Goooooooooooooooooooooooooool

[sal]

Yeah I hate not being able to keep up with the European leagues via television. I need a dish or digital cable to get Fox Soccer Channel and GOL TV, and that just ain't in the budget right now.

[Cliff Englewood]

The madness starts again today, it's Sunderland 0-0 Tottenham at half time.

[sal]

Wayne Rooney is out for two months with a hairline fracture in his foot! New signing Carlos Tevez (a hell of a striker) will be replacing Rooney in the Manchester United front line. I think this injury is going to hurt the England national team more than Man U.

[Van Basten II]

Games to watch this weekend

Saturday Bayern Munich against Werder Bremen.

Sunday The Manchester derby that i won't see, dams Setanta, followed by Liverpool-Chelsea.

[sal]

Liverpool / Chelsea should be a fun one to watch. Is Gerrard out?

[Van Basten II]

In NFL terms he's doubtful.

[Van Basten II]

The Bremen-Bayern was a dissapointment not only in terms of results, i'm a Bremen fan. The game itself was tedious and offered little excitement before the latter stages of the match, when it turned out to be a rout.

Fear that the days of Bremen being among the top teams of Bundesliga are behind us.

[Van Basten II]

The Liverpool-Chelsea was good but not a great game, not sure that Chelsea deserved a point, tough call for the Reds on the penality.

Last year champs have a hard time starting the year, Stuttgart, Lyon and MU have a combined record of 1 win, 3 draws and 4 losses.

[brownie]

The lowprofile team of Lorient defeated champion Lyon 2-1 this weekend.

Nothing seems to be working for Lyon at the start of this championship. Same goes with Marseille, not to speak of Paris Saint-Germain who were also defeated by Lorient the previous week. None of these teams have managed to win decisive points after four matches!

Interesting that the three leading teams in the French championship so far are Lorient, Le Mans and Nancy, teams with no major stars, a number of local talents and plenty of good will!

[sal]

How about Manchester City?? Impressive.

[Van Basten II]

Did not see the game but can't argue with the results clean sheet in 3 games and 3 wins. Must we give credit to Sven.

[Van Basten II]

The lowprofile team of Lorient defeated champion Lyon 2-1 this weekend.

Nothing seems to be working for Lyon at the start of this championship. Same goes with Marseille, not to speak of Paris Saint-Germain who were also defeated by Lorient the previous week. None of these teams have managed to win decisive points after four matches!

Interesting that the three leading teams in the French championship so far are Lorient, Le Mans and Nancy, teams with no major stars, a number of local talents and plenty of good will!

Have always mixed feelings when i see small sides taking the the lead in the Championnat. I know it's too early in the season, but still ...

On one hand, my North-american sports fan sensitivity enjoys the fact that the teams economical strengths do not correlate with the results on the pitch.

On ther other hand, having small clubs on top means french representatives who won't fare well in European competition. Because as good as these teams got going, the'll be depleted during the following mercatos and we'll be looking for early exits from our sides in those competitions

[Van Basten II]

The weekend will bring us the start of the season of two other main championship. La liga and the Calcio will start the 2007-2008 schedule.

Among the games to follow this saturday

Chelsea-Portsmouth (Won't be able to see the game, damn Setanta!)

The Madrid derby between Atletico and the Real (Gol TV i hope)

Sunday

The Italian champs will start defending their title against Udinese

The late game will be between two teams who were among the top 5 last year, Roma and Palermo.

On a personal basis, although it won't be televised the Lyon-St Étienne derby will be of interest for yours truly, hoping that mes Verts will take advantage of the slumping Lyonnais

Edited August 23, 2007 by Van Basten II

[sal]

Would love to see that Madrid matchup.....

That's it...I'm looking into digital cable next week. I've had just about enough of this.

[brownie]

On a personal basis, although it won't be televised the Lyon-St Étienne derby will be of interest for yours truly, hoping that mes Verts will take advantage of the slumping Lyonnais

The Lyon-St.Etienne derby will be shown live on the French payTV station Canal Plus main channel Sunday evening!

Same goes for the Real-Atletico game that will be shown on the Canal Plus sports channel in the afternoon here!

[Van Basten II]

Regarding St-Étienne-Lyon I meant the other side of the ocean.

