zequist

I know some fans say they'll do anything to help their team win, but this is ridiculous. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id...629&cc=5901

I was only able to watch the second half yesterday, so I missed most of the part where we were good and saw a lot of the part where we were shite. So basing my opinion on the second half alone, I gave my MOTM vote to Lescott. Not that he was outstanding either, but unlike most of the rest, when he caught my attention it was usually for a good play and not because he screwed something up. The only other person I could really say that about is Rodwell, who made a couple of good plays in his brief cameo, but I'm not giving MOTM to an 85th-minute sub. Credit to Pienaar for hustle and effort, but he made a hash out of what should have been several routine plays. Arteta's return can't come quickly enough. Fellaini was piss poor apart from the goal, which was very well taken. Couldn't justify voting for either of them based solely on the second half. I hear kudos being given for Neville too, but I gotta say, he was the invisible man on TV. I don't know if I heard the announcers mention his name more than once the entire half. Although considering the way most of the rest of the team was playing, maybe that was a good thing.

1 - I had a particular interest in the country at that time. I'd visited there a few years previously and really enjoyed it; felt at home there and quite welcomed by the locals (as opposed to, say, Paris, but that's another story). How it relates to college is that my friend's roommate in my first year there was an absolute freak for the sport - completely obsessed. I had enough talks with him about it to get my own curiosity up, knowing next-to-nothing about it at that point, so I started looking for stuff online. There wasn't much, because it was still the early days of the web and comprehensive sites like Soccernet didn't exist yet, but one of the sites I did find was some fan of the Belgian League and Belgian national team who was doing his own web page (in English!) with news updates and scores and standings. And since I was still into all things Belgian, I bookmarked it and kept coming back to read it. 2 - Only as a hobby. I used to supplement my income by doing some freelance sportswriting, but that was a long time ago, and I've never had any original fiction published anywhere.

I get asked that question occasionally, since I'm of course not from the UK, and most people over here only know the Big Four if they know any Premier League teams at all. For me, it all started with a short story. Back around 2003-04, I got a plot idea that I liked, so I started expanding on it, and creating my characters. One of them was to be a little girl, about five years old in the beginning of the story (growing up later), and a key scene involving her as a young child was to take place at a football game. I had already decided early on that her family were going to be Scousers, and now I needed to decide which team they were going to support. So I started doing my research, quickly narrowing the choices to Liverpool or Everton. And the more I delved into it, the more I came to like Everton the better of the two, so I eventually made the decision that my characters were going to like Everton too. That was what first put Everton on my radar screen, as it were. I'd been kind of following the sport "from a distance" up to that point, particularly the Belgian league going all the way back to when I was in college, but that was basically just tracking the scoreboards and standings on the web; it wasn't watching games on TV, because I had no access to any domestic club games on TV from any of the European countries, just the World Cup whenever it came around. That finally changed the season after I wrote my short story, which coincidentally was the season that Everton finished fourth. That season I gained access to televised Premier League games for the first time, so I started checking the listings to see when Everton would be on, because I was still curious to learn even more about this team that I had made part of my characters' lives. And the more games I watched, and the more I saw this scrappy and resilient bunch of players fighting it out week after week, going toe-to-toe with wealthy, privileged Liverpool for that Champions League spot, the more hooked I got.

I gotta agree with Vic and Aaron. I'm usually not one who's quick to jump to the conclusion that an interracial incident necessarily involves racism, but in this case, the way these officers behaved seems awfully suspicious to me.

He just quit the Argentinian national team for the second time. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/socc...0392/index.html Glad we said "no thanks" to this guy when we were linked with him a couple of years ago. Major prima donna.

Krista Voda. Best thing NASCAR broadcasts have going for them right now.

But the proposed restriction is only on international transfers; it doesn't say anything about domestic transfers. If a conference team thinks they need to sell a 16-year-old, and they find a team in League One or the Championship or the Premiership who wanted to buy him, then no problem. They just couldn't exile him to, say, Russia or Serbia.

That's a recommendation I will wholeheartedly second. Going Under is easily my favorite of theirs - one of those songs that every so often I just have to stop and listen to, but that whole first album is strong pretty much from top to bottom; I can't think of a bad song in the bunch. I wasn't as enamored of the second album, but it still had its moments. It's too bad that Lee and Moody fell out - I think that more than anything was what really did them in.

Forums: This is the only forum where I visit or post. Don't really need any others, even if I had the time for them. Team news: the daily news updates from the Post/Echo sites. I almost never visit the official site, mainly because I almost never think of it unless someone here specifically links to an article there. The sport as a whole: ESPN Soccernet, CNN/Sports Illustrated, and FIFA.com for current news, Bert Kassies' page for tracking UEFA Cup/UCL qualifying, and footymad.net for historical information.

the two pink scissors - Scissor Sisters the purple wall - Deep Purple cake on the sidewalk - Cake

pixies in the upper left - The Pixies goldfish in the bowl - Phish flag on the building - Black Flag the tipped-over trash can - Garbage the two people under the snake - Kiss guy with the boom box on his shoulders - Radiohead televisions - Talking Heads And yes, Marco, the Scorpions are a real band, and a very good one. They're from Germany, and they've been in the business for almost 35 years.

Not only is an arsenal a building, but Arsenal itself was named after a real building - the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. The team's first players were all employees there.

Back to plugging away at this... Possibly Nottingham Forest. Didn't they win Europe twice in the 70's? I can think of six: Barnsley, Aston Villa, Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Newcastle, and Millwall I know 7: London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Sheffield, Bristol, and Nottingham. Probably the 8th is some smaller town that most of us Yanks wouldn't be familiar with.

