[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

So its the end of an American legend. Even if the rest of the world doesn't like him, folks can't argue with him being the greatest ever American footballer. Further, he did his job in utterly dominating American futbol (MLS) and was the best player ever for our USMNT in International play. He has most International goals for an American player. The most assists for an American player. The most career wins for an American player. The most international trophies (Gold Cup) for an American player. The most domestic MLS Cups. The most goals in MLS history. The most assists in MLS history.

My all time Top 3 moments?

1) The Algeria Goal.

 

2) Put your Stunna Shadez on Landon 2013 Gold Cup Final

 

3) His recent hat trick against RSL in the 2014 MLS semis..

 

As they say, thanks for the memories!

[demonrail666]

Still say Klinsmann's decision to drop him was motivated more by an obsession with control than anything to do with football.
#any excuse to have a go at Jurgen.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Still say Klinsmann's decision to drop him was motivated more by an obsession with control than anything to do with football.
#any excuse to have a go at Jurgen.

the belief is he wanted to punish donovan's casual attitude and the timing of his self-discovery excursions and his lack of fitness and commitment. e.g: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?...cer&id=8581560

i can't hate jurgen at the moment--

 

he's our only hope.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Jurgen clearly made a mistake though,.I get what he did from a coaching perspective AND YET even by Jurgen's own reasoning it was stupid because THERE.ISNT ANYONE IN THE WORLD who didn't think Donovan was at least the 22nd or 23rd best player on roster and considering how much offensive punch was lacking in our WC performance clearly we.needed.some of.Landon's cerebral playmaking. Surely Jurgen could have found other ways.to play mind games with Landon that DIDNT hurt the team

[h8kurdt]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

ha ha... well maybe not exactly "sloppy" but... i can't explain-- seemed like "lots of muscle" or something. in bundesliga games there is a lot of speed and physicality, but with more... precision? less wrangling? not sure. this is different. it was awesome though! honestly, i enjoyed it. a different style from what i'm used to see but no less entertaining. and seeing swansea really pressure for a goal during the 10-15 minutes they managed to dominate with 10 men was awesome--i thought they'd sit back & defend.

i didn't watch the 1st half so i didn't have a full appreciation unfortunately. sakho was really dominant though. for me, a total stranger to these teams, with no background or understanding of who was who, it was like watching "sakho & company" vs. swansea.

btw, wasn't carroll a loan from.... liverpool i think?

anyway, good match & congrats again!

--

sorry to hear about agüero's injury. rome are probably ecstatic with the news. i wonder who pep will line up vs. cska.

Gwanna have to disagree with you there. There's more than enough speed and definitely enough physicality in the premier league. Tbh there's barely any difference in the La Liga, Bundesliga and the Premier League anyway.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by h8kurdt

Gwanna have to disagree with you there. There's more than enough speed and definitely enough physicality in the premier league. Tbh there's barely any difference in the La Liga, Bundesliga and the Premier League anyway.

yeah i wasn't talking about the prem but about the west ham match-- i don't really know the prem.

demonyo is the one who singled out the lower levels of the prem as such-- take it up with him, i'd love to hear both of you discuss league styles.

but in la liga i've seen a lot more theatrics with fouls-- one little trip and they roll on the floor like bowling balls and make faces.

[h8kurdt]

HAHAHAHA West Ham/ Everton F.a cup tie. Brilliant.

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

demonyo is the one who singled out the lower levels of the prem as such-- take it up with him, i'd love to hear both of you discuss league styles.

What I meant is stereotypes about the Prem are truer of the lower level teams than of the league as a whole. The increasingly international exchange of players, managers and ideas at the top end of all the major leagues means the bigger clubs in all the top leagues are now playing in a broadly similar style. But what I do think remains unique about the Prem is the regularity with which established top teams will be beaten by much lower ranked ones. That obviously happens in other leagues too but hardly a week goes by in the Prem when at least one of the 'big 4/5' teams isn't beaten by a side usually ranked far further down. Or if they do win made to work really hard for it, weekin week out.

I saw an interview recently with Mourinho saying just that. He confessed to being bored while at Real, when the only game he really knew was always gonna be a challenge was against Barca, and the same at Inter when (with Juve relegated) he knew the only games he really had to work for was the Milan derby.

Edit: found the interview. It's a good one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJtGya305l4

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by h8kurdt

HAHAHAHA West Ham/ Everton F.a cup tie. Brilliant.

Haha, tumbleweeds on the hipster blogosphere for that one.

[h8kurdt]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Haha, tumbleweeds on the hipster blogosphere for that one.

Sorry yeah, Rotherham/Bournemouth looks like the one to watch <-Hipster

[demonrail666]

Pah, I'll be watching an illegal stream of the Honduras Liga Nacional on that day. Come on you Platense (So hip their official website is a facebook page)

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

What I meant is stereotypes about the Prem are truer of the lower level teams than of the league as a whole. The increasingly international exchange of players, managers and ideas at the top end of all the major leagues means the bigger clubs in all the top leagues are now playing in a broadly similar style. But what I do think remains unique about the Prem is the regularity with which established top teams will be beaten by much lower ranked ones. That obviously happens in other leagues too but hardly a week goes by in the Prem when at least one of the 'big 4/5' teams isn't beaten by a side usually ranked far further down. Or if they do win made to work really hard for it, weekin week out.

