All these Chelsea goals are for naught if Juve wins, right? Goal difference only matters from matches between the tied teams, which is 4-4, and Shakhtar wins on away goals?

That is correct. Shakhtar are through as are Galastaray and Celtic.

Wenger has been Arsenal for so long that when I first started to follow soccer more closely I wondered whether the team was named after him like the Cleveland Naps or New York Rangers. In my defense, I did quickly realize that was retarded because there was no way a big EPL team could be less than 100 years old.

My favourite one of these was when Wolfgang Wolf was coaching Wolfsburg.

In happy Spurs news, Bale, Parker and Assou-Ekkoto should all be fit for the Swansea game

Where did you see that Bale will be fit? Everything I've read says AVB is hopeful but it is still up in the air.

AVB is quoted as saying he hopes Bale will be available for the Stoke game, which is the week after Swansea.

At which point Bale will surely suffer a horrific season-ending mugging from Charlie Adam, so maybe he should just take his time.

Yeah I saw that as well. The Times is now reporting he is definitely out for two weeks too. I would think it is definitely still up in the air.

Might not necessarily be a bad thing to rest him as he is on 4 yellows as well. Would be an annoyance to rush him back and have him pick up a yellow and have to sit anyway. Might as well wait for the January amnesty.

It has begun.

Drats. I forgot to set the DVR!

The match report seems to be from a Brazil-Argentina friendly rather than the Club World Cup. Amusing.

The match report seems to be from a Brazil-Argentina friendly rather than the Club World Cup. Amusing.

Ha! I didn't even read it.

edit: Rafa must be feeling a real sense of deja vu as he prepares Chelsea for this. I wonder if he'll last as long at Chelsea when they get back from Japan as he did when he won this for Inter.

Rafa must be feeling a real sense of deja vu as he prepares Chelsea for this. I wonder if he'll last as long at Chelsea when they get back from Japan as he did when he won this for Inter.

I'm sure I'm not alone in hoping that Chelsea's fortunes follow those of Inter. Win the Champions League, hire Rafa, fire Rafa, freefall to a 6th place finish domestically...

Hang on, they've done just about all of that already, just in the wrong order.

Are there any other deep-lying playmakers of or near Pirlo's class right now? Also I gotta say the Chuck Norris look really works for him.

I know nothing about Eritrean politics.

But seeking asylum in Uganda seems to me an indicator that things are not so hot to trot back in Eritrea.

Are there any other deep-lying playmakers of or near Pirlo's class right now? Also I gotta say the Chuck Norris look really works for him.

Modric usually plays a bit higher up, but I can see him moving into a Pirlo type of role as he ages.

Euro 2020 is official.

Prepare yourself for NCAA-style venues.

I think it's pretty cool, but then I'll just be watching on TV so where the games are doesn't matter to me.

Have a good time!

Thanks! It was pretty incredible (and, sadly, Parkhurst didn't have a very good game - sorry Shooty!) and I'm definitely going back. Observed some interesting stuff: in particular, you can really see in person why managers and talent analysts like David Luiz so much. He's just so physically gifted; strong, fairly quick, and all of that was on display. I was amazed - like most fans, I've found his good moments exciting and his bone-headed moments highly frustrating, but in person I think I finally understood the potential that I imagine managers see in him. So that was great. Otherwise, had a great time in the game itself, which was generally spoiled by the overall context of Chelsea's no longer being in the Champions League, but otherwise was great!

Also, this is a really interesting result and also curious to see if you guys saw this on applying a kind of Pythagorean expectation to football.

The true significance of the 2020 decision seems to be that UEFA are now taking a similar view to that expressed in 165.

The heroine of a Belle and Sebastian song, clearly.

The Guardian comments section on Euro 2020 universally loathes the idea, but I like it. I've said this before but I think it will give a chance for great European cities to be able to host a few games when they otherwise might never be able to--Prague, Dublin, Budapest, Helsinki, etc.

It was pretty incredible (and, sadly, Parkhurst didn't have a very good game - sorry Shooty!) and I'm definitely going back. Observed some interesting stuff: in particular, you can really see in person why managers and talent analysts like David Luiz so much.

