I don't think accusations towards Marseille would stand.

This ain't Bernard Tapie's team anymore (once upon a time, a little before Marseille won the Champions Cup, Marseille bought a couple of oponents of a lesser ranked team, to make sure Marseille players wouldn't be exhausted or saddened by an unexpected loss - but a defender, Jacques Glassman, said he wouldn't take that money, and so on and so forth, it took a while for Marseille to get rid of Tapie).

Lyon...
Well, they won the French title seven times in a row, in all fairness I assume.
Now, it's been a while since they got anything to brag about.
Last year's manager has been sacked, the new one is in his first year of coaching, there's money involved when you play the champions league, and Lyon is no longer the biggest budget in France, since Qatar took over at PSG - while noone took over at Montpellier, who lead with a goalscorer I hadn't heard of three months ago, Olivier Giroud, on a budget that would seem ridiculous.
I'd accept the idea of a cheat here - considering the president's pride (he sacked the manager, he promoted a brand new one), and considering Gomis's previous European game two weeks ago, which I saw, and, boy, he was so poor...

I haven't seen any image of this game; I'd like to.

On the other hand...
Zagreb had lost 4-0 to Ajax and 6-2 to Real...
This is not the best team you'll see this year...

Marseille's winner was a beauty, defenders and keeper tried to prevent it but couldn't.

Bertrand, I look forward to next summer when I can wallow in Engllish misery as France pick our unsubtle midfield apart

So do I.

It would mean we have more than two consistent forward going players.

youre the dark horses of the tournament. Youll avoid Spain til the final by winning the group. I dont think youll win it all though, i reckon the Germans will do it, and they deserve it after the way theyve focused on their young players since the wonderful Germany 1 - 5 England 10 years ago (man that makes me feel old)

It was a pleasant read til you wrote that you didn't think France would win.
As a young boy who saw a drug addict goalkeeper smash a good bloke's face in the semis in 1982 and walk away with it, it might be as odd too to wish Germany the best.
They've had a brilliant team since they waved Ballack bye bye, and I wish they grab the title (Netherlands were too horrid in the World Cup, so I'll pout).

In 1998, I couldn't figure France winning.
Before the first game, I used to go through the stages, thinking: ok, they'll go through that one, get over the next trap, and reach the semis... All of a sudden, it was a stupid unetterable hope they'll reach the finals... but I wouldn't even dare making any bet (apart from wishing striker Dugarry - how he was loathed in here, that year, you'll be surprised - to become the tournament top scorer, with 5 goals scored, including an own goal).

Perhaps England...
Well...
Forget it, it's England.

France remind me of Mario Balotelli: obviously very good but prone to self destruct in the most spectacular of ways. As opposed to say Italy, who are as boring when they implode as when they succeed.

I tip Germany to win the Euros. I don't think they're as good as Spain but possibly more consistent and less likely to get caught by a sucker punch. I've not seen any of Holland's games since the World Cup final but the quality of their squad makes them obvious contenders, too.

I quite like how, since the World Cup, England's chances in the Euros have been played down by our media. Even with everyone fit and playing well there seems to be a broad consensus that our squad simply isn't good enough to win it. To me, they're neither as bad as some of their fiercest critics would have us believe, or as good as the few rose tinted fans that're left, still insist. Personally I'd be happy if we get to the Semis, which I think is the most we can reasonably expect. We still seem like only half a side, with a majority of our once key players either past their best (Lampard, Cole, Terry, Gerrard, Ferdinand) or unpredictable (Rooney). What's left are some potentially very good young players (Richards (if Capello even selects him), Jones, Young, Sturridge, Baines) who likely won't reach their full potential until maybe the next World Cup - without even then being serious world beaters. Of the rest, only Scott Parker seems at the peek of his abilities right now, but even he lacks real big game experience.

i'm definitley excited by Wiltshire, Jones, Sturridge, Walcott (although i dont know why), and Rooney can't be written off. I'm even still a fan of Gerrard although we'll wait to see how he returns from injury. Ashley Young on his day and i seem to be the only person who really really really like James Milner?

I agree about Wiltshire and Jones. I do wonder about Walcott, though. He's definitely improved this season but I just don't think he'll ever be the player we once hoped he'd become (he reminds me of Joe Cole, in that sense).

