Trumpet

Iran won't concede many goals. They topped the group with Korea, and are going to be Greece-like defensively with Queiroz as their manager. Anyone remembers Portugal in the last World Cup? Tight as a virgin Asian vagina (no racist pun intended) I think Australia is the weakest team at the WC.

Napoli have missed 2 golden chances so far

This is quite fun: http://ultra-zone.net/2014-FIFA-World-Cup-Group-Stage-Draws I got: A: Brazil, Australia, Nigeria, Bosnia (boring on paper) B: Belgium, Honduras, Cameroon, Netherlands (boring on paper) C: Germany, Japan, Ecuador, France (quality group) D: Argentina, US, Ghana, England (awesome) E: Switzerland, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, Portugal (well balanced) F: Uruguay, Iran, Algeria, Italy (quite shit) G: Spain, Mexico, Chile, Croatia (decent) H: Colombia, Korea, Russia, Ukraine (not bad) Despite all the fuss about potential groups of death, it's quite likely that the so called big teams like England/Netherlands/Italy will end up in groups of Belgium/Switzerland/Uruguay anyways.

Because they think he doesn't care (mostly) or show up for the national team, protecting himself in 50/50s. That's the impression I got living in Warsaw all summer. Kuba is adored though. They've sacked their manager, so be interesting to see if Lewa's NT performances improve under a new coach.

It's probably pre-planned, but won't be surprised one bit if it wasn't. No wonder he's pretending that in the US though. Most American girls probably don't know to spot Dortmund on the world map On a serious note, Lewa is very disliked by Polish people. same with Klose. They love Podolski though

The notion "Black Lawyers Society" is absolutely ridiculous . Lawyers are lawyers, be it Saul Goodman, some dude from Angola, or someone from Mongolia. Those do more harm to the racism campaign than good.....ganging up against an old white man. Feel for Roy here, he's done nothing wrong.

Have gone with plenty of different bets for the weekend. Hope at least 1-2 of the come off !! Suarez to score first and LFC to win 3-1 @ 56 - small stake -------- Callejon to score last and Roma 1-1 Napoli @ 71 - small stake -------- Remy AGS Michu AGS Saints OR draw Westham OR draw Atletico Madrid @ 52 - a couple of dollars -------- Chelsea Arsenal PSG Bayern Dortmund Barca @ 3.5 - big stake ------ Schalke Swansea Liverpool @5 - $10 ------ Rooney AGS Storage AGS Diego Costa AGS Balotelli AGS Reus AGS @25 - $2 Fingers crossed

Who would have ended up owning the club had FSG not bought the club then? Based on what you're saying, Bank would have taken us over and put the club publicly for sale for highest bidder ? Interesting. I am certain I read Tom Hicks managed to gather the money to pay the bank on October 16th, which would have led to him resuming control over the club. (To be fair, that could possible be as bad as administration). I may be wrong, but that's the version I read. Can't believe it's been 3 years now.

