http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/5933700/greek-fans-chase-panathinaikos-field-following-match

This is why soccer will never be popular in the U.S. like it is in the rest of the world.

The fans rioted because their team TIED last week and lost by a goal this week...and they're STILL only two points out of first place in the league. That is some seriously high standards.

12/19/2010 11:31:30 AM

Yeah, but that's Greece. They have riots for just about anything.

12/19/2010 1:40:19 PM

The riot was actually over a falafel.

12/19/2010 9:02:18 PM

Rafa out at Inter

He's been paid about 10 mil from two clubs to leave in the last year. Dude knows how to get paid for being mediocre

12/22/2010 3:33:07 PM

Not anymore he won't. But shit, nigga got paid. He don't gotta do shit now.

12/22/2010 3:44:21 PM

haha maan. hell make his way back to spain now. itll have to be a middle of the club to just outside the top of the league team though

12/22/2010 4:00:25 PM

Dang yall should turn on this Bayern-Stuttgart game if you can. Some good shit. Stuttgart player got his second yellow and then they started taking it to Bayern. Got a penalty. Bayern keeper saved it and they ended up scoring like 2 minutes later off a corner anyway. All that happened in about a 5 minute span.

And as I'm typing Muller puts Bayern up 4-3. There's some REALLY good attacking and technical football going on in Bundesliga.

[Edited on December 22, 2010 at 4:14 PM. Reason : wow. bayern up 5-3 and stuttgart down to 9.]

12/22/2010 4:10:10 PM

The Bundesliga is way underrated. I'd rather watch that league every time over Serie A.

Didn't, at one point, FSC show a lot of German soccer? I seem to remember catching a few matches a few years back when I liked soccer but didn't follow to nearly the extent that I do today.

12/22/2010 4:55:45 PM

^ wat? Schalke rules


I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

12/22/2010 5:39:49 PM

^ your post makes no sense

12/22/2010 6:00:03 PM

lol

12/22/2010 6:09:04 PM

Isn't Schalke's full name like Schalke FSC or something?

12/22/2010 6:22:19 PM

Was watching the FSC highlights at Bavarian Brathaus this evening. That Stuttgart v Munich game was awesome, wish I had seen the whole thing. As an aside every TV at the bar had FSC on at the Brathaus!

12/22/2010 10:51:58 PM

Quote :

"Didn't, at one point, FSC show a lot of German soccer? I seem to remember catching a few matches a few years back when I liked soccer but didn't follow to nearly the extent that I do today."

GOL TV has the rights to the Bundesliga (along with La Liga). It is on TWC but part of the hispanic tier of channels that require paying extra.

12/22/2010 11:28:45 PM

There are a lot of games from all over on ESPN3. It's nice to check that out on a regular basis.

12/23/2010 10:15:43 AM

Leonardo appointed the new head man at Inter

you know that has to piss the Rossoneri off

12/24/2010 9:03:16 PM

Messi wins the Ballon D'Or after his team loses in the WC in the quarters and not scoring a SINGLE goal.



god damn FUCK FIFA

1/10/2011 3:09:09 PM

For the love of God, don't for one second act like Messi isn't the best player on the planet.

You, of all people, should know there is more to soccer than scoring goals.

1/10/2011 3:17:22 PM

speaking of scoring goals

1/10/2011 3:38:21 PM

Quote :

"For the love of God, don't for one second act like Messi isn't the best player on the planet. You, of all people, should know there is more to soccer than scoring goals."

Messi didn't do SHIT during the summer. Out of the 3 finalists, he accomplished the LEAST OVERALL in 2010, because ALL HE DID was score goals for Barcelona. Xavi and Iniesta kept Spain and Barcelona pumping and won the World Cup.



meanwhile Sneidjer won the fucking treble, then turned around and powered his team to the WC Final, but doesnt even get a SNIFF at the top 3? How are you not outraged at this? This is literally the biggest pile of horse shit in FIFA history.

[Edited on January 10, 2011 at 3:47 PM. Reason : ^ The Irish backheel was a much better goal. Another FIFA fail.]

1/10/2011 3:46:47 PM

If only a FIFA award meant as much as the Confederations Cup, I'd give a shit.

FIFA awards are like Grammys or Golden Globes...no one cares because they don't mean anything.

1/10/2011 3:48:07 PM

^^^ regardless of which goal was "better," that was a nasssssty goal.

1/10/2011 3:51:09 PM

all hail messi

1/10/2011 3:52:01 PM

You're gonna have a hard time convincing anyone that knows shit about soccer that Wesley Sneidjer is a better player than Messi. It's just that simple. I don't know of one single person if given the opportunity to take either player on their team that would take him over Messi.

Also, Messi had a great WC. He was the catalyst for so many of those beautiful setups that Tina scored on. He's the most feared player in the world when he steps on the pitch.

[Edited on January 10, 2011 at 3:53 PM. Reason : .]

1/10/2011 3:52:28 PM

ITT kiljadn confused team accolades with individual performance awards

1/10/2011 3:54:27 PM

and my $0.02 is the turkish goal was better. a volley off a bullet corner cross straight to upper 90. c'mon.

don't get me wrong, the backheel goal was absolutely sick, but I was more impressed by the turkish volley.

and i have no problem with the award going to Messi for all he does on the field - goal scoring, passing, whatever. Sneidjer had a great world cup, but i wouldn't put him over Messi this entire past year.

