Gambling On Eastern Europe Champions League Success Is Not A Good Idea
Good thing I never put it in writing on here, that the MLS Select team could hold run of play close against Real Madrid (on bigsoccer.com it's another story entirely). I sure would be embarrassed to have said that out loud. :)
So instead I'll just mention another 5-0 loss by an entirely different team in the first round of the Carling Cup. I have a new favorite name in all of footcer. Dean Windass of Bradford City sure beats Nicky Butt. At least as far as silly names go. Apparently he used to play for 'Boro but it was before I was seriously following the Premiership so it's a brand new name for me.
Windass scored a hat trick in Bradford's 5-0 crushing of Rochdale (one of the many Manchester Area lower division teams).
The winds of ass were obviously blowing all over the Carling Cup as seven, count them an unlucky seven, Colaship sides were eliminated: Brighton, Crewe (who lost 1-5 to Lincoln friggin' City), Hull, QPR (ha! ha!), and Stoke all went down. Of course so did Preston so I guess I shouldn't be laughing at the Notting Hill Nobodies.
No one pulled a bigger upset though than Yeovil. It hasn't been a pretty start for one of my regular reader's second teams in Division One but they knocked off Ipswich (one of last year's Colaship playoff teams) quite handily today.
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On Thursday, the day before the UEFA Supercup between Liverpool and CSKA Moscow (Roman Abramovich's first team before he also bought Chelsea), the group pairings of the Champions League is being announced in Monaco.
The funny thing is, FC Monaco will not be there to hear the announcement. Well, the team might be there but they'll be waiting a long time to hear their name drawn from the pots as they were eliminated today by Real Betis - losing in the same stadium where Liverpool and CSKA will be meeting (aka "at home").
Liverpool also lost at home but had built up a big enough lead where they're advancing anyhow.
The other Champions League outs were mostly Eastern European - Lokomotiv Moscow, Wisla Krakow, Partizan Belgrade, and Steaua Bucharest were all shown the door (or the hole in the floor as the case may be). Shakhtar Donetsk and Slavia Prague should give up hope now!
And well Debrecen never had much hope to begin with. But before they bid their curtain call, I just want to write how to pronounce their name (not that anyone in the English speaking media will ever get it right) - it's DE-BRET-SEN. I've heard it said every way but the correct one. You'd think that at least the BBC would ask a Hungarian how to say the name of the city!
Unless they find some way to convince everyone they're Western European teams and fast!
Advancing however at Partizan's expense was the little Eastern European train that could that eliminated Celtic - Armedia Bratislava. There wasn't much choice but for one Eastern European team to make the group stages though. Both teams in that game match that description.
Thun also advanced in a romp. Ladies and gentlemen, we have our shockers.
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There is one good bit of news for an Eastern European as Milan Baros finally escaped the striker logjam at Liverpool for a much safer spot at Aston Villa today. Everyone start salavating that this frees up a spot for Michael Owen at Anfield in 3...2...1...
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Then again, maybe the whole Curse of the East is karma of some sort. Today Latvia's mens national team captain admitted that the Baltic republic's side was offered bribes to throw last week's WCQ against Russia.
It ended 1-1 so obviously there's not as huge a scandal brewing as there could be. The fact that there's corruption in the federations of the former Soviet bloc isn't news and since their leagues are not exactly in media sunshine, rich gamblers and organized crime types can get away with a lot. Stay tuned for what FIFA ends up doing in this case. Slovakia may end up advancing to the World Cup UEFA playoffs (just like their Champions League representative) even if they finish behind Russia.
Just think, a few days ago the biggest footcer gambling news was that the Portugese Premiership is now being sponsored by betandwin.com.
Somehow it was much less disheartening that way.
So instead I'll just mention another 5-0 loss by an entirely different team in the first round of the Carling Cup. I have a new favorite name in all of footcer. Dean Windass of Bradford City sure beats Nicky Butt. At least as far as silly names go. Apparently he used to play for 'Boro but it was before I was seriously following the Premiership so it's a brand new name for me.
