OT: soccer thread

[WaydownSouth]

I'm in..... Such a sucker for fantasy stuff........

I've already signed up on the aussie site: http://worldcup.virtualsports.com.au/

League Code: 657703

The new Star Wars ad for the WC is great. Not much to do with soccer, but a good laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEHBAbRsokg

[fatlever]

I'll play. Can we have a group?

i'll see if i can make a group for us

[fatlever]

OK. i created a league on www.fifa.com called realgm bobcats

the league ID is 524104-121331

come join me

[Tupik]

I'll play, it's the McDonalds thing right ?

I'll play with my brother, since he follows soccer a lot more than I do, and I know he'll love this.

[fatlever]

yeah, the mcdonalds thing.

http://en.mcdonalds.fantasy.fifa.com/

[Tupik]

I'm in the bobcats league, everybody needs to join, there's not many time left !

[e4Nf6]

I'm in....Just wasted way too much time choosing my line-up.

[fatlever]

I'm in....Just wasted way too much time choosing my line-up.

haha. i wasted at least half a day at work choosing my team. i must have changed 10 times.

i like that this league has lots of different ways for scoring. not just goals, assists and clean sheets.

[Paydro70]

I joined the group... I admit that at a certain point I felt like I was guessing, in particular my midfield is a mess. In NCAA pools this makes me the most likely to win though.

[Det the Threat]

Would it be alright if a German Clippers fan were to join your fantasy league as well?

Anyways, that's my club, if you're interested.

http://www.borussia.de/en/home,116282,0.html

[WaydownSouth]

Would it be alright if a German Clippers fan were to join your fantasy league as well?

Anyways, that's my club, if you're interested.

http://www.borussia.de/en/home,116282,0.html

send fats a pm... it's his league...

German fan.... please don't kick our cans too hard in the first round....

[Det the Threat]

Would it be alright if a German Clippers fan were to join your fantasy league as well?

Anyways, that's my club, if you're interested.

http://www.borussia.de/en/home,116282,0.html

send fats a pm... it's his league...

German fan.... please don't kick our cans too hard in the first round....

I've send him a pm.

Oh, and i'm not responsible for kicking your cans or not, it's the players.
Though, it's the first game of the tournament and we always seem to struggle a bit at first. So we'll see, but i expect something like a 2-0 or 2-1 victory against you guys...

BTW: That's how our lineup should look like against Australia.

--------------------------------------Neuer---------------------------------------

--Lahm----------Mertesacker-----------Friedrich---------Jansen------

---------------------------Khedira------------Schweinsteiger--------------

--Mueller------------------------Oezil----------------------Podolski--------

----------------------------------------Klose--------------------------------------


Though, i would rather play Cacau instead of Klose(who's not in form right now) and Low might play Trochowski instead of Mueller, even though Trochowski is the worst winger of the team.
Jansen will likely play because we expect you guys to play very defensive minded and he's a real offensive left back and could add some more pressure then Badstuber would be able.

[WaydownSouth]

I'm really worried about how our defence will contain Schweinsteiger and Özil. Not too concerned about Klose.

I'd consider a draw in this game a win for Australia in the first round. The Aussies will have Kewell and Emerton back.

We will be going big up front with Kennedy (who your lads should be aware off as he's played in the Bundesliga) and having Kewell and Timmy Cahill run off him. There are some veterans at the back in Craig Moore, Chipperfield and Lucas Neill.

[fatlever]

Would it be alright if a German Clippers fan were to join your fantasy league as well?

Anyways, that's my club, if you're interested.

http://www.borussia.de/en/home,116282,0.html

sure thing. please do join. the more the merrier.

[fatlever]

Would it be alright if a German Clippers fan were to join your fantasy league as well?

Anyways, that's my club, if you're interested.

http://www.borussia.de/en/home,116282,0.html

send fats a pm... it's his league...

German fan.... please don't kick our cans too hard in the first round....

I've send him a pm.

Oh, and i'm not responsible for kicking your cans or not, it's the players.
Though, it's the first game of the tournament and we always seem to struggle a bit at first. So we'll see, but i expect something like a 2-0 or 2-1 victory against you guys...

BTW: That's how our lineup should look like against Australia.

--------------------------------------Neuer---------------------------------------

--Lahm----------Mertesacker-----------Friedrich---------Jansen------

---------------------------Khedira------------Schweinsteiger--------------

--Mueller------------------------Oezil----------------------Podolski--------

----------------------------------------Klose--------------------------------------


Though, i would rather play Cacau instead of Klose(who's not in form right now) and Low might play Trochowski instead of Mueller, even though Trochowski is the worst winger of the team.
Jansen will likely play because we expect you guys to play very defensive minded and he's a real offensive left back and could add some more pressure then Badstuber would be able.

bayern is my second fav team behind chelsea so naturally i am a big germany fan. i absolutely love schweinsteiger. i am interested to see how mueller does at such a young age.