It's amazing how much different it is in person. You really get a feel for which players are the best athletes and you get to see their work off the ball. I wish I could see an entire season live. One day! If we ever move to Glasgow as the gf wants, I'll definitely get a season ticket for Partick.

Who's ready for some hot and steamy Europa League action? Liverpool need a win at Udinese and Udinese have absolutely nothing to play for so I like Liverpool to get it done, especially with Suarez in the 11.

Udinese: Padelli, Faraoni, Heurtaux, Danilo, Pasquale, Pereyra,
Agyemang-Badu, Pinzi, Armero, Fabbrini, Ranegie.

Subs: Brkic, Di Natale, Benatia, Marsura, Berra, Reinthaler, Frison.

Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Skrtel, Carragher, Downing,
Henderson, Allen, Sahin, Suso, Jose Enrique, Suarez

Subs: Jones, Cole, Assaidi, Coates, Sterling, Shelvey, Wisdom.
Referee: Duarte Gomes (Portugal)

I think it's pretty cool, but then I'll just be watching on TV so where the games are doesn't matter to me.

This was my first reaction too. For purposes of TV viewers which is what matters it probably makes sense. There is something about not having a "host" nation that detracts from the "Great Big Event" feel of it though.

The Guardian comments section on Euro 2020 universally loathes the idea, but I like it. I've said this before but I think it will give a chance for great European cities to be able to host a few games when they otherwise might never be able to--Prague, Dublin, Budapest, Helsinki, etc.

This is my view of it, though I suspect the "real" reason is as ursus mentions in #167.

I haven't been watching Liverpool until last week and I noticed that downing is playing left back while Enrique is playing left wing. Enrique has been good apparently but downing looks bad back there defensively. I'm surprised I haven't heard more about it

No Eric, Wynalda, this would not be cool, unless you are an opposing striker.

I'll be watching this hot and steamy action on delay tonight. Can't wait!:

Friedel, Walker, Caulker, Vertonghen, Naughton, Lennon, Sandro, Carroll, Dempsey, Adebayor, Defoe

Subs: Cudicini, Huddlestone, Livermore, Townsend, Stewart, Dembele, Sigurdsson

Panthianikos Team

Karnezis, Seitaridis, Triantafyllopoulos, Vyntra, Spyropoulos, Sow, Vitolo, Sissoko, Zeca, Toché, Mavrias

Whoa. Di Natale MISSED by inches on the last touch of the game that would have knocked out Liverpool. He just cracked up in disbelief.

On SkySports News, the talking heads said Turkey would be most upset about a dispersed Euro 2020, since they wanted to host it all by themselves. I suppose they might be placated with hosting the semi-finals and final. My guess is Istanbul will be given the consolation prize of sharing a group with Athens.

So the Euro is going to be back to how it was in the 70s and 80s, except what were once "qualifying games" played all over the place are now "part of the tournament".

More 60s and 70s.

Euro '80 in Italy (with 8 teams) was the first real tournament with group stages. Before that you had groups followed by home and away two-legged quarters and a final four at a single location (or, in the very early days, a two-legged knockout from the beginning).

Are there any other deep-lying playmakers of or near Pirlo's class right now?

There's a pretty obvious selection bias working against that type of player. If you can create and distribute like Pirlo, they put you higher up the pitch. Defensive midfield tends to be the domain of more destructive than creative players.

Probably easier to find comparisons to Pirlo in the libero era of football. Beckenbauer could obviously distribute the ball. But my impression is that he ran directly at defenses than Pirlo, who seems to rarely keep the ball at his own feet. Much better dribbler, and much more deadly from distance...

Though to be fair, the marauding Beckenbauer was younger than Pirlo is now, and the younger Pirlo played further up the pitch.

The current Pirlo doesn't play that differently from Cosmos-era Beckenbauer (though Beckenbauer did play more defense than Pirlo does).

I'll be watching this hot and steamy action on delay tonight.

