Village Idiot

Atlético are such a broken toy... Xerez scored their first ever top flight win 2-1 against Villarreal, and the ref reported that Pirès called him "motherfucker" at the end of the game

I reckon if Arsenal got a real striker they could mount a title challenge. Next year maybe if they hold on to Cesc. They may need some depth in defensive positions too.

Bah, that's probably the last result I expected from this game, a goaless draw. Ah well, still top and we aren't going to have many tougher games in La Liga than this one.

Always been quite pleasent when I've had dealings with them. Local ManU fans I have encountered are a pretty decent lot, and I respect the team just because of them. The glorychasers are particularly infuriating, though. Liverpool fans are utter self-righteous knobs.

Cronaldo and Kaká set to miss Real's game at home against Valladolid. Although they shouldn't have a problem winning. Henry went down injuried with France and will miss today's Valencia game. Zlatan seems set to start shrugging off a knock he picked up with Sweden. Villa still a doubt, but in the squad.

Whoever threw that balloon is going to get clobbered in Liverpool tomorrow. And then they will make a campaign out of it.

Mmmmm... What kind of system are Liverpool playing? 3 centrehalves and then a million midfielders? Can't really figure it out. Probably neither does Benítez.

Just saw that Ghana defeated Brazil in the U20 WC, and my first thought is that Freddy Adu could have been in that Ghana team, and that there's a very good chance he's never going to defeat Brazil as a player for the US National Team.

Nobody has put forward the Ameobis yet? Come on, I thought better of you lot.

Thank fuck I have two changes in my fantasy footie team.

We lost against the scum! The only blight of our greatest season of all time. But it's true that Guardiola chose Zlatan because of him being a completely different player than Eto'o was. We already have a complement of small and pacey forwards (Messi, Bojan...) so he obviously wanted to add another dimension with a big guy.

On last season? I think it is a fair call tbf as The Drog was out for periods of time with knocks & Big Phil not liking him. Rooney was banging goals in for England, helped his team to win the PL & get to the CL final. Torres spent large periods of last season injuried and apparently he's the second best striker in the world.

I remember Belanov's goal from that game. Such a stunner! Also, regarding the game on itself... memory is very fuzzy but I remember it being a pretty exhilarating game on both sides, not only the USSR. How has Belgium become so crap in a few generations...

Well since he's named Zidane maybe he'll get a game in the first team.

Next stop the MLS I reckon. He'd be a giant amongst that rabble. Plus I'll get to watch him live again if he moves to NYRB.

Carles and Sergio Busquets won the CL once each as father and son for Barça (although Carles was still only reserve GK at that point, he became first choice later). Manuel Sanchís father and Manuel Sanchís son did the same for Real. The two Juan Veróns have also been very succesful, mainly in SA. Cruyff has had himself, son, son-in-law and grandson playing for Barça. Not particularly illustrious careers other than his own (although his son-in-law almost signed for the Dallas Cowboys as kicker). On a similar note President Lorenzo Sanz had at one point son Fernando Sanz and son-in-law Michel Salgado lining up in Real Madrid's defense. I'll try to think of some more... maybe we should split the thread? It's an interesting topic and the title was already vague to begin with.

More on the Robinho rumors, seems City would be interested in a swap deal of some kind with Henry, which I doubt it's true (he's 32...). Other names thrown in are the usual suspects Puyol and Messi, which are not going to happen.

Sweden not making it is a small upset, but it was a tough group to begin with. Would love to see some fresh faces come out of the playoffs, even if it costs the place to some storied teams (Portugal!).

Honduras? Second time they do. But still a fresh face, and they are not shit.

How many first-timers do we have this time around? Only Slovakia? I guess Bahrain is a first timer too in the unlikely case they qualify.

Back then I'd say Michael Laudrup was the key player in your team. The amount of goals he setup for Romário was fantastic. Laudrup was one of the best players I've ever seen, yet he tends to be underrated as his name never seems to be mentioned amongst the greats of the last 20 years or so. In my life I can possibly only think of Zidane who had vision that good. Guardiola & Laudrup were the engines of that team no doubt (Romário only played one season and a half afterall). Laudrup is probably the best assister I have seen at the team... he was able to set up goals out of nothing, with such elegance. He doesn't get the credit he deserves because a lot of us were left embittered when he poofed out to Real, but he was a genius for club and country.

Keep up man I was unsure if he'd gone up to 1100 with his stint at Miami. Has no one at Fifa called him up on his claims? I think FIFA only acknowledges 900-something of his goals.

I watched the game in a pub in here, people went nuts when they equalized. Great to see an USA game with decent atmosphere

I really doubt that had Italy lost Ireland's game they would be losing to Cyprus.

Particularly when you're shit.