toonarmy

Let's say standings don't change, and they play Costa Rica for the spot. The way Argentina is playing, if you know anything at all about Costa Rica, do you see any way that Argentina doesn't get absolutely hammered in Costa Rica at the Sarprissa? That place is a nightmare for road teams (unless they are cohesive and playing well, etc.) The floodgates could really open there if Argentina fall apart like they have been doing. True, CR would have to go to Argentina as well, but CR isn't a bad team and wouldn't crack easily. Either way, at best, I wouldn't expect that to be a walk in the park the way Argentina is playing right now (though obviously, if we are talking about the usual Argentina standard of play, then it would be a stroll for them). Honduras would be easier for the argies, but if somehow they end up with Mexico, Argentina would be in huge trouble having to play at the Azteca.

good for the plastics like me. It's s**** for the real supporters though. True, but for me, seeing as I live in New York, it's fantastic. Oh well, can't ever make everyone happy on decisions like these.

damn it, even .com is confused on the rules. Before, they were saying what Dave quoted up there. Now, they've changed their tune:

Not losing players was huge. There's still free agents out there should we become desperate, as well emergency loans if we suffer from a typical Newcastle injury crisis. With Lovenkrands in, I'm not too worried about our Forward or Midfield situation anymore, for the CCC, I think we're more than fine there. As long as we're still in the hunt for promotion in January, I think we'll be ok in that window as well. All in all, it could have gone much worse, and we're still on track for promotion, so it was nearly as good a day as could realistically have been hoped for. The only thing that worries me now is cover for our defense. It doesn't seem like Taylor or Colo get injured very often, but you never know, it only takes one broken bone to expose the lack of depth there. Enrique seems to pull a groin or hamstring every few months and miss a few games, and you never know how well Simpson will hold up. I don't even mean the experience back there, I mean simply the lack of bodies for cover. We have the starting 4, Raylor can cover if necessary, and possibly Kadar and/or Tozer if they are ready. If they are not, or even if we simply have 2 or 3 defenders out for a game, which can happen all the time, who can we shove in there? So I do hope we are still looking at free agents, or at least have loanees lined up and ready to bring in as emergency guys for when the inevitable injury crisis occurs.

From the Leicester equivalent thread. Unbelievably fair and measured, reasonable sportsmanlike responses from their fans. Fucking disgusting, makes me sick. Where are their internet trolls with their flame wars?

We'll gladly let you guys have your league back as soon as possible by going right back up. Sorry about that.

That bench

1-1, on a steven taylor header early on, only to concede in the dying stages.

Really? That's interesting. I personally don't think that Almunia is good enough to be their first choice goalie, and I also think that Diaby, Song and Ramsey are very poor as central midfielders to pair with Fabregas. I do however think that they are a CM and a GK away from a title challenge. I think they lack a striker, maybe a strong DM. Definitely a keeper. Walcott doesn't do it for you for striker? He should be back for the next game, another scorer there. I personally happen to think Song and/or Denilson is a fine pairing for Cesc, and that Arsenal don't really have weak spots, short of their very young bench, just an overall lack of experience will be the reason they don't win the league. But even though they probably won't win, they'll be the best team, if that makes any sense. Sort of like today, they were clearly better than ManU, but still managed to lose.

Lennon 2-1 Spurs. Scored 4:25 into supposedly 4 minutes of stoppage time

1-1 Birmingham. Terrible mixup at the back, came out of nowhere.

Spurs 1-0 Crouch. very well deserved unfortunately, been dominating all game.

It's too bad there's only like a 1% chance of this actually going through and happening (in my opinion at least). Operating at these levels of debt is simply bad business and unsustainable, any businessman should know that, but they all deal with it because the clubs are their private playthings. If anything happens, this Man City thing and Madrid's spending this summer in the midst of one of the worst global downturns ever might just be the straw that breaks the camels back. But watch, if this isn't implemented before the economy seriously rebounds, it's dead. The moment Roman and the rest have money to burn again is the moment this all dies.

jesus fucking christ. aaaaargh

Can't really complain about the 3 midfielders selected, at least not for Euro competition. Always going to be someone good left out.

How on earth is Cech nominated for keeper of the year? He was nearly disastrous last year. He better not win.

"The club coefficient is determined by the results of a club in European club competition in the last five seasons, and the league coefficient. The club coefficient is 33% of the league coefficient plus the number of points earned by the club in the five seasons. Before 2004 the contribution of the country coefficient was 50%. The points earned by a club in the preliminary rounds are not counted." Sevilla won two UEFA cups in the last 5 years, Real haven't done as well in the CL lately since their win which was more than 5 years ago now, so it's not counted.

Thank fuck, haven't seen a game in a while.

Good luck trying to find footie in football country. I would think you're fucked, and should invest in some TV packages.

Based on the little I've seen and know, I think it's going to be a 5 team race, with the teams you just named. Cardiff and West Brom will worry me the most. Strangely, I am sure Boro will finish in the top 3, and equally sure they won't win it.

Ugh, and the real downside of being in the CCC for me is now really hitting me. Being in New York, going to the game is out of the question, and this forum is now my only way of following this game, as will be the case for so many games this year. But with nobody anywhere able to watch the game, the forum won't be full of constant updates either, so unless guys at the game are updating us, it's going to be awful. We better kick some ass, so at least I have some highlights to look forward to.

Davies was never offside on that second half goal ruled out, and the ref was scared shitless, US never had a chance. But beyond that, terrible tactics by Bradley. Sat back way too early, unable to retain possession, Bocanegra was disastrous at LB, no midfield presence to speak of. Just fucking awful

Donovan's composure taking that corner was impressive, considering he was literally getting rained on by flying bottles. fucking mexicans

It's interesting how, because of all this ownership crap and the transfer embargo and whatever else, we've somewhat forgotten that we have a team full of guys that, if not strong EPL quality, are certainly above CCC quality. Whether they have the mentality, guts, and positive attitude to compete in the CCC is another question, but talentwise, we can't forget that guys like Jonas and Duff, Enrique, Carroll, Harper, Saylor, even Smith, we should at least be able to hold our own. What we lack in guts, we should be able to make up with talent to at least stay competitive, if only Hughton can get their minds focused on this and not wishing to be elsewhere.

HUGE news for US fans: http://www.epltalk.com/espn-adds-premier-league-to-soccer-line-up/9899 ESPN hasn't formally announced it yet, but the official press release is expected this weekend. Basically, they have bought the rights to 2 EPL games a week off of Setanta, the 7:45 Saturday game and the 3:00 Monday game (days without 7:45 games, they get first pick of 10:00 games). They will be shown on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, still unclear if they will use the international feed broadcasters or their own announcing crew. Highlights for us: -Setanta US will almost certainly be staying afloat this year now that ESPN is buying these EPL games off of them, meaning we should get more games to watch this year. With our relative popularity in the CCC, I Wouldn't be surprised if they featured us nearly every week. -ESPN360 is showing a ton of Newcastle games, including both this weekend's match against West Brom and next week's Reading match. If you can get it, I strongly advise you get it, I love it. Beyond that, generally, getting the EPL in HD will be nice, especially if we can make it back up in a year. This indicates that ESPN is stepping up big time for the EPL rights in 2010-2013. As someone who gets FSC and ESPN2 automatically in my cable package, but not Setanta, this is a huge win. In any case, I look forward to watching Jozy's first match at Hull, as much as I hate Phil Brown, I hope Jozy does well and gets regular playing time.