Lewandowski Izz Majickk!

the idiot announcers are calling kaká "caca". i hope it's prophetic!

and don't tell me cronaldo was crippled!!!

gtg but looking forward to chat later.

that was beautiful game. but there is a tinge of a sadness to what could have been... if dortmund goes on to win the champions league final i can't help but think of that great ajax side in the 90's that was filled with promising youngsters but was taken apart after they won champions league title

I think it's inevitable even if they don't win it. Lewandowski's meant to be joining Gotze at Bayern and Hummels is supposed to be on the verge of joining Barcelona. That's the downside of the German economic model. Unless you're rich from the start (like Bayern) you just can't compete with the mega clubs when it comes to keeping your best players. I'm not saying Dortmund need an oligarch but that'd be the only thing that'd stop them becoming little more than a pick n mix stand for Bayern, Barca, Real, etc.

Anyway, not to interrupt CL chat but news just in that Suarez has got a 10 match band for trying to eat Ivanovic

suárez es un fuckin estúpido. alright if he wants to be a hilariously sociopathic little bastard, he can be competitive and stretch the limits of what's legal, but there's a limit to everything. fucking dolt will end his days playing in some 3rd division team in brazil or something. fucking idiot. so much talent is gonna sit on his ass for 10 dates. fucking. idiot.



hey little girl, watch your daddy say goodbye to his career...
--

re: the bayern dominance, etc. it's not that simple, and the petrodollar patrons ruin things because in order to make money (they always do) they fuck the fans. what makes the difference in available money is not the petrodollar itself-- it's the difference in ticket prices, tv broadcasting rights, merchandise deals etc. so if the bundesliga charged 4 times more maybe they could out-shop the other teams, but the clubs are fan-centered. bayern however has the support of 130,000 members (it only costs 60 euros per year to be a member for people over 25: http://www.fcbayern.telekom.de/en/co...ship/index.php )

for tv income, the broadcast rights for the bundesliga are lower and they make less money. they are negotiated collectively by the bundesliga as a whole.dortmund can't go and sell their matches to espn, for example. so all the bundesliga needs to look good for all of them to profit globally. right now i can watch the prem in "fox soccer to go" ($20/month website), espn/foxsoccer on cable (sports packages vary). the bundesliga? the only fucking major carrier to have it right now is directv (a satellite provider) and time-warner in new york. basically: the bundesliga on tv is small fry. the spaniards and brits make more from their tv rights.

i wanna be able to watch bayern and dortmund and leverkusen on every fucking cable provider. barring that, i wanna be able to pay a subscription so i can watch the broadcast in english without having to resort to shitty-ass streams in languages i do not comprehend. which is what i'm stuck with right now (horrible). the CL matches thankfully are on fuck sucker 2 go so they look good (and i was able to watch from a coffeeshop today).

so here's to an all-german CL final (fingers crossed). and better TV deals and more broadcast and merch income.

-Rodney F. Dangerfield

(the F stands for "Fucking")

AS for Dortmund's survival--- they were going to be picked off eventually but at least i'm glad the players are staying in germany and not going to the sheik of manchester or some other outfit. i hope they don't let go of hummels-- maybe having sold gotze and lewandowski they'll have the money to retain him. and they probably have a bunch of other 20 year olds coming out of the football academies to replace little gotze. or maybe they'll buy gomez! cuz lewandowski, gomez and mandzukic on the same spot is too much. or maybe they'll steal huntelaar from schalke. who knows?

as for the future of bayern, i gotta say, i fear guardiola. yes he is great and all but i think bayern has moved a step beyond tikitaka and i don't want them to go back. at this point i wish heynckes would have stayed longer instead. guardiola better bring something fresh and not build another team of crafty mice. bayern benefitted by adding power to their barcelona-style good possession-- and the new hires are great but kinda short. every team needs a few beasts here and there. so i hope he doesn't destroy bayern's current versatility with some extremist ideology. pragmatism FTW.

mang these past 2 days have been too much for me. NUTS! i sure picked a good year to start following the bundesliga. buy low, sell high! yeah im high on victory lololol.

Many of the richest oligarchs treat the clubs they own like vanity projects more than businesses. This new Fair Play scheme will insist clubs now turn a profit but most of the big oligarch owned sides never showed any genuine interest in making money until it started to become an issue with FIFA. For the most part the owners we're talking about are just bored glory hunting playboys, rich enough to effectively run their clubs like charities, whilst making their real money elsewhere. It's philanthropy that's fucking English football more than any kind of quest for profit.


