got up at 6am today, drove a bunch of miles in the mud to a good free wifi spot and sorted through a bunch of shitty streams-- finally was able to catch a reasonably watchable 2nd half of the bayern/nurnberg game

it was fun! nurnberg seemed to have parked the bus and bayern was in full attack mode and couldn't score for the longest time. finally both little thiago and little gotze were taken out and replaced by muller and kroos and bayern scored 2 goals.

seems to me bayern is shaping up to avoid becoming a boring side, they were very aggressive, but 2 things concern me:

1) what used to be a fast moving up the right/left channels seems to have been replaced by a slower triangulation. good for possession but bad for counterattack/surprises.

2) the defensive midfield seems a bit "holy". meaning that when nurnber counterattacked (didn't happen a lot though) it squeezed right through the middle -- right where javi martinez used to stop them.

leverkusen / monchengladbach did great it seems (4-2) but i couldn't watch it cuz it was simultaneous and with streams you get the one chance only.

anyway, in spite of all the problems-- thank fuck for streams! i am sort of relieved but still worried and skeptical that he's gonna improve from last year's perfection. (a tall order anyway).

They do seem to be making hard work of games they'd have previously steamrollered through. Obviously a transition phase. The question is a transition to what?

Anyway, Man C play in 10 minutes if you can watch it.

Edit: And FIFA's confirmed it's gonna reschedule the Qatar WC, probably to the winter. Absolute bollocks.

Man City v Cardiff. Amazing game. Exactly why the Prem may not be top in terms of quality but remains the most exciting. No doubt the papers'll be all about what went wrong for MC but all credit to Cardiff. Brilliant!

that's because it's the one you follow! wiliam blake had some thing to say about trees too.

anyway i tried to find that but it was too late and regadlress the channel is not in my cable package (i finally found nbc sports, unavailable. plus other stuff also unavailable, ha ha.well it's not "my" cable package. long story.)

tomorrow it's man u/ chelsea--or am i dreaming? that should be a good fucking show. i'll try to see if i go catch a stream somewhere (hides face in shame).

Yeah, Man U-Chelsea tomorrow.

It's true that I don't watch every league to compare but I do try to keep up with Serie A and La Liga and certainly, of the three, the Prem is more exciting and unpredictable on a week to week basis. I doubt many Italians or Spaniards would even argue with that. What little I saw of the Bundesliga last year suggested it had a great fan culture and produced two exceptional teams but, if you put those to one side, it wasn't that exciting, and nothing much to shout about quality wise. I'd never say the EPL offered the best quality of football although if you took the top half of the Prem and compared it with the top half of any other major European league, I'd say the Prem would have a good shout against any of them - even if their top two teams were ahead of ours. I suppose it ends up depending what different people find exciting. For me it's unpredictability, coming from even the smallest clubs believing they have a chance against even the very biggest, and playing with that spirit, even if they fail. The David v Goliath thing that I do obviously see in other leagues, but not with anything like the same regularity. If I did, I'd say so; I've no deep-rooted need to defend the Prem just because I'm English. I'm as aware of its shortcomings as anyone, but I won't deny its qualities either, just to avoid accusations of parochialism.

i'm currently in an "under construction" farmhouse and watch tv elsewhere, so i have no control of the programming.

so yeah, i'm resorting to streams in desperation-- i'm a fucking criminal. i hope to soon reform and change my evil ways...

...but i'm not about to sign a 2-year contract with a satellite tv provider if i don't know yet where i'll be next month.

mind you, the streams require that i go and steal wifi as well as content. but trust me, the penance is included in the process. rural america remains in the cave ages and this operation is not without its pains.

anyway. there was a new york red bulls thing that i could have watched today (i think it's about to end) but it would have been like salting the wound.

see? long story. you were warned!


ha ha ha. this is like arguing about who has the better girlfriend. you'll find the better traits in the one you love. (and didn't man u win by like 1,000,000 points last year? the bayern super-supremacy was a freak historical thing. anyway, keep an eye on bayer leverkusen this coming CL.)

pfffft! i was raised catholic. i've bought a papal indulgence.

As a West Ham fan, I concede you have the better looking girlfriend.

sure, but you'll probably claim yours is crazier in the sack or knows how to make a great pork pie or really gets you like nobody else would.

Nah, big Sam's obsessed with clean sheets so hardly much sack action worth talking about. And the pies are overpriced.

Anyway, Man U v Chelsea tonight. Gonna be interesting.



And Real Madrid have already assigned Gareth Bale a squad number and selling shirts with his name, even before they've officially signed him. :rolleyes:

Bless 'em.

Yeah tonight's match could be good. If I can get a decent stream I'll give it a watch.

turned out quite a cagey affair in the end, well the first half anyway. I fell asleep at half time.

Seems ridiculous that a manager could face the sack two games into a season but looks like Holloway's on the verge after last night's defeat. Rumours that Warnock's being lined up and even talk about getting Pardew from Newcastle. Daft as it sounds, Saturday's game against Sunderland could be a must win. Wonder what Sonicbebs makes of it all.

Is that Palace's manager? I saw their game with Spurs and liked them.



Arsenal's group is probably the most interesting out of the CL draw.

Looking forward to tonight's supercup final.

YES!

Yes, or Freddy Kreuger as i like to call him..

Last night's match was epic. This one you got to see, símbolos.

Yeah, loved last night's match.

So far today's Prem has had a bit of a goal drought, typical that one of the very few scored was against West Ham. We need to have a backup striker for Carroll. Maiga just can't do it.

Big pressure on Holloway in the up coming game. Should be a good one.

