TorontoChelsea

The same thing happened to me once. I thought it would have been hilarious had anyone seen it, but it was a real shock. It scratched above my eye, my lip, my forehead, and my chin and then took off. I still like cats though. I've always found them a lot like women. Like the way they want you to pet them and then walk just out of your reach. (Whereas dogs are more like guys. We are pretty easy to understand and we'll hump anything!)

If elections were about reality, Republicans would never win. Romney is able to just vaguely promise some sentimental crap ("America will lead once again" etc...) without offering any specifics and he has a good chance of winning. That anyone can still believe that trickle-down economics works is beyond me but unregulated free-market capitalism is almost like a religion to many people.

The importance of width is not only about being able to cross the ball in. Width does not= Boswingwa. You need width to create space in the middle of the pitch. Otherwise, defences become almost impossible to break down. It's very difficult to get past decent defences no matter what, but if you are telling them "we won't attack wide", defending becomes too easy. We've seen this so far this season. We scored against Stoke only once we brought Moses on. We scored both goals against Juventus on individual plays and we scored both goals against Arsenal on set pieces. In those games, we passed beautifully, we were generally excellent to watch, but we couldn't create scoring opportunities at all. Even Barcelona who play one of the most narrow games around, use Alexis or Pedro for natural width. I don't think it's possible to have long-term success with no width. Now, this is possible in a couple of different ways. Either someone like Moses or Marin steps up or we move one of our attacking midfield 3 in a wider position. we can beat poorer squads with virtually any system because the gap in talent is so enormous, but our lack of width is absolutely something to watch out for.

It's normal as you get older and get other things to do. I will never love sports as much as I did when I was say 12 years old. I went through a period where I lost all interest but have found a very good balance now. I love football, but it is just a game.

Agree with you that this could become an issue in the future. Right now, not sure. We won against Stoke and Arsenal but weren't really able to create scoring opportunities from open play. The last two matches, we've been able to. Whether this is because they were weaker sides or because our front three are working better together, time will tell.

If you did it that way, players would never get a proper break. Season ends, a few weeks off and then to National team training camps and then games and then right into the season.I have no problem with the way it's done now. If you're going to have international football tournaments, you're going to disrupt domestic leagues. No way around that. The break we had right after the Euros was pointless mind you.

I'm not quite as cynical as you (I think voting can matter to some degree. Many of the party's policies are similar, but they are not exactly the same.), but I think it's hard to argue with your basic point.The U.S. is obviously the worst as money can directly influence elections in a way it can't in most democracies. One the aspects I'm most interested about is how narratives are created in order for people to vote against their self-interest. This is a pretty good documentary http://www.hotcoffeethemovie.com/ definitely worth watching. Everyone remember the woman who spilled coffee on her lap and sued McDonald's? Of course... Comedians made fun of it, we all used it as example of stupid lawsuits. It wasn't, but the narrative was created mostly to allow what they call "tort reform" which means limiting the ability of people to sue companies. Anyway, worth watching if you get a chance.

Bale often cuts into the middle which makes him trickier to mark, Dempsey and Dembele can make runs, and even Vertonghen and Walker can get in there as well The other issue is that they wouldn't necessarily need a target man. If Lennon and Bale are able to pull the defence apart (say if Cole or Ivanovic get caught up-field, our central defenders would be forced to cover the attacker), then there would be massive avenues for Defoe and Dempsey to run into. That means that Spurs can got caught on the counter on the wings as well, but we are likely going to need some width to be able to score.

Which was not coincidentally, the first TV campaign. Image has become so dominant. Style over substance. It's really just an advertising campaign.

BTW, an absolutely fascinating read as to how political campaign evolved...in the New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/09/24/120924fa_fact_lepore I highly reccoment it to anyone interested in politics. It's depressing (how people can vote against what they really want if you package it) but very interesting.

Sorry for your loss Roni.

Saw the Van Persie incident. He doesn't elbow him, he sort of puts his arm across his face and Cabaye went down as if he's been shot. Realistically , I can see maybe a game, maybe nothing.

