news and gossip (fa cup, afcon, etc pics)

[jazzypom]

Comments

[lied_ohne_worte]

"Hinrunde" (literally towards-round) is the first part of the season before the winter break, where each team plays once against each of the others. "Rückrunde" (back-round) is the second part, where they do the same again. ;-)

ah, okay!

[jazzypom]

That's pretty logical. We'd just call it first half of the season in England, I guess.

RE: ah, okay!

[marsyke]

Lol true. But with the winter break in Germany the competition is truly divided in 2, which is not the case in England.
In Dutch we call it the 'heenronde', which the same word.

RE: ah, okay!

[lied_ohne_worte]

As marsyke says, it's an actual division too. There are stats and summaries and all sorts of things that are made with the half-time break. Often, players' or teams' performances in the first and second half are compared, trying to draw conclusions from them etc., as you have the same number of matches against the same opponents in both. Being "Herbstmeister" (autumn champion) is seen as important, as obviously Bayern the team that leads on the break will often go on to win the league (or if they don't, it will be asked why). Likewise, being on the bottom of the league at break-time is very ominous.

[mundodeamor]

I swear I had read about Barcelona breaking the Qatar links before and it didn't happen, so I'll remain pessimistic, although I hope it happens. I don't see why they'd need to change from horizontal to (awfully ugly) vertical stripes because of that, though?

Bojan is apparently seriously injured (knee) and out for the rest of the season ... poor guy. :/ Marc Bartra posted a message of support on Instagram.

LOL, Bale is trying so hard to win the Real Madrid fans over! (Not gonna happen, IMO.) When he was criticized over not passing to Ronaldo, the very next day he posted a photo of him taking Spanish lessons. Then he was the first one to post a pic together with the new hot thing aka Lucas Silva, and now he did an interview on a Spanish radio station ... he talked in English, though. You can read it here, he says there is no chance he's going going to ManUtd

Chelsea has been under siege lately

[jazzypom]

Considering that they got rousted out by minnows Bradford Bantams, and got blown out by the Spurs, Chelsea hasn't been looking as invincible as they did even before coming into the Christmas fixtures, and that was less than a month ago. The match last night was a tough one, went into extra time, and Chelsea had to cinch it (they had one on aggregate) before going through. Also, it seems that the relationship between Rodgers and himself have gotten frosty this season, so yeah, I can understand

RE: Chelsea has been under siege lately

[mundodeamor]

Yeah, I guess so. It was still strange (but nice!) to see Mou "let go" like that, though, he usually has his poker face on.

By the way, since you live in the UK, I've been meaning to ask you - is there any difference in the popularity/importance between the FA Cup and the Capital One Cup?

Hmm, I remember we talked about Barcelona jerseys before, but about about the vertical stripes and later about a training kit. I'll try to find some info about this no-Qatar thing.

Re: Chelsea has been under siege lately

[jazzypom]

By the way, since you live in the UK, I've been meaning to ask you - is there any difference in the popularity/importance between the FA Cup and the Capital One Cup? Yeah, the FA Cup (the one that Mourinho and co got knocked out of) is seen as the more prestigious. In that it's the oldest footballing tournament in England, and any and all teams (even conference) can play, whereas the Capital Cup one is for professional leagues (League 1 to PL teams) can play. But to be honest, at the end of the day, silverware is silverware, so you find that mangers tend to try for go for at least one cup in addition to their PL targets

[the4thjuliek]

Jazzy, I think Getty Images should have the AFCON pictures. Tumblr has pictures only of the top teams and the good looking players.

Boy, Milan just fell off the wagon, didn't they? Well, them and Inter, both.

Shinji, poor Shinji. That 1 year at United really ruined everything. That said, he should have told Kloppo about the injury earlier. I hope he gets the rest he needs and comes back stronger and healthier.

Some news:

Mikel Arteta has extended his contract by a year. His contract was supposed to expire in June but he'll stay with Arsenal till next year.

Southampton hope to replace Morgan Schneiderlin with Feyenoord midfielder Jordy Clasie. (Please let him come to Arsenal. He'll have fellow Frenchies for company. What's he gonna do at Tottenham? They need defenders, not midfielders anyway.)

Also, it's just been confirmed: Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium has been renamed as Abu Dhabi Bernabeu. I'll put up a post so that we can discuss this properly.

News! (from the Guardian)

[the4thjuliek]

"According to Sky Sources, Juan Cuadrado will be moving to Chelsea this summer, but only if they stump up the full €35million (about £23.9million) release clause in his contract. Plot, thickening."

RE: News! (from the Guardian)

[jazzypom]

So how many players will Mourinho clear out for this to happen?

RE: News! (from the Guardian)

[the4thjuliek]

Clear? He's buying yet another Eastern European midfielder (and then loaning him to Vitesse): Danilo Pantic of Partizan Belgrade.

Some more news!

[the4thjuliek]

Luis Figo is also in running for the FIFA president job!

Re: Some more news!

[jazzypom]

Whhhhatttt? The Portuguese player?

RE: Re: Some more news!

[the4thjuliek]

Yup! Here: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jan/28/luis-figo-fifa-presidency

RE: Re: Some more news!

[jazzypom]

Whhhhatttt??? Why am I still on my phone? Intriguing!