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Football football. Football football.

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ONLY NICE THINGS

14:25 / 06.02.08

oh, and you can apply to change your nation if you were capped in a youth setup (too young to know any better, or for personal reasons - like Giggs), or if your nation ceases to exist, or if you are forcibly deprived of your nationality.

01:20 / 07.02.08

timmy cahill is a case in point for the socceroos - he played for a junior samoa squad, having had his dad check with the australian federation, with the samoan one and with fifa, all of whom assured him this would not affect his chance at representing a senior australian side, in the event he turned out to be good enough (someone with foresight, then...)

come the moment he was wanted for the olympic (under 20) side, a furore kicked in and fifa tried to renege on their word. took months of argy bargy and frantic tussling but we almost lost him to the mighty samoan national side.

your case in point of deco is also one i'd point to where a country adopts mercenary tactics - though i guess the prior portuguese links are likely to be stronger for a brasilian than any qatar links might!

and while it first up only affects the minnows, these players then play against stronger teams and qatar won the gulf cup a couple years ago, making a mockery, really, of the concept of nationals representing their nation and participating, not winning, as a goal.

i did, though, watch the qatar juniors beat england in the world youth cup semi-final, standing among the english fans in my nascent skinhead days, chanting and singing and having fun in what was an all nighter before my school muck-up day, though secretly pleased to see the minnows get up, deserving the result playing better football (they went down to a much better germany in the final)

a thorny issue though for fifa to deal with, stepping in to a sovereign state's autonomy to be able to determine who it considers to be its national citizen and who it will then bewstow all the protections associated thereto.

good showing by the socceroos, but! a scintillating first half, three good goals and a few great stops by a great qatari keeper saving a real blow-out. boys shuffled about in the second half, jet-lag and bodgy oranges obviously! with china securing half the spoils in dubai against iraq, puts us in the box seat in the group to qualify for the last stage and a good shot at going to south africa. astro is happy...

ONLY NICE THINGS

02:13 / 07.02.08

though i guess the prior portuguese links are likely to be stronger for a brasilian than any qatar links might!

I believe Qatar claimed that many Brazilians had links to Qatar. I honestly don't know how well that went...

08:26 / 07.02.08

OK, 2-1 to England. Hardly a commanding performance in a game where you would have thought a lot of players would have been keen to impress. Obviously some discomfort with the system at first with loads of passes going astray and once again Joe Cole appeared to be the only player who can actually produce the kind of spontaneous cleverness that might unlock a defence. Early days yet I guess...

06:42 / 18.02.08

for a national comp in just its third season, the a-league has a grand final with teams from newcastle and gosford battling for ultimate honours. fabulous! (though boo-hiss sinney fc didn't make the grade. we had the fntastic juninho all year but he got gammy and only half played - scintillating when fully fit, even now...)

should be a cracker of a game next weekend - i tip the mariners (said gosford team) but really, a very open affair and after archie thompson's five goal haul in the grandfinal (and his direct sub scored the sixth in a six-blot drubbing of adelaide, who were minor premiers...), i'm ready for anything.

just back from web-free hol at south coast - what the fug happened for arsenal to go four-blot down to man who? sheesh!

ONLY NICE THINGS

21:25 / 18.02.08

Terrible pitch, if you believe Arsene Wenger.

09:10 / 19.02.08

Sadly more like a lack of interest in the result.

01:17 / 20.02.08

the liverspots were very lucky to get such a good result against inter - two very soft yellows for materazzi and even then against ten men for an hour, the reds struggled to make anything happen beyond simply having the ball. i rekkun they might scrape through the tie, but would expect a resurgent inter in their san siro.

did anyone see the other games? chelski's nil-niol will suit them and they look likely. we get arsenal wenger's arsene boys against milan on our tele, rekkun that'll produce a goal or three. the gunners need to get a draw, i'd surmise. i hope they have more interest in this result (actually i don't really! but i fancy watching a bit of a contest)

Closed for Business Time

10:02 / 20.02.08

I don't know about very lucky - they had a good case for a penalty when Vieira handled Gerrard's ball. Agreed that the two yellows for Materazzi were harsh, in fairness the judge wasn't particularly good. Still on balance I think they deserved the win - they had most of the possession and most of the very few chances even before the sending off.