If RDM does start with Mata, Oscar, and Hazard, he needs to put Oscar on the right. Mata providing cover for Bale and marking Vertonghen (who gets forward a lot) would be an awful idea. Anyway, it will be interesting to see.

It certainly wasn't Mikel's fault. It's not his job to mark the striker. Oscar lost his man a little too easily on the right (although, to be fair I am not sure whose job it was to mark him. Could have been someone else's that Oscar was covering). and then Cole, Terry, and Luiz sort of made a mess of it. There were three of them defending and three Norwich attackers (including Holt). Cole was too central allowing his man to head the ball back into the box and Luiz was marking no one. It's sort of hard to tell who was at fault because I don't know how Chelsea were supposed to be marking, but it was some combination of the back 4. You can't let Holt get that kind of space. It was one of those goals which was a few small mistakes rather than any one single massive one. Hopefully, we'll learn from it so it doesn't happen again.

El Clasico has lost a lot of the magic it used to have for me. They played each other 6 times last season and have already played each other 3 times this season. It's just too common an occurrence to have the same tension. Still fun to watch mind you, just not the same.

I think some of that has to do with being a central defender. Defenders mostly get attention when they do something wrong because what they do right is hardly ever flashy. They hold their lines well, they intercept passes, they communicate well, they position themselves well, etc... Good defending is inherently dull. How many gifs are there of "Hummels marking has man closely" or something like that? It's sort of like when you don't notice the referee, you know he's done a good job.

It's muddled because the line.as to what counts as an assist can be put anywhere. Is a shot that leads to a handball and then a penalty an assist? How about a player who wins a corner by taking a stupid shot from 50 yards out that deflects off someone and then the corner-taker scores directly from the corner? An assist? Why isn't a shot that deflects off a defender an assist? That directly lead to that goal. How about if it bounces off your head and straight to your teammate who scores? Is that an assist? The goal wouldn't have happened without you. An assist to me is a deliberate pass that leads directly to a goal. That way, the statistic about someone who is passing to set up goals/about someone who is creating, not someone who gets fouled or someone who happens to deflect a ball. I admit I might be biased because that's how assists are measured in basketball and hockey (except hockey gives two assists).

Haha! It was like a two part move. A nice cut inside where he genuinely slipped and then took a dive. Almost like he was doing "the worm".

ManU are playing with Van Persie, Rooney, and Welbeck all in the lineup. It's sort of a 4-2-1-3 formation....and they've scored 2 goals and both by defenders.

Because you're winning an opportunity to get a set piece. How is a corner different from a free kick? And the free kick thing is very problematic. If you get fouled and then the set piece is a beautiful pass that gets headed in, you no longer get the assist but if the set piece results directly in a goal, you do even though you actually did nothing different. It just gets ridiculous.

I disagree with it because things get too muddled. Is getting fouled and then your team scores on the ensuing free kick from an assist? Is winning a corner that leads to a goal an assist? For me, an assist is a deliberate pass that leads directly to a goal. Penalties won is obviously incredibly important and should just be its own category.

If you want to pay for Spike to go to games, I'm sure he'll accept. Just so you know, a flight from Sydney to London and back will be about 1500 GBP and takes like 55 hours (including airport time). Makes it difficult to get to the stadium on a regular basis.

Not sure where you got those assist numbers. Hazard has 4 assists, not 6 and Cazorla has 2 assists, not 3.

The poll needs another option "wherever I can get them" or something like tthat. I'll watch them on TV but if they're not on, I'll watch them online. However, I've also gone to bars, watched a match in the airport, watched at friends' houses, etc...

It's not just about the money. If you recall players from loan, teams might not be as interested in taking your players in the future. After all, it does put them in a bind. If they weren't using the player, you can just bring them back, but someone like Lukaku is important to WBA and bringing him back would hurt them. Obviously, if we get a major injury and have no choice it's one thing, but if you are just recalling people because you want some more depth, then you may find it difficult to work out loan arrangements in the future. Besides, he clearly still has things he needs to work on and WBA is a good situation for him to get some playing time and work on them.