Metal Reviews

correction.. the 5000th league goal was scored today by David Suazo. anyway today Benfica were subjected to some of the most biased refereeing i have ever seen. many bad calls by the piece of shit referee, but the most scandalous one was when Suazo was KICKED IN THE FACE by an opponent! KICKED IN THE FUCKING FACE! and it wasn't even a foul!!

we still won, though. it'll take more than a corrupt piece of shit ref to stop Benfica this season.

here's the goal btw... great pass by Pablo Aimar and great finishing from Suazo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GoBgD9uXhE

^Yeah, I saw that on Eurosport. It was fucked up. That guy should have been sent off.

By the way, how much did you pay for Suazo? He has to be one of the fastets strikers in the world.

here's the fun part: zero! because Inter is so strong up front (Ibrahimovic, Adriano, Julio Cruz, Ballotelli and Crespo, plus that Obinna guy who i think is also a forward), Suazo came to Lisbon on loan.
Inter is probably paying at least part of his wages. i think they're trying to set up a good relationship with Benfica with a move for Angel Di Maria in 2009 in mind. i'm not complaining.

we also got Reyes (Sevilla, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Atlético) on loan. great deal.

Fuck... There is a lot of racism in La Liga

For fucks sake! Where the hell does UEFA find their refs? Liverpool - Atletico was fucking awful, and the penalty Gerrard got in the last minute was just terrible! They killed the quality of the game, and my good night. Scouser loss, Shitsea loss and Inter fucking up would be awesome.

I saw that match too. Martin Hansson is an awful referee. He has fucked up a few matches in the Swedish league too. What the guy is doing in Champion's League I'll never know.

what a fucked up match day!
Inter tied with Anorthosis "who" Famagusta, Panathinaikos crushed Werder Bremen at home 0-3, Chelsea lost to a Roma side coming from bad results, Barcelone tied at home against Basel and Sporting made it past the group stage for the first time in their history (and even as a Benfica supporter i'm proud of them).

on Liverpool: how the FUCK is that a penalty?! i like liverpool and gerrard is awesome, but that's just fucking gay. great goal by Maxi Rodriguez, though. also be sure to check out Karagounis's goal against Bremen, one of the best in the competition so far.

btw, here's a website where you can see goals and/or highlights:
www.tvgolo.com (available in Portuguese and English).

it's not bad enough that you often have to pay for subscription channels to watch your favourite club play, you can't even watch the fucking highlights for free on major websites like Youtube.

Alessandro Del Piero, what a fucking legend! The man is 34 years old and probably playing the best football of his life. Two new goals today, including another great free kick. He might be the best striker in the world at the moment, not to mention that he has stayed in his club for 15 years, even when they were relegated. He is like the ideal football player

And they still don't let him play enough for Italy

he got a standing ovation at the Santiago Bernabéu!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv_qLEEH050

RESPECT!
(btw they'll likely remove the video even though it's just the bloody ovation.. this is fucking ridiculous)

EDIT - here's a great goal that probably flew under most fans' radars because it's a french league goal (Nantes vs Marseille 1-1):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nvp1EYnPIM
Mareval scores with a BRUTAL long-distance shot. he could try this 1000 more times, he'll never hit the ball so perfectly again.

Hey Azrael, so your fancy new players couldn't win against the awesomeness that is Galatasaray. Be careful you might not make it to the next round like this.

But seriously, Arda Turan is like God or something.

Standard beat Sevilla with 1-0

what can i say? Galatasaray completely dominated us in the second half. things may have been different if Suazo's awesome shot near the end of the first half had gone in... but if, if, if...

Galatasaray owned the second half and deserved the 3 points. Lincoln, Arda Turan and the Whatziznem (the captain) all played great games. great play in the second goal as well.

we have fancy players but no team.. that angel di maria.. ffs... he's really talented but COME ON, PASS THE FUCKING BALL YOU FUCKING PRICK!! for every brilliant play he manages to pull off he loses the ball some 10 times.

still, i'm sure we'll make it through. thing about the UEFA Cup group stage is that second place isn't necessarily better than third, as the former gets a 3rd place CL team while the latter gets a 1st placed UEFA Cup team. either way, looking at the groups as they are, you face the possibility of getting Milan, Spurs, Sevilla or Valencia or a CL side like Fiorentina or something.

