oh maaaaan! real madrid/ man u is going to be EPIC.

valencia/ psg is gonna be worth watching as well i think. and milan/barcelona....

bayern looking good! unless wenger pulls a rabit out of his hat (what rabbit i have no idea, but eh).

dortmund better not fuck up! i wonder about them playing against all those brazilians from ukraine (eg- will the brazilians be cold? hA!)

and a german vs a turkish team? there's gonna be riots in germany.

Yeah Real v Man U is gonna be great. Fergie against Mourinho. I just think MU are leaking too many goals to really stand much of a chance, even if Real aren't in the best of form themselves right now. And I have to assume that Bayern are gonna pulvarise Arsenal over two legs.

I don't expect Juventus to get to the finals but I hope they have a decent run. I've got a real soft spot for them, especially since they've got Buffon and Chiellini.

I am gonna watch teh matches on ESPN on xbox.

i dont think espn3 has been showing the UEFA matches (espn3 has been a disappointment for me this year, so i had to get cable) but you could subscribe to this shit month-to-month:

http://www.foxsoccer2go.com/

horrible domain name, yes, but the beauty of it for me has been that i can watch in my own time and when there are simultaneous matches and you can't see them all you can come back to watch the recording (some times w/ delay, some times not). this was especially cool during the group stage when you'd have something like 4 matches at the same hour.

I heard that ESPN has done a deal with the Prem for next season where it's gonna show live matches for free in the US. I think Fox currently has the rights but they charge a subscription fee, right?

ESPN is a cable channel. FoxSoccer is also a cable channel. You gotta pay for both, though ESPN comes with some forms of basic cable (cheaper) and FoxSoccer requires an additional sports package (which includes GolTV, which shows the Bundesliga).

ESPN3 (now called something else I forget) is the web arm of ESPN. "Free" access to it is weird, because it's not charged to the user but to the ISP. which is the reason i originally got Comcast internet-- it offers ESPN3. Colleges also get it for some reason, but some internet providers don't. i think there's some way that the xbox also gives it away regardless of provider but I don't know the details.

Anyway, ESPN3, which was the free one, dropped bundesliga matches this past year, and shows all manner of random shit. eg, ronaldo y amigos vs. zidane y amigos agaisnt poverty. or german cup but no bundesliga.

Even if ESPN (regular cable) is picking up premiere league matches that doesn't mean they will be available free on their website, which means you'll require at least a basic cable subscription to watch them online.

A confusing clusterfuck I know, but that's the cable/internet industry.

ps- right now the espn3 site offers only a replay of the newcastle/man city game from dec 15-- that's it, no other match.

Sorry, my mistake, it's NBC that've outbid Fox and ESPN to show live Prem games for free from 2013-14 season.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012...l-broadcast-us

oh shit! funny thing see, NBC is owned by comcast ("kabletown" if youve ever watched 30rock), so the fuckers better include it in their sports package.... im sure they will. they better!! or else...!!

fox i think uses sky transmissions. will this be the end of the "fuck sucker" channel???

So, Mancini gives Balotelli yet another chance!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...o-Mancini.html

I actually think Mancini is doing more harm than good not just to Man City but to Mario himself. How is he meant to grow up when he sees that his actions have no real consequences? And by sticking with a player who everyone else can see is a lost cause, Mancini's also compromising his own credibility as a manager. I honestly can't think of a worse man-manager in English football right now - that are still in a job, anyway.

not to dismiss what you're saying but i think balotelli's psychological problems are bigger than mere "learning the consequences." childhood illness, weird adoption, presumed golddigging relatives, that's gotta fuck you up mentally no matter how much talent.

what he needs is not punishment but *cough cough* therapy. i'm serious...

I absolutely agree and I don't see letting him go as punishment so much as an acknowledgement that he's not in a fit state of mind to play football at that level. He's starting to remind me of Michael Jackson and Mike Tyson. But what can you do?

he reminds me of gg allin

anyway, balotelli will always have a place of honor in my football memory for his penalty kick mindfuck vs. weidenfeller. yes, that wasn't enough for man u to qualify, but what a great moment in sports.

he was also great at the euros btw-- unstable, but great

like britney spears "D

Or Whitney.

Yeah, he's an undoubted talent but, moving away from the moral issues, he's too much trouble. He can't be trusted. Have you heard Mourinho's classic Mario story?

