euros and friendlies and tied up with strings

[jazzypom]

Comments

[izaguirre]

A few Scottish players play in the English Champions League. The guy to the left is one of 'em. Ankin, I think his name is

Ikechi Anya is his name. :) He's a class wee player. I'm pretty sure that picture is from the Germany game, when he scored.

Cheers for that.

[jazzypom]

Let me amend now. You're a star.
I watched the US-Colombia game for my sins. Colombia were attacking, and the US defence got a lot better!

[the4thjuliek]

Maloney's goal was beautiful! Strachan's doing such a great job with the team. I really hope they qualify. They deserve to at the way they're playing :)

[the4thjuliek]

Lmao, saying that Jogi doesn't use Pep's tactics/formations is like saying that Chelsea doesn't park the bus. Who else would give Jogi the brilliant idea to stick Lahm in midfield?

Lol, I'm feel so proud of Lord Bentdner. His goals were lovely.

And Jozy Altidore, IMO, is so overrated. He's just an okay player. Now, Jermaine Jones, despite his rough play, he's the real deal. Used to give me nightmares during the River derbys. I still can't understand why he left Schalke, a CL team to go to um, Boston. Same with Michael Bradley who left Roma to go to Toronto. He should have just gone back to Gladbach.

The Scottish player you mentioned is Ikechi Anya! Plays for Championship team Watford. He's good. I hope one of the PL teams buys him.

Really gutted about de Gea. I wanted him to play the friendly against Germany but I guess it's good for Arsenal that he's out. But I expect Thumbsy will not be happy that his GK has come back injured.

Thanks for including those pictures of Sex Slave Master #1 (Durm). And always, thanks for these posts!

Jones wanted to be closer to his American family

[jazzypom]

Jones is getting up there in age, so I think he'd have been phased out of Schalke's playing line up anyway. In addition. I think he really wanted to play in California, because he liked the lifestyle there but the MLS and their 'draw' placed him him at Boston. But he really wanted to be closer to his Dad (an American serviceman who left before he'd been born).

Michael Bradley wasn't getting much play in Roma, to be fair. He was a sub, and at the end of the day, you want to start and play - but yeah Canada is a come down. You get the feeling that Bradley is just waiting out his playing years to start coaching though.

If I find another picture of Ikechi Anya (from the game last night, the one I posted was from the Scotland vs Germany game, FML) I will post. A Scottish player in the English PL? In light of the new nationalism of Scotland - Idek if that would be a good look. But the Scottish PL is dire though. It's Celtics >>>>everyone else. I admire Anya's hustle. He's always working, always looking for an in

RE: Jones wanted to be closer to his American family

[the4thjuliek]

Hmm, I didn't know that about Jones. Honestly, I assumed that he would have stayed in Germany forever since his wife's German, his kids are German, etc. I was quite sad when he left Schalke (but not too sad since he's always out to injure the BvB boys).

Re: RE: Jones wanted to be closer to his American family

[jazzypom]

Jones' story is interesting. His parents split up before he was born, and his dad returned to the US. He was raised in Germany with his mum, and it was his wife who hunted down his father, got his details, and got him to call his son. Long story short, it was a love in, and supposedly a factor for him to change his cap for the USA. Through his dad he discovered his extended family and I guess he just wanted his US adventure? I'm sure they'd probably return to Germany in the future, especially for their children's education and such.

[ndobler]

I keep mixing up Greizman and Giroud. I know, I know

omg what did my poor bb do to deserve this, smh

don't judge me

[jazzypom]

all white boys look alike, don't judge me :P

But seriously, I think it's the haircut. Then I go, "Oh," because Greizman is as slim and supple as a reed. Giroud- not so much.

thank you!

[jazzypom]

I will put these in the post now.

[marsyke]

Poland have some very good players, they should be able to qualify for France.
Lol, I'm looking forward to hearing my comms struggle with their names.

[the4thjuliek]

Lol, same here. So far, they've got Szczesny, Lewandowski, Fabianski and Piszczek correct but I recall most of them struggling when Chezza began playing as starting GK for Arsenal.

[marsyke]

Who is struggling the most right now? Germany that lost to Poland and could only win 4-0 against Gibraltar.
Spain that had a disaster at the WC and lost to Slovakia. The Netherlands that lost 4 of their last 5 matches and has a coach that set an ultimatum already. Portugal that can only win when Ronaldo scores. England who is always crap. Or Belgium that actually won 4 of their last 5 matches but where the press is disappointed because Hazard hasn't morphed into Messi. Or France who are unable to even beat Albania.

[the4thjuliek]

Does the Belgian press really expect Hazard to be like Messi? They're both fine players but with different styles of play so it's like comparing apples and oranges.

[marsyke]

True. It's more that they want him to score and assist like Messi.
And I get that, last season he had the most goals and assists of any Chelsea player and in his last season with Lille he scored 22 times.

But he's simply not a natural goal scorer, no idea why.
One of the key problems for Belgium is that we don't have enough width upfront with Hazard. I think that it would go better if he went wide and to the backline more instead of pulling into the middle.

When you watch Belgium the penalty box is always overcrowded, we should stretch the defense more.

How was you movie btw? Interstellar was really good.

[the4thjuliek]

I agreem and he can feed in more easily to guys like Origi and Lukaku.

IDK, with Belgian defense, sometimes, I feel like Kompany does all the work. And Fellaini flops a lot in midfield which certainly results in the penalty box overcrowding (I haven't watched the last few Belgium matches so I don't know how he's been in them).

Nightcrawler was great! Very dark but it was gripping and Jake Gyllenhall deserves an Oscar nod for his performance. Didn't go for Interstellar because there was a storm yesterday. I'll probably be watching it next week.