Football (Soccer)
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One reason I'm grinning inside at Italy not making it is one of my lifelong friends is a first generation Italian and a huge Italia fan. His mouth is as loud as you can imagine so it's nice to see him eat some humble pie.
Another reason is that Italy always kind of annoyed me in that they actually never really played well in recent memory, they really didn't…..but they would always scrape through and make it deep into every tournament. They were that team that would never win their group but advance, go up one goal on a team and defend the rest of the game, win their games by 1...maybe 2 goals. Such a safe and boring tactic to watch. Top that off with my obnoxious Italian buddy yelling in my face with every win.
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Now….on to a team that I thoroughly love right now.....Ze Germans!!! I am so impressed with what they have done with their whole system rebuilding it from the ground up. The Germans are insanely talented but the real scary part is how deep their squad is AND how young most of them still are. It is quite ridiculous. It's not an exaggeration to say that a German B or C squad could beat almost any other countries A squad on any given day. The biggest problem Low will have is deciding who to play in each game because of the wealth of talent he has to choose from. It's a great problem for a manager to have but still can be a problem none the less.
I am calling it right now, I'm picking Germany to win it again. Two in a row.
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I've had a soft spot for Italy since Italia 90. Roberto Baggio carried the team with a superhuman effort right to the final, assisted by some inspired defending from Baresi.
Ze Germans are strong in every tournament, but oddly for an Englishman I am hoping that the Argentina manager realises that he needs to build his team around Messi and the little genius finally gets his international trophy.
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Ze Germans are always contenders in every tournament but the way they have been playing since the last world cup is on a different level and style than previous years. They have so much speed in attack now combined with their defensive capabilities and ice in the veins composure. Look at their goal differential in their qualifying group for this world cup. Sure they were not in a group of death by any means but they are destroying teams. Their game against Brazil in the last world cup is a great example.
I am with you on Messi getting a trophy finally. That guy deserves it and I would love to see him get one.
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A day when bloody Bayern loose is always a good day. My bad cold that has been plaguing me instantly got better…
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Did I just see @Megatron1505 on TV attending Newcastle vs. Citeh?
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No dude, but i’m there on Friday and away at Stoke on Monday
Btw, is there a new Premier League ruling that any 50/50 challenge must be given in favour of the Man City Player?
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I don't know, but damn they are on fire (I know, staying the obvious here). This is good for PL though.
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Great manager, wonderful players, exquisite football. It would be great for the PL if they weren’t an extreme product of the ridiculous free market approach that ridicules the fair play rules. It would be much more interesting if everyone had the funds Man City did. I say that as a fan of a club who have just paid striker money for a defender [emoji23]
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It is a crazy price and the market is getting out of control (thanks PSG) but with that being said, Van Dijk is quality. A CB with pace and decent passing and dribbling skills is not common and is very desirable.
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The Van Dijk fee is almost the same as what Madrid paid for Ronaldo in 09, to put things in perspective.
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I don’t give flying f@ck about the price. It’s not my money. He’s one of the best available CB’s at the moment so you pay what you pay.
My personal problem as a long time supporter of the club is that while he is an upgrade, he won’t solve our defensive problems. We need a proper DM for that. A top shelf keeper would help too.
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Is there any reason why they like them so much?
Lallana was great value, Clyne, good value, Lambert was a cheap fill-in that failed, so who cares, and Lovren should have been a great but turned out crap.
Mane was just a brilliant bit of business for us. So far so good. And LFC gave just given them £75m to develop some new players they can buy in a year or two. Clever investment [emoji1417][emoji1]
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That's cunning ;). I think Liverpool made a good step also signing Keita from RB Leipzig (he will join them in summer) and this might be the DM you're looking for to stabilize the midfield and protect the defence. Too bad Coutinho will leave in summer, though, he's playing a terrific season so far. Do you think he'll stay? I mean he's already played in Barcelona once (fo Espanyol) and who would decline an offer from the FCB?
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If they come back for him he will go. He can double his wages and win major honours, over here he can only do that by moving to City.
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It is a crazy price and the market is getting out of control (thanks PSG) but with that being said, Van Dijk is quality. A CB with pace and decent passing and dribbling skills is not common and is very desirable.
It is an insane price but it's not just thanks to PSG's spending that has caused transfers to sky rocket, the EPL's going rate has always been OTT…....in saying that the VVD deal has been a nice little earner for Celtic too.
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I expect Coutinho to leave in the summer unless something ridiculous happens (like winning the CL
).I haven’t seem much of Keita but my understanding is he’s more box to box. I’d like to see a Mascherano Didi Hamman type protecting Liverpool’s defence with two ball winners/creators in front of him feeding whichever version of the fab four Klopp deploys.