It depends on how well you know yourself, really. Some people know from a young age that they have a gift for something, and never waver in their pursuit of it. I went to primary school with a kid who was a brilliant piano player already by second and third grade. It's no surprise to any of us who knew him back then that he now records classical CDs and tours the world playing with major symphony orchestras, because he not only had the talent, he also had the drive and the focus to put in all the long hours of practice it takes to achieve that kind of success. I, on the other hand, kept changing my mind about what I wanted to do all the way up through and even past finishing university. I ended up in a much different profession than what I planned when I started school, but fortunately my degree (history) still carried over very nicely to my current career. One of my friends got an accounting degree, spent six months working for an accounting firm, and decided that he absolutely hated it. Ended up taking a job with an environmental company instead and had to go back to uni again for a second degree, because all the accounting stuff he learned was now completely useless. Both of us turned out just fine, though. So I'd say, don't sweat it. If you have an idea of what you'd like to do, that's great, but keep an open mind. If you start to take classes towards a goal and discover you have either no interest or no aptitude for it, don't force yourself to keep slogging through it. Take a step back and look at some of your other classes, what subjects you especially enjoyed or maybe had more of a knack for; there might be another path out there that's a better fit for you.

Gyahhh. Just had another one hit me - the guy is putting a wig on (Wigan) *grooaan* <_<

I see bluebirds on the floor, canaries on the drape rod, seagulls hanging from the ceiling, magpies outside, and owls on the shelf, but I don't see any robins.

Probably the inflatable swimming pool outside the window is supposed to be Liverpool, although I like your interpretation! Thought it could be Blackpool, but now I'm thinking that maybe the window with the ocean and the seashell could be Blackpool instead (isn't Seasiders one of their nicknames?) I still can't decide if all those people walking past the swimming pool in white robes are supposed to represent Lilywhites, or Citizens, or Grecians. Or maybe some combination of the three? Or if the pool is Liverpool, maybe they're Kopites on a pilgrimage.

Adding a few to others' lists Tractor Boys - Ipswich Tigers - Hull Saints - Southampton Canaries - Norwich

Nah, I don't think it's harsh. I think what happened is David the footballer finally stepped up and gave David the businessman a hard, two-footed tackle and said, "My turn to run with the ball for a while!" And from the clubs' perspective it's just business. If Milan had met LA's asking price they would've sold him already, but LA knows that the shirt sales and brand exposure that they'll get for having Becks for one more season (after which he can choose to opt out and leave if he wants) is worth a lot more money than what Milan was offering them to sell him. Frankly, as much as I dislike LA (being a San Jose fan), I applaud them for sticking to their guns and refusing to be pressured into taking a lowball offer.

Now that I had time to read a little more... Crystal Palace. I'm feeling a bit dumb for not thinking of them sooner. Shortest has got to be Bury. Longest...hmmm...Middlesbrough? Not sure about that one. Brighton & Hove Albion, Accrington Stanley, Plymouth Argyle, and Darlington Real Madrid, Ajax Amsterdam, Benfica, Steaua Bucharest, and Red Star Belgrade

I know two for sure: Hartlepool United and Rotherham United. Depending on when the question was asked, Rushden & Diamonds and Torquay United are also possibilities.

Never Say Goodbye - Bon Jovi

In my experience, no matter how gifted and talented a young player is, there is ALWAYS a growth and maturity process involved. Football players don't arrive fully-formed from the factory at age 18 and remain unchanged for the next 20 years. Skill is skill at any age, but intangibles - instincts, saavy, decision-making, leadership - are a big part of what makes a player who he is too, and those things only come with time and experience. Depending on the player, some will need more work in that area, some not as much. But either way, there's no such thing as a football player who is less mature and less saavy on the pitch at 26 or 27 than he was at 21. Unless you have Benjamin Button playing midfield, the world doesn't work that way. Fellaini will learn, and he'll get smarter about picking his spots to foul as he gets older, just like Anichebe will learn how to condition and pace himself better to stay effective for 90 minutes, and Rodwell and Gosling and Baxter and our other youngsters will learn the lessons they need to learn. And BTW, he never played in the Champions' League. The one year they were up for it, his first year with the team (2006-07), they took the same road we did - got knocked out in the CL qualifiers by Steaua Bucharest, then got knocked out of UEFA Cup qualifying by Celta Vigo. Never properly qualified for either competition. In fact, Standard's only European victory in five attempts while he was with them came against some minnow from Luxemburg in UEFA Cup preliminaries last year (then they played Zenit in the qualifying round and got smashed).

I stand by what I said. Hauling 2 back isn't impossible, but against a Champions' League level opponent, with no away goals to help, the odds of pulling it off and winning are pretty long. Your citing us just proves the point...we gave it our all, and we still lost. Whether it was going down kicking and fighting like we did, or whether we had played the reserves and lost by five, we still lost. If a team has an unlikely deficit to overcome in a second leg, I'm not going to fault someone for conceding at that point, and saving his players for competitions where he still has more important things to play for. It's not something I would do, personally, but I could see where a manager wouldn't want to have to explain to his boss why the team is getting relegated and losing 60 million pounds because his best player went down with a season-ending injury in a game of little or no strategic value. As an Everton fan, I'd think you of all people would appreciate what an untimely injury to a key player can do to a team. NOW... Having said all of that, I did NOT know when I posted earlier that Tottenham had fielded a weakened squad for the first leg of the tie too, and that I WILL fault him for. There's an enormous difference between giving it your best shot for the first leg and conceding if the second looks out of reach (which is what I was defending the right to do, both above and in the previous post), versus practically begging the other team to beat you right from the first minute of the first leg. The latter I do not like AT ALL, and would never try to defend.