The Beautiful Game Thread 10/11

[pk500]

Great win by the Magpies today over Liverpool, 3-1. It was Hughton's birthday and the players wanted to win this one for him, and boy did they ever deliver. Pardew was smart to let them run primarily Hughton set pieces (ie 1st goal), and the Ranger sub when Ameobi got dinged up proved to be good for Newcastle. One note: Sol Campbell is old, and plays like it.

I'm still pissed Pardew was hired. It's going to take more than this to win me over.

[rhymes450]

It's clear that the tension between Tevez & Mancini has reached its peak. The owner has to make a decision quickly before the situation blows in their face and the whole team become distracted.

Wonder if that ties in at all with the fact that Mourinho is reportedly on the prowl for a centre forward in the light of Higuain's injury situation. Mou's been drawing weird (or maybe it's some kind of in-joke amongst hunters that's lost on me) hunting analogies to describe the current state of affairs...something along the lines of it's better to hunt with a dog (Higuain!) but you can still catch stuff if you hunt with a cat (Benzema!)

Anyway, here's how the inhabitants of the planet Marca portray it on today's frontpage:

http://kiosko.net/es/np/marca.html

No news linking Tevez to RM so far, I think.

[toonarmy]

Great win by the Magpies today over Liverpool, 3-1. It was Hughton's birthday and the players wanted to win this one for him, and boy did they ever deliver. Pardew was smart to let them run primarily Hughton set pieces (ie 1st goal), and the Ranger sub when Ameobi got dinged up proved to be good for Newcastle. One note: Sol Campbell is old, and plays like it.

I'm still pissed Pardew was hired. It's going to take more than this to win me over.

I'm chalking this win up to the players winning one for Hughton. Once they have trained under Pardew for a while and begin using his tactics we will see what he really brings to the table. A win over Liverpool sure is a nice way to start off one's time at St. James, though.

[Macca00]

How long can Hodgson keep his job? Seriously.

[fsquid]

until Van Gaal loses his?

[RobVarak]

How long can Hodgson keep his job? Seriously.

You know that I'm not a big fan of his, but I don't think he had a hell of a lot of options out there yesterday. He's stuck with Kyrgiakos and Skrtel at CB, two fullbacks whose defensive abilities are notional at best and mediocrities like Lucas and Maxi in the midfield.

[pk500]

Great win by the Magpies today over Liverpool, 3-1. It was Hughton's birthday and the players wanted to win this one for him, and boy did they ever deliver. Pardew was smart to let them run primarily Hughton set pieces (ie 1st goal), and the Ranger sub when Ameobi got dinged up proved to be good for Newcastle. One note: Sol Campbell is old, and plays like it.

I'm still pissed Pardew was hired. It's going to take more than this to win me over.

I'm chalking this win up to the players winning one for Hughton. Once they have trained under Pardew for a while and begin using his tactics we will see what he really brings to the table. A win over Liverpool sure is a nice way to start off one's time at St. James, though.

Absolutely. Nolan and Barton said as much in the Man of the Match interview, especially Barton. He dedicated the bottle of bubbly for Man of the Match to Hughton.

[toonarmy]

Absolutely. Nolan and Barton said as much in the Man of the Match interview, especially Barton. He dedicated the bottle of bubbly for Man of the Match to Hughton.

I didn't see the interview, but am glad to hear that Barton showed nice respect to a man that helped him grow the hell up and act like a proper footballer. The only downer to the match was seeing The Pudgy One in the stands celebrating every goal as if he had just won the Champions League, with the look of "I'm a genius owner, we're beating Liverpool because of me." (barf)

[RobVarak]

For all of you NUFC fans: Gabriele Marcotti on Pardew.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... re_twitter

[Macca00]

My uncles fired Fat Sam.

I would feel bad for him but I hate that pile of sh!t. Now he can go manage Real Madrid.

[Naples39]

GrantWahl Grant Wahl
Respected Newsweek columnist RT @JonathanAlter Great source: most members of the World Cup Selection Com got bribe of $10 million from Qatar
14 Dec

I'm kind of amazed this was thrown out there, and then no one says anything either way.

[RobVarak]

GrantWahl Grant Wahl
Respected Newsweek columnist RT @JonathanAlter Great source: most members of the World Cup Selection Com got bribe of $10 million from Qatar
14 Dec

I'm kind of amazed this was thrown out there, and then no one says anything either way.

Dog bites man.

[miget33]

Champions League last 16 draw:
Roma v Shakhtar Donetsk

AC Milan v Tottenham

Valencia v Schalke

Inter Milan v Bayern Munich

Lyon v Real Madrid

Arsenal v Barcelona

Marseille v Manchester United

Copenhagen v Chelsea

First legs to be played on 15/16 and 22/23 February

Second legs to be played on 8/9 and 15/16 March

[10spro]

Bayern will be sick of D. Milito in their face again, RM vs Lyon could be quite intriguing, and Arsene's team will try to erase Messi's 4 goal epic performance. Doesn't look good for them.

The other English teams should advance with no problems.

[Naples39]

Milan is 6 points clear in Italy with Zlatan lighting it up--I'm not overly confident in Tottenham's chances given their lack of an ability to keep a clean sheet.

[fsquid]

Inter Milan v Bayern Munich

Crap

[rhymes450]

A Real Madrid fan told me the other day that he fancied drawing Lyon because of the revenge factor. Well, he got his wish. One of the teams that Real Madrid fans didn't seem keen on drawing was Copenhagen because of the excellent account they gave of themselves in the matches against Barca. They looked very well organised (the offside trap was like a Swiss watch in the match I saw) and dangerous on the counter. All the pressure on Chelsea as favourites for that one.

[XXXIV]

Chelsea / Man U called?...Is it really that bad out there?

I was looking forward to it this morning.

[dougb]

Heathrow's pretty much closed down for the 2nd day in a row and London received around 15 cm of snow in the past 24 hours so yep, it's pretty bad out there.

Best wishes,

Doug

[RobVarak]

Macca was supposed to be at the LFC-Fulham match. I don't know if he even got into the country, or if he's stuck there. Ah well, at least he didn't have to see Paul Konchesky in person.

[dougb]

Well if he flew from Toronto Friday night he likely ended up either in Shannon Ireland or Paris by the looks of the diversions LOL!

Best wishes,

Doug

[XXXIV]

Well if he flew from Toronto Friday night he likely ended up either in Shannon Ireland or Paris by the looks of the diversions LOL!

Best wishes,

Doug

Ouch!...That would suck. I really do hope he made it in.

If not...well...better him than me

[Jimmydeicide]

Even if he did land in England he wont be able to get where hes going. Kinda like Konchesky yeh.

[JRod]

Hey UK-DSP'ers...is this much snow for England unprecedented? I know last year a few pitches in the north were frozen and a few games postponed but this seems like the worse I've ever seen in terms of snow causing problems so far south for such a period of time.

[dougb]

My wife and I are headed are flying to London on Thursday, so hopefully the mess will be somewhat cleared up by the time we fly.

Jrod problem over there is a lack of road clearing and sanding equipment combined with few people having all season radials let alone snow tires. Add 80% humidity in below freezing temperatures and you've got your recipe for chaos.

Should be a fun trip!

Best wishes,

Doug