CSKA Sofia v Fulham

Yes, I'll be a Chatty Kathy today.

Also, what an enormous gamble by Woy today, not to be diminished in any way.

Here FULHAM is, in the inaugural Europa League, competing with some of Europe's (second) best, and he is going to trot out a side that is experimental in nearly every sense of the word. I for one am not happy, but realize I am by no means alone.

This keeps us from moving forward in Europa, along with a few other bad breaks, and Woy could very well find his leadership being called into question. I truly hope his tenure has not "jumped the shark."

 

If this was the knockout round or even the last match of the group stage, I'd agree with you.

But its the first game of a long group stage. And its arguably the largest banana peel because of distance.

So whats there to lose with the gamble? Nothing. Its too early.

 

Yo wtf? WHy am I only getting the Galatasaray game? Every other game in not showing for some reason, yet the scores are up there along with the clock running! Fucking bullshit.

 

Final score: 1-1. A point on the road using the B-team...this neophyte says "well done, Roy." Whitesbhoy, are you disappointed?

 

That'll do. The Roma loss is nice too

 

Well, proud of our score line in combination with the line up we sent. This should bode well for us in both the Europa league and for resting players for Sundays match at Wolves.

 

Considering the lineup Roy threw out there, I will gladly take the point.

Makes you think we could have taken the full three points with our starters out there, but they need the rest and there is a very winnable road game on Saturday against Wolves.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzCbJZi4pXk

music is rubbish

 

who's got the ecstasy and the glow sticks????

 

Like everyone else, with that lineup, I'll take the point. But on the other hand, you have to think we left points on the table today by resting so many starters. Win the home matches and we're sitting on 10 pts which should put us through.

 

How great was it to see Simon on for the full 90? (okay the links broke repeatingly, but he was still running every time it popped back on).

If we could combine Dio's and Bobby's best attributes we'd have one helluva striker. There is no way we can loan him out to a CC side.

The kid between the pipes saved the point w/a great save.

The glass is more than half full. Murphy, AJ, Bobby, Deuce had to stay home. The big Aussie is hurt. The team had to fly to Eastern Europe, and the upcoming schedule is overflowing. As usual Roy knows best.

Many thanks to Bill, Morry, Andyns et al for the links today, the atmosphere at Sofia's stadium looked and sounded great.

 

Nope, that's a win in several ways, including a nice sized confidence boost to those who played and the Team and Club as a whole.

A loss? Well, that would have been a loss.

 

I missed the first half and half assed watched the second as I was doing stuff around the house. Did see both of the goals. Not sure how Michel got his shot through, but nothing Stockdale could have done. I think it glanced in off the post into the right corner. Kamara had a very good goal I thought, calm and cool, he slotted in from the left from a decent angle after beating the goal keeper.

What I did watch was a bit sloppy and the conditions looked poor. Fulham did not look in sync....big suprise given the line-up. Stockdale made a few good saves.

Nice to get the away point.

 

I was happy enough with the B team lineup -- as Woy said, why sign them and then not use them? I missed the game b/c of school commitments, but pleased w/ the result. All I know about the game is what I have read -- does anyone have a link for highlights?

 

Go fulham!

Also, for those wondering about roster limits and criteria I did some research and found out a lot of interesting things.

Self-promo alert, but I think its worth the read to help clear things up: http://fulham.theoffside.com/team-news/ ... books.html

 

I missed the match and would like to know how Greening and Riise looked. Can anyone give me the scoop?

 

Hello hello.

Just returned home after one hello of a trip to Sofia and back. Only being there could explain the atmosphere that their fans created. If you haven't seen the photos on the official FFC facebook page then take a look. Here is one for starters:



With that said, Sofia weren't that good but they do have some players who stand above the rest and caused us trouble here and there but not too much.

For the team we put out, I thought we did very well and I said before the match that 1-1 would be a great result. And there we have it. A hard earned point on the road and Dio comes through for us again. It's been a long time since I celebrated a goal that much. I probably celebrated too much (along with some of the other guys) because the next thing I knew I had a shield in my face. European football eh?!

Going back to the atmosphere, it puts anything I've ever seen to shame. For them it's about national pride as well as Sofian pride...a chance for them to show off. And so they did.

Our fans (about 500) were in good spirits and represented FFC very, very well. No violence and even clapped their fans as they were exiting just to show that we simply enjoyed being there (it may had been different if Dio didn't score) but we won't go there...we got a very good point.

 

AM; thanks for sharing. Glad to hear 500 made it there (we could see FFC banners on the links). A couple of questions; The big debate has been about the lineup, how did the traveling supporters feel about it? In other words did you guys feel underappreciated because of the weakened side?
Next how was the city leading up to the match? we're the locals friendly? etc...

 

They were disappointed at first since it was up for debate if we were taking this competition seriously. From that, we pretty much agreed that a draw would be a good result.

All in all though, if you have a look at the fixture list, we have to rotate and Hodgson must of thought that this was probably the only away match in Europe that we could change almost the entire side. I said before the game a 1-1 would be an awesome result and we got it.

Afterwards, some did think it was 3 pts dropped but that depends on the result on Sunday!