Zaz

I hope they continue this trend of focusing on all the hot chicks from each country

Also, nice to see Aaron Lennon holding the flag for Turkmenistan >_>

That flower thing was pretty damn cool.

Have to laugh at the million cameras going off every second, even when it's pitch black. Let's not play to any stereotypes here >_>

Minister stakes shirt on Olympics

Gerry Sutcliffe

Mr Sutcliffe's pledge follows a ministerial spat over medals

Minister Gerry Sutcliffe has bet his shirt on one of the fiercest rivalries in world sport: Britain v Australia.

The sports minister promised to wear the Old Enemy's green and gold if Team GB is beaten in the Beijing Olympic medals table.

Meanwhile, his Australian counterpart is offering to don red, white and blue if Britain does better.

In 2004 Australia won 49 medals and GB 30. A government spokesman said: "Green is not really Gerry's colour."

'Choke'

The Olympic rivalry was stoked when Culture Secretary Andy Burnham predicted Great Britain could overtake Australia in Beijing.

Australian sports minister Kate Ellis retorted by saying British athletes might "choke" under the pressure of competing at the highest level

She followed up the claim with a sartorial wager.

Mr Sutcliffe told the BBC: "Kate Ellis has challenged me that, if Australia win more medals, then I would have to wear their shirt at a UK event, and if we won more medals she would do similar in Australia."

A Department for Culture, Media and Sports spokesman said: "There has been a great sporting rivalry with Australia and that will continue in Beijing.

"It's good to see that Kate Ellis is showing the courage of her convictions by having a bet with Gerry.

"We hope that it is her donning a British top in Australia after the games rather than vice versa."

Australia and Britain have a sporting rivalry going back further than the modern Olympic Games - founded in 1896 - themselves.

Rugby union

Most famously, cricket's Ashes have been competed over since 1882, with England - including Wales's Simon Jones - winning in 2005.

The trophy was snatched back with a series whitewash in 2006/07.

In rugby union, England have knocked Australia out of the last two world cups.

However, in rugby league, of which Mr Sutcliffe is a devoted fan, Australia currently reign supreme - having beaten Great Britain in the last Ashes series.

In the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Australia's 49 medals, including 17 golds, put it fourth on the overall table. Great Britain's 30 medals, including nine golds, put it 10th.

Bookmaker William Hill has Australia at 1/2 to maintain superiority in Beijing, with Team GB on 13/8. Punters can get 14/1 for a tie.

William Hill's media relations director, Graham Sharpe, said: "Australia are expected to struggle to keep up their medals tally. Britain's most optimistic outcome is about 41 medals.

"If the Aussies are not quite up to their best they might be overtaken. They have had wonderful times, but I suspect we are on the up and they are about to decline gracefully.

"Mr Sutcliffe is still an outside bet not to lose his shirt, though. I don't suppose anyone will mind seeing a politician with egg on his face if that happens."

More than 200 countries are taking part in the Beijing games.

Oh it's on

Battle between Australian and British Sports Ministers over Games medal tally

By Ben English, National Olympics Editor

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/beij...5014104,00.html

AUSTRALIAN Sports Minister Kate Ellis has thrown down the gauntlet to her British counterpart, telling him to put his money where his mouth his. Ms Ellis is challenging British Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe to a bet after his government declared that Britain would beat Australia in the Olympic medal tally in Beijing.

After jetting into Beijing, Ms Ellis said the British were getting a bit ahead of themselves by suggesting they would top Australia for the first time in 20 years.

And she reminded the British of their dubious record when performing in the heat of battle.

"I am meeting with the British Sports Minister tomorrow morning actually and I might be prepared to put a wager on with him,'' Ms Ellis told Beijing Now.

"But all I can say is I hope their athletes can handle pressure because their Government is putting it on their shoulders in pretty heavy loads at the moment and I hope they don't crack under it.''

Mr Sutcliffe's Cabinet boss, Sports secretary Andy Burnham said Britain would beat Australia at these Games following a $500 million splurge on its Olympians in the lead up to the London 2012 Olympics.

"Other countries and old rivals like Australia now look to us as a country that got serious about sport and are saying they are in danger of falling behind team GB in the medal table,'' he said.

"We are about to enter a glorious new era for British sport and I hope success in Beijing will inspire the next generation of young sports stars.''

Ms Ellis said the British weren't renowned for their ability to perform at the pointy end of sporting contests.

"That's at an Olympic level and at a number of other sports,'' she said.

"I just hope the athletes can sustain that sort of pressure.''

The Sports Minister said the Olympics suited Australia down to the ground because, with a smaller population base, we loved our underdog status.

