Love the avatar buddy.

Oh my ******* god!

Looks bad. Very bad. That's got to hurt.

Initially it was said that he'd be back pretty much on christmas day, but things are worse than first thought and it looks like he won't be playing in a competitive game until sometime around February.

That's awful, Kurt.

Get well soon, Freddie!

Stuttgart won their UI-Cup match against Saturn Ramenskoje (after loosing 0-1 in the first leg) with 3-0 after extra time. Beautiful free kick from Jan Simak in the 83rd minute saved them in the first place. Stuttgart then had the momentum and sealed the win during extra time. Two goals by Ciprian Marica. they were still playing without their Euro participants, namely Hitz (Also Stuttgarts new captain), Gomez, Lehmann and Boularouz.

Damn. I think we were the highest seed for the next round if it werent' for them winning.

Here's the UEFA Cup second qualifying round draw.

First leg: 14 August
Second leg: 28 August

NK Široki Brijeg (BIH) v Beşiktaş JK (TUR)
SC Braga (POR) v NK Zrinjski (BIH)
PFC Lokomotiv Sofia (BUL) v FK Borac (SRB)
FK Vojvodina (SRB) v Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC (ISR)
Aris Thessaloniki FC (GRE) v NK Slaven Koprivnica (CRO)
PFC Litex Lovech (BUL) v Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona FC (ISR)
RC Deportivo La Coruña (ESP) v HNK Hajduk Split (CRO)
APOEL FC (CYP) v FK Crvena Zvezda (SRB)
KS Vllaznia (ALB) v SSC Napoli (ITA)
Maccabi Netanya FC (ISR) v PFC Cherno More Varna (BUL)
AC Omonia (CYP) v AEK Athens FC (GRE)
SK Liepájas Metalurgs (LVA) v SC Vaslui (ROU)
FC Zürich (SUI) v SK Sturm Graz (AUT)
VfB Stuttgart (GER) v Győri ETO FC (HUN)
KKS Lech Poznań (POL) v Grasshopper-Club (SUI)
FC Slovan Liberec (CZE) v MŠK Žilina (SVK)
FC WIT Georgia (GEO) v FK Austria Wien (AUT)
BSC Young Boys (SUI) v Debreceni VSC (HUN)
Legia Warszawa (POL) v FC Moskva (RUS)
FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (UKR) v AC Bellinzona (SUI)
NK IB Ljubljana (SVN) v Hertha BSC Berlin (GER)
FK Sūduva (LTU) v FC Salzburg (AUT)
Djurgårdens IF FF (SWE) v Rosenborg BK (NOR)
Queen of the South FC (SCO) v FC Nordsjælland (DEN)
KAA Gent (BEL) v Kalmar FF (SWE)
Manchester City FC (ENG) v FC Midtjylland (DEN)
FC Honka Espoo (FIN) v Viking FK (NOR)
FC Haka (FIN) v Brøndby IF (DEN)
Stabæk IF (NOR) v Stade Rennais FC (FRA)
FC København (DEN) v Lillestrøm SK (NOR)
IF Elfsborg (SWE) v Saint Patrick's Athletic FC (IRL)
Aston Villa FC (ENG) v FH Hafnarfjördur (ISL)

Our opponents want to switch the tie so that they come to England for the 2nd leg, seems very strange as I'd much prefer to have the 2nd leg at home, so they're doing us a favour really.

As for their name, Fimleikafélag Hafnarfjarðar, God help the English commentators that do our game.

You should get a recording of it, Kurt, for humor's sake.

They called them F&H on Five yesterday & apparently the H is pronounced I or something like that

Where's Kurt? Did he take one of the fishing trawlers up to Iceland?

I'm curious to see his reaction to the lineups announced for Villa's gam today v. FH Hafnarfjordur - Gareth Barry is included, which makes him cup tied until after the winter break.

If he doesn't play, he would be able to play with Liverpool .. But that is if they r still after him.

Here, according to BBC, are the starting lineups:

FH Hafnarfjordur: Gunnar Sigurdsson, Eiriksson, Bjorn Sverrisson, Valgardsson, Nielsen, Gudnason, Vidarsson, Siim, Vihjalmsson, Matthias Gudmundsson, Tryggvi Gudmundsson.

Aston Villa: Friedel, Gardner, Davies, Laursen, Shorey, Reo-Coker, Petrov, Barry, Ashley Young, Harewood, Agbonlahor

Nope, I don't have enough pennies to afford things like that.

