footie^3 with the feet

[Xray the Enforcer]

Winning commentary by the Fox Soccer Channel announcer during the UEFA Cup game between Tottenham and Aalborg:

"Steed. What I wouldn't give for a name like Steed. That's a real man's man's name."

[The Man Who]

Maybe he could have a wife named Mare and they could live happily ever after with their child Foal.

[Jon AS]

So, UEFA Cup yesterday. Hamburg-Rennes was a dreadful thing to watch, as Rennes were solid in defense but never threatened to score (from the looks of it, they could have tried for another three hours without ever coming close) while Hambur did the absolute minimum to ensure victory. Van der Vaart's 1-0 was good, great timing by both him and Olic, but apart form that...*shudders*. Given that, the late goals were both unexpected and unnecessary.

I didn't watch a lot of the Bayern game, but it looks like they underestimated Braga. Pride goeth before a fall and all that. A pity this won't translate to the Bundesliga.

Oh, and Nürnberg managed to snatch a draw in St. Petersburg. Still, while all is not lost for them, I don't think they will make it to the next round. But this was their first European season in a very long time and they have a relegation battle to worry about, so not reaching the next round is both forgiveable and quite possibly in their own best interest.

[cteresa]

I didn't watch a lot of the Bayern game, but it looks like they underestimated Braga. Pride goeth before a fall and all that. A pity this won't translate to the Bundesliga.

empire of evil thing? Perhaps they like some other team got distracted by the beautiful stadium and open goal ends Braga is not that pleased, a 1-1 outside is nothing to be ashamed. If it was knockoff they would be in a excellent condition, meaning braga would have to score 2 in Munich. Braga are not bad, in fact they played excellently now and then. They are changing managers not sure that makes it easier or harder ( some coaches do screw up things, at least for a bit). BTW me being very mildly hopeful ( or just not completely negatively pessimistic) about Austria´s team? Braga´s striker Linz is the player I mean, he is decent.

[Jon AS]

BTW me being very mildly hopeful ( or just not completely negatively pessimistic) about Austria´s team? Braga´s striker Linz is the player I mean, he is decent.

I don't know anything about Linz and very little about the current Austria setup (except that they are so bad that some Austria fans started a petition to keep the team out of the Euro and award their space to a more deserving side;)) but according to the commentator yesterday, Austria currently rely heavily on a counterattacking style as they are incapable of dominating the game and Linz is apparently more of a slower striker who hangs out in or near the penalty area, waiting for a good pass to come his way.

[cteresa]

Linz is apparently more of a slower striker who hangs out in or near the penalty area, waiting for a good pass to come his way.

Yes, but he is good at that and anybody who is good at putting a ball in the nets reliably and makes the most of his ocasions is a factor to take in count, one goal can lead to a result . This is third season here and portuguese defenses are not *completely* lame in general. Nor Bayern Munich presumably.

BTW I got no clue how Austria plays, I am just warning that on general terms, host countries doing catastrophically bad in friendlies before a tournament is a pretty common thing. Whoever draws Austria in the euro draw better not celebrate too hard and then take it all for granted ( I am talking to you, Spain. And us as well. Or Romania, or Germany...)

[The Iceman of the North]

Squiddly, you are a bit schizophrenic no? I know, coefficients and all that.

Yeah, I know. But when they suck that much you just gotta laugh.

As if the coefficient would matter to any team that squid will ever follow...

[Calibandar]

Picking up the discussion about the nominees because I just saw it, Kaka, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are the three nominated for what I believe is world player of the year?

I think that's a very good selection actually. I'm glad Ronaldinho did not make the cut, I really love the way he plays and he is a genuine supertalent, but last year his form dropped off and he hasn't regained it yet. I believe he has won in previous years, but this should be a signal to himself as well ( if he didn't already realize it). First he wins, now not even in the top 3.

Who should win? I'd say all 3 go, though I think it is a bit early to be giving it to Messi at this point. I think he will be getting better in the years to come, even though he is already a great player. I don't think he'll win, it will go to Kaka but I would be fine if it was Ronaldo as well. Both tremendous players.

[Mathis]

Messi didn't win anything last year and that usually counts. So I doubt he will get it. Kaka is the bookies favourite though I don't think he should win either. He's a phenomenal player and he was good in Serie A last year, but Totti and Zlatan were better. Kaka really turned it on in the latter stages of the CL but IMO that shouldn't be enough to win it. The problem is that there was no international tournament this summer so the CL gets more attetion than it should.