In all honesty, though, a lot of it with me is that I'm really starting to get irritated with Mancini. Not just for his poor man management but overall. I'm really starting to think he's a bit of a fraud, despite what he may have achieved elsewhere which, when you look at the circumstances, isn't as good as it looks. So I just take his latest u turn with Mario as another example of how out of his depth he is. To me he's a mid-table manager at best. That's fine but Man City clearly don't have a mid table squad, resources or expectations.

/end of anti-mancini rant #453

If you're interested, a very good Mourinho doc, with lots of big names talking about 'the special one'. Especially good on his obsessive rift with Barcelona. Love him or hate him, he's always fascinating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZKSXoVHyNM

or christian bale!

or nicolas cage!

or mel fucking gibson!

but anyway-- awesome video. i had to re-google it cuz it won't play in my IP range, but -- yeah-- 14 minutes out of the 15--- haaa haaa haaa. good one!

mourinho sounds cool. gonna watch taht video later cuz right now--

Great article about the Dutch linesman who was murdered during a game a few weeks ago. I remember Sunday league when i was a teenager, and the threat of stuff like this was always in the air. The way the Dutch responded to it was fantastic as well.

Wow, what a tragic story. And yeah, the violence at amateur level games makes my wonder how something similar hasn't happened here yet. Assuming it hasn't.

Everton 2 - 1 West Ham

There's something inevitable about WH losing to a team that're without their best player and which previously seemed to only know how to draw and usually can't buy a win in London. Big Sam needs to spend next month cos with injuries piling up, we could start sinking fast. Keep hearing rumours about loan deals for Kalou and (please God no) Chamakh. Also talk of signing Anelka outright.

You could pretty much change West Ham and you've got Everton's situation. A controversial win to be sure, but then we've had a fair few controversial decisions go totally against us. Swings and roundabouts.

Yeah, those kinds of decisions either go your way or they don't. To be fair, Gibson's sending off looked just as dubious but from WH's point of view it came too late to really make a difference. We've been punching above our weight all season and had a fair bit of luck on the way so, as you say, swings and roundabouts. This season was always gonna be just about survival and I'm still confident we'll stay up, although our injury and suspension list is starting to be a worry (injuries being the one area we've had no luck whatsoever).

I am in love with Gareth Bale. Its official.

Y'know what? I think I hate Hernandez as much as I hate Suarez. The little twat is the epitome of goal hanger. Every goal he gets is just some little chip in that was set up and ready made by somebody else. Not once have I seen him actually put some effort into scoring a goal. Bloody prick.

i agree. yet theres something to be said about being at the right place at the right time. positioning is a skill.

yeah he's a huge opportunist but there are so many players that in the same position will cack their pants and kick the ball to the moon or somewhere else that's nowhere near the goal, that you gotta admit the little fucker has a genius for scoring. which, in the end, is all that counts.

here a video of another famous opportunist. enjoy the grainy footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqLK9E1x48o
plus this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNfePPjHhTA

or, alternatively, someone you might have heard about more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAPtAsbEmII
(sorry, i didn't make the soundtrack)

or better yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnXK9c1xB9k
this footage is fucking dark

i hope chicharito gets to become legend!

Nownow we could start throwing around who played like who, and who did like who but the whole thing comes down to this-

Hernandez is shit and a twat.

Nothing more needs to be added. Oh except that you can hardly compare Hernandez to Muller.

haaa haaaaa haaaaaaa. i love this post. i'll try repping if it lets me.


well of course you can compare. you can say "hernandez is an inferior version of the center-forward model of which muller was the highest expression." also: "muller, unlike hernandez, was not a shit and a twat".

Sir Becks.. I kind of dig that, and it would finally give his wife a legitimate excuse for being such a prissy bitch ;)

so is balotelli done?

dzeko started, tevez on the bench, balotelli nowhere. transfer window??

He's had spells of being "done" several times over the last couple of years. I hope he doesnt go, he's great fun.

Ahh, that inevitable decline as supermen athletes begin to lose the inevitable battle with Father Time. Sometimes I wish these guys would retire two or three years before they crap out, but then again, right now Jason Kidd and Steve Nash are 38 and 39 and in NBA terms, that might as well be 60, and yet those guys are keeping up all-star numbers. If anything, I think that because of better conditioning and medical treatments as well as smarter rotations and minutes rationing, that at least in the NBA 38 is the new 32 (i.e. just past their prime but still a solid threat and playing at an elite level). Is it the same with league soccer? I only follow international soccer, and they like to constantly rotate in younger players. Even Landon Donovan is thinking of retiring, the guy is like only 30!!

