Sporting4ever

well, why not go after the Liege striker. Zanovic, Vavovic, or whatever he's called. Still a young lad, but looks promising, and maybe Liege can give a 10 or 20% discount, given the previous history between clubs

I see it a lot like that quote from "Contact". If we are all alone, it seems like an awful waste of space...

Love ya, dark Anyways, it's still too early to tell, since the games are only in february/march, or something... A lot can change till then, but all things considered, since we could have ended up against United or Juventus, i think we kinda got the middle of it. I'd prefer Panathinaikos, or Liverpool, or Roma, but Bayern isn't as bad as we could have gotten. We played them a few years back, and lost cuz of our "great" goalkeeper at the time, so on one hand, we have a score to settle, but on the other, they know now that were not an easy opponent. Add to that, 2 absolutely gigantic matches, Real Vs Liverpool and United Vs Inter.

Don't count Braga out so quickly... Remember, they solidly beat the pompeys 3-0 at home, lost in the San Siro at the clock, with a superb goal by Ronaldinho, and were also suprised in stopage time by Wolfsburg. From what i know of both teams, it's gonna be a couple of very interesting games. I give a bit of an edge to Standard, since Boloni knows a fair bit about Portuguese football, but it's gonna be interesting.

Benfica drew one game and lost the other 3. They lost 2-0 at home to Galatasaray and 5-1 away to Olympiakos. They needed to beat Metalist by 8 goals (!!!) AND wait for a draw in the other match, so they were pretty much out of it already. Keep your eyes on Sporting Braga, though. Some nice players there, like I've mentioned a few times.

He's currently on loan to Benfica, looks an interesting player. If you want him for keeps, I'm sure Inter will consider selling this January, even with him beeing on loan. I doubt he'll be available for loan, though.

Everyone likes to have their team playing good, atractive football, but let me tell you something, beautiful isn't equivalent of effective. A few years back, Sporting played beautifully. atractive football, high pace, offensive. It was a joy to watch. On that season, we we knocked out on our National Cup by benfica after a sick game. 2-2 at 90 minutes, 3-3 after extra time, and 7-6 on penalties, for a total of 10-9. It was a match worthy of a final, but alas, it was a semi-final, and we lost it. 2 game to go on our league, we're 1st place, and play benfica, behind us by 2 points. we loose the game, and the leadership. Mid week we play the UEFA cup final, in our own stadium, and we loose 3-1 to CSKA. Last game of the league, we again loose, and with it loose the 2nd place, and a direct qualification to next season's CL. We played the best football we had since about 4-5 years, and ended up winning nothing... My point is simple, good atractive football doesn't always win games, and doesn't win silverware. Regularity does. And luck plays an important part as well. So don't simply ditch 3 points because it was luck, and you didn't play as you think you've should. a win is a win, and at the end, when the math is done, all that matters are the points...

Well, i don't know if it's a trick or not, but i can say that the previous week's picture, if you looked carefully, you could see a little smudge where the ball should be. As for the rest, i just make educated guesses A5

F4

Just wanted to do a bit of a follow up on this last post, Braga defeated Amadora 5-0 yesterday night, with another superb performance. you can see a translated report here: http://translate.google.pt/translate?u=htt...PT&ie=UTF-8 Emphasis again on Alan, Luis Aguiar and Renteria. Luis Aguiar is more than likely beeing watched atm, and will most likely move at the end of the season at the latest.

Don't know if you guys saw it or not, but one of the teams i was gonna keep an eye on for possible players was Braga, who today/yesterday trashed Pompey 3-0. There's some very interesting talent on that team, so you might want to take a look at them. Vandinho, Alan, Luis Aguiar are a few names just off the top of my head

B5

Well, this is just a rumour, but I heard it somewhere that he wants to coach the red shite. Suposedly, he had an offer from them after winning the UEFA cup, and was a bit pissed about not beeing allowed to leave. but if he wants to fulfill his contract, i know a club that will be looking to replace a coach about that time, united. Ferguson said he'd retire in 2/3 years, so there's a possibility there...

Well, don't forget our weather is mediterranean, so such a closed space would be a lot warmer. I think it's an air circulation thing, and to have a nice clear space for the scoreboards. Ours (SCP) is fully enclosed, and holds just about the same as FCPs. I'm just not crazy about the chairs beeing multi-coloured like they are, but otherwise it's awesome

C1

Besides, it just goes to show he was has pissed as everyone else about that summer...

Danger, if you think huge depts are just a problem in England, think again. Everywhere in europe clubs are way in over their heads. It's just a result of how things have escalated for the last 20-25 years up to this point, when there's clubs paying huge fees and huge paychecks to players when they have also huge depts. The simple problem with this is, sooner or later, the balloon is gonna pop. Then we'll all be in very deep guano. I still think the best way to atempt some sort of equality is to force teams to field minimum numbers of home-grown players. The borders are open? fine. But if you want to play in the EPL you need X number of english players, and Y number of home trained players. I think teams that go onto the pitch without a single player from their country shouldn't be allowed to compete, and we have lots of that everywhere. that way you have the poor, that create the player, train him, form him, and you have the rich, that just go in and buy him. How many kids dream of playing for their team, and NEVER get the chance, since it's cheaper to buy a foreigner than to invest on forming a national? That, to me, is the biggest problem.

F2

Well, 1st home point... :|

There we're some very strange pairings all around in the UEFA this round. yours, Benfica-Napoli, udinese-Borussia. There's always some pairings like these, when there's a lot of good seeded teams, and this is what happened. A lot of teams that belonged in group stages are left out because of this. Next year, with a CL style format, more teams will qualify, so hopefully this won't be such a problem anymore.

Neither do we, mate. neither do we... and, in all fairness, neither do Everton... :(

Well, there's a new League coming. similar to CL, but for lower teams. If this gets more revenues for the clubs, it won't be so bad, and more teams will be on it. And selling your youngsters can only get you so far. we've sold alot, and only now we're starting to get our head above the waterline. Boloni is great for that, he can really bring out the quality on young players, and gets them mature very fast.

He's a very good coach. We we're champions with him.

And it's over... Just got home, only caught the end of it, how was the game? 2-1 seems pretty even