Ronaldo should win this hands down IMO. Rooney, Giggs and Scholes all played well in the attack last season but it was Ronaldo who won Utd the title. Also, he scores loads for Portugal.

Its interesting that there hasn't been a striker in the 3 man shortlist for two years. Henry and Eto'o have had injuries and Shevchenko has flopped at Chelsea so they are out, but I'm surprised that Drogba, Zlatan or Van Nistlerooy (sp?) haven't made the shortlist. Or Kanoute and Villa for that matter.

[H von T]

Wow, I can hardly wait. Fox soccer channel will be showing the FA Cup tie between Swansea City and Horsham tonight. Why? What a waste of television.

[Mathis]

What kind of football coverage do you get in the USA? I've noticed a few Americans posting in the football threads and I've wondered about it. How did you get interested in the sport?

There are loads of American football games and baseball on tv here but I've never felt inclined to watch them, mainly because of the time difference.

[Nas!]

What kind of football coverage do you get in the USA?

The U.S. has Fox Soccer Channel, which seems okay, but I don't know what else. The Canadian version, Fox Sports World Canada, used to be okay, until it lost all the rights to games. Now it shows mostly fighting and, occassionally, Sky Sports News.

In Canada, Rogers Sportsnet shows one game on Saturday morning, The Score shows one game on Sunday morning, TSN shows a variety of mid-week Champions League and UEFA Cup games, TLN shows two or three Italian league games on Sunday, and the good ol' CBC usually ponies up for the World Cup when it comes around.

This season, I really blew the bank on Setanta and Gol!TV. Setanta shows most of the Saturday Premiership games, French league on Saturday, Carling Cup games, the odd Championship game, select Champions League matches and, strangely, a selection of Man United's youth and reserve team games. Gol! has a good selection of Italian and Spanish league games, as well as games from various South American leagues.

Basically, I just watch footie all the time. I have seen every one of West Ham's league and Carling Cup games this season. I'm gearing up for a painful loss to Chelsea heroic upset of Chelsea in a few hours, in fact.

Okay, so you didn't ask about Canada, but now you know anyway.

[BLU-RAY]

Basically, I just watch footie all the time. I have seen every one of West Ham's league and Carling Cup games this season. I'm gearing up for a painful loss to Chelsea heroic upset of Chelsea in a few hours, in fact.

Quite.

Here in the states, it's a pretty dire situation. We have Fox Soccer Channel, which is acceptable, and allows one to see a good chunk of EPL matches. ESPN carries a lot of Champions League stuff, and bizarrely, showed the FA Cup quarter and semi-finals last year, but not the finals.

But really, since each of these channels can only show one match at a time, lots of folks (and by lots of folks, I mean the small bunch of football fans I know) resort to watching pirated television broadcasts over the internet, the most popular of these being Chinese broadcasts. I watched the FA cup final last year on Chinese TV.

The big issue, though, is that FSC (which is really the main outlet for soccer viewing) is only available on satellite/super-secret cable packages, so you have to pay a little more, which results in watching matches at the pub.

The other problem, especially here on the West Coast, is that the hours are just brutal; matches are regularly at 5:30 AM, which is the main thing that precludes watching them.

Yet, we persevere.

[Nas!]

The other problem, especially here on the West Coast, is that the hours are just brutal; matches are regularly at 5:30 AM, which is the main thing that precludes watching them.

Yes, the West Ham/Chelsea game starts at 4:40 am tomorrow. I prefer to watch them live, but I also like to sleep. I will record it and watch it at a more reasonable hour.

[BLU-RAY]

Yes, the West Ham/Chelsea game starts at 4:40 am tomorrow. I prefer to watch them live, but I also like to sleep. I will record it and watch it at a more reasonable hour.

Yeah, I'm sick, and I've no legitimate avenue for watching it, and there's (as far as I know) no way to record bootleg Chinese TV webcasts, so I'll just read the report.

[H von T]

What kind of football coverage do you get in the USA? I've noticed a few Americans posting in the football threads and I've wondered about it. How did you get interested in the sport?