And the previous season before Roy yous had finished 7th. My point is the others, City and Spurs, were on the up and up and yous were on the slide. Hence Benitez getting sacked and Roy being appointed. And when Roy finished 7th, and we finished 2nd. When we finished 7th, Roy finished 12th. One season doesn't determine whether a club is on the up/down...we hadn't gone from runners up to a club on the down and set for misery in state of one season. Who could you have appointed really of real high quality? Yous had no CL footy. I do agree that Roy was the wrong appointment for yous and after Benitez, no doubt a bit of a come down but there is no denying he wasn't given a chance by LFC fans from pretty much the get go. According to Pellegrini, he was interviewed (and was interested) and was rejected by Purslow and Broughton in favour of Hodgson. The club needed some "Englishness" after years of being filled with dirty Spaniards You have become a cup team pretty much like Spurs used to be. Rafa won some cups but failed to deliver the title despite spending huge sums of money. At the end of the day, he underachieved league wise and you could see, despite one very very good season where yous finished 2nd, the other seasons were not very good in terms of challenging for the title. There are always 3 cup competitions and only one league to challenge for at the beginning of each season. So by odds, the chances of cup success is higher. Rafa arrived here the exact same time that Roman poured gallons of money at instance for Chelsea and Mourinho and Arsenal had their invincible team. After 2 years of building his team (During which he won the most prized competition in club football, and the FA Cup), we were always competitive in the league scoring high 70s and low 80s before the title challenging 08-09 season. Rafa actually had a very good transfer record up until the last 2 seasons of Keane/Aquilani deals. But which manager doesn't have disaster. Even the all time greats do. And yea, league is all good...but I wasn't so sad to see us reach another CL final and get wins at Bernabeu, Meazza, StamfordBridge, Old Trafford, Camp Nou etc. Not to mention 08-09 wasn't just a title-challenging season, but our best league campaign since inception of PL in 1992. Well, its hard to do better when after a few games the fans want you out. Dalglish didn't do much better league wise and I doubt Rodgers will get you into the top 4 too. Roy had great support initially (got a fantastic reception in is first home game vs. Arsenal) until he burnt his bridges with the fans with his Hicks-Gillette comments. Dalglish did very poorly in the league, but he won the club's first trophy in 6 years. Plus, he is a club legend, do you expect your fans to give Shearer abuse for not being able to save you a few years ago? Of course, there is a bias with club legends. Doing a Rangers As if yous would have went bust! We weren't going to go bust, but administration. Tom Hicks loaned further money to buy time and pay RBS debt (piling more debt to the club that's paying 40M pounds a year just in interest), but thankfully Henry and Broughton concluded the deal before hand. Zero sympathy for that scumbag, and I hope he has a miserable life and rots in hell. So... LFC fans in general are spoiled, delusional heart bleeders. Yous still think your club is up there with the likes of Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and now City when yous aren't. Yous are a cup team like Spurs used to be, big enough of course to challenge for the top 4 but no way title contenders. That's not so much your club's fault btw, that's the way footy is now because of the money. That's what I meant about yous now being a top 6 type club. We are not title contenders. But we will never be title-contenders again in our history if we embrace the small-minded, self-defeatist mentality. Accepting mediocrity is the first step to becoming a permanent stay in mid-table (and hence staying mediocre) No. Realistically, you have zero chance. We probably have a 3-5% chance. Every club has its awesome fans and its dickheads. The booing was disgraceful, but a lot of other fans of other clubs (horrible act) do it as well. Suarez thing was terribly handled by PR department. As for RAWK, the North Korean moderation aside, the average football knowledge of most members there is superb and the general football discussions are very well rounded and great. Just like any other forum, it has it's extreme knobheads.

No idea how we'll line up. Coutinho will 100% miss this game, and I'm not sure if Johnson will start after being out for 6 weeks. Not sure which 3 CBs will start either, and whether it'll be Henderson at RW again (not so good against potentially Remy, is it? but I think Rodgers will persist to have 2 up to to isolate Suarez and Sturridge with MYM and Saylor/Mike, so one of Debuchy/Santon will have to stay back and not venture forward too much. I'll be reasonably happy with a repeat of last season's score. Onwards and upwards !

Hope he manages your lot after the WC, and I look forward to see your opinion on him after a couple of months. Hodgson isn't the most dynamic personality, but his sides have always played passing football and been fairly well organised. I think he suffered badly following Rafa at Liverpool, because Rafa's formation and playing style were very European and most of the Liverpool team had a hard time adjusting to Roy's very English 4-4-2. Haven't followed his 36 year managerial career, but his stint with us was anything but. Ordering Reina to kick the ball upfield instead of rolling it to defenders, using Carragher as RB to accomodate Kyrgiakos-Skrtel CB partnership. Playing Meireles as a traditional Right winger, and Ngog as a battering ram centre forward. The home loss vs. Wolves on Boxing day of '10 was one of the worst Liverpool performance I've seen. On par with 2-0 loss at Fratton Park in Rafa's final season and 2-0 loss at SJP under Dalglish. I still think that was a hangover from trying to change from Rafa's fluid defensive formations to a more pressing style with 4-4-2. Fulham were virtually relegated when he took them over but he kept them up while playing passing football for the most part. I'm not saying he's an inspired manager by any means, but Liverpool was the wrong club at the wrong time. Completely agreed with this. He is a very decent manager at a certain level. But lacks the ambition to be a top one.

We were 13th when Roy was sacked (25 points in 20 games) , and not 7th. After his sacking, we had the 2nd best record in the league (after United) in second half of that season. Then f*** knows why Dalglish abandoned his passing game and formula and built a team around Andy f***ing Carroll. Also, the other 3 are praised (Despite their managerial deficiencies) because they defended the club and the city and talked the club up, as opposed to bringing the club down and undermining the fans. I am sure you'll appreciate a manager who'll go out there and say : "I want this club to be competitive with the very best in the country. I want to win many games and bring pride back to the shirt. With the support of the fans we can do it. I'll protect the values of this club and we'll grow together" as opposed to someone a manager saying : "an away win is rare (historic)" .