Didn't see any of the other matches.

00:53 / 25.02.08

thought they were lucky in that yes, they had the ball a lot, but didn't really look liklely to do much with it in the last third. that said, they were good for the win, but a two goal advantage to take to the san siro probably flattered them...

a torrid and rarely pretty affair in the a-league final yesterday saw the youngest team with the newest coach playing the rarest style (technical, possession football) - the newcastle jets - take out the third installment of this new league thanks to a well-taken single strike by mark bridge who profitted from a silly error in the back flank by the retiring tony vidmar. a sorry way for his career to end, but the result was a pretty fair one on balance. bridge charged into the top of the box, beat one and slid the ball past the mariners 'keeper.

the jets looked better though the mariners had enough ball to have done better. and they were robbed of a certain penalty from what was about the last kick of the game, when a jets defender hit the ball with his forearm from a last-ditch corner. no reason though for the distraught mariners 'keeper [who'd come up for the corner] to manhandle mark shields, the ref, see red and so now face a potential life ban. dunno if the FA will really be that harsh in the circumstances, but you never know.

one newcastle team somewhere did ok this weekend, then?

18:04 / 08.03.08

Oh Blimey. As a Pompeygrrl, I was thoroughly thrilled earlier this afternoon. Later on I had a bit of a troublesome time when I found myself screaming for Barnsley. I hate Barnsley. I was there for a year and it was the worst year of my life.

I no longer hate Barnsley, because that was magic.

08:51 / 09.03.08

last time barnsley got to the semis they won the cup... then gain, last time barnsley got to the semis we hadn't had a world war yet...

10:32 / 13.03.08

both australian teams won their first asian champions league ties, 2-0.

just thought i'd mention.

05:09 / 07.04.08

hey look, astro again...

some enthralling football ahead - the CL second leg 1/4 final ties this week with chelski with work cut out and the all-england gunners/liverspots tie up for anyone brave enough to take it (you'd think man u and barca are pretty safe bets)

then the EPl up for grabs, with the gunners a hurdle man u must negotiate, with a visit to stamford bridge ahead of them and now just a game clear.

and the asian CL back this week, with aussie clubs adelaide (away in vietnam) and melbourne victory home to the second placed japanese side, gamba osaka in a pretty well do or die encounter. hard to pick any of these encounters - each so delicately poised i their own ways and football being, well, so delicate and poised.

anyone?

how is the US comp running along? i notice becks scored, with the much more talented landon donovan knocking in a second, for a galaxy win last week. will they start to put results together as well as they put media hype together, anyone??

02:12 / 28.04.08

hey astro, did you watch the champions league semis last week?

why yes, astro, yes i did. and in a small non-financial wager with a colleague, tipped the score at anfield and thought barca might have slipped one past man u, but have tipped a 3-1 at old trafford [having no idea where the newer trafford might be] and a 2-0 at the bridge, making chelski the 'home team' in moscow to face man u. home team, chelski, get it?

yes astro, very droll. do you still go with those tips after the excitement of the EPl on the weekend?

yes, i do. i think man u have relatively easy ties to wrap up the championship, but you just never know. lampard's mother's passing i think will give the blues some steel that wil see them unbreachable and barca just don't look likely to spark into life, a pity with messi and deco looking lively - i think the second leg home teams will prevail once again. have you any other football observations for me?

well, as it happens yes, i do. i see the indefatigable scott mcdonald has kept his celtic's title chances flickering, though the rangers will be aggreived if they don't manage to sneak to the line with so many prospective points tied up in their games in hand. but another two strikes to take his tally to somewhere near fourty for the season in all games. scintilating, can't wait to have him fire in australia's world cup campaign in june...

do you think anyone is listeming? i get a weird feeling we're being evesdropped upon.

nonsense astro, this is the barbelith football cubed thread, no-one's been here for decades...

ok, happy second leg tie watching at 4.45am this week.

yes, and all the best to you with your non-financial wager with your colleague. and go crystal palace, eh? faltered a little on the weekend, but play-offs still beckon if they can keep the wolces from the door... boom boom.

groan, i'm out of here.

