*** Pre-season Friendlies Thread ***

Robbo

Robbo

Robbo

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No doubt many of us will be watching the pre-season friendlies over the next few weeks, so I thought we should have a thread to discuss them in.

This thread is not limited to Premier League teams only, it's for everything.

Friendlies and kick-off times for Premier League teams: Link & Link (Times in BST)

Unfortunately most of them won't be properly televised so you'll have to suffer a stream. :p

Popular teams (from above link):

Arsenal

July 14: Southampton/Anderlecht (45-min matches,St Mary’s)

July 24: Malaysia XI (Kuala Lumpur)

July 27: Manchester City (Beijing)

July 29: Kitchee (Hong Kong)

Aug 5: Nigeria (Abukja)

Aug 12: Cologne (A)
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Chelsea

July 18: Seattle Sounders (A)

July 22: Paris Saint-Germain (New York)

July 25: MLS All-Stars (A)

July 28: AC Milan (Miami)

Aug 4: Brighton (A)
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Liverpool

July 21: Toronto (A)

July 25: Roma (Boston)

July 28: Tottenham (Baltimore)

Aug 5: Bray Wanderers (Liverpool XI, A)

Aug 7: Crusaders (Liverpool XI, A)

Aug 12: Bayer Leverkusen (H)
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Manchester City

July 27: Arsenal (Beijing)

July 30: Malaysia XI (A)

Aug 12: Chelsea (Community Shield, Villa Park)
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Manchester United

July 18: AmaZulu FC (A)

July 21: Ajax Cape Town (A)

July 25: Shanghai Shenhua (A) TBC

Aug 5: Valerenga (A)

Aug 8: Barcelona (Gothenburg)

Aug 11: Hannover 96 (A)
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Newcastle United

July 13: Chemnitzer (A)

July 16: Monaco (Landsberg am Lech)

July 21: Fenerbahce (Sopron)

July 27: Olympiakos (Faro)

July 28: Braga (Faro)

Aug 11: Cardiff (A)
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Tottenham Hotspur

July 17: Stevenage (A)

July 24: LA Galaxy (A)

July 28: Liverpool (Baltimore)

July 31: NY Red Bulls (A)

Aug 4: Watford (Spurs XI, A)

Aug 9: Valencia (A)

Aug 10: Southend (Spurs XI, A)
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Brechin City FC
07/07/12 East Stirling 1 Brechin City 1

10/07/12 Dumbarton 2 Brechin City 1

14/07/12 Montrose 0 Brechin City 5

18/07/12 Livingston 3 Brechin City 1

21/07/12 Queens Park 1 Brechin City 2

24/07/12 Brechin City 2 Inverness Caley Thistle 1
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Then bring on the Newco :D
 
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Dundee United

14 July 2012 Dundee 0 - 3 Dundee United
18 July 2012 Dundee United v Everton
21 July 2012 Raith Rovers v Dundee United
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Everton

July 14: Morecambe (A) - Won 4-1
July 18: Dundee United (A)
July 21: Motherwell (A)
July 26: Galatasaray (Jakarta)
July 29: Indonesia XI/Malaysia XI (Jakarta)
Aug 5: Blackpool (A)
Aug 8: AEK Athens (H)
Aug 11: Malaga (A)
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Gonna have to wear both tops on Wed night !!!!!
 
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I went to the games on Saturday, I thought Arsenal did OK without being spectacular. Great seats just 3 rows behind the bench. Pertinent points below:

-Kyle Bartley looked the business first time I've seen him, real mountain of a man who seemed to be playing sweeper. Good in the air (got blocked by teammate for Saints goal), strong in the tackle and eye for a pass. Must surely be above Squillaci in the pecking order and personally on that performance I'd put him above Djourou too.
-Lansbury looked good as well will be interesting to see what Wenger has planned for him this season.
-I have no idea what position Santos was playing, and I don't mean that in a tongue in cheek way: I literally have no idea what he was supposed to be. He was drifting around between wide left, central midfield and just behind the striker.
-Meade looked out of his depth, too lightweight and very worrying as after a decade of Cole and Clichy we now look very exposed at LB, nobody is there to replace Gibbs/Santos.
 
AEK Athens match is Tony Hibbert's testimonial as well! He said he'll be on penalty duty as well haha :D
 
Went to watch us (Brentford) away at my local team Hampton & Richmond last week. If I'd have known we'd be fielding our development squad I probably wouldn't have turned up. I left 10 minutes into the second half when we replaced all 10 outfield players with our academy players! Good first half though.

