It is really weird! Porty says though that Porto = Mob so it could be that...


Excuse me but... I'm not going to cry for a man because he was a footballer when more than 60,000 people died in Burma...

Huh? I posted it because I saw it on Sky Sports and posted it in the relevant thread.. But you believe his death means nothing just because people are dying elsewhere? Hmm.

You did well to post this. I never said his death means nothing. I'm just saying we're all hypocrites as we're quick to mention the death of a footballer because we feel he was closer to us while we overlook what happens elsewhere...

Fair enough. I agree that we're all quite hypcritical in that respect. It is a disaster what is going on over there. I don't know if this is true, but a friend told me that whoever is ruling over there is not allowing foreing aid into the country?

He's allowing it in. But the government is seizing all the aid.

The Military junta only accept pecuniary and material help, they do not allow the rescue parties to enter the country... They care more about the referendum for the new constitution airing happy-go-lucky advertisements that urge the people to vote for it...

There are already 1,5m people that have lost everything they had and some say the number of casualties will exceed the limit of 500,000...

Are you sure this is Burma you're talking about, to me it sounds like another country (I'm not going to mention it because I know this post is going to be edited, but I'm sure if you guys think hard you'll find out ) where a worst situation is going on for months now and no one cares ...

Boavista is done. It's the 2nd club of the city (Oporto) and with no money + relegation... they're done.

FCPorto is ok. No problems. They'll continue to do what they've done in the last 20 years with the mob behind.

Pinto da Costa, FCPorto president almost laugh at the decision in the press conference.

Football in Portugal is more than fixed. This is worse than Calciocaos. Far worse.

Ah, but Locke. It's not the size of the stadium that matters, it's what you do with it.

River were up 2-0 against 9- man San Lorenzo in the Copa Libertadores....and San Lorenzo beat them and knocked them out of the competition.

Like if the men inside it explode too soon... that's not good...

Yesterday in the French ligue 1, Lyon and Bordeaux won, Marseille played a poor game against Le Mans, in fact it was more a fight than a football game, anyway, they're still 4th and most probably will finish in that position ...
PSG drew and their rival for the relegation both lost, so if they win the last game they'll stay in la ligue 1. Last night's game was very emotional though for Pauleta, it was his last game home for PSG (he said he'll retire after the end of the season) he was crying on the ground he has only two games to play now the last championship game and the cup final, has scored 109 goals in 205 for Paris so far, to be continued ...

Now they're starting to distribute it...and claim it as their own material. Poor people in Burma.

Rui Costa got a standing-ovation in Estadio da Luz on his last match for Benfica.

Today the Portuguese League ended:

1. Porto 75 pts
2. Sporting 55 pts
3. V.Guimaraes 53 pts
4. Benfica 52 pts

This means Porto and Sporting Lisbon in the CL, Guimaraes in the CL 3rd pre and Benfica in the UEFA Cup... showing how shite the season was.

He deserves it. One of the finest passers of the ball to ever grace the pitch

One of the very best number 10's I've seen play! Thanks Rui!

One of the last true number 10's in the world, great class and elegance, thank you Manuel

There ain't many players like Rui left today. I'll miss him...

IMO he was better than Figo in their prime years
Great player!

One of the greatest playmakers ever bow out...bye Rui, and thanks for everything.

I agree. He certainly was classier. And... @ you ava...

The last day of the 2007/2008 ligue 1 was great and full of emotions.

The results.

Auxerre 1:3 Lyon
Lens 2:2 Bordeaux
Lorient 1:1 Lille
Marseille 4:3 Strasbourg
Metz 4:3 Le Mans
Nancy 2:3 Rennes
Nice 3:1 Caen
Sochaux 1:2 Paris
St. Etienne 4:0 Monaco
Toulouse 2:1 Valenciennes

Lyon are crowned champions for the 7th consecutive time (but at least this time the second is only 4 points away, 2 before today ) they started very well with 2 goals in the first 10 minutes (Benzema and Fred) and Benzema finished top scorer wit 20 goals.

Marseille will finally play the preliminary for the CL after an difficult game at home against Strasbourg (they were already in the ligue 2 but played fairly) 4-3 (Cissé scored twice ) on the other hand the former 3rd Nancy collapsed at home (2-3) if they had won they would have remained 3rd.

The 3rd team that will play in the second division next season is Lens (their stupid president was crying after the calciopolli to get Milan's place in the CL, they finished 4th back then). Lens drew at home while Toulouse and Paris won so bye bye president

Glad for PSG, it's a shame when teams like that get relegated, so it's nice to see they stayed up!

