Football (Soccer) Thread

[FunkMonk]

Nice to see a Stu Holden appearance at the end too.

[Duque de Bragança]

We're getting our arses kicked by Armenia. Not okay.

Malta beat Armenia 

In the previous qualifying campaign, Malta was the only team who caused no trouble for Portugal

After beating Russia with a tenuous 1-0 in Lisbon, Portugal can now hope for playoffs since even they are first of their group they have played two more games than Russia who is two points behind and one more than Israel, itself three points behind and has one game to play with Portugal. Portugal other games are vs Northern Ireland away and with Luxemburg at home as in Portugal since when in Luxemburg it's like playing home.

In others news, France lost 0-3 to Brazil in their South American tour after losing 0-1 to Uruguay. Not great for the new coach Didier Deschamps who lost 5 games out of 11.

[Liep]

Laudrup to PSG? While that could be interesting to watch, maybe he should try and stay more than one season at a club.

[Liep]

Laudrup to PSG? While that could be interesting to watch, maybe he should try and stay more than one season at a club.

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/Le-psg-avance-sur-m-laudrup/378242

[Duque de Bragança]

Laudrup to PSG? While that could be interesting to watch, maybe he should try and stay more than one season at a club.

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/Le-psg-avance-sur-m-laudrup/378242

Remember, if it's to PSG, it could be for even less than a season, depending on Leonardo's suspension.

[Liep]

Watching a really interesting documentary about danish footballer William Kvist, recently he has gone from star player in Stuttgart to the bench.

He's the atypical player, bachelor degree in economics, reads poetry, etc. Some nice insights into the mind of a professional footballer.

http://www.dr.dk/tv/se/indefra-med-anders-agger/indefra-med-anders-agger-8-8#!/

In Danish. All Danes, btw, should watch the rest of the series.

[The Larch]

Spain defeated Italy yesterday, claiming the European U 21 championship, it's second in a row after winning also in 2011. The Spanish U 19 team is also the current European champion for the second year in a row and will compete in July for a record breaking third championship. The U 20 team will fight for the world championship this summer.

This is truly a golden age. A veritable embarrassment of riches.

[Zanza]

Spain defeated Italy yesterday, claiming the European U 21 championship, it's second in a row after winning also in 2011. The Spanish U 19 team is also the current European champion for the second year in a row and will compete in July for a record breaking third championship. The U 20 team will fight for the world championship this summer.

This is truly a golden age. A veritable embarrassment of riches.

It's not like Spanish youth have much to do besides playing football.

[The Larch]

Spain defeated Italy yesterday, claiming the European U 21 championship, it's second in a row after winning also in 2011. The Spanish U 19 team is also the current European champion for the second year in a row and will compete in July for a record breaking third championship. The U 20 team will fight for the world championship this summer.

This is truly a golden age. A veritable embarrassment of riches.

It's not like Spanish youth have much to do besides playing football.

The ones that get to that level might end up extremely well employed, so it's an investment. 

[katmai]

US did what they had to, and looks like Altidore is maturing nicely with another goal for 4 straight games with one.

[FunkMonk]

US did what they had to, and looks like Altidore is maturing nicely with another goal for 4 straight games with one.

I am slowly preparing myself for when the media build a giant hype machine around Altidore and then his eventual fall from grace when he goes through another goal scoring drought.

[PDH]

I read a good piece (in the NYT blog?) about Altidore today.  They noted that it wasn't the goal, but rather how he was in the game - charging the goalie late in the match after a back pass and forcing an errant kick that was mark of his maturity.  He seems to be more "in" the game now, and it is showing.

Of course, as a striker, he will always have periods of being on and periods of being off - but it is nice to see Altidore being on when he is needed.

[Josephus]

Knowing I only have time to watch one game from the Confed this evening, I chose to "tape"  the Brazil - Mexico game, instead of what turned out to be a far more exciting Italy-Japan game. Who knew?

[Josquius]

Apparently Mignolet is going to Liverpool. He's just too good for us. Hope we can get some decent money out of them.

[Liep]

The producers thank Pique for finally giving them a reason to show footage of Shakira.