It's just Argentina and Brazil and Uruguay who shit their pants every time they have to go up there. I think it was Passarella who famously whined that in La Paz "the ball doesn't bend". Fuck him! Chile hasn't lost there since the year of the dick.

everybody knows that la paz is hard to beat--not the players

but the 0-0 was in santiago? (i just found out)

http://www.marca.com/eventos/directo...lovivimos.html

haaa haaa haaa haaaaa

oh, fucked up. fucked up indeed.

Yeah, that was wretched.

A royal piece of shit today, Chile. No Putin 2018 for those guys at this rate.

England 2-0 Malta. Decent performance, albeit against rubbish opponents, although I saw nothing from Rooney to make me think there'll be any let up from those calling for him to be dropped. Henderson was our best player.

malta? those are some nice uniforms

interesting weekend at the bundesliga so far-- at least the games i've watched

first, dortmund tied with hertha berlin yesterday 1-1

then, bayern tied today with a 10-man frankfurt squad 2-2

(timothy chandler had a pretty great game, so take note klinsmann)

anyway the table now has bayern still ahead but only by 2 points, koln 2nd place, berlin 3rd, and dortmund 4th

as a season, it's shaping up to be more fun than with last year's runaway leaders

not sure yet how the best german teams will do at the champions league though

OKAY, SO... who is watching what today?

i'll keep an eye on sporting clube vs dortmund

(though leverkusen/spurs was also intriguing)

Spurs v Leverkusen for me. Half time, 0-0. Good game so far. Spurs look the better team.

dortmund is beating sporting 2-0 but it's more about luck in the area than overall team performance. it's been very even and lively so far.

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jeezus, ended up 2-1, sporting deserved better, great second half with 7 minutes injury time. i'm a new sporting fan, really fun team to watch.

Can't wait for Man C v Barcelona tonight

was out of town and missed it today but WILL see replay. that score! OUCH.

Messi will get all the headlines but, without taking anything away from him, Man City made terrible defensive mistakes to let him in, and Pep's decision to strengthen the midfield by drpping Aguero, while I don't think his inclusion would've turned the tie around, will draw criticism. Bottom line seems to be that if you make a mistake against a team without Messi you have a fair chance that you'll get away with it. If you make a mistake against a team with him, you don't.

i read that bravo blamed himself (or was blamed?) and something about man city with 10 men but haven't wanted to read past headlines. as soon as i have schedule space i'll watch the whole thing! had to make room for hillary last night.

The defensive mistakes were individual and can't be levelled at Pep - although Bravo's mistake does fuel doubts about Pep's decision to edge out Hart. The Aguero situation is the big one, though, not just leaving him on the bench but bringing him on when the game was already lost, and that's entirely Pep's decision. Could he even be trying to edge him out, too? If he is that really would be a huge move which could quickly threaten his relationship with fans. (Especially with news that he also left Kompany out of the squad altogether, despite being passed fit.) I only hope for his sake that his decisions are tactical and not just power plays. Hmm.

got back home yesterday at last and havent caught that barca game yet--trying to fit it for tomorrow

but this morning last-place ingolstadt gave dortmund a great run for their money by getting ahead 2-0 by halftime. then 2-1 then 3-1 instantly then 3-2 then 3-3 and dortmund tired to get ahead by the end but no. superfun to watch though.

that of course made me google, and whoa!

it's a 4-0 week, this one

speaking of 4-0 just sitting down to watch pep's destruction as i write this

comments later....

1s comment: the whole first half was played on man city's half!!

2nd comment: i like a good sweeper keeper, but BRAVO IS NO SWEEPER KEEPER. jeezus that whole red card "event" was disgraceful.

not done well wil add more after but right now i'm waiting for the injured to be removed.

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man city a fucking disaster. they were NOWHERE. and another day that i don't see silva do a thing! he and i have bad timing.

but this was a tactical clusterfuck of doom! of course messi is messi but... so much space!

pep blew it. on purpose maybe? ha ha ha. i thought that when he lost vs barcelona in the champions.

I saw it again and yeah, Pep's tactics backfired massively. MC played at the weekend and they were pretty poor then, too. I give him a free pass for now but there are clear issues he's gonna need to address. Problem is some games they blow me away while other times they don't click at all. Exactly what you were saying while he was at Bayern. Altrady noticing a few #pepout hashtags on twitter. Not all of them are serious but enough are to make me think his honeymoon period won't last forever, They were booed off at the weekend. If he sticks to his traditional style he's gonna get found out. Southampton were able to neutralise them simply by stopping them from playing out from the back. And I'd say English fans generally really don't like that way of playing, or are at least suspicious of it. And yes, I can categorically say that for all his faults, Hart is quite simply a much better goalkeeper than Bravo.

Like I say, he has a free pass for now, based on past achievements, but the warning signs are definitely there.