Village Idiot

Montoya looked very promising last year, but he's stalled and certainly doesn't look like a starting RB for a top side (decent backup though). Possibly too early to give up on him though, but it looks like he'll go to Liverpool.

If I'm not wrong, Rafa Márquez in 2003 was the last CB we bought that managed to establish himself in the starting XI. Truth be said, only Piqué is part of our best back 4 from the ones playing today, but it's been a pretty horrible display.

Oh man, had a bad vibe about this game but it looks like we're being tonked a bit.

Micah Richards, England captain

Just realized that in 10 games both Alexis and Pedro have already matched their scoring records from last season.

They are very bad defensively with nothing to show going forward to make up for it. Relegation favorites. We had a decent game today, despite the injuries. Granada aren't great shakes away though.

To be honest, I found a quite frightening amount of people with only casual interest in sports that believe that national teams are made out of people playing in the league, not nationals. Particularly while living in America.

Even, the "let's cheer for them, they're poor" factor is less prevalent with all the nazi shit going on in the country.

Do you have a link to this? In Spanish only, guess foreign press hasn't picked it up yet. http://deportes.elpais.com/deportes/2013/11/20/actualidad/1384974582_624667.html

So... we played and lost a friendly against South Africa 1-0 During the game, Valdés was injuried (out for 6 weeks, yay) and we made a sub over the limit to bring Reina in, after consulting with the FIFA delegate. Now, because of this FIFA has voided the game, meaning that we won't lose FIFA ranking points, and SA won't earn them. So effectively they have favoured the "transgressor". FIFA

Zlatan is a guy that certainly won't get the recognition he would deserve for his levels of ability alone.

Also think it will do Messi a lot of good to not win this thing this year. He definitely isn't as hungry as he was.

No. Hasn't scored in this season's to begin with, and I recall quite a few others where he hasn't scored in the recent 2-3 seasons. Didn't score in the CL semis in 2010 either, which were arguably the biggest Clásicos he's played. Personally I don't really know what the Ballon D'Or is supposed to mean anymore, but Ronaldo failed in the big games this year. Failed in the Cup final against Atlético, failed in the CL semis against BVB. Granted Messi didn't fare too better (was injuried against Bayern though) but I'm party to looking to Munich this year.

What a disappointing set of results for my personal phobias. Not a single of the sides I want to advance is doing it at the moment.

Metaphorically speaking only.

Pedro and Alexis are both workhorses, too. Neymar does put in a shift although he tends to bounce off people he tries to mark. Imho one of the resons Alexis and Pedro had both two average to bad seasons was they tended to do too much defensive work, Martino has changed the defensive setup a bit and has enabled them to have more freedom to go forward.

One of the reasons Messi was moved central is that a 4-3-3 allows for the CF to be a bit of a lazyarse, which enabled him to play every fucking game and not tracking back. Martino seems to be changing that a bit though.

From now on, every time Zlatan comes out with some over the top quote I'll picture him like this: http://img02.mundodeportivo.com/2013/11/18/Zlatan-Ibrahimovic-FOTO-Ibra_o_54393584167_54115221154_600_396.jpg Legend

We are linked with half a dozen players every week though. Wouldn't read too much into it. Pretty sure if we sign a striker it will be a Plan B type guy. I like Berba though.

That looks a lot like the luxury taxes in some American sports.

It's drawn quite a stir; it's well known (and derided) that the Spanish FA will whore the team out to the highest bidder; and there's a long story of shady nonsensical friendlies to prove it. I personally don't think playing in Guinea is that shocking given that the players have stayed away from making photo-ops with the dictator; as my mother said, "It was already sucky enough living under Franco without the Rolling Stones refusing to play here". If it brings enjoyment to the locals, there's owt wrong. Much much worse was the fake Haití charity game and it didn't cause the same ruckus, tbf.

Vive l'Ucranie.

Villarreal played Cosmos yesterday in the Senna testimonial. Wish I had known beforehand, Villarreal is just three hours by train from here.

So, what's this shit about a single color? Why the fuck are Spain wearing Bayern Munich kits?

Can see this working out for Mexico and all the country going berserk demanding that the same to be made in the WC, with erotic consequences.