Still 0-0 @ Getafe 75 mins - Ale just volleyed a nice shot on goal, narrowly missing. Eamonn would have been delighted if that had gone in, too bad. Could see from past form that this was likely to be a tight game settled by the odd goal. 10 deg C light rain currently in Getafe, hence not many in the uncovered front seats.
Penalty for Getafe, 1-0 scored by the #19 - keeper almost saved it.....now please don't take one out of our late game play book. Almost identical timing Chelsea 1-0 up at Boro.
Ale was very excited celebrating at match end, looking fit, lean & mean (our loss), commanding their midfield, breaking up attacks, recovering the ball with strong tackles after offensive mistakes, shots on goal, setting up shots on goal. At the final whistle I thought I saw a blue QPR scarf waving in the crowd, although Getafe is blue too, but pretty sure that one was QPR. Yes, Finglas will be delighted after such a long trip, in the rain, now the post match celebrations - wonder if he will hang around and try and get a chance to talk to Ale?
I wonder if Durbar in NY will chip in with his typical, "who would ever want to waste their time watching a Spanish 2nd division match?" - well I enjoyed the experience and I know Finglas did for sure.
Getafe leap-frog their opposition from 14th to 8th place, now in playoff contention - good luck to them and Ale - hopefully our campaign this season we will soon experience similar good fortune.
Too bad Boro aren't good enough to finish their many chances against Chelsea, 1-0 down with 10 mins play, here's hoping.
Interesting article on Ale Faurlin from a year ago - considering our current inept midfield, we should have offered him a one year contract for this season, and the same goes for Clint "china knees" Hill who continues to turn in back to back 90 mins games for Rangers, and even scores a few goals too. At least I'm glad that Ale's talent is appreciated playing for Getafe in Spain. Big Interview: QPR’s Alejandro Faurlin Posted on September 23, 2015 by Adam Ellis by Chris Dunlavy ALEJANDRO Faurlin isn’t asking a lot. “I don’t want to be player of the year,” says QPR’s Argentinian midfielder. “I don’t want to score a hundred goals and get a big move for millions of pounds. I’m just asking to finish a whole season. That’s all.” It is four years since Faurlin last managed that simple task. Three since he suffered the first in a trio of catastrophic knee injuries. A ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his right. Another in his left. A sickening recurrence just 12 months later. Each required surgery and months of gruelling rehab. Each reduced one of the Championship’s finest midfielders to a hobbling spectator. Each sapped a little more of his determination to battle on. “I went through different stages,” explains Faurlin, who has played just 40 times since winning promotion to the Premier League under Neil Warnock in 2011. “The first two, I was very upset, very angry and frustrated. I spent a lot of time thinking ‘Why me? Why now?’ But I was very determined to come back. The third was much worse. I just had a big empty feeling. Very, very dark. After the operation I had no motivation. I thought maybe I should just give up. “Physically, I was OK. You get many players who have a situation where they have destroyed their knee or they have long-term cartilage problems and the doctors say ‘We can do nothing’. “For me, each injury was a one-off that could be fixed. It was never a case of ‘I won’t be able to play’. After so many problems, it was a case of ‘Do I want to? Can I keep fighting?’ “It wasn’t until the end of the rehab that I really started to feel that ‘Yes, I do want to play football again’. Before that was terrible – I wouldn’t wish those thoughts on anyone.” Speaking to Faurlin now, four games into his latest QPR comeback, it is hard to imagine the sunny South American wallowing in the depths of despair. please log in to view this image Popular: QPR players warm up wearing t-shirts in honour of their injured team-mate (Action Images / Jed Leicester) Friendly, fluent and quick to laugh, you’d never believe the 29-year-old – described by Joey Barton as the best midfielder he’s ever played with – has lost the best years of his career. “I enjoy every day now,” says Faurlin, who came through the ranks at Argentine side Rosario Central with Manchester United flop Angel Di Maria. “Every training session. Every reserve game. The injuries have put life into perspective and I am happy now every time I walk onto a pitch.” When Faurlin arrived at QPR in 2009 with his wife and infant son, Tiziano, in tow, he spoke just a smattering of English. Yet his speed of adaptation on the pitch (he won QPR’s player of the year award in his first campaign) was more than matched by his seamless cultural assimilation off it. Six years on, his love of London shines through and Tiziano – now seven and pictured below on dad’s twitter account watching QPR on TV – has gone native. “We make a point of speaking