I would too. As you say, it'll feel like a step backwards for Bayern if he tries to turn them into another Barcelona. And there's nothing to say he's capable of doing anything else. Last year it still made sense. Bayern seemed to be on the verge of something but maybe needing an extra something, and Barcelona's style was still seen as the way forward. That's obviously not the case now. Any manager would struggle to replace Heynckes at this point but Guardiola seems like an especially big risk.

Anyway, sure you already know about this site but incase you don't I think you'd like it:

http://bundesligafanatic.com/

Is Lewandowski confirmed? Bayern feels overkill.
It's like one of those american cops in full camo and automatic weapons.

something from the weekend

really? watching "the four year plan" showed me a bunch of cattle traders, and to be fair i don't have a long history of watching european football so i don't know what it was before. but watching bayern being run by old players (even if they evade taxes) gives you a different feeling.

then again, dortmund's stock is publicly traded :D


that's what these suckas say:
http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/69/tr...wski-agreement

currently bayern has 3 center forwards: mandzukic, gomez, and pizarro. gomez as you know was last year's choking star. mandzukic came in to sub for gomez while he recovered from surgery but after some training ended up being the new superstar (e.g. vs. juve). pizarro was brought back from werder bremen as backup, and he's in his last year i believe (he's supposed to retire at the end of the season, but who knows). gomez is now the first sub. with twice a week matches, bayern has been alternating mandzukic and gomez and keeps pizarro at hand. some few matches pizarro started. they also have played this 2-striker scheme with gomez upfront and pizarro behind him. so it makes sense to have 3 in a team that's playing such a schedule/formation-- plus, an assortment of sizes.

so after pizarro leaves (if he does) that would put gomez at the tail end of things, but i doubt he'll be happy warming the bench, he'll likely go somewhere and bayern will get an older/cheaper player for backup. just a speculation. who knows really.

Yeah, if they do bring in Lewandowski, I think Gómez is definitely out.

433 is coming your way so

Neuer

Lahm
Badstuber - Hummels (might happen)
Dante
Alaba

Martinez
Schweinsteiger
Kroos - Götze

Ribéry - Götze
Muller - Götze
Lewandowski - Götze

subs:
Contento; Rafinha; Boateng; Gustavo; Can; Shaqiri; Mandzukic.

Pizarro, Robben, Mario Gómez, Tymoschuk and Buyten out.

ha!

you're right about who would be leaving, they are old except for gomez who has inexplicably shriveled and robben who i wouldn't ditch but maybe is too much of a ball hog.

i *really* hope they get hummels-- he's a product of the bayern academy after all. yes he fucked up yesterday but we are all human and he's fantastic overall. i mean, if dortmund is going to be weakened then at least let it be from within the bundesliga and use that cash to cannibalize other teams.


i fear guardiola. 4231 is the new law of the land.

i'd keep things the same way but alternate kroos and gotze. hummels, if in, could sit in for boateng or sub for martinez (hummels has a lot of midfielder in him. hummels = the new pirlo). boateng could also (in theory) cover for lahm instead of rafinha. lewandowski/mandzukic by turns with gomez (if he'd tolerate it) as "the new pizarro" (lol). but i don't know that he would.

ps- sell badstuber. i've never liked him. he gets carded a lot.

bayern is the new miami heat of soccer/football

Man City are meant to be really interested in Gomez and Bayern are apparently open to offers. Robben's the certainty to leave for me, though.

looks like he might... i love to watch him play so to me he'd be a huge loss, but here's the usual link to go with these rumors:

http://sports.ndtv.com/football/news...r-arjen-robben

also appears the lewandowski story is bs

http://sports.ndtv.com/football/news...dowski-reports

mang, these places print completely made-up "news".

Yeah, I just read another article saying Lewandowski's staying. My guess is he will go but that there's no deal yet.

I think Robben will leave in the summer but no idea where he'll go. He said only last month he's no interest in going to Juventus, although that needn't mean much. I keep thinking he's older than he is but he's only 28. He's probably got one more big career move left. Problem is he's a difficult player to accomodate. He doesn't strike me as someone you can just slot into a side.

On a different note, interesting discussion on the radio just now, on whether any current Prem player (English or otherwise) would fit into a World XI. The general conclusion was no. A very sad state of affairs.

