On the Eve of the new Season...

[vansmack]

I brought that magazine home for smackette yesterday and she was quite pleased.

As for the season, one fucking week.  Bayern were not the better team and the draw with Blackburn are really what did the squad in. Shame really, but we can't win everything, every year....

Alas, I am in World Cup mode now.  So which should scare England more?

Goalies: Joe Hart, David James, Robert Green

or

Strikers: Darren Bent, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Emile Heskey, Wayne Rooney

[godsshoeshine]

good question. i'd say the keeper situation just because the backline situation has gone quickly from "one of the best in the world" to "questionable". really its been only 6 months or so

i'd have thought that england could play it pretty close to the vest, grind out results and hope the brilliance of rooney could be supplimented by some goals from the midfield. man rooney's groin is messing things up there too

[vansmack]

Yep, the midfield list is pretty deep - hopefully they'll get a lot of goals there.  And I agree, assuming Rooney's healthy, the keeper siutation is much worse, but if that groin/ankle/metatarsal goes out, forget about it.  Notice I didn't even mention a stomp.

BTW - Gerrards NW pad is up for sale and he had no WAG to see him off...

[godsshoeshine]

id rather have bent or defoe over...jeez who do they even start there? hart?

stevie g didnt even have the teenage mistress to send him off? bummer

[vansmack]

stevie g didnt even have the teenage mistress to send him off? bummer

Maybe she was there as I've heard the girl is the daughter of one of the coaches...this story keeps moving so far in one direction that if even half of it is true it's gonna be awesome.

Because we were a former colony, maybe FIFA would let us trade Howard/Guzan/Henneman/Friedl for a decent midfielder?  All would be an improvement over their choices, and probably ours too.

[godsshoeshine]

did they really leave ashley young out? thats nuts

[vansmack]

did they really leave ashley young out? thats nuts

That and the disappearance of David Bentley over the last two years are the clear surprises.  Wasn't he tipped to take over for Becks?

Anyhow, AY, SWP, Aaron Lennon, and Theo Walcott are all very similar players.  If I didn't know any better I would have thought Aaron and Theo were the same person, actually.

[godsshoeshine]

i'd take ashley young all day over swp or lennon. i dont think its even close

[godsshoeshine]

no davies on the thirty man squad

wow

[vansmack]

no davies on the thirty man squad

I would have to assume that Bradley knows more about Davies health than the general public.

Good for Hercules Gomez though.  Scoring a ton in Mexico....

[godsshoeshine]

but they took gooch who is further away supposedly. i guess its more shocking that bradley didnt put davies on the 30 and at least give him a look than not going to south africa at all

and that means we'll seen entirely too much of brian ching

[hutch]

Davies is barely staring to play again. Not a surprise he is left off.

[vansmack]

Hutch - Zanetti and Cambiasso?

[godsshoeshine]

zanetti is older than me

[vansmack]

zanetti is older than me

So is Juan Sebastian Veron, who is 5 years older than Cambiasso...

Zanetti just captained an undermanned Inter to the Champions League Final...I don't think I can say the same for Ariel Garce, Juan Insaurralde, or Sebastian Blanco.

To the casual observer, which would be a stretch for me to describe myself when it comes to Argentine football, it sure looks like an anti-Europe bias on the part of Maradonna.