Gracias, E.G. Let´s expect we´re lucky again. Last week we lost with Racing Santander after many matches without losing and the goalkeer, Diego Alves, without being scored a goal. He even managed to get a record.
Congratulations to QPR for defeating Stoke 2-0
I wish we could get the same score against Athletic Bilbao or just 1 nil
UD Almería 1 - At Bilbao 1 Apparently not a bad result taking into account that the Basque team had more chances to win. I´ve listened the match commentaries on the radio.
Another good result for Almeria, deservedly holding Barcelona to a 2-2 draw and even bossing the game at times. Everybody seems mightily impressed with Unai Emery, Almeria's young manager with the English sounding surname.
Almeria played well. Both times Barcelona went in front, it was hard not to think "game over", but the plucky Almerians never let up, and deserved their draw.
El Gordo
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
That's true that all of you merite being nommed Almeria's favorite sons, isn't it Antonio?
At this moment, it is the same with the Kid's fans (Fernando Torres). Atletico de Madrid supporters use to follow all matches by TV or internet... Apparently 'the kid' is becoming a national hero in the Beatles' city team.
Do you believe that also Sweder could change Manchester United for Liverpool? :RFLMAO:
Ana Wrote:That's true that all of you merite being nommed Almeria's favorite sons, isn't it Antonio?
At this moment, it is the same with the Kid's fans (Fernando Torres). Atletico de Madrid supporters use to follow all matches by TV or internet... Apparently 'the kid' is becoming a national hero in the Beatles' city team.
Do you believe that also Sweder could change Manchester United for Liverpool? :RFLMAO:
Torres is a super player; one of those guys who makes it look so easy. Seems like a pleasant, down to earth guy as well, with none of the usual character flaws that top footballers have.
I think there's a good chance that Sweder could tranfer his affections to Liverpool. Despite what he says, you sense that underneath the bravado, he rather likes and admires Liverpudlians and their excellent city.
El Gordo
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
That purple raging heap chewing the carpet is me not rising to the bait
Though I'm man enough to say that Torres is without doubt the best striker in the Premiership at the moment. To score as consistently as he has in his first season in this league is remarkable - reminds me of Ruud Van Nistelrooy when he first arrived. The difference is Torres doesn't use tricks - the Dutchman was rather sussed out after a season and had to adapt to survive. Torres uses pace and power to destroy defences, leaving goalkeepers looking like flat-footed fools.
I'm bound to say that he has some way to go to catch the gun-slinger from Madeira
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
On other pages:
'How I deliver completely balanced commentaries on every Liverpool fixture home or away and even managed to criticise Christiano Ronaldo during coverage of the Merseyside Derby' by neutral commenting legend Alan 'Kop This' Green;
'My Premiership Predictions' by Mark 'Lawro' Lawrensen, former Liverpool legend and current guardian of Tommy Smiths' Tash . . .
[SIZE="1"]. . . that's enough BBC-paid Liverpool Legends - Ed[/SIZE]
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
Aye, well spotted there.
I wasn't complaining; The Rowdies get plenty of coverage on the Beeb, especially from the insightful Mr Green who never misses an opportunity to discuss their dreadful manager, cheating players or ugly, vitriolic supporters. I must admit to wriggling with pleasure watching Hansen praise Uniteds' attacking flair whilst trying not to look like a man who has thrown up in his mouth and is trying manfully to swallow it.
I only wish the article links were an April Fool gag.
They both appeared on the BBC Sport homepage yesterday. Read the Hansen article, a well-reasoned argument for the Scousers to advance in the Champions League. Here's a couple of unabridged samples:
Liverpool will get men behind the ball at Arsenal and they will be delighted the second leg is at Anfield, where the crowd* will be such a factor.
I expect this to be a very tight affair, more of a slog than pretty football. The away goal is more important now than when I played, in fact, it is hugely important, but make no mistake, if you offered Benitez 0-0 now he would bite your hand off.
