Burkina Faso is real deal yo. They are in West Africa smack in between Mali and Ghana. FIFA called them the top 3 team that didn't make the World Cup in 2010. As to Ethiopia, the game will be epic indeed, Nigeria is trying to rebuild their international football credibility and Ethiopia has had some fun building experience playing and winning against some great teams in qualifiers, friendlies, and group matches. If we advance we will be a miraculous Cinderella, but we are happy enough to be here considering how many great African teams didn't and we are still very young. Only one of our players plays "profession" by Euro standards and in Egypt at that!

Spurs lose to Leeds, Chelsea barely scrape a draw to Brentford, and glory of all bloody glories Liverpool lose to Oldham! Take that you bunch of third rate thugs.

FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC!

clearly leeds are the much better team.

just watched the bayern game mostly in turkish-- hard to make out what they were saying except for "guardiola". mandzukic did good-- i think he's getting better. i'm exhausted!

@ demonrail -- thanks for that, will check out. re: burkina faso is a french former colony you might have learned as "haute volta" (high volta? upper volta?). right above ivory coast (another ex-french colony).

@ suchfriends - any good matches you'd recommend from here? (it's available replays) (please ignore the mismatched dates & times i don't have time to edit)

1/2612:50 PM EST
Algeria vs. Togo ESPN3 1/269:50 AM EST
Cote D'Ivoire vs. Tunisia ESPN3 1/2512:50 PM EST
Burkina Faso vs. Ethiopia ESPN3 1/259:50 AM EST
Zambia vs. Nigeria ESPN3 1/2412:50 PM EST
Niger vs. Congo Dr ESPN3 1/2410:00 AM EST
Ghana vs. Mali ESPN3 1/231:00 PM EST
Morocco vs. Cape Verde ESPN3 1/2310:00 AM EST
South Africa vs. Angola ESPN3 1/221:00 PM EST
Tunisia vs. Algeria ESPN3 1/2210:00 AM EST
Cote D'Ivoire vs. Togo ESPN3 1/211:00 PM EST
Nigeria vs. Burkina Faso ESPN3 1/2110:00 AM EST
Zambia vs. Ethiopia ESPN3 1/201:00 PM EST
Mali vs. Niger ESPN3 1/2010:00 AM EST
Ghana vs. Congo Dr

It's a case of either 'another reason why the FA Cup is so special' or yet more ammunition for those who think too many teams now see it as a distraction so field second string sides (albeit still usually better than their full strength lower league opposition). No player makes FA Cup success a condition for moving to or staying at a club. Lower league clubs are now more than ever motivated by promotion to the next league or avoiding the drop to the one below. At the top level, CL qualification and the prem title is all (even the UEFA cup is generally seen by clubs as too great a strain on resources to really encourage them to participate) while those at the bottom half of the prem are in full on survival mode just trying to stay there. So for those, too, the FA Cup becomes a distraction. It's a competition that evokes more innocent times that've since been replaced by the logic of hard business. Every fan wants their side to win it but I suspect most would sacrifice it if they felt it hindered their chances in other areas. Seeing West Ham edge ever closer to the end of season relegation battle, I was quietly relieved when MU knocked us out, knowing we could ill afford the juggling act with our squad that'd be necessary to fight two battle fronts given how difficult we're finding it with just one. Or am I just being horribly cynical?

I haven't been able to watch because of the time differences and I don't really like replays. I'm going to try to watch the final Ethiopia match tomorrow during my prep period but I might not be able to stream it from my work log-in. From what I've read and heard, the highlight matches worth watching was South Africa v Angola which was a SA shootout in the first half followed by them shutting out Angola in the second. The Ethiopia-Zambia was good even with the low score because it was an excellent defensive game. Most of these games have been a bit hectic, not as precise as African soccer usually is, more ruff and tumble like an NFL game really. Hopefully in the next round folks get their bearings. Its kind of weird because usually I think all the best games are in the Group Stage where teams really both show off and also compete because of the variety of teams and players

thanks! will check them out.

so city in the next round, since we dispatched the Londoners with such ease i think we might have a go at city but will probably get thrashed. you never know though, stranger things have happened.

All the major league teams who lost had their best squads out so I don't think the managers were looking at it like a distraction.

For me it seemed like the 'smaller' teams had the bite and certainly more will to win and it showed.

Point taken but whatever way you cut it, the FA Cup just doesn't mean as much now. Last year we had the situation of league games being played on the same day as the final. The FA Cup used to be the pinnacle of the season, our equivalent to the Superbowl. Now that pinnacle is the CL final, even if no English clubs are involved.

England are playing Brazil in a friendly this Saturday. How many goals do you think Brazil will score, as England haven't a hope in hell of beating Brazil, let alone scoring any goals against the Samba Boys.

so is the prem starting today again? i see a listing for a man u/ southampton match

The Prem started back up yesterday but there's games tonight, too. The big result yesterday was Man City drawing with QPR but most of the big teams are playing tonight.

oh shit!!! epic fail!!!

Yeah, to be fair, City should've won on chances alone although QPR were denied a decent penalty shout at the end.

Bigger news is the confirmation that Balotelli has left City for Milan on a 17m transfer deal. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

that's awesome for him i think, wasn't a good fit for man city, and while he looked like a pariah in england people will still pay for him elsewhere. now you can blame the other italian for all of man city's shortcomings, ha ha.

re: tie - i don't know who deserved what, but my point was that-- isn't QPR a bit of a shit team though? i expect man u to give southampton a spanking which should get them closer to the championship. for man city to have missed the chance for easy points has to be a huge letdown at this point.

speaking of that, bayern has bolted 11 points ahead of leverkusen and 12 points ahead of dortmund. yessss!!!

cant wait for the CL to resume.

I think Balotelli had a love/hate thing going on here and I (as one who loved him) will be sorry to see him go but, I agree, I think it's the best thing for him.

QPR have improved a bit since replacing their manager but yeah, those are the very games City has to win if they're to get closer to Utd. Fortunately for them, Utd have also dropped points to teams that on paper they should've breezed past. The difference seems to be Van Persie. While City's forwards seem to be struggling to regain their form from last season, VP seems as lethal for Utd as he was for Arsenal. What's letting Utd down is their defence.

Cesar deserves a huge amount of credit for managing to keep the QPR game a draw. I'm still baffled as to why he went from Inter Milan to QPR. No disrespect to QPR but that's a pretty big drop off!

I'll say one thing about Balotelli. If he had gone to Man Utd I'm pretty certain he would've done a hell of a lot better. Why? Cos there's no way Alex Ferguson would've put up with half the shit Mancini did.

Ferguson has clearly had to deal with a hell of a lot of egos. From Ronaldo to Cantona and all of them kept their shit together (save the odd hiccup) and that's due in large part to Ferguson. Ferguson is clearly a manager you don't fuck around with. So I honestly think things would've gone better for him if he'd been picked up by United. A shame really.

I agree Fergie would've done a better job controlling him. but Balotelli's problem seems to be that he's still not proven himself as a good enough player to make the hassle worthwhile. I'm just surprised Milan are prepared to take the risk on him.

And yeah, Cesar was immense last night. Definitely the man of the match.

i don't think balotelli can be "controlled"-- i think he has problems with impulsivity that he cannot himself control, and no amount of "talking to" can make a difference. he might have heavy adhd, which makes a person easily get caught up in the moment and forget all else.