The rolling Football thread

[BelfastBloke]

There are quite a lot of football fans on MN, and also loads of football-haters. If we hide here in Dadsnet, none of the detractors will find us. But if they do, they are welcome to come here and moan.

You don?t have to be male to post here, of course. (No-one would say women can?t post in the Dadsnet section, just like no woman would EVER say men aren?t welcome on Mumsnet?)

Footy fans please sign in with

1. Which team you support.
2. Which team(s) you loathe.
3. How you are getting your kids to follow the correct team.

1. A thought on the season so far (Premiership/Championship/Champions? League/FA Cup/League Cup/(el clasico?)/World Cup bids.

oh I think I recall that from previous showings. Just rembered another film for the list - the Will Smith as Ali film.

meaning it's a film you haven't seen, or a film you think is good?

not seen. Imagine Smith is made for a young Ali.

you think so? I need to see it again, watch it as a film. All i could think then was 'i am watching will smith'. only looked at the performance, nothing else

Ali-Frazier. It was on ESPN Classic. I have just discovered I get this! Palace v Liverpool on now. Damn and double damn!!

You get ESPN Classic without having Sky? What service are you on?

I don't pay the extra for ESPN even though I like baseball. But ESPN Classic comes for free. I should have said - I just thought you were asking if it was on satellite...

Before I had Sky, I remember BT Vision had a very good deal for getting ESPN.

It's just a basic Sky deal, plus children's and Documentaries etc for my little one. No Sky Sports but get ESPN, Eurosports ( good for cycling I see) and..........LiverpoolFCTV????Weirdy. My matey - he of the tears at Pan'sLab and Coventry City supporter fame - has been trying to get me to do a deal to go halves on Sky Sports. If I do that I'll never get him out of my house when Cricket is on. At 3 am....

BT Vision thing - they have been on trying to sell it.

Shit, you're right! I get LFC TV!

I just assumed because I don't get Man UTV, or Chelsea, I never even checked Liverpool's.

How strange.

I get Arsenal TV online - comes with the season ticket - but I rarely watch it. I would if no kids.

You prompt me for ESPN - we both get LFCTV. And we're all happy.

I have just been invited to a professionals conference. Nothing new there. But....it's in the Colin Bell Suite....at...yes..the Etihad Stadium. Golly.

Did they end up naming a stand after him? i remember it was being discussed, genuinely.

The Bell End.

oh there were many jokes about Schmeichal filling Seaman's shorts at the Bell End. And lots of varieties thereof.

to answer your question, no, there was loss of nerve ( as it were) and they didn't name it The Bell End....

Wonderful 0-4 win by the Republic last night (although my Estonian friend pointed out that both sides could be called the Republic)

One side - Ireland - could be said to have been favoured by the ref. He sent off two Estonian players, and gave a pen. But none of these decisions were hugely contentious or clearly wrong.

Makes Tuesday's game slightly less must-watch, as Ireland have pretty much made it.

The only qualifier which definitely hangs in the balance is Bosnia vs Portugal - which doesn't seem to be showing anywhere. They had a nil nil last night. What is going to happen?!

yes, the work has been done. Though R. Keane got himself a bit mixed up with the cat in/out of the bag and whether the bag was closed or open analogy...(stick to doin the scorin' thing Robbie)...and it was funny seeing Trapattoni admitting he wasn't a deity. Big of him.

and we (Scotland) managed to put away the European powerhouse of Cyprus by the odd goal in three...we play the patient game...[ "We'll be a nation again...cept this time one that can play footie" - not in the official version..]
took my eye off Portugal - just sort of assumed they'd be through one way or another....

oooh - I see Portugal scraped through by 6-2.....The line up looks pretty tasty? Having quiet hopes for Ireland to get through to the knock out stage. At competitions for me its
1.Scotland ( we just don't manage it).
2. Brazil ( ineligible...)
3. R.of I. - one just hopes.
4. England - always good for a pride-before-a-fall thing..

Yeah, I was pissed off that no TV station cut away to the Portugal game, especially as it kicked off late and therefore was still 0-0 when the other games ended.

With both England and RoI, I can't see them doing well against the settled, awesome teams of Holland, Germany or Spain. Having said that, the Republic is a fairly settled team actually, well organised.

England don't have time to bed in. Of course, they could get lucky. Football's a fascinating game (not that you'd know it from the attendance figures on this thread).

no, I saw it was 2-1 at half way, but the nothing - did Ronnie wear his shooting boots?

much prefer This England. As much as I admire him, am not sure Wayne is actually worth sacrificing so much other talent for....heresey I know. If they progress, leave him out, cept as a sub.

oh heresy. We need to maintain standards.

Of course Rooney's worth making the sacrifice for, if he can be trusted to maintain his position and not drop back into defence. Thought he'd got better at that in recent years. Surely he'd make a great advanced midfielder, but only if he had tactical discipline. As Roy Keane said tonight, England have always had great individuals, but rarely a great team.

(Never once did England try just picking the Arsenal back five. Idiots. So what if Pearce was better individually than Winterburn).

Apparently Anton Ferdinand is eligible to play for the Republic, through his mother. He could get picked and end up booting John Terry up the arse when England play Ireland!

Weeel, yes, you may be right. I just veer away from icons. And WR doesn't have a good track record at comps. individually. In fact I feel a bit more hopeful with RoI, re no expectation and a canny manager with a future re World Cup qualification. Fabio will be out next year and they all know that. Players have an investment in Trapottoni. ( how small do those straws I clutch at get?...)

< non-footie thing - about to show The Princess Bride in cinema 1, with tearful Coventry-supporting matey. Discuss later?>

Sure.

Is he tearful BECAUSE he finds himself a Coventry fan?

I suppose I would be too.

no, it's because he is a big wet wuss. and a lovely bloke. Cov. were 1-0 up to West Ham, got a nose-bleed, and lost 1-2...

a bit of a 'steady as she goes' weekend in PL? We've tightened things up a bit overall - would stil like to see a really creative midfielder coming our way in Jan. Fletcher and Park don't have that masterly defence-splitting pass in their armoury.
Arse - it is only going to take one unpleasant challenge on vP and things could look different for you? And where was Arsene's tact/diplomacy in talking to L'Equipe? Unless it was a purposeful interview?

Well that was a Chelsea/Liverpool game! Surely an indictment of January's transfer madness?

Have learned new facts this week:

• you can take a corner to yourself. Neat.
• there is no racism on the pitch that can't be resolved by a hand-shake. Hmmm, interesting. ( tho' it was nice to see JT sliding on the goal line fruitlessly trying to defend a game-winning goal from a black man. Who wrote that script?)