02:52 / 30.04.08

well well, astro, looks like you got the right result but the wrong score at old trafford; barca again expressed their now-masterful inability to score even with umpteen hundred squillion quid of football talent on the park and man who were fortunate to get a rare burst of old form from the warrior scholes on the end of a rare back error - that was enough.

hopefully tomorrow's game will provide more real football entertainment (messi aside - he's even more brilliant than deco!) though i shouldn't hold my breath, astro old fruit.

why my very good astro, well spotted. i still believe chelski will prevail at home but one does rather hope to be entertained for one's exertions of rising at half four in the eh em... i'd like to see torres get a goal and have essien and drogba net for the home side (even though i know how astute you are and point out i did tip a 2 blot scoreline - this is what i'd like to see for my entertainment.)

well, astro, old chap, let's call in on one another tomorrow and see what's transpired eh? nice spacious, uncluttered and unpeopled little venue this, eh? hello? can anyone hear??

no, it seems... all all alone on a wide wide sea, all that guff.

Closed for Business Time

08:47 / 30.04.08

Ah.. but I happen to have it on good advice that Sir Fergieson has bought the ref and the linesmen + the fourth official, plus he has had his henchmen threaten to cut Fat Frank's flab, Cech's cheeks and Essien's ears off unless they let L'pool win. See, that's the only way ManUre can win the bloody CL..

Yes, I'm a bit nervous.

ONLY NICE THINGS

17:19 / 30.04.08

Meanwhile, on the other side of Manchester, strangeness is afoot. I confess that whenever a manager is sacked, my instinct is to ask what exactly they expect from the next manager, and my instinct is often wrong - I thought Allardyce was an interesting, relatively bold appointment who could add some discipline and fitness to Newcastle, and initially saw Keegan as an unwise retrograde step. Shows how much I know, although I feel there are still wheels to come off that wagon.

Nonetheless - Eriksson might have been applying his second-half fade over an entire season of club football, but potential applicants to the job are going to know a) that Shinawatra does not seem to have the sort of buying power with which he was originally credited, b) therefore, a new manager might find himself unable to reinforce the team that got Eriksson the boot, c) the owner has high standards for a team that was relegation-risking dreadful until fairly recently and d) failure to meet those standards will get you sacked within a season.

It's a bit of a poisoned chalice...

Closed for Business Time

21:16 / 30.04.08

Ah FUCK. Well done Chelski, you had the better play. Hope you both lose in three weeks.

21:39 / 30.04.08

I missed the whole of extra time because some drunken fuckwit had me nearly pinned against the wall while he tried to persuade me to fuck him. I mean, really, there's a big screen in there and I couldn't even watch the exciting bit.

02:08 / 01.05.08

didn't hear my heels click, but back in the land of other people...

chelski certainly were the better side for their win - i still happen to think essien's goal was ok and i woulda been vindicaterised in my previous prediction. but a good win and a good chance for the double man who thought was safely theirs just a couple games ago.

anyone think rafa has a snowflake's? what about the special one coming to liverspots' rescue? might finally see them in a real fight for a title... (have heard his name mentioned about the other side of manchester, too. him and fergie in the same town - didn't they wrote westerns about that? juicy...)

i thought today's match was a better contest of football, which is a surprise on early predictions about the two ties. the final will be a cracker - should grant start anelka with drogba and give man who's defence a real fright early doors??

anyone fancy rangers' chances tomorrow?

00:13 / 05.05.08

crystal palace! 5-0, a meeting with bristol in the semis of the promotion play-offs.

yee-haaa! yo-yo palace might be back to it. oh, it's deja vu all over again...

big night for chelski. can they keep the premiership chase alive? or will newcastle, with little to play for, thwart them? i rekkun the former. it will go down to the wire and i don't necessarily fancy a nervous man u - though they do only have wigan...

