Village Idiot

I was a keeper too. That tackle I refered above was me rushing out of the box to kick out a long ball from the opposition. I got an insane amount of similar injuries at schoolboy level. Once an opposition forward stomped on my hand after palming a ball away from his feet and broke 3 fingers, another broke my nose after "heading" my head after I collected a cross... jesus christ why didn't I chose to be a midfielder. Bah, who am I lying, I loved being a goalie.

They didn't have any single player with a meaningful amount of creativity until they got Lee and Coyle added Wilshere/Weiss/Holden. I actually think they have a quite decent side right now, although they need time to gel and absorb the new manager's tactics (which they don't quite have).

Didn't he play for Bolton for a while? Left winger? Aye was s***. Went to Toulouse at part of the Elmander deal. Not much improvement then. Elmander's been shit.

Well, England has won owt during any of the years any of these have been playing, or reached any final, so it's hardly damning that none of them has achieved for country what they have achieved for club.

When I was playing at schoolboy level I lived in a depressed industrial neighborhood near Barcelona, which meant that most of the teams we played against were made up by future thugs. We had quite some incidents... Remember how in a game, after we were up at 1-0 at HT after bossing them, the other team just went straight of the dressing room tunnel to the spectators and started fighting them, hilarious.

Yes, he said that he would "rather die than apologize to Materazzi" just a couple days before he published that on his blog.

I don't think Scholes has ever had a 20+ season, even when he played as forward. But his goal tally is great for a midfielder. And Lampard is a great player, I'm not sure if I would put either him or ManU Beckham in the second spot.

Scholes. Although I think he lacked a bit of grit to boss a game and carry teams on his back. But he was an exceptional player in his prime, far superior to the others in that list.

i stopped counting after 5 and guesstimated.

Yeah, FIFA has forbidden the Spanish FA to hold the Cup final on May 26th because of that (and if Atlético and Sevilla were to make it to their respective European finals - doubtful I know! - we wouldn't have any date for it...). That means that the MLS would be without their internationals for one full month + knockout rounds (the league only stops for the group stage IIRC).

You also forgot to mention that the US will be one the fittest teams at the WC too. If there's one thing we do well as Americans it's training and fitness. How's the USNT calendar going to work? Since the MLS will be playing until right before the WC.

True. Football would be a boring game if everybody was your straight as a dye, model professionals. It's like Raúl, I hate him and love him for being the arrogant cunt that he is. Or when Stoichkov played for us, now that was a big mouth

I quit "serious" football after a guy kicked my foot in a 50:50 tackle and I was sidelined with it broken in a million pieces. It was only supposed to be 3 months, but it never healed well and I still can feel pain from time to time.

Aye, that's a bit farcical. The whole league is anyway (that table split a few games before the end of the season )

Our rivalry with Madrid is heavily politically driven... makes it tastier if you ask me (it's not like we have violence problems anyway). Although I always found the whole Irish thing regarding the Old Firm games to be a bit bollocks (yet again I have never been there).

Reminds me that an England - Argentina this WC with Maradona coaching them would be truly entertaining, any chances of that happening?

How profitable the PL is for Skysports at the end? The Real Madrid and FC Barcelona contracts have since long been deficitary for their holders (satellite and cable have never taken hold in Spain, they are trying now with digital on-air TV which might work better)

You lack a bit of bite in the midfield to play some of the stronger sides, in my opinion. Pity about Hargreaves being such a crook (or not, since I'm Spanish )

Were you there for that Barcelona CL game when it was so foggy you could hardly see from one end of the pitch to the other? Aye, I was living in Prague at that time so I took the time to travel up north and watch the game and visit the city. My memories of the game itself are equally foggy... Luís Enrique opened for us, they drew no much later on... and then the remainder of the thing was rather dire to watch. In the second half I couldn't see any of the play at all when it was down the Barcelona end. Gabor Király was the only player visible, standing on the edge of his area and peering down the field. Players would come back into view only when Barça attacked up the right. Whenever this happened everyone in my area starting singing a song which went (rough translation): "So nice, so nice, to see you again!" I didn't stay until the end. The match had been going to make me late for a date with a beautiful Slovenian woman, so when it all descended into opaque ridiculousness, I f***ed off to have a drink and get laid instead. Good choice.

Is Jesus Navas overcoming his homesickness? Noticed he came on last night. He underwent psychological help last year and he is fully available for the Spain squad now.

Adu couldn't get a game at Benfica, and iirc he was involved in some off-the-field misbehavior. He's now on loan to Aris for this season and the next. He's still young and has shown flashes of ability, but doesn't seem to have the mental strength to make it at a high level, imho.

Cool ownage to France. Let's see if we can do that again when it counts (2006 ) Gutted about Holden, I think he's class.

He wants to be paid as much as Benzema (€6m a season net). Surely he deserves it. He's still 3 years away from his contract ending though, he doesn't have that much leverage although Madrid would be idiots not to keep him happy (his release clause is €150m, would ManCity be up to pay that?).

Were you there for that Barcelona CL game when it was so foggy you could hardly see from one end of the pitch to the other? Aye, I was living in Prague at that time so I took the time to travel up north and watch the game and visit the city. My memories of the game itself are equally foggy... Luís Enrique opened for us, they drew no much later on... and then the remainder of the thing was rather dire to watch. One of my favourite ever players. And mine, guy's a legend for us. Doing a good job in our B team now, can't wait for him to have a managerial career in the top flight, will root for any club he manages. The rumor is that Guardiola wants to eventually become a DoF and have Luís manage us (they worked together before Pep stepped up to the first team). Pant-creaming setup if it works!

Spanish press reports ManCity are monitoring Higuaín's situation after he has turned down Real Madrid's new contract offer.