LEN Teh Footy God's Footballodium

[Afonso I of Portugal]

Hehehe. Barca 0 - 2 Hercules.

In fact Hercules has a nice side with Drenthe, Trezeguet, Farinós and Tiago Gomes. With Queiroz out maybe our next manager call Gomes for the national team.

[naut]

Heh.

[Afonso I of Portugal]

Nice socks...

[tibilicus]

Manchester City's 100 million + squad is currently out of the top four spot which is held by Blackpool. Madness, sheer madness.

[Beskar]

Manchester City's 100 million + squad is currently out of the top four spot which is held by Blackpool. Madness, sheer madness.

What does that say about the quality of British football?

Blackpool, bookies had them struggling not to get relegated and they got promoted to the Premiership, and now, they are fourth...

[naut]

Manchester City's 100 million + squad is currently out of the top four spot which is held by Blackpool. Madness, sheer madness.

With a squad that cost £2.5 million to assemble. Shows what a little belief can do. And what I love, Holloway has his lads playing with the ball on the ground, using possession, creating chances. He stuck to his guns and didn't go defensive. It's early days yet, and they're liable to get knocked about by some of the big boys, but they've got enough about them to pick up the points to avoid the drop.

Admittedly, Mancini is out of his depth. He was never the best manager in Italy, and he still isn't in the BPL. He's playing with 3 defensive-mids most games, which is not a sign of a title winning side. It's oddly appropriate that Blackpool, playing good stuff are off to a strong start with a shoe string squad, while City struggle and hold a defensive mind-set. I mean Vieira?!?! Seriously?!?! Paddy was absolutely amazing, a beast of a player... 8 years ago.

What does that say about the quality of British football?

It's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant (unless you are a Sp*ds, City or 'Pool fan). It shows the league is perhaps loosening up, but it's too early to really judge on that. It also bodes well in that the defensive mindset that has struck the league in recent seasons is finally similarly loosening up. Four games in and we've seen 128 goals across the 40 fixtures. That's 3.2 goals a game! Impressive stuff.

On another note, I liked that Moyes got a little bit of Fergie time to sting them with a ManU special. They've not travelled particularly well at Goodison in recent years.

[Strike For The South]

If I ever meet you in real life I'm going to have to resist the urge to hit you with something blunt

[naut]

Hehe. Evertonians were singing: "No Woman, No Kai".

If I ever meet you in real life I'm going to have to resist the urge to hit you with something blunt

They don't let you have sharp objects in the special needs class do they?

[Strike For The South]

They don't let you have sharp objects in the special needs class do they?

they do not

[naut]

[LeftEyeNine]

Well as much I agree on the fact that wealth does not assure success in FOOTBALL, I also would like to be as contained about Blackpool's current position. Premiership is acquainted with short run full boost of newcomers such as Burnley, Hull City etc. from preivous seasons.

Edit: Bursaspor vs. Valencia tonight.

Anybody remember about unknown/weaker teams giving nightmares to the giants in the first matches of CL seasons ? Yeah yeah, they eventually run out of fuel but such prediction still proves worthy of some betting.

Edit 2: I had said "soccer". I can be purged anytime. Thanks.

[Afonso I of Portugal]

Yeah! It seams Mourinho will be the next Portuguese manager...

[Louis VI the Fat]

I'm fairly certain Mourinho's already a Portuguese manager...

[Ronin]

Yeah! It seams Mourinho will be the next Portuguese manager...

Will he bring his own BUS or does the federation have to provide one?

[Louis VI the Fat]

Remember that Italy-South Korea World Cup game of 2002? Several outrageous decisions by the referee eliminated Italy. The ref's mistakes were so blatant he was accused of being bribed.

Well that same referee was caught today smuggling six kilos of cocaïne...

A former referee involved in Italy's controversial elimination from the 2002 World Cup was caught at Kennedy Airport with bags of heroin attached to his body, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Byron Moreno late Monday after he arrived in New York on a commercial flight from his native Ecuador.
During a routine inspection, Moreno "became visibly nervous," according to a complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn.

A customs agent felt "hard objects on the defendant's stomach, back and both of his legs," the complaint said. A strip search revealed that the lumps were 10 clear plastic bags containing more than 10 pounds of heroin, it said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_734284.html

Incidentally, the referee from the Spain - South Korea game was accused of bribery too, for making rather similar, ridiculous decisions which eliminated Spain.

This drug smuggling charge does little for the credibility of the ref. And it renews allegations that Korea's achievements were the result of bribery of refs.




It must all be rather tempting, eh? For both the ref and the country. Some Korean multinational / businessman / organising committee fears early elimination and mockery. He dreams of Korean greatness, and then it dawns on him that the ref is just a guy with a €30k paycheck.

Why, I am not sure I could resist the temptation. I need to work for a living, one or two million just to 'overlook' a ball passing the goal line is tempting. I could make that mistake without the money, so why not make it and secure the future of my children?
As host, if I've just spend 1.5 billion for Korea promotion, I might as well add 1.5 million and buy me a semi-final place, for real promotion.

