411 Football/Soccer Fact or Fiction 03.21.08: Olympics, FA Cup Final, and Roma

Posted by Sean Garmer on 03.21.2008

Matt Adamson and Tim O' Sullivan battle it out this week with questions about the Olympics, FA Cup, and Grand Slam Sunday!

Welcome everyone, hope, you all, are enjoying that Easter Weekend. Lots of stuff happened this week in the world of Football, and we are here to get out some speculative questions. In this edition of Footy FOF, we have someone from Portland, OR and another from England, how will this contrast pan out for the responses? Keep reading.


Firstly, Matt Adamson is here from Portland, always supporting his Timbers, to participate this week. He puts out a column called the Best of Times in the wrestling zone.


Also here is Tim O' Sullivan the #1 supporter of the Arsenal FC, but always remains neutral when it comes to his Round Football Column that is written right here on 411 Sports.

Well, those were the introductions and these are the questions…


1. We will have an all Championship FA Cup Final?


Matt Adamson: FICTION. This is really tough to answer. West Brom is playing well, but so is Portsmouth. The question is, how does Portsmouth want to make Europe? Will their focus on the FA Cup take away from their progress in the Premier League? I think they are perfectly capable of winning the FA Cup and coming in 6th in the Premier League. Portsmouth has a real opportunity here to make a name for themselves. The Cup is Portsmouth's to lose.

Tim O' Sullivan: FACT. Portsmouth are a really good side, with a superb backline and some really underrated midfielders. However, they have really relied on Jermain Defoe in recent weeks and I can see them missing a lot of chances at Wembley. West Brom are the most "Premier League" side in the Championship and they have the impact players to cause a shock.


2. The Olympics should be rated as an important event in Football?


Matt Adamson: FACT. As an American its easy to state this one as fact. Traditionally the U.S. football squads struggle in competitions like the World Cup and the Olympics, because the competition is fierce. With the Olympics, the competition is dwindled down, and sometimes the better squads (take Mexico for example) get eliminated in qualification. This makes the chances for the U.S. to perform well, especially with a good draw early on. So, as an American I want to see the rest of the world take the Olympics as seriously as the U.S. takes it.


Tim O' Sullivan: FICTION. Olympics are not for sports like football. Seriously, unless the best players in the world take part it's patronising to the Olympics.


3. Hugo Sanchez should not be fired after their qualification failure?


Matt Adamson: FICTION. Unless it turns out that Canada's squad is amazing, I can't see much of a reason to keep trusting Sanchez. His record as of late is worse than most of the big CONCACAF nations. After the draws with the U.S., Australia and Finland followed by failure to qualify for the Olympics, I think he's seen his day. As the strongest nation in CONCACAF, there is no way Mexico should be getting these results.


Tim O' Sullivan: FICTION. I agree with Matt. To be honest I don't really know what the situation is with this, so I'm going to presume Matt is telling the truth. I'm sorry how uneducated this answer is, but I'm balls-deep in European football and haven't followed this story.



SWITCH!!!



4. Roma has a very good chance of winning the Serie A title?


Tim O' Sullivan: FACT. Inter did what they do best last weekend against Palermo, and that's win without shining too brightly. However, Ibrahimovic has fallen dramatically flat and subsequently got in a mood with Mancini. Injuries don't help either. Plus, they have another Meeeeeeeeeelan derby before the end of the season. Anyway, more relevant to the question Roma are one of Europe's form teams right now. They have bags of confidence, interesting tactics, a superb attacking threat and dynamic subs. If they beat United in the CL quarters it could hinder their progress in the league, but I still think they can really give Inter a good scare until the final kick in May.

Matt Adamson: FACT. I completely agree with Tim. What you have is Inter slowly and gradually losing a little form as this season has gone on. For Roma things are quite the opposite. Watching the match with Milan, Roma looked fantastic. They were tight in their passing and kept the pace throughout. I agree again with Tim about them possibly losing some of that momentum in Serie A if they advance in the Champions League. Once a club gets that far in the CL, it's not surprising that they want to shift their focus to winning it. Sometimes to affects their performance domestically. However, I think Roma could still pull it off.



5. Diego will be at Werder Bremen next season?


Tim O' Sullivan: FICTION. I spoke to a guy from German MAXIM the other day and he said that Diego and Ribery are the Bundesliga's star players by a country mile. Most of us assumed that, but for someone who watches the league every week to say it really cements the fact that Diego needs to get the fuck out of there. From what I've seen of him he's one of the best of his type in the world. That Kaka, in the hole role. He's just superb. He won't be slowly progressing either. This will be a big-money, big-time move to Barcelona, Inter or someone similar. I'm already looking forward to seeing him in next season's Champions League.

Matt Adamson: FICTION. Sad to say, considering the popularity of the league domestically, but Bundesliga is no place for somebody with the raw talent of Diego. Like Tim mentioned, image Kaka playing for Werder Bremen. It's a heck of a lot like Ronaldinho playing at PSG. Once a player becomes THAT player for an entire league, especially a quality league such as Bundesliga, unless they are in La Liga, EPL or Serie A, they are bound to end up in one of those three sooner rather than later.


6. Grand Slam Sunday will not make the Premier League race any clearer going forward?


Tim O' Sullivan: FACT (ish). I'm torn on this question, because it's all about the results. No offence to the question, because it's a great topic to discuss, but it's hard to answer before the games. If we have two draws there's a LONG, LONG way to go. However, if Chelsea and Man Utd win then it wouldn't be ridiculous to say the title is Fergie's to lose. Hopefully we'll all be at work on Monday morning talking about a superb weekend of football and the possibility of the greatest Premier League title race of all-time.

Matt Adamson: FACT. Clearer? Yes, though in no way definitive. Like Tim said, if Man United and Chelsea win it'll certainly open up race for Man United to win. However, things happen. If this were four or more weeks later I'd say it'd be the make or break weekend. If Arsenal and Liverpool win it'll make things MUCH more interesting. Let's just hope all four teams go all out so the viewers are the real winners.

4 Out of 6 is a little better than last week, but I think we can do better. Thanks to the guys for participating, and see all you footy fans later