Football 16

[Maltaran]

Yes, it is. As are Blackburn, Burnley, Bury, Accrington and Blackpool, plus a host of non-league sides and probably a few league ones I've forgotten, but Rochdale and Oldham are in Greater Manchester.

Bury is in Greater Manchester with Oldham and Rochdale. The ones I had were Blackburn, Preston, Accrington and Morecambe - I forgot Blackpool and Burnley. Obviously this is restricted to league sides - if we extend to the Conference then Southport gets in as well.

[Mathis]

Are you perhaps including Manchester and Merseyside in your counting?

Yeah, I was. Even though I was born in '87 for some reason I lump Merseyside, Manchester, Bolton and Wigan with Lancashire. Kind of a historic county thing.

Edit: To clarify: Mormont, I am not, never have been, and never will be a Bolton supporter. How dare you sir!

It doesn't matter that you don't know me from Adam. A person is innocent until proven guilty in football just as much as in the legal system. I consider your unfounded accusations borderline slander and/or defamation. You may or may not be hearing from my attorneys. Depends how I feel when I sober up.

[Black Wizard]

Holy crap Leeds have equalised! They can't pull off another cupset can they?

[Daeric]

Nah, Spurs scored again and seem comfortable enough to see it through.

The real question is why is it that none of my friends who are in Leeds actually even follow sports/Leeds, missing out on some good taunting.

Ok maybe I spoke alittle too soon

[Black Wizard]

Holy Crap. 2-2. Stoppage-time penalty. Leeds' debt must be dwindling with every cup game they play.

This game does beg the question though: why doesn't Redknapp play Pavlyuchenko regularly?

[Mr. X]

Ugh.

Ah, football. No wonder beer goes so well with watching a game.

[Alcibiades]

Oh Man! What an exciting game! Glory Glory Leeds United!

That replay will earn Leeds some of the money they're forgoing by not selling Beckford in January.

[Zoë Sumra]

...Iiiiiiii left the pub two minutes too early. Wow. Go Leeds (and I never thought I'd say that).

[BigFatCoward]

Sky have just described the Rio Ferdinand incident as 'Ferdinand caught whoever with his arm' where i am from that was an elbow to the head. how is that for big club biase? can you imagine if it was a Hull defender to a Man Utd player, caught with his arm, my arse!

[Daeric]

Poor poor defending by Arsenal there, well done Stoke.

[BigFatCoward]

i think the official FA cup engraver has just been told to stick chelsea on it this year.

[Black Wizard]

I was just thinking something similar, but Manchester City and Aston Villa are in with an excellent chance of winning it as well since both have beaten Chelsea this season. I suppose that Birmingham City and Fulham are an outside bet plus Tottenham have to get past Leeds United.

Dream Final would be Leeds-Reading though.

[Renasko]

Watched the Celtic - St Johnstone match today. It was dire, for the most part. I'm relieved we won it. St Johnstone were really forced into playing a defensive game far too early in the match. I felt it was a little harsh that they had a player sent-off, but then their penalty was a bit soft, as well. No matter, we created loads of chances and eventually managed to score a few. Fortune's goal in particular was great - smashed it from the edge of the box into the top corner. It did a lot for our team's confidence, because we seemed like we'd miss every opportunity to score.

But as an aside: We've signed a couple of lads in this window, but two of them haven't played a game since November. What fucking use are they to us, now? They may be forced into early action.

And apparently we're finalising a transfer for a player from Brondy - Thomas Rassmusen. Whoot. Looking forward to seeing Hooiveld and Rogne in action. Can't be much worse than our current options. Although, missing 10 players due to injury does not help our current situation.

[Black Wizard]

Watched the Celtic - St Johnstone match today. It was dire, for the most part.

The radio commentary made it sound fantastic. :P

The FA Cup fifth round draw didn't look particularly exciting until Southampton and Portsmouth were the last two teams out of the hat or felt bag or whatever they use. If Wolves beat Crystal Palace in their replay then they'll get Villa at home which could be a good match.

Later on I'm going to take advantage of ESPN's free weekend and watch the Milan derby. I haven't seen much Italian football since Channel 4 stopped showing it; it is still really boring and defensive?

[Alcibiades]

Inter still look the more threatening team, despite being a man down. Sneijder was given a straight red for "ungentlemenly conduct." That doesn't happen in England, for sure.

EDIT: 2:0 for inter now, from a free kick. So much for AC Milan giving us a real title race in Italy. Inter about to go 9 up, though Milan have a game in hand.

Ronaldinho misses a spot kick in injury time. Appropriate end to a thoroughly poor game from AC Milan.

[Padraig]

North Africa strikes back in the African Championship. Interesting how Egypt always seems to be able to do well there but never qualify for the World Cup. They have a 100% record and knocked out Cameroon today (who admittedly haven't had a great tournament). But then Algeria weren't doing great until they knocked out Ivory Coast. I think most people considered Algeria the weak link amongst the African qualifiers of the WC but they have proved something now.

And they are now playing Egypt in the semis. Fun fun...

Nigeria haven't had a great tournament and have struggled into the semis on penalties. Where they fill face Ghana, who were dismissed by Ivory Coast earlier.

Sounds like Egypt may be favourites based on form. The only non-WC team left. Weird.

[Renasko]

I'm well disappointed that RVN has decided to move to Germany. 18 month contract, as well, isn't it? Not sure what Real are getting out of the deal - I would have kept him at the club.

It's a shame, I would have liked to have seen him return to the EPL, even with low-table fighters West Ham. And what is wrong with taking a pay-cut to join Spurs? He most certainly doesn't need 100k a week. The only reason I can fathom for him turning down a move to them would be that they're packed with forward options, already. Oh well, I hope he does well at Hamburg. I won't be watching him though.

[Black Wizard]

Carlo Ancelotti and Arsene Wenger will be happy to see Ivory Coast and Cameroon knocked out. Walter Smith, however, will not be happy to see Algeria progress as the time it takes for Majid Bougherra to return from international duty in relation to the success of the Algerian national team is an exponential function.

[kuroishi]

Yeah, based on their last two games, Egypt-Algeria sounds like a lot of fun...

Algeria seem to be proving something indeed. If you look at their results in the past 12 months, they've beaten Egypt twice, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali last week and Uruguay in a friendly (which doesn't prove a lot, but is still an interesting result). England and the US should be wary at the World Cup ;) .

I used to see them as one of the weakest team in the WC, but it looks like they are able to overcome difficult and unfavourable situations.

But they also were beaten 3-0 by Malawi in the beginning of the ACN...

Egypt are the clear favourites, but this ACN has seen a lot of surprises already, and they have a 1 win, 2 losses record against Algeria since June 2009.

[The Iceman of the North]

I used to see them as one of the weakest team in the WC, but it looks like they are able to overcome difficult and unfavourable situations.

But they also were beaten 3-0 by Malawi in the beginning of the ACN...

Watching the Algeria vs. Ivory Coast match, Algeria was clearly the better team - the Ivorian's have better single players but have to rely on luck to beat a team like Algeria. Although Malawi was a set-back for Algeria, that might have something to do with Algeria not taking them seriously enough, I doubt that will be a problem in South Africa. Right now, I'd rate Algeria as one of the better African teams in the World Cup - Group C is looking more and more interesting with all teams capable of advancing.