Village Idiot

More Real Madrid striker parade: Diego Milito.

Me too, but WC performances always distort stuff in this trophy. He's probably in his best form since then, mind.

La Gazetta runs today that Iniesta is going to win the Ballon d'Or with Xavi and Messi finishing second and third. How reliable have they been in the past in this kind of stuff?

I don't really rate Webo. One of those non-striking strikers that "work hard".

Our press has pretty much dropped the issue after moaning the day after. You have to think it's the 3rd time in a row we are passed over a major sports event (Olympics twice and now the WC), while you at least got the London Olympics. Also the 2004 EC but that was earlier. I'm not that fussed mind, would have been a great chance to rebuild the Camp Nou but well... I'm mostly pissed of having what's probably going to be an awful WC in Qatar (I suppose Russia will pull it off).

"As" reports that Madrid has had a €25m bid for Dzeko refused by Wolfsburg.

He's actually a pretty good impact player.

Well, we almost literally won without stepping off the bus, Helenio Herrera-style. Glad the comedy had a happy ending for us.

And warming up in the corridor of the coach, yes.

They are actually still on the way... but they are expected to (barely) make it.

All top flight games are on, apparently.

Our match hasn't finally not been postponed, but utter shambles from us as we didn't plan an alternative way of travel and we might not make it in time and lose the game for no show. Still can't believe it has come to this, since the strike was already known yesterday evening. Somebody has to take responsibility.

Several La Liga matches scheduled this weekend - including the Osasuna - Barça - in danger of postponement due to the *massive* air traffic controller strike that's shut down Spain's airports.

Would be good if this rocked the house at FIFA a bit. It probably won't.

Going even back, one of my favorite Italian players when I started watching Serie A in the mid-90s was Marco Delvecchio, who played for Inter at the time.

I loved early 2000s Inter myself, always picked them in footy man.

Robinho knows kung-fu man.

That bustup doesn't beat the Gravesen-Robinho martial arts show. http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:MVvT4VzPfbzCyM:http://www.robinhoweb.com/fotos/gravesen2006.jpg&t=1 http://www.corazonblanco.com/media/galeria/44/8/8/8/7/o_real_madrid_r_de_souza_robinho-47888.jpg That was fucking legendary

Wonder why England and us are labelled "Medium Risk" regarding stadium operations when we are organizing the two top leagues in the world every weekend, with more than a hundred professional games being played all over the territory.

Nah, I do have worries about Qatar. Didn't around 1 million people go to South Africa? The entire population of Qatar is 1,6m I just don't know how can they cope with that. It's just nuts.

Yeah I'm aware of that, and fullback is not a position where you tend to play people on their weak feet (bar people like Lahm, who wouldn't make the lists of best fullback in the world if he played on the right). But in the past you still had the Krols, Santos, Maldinis, Roberto Carloses... nothing like that currently.

Also, to be honest, I have always considered Cole the best of a rather average bunch. There's quite an imbalance between the quality found in the right and left sides of the defence nowadays.

Don't think Cole has been that great this season. I like Coentrao a lot, too.

De Gea Maicón Piqué Lucio Coentrao Cronaldo Xavi Cesc Iniesta Messi Drogba Van Gaal (should be Mou but ain't voting for him) This has just made me picture Messi playing off Drogba...

The "continent rotation" has never been official, AFAIK the only rule in place is that a confederation can't host two consecutive WCs.