"Australians, we love a challenge and we love to exceed expectations and to punch above our weight and that's something that we have done on sporting fields and particularly in the past decade or so,'' she said.

"The English to this point haven't really been up there with us but we know that they have been putting in a huge effort ahead of London and we know that there are enormous emerging challenges for the Australian team.

"But I'm not sure that they're (the British) ready to pip us just yet - we'll see.''

Asked if she took particular pleasure in defeating the Brits, Ms Ellis said: "I am happy to beat anyone, pretty much. I enjoy beating the British but we're happy to beat anyone and I think that most Australian athletes would feel the same way.''

Great Britain will finish 4th in the medals table. 5th in the gold.

If they can even come close to repeating a cycling performance like they did in the world cup then we'll be alright.

Seeing as you guys finished 10th in the last two, that'd be a pretty damn good improvement

I'd love for Australia to get into the top 5 again. We've finished 4th in the last two (with USA, China and Russia the top 3) so to be up there again would be great.

Chances are Lee's off as well and Gunter is great! Has done very well so far in the pre-season friendlies from reports (only managed to see the Celtic game so far). We've also got Dawson, but if both Woodgate AND King go down, I don't like our chances with a defence of Dawson and Huddlestone/Zokora. Dawson really needs someone experienced at centre-back next to him to call the shots.

Hutton is out for a few weeks and by the time he gets back, chances are either King or Woodgate would be injured by then, so he could be a great buy if true. He can also play a holding role in the midfield which we might need as well.

Probably just because we still have Paul Stalteri

I think the best part about Yahtzee is the sheer britishness of the chap. It's kind of a nice alternative to the usually more brash and less whitty sort such as the Angry Video Game Nerd who seem to become less and less funny every time they do a 'review'. Yes, I do check every Wednesday in preparation for Yahtzee's next awesome review.

He's been living in Australia for the past five years, we get to claim him! >_>

Also, ever since I watched the Assassin's Creed review I've been integrating 'faffing about' into my daily vernacular

you asked the average joe, more would probably be able to tell you who Beckham is than Pele. But yeah, considering some of the names in the top one Pele might slip in there.

If Beckham is the most famous sportsperson ever, Pele is second. People will stop caring about Beckham though, whereas Pele will always be famous.

IMO, Beckham is more famous for a couple of reasons. Quite a few people who don't follow soccer wouldn't know who Pele is, whereas a lot of people know who Beckham is as he's not just one of the most famous sportspeople, he's one of the most famous people in general. Pele played out his career from 1956-1977 and his main club was Santos, so how many people around the world do you reckon got to see him play? Even the World Cup games then wouldn't have been broadcast to the amount of countries it is today. Whereas Beckham played out the majority of his career at the most famous club in the world where most of his games would have been broadcast on TV through Europe at the least. He's even had a Hollywood movie with his name in the title. The question isn't who is the best, it's who is the most famous, and this just doesn't apply to how people who follow that sport perceive them. It's how well they're known within general society.

Hell, the main reason I'll remember Pele is because the Footy Show once parodied his erection troubles commercial >_>

And if Beckham is the most popular, I wouldn't have Pele in second. Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods would be ahead of him for mine.

Daniel Levy (according to the bbc):

"I have already made my opinion clear on the nature of this transaction.

"I don't regard it as a transfer deal - that is something which happens between two clubs when they both agree to trade - this is very much an enforced sale, for which we have agreed a sum of £19m as compensation plus a potential further £1.3m in additional compensation."

An enforced sale huh. Interesting.

Oh well, that's that. Time to find a new hero.

Gareth Bale!

Apparantly in our 5-1 friendly win over Norwich, Gareth Bale running out onto the pitch to play got a louder cheer than any other player or any of the goals scored.

So yeah I reckon Bale or Jamie O'Hara

I don't think Jamie O'Hara will ever cement a spot in the first team. He's not really technically gifted, he's more of a worker.

Plus, Bale takes much better set pieces

Daniel Levy (according to the bbc):

"I have already made my opinion clear on the nature of this transaction.

"I don't regard it as a transfer deal - that is something which happens between two clubs when they both agree to trade - this is very much an enforced sale, for which we have agreed a sum of £19m as compensation plus a potential further £1.3m in additional compensation."

An enforced sale huh. Interesting.

Oh well, that's that. Time to find a new hero.

Gareth Bale!

In terms of a top tier for worldwide fame, I'd put Tiger Woods, Muhammed Ali, David Beckham, Michael Jordan and Michael Schumacher (but it'd be interesting to see where some of these guys rank 20, 30, 40 years from now when they're long retired).

Muhammed Ali isn't long retired?

Key word there is some.