[Edited on January 10, 2011 at 3:56 PM. Reason : k]

1/10/2011 3:54:53 PM

Quote :

"You're gonna have a hard time convincing anyone that knows shit about soccer that Wesley Sneidjer is a better player than Messi."

Oh, like every single pundit from every corner of the globe?



Come on, the outrage when Sneidjer was left out was palpable from every single outlet that's ever said anything about soccer. Read between the lines and every single article said "Messi shouldn't even be in the final 3."



The Ballon D'Or is a cumulative award given to the most outstanding individual in any given year.


That means that you are not allowed to go fucking MISSING for 2 months during the largest tournament in the world and then expect the world to turn around and crown you king.


Messi was the best in 2009, without a doubt, but he had too many shortfalls to even be nominated for the award in 2010. You can spout all you want about him "creating" at the WC, but you need to go back and review - he was MIA, was outplayed, outclassed, ineffective, goalless, and Higuain carried Argentina as far as they went, NOT Messi.

1/10/2011 4:02:34 PM

I'm gonna speak for aimorris and say

u mad?

1/10/2011 4:06:20 PM

pissed

1/10/2011 4:09:48 PM

1/10/2011 4:10:17 PM

Quote :

"That means that you are not allowed to go fucking MISSING for 2 months during the largest tournament in the world and then expect the world to turn around and crown you king."

You act like Messi is standing on rooftops daring people not to vote for him. He didn't campaign for this shit.

Also, as I said, no one cares about this stupid award.

1/10/2011 4:36:50 PM

kiljadn cares

1/10/2011 6:16:05 PM

Quote :

"Also, as I said, no one cares about this stupid award."

....what planet do you live on?

1/10/2011 6:26:43 PM

Messi is your daddy

1/10/2011 6:32:53 PM

hasnt messi averaged over a goal a game in the past year? its hard to say he isnt the best club-wise. however, in world cup years, it usually goes to the best player at the world cup...not sure how many people wouldve given it to diego forlan, since he was the best player at a mediocre world cup.

1/10/2011 6:49:38 PM

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/classic/awards/01/36/25/40/ballondor_award_men_player_finalx.pdf

1/10/2011 9:36:21 PM

hahaha thomas vermalaen voted for cesc fabregas in that list. what a good teammate. thomas rosicky didnt even vote for cesc.

Leo Messi deserved it to me. i would've gone for him or xavi, maybe iniesta for his goal in the WC. Sneijder was awesome this year, but robben played just as well as him during the world cup.

1/10/2011 10:03:17 PM

not sure what to entirely make of this, but i noticed that a lot of the big countries didnt vote messi at 1, where as a lot of the smaller countries did.

1/10/2011 10:15:23 PM

Mark Van Bommel submitted 2 invalid votes, Bert Van Marwijk submitted 1




wonder what happened there





and look at the media voting. really the only voting that should matter IS the media voting. These players and coaches statistically can't see all of the players they're voting on. The media are the only one who have access to every game, and i'm willing to bet they're the only ones who do any sort of research.

[Edited on January 10, 2011 at 11:02 PM. Reason : .]

1/10/2011 10:58:35 PM

i think it's an invalid vote when they choose someone from their own country. he probably picked robben and sneijder.

1/10/2011 11:12:37 PM

Quote :

"368 - It's been 368 days since Wesley Sneijder's last scored a goal in Serie A (a brace vs Siena on 09/01/2010) - over a year. Hibernation"

in light of these new facts, I say we should definitely take the award away from Messi and give it to Sneijder, look how much "powering" he did for Inter last year

1/12/2011 8:23:04 AM

1/12/2011 8:03:06 PM

lol

going from a 7-0 beatdown against chelski to a 1-0 victory against arsenal

[Edited on January 12, 2011 at 8:59 PM. Reason : f]

1/12/2011 8:58:00 PM

It's because they got rid of their wanker of a manager. I heard he used to play for some team of wankers.

1/12/2011 9:48:06 PM

Sorry to beat a dead horse...

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/blog/dirty-tackle/post/Sneijder-would-ve-won-2010-Ballon-d-Or-under-old?urn=sow-306318

Quote :

"As it turns out, had this merger of awards not happened, Football Italia alerts us that Wesley Sneijder not only would have finished in the top three, but he would have won it by a slim margin. Under the old Ballon d'Or voting system, only members of the media were polled to decide the winner and two runners-up, while national team coaches and captains did the same for the FIFA World Player of the Year. Now, all three groups combine for a clusterhump of invalid votes and nameless voters. But had it just been left to media votes, Sneijder would have won the Ballon d'Or even though (by my amateur calculations) he had fewer first place votes (35) than both Iniesta (40) and Xavi (36). His greater number of second and third place votes gave him 320 points from the media, beating Iniesta's 313 and leaving Xavi and Messi to finish third and fourth, respectively. "

1/13/2011 9:18:57 PM

i thought Sneijder had it for sure

1/13/2011 9:19:41 PM

Can someone direct me to a good blog for following the champions league?

1/18/2011 5:59:34 PM

Mark Van Bommel to AC Milan!!!

1/25/2011 11:22:41 AM

great, that's what Milan needs, more old geezers. I'm still hoping for either Ganso or Lamela.

1/25/2011 11:42:46 AM

Andy Gray fired LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cS8OkAiXCI

1/25/2011 12:44:59 PM