ha ha

but leverkusen is 2nd! dortmund sank to 4th. there are games starting in 5'.

and i still don't get champions league. ouch.

The way things are looking in the bundesliga it'll take the CL to see just how good Bayern are this year. The few times I've watched them in their domestic league they've barely looked like they needed to get out of 2nd gear.

No, in the US sports are also similarly very much a local affair, and indeed, Los Angeles is legendary. Between 1980-85 LA teams won TWO Superbowls, THREE NBA Championships, an MLB World Series,and even was home to the 84 Olympics where USA won a lot of Gold medals. Needless to say in the 1980s America despised LA. Over the past 50 years LA sports have won over 20 national championships, mostly NBA, but also 3 Superbowls with the Raiders, two World Series with the Dodgers, the MLS Galaxy have won 3 championships, and even our NHL Kings finally won the Stanley Cup two years ago... Don't forget that we host the college football championship games at the Rose Bowl and between USC and UCLA LA has won quite a few of those too!


In the 1990s we declined a bit, but by 1999-2000 we were back on track so that the Lakers won 3 back-to-back NBA champions and rekindled America's beef with LA sports. So yeah, we're local. BUT LA is also home to 5,000,000 people who were not born here, so in LA are a shitload of fans of non-LA teams who brought their other team love with them to LA when they expatriated from wherever they came from. Me? I stopped enjoying the Lakers after Shaq left in 2003, and in NBA sometimes personalities are as likable as home-town teams if not more. So I ditched Lakers and became part of a huge LA phenomenon, the patented "LA Laker Hater." We just be hatin for fun yo!


I can agree with that, but what if West Ham over time became a team full of lowlives and douchbags who you don't want to support? What if all the local fans become such obnoxious pricks that you want nothing to do with them? That is what happened to LA and the 2000s Lakers, and I was sick of it! So I started Laker-hating..

Maybe its because the US is such a HUGE country for sports, but in every sport there are roughly 30 teams to go around for about 300 major cities! In other words, a lot of bandwagon fans and just random team fans.. Its also a good reason why American sports are so personality driven.

If that happened I'd have to become a total neutral. I certainly couldn't switch loyalties to another team. I hate WH's current owners and manager (although still no problems with the actual fans as yet) but no way could I even consider supporting say Arsenal or Spurs or Man U or anyone else.

Saying all that, I'm not a 'proper' fan anymore anyway. I hardly ever go to watch them now so I'm the epitome of the 'armchair supporter' - the most money the team got from me this season was £5.99, for a mug. So I'm probably more a neutral now than anything anyway - more interested in the sport itself than the fortunes of a single club. But if anyone asked me who I support, it's West Ham, even if that's now only based on where I'm originally from, the team I used to watch as a kid and the name on the mug I drink from. I can't get on my high horse about this.

It might not be long-term, but Tim Sherwood has been bloody good fun since he got the job, he's the coolest manager in the league by far, and we might look like tripe one week but we come back and do the business the next. He also has that 'Arry Charm (TM) with the media which helps.




Even if we dont get into the Champions League, everything since AVB was sacked has been alot more fun, and thats the best we can ask for since Bale left.

i've finally come to terms with the fact that it's going to be really hard for me to get the bundesliga on tv, and unless i learn to love the prem and i order a reasonable cable package soon, i'm gonna be lacking any good fútbol until the world cup.

meanwhile-- liverpool 2nd and arsenal 3rd? chelsea back on top? man u 6th? I'M MISSING OUT!!

You really are. It's been a brilliant season so far. The title race is still wide open and there's the blissful sight of Man U's decline. No Prem team really stands out in terms of quality, they're still a bit behind Bayern and the big Spanish teams, but for all round entertainment and unpredictability it's as good as I can remember. We've even had managers headbutting players.

oh man! that's just some kittenish show of affection, innit?

bayern is like 20 points ahead of everybody else already. as much as i love how they play, it's really a one-team league. dortmund was way behind and they've climbed to 2nd at last but it's not the same drama. don't know how they're faring without gotze. don't know anything really. it's tragic. haven't seen any match i think since the summer.

i've been missing out on the champions league too. LEAN FUCKING YEAR.

now that i sorted it out w/ the missus about knowing how to quit the bundesliga, i can shop around for something affordable. here i come, nbc 1, or whatever the fuck the new channels are called (fox lost the prem rights which also killed their website). okay. one of these days now...