[InsaneApache]

This drug smuggling charge does little for the credibility of the ref.

You can say that again.

[Ronin]

football referees have credibility???

[johnhughthom]

I would question whether anybody appointed by FIFA has credibility, rather than referees in general.

[drone]

Watching the West Brom match, it looks like Arsenal spent a fair percentage of that £56 million on hookers and blow Friday night. Egads, that was a poor display.

[naut]

Watching the West Brom match, it looks like Arsenal spent a fair percentage of that £56 million on hookers and blow Friday night. Egads, that was a poor display.

Aye. West Brom were fantastic on the ball, can't have any scruples when you get played of the park, very glad they didn't come and kick us of the park. They came, imposed their game, and came away with a hard fought and deserved win. Hopefully, the first team recovers in time for Chelsea, not a fan of having to play squad players in large parts of the season.

This weekends results were good for the openess of the league, Sp*rs lost, Chelsea lost, Liverpool scraped a draw, Everton sit bottom. If someone had told me that 6 games in the league would be as it currently is I wouldn't have believed them.

[naut]

Watching the West Brom match, it looks like Arsenal spent a fair percentage of that £56 million on hookers and blow Friday night. Egads, that was a poor display.

Aye. West Brom were fantastic on the ball, can't have any scruples when you get played off the park, very glad they didn't come and kick us off the park. They came, imposed their game, and came away with a hard fought and deserved win. Hopefully, the first team recovers in time for Chelsea, not a fan of having to play squad players in large parts of the season.

This weekends results were good for the openness of the league, Sp*rs lost, Chelsea lost, Liverpool scraped a draw, Everton sit bottom, ManU drew. If someone had told me that 6 games in the league would be as it currently is I wouldn't have believed them.

[naut]

[johnhughthom]

Is that a request for Manuel to follow suit?

[drone]

Looks like we get Fabianski in Belgrade, Almunia is out with an elbow injury. Hilarity, I'm sure, will ensue.

[naut]

Looks like we get Fabianski in Belgrade, Almunia is out with an elbow injury. Hilarity, I'm sure, will ensue.

It's very disheartening that no matter how bad Almunia gets, Flappyhandski will out-do him with ease. Szczesny on the bench, that's a start, but just start the lad already. Talented and with some Jen's style crazy.

Interesting article about Polish keepers.

Arsenal fans. Not seeing the best of Łukasz Fabiański? There’s a good reason. Your club tried to fix it, but loyalty stopped them. Michal Zachodny reports from Poland.

If you met him on the street, you wouldn’t know he is the man that taught goalkeeping to Artur Boruc (Fiorentina), Łukasz Fabiański (Arsenal), Wojciech Kowalewski (Sibir), Jan Mucha (Everton), Wojciech Szczęsny (also Arsenal) and his father Maciej (former Polonia Warsaw), Arkadiusz Malarz (Larissa), Łukasz Załuska (Celtic) among many others. He is not that tall, barely looks like a goalkeeper, with a moustache that makes him seem more electrician than legend. Krzysztof Dowhań is the man that once turned down Arsene Wenger to teach young keepers at Legia Warsaw.

What is so special about this guy? Dowhań wasn’t even a good keeper in his playing years, reaching the lower leagues at his peak. He knew his worth and quickly ended the adventure, but lasted only a few months without football. He couldn’t live without throwing himself in the mud just to reach the ball and keep a clean sheet. Or rather to make others do so, as he became goalkeeper coach, which was without doubt the best decision he ever made.

[naut]

Looks like we get Fabianski in Belgrade, Almunia is out with an elbow injury. Hilarity, I'm sure, will ensue.

I know it was one game, but I hope this is a turning point. I'd gladly eat my hat and 100 other hats for him to prove me wrong and continue like he played yesterday.

Also ol' 'Arry was absolutely twitching after vdV's pen miss:

[drone]

I know it was one game, but I hope this is a turning point. I'd gladly eat my hat and 100 other hats for him to prove me wrong and continue like he played yesterday.

Haven't seen the game yet (on the DVR), but apparently Fabianski played well. He's in line to start against Chelsea Sunday, I guess we will see. No better time to show up for a match.

[Strike For The South]

4-1 BABY.

What a whipping

BRING ON INTER

[naut]

Ok. Non-injured First IX:

GK - Flappy
LB - Clichy
LCB - Koscielny
RCB - Squillaci
RB - Sagna
DM - Alexandre Dimitri Song Billong
CM - Rosicky
CM - Wilshere
LF - Arshavin
RF - Nasri
ST - Chamakh

Injured First IX:

GK - Almunia
LB - Gibbs
LCB - Vermaelen
RCB -
RB -
DM - Frimpong
CM - Ramsey
CM - Fabregas
LF - Van Persie
RF - Walcott
ST - Bendtner

Who, exactly, is on the medical team?!

Also, anyone got FIFA 11? Ha, RvP in injured in my career mode. I giggled.

[Strike For The South]

Also, anyone got FIFA 11? Ha, RvP in injured in my career mode. I giggled.

Want.