leffe186

Must be pretty close to me. I’ll ask around. First place I’d try would be the Winking Lizard in Peninsula I think.

They only open early for the Spurs matches I think. Which game is he looking to watch?

Really? I missed that! It’s OK. There’s another micro right next door, which is nice. There are plenty better places around Summit County for beer, just the Spurs fan club is at that one. I think the US men’s supporters (name escapes me temporarily) meet at the Winking Lizard in Peninsula. That’s a nice location for a drink.

Gordon, Neco Williams and Bailey. Luckily the timezone fucked me so James and Gundogan will get subbed.

Break all your legs. I was really enjoying not giving a shit. Fuck you Dad, and your familial obligations

My bench is accidentally amazing this week. Kinda hoping Perisic doesn't get on so they can all play.

Fuck, supporting a football team sucks

And here it is! I mean, you've already taken out Perisic, Romero, Doherty, Hojbjerg, Richarlison and Kulusevski. Yes, you're right. Take out most of the best players in our team and we're mid-table. I applaud your insight. Excuse my derision, it's fair to say this has been said thousands of times over the last few years. It's mildly amusing.

I mean, yes and no . He's not a very naturally talented footballer but he's a great athlete, and has tried to make the most of his talents (and probably succeeded). Everyone loves him off the pitch (like a mascot), most people appreciate that he tries, but time after time he makes the wrong decisions on the pitch. Mostly when the right decision was painfully obvious. He's considered a very good defender for the most part, just everyone (including him) shits themselves if he has the ball. And the whole point of a Conte full-back is that they're supposed to be good on the ball going forward. He has defenders. He's basically Sissoko.

The bigger issue is with the replacements on the bench. There's plenty of cover for Romero, but the only attacking players on the bench are Lucas Moura (limited) and Bryan Gil (total Charlie-out-of-the-back-of-the-van wildcard). Oh, Perisic I guess. Would love to have someone like Maddison around.

Having Sanchez and Royal on the same side trying to pass to one another is just suicide. Will be interesting to see if Skipp, Bentancur and Bissouma works in the middle, but Bentancur without Hojbjerg often just doesn't work. I like Lenglet a lot, but we're yet to see how he does against a good pressing PL team. Missing Kulu and Richarlison has been significant.

Don't do clear red card tackles on him then Our team is a bit ropey today.

We're all human

The time zones got me again, as they so often do. Fortunately, even though I still had James at the back and Gundogan in midfield that just means that Gordon and Neco Williams come off the bench.

Yeah, hated that at first but it genuinely grew on me. I rather like it, and it looks good in real life.

Which one is it? I don't like the pale blue patterny one, but the sort of scuba one has really grown on me. Looks pretty good in the flesh as it were.

Yeah, hated to use the free hit as I still have my wildcard, but with six players out plus a couple of injuries it felt like I had no choice.

The eternal quandary tbh.

Kinda depends on when the end of time is, tbf.

If they do the trip on the regular I think I’d just go with their flow. I mean, a lot of the rides will have changed by now but the advantage you have is that your kid is two and pretty much everything will be amazing. Just have a plan for what the kid is going to do when you’re in the lines. We went for the first time (at least, for me and the kids) a few years back with friends. Fortunately they’re really chilled, go-with-the-flow people like us so it worked. My guess is that the control freak will have it planned out, so you can just go with their itinerary. Let THEM get stressed out if need be. Having in-laws might be a bonus because they can take a turn watching your daughter to give you a break.

It’s a bit weird that they fucked it up quite so badly. I wonder if they haven’t worked out exactly who they’re doing it for. Like, when I first went to my local Spurs fan club earlier this year I figured it would be a load of ex-pats, but no, it’s not clear if anyone there actually has any physical/familial connection to the club. I felt a bit like I was on display at the zoo - a weird and fabulous creature that they were slightly in awe of. That said, the NY Spurs meet-up I went to years back in Brooklyn (special guest, Ossie Ardiles) was a bit more old-school. Probably a function of how much more cosmopolitan NY obviously is.

Ouch. Sorry, sounds like a disaster. You’re welcome to come to the Missing Falls Brewery in Akron for a game. They have a load of classic pinball machines too.

Quick bit of maths. 21.5% of Shearer’s goals were penalties. 15.6% of Kane’s have been penalties.

https://theanalyst.com/na/2022/10/best-penalty-takers-in-the-premier-league/ Shearer took 67 and scored 56. At the time of the article (5th Oct) Kane had scored 29.