unfriendlies

argentina 2 - england 3 this was a little unfriendly. but no more or less unfriendly than one would expect from these bitter rivals.

it looked like england got out to an early lead on a michael owen header, but it was called back for offside, then the favor was returned when argentina had a crespo goal disallowed for a foul in the box.

but the scoring took off when crespo gave argentina the lead, then rooney nailed a beauty a few minutes later, which started on a brilliant ball from beckham. there were some cards handed out now and then, but nothing untoward.

the second half saw three more goals: the first from samuel. then, right at the death, when it looked like argentina had done away with the english, michael owen, who'd been almost invisible after his first goal was called back, delivered two mighty headers to give england the win. of course, it wasn't without controversy. it sure as hell looked like a penalty should have been called in the english box when a terrible challenge brought down ??? who had a clear scoring chance. the ref turned a blind eye, however, and the resulting coundter attack gave england their 3 goals -- 3 goals that should have gone to argentina.

oddly, i found myself chearing for england -- go figure -- but i still feel that a penalty shot should have been awarded to argentina at the death. the only reasons england deserved a win today were rooney, becks and robinson (who put in a fine display in net).

no bloodshed, though. what a shame.

germany 0 - france 0 this was really unfriendly. and no surprise considering the history of these two countries. this was one rough friendly. fouls were happening all over the pitch, players were diving, players were tackling each other with cleats up, players were knocking each other down, players were holding each other's shirts, but, wouldn't you know it, the only injury was innocent.

and that injury came at the end of the first half on poor sebastian deisler. the always injured munich midfielder was having a hell of a season, and it looks like his season is over, at least for a while. from what we could tell sitting in our football den, thousands of miles away from the pitch, deisler has a compound fracture of the ankle. and the look on gallas' face, the france and chelsea star who inadvertently stomped on his ankle, deisler's injury is a doozy.

as for gameplay, germany really dominated proceedings. once henry left the pitch, france never looked likely to score, and germany had a number of good chances. ballack was excellent, as usual, and once schweinsteiger hit the pitch the two of them were creating some serious chances.

lehmann had little to do in net for germany, but coupet was excellent for france. all in all it was a good game, at least i enjoyed watching it, but only those who love defensive battles would really have njoyed it. unless you dig the fleeting images of blood pouring off of deisler's ankle. that was worth watching.

oh, anelka was fun to watch today and he worked hard. good work nicholas.

les bleus beat costa rica

it may not sound like a big deal, after all one would expect france to beat costa rica, but don't forget that costa rica are one of the teams who've qualified for germany 2006 wihtout having to face a playoff. great they may not be, but they are not bad either.

witness their first half performance: up two -nil at the half, forcing les bleus to comeback. that's a good thing. it'll instill some character in those french crazies.

it was nice to see nicolas "disappointing" anelka back in the fold and scoring a goal. add a cisse goal and henry's usual magic and the game in martinique was a good test, well passed. bring on germany this weekend.

Happy Birthday Mr.Cole

check out this dirty dream from gio about joe cole (zoinks scoob):

As dreasm go, i was in one place and suddenly in another. I can't remember where I was earlier, but i found myself in the stands at a soccer pitch, but i'm looking up, like i'm in a dugout. Like i'm part of the team. i see joe out on the pitch by himself. he's wearing a white kit with red piping. it's night and the pitch is lit up by giant lights. There are a few people in the stands and brad is in the dugout with me. we're totally stoked that we're watching football from 'the bench'. Brad says to me "Hey, it's joe. You should go meet him." So i walk out onto the pitch. I watch him a bit handling the ball and was mesmerized. Joe sees me and says Hi, so I say Hi back. he tells me to take off my shirt and at first i'm a bit shocked but then think Why Not? I look around and no one is paying attention to us. I take off my shirt and i notice i'm not wearing a bra and have these amazing breasts like Salma Hayak's in Friday. Joe comments that i have great tits and i agree with him and that makes him laugh. So i ask him if he wants to touch them. So he does, and there is some severely nice fondling and i start to carress his cock and i can feel it getting harder in my hand. Instinctively, i pull down his shorts and go down on him. Eventually, he's lying on the ground and i'm bent over him with my ass in the air. WHile i'm sucking, i feel hands running up my skirt and i stop for a second tot urn to see who's behind me and it's Del Horno (i can hear you laughing right now). Del Horno asks me if he can take my skirt off and i say OK, naturally, i'm going comando. So i go back to sucking Joe's cock and i can feel del horno's hands and fingers carressing my ass and he starts finger fucking me. Del Horno then asks if he can take me from behind and i say Yes. So ask he's fucking me, i hear joe say "the harder you fuck her the harder she sucks" and then I hear Del Horno say that he's going to cum so i switch and start sucking his dick until he cums and then Joe takes me from behind and he feels real big. So while i'm going down on del horno and joe fucks me from behind, i have an intense orgasm, and it wakes me up.

chelski fall (or man utd fan for a day)

arsenal's 49 game unbeaten streak is safe -- for now.

and we have man utd to thank for it. just as the red devils brought the gunners streak to an end, they have done the deed with the blues. and it couldn't have come at a better time for everyone involved (except chelsea).

wigan, arsenal, tottenham and man utd all benefit at the top of the table with the race for the championship officially back on.

liverpool benefits in the champion's league, as does real betis. in fact, it is suddenly possible that chelsea could go out in the group stage (wishful thinking, but suddenly possible).

it benefits keano. his outburst against his devil teammates had him in shit with fergie, but now it looks like an act of utter genius. fletcher scored for christ's sake! that has to be connected to keano's mouth. too bad ferdinand didn't respond as well as smithy, o'shea and fletcher, though, he might have proven why he gets all those pounds.

for chelski, however, this is not good at all. they are out of the carling cup after a penalty shootout loss to charlton. then they drew at everton. then they lost to betis in the champs league. now they've lost to the former kings of english football.

when the red devils did this to the invulnerable arsenal to end their undeafeated streak at 49, the gunners fell apart for a while, suddenly showing their mortality. the fear of the gunners greatness was no more. the same thing will happen here. it doesn't mean that chelsea will collapse completly (don't forget that arsenal still finished second and won the fa cup) but it is going to put a dent in their form. wait and see.

so this is a rare occurence, but thanks manchester united. today i cheered for you. today, i love you.

from the lips of paddy

"ruud is a son of a bitch"

i gotta get this autobiography.