Enthusiasm for the Bundesliga in England has definitely waned since last season. It's good too see a great team win but the sheer level of Bayern's dominance has been a real turn off - although it's unusual for the Prem to be this competitive. Team of the season so far for me is Liverpool. Brilliant to watch (if a bit wobbly in defence) and Suarez is having an incredible season - and so far seems to be behaving himself.

Yeah Liverpool have been outstanding. As were Arsenal when they had Ramsey fit

This season has been great too because pretty much the whole bottom half are in a relegation battle!

Iain Dowie ... in a Bollywood outfit.

What the actual fuck!?!

He is a good looking guy

Amazing isn't it? Someone sent it to me. I thought it was photoshopped but its legit. Some charity thing.

Anyway yeah. Really worried Chelsea might pull off the title this season.

Yeah looks like it
I think Liverpool have got a great chance though, and to be honest I think chelsea are more likely to drop points than Liverpool.
That and the extra games they'll have with the champions league chelsea might fuck up
But I'm grasping at straws!

Looks like you're gonna be safe. and we'll go down on goal difference on the last day of the season

The annoying thing about Chelsea is their manager.
He would have been great as a vilain wrestler.

Arsenal is over - hope they win the Cup.
Now, if Liverpool don't win it, I'll be ok with Man City.
And in the end, I'd settle for being slightly happy for Hazard and Schürrle if this, alas, good team of Chelsea wins - Matic brought a lot of good things.

It's still too close to call but I pretty much want it the same way. Liverpool ideally but I'll settle for anyone other than Chelsea.

And West Ham fans booing the team off after they'd won! That has to be a first.

C'mon west ham!

Really need sunderland to lose!

Man U 1 - 1 Bayern
Barca 1 - 1 Atletico Madrid

Two very unexpected results tonight. The second legs will be immense!

I even ended up rooting for utd last night, and that never happens!

Anyone who missed Chelsea v PSG tonight missed an absolute cracker!

shit, dortmund got left behind. sadface.

Looks like that was a great one too. Real were really holding on towards the end apparently.

The prospect of another Pep-Mourinho faceoff gets even closer.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...-autobiography

this is a good read - looks like it'll be an interesting book

Fuck, if Barcelona were the coolest team on the planet without Pirlo, they'd have had to get their shirts designed by Versace and play on a yacht for them to even come close to accommodating their cool-factor with him.

pretty funny read from pirlo's autobiography about gattuso. favorite part: "Gattuso would come in, brush his teeth, stick on his leopard-print pyjamas, get into bed, take out a book and look at the pictures."

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/edi...?ICID=HP_FT_10

Is that why he plays for Juve? To counterbalance the lack of class?

I'm afraid Pirlo, just like Guardiola, falls into the category of mea colonia.

¿y a qué huele esa colonia?

I've read that term 'mea colonia' used a few times in relation to Guardiola. What does it mean?

he pisses cologne

meaning he can do no wrong, or he shits flowers, in the eyes of the public

it's not latin like mea culpa, though it could look that way.

Ah, OK. Cheers. They're both definitely press/neutrals' favourites so there's probably some truth to the claim but the question then is why they're so adored?

because they DO shit flowers!

I agree but the extent of their popularity seems rooted in something more than just footballing talent - which is obviously without question. Pirlo especially seems to represent a kind of ideal off the pitch as much as on it. In other words I have a bit of a man crush on him.

I think that's it.
They're fucking good at what they do and we all fancy them a little bit

See also Thiery Henry

they're our modern day warrior heroes, like achilles or hector or odysseus or agamemnon. some are awesome, some are assholes, some are clever, they're all human, but of course we idealize them a little. we need them just like we need books or movies.

Looks like Moyes has finally run out of time.



Still just a rumour but the papers seem pretty certain about it.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...chester-united

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...ly-owners.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...e-failure.html

Things getting a little heated in the 75th minute between Alt Madrid and Chelsea.

I may or may not need Alt Madrid :D

shit, i just read some blog updates. i have no dog in this fight but it looks like a mess.

tomorrow, galácticos vs galácticos!

i'll have to find a sports bar or i'll kill myself