On the Eve of the new Season...

[godsshoeshine]

i certainly dont think kinnear faked his heart attack, is ready to quit or would have been sacked until the end of the season. supposedly he has a 2 year deal on the table

[vansmack]

I didn't say anything about Kinnear...

Venerable and I were white-trashing it in Reno this weekend and I had a devil of a time finding a place to watch the United match.  I eventually had to watch the match on the small TVs reserved for the horse races in the Sportsbook.  Oh, and it was only available En Vvio on Fox Sports En Espanol.  At 8 AM, that area was filled with a bunch of homeless people trying to stay warm and me watching United on a small screen in Spanish.  That's in my book for sure.

[godsshoeshine]

my bad i thought that was your implication

i didnt watch much of the manu/wet spam match as i had already watched 4 full matches, the last 20 minutes of the liverpool/pompey match and the last 10 of the everton match. and i had to go to work on a sunday 

[vansmack]

my bad i thought that was your implication

I totally was.  Poor use (or non-use in this case) of my sarcasm tabs.

Unfortunately we were on the road for the Pool match but got a nice play by play from my brother in law during our 4 hour drive.  It got to the point where we were thinking this could be the end of it (if it were a 5 point lead with a game in hand, or even a 4 point lead).  But they dug it out to keep it a somewhat entertaining finish.  Looks like the rest have just given up.  Let the fire sale at Arsenal begin!

[godsshoeshine]

i dont understand the logic in resting torres for that game at all

as far as joke in ear goes, cant see him not lasting the year unless he really cant go on due to his health. that would be a shame to be honest

having said that i cant see him coming back next year no matter how the season shakes out.

[Frank Gallagher]

....and Scolari bites the dust!!!

I might not know much but I do know football, you have to admit that!!

[hutch]

Firing Scolari is just ridiculous. He is a proven coach and things would have turned around at some point. Now they'll have to pay him $22 million just to get rid of him!

[godsshoeshine]

not proven at the european club level, and certainly not in england

[vansmack]

Scolari's a bum, but the Russia job might be available again...

Lot's of International action this week.  Q=qualifier, F=Friendly

Tuesday, Feb 10

2:30pm [F] Brazil vs. Italy (FSC)


Wednesday, Feb 11

5:00am [Q]    Japan vs. Australia (FSC)
11:00am [Q] Iran vs. South Korea (FSC)
3:00pm [F] Argentina vs. France (ESPN2HD)
4:00pm [F] Spain vs. England (PPV - $20)
7:00pm [Q] USA vs. Mexico (ESN2HD)


Thursday, Feb 12

6:00pm [Q] Ireland vs Georgia (SET - 1st Air, originally played on Wed)


Friday, Feb 13

6:00pm [F] Spain vs England (SET - 1st Air, originally played on Wed)

[godsshoeshine]

oh cool. i was looking for ireland and didnt find it on wednesday. didnt even think to look for it on thursday. might catch england too

[vansmack]

I'll probably try to DL both via bit torrent to watch tomorrow night.  I'll let you know if I find them (England should be easy, Ireland maybe not).

[godsshoeshine]

kinnear to have a bypass: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=618091&sec=england&cc=5901
bordering on the absurd, the manager even gets injured. looks like were stuck with hughton and calderwood for the duration 

[Frank Gallagher]

not proven at the european club level, and certainly not in england

Exactly! And I would go so far as to say he's not proven anywhere. As I keep saying, my mother could coach Brasil to a world cup final win. He didn't do much with Portugal and their well of talent did he??

Other than Brasil....just what exactly has he achieved?

I think he's getting 7.5m sterling as a payout....not bad huh?

[brennser]

jesus the boys in green were lucky last night but I'll take it - top of the table with italy not to be sniffed at

[godsshoeshine]

u.s. looked ok last night. mexico just cant help themselves, i thought they might have a chance for a point until the red. now their captain misses a third of the remaining qualifiers, right?

shape was held well, though the passing could be better. there is a decent amount of pace out there with beasley, donovan and kljestan. thought that pearce wasnt very good and with hejduk really getting up there in age, they need to find some full backs. free kick goal was good form all around, the delivery, heading it to gooch, the shot and then burying the rebound