointing."

err aren't they supposed to be marking a zone? ;-) and should a defender allow an attacker to run past him into a dangerous area which is either not covered or is covered by a defender who will be outnumbered by attackers? it's not as simple as zonal marking from a corner where the defence lines up in rows. i think finnan lost his concentration for a second.....still had a great game otherwise tho.

If you watch the replay from behind the kicker you don't even see the man who starts out standing beside Sami, so I think it's a bit misleading. Finnan is ball watching while Luisao makes an untracked run behind him. I also think that not enough credit has been given for the delivery. Our defenders were poorly positioned to defend such a delivery given that none of them were marking the zone where the goal was actually scored from. However, it's Finnan who was best placed to pick up Luisao. While the ball is in flight both Luisao and the other guy are making runs....Sami can't be expected to pick up both and given that the freekick has caught our defence out Finnan should be picking up runners instead of watching the ball go over his head? Also with a zonal system this statement surely doesn't apply? "you're not seriously suggesting that Finnan, who isn't the best header of the ball, was supposed to mark their best header of the ball?" Sami was presumably detailed to mark the most dangerous zone, not the most dangerous header of the ball.

Agree completely on the zonal marking being at fault nonsense. But I think Luisao was Finnan's man. Sami starts out standing beside (and hence marking) the guy who ends up making the run to the back post. Finnan gets caught ballwatching while Luisao makes the run in behind him. If Sami was marking Luisao then who was marking the other guy who starts off standing beside Sam?

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Only sending it to DublinRed.....and it really really isn't all that interesting.....ok?

I can mail it to you if you want, it's only 1MB. Free as well.... It's strangely not all that interesting considering the time and place.

I'd say that's about spot on.

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QUOTE(Mcbain @ Feb 3 2006, 12:34) He was excellent at Auxerre. sIgn gUy rOuX

Why is that predicting a draw is seen as 'sittng on the fence'? It's not....there are three possible outcomes in a game, you've predicted one of them

Yep! I remember that....or at least I remember my brother telling me about it at the time.

Anyone else jump to any wild conclusions after seeing Cisse throwing his shirt into the crowd last night?

That's interesting but could it be because during the summer you were in the middle of your season whereas for him it was maybe a year since he'd done his base fitness work and was maybe at the bottom of his cycle?

The fitness of GAA players is something that's often bandied about in discussions like this, and, having no inside knowledge of the GAA scene I've often wondered how true it is or if it's just one of those things that have become fact because it's been repeated so often. Not arguing with you, just genuinely curious. I'd have thought that a football player gets fit in the summer and tries to maintain it without knackering themselves during a season of 50+ games. A GAA player can flog himself to death in training during the winter knowing he doesn't have a top class game to play til May or June. How many games a season does an inter-county player have to be at peak fitness for?