Hope he manages your lot after the WC, and I look forward to see your opinion on him after a couple of months. Hodgson isn't the most dynamic personality, but his sides have always played passing football and been fairly well organised. I think he suffered badly following Rafa at Liverpool, because Rafa's formation and playing style were very European and most of the Liverpool team had a hard time adjusting to Roy's very English 4-4-2. Haven't followed his 36 year managerial career, but his stint with us was anything but. Ordering Reina to kick the ball upfield instead of rolling it to defenders, using Carragher as RB to accomodate Kyrgiakos-Skrtel CB partnership. Playing Meireles as a traditional Right winger, and Ngog as a battering ram centre forward. The home loss vs. Wolves on Boxing day of '10 was one of the worst Liverpool performance I've seen. On par with 2-0 loss at Fratton Park in Rafa's final season and 2-0 loss at SJP under Dalglish.

SAF has signed worse players than Konchesky, to be fair. Hodgson's better than Liverpool. keeping my fingers crossed he gets England to semis in Brazil, and hopefully takes over from Moyes in Manchester in summer. Utopia

We are terrible at defending corners and set pieces. Are you any good at taking them ?

Hope he manages your lot after the WC, and I look forward to see your opinion on him after a couple of months. Yous didn't really give him a chance. He is a proven manager, not a great manager, but he has something about him. We can only dream of getting someone as good as Roy What do you reckon Roy's ceiling as Liverpool manager would have been? I really dislike the portion of our fan base who still hold grudge against him and use anything to bash him with...but this didn't give a chance thing is wrong IMO. Roy replaced a man of Rafa Benitez' calibre because the latter didn't get top 4 for one season, so Roy was expected to steady the ship and guide us high. Yet from the moment he arrived, he started with lowering the expectations, instilling the small-club mentality, and looking defeatist in every press confrence. After winning at Trabzonspor away from home: "This is a historic win" After losing at Goodison playing abjectly: "I thought it was our best performance of the season" On fan protests against Hicks/Gillete in September, where the club was near Administration "Those distraction really don't help" After his first away win @ Bolton: "It's very hard to get an away win in the Premier League. I mean, you may get a couple here and there like today, but in the end it's the level of performance that counts" On Liverpool's chances of beating United at Old Trafford: "A win there will be an utopia" On critics when the team was hovering around the relegation zone: "I have 36 years of experience, and my methods have translated from Hamstede, to Malmo, to Xermes, to Switzerland national team, to UAE, etc...so I won't change after all. My record is up there for everyone to see" In that interview, he put himself in the same calibre as SAF. On league cup home defeat to Northampton town: "Northampton are a very solid and formidable opponent. The younger players were a wee bit disappointed and need to take the blame. I'll make 11 changes to the side for the next game" Not to mention his first and priority signings were Joe Cole, Christian Poulsen and Paul Konchesky (giving away Kacalicnic to Fulham plus 5M in this one). ---------- I don't think you can blame our fan base for not liking the man. He replaced a club legend to "steady the ship" but his lack of ambition was Pardew-esque. As I said before, I don't hate the guy, he is a very decent manager for mid-table club level if all you want to do is to stay in PL, with the occasional top half finish and cup run. Then Hodgson is your man !! I wish him well for the WC. But he really isn't a nice guy. His ceiling is probably top 6. As for his comments. Honestly, as an outsider, none of that compares to the stuff Dalglish used to spout, especially around the whole Suarez racism saga. Even Rafa spouted some bat crazy s*** man. Regardless, LFC fans didn't give the man a chance and wanted him out from the off. This from a set of fans who pride themselves on giving managers, players, owners etc. their 100% backing, even if one of those players racially abused someone. Or rather they like to portray the image that they do. Unless you're Roy Hodgson of course. Or Hicks and Gillett! Ironically, many a LFC fan has accused us Toon fans of hounding out managers. If you had Pardew as your manager, there would be f***ing hell on in the streets of the red half of Liverpool. Come back to me when your manager says "thank god we won't be in Europe next season" or that we should all turn up for the final home game of the season in fancy dress for staying up. Come back to me when your owner renames Anfield, plasters it with s*** and regards cups as an inconvenience. Come back to me when you've had Dennis Wise as your DOF and Kinnear your manager. Your problem, as fans, is you're all spoiled. if Hodgson was replacing Shankly or Paisley and taking over the all conquering Liverpool then fair enough but he was replacing someone who underachieved in the main, someone who spent a s*** load on players and a club that last looked capable of winning a title 20 years ago. A club whose ceiling is more the top 6 than the top 4 given City's money and how well ran Spurs are. Forget the title. You have as much chance of that as we do. Sorry but I have little time for the bleeding heart stuff. Bollocks. Hodgson was our manager in 2010. 1 year after we came second in the league with 86 points (point tally that would have won 7 titles since formation of Premier League in 1992) and were first in UEFA coefficient rankings. City weren't even a top 4 side then, and Spurs had just managed their first top 4 finish in god knows how long. The gap was minimal. It's so easy to re-write history. Hodgson replaced a CL winner, FA Cup winner, UEFA Cup winner and 2 times La Liga winner. It was an abject appointment because of his Fulham time. No one in English football even bothered with Hodgson when the entire of 2000 decade he was all over the place in the world, last managing Finland national team in 2007. And no. I don't want to compare ourselves with you. With no disrespect, It's always better to compare yourself with those better than you than ones below you. That's when you get to grow and improve. Despite our abjectness in the last 2 decades, we've still won 1 CL, 1 Uefa Cup, 3 FA cups, and 4 League Cups in our "misery days" since the 90s. It's in a completely different league than 95% of the teams in the football division in the same time period. Benitez was sacked because he failed to get the team in Top 4. Hodgson replaced him to do better. Did he fuck ?! Not to mention he played some of the worst football I've ever seen from a Liverpool side, consistently bashed the fans and players and laid blame on anyone but himself. And yea, I am glad that our "internet terrorist" fans acted against our shitty owners and hounded them out, or else we'd be in championship or league 1 now, after going into Administration pulling a Rangers with 400M debt. RBS was 2 days away from giving up on receiving payments and putting the club in administration when John Henry bought the club despite Hicks' claims (and the law suit that followed and was rejected). As for the comments, (Solely speaking about football), a manager's mentality translates into his players. Rafa's first interview when becoming manager in 2004 was : "I have come here to win. I want to win a lot of matches, and make history in this football club." Sorry for having some ambition.

