We could tie ourselves in semantic knots trying to distinguish a difference between stupid, goofy, idiotic, whatever. Surely the point is his behaviour - while in no way malicious - is destructive in terms of his career. Although it could also be said that his behaviour actually covers over the fact he's really never proved himself on the pitch, long term anyway. Not saying he's a bad player but he hardly lives up to the hype.

This has been the shittest week for Everton for a long time. Absolute wank. The Hull game shows everything that's been wrong. Luakaku's first touch makes him look like a virgin who's never touched a woman: nervy and hesistant.
For all the talk of Barkley being the next Gascoigne he needs to step it and be A LOT more consistent. It's frustrating cos you do see these flashes of brilliance from him then he lets himself down.
When as the last time Everton had a clean sheet and won in this seasons premier league? *checks* FUCKING SEPTEMBER? You're having a fucking giraffe! From a team who were in the top for keeping clean sheets, to being staggeringly bad, you've got to wonder what's going on.

Honestly at the moment I can only say Mirallas and McCarthy (and he's bloody injured now) are the ones who are showing that level needed in every game.

AND YET! If you looked at just the Europa league you'd think we'd be on the way to winning it. Why I get so pent up I'll never know.

oh im kind of fond of the word "goofy" as i was called that by the drunken father of an irish-american ex-girlfriend. fuck yeah i was goofy. i'm definitely not an angry drunk ha ha. anyway by that word i mean, i guess: playful. to be honest, i laughed at his post. it did play on ethnic stereotypes but i thought it was harmless. someone is always going to be offended though-- always always always. (there's a lot of money in that racket these days-- and i say that as a "minority".)

my point was his behavior is only damaging because of the constant scrutiny. if he was able to horse around and be goofy with less publicity he'd be fine. things being what they are, he needs a filter and a new pr person.

btw, the name of the player was valeriano lópez. peruvian, played for millonarios in colombia, turned down an offer from real madrid who ended up hiring distefano instead. the tale of his prodigious feats of manhood (lol) is mentioned in one of vargas-llosa's novels (i forget which one).

as for balotelli's performance-- yes, he's one of those people who when stricken with inspiration will do unbelievable things, but most other days he'll be completely out of it. if they could only invent a drug to keep him inspired...

===

anyway, to change subject--

hm... i've got nothing, ha ha.

Journalists really ought to be fined every time they call a young English player the new Gascoigne, especially as it seems to be the kiss of death in terms of their progress.

Anyway, watched Chelsea v Tottenham. Chelsea really do look unstoppable.


We're all twiddling our thumbs, killing time before a Chelsea v Bayern CL final.

if/when that happens, i'll have to start believing in zoroastrianism

i didn't catch the game yesterday but dortmund finally won again-- beat hoffenheim 1-0 w/ a gundogan header. they are off the bottom now-- stuttgart sits at #18 now after getting creamed by schalke 4-0 (this i just saw). dortmund climbed to 13th.

bayern-bayer in 5'! 1st vs 3rd.

Looks like a bad injury for Aguero today. Suspected knee ligament tear that could keep him out for months and something some players never fully recover from. Always knew he was good but he seemed to have hit a whole new level the past few weeks. Even outside the Prem, everyone saw what he did to Dortmund. Be a real shame not just for Man City but for football if it's as bad as it looks.

Yeah man I agree. Gutting for him and you could see how much it had affected him.I had a bet with a friend on who would score more goals between him and Costa, even with Aguero's injury it's still a close call. I also puts City's champions league chances a bit back too. Shame the game was dull as fuck. Last season Liverpool and Everton were two teams playing exciting football that was great to watch. This season even bloody Burnley have more watchability (it's a word now, bitch) about them.

Crap MOTD tonight. Although well done to Newcastle. Pardew in!

you mean what he did to Bayern Munich!

Yeah, although there's at least some logic to Liverpool's situation: Suarez gone; Sturridge injured; doubt surrounding Gerrard's future, etc. Everton's situation just makes no sense.


Yeah, well done to Newcastle, but Pardew manages to make them such a difficult team to like.


Oops, yeah.

EDIT: And West Ham win again. This is just weird.

managed to catch the 2nd half of the west ham / swansea game earlier. sloppy but good! had fun watching it.

carroll was named man of the match by the tv but to my eyes it was sakho who was *everywhere*. and 2 goalposts!

Sloppy might be a bit harsh. It was a good tactical battle, which WH won by being able to work things to their strengths and Swansea's weaknesses. Sakho's our 'best' player (along with maybe Song) and against different opponents he definitely comes into his own but this was a game that needed someone to capitalise on Swansea's less physical style, especially in the air, and that's the one thing Carroll will always do. He probably wasn't the 'best' player on the pitch but definitely the most important - scoring 2 of our goals and setting up the 3rd. Carroll gets so much criticism (especially from West Ham fans) but fair play to him today, when he did exactly what he was brought in to do.

West Ham's strength this season is they're no longer relient on what Carroll brings. They have him but now Sakho adds another dimension, another option.