Fox Soccer Channel usually has a good selection of games from England each weekend. Man City-Wigan and Arsenal-Aston Villa will be shown live tomorrow. Birmingham City-Tottenham will be shown live on Sunday. Normally they show one of the 3 pm kick offs and the late kick off on Saturdays and one match from Sunday. Monday matches are usually shown live, too. I live in Oregon so during the week I follow the action via gamecast on soccernet.com. I usually wake up around 6 am so on the weekends I have breakfast and watch footie. This year FSC also shows the Italian league, but in the past they've shown the French, Dutch, and German leagues. The Spanish language channels usually show some European football. This summer I'm hoping to watch the European Cup on Telemundo or one of the other spanish channels.

My parents are European and I played as a kid so that's my connection.

[Tears of Lys]

Winning commentary by the Fox Soccer Channel announcer during the UEFA Cup game between Tottenham and Aalborg:

"Steed. What I wouldn't give for a name like Steed. That's a real man's man's name."

This is the only Steed I know: Steed

[Nas!]

This is the only Steed I know: Steed

Steed Malbranque, to whom the announcer was referring, was named after that very same Steed (I suppose naming him John might have obscured the reference a little too much).

And so the circle closes, and my work here is done. Now I shall climb on my donkey--my own trusty steed--and ride off into the sunset.

*waves goodbye to all*

[Tears of Lys]

Waves bye-bye to Nasrudin, the repository of all that is knowledgeable.

[cteresa]

Yikes, those hours to see football, now that takes courage and yay for internet pirates, it´s all about getting more choices ( because sometimes the team you really want to watch is Lyon or Atlético or Benfica or something ...

Picking up the discussion about the nominees because I just saw it, Kaka, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are the three nominated for what I believe is world player of the year?

Yes, those 3 were told to get the date free, scrub up, dress nicely and show up that they will get top 3 fifa awards. OTOH rumor leaked a couple days ago also has they are the podium for the Ballon D Or ( by Order: Kaka, CR, Messi) which will be announced pretty soon.

I think that's a very good selection actually. I'm glad Ronaldinho did not make the cut, I really love the way he plays and he is a genuine supertalent, but last year his form dropped off and he hasn't regained it yet. I believe he has won in previous years, but this should be a signal to himself as well ( if he didn't already realize it). First he wins, now not even in the top 3.

Not even top 3 and the subs bench *sigh* He is very special, I hope he gets some mental things right again. BTW I think he was probably underrated last season for Barcelona. he was obviously below his peak, but if you look at that notorious thing stats, he still had a contribution which really very few players had. This year he is even below that and Barcelona is suffering ( well, other factors as well). But meaning Messi can not replace Ronaldinho quite yet in influence.

Who should win? I'd say all 3 go, though I think it is a bit early to be giving it to Messi at this point. I think he will be getting better in the years to come, even though he is already a great player. I don't think he'll win, it will go to Kaka but I would be fine if it was Ronaldo as well. Both tremendous players.

Maybe one can win one thing, the other the other.... I agree about Messi, he has that "spark" of genius, but really looking at it, I think he does not quite deserve it yet. And Ronaldo has had a far more consistent, mature year. Kaká will win it in any case, it has been predicted since April, since June 2006, since 2 or 3 years ago, but I wish he had had a better year for him to win this. Yes CL, amazing against catastrophically bad defenses, but he can not seem to make a difference in serie A this season or the other, and for Brazil, not got there quite yet to earn that shirt number. And yes, I am still slightly pissed off about Copa América. Giving it to Cristiano now, it won´t happen. He was more consistent in all aspects, but these type of awards tend to go not to consistency but to who shined in the most viewed games of the year. And it is a point of view, if we go for consistency and importance IMO Kaká and Messi were not *better*, but if you wanted to argue that say Pirlo deserved it more due to consistency than Cristiano perhaps you would have a point. I think CR has a obvious disadvantage to win, which is lots of people hate him very much and the world cup media circus circles the globe far more than league or national team qualifying performances ( he is also perhaps even more loved than any of the other two. More hated also for sure, not sure how it balances out) . But at least for this award there would be no internet plots to gather votes, or media rants, or just giving to the host country, so if (when) he does not win, so no complaints or digging up weapons from me - and in a way, not winning would probably be just extra motivation for him A super motivated Cristiano Ronaldo, that is something.

PS - they are all, even Kaká, still awfully young and all still looking like they will improve with time. Even if none of them had a season quite like some people in the past had it´s worth remembering their ages still - and Cristiano and Messi are pretty obviously evolving fast. Perhaps the first time all of the podium was born in the 80s?