Exiled in Texas

Spain (2nd) and Switzerland (3rd) are tied on points - 3 each, so Spain needs to equal or better the Swiss result to go through.

Why do you say that the referee was terrible? I thought he did a good job handling most of the bad challenges and dealing with the attitude of Brawn over Brain. I especially liked that he booked Tiago for diving. Yes, he might have done something more when the defender brought down the ball with his arm when Ronaldo could have broken free in midfield, but that might have swung the game unnecessarily. This was a boring game with little real desire to win as neither team needed a result, but I thought the referee was pretty good in this game.

ESPN has been excellent, and the commentators, sidekicks and Studio guys have been great. Love Roberto Martinez as a studio pundit. ESPN top top marks this world cup.

I've been sussed. Sorry - wasn't aiming at you directly. Heard way too many "If only this...." from my gracious hosts today, and this post was within reach. Point really should be that we should all be grateful to the Football Gods for what they have given us, for while they giveth, they also taketh away. And the next act is yet to be written...

Not to mention that US were "Lucky" to have Green in goal for England game, were lucky that US were not down to 10 men in first 30 secs on Slovenia game (nasty elbow), and lucky that referee bought the dive by US to set up "the free kick for the goal that wasn't". Could have been very different. :fishing Don't get me wrong - I'm happy with US performance, but there is some very selective memories in place

Youth soccer in US has a points system win 6 pts tie 3 pts loss 0 point Plus bonus points for each goal scored to max 3 (option of additional point for keeping clean sheet) Encourages goals scored without putting all the emphasis on win/loss/tie Works well for youth games - might try taking the past EPL season and seeing what change it makes to standings.

What did he do? How would a foul on a USA player rule out a USA goal? It would be a penalty. You guys need to brush up on the rules. Americans use the term "On" but mean "By". "Foul on Edu" means foul by Edu. Catches me out all the time when I referee over here....they misunderstand what I'm saying because when I say Foul on blue, I mean that red commited a foul on the blue player, not that the blue player committed the fould.

So you know where they are and can punch them in the face for having s*** tweets. Seriously though, is it really just to say "I'm here and I'm on Twitter......here!" ? It's also good for telling people that you are not at home, so feel free come and burgle the house.

http://bovlomov.com/havers.jpg Leonardo http://www.abola.pt/img/fotos/fotosap/italia/leonardo2.jpg Nigel Havers

Seem to be part of the club badge

I like that new Barca away top - much better than the "peach" color they have been wearing, and I like the way thry brought the teams official colors onto the new shirt.

Brilliant - all the better because of the final Post and Out - followed by the kids look of disgust.

Sounds like a win-win for both. Swap Cesc for Ibra. How is Arsenal putting a massive hole in their midfield to gain an erratic striker a 'win'? IF Cesc is leaving for Barca anyway then they have a midfield issue regardless - But if they can get Ibrahimovic that would greatly improve their strike force (Better than playing Bendtner)

Sounds like a win-win for both. Swap Cesc for Ibra.

Wonder how the player see us - are we attractive to potential player like Real Betis is to players in Spain? It seems like we always think that our stadium, large number of fans and our "potential" are a big draw to players but when I see that we are the Spanish version of Real Betis perhaps it puts things into consideration a bit better.

Barca seem more like a sucessful Arsenal, rather than the circus that is Newcastle.

OK- but why?? What makes these clubs seem like us?

The Steve McClaren thread brought up the idea of Schalke being the German Newcastle and reasons why. Fan Expectations, title history, socio-economic similarities etc. So thought it would be fun to see who are the Newcastle of the other leagues - let's start with La Liga. Tell me which team in Spain is the Spanish Newcastle - and why.

Eaxctly - Barca got it all wrong for first 80 minutes. All they did was pass the bacll back and forth about 40 yards out with no penetration and no forward movement. All Inter had to do was keep shuffling the cover on the ball carrier and close the lanes which they did very well. I thought Barca had the entirely wrong game plan - passing with no movement was clearly going no-where. In the end Inter's 90 minutes in Milan beat Barca's 10 minutes at Camp Nou. For real? Congrat on graduating from the academy. Here's your badge http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/pmrye/Stuff/spellingpolice.jpg

Eaxctly - Barca got it all wrong for first 80 minutes. All they did was pass the bacll back and forth about 40 yards out with no penetration and no forward movement. All Inter had to do was keep shuffling the cover on the ball carrier and close the lanes which they did very well. I thought Barca had the entirely wrong game plan - passing with no movement was clearly going no-where. In the end Inter's 90 minutes in Milan beat Barca's 10 minutes at Camp Nou.

Not that he'd move or be suitable for us anyway like. They covered this during the Boca- San Lorenzo game. The two are not friends and don't socialise outside of the game, but are great players together on the field. Palermo recently became Boca's top scorer and the Argentine media made a huge deal of the fact that they celebrated separately (I didn;t see the goal but assume Riquelme provided the cross to Palermo). However,in this game when Riquelme played Palermo in for his goal they were the first to celebrate together. Riquelme want's to stay, I think Palermo wants to stay but cost may be an issue keeping both. Incidentaly - Palermo doesn;t socialise with several other Boca players outside of the games either, but people only focus on him/Riquelme.

Maybe put this one in the center circle - might cut down on the pitch invasions http://www.qnet.com/~saddleup/mtlion.jpg

Was watching FoxSoccer Futbol Argentino game (Boca vs San Lorenzo) this week, and they said that Riquelme asked his agent to get him re-signed with Boca. Apparently not interested in going elsewhere.

Wembleytor ("Wembley goal") - A 'goal' that is awarded even though the ball didn't cross the line. No hard feeelings over 1966, then!

Didn't Freddie Shepard want/try to buy them?