Torres to play in the Copa del Rey against Madrid

[jazzypom.livejournal.com]

Torres to start for Atletico Madrid

Can this week be anymore shocking? El Niño ha vuelto indeed

Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone has confirmed that returning hero Fernando Torres will start Wednesday's Copa del Rey last-16 first leg at home to Real Madrid.

Torres, 30, has returned to Atletico after seven and a half up-and-down years at Liverpool, Chelsea and Milan, and was welcomed back by 40,000 Rojiblanco fans in a joyful presentation at the Vicente Calderon on Sunday. read more

Bale is not an individualist
[just pretend I put a picture here]
Bale has been singled out by some Blancos fans and pundits as a scapegoat for last Sunday's 2-1 La Liga defeat at Valencia, a result which ended Madrid's record 22-game winning streak.

Some have argued the match turned on a moment at 1-1 when the former Tottenham player ran clear and could have given teammates Karim Benzema or Cristiano Ronaldo a simple tap-in, but went for goal himself and blew the chance.

Marca have subsequently reported that the Madrid dressing room is unhappy with the Wales international for putting his own interests ahead of the team. Such stories give credence to speculation that Bale, who has 11 goals in 23 games this season, could be tempted to return to the Premier League if reported interest from Manchester United is firmed up next summer.nnnoooo stay in La Liga, because 'it's the best'. Stay in the best league

Chatter from the sideline

• Revista: Barca woe Luis Enrique


• Odegaard to Real Madrid and Shaqiri for Stoke He's Interbound, tbh Odegaard for Madrid- twitter timeline


• Andrej Kramaric scout report: Chelsea appear to back out as Leicester look to snap up Croatian striker... and here's all you need to know first team minutes, ya'll- I hope


• Neymar Dating 26-Year-Old Spanish Sexy Lawyer Elisabeth Martinez—Report okaay


• Introducing Bayern Munich Signing Joshua Kimmich, Pep Guardiola's 'Dream Player' no, we aren't going to buy players in January, Bayern said. There is no need


• Zubi's seven deadly sins why he got the sack


• Ronaldo and Benzema have beef with Bale hmmm so the rumours, they are coming out thick and fast


• Dante had to ask Muller to stop making jokes about the Brazil 7-1 defeat They both play for Bayern. Muller was pushing it and making jokes. Oy vey, awkward


• Timeline of Barcelona Breakdown reddit barca Neymar posted Game of Thrones on Instagram, no biggie


• Wilfried Bony: Man City in advanced talks with Swansea awww, sad for Swansea, because he was the tip to their spear


• Liverpool midfielder Suso signs four-year deal with AC Milan while Xherdan Shaqiri agrees Inter Milan loan deal FML. Suso was quality. We're going to regret this for years to come, idek anymore

Pictures
Oh yeah. forget that there'd been an FA cup match last night, but before I get into that...

Yesterday was an LFC player's birthday. Moreno and Manquillo attended dinner with their partners

Bony from Swansea might be joining Man City. On one hand, I'm sad for Swansea, because he made them fierce, on the other hand, Bony will get a higher profile, and I can drool on him some more, because there'll be more pictures of him in Man City's uniform. I thirst

Everton were struggling in this match. West Ham had them locked down, and Lukaku's strike saved them, so they live to play another day

He did it juuuuust like that

Collins drew first blood for West Ham. Since the match ended in a draw, they do it again

Poldi played for Inter. Didn't score, but here he is in his new kit

Videos

John Green at the AFC Wimbledon vs LFC game

AFC Wimbledon's striker Ade Akinfenwa's post-match interview. LFC fan and a likeable guy. He got Gerrard's shirt with his signature!

Comments

[chuk-is-dazzled.livejournal.com]

i was kinda opposed (more like extremely slightly lol and for less than a day) to him coming to mls only cause of how people put off/diss mls but ive got over it cause whatev about those people. mls is a damn mess but gerrard coming looks to be very interesting

but its kinda sucky that the big names only go to new york or la (well so far) and my wishful(illogical) thinking of him coming to houston would never have happened(cant have any more dp's anyway) cause coming to houston in the summer would kill him lmao. i dont think we'd ever get anyone from england at least not in the summer

I guess those are the cities they know?

[jazzypom.livejournal.com]

I'm a veeeeerrrrrryyyy casual follower of MLS, and the names I know are LA Galaxy (due to Beckham), NY Red Bulls (due to Thierry Henry and their carbonated drink), Seattle Sounders (because of DeAndre Yedlin coming to Spurs) and that's about it, really? It doesn't help that all the teams are pretty level too no promotion, relegation, or even the race for top teams playing in something like a Latin American Champions League - because you guys don't even play in the South American version of the CL- so you can't really root for a team, because there's no danger of them going up, down, or whatever.

