Futebol

Indeed.  That was a fun match.

even though they lost, its such a refreshing change to be pulling for an international team who are playing flowing attacking football

hitting the woodwork 4 times, shit penalty and a disallowed goal in less than 30 mins.

i hope Japan are getting their bad luck out of the way before the WC

If they had a decent forward and a solid centre half they'd be proper decent.

be interesting to see if they find a way of accommodating Kiyotake or Inui or both by next summer.

I'd actually favour Honda over Kagawa as the false 9 if they go that way.

It is hard to understand how Japan has become a popular World Cup dark horse pick after this competition.

Belgium already been dumped by hipsters.

i can see them causing an upset but also getting turned over. too imbalanced to improve upon their 2010 showing


mostly i hope they avoid england and get to play a match in sao paulo

"What's the difference between Shakira and Spain? Unlike Shakira, Spain don't blow their PKs". Maybe one of AC Jimbo's best intros to a pod yet.

this Swedish vs Danish hooligan video makings the rounds today blows my mind

Off to Trent Bridge tomorrow, hoping I might get 2/3rds of a day out of it.

was thinking about you during Agar's knock yesterday.

3rd ump has a lot to answer for.....those two incidents were an exact inversion of how referrals should work.

hopefully we can build a couple of decent partnerships today and you'll get your money's worth.

Was a good day's play yesterday, last 90 mins made sure that of that.

Totally agree with that on DRS, Cook's better use of appealing won us the test I'd say.

i haven't read a single smart thing about the Thiago to Bayern transfer yet.

seems like a great move to me. Thiago as always been tipped to be a world class player and a bunch of know nothings are getting caught up talking about "playing time".

There's only so many midfielders you can play at once. I wouldn't go so far to say it,s stupid, merely odd.

Pete Best wrote:There's only so many midfielders you can play at once. I wouldn't go so far to say it,s stupid, merely odd.

I don't think it's necessarily "optimal". The general public reacts to things in a very "IS THIS TOTALLY GOOD OR TOTALLY BAD??" manner which does a disservice to the complicated nature of building a squad. There's risks associated with the move, but what about potential rewards?

It's definitely a luxury purchase because he's not a guaranteed starter. It will definitely create rotation problems, but if someone gets injured, it doesn't create rotation problems. He's a young player that can easily be resold. He may also end up being a lot more useful than your Gustavo/Muller/Schweiney players next year, it's hard to say. I see the potential of disrupting your squad as a worthwhile risk to buy a player of this talent level and seasoning.

United fans are trying to play the "it's a bad transfer for the game" card because "the neutrals" are deprived of a great player making more first team starts at a big club, but that's an obvious homer and nonsense argument. United fans can get fucked. It seems to me that English teams have trouble buying these highly technical players because they don't want to play alongside Michael Carrick and Anderson or have to play the ball out of the back with fucking Johnny Evans.

I know he missed a lot of time with injury last year, but Kagawa is a cautionary tale for smaller, technical players moving to the Premier League. the game doesn't revolve around those types of players and managers like SAF will shoehorn you into unnatural positions that will make your game look bad.

I fail to see any argument that neutrals would be unhappy that Man Utd haven't signed a really good player.

But more seriously, you are correct, the English mentality means that a team full of gifted technical players like him are 'boring' or frustrate their own fans by not getting forward quickly enough.

I know broad generalization isn't great, but I really think that the English footballing culture is going to have to become more tolerant of technical play, flopping/play acting and slower paced games if they're going to continue to secure the best players. The premium price these English clubs are paying foreign players to come to England because they aren't fond of the style of play, the media and the weather is crazy.

Also from across the pond, is there any possibility at all of a Rooney transfer this summer? It seems like mostly bullshit even though I believe Rooney isn't totally settled behind RvP.

With the Fernandinho/Navas/Negredo/Jovetic signings, I really like what Pellegrini is doing at City. I think if there's one manager who can manage to make a moneybag club into a likable side it's probably him.

Dortmund's capture of Papastathopoulous, Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang (trying saying that five times fast) was also incredibly shrewd. Those are moves straight out of Football Manager (a game I have to assume Michael Zorc plays).

Roma and Fiorentina also making interesting plays this summer. Love Wanyama to Southhampton and love Pochettino. A lot of buys to talk about already.

I actually think Rooney is going to leave. The Chelsea offer was not just something to unsettle a title rival. And Chelsea players seem in favor of it. He could become Jose's new Drogba and score 25 goals next season.

But I'm also not sold on RvP having a repeat of last season.

Rooney suits Mou's system perfectly and I've been saying for a while i can see him at Chelsea.

US into the semi-finals after pummeling regional powerhouse El Salvador. It's Gold Cup fever!

Is Arsenal serious with this pursuit of Suarez? This seems opposite of everything Wenger has stood for and I don't think he makes them that much better.

Nick wrote:This seems opposite of everything Wenger has stood for

i think Wenger placing ridiculous bids well below the asking price is pretty much what he stands for at this point

My only guess is that these bids will accelerate a bid from Real Madrid and in turn allow Higuian to move to Arsenal.

The idea he might be worth £55m is a bit of a joke in my opinion.