Neil

Actually, upon further research....

Slowly making his way back from injury. One hell of a layoff to have so young, it must be said.

Is he overrated? I haven't heard of any hype about him myself. In many ways, given he's young, English and plays for Man Utd, there is perhaps a lack of hype about him. Mind his team-mate Cleverly is getting the media hype already and he's nothing but an above average player at the moment, nice and tidy and a decent prospect but nowt special. Suppose you can look at it either way; a) they play for Man Utd thus there's not much hype, they play for Man Utd, they must be good, or b) OMG THEY PLAY FOR MAN UTD THEY'RE MINT! Either way the point remains - they're decent players who are automatically thought of as very good, the next generation, because they play for a top club. While it can only help playing with the better players, that opinion (of them being the "next generation") says a lot more about where England are at, than the actual abilities of those 2 players, and players like them.

Decent player who is overrated because he's at Man Utd.

1-1 @ 5/1 (poor value but still). Offset by the fact I was positive Slovakia were going to win last night (forgot that Greece for some reason are great in qualifiers) and thus let me down on what looked like a very good 5 fold.

A tremendous leader who I will never have an ounce of respect for.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!! Edit: Uh oh.

Fluminese pel. Atrocious but 1-1.

Ponte Preta's violence comes back to haunt them as they have a player escorted from the pitch, just to keep things interesting.

Fluminese miss a one on one from about 5 yards. Gremio however score.

That said, I applaud them on their attempted violence in the first half. 4 yellow cards within a 20 minute period represents commendable aggression.

I wouldn't, because Ponte Preta are a really bad team. I saw them in training and I was thinking, wow, what a really bad team. Their star player is shit and their goalie is suspect to say the least. They'll concede 3 times and be swiftly relegated. Ponte Preta, what a stupid name.

It's alright, there'll be some tactical reshuffling, a few harsh words said at half-time and before you know it Fluminese will tickle a couple in and Gremio will overpower Botafogo to the tune of 4-0. Just give it until the 70 minute mark and before you know it, we'll be laughing going "hahahaha! We're rich!"

giolan pls

:yao: :yao:

Unlucky mate 'cos guess what?

Atletico Miniero you utter fucking fuckwits. Miss a host of clear chances including countless 1 v 1s, then decide in the last 15 minutes to get into gear, turn it around to 2-1 but miss another 1 on 1 with the last kick of the game. Fuck off. Trixie so it slightly saves things but really annoyed about that, could've turned into a class day's betting.

Quite sad watching Ronaldinho nowadays.

Not good. 50/50 on Sao Paulo and Atletico Miniero, obviously picked the wrong one. My good friend Jo is coming back to haunt me, missed chance after chance.

Right, in the nick of time, it's on. I'd be surprised if this actually wins now. Atletico Miniero -1 Nautico Sisley +1 (that very famous Uruguayan team)

I've just triple-checked the scores to make sure they were definitely right. Just says "pending". Vital update: they're now all down as "win" but no actual payout!? FUCKING PAY ME!

Miniero -1 and Nautico double. Still not fucking paid me. They finished an hour ago ffs.

Had some luck in the Norwegian 2nd division () but they're taking a while to pay out and I have my eye on some Brazilian games at 8.

Does seem a bit mental. For no real reason, I've always thought of Chilavert as being the superior keeper. Ceni has played over 1000 games?

I think players like Bale are a fucking disgrace and should be ashamed of themselves. Not that I think they will be. The issue is, the cycle is infinite. Players like Bale will have seen players when he was growing up, fall to the floor and win their teams games and he will now think, wow, that's great. Now, kids will be watching Bale - hell, fellow professionals who are older than him will be - and coming to the conclusion that flinging yourself to the ground wins your team games and ultimately garners success. The disease of diving, or to give it a more general but equally accurate description, cheating, is being accepted as part of the game. It's almost 'glamourised'. It's what we seem to be talking about every weekend, how the referees are dealing with it, what punishments are being handed down. It's what kids are seeing on the TV. It'll start on the playground, through youth football and beyond. It will be copied because that's what's cool. Players like Bale are seemingly devoid of any notion of responsibility about what their actions mean. All they seem to care about is the short-term gain of scoring a goal and getting a fellow professional sent off. There is little punishment if they are caught out. They'll be tamely recognised as "going down easily" and it'll be swept under the carpet. They might get booked. Like they care. Players like Bale are both improving and destroying the game. To see him produce electrifying runs and tear defenders apart is great to watch. Yet it's almost as though he thinks that talent can be used as some sort of cover for when he feels like throwing himself to the ground. The media are, by and large, afraid of saying much out of line. But where do you draw the line? Do players like Jonas and Pienaar cheat when they "win" free kicks? Sure they're not flinging themselves to the ground as such but they're making little effort to do anything productive with the football. Or is that just gamesmanship? For all of Bale's skills, he, and players like him, need to be recognised as cheats. In particular, British cheats. Get rid of the tag of foreigners being the only ones who do it. It's prevalent in our country and it's systemic now. It's seeping into all levels of the game. I think it's only inevitable until red cards are introduced for simulation. I admit that there will be a lot of issues with this and how exactly you qualify what is worthy of a red card but something, even if it's not a long-term solution, needs to be done as soon as possible. It's a big part of why a lot of people are increasingly disillusioned with the game - particularly at the top level - combined with astronomical wages which show no sign of being kept under wraps.