Ah, the glory of the Thursday Cup, the Consolation Cup, the Diddy's Tournament, the Losers' Legacy.

God I hate the Uefa Cup.

I am very glad that the Benfica game is the one goltv decided to show tonight on replay. Sounds like it's gonna be fun.

Meh, your opinion I suppose. Average sides from the EPL and La Liga are better than half the teams that enter the 'Champions' League. For names, the CL is certainly bigger, but I certainly enjoy watching the Europa League more. Better to be in this than nothing, I certainly wish we were still in it.

Another penalty to Benfica. Carragher giving it away for handball, can't believe that waster is still in a job.

YES! Cardozo scores again. COME ON!

It's better than nothing but it's the no man's land of European football for the teams which just aren't good enough to get into the CL or stay in it. It's like 'give them something to play for'.

There's a reason most players and managers look non-plussed when interviewed about their participation in it.

Meh. You could say that about the Champions. League. Most teams that're in it aren't good enough to win their leagues, but are just entered into it anyway to give them something to play for.

I do think the competition is a bad idea, because it's just another instrument UEFA use to disadvantage the teams competing with their money makers. Nevertheless, it's given me some great nights. In fact, my first ever Villa game was in the UEFA Cup against Inter Milan, fantastic night. Even more recently against CSKA and Ajax, amazing.

Wolfsburg 0-1 Fulham (1-3)
Liverpool 4-1 Benfica (5-3)
Atletico 0-0 Valencia (2-2 -Atlietco win on away goals)
Standard 1-3 Hamburg (2-5)

Fulham-Hamburg
Atletico-Liverpool

Roy Hodgson...to be next coach of Newcastle. THat is of course if Hughton proves to be not upto it.

P.S: Deliberate attempt to piss kurt off.

Nah. Now they're back in the 'big time' Newcastle fans want a messiah to coach them. Alan Shearer? Kevin Keegan? Cheryl Cole? I dunno, but it'll be somebody wel liked up in Geordie Land.

I'm actually wondering whether it would be good for Liverpool to go all the way. Their fans are already so far up Rafa's *** that they practically speak for him, so if he won this he'd be unsackable for at least a year, which is good for every none-Liverpool fan in England!

+1. Rafa to stay.

The Newcastle fans have always like Hughton. It was Hughton who didn't really want to be coach. Kind of like our Tassotti.

And please go through the article, and then read the comments. They're all Newcastle fans posting comments. I'm curious to know where the delusions set in.

Link

Hmm... interesting... for Torres at least.

Atletico will get stuffed!


I'd move to Newcastle!! I'm sure you would consider it too!

+2 I want Rafa in the pool full of sh!t forever!!

Forlan 1-0 Liverpool!

Gerrard is such a brilliant diver.

If Capello picks the form players for the World Cup (like he said he would) then Gerrard won't be going, in fact he'll be a long way down the list, something tells me he won't be that honest, or brave.

Not calling Gerrard would be like commiting suicide. Why renounce to such a player only because he's having a so-so season? If that's the case, Lippi shouldn't call Pirlo neither.

That would be okay if he was having an average season, but he isn't. Capello can't really win, you shouldn't make promises you won't keep. Given how hated Gerrard is here there will be more than a few people complaining.

But won't there be people complaining no matter what he does?

Well, that depends on what he does. It was silly of him to make such a promise, especially one he won't stick to given how Gerrard is playing (and I think Bent will miss out despite hitting nearly 25 league goals for a very average team).

Nobody expects him to win the World Cup. Most of the English public will be, again, happy with a QF appearance. Then, again, most of the people outside of England will bizzarely say we've underacheived when we reach that stage and lose.

What he said would do is not a smart thing. You cannot only pick based on form, you also have to pick a certain few based on potential and as much as I hate him, Divey G has more than enough to be there.


I know Kurt will... even if Capello does exactly what Kurt wants Kurt will then cry about Capello being predictable!


People outside of England can only listen to the English media, not the English public and when you think about the praise and the expectations the former have it's not so bizarre. You know this very well, don't pretend you have no idea why people outside of England say that.

It still doesn't make sense though. If an English paper reports Pato is to join Chelsea it will be dismissed. Yet when they go on about how good the England team is, you feel it's a true representation. You just believe what you want to believe. Facht.

These two thing you mentioned are as different as night and day. superfact.

Not really.

Both things are said in a paper, you see one as a BS, one as the truth. I think it's a case of foreigners just believing it so they can just criticise England for some strange reason. The public and the media hold a very different opinion about the national team. We're happy when we qualify for tournements and a QF appearance represents a successful tournement.. it's just people outside of England that say we always underacheive or fail, not us.

Come on now, you know there's no point in this generalization... of course both things are written in a paper, that does not mean they are the same. The name of the paper and its price are also written there, are you going to tell me they are the same?

Hyping up a team and creating expectations is an opinion, a rumor is a rumor. When you hear someone do the first you're going to laugh at his team's fall (you do it! we all do), when you hear a rumor you simply hear another possibly made up story.