When you look at career stat sheets for players, especially in the NBA you find out their entire career averages are ruined by a few slumping years on the bench getting a fraction of the playing minutes they logged in their prime. Veterans used to have high scoring games, or were rebound specialists, and as they decline their numbers begin to look even dismal, sometimes to the point of embarrassing even

I can't understand the anti Hernandez stuff. He does the job asked of him with zero fuss and maximum efficiency. He's one of the closest things to a no brainer in the Prem right now. And to say he contributes nothing but tap in goalsis to forget that he only gets them because his ability to find space, focus in front of goal and overall movement are phenomenal. He's no Zlatan or Christiano Ronaldo but then they cost far more. Purely in terms of value for money Hernandez has to be one of the best out there.


In theory that's true but even though players are now fitter, the game itself is arguably more physically demanding now than it's ever been, so I imagine it roughly evens out - although at 22, Balotelli's issue isn't his age or fitness but his sanity.

The issue of whether he stays or not seems ultimately down to whether City can find a team they can do a deal with that are naive enough to take a (massive) chance on him. Although his media profile is massive, his value within the game itself must have really plummeted. He cost Man City £22m. I'd be surprised if another team would pay anything like that for him now and because of financial fair play rule City can't just offload him cheap.



I don't think football is very stat-centric to begin with. Players are too interdependent on their team mates. A good defender in a mediocre defence will likely have just as distorted a set of stats as a mediocre defender in a good defence. And some of the best players out there play in positions where their contribution can't really be translated into any meaningful number. So even the most cut and dried of stats, goals scored and clean sheets, are taken largely with a pinch of salt, at least when it comes to individuals. Going purely on the numbers, Torres was the best striker in the last Euros. Nuff said. It's possible to make a stat of whatever you want in football but whether they're really meaningful or not is another matter. I'm sure that's true of Basketball, too.

Brilliant win for Everton tonight. Our defence is more shaky than Michael J. Fox but our forwards were just brilliant. HOWEVER Tiote really is a shitbag.

If you didn't see it here's Baines' free kick. Just shows why Man Utd are sniffing around to buy. BACK OFF BITCH!



Just beautiful.

AND Chelsea's loss to QPR proves one thing-God does exist. Nicely evens up our loss to them on Sunday.

And we'll carry on ignoring Liverpool.

I'm gonna start calling him 6-yard-whore cos that's all he does. EVERY bloody goal is a scrappy 6 yard tap in. If he was player who was everywhere but just happens to get them in from there I'd give him credit, but he'll always be a 6-yard-whore to me.

I'd be a lot more satisfied with QPR's win had they not appointed Redknapp as manager; seeing as he's the one person in football that I truly can't stand. If only Abramovich had signed him as interim manager instead of Benitez I could enjoy loathing Chelsea even more than I already do. Problem is that I quite like Benitez, although I do get some satisfaction from the fact that Chelsea fans despise him so much.

Just to add, really conflicted by rumours that Joe Cole is coming back to West Ham. On purely sentimental grounds it's great, he's still a bit of a West Ham hero, but I just don't see what he brings now. He's been a disappointment for years now and if ever there was a player not really suited to Big Sam's style, it's little Joe. I desperately want to be wrong, though, both for West Ham's sake and Joe Cole's. If only we could still believe he was the future.

Gary Lineaker made a pretty good carear out 6 yard tap ins.
absolutely nothing wrong with a goal poacher

I think Joe Cole will do really well at West Ham. He looks good whenever he gets a game for liverpool and by all accounts was a success in France last year (Lille? Lyon? i forget)

a bit of a calm head and guille sitting behind Cole/Carrol might be just what you need. He had a really possitive final season at Chelsea where he played a more centraly and was really influencial in the games he got

plus, as you say, he's a popluar lad round your way

He'll definitely get a hero's welcome. I just wonder where he'll fit into Big Sam's scheme. But then he also brought Benayoun back who's hardly your typical Allardyce player. If nothing else, though, I'm just glad he stopped Redknapp from getting him. Either way, a few like this would be nice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q3XQReoz30

i agree and i think h8kurdt truly hates him because chicharito scores for the enemy and not for his team---but i also appreciate h8kurdt's style of expressing a categorical and final judgment, however wrong. i mean, he does the hating well, like a true fan :D

mancini and balotelli have a bit of a tiff:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...-confrontation

Never tire of seeing that goal!