Me too! FSC has the replay starting now. Dunno if I'll make it through the whole thing...

Shakhtar has to be figured as a good bet against at least half of their potential draw (Schalke and Malaga, especially), which means, of course, that they will implode and be a total disappointment. I'm hoping for a Felipe Melo meets Juve matchup. Pretty much all Juve has built over the past 18 or so months would crumble if they lost out to Galatasaray. Fun times. A Dortmund skinning of Arsenal would be much fun, as well.

I'm about 20 minutes into this game, and Dempsey has been the best player out there by far. He's not totally sharp (his final ball has let him down a couple times), but he's had great feet in some tight spaces around the box and the quality of his ideas has been excellent. It's not all coming off for him quite yet, but he looks A LOT more confident.

Terrific work by Clint to put Adebayor through for the opener. Got himself into a pocket of space between Panathinaikos' defensive lines, picked up the ball on the half-turn, two touches and *boom* perfectly weighted through ball for Adebayor.

I love Tom Carroll. LOVE.

Dempsey nearly with another assist. Lovely reverse ball to pick out Defoe making a run at the edge of the area. He rounds his man to the outside, but his left-footed shot is off the post. So close!

Oh man, Kyle Naughton totally caught napping to concede an equalizer. Simple cross in from the Panathinaikos left and Naughton gets his pants pulled down by Zeca, who just ambles around him completely uncontested and heads across Friedel for the goal. Terrible defending.

Naughton with a poor attempt at a clearance that ricochets off Vertonghen and falls to Toche, who puts it *just* wide. Hate to pick on Naughton, who's clearly not as comfortable on the left side after having a very solid game at right back against Fulham, but he's been really bad. Caulker's certainly not had his best game either.

Dempsey scores! Sandro wins a free kick down the right hand side after a good run. Excellent ball whipped in by Walker, and Clint heads in off the crossbar.

EDIT: On further review, it appears the ball may have come down off the bar and then gone in off the keeper's back. Still a fine header.

Aaron Lennon cuts in from the right and drives at the heart of the defense before slipping a nifty little reverse ball through to pick out Defoe. A classy half-chipped finish over the onrushing keeper. 3-1 Spurs.

Kyle Walker, who's the only one challenging Dempsey for MOTM honors, should get a lot of credit for that goal. It was his pressure and tenacity in midfield that won the ball to set Lennon away and his bursting run past Lennon that helped make the space for Defoe.

I'm reading Soccernet's report on the Spurs game (no, I don't know why) and I see this:

"Needing just a draw to progress, Spurs had an air of complacency about them in the opening period, which Panathinaikos controlled for large parts.

Emmanuel Adebayor put Tottenham ahead just before the half hour, but the Greeks, who have never won in Britain, played the better football and deservedly equalised through Zeca just after the re-start."

They must have been watching a different game than I did. Spurs played much better and were much more threatening up until the Panathinaikos goal. The period immediately after the equalizer was the one period where the Greeks were the better side.

Yeah, that's a garbage match report. I mean, obviously I have my biases here, but I haven't been afraid to call a spade a spade when Tottenham have played lousy this season. This was not one of those times.

Panathinaikos controlled fuhqall in that game except for, as you say, a brief period where they had a couple chances in the second half (and took one of them). Tottenham were extremely assertive in the opening quarter of the game, dominated the first half, and eventually bounced back pretty well after the equalizer.

First game at the Lane last night. Great game, perhaps a little chilly. Will report more later (not that I have much to add, but hey. I was there.)

Yeah, Biff, I think that match report may have been written by an Arsenal fan. Except for 10 minutes or so after the equalizer, Spurs bossed that game. I really like Tom Carroll. Am I nuts or is he modeling his game after Modric? Just the way he makes himself available to receive the pass by taking a step this way or that way to give the passer a better angle and his quick look to play an incisive ball to the wingers or the striker before settling for a safer option if it's not there. He obviously doesn't have Modric's quality yet (or ever, most likely), but it seems he was paying attention the last couple of years. I think he might be ready for a high level loan in January to get a run of games under his belt. It was good to see Adebayor back. He and Dempsey are going to be great together, I think. Adebayor loves making those nifty little runs between the CB's and Dempsey loves to thread passes into him when he does.