Donovans Final.game Kicks Off.now

ha ha... well maybe not exactly "sloppy" but... i can't explain-- seemed like "lots of muscle" or something. in bundesliga games there is a lot of speed and physicality, but with more... precision? less wrangling? not sure. this is different. it was awesome though! honestly, i enjoyed it. a different style from what i'm used to see but no less entertaining. and seeing swansea really pressure for a goal during the 10-15 minutes they managed to dominate with 10 men was awesome--i thought they'd sit back & defend.

i didn't watch the 1st half so i didn't have a full appreciation unfortunately. sakho was really dominant though. for me, a total stranger to these teams, with no background or understanding of who was who, it was like watching "sakho & company" vs. swansea.

btw, wasn't carroll a loan from.... liverpool i think?

anyway, good match & congrats again!

--

sorry to hear about agüero's injury. rome are probably ecstatic with the news. i wonder who pep will line up vs. cska.

At the half. New England is playing great press defense and the Galaxy often are trying to do too much but have looked fantastic and had several great shots. Landon is making Jurgen look increasingly foolish. Not usually this happy with a 0-0 but the Ravens getting a big win simultaneously may have helped ;)

Carroll started as a loan from Liverpool but WH bought him in the end. To be honest he's been a disaster since then, out with injury far more than anything else, and dictating the way we played even when he was out, because Sam had built the entire team around him. Sakho was brought in to address that and it's worked brilliantly so far.

The match itself wasn't a classic but it did I suppose represent some of the intensity and physicality that you get at the lower levels of the Prem, where that 'Any Given Sunday' spirit causes regular upsets. To be honest, I don't think anyone looking for the 'best' football would follow the Prem. It's probably better suited to those who like the whole David v Goliath thing, and, in that sense, it's lesser known managers like Allardyce or Pardew, rather than say Mourinho or Pellegrini or Wenger, that arguably represent its real uniqueness.

Given Bayern will finish top even if they lose, he'd be mad to play anything but a 2nd string side. I'd expect lots of unknown names and plenty of tactical experiments.

Reflecting on what Donovan.has.done.. in basketball terms he is like a point guard who shoots well. Because he has the talent to score on his own defense has to respect him and because he has a sense of field vision and can make excellent passes he can use his ability to pull in defenders making openings for other players. He also has those bursts of speed. So if a defender sits back Landon can score, and if a defender presses too hard Landon can get an assist. I cant think of a lot of footballers who have that balance, there are plenty of playmakers and plenty of scorers but few who do both at an equal level

He seems like a bit of a scholar of the game. He looks destined for management and must surely be talked about as a future nat. team coach.

Ironically as have so many former point guards in NBA also gone.on to be great.coaches, most recently with Jason Kidd and Mark Jackson both of which were alltime great players at their positions. I dont think Donovan has the.mentality.to be a head coach, possibly a great assistant or coordinator.

So its the end of an American legend. Even if the rest of the world doesn't like him, folks can't argue with him being the greatest ever American footballer. Further, he did his job in utterly dominating American futbol (MLS) and was the best player ever for our USMNT in International play. He has most International goals for an American player. The most assists for an American player. The most career wins for an American player. The most international trophies (Gold Cup) for an American player. The most domestic MLS Cups. The most goals in MLS history. The most assists in MLS history.

My all time Top 3 moments?

1) The Algeria Goal.

2) Put your Stunna Shadez on Landon 2013 Gold Cup Final


3) His recent hat trick against RSL in the 2014 MLS semis..



As they say, thanks for the memories!

Still say Klinsmann's decision to drop him was motivated more by an obsession with control than anything to do with football.
#any excuse to have a go at Jurgen.

the belief is he wanted to punish donovan's casual attitude and the timing of his self-discovery excursions and his lack of fitness and commitment. e.g: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?...cer&id=8581560

i can't hate jurgen at the moment--



he's our only hope.

Jurgen clearly made a mistake though,.I get what he did from a coaching perspective AND YET even by Jurgen's own reasoning it was stupid because THERE.ISNT ANYONE IN THE WORLD who didn't think Donovan was at least the 22nd or 23rd best player on roster and considering how much offensive punch was lacking in our WC performance clearly we.needed.some of.Landon's cerebral playmaking. Surely Jurgen could have found other ways.to play mind games with Landon that DIDNT hurt the team

Gwanna have to disagree with you there. There's more than enough speed and definitely enough physicality in the premier league. Tbh there's barely any difference in the La Liga, Bundesliga and the Premier League anyway.

yeah i wasn't talking about the prem but about the west ham match-- i don't really know the prem.

demonyo is the one who singled out the lower levels of the prem as such-- take it up with him, i'd love to hear both of you discuss league styles.

but in la liga i've seen a lot more theatrics with fouls-- one little trip and they roll on the floor like bowling balls and make faces.

HAHAHAHA West Ham/ Everton F.a cup tie. Brilliant.