[kenny weir]

Our A-League season kicked off last night, with Central Coast Mariners downing Sydney United 1-0.

My side, Melbourne Victory, take on league debutants the Wellington Phoenix in NZ tomorrow and I'm pumped.

THIS is why I gots pay TV, baby!

Even better, I have next week off so can go to the first home game - normally I'd be working on a Saturday night. Doing what you ask? Normally sub-editing the Melbourne Victory coverage for my rag.

Go Victory!

What with that all plus EPL and lotsa rugby league, I'm a happy camper/couch potato.

Hell, I'm even open to turning my time and mind to MLS - but it'd be nice if we got some games THAT DIDN'T FEATURE THE MOTHER-FREAKING LA GALAXY.

Sheesh. Like there's only one team in your league. Pukesville.

Edited August 25, 2007 by kenny weir

[brownie]

Regarding St-Étienne-Lyon I meant the other side of the ocean.

Realized that...

twas just meant to make you green with envy

[Van Basten II]

Regarding St-Étienne-Lyon I meant the other side of the ocean.

Realized that...

twas just meant to make you green with envy

Good pun, checked out the Setanta schedule ,for those who care the game will be shown on a tape delay basis later sunday. Since my cable provider does not offer Setanta, i'll be stuck reading reports on the web.

By the way for those in the US here's a good site to know what's on the tube foot wise. Unfortunately the owner is selling and there is some uncertainity about the future of that site. Also they used to give us info about Canadian networks but they cut that down too.

wwww.soccertv.com

[Van Basten II]

Was the Real-Atletico game broadcasted in Europe ? There were problems that did not allow the broadcast of the game either live or on delay in North-America :bwallace2:

[Van Basten II]

Sad news from Sevilla

Spain and Seville left stunned by Puerta's death

By Matt Gatward

Published: 29 August 2007

Spanish football has been stunned by the death yesterday of Seville's 22-year-old midfielder Antonio Puerta, one of the country's most promising players.

The Spanish international collapsed after 35 minutes of the league match against Getafe on Saturday, but was able to walk off the pitch. He collapsed again in the dressing room and was taken to hospital where he remained in a critical condition.

Puerta died from postanoxic encephalopathy and multiple organ failure caused by prolonged cardiac arrest.

His body will be taken to the club's Sanchez Pizjuan stadium where fans will be able to pay their respects.

"He was a magnificent footballer and had a great sporting future," the former Seville coach Joaquin Caparros, now of Athletic Bilbao, said.

The pictures of Puerta's collapse were flashed around the country and his predicament has dominated the news. A stream of visitors visited Puerta yesterday before he passed away, including Real Betis players, Seville's city rivals, and former team-mates Sergio Ramos and Jose Antonio Reyes.

Seville's Champions League qualifying second leg tie at AEK Athens last night was postponed.

Puerta was a product of Seville's youth system, breaking into the side in 2004 season before becoming a regular the following year.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Actually watch that game, i thought he simply had an epileptic seizure, it was however way more lethal than i thought.

[sal]

That was really tragic. Just 22 years old. Gotta appreciate life while you're living it...

[Swinging Swede]

Here is a video of the incident:

Apparently this didn't wholly come as a bolt from the blue. Puerta had recently fainted during training on two occasions, and had undergone tests, but nothing wrong could be found. After his death the question will surely be asked whether he should have been prohibited from playing, until further tests had been carried out.

And this isn't all. On the same day that Puerta was declared dead, Leicester City's Clive Clark, 27, collapsed in the changing room at half-time in a cup match. His heart stopped twice, but he survived, and is reported to be improving.

And just yesterday former Zambian national team player Chaswe Nsofwa, 28, died during a training match with his new team in Israel. Just a few days before he had scored 2 goals in his first match for the team.

And, while it didn't make international news, a few days before Puerta's last match a Swedish 16-year-old football player died during training.

Still in fresh memory are Miklos Feher and Marc-Vivien Foe, two other national team players, who also died during televised matches.

Is it just my memory that is short or have these deaths become much more common in recent years?

[Van Basten II]

I do agree with you, it seems we have more and more of those incidents lately, why do they happen. Overtraining, steroids, doctors who don,t do their job properly ?

[Van Basten II]

By the way, nothing really wortwhile this weekeend football wise except maybe the Super Cup between Milan and Sevilla friday.