[Football/Soccer] Chamack to score 30 goals for West Ham

LordSolarMacharius

Dehumanized wrote:

The TechFit straps are gone. Collars are in. You can safely assume that the 2012 green/shale kits will be very similar in features to the new cyan kits.

MLS kits are on a 2 year cycle. So the Sounders will be wearing their duct tape bras for another year. [They were new for last season, right?]


On the De Guzman 2.0 / Hoilett news, that would be really big for Canada. Hoilett is a talent, and doesn't deserve to be on such a shit Blackburn side. But we do have some reasonably good forwards: Simpsy has buckets of speed and skill, Occean is (as of typing) leading the 2.Bundesliga in scoring, Jackson was a big part of Norwich's promotion last year, DeRo is enigmatic but can take over a game, and Tosaint Ricketts was lively at BMO earlier this month.

But the big get would br JDG2, because as that opening round of WCQ games showed, as soon as Hutchinson got injured we were a complete shambles in moving the ball to our forwards.

.......................Occean...........................
Hoilett.......................................Simpson
.........Hutchinson...........JDG2.................
De Jong.............JDG................Klukowski
................McKenna......Hainault..............
.....................Hirschfeld.........................

Wow, a Canadian starting 11 where I can leave out DeRo. I'd still want Will Johnson on the field though...maybe at right back in place of Klukowski.

Dehumanized

Terry Boss (Sounders backup goalkeeper) has announced his retirement due to multiple concussions.

pslong9

That sucks about Boss. I hope his symptoms are minimal and don't hamper his ability to move on to something else in life.

MLS re-entry draft list is out, with some interesting names on it, including Clyde Simms, Santino Quaranta, Bobby Convey, and Andy Williams.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2011/11/30/mls-announces-players-available-re-entry-process

There are two separate rounds to the Re-entry draft. If I'm reading it correctly, players picked in the first round (which happens Monday) have to be offered the option that their current team failed to offer, or offer a full contract at either 100% or 105% of their current salary (full contract only applies to Simon Elliott, all other players were option-declined). Any players not picked in the first round can then go back to their current team and re-negotiate their contract. If they still can't come to an agreement, they go back into a second round, where teams can pick players and offer new contracts instead of picking up their option.

Someone please correct me if I've got it wrong.

Gosling

Arikado wrote:

This coming from the guy writing a book on why to pick a certain football club.

Ok. I take it that's chapter 1?

Well, right now the structure looks like so:

*Intro, mainly explaining why one would need to 'adopt' a team in the first place
*Glossary of terms that might not be readily apparent to a fan not quite brand new but still pretty green ('kickoff', 'throw-in' and 'goal kick' don't seem necessary, but 'offside', 'transfer window' and 'striker' seem like a good starting point, along with terms like 'straight red', 'smash and grab' and 'Hexagonal')
*Team directory (starting with the US, then Canada, then the other countries in alphabetical order)
*A rundown of the most common reasons a rivalry forms
*A rundown of notable global and continental tournaments
*Appendix (subjective listing of most iconic/intimidating stadiums; various overtime proposals; what clubs have sent the most players to each World Cup)
*Conclusion

Currently, by the way, I'm working on Lebanon's national profile (by the way, don't adopt a team from Lebanon for the love of all that's holy), and then just the two Sudans remain before I've gotten a national profile for everybody. Then it's just tacking on teams till I decide to stop.

oldmanken

Steve Bruce has been sacked... about time.

Diarmuid

No official word yet, but it looks like Lucas is going to be out for most, if not all, of the remaining season.
Big blow for Liverpool if that happens.

Tav

oldmanken wrote:

Steve Bruce has been sacked... about time.

Not surprising, they'd suspended betting on it happening last week.

815165

Feel pretty bad for Spurs right now.

but then again...

toxk_02

Arlo White has left Seattle to do the commentating for NBC Sports as part of their new package of MLS and USMNT matches. Great get for NBC, big hole for Seattle. He calls a superb game.

oldmanken

Having just looked him up, NBC has picked a good voice...

Dehumanized

Yeah, we're gonna miss Arlo a bunch. He'll do great at NBC.

Nate Jaqua, Taylor Graham, and Pat Noonan have all been option-declined by Seattle. Estimates put us at around $500k of open salary cap space to acquire a goalkeeper , two fullbacks, and re-sign Mauro Rosales.

The goalkeeper spot is strongly expected to be Michael Gspurning, a 30-year-old Austrian currently playing in the Greek league.

As far as fullbacks, there's a possibility that the team is looking to sign Gilberto Martinez at right back... he's a Costa Rican international in a similar position to Leo Gonzales.


Also Merritt Paulson says the Timbers have almost finished signing a new designated player. Won't be able to make an announcement until they have finished the signing and secured an international transfer certificate. Says the signing is about to turn 20, and that it'll be a big addition for the team and the league.

Gosling

Final national profile (South Sudan) done! From here on in, if I ever decide that the book is done, I can call it done. Everybody's got a national profile, and everybody's got at least one team mentioned. (For South Sudan, I kind of had to guess on what team was going to turn out best. They don't have a league set up yet and none of their teams figured at all into the Sudanese hierarchy.)