02:20 / 15.05.08

d'oh, palace are stuck in the second tier - somehow named 'championship'! - after crashing to defeat at home 1-2, then taking the return leg into extra time (so, no 'away goals' rule in these encounters, eh? anyone know why?) but leaking two in the extra period and trudging home resigned to their continuing mediocrity. a familiar story the past few years - always close, but no cigar...

bristol will meet hull, who annihilated watford - guess reggie d. is a little out of sorts right now, then. follow the yellow brick road... go bristol, with your little aussie nicky carle a future star of the game. he assisted in at least three of the four goals, from what i read. noice.

and leeds look up against it in their quest to regain some sort of pride and a spot in the championshop to play great teams, like err palace! but if they get to wembly i'd put me house on 'em.

and my poor parma have, this weekend, to overcome the immovable force that will be inter striving for the scudeto if they are to retain their place in serie a. a forlorn hope. and other results have to go their way, too. hmmm.... ;( but c'arn parma.

watched zenit do off with rangers in the little cup this morning [local time], good for their win, though not a rivetting match like so many other uefa cup finals have been recently. hope for more from the big cup next week. chelski to impress in front of partisan russian bosses and fans, methinks.

in between, the wait is punctuated by the continuing fairy tale of the fuck-up, err f.a. cup, with the minnows from wales taking on the epl might of pompey. will they be a mini vesuvius and erupt all over them? doubt it: tip 3-0 to the top flight team...

09:34 / 20.05.08

fa cup a bit of a soft option game. from what i saw - came home from the show i'm in about 11pm, kick-off at midnight here in sunny oz... started to doze off by about half time, pompey looked too likely so went to bed. didn't miss much then.

pumped for the battle of moscow thursday half four in the am for me - my sis will be in town, staying here with her manchurian boy, so i can rile them and go for chelski, whom i tip anyway... well, not really - i rekkun it could go either way and may come down to spot kix, but hope not. love to see a 3-2 game, lots of action, mebbe extra time with a very rare carvallho strike to decide it.

poor parma got the serie a flick by the scudetto champions, dagnabbut. ;(

anyone? anyone still vaguely interested in football? oz play ghana in a friendly this week, warming up for crucial asia confed world cup qualifiers through june. have a mate (surprise!) with free tix to our game against china in late june so excited 'bout that, too.

c'arn ozzies!

20:41 / 21.05.08

What an amazing match!!

Congratulations to Manchester.

04:32 / 27.05.08

dramas afoot in the asian WC qualifiers - FIFA have had shot of iraq for their government having dissolved the association - they have til midnight thursday to reinstate the association, or iraq is disqualified from int'l football for 12mths. this means sunday's brisbane, australia game (and then the following sat in bahrain) will be forfeits to the socceroos, who would be pretty well assured then of a top two group finish and a place in the next phase - though a loss on gte receipts.

i rekkun everyone would rather the games go ahead, for the football and i am pretty confident we'd get 4 or 6pts from the two encounters anyway...

09:27 / 31.05.08

iraq is back in the fold - good on ya, fifa... so we gots ourselves a game on sunday. shall be in the local with chums a-hollerin' and a-screamin' at the socceroos as they demolish the iraqis and head off to dubai for the return iraqi home-leg for another equally convincing win! i'm banking on scott mcdonald to break his goal drought and become something of a talisman up front for us. when josh kennedy comes back from injury, well, look out!

fifa have put something of a 'seen-it-coming-a-mile-off' kybosh on australia hosting 2018 - i rekkun'd this ages ago, that we'd never get three southern hemisphere wc's in a row, so we'd no chance; but 2022... sepp blatter has more or less said so pretty plainly while the fifa world congress has been here, in sydney this week. i just hope the FFA realise this and revamp our likely bid - it seems fifa will announce 2018 & 2022 winners concurrently...

