it was fucking great. barca suffers from replacement central defenders that aren't quite up to par with puyol and piqué and for some fucked reason they put in pedro and alexis sanchez but no villa. fuck. it was so annoying. so the game didn't quite end up where i wanted but it was a great show regardless.

best moment of the game was watching cronaldo cry and pout. of course! oh and messi's 2nd goal hot damn:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPwmkHQ1Pi4

Barça looked bad. The flair Guardiola put into their football is gone.

true that

Everyones spunking in their britches about this goal.

Am i the only person who isnt really impressed by goals like this, ones that stem from a player getting his body into completely the wrong position and then get a million views online? I mean, its great acrobatics and everything, but i scored a goal like that when i was about 12, its not that hard if youve got a bit of dexterity and you end up in the right place

No, I tend to agree. But at the moment I'm loving Suarez's dive at the weekend. Has to be an early candidate for most embarrassing dive of the season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7wdZolXwJE

Im a Spurs fan so I found Bale's effort personally sickening. He's turning people against him with this kind of nonsense. Theres a reason people applaud Scholes and Kompany and Joe Hart wherever they go, its cos theyre great players who do it without resorting to that nonsense

Embarressing

The season?! Of all time more like.

HILARIOUS

This Saturday is Non-League Day

If, like me, you grew up playing Sunday League and getting a hell of a lot out of it, non league, grassroots football is the reason you were able to do it. Take an afternoon off your usual regime of self abuse and Dinosaur Jr albums and go down to a local ground to support your local team. With all the idiotic chants, poor merchandise and dreadful hot dogs that entails.




http://www.nonleagueday.co.uk/find-a-match

Non-League Day is the brainchild of James Doe, a lifelong football fan, supporter of QPR and follower of Harrow Borough FC. In James' own words:

"With England playing on Friday 12th October and the Premier League and Championship taking a week off, I urge all fans of the big clubs to get out and watch their local non-league teams instead on Saturday 13th October!
Given the current financial climate, clubs outside the football league need all the support they can get, so your presence at a game will be genuinely appreciated. With tickets and refreshments at a fraction of the cost, what's stopping you!"

Non-League Day is a celebration of the semi-professional and amateur game and a chance for fans of bigger clubs to experience football at a level they may be otherwise unfamiliar with. Moreover, it helps promote hundreds of clubs across the country who are almost exclusively volunteer run and do so much good for the local community.

Yeah, I'm seriously thinking about popping to see Bethnal Green Utd on Saturday. I love the idea of a non-league day and definitely hope it's a big success. I used to watch Rippleway Newham as a kid which turned out some great players - Sol Campbell, John Terry, Defoe and loads of others. I even remember watching Nigel Benn play for them. He was a great footballer and could've probably turned pro had he not taken up boxing. Although I'm a couple of years older than Sol, we went to the same school and I can remember playing Wembley with him at playtime. My one footballing claim to fame.

Nigel Benn, Crikey. He maimed a man and still has a better reputation than John Terry.

Im going down to Hanworth Villa, it says theyre playing "Wembley". I dont know if this is the Budweiser sponsored Wembley FC or another crew. But given the fact its on a ground i remember playing at as a boy, my hopes for an appearance from Terry Venebles arent high

When you say they're playing 'wembley', do you mean the team or the game?

Speaking of Wembley, England thrash San Marino, a country with a smaller population than the capacity of Wembley stadium. What's the point? Countries like that musy pre qualify, surely. They turn up and basically do nothing but hold out for the possibility of a draw. Countries below a certain ranking should play each other to see who progresses to play bigger teams otherwise they'll never feel like they've achieved anything. It must be totally disheartening. It should be like the FA Cup, where the lower league teams play each other to see who gets to the fifth round, when the Prem teams get involved. For a lot of those teams, getting to that stage is a massive achievement and gives them a reason to properly compete.

haha. 90 minutes of Wembley. And if noone wins they play RedArse (i dont know if you know what i mean by RedArse, but its 1000x better than a penalty shootout)

Its the FA Vase apparently, its listed on the non league day website.

im half-watching germany vs. ireland. poor ireland!

maybe they should play san marino :(

ive not watched it, but im embarrassed. Good as Germany are, you shouldnt concede 6 against them at home when your whole team ethos has been to be as cautious as possible. Trappatoni needs to go

i don't know about the "conceding" part, some of those goals were beautifully shot and impossible to stop regardless of defense. the kind of thing that often hits the post but this time they were all in-- that's because ireland's bad luck is worse than germany's so all the balls go in.

ps - oh at least they scored one, what a relief.

ill watch the highlights. There were predictions of a total massacre, and those predctions came true. Nice win for Wales though, glad they got that monkey off their back, id much rather see them in the World Cup than Scotland

Yeah agree all round, both about wanting Wales to do well post Gary Speed (and I absolutely love John Hartson) and the need for Ireland to get rid of Trappatoni. I don't care how good Germany are, shipping 6 goals is almost always down to a capitulation. I didn't see the game but it looks like Ireland have pretty much given up under Trappatoni.

And Edgar Davids as player coach for flippin' Barnet!! WTF is going on their?!?

I saw it and Ireland fought until the very end. There was no "giving up" that I could see. They were just completely outclassed. and Reus-- Reus is a fucking star. And Toni Kroos did what he's been doing all year against any and all rivals (except for BATE, lol). Ozil pulled a Balotelli for a penalty kick (minus the cockiness). Took 30minutes to break down the Irish defense but once that happened the floodgates opened. I don't blame the Irish or their coach, I really don't. I don't know what else they could have done.

ps- uruguay/argentina last night w as AWESOME! damn, messi was just fucking tremendous. if you can catch a replay, worth the search.