Gareth Barry told the club yesterday he was "Ready, willing and able" to play tonight. I'm sure he knows very well what the implications of him appearing tonight mean, and that he seems happy to stay with the club. Liverpool weren't willing to pay up £18m for him, now there's no chance for it.

What peeves me the most is they have came out and say they are not willing to pay £18m. So in my view, they should also say they're ending their interest in him, since we're not budging from our price and have told them countless times. But instead, they release statements saying they still want him. Pretty disgraceful really. Either pay up or shut up.. they do neither.

Hopefully we win, comfortabley. But you never know against these kinds of teams what to expect.

FT FH 1-4 Villa
-Barry, Young, Agbonlahor & Laursen with our goals.
-They created a few chances, deserved a goal.

Some other results

Haka Valkeakoski 0 - 4 Brondby
Legia Warsaw 1 - 2 FC Moscow
Stuttgart 2 - 1 Gyor
APOEL Nicosia 2 - 2 Red Star Belgrade
Djurgarden 2 - 1 Rosenborg
Stabaek 2 - 1 Rennes
Young Boys Bern 4 - 1 Debrecen
FC Copenhagen 3 - 1 Lillestrom
Zurich 1 - 1 Sturm Graz
AEK Athens 0 - 1 Omonia Nicosia
Siroki Brijeg 1 - 2 Besiktas
Lech Poznan 6 - 0 Grasshoppers
Vllaznia 0 - 3 Napoli
Man City 0 - 1 FC Midtjylland

Liverpool still would be able to use Barry in the CL. You can include one player from Uefa cup if they'll sign him eventually

I hope Red Star Belgrade makes it through...
Anyway, Lillestrøm is surely out, Stabæk should make it an Rosenborg only needs to win 1-0 at home and SHOULD make it.

^^ Wait. So twice in two days Cypriot teams beat Greek teams? Is that in any way normal?

That's not what I've heard. Sky Sports and BBC both say say he can not play in the Champions League until it starts back up again in February.

Sky's right on this one. If Barry were to transfer to the Scousers tomorrow, he wouldn't be able to play in any CL games for them until the end of the winter transfer market.

The tournament really starts in February anyway

Nice start by Napoli. I wish them a long and good run in the UEFA cup/league..

Man City have just saved themself huge embarassment. After losing the home leg 1-0 to Midjetallynd (or something like that), they've been out-played for 90 minutes in the away leg.. then Ched Evenas misses his header, it bounces off one of the Danish guys and goes in. Fluke own goal to save them from humiliation in the last minute.

FT 0-1. (1-1 agg.)

Penalties..

At what time will the draw be tomorrow?

If Man City won that PK shoot out... they are so lucky. They were awful from what I heard...

City win 4-2 on penalties.. completely undeserved. Not sure what time the draw is.

Villa have to hold on to a 4-1 lead at home to FH. Fingers crossed we'll make it!

Hopefully Villa and City meet in this tournament... and you guys teach them a lesson.

How is it getting along?

We have a terrible record against City, besides the game the other week. Hopefully they get Milan, City would get killed!

Though I'm not a Milan fan in the UEFA Cup, a conflict of interest for me..


City won 4-2. Corluka scored the winner.

Hmm... well maybe time to change that even more. I want City to be beaten... they just annoy me... it's mostly their chairman... if we had our full strength squad against City they would be finished.

And I hear you about the conflict of interest... would suck if it was Milan-Villa in the final heheh...

Which stream will show the draw?

At least some satisfaction. How was Charlie anyway in the whole match?

Would be very interesting in milanfan if Milan vs Villa fixture arises

He was about City's best player. He and Hart bailed the rest of the team out a few times, it could easily have been 3/4-0 to their opponents.


It would be indeed!

HT Villa 1-1 FH (5-2 agg.)
-Craig Gardner with our goal!

In a weird way I don't want us to really kill them, alot of their fans have been on the Villa forums saying how huge this game for them is, apparently the biggest team they've faced previously was Dunfermline! So it will be nice for their fans (Some very nice girl at the game, by the way! ) go away with a half decent result! I still want to win of course.. but not to the point of humiliation.

Rosenborg just tore Swedish Djurgarden apart 5-0, 6-2 on aggregate. THAT, my friends, is humiliation.

I think the draw is at 13:00 CET or maybe GMT

Its definitely a noon draw

I thought Djurgaden were meant to be half decent as well!

Villa finished 1-1 (5-2 agg.), not the greatest performance from an 'experimental' side, but it'll do. Any European game is great, it's been way too long since we last had it. But with the luck we've had lately, we'll probably draw some ridiculously good team tomorrow!

