LucaAltieri

Close. Keep trying, mate.

Makes sense. They're against modern everything else.

You won't see the Premier League, Football League, FA do that when a team gets into trouble. Nope. Because they they're not worried about Vincent Tans making the league look bad. People will still watch. MLS can't afford to have shitty owners. Good move on their part.

Chivas USA has been sold to MLS. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2014/02/20/major-league-soccer-purchases-chivas-usa?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=News&utm_campaign=Unpaid

Arsenal started really well. Looked genuinely dangerous. Then Ozil fucked up the pen and they lost confidence, they let Bayern into the game and got a silly sending off. Even then, with ten men, they should have had a bit more fight and that same urgency they showed early in the first half. Playing like that they always looked like scoring. In the end they did it to themselves. That game was theirs to win and they threw it away.

That one trick is wonderfully effective But is it? He's cut on to his left and curled the ball towards the far post 3 times? 4 times? With no success. He hasn't really done anything else with the ball, hasn't found a teammate in the box, nothing. For all he looks menacing when he's skipping down the right with the ball, the outcome has been the same every bloody time.

Robben has an acre of space on the right, but instead cuts inside and walks into a wall of Arsenal players. Such a one-trick pony it's ridiculous. How he's still effective is a mystery to me.

Strolling around the pitch like it ain't no thing.

What happens if they score off the rebound? 3 minutes in the sin bin and team loses a time out.

Saved.

Pelanty Arsenal.

Arsenal have started really well.

Rumors in Turkish press that Drogba has already been offered a E6,000,000 1.5 year contract from the Sounders but he's holding out for a E9,000,000 2-year contract. New York Energy Drink also interested, supposedly.

http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2014/01/features/the-winning-formula Great article . As a maths person I couldn't agree more. My favourite quote is : Interesting article but I'm still not a fan of prozone. There's too much subtlety in football. Numbers can't even tell half the story. For example, it's all fine and well measuring probability of scoring from one area or another but there are too many variables that you can't affect; deflections, is the goalie sighted or unsighted, is the goalie particularly good at dealing with one type of shot/cross over another. When building attacking play, it's not enough to analyze balls that break through defense, because it has been shown a varied attack is much more effective. When you play only one way in the final 3rd it's easy to defend against because you know what's coming. It's no surprise that people in football who based their entire strategy on prozone end up getting found out... ie. Allardyce, Pullis, Comolli.

I thought about getting that but the reviews were shit.

Wifey got me a Brazuca for my birthday. Knowing how much those fuckers cost it's never leaving the house.

Júlio César is now a loanee at Toronto FC.

Fulham were looking a little better lately, too.

I heard that his birthday party was amazing.... until he left halfway through.

RIP.

The Miami team is a great example of what I hate about American culture: The team doesn't exist yet and there's a "rivalry"and "fans." It's manufactured and phony. You can't be a passionate fan or passionate hater because there's nothing to be passionate about. There's no history. No authenticity. Doesn't stop anyone having an opinion about it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26164013 1:33 Q: How difficult is this spell at the moment? AP: Well it's difficult, it's testing. We've had some really bad news today on a personal level and then the game as well, it's been a tough day but you know, in terms of where I am with the players I've made it clear to them their responsibilities to the fans and to this city and that needs to be reflected in the next game. That's the only thing we can do. So just generally lamenting this period in time.

But why bring it in to the public arena? Does it need to be known by public audience? That's a very different objection to what's being accused of: using it as an excuse to hide behind.