S.Liege (a) Match Thread

[slimbimjim]

I don't think I've started a match thread before

Anyway, are there any decent streaming channels available apart from the Bet365.com system?

[beabeasdad]

I don't think I've started a match thread before

Anyway, are there any decent streaming channels available apart from the Bet365.com system?

It's not on the telly or the radio is it?

[Reece]

The game is on ITV 1 at 20:00.

[Chrono]

It's not on the telly or the radio is it?

It is, have a look about the site. A guy has created a thread just for this and nobody looks at it.

[Reece]

It is, have a look about the site. A guy has created a thread just for this and nobody looks at it.

LOL - so true

[beabeasdad]

Sorry, that is very very lazy of me.

[Cormack74]

I don't think I've started a match thread before
Anyway, are there any decent streaming channels available apart from the Bet365.com system?

Doesn't mean some ******* wont create another one

[friedk]

The player to watch tonight for them is attacking midfielder Steven Defour, the 20 year old has been a professional since he was 16, and club captain since age of 19.

He was Belgian player of the year last season and pulled out of the Olympics to play tonight.

He has been a Belgian senior international for 2 years.

Don't see him being in Belgium for too long.

Golden Defour sets the Standard
(FIFA.com) Thursday 24 January 2008


Along with Moussa Dembele and Marouane Fellaini, Standard Liege prodigy Steven Defour is one of the symbols of a new generation of Diables Rouges (Red Devils) and has been proving his leadership qualities ever since the start of the season.

He became club captain at the tender age of 19, replacing Portuguese luminary Sergio Conceicao, and has since gone on to illuminate Belgian football - and lead his side's bid for a first Jupiler League trophy since 1983. Defour will be out of action throughout February due to injury, but he has already left his mark on domestic football history in his homeland by winning the 2007 Golden Shoe - awarded the country's best player.

'If you're good enough, you're old enough,' or so the saying goes, and Steven Defour is certainly good enough. Captain of Standard Liege in his teens and already a Belgian international, the attacking midfielder from Antwerp has had a great future ahead of him.

He is one of the symbols of a new generation threatening to put Belgian football back on the map, and has spent this season justifying the confidence shown in him. "I've still got more growing up to do this year in every sense of the term," said the teenage prodigy back in July 2007, and along with his equally youthful Standard team-mates, he has been as good as his word.

His word has, on occasion, got the Mechelen-born youngster into trouble. In summer 2006, he was at the centre of a heated argument between Genk and Standard Liege. The row came about on the back of a series of newspaper articles that had steadily built up the player's reputation since his Jupiler League debut at just 17. "If I leave, it would only be to play abroad. I have too much respect for Genk and I couldn't imagine playing for another Belgian club," said Defour in autumn 2005.

Six months later, the Petit Prince (Little Prince) of KRC Genk was locked in a dispute with the club's board. Ajax had come calling and Defour fancied a move to Amsterdam, but the Genk chairman refused. Defour then changed his agent and quoted a Belgian law referred to as '78' to break his contract. Ajax had already moved on by this point, but Standard were quick to seize the opportunity.

Immune to pressure
When he returned to Genk a few months later for a league match played out in a pressure-cooker atmosphere, the Standard Liege bus required a heavy police escort. Not that the pressure had an effect on Defour, who despite the burden of expectation had an excellent season with his club, who finished third in the league and runners-up in the cup.

One thing you cannot say about Defour, therefore, is that he lacks character. "He's a fighter, he's got the fire within him. If the team is going through a bad spell he never hides, even though he's only a youngster," said Ariel Jacobs, Genk's director of football back in 2005.

"On the contrary, he seems to step up his presence, always looking for the ball and trying to keep his team-mates' morale up." Former Belgium international Marc Wilmots agreed: "Steven has broad enough shoulders to be captain, even if he is only 19."

Standard Liege coach Michel Preud'homme gave him the captain's armband after the team had been shorn of veteran players such as Eric Deflandre, Sergio Conceicao, Karel Geraerts and Milan Rapaic, and Defour has certainly made the most of the opportunity. Standard currently lie second after 18 matches, an incredible ten points clear of reigning champions Anderlecht.

Les Rouches, as they are known, are playing an attractive brand of football and come across as surprisingly calm and collected, bearing in mind the ups and downs the club has experienced and also the young average age of the squad - Axel Witsel (18), Marouane Fellaini (19), Dieumerci Mbokani (22), Igor de Camargo (24) and Marco Camozzato (24) are all regulars in the starting line-up.

'I have become a leader'
"We can be champions. The core of the team has enough talent to be up there challenging for the title," said Defour. "We have a squad full of winners.

"The important responsibilities that I have been given didn't come as a surprise. I have become a real leader, and I'm doing the jobs I always expected I would. I make sure I listen to the other players as well as the coach and act as the kind of go-between you need between the two.

"I'm not afraid of taking on my responsibilities. If the squad needs a shake-up, we can be the ones to do it. We've all got different talents which we need to combine effectively. We already had some good results last season despite the fact that our midfield was so young. To be honest, we're not in any doubt as to whether we're up to scratch or not," he added.

The fairy tale looks set to continue for the Petit Prince (who is indeed only 1.73m tall). After his junior club, Malines, went bankrupt, PSV Eindhoven and Arsenal were both interested in signing him up, but he decided to go to Genk. "When you're that young, you need to stay close to your family and feel settled," Defour explained.

"To make the move easier, I stayed in a boarding school at Louvain, close to my home, before getting lodgings with a host family." He must indeed have felt settled, since he was soon turning out for the first team.

On 30 October 2004, he was still at school when he came on for the last 12 minutes of the match against St Truiden. "It was an unforgettable moment, like the first time I was in the starting XI and my first league goal. It all happened so quickly," smiled Defour, who was equally as delighted when Rene Vandeyrecken gave him his first Belgium cap last season, which he described as a "dream come true".

He has become an integral player of a Red Devils team which is looking to rebuild from scratch and has a whole new future opening up to him. "I'll never be too big for the Belgian league, I learn something new every day," he said.

And while Preud'homme has advised him to stay at Standard Liege for another season, if he maintains the form that won him the 2007 Golden Shoe, the giants of the European big leagues are sure to come calling.

[BubbaZanetti]

nice work, thanks for posting that

[BrooklynRed]

Not on TV is the USA... anyone have a location on Justin.tv?

[Craig_H]

Every year we play a qualifier and every year it's fairly comfortable.

You just think maybe one year it's going to go wrong and i just hope it doesnt happen.

[kop-al-74]

Every year we play a qualifier and every year it's fairly comfortable.

You just think maybe one year it's going to go wrong and i just hope it doesnt happen.

Burn him,BURN HIM I SAY!

[BubbaZanetti]

Every year we play a qualifier and every year it's fairly comfortable.

You just think maybe one year it's going to go wrong and i just hope it doesnt happen.

2006 was a bit hairy if I remember correctly, and Rafa's first year we lost the Anfield leg 1-0...

[El Jefecito]

Not on TV is the USA... anyone have a location on Justin.tv?

Apparently, it'll be on hippy again http://www.justin.tv/widgets/jtv_pla...nel=hippy_nufc

Rest of the streams here: http://77.247.179.70/broadcast.php?&...17&part=sports

[Sarb]

Please let Xabi be playing