Football (Soccer) Thread

[Maladict]

Italy must be disappointed with being behind the other big 3.

They should be happy, Milan only just made it 

[Liep]

We get to keep Morten Olsen for another 3 years. Oh joy.

The only games I remember fondly with him as coach are the games against Sweden, the first in EC '04 that ended 2-2 and saw Italy booted. to Pedrito.

The second was the 0-3 loss. It was good because we came back from 0-3 to 3-3 and it was on my birthday. One of the most exciting finishes I've ever seen, but in the 89th minute a jackass (Poulsen) stomach punched a Swede in the penalty area and in the following chaos another jackass (spectator) punched the ref in the face giving us an administrative loss of 0-3.

So, in conclusion, another sucky 3 years for our national side.

[Ed Anger]

I enjoyed that Liverpool game. 

Then I took a glorious 2 hour nap.

[Liep]

Villas-Boas is out. I guess 0-6 and 0-5 was one humiliation too much for Tottenham.

[Duque de Bragança]

Villas-Boas is out. I guess 0-6 and 0-5 was one humiliation too much for Tottenham.

Well, Porto could use another coach...

[Sheilbh]

[Josephus]

Bah. L'pool fall from first to fifth in less than a week.

[FunkMonk]

Big Nik Bendtner strikes again.

[Liep]

Big Nik Bendtner strikes again.

Hey! That's my line. Is this the 2nd time in one season he had to be substituted following a goal? Is he eyeing a record here?

[Liep]

196,000 tweets about Bendtner yesterday. Now I just need a tabloid to make a frontpage with a "good" headline and he's my new avatar.

[Josquius]

I'm just thinking today...how often do teams sign players for the marketing opportunities in their home country?
Its an obvious bonus with many but I'm wondering how often it will interfere with decision making so that a slightly less good player from a commercially better country will be signed.
This comes to mind as I'm watching Milan play on Japanese TV. Its rare for a game to be on non-paid TV, but Milan have just signed Keisuke Honda, one of the most popular Japanese players. The guy isn't even playing today, he's just sitting in the stands and watching, but the camera still constantly goes to him.

[Warspite]

Bloody hell, Walcott's out for six months 

[Josephus]

Bloody hell, Walcott's out for six months 

And any slim hope of England getting past Italy, Uruguay and, um, the other team, go right out the window now.

[FunkMonk]

Guess Wengy will buy another striker now.

[Liep]

Nah, Bendtner will be back soon.