Rooney can't be written off, you're right, but I do think his temperament remains a problem. His skill and workrate is unquestionable but there's always that feeling that when the pressure's most on him, he crumbles and loses his temper. And while it's a controversial thing to say, I do think England play better without him. The problem is that we really don't have any other truly world class forwards waiting to replace him (or even work alongside him) right now. The fact that Darren Bent is even considered shows just how bad things are in that department.

true, but i think with Welbeck and Sturridge playing better and better i doubt he'll be on the radar for long. Same goes for Defoe and Crouch etc. I'll be really supprised (and dissapointed) if they ever play for England again

Two young talented players popping up at the same time, feeding off each other's progress, that'd be a good thing.

I haven't seen many games with Welbeck, and find Sturridge quite good.

So far Sturridge seems to be a victim of Andres Villas Boas having to constantly shuffle his team to try and find the best partnership to get Torres scoring again. It's obvious AVB would rather ditch Torres and use Sturridge in a more settled formation but I imagine part of AVB's contract was to ensure Torres got back to form.

...which will never happen, let's face it.

Go Falcons!

Go Ravens!!

poor raiders..

(oh wait, wrong futbol ;) )

Mercy please

"bitch about shit that's pissing you off"

http://sonicyouth.com/gossip/showpos...postcount=1528

so, Patrice Evra.
My initial instinct is to call him a liar, as he has previous history (i think 2 other unfounded accusations have been logged by him over the years) and no one else heard the incident.
But to be honest it doesn't matter if no one else heard it and it doesn't matter what Evra's history is. if Suarez used racist language he deserves an 8 match ban.
I just hope similiar punishments are issued to John Terry by the FA if he is also found guilty.

But do i believe Suarez is racist? No.
But i have no idea why i think that, except for my prior feelings about Evra

An insidious, racist in itself precedent has been set by black players bearing childish grudges (niggers, if you're racist, according to Guardianistas.). Knowing the current political climate i.e the social cancer known as political correctness, they'll bullshit and play the race card in the hope decent white players get banned, giving the team they play for shorter odds of winning a match in the future. It's that simple. The black players, or niggers (banned for 8 matches!) should be banned themselves for disreputable, twisted, corruption of the F.A rules and for sullying the characters of reputable players with cowardly lies.

It looks like Suarez was found guilty of using racist language which, you're right, doesn't necessarily make him a racist but then why use such terms if you aren't? As far as I know, Suarez has admitted calling Evra a 'negrito', but claims it isn't in itself a racist word, although I fail to see how he could use it against an opposition member in a positive sense. But then Evra is also supposed to have said something racist to Suarez, so it seems that both are as guilty as one another.

The Terry incident seems less complicated - assuming Ferdinand's claims are true - but the repercussions look likely to be far greater. If he's found guilty he'll almost inevitably be stripped of his England captaincy and may even be barred from representing England altogether. That's no great loss as far as I'm concerned but obviously a big deal for Terry. It might also affect his captaincy at Chelsea. Will Sturridge, etc, accept being captained by a convicted racist? Will they even accept him as a teammate? I know some of Terry's sponsors are already distancing themselves from him and if that extends to club sponsors his place at Chelsea could be really problematic.

Terry's been acting like he's above any kind of criticism for ages now but his team has always defended him because of his 'Mr Chelsea' tag. He even talks about one day wanting to manage them. But if Ferdinand's accusations are found to be true he may find no way back from this one.

By being so pro-active in its stance against racism, the FA have to be seen to be tough on those found guilty of it. I only hope that because of its seriousness, players don't start throwing false allegations around in a bid to get key opposition players banned.

the difference with Terry's case is that its now a criminal one. And the amount of evidence seems to be staggering (as opposed to one man's accusation in the Suarez case)
So on top of any Criminal Charge brought against Terry he would have to receive a similiar if not greater charge by the FA.

The CPS wouldn't bring charges if they weren't 100% they would get a conviction, however i read that the maximum penalty for the crime is a few thousand quid fine (when you earn Terry's money he wont be bothered about that). The FA need to impose a similiar length ban and fine on top of stripping his captaincy

It's only become a criminal case because Anton Ferdinand has dug himself into such a deep, gaping hole over the issue by opportunistically, insidiously and grudgingly playing the race card against a far superior white player from a far superior club, who was beating Anton's team at the time, that he's had to play along with his cowardly bullshit out of a sheer desperate act to deflect the fact he fraudulently used and abused the current political climate, that's obscenely obsessed with political correctness, to keep his integrity intact, sacrificing an innocent person's integrity in the process. It's Anton Ferdinand who has commited the criminal act.