SC Internacional!

Brazil eh?

Cincinnati Reds. Oh, I'm sorry, your talking Associated Football. This is baseball season here in the US and the Reds are actually doing pretty decent this year (they're not the Big Red Machine of the mid and late 70s, but still...)

FC?

Football Club. Football teams (Soccer) from all around the world. FC Bayern Munchen is the team from Bavaria Germany

AEK Athens

I was making a joke. Sorry. And I knew without being told where Bayern Munchen was from. I spent three weeks a few years back in Lindau. One week at Christmas the The Bayerischerhof, and the other two at a gasthaus owned by my company at the time, Xomox. Spent one day (and more than one evening) in Munich/Munchen at the Hofbrauhaus drinking and eating and eating and drinking during the two week stay in the middle of march with 2 feet of snow on the ground. Frelling freezing that Christmas then snow that March. I want to go back in the Summer and experience it at a more enjoyable and temperate time of year.

Although the snow was beautiful and we did get to the Christmas market.

Liverpool. Soft spot for Aston Villa. Glad the Portugese Prat is off to Madrid.

Spain's National team because they are so incredibly good. USMNT because, well, I'm American. (Although we need to fire Bob Bradley). Argentina's team, although I worry that they're falling apart - with the talent they have, they should NOT be struggling.

And of course, I love to watch Barcelona. I want to dislike them, but they are so much fun to watch.

Tottenham Hotspur - the one true North London Premier League side!

And jbalcorn, I know of enough United fans who agree with your sentiments re Ronaldo. I think United have done a fantastic deal there - £80 million is horrendously crazy money!

Ohh, Draugnar. I wasn't directing those towards you. They were for Dingleberry

Oh, so no jokes about why is a toothpick like the Spurs in December?

Gotta admit, nobody thought SPurs would have any kind of chance at Europa Cup around Christmastime....

Yes, I'm from Brazil.

@jbalcorn: I completely agree with you about Ronaldo. (I'm a Liverpool fan too). Fantastic ability but his attitude was so terrible I wouldn't have even accepted him on a free transfer. £80m is way too much for a football player's contract though. Did you see Torres' hattrick against NZ? Beautiful.

Watford FC!!! They are one of the better teams in the championship - and I'm not just saying that because I support them. The talent is there to push for promotion, there is no question that we underachieved last season. Although Brendan Rogers did a fantastic job... before leaving for Reading >:( Still, hopefully our new manager Mackay has got what it takes to bring Watford back to their full potential.

I'm a Villa fan, but my support ebbs and flows, just like our form!

@RiffArt - I did not, unfortunately. I'll have to see if I can get a replay on espn360. I saw the 5-0 score but that's all I knew. wow.

@G93 - I have no idea why, but I was rooting for Watford to stay up in the Prem. Maybe it was just because Boothroyd seemed like such a likable fellow.

@jbalcorn - Yeah, I liked Boothroyd a lot, and I hope he finds a new club soon. Unfortunately there's no denying Watford's success after his departure, and perhaps it was time for a new manager. Still, he got us into the premiership, and I am grateful to him for that.

Another Watford fan here. Was a Lewington fan before he was sacked, a Boothroyd fan before he was sacked (both wrongly in my view, despite the pick up in fortunes) and also a Rogers fan.

My one query is if Mackay is good enough now, why didn't he get the job when Rogers got it last year? Surely it's a case of the cheaper option, rather than the best one.

The other question revolves around money. £9 million from Young, £4 million from Bouazza, £5 million from King. £12 million from parachute payments after relegation. Where the hell has all the money gone if we are scrimping and saving to try and get a cheap manager. Also, we can't afford to keep Raziak.

It's shocking mismanagement by the board - I hold the Russo's responsible personally. I hope we don't have to sell Demerit, Loach, and Macanuff - our few genuinely good players.

SL Benfica!

Aberdeen is my team.

What I wouldn't give for a return to the glory days of the 1980's, and beating Real Madrid 2-1 to win the Cup Winners Cup. Those were the days. Shame I was only a small child at the time!

@cgwhite - I agree, it's so frustrating to get all this money and not see any positive effects. This stadium refurbishment better be pretty damn good.

As for the players - I think Smith and Priskin would be the most likely to go. Priskin especially has really come through this last year, and, unlike Tommy, I doubt he has any loyalty to the club.

spurs fan here

@jbalcorn:
Quoted for Truth about Argentina's team.

However, it seems that when our teams struggle in the qualyfiers, they do better in the actual world cup than when they landslide through them, so here's hoping...

Also, Barcelona is clearly the best team out there, and if they book Mascherano, I don't think any team will be a match to them.