Don't know where to find a full recording but ill look for the highlights next time I visit the 21st century internets! (I have a list)

Well Ozil to Arsenal is a great signing. Fellaini has put a transfer request to Everton so he'll be gone soon. How much for is the big question.

Oh and West Brom have FINALLY got rid of the shit Odemwingie.

Oh and supposedly Man Utd have had an offer for Khedira rejected. How many offers for a player have they had rejected now?

http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=...pg&w=640&h=360

4 players signed on deadline day. Pretty happy with the purchases of Sessegnon and Morgan Amalfitano. Both could be good purchases. No idea why we payed 5 million for Anichebe, it could be a great signing or a terrible one but i'm fairly sure we could have signed a better striker for that price.

Hopefully we can start to improve now. Personally I felt Clarke should have been sacked after Sunday, it was terrible. If things haven't changed in 3 games, we should start looking for a new manager perhaps Gus Poyet.

well yes and no. have they got a striker, or is it another "all balls and no penis" setup like last year?

Haha. No, he just represents another very expensive testicle. Although Giroud's been a decent prick for them so far.

Nice bit of business for Everton too, keeping Baines (for more important I think than Fellaini) and getting Lukaku in on loan.

Meanwhile West Ham don't get anyone in, even though with Andy Carroll injured we now effectively don't have a striker. Losing out on Ba is a big blow, although we should've gone in for Anichebe too. It's hard attracting a striker though when they know that as soon as Carroll's fit they'll be warming the bench. Problem for us though is he's never fucking fit.


Apparently, if you draw a face on your kneecap, it looks remarkably like Ribery - unless you're black, in which case it looks like Jay Z.

expensive you say? then he finally spent the money he supposedly wasn't spending.

and have they gotten rid of that useless gervinho yet? he's the best defender the opposing team can have.

ps- sorry about your team's news.

Gervinho's gone to Roma. Ozil's a good buy and definitely the kind of marquee signing Wenger said he'd get, but I think Arsenal's big problems are in defence which, even with someone as up and down as Gervinho going, is now even weaker.

West Ham will be mid table if Carroll gets to play regularly but without him we're gonna be relegation fodder. Only ray of hope is a pretty strong defence and the possibilty of Karren Brady one day running topless onto the pitch.

but gervinho was an attacker! i mean, the utter shit kind of attacker who will take a ball from the opponent's goal line and kick it out towards the moon instead of scoring (hence "best defender").

i've never paid much attention to arsenal's defense since they seemed to do everything in the midfield though. maybe i should, but my tv prospects are dim for now. (on the other hand, my tests with earthen plasters are being successful). all i can do is read zonal marking.

and you, don't despair, there's still january and the chance that you can get a spare tire for your ex-liverpool loan. i hate it when a team gravitates around a single achilles heel.

Ah, quite right about Gervinho. Thinking of a completely different player.

It seems that Wenger pays even less attention to Arsenal's defence than either of us. It's always been a problem with him. When he first joined them he inherited one of the all time great defences, which his early success was largely built on, but he never really maintained it when the key players retired.

Oh, I kind of enjoy despairing about West Ham. They'll never win anything so worrying about lack of success is pretty pointless. All you can do is wallow in their absurdity while hoping it doesn't get so out of hand that they risk getting relegated again. Beyond that it's simply the hope that they might occasionally get a scalp over one of the bigger clubs. But that's about as good as it gets. Not complaining though. They're still a great team to support, just one that requires a totally different set of expectations than you'd need supporting the bigger teams. The nearest most West Ham fans get to Europe is taking the ferry over to Calais to load up on cigarettes. Still better than supporting Chelsea though.

And Obama's a fan, even though they're less 'Yes We Can' and more 'Realistically We Don't Have a Hope in Hell'.

Bayern getting in the spirit for Oktoberfest ... in lederhosen!



oh dear.

haaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaaa

priceless.

Just be thankful Klinsmann isn't designing the USA kit.

Just read that about Harry Redknapp early days at West Ham: how he picked an petulant fan to play for the team one day.
The story's fun and I think it is really well written, which makes it even better.
I had no idea this had happened.
Refreshing!
http://www.theguardian.com/football/...d-fan-west-ham

i just watched the supercup highlights. OH MAAAAAN! i missed something really good.

Always thought it was just an urban legend but apparently not. Great find.

I'm watching the USMNT game on Friday, but with NFL season kicking off tonight and this weekend, its not likely that I will be as into as as during the early summer. "Are you ready for some football?" FUCK YEAH!!!

Good win for England today. Moldova were awful but those are the kinds of games you can easily slip up on. Stopped watching in the second half to watch Ronaldo's hat trick against Scotland. Love him or hate him, the guy's incredible.

Costa Rica go their Eff You game today against USMNT, BUT, we were on a USA record setting 12 game streak so statistical odds were utterly against us. My philosophy about sports is streaks are bad luck, they bring about over confidence at best, and injuries at worst. When the Miami Heat were in their 27 game streak I was literally PRAYING they'd lose a game in there to mellow out. Look what happened? Dwyane Wade got his knees KNOCKED THE FUCK OUT, and went from shooting a career high 58% with 24 ppg to dropping down to bellow 50% with a pedestrian 16 ppg because of nagging injuries....

Speaking of getting knocked the fuck out, here are some great shots of Chicago Bears' QB Jay Cutler getting eviscerated last season ;)



















I got to be careful though. True story, three years ago I was watching a Bears game at my friends house, I trash talked about Chicago one time, and his sister literally ran up and punched me dead in the jaw, hard too, like a dude. I was shocked!! Needless to say, I don't diss the Bears around her, so I'll get it out of my system here