itt liverpool not winning things; sandbox i love football

goodbye socrates, hellloooo hayley mcqueen

r.i.p socrates, brazil '82 possibly my favourite international team ever (although I have high hopes for Germany '12)

Oh man, poor Socrates. Undoubtedly the coolest footballer there ever was.

The conclusion to the Brazilian championship is tonight, incidentally. Corinthians lead Vasco da Gama by two points with equal goal difference, and both have local derbies - Corinthians play Palmeiras, Vasco play Flamengo. Should be worth watching, I think kickoffs are 7pm.

In his early days there, he was notably unwilling to join in the wild celebrations of his team-mates when he scored a goal (of which there were 172 over the course of 297 matches); so much so that the fans complained to the club president. He, in turn, begged Sócrates to be more demonstrative, and Sócrates obliged, in future, with parodic celebrations, kneeling on the ground, throwing up his arms and invoking success from whatever gods there might be.

"England is too cold for Brazilian footballers," Socrates said. "It doesn't matter how talented the players are, the culture is so different so it does not surprise me when Brazilian players do not do as well as they should - though I hear there are now Brazilian restaurants in Manchester.

"The way of life is so correct and organised in Europe. It's not like that in Brazil, where things are more spontaneous. I was in Florence for a year with Fiorentina and sometimes I didn't want to train, but to hang out with friends, party or have a smoke. There's more to life than football, but Europe can be very regimented."

Haha, Manchester derby in the third round.

Classic

how can u talk of such savagery when sócrates isn't even cold yet

Fixed as usual

he'd be cold if he were in england tbf

im not sure he was talking about literal coldness, i mean brazilians do well enough in russia

where they are chill and just like to drink meths and say fuck a protestant work ethic

manc lairyness obv doesn't sit well with samba boys

look what it's done to Anderson's dancing

Fiorentina - Roma sounded like a laugh. Roma ended up with 8 men with Bojan handballing on the line at 2-0 down. The poor lamb.

wait, so they were down to 9, 2-0 down and bojan thought he'd stop a goal cos the comeback was still on? That's the spirit!

yeah but tbh it looked like it wouldn't have gone in anyway, think he just wanted to get out of facing juventus next week.

Handball on the line wouldn't've gone in? What direction was it coming from?!

lol, more likely.
xp

Shit footage but it does appear to be going wide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_codHKYvmVc&

Heh, none more blatant (except by John Terry maybe)

Both hands!!
Loathe as I am to agree with a BBC m-b-m contributor, but Everton really could do with Anelka in January.

could do with yakubu back tbh

1714: Kieran Richardson was booked there by the way for whipping off his shirt to reveal a "I belong to Jesus" vest.

rmde

he's no kaka that's for sure

Chief football writer Phil McNulty at Molineux: "Barely a flicker from Martin O'Neill high in the Molineux stand but he will have been delighted by the sweeping counter attack at pace and goal from Kieran Richardson. Just how he likes it. Growing unease among the Wolves fans."

has o'neill got a reputation for liking sweeping counter attack football? Thought most top managers hated it.

will he have liked that phil?

Ferguson used to like it :(

ah the days of ronaldo/rooney Euro semi finals against Arsenal.

nobody remembers poor old ji sung

Kieran Gibbs does

my favourite utd player in the post cantona era!
xp park

Park has been awful this season unfortunately. Still love him though

Cmon wolves!

a Brucian performance by Sunderland here today. A proper tribute to the man.

lol

ya dancer!

wtf wolves stop lumping it u mugs

wolves in CL-place form again

i was gonna nominate Park for the universally loved team

bet Arsenal fans don't love him

that one thing is sure

i dislike the fact of him, the defensive winger.

He really performs better in a central role

mccarthy will surely have been pleased to get the points today

for nv's sake a pre-xmas slide and mccarthy firing would probably be better

this 'play shit for ten games then well for two' is no good

eh that depends on the results, i mean utd are second

McCarthy Out

:( Socrates