Hope he manages your lot after the WC, and I look forward to see your opinion on him after a couple of months. Yous didn't really give him a chance. He is a proven manager, not a great manager, but he has something about him. We can only dream of getting someone as good as Roy What do you reckon Roy's ceiling as Liverpool manager would have been? I really dislike the portion of our fan base who still hold grudge against him and use anything to bash him with...but this didn't give a chance thing is wrong IMO. Roy replaced a man of Rafa Benitez' calibre because the latter didn't get top 4 for one season, so Roy was expected to steady the ship and guide us high. Yet from the moment he arrived, he started with lowering the expectations, instilling the small-club mentality, and looking defeatist in every press confrence. After winning at Trabzonspor away from home: "This is a historic win" After losing at Goodison playing abjectly: "I thought it was our best performance of the season" On fan protests against Hicks/Gillete in September, where the club was near Administration "Those distraction really don't help" After his first away win @ Bolton: "It's very hard to get an away win in the Premier League. I mean, you may get a couple here and there like today, but in the end it's the level of performance that counts" On Liverpool's chances of beating United at Old Trafford: "A win there will be an utopia" On critics when the team was hovering around the relegation zone: "I have 36 years of experience, and my methods have translated from Hamstede, to Malmo, to Xermes, to Switzerland national team, to UAE, etc...so I won't change after all. My record is up there for everyone to see" In that interview, he put himself in the same calibre as SAF. On league cup home defeat to Northampton town: "Northampton are a very solid and formidable opponent. The younger players were a wee bit disappointed and need to take the blame. I'll make 11 changes to the side for the next game" Not to mention his first and priority signings were Joe Cole, Christian Poulsen and Paul Konchesky (giving away Kacalicnic to Fulham plus 5M in this one). ---------- I don't think you can blame our fan base for not liking the man. He replaced a club legend to "steady the ship" but his lack of ambition was Pardew-esque. As I said before, I don't hate the guy, he is a very decent manager for mid-table club level if all you want to do is to stay in PL, with the occasional top half finish and cup run. Then Hodgson is your man !! I wish him well for the WC. But he really isn't a nice guy.

Hope he manages your lot after the WC, and I look forward to see your opinion on him after a couple of months.