[fatlever]

I joined the group... I admit that at a certain point I felt like I was guessing, in particular my midfield is a mess. In NCAA pools this makes me the most likely to win though.

thats one tough thing about being a soccer fan. its so hard to keep track of all the players. nba is easy, 30 teams and about 7 or 8 relevant players on each team. in soccer you have to keep up with about 5 different leagues just to be aware of the most talented guys and then there another 100 or so young guys hanging out in the lesser leagues that warrant attention. and considering only a handful of leagues get games on mainstream us cable channels following any of the leagues outside of england, usa, mexico, italy and spain is tough.

[Det the Threat]

Would it be alright if a German Clippers fan were to join your fantasy league as well?

Anyways, that's my club, if you're interested.

http://www.borussia.de/en/home,116282,0.html

sure thing. please do join. the more the merrier.

Done already.

bayern is my second fav team behind chelsea so naturally i am a big germany fan. i absolutely love schweinsteiger. i am interested to see how mueller does at such a young age.

Chelsea and Bayern?
That ain't a good starter...

Like i've posted before, my team is Borussia Moenchengladbach. It's the one Michael Bradley plays for and Kasey Keller did play for a couple years ago.
In England i'm more leaning towards ManUnited even tough there's a fan friendship between Borussia and Liverpool.

Schweinsteiger needs to step it up, cause he's one of the most experienced players of our squad and the vice-captain behind Lahm. Him and Khedira are also the only defensive midfielders left on the squad, after Ballack, Rolfes, Traesch and even Westermann didn't make it due to injury.

Mueller is someone i'd start, but it looks like Low is in love with Piotr Trochowski, who's the worst winger on our squad. He's always running around and shooting on goal but never scores cause his shots are more like field goals then anything else. I really hope he gets benched, if he's even being allowed to start against Australia, real quick.

Also, keep an eye on a couple of our youngsters, cause they really could and even should make a differnce. Mesut Oezil is a real playmaker and able to create for his teammates. Then there's Marko Marin, he should come in as a sub on the wings for the last 15 - 20 minutes, who can't be contained one on one thanks to his technical abilities. Mueller has already been talked about, Holger Badstuber could easily play the whole tournament at left back and Toni Kroos is another one of those creative midfielders.

[fatlever]

so what do you think of bradley, since you get to see him w/ his club every night?

oezil is the player i keep hearing about. i am looking forward to watching him play. seems he is very creative.

sucks about ballack. im sure he was crushed.

what are your thoughts on jermaine jones? too bad he couldnt get healthy in time to help us this year. although the US is kinda overloaded at center mid we dont have anyone quite as good defensively as jones.

[Det the Threat]

so what do you think of bradley, since you get to see him w/ his club every night?

oezil is the player i keep hearing about. i am looking forward to watching him play. seems he is very creative.

sucks about ballack. im sure he was crushed.

what are your thoughts on jermaine jones? too bad he couldnt get healthy in time to help us this year. although the US is kinda overloaded at center mid we dont have anyone quite as good defensively as jones.

I think Bradley's got quite some talent, but if his form during the season is any indication for his performance at tournaments then don't expect him to be as good as in last years Confed-Cup.

Last year he had a real good second half of the season and was easily our best player. This season he first was in and out of the lineup and did not play all that well whenever Thorben Marx(the other defenisve midfielder) was out of the lineup.
All in all he had a pretty mediocre season, but we'll see if that translates to the national squad.

Oezil's just a very good player and only 21 years of age. He's currently playing for Werder Bremen but there are many teams trying to buy him and he's not signed a contract extansion, as far as i know.

Yeah, Ballack's going to be missed. Not really because of his playing abilities, but more because of his leadership qualities which we're lacking thanks to being very young.

Jermaine Jones started out as an attacker at Frankfurt but couldn't make it thanks to his injuries. He came on at Schalke about 2 seasons ago playing defensive midfield. He's real aggressive(sometimes a bit too much), runs a lot and does the dirty work. He's not the guy that initiates your offense, after he gains posession of the ball.
Though, Jones(playing a bit more defensively) and Bradley could form a really solid central midfield for you guys.

[Walt Cronkite]

Spent an hour at least trying to fill a balanced team. Pretty happy with how things turned out.