Chatter from the sidelines
Score sheet from last night. I'm just getting this out of the way- What a surprise? World Cup 2020 to be held in December this article is American slanted and bitter like my beloved's coffee, but the points are salient; Official FIFA statement here huh. You can stick a firework in a turd and it's still a turd. Rubbish.
- Strooman's career might be over his surgery didn't go too well, is the speculation
- Juventus 'most popular in Europe'Data from a Swedish study, published in the Wall Street Journal, indicates Juventus are the most popular club remaining in the Champions League. They have lot of fans in Russia and Eastern Europe
Nice table - Manchester United ‘close to Raphael Varane transfer, Real Madrid will accept their £22million bid’ there'll be wars and rumours of wars... and transfers, tbh
- Serie A and Serie B need to be cut the idea is, to reduce the leagues by 2 clubs, so there are less matches and less time, which helps the national team
- Shirt sponsorship on the rise everywherethe article is PL slanted, but that's click bait, tbh, because every league in Europe has gained on that front. The reason for the increase of sponsorship space on the shirt is due to all that delicious blood money from the Middle East. Manchester United wanted two or more sponsors on their shirts, iirc. But the FA said no
- Mauricio Pochettino insists his Tottenham Hotspur troops are ready for "two Cup Finals" Pochettino is brave, brave! Spurs have width but no depth. Soldado seems to be rallying back into goal scoring (because people aren't looking in his direction anymore), but with five players on the outs, it's obvious that Spurs only have a trusted thirteen to other teams twenty (I'm talking about squad players). Fiorentina on Thursday and then Wembley on the weekend. That's rough. Pochettino is having a baptism by fire, in that he's played more matches with Spurs than he has had with say, Espanyol and Southampton. I know Pochettino was crazy when he opted to leave placid Southampton for the crazed Spurs. This just proves it.
- These printable Tottenham Hotspur masks will haunt your dreams get your, Illoris Eriksen, and Kane masks sort of here? It's like S for Spurs V for Vendetta style
- Revealed: The science behind Liverpool FC interesting! In a nutshell, LFC sports staff are now publishing peer reviewed papers in terms of how they work with the players, physical demands, exercises for their style of play to prevent injury, that sort of thing.
- Liverpool unbeaten at home since man dressed as Christ started attending games In his name, amen
- Refs dropped for Premier League matches Needs to be a bit more than dropping them temporarily. Make it be like when you lose your licence. You have to redo it, the refs should redo their exams. It keeps them on their toes, and they might remember a few things that they overlooked in the first place. It's not like they're doing this job out of the goodness of their hearts, they get paid- enough to go to a Taylor Swift concert
- La Liga to go down to the wire amongst Atlético, Barca and Real Madrid the competition is hotting up. That's nice. Over here in England, we're scrapping over the last two places for top four (it's assumed that Chelsea and City are battling it out for 1 and 2).
EPL table as it stands in the week 23/02/2014
Websites of Interest
- Isco's evolution as a player explained One of the few times where I don't mind stats in an article, because the article does try to keep it to layman's terms without going all Opta on us with the abstract terms that throw me out of these things
- Positioning, possession, pressure define Barcelona's famous philosophy
if you're into geeking out over Barcelona, and their team philosophy, this is for you. The notion of philosophy in football is interesting, and how clubs dictate their ideas to the manager is a pretty interesting read, too. For instance, I hear that for Manchester City, the owners have told Pellegrini that they like attacking football, so even if Pelligrini wanted to park the bus, he couldn't. Same thing with Big Sam and West Ham, the owners wanted him to play more aggressively and less defensively, so he beat the bushes and got an attacking coach. If people are interested I could do a post on that one day (when things are a bit quieter in the football world than now, though).
Cool videos
This animator called Richard Swarbrick has done some nifty football animations. I like this one because Empathy Test (the band whose song is the soundtrack) has been slept on. His entire oeuvre on youtube is worth a look if you have some time to kill. Gareth Bale never looked better, tbh go here
Pictures
Call this an RSVP
Manchester City 1- 2 Barcelona
Last night I found out that my SO has a soft spot for Man City. How? On seeing Suárez's second goal, he raged, "When in Barcelona, he can't even bite into a goal, and as soon as he comes back on English soil, he gets TWO? Who let him back into the country?" LOL, welp
Neymar was quiet on the night. I really like this season's kit in all its forms. Yes, even the neon
Joe Hart was working. He was the only defence in the first half of the match
Manchester City was filled last night? Normally, the Etihad tends to be devoid of fans when it comes to European nights, because I guess they aren't accustomed to what they mean? But the penny dropped
Neymar can be a mouthy little gobshite. He was winding up City fans after the match. If City report it, he can be sanctioned
Aguero scored the only goal for City
I like the black gloves that himself and érik lamela wear. Pochettino is such a fan of Kun. He's all, "Yeah, Messi is all right, but Aguero, he's pace and power and so good. So so good!"
Joe Hart BLOCKED Messi's penalty in the last seconds of the game. They can laugh about it now
Joe Hart was happy!
Joe Hart one of the better City players on the night
I'd be surprised if Barcelona's goalie needed a shower after this match
Great poster of the match up. That being said, City have it all to do now.
Juventus 2- 1 Dortmund
Second round begins for these lads
European nights are special. So effing special. 'Cause I'm a freak, I'm a weirdo, what the hell am I doing here, I don't belong here.' Do you think football players suffer from imposter syndrome?
A moment in that we believed!
Only for it to go tits up (or bottoms up) in the end, really
And this
And this. Lukzas Pisczek took a hard knock on his ankle
Juventus seemed to have been gambolling like cows on the first day of spring. Morata (rumours have him linked to LFC and Spurs, but I doubt he'll leave a sure thing in CL to bet on LFC and Spurs)
Your piddling goals will not pass me. Not today. So imperious!
Tevez, the little blighter, scored the first goal. Did Dortmund have a defence? I didn't watch this match, because I was watching the City one for my sins
Is that a dummy in his mouth?
Good to see Tin Tin at his day job
What happened to Pirlo?
OP: done. I am wary of changing links and stuff, since LJ ate my post yesterday when I was trying to tweak. Why you hate me, LJ? Why. So any broken links and such, I'll deal with, when I've gotten over capricious LJ can be. Any links, news and such that you want me to put in the next round, leave in the comments and I'll get around to 'em.