Yeah, Di Maria is really talented but I hate prima donnas. I thought Suazo would pass our defence easily with his insane speed but he didn't do much except that awesome shot you mentioned. You guys can do a lot if you can become a team, and we could have beaten you even more if it wasn't for our washed up idiot Milan Baros and if Harry Kewell was able to play.

The UEFA cup is strong this year but I'm confident we will reach the later stages. I don't think we can win the cup once more but I think we can go far if we don't get Milan or some other big team early on.

And the captain's name is Umit Karan.

well, the defense was well organised and Suazo is at his best when the defenders move up in the pitch or attempt the offside trap often..

Yebda was the "midfield engine" during the start of the season, connecting defense and attack, but he too was losing himself in dumb plays. without a number 10 and with Yebda in a bad day, there was a big gaping hole in offensive midfield, with only the wingers creating any trouble... and Reyes was substituted while Di Maria played as usual (1 play where he wreaks havoc and 9 where he stupidly loses the ball).

Benfica will probably beat Metalist in Lisbon, the tricky part will be Olympiakos. Greek and Turkish away games suck, the crowds are fucking crazy and intimidating. i'm still hoping Galatasaray slip, because like i said anything less than 1st place is a gamble and could land us one of the giants in the draw.

EDIT - about the "fancy new team". i didn't expect magnificent changes right from the start anyway. Benfica is fielding 7-8 new players in the starting XI every match, and considering that then yes the results are still mostly positive. we really needed a revolution:
- upper management: we had no sporting director, now Rui Costa is in charge. besides his unquestionable love for the club, he has huge credit with other clubs and players and was decisive in signing players like Pablo Aimar.
- technical staff: we were working with a caretaker, Fernando Chalana. he's a legend at the club as a player, but clearly he didn't cut it when it came to managing. Quique Flores is young, ambitious, modern and competent. kind of like your coach, actually.
- players: nothing to be said. most of the guys from last season either didn't give a fuck or were crap, so the purge was more than welcome. individually we have good players for every position except maybe right-back, now we just have to make a team out of them.

Portugal got brutally raped by Brasil 6-2. 6-2. let that settle. 6-2.

granted Brasil played with a devastating attack trio (Robinho, Luís Fabiano and Kaka) and a very solid midfield trio (Anderson, Elano and Gilberto Silva further back), but 6-2 is fucking unnaceptable. not even with that retard Scolari were we ever humiliated like this.

Ronaldo is a spoiled brat who doesn't play half as well for Portugal as he does for Man United, how the fuck is he the captain?

Goddamn, Standard is winning their third Uefa-Cup match with 3-0 against Sampdoria, after beating Partizan Belgrado and Sevilla in the group fase, Everton in the knockout part and losing unfairly against Liverpool in the qualification for the Champions league. Impressive

Benfica did fucking terribly in the UEFA Cup.

1-1 away to Hertha, a game where we scored first and then let them attack; 0-2 to Galatasaray, nothing to say, and.... 5-1 away to Olympiakos. Benfica played the worst game i've seen from them in many years.

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what about the Ballon d'Or? it went to Cristiano Ronaldo, and deservedly so. say what you will about his attitude, the guy played as a winger and scores 42 goals in one season (winning the Golden Boot) and carried Man United on his back all the way to the Premiership and Champion's Leauge double.

he's the 3rd Portuguese player to win the award, after Eusébio and Luís Figo.

Oh, Arsenal lost!

I'm kinda disappointed with Liverpool's previous few games. The wins over Blackburn and PSV were a relief considering how they fucked up the previous matches. And seriously, leading the table just because Chelsea lost (to Arsenal) is not really comfortable to me.

Cristiano Ronaldo beat off competition from Lionel Messi, Xavi, as well as Fernando Torres, and last year’s winner Kaka, to win the FIFA World Player of the Year Award with a total of 935 vote points.

In second place was Barcelona star Lionel Messi with 678, while Liverpool striker Fernando Torres finished third with 203.

AC Milan star Kaka was not far behind in fourth with 183, while Barcelona's Xavi ended up fifth with 155.
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the cherry on top of Ronaldo's BIG ASS cake that was this season. won the premiership, champion's league and club world cup at club level and the golden boot (playing as winger!) and ballon d'or at individual level. imo a totally deserved award, love him or hate him he was absolutely DOMINATING this season and carried the team on his back to all their conquests.

Cristiano Ronaldo becomes the first premiership player and the second Portuguese player (after Luís Figo) to take the award.

i bet 2009 will be Leo Messi's, though.