to him in Spanish but his first language is English and his mentality is English too,” laughs Faurlin. “Maybe he will play for you one day! “When I first came here, I had to get used to everything. It was tough. But now that I have, I love it. Will we stay? It is a question for every foreign player who has spent so long away from his home. What is home now? You grow into a culture and get to know a lot of people so it will be hard when the decision comes. “My wife and son have been massive for me these three years. It’s been very difficult for them as well. They have to go through all the same emotions as me, only second hand. “Sometimes I won’t be able to help at home. Sometimes I won’t be able to play with my son. It isn’t easy to say to a little boy, ‘I’m too tired, I’ve been doing rehab all day, I just need to pass out!’ “But at the end of the day, if you fight for something that hard, you’ll do anything. I’ve played football all my life and even after everything, I still love it. I’ve got no regrets.” Nor should he, especially after forsaking home comforts. “The first two operations, I had them done in Spain, in Barcelona,” adds Faurlin. “And my family – my parents, everyone – all came over to see me. “But it was very traumatic for them to see me suffering. I felt like I was messing with people’s lives, including my wife and son’s. So this last time, I decided to stay in London, especially with Tizi in Year 2 now. It was my turn to look after them for a change.” Speaking of compassion, Faurlin also had words of praise for his club, who have repeatedly handed out new contracts. In fact, Faurlin is now the Hoops’ longest-serving player. “In football, when you get one of these serious injuries, it isn’t good,” he says. “You get one, OK. You get two, you’re a risk. Nobody wants to have you. Football is a business and it’s ruthless like that. But QPR have been amazing. I really mean that. Even in the darkest moments, the club were there for me.” please log in to view this image Glory times: Faurlin celebrates play-off success with chairman Tony Fernandes in 2013/14 (Action Images / Matthew Childs) Not everybody shares his affection for Rangers. Reckless overspending, dressing room splits, two relegations from the Premier League; in many people’s eyes, the misguided generosity of chairman Tony Fernandes has brought only mockery, debt and instability. It is a charge Faurlin does not dispute but, having clung to £15m man Charlie Austin and shipped out the “bad eggs” over the summer, he believes Fernandes has learned his lesson. “It has been frustrating to watch,” says Faurlin. “And what makes it even more difficult is that there are no bad intentions. None. The people at the top, they want more than anything to get it right. But for some reason, there has always been something missing. “The problem was that the group was always new. In recent years, we have changed a lot. Not just a few players in a window. We were changing like ten, 11, 12 players every summer. “When that happens, if the results don’t come straight away – and we had just been promoted so it was never going to be like that – it is very difficult to build that bond and get confident in each other. “Now we are winning, everybody is happy, there’s a positive feeling around. Everybody trusts each other. Everything else comes from that. “This year, there were a lot of questions about QPR. People saying we would have a very bad season. But now the window is shut, we have kept Charlie Austin, Matty Phillips, Sandro, Rob Green. And we have added as well. “Suddenly, we have half a chance for promotion again. If you come down to our training ground, you will see how strong we are – and how united.” For Faurlin, though, promotion is a secondary objective to simply coaxing those knees through 46 games. “It’s not like I don’t have any pain and suddenly feel back to normal,” he admits. “That’s never going to be the case again. But you get used to it. “And I need to play a whole season before I say to anyone ‘I’m over it’,” he says. “That is not me being superstitious. That’s me being realistic. “But whatever happens, it has been quite some journey as a human being. It has made me stronger, and I think more compassionate and understanding. Down the line, I would love to help people who have the same sort of problems the way others helped me. I want to turn what I went through into a positive thing.” http://www.theleaguepaper.com/featured/2235/big-interview-qprs-alejandro-faurlin/
http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/38055258 I don't know why I decided to watch this match but I watched the whole thing! Dortmund have tremendous firepower and they showed it tonight, and that's without Götze!!!!! He sat on the bench!!!!! Reus played his first match of the season and got a hat-trick. It was an unbelievably open match, Dortmund is an attacking side always looking forward and hardly could be bothered to defend, so let in 4 goals themselves. But it was total entertainment.