Milan?

I better stop saying it, or I might jinx the situation.

Or possibly Napoli... that would suck too... Napoli trashed Villaznia... 5-0... to go through on the aggregate 8-0...

I think the draw is split into two - North and South - then there are seeded and unseeded teams. I think Villa are in the north group, and seeded. I would presume Milan and Napoli would be in the south, so we won't get either.

Heheheh... Everton? Or maybe even Tottenham heheh?

Not sure you're allowed to be drawn against teams from the same country. I'd ;like to play a Scottish team, if they have any!

Oh yeah, they can be drawn...

UEFA Cup 1st Round

*Seeding is determined by their UEFA Coefficient rating.
*The 80 teams are then split into 8 groups of 10 teams, 5 seeded teams and 5 unseeded teams.
*The draw for these is also based on their coefficient ranking with one exception: no country can have multiple teams in any group.
*These teams will play 2 legs, home and away, scheduled for 18 September and 2 October.
*The 40 winning teams will be divided into eight sections of five.

Seeded teams
Milan
Sevilla
Valencia
Benfica
Schalke 04
CSKA Moscow
Tottenham Hotspur
Hamburg
Stuttgart
Ajax
Olympiacos
Deportivo La Coruña
Everton
Club Brugge
Rapid Bucharest
Beşiktaş
Spartak Moscow
Paris Saint-Germain
Sparta Prague
Dinamo Bucharest
Heerenveen
Rosenborg
Udinese
Feyenoord
Sporting Braga
Levski Sofia
Austria Vienna
Slavia Prague
Manchester City
Galatasaray
Sampdoria
Hertha BSC Berlin
Partizan Belgrade
Nancy
Aston Villa
Portsmouth
Racing Santander
Rennes
Copenhagen
Hapoel Tel Aviv

Unseeded teams
Borussia Dortmund
Napoli
Brøndby
Litex Lovech
Vitória Guimarães
Dinamo Zagreb
Saint-Étienne
Zürich
Wolfsburg
Wisła Kraków
Vitória Setúbal
Marítimo
Standard Liège
Twente
Moscow
Artmedia Petržalka
Unirea Urziceni
Vaslui
Timişoara
NEC Nijmegen
Brann
Baník Ostrava
Kayserispor
Motherwell
Metalist Kharkiv
Red Bull Salzburg
BSC Young Boys
Bellinzona
Cherno More
Nordsjælland
Borac Čačak
Kalmar
MŠK Žilina
Lech Poznań
Slaven Belupo
APOEL Nicosia
Omonia Nicosia
Honka
Kaunas
St. Patrick's Athletic

So basically, you can not play a team in the first round that is:
1: In the same section as you (Seeded or unseeded); and
2: From the same country as you.

That's what I can tell from what I've ready anyways.

We seem to be in good company. A lot of my favorite clubs in there, in fact all of them, I like. All hail the UEFA Cup!

You missed Villa off that list.

Nah, we'll probably get some 'average' team like Standard or Moscow and get knocked out, that's my feeling anyway.

Oh! I just took a cursory look at the first few. There's Villa, then there's Ajax, and Stuttgart. And Sampdoria. I'm amazed to see Villa seeded so low down though. It's a very decent club, unless they had a different method of seeding teams.


I think we'll do good. Then again, that depends a lot on Carlo. At the bare minimum the upper management would want him to finish 3rd and win UEFA Cup title. I'd pay attention to it (and the league, yes) if I were him.

UEFA co-efficients are done on the previous 5 seasons, as they think that's a good indicator of how good the club is compared to others in Europe. Every team is given a minimum co-efficient rating dependant on what country they are in, too. For example, you get more points just for playing in the English league, than you would if you won the Icelandic title or something.

So Villa technically have a rating of 0, since we haven't been in the UEFA Cup for a while. In the 90s it was the norm, not qualifying would be a disaster, but we disappeared at the turn of the century and were nearly relegated a few years ago. Thanks to the English league doing well in Europe in recent years, it's meant the league co-effeicient for England is high enough to make us a seeded team, even though we probably shouldn't be.


By "we'll go out" I meant Villa, I can see how it confused you though!

I personally think Milan could put out their second string and go far.

Aha! Makes sense.


Double Aha! For a second there I thought you meant Milan. I hope Carlo gives equal attention to both the fronts, and we win both of them. Plus, it'd be cool to somehow get Aston Villa in the final. It's be worth it, just to see your face once the final kicks off.