EPL Season

"29 min Wilshere and Oxlade-Chamberlain have been very good so far. Another youngster, Gibbs, looks in trouble. He is lying on his back and, though he’s not in any obvious pain, he appears to have pulled something. Moments earlier Boateng, booked when he conceded the penalty, stops an Arsenal counter-attack with a foul on Wilshere. He was 80 yards from his own goal and a second yellow would have been excessive, though some more officious jokers would have shown one."

prophetic words.

i begin to wonder why i watch fifa / uefa competitions.

fb.
 
originally posted by Yixin:
Hee hee.
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if you type in "Yixin" and "hee hee" into universal translator, you get "I wonder why your team bothers playing in europe at all, look at how well we are doing by skipping all that shit"
 
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by Yixin:
Hee hee.
Click to expand...

if you type in "Yixin" and "hee hee" into universal translator, you get "I wonder why your team bothers playing in europe at all, look at how well we are doing by skipping all that shit"
Click to expand...

Based on recent EPL results in the UCL, it's hard to argue with that logic.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:

Based on recent EPL results in the UCL, it's hard to argue with that logic.

Mark Lipton
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oh I don't know - I think at least one of the other english teams will make enough trouble in europe, right Brian?
 
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by MLipton:

Based on recent EPL results in the UCL, it's hard to argue with that logic.

Mark Lipton
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oh I don't know - I think at least one of the other english teams will make enough trouble in europe, right Brian?
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Not exactly winning decisively and with authority but continuing to win nonetheless. Not sure what I think right now...would like to see a more productive striker. Man do I miss watching Drogba.
 
I hope Lukaku falls back into favor with JMou. I liked what I saw at the beginning of the season, raw but with great things to come...
 
It is time.

Why the hell do I start with France? Because to me, they present the biggest dichotomy in the tournament, depending on philosophy and selection. France can either crash out miserably, or go far.

The great French teams since the 1990s have always had a combination of finesse and muscle. Not just muscle; it had its workhorses. Deschampes himself wasn't exactly Makelele; it was more in the way he had played, so he should know better.

There is always a temptation to put your "best" players on the field, but for them it would be a huge mistake. I have no faith that either Pogba or Matuidi, despite sufficient physical prowess, will do the dirty work, or for that matter will even work hard enough, or to really put it plainly, have the "supporting player" mentality when needed. With Ribery and Valbuena, the team has plenty of finesse, and with Cabaye, they have the glue. Someone like Sissiko has his limitations, but that's the direction they need to look in. And I would not think twice about not even bringing Nasri to Brasil; the last thing this team can afford is parasites.
 
If it wasn't for a catastrophic sequence of injuries, I would say Jogi had by far the biggest selection headache in the world, particularly in two areas.

One is, central midfield. Can Germany be so good on the ball that they can afford not to have a muscle man in the middle? A potential dream pairing of Gundogan and Schweinsteiger (totally academic at this point, as one has been out all year and the other has just returned after 110 days out) has drawn plenty of naysaying, all revolving around both being far more effective playing off a true DM, i.e. Bender and Matrinez, respectively, or in the case of der mannschaft, Khedira. And now with Lahm in the mix, they may yet have to resolve this dilemma, particularly with Bender and Khedira being out for quite some time.

The other is Kroos and Ozil. How the hell do you play them both? How the hell do you not? Moving Ozil wide is not a solution; Germany can be devastating with its width given other personnel. And moving Kroos deeper is not a solution either; I've never seen a single Bayern game where this had worked, at least not against a real opponent.
 
Even before the Confederations Cup kicked off, I thought they were done, or to be more precise, would have been done by the World Cup. My reason - del Bosque had not begun sufficient turnover during the WC qualification process, one that he could not institute at the last moment, or even in the middle of the World Cup, if things weren't going well.

And yet, despite all this, and a pile of defensive problems, they suddenly have two animals at their disposal in Negredo and Diego Costa. If Xavi and Co. can somehow manage one last breath, these two guys open a dimension that neither Villa nor Torres at their best possessed. But good news (for the rest of the teams in the tournament) is that del Bosque may just throw these guys in the back of the queue and go with a far more predictable Llorente. Spain will then not win the tournament.
 
originally posted by .sasha:
World Cup Teams: EnglandYou are kidding me, right?
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i expect limp performances against italy and uraguay to lead to the inevitable do or die play off against costa rica. (or maybe they'll start with a bang against italy and then scrape through who knows? -- predicting mediocrity is never easy.)

any unrealistic expectations that survive the group stages will be swiftly crushed in the next round.

same old same old, in other words.

fb.
 
originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by .sasha:
World Cup Teams: EnglandYou are kidding me, right?
Click to expand...

i expect limp performances against italy and uraguay to lead to the inevitable do or die play off against costa rica. (or maybe they'll start with a bang against italy and then scrape through who knows? -- predicting mediocrity is never easy.)

any unrealistic expectations that survive the group stages will be swiftly crushed in the next round.

same old same old, in other words.

fb.
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among top 10 must see games, espnfc picks both enland-italy and england-uruguay

i think you are on to something here
 
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