First game at the Lane last night. Great game, perhaps a little chilly. Will report more later (not that I have much to add, but hey. I was there.)

Sweet. I look forward to the latest entry in Spurs Therapy. The weather looked to be just a little bit more precipitation away from being utterly miserable.

I really like Tom Carroll. Am I nuts or is he modeling his game after Modric? Just the way he makes himself available to receive the pass by taking a step this way or that way to give the passer a better angle and his quick look to play an incisive ball to the wingers or the striker before settling for a safer option if it's not there. He obviously doesn't have Modric's quality yet (or ever, most likely), but it seems he was paying attention the last couple of years. I think he might be ready for a high level loan in January to get a run of games under his belt.

Right now, the guy he reminds me of the most is Joe Allen.

1) I Richman'd just a little when we walked up the stairs to the pitch. It is gorgeous. Melodramatically gorgeous. Very much a Fenway moment where you get up the steps and you're in a different space and a different world.

2) Thankfully, we were in the east stand under the roof. I was a little chilly, my wife (my wiiiife) would have probably physically injured me if I'd taken her to a game to be rained on.

3) We went with friends, one of whom is a Spurs fan, who took us to a Spurs pub in the neighborhood before. It was pretty gloriously trashy, just a paved garden and a friendly, chilly lady selling cans of beer, and there were a not insignificant number of moderately offensive Arsene Wenger songs practiced (none racist, so, um, yay Tottenham). During the game, along with just getting to sing "When the Spurs go marching in", I particularly enjoyed the anti-Chelsea taunts - "Champions of Europe / you're not any-more" - that sprung up. The lack of singing at American sports events continues to gall me. At the pub after the game (they said waiting for the train in the hour after the game was basically pointless), they played old Tottenham team songs from the 70s and 80s, which I clearly need to learn. They were somewhere in the range between Meet the Mets and the Super Bowl Shuffle. And half of the guys at the pub knew the words and were singing along.

4) So, the game. I really like Tom Carroll. What I love about him is his aggression with the ball. He gave away possession more often than someone in his position probably should, and he's still too small to win possession back. But most of the time when he gave away possession, it was in attempting a through ball or a direct pass forward. His passing attempts reminded me or Modric or some other great passing midfielder, though his execution was not at the level it needs to be. I feel like Carroll has a real chance to be legitimately excellent, but there's also a real chance that he just doesn't take that step forward in execution and never quite becomes a worthy starter.

5) More on the game, probably this numbering system will break down as I move forward. My friends were really down on Adebayor during the game, I wasn't. He definitely had some bad touches at notable moments, but I thought his workrate was really impressive. He was everywhere to receive the ball, he defended, he finished the one big chance he was given, and he made himself available for Friedel's constant long balls. It wasn't a special game by any means, but I thought he was good, and I can see some of the questionable touches as rustiness.

6) Everyone else already said Dempsey was the best player on the pitch for Tottenham, and that Naughton had himself a real stinker, so, yes, that was also what I saw. I'm excited about Dempsey if he can be the club's primary creative midfielder. I'm worried about our depth on the back line if Naughton can't be trusted.

7) Sandro is a bad man. He clearly frightened Panathinaikos, they seemed happy to just cede possession rather than deal with him one-on-one.

8) The Greek fans were mental. They didn't stop singing, chanting, and performing weird dances all night, even as Pana played maybe 5-10 inspired minutes at most. After Tottenham got the third goal, they all sang something in Greek and held their scarves in the air, waving side to side. My wife (my wiiiife) got the line of the night. She suggested the song translated as "Scarves half off, debt service." Burn, Greece, your country is bankrupt and fascism is disturbingly rampant. And you lost.

I know that that’s not the kind of soccer you usually talk about, but Hamburg’s on 24 points now. They got 7 of those without van der Vaart. Talking about vdV: have you seen this?

flip