SHAKE EUR-O-PA! Official Countdown to Europa League 2009/10

Prognostications, magic numbers, Europa dreaming, focus your positive (or even skeptical) opinions, ideas, and ruminations here.

Fulham in the first Europa League sounds very nice indeed!!

 

ummm.. well... I have no comment at this time.

wiki europa league

 

As of the latest article I see on UEFA.com, England is a bit back in the race for a Fair Play spot. So it looks like 7th place or bust. So... get some Magpies!

 

The situation:

Fulham: 50 points, +6 GD, @Newcastle, Everton
Spurs: 48 points, +1 GD, Man City, @Liverpool
West Ham: 48 points, -2 GD, @Everton, Boro
Man City: 47 points, +8 GD, @Spurs, Bolton

Obviously, Fulham picking up four points from the next two games would make all of this moot, but since that can't be assumed, and since I'm not expecting much out of Bolton (not much to play for) or Boro (possibly already dead and buried) in week 38, here's hoping that Everton takes care of business against Spam next weekend (they and Villa are still fighting it out for 5th place) and Spurs and City draw. If Fulham go into the Everton match able to lock up the 7th spot with a win, I'm confident they can do the job.

(Today's match between Newcastle and Boro will go a long way towards shaping the above competition too; if there's a winner, they could jump Hull into 17th and leave the loser in trouble, but a draw would leave both in poor shape.)

 

I disagree -- Citeh won 2 weeks ago at Gooodison for the first time in 5-6 months -- wow, that sounds like us. At Spurs, I see them getting a big fat zero this week and losing enough of the GD to fall behind us. I hope.

(Here, I had a paragraph as to why I like our chances, but I don't want to jinx anything, so it is deleted. But I don't see anyone else getting more than 3 points on their runouts.)

 

Well.. with the exception of an OT 'word assoc' thing... anyone else see the Subject line and think of BeetleJuice, the movie?

Specifically the closing music earworm..
"Shake, shake, shake Eur-o-pa.."

No? Guess I way weird. Before I even clicked on it... OTOH... if that was the intent, then I'm not the weirdest one.

 

Wow -- dont really know how to respond to pfog's comment.

But this just gives me butterflies!

It could go either way, any way. But another weekend like this past one and we'll be golden. :banana:

 

Actually, this was the reference I had in my brain. First hook about 1:30 in, but the better one is closer to the end: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x9CRogsSfY

That's the joint. Awwwww, yeah...

 

If we do get in, it looks like the season will start very soon.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... nd&cc=5901

 

It's a pretty exciting prospect, to be on the door of Europa.
It's a little scary ... since it's not to hard to imagine a few injuries and the players getting fatigued during the PL season ... but exciting at the same time.
The squad certainly deserves European participation after the character they've shown this season.
Here's hoping for Europa and a little bit of injury luck this coming season!

 

New factor in play: Newcastle are out of the relegation zone on goal differential over Hull, three points clear of Boro and West Brom. Like I said above, Boro may be dead and buried when they visit East London on the last day of the season, and Newcastle may be smelling blood in the water (Hull's, not ours) when we see them this weekend. Don may be ready to write Spam off but I'm not.

 

Well, today's result screws up everything for some teams including us.

Excuse me while I temporarily jack the thread...

Fulham: Newcastle may have some momentum.

Newcastle: Giving Steve a headache, need at least 3 points I reckon

Pompey: Need three points against Sunderland or Wigan

Sunderland: Need to beat Pompey and draw with Chelsea

Hull: Need to beat Bolton and draw with United

Boro: Need to win out

WBA: Need to win out

 

It sure is a lot of fun to follow a team that 1) systematically ripped a pretty solid team a new one last weekend, 2) has somehting to play for this weekend, and 3) the prize not being 17th place and all the drama that comes with a relegation fight.

Make no mistake, I want Europe. Teams should be ambitious and Woy and crew know this better than anyone here.

 

anyone understand what is going on with fair play? does Fulham have a chance to qualify through that? Last I heard we were leading the league in fair play. Then I read something that made it sound like EPL wouldnt get a fair play spot - which doesnt seem fair.

 

Right. Each year three countries are selected to receive Fair Play bids to the UEFA Cup/Europa League based on the overall character of play by the country's teams in UEFA club matches (Champions League and UEFA Cup matches, that is, if I'm not mistaken) and by the country's national teams over the previous year. (How that jives with the anything-goes Scottish league getting a Fair Play bid is beyond me.)

Then, once those countries are picked, the team in the top league in that country with the highest Fair Play ranking that's not already qualified Europe through league/cup performance gets one of those three bids.

So it's really just unfortunate timing that Fulham's really good Fair Play season doesn't seem to be coinciding with England's really good Fair Play season. And yes, unfortunately, Norway, Denmark and Scotland got the bids and England finished seventh.