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Central European top leagues: Former Czech U-21 international Stanislav Tecl has scored 10 goals in 11 matches in the Czech Gambrinus League and his club Vysocina Jihlava is far from a powerhouse. He is definitely someone to watch, very promising footballer. Young Argentine David Depetris has...

Yes, complacency is bound to kick in if the coach keeps persisting with the same players...I agree that Uruguay are still a favourite to qualify, though, they arguably have more talent at their disposal than Chile and Ecuador. On the plus side, Pizarro, Farfan, Penny and Guerrero are all...

Apparently he has recently expressed a preference to represent Finland rather than England on international level. However, I won’t be surprised if he changes his mind, as the lad is likely to soon register on Roy Hodgson’s radar if he continues with his strong performances for Arsenal. He...

There is a bit of a prior history between two sides… Matt Derbyshire scored a goal against Serbia under controversial circumstances a number of years ago and was mobbed by the Serbian footballers, which caused a minor fight between the two teams. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Ipjcj5qaY I...

South American qualification: It seems as if Uruguay have hit a bit of a dry spell…a third consecutive very heavy loss (1:4 against Bolivia, though it’s understandable to a degree given the high altitude and the rather hostile atmosphere in La Paz). I wonder whether the team no longer has the...

Real Madrid vs. Manchester City and Chelsea against Juventus were some quality games! I think that "The Old Lady" can go very far in this year's edition of the Champions League. I didn't expect that, Lille are are usually very strong at home! BATE's play reminded me of Germany's performance...

Welcome to the forum, @Angel! The right-back position is probably my favourite one when I am on the pitch. I have noticed that East Asian students in the UK frequently play together against other teams that are more mixed from a racial standpoint. The Chinese and Japanese are quite accepting of...

Bulgaria vs. Italy will probably be the most interesting match of the night…unfortunately, there were a number of clashes between Bulgarian and Italian fans four years ago when these two teams faced each other in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, so there is some bad blood between these...

@Frederic, thanks, yes, I didn’t pay attention to his facial features and thought he was just a tanned white. I think that Morel could pass for a Southern Italian or as a local in some of the Balkan countries. The name sounds very French to me, maybe because my first association is with...

Yes, this is an option for him, I think that Baines is a versatile player.. Indeed, Hodgson could experiment with that.. He is the opposite of Glen Johnson in that respect – usually totally focused on defense and not too dangerous in an attacking sense. Btw, another interesting result: USA...

Interesting – it’s indeed a distinction of dubious value, but I am sure that nobody will hold it against Zieler, as his foul wasn’t dangerous and he was just trying to catch the ball. I personally think that a yellow card should suffice in situations like that (unless it’s a particularly...

There weren’t too many surprises in the preliminary rounds of the Champions League and the Eastern European teams (with the exception of Dinamo Zagreb and Dynamo Kyiv) weren’t at their best, so we won’t see any clubs making their debuts in the group stages. F 91 Dudelange from Luxembourg (their...

Interesting news from Cyprus. Some of the Cypriot footballers threatened to boycott a friendly match vs. Bulgaria due to the coach’s decision to call up a number of naturalized players who are plying their trade in the Cypriot First Division – Vincent Laban (French), Dosa Junior (Portuguese...

All in all, I enjoyed the tennis tournament at the Olympics, but I didn’t expect Andy Murray and Serena Williams to totally dominate their opponents and claim their gold medals with such ease (they were absolutely flawless in the finals and certainly deserve their titles, but the gold medal...

Thanks, you are right that all these aspects need to be taken into account! I remember that a while ago there was a discussion on this board regarding the number of World Cups won by Uruguay (in the thread covering South American football)…there was no consensus reached, but my understanding is...

Some of my favourite clubs are as follows: Lokomotiv Sofia (Bulgaria) – their fans tend to be quite patriotic and are not known for hooliganism. The team is usually very representative of the country’s population. Belshina Bobruisk (Belarus) – over 90% of its players are Belarusians...

Thanks for starting this thread and providing the breakdowns, Arend, German clubs generally do not shy away from relying on local players and tend to prioritize youth development. [/FONT] Here you are: First team members only (the reserve footballers are over 90% Greek anyway). AEK...

I agree, goalkeepers are a unique breed and it’s extremely risky/potentially costly for a team to violate the principles of meritocracy when it comes to picking goalies, so it’s less likely that the “well-connected players†in a club are the custodians. Kasper Schmeichel, the son of Peter...

Yes, totally agree, Beckham deserved it not only because of his reputation or sentimental reasons, but on merit as well…I hope that he will at least get the chance to appear in another World Cup (2014). Senegal seems to be a bogey team for Uruguay (this is actually Uruguay’s first soccer...

That’s very harsh and I feel sorry for the athlete in question…yes, this type of humour is not my cup of tea, but it’s obvious that she was just joking around and the Greek federation should have simply warned her or asked her to apologize. There are a number of athletes who represent...

The three over-age players who were selected by Belarus are Kornilenko, Bressan and Drahun. I am somewhat disappointed, as Bressan is a naturalized Brazilian footballer and would have probably been more useful for BATE Borisov in their Champions League campaign than for the Olympic team (BATE...

Interesting thread, here are some examples from Eastern Europe. Bisser Mikhaylov (grandfather), Borislav Mihaylov (father), Nikolay Mihaylov (son) – they are all goalkeepers and have been capped for the Bulgarian national team (in fact Borislav is the all-time leader in appearances)...

Great analysis, @Porthos! Congratulations to all Spaniards, Spain were absolutely amazing, this was the most dominant performance in a major soccer final that I have ever seen (though Italy were not toothless when it came to offensive play). Tough luck for Italy (as Thiago Motta was injured...

Ryan Giggs, Micah Richards and Craig Bellamy will be the three overage players who will play for Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics. I am very surprised that Beckham and Scholes (especially the former) did not make the final cut. Syarhey Kornilenko who used to play for FC Blackpool (they...

Wow, I was impressed by Italy, they really managed to raise their level of play for this semi-final…the game reminded me a bit of the 2006 semi-final between the two sides (Germany were the more attacking side and seemed to be in control, but Italy were very dangerous on the counter). Germany...