Champions League

They are freakin' EVERYWHERE! The original bandwaggoners... it's as much -or more- politics as footy!

 

You forgot religion, also.

 

Ah - I didn't think the age-old Glasgow Catholic vs Protestant struggle would translate so strongly to the USA (i.e., I figured it would be based more on actually liking the team/players)

My ancestors had enough of that, with my grandfather coming from Belfast, so I picked Rangers for purely logical reasons - Beasely is playing for them and no Americans play for Celtic.

 

Better the divisions, watered down, exist on a football pitch, than in everyday society. While perhaps bitter sounding, especially to outsiders, my impression it is a more playful ear flicking than serious knee capping.

 

Fantastic result for Rangers and I'm glad the hometown kid (Beasley) had a good showing. He is quality and I'm glad to see him on a side that plays in the CL again. Hoping the Gers go as far as their luck can take them. Unexpected result, but well done none the less.

 

Up the 'Tic!!!

 

More or less original than rooting for Notre Dame?

Edit: Good win for Barcelona in Stuttgart yesterday. Nice to see Captain Caveman score not long after getting back into match action. He got dinged up and had to be substituted, but isn't going to miss much time, which is good since Rafa Marquez (who is an asshole and can fall in a hole and die) also picked up a (more serious) injury.

 

What the hell happened to the Scousers????

Didn't Rafa know that the maginot line hasn't been succesful in 50 years, and then he employs it against the French themselves!!!????

 

Safe to say, my already low estimations of AC Milan just took another tumble after today's game. Granted, the nutter should have never run onto the pitch, but the way Dida took his fall, a full five seconds after he was struck in the first place, you would've thought that there was a sniper up on the roof. And Kaka was in on it as well, staying on the ground "in pain," clutching his knees; then suddenly "finding" his feet and marauding through our defenders, all in a space of two minutes or so.

Oh well, at the end of the day, the Hoops beat the defending European champs, we're still in this thing, and we've grown that much more as a team. Mon the Hoops!

 

Here's to the Hoops' victory, quality win without JVH and, essentially, Nakamura. Milan are looking to trump their CL success with an invitation to the Cannes Film Festival.

Shakhtar with another win, this time over Benfica (Adu rode the pine for this one)...crazy-talent on Shakhtar, but lacking in CL experience overall; still, they're going to the knockouts.

No, seriously, how did the Reds lose today at Anfield? I was able to track the first half (the Marseille goal was onside by the way) and Liverpool's first half performance gave hints that a Marseille victory was possible, but, really?

 

Dida is a Diva

Sorry to any Milan fans (not railing against your team, and no I'm not a Celtic fan), and any idiot fan that runs on the field needs to be punished harshly, but Dida is an embarrassment of mythical proportions.
For him to be lightly touched by a fan, take a few steps towards the interloper and then to drop like he'd been shot is a joke. I thought he acted over the top when he was hit by the flare, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. In this case, he needs to go see the physio and have them check to see if he has a pair. It doesn't matter what he does the rest of his career, any and all respect for him is gone forever.

 

Well said, guys like him give footballers a bad name.

 

Most interesting match of the day = The Other Blue Poo v. Barca.

Ipox wiped out Celtic over the weekend. We'll see how virulent the strain is against one of the world's highest paid.

On ESPN2 at 1:30 Central.

 

Ra Gers' fans singing "we are the people" really had me in a twist. The superiority complex of these people is truly something to behold. Admittedly, their players did well to hold Barca scoreless throughout, and Walter Smith proved why he's one of the best managers out there.

Having said that, the match was officiated in the poorest of manners. Barca had two very legit penalty claims -- both handballs -- that the ref either turned down or flat-out didn't see at all. Then the guy cards Abidal for a seemingly innocuous challenge. But really, Barcelona contributed their own downfall, never finding a crack in their defensive wall.

Hopefully the Hoops can one-up them tomorrow in Lisbon.

 

I was shocked to see Arsenal steam rollin' Prague. 6 - 0 the last I heard yesterday. And the Man Utes were looking pretty dominant as well.

 

Rangers played a very good defensive game to keep Barcelona off the board. I don't even think McGregor had a whole lot to do - he made one save on a free kick by Ronaldinho, the one he tipped off the crossbar but the ref didn't see the tip and gave a goal kick, and another on a shot by Gudjohnsen from outside the area, but that might have been all!

 

So the round up from today:

AC Milan 4-1 Shakhtar Donetsk
Benfica 1-0 Celtic
Besiktas 2-1 Liverpool
Chelsea 2-0 Schalke 04
Marseille 1-1 FC Porto
Real Madrid 4-2 Olympiakos
Rosenborg 2-0 Valencia
Werder Bremen 2-1 Lazio

A big blow to Liverpool, Valencia, and Celtic...I love these surprise results.

 

The Real Madrid-Olympiakos game yesterday was exhibit A for why I love soccer. I really thought that the Greeks were going to pull it out about the 70th minute, of course right then Robinho tied the game for Real. I thought the Greeks were Fulham in disguise when all of that happened :roll: .

Casillas was amazing. I was a GK in my youth (and once committed a blunder like that Schalke goalkeeper against Lokomotiv London yesterday, thank God that was in the days before YouTube). Some fans want to see all that fancy Dan stuff that Robinho and Cristiano Ronaldo do. Give me a GK that steals a result for a team any day, and I am fat and happy.