Only in Canada, pity - after a 30 min delayed start, due to a major penalty line marking screw-up, in the MLS all Canadian Playoff semi-final match 1st leg, Montreal v Toronto, Montreal are 2-0 up atter 35 mins of play - 2 goals in 2 mins (Drogba on the bench for Montreal). 61,000 in attendance at Olympic Stadium. Delayed start of TFC-Impact game like watching paint dry — literally Mis-marked penalty lines force teams had to wait more than 30 minutes to start MLS Eastern final The Canadian Press Posted: Nov 22, 2016 8:38 PM ET Last Updated: Nov 22, 2016 8:51 PM ET please log in to view this image Grounds crew make last-minute adjustments to the penalty box lines at Olympic Stadium, delaying the start of the first leg of the MLS Eastern Conference final. ( Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press) Related Stories TFC, Impact relish MLS matchup in front of 61,004 at Big O Why the Montreal Impact will start the Eastern Conference final at the Big O American Bradley understands weight of FC matchup with Impact Kickoff of Game 1 of the MLS Eastern Conference final was delayed Tuesday night over an apparent discrepancy in the size of the penalty box at Olympic Stadium. It looks like they misjudged the lines by three yards on either side. Repainting them now. I'm not making this up. #TFC #IMFC pic.twitter.com/6Oh1gqiYET — @JohnMolinaro Update: The lines of the 18 yard boxes have been removed. #TFCLive pic.twitter.com/Ijz4dXCUIL — @torontofc After the players exited the field following their warmup, workers taped over the sidelines of the box and started measuring as a game official watched. It appeared the box was a metre or so short on each side. "Due to a technical problem on the field, kickoff will be delayed," the Montreal Impact tweeted. IMPORTANT | Due to a technical problem on the field, kickoff will be delayed. #IMFC #MTLvTOR #MLSCupPlayoffs — @impactmontreal Seventeen minutes after the scheduled kickoff, the capacity crowd of 61,004 cheered as a worker came out to patiently paint the line with a push-machine. He was followed by a man equipped with what looked like a leaf-blower to dry the freshly laid paint. Did not have 'watching paint dry' on my evening plans. #MTLvTOR #tfclive #MLSCupPlayoffs — @TFCWomble Now I've seen it all.... a leaf blower on an artificial pitch #TFC #TFCLive #MLSCupPlayoffs — @bgnewf The game was originally slated for 8 p.m. The crowd seemed good-natured about the delay, however. "We're somewhat embarrassed," Impact owner Joey Saputo told ESPN, which was broadcasting the game south of the border. "We have to take responsibility for it," he added. "It's unfortunate it has happened." How does this happen? How does team train on pitch this week and nobody not notice? How did we even get to this point? How? #TFC #IMFC — @JohnMolinaro Only in #montreal. Construction right before the #IMFC game. #impact #mls — @Gpiero99 The Impact normally play at the adjacent Saputo Stadium but have used Olympic Stadium for big games. http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/mls/toronto-fc-impact-game-delayed-1.3863270
They should stick to playing HelmetBall north of the Mexico border. I don't know why America and Canada even bother to play real football. They have no atmosphere. I remember when I went to one of the games with the US as they started gaining some momentum in the early 2000s, their supposed "supporter organization" that took on the responsibility of "making noise and atmosphere" at games were handing out sheets of words for singing songs because they had no idea how to start anything like that on their own as we do in Europe and other parts of the world. Pathetic.
Ever been to a match in Germany? The chanting, which is brilliant, is all led by blokes with megaphones. Similar in Italy. Both countries Ultra fans are subsidised by the clubs, precisely because they provide atmosphere. Not so different, we just have more practice. Of course at QPR we have no need to hand out the lyrics of 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now', we all know it by heart. Well done Leicester, fantastic achievement.