What I meant is stereotypes about the Prem are truer of the lower level teams than of the league as a whole. The increasingly international exchange of players, managers and ideas at the top end of all the major leagues means the bigger clubs in all the top leagues are now playing in a broadly similar style. But what I do think remains unique about the Prem is the regularity with which established top teams will be beaten by much lower ranked ones. That obviously happens in other leagues too but hardly a week goes by in the Prem when at least one of the 'big 4/5' teams isn't beaten by a side usually ranked far further down. Or if they do win made to work really hard for it, weekin week out.

I saw an interview recently with Mourinho saying just that. He confessed to being bored while at Real, when the only game he really knew was always gonna be a challenge was against Barca, and the same at Inter when (with Juve relegated) he knew the only games he really had to work for was the Milan derby.

Edit: found the interview. It's a good one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJtGya305l4

Haha, tumbleweeds on the hipster blogosphere for that one.

Sorry yeah, Rotherham/Bournemouth looks like the one to watch :cool: <-Hipster

Pah, I'll be watching an illegal stream of the Honduras Liga Nacional on that day. Come on you Platense (So hip their official website is a facebook page)

yeah i believe you. i think h8kurdt misunderstood my post because i never said the prem lacked speed & physicality and on reread i think that's what he believed i said. but no no no. anyway, it's not a court case.

re: competition. the bundesliga is pretty much the same in terms of competition once you take bayern out of the equation. the league is pretty tight-- a very strong "middle class" to to speak. very dynamic, teams go easily up & down. la liga doesn't have that i think, they have some real weak clubs at the bottom-- no?

because of this dortmund with all their prior sufferings could still conceivably qualify for the champions, ha ha ha. 20 games to go... = 60 possible points = who knows? but anyway, bayern doesn't win *every year* (they are trying though).


exactly. now the russians want to score a suprise win & qualify, they'll probably play rough.

i'd field the whole bench, but the bench is pretty shallow due to injuries, i don't think there's a full 11. besides teh long-termers (martinez, alcantara) there's also lahm, alaba, even pizarro (who at his age only plays for 10' at a time) out injured. schweinsteiger is just recovering & hasn't played a full match all season. the idiot benatia out on red-card suspension.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Baye...#Current_squad

so, i'd start hojberg & gianluca gaudino (just turned 18). plus, pepe reina needs to see some action. shaqiri should start as well. i think gotze might play because he was subbed out around halftime this weekend-- i hope it was not due to injury but just to rest him. lewandowski should play because he needs practice-- hasn't been scoring like he did at dortmund. rafinha is already a starter with lahm out. i think there's only 4 defenders available: dante, bernat, rafinha, boateng. maybe he'll try a 3-3-3-1 ha ha ha.


if i were to minimize risk, i'd play:

starke/reina
rafinha - dante - bernat (boateng on bench can cover any spot)
gaudino - hojberg - rode (schweinsteiger, alonso, etc)
weiser - scholl - shaqiri (robbery* & gotze)
sinan kurt (lewandowski, muller)

bunch of 19 year olds that need some experience in that lineup! some haven't played all season i think (scholl, kurt, weiser) some have played a little.

ha ha ha, i had fun putting that fantasy team together.

* robbery = robben + ribéry

dortmund-anderlecht 0-0 at halftime in a lively match. anderlecht with the best opportunities so far and just a minute ago dortmund was spared a penalty.

hard to believe dortmund used to be the team of "lightning-fast transitions" and now are playing a kind of ineffectual possession game that keeps anderlecht's defenders in good formation.

mitchell langerak has been a great replacement for weidenfeller so far-- stopped a one-on-one attack on his goal (forget the name of the anderlecth striker--mitrovic?). proto also had some great saves.

anyway, very nice game-- while the teams are far from glorious they appear well matched.

barcelona-psg tomorrow should be fun!!

Liverpool are having a rough night. The worst thing is that Basel have been pretty shoddy all night.

serious question-- do you hate liverpool all the time or only when they play domestically?

--

after some sucky borussia substitutions, anderlecht managed to tie 1-1. after scoring, mitrovic made the international sign for pussy eating and was put on replay repeatedly.

All the time? Nah. Just whenever they play. But seriously, I can appreciate when they play well (see last year), but I'm never going to support them to win. No matter who they're playing.

So Dortmund managed to make it to the next stage top of the table, ey? Well football is a funny old thing.

What shocked me about the Basel game wasn't the result or Liverpool going out but the sense of resignation they had towards it. Gerrard's goal woke them up a bit but it was too late by then. It's like they're still down after the disappointment of last season. Almost hard to believe they're essentially the same side.

After another fantastic performance by De Gea and the questions are starting to rumble that he might actually be the better keeper next to Neuer. I'll say this- Man Utds defence has been so rough at times that he certainly has to put in an extra shift when compared to Neuer.

I haven't seen Neuer that much and, to be honest, most of what I believe about how good he is is based on what other people say about him. El Symbols has probably seen him a lot more than anyone here and would be best placed to say just how good he really is. Although I hope it doesn't just come down to his sweeper/keeper role, which still strikes me as a bit of a gimmick. Surely any keeper's reputation has to be based primarily (if not solely) on how good he is at stopping shots. And there can't be many keepers right now who are as good at that, week in week out, as De Gea.