I'd have thought maybe Bale or Kompany, although it's hard to call!
Suarez must be up there as well, misdemeanors aside.

I agree though, the best players are generally not in England just now. I would stilll say it's the best league overall, though.

edit: although I don't think Kompany's had his best season this year - still think he's a quality defender tho!

They're all quality but when it comes to the either/or of picking eleven players I'd struggle to justify starting Kompany over, say, Hummels or Chielini. Is Kompany even the best central defender in the Prem? (Vidic?). And as much as I think Suarez is great, if we think of him as a forward, would he realistically start over Messi, Falcao, Mandzukic, Neymar (arguably) or even Zlatan? And again, is Suarez even the best forward in the Prem? I'd give that to Van Persie (although they're very different players). Bale probably has the best chance on the left wing. Ronaldo's better there but is more naturally suited to the right so given you could play both, Bale's in for me. Before this season I'd have maybe put Hart in goal but even he's going through a dip in form at the moment, so I'd probably go with Neuer (even though my heart would prefer Buffon over either).

For all that, I also prefer the Prem overall, even if there are clearly better players and teams elsewhere.

i'd agree that the best players are not in inglaterra. just look at the cl quarterfinals and compare to your champions. however-- i haven't seen much of bale, but he looks promising, right? i mean i've seen a couple of spectacular goals by him but i haven't watched him play week in/week out. maybe in a few years?

btw i read about gomez also maybe to chelsea-- where he'd be the perfect replacement for torres. same kind of slow large beast, only he actually scores.

It's hard to know why players in England aren't at that top level, if only because of its spending power. Bale is the real deal, though. He may not be getting much media outside the UK because he's not at a massive club and his national side is Wales, so he probably gets overlooked for that, too. And as irrelevant as it should be, he doesn't look like a top level football (whatever a top level footballer looks like). But yeah, he's brilliant and would improve just about any side he went to. Bayern and Real are just two that want to prise him away from Spurs.


To be fair, you'd probably be a decent replacement for Torres right now.

Ha! Every pissing week it feels like I read an interview with him and it's generally the same comment of "yeah I'm learning to adapt a bit more so I think i'm going to be getting better now. Honest guv'nor!

With regards to the world XI. Whilst we may not have the best of the best we do have some bloody great players in the league. And to be honest I think it's testament to how many great players are around these days.

And Neymar? Wait till that sissy boy actually faces some decent teams.

It's hilarious. Even some pundits try and gloss over it. "He's holding the ball up nicely", as though that comes close to justifying his £50m fee.


That's obviously true, although given the spending power of the Prem you'd think it'd have more players at the very top than it does. But you're right; the Prem benefits from having exceptional players spread across more of the division. As it currently stands, Fellaini, Suarez, Baines, Bale, Michu, Berbatov, aren't even playing in teams qualifying for next year's CL. Which makes the Prem still the most watchable league, for me, even if it isn't right at the very top quality wise.

EDIT: Doesn't look like Liverpool are missing Suarez too much.

PFA just announced their Prem XI 2012-2013:

De Gea (Man U)
Zabaleta (Man C), Vertonghen (Spurs), Ferdinand (Man U), Baines (Everton)
Mata (Chelsea), Carrick (Man U); Hazard (Chelsea), Bale (Spurs)
Suarez (Liverpool), van Persie (Man U).

Not much to disagree with there. Shame no place for Fellaini or Michu but difficult to see who they'd replace.

Player of the year should be announced soon.

ferdinand huh? i guess... yeah not many complaints from me though.

Ferdinand did OK but he definitely benefited from injuries and dips in form for Vidic and Kompany. He's not even first choice for the national team. And Zabaleta seems to have passed by my radar altogether. Not saying he's bad, I just never really noticed him. And obviously not a vintage season for goalkeepers, with De Gea getting picked.

Anyway

Bale wins Player and Young Player of the year.



I'd have liked to see Carrick get it but it was always gonna be between Bale, van Persie and Suarez and I suppose Bale is the one I'd have chosen from those.

Anyone else hear Mourinho's pre-game interview earlier? Lots of talk of getting tough. Gonna be interesting to see what Pepe's role will be, considering tough for Mourinho usually translates to 'by any means necessary'.



"Smash"

I'm hella looking forward to it.

And did you hear this *strains to hear* that's the sound of Sunderland's manager plane crashing again. Just like it happened with Steve Bruce. 6-1...to Villa? You're kidding me. With that it makes Everton's loss to them even more pissing annoying.