Armstrong would probably come on the second tier where most people would've heard of them but they haven't had the same effect as others (yet, anyway). Roger Federer and Pele would probably go here too.

Don't be ridiculous, Pele is definitely top tier, he's the most famous football player ever. If he's behind David Beckham it's not by much.

If you asked the average joe, more would probably be able to tell you who Beckham is than Pele. But yeah, considering some of the names in the top one Pele might slip in there.

In terms of a top tier for worldwide fame, I'd put Tiger Woods, Muhammed Ali, David Beckham, Michael Jordan and Michael Schumacher (but it'd be interesting to see where some of these guys rank 20, 30, 40 years from now when they're long retired). And maybe Babe Ruth and Ronaldo. These guys have revolutionised their respective sports and become households names even for people who don't follow the sport.

Armstrong would probably come on the second tier where most people would've heard of them but they haven't had the same effect as others (yet, anyway). Roger Federer and Pele would probably go here too.

Third tier would be players who are really famous but only within their sport and/or country. Eg. some Aussie ones would be Sir Donald Bradman and Andrew Johns. Most people here probably wouldn't have heard of them, but ask any cricket or rugby league fan and they'd laugh at you. So I'd also put Wayne Gretzky, Ronaldinho etc. here.

Just IMO, of course.

If we lose both, I'd probably prefer to play with just the one striker up front next year (Villa maybe? >_>). We've bought some good attacking mids so far in Dos Santos and Modric and could be getting a few more in Arshavin and Bentley. So we can have three players behind the striker (AML, AMC, AMR) in (from what we've got at the moment) Dos Santos, Modric and Lennon, and have Zokora and Huddlestone play holding roles behind them (Zokora running around tackling and Huddlestone distributing to the attackers). Jenas could probably play any of those positions competently and we have O'Hara and Taarabt as well (though, we may want some more experienced back-ups).

If Spurs sign someone who can play up front alone (hell, maybe even if Berbatov stays) with Bent as back-up (he could probably play that role as well as he's quick, tall and needs his goals set up for him, he can't really set up another striker) another attacking mid or two and a defensive one, I'd be quite happy with the team. And I uses brackets too often!

If Quaresma wants to stay in Portugal the rest of his life then good for him, not every decent footballer has to leave their country to play for the Man Utd's, Chelsea's, Barcelona's etc. The interviewer was just being a dick. There were many better ways he could've phrased the questions instead of just 'So, Ronaldo eh? :pervert:' and actually have it come off as a decent interview instead. But as people have mentioned, he clearly had his own agenda to push, which IMO, is not exactly a positive one for Portuguese football (if you're good enough you should bugger off overseas to play in a better league, like Ronaldo, eh?).

Ahaha, watching the Chelsea season review on Sentanta and they just did the Tottenham/Chelsea 4-all draw. Because it's Chelsea TV they have these Chelsea blokes commentating, and when Joe Cole scored to make it 4-3 one of them let's out a massive 'YES! That wins it, surely!'. Five minutes later Keane scores and all you hear is 'NOOOOO'.

So I resigned as Queensland Roar manager because they didn't give me a transfer budget for the next season, meaning I couldn't really bring in many good players (got Brad Jones and a Jamaican central defender on frees, but they restrict you to 4 foreign players AND you can't buy people from any of the other A-League teams (which is really shit)). And even the decent Aussies from other, local sides didn't want to join, so I got left with squat

Now starting a new game and I'm just gonna be the first team which pops up on random, which just happens to be Sutton United from Blue Square South. Yoy, this should be fun.

Edit: So if you have a few leagues going (I've got ~16), does that mean the reserve and Under 18 leagues don't run? Gay.

The Norman Invasion! Go the Shark, two up on the last day. Don't choke

Of course, they'll never become more popular than the Scorpions.

Who?

My favourite Rammstein song might have to be Adios, with Asche Zu Asche up there as well.

Ended up 4th in the A-League with Queensland, which is their highest ever finish since the league began. Beat Central Coast (3rd) in the first leg and drew with them in the second to get through to the Preliminary final and was matching them until my centre back Ben Griffin (has my highest rating and is my highest scorer in the A-League) was sent off right before halftime for elbowing someone, meaning I played the second half with 10 men and they eventually scored to win 1-0

And Newcastle ended up winning the Final, which would make CWB happy at least

Rammstein is the first band I listened to when I started listening to rock/metal. Before I was introduced to them, I listened to rap almost singularly.

Same, except I was never into rap >_>

Most my mates liked them and got me into them about 4-5 years ago. Haven't managed to see them live and from what I've seen they're just working on their new album at the moment and not touring anywhere, which is a pity as I was hoping I might be able to see them when I go to Europe as I missed out when they were here some time ago.