Lets Talk Football

I wonder what's more important to Manchester City. To win the Premier League or to end up higher than Man U.

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The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

If they end up higher than Utd I'd say that City will have a good chance of winning the league anyway. If Man Ewe don't win the league itself I doubt if there'll be more than one team ahead of them.

In further Mellberg news - the beardy defender has apparently been recommended to Juve by none other than Sven. MO'N is understandably less than pleased and has been muttering about mentioning the names of a few City players to Alex Ferguson...

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

"Would I be any good as a [England] manager? Yes, I'd be brilliant. My ego thinks I'd be good at it and the rest of me thinks I would be brilliant too" - Martin O'Neill

Sorry I have to ask, but, are you guys talking about Football (soccer) or Football (rugby)?

Rugby seems pretty damn cool. I hate soccer (I have a strict rule about no dots on the ball...).

That said, what is it that you folks don't like about Blouse ball?

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Association Football, the original game. Rugby came along after when a guy called William Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it during a football match at Rugby school and I imagine that Gridiron is a variation on that.

I used to play it (rugby) at a reasonably high level but got one too many broken noses for my liking. It's a dangerous game - my uncle Dan died when his neck snapped during a game 30 years ago and my little brother broke his neck a while back doing the same. He was lucky enough to make a full recovery but isn't allowed any more contact sports. He's become a fantastic Squash player, though.

To be honest, I don't know enough about (or have the enthusiasm to learn, if I'm frank) the sport to actively dislike it. The only American sport I have time for is basketball and that's probably because it has a flow to it that I've never seen in American Football or Baseball.

I grew up watching football, my dad played to a reasonable level with a couple of local league semi-pro teams here and he was the first to take me to a match.

You can't even begin to compare football (soccer) to american football. Like Tacitus touched on a bit, football has a flow to it that makes it so much different than Am football. The players are pretty much on their own out there for two halfs while the coaches in Am footie have a lot more impact on changes in tactics during the game.

There's an elegance - an almost poetic beauty to the game - of football that is very mesmerizing. To me, american football is more like a battle in a war. I haven't watched it a lot but I tend to get drawn into it the more I watch it. I like the explosivness of it, how after nothing happens really for quite some time all of a sudden - bam - and someone makes a great play.

But to me traditional football with the artistic air surrounding it, the way it really, really matters to people all around the globe, there's nothing like it.

Since it's the world's biggest sport it never risks running out of fantastic players. Just when you thought you'd seen it all some new young amazing little magician steps out.

Which brings me to....

Who is your alltime favourite player? The best of the best, so to speak?

For me, I think it has to be Zenedine Zidane.

Yep, it's not called The Beautiful Game for nothing.

Tough one, very tough one.

As an attacking player, it would have to be Maradona.

I saw George Best play a couple of times but he was so far into the twilight of his career that dawn was practically breaking. There is plenty of video of him and he's a fellow Norn Irishman but I never actually saw him at his peak 'live', be that in the flesh or on TV so I'll base my criteria on that (which also rules out Pele, Garrincha, Bobby Charlton, Stanley Matthews but not Emile Heskey).

Maradona was, quite simply, a god amongst men when he was at his peak. He was the only player I've seen who could run and dribble at full speed and never look at the ball. It seemed magically welded to his toes...

Zidane would be a close second, followed by that famous Bulgarian nut-job Hristo Stoichkov. He was brilliant - mad as a bucket of fish though.

There's only one midfielder on my list - Laim Brady. Taking the 'live' aspect into account I only really remember from the arse-end of his Serie A days and time at West Ham but, boy, could he control a game and did it all through finesse, timing and Irishness.

Souness might sneak in as his partner. A hard b*stard but very very skilful in his pomp.

The best defender I ever saw was unquestionably Franco Baresi. He was like a velvet boxing glove with a horseshoe in it.

If you mould all three qualities of attacking skill, finesse and defensive power you get just one man, for me. A man who's career was over at 25 through injury but he still managed to pack in two World Cups. And he's from Belfast...



Big Norman Whiteside!

The only blot on his copybook was the club where he spent most of his career, but I'm not holding that against him.

Much.

So yeah, I can't pick one favourite player.

EDIT - Arghhhh! Can I fit Bergkamp in there too? And Hagi? And Frank Rijkaard (the first footballer I ever thought was 'cool' because I once saw him wearing an REM Green t-shirt)?

Ah, cool fellas! The thing with soccer for me, is, and I am clearly just ignorant of the subtleties of the game, is that nothing really seems to happen during the match. I know this is due to skilled play by both sides, but I find myself tiring of watching the players run up and down the field with a score of 0-0, kicking a ball (with frippin DOTS on it, no less) around and around, back and forth, back and forth....

I get it though. In that, I just don't get it. I know this, because I am a baseball fan. Most people abhor baseball, and think it is the most boring tripe on the planet. They don't understand all the little intricacies of the game that make it incredibly interesting.

This is me with soccer. I have tried to get into it, during the world cup etc., but I invariably nod off.

Meanwhile, I can't get enough Grid Iron. I watch every game, no matter who is playing, and I pour over stats constantly, looking for trends and possible breakout seasons for all the players...

This, I think, is the secret to American sports loving. If you were English, Seds, I suspect you'd be a cricket fan as it's the only game on this side of the Atlantic which throws up loads of numbers with decimal points in them: batting/bowling averages etc.

The beautiful game at it's best!

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I was mooching around The Web (looking for a cheap copy of a Jeff Stelling book, of all things) when I found this little gem - The 50 worst footballers ever to play in the English top flight.

Gordon Strachan's quote (as usual) is fantastic for #50.

Link

It was with great eager and curiosity I clicked the link to see if Tomas Brolin was on there. Spot number 2. I couldn't be more proud....

Heh, I remember Brolin as a young player and he was really rather good. The lump of coiffured lard that turned up at Leeds must have been an imposter...

Anyway, what do the BritFos think of Capello's appointment?

Personally, I think it's fantastic that the FA has had the foresightedness to hire the bastard son of Lou Reed and Ernie from Sesame Street.

Good grief!

Keggy Keegle returns as Newcastle manager!

Link

The mind boggles...

Then again, if it leads to more outbursts like this one I'll be glued to Match Of The Day.

Excellent

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Smeggie! so nice to see you

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Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

If they are not words to later regret, I don't know what are.

Seds (tho you may be now far gone from this thread), i have to say, the love for this game (for me) stems from the playing.

Just try kicking a ball between your mates, with two goals either end of you.

Then tell me (after several games), that your body doesn't question why you're punishing it so, but your mind doesn't exult when you've flicked on a pass that makes a goal-shape hit its flow

(Yo, i'm drunk - but what i'm saying is - it's fun to play - and yey, when the tribal flags get let out, you can get a kick out of supporting it too )

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

You have excelled yourself again. Brolin so did accumulate lard, & coiffure, with time

We're hoping he's going to re-enact Stevie Wonder hits, in the centre of the field, mid-game. In this way he will demonstrate that he is blind .

Post. More. Often. Golg. Post. More. Often.

You little winker!

Anyway, since the entire Geordie Nation seems to have been delusionally been caught up in The Cult of Keggy, here is how I remember the great man...





...apart from the above "love it" clip, obviously.