I honestly think it could get brutal. It's looking like Mourinho's last chance to win the title at Real, and if he instructs players like Pepe to go all out I can see some serious injuries. If Real lose I'll be amazed if they finish with 11 men on the pitch, and no Dortmund players in hospital. Mourinho's quote says plenty:

"We're so pure, so innocent, so naive that [Robert] Lewandowski scored four and we didn't commit a single foul on him. We have to try to win the game. I want intensity and aggression."

Heard the Villa game on the radio. They look safe now, which I'm quite pleased about. Delighted QPR have gone and feel indifferent about Reading. Di Canio's cred as a manager was bound to start crumbling sooner rather than later, but I can't see Wigan doing enough to survive so I think Sunderland will just about scrape through. Ideally I'd have liked Stoke, QPR and Wigan to go down so I'm probably gonna be two thirds happy.

haha, yeah, if by some miracle they make it through theres NO WAY sergio ramos is going to be eligible for the final as he is a yellow away from suspension. sounds like if madrid's going out they're going out in bile!

right, because a high-level tactician is going to telegraph his moves like that. i doubt he means it for a simple reason-- FIFA and the refs read the news too. don't refs get some kind of briefing/warning/lecture/whatever before matches?

it's just a headgame. pure fucking headgame. klopp is smart enough to call his bluff-- he's prolly telling gotze and reus-- "dive, meine kinder, dive like uruguayans!"

I don't doubt it, but you've seen Pepe. He's one of the nastiest things in football. How the guy's avoided a life ban is a mystery. And if Mourinho is telling his team to play ugly (which he's never had a problem doing in the past) then we have to expect at least some potential leg breakers flying around. I doubt it'll be enough to get Real through, and we'll probably only see them when the tie is effectively beyond them, but if I was managing a team about to knock Real out of the CL, I know I'd be getting my players to wear extra thick shin pads.

Edit: And West Ham have signed the Romanian Ravzan Rat, who I can see selling plenty of shirts, if nothing else.

right, i know pepe is a beast, and i think he's a great defender (though dortmund made him look bad).

but my point is that if mourinho really wanted to break some legs he'd shut up about it-- unless he was drunk and out of control. which i'm guessing he wasn't?

instead he talks about it. which is not the same. this means to me that he won't do what he says because all he's doing is alerting FIFA and the refs that he'll be using dirty tactics. i.e., real madrid will have to play with 7 men and they might face fines etc. what i think he's really after is that dortmund's attackers lose a little sleep over this-- especially lewandowski with his open contract, etc. intimidate them ahead of the match. oldest trick in teh book. like quaker guns.

plus, believe me, if he were itching for a fight, dortmund is capable of putting infinite hurt as well if they want to. just sick santana on cronaldo's knee and watch what happens to his supreme valuation. subotic is a real son of a bitch too. kuba and piszcek aren't midgets. hummels seems too much of a gentleman but he's a beast. seems to me madrid has a lot more to lose with an all-out fistfight. the germans are used to getting fouled and getting up and continue playing without theatrics but reus can dive like the best of them, and if the refs are warned to watch out for aggressive play...

anyway, who is ref?

---

ps- it's gonna be howard webb! the man who pulled out 14 yellow cards in the wc final! (and regrets not having sent out de jong). hmmm..... not sure he'll allow too much brutality.

Dortmund definitely have players that can give as much as they get, which may be Mourinho's plan. Get some of their more hot headed players to start out on the offensive and hope they get a red early on, as they go straight for Pepe or anyone else they're expecting the worst from. But even if Mourinho really is that desperate, I can't see Klopp falling for it in a moment. Dortmund know they're through so long as they stay solid and professional and I can't see them being anything else.

From a neutral's point of view I'd like to see Real score a couple early on just to see how Dortmund cope but realistically I don't think they've got a chance. If anything, from the few games I've seen, Dortmund seem more mentally strong even than Bayern.

oh man, so far dortmund is leading... in fouls!

a pity gotze got that hamstring pull, but grosskreutz should be able to fill the hole competently enough, although he's not magick.

Real started brilliantly but Dortmund look to have got through it. Great game so far.

indeed. dortmund is playing great defense. lewy should put this tie to rest already

You know you're fucked when you look to Kaka to turn things around.

Loving Lewandowski's battle with Ramos

Well that was just a huge bag of frustration. And in all fairness, Kaka wasn't that bad for the short period time he was on for.