Of all the games I had to miss it had to be tonight's! Fucking gutted. Sounds lie it was a corker.

holy fuck, what a great great great 2nd half. fair result in all. but regardless-- wow! & props to joe hart.

-_- yeah thanks for that!

you can't watch online replay? apparently you can on sky (i get the sky retransmissions via web). they were talking about some "events center" or some such shit during halftime.

oops wrong football thread ;)

I guess all that new Atlanta swagger carried its way onto the forum

watched the dortmund-ajax game on replay last night. it was good fun in all, and dortmund played their usual fast offensive game, but without kagawa they were sloppy-- lots of missed chances and passes to nowhere in the middle of the area. there was nobody to dribble and create situations the way kagawa did, this was more like kick and kick and see what happens-- they still managed to eke out a win, but it wasn't easy in that chaos. of course it didn't help that hummels fucked a penalty kick, poor musketeer (he looks like one).

today-- bayern-valencia!! mang i miss watching them play. yes i know most of you will watch chelsea-juve, but i'll wait for the replay on that...

what an insane 2nd half! It seemed like both teams were doing their best to throw it away. Although I feel that, with Real finally winning, we've been robbed of some great 'Real in Meltdown' and 'Mourinho's Uncertain Future' style headlines. Can't wait for Chelsea v Juve tonight.

i was definitely hoping for real madrid to loose, not just as a barca fan, but i would have loved all the speculation and press conference afterwards. cristiano's "sadness", it would have been great! but alas, its not meant to be...

i totally relate to this. Being a Barca fan, hoping for white pussies to lose, expecting some good laughs at Cristiano's sadness ... everything.

I'm often the same, even when England play: half of me wants them to win the other half just wants to watch the media savage them when they lose.

he's a fucking crybaby, but when he has the ball the bastard plays beautifully.i stil hate him though.

---------------

bayern vs. valencia was a fun game for me (bayern fan) but valencia did nothing on the first half and only got interesting in the 2nd especially after valdez (the paraguayan) got in, even though bayern got real sloppy after its substitutions.

gomez remains benched post-op so pizarro played instead but did little, ribéry only played 1/2 match (not yet sure why), the new acquisitions dante and javi martínez played well, and kroos ruled today. the new striker, whatsisname, something eastern-european sounding with an m and a c and a z (mr mxzzplxcz?) (who substituted pizarro), kicked a horrible fucking penalty. the ref fucked up in several occasions (like stopping the game for a yellow card during a bayern attack instead of letting the game go on then give the card) but whatevs. if was nice to see badstuber on the left instead of center, filling in for alaba, and dante covering his usual spot. i think they have a better defense now than last year though i like alaba.

I'm starting to love CRonaldo more and more. He's a brilliant player, obviously, but I'm even warming to his ego-fueled theatrics. And there's something slightly tragic about a man who will be forever known as the guy who was almost as good as someone else, even when that someone else is Messi. And while I acknowledge Messi's superiority I have to admit that I'd far rather watch CRonaldo at the moment. With Messi you can only watch in awe at his skill whereas with CRonaldo you have all of that, plus the added dimension of his Herculean ego which, love it or hate it, surely contributes to him being the most compellingly watchable player in the world right now, even if he isn't the best. I especially love the way he treats every game like it was a chapter in his autobiography.

So Messi or Ronaldo?

I say Ronaldo everytime.

Although very different in style, they seem about equal talent-wise but Messi doesn't descend into meaningless showboating anywhere near as much. He's also far less selfish than CR and doesn't disappear in games anything like as much. Messi contributes even when he isn't scoring while Ronaldo may as well go home if he isn't getting goals. Saying that, CR's reputation was established long before he went to RM whereas we still have no idea how well Messi would do away from Barca. So I'd score it: Skill = equal (arguable and no way is Ronaldo more talented than Messi); All round contribution = Messi; Attitude = Messi; proven versatility = Ronaldo.

i think what you guys are trying to say is that cron-aldo would look better in drag, and with that i'll have to agree.

anyway, on other news, the bayern-schalke game was pretty great for bayern this morning, though in my eyes they are lacking a striker-- gomez is injured, mandzukic (i think i got the name right) has only sucked balls so far, and pizarro is kinda old to play a full game so they didn't put him in today (he would have done better than mandzukic i think). so bayern dominated almost completely but didn't really reflect that. toni kroos however continues to FUCKING RULE. ribéry out still recovering from injury (which is why i found out he only played 1/2 game vs. valencia). anyway, good fun.

ah i got the fucking bundesliga on cable yes i do yes i do.

managed to catch the last few minutes of chelsea-stoke city and saw the stats of only 7 shots to target-- was it a very boring game or was it "tense"?

you are empty inside

I listened to it on the radio and just watched the highlights on TV. More an interesting match than a good one. A lot is being made of how similar Chelsea's midfield players are. Mata, Oscar and Hazard are all v. good but it's hard to see how they offer anything different from one another when they play together, and unless Torres goes on an (unlikely) goal spree, Chelsea are gonna carry on struggling to convert the chances they have. Plus some pretty cringeworthy diving from Ivanovich and Oscar.

Haha thank you.

LET THE UNITED-LIVERPOOL DERBY BEGIN!

De Gea, Vidic or Scholes not starting is a surprise for me.

messi no doubt!

although as much as i hate ronaldo, i love his interviews and tantrums. hes a much more interesting person. ask messi something "yeah, it was a really tough game, im happy we got the three points, team work... bla bla bla"

ronaldo will actually speak his mind, which he is stupid to do, but its very entertaining.

i saw oscar vs. juventus and he was fantfuckingtastic.


de gea didn't start last i saw them.

i'll ahve to watch this in replay! itw as on at 6am my time.


okay here's a funny story for you: this weekend barcelona played granada and they had a very hard time scoring so at some point messi started yelling at villa. this was so out of character that it made the news:

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/3277/...e=breakingnews

"braking news." hilarious.

