I think England have been really good the last 2 games
Cahill and Jagielka look comfortable, Baines is amazing and even Smalling had a good game!
We look good going forward, and Andros Townsend is everything Theo Walcott isn't

We're gonna win the world cup

Well what a game. Talk about fast paced! And I agree with SonicBebs, they've looked good. Get about a gazillion chances before scoring but hey.

I <3 Baines.

USA saves Mexico. Damn it. I know they'll beat New Zealand. FIFA is giving CONCACAF too many chances, but hey, fuck it. If they win its all fair, and USA has top-seeding at the least though we would have had that even if we lost and Costa Rica won. So. Lame. Should have took the dive to diss El Tri

Without going over the top about WC chances, last night's performance has left me more optimistic about the England team overall than I've felt in ages.

Iceland's achievement was sensational despite the super easy group

Oh god to be a Sunderland fan right now. You have my deepest sympathies!

Almost as bad as being a MU fan right now, except in their case I have no sympathy at all. I'd love it if they don't even qualify for next year's CL.

This generation of utd fans have never had to deal with the reality of being a normal fan. Watching your team fuck up, be shit, lose week after week, be owned/managed/run by a bunch of idiots but still sing your heart out about them being by far the greatest team the world has ever seen is what supporting your team is really about.

When they fail to qualify for the cl and players begin to slowly leave, when they become Aston Villa, when motd show grown utd fans cry I'll be happy man!

Totally agree. Romanticising failure and incompetence is a massive part of it for me. Fortunately.

i used to have a tribal football team like that, like a good portion of my family, but that was far away and a long time ago and i had almost forgotten all about it. one guy i knew in high school was an "ultra" (not the fascist kind) and he'd get us good tickets and weed and we'd yell until we could no longer speak and throw piss cans at the ref. i wish i could say "oh, good times," but i'm slightly embarrassed by the memories, actually. one of my uncles remains a hardcore fanatic, he used to travel around with the team and still lives and dies with the team's fortunes.

Yeah, I've never been like that. I'm not a very loud person by nature and I'm no different when it comes to football. Same with the kind of blind loyalty that sees every decision against West Ham as somehow indicating a referee's bias against them. I have friends who are like that but I just can't do it myself. Same with chants. I love hearing them but never actually join in.

This is true, such is sport! Losing is what makes winning it all so damned fantastic! When Baltimore Ravens lost to the Patriots in the AFC Conference Game in 2012, that shit was one of the saddest sports' days of my life. Made getting that Superbowl the next year soooooo much better. USMNT loses big every WC and got clowned here in LA in the 2011 Gold Cup. Made winning it all this past summer so much more vindicating. Dodgers just lost in the NLCS to the Cardinals. Is it a great experience? Not necessarily. Is it sport? Couldn't have it any other way, cities and franchises and fans have to collectively lose, its called bonding :cool:

Hard to imagine there'll be a better goal in the Prem this season ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reTBIJnsRLM

They look amazing again. Aaron Ramsey has been just as much an influence on the team as Ozil has. Although motd comparing him with Zidane was a bit far fetched
I think they can definitely win the league this year

God if they did how many of the fans who were calling for Wenger's head a few weeks ago will be calling him a God?

Fuck it.

Oh well. Arsenal on Saturday!

An epic expression, only matched with its antonym, "Fuck that shit."

Ramsey's on fire but I think Ozil's given them a fear factor they haven't had since Van Persie left. The only question mark for me is that they're still yet to play Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man U. They've had a relatively easy start to the season. Besides Spurs all the other teams they've played so far have been ones you'd expect them to beat quite comfortably, and even against some of those they've not had their way. They can definitely win it, and I'd love to see them do it, but we'll get a better idea of just how good they are after we've seen them face the other main contenders. (Although I'm beginning to think MU at least are in danger of already being out of contention.)

So Hollow has gone. By the looks of it he walked but you can never tell.

