Village Idiot

Forlán

Should be a drinking game, that.

Usually like the Dutch as a footballing nation, but can't stand Robben and Van Persie for some reason. Guess I'll still pull for them. Love Forlán though.

Pulled it from El Mundo Deportivo's photo gallery after the Portugal game.

Xavi's never been much of a fantasy footie darling.

Looks that at least the Chygrynsky cash is going to meet short term financial needs. And we need to cover Yaya's position. I'd also feel better with another CB/RB to cover for Chygrysnky.

At least we signed Villa early. Bargain given the tournament he's having. Guess it means no Cesc however but we should remain competitive while we recover.

Laporta had a great financial policy during the first part of his tenure. Astute signings and kept wages under control, the club was in very bad shape at the time and he was force to it. But during the latter part he's spunked money like no tomorrow and for that I'm happy he's not at the helm anymore. He also lost a bunch of his board due to internal strife in the latter years, which included the best administrators. I still like Zlatan the player. The money we paid was idiotic, however.

Rosell has denied that, saying that the long term scenario looks fine provided spending is reigned in. But I guess he's bound to say that.

And Mallorca have signed Michael Laudrup as their new coach

Racing Santander have signed Kennedy Bakircioglü from Ajax.

Mmm the Punxsutawney Phil of international football.

Honestly, I think it's pretty important given it's the biggest game in football. Again, not particularly taking for granted that we are going to take part in the final, but either us or the Germans have a valid complain there to be honest.

As I feared (and to be honest, expected) new president Sandro Rosell has revealed that Barça's economy isn't in good shape and we have cash-flow problems made worse by our TV rights holder filing up for administration. We are negotiating a €150m loan. Was obvious paying those wages and spunking tens of millions in crap like Hleb, Cáceres, Chygrynsky, etc... and crazy deals like Ibra just wasn't in good sense. Oh well, it's been fun.

How come both semis are not played the same day? So far teams in the same bracket (like us and Germany and Uruguay/Netherlands for example), played in the same day so no team had an extra day to rest up over the other.

Shaktar have apparently tabled a bid of €15m to get Chygrynsky back. We're likely to accept and post a €10m loss on him in barely a year. Genius.

Aye, but they don't quite play the same way. Xavi plays more upfield, Iniesta in the right wing, etc... One of the things I noticed in Spain is how often players get on each others' toes while moving in attacking positions. That happens with most NTs, however. They will just never have the fluidity of a well drilled club side. England had very bad tactical movement for example, even Holland hasn't had bursts of great teamplay for most of the tournament. But Germany have some incredible teamplay.

The most baffling thing is that Germany hasn't had - on paper - a great squad since probably the mid-90s, and their players never quite excel at club level. Yet they have kept getting to the business end of most major tournaments, and they may well win this one. They somehow manage to play like a club side, with great tactical movement and solidness, while most other NTs are always much less sophisticated and organized (Spain for example just doesn't have the penetration of the Barcelona side even though they try to be the NT version of it).

Actually Yaya would probably be excellent as the "water carrier" or the more forward looking in a pair of two DMs. He really doesn't have the tactical discipline to play the holding role by himself, but his box-to-box qualities are great.

And Liverpool failed miserably with it, as I said. players/coaching >>>>>>> formation.

Espanyol were after him and seemed certain to land him a week ago. Can't compete with Porto of course.

As customary in any World Cup, the Spanish press has already linked half the German team to Barça and Madrid

Ballon d'Or and FIFA WPOTY will be fused into a single award: FIFA Ballon d'Or Up at Marca, trying to find a source in English http://www.marca.com/2010/07/05/futbol/futbol_internacional/1278333740.html

She's probably paid off and tied up by a million NDA's to be frank. Hopefully Cronaldo will end up as nuts as Michael Jackson, minus the kiddie fiddling part of course.

What I mean is that I never bought the "this or that formation is best" bollocks, or that tactics are that different once you're on the pitch and people start running. What matters is players ability to react and adapt to changing situations on the pitch, and the coaching to do so. 442, 433... it really matters little, football is not a game of subbuteo.