hahaha.. sadly its true!! I only follow International Futbol with any sense of passion, partly because I've bought more into it and now the narratives, history, and teams better. Honestly I get completely lost in league futbol

Real-Barcelona tomorrow, and a possible post-ban debut for the man himself.

The twitter feed is hilarious.

Here's Michael Cox's formation pic but they definitely weren't sticking to it

TONIGHT!!!!! I'ma wondering whether they're gonna start with Suarez or have him come on later in the game. And is Ramos definitely playing tonight? Cos Pepe is gonna need that calming influence tonight.

Oh and side note, I didn't realise Di Matteo has gone to manage Schalke now.

WEST HAM!

dortmund just dropped to #15 on the bundesliga table after losing 1-0 to hannover.

don't ask… :(

hot damn what a way to start a clásico!

==

[95 minutes later] aside from that first goal, barcelona looked like shit, stiff & slow. terrible tactics vs a stronger, faster, more skilled real madrid. e.g.: countless crosses from dani alves? pointless. pedro in for suárez? lol (not that suarez had the legs, but pedro was worse!). why was mascherano a centerback? marcelo immense. benzema great. what a spanking, could have been 6-1.

Marcelo is one of them players for me who is great going forward, but defence? Nah. Suarez (Messi too tbh) was definitely off tonight and needed to be subbed earlier if anything. He'll be back on form soon enough though.

Isco though, now there's a player who's gonna get better and better.

It's wasn't a classic by any stretch of the imagination, but a result all the same.

MOYES OUT! Another loss? What's happened with them?

w/ dortmund it's a long story but here is a fair summary:

http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2014/...l-score-result

will have to add to that, they've been missing *a lot* of chances the last few weeks. so it's not like they are without danger-- they just have failed to convert over & over & over until they run out of chances.

--

marcelo maybe doesn't defend but the way he motored ahead today was a holy terror against barcelona.

i think part of the problem was suarez positioning on the wing w/ messi as striker whereas messi plays better behind the striker and suarez more in the center-- just before he was subbed out he was getting dangerous in the middle. his problem was he didn't track back. but pedro a zero.

ps- and barca's midfield old and weak.

Oh fucking hell yes!

i just read… congrats!

Great result. Annoying that the pundits are only interested in talking about what's gone wrong at MC, ignoring that WH played excellently today, and have been for a couple of months now. Whether it lasts is another matter and Sam will have a big problem when Carroll's fit, given how well we're doing without him.

Fair play to City though, early contender for goal of the season?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17nm3AmEgxk

Fuck suarez

Agreed. Neither are pure strikers. Messi does most damage from further back which is how it was for Suarez at Liverpool, whose main striker was Sturridge. Messi suits coming in from the left, Suarez from the right, but Suarez's best position is the one best suited to Neymar, too.

I <3 Eto'o. Still a class player.

And I hate Danny Ings for robbing Jagielka of a clean sheet bonus

today bayern was a lot more static vs. monchengladbach than it was vs. roma.

weird 3-4-3 that failed to score. lewandowski out in the woods. ribery was subbed in for muller on the right. ribery on the right is like 1/2 of a regular ribery. rafinha as a wingback.

result was 0-0 and gladbach i think had more & clearer chances-- chances that someone like cronaldo wouldn't let go to waste (i'm looking @ CL prospects here). benatia even was spared a penalty at the last few minutes--gladbach could have won. guardiolo was begging for the time to end and even grabbed the 4th ref (a woman) while arguing. lucky he didn't get carded, the fucking bastard-- he think he can lay hands on the ref cuz she's a woman (she's a cop though, she'd kick his ass).

WHAT A DIFFERENCE ROBBEN MAKES.

also, fucking rafinha, he gets on my last nut. he's like an emergency spare tire of last resort, not a starter for bayern.

Didn't see the game but it looks like Bayern are gonna be so dominant in the Bundesliga they could end up treating league games almost like training sessions, so we might only see the real thing in CL games.

yes. monchengladbach is in 2nd place though (4 points behind) so this was no toy team to fuck with--a lesser goalkeeper might have very well lost the match. guardiola looked really desperate at the end. but as it goes, neuer is 658 minutes without getting scored on, the freak.