I'm not calling it done yet. But I have that option now.

Dehumanized

Looks like the Timbers' signing is Jose Adolfo Valencia

oldmanken

y2jake215

Gosling wrote:

Final national profile (South Sudan) done! From here on in, if I ever decide that the book is done, I can call it done. Everybody's got a national profile, and everybody's got at least one team mentioned. (For South Sudan, I kind of had to guess on what team was going to turn out best. They don't have a league set up yet and none of their teams figured at all into the Sudanese hierarchy.)

I'm not calling it done yet. But I have that option now.

So is this going to be published? Because it definitely sounds like something I'd buy

Dehumanized

montreal kits unveiled

they're pretty boring

just imagine purple with a BMO logo on it

oldmanken

Dehumanized wrote:

just imagine purple with a BMO logo on it

And by purple you mean blue...

Dehumanized

guess so, think i was looking at some poor quality pictures

Gosling

y2jake215 wrote:

Gosling wrote:

Final national profile (South Sudan) done! From here on in, if I ever decide that the book is done, I can call it done. Everybody's got a national profile, and everybody's got at least one team mentioned. (For South Sudan, I kind of had to guess on what team was going to turn out best. They don't have a league set up yet and none of their teams figured at all into the Sudanese hierarchy.)

I'm not calling it done yet. But I have that option now.

So is this going to be published? Because it definitely sounds like something I'd buy

Well, I'm gonna do my damndest to get that to happen somehow. I've certainly spent long enough on it to want some sort of payoff at the end.

quovadis13

Euro 2012 Groups

A

Poland
Greece
Russia
Czech Republic

B

Netherlands
Denmark
Germany
Portugal

C

Spain
Italy
Ireland
Croatia

D

Ukraine
Sweden
France
England

Maz-

Group A is a joke.

The others though..it's gonna be one interesting tournament, that's for sure.

Chen

:o ZE GERMANS

PAYBACK TIME

815165

Group B is super harsh, you could take any two of those and swap them with any two in group A and have groups more in line with C and D.

Were Poland and Ukraine seeded #1 and #2?

Chen

Poland and Ukraine being hosts were seeded in the first pot together with Spain and the Netherlands. Germany, Italy, England and Russia were seeded in the second pot.

Dehumanized

Bobby Convey to SKC from SJ in exchange for a 2012 international player slot.

Could be a really good trade if KC can negotiate his contract down -- Convey made $300k last year and allegedly was owed DP money for this year's contract.

815165

Chen wrote:

Poland and Ukraine being hosts were seeded in the first pot together with Spain and the Netherlands. Germany, Italy, England and Russia were seeded in the second pot.

That's kinda silly when there's only 16 teams, they should have just had automatic qualification but been seeded properly.

The Judge

Not thrilled with this draw. First match against Portugal since the Battle of Nuremberg. And the Germans. And Denmark. Ugh.

Tav

Ah Jaysus, we got Spain. Fuck. Was hoping for England/France.

Italy we know we can get a result from, Croatia will be a toughie.

Arikado

It's one of those groups where if you take points off anyone, it would probably be considered a good campaign.

Tav

Arikado wrote:

It's one of those groups where if you take points off anyone, it would probably be considered a good campaign.

Considering how well we did against Italy in qualifying for the WC when they were reigning world champions (Two draws and in one of them we were leading till the 91st minute), I would fancy our chances against them. Croatia will be tough because we haven't played against many teams like them before and well, I'm just hoping Richard Dunne is able to mark all of Spain because I sure as hell wouldn't trust Stephen Ward to do it...

oldmanken

I almost thought RVP wasn't going to score. Silly me.

Maz-

Chen wrote:

:o ZE GERMANS

PAYBACK TIME

I DON'T THINK SO


Where are you from, by the way?

Chen

Spoiler:

IT'S ON LIKE DONKEY KONG

815165

he's from lion vomit, apparently

Chen

It's saliva, actually. Here's how it looks when simulated.

Spoiler:

Tav

Jesus cunting Christ I hate Balotelli.

Also, Hernandez and Shay Given got injured

Maz-

Eh, I wouldn't put too much on that friendly last month. Sure, we totally kicked your collective orange asses but you were missing Robben and van Persie, and Sneijder isn't exactly in a great form at the moment.
Also, it's been ages since both teams faced each other in an official match, right? Back in the 70s, 80s and 90s the rivalry was extremely fierce but it's cooled down considerably, I think. Among older fans, yeah, maybe, but people in their 20s and teenagers..not so much. We hate Italy nowadays

I expect it'll be an extremely close match and I certainly hope both teams make it to the quarter finals.

Chen

To be fair, you guys were missing Schweinsteiger and Lahm. Our defense is so bad though, especially the two backs. It shows two holding midfielders are pretty much necessary against the stronger teams, only Van Bommel is showing his age and De Jong barely gets play time in Man City anymore. Still, one of the greatest rivalries in football. Hope it will spark some magic on our side. Portugal will most likely get ugly though. Fucking Portugese.

Diarmuid

Socrates, captain of the Brazilian 1982 World Cup team, has died.
One of my all time favourite players.

Tav

All of the tributes to Gary Speed this weekend were amazing.