Is it just me or are the groups kind of unbalanced? Greece's group seems fairly easy compared to the groupd of death with Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Denmark.
Group B is nails. It's the obvious result of top seeding the joint hosts though. Neither will have played a competitive fixture for two and half years before the tournament starts either. And the opening game is Poland v Greece. That'll be a thriller! England also messed up by confirming they'll be based in Poland too - all their games will be in Ukraine. Against bogey side (Sweden), holders of home advantage (Ukraine) and classic enemy France. They could have done a hell of a lot better in my opinion!
I think that should be really doable for England. Although I have Sweden down as one of the possible big surprises. Groups C and D are both fairly well set up, Group A is a joke and Group B way too competitive. Meh. But maybe it will be good for the Greek national self-estimation.
Manchester United out of the Champions League at half time. After watching the game I would say that a 1:5 is more likely than Basel advancing, but who knows, maybe they can hold the result, stranger things have happened. eta: and they are out. Who would've thought? I certainly didn't.
I know Fergie has come back from this before, but I think re-building this time may be too much and we may of just started to see the beginning of Fergie being knocked off his perch. He really needs to act like the old Fergie of the past and drop star players like ROONEY to begin with. He's gotten soft in his old age and tactially has made too many mistakes this year.
He got away with it for a while but its clear Smalling is no right back and Jones needs to play in CB department. He's paid the price for letting O'Shea to go since with the Da Silva twins out he is short at the back. I want to see Smalling & Jones playing together at CB with Vidic out because Rio is not good enough anymore. He needs to buy a left back as well because Evra is on a huge downwards slide as well but Rafel once fit is decent enough to hold the right back spot down. He still needs that central spark with Cleverley injured and also still a little too young to be in the team week in and out.
Yes, Jones doesn't have the discipline to playing holding midfield yet - that's been clear in a number of games I've seen this season so far. Rio has definitely lost it, and Vidic is probably out for the season so surely he needs to go centre-back shopping in the January sales. And someone good to go in midfield and dictate play more. But can he find any of what he really needs now there's no CL football to offer? Another one I can't believe he kept getting away with was Valencia at right-back.
Oldham player was racial abused from Liverpool fans yesterday just another clear sign how weak that club is on this subject, Liverpool F.C should be fucking ashamed of themselves.
So I've been trying to decide on a Premier League team to follow, but I'm in the U.S., so I can't watch as many games as I'd like to, so I'm not completely familiar with all of the teams. Is it "okay" to root for two teams? Because three of my favorite U.S. national players play for Everton (Tim Howard, along with Landon Donovan who's currently on loan) and Fulham (Clint Dempsey). As far as I can tell those two teams don't have a rivalry with one another, and neither team is one that could be considered bandwagoning (i.e. Manchester United). And for the most part I've liked what I've seen of both teams. I wanted to like Liverpool, too, because they're now owned by the same group that owns the Boston Red Sox (my favorite baseball team), but all the stuff that's been going on with them in regards to the racist behavior has really turned me off of them.
Liverpool isn't racist, that's nonsense; don't let that turn you off. There are assholes with every club. (although supporting them because of the ownership is a kind of weak reason too, imo) Supporting two teams: In your own league I would tend to say it's not "ok", but in a foreign league without having cheered and suffered with a specific team for years, I don't see anything wrong with it. I would say just watch matches you're interested in every other week and fondness for one club or another will grow naturally over time.
Yeah, I agree. That was just when I'd first really started to pay attention to the Premier League, so I hadn't really been able to make an informed choice at the time. That's why I like Everton/Fulham more, because they actually have players I know and like. Plus liking both Everton and Liverpool seems kind of counterproductive to me; I've read that their rivalry isn't as heated as others, but rooting for two teams that have any kind of rivalry with one another just seems wrong. Yeah, I've been trying to catch matches when I can. I have Fox Soccer Channel, which carries EPL matches (along with Serie A and, of course, MLS), but I see Man U, Chelsea, and Arsenal on there far more often than I do Everton or Fulham.
I see, that's a problem. Don't get fixated on any "rules" though, you like who you like and if anyone's got a problem with that, fuck them. There are decent internet live streams of almost any match though, pm me if you want a link.
Liverpool's stance on Suarez was nothing short of embrassing and I would love to hear Kenny's stance on rascim cause at the moment his leadership is weak as it can be. As for looking for a PL team, well IMO "Tottenham Hostpur" aka Spurs play the best attacking football in the PL especially at home.
Nice reasoning. If you want the most fun though, follow one of those two (middle-to-lower-top half) teams and also have a team at the bottom e.g. Bolton, Blackburn (maybe not them this season...), Norwich, Swansea*. You'll never be bored with relegation drama! *actually don't follow Swansea
^ Or you could pick a cool championship club...Derby is owned by Americans (and some Canadians!) I doubt Liverpool are a racist club, but this does show how easily things can spiral, and if the club itself are appearing to have a relaxed attitude to it what lead does that show the fans? so Warnock's gone from QPR then? Slightly surprised (given they're above Wigan, Bolton and Blackburn) but I think it's just been a matter of time, clearly he wasn't seen as the right man to manage them in the Prem. And now Mark Hughes is tipped for the job? Well it's a good job he left small club Fulham because he wanted a bigger club to manage...
So I just found out that Everton and Fulham will be playing against each other in the fourth round of the FA Cup. Damn it. I missed Everton's match against Aston Villa (glad they were at least able to salvage a point out of that), but I did have the dubious pleasure of seeing Fulham get torched by Blackburn.