Football (Soccer)

[stereophobic]

Don't forget Spain's tax regime vs the UK!

[wearejuststardust]

Sad day..
But Inter deserves it..
I will say this again..
We should never have trade eto`o and pay lots of euros for Zlatan..
He is just not fast enough..
Hope the get villa

inter eliminate barca this time,but they didn't actually beat barca.
ibra needs more time,i believe he's the key man to beat 9-0-1 negative football.

[AZH]

wearejuststardust,

Neither Inter nor Barca is my favorite team, in fact, I don't have any favorite. I am just a simple fan of soccer.

I am not sure what you mean by negative football. I hope you meant defensive football. I honestly don't see anything wrong with the 9-0-1 format Inter played in Barca's home (in fact, it was more like 5-4-0 for most time of the match). If you had paid attention to Inter's defence on that match, you could see two layers of Inter's defenders throughout the whole game. This set up effectively blocked Barca's short and over-head passes, and that was the beauty of the match. When you are up 3:1 in the first round, and you don't play defensive football in Barca's home, you are not really smart.

Of course Ibra needs more time. But the bigger problem of Barca is their defence. If they didn't lose three goals in Milan, they would be the team advancing to the final regardless of what kind of football Inter played in Barca's home.

[Faust]

Do you think they need a salary cap in European football?
Don't get me wrong I am happy Chelsea won, but I would like to see another team outside of the big 4 challenge for the EPL title

I've thought about that, and it is sometimes annoying. But, I think in England the record has been better - especially with Man City having a nice cash infusion. It's way better than in the aforementioned Spain where everyone must be sick of Barcelona and Real duking it out year in, year out or in Germany where Bayern is rarely challenged.

[stereophobic]

At least in England the money from television rights are doled out (somewhat) equally amongst the clubs versus Spain where Real Madrid and Barcelona negotiate their own television rights to the detriment of the other clubs in the league.

I find it ridiculous to champion these clubs as examples of fair play(not that I don't admire their play) when you're aware that they're hardly on an even playing field. Look at what happened to Valencia when they tried to rely on debt to bring in the cash to compete: near insolvency!

That being said, there are just some imbalances hard-wired into the EPL, and one of the biggest culprits are the size of existing stadiums (Liverpool, bottom-table clubs) and the ability to finance the construction of new ones (also Liverpool looooool)

[sam_tem]

i don't keep up with soccer at all, but i just wanted to say big props to the Houston Dynamo for working out a way to self-finance the building of their own stadium downtown.

Now if only we could have made all the other sports do the same thing so the taxpayers didn't have to waste our money.

[Faust]

New Yorkers, where are you watching the World Cup?

[lowrey]

big day on saturday, my prediction is that I will be pissed drunk. I don't like either team much, but the game should be exciting nevertheless.

[TheNotoriousT]

Same here. Not a big bayern fan but since they are german...
I really think they have a chance this year to win the tripple, the team is the best they had for many, many years.
Will surely be an exciting match.

[Sombre]

New Yorkers, where are you watching the World Cup?

At the moment plans are to stay home alone. Boring, but at least I can scream as much as I want. If anyone knows of any pubs in the city* with great atmospheres and wants to watch, I'm down.

*Preferably owned by Brits/non-Americans so I can laugh and cheer loudly when Rooney slots a hat-trick past Howard in the Group C opener.

[SHYE_POSER]

big day on saturday, my prediction is that I will be pissed drunk. I don't like either team much, but the game should be exciting nevertheless.

My sentiments exactly!(especially on the pissed out of my face part)
I would like inter to win. Just because i love mourihno!
So ancellotti done the double for chelsea and is being called the new special one. FUGGIT, come on jose, get the treble!

I absolutley loved his end of game celebration in the semis.


As for the premiership. The rumours are rife,mr fabregas is heading for the exit door.
He's goin goin ,back back to barca barca! (shit attempt at recrating B.I.G's bk 2 cali)
In a devilish way,im enjoying watching all my gooner friends squirm,and suddenly turn on their god that be wenger.
Cant wait for next season!


As for the world cup,i cant wait. As usual the media here in uk is hyping it up again,and putting all the pressure on rooney.
I think the three lions have a good chance,but then again they always seem to.
But ive put a a little wager on Holland (good odds),i think they can cause a suprise.
As for Greece,i just hope we have changed our strategy since euro 2004 (as we have been using the same "hoof it up to charisteas to score a header" for far to long.
Having argentina in the same group leaves our future in the competition looking rather messi !

How i dream for this night to return

[Sombre]

I'm tipping Inter to win it. Mourinho is such an audacious character. I liked him even when he was at Chelsea, and I'm a Man U fan through and through. I'd like to see him and Inter cap the season with the treble. Yeah his celebration against Barcelona was hilarious. Valdes wanted to knock him over .

It doesn't matter if Ancelotti wins Chelsea the league again next year, or even the Champions League. What Mourinho did will still be of greater importance because he was the first to turn Abramovich's expensive toy into an actual winning team, and although Mourinho's gone, the team still runs on the remains of that set-up.

I can't stand Arsene Wenger and I don't care for Arsenal at all. It doesn't really matter what happens with Fabregas; they won't challenge next season anyway. I tip Man City to replace them in the top four next year.

I thought the American media were bad, but it turns out the English are at least on par. John Terry didn't go through Tiger Woods' embarrassment, but still, they knock them down. Whatever they say, I think England can win it. Argentina is over-hyped. I really don't see them winning it with that centre-back-heavy defence.

[Bubu]

I think England will lose it and be the nearly man again. Just the same old England. They have a strict disciplinarian now, but still lacks the national team spirit. Moreover, they have to care about whether their former-captain is screwing their wives behind their backs.

Wenger's just holding out for more money. Fabregas is a big fish in a small pond. He's good but definitely overrated. Ramsey can easily reach his level. Let him go. They need to sign someone who's willing to get down and dirty. Someone to instill that no nonsense approach in them.

[Faust]

I agree - it seems like England has too much pressure from the press and too much ego on the team. They remind me of the Russian national hockey team. And they've had better squads than they do now, especially on offense.

[todestrieb]

A moment of hilarity to savour before kickoff in a couple of hours......

Argentina is over-hyped. I really don't see them winning it with that centre-back-heavy defence.

Argentina overhyped? More like over-ridiculed. The way Maradona has been managing the squad, you'd think a pre-schooler was in charge. Great player but atrocious manager. No Cambiasso and Zanetti in the final 23. What is he smoking?