As a fan, I'm a fan of River Plate, and I have a soft spot for Estudiantes de La Plata, because my girlfriend is a fan, and she's in a good mood when they win :P

I will agree with Xapi. No matter how big of a FC Bayern fan I am, Barcelona is a clearly superior team to everyone.

Liverpool FC is my personal favourite club while i also support FC Bayern as long as they are not playing Liverpool.
(I also tolerate Barca as long as Messi continues to play there,though if Macherano is traded many LFC fans will be angry).

Germany is my favourite national team but i'll admit that Spain will probably dominate over the next couple years. It helps that they have Torres not to mention great subs like Pepe Riena and Xabi Alonso. Is Riera on the Spanish side?

I will hate Barcelona if Monster Masch goes there. I love Argentina because of Messi and Masch, but I want Masch on Liverpool! Masch, Agger, Skrtel and Reina means clean sheets forever.

Yes, Riera plays for Spain. Another great player.

Chelsea FC go blues!

i disagree about barcelona being the best club sure they can attack and they are the best at that but they cant defend, Man U with a better game plan would have won

If Barca can't defend, how come ManU didn't score? And remember - Barca was missing 2 of it's better defenders!

Man U has a couple great players like Rooney but other than that they are very mediocre. I'm predicting that LFC will easily pass them in points next year. Liverpool has a plethora of good to great players. (Torres, Gerrard, Mascherano, Xabi Alonso, Riera, Agger, Reina, Skrtel, Carragher-even though hes old, Babel will be, and Kuyt is one of the hardest working players on the pitch)
@LFC fans- sorry if i forgot any key players, i was just listing some players who i think will help us beat Man U next year.

Sheffield United (or The Mighty Blades (TM) ) for me. The original united, when MU were still Newton Heath...

@ the Watford fans - do we have a special deal whereby we get first dibs on all the players not good enough for the Prem from your team?

ok as you said Man U are mediocre your oppinion is worthless, @jbalcorn Man Us game plan was all wrong if they played barca like chelsea did they would have lifted the double they gave them too much space

@trim:

The way they play, they don't need to defend so well. They take over balll posession nd the opposite team can't even get a foot on the ball, let alone actually attack.

That's what happened against Manchester, for 15 minutes ManU dominated the game, until Barcelona was able to get a hold of the ball and score. Then, the match was over, and we're talking about the second best team out there.

Barca's game plan:
If down by one - insert an attacker.
If tied - insert an attacker
If up by one - insert an attacker.

Chelsea's game plan:
Clog up the field. Never build an attack, just clear and see if Drogba can fall down convincingly. Intimidate the Referees at every opportunity by ganging up on him - don't worry about consequences, the owner can buy the FA.

ManU's game plan: buy more players. Keep mixing them until we find a couple that stick. Then buy more. Make sure opposing team and manager are completely distracted by off-field shenanigans. Complain about Referees, don't worry, Sir Alex will never actually get in trouble.

Well, they do buy players, but they stand to make quite a difference with the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo...

So I'd put a "sell players" somewhere around that.

Barca's game plan:

1 - Get the ball.
2 - Keep the ball running between Messi, Xavi and Iniesta until you find a chance to score or bore the oposition into a foul.
3 - Repeat.

Blah, blah, blah... Barc, Man U, whatever... It's BASEBALL season folks! The two most financially powerful countries (the US and Japan) are baseball fanatics, so let's all sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"!

And again....who cares about baseball? :P

As for futeball:
I support BENFICA! Bad moments nowadays, but we keep believing ;)

And what's Rafa's game plan, then? Zonal marking?! Ha, cos that one works...

United (and mostly Anderson, Vidic and Evra) had an off day. Anyone having a go at Chelsea (and I'm a Spurs fan, I generally love to have a go at Chelsea), should remember the 5(?) clear-cut penalties that they were denied in the Champs League Semi - how would you feel if this happened to you? Also, you play the way you need to to try and beat the opposition in front of you - Chelsea held out for 180 minutes against Barca - probably any goal in that period would have won the tie for them.

I like Xapi's idea of Barca's game plan.

I'm not sure we can say ManU are mediocre by any standards. If nothing else their trophy haul over the past 16 seasons or so speaks for itself.

Imho, Liverpool have a better team than United (i.e. better first 11, I think 4-1 at Old Trafford shows that), but that United have a better squad (i.e. better subs, and ability to rest players).

@Dave: Vidic always has an off-day when he plays against world-class strikers. Whenever someone is able to turn him he just crumbles. He's good against decent players but can't deal with the elite. I agree with what you say about Chelsea v. Barca though, I was impressed with their performance, it's a shame about the players who couldn't deal with decisions going against them, but in such an important and tense game it's understandable (but not forgivable).