European Soccer Part XIII

[Jon]

And, on the opposite side of the excitement spectrum, we have Celtic's loss to Dunfermline this morning which is rather meaningless because the Bhoys are so far up on Rangers that the league was decided last month. I enjoyed the nice post game celebration (Martin O'Neil bears an odd resemblance to my roomate John who Boston posters can catch at 10:30 every night on CN8). The game was rather suckarific. The winning goal for the Pars was one that even I could have saved. And I suck at soccer. :p

[Nathan]

United lose 1-0 to Blackburn. Once again, no Ruud, no scoring.

[Bob Gray]

Looks to me like the red-nosed one is resting a lot of his players leading up to the FA Cup. No RvN, Scholes, Keane, Ronaldo, and one or two others.

Leeds seal their fate today, losing 4-1, so the relegation trio are set at Leeds, Wolves, and Leceister. Glad to see Leceister going down, as it'd be an injustice if they benefited from going into receivership the way the did (clearing the books and then spending a bunch of money).

[Craig P.]

Scholes and/or Keane was suspended.

[Don King]

Is anybody else shocked by the whole "Rivaldo to Bolton" saga? I know Rivaldo is past his prime but... Bolton?!?

[Bob Gray]

Bolton have made an art form of picking up out of favor players, sometimes even big time players. Sometimes it works out, such as Djorkaef (sp?), sometimes not. But Big Sam does seem to be good enough at it to keep Bolton up.

[Hobart Higgins]

Real says that Ronaldo and Figo are available but Beckham is NOT.

Unless someone wants to pay the $350 million buyout fee.

[x-cheque]

Where did you hear/read/see that? From what the BBC Sport and ESPN's soccernet have to say, Real hasn't made a solid commitment either way. It appears that if Becks wants to leave Real then he will. Real would be better for it, they need some freaking defending. They just lost 2-0 to Deportivo de la Coruna over the weekend, tsk tsk.

[Big Poppa Pump]

Last weeks SI (Tillman on cover) had a small blurb about how one of the Real presidential candidates has said that if hes elected, then Becks will be on his way out of town. Something about, "We want our stars to be stars on the football field first and foremost," or something like that....

[Bob Gray]

Reports are that Beckham did not renew his lease at his house in Madrid, which ends in June, and he hasn't leased anywhere else to follow the current lease. Beckham staying in Spain long term isn't in the cards, with the rest of his family staying in London. He's no rocket scientist, but he's shown his family is important in his decisionmaking.

If Beckham leaves Madrid, don't expect them to spend the money on defenders. They've needed defensive help for years, but their foolish administrators always buy some offensive whiz galactico. No reason to think that will change. It is nice to see Real Madrid finishing out the season without any hardware.

[MavrckMngr]

Originally posted by Don King
Is anybody else shocked by the whole "Rivaldo to Bolton" saga? I know Rivaldo is past his prime but... Bolton?!?

Seaman to...City?!?
McManaman to...City?!?
Tarnat (although still somewhat young) to...City?!?
Fowler to...City?!?

Keegan to...hell?!? :p

See where I'm going with this?

Trust me, Rivaldo could've done worse. Be glad for him that he isn't going to be playing for Leeds or Leicester next year.

Finally, FINALLY I can stop worrying about Man City staying in the top flight next season. I mean, I really don't think I'd be able to wait a whole year for some Millwall idiots to climb some scaffolding at CoMStad. Besides, now we can go on to more important issues...like, painting the seats, or...naming the stadium Eastlands cos that's what we all call it anyway or...naming all four stands after Colin Bell? :)

Still, it's good to have the relegation issue off our chest. Hopefully we won't have to go through this again next season, with or without King Kev.

:) We are City, Super City, we are City from Maine Road! :)

[MavrckMngr]

Oh, FYI...

Manchester City has confirmed two summer friendlies in Lancashire, with more to come possibly by the end of the month.

June 21: Bury @ Gigg Lane

June 24: Blackpool @ Bloomfield Road (Andy Morrison's testimonial match)

[Bronco]

Originally posted by MavrckMngr
Keegan to...hell?!? :p


Still, it's good to have the relegation issue off our chest. Hopefully we won't have to go through this again next season, with or without King Kev.

:) We are City, Super City, we are City from Maine Road! :)

Do you actually think we will get someone to replace Anelka?

[BW0683]

Originally posted by Bronco
Do you actually think we will get someone to replace Anelka?

Forlan :D

[Nathan]

Originally posted by BW0683
Forlan :D
United will take a bag of practice balls and cones for Diego Forlan!!!

[Bob Gray]

I really think that Forlan is just settling in at ManU and Sir Red Nose needs to give him at least another year or two to show his full potential! :D

Tricky match for Arsenal today at Portsmouth, who are playing quite well right now and would love to end Arsenal's unbeaten run.

[Terrierbyassociation]

Was anyone talking over the weekend about Germany's humiliating loss to Romania??

My god, that was fun to read about. What a thrashing!

[BW0683]

Porto on to the CL Final with a 1-0 win over Deportivo La Coruna.

[Nathan]

Originally posted by BW0683
Porto on to the CL Final with a 1-0 win over Deportivo La Coruna.

Porto sucks.

That is all.

[Don King]

Originally posted by Bob Gray
Tricky match for Arsenal today at Portsmouth, who are playing quite well right now and would love to end Arsenal's unbeaten run.

Ended in a 1-1 draw. It really had all of the intensity of a training match for Arsenal. Good game, but you get the sense that the Gunners are just playing not to lose for the last month.