RE: I guess those are the cities they know?

[marsyke.livejournal.com]

All the big American sports are playing in leagues without promotion and relegation and stuff. It's simply another system. Which is completely strange for us Europeans to understand. We all want to have at least the idea that our small local club can compete with the biggest teams, in cup competitions or in the league if they somehow grow.

It's logical that they work in the same system of the other sports, I guess.

RE: I guess those are the cities they know?

[chuk-is-dazzled.livejournal.com]

you can root for a team to win the mls cup? and theres a concacaf champions league idk how well mls does in it but a team may have won it before? lol idk. and usa sports like an even playing field (or so they say) i.e where every major league team has a chance for major league title every year and every minor league team has a chance for the minor league title every year and so on

but idk im too used to every team staying in their division to be put off by it/ not having promotion and relagation

RE: I guess those are the cities they know?

[raubsaurier.livejournal.com]

I think the Galaxy won a previous edition of the CONCACAF CL, but no MLS team has won it in the modern era yet (RSL was one goal away from doing in back in '11 though i think ;_;). it's a fun competition to watch although if MLS refs make you tear your hair out, you might not want to watch after all lol.

eta: wait no, i forgot that DCU won it too.

Re: I guess those are the cities they know?

[barkley.livejournal.com]

As I am soon going to be relegated to watch MLS, I've been reading up on it. However, I've been a fan of other US sport leagues for quite a while.

The playoffs, and the playoff run to qualify in the late stages of an American sporting season always make for fine entertainment[1]. In MLS, apparently in 2015, top 6 teams in each conference go to playoffs. #1 and 2 get byes for first round. #6 plays #3, #4 plays #5. So there's a fight to get there and to be #1 or #2.

And then the playoff system strengthens the rivalries as the league(s) are divided into conferences, and the conferences are usually shaped geographically (to cut down on travel expenses as you tend to play teams in your conference more.) So this makes the race to qualify and the run through the playoffs to win your conference a big thing not just because you won, but because you will have had to beat your fiercest rivals to get there.

All that to say, Philadelphia Union plays LA Galaxy only once this year and in June, and in LA. So no Gerrard watching for me this year. But next year, he will be in my neighborhood! :)

[1] with the exception of the National Hockey League back in the day which was always the joke because almost all teams but one in each division got into the playoffs.

RE: I guess those are the cities they know?

[raubsaurier.livejournal.com]

because you guys don't even play in the South American version of the CL

eh, it's a different continent and i'm pretty sure no one in our league wants to add on a ~6000 mile flight to their schedule just for kicks. the CONCACAF champions league doesn't get a ton of coverage, but it exists, and has been getting pretty competitive (Mexican teams still dominate, but Costa Rica + MLS have been pulling off pretty good upsets over the past several years).

RE: I guess those are the cities they know?

[itskimbitches.livejournal.com]

as long as there's an opposing side (competition) there will always be fans and a side to pick.

[ms-geekette.livejournal.com]

Kaka is going to Orlando...I thought he was a pretty big name. Maybe one day Dallas or Houston will get a big name, perhaps (I don't know about all of their designated players).

I'm not sure how much a sunbird Gerrard is...he'd probably die in Texas come this summer. XD LA seems more moderate temperature-wise (at least I don't think the humidity is as bad), but then the cost of living is ridic. (I wouldn't choose LA or NYC myself partially for those reasons. Lampard and Gerrard might be surprised!)

Texas should aim for Brazilians or other South Americans. *nods* They could handle the weather with probably no problem, and then for the Spanish-speakers, they might not feel so out of sorts. Oooh, or Chicharito someday.

[chuk-is-dazzled.livejournal.com]

i keep forgetting kaka lol oop. houston just got cubo so i think we're pretty good and as for international players we have some Hondurans and some of them were even in the world cup squad. chicha <3 that would be amazing (only if it was the chicha when he plays for mexico not when plays for real madrid cause lawd im so glad when hes not on pitch lol i love him tho)

but overall it would be nice to see more big names go somewhere else, good for kaka and orlando(the good new team this year lol nycfc)

[ms-geekette.livejournal.com]

Atlanta is the other new MLS team, but I don't even know if they've signed anyone for the team yet since they aren't supposed to start playing until 2017 or something like that. Don't know if they will snag someone big or not.

NYCFC has definitely started off on the wrong foot, but I suspect the owners don't really care that much.