*Ah, those 'Special European Nights' at Anfield! Much nicer for the players as during the special European away nights their homes are ransacked by the locals.
Liverpool are my favourites to go through because the Champions League really seems to suit them. It is a more cautious, tactical approach and they have a cautious manager in Rafael Benitez.
This is not in any way a negative comment about Benitez. He simply has a way of playing that suits the Champions League, as Liverpool's recent record in the competition proves, and that is good management.
That sort of stuff might get Alan Sugars' pulse racing but it doesn't do much for me I'm afraid. The Rowdies may yet fall short on all fronts but they'll do so trying to play thrilling attacking football. It'll never cease to amaze me what unstilting support Liverpool get in the media when the fare they serve up week in, week out is, Torres aside, as dull as dishwater.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
I'm all in favour of more equality when it comes to distributing football coverage around the leagues, but that would irritate the average top-4-shirt-wearing punter in Belfast and Exeter far more. Instead we'll have to make do with what is, I guess, a roughly democratic system where the more successful you are, the more attention you get. This is why ManU, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool ALL get a hugely disproportionate amount of media coverage.
Trouble is, once we get it into our heads that the world, or the BBC, or even one particular commentator, is against us, it permanently affects our ability to judge the output objectively. So any negative reference to the Rowdies from Alan Green only confirms what we always supected. On the other hand, all the positive things we hear about them get filtered out, or caricatured -- as with the Hansen remark. To you, he was trying to swallow a mouthful of vomit. To me, he was just complimenting Manchester United on playing some cracking football.
It wasn't that long ago that Alan Green was believed by the masses to be a rabid ManU fan, and he would often get teased about it on the radio and on the football messageboards. And once one has that idea in one's head, how easy it is to prove that Green is a ManU fan. I promise this is true, because I used to believe it myself
Re Hansen's remark about European nights at Anfield. As an armchair fan, I think there's something in what he says. I just don't get any great sense of occasion when I watch Arsenal CL games. Or Chelsea. But when I watch big ManU or Liverpool games in Europe, the crowds do SEEM noisier and more up for it. So I read that sentence and thought "fair enough" while you read it and thought "Bah! More Liverpool bias!"
Comfort yourself with the thought that Liverpool are not playing great football at the moment, and Hansen was simply having to own up to that with his comments. You should have been grinning. He's basically admitting that they're boring as hell, but that they do seem to have a system that works in European games, as shown by their recent record. The prose is as dull as the football, but it seems a reasonably well thought out argument to me.
On the other hand, just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're NOT out to get you.
El Gordo
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
Most, if not all, of what you say is true. It is my right as a lifelong armchair Rowdie fan to complain bitterly, when of course most true football followers are lucky if their team get on the box - or the radio - a couple of times a year. It's not just Devilbowl dwellers who complain about Greenie; he's managed to upset any number of groups in recent times. Like a lot of the media these days he's moved on from reporting what he sees and uses his mic as an extension of his soapbox. But I enjoy his rants, even when they do appear heavily loaded against Lord Fergs' men; the airwaves would be poorer without him. You're right; my prejudices have me listing horribly to port, but it doesn't mean I'm totally wrong either.
Making reference to Ronaldo and Lord Ferg in the middle of the Merseyside Derby was a bit weird. The Liverpool/ BBC love-in is both hard to deny and understandable due to Liverpools' domination of English and European football in the eighties and nineties. I just get the impression some of the pundits are desperate to maintain an aura around the club as if this will in some way perpetuate their own iconic status. I prefer the raw honesty of Phil Thompson over on Sky. There's no doubting his motives; Thommo hates United to his core, and I think we both have to respect that
Oh, in case Ana hasn't dozed off completely after all this rubbish she should know that back in the day El Beatle in the footballing sense was actually the nickname for Georgie Best, son of Belfast and Old Trafford
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
I promise I have read the whole thread with all this 'interesting' information.
This means a new record for someone who was never at the football stadium. Yes, that's me...
I will ever win a gold-medal in football by talking again about this interesting subjet, but I am tired of Man. Und. and Livpol...let's change the country for talking about French foot!