Windass scored a hat trick in Bradford's 5-0 crushing of Rochdale (one of the many Manchester Area lower division teams).
The winds of ass were obviously blowing all over the Carling Cup as seven, count them an unlucky seven, Colaship sides were eliminated: Brighton, Crewe (who lost 1-5 to Lincoln friggin' City), Hull, QPR (ha! ha!), and Stoke all went down. Of course so did Preston so I guess I shouldn't be laughing at the Notting Hill Nobodies.
No one pulled a bigger upset though than Yeovil. It hasn't been a pretty start for one of my regular reader's second teams in Division One but they knocked off Ipswich (one of last year's Colaship playoff teams) quite handily today.
---
On Thursday, the day before the UEFA Supercup between Liverpool and CSKA Moscow (Roman Abramovich's first team before he also bought Chelsea), the group pairings of the Champions League is being announced in Monaco.
The funny thing is, FC Monaco will not be there to hear the announcement. Well, the team might be there but they'll be waiting a long time to hear their name drawn from the pots as they were eliminated today by Real Betis - losing in the same stadium where Liverpool and CSKA will be meeting (aka "at home").
Liverpool also lost at home but had built up a big enough lead where they're advancing anyhow.
The other Champions League outs were mostly Eastern European - Lokomotiv Moscow, Wisla Krakow, Partizan Belgrade, and Steaua Bucharest were all shown the door (or the hole in the floor as the case may be). Shakhtar Donetsk and Slavia Prague should give up hope now!
And well Debrecen never had much hope to begin with. But before they bid their curtain call, I just want to write how to pronounce their name (not that anyone in the English speaking media will ever get it right) - it's DE-BRET-SEN. I've heard it said every way but the correct one. You'd think that at least the BBC would ask a Hungarian how to say the name of the city!
Unless they find some way to convince everyone they're Western European teams and fast!
Advancing however at Partizan's expense was the little Eastern European train that could that eliminated Celtic - Armedia Bratislava. There wasn't much choice but for one Eastern European team to make the group stages though. Both teams in that game match that description.
Thun also advanced in a romp. Ladies and gentlemen, we have our shockers.
---
There is one good bit of news for an Eastern European as Milan Baros finally escaped the striker logjam at Liverpool for a much safer spot at Aston Villa today. Everyone start salavating that this frees up a spot for Michael Owen at Anfield in 3...2...1...
---
Then again, maybe the whole Curse of the East is karma of some sort. Today Latvia's mens national team captain admitted that the Baltic republic's side was offered bribes to throw last week's WCQ against Russia.
It ended 1-1 so obviously there's not as huge a scandal brewing as there could be. The fact that there's corruption in the federations of the former Soviet bloc isn't news and since their leagues are not exactly in media sunshine, rich gamblers and organized crime types can get away with a lot. Stay tuned for what FIFA ends up doing in this case. Slovakia may end up advancing to the World Cup UEFA playoffs (just like their Champions League representative) even if they finish behind Russia.
Just think, a few days ago the biggest footcer gambling news was that the Portugese Premiership is now being sponsored by betandwin.com.
Somehow it was much less disheartening that way.
posted by incendiarymind at 7:53 PM
3 Comments:
The best name belongs to a guy named Argel...
Respect my Glovers!!! And by the way, they're my first team, not my second. I just talk about the Spurs more because more people are familiar with the Prem than they are with League 1.
And speaking of minnows and upsets, what happened to the Fire that they needed five penalties to four against a 1st Division team? At least you can be smug about Kansas City outright losing to Minnesota. But nearly losing to a 1st Division side? That should be danged embarassing! ;)
Rochester is only a USL-1 team in name, not in accomplishment. This is the only USL (well A-League at the time they did it) team to win the U.S. Open Cup in the MLS era and are also the team that knocked off the MetroStars last round.
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