It's a case of foreigners laughing at arrogant people who proclaim their team as champions before even the beginning of the tournament.


Yeah, you already said this... it's when I replied to it that we started having this conversation.

That's all well and good, but a rumour is also an opinion as it's not based on fact, but something someone thinks.

Okay agreed. But a rumor is not personal. It's simple, every time Utd fans bombard you with praise for their team (and for Utd it's justified, England has won nothing recently) you're going to laugh back at them when they fail. If you hear a rumor from them you're not going to care much if it's true or false. It's not about that as you said earlier, that's not the point. Arrogance is annoying and no matter if it's justified or not you're going to laugh when failure follows it.

I know that English people do not feel the same way about their team's chances as I meet many of them here and talk with them about it but not many people have the chance to do that.

Arrogance can be annoying, I agree. But I think it's more of a mindset if anything, if you act like you think you're the best, other people may actually believe it and it'll help you when you play them.

THough there's no actual belief that we will do well. The Americans? On an American forum I use it's pretty unanimous that they think they will beat us on June 12th! I don't see why they would be so sure.

I can't even begin to imagine the levels of annoyance that would be generated if the US were to actually win the WC. It'd be the biggest case of band-wagon jumping ever seen. Fortunately, there's only a .00001% chance of that happening.

So, Hamburg got thumped 5-1 by Hoffenheim this weekend (Hoffenheim has had a pretty mediocre season this year), much to everyone's surprise.

The Hamburg management sacked coach Bruno Labbadia.

Hamburg play Fulham at Craven Cottage in the 2nd leg semi this Thursday. First leg was 0-0.

This fish suspects Fulham may just go through.

It annoys me every competition. Everybody jumps on the US bandwagon then when you go out they "don't care". There's such a lack of loyalty in sport in that country it's shocking.


I'm not sure. Hamburg battered Fulham in the first leg and it could have been embarassing. I'm not sure Fulham have enough in their side. It will be close though.

I agree with this though it does not have to do with what I'm saying.

As for the Americans... they call their teams World Champions don't they? I'm surprised they even participate in this... tournament of the... other world.

It's a different culture from the rest of the world. Sport there is entertainment, a family day out, an excuse to 'have a bud with a bud'.

It's less about the team there and more about the slightly capitalistic culture of entertainment which goes along with it.

Ultimate symbol is the baseball fan who hardly watches the game and spends the time eating hot dogs, popcorn, and watching the cheerleaders.

That's certainly why I go to baseball games - the game itself is usually quite dull, but hanging out with friends, having a beer or 3, people watching, etc, is fun.

With other sports, it's a bit different at least for me -- basketball (college, not pro) and hockey, I've got my teams and I support those teams, full stop. (georgetown and the washington caps)

Agreed. I've seen American sports live and it's pretty surreal. Cheerleaders aren't a negative though!

I don't think the size of the place helps either. You have, what, 30/32 teams per sport for a country that has 50 states, most of which are bigger than England. For some people it'd take days to drive to their 'local' team because some states don't even have one. While here it's much more tribal and part of the people. I have about 5 or 6 teams that're within 30 miles or so of where I live so you usually end up supporting one a matter of minutes away, as opposed to hours/days.

But the last part of what you said sums up Cubs fans better than anything. Add 'drinking excessive amounts of alcohol' to it as well, their fans are incredibly annoying.

Forza Fulham tonight.

I just don't want Liverpool in the final.

Atletico-Fulham final. Fantastic.

A huge LOL @ Liverpool.

sweet!

finally a good night for me in European football. this season has been dreadful!

Fulham. Must. Win.

Man City vs Fulham from 2 seasons ago after Hodgson had not long taken over. They had to win or they were relegated. They've come a long, long way from that game.

That's a very underwhelming final even for Europa League standards.

Durr,that was unfair to liverpool.They were the better team but they didn't have one natural forward out there!

Hamburg crashing out = good for Serie A. I'm satisfied! now Inter needs to beat Bayern.

NO!

Inter falls!! They must fall!

Inter will prevail!

The special ONE!!!!haha

Merda need to win in normal time to keep the co-eeficient, even if they win in extra time it won't be good enough

Time to hope the bad side can actually win

Doesn't winning the CL give a team a large monetary prize? Do you guys really want Inter to have more money to spend on players? So they can increase the talent disparity between us, but I guess seeing an Italian side win must be more important to you guys than actually being the best Italian side.

Tbh..the only reason I want the fourth spot to remain in Serie A is that we've always done better when we've had to fight through the qualifiers.

But of course! Can you imagine how hard it will be with only 2 spots leading directly to the Champions League? Inter already have a lot of money. Winning the final won't make much of a difference to them in monetary terms.

When you've got a billionaire owner who actually spends money on his team then the prize money doesn't mean that much The talent disparity will grow whether they win or not because their management are far more ambitious than ours are.