Sad times. We're not a premier league club and he is a decent championship manager. Its a shame we couldn't convince him to stay, but if he's gonna bale on us fuck him.
Wonder who we'll get?
Warnock and Pulis are the usual names being thrown about. No one's mentioned Redknap yet!
Just glad mark hughes is currently in a job

You could say the same about Liverpool. Apart from Man Utd. they haven't played any of the top tier teams. You only need to look at how Swansea played against them to see that if pushed they could crumble. Bad metaphor I know, but I can't think of any other way to say it.

NBA starts in a week an all this Euro football shit can be long since forgotten by dunks, pick and rolls, defensive box outs, and of course, ridiculously unmatched outfits and thick-framed glasses without lenses ad infinitum.

Looks like Pulis.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...s-ian-holloway

I'm sure UEFA's shitting itself

It should be, our flops are better than their flops ;)

I used to quite like the NBA but it feels far too personality driven now. I know that's true of most big sports at the moment (not least football) but it increasingly seems like that's almost all the NBA has left to trade on. And it's not just on the court: the last game I saw on tv, the cameraman seemed more interested in seeking out celebrity spectators than following what's actually going on in the game. That's not an attack on the sport itself but the whole way the NBA now markets itself.

wtf this thread

It just goes from bad to worse for FIFA

http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...-cup-in-russia

DAMMIT MOYES, I WASN'T DONE MOCKING YOU!

Well Everton were rough for the most part. However, Tim Howard was just brilliant. *kisses Lukaku's forehead* MmmmmmmWAH. Now if Liverpool can just hurry up and trip up I'll be a happy man.

Anyone watching the gazillionth (and that's in just the last two years) El Classico tonight?

Neymar's looking like the real deal. He was getting hammered by Pepe and Ramos and definitely didn't crumble as some predicted.

I only remembered Bale was there when he got subbed. People are saying he needs time but I don't think he works in a team that already has Ronaldo. Either Real sells Ronaldo or they've just bought the worlds most expensive supersub.

that's great to know. maybe the medical team has embedded his bones with adamantium, ha ha ha.

damn, i'm missing out a lot.

Well the one thing with the El Classico is there's always another one a month or so later.

Barcelona deserved the win but you can tell both teams are in transition. Neymar was probably the only stand out on either side. Bale was absolutely anonymous.

This is interesting (and another palace post, sorry)

Motd showed palace had 13% possession against arsenal.
A mate who watched it on sky said they quoted 39%.
Motd singled out Chamaq as being poor, yet a neutral stated he won everything in the air and played well

Its said that palace fans have been critical online of motd coverage and punditary and so motd are deliberately miss representing palaces games

A lot of punditary is subjective but to get a stat so wrong makes you wonder...

Visca Barca!

Hmm be interesting to see what the BBC would say if pressed about that.

With the Chamaq thing. There's been so any times where one person has said such-and-such a player was terrible, then another has said said player was actually pretty good.

It kinda brings that quote "nobody really knows anything" to mind.

Exactly. I can accept opinions about performances and title contenders (they never accept arsenal as being contenders despite form and current position) because everyones view will be different.
But stats are stats. The guardian had them at 39% too
Im sure motd would apologise and blame a work experience kid!

Didn't see MotD but watched the game on Sky. Chamakh was excellent and, while Arsenal were clearly the better team, Palace defended really well overall (the only team in the Prem so far to contain Ozil) and even had some good chances on the counterattack. Jedinak looked class. They just couldn't hold on in the later stages.

There was a stat early in the game that Palace had just 10 passes to Arsenal's 110 but a team in Palace's position against the in form team in the league had to park the bus, which they did ... very well. Celtic beat Barcelona with the same strategy and 13% possession. Chelsea won the CL on not much higher.

The whole mania for possession stats (which vary massively depending on how they're judged) is one of the most irrelevant in football. I don't think people were even aware of them before Barcelona arrived, and stuff like Championship Manager.

You know what, I think the whole 13% thing might have been about the 1st 10 minutes actually

In my defence there was a fair bit of wine last night

/Embarrassing

Haha brilliant.

ha ha ha ha

best post of the whole thread

brilliant!