confederation cup 2013
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Pirlo and De Rossi are out against Brazil today sadly. Pirlo through injury and De Rossi through suspension.
Despite the two absences, Brazil have been very poor in this tournament, are defensively vulnerable. If Italy defend well enough, they can pick them apart on the counter attack. Also I can guarantee Neymar will not feature today, he always disappoints in big games(England, Barcelona e.t.c)
Jack Lambert
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I also remember one more comment that Healy and his announcers said: I'm paraphrasing this: There was a famous Italian player who scored some amount of goals at an international tournament, and he has a stadium named after him. Ballotelli scored two goals in two matches or something like that in the confed cup, and they were saying, "Who knows, maybe someday that stadium will be the Ballotelli instead.":crazy: I swear, you can't make this stuff up. Yet another reason to cheer against the Azurri, or as all announcers would prefer the Italian team to be renamed to "The Ballotellis." I won't shed a tear if Brazil beats them today, especially with Pirlo and De Rossi out.
Europe, and you're right, Every. Single. Picture. of the Italian team has to have Ballotelli in it it seems like. No exceptions.
Jack Lambert
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Spain is currently playing Nigeria on ESPN right now. An article that I read about this game says Spain will have a lot of trouble with Nigeria due to the latter's "explosive athleticism." Well, all that "athleticism" managed to get Nigeria down 1-0 in the first 4 minutes. 
The Spaniards have been running circles around Nigeria so far in the match.
The Spaniards have been running circles around Nigeria so far in the match.
frederic38
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Spain is currently playing Nigeria on ESPN right now. An article that I read about this game says Spain will have a lot of trouble with Nigeria due to the latter's "explosive athleticism." Well, all that "athleticism" managed to get Nigeria down 1-0 in the first 4 minutes.
the lesson has started :grin:
frederic38
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3-0 at the end of the training session, it was a funny match
my favourite momment was when a nigerian player tried to do a backheel and fell on the ball instead
then the spanish players quickly passed the ball around him
funny also how nigeria score 1 goal every 1000000000 goal scoring oportunity, most of the time they can't even fire a real shot
it was a friendly tournament, but once again the best african team was exposed, they looked very poor in addition to losing against uruguay and spain (which is not a surprise) but it has surprised everybody to see how poor they were, even against tahiti they had trouble
my favourite momment was when a nigerian player tried to do a backheel and fell on the ball instead
then the spanish players quickly passed the ball around him
funny also how nigeria score 1 goal every 1000000000 goal scoring oportunity, most of the time they can't even fire a real shot
it was a friendly tournament, but once again the best african team was exposed, they looked very poor in addition to losing against uruguay and spain (which is not a surprise) but it has surprised everybody to see how poor they were, even against tahiti they had trouble
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Jack Lambert
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Here's some good news. I hope Italy don't put El Shaaraway into the lineup in place of "Super Mario"... I think Ian Darke or Adrian Healy and Co. are going to die during the semi-final without "Super Mario" to blather on and on about. Although I'm sure they'll still find a way to make sure the viewers know that the injured Ballotelli is undoubtedly the face of "new Italy."
http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1...lli-miss-confederations-cup-semifinal?cc=5901
http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1...lli-miss-confederations-cup-semifinal?cc=5901
The first comment I saw at the ESPN link:
:icon_sad:
I'm almost tempted to cheer for Italy to win without him against Spain except he'd end up back in the squad for the final and the "Super Mario" mania would continue with no one mentioning they beat Spain without him.
Jack Lambert
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I have some great news, Matra. Ballotelli will not be back for the Final/3rd place match!! I think I'm going to cheer for Italy to win it all now. To prove once and for all they can win without "Super Mario" on the team. Even if El Shaaraway plays, he still looks white, and won't be slobbered over by the commenators for 90 minutes.
http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1...alotelli-sent-home-confederations-cup?cc=5901
frederic38
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great news
italy has a chance against spain because their defense is weak as always, but against brazil in the possible final it will be harder because the competition is more important to brazil than it is to italy and spain
italy has a chance against spain because their defense is weak as always, but against brazil in the possible final it will be harder because the competition is more important to brazil than it is to italy and spain
Jack Lambert
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Same here, Matra. Whichever Euro team comes out of the other Semi-final will be my team of choice.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_national_football_team
Interesting info on Israeli soccer team:
"1994, Israel received full UEFA membership, 20 years after it had left Asia."
