curses and Janet's thrad for soccer Battle Royale!

[curses]

This will be that space to contain all that is soccer, football, fútbol, Australian Rules...you get the picture. Probably not so much Aussie rules as we don't get much coverage here.

Starting with the US loss to Belgium last night. Caught the first half during dinner and wow...the US seems to have forgotten to call up defenders. And Tim Howard needs one of wireless fence things like dogs have to keep him inside the box.

Next-Mark Hughes is going to Stoke so there's that threat avoided. A shame, Mark Hughes seems like a likable person.

Moving on..this happened in Romania.

Mircea Bornescu ( Petrolul Goalkeeper ) bites...

[Ymir's blood]

[curses]

French coach gets a Cantona-length ban for pushing referee. FIFA hate the French.

[Janet]

I had no idea the Belgium match was on television. Damn! I was too busy last night anyway. Finished work at 6:00 and didn't sit down until after 9:30, unless you count the time I was on my exercise bike. Please tell me my man Kompany acquitted himself well.

[curses]

Yep, ESPN is usually good about carrying the World Cup qualifiers and friendlies. Next match is this Sunday-friendly against Germany.

Just because this is such a cool photo:

Arsenal's second game under lights at Highbury October 1951. Arsenal 3, Glasgow Rangers 2.

[BrotherMan]

Soccer? I hardly know her!

[Stormlight]

USA Vs Germany 4-3 - Benedikt Howedes Own Goal /...

[curses]

See stormy, THAT'S the spirit.

[Janet]

Maybe it's ingrained prejudice, but I do like to see Germany fail on the football field.

On a related note, who do you support in international Football, curses? I used to support Argentina but my English and Canadian friends ganged up on me and insisted that as an Anglophile it was absolutely unacceptable for me not to support England and picking Argentina was especially egregious.

So I support England, even though it causes me great cognitive dissonance to have to cheer for the United players on the England squad. (And I still furtively root for Argentina when they are playing anyone but England. Can't help it, I just like their style of play.)

[curses]

England fan, albeit a very pessimistic one. I do love to watch Mexico play, though. They are so wonderfully all over the place!

I will cheer on the US team as well because, well, it's the US team. i have even lower hopes for them than I do for England.

[curses]

Oh, and Jose Mourinho is back at Chelsea. Will he have what it takes second time around? Will the owners support him or rein him in?

[Janet]

I maintain that I will support the U.S. in international football when they learn to call the game by its correct name.

Mutterings I have heard is that Chelsea's play has changed a lot since Mourinho left and there will be some resistance to doing it his way again. I guess we'll see.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Any kind of football, huh?

Not that Janet or curses will care, but tonight is State of Origin game 1.

It's made up of the top NRL (rugby league, as opposed to rugby union. don't ask me what the difference is.) players that hail from Queensland and New South Wales. It's billeted as "mate against mate, state against state." QLD has won the last... eleven? years straight, and most of the ones before that as well.


Oh, and diehard Die Mannschaft fans in this household.

[BigBlue2]

New South Wales 14 Queensland 6. With Game III also being in Sydney, NSW actually has a chance of winning its first series since 2005.

As for real football, the country of my birth should qualify for the World Cup pretty easily, whereas my country of residence is struggling somewhat.

[Janet]

So, we apparently signed Fernandinho today. I love how the newspapers keep describing these as Pellegrini's signings when his signing isn't even official yet.* So that makes two midfielders so far, and Chelsea naming one of our strikers as a target. We seriously need to buy strikers, but I haven't heard any deals yet.

*When I double-checked the spelling of Pellegrini, The Guardian had rewritten the article to note that he's not actually the manager yet.

[curses]

LOL, transfer gossip say Juventus want Tevez. If he goes I hope it's as big of a mess as every other leaving he's done. I hope that shady manager deals will be a thing of the past because of it.

On the Man U front, transfer rumors are veeeeeery quiet. Except for the Rooney shit. He's past his prime, and he needs to get over it.

[Janet]

Tevez either has to be sold or sign a new deal. It would be too stupid to let him leave for free next year. I don't know which I prefer. He was such a stupid brat last year, but he's been great this year. I'm just not sure I trust him.

I really hope we don't buy Rooney. It's hard enough to support him when he's playing for England.

[curses]

I loved Tevez when he was at Man U, figured the deal with West Ham was their fault. Now I know better, it is Tevez's shady as hell agent.

In other news, Man U make their first signing. We're loving those South Americans. Guillermo Varela is the new right back, and it's good to see some defenders coming in, it's a weak spot. Don't know anything about him but apparently he's playing in the U-20 championships this year.

Oh and hay-Suarez is still being a dick.

[curses]

And Messi's cheating taxes.

BBC News - Footballer Lionel Messi investigated for tax fraud in Spain

[Janet]

I saw that. What surprised me more was that Messi only played as a sub in Argentina's last game after they took Aguero out. I wonder if he's out of favor.

[curses]

I do hope so. I don't know WHY I dislike him so much, he is a very good player.

[curses]

Looks like you guys have named a manager!

http://www.mcfc.co.uk/News/Team-news...n-City-manager

Looked him up in Wiki, he's got a ton of South American teams under his belt (including my favorites, River Plate), as well as Villareal and Real Madrid.

[Janet]

They have been saying it would be him since before Mancini was fired. Just yesterday I read an article that said they were waiting to make it official because his old club hadn't paid him for two months and if it went to three we wouldn't have to pay the transfer price. Don't know if that's true or not.

[Janet]

Suarez is a complete asshole, but that was a beautiful goal in the midst of an embarrassing match for Uruguay.

[curses]

I only caught part of the game but it was bad. I expected a better showing from Uruguay.

Here's the gif of Suarez's goal.