Well, since they'll be in europe next season I guess it's better for them to stay in the first division, but they'll probably be in the same situation next season, their status have changed a lot since the days of Canal+ ...

Reports are surfacing that Benfica are in negotiations to hire Michael Laudrup as their new head coach.

I'd bet Barca will pick Laudrup, if not Jose Mourinho..

Rnagers and Celtic are both playing their Final game of the season right now. Celtic are at Dundee United while Rangers travel to Aberdeen. Both teams are on 86 points, but Celtic have a +4 better GD. So for Rangers to win the league, they need to better Celtics result OR score 4 more goals than Celtic do. Both 0-0 after 10 minutes.

WTF? Barca already picked Guardiola as their new coach.

20 minutes into the 2nd half:
Aberdeen 1-0 Rangers
Dundee U 0-0 Celtic

Celtic have been poor, was a great chance for Rangers to win their game and possibly the league. And they mess it up!

dont rangers still have 2 games at hand?

I think it's all even now. Isn't this last game for both of 'em, Kurt?

Yep.

Celtic have just scored, looks like title number 3 in a row and 42 in all, for the Hoops.

They did at one point. They were 2 points clear with 2 games in hand, but they lost twice head-to-head with Celtic that didn't help.

Recently they were 7 points behind with 3 games in hand, 2 wins and a draw put them level.

Anyways, Rangers need 6 goals as things stand.

EDIT: Make it 7, Rangers are 2-0 down.
EDIT 2: Nacho Novo red card for Rangers, two-footed challenge.

FT Aberdeen 2-0 Rangers - Nova sent off for Rangers
FT Dundee U 0-1 Celtic

Celtic are SPL Champions for a 3rd consecutive season.

ya major choke by rangers...

We all know how long this one will last..

Oh the Rangers are shite...

Hrm. It seems that former Valencia coach Quique Sanches Flores is set to be named the new coach of Benfica.

Sounds like a good idea, I always rated him.

I wonder where Sven will go, I always thought he'd return to Benfica this season. I do hope he gets sacked/leaves Man City, with their new ownership they're lack of class is becoming as bad as Birmingham, Liverpool and Chelsea, which is hard to do. Sven deserves so much better than City.

^^

Valencia..

It's good to see some English rate Sven and realzie that he did not actually fail with the England NT. He is one of my favorite coaches ever since he won the scudetto with Lazio and I really was mad when he sacked by the English FA.

Sacking Sven was an even worse decision than hiring McLaren. Sven rarely ever lost, and when he was in charge you always had the feeling England could come back. I think he was succesful overall, he finished in the QFs in all 3 tournements, 1 he lost to a freak goal and the last 2 in penalties. Now if we made the SFs in those last 2, no doubt it would be deemed a succesful tournement. I just fail to see how a manager, or a tournement, can be considered a succes or failure on a shottout, not right really.

^ Well, if it happens ferquently, I can. It's just that something was missing. We all knew England would blew at the Euro 2006 and WC 2008. It's not Erikssons fault, but it isn't also "only one unlucky goal and two penalty-shootouts". It's more then that...

I disagree. But it's a matter of opinion. The fact remains that we lost those competitions on penalty shootouts. And a penalty shootout does not determine how good a team is in any way at all.

Indeed. And a penalty shootout not determine how bad a team is either. Had you gone through you would not be a better or worse team than you already are...

Exactly, you're proving my point. Winning a shootout and losing a shootout determines nothing - other than who's name goes into the next round - it doesn't make you a better/worse team. So why it means the difference between succes and failure doesn't make sense to me.

OFFICIAL: Quique Flores is the new Benfica's coach for the next 2 years.

We'll see how it goes. Lot of work needs to be done. He and Rui Costa (new football director of Benfica) will work together to find a better future for the club.

Well, I think that's a different issue. I don't see how you can put them together... success and failure is related to what is expected of a team... if Greece get eliminated in the QF's then it's no big deal but in England (where the press enthrones your NT before even a competition begins) it will be considered a failure... but the greatness of a team cannot be measured... Greece might be a better team than England in an occasional competition but 1) No one can prove it, 2) England still are expected to do better than Greece...

So... getting eliminated in the QF's is a failure for England not because getting through would mean England are better but because there are high expectations...

And by the way, I think the English fans' expectations are too high... you have a lot of great players but not a great team.


Sounds great! I hope for the best!

I think these two points are exactly why the two shootout losses are not failure. Who defines the expectations of what my team does? Me, and only me. What my neighbour thinks England should do is irrelevant, what the England coach thinks England should do is irrelevant. It's all personal opinion.

Good luck to Flores and Rui. I'm sure they'll put Benfica back up there.

Forza Flores, and forza Rui.