football: the beautiful game

[Magsåvningsreserven]

eto'o the first player to win a second treble consecutively?

[Killypants]

Dont knwo who to support, just hoping its an entertaining game. 2:30 to 5:00am has got to be one of the worsetest times

Haha where do you live?

I'm a tad bummed Bayern lost, but it was a fun game to watch and both of Milito's goals were pure class.

[zeen]

eto'o the first player to win a second treble consecutively?

yep. lucky guy to win back to back treble with different clubs.

Goals from milito were pure class. Held his composure till the finish.

[Guest I LOVE LFC]

Blackpool in the Premiership next season, hahaha.

Mourinho has left Inter and is Real Madrids manager next seaon

[cJajce]

Don't know if what we need right now is a new coach in Mourinho, even though we failed to win anything this year the team was still meshing together and a sense of stability with Pellegrini i think could have gone a long way. I know that there have been rumors about Maicon come over as well but with Pepe coming back i don't really think he is necessary. Even though he is a superior than Ramos, definitely not worth the price range of 30 mil that inter will be asking for when you already have a decent attacking right back. only position we really need to address is left mid which we are with talks with Silva. No excuses this upcoming season...

[readytoignite]

^^^do you want to win the CL or not? if you do, get mourinho. if not, enjoying a few more decades of meshing together.

[fatchino]

I know the tangerines and brett omerod (I remeber him from back who knows when, with southampton in their premier days) in the premiership what's that about?? Ian Holloway's good for a few quotes of the season though.

Wonder how mourihno would go in madrid. Souness was trying to explain to j. redknapp and co about the idea of the galacticos and the lovely football real fans expect,but he just wasn't listening. Sometimes I wonder if he ever watches any football outside of england and then I watch "super sunday" and I wonder if he even watches any of the premier league.

He should stick to making Wii ads with his pop and holiday ads with Louise!

[Guest I LOVE LFC]

Souness and Redknapp are a pair of clowns. At least Souness was a great player, even if he has lost the plot. Redknapp is just constantly hanging out of cousin franks arse/chelsea since he's left the north, if you didn't know him, you would never know he played for us!!!!

Yea we were discussing yesterday how old Ormerod is now, turns out 33.

[Quiver]

Haha where do you live?

I'm a tad bummed Bayern lost, but it was a fun game to watch and both of Milito's goals were pure class.

Perth, Western Australia. Watched 20min of it and couldn't keep my eyelids open anymore so taped it foxtel iq and watched it the next morning. Constantly impressed with how well Inter does with so little possession. It really goes against the status quo of soccer imo, which actually makes the game more interesting to watch. And agreed, Milito was absolutely clinical in his execution.

On another note, always fun to watch Aus beat NZ in any sport. The last second goal 30 seconds after the end of added time was a joyous start to a boozey Monday night dinner.

[zeen]

yRIkhnCkL3I

[Magsåvningsreserven]

it's like transfer deadline day

walcott out, definitely - so in comes swp; joe cole in and johnson out; king apparently out and dawson in - all of this without an actual announcement of any kind.

mind you, after the past two games just gone by, many could argue we need a whole new team. I've got a feeling we won't be able to beat USA (who seem to play really well in major games as opposed to capitulate like we do)

Can't really be sure as to what kind of team will turn out at the finals. shit warmup lead to '90 where we did reasonably well. good run-up led to more recent disappointments. So here's hoping!

[readytoignite]

hmmmm so does that make the lineup vs the us as the following?

green

cashley / king / scumbag / johnson

j cole / carrick / lamptard / lennon

rooney / defoe (or crouch)?

i'm actually ok with that (as a yank) - not too pacey except lennon - we can double up on him when he gets the ball and force carrick to play up the field to take the ball. with that, england is exposed to the counter.

the usa either turns up or capitulates in a truly awful way - they conceded in the 5th minute of their tournament in 06 en route to a 3-0 thumping from a mediocre czech team. in their last two international tournaments of any significance, they're basically averaging a sending off per match.

anyway i think we have a better chance of shipping 3+ goals than winning.

[Magsåvningsreserven]

i think Ferdinand might be preferred to king, and it seems Barry's recovered in time.