"Due to the Arab–Israeli conflict, several Muslim states refused to compete against Israel. The political situation culminated in Israel winning the 1958 World Cup qualifying stage for Asia and Africa without playing a single game"
"In 1974, Israel was expelled from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). During the 1980s, it played the majority of its matches against European teams"
"The continued presence of the Israeli Football Association in UEFA was a precedent cited by Australia to justify its transfer from the Oceania Football Confederation to the Asian Football Confederation."
Interesting info on Israeli soccer team:
"1994, Israel received full UEFA membership, 20 years after it had left Asia."
"Due to the Arab–Israeli conflict, several Muslim states refused to compete against Israel. The political situation culminated in Israel winning the 1958 World Cup qualifying stage for Asia and Africa without playing a single game"
"In 1974, Israel was expelled from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). During the 1980s, it played the majority of its matches against European teams"
"The continued presence of the Israeli Football Association in UEFA was a precedent cited by Australia to justify its transfer from the Oceania Football Confederation to the Asian Football Confederation."
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Jack Lambert
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Well, Brazil is up 2-0 on Spain at the half. Spain has not looked very good; Alba, in particular has gotten beaten by Neymar a lot, and has made some bad passes. But the ref is letting Brazil get away with everything that they do. David Luiz made a great save on Spains' best chance. I think Neymar is Alexi Lala's new boyfriend. Neymar has been playing pretty good though, but as usual Lalas throws it out of proportion.
What an embarrassing performance by Spain. Why would Sergio Ramas, instead of Xavi or Iniesta, take the penalty? To make matters worse Pele's brown hero Neymar scored again. A disastrous year in club football, from a white perspective, ends disastrously on the international front.
frederic38
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brazil wants to win the match 10 times more than spain
remember that it's a friendly tournament, and it's played in brazil, and brazil plays no competitive matches before the 2014 world cup, unlike the other teams
they fight like it's the world cup final
i expected spain to lose (as said in my last post) for that reason
but what matters for a friendly tournament is that we saw beautiful goals and nice matches
the free kicks in this tournament were awesome: the europeans (diamanti, pirlo) and the south americans (suarez, neymar, cavani)
i have never seen so many goals from direct free kicks in so few matches
and pirlo's free kick was posted on the first page
remember that it's a friendly tournament, and it's played in brazil, and brazil plays no competitive matches before the 2014 world cup, unlike the other teams
they fight like it's the world cup final
i expected spain to lose (as said in my last post) for that reason
but what matters for a friendly tournament is that we saw beautiful goals and nice matches
the free kicks in this tournament were awesome: the europeans (diamanti, pirlo) and the south americans (suarez, neymar, cavani)
i have never seen so many goals from direct free kicks in so few matches
and pirlo's free kick was posted on the first page
frederic38
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what is the disaster?
dortmund played the champions league final with 10 whites and 1 turk, they could have won, and bayern munchen won with a majority white starting 11
there were many people who were rooting for them from the start because they were very white
juventus won the italian league with the whitest roster, as expected
same for barcelona in spain
in france the whitest team won too (PSG)
in england manchester united inexplicably won the league with van persie and rooney the main players but arsenal impressed with a very white team
there were no black players achieving anything this year
it was one of the best seasons for me
the only bad momment was benfica losing the title in the last minutes of the game against porto in the portuguese league :Cry:
I agree with Frederic38.
This year Man City has signed Navas. Chelsea have signed Schurrle. MU might sign Baines.
Rooney and Higuain might be at Arsenal. Arsenal could be awesome this year, but I have heard rumours that Arsenal is considering Benteke. Please no.
frederic38
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in belgium, the main rumor is that tottenham is interested, but in the end he is too expansive for a player who played his first season in PL so he might stay at aston villa
think about the time when in the PL the big names were henry, drogba, anelka
, when etoo was the top scorer in spain (when forlan wasn't :icon_cool: ) when ronaldinho was the best player in champions league ectwith neymar, it might be the come back of a non-white brazilian player who could make an impact in europe
it was an anomaly that there was none curently
but i'm not 100% convinced
so far he has only played in the brazilian league (where he has recently started getting less impressive) and in friendly matches
think about alexis sanchez and how he flopped at barcelona: http://youtu.be/ruHqMLabFbA
neymar was very bad at the last copa america, and this confederations cup won't be enough to make me forget about it