I saw an interview recently with Mourinho saying just that. He confessed to being bored while at Real, when the only game he really knew was always gonna be a challenge was against Barca, and the same at Inter when (with Juve relegated) he knew the only games he really had to work for was the Milan derby.

Edit: found the interview. It's a good one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJtGya305l4

yeah i believe you. i think h8kurdt misunderstood my post because i never said the prem lacked speed & physicality and on reread i think that's what he believed i said. but no no no. anyway, it's not a court case.

re: competition. the bundesliga is pretty much the same in terms of competition once you take bayern out of the equation. the league is pretty tight-- a very strong "middle class" to to speak. very dynamic, teams go easily up & down. la liga doesn't have that i think, they have some real weak clubs at the bottom-- no?

because of this dortmund with all their prior sufferings could still conceivably qualify for the champions, ha ha ha. 20 games to go... = 60 possible points = who knows? but anyway, bayern doesn't win *every year* (they are trying though).

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Given Bayern will finish top even if they lose, he'd be mad to play anything but a 2nd string side. I'd expect lots of unknown names and plenty of tactical experiments.

exactly. now the russians want to score a suprise win & qualify, they'll probably play rough.

i'd field the whole bench, but the bench is pretty shallow due to injuries, i don't think there's a full 11. besides teh long-termers (martinez, alcantara) there's also lahm, alaba, even pizarro (who at his age only plays for 10' at a time) out injured. schweinsteiger is just recovering & hasn't played a full match all season. the idiot benatia out on red-card suspension.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Baye...#Current_squad

so, i'd start hojberg & gianluca gaudino (just turned 18). plus, pepe reina needs to see some action. shaqiri should start as well. i think gotze might play because he was subbed out around halftime this weekend-- i hope it was not due to injury but just to rest him. lewandowski should play because he needs practice-- hasn't been scoring like he did at dortmund. rafinha is already a starter with lahm out. i think there's only 4 defenders available: dante, bernat, rafinha, boateng. maybe he'll try a 3-3-3-1 ha ha ha.


if i were to minimize risk, i'd play:

starke/reina
rafinha - dante - bernat (boateng on bench can cover any spot)
gaudino - hojberg - rode (schweinsteiger, alonso, etc)
weiser - scholl - shaqiri (robbery* & gotze)
sinan kurt (lewandowski, muller)

bunch of 19 year olds that need some experience in that lineup! some haven't played all season i think (scholl, kurt, weiser) some have played a little.

ha ha ha, i had fun putting that fantasy team together.

* robbery = robben + ribéry

[!@#$%!]

dortmund-anderlecht 0-0 at halftime in a lively match. anderlecht with the best opportunities so far and just a minute ago dortmund was spared a penalty.

hard to believe dortmund used to be the team of "lightning-fast transitions" and now are playing a kind of ineffectual possession game that keeps anderlecht's defenders in good formation.

mitchell langerak has been a great replacement for weidenfeller so far-- stopped a one-on-one attack on his goal (forget the name of the anderlecth striker--mitrovic?). proto also had some great saves.

anyway, very nice game-- while the teams are far from glorious they appear well matched.

barcelona-psg tomorrow should be fun!!

[h8kurdt]

Liverpool are having a rough night. The worst thing is that Basel have been pretty shoddy all night.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by h8kurdt

Liverpool are having a rough night. The worst thing is that Basel have been pretty shoddy all night.

serious question-- do you hate liverpool all the time or only when they play domestically?

--

after some sucky borussia substitutions, anderlecht managed to tie 1-1. after scoring, mitrovic made the international sign for pussy eating and was put on replay repeatedly.

[h8kurdt]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

serious question-- do you hate liverpool all the time or only when they play domestically?

--

after some sucky borussia substitutions, anderlecht managed to tie 1-1. after scoring, mitrovic made the international sign for pussy eating and was put on replay repeatedly.

All the time? Nah. Just whenever they play. But seriously, I can appreciate when they play well (see last year), but I'm never going to support them to win. No matter who they're playing.

[h8kurdt]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

serious question-- do you hate liverpool all the time or only when they play domestically?

--

after some sucky borussia substitutions, anderlecht managed to tie 1-1. after scoring, mitrovic made the international sign for pussy eating and was put on replay repeatedly.

So Dortmund managed to make it to the next stage top of the table, ey? Well football is a funny old thing.

[demonrail666]

What shocked me about the Basel game wasn't the result or Liverpool going out but the sense of resignation they had towards it. Gerrard's goal woke them up a bit but it was too late by then. It's like they're still down after the disappointment of last season. Almost hard to believe they're essentially the same side.

[h8kurdt]

After another fantastic performance by De Gea and the questions are starting to rumble that he might actually be the better keeper next to Neuer. I'll say this- Man Utds defence has been so rough at times that he certainly has to put in an extra shift when compared to Neuer.

[demonrail666]

I haven't seen Neuer that much and, to be honest, most of what I believe about how good he is is based on what other people say about him. El Symbols has probably seen him a lot more than anyone here and would be best placed to say just how good he really is. Although I hope it doesn't just come down to his sweeper/keeper role, which still strikes me as a bit of a gimmick. Surely any keeper's reputation has to be based primarily (if not solely) on how good he is at stopping shots. And there can't be many keepers right now who are as good at that, week in week out, as De Gea.