The Soccer Thread (Version 13) — Winter World Cup Edition

Real Madrid . I guess after the World Cup, there is no need to keep up the PSG charade.

 

Inter-Barca was a hell of a ride in the second half.

 

In the latest example of PSG having more money than sense, the club bought Twitter bots to go after its perceived enemies. My trois ans of high school French have long since left me, but according to Google Translate: "PSG commissioned an external agency to create an “army” of fake Twitter accounts that carried out violent and filthy campaigns, particularly against media and football club personalities. Mediapart is one of its targets. Kylian Mbappé himself was scratched."

 

If Jerry Jones knew what Twitter (or a computer) was, he'd have done this years ago.

 

"I was definitely born 50 years too early."

- George Steinbrenner

 

The CR7 return to United is reaching an end game. Inexcusable to refuse to come on, leave the field before the end of the game and leave the stadium before your teammates came back to the locker room. All while the club had its best game in forever.

 

Steven Gerrard fired at Villa, which is 2-6-3 through 11 games.

Things had been coming to a boil after lackluster draws against Leeds and Forest, which a team possessing that kind of payroll should be beating. They got very loud after a loss to Chelsea last Sunday in which they played fairly well but tonight at Fulham was a disaster. They looked terrible in the first half and were lucky to be down 1-0, then Douglas Luiz got sent off after Mitrovic dropped like a rock after some forehead to forehead contact, then miraculously recovered five minutes later to draw a handball penalty after he hit Matty Cash from like six feet.

I don't think he's incompetent, but considering how out of form they are up front, he doesn't have enough smarts to make up for the roster's problems. The team has no identity. The fact that they spent a mint on Buendia and Coutinho, who play the same position and can't play together, that's not (entirely) on him. Their big signing to shore up their stout but mistake-prone defense ruptured his Achilles in his second game. They've scored seven goals in 11 games. As the saying goes, you can't fire the players. The fact is they've now played all three promoted clubs and looked terrible in all of them. So I guess I don't think he has much of an argument.

 

My dude in El Traffico scores the go ahead goal and then leaps into the stands to get a kiss (presumably from his SO) with three minutes still left in stoppage time. Galaxy wasn’t in any hurry to restart curiously.

 

Meanwhile, down in the Championship, my Hornets are in utter shambles. Lost 3-0 at fucking Millwall Wednesday in a game that wasn't even that close, and lost Imran Louza to a broken leg. The table is pretty tightly packed ... Watford is in 15th but is only seven points out of top spot. Also only six points clear of the drop. I thought that there was little chance that Watford would bounce straight back up this year, but this is ugly. QPR and Blackburn currently hold the two automatic promotion spots. Luton (filthy twats) come to town Sunday for a derby, and I've already been getting emails from the club about the increased police presence. Should be fun, I guess.

 

For many reasons, I’m glad I’m not going to the World Cup this year.

 

If you can afford to go to the World Cup, you can afford a burner phone.