Shouldn't have said capitulated in regards to England, more like run out of ideas. I still don't know a whole great deal about USA, but you've done pretty well in recent tournaments, it seems.

Not sure how the Americans barely got out of the group stage of the confederations cup, only to beat Spain convincingly but then lose to Brazil again. I hope we don't get the good US for the opening fixture.

[readytoignite]

the papers have barry debuting for the second group match. the US reputation has to do with a couple matches at the confed cup - i was at both tune-up friendlies and not brimming with confidence but it could go either way quite easily i think. our defending is shocking at times.

also, i should mention that i'm coordinating the spurs away support at their NY friendlies this summer - any spurs planning to visit, feel free to drop a pm and i'll provide details

[polishmike]

starting xi will probably be:

james

johnson ferdinand terry cole

lennon barry lampard gerrard

crouch rooney

king should be starting over terry or rio. gerrard should be in the middle where he played the best so far. rooney should be supported by joe cole. i could see the us match to finish 0:0.

and why the fuck is upson going? carra probably won't get any minutes either but i guess he is some kind of weak cover for right back. i would also pick adam johnson over swp.

[Goldfish]

Assuming we have a healthy roster (Torres, Iniesta, Fabregas) Spain wins it all no doubt. Put $100 on it, hoping to win that $400 from it.

[polishmike]

Rossi out of Italian squad. I'm not predicting a good tournament for them. I know it's Italy and their style, but they have so many similar players in the squad. Out of the group and that's it.

[Janavar]

Assuming we have a healthy roster (Torres, Iniesta, Fabregas) Spain wins it all no doubt. Put $100 on it, hoping to win that $400 from it.

i agree with this but i don't know how fit fabregas and torres are going to be by the time a match comes around, same with iniesta

[polishmike]

torres will be ready for first match. i think we might see him in last friendly against poland for few minutes.

[cyberPUNK]

ugh, trying to decide who to put money on. from the looks of it though, spain vs brazil could be one of the semi-finals. that complicates matters significantly. also keeping in mind though that no european team has ever won in a world cup away from europe...i'm completely confused.

also, spain looks like they could have a tough time with having to potentially play portugal, then possibly italy, followed by brazil. fuck...brazil or argentina it is, those fancy toilets might boost argentina's morale.

[mis]

The group A,B,C,D block has heavyweights- Argentina, England, France, Germany, compared to the E,F,G,H block- Holland, Italy, Brazil, Portugal, Spain

I was gonna put my money on spain but it looks like they're gonna have a tough journey making it to the final. Argentina?

[cyberPUNK]

i'd say argentina, but with maradona managing it's hard to tell whether they'll actually be able to make use of their talent. should be an entertaining few weeks though, may just end up holding back on betting 'til the premier league starts back up.

[zeen]

holland for the win!

[LaiShin]

If Holland can consistently play the way they did in the group stages of Euro, I'll root for them. Those were sexy play, mostly robben-VdV-sneijder combo.

edit: Robben is injured..

[cyberPUNK]

Robben might be injured from what I heard. Everyone is dropping like flies.

[chantheman]

3Zd_khk6zXo

[cJajce]

newest galactico: di maria

no doubt in my mind this kid is going to be great in the future but i think i would have preferred silva on the left since he's proven himself in la liga. really only seen di maria play against pool in the uefa cup and of course youtube highlights, but its a good thing the wc starts in less than a week.

anyone taking the 400/1 odds on either New Z or N Korea?

[readytoignite]

If Holland can consistently play the way they did in the group stages of Euro, I'll root for them. Those were sexy play, mostly robben-VdV-sneijder combo.

edit: Robben is injured..

netherlands will rule group play then melt down in the second phase of competition, just like the euros... they can't handle it when they can't play their sexy football.

lol at robben injuring himself trying to be ronaldo

[Guest I LOVE LFC]

Come on Terry, shag someone elses Mrs so you can get the fuck out the squad, fuckin shit house.

There's no doubt in my mind a Terry mistake will lead to us going out, I honestly can't believe how overrated he is. I've seen him play in real life against Torres, and it's the most amazing scene ever, watching how easy it is for boywonder to get past him, class!

[Guest I LOVE LFC]

Hahahahaha, Jermaine Jackson is injured and out off the finals, just need the other greasy rat to pull sumet now......