Ok, at this moment there is a very popular film at the french cinemas: The play is a comical history about a parisier post man who is been send to the North of France for working there. Every parisien people belives that living in that region called North Pas Calais should be horrible, because wheather is terrible (cold and wet, mostly like England ), they are poor unemployed ex-miners and people talk with a hard accent called ch'tish.
Out of any forseen, the post man discovers that people there are lovely and he begins to enjoy about living in this area, which become even a plaisure.
Prejudice broken, his terrible wife decides to move with him. Evidently, the postman hates his wife and prefers that she stays in Paris. Here begings the amusement, when the postman ask to the new friends for acting as antipatic and hatefull people, only in front of the woman.
This film seems to be the big succes of this year and is called: "Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis" or in English "Welcome to the Land of the Ch'tis".
After this introduction I came back to a very big stadium: the enormous and rich 'Stade de France', home of the powerfull Paris Saint-Germain. Visitors' team, the 'poors' players of Lens (ville of Nord Pas de Calais).
Sarkozy (without Carla) was also at the stadium when the Paris supporters displayed a long banner which said: "Pedophiles, chomeurs, consanguins: bienvenue chez les ch'tis." (Paedophiles, unemployed and in-bred: welcome to the home of the ch'tis). In allusion to the most popular ans seen film in the coutry.
In France this is called an 'escandale'. Well, some parisien fans will sleep at the jail. Evidently, the inscription of the banner is impossible to apologize.
Sorry Ana, I appreciate you are trying to change the subject but . . .
[SIZE="6"]WOW!!! WHAT A BLOODY GOAL!!![/SIZE]
I watched the game tonight in a proper Glaswegian spit-n-sawdust pub in Sauchihall Street. When Scholes 'stood the ball up' across the Roma box no-one could see why - then WHAM! In flies SuperRonaldo at one hundred miles an hour to bury the ball and half the Roma defence in the net. I swear in that moment all the air was sucked out of that bar; the gathered locals, at best indifferent to the outcome, to a man involentarily filled their lungs.
Tommy Smith suggested players watch the ball when dealing with the boy.
Roma watched it . . . they watched it break the sound barrier before it broke their net. Stunning.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
OK, OK, I must be from the land of the ch'tis! :o
I just needed to revel in the moment.
I can't imagine what kind of trouble there would be if such a defamatory banner were displayed in England. Probably English teams would be banned from European competition for five years. No? It's happened before, and every five minutes Messrs Blatter and Platini seem more than keen to pronounce on the shortcomings of our game. I seem to have developed a healthy persecution complex but I'm right aren't I?
Roma fans stab and (their police) beat visiting supporters with impunity and the city are awarded the Champions League final. Max Mosley, CEO of the FIA and arguably the most senior man in world motorsport is shown taking part in what appears to be a sick parody of concentration camp exploitation and will, according to his press agent, 'tough it out' with no hint of resignation. I don't know - or want to know - the sordid details of Mr Mosley's night in a Chelsea dungeon, nor do I care that the son of Britains most celebrated facist of the 20th Century (Maggie notwithstanding) carries a lot of 'baggage'. If the story has basis in fact - there has to be an element of doubt considering the lurid nature and origins of the exposé - the man must surely step down.
The French authorities should take action against PSG. Sepp Blatter should pull his ugly bloated snout out of the UEFA trough long enough to condemn these 'fans' and call for sanctions. What will happen? Not a thing.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
The stepfather of Shannon Matthews, who was missing for three weeks, has been remanded in custody over charges of possessing indecent images of children.
Craig Meehan, 22, of Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, was arrested at the family home on Wednesday and appeared before the town's magistrates on Thursday. He was accused of 11 specimen charges of possessing indecent images graded at levels one to four of seriousness. Prosecutors alleged there were 140 indecent images on two computers.
The bespectacled stepfather wore a black Manchester United shirt with the name Ronaldo on the back and spoke only to confirm his name, address and age.
