Kolek planning to go pro
Full Champions League draw:A: Manchester United, Shaktar Donetsk, Bayer Leverkusen, Real SociedadB: Real Madrid, Juventus, Galatasaray, FC KopenhagenC: Benfica, Paris St Germain, Olympiakos, AnderlechtD: Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow, Manchester City, Viktoria PlzenE: Chelsea, Schalke 04, FC Basel, Steaua BucharestF: Arsenal, Marseille, Borussia Dortmund, NapoliG: FC Porto, Atletico Madrid, Zenit St Petersburg, Austria ViennaH: Barcelona, AC Milan, Ajax Amsterdam, CelticGroup F jumps out as the Group of Death, but H is also tough. I like United and Leverkusen in Group A (Shaktar lost too much). In B, Real and Juve look like near locks in a lopsided group. C is one of the weakest groups, PSG should be a strong bet and I think Anderlecht can escape it as well. Munich will certainly come out of D, the question will be if City can edge CSKA to join them. I think so this year. E looks like Chelsea and Schalke, though Basel could make things interesting. F will be awesome to watch. I like Dortmund and Napoli to advance, further pressuring Wenger. Group G I like Atletico and Zenit. Finally, leaning towards Barca and Milan in H, though it will be a dogfight for the second spot, could be all three in it if Celtic can do well at home.
I phrased it poorly, but guys like Henry, Nasri, van Brockhorst, and Reyes were pricey at the time. They admittedly have been different and not big spending as of late. I guess I was speaking to past Arsenal activity and not the last few years.And Spurs big spending is abnormal and clearly a result of selling Bale for such an exorbitant fee.
No Parkhurst on the USMNT qualifying team? Bummer.
LOLZ. Good start by the USMNT.
Costa Rica is the toughest place to play in CONCACAF. And I don't get jackass Americans that take joy when we play 15 bad minutes after 1080 minutes of win after win after win.
Your argument lost all validity with the usage of that word. I know the US can't magically change confederations, but CONCACAF is laughable.
Granted, it was horrific man-marking that had three Ticos running free on the end of the cross, but Howard could have got to that.
This game also exposed why playing Beasley at left back is a terrible idea. Yes, he was fine in the Gold Cup. But the first goal should have been cleared off the line, and he was too short to do it. He had zero chance on the header for the second goal.He's lost a step of pace, and is too small to defend effectively. If they go into Brazil with him at LB, it will be a short stay.
But go ahead and mock them cause they don't play every qualifier against powerhouses like San Marino, Georgia, and the Faroe Islands like the European teams. Costa Rica is a top 40 squad regardless of venue, they didn't lose to Antigua or Belize.
This actually got me to thinking...Huh. How about that? It's widely known that the FIFA Rankings are flawed and skewed heavily towards European teams. Yet according to these flawed rankings that make CONCACAF look worse than it actually is, the Hexagonal is STILL harder than ANY UEFA qualifying group, and only Group A is even CLOSE to being as hard as the Hex.I know, the argument against is that each European group only gives 1.5 spots per group. But the USA has to play 8 games against 4 different top-50 opponents. The traditional top teams in Europe don't play nearly as tough a road. Spain and Portugal have 1 other top-50 nation in their group, England, Germany, Italy, and Holland all have only 2 other top-50 nations in their group. And that's using a rating system that actually makes their competition look better than it actually is.setyoursightsnorth, your whole argument about the strength of Europe is a joke. It all falls apart when you look at these piss-poor groups, because for every game a European power plays against a top-50 opponent, they play 2-3 games against a Belarus, Malta, Andorra, or Georgia. They are walking a road paved in gold while we are walking one paved in bags of cat urine thrown by Costa Rican and Panamanian fans.
Predictions for tonight? I have two.1) Ugly, physical stalemate. I have a feeling we'll see a 0-0 draw.2) setyoursightsnorth will come in and sh*t on the discussion again.
Could get really ugly considering our suspensions. I don't think Dempsey is good as our striker. He needs a second striker to help. If we go with a lone striker, I think it should be AJ