John Terry has quit international football. Giving the fa a big fat fuck off on his way out.

He kind of makes a valid point but this isn't gonna help people to stop thinking he's a twat

I agree but, his diving aside, there's no questioning his ability; it's just that he offers nothing different tactically from Hazard and Mata. Apart from the fact they get in each other's way when they play together, there's no real alternative plan if things aren't working out with their standard set up, and by relying so heavily on Torres now, it's fair to predict there'll be a lot of games when the standard set up doesn't work out.


Hahaha. I just watched it on youtube. The fact they're both about 4 ft made me think of arguments in the playground when I was in primary school. I bet Messi threw Villla's jacket over a wall on the way home.


Oh wow. End of an era, and all that. A rare PR masterstroke by Terry, no doubt about that but, as you say, the haters (of which I'm one) will continue to hate.

don't really know those two, will pay more attention next time (see that's why i joined no fantasy league)

BUT

torres is sad to watch, living under the shadow of a retired player



plus, he's going to make it to a near-future iteration of this list:

http://www.cracked.com/article_15788...-lesbians.html

(it was my wife who made that call btw. true story).

Hazard is just brilliant. He's a brilliant signing for Chelsea especially as all the big teams were after him this summer.

Haha, I know what you mean about the old lesbian thing. But yeah, it is sad to watch Torres struggle. There has to be a point when Abramovich accepts defeat and sells him off. They need an outright goal scorer. Torres used to be exactly that but for whatever reason has just lost all confidence. I think it's true that he was overawed by Drogba but with him now gone there's no excuse. I don't think he'll ever get his form back now. Ibrahimovich might be exactly the kind of player the could use, if they can get him away from PSG.

maybe mario gomez?

ibrahimovic is amazing. dind't know he played in france.

i don't think bayern will let go of gomez-- not now anyway. mandzukic just scored 2 goals vs. wolfsburg, but he's no star. pizarro who is the substitute striker is at the end of his career (turns 34 next week) and can't be relied to play 90 minutes. so gomez should be the starter once he recovers from his surgery. bayern has been shopping for new players this past summer, so i don't see them selling off someone like gomez.

ps - on semi-related news, frankfurt who just made the bundesliga this year is at the top of the table, right with/behind bayern. they just tied with dortmund in a pretty lively match! (i half-watched while posting crap here). the parallel would be west ham leading the prem right now.

I don't know Bayern's financial situation but I wonder if they're in a position to hold on to a player like Gomez if one of the uber wealthy ones want him.


Haha, if only. They've started well, though, and this may be the first time in ages that West Ham have been in the Prem and I'm not thinking of them as relegation fodder.

There's a rumour that Liverpool want to offer 5m to WH for Carlton Cole. Either the rumour is untrue or Rodgers has completely lost his mind. Hopefully the latter.

gomez has a contract till 2016 and bayern have their sights on the bundesliga + UEFA championship so i can only see them selling gomez to bring someone better.

meanwhile, gomez is stuck in purgatory (and apparently wielding a dremel tool in his right hand):

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201....ap/index.html

This is madness. Irahimovish is 30 now. Great player sure, but Chelsea would be mad to sign someone at that age. And most importantly you're forgetting they've got three other great scorers on their team.

Chelsea are already having a great season even considering Torres struggle to get to the same heights as he did at Liverpool. The last thing they need is more strikers.

Yeah, Gomez is a non starter with that much left on his contract and point taken about Ibrahimovich. For whatever reason I thought he was younger. Either way, it looks like they're gonna spend 45m on Falcao, which will surely mean adios for Fernando come January.

random word-nerd free association: you guys realize ibrahimovic and abramovich have the same last name, right?

ps- that's a fuckton of money for falcao

pps - i looked up bayern's financial position and i don't know how much cash they have but they are very highly valued

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes%27_list_of_the_most_valuable_football_clubs

almost double than chelsea and higher revenue (things may have changed of course since the summer, as this is pre-UEFA finals, but stil... bayern is no slouch)

Totally disagree. They're overstocked with great midfielders but with Drogba gone and Torres continuing to be a flop and Sturridge on the verge of leaving (and hardly a world beater anyway), who do they have up front?

they might bring back lukaku(?). but yea, if they got falcao, holy shit. they might be unbeatable

Piazon could prove himself to be pretty damn good. I think Mata could have a good season. BUT we're forgetting one thing-Torres is Chelsea's top scorer. Sure we're at the beginning of the season but that's gotta count for something.

finally watched man city/ arsenal last night, oh mang oh mang. cazorla remains great, but gervinho needs his fucking foot recalibrated. what is wrong with that guy.

If they get Falcao it's all immaterial, but even the fact Abramovich is willing to spend 45m on another striker means Torres is being squeezed out. The main problem for Chelsea will be finding a club willing to pay even a fraction of his original asking price. I mean, in today's market, what is Torres really worth? I'd be amazed if they get more than £15m for him and don't even think he's worth that. He'll probably go as part of some deal at an undisclosed fee to avoid any blushes.

demoño, what the fuck is wrong with gervinho's foot? for serious! it's like he's trying to kill someone on the bleachers instead of scoring.

Yea i can see Torres going back to Atletico (club where he made his name) in a money + swap deal with Falcao.