Apparently we played Spurs behind closed doors on Saturday and only lost 3-2. Hayes away at Woking on Wednesday before our tour in Germany next week. Tempted to jump on the plane on Thursday to watch our first game just outside of Leipzig! Might be taking it a bit far though...
 
Southampton

Sat 14: The Memorial Cup St Marys
Wed 18: Etoile Carouge France (somewhere)
Sat 21: Évian Thonon Gaillard Evian
Sat 28: Ajax St Marys
Sat 4: Wolverhampton Wanderers St Marys
Tue 7 : Bristol City Aston Gate
Sat 11: Udinese St Marys
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Arsenal went away with the Memorial cup (its a bear statue) after we lost to Andelect 1-0 (much fitter team as their league starts soon), Arsenal then beating them and drawing to us 1-1 (with our comedy keeper Tommy Forecast playing).

Only going to see Ajax (saw them a few years ago in a friendly with Suarez dominating Paul Wotton) and Udinese as that will be fun.

HangTime said:
I went to the games on Saturday, I thought Arsenal did OK without being spectacular. Great seats just 3 rows behind the bench. Pertinent points below:

-Kyle Bartley looked the business first time I've seen him, real mountain of a man who seemed to be playing sweeper. Good in the air (got blocked by teammate for Saints goal), strong in the tackle and eye for a pass. Must surely be above Squillaci in the pecking order and personally on that performance I'd put him above Djourou too.
-Lansbury looked good as well will be interesting to see what Wenger has planned for him this season.
-I have no idea what position Santos was playing, and I don't mean that in a tongue in cheek way: I literally have no idea what he was supposed to be. He was drifting around between wide left, central midfield and just behind the striker.
-Meade looked out of his depth, too lightweight and very worrying as after a decade of Cole and Clichy we now look very exposed at LB, nobody is there to replace Gibbs/Santos.
Click to expand...

Ah cool you saw the memorial cup! Was annoyed I couldn't go, what did you think of the tournament style? You are also privileged to have seen the club debut of our 3rd choice keeper Tommy Forecast who is in the final year of his 5 year contract in the Saints Arsenal game :p
 
Wasn't convinced by the tournament style, for the following reasons:

1) Playing a single half feels kinda weird, first game Saints lacked urgency towards the end, they were playing like a team going into halftime 1-0 down, not a team minutes away from losing a game
2) Format is inherently unfair in terms of getting rest between matches, Saints had it easiest, followed by Arsenal and then Anderlecht who got screwed over
3) Penalty shootout is a bit pointless if the outcome is irrelevant, from where we were it looked like Ebecilio deliberately missed the final pen as it was well wide, they just wanted to get on the bus home

I prefer the Emirates cup where you get bonus points for goals scored.

That said 45min format means you can get through a 3 team tourney fairly quick, and saves the inevitable raft of subs.
 
Hehe the saints advantage is because its our cup to commemorate the guy who's aged the club... But I do see your point that it is a bit trash to bundle the teams games together so close, Anderlecht were supposed to be much further into their pre season anyway making it a bit better for them (originally it would have been Rangers who could have been in a similar position of fitness).

Adding the Emirates cup rules for bonus points probably would help as the shoot out did sound silly given the results.

From the people iv spoken to who went, generally it seemed like a fun idea plus it sounds like you got to sample the "premium seats" in the ground (they have changed the pricing to make the bit behind the bench cost more).
 
A closely fought 7-0 defeat at home to Reading on Saturday.

To be fair they showed up with the likes of Shorey, Guthrie, Le Fondre, Curch, etc, whilst we had half a team of league 2 trialists and youth players. It was 2-0 at HT, second half was awful, the trialist keeper probably wont be playing again. I quite feel sorry for him to travel from Oz for a trial and then play so badly.
 
Anyone catch the MAN UTD Legends vs the Real Madrid Legends? Figo and Zidane controlling the midfield.

Yorke and Cole teaming up again. Cole still has it.

 
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Manchester United will kick-off their pre-season tour with a match in Durban against AmaZulu FC tonight at 19:00 (BST).
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Kagawa starting I believe! Streams will be available at the usual places, hopefully they'll be fairly good. :o
 
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