LeafsBlowPouch

Yesterday's game was dissapointing but I should have been way more stunned than I actually was at the result. It shows United's team is extremely weak compared to past year's and it is because SAF has yet to address the glaring problem in the CM position. Scholes HAS TO BE REPLACED. Guys like Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher, Anderson, etc. although decent players, are NOT the type of World Class center midfielders that make up the best team in the world and carry them to championships. PERIOD. We need the creativity and someone to control the game in the center of the field. I think Rooney is the only one on the team that can currently do that (you can see it when he comes back and drops into pockets, collects the ball and does something smart with it), but then it means taking him away from his preferred position up front. We need another Roy Keane or Paul Scholes. SIGN IN JANUARY SAF!! A center midfielder, not a winger or striker!!

Rooney wins his appeal and has his suspension reduced to two games Told ya so! http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/993883/england's-wayne-rooney's-euro-2012-ban-is-reduced-on-appeal%22?cc=5901

Yep, like the Aaron Rome suspension. Hilarious Cantona avatar! Hey Scottish Canuck - there's always the next major tournament for Scotland eh?

You don't think 3 games in a major tournament for that isn't harsh?? Apparently the man who was fouled even believes it is. Wayne Rooney's red-card victim, Montenegro defender Miodrag Dzudovic, has offered to speak on the England striker's behalf should he appeal against his three-match international ban. Rooney's victim, 32-year-old Dzudovic, believes UEFA's punishment is too harsh and is ready to help the Manchester United striker fight his ban. Russia midfielder Andrei Arshavin only received a two-game ban for a similar offence before Euro 2008 and the FA is hoping for a one-game reduction in Rooney's suspension.

Could FIFA make it anymore obvious that they absolutely hate England? What looks like a standard one match ban red card somehow becomes a three match ban to start Euro 2012 for England's best player? I'll admit it was a foolish foul/card to take on Rooney's part, but by no means was it super malicious and worthy of anything more than the standard one game. Another major tourney set up for dissapointment.... sigh.

Sweeeeeeeet!

Ashley Young is a pimp right now. That win basically has England qualify for Euro unless they lose by an enormous amount of goals to Montenegro (who have to win both of their remaining games).

Well if you like the show you'd love the books. They are better. But they are also 1,000 page monsters.

Yep, they need a solid central midfielder. I'm also confused about using another DP on a striker when our two strikers have been the most effective part of our team to date. Good win on Saturday!

Wow, so the two best teams in the SPL can't even qualify for the Europa Cup? Yikes. My Everton buddy was making fun of my Rangers buddy saying the SPL is like Div 3 in England. Although a huge exaggeration it doesn't seem that far off now. My scottish friend was convinced Rangers could be competitive in the Champions League, yet they somehow can't even qualify for Europa against some Slovenian team I've never heard of. And I like City's draw for the CL. Prove yourselves now cause you haven't proven anything yet, other than you have money and buy every good player available to weaken your competition.

Agreed there should be one thread... but I can't see the re-birth being as successful as the original was. Those other threads need to be deleted for there to even be a chance.

Yes, it was. He was always big, and got fatter once he gained the throne. Stannis was never supposed to be big and I never pictured him big either. I think the casting for him looks decent. Brieann of Tarth, however, needs to be UGLIER! Hope they do something in makeup to UGG her up a bit more, although the actress being 6'3'' helps a lot to capture the big and strong angle for the character.

We dropped Akhoul today. I liked what I saw from the guy.

Yes, if you are coming directly to it. But if you are already in off-topic you have to back out of it. Now that soccer talk is in here it gets frequented less by the bigger supporters on these boards and it is more diluted due to there being multiple threads instead of one general one. It was WAY better when it was in OFF TOPIC as a single thread. It just needed to be renamed from European Football to Soccer in general, because it really was used for all leagues. It was 500 and some odd pages, so it didn't die off when the EPL was in off-season. The general discussion and knowledge in that thread was definitely better than all of these random ones with 2 pages of posts in each.

Red Bulls come to town and Henry is injured, LA comes to town and Beckham's suspended... we have terrible luck even outside of our results in this first season That said, great game last night. But we ALMOST blew it in the final few minutes again, so I guess we'll be half satisfied with the tie.

Yep, pitch was pretty horrible which played to the lesser team's advantage, but what a great goal by SWP (Mighty Mouse). Get a win tonight please Whitecaps!!

Amazing eh? All the books are epic. 4th one (Feast for Crows) definitely the least though, as it covers only half of the characters. They definitely all are great reads though. As good as the show is, the books are still better. With so many characters, you just can't recreate the character detail in a show/movie like GRRM does in the novels.

Yeah the whole team has struggled as far as getting W's, but they've been unlucky as well. Dunfield has definitely personally struggled. He has been giving the ball away a lot in his latest appearances, and that PK was just awful. If you don't have the confidence to hit it, then don't step up. It's a shame that he is a hometown guy and it didn't work out, but I can't say I've been happy with his performances lately, whereas a number of players I have been despite the team not winning games. Good luck at TFC Terry.

Uggghhh, exactly what I described above just happened again. It hurts. Dunfield, way to telegraph it buddy.

Still hate to blame it on being unlucky, but a lot of it still is. They tie or lose every game by 1 goal. When's it going to turn around? They always seem to have enough chances to put 2 or 3 away and never do. :S Going to the match tomorrow. Go Caps!

Was at the game in Seattle and the atmosphere was incredible. Was in the Caps fan section and we were cheering and chanting and partying the entire game. We seemed as loud as the 35,000 Sounders fans. And I wish I can say I was sober enough to appreciate how amazing Hassli's goal was, but I wasn't. Just saw the ball go into the net. Had to check out the replay the next morning to see how amazing it was. And great win against the Union. Go Caps! Time to get a road win!

At least GSP will be fighting after Game 2 is already over.

Agreed. With a full season to cover each book they should have the time to develope the characters (maybe not as well as George's books do) but a lot more than if they were to do this in movie form. That first 15 minutes looks promising and that wall does look amazing.

Looks freakin' epic! Can't wait for this and the new book. HBO rocks.

GSP walks through his opponents without getting a scratch. Silva usually does too, but he got beat down pretty bad by Sonnen. It is pretty pointless to compare different divisions. That said, GSP is more dominant in Welterweight than Silva is in MW for sure though.