baxus

Yeah, I know about that smoking and drinking stuff. Still, Martinez not fancying him doesn't mean that the next Belgium manager wouldn't fancy him. If that happens, and the the guy that follows Martinez puts his name on the list, Nainggolan saying he retired won't mean anything just like it didn't for Matip. EDIT: Not saying that's right. Actually, it's very wrong and I do think that there should be some papers that a player would need to sign and be off the hook when it comes to national team.

A lot of good that will do him if at some point Belgium manager puts his name on the squad list. Remember what happened to Matip for the ACN last year?

I was hoping to use bench boost and wildcard last gameweek. Even bought 13 players who had double match gameweek and then found out you couldn't use those two in the same week.

Bonus points awarded for correct spelling of all Polish players names

I'm expecting we'll once again be awarded our random nations to support on this Board for the duration of the Cup. Losers' Lounge should be quite fun.

I've started to type how I prefer when my team is in it, but just couldn't. This will be the fifth time out of possible eight that my national team (Yugoslavia, then smaller Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro and Serbia) has made it to the World Cup tournament and it's usually not a good experience to watch them play. We've had one quarterfinal (old Yugoslavia, with players from other republics), one round of 16 ('98 WC in France, that crossbar Mijatovic hit from the spot against Netherlands still rattles in the back of my mind), placed dead last once (lost all three in Germany) and one huge letdown when we failed to advance from group stages with a pretty good group of players in South Africa. Though there has been some joy in watching our teams play in the biggest tournament there is, I'm not sure it's worth all the crap they put us through.

You're definitely not the only one. It doesn't feel like a World Cup year at all to me. And that's with my country actually playing in the World Cup. At the moment, I'm more hyped about CL finals. Maybe when that's over I'll switch to World Cup.

Whoever is thinking of starting WoT, should get the first book and try it. If you like it, get the second one. If you like that, go for the third one etc. The same as for any series, I guess. For me, it is that I can read Sanderson's books and I couldn't manage to read Jordan's. I mean, reading through 500 pages and the only character "story arc" you get for it is "oh, this guy has yellow eyes now" was too much for me. Say what you want about Sanderson but SOMETHING happens in his books. Bolded part is 100% accurate. I just love learning more about the worlds and magic in Sanderson's books. Not saying he's the best author out there, not by a long shot, but he is one of authors whose books I enjoy reading most. That being said, there's no denying that Oathbringer could've used a pretty substantial trimming and would've been the better book for it.

@Tywin et al. Actually, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the basketball we played, all things considered. I mean, a bunch of software developers playing basketball for the first time in ages, the bar was pretty low to begin with. Still, it was a decent effort. Sure, we were all rusty and it showed. After we were done, I said that I missed more open shots from the paint during those two hours (almost) than I did throughout four years of high school. Still, all six of us were much better at rebounding, movement and passing than I expected*. All things considered, I love it that guys at work are pretty psyched about basketball and it just might become a regular thing. Then, when we get a little bit less rusty it will be much better. *Of course, it was still pretty embarrassing.

I played three on three basketball yesterday for the first time in almost three years. It was fun but every muscle in my body is a bit sore right now. @Tywin et al. You seem to have eaten a lot during that hour.

You think he held on to his sanity, having played for Liverpool for well over a decade? @United supporters: I haven't seen the match, but losing 1-0 away to a mid-table team (this win brought them to #11 spot) is hardly an embarrassment. Did Brighton hit the post 7 times, had some goals wrongfully disallowed or something like that?

Once you think about it, what has Gerrard to lose, really? Rangers are in such a state that no one will really blame HIM if he fails there. If he succeeds, he could really make a name for himself.

If I understood correctly what I read on the link that Scott provided (and if my basic understanding of Islam is not wrong), this women's reason for refusing to shake hands is not that men and women are not equal in her opinion but that her religion states that it's a sin for members of the opposite sex to touch if they are not in one of the allowed relationships with each other (husband-wife, brother-sister, parent-child etc.). Neither is in compliance with French (and European in general) traditions and customs and I think that French government and its representatives are within their rights not to grant her citizenship. As someone already stated, having a specific country's citizenship is not a human right and countries have rights to refuse someone. The requirement to show that you have assimilated into the country's society is nothing new or uncommon. I would even say that every single country in the world should have such a requirement one must meet in order to be granted citizenship. There are even countries who would require that this woman denounces her Algerian citizenship in order to grant her their citizenship which is way worse than expecting her to shake hands at the ceremony.

Loved watching Liverpool play for most of that game. Unfortunately, they did the most Liverpool thing you can imagine and let the opponent get back in the tie. After last night's match I'm fairly confident that Liverpool will advance to the final but watching Liverpool all these years have taught me that there are no sure things. I don't think there was a single player on Liverpool team who had a bad game last night. Lovren did make that one mistake that resulted in Dzeko's goal but overall he's been pretty good. All in all, I would've loved 5-0 or a higher margin, especially since the match looked like it would end like that. Still, 5-2 is a good result and if Liverpool play their game in the second leg there shouldn't be too many problems. If Roma manages to chase 3 goal deficit without leaving a lot of space for Liverpool's top three then fair play to them.

If there's anything watching and supporting Liverpool has (or at least should've) taught us is that there are no sure things with our team. Sure, Liverpool has a better shot at finals against Roma then against Bayern or Real Madrid, but Roma definitely didn't get this far in the competition by accident or dumb luck. These two legs are definitely not going to be easy for either team. I'm hoping for a good game and a good result.