I always wondered about the difference in team names in Europe and team names in North America. Teams over here are almost always 'the (Location) (Nickname)' while a lot of teams over in Europe are usually just '(Location) F.C.' or some other variation of that. A lot of European teams do have nicknames, but many of them aren't included in the actual team's name like they are over here. Does anyone have any idea how that came about? Is it just a difference in cultures?
Apparently* Mourinho went to visit Bayern's locker room after the match to congratulate each player. I'm kinda surprised. That's pretty classy. * Heynckes said it on German tv.
I don't think that there was much he could complain about to be honest. He might consider the Bayern penalty harsh, but no moreso than the one given in their favour earlier on. Plus Bayern had a better shout turned down on the stroke of HT. I thought that Bayern were much the better side in the second half and created by far the best chances. ET was very tight as both sides appeared to have one eye on the penalties. Good game - completely different to the Barcelona vs Chelsea tie, which was interesting to watch in a different way. All in all, two good SFs. Fancy Bayern to win it now.
Pretty much though I think in Australia and Japan they have a similar naming system to North American teams. Over here your looking at City, Utd, town for many though sometimes you get names that are picked because of a unique reason like my club... Nottingham Forest, the forest being Sherwood Forest famous for Robin Hood.
Plus you get your Countys, Albions, Rovers etc etc. The only British league club named in a US style is the Milton Keyne Dons, or MK Dons as they're known (or franchise FC as they're also known by some ) All British clubs have nicknames, some are more inventive than others (there are a lot of The Blues, The Reds etc)
Definitely, I completely agree, all both semifinal matchups were very entertaining for a neutral viewer. And both teams are missing some key players now in the final, should be interesting to see how they handle that. Also: no clue about the difference in naming of sports teams. There are many clubs with more "creative" names than just FC XYZ or XYZ Athletic or so, but I can't think of any XYZ Bears or something like that in Europe.
Re naming convention, let's not forget Port Vale - the only league club in England as far as I'm aware that's not actually named after where they're from.
Well there's Grimsby (whose ground is actually in Cleethorpes!) but yeah strictly speaking I think you're right there. Even Everton/Aston Villa etc relate to an area.
"My" club is officially named "SK Rapid" ("SK" for "Sportklub"), so it belongs in this group also, even though even most supporters think it's "Rapid Wien" (but they are wrong ). Not England though and I can't think of any other examples. eta: "Glasgow" Rangers and Celtic aren't named after any location also, with Rangers even being a sort of "American" naming in this sense I suppose.
There're a few Welsh Premier League sides with less conventional names - The New Saints (which is in the border-town of Oswestry), Airbus UK (based near the aerospace parts factory), and Afan Lido (who are from Port Talbot near Swansea). There's also Forest Green Rovers from Nailsworth, Gloucestershire (no, me neither) and Tonbridge Angels. Apparently Guardiola's going to call it a day at Barcelona.
I like to call soccer teams by their sponsors, since it's the most prominent thing on their kits. Chelsea is the Samsungs, Manchester City is the Etihad Airways, etc... MLS seems to have adopted the sponsor thing as well, so we have fine teams like the Portland Alaska Airlines and the Seattle Xboxes. Yeah, I'm mostly joking, but I guess that wouldn't be far off from how we handle NASCAR, people refer to teams and cars by sponsor all the time.
I'm not the biggest Barcelona fan out there, but it is a little bit sad imo, if this ends this amazing "era" of Barcelona-style football since 2008, which was so different from how all other teams play/played since maybe Brazil in the 70s or so; and with great success too. Or maybe Guardiola wasn't as important a part in the Barcelona puzzle and they'll just keep doing what they've been doing.
Pep should go for the Spain job if Vicent leaves after Euro 2012 because they play like Barcelona, still have a core of Barca players and its the WORLD CUP baby .
He'll take a 12 month break and then make the move to the Premier League. He's stated a desire to manage in England on more than a few occasions. I think he'll take the break, get himself rested and then set off on his new challenge over here.