It will probably mean cheaper tickets but the real issue is the sheer size of the new stadium. Upton Park is very small with the stands very close to the actual pitch creating an intense, almost cauldron-like atmosphere. West Ham can't compete with other London teams like Chelsea Arsenal or Spurs in terms of spending power and success but can easily hold their own in terms of the sheer experience of watching them at Upton Park. Even rival fans will acknowledge the unique atmosphere there, especially when the floodlights are on.

i've seen the stadium (on TV) and yeah it looks tiny and primitive and crammed as fuck during matches. it guess it makes for a great atmosphere, but i'm thinking: more seats = more revenue = better players, in the long run? ferrari vs. horse buggy :P

anyway, dortmund got fucked by wolfsburg 3-2. fucking painful.

after a very wrong and wrongheaded penalty plus a red card on schmeltzer for a crime he did not commit, wolfsburg was ahead and dortmund had a hard time coping. with subotic already injured the dormtmund defense was weak and ... fucking shit, so annoying, unfair. i love that bayern is ahead in the bundesliga but they are peeling away so far they are going to be alone for the title and that makes for shit football. then again maybe the real competition is on the CL.

ps- frankfurt is equal to dortmund in points @27 after beating werder bremen 3-1. but bayern has 41 pts already. ouch.

How much are Bundesliga tickets? To say Dortmund or Werder Bremen?

I was invited to Brentford again today. £23 for 3rd tier football. But today sounded like a belter. 89th minute winner from Clayton Donaldson against MK Dons!

ikara- not sure first-hand as i've never bought a bundesliga ticket and i've only been in a germany to change flights, but from some links i posted a couple of pages back it looks like the average ticket is something like 12 euros? i can't recall exactly. i watch it all on tv for $40/month over the price of basic cable/internet.

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anyway, ingleses, some questions for you

1) why the fuck didn't lescott play?

2) why the fuck didn't tevez start?

3) why the fuck was dzeko left out until later?

4) does yaya toure have a chant?

5) how great or lucky was van persie's goal? damn. i say fucking great.

No real reason. He's not injured or anything. Just a case that Mancini seems to not be that into him.


Bad tactical decision by Mancini. Tevez looked good when he finally came on. Most people can't understand why he started with Mario Balotelli instead. MC simply look better when they start with Aguero and Tevez.


Dzeko has been out of favour with Mancini for more than a season, now. At best he's a super sub there.


Not that I'm aware of, but definitely deserves one.


Any goal that goes in via a deflection is gonna have an element of luck to it but Van Persie is pure class and still probably the best out and out goalscorer playing in the Prem.

[edit] Bollocks! Liverpool just scored against West Ham.

Pfft fuck the United comeback. EVERTON is where it's at. 2 goals in the the last 2 minutes PA POW!

But Dzeko needs to leave City if he ever wants a hope of playing regularly and not just as a 'super sub' as they call it.

wOW! just saw the highlights. dAAAMn

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sorry demonyo for the results vs. liverpool. fun game to watch though.

West Ham beaten by three goals scored by ex West Ham players. Annoying in the extreme.

Two times now, Mancini has been completely out thought this season, today by Fergie and last week by Moyes.

we've been doing a chant from Sister Act at Palace for the past 2 or 3 seasons which is pretty good. never thought i'd hear a tune from Sister Act at football

i say good, i mean not bad. I say not bad, i mean not shit. not as shit

also

massive win for us last week against Brighton, and then a disapointing draw against Blackpool yesterday. Still 2nd and Cardif have extended their lead but i knew we had a tough run of games over the last few weeks and we're still in tough with 1st. so it's all good
but like i said we tend to be at 1 end of the league at christmas and the other end in May. if we can keep this form up i'll be really suprised!

interesting about west ham and the olympic stadium, i cannot fathom why any football club would want to go there. Like Demo says they'll never fill it, and historically stadiums with athletic tracks around the pitch are very flat atmospherically. There's such a gap between the players and the fans

is there a link we can hear?

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also, could someone please explain the origin of this to me?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBc1veYDpsE

i heard it today chanted w/ "jonjo... jonjo jonjo...."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7X5oBjzh1M

(turn it up)

haaa haaaa-- i did a little digging-- is this the source?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPpd-6X3tEo

funny thing about these chants, they are proper memes, in the richard dawkins sense, in that they reproduce and mutate across stadiums.

i've heard chants for spanish teams that i've also heard for south american teams, chants for MLS teams that originated in latin america (bcause the fans were immigrants), etc. shit's viral.

e.g., you've probably heard this elsewhere, with different team names:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB0Ahdo1qRY

(even in the comments, one fc berlin fan says they have the same song)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFd5Cci_pE4

And West Ham's classic anti-Frank Lampard song.

hilarious

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also:

dang. my wife alerted me that sister act song was proper ancient and i googled the lyrics a bit and i found this shit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JVhbusBDi4

prehistoric!

So Messi scores his 86th goal in a calender season, breaking the record and fueling claims that he's the best ever. But is he capitalising on an era when defending has taken a bit of a step backwards? An era of great forwards but no single great defender I can think of.

attacking in today's post-catenaccio world is generally much tougher than the ancient era, no? i mean pele played in 4-2-4 formations...

barcelona's rival real madrid has pepe, sergio ramos, arbeloa, coentrao... no good?

[edit: plus khedira and xabi alonso in the midfield.]

but anyway you definitely make evident the fact that it's sort of impossible to compare. plus, how many matches per year did people play in ancient times? nowadays its 2 a week pretty much non-stop.

I tried to add myself once, and only earned an error message. Currently, I'm the only one on my buddy list.

WILL YOU BE MY BUDDY???

^_^


EDIT: WHY THE FUCK AM I IN THIS THREAD? THIS IS NOT MY THREAD.

for what it's worth, I try desperately hard to avoid ruining this thread. My respect for dwmonrail666 is too great.

Sorry.

Messi's still far from a one man show.

Today's Barça is not quite Maradona's Napoli.