He is doing a decent job and is a decent manager at his level, but he is not a good guy. Imagine him coming out saying "Mike Ashley is a terrific owner, and away wins in PL are rare, and it's the level of performance that's important" or after you lose a derby in SOL playing abject he says with a grin on his face: "I thought that was our best performance of the season" Not to mention he is so full of himself, banging on his 38 years of experience all the time. If people call rodgers Brenton for being self-loving, then Roy is on the same level if not higher. Shit managers don't win 8 league titles and get to European final...but he certainly isn't the friendly lovely uncle people think he is.

Compared to the 90s for sure....but likes of Iceland and Finland weren't even talked about in mid-2000s, and now there is a lifeline. I say before when Denmark/Sweden faced another Nordic team, you automatically knew the result. It was a bit like England facing Wales. Now it's a lot more even. Both result of Finland/Iceland getting better, and Norway getting worse. If you look at major tournaments since 98 (I think 15 years span is long enough) WC 98- Norway, Denmark Euro 2000- Denmark, Sweden, Norway WC 2002- Sweden, Denmark Euro 2004- Sweden, Denmark WC 06- Sweden Euro 08- Sweden WC 10- Denmark Euro 12- Sweden, Denmark WC 14- Potentially Iceland/Sweden Denmark and Sweden have dominated the last decade (Sweden mostly thanks to one of the best strikers of this generation, and Denmark due to consistency of their management)...but I predict it'll be a lot even for the upcoming decade. Denmark will remain strong, and I wouldn't be surprised if Sweden go the way Norway went after Euro 2000 with Ibra's retirement. One of my Swedish mates was saying how football competes with Hockey to attract young talents, and it's now going to the latter more. Being a big fan of social democracy, and having seen and [lived] in all Nordic nations (Iceland aside), I fucking love them and hope they become competitive. That may explain my positive spin on things. Nordic football has been on a decline for a decade, but I think the improvement of Finland/Iceland will be a much needed kick in the ass for Sweden/Norway and hopefully the entire region will wake up and be competitive. Fingers crossed both Sweden and Iceland make it to Brazil.

Yea. I was looking at potential seedings (Which are all based on previous performances in qualifiers and main campaign...not like FIFA rankings) and Finland are likely to be in pot 4. A group of Greece, Hungary, Norway, Finland, Moldova, San Marino will do nicely. Or it could end up being Germany, Belgium, Austria, Finland, Iceland, Cyprus. Unbelievable what a difference the draw could make. Poor Iceland will still be in pot 5 for that draw, even if they qualify for WC.

Newcastle to win 4-3 with Williamson last goal scorer is @ 1151 on WH.

All Nordic nations are getting better in football except Norway. Iceland has progressed very well with overhaul of their infrastructure and most their top players are young and yet to hit their peak Denmark has a decent crop of young talent (Okore, Eriksen, Fischer, Cornelius, etc) to work with and hopefully they'll get their chance once Olsen is done Finland has impressed me lately as well. Mostly a hoofball team, but they finally are getting results against teams of their level and are on the up Sweden is the one that needs to be careful once Ibra goes. Norway though, is a mess. Appointing Drillo again gave them a boost and got them topping a Euro qualifying group with Denmark and Portugal in it initially, getting 9th in FIFA ranking to get a relatively easy WC qualifying group, but then it all went wrong. (I guess Drillo's Pulis football wasn't gonna work longterm), and there is no sign of long-term thinking in their federation. Have some decent young players (Nordveit, King, etc)...but I don't think they'll be much of a threat. Seeing next Euros are 24 teams, I expect Denmark, Sweden and Iceland to surely qualify. Outside chance for Finland as well.

I think anything past the first knock out round and Roy would be a success. It'll be interesting if he reverts back to cautious containing football like the game vs. Italy at the Euros when England face a decent opposition there. As for possible groups. England's group could vary from: Germany, Chile, England, US/Japan to Switzerland, Burkina Faso, England, New Zealand so I guess we can't decide on specific expectations until the draw is made on Dec 6th.

Isn't NZ master at grinding out 0-0s ? I think if your lot avoid conceding early at Azteca, you may be able to frustrate them. Mexico seem very vulnerable to set pieces and I think NZ can pick them out on that. But then, I'm just being optimistic and rooting for NZ, because I have a lot of Kiwi mates. Anyways, all the best !! as for Panama, they are spineless. You are 2-1 up, 2 minutes to go...all good. and yet their coach leaves 4 players in US half when US are attacking. Fuck that man !! park the bus and see the game out. I can't believe how open Panama were after going up 2-1. Bosnia played it fantastically after going 1-0 up. just stopped being ambitious and shut the shop. Panama on the other hand, were still going through motions. Manager to blame for me.