22:54 / 31.05.08

...and our matildas, at the asian women's cup, are a good thing to slot into the semis - a 4-0 win over chinese taipei on thursday and then a 2-0 result over south korea. face japan on monday and it seems a formality we'll get through... and as no. 2 seeds, we seem to be playing well and have a good shot at australia actually winning something in world football. someone pick me up!

we have a stellar young player, elysse perry, who at still just 17 scored from defence last night, set up goals in the last warm up and is the new shining star in australia's women's cricket side! she will surely have to decide between the two sports at some stage and, while those who know seem to think she's a bigger fish in the small pool of cricket, football beckons.

excited, too, with the men's team taking on iraq this afternoon, after i turn out in goals for a local social outfit. have just started the comp for work inter-agency and have a 6-0 and 2-1 win under my belt. go aussies...

05:23 / 06.06.08

euro, anyone?

chum at work and i each tipped the group stage, so went through the logic and tipped out finalists - he plumbs for a germany v france showpiece while i fancy a portugal v italy clash.

australia lept up the fifa rankings this week, by the way - 48th to 35th! we overtook japan as the highest ranked asian team. we play the return iraq match in dubai tomorrow night, then qatar in doha next week and a final encounter with china in sydney (a game i will attend!) with a three point gap to china, so a win will assure us of a berth in the next phase, while even a draw would make it pretty likely.

poor matilda's though, overnight crashed to a hat-trick from nth korea's striker to move into the third/fourth play-off game. c'est la vie.

our lads are in the olympics, so it is looking like a great move to come into the asian confederation...

anyway, i tip 2-1 win to the czechs over the swiss hosts, and a 2-0 win to portugal over the turks in the opening salvos at euro on saturday (sunday am our time) - anyone?

09:05 / 09.06.08

Germany Vs Spain, with Germany winning it 3-2

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:51 / 09.06.08

After I did my predictions for the group stages and knock-outs, I was surprised to find that I had ended up with France winning. Which doesn't seem very convincing, although Ribery has the experience of Germany and Benzema might really make his reputation if he can get a game or two. On the current evidence, the Czech Republic doesn't seem to be heavyweight enough up front, but Cech may get them out of some scrapes yet...

01:55 / 10.06.08

hmm, my italians have gone down in a heap to the oranje, but the rest of the group looked rather drab, so perhaps they'll escsape the group and go on after all - though a second place spot might not allow them a final with portugal, but a semi? have to check...

i thought france really needed a win first up - that said, with fifa rankings of something like 3,7,9,12 for the group c teams, this must go down as the hardest ever group in any comp ever anywhere? you'd rekkun one of the finalists will emerge from here.

iraq did its job against an underperforming aussie squad, so we go to doha for this weekend's clash with the form side in our group, qatar, needing a result to seal the porgression, hopefully we'll get it - but it doesn't look like being easy. nonetheless, on a limb i tip aussie 2-1 result.

08:55 / 10.06.08

I'm glad I got to actually see a match yesterday, and a few on Sunday (US vs. Argentina, besides the Euro games)The Netherlands really put on a great show yesterday. That second goal by Sneijder was sublime, a beautiful play. I'm hoping to see more of these games, though on weekdays I have to try and miss the scores (not too hard in the US) and watch the repeats at night. I have no predictions whatsoever, because I've got no idea about any of the teams. It's fun to watch, though.

20:00 / 10.06.08

astrojax - having watched Qatar play in Doha, they are a flawed team - granted it was in the Asian Games, and so the under 23 team, but there was little of real substance in their play, and the crowd - noisy as they can be, aren't that interested in the game - so I think you should be okay.

That said...

Good work by Spain tonight, Torres' play for Villa's first goal was beautiful. And a great goal from Zlatan against the Greek team (although I felt terrible for the keeper after the second goal). France may struggle to find a goal from anywhere, and I think that the Italy France game could boil over as they both scramble to get the points, with Romania probably sitting behind the ball against Italy, but coming unstuck against the Dutch.

04:41 / 13.06.08

also watched the spain russia game - was a bit of a cracker really, lots of good movement, some great goals and a good spirit. i see villa is a scolari target to take with him to chelski, with deco (yay! i tipped that as soon as i heard he was free from barca) and kaka! ha! as if...

hope aussies play nicky carle, but i rekkun pim verbeek is too conservative. let's hope the players put on some dazzle and deliver what the fifa ranking s suggest. somehow, i think last week's wake up call will do them some good. damn not being able to watch it!

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