Football (Soccer to those across the pond)

[Tillane]

Meanwhile, in the merry old land of Toon...
Newcastle United reveal tightened transfer budgets

Not sure exactly how to feel about this. One the one hand, it pretty much guarantees that, barring a miracle, we'll be heading back down to the Championship at the end of next season. Our current squad simply isn't up to snuff. On the other, it really is about time the club got its finances in order - with a max gate of over 52,000 and an average gate (in the Championship) of over 43,000, there's no way in hell we should have that big an operating loss every year. No question where the majority of it's going - still - and I kind of half-admire the board for setting their stall out on this.

Except...well, it would be nice to start the season with some hope. As a long-time Toon fan I don't expect much, but a little would be nice.

So, yeah. Mixed feelings.

[Lenny]

That sucks... I'm not far from Newcastle, but it looks like we'll be passing the other going the other way for a few seasons, so I won't get to travel to St. James'.

You might get lucky! I wouldn't bet on West Brom staying up, nor whoever wins the play-offs, and there are a lot of weak teams in the Premiership. You might get lucky.

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by chopper

fair enough points (and i did say "unfortunately") - however by that logic, surely Fulham should have put out their most experienced team against Arsenal. the BBC report of that match notes that, had they won, they would have been £3m better off by finishing 9th in the table. I know they're in the Lateshopper Trophy this week so tactically they had to rest their first team, but can you have it both ways?

Fulham isnt a bottom team,they are the only english top performer in European cupes this season. They are like a top team resting players for CL qaurterfinal,semifinal,final.

Being 9th and 3 million is nothing compared to 30-50 million for winning Europa League and the glory of winning your first ever european cup final.

When Wolves and co are in a final that important can they rest players,lose a pointless game.

[chopper]

By way of perspective, to teams just promoted from the championship, european competitions are pretty much meaningless - merely staying in the Premier League is a Cup Final win in itself. i can see we won't agree on this, but you have to admit that McCarthy was vindicated in his team selections by the fact that Wolves did stay up. You can argue that Wolves might have got a result against Man U, but at what cost to the squad (and future games)?

In any case, bloody good luck to Fulham - they deserve the Final.

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by chopper

By way of perspective, to teams just promoted from the championship, european competitions are pretty much meaningless - merely staying in the Premier League is a Cup Final win in itself. i can see we won't agree on this, but you have to admit that McCarthy was vindicated in his team selections by the fact that Wolves did stay up. You can argue that Wolves might have got a result against Man U, but at what cost to the squad (and future games)?

In any case, bloody good luck to Fulham - they deserve the Final.

Vindicated for throwing a game many months ago ? I was hoping they got relagated, Burnley atleast won Man U,they tried their best in every game.

We wont agree but i can respect your fan POV defending your team. For me they broke one of few holy things in football. Trying your best even against teams that will beat you 99 times of 100.....

[mosaix]

Originally Posted by chopper

By way of perspective, to teams just promoted from the championship, european competitions are pretty much meaningless - merely staying in the Premier League is a Cup Final win in itself. i can see we won't agree on this, but you have to admit that McCarthy was vindicated in his team selections by the fact that Wolves did stay up. You can argue that Wolves might have got a result against Man U, but at what cost to the squad (and future games)?

In any case, bloody good luck to Fulham - they deserve the Final.

I'm with Chopper on this one. In my view there's a squad of professional players and the manager should be able to pick any combination to make up the 11 (plus subs) that he wants.

[Lenny]

England 3 - 1 Mexico

What a terribly dull match. Whilst some of the football was flowing, and the first ten minutes of the second half were fantastic, the rest of the game was pretty boring. I expected Mexico to play better, too. They had some very good moments, but a lot of the time their defending was poor, and they didn't seem to get into the groove very often. For a team who haven't lost in their last eight (ten?) friendlies, I thought they'd deliver a lot more.

The first goal was nicely done - corner to Crouch on the edge of the box, headed back in for Ledley King to nod in. The second was scrappy, and Crouch was offside, theirs was a result of terrible defending by us (hopefully Baines will be replaced by someone else - he had a terrible match), and our third came out of nowhere from Johnson - proper scorcher!

Both Walcott and Lennon had good matches, as did Milner. Johnson, although he bagged a nice goal, has to backtrack and chase too much for my liking. Rooney didn't get much service, though he did have a couple of chances. Crouch played well, but Defoe did nothing.

It'll be interesting to see what the squad against Japan on Sunday will be, and who is dropped when the final 23 are announced next week.

[Ursa major]

I was interested to see a new defensive technique, as implemented by Carrick:

1. See which opponent has the ball.
2. Look for the next two nearest opponents to the ball.
3. Stand in the middle of the imaginary triangle formed by those three opponents.
4. Watch as the ball as it moves from in front of you to somewhere behind you.
5. During the above, make sure you never get within 5 metres of the ball.

Oddly enough, Baines, the left back (allegedly), had a completely different way of avoiding making any impact at all on the game. (Sometimes one can experiment a little too much in a Friendly.)


England played a lot better in the second half, but it would have been difficult to play worse. (Okay, they scored two goals in the half, but the first was from a corner that was given away rather than earned and the second was both off-side and a handball.)

If England take anything from this game, let's hope its the good luck.

[Wybren]

Australia 2 - New Zealand 1 \o/ and, seeing as it isnt noted here yet Dundee United 3 - Ross County 0 \o/ * does a dance*

Last night was a close game, and we only won in the 94th minute. NZ played really well, and though it was a friendly it is always good to beat them

Is anyone interested in Chrons World Cup Tipping Competition?

[Lenny]

Don't know what a Tipping Competiton is (sweepstake?) but I don't see why not! Count me in.

[Wybren]

It works by each of us tipping who wins each round and the person who gets the most points wins the cup so to speak.

[mosaix]

Originally Posted by Wybren

It works by each of us tipping who wins each round and the person who gets the most points wins the cup so to speak.

Had a similar competition at work during the last world cup. Everyone forecast the score and got points according to the result.

2 points for the correct result, plus 1 points for each team's correct score.

So for an absolutely correct result there's 4 points, 2 + 1 + 1.

It takes some administering though if there's more that a few entrants.

[The Ace]

Well, the Jags are safe and we're not in the sodding thing (again).

Sometimes, being a Scot is pretty lousy.

[Sephiroth]

And sometimes, it's not:

[Sephiroth]