Archive for the ‘Game Thread’ Category

Hanging by a Thread: Atletico Madrid v Althetic Bilbao, Europa League final

Posted by Richard Whittall under Europa League, Game Thread on May 09, 2012

Someone posted this up on Reddit, but did you know Atletico was first established as a kind of youth team for Bilbao?

The club was originally founded on 26 April 1903[7] as Athletic Club de Madrid by three Basque students living in Madrid. These founders saw the new club as a youth branch of their childhood team, Athletic Bilbao.[7] In 1904, they were joined by dissident members of Real Madrid.[8] They began playing in blue and white, similarly to Athletic Bilbao, but by 1911, Athletic were playing in their current colours of red and white stripes. Many believe the change was influenced because red and white striped tops were the cheapest stripes to make, because the same combination was used to make bed mattresses, and the unused cloth was easily converted into football shirts.

I did not know that. Moving along, this is all about the coronation of Marcelo Bielsa as the next ‘It’ manager in Europe. That’s about all I can glean from the tepid press build-up in any case. Leave your detritus below. Whoscored.com has likely teams and suspensions.

Kick off is at 2:45 PM EST, 19:45 GMT. Kristian Jack will post a match-recap immediately following the game!

9 Comments

Hanging by a Thread: Wigan attempt to avoid Defcon 1

Posted by Richard Whittall under Game Thread on May 07, 2012

So, on the slowest of the slowest news days in the history of the world (hey, Stramaccioni got the Inter job, la-dee-effing-da!), we have a turgid bottom of the table sludge fest with Blackburn facing Wigan. Except for the fact Wigan have suddenly decided to become excellent, nay watchable, in the last few days. Someone on reddit.com/r/soccer has helpfully done one of these up:

Wigan beat Blackburn
Blackburn relegated
Wigan are safe with 40 pts

Wigan draw with Blackburn
Blackburn STILL get relegated
Wigan will be on 38 pts and most probably safe due to GD

Blackburn beat Wigan
Blackburn will be on 34 pts, dragging QPR and Wigan in relegation danger and giving Bolton fans some hope.

You can leave comments on the match below, but I won’t be upset if you don’t. Team sheets and info and shit:

Blackburn: Paul Robinson, Martin Olsson, Bradley Orr, Gaël Givet, Scott Dann, Morten Gamst Pedersen, David Dunn, Jason Lowe, David “Canada” Hoilett, Anthony Modeste, Yakubu

Wigan: Ali Al-Habsi, Emmerson Boyce, Maynor Figueroa, Gary Caldwell, Antolin Alcaraz, Jean Beausejour, God, James McCarthy, Shaun Maloney, James McArthur, Demi God

Ref: Clattenwrong

Ground: Steve Kean Memorial Park

2 Comments

Hanging by a thread: Real’s La Liga title, Juve’s Scudetto, and third spot in the Premier League.

Posted by Richard Whittall under Game Thread on May 02, 2012

In the Footy Blog’s continuing efforts to be hip and with it, I thought I’d introduce match threads. The universe has enough Live Blogs, match reports, Zonal Marking tactical breakdowns that it’s just nice to have a designated space where you can leave a comment, vent, and then move on whilst checking every five seconds to see if someone has made fun of you. That’s the Internet.

Whilst the Times’ Tony Evans sums up my thoughts on non-title matches:

this will be an important one for next season, so take it for what you will. Di Matteo is fielding a strong side, so Daniel Sturridge then. Then there’s Tottenham v Bolton, which holds importance for Spurs’ desire to put off St. Totteringham’s day a bit longer, and for Aston Villa to GTFO of trouble.

Over in Spain, the game to watch is Athletico Bilbao v Real Madrid. Should Malaga beat Barcelona (pshaw!), Real would have to beat Athletico to nab the La Liga title. LLL has some interesting things to say on that front…

And in Italy will be switching back and forth to see if today sees Juve win the Scudetto. They need to beat lowly Lecce and hope that Atalanta does one against Meeeeelan (pshaw again!